by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology
Google Home Mini
San Francisco : Google has decided to “permanently remove” the feature that led its smart speaker ‘Home Mini’ accidentally record several times a day without being given any command from the user.
The company said that it has made the decision because it wants people to have complete peace of mind while using Google Home Mini. The update will be completely rolled out by October 15.
The ‘Home Mini’ shipped with a feature that let owners activate the Google Assistant and control music by tapping the top of the speaker.
Some units had an issue that led the speaker register touches even when no one was around, leading the units to start recording repeatedly.
“The Google Home team is aware of an issue impacting a small number of Google Home Mini devices that could cause the touch control mechanism to behave incorrectly. We immediately rolled out a software update on October 7 to mitigate the issue,” Google said.
With the top button gone, ‘Home Mini’ will now be activated entirely by voice. The volume rockers will work for adjusting the volume.
“Say ‘Ok Google’ or ‘Hey Google’ instead of pressing and holding the top of Mini to start a request. Say ‘Ok Google’ or ‘Hey Google ‘ to control music, alarms and timers,” added Google.
The company removed activity/queries that were created by long pressing the top of a ‘Google Home Mini’ between October 4 and October 7 with a software update.
Google launched ‘Home Mini’ on October 4 for $49 at an event in San Francisco.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Investing, Large Enterprise, Markets, Technology
San Francisco/New Delhi : Betting big on artificial intelligence (AI), software and hardware, Google has launched Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones and a refreshed Daydream View Virtual Reality (VR) headset that will be available in India in November.
Pixel 2 is priced at Rs 61,000 for the 64GB variant and Rs 70,000 for the 128GB variant. Pixel 2 XL (64GB) will cost Rs 73,000 and Pixel 2 XL (128GB) will be available for Rs 82,000.
The pre-orders commence from October 26. The devices will be available in over 1,000 stores across the country and on Flipkart, starting November 1 (Pixel 2) and November 15 (Pixel 2 XL).
“Computing will now be conversational, ambient and contextual. It’s a unique moment in time, when Google can bring AI, software and hardware together. The rate at which we are seeing progress in AI is amazing,” Indian-born CEO Sundar Pichai told the gathering at the San Francisco event.
Pixel 2 comes with a 5-inch and Pixel 2 XL with a 6-inch Full-HD OLED displays with Portrait Modes on both rear and selfie cameras.
Rated 98 by independent camera testers DXO, the rear camera comes with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and Electronic Video Stabilisation (EVS) technology to remove shaky photos and videos.
The camera can also click “Live Photos” by recording up to three seconds of footage.
It also has AR Stickers and Pixel users would get free unlimited storage on Google Cloud to store photos and videos in the original quality. The devices have IP67 rating making them water and dust resistant.
Both phones come with “squeeze” interaction technology called “Active Edge” that opens Google Assistant, USB-C charger and front facing stereo speakers. The company claims it has the fastest fingerprint scanner in a smartphone.
The devices have Google Lens — a new set of visual features that help you learn more about the world around you and get things done.
Currently, in its early stages, Google Lens builds on Google’s advancements in computer vision and machine learning, combined with Google knowledge graph which underpins Google Search.
At the start users can look up landmarks, books, music albums, movies, and artwork, right from Google Photos on your Pixel.
Both phones have Snapdragon 835 processors and 4GB RAM. Though there is some bad news as the headphone jack is gone.
The phone will support an “Always On Display” this year, to show the notifications and time.
Google also announced a refreshed Daydream View VR headset which can be paired with Pixel 2 or any Daydream-ready phone. It sports a premium fabric that makes the headset soft and light and will be available in Charcoal colour for Rs 7,999 on Flipkart.
The company also launched smaller smart speaker “Home Mini”, a larger version called “Home Max”, high-performance convertible Chromebook called PixelBook and “Google Clips” action camera.
Google Home Mini is priced at $49. Reimagining the sound, it also launched Google Home Max, with 2-inch tweeters and 4.5-inch woofers for amazing audio with ‘SmartSound’ powered by Google Assistant that automatically tunes sound.
It supports Chromecast, AUX and Bluetooth 5.0 and will be available in December for $399.
The PixelBook is 10mm thin and weighs a kilo. It has 12.3-inch Quad HD LCD display, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM and i5 and i7 processors.
The device has multiple layers of security, automatic updates and it is the first laptop with Assistant built-in.
The Pixelbook Pen, priced at $99 can help users get information of whatever they have on the screen. Write and draw with Pixelbook Pen that has 10ms of latency and 2,000+ levels of pressure sensitivity.
Google also launched a small, wearable camera called “Clips” for $249. The device is packed with AI to make some cool images.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, World
San Francisco : Technology giants Google, Facebook and Twitter — already facing flak for presence of false news on their platforms — failed miserably to stop publishing fake news related to Las Vegas massacre in which at least 59 people died and over 400 injured, media reported on Tuesday.
According to a report in technology website Siliconbeat, Google returned a search result from a shady online forum “4chan” that named the wrong man as killer.
“While Facebook’s ‘Safety Check’ feature confronted users with far-right blogs that spat out false information about victims and the shooter, Twitter displayed false rumours and information about ‘missing’ people who were not connected to the episode,” the report said.
In one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history, a gunman in a high-rise hotel in Las Vegas opened fire on a huge outdoor concert festival, sending thousands of terrified survivors fleeing for cover.
While authorities identified the gunman as 64-year-old Nevada resident Stephen Paddock, Google initially showed result from “4chan”, which identified the killer as Geary Danley, into its “Top Stories” section.
“4chan” is well-known as a haven for racists, misogynists and conspiracy theorists and was also the source of 2008 fake news that Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack — a falsity that nonetheless knocked $5 billion off of Apple’s stock value in a single morning, the report noted.
Google later acknowledged that it had been briefly surfacing an inaccurate ‘4chan’ website in its Search results for a small number of queries.
“The fake news was algorithmically replaced by relevant results within hours. This should not have appeared for any queries, and we’ll continue to make algorithmic improvements to prevent this from happening in the future,” Google was quoted as saying in the report.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s “Security Check” page — that lets people involved with disasters and accidents post messages for friends and loved ones — published a blog post from “Alt-Right News” that said “the killer may have been a Trump-hating American television host Rachel Maddow fan” in an apparent reference to the misidentified Danley’s Facebook page.
“Alt-Right News” theorised that the actual shooter, Paddock, was probably a “left-wing nutjob” associated with a woman who “may or may not be a Muslim”, the report pointed out.
Facebook said its security staff saw the post and removed it. “However, its removal was delayed by a few minutes, allowing it to be screen captured and circulated online. We are working to fix the issue that allowed this to happen in the first place and deeply regret the confusion this caused,” Fast Company quoted the social media giant as saying.
According to Buzzfeed, fake news regarding the incident may have its roots on Twitter, with false reports appearing within minutes of the shooting.
Several accounts pointed the finger at an “Islamic convert” who is actually a comedian beloved by the far right. Then the false reports of “missing” people started popping up, Buzzfeed reported.
Among those falsely stated to be missing in Las Vegas were a German pro-soccer player, a murder suspect from Mexico and a male porn star — whose pictures were taken from the Internet.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : Google on Saturday honoured Asima Chatterjee, the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Science in India with a Doodle.
When the doyenne of chemistry was growing up in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the 1920s and 1930s, it was almost unheard of for a woman to study chemistry.
But that did not stop Chatterjee and she not only completed her undergraduate degree in organic chemistry, but also went on to receive a Doctorate of Science in 1944 from the University of Calcutta.
Throughout her career, Chatterjee’s research contributed to the development of drugs that treated epilepsy and malaria.
However, her most noted contribution to the field, was her work on vinca alkaloids. Alkaloids are compounds made from plants, often to treat medical ailments, Google said.
Vinca alkaloids, which come from the Madagascar periwinkle plant, are used today in chemotherapy treatment because they help slow down or stall the multiplying of cancer cells.
For her groundbreaking contributions to medicine, Chatterjee was recognised by universities all over the world.
A Padma Bhushan recipient, she was also the first woman to be elected as the General President of the Indian Science Congress, a premier institution that oversees scientific research.
She won several prestigious awards such as the S.S. Bhatnagar award, the C.V. Raman award, and the P.C. Ray award.
Chatterjee, who breathed her last on November 22, 2006, received numerous accolades from the Indian government, including a nomination to the upper house of Parliament.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise, Markets, Technology
San Francisco : Ending months of speculation and ahead of launching second-generation Pixel smartphones in the US on October 4, Google on Thursday announced it will acquire a key part of the Taiwan-based HTC Corporation’s mobile division team for $1.1 billion.
Certain HTC employees — many of whom are working with Google to develop its Pixel smartphones — will join the US tech giant. However, HTC will continue onward with its own smartphone business even after sending a good portion of its talent and operations over to Google.
Separately, Google will receive a non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property (IP).
“HTC has been a longtime partner of Google and has created some of the most beautiful, premium devices in the market,” said Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President of Hardware at Google, in a statement.
“We’re excited and can’t wait to welcome members of the HTC team who will be joining Google to fuel further innovation and future product development in consumer hardware.”
The transaction is expected to close by early 2018.
This is the second time Google has acquired a smartphone manufacturer. It announced a $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola Mobility six years earlier and in 2014, sold it again to Lenovo.
“Objective of the new deal for Google is to strengthen its position in the premium segment. Premium segment will adopt next generation technologies faster, and that demands a good level of hardware control,” Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Mobile Devices and Ecosystems, Counterpoint Research, told IANS.
“With top three smartphones manufacturers (Samsung, Apple, Huawei) gearing to become more vertically integrated and have more control on hardware, Google wants to be in a similar line, especially with Google Assistant and ARCore at heart,” he added.
Meanwhile, HTC will continue to build the virtual reality ecosystem to grow its VIVE business, while investing in other next-generation technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality and artificial intelligence (AI).
HTC will also continue to have best-in-class engineering talent, which is currently working on the next flagship phone, following the successful launch of the HTC U11 earlier this year.
Google will have access to HTC’s IP to support the Pixel smartphone family.
Additionally, the agreement also represents a significant investment by Google in Taiwan as a key innovation and technology hub.
“Our unmatched smartphone value chain, including our IP portfolio, and world-class talent and system integration capabilities, have supported Google in bolstering the Android market,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC.
“This agreement is a brilliant next step in our longstanding partnership, enabling Google to supercharge their hardware business while ensuring continued innovation within our HTC smartphone and VIVE virtual reality businesses.”
Slated for October 4 launch in the US, the second-gen Pixel handsets are expected to feature the same Snapdragon 835 chipset as every other high-end Android smartphone.
Rumoured specifications of Pixel 2 (or whatever it would be called officially) include 4GB RAM as well as “squeezable” pressure sensitive sides, similar to what we saw on HTC’s flagship U11 smartphone. It is expected to feature IP68 water and dust resistance.
The phone could also come with an always-on display, similar to the one found in Samsung’s Galaxy S8, S8+ and the recently-launched Galaxy Note 8.
—IANS
