Google shut down its Glass explorers program earlier this year, bringing development of the wearable back behind closed doors. However, it turns out that Google is already ready to show off early versions of Glass 2, reportedly sending prototype units out to selected partners. The few people to have a …
Read More »Kid-friendly Youtube is on the way
Although Youtube is certainly one of the cleaner online video sharing sites, requiring a signed-in account for anything more titillating than a Katy Perry video, Google is looking to make it easier for parents to keep some aspects of the site from their childs' eyes, by introducing a new kid-friendly …
Read More »Would you pay for YouTube? Google think so
It's no secret that YouTube is the go to source for instantly watching online videos these days, with YouTube access being a consideration when people are buying anything from tablets and phones, to consoles and TVs, let alone PCs. But now that YouTube is in such a dominant position, as …
Read More »Google warns against FBI demands for expanded hacking
Currently, government agencies and local police forces in the US, are only able to obtain permission to hack into the computers and other electronic devices of suspects in their region and only then once they have a warrant. However, now the FBI and other organisations want to expand that power …
Read More »Lenovo to spend $2 billion on R&D of servers and smartphones
Lenovo Group, the world’s largest maker of personal computers and one of the fastest growing high-tech companies, plans to spend about two billion of U.S. dollars on research and development of smartphones and servers in the next three years. The money will help the company to enter new markets with …
Read More »High percentage of people are still nervous about driverless cars
The UK is pushing to be one of the world's front-runners when it comes to automated vehicles, with politicians rushing through legislation to allow their usage on our roads and a large scale trial in several different major cities taking place over the next few months. However, not everyone is quite …
Read More »Computers are now better than you at recognising stuff
On average, us flesh sacks can recognise stuff in pictures pretty well, with an error rate of around 5.1% according to a recent study. Previously computers could come pretty close to that, getting around 6.66% of objects wrong. Now however, a new computer vision system from Microsoft Research is actually managing to …
Read More »Google to give developers more time to fix bugs before revealing
Google's Project Zero was announced last year as a new way to help improve online security by identifying vulnerabilities in software and services. Upon finding a vulnerability, it is reported directly to the company in charge of the software or service affected, the developers then have a certain amount of …
Read More »Toshiba starts making cameras for Project Ara
Toshiba has shown off two new camera modules that it is developing for Google's modular smartphone, currently named ‘Project Ara'. There are two versions at present, a 5 megapixel camera module and a 13 megapixel one. These cameras can be swapped in and out of the handset, allowing for easy …
Read More »The .blog gTLD is now owned by some guy from Panama
The number of Generic Top Level Domains (or gTLDs) has expanded rapidly since ICANN got around to opening up the bidding process, to allow people and corporations to apply for any gTLDs in 2012. After the application process had finished there were applications for 1,409 new TLDs. Some of these domains were …
Read More »Project Ara may appear at MWC next month
Google has been showing off more and more of Project Ara during recent months and we may get to see even more of the modular smartphone at the Mobile World Congress, which starts next month, in Barcelona. Around 50 of the device's modular components are also due to be displayed …
Read More »Android Wear shipments only hit 720,000 last year
Android Wear smart watches have gotten off to a slow start as multiple companies only managed to ship a total of 720,000 units during 2014, according to analyst firm, Canalys. The company also revealed that the Moto 360 was indeed the most popular device. 4.6 million wearable devices were shipped …
Read More »Google dropping SPDY support for HTTP/2
Support for Google's home-grown experimental networking protocol SPDY (pronounced speedy) will soon be dropped by browser vendors and eventually Google itself, as they move on to the new standard, HTTP/2. While this second version of the well-known hyper text transfer protocol has been a long time coming, we can in part thank …
Read More »Google and LG to launch VR headset
Google and LG are teaming up to launch their own Samsung Gear VR competitor for the LG G3 handset. It is inspired by the Google Cardboard VR headset design, which was shown off last year. The headset will turn the LG G3 into a virtual reality device, essentially doing the …
Read More »Google Glass 2.0 to be re-designed from scratch
A while back Google made the decision to end production on the current Google Glass model that we have come to know since its launch back in 2013. The company has since taken Glass development behind closed doors and will be redesigning the next model from scratch. Speaking to The …
Read More »Google, Amazon and Microsoft pay to get past Adblock Plus filter
It looks like Adblock Plus may be selling out those using it to block all online advertising, with a confidential source recently telling the Financial Times that the company behind the popular add-on, has been taking payments to allow some adverts on to its whitelist. At least four companies, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Taboola …
Read More »Only 1.6% of Android phones run Lollipop
Android 5.0 (or “Lollipop” as its known) has been out for over 3 months now and unfortunately despite the massive improvements over earlier version of Android, it is hardly managing to make a dent in the overall Android picture. Even the long since supported Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” has over four times …
Read More »Google will change its Privacy Policy for the better
Since Google changed its privacy policy back in 2012, it has been under investigation in no less than 28 countries. It has been fined by both Spain and France for the vagueness of the policy, which does not clearly state how it will store and collect personal data. The Information Commissioner’s Office …
Read More »Google Now gains 3rd party app integration
Shouting at your Android phone is pretty fun with Google now, but Google is about to enhance this functionality and it will soon announce that it’s allowing third-party apps to deliver information to Google Now. This will allow over 30 selected third-party developers to integrate their services into the voice service, in …
Read More »YouTube officially drops Flash in favor of HTML 5
Adobe Flash used to be a key component to watching video on the web, those days have gone and Flash has now become even less relevant as YouTube has officially dropped the standard video format as its default and is moving over to HTML 5. HTML 5 has been around for …
Read More »LG promises Android Lollipop update is ‘coming soon’ in US
Those of you who own an LG G3 smartphone in the US and have been waiting patiently for Android 5.0 Lollipop to start rolling out may not need to wait much longer as the company has promised that the software update is ‘coming soon'. The company teased the update on …
Read More »Lunar Xprize gives $5.25 Million as a stepping stone to the Moon
The Google Lunar Xprize, like the Ansari Xprize that gave rise to Spaceship One and ultimately Virgin Galactic, exists to challenge and incentivise small, privately funded teams to do amazing things in space. In this case, that challenge is to get a robot to the Moon and travel across the surface while …
Read More »Microsoft and Intel are both super green
Microsoft and Intel have placed in the top two spots for the Environmental Protection Agency's annual Green Power use ranking, both using clean energy sources for 100% of their power needs. This is all the more impressive when you see that combined, they use almost 5,600,000,000 kWh of electricity per year. …
Read More »Google may stop selling Google Play Edition devices
It looks like Google may unfortunately be giving up on its Google Play Edition program, which saw popular Android devices re-released with stock Android pre-installed and fully unlocked. Devices to be included in the program included the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S5. SlashGear was the first to notice …
Read More »Google may launch its own wireless service in the US
Google is apparently working on its own wireless service for mobile phones in the US, which would make use of the T-Mobile and Sprint networks. Google will achieve this by purchasing bandwidth from two of the four national carriers, rather than building its own network from scratch. Google has been …
Read More »SpaceX secures a billion in funding from Google, Fidelity
Tech giant Google and investment management firm Fidelity, have together invested a billion dollars into Elon Musk's Space X company, bringing its value to over $10 billion and helping to kick-start the project which Musk himself talked about recently: the plan to build a network of miniature satellites to offer …
Read More »Apple and Google to settle poaching lawsuit for $415 million
Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe apparently don't want to go to trial in April over a no-poaching class action lawsuit, filed by over 60,000 employees several years ago as the companies have all agreed to a $415 million settlement deal. The four tech giants originally offered $324.5 million to settle …
Read More »Google’s Project Ara gets an update
Google has detailed new developments on Project Ara, the company's modular smartphone concept. At a Module Developers Conference this week, the company said that it plans to launch the product as a pilot later this year in Puerto Rico in order to get a feel for the market. This Project …
Read More »Google pulls the plug on Google Glass explorer programme
Google is reportedly pulling the plug on its Google Glass Explorer programme, which allowed those with $1500 handy to buy and help test out the smart glasses. However, despite Google calling it quits on Glass in its current form, it will continue to focus on the future of the product …
Read More »Sony could sell off TV and smartphone divisions
Last year Sony Corp. sold off its PC division to an investment company. Besides, the company span off its TV division into a wholly owned subsidiary called Sony Visual Products in a bid to put its costs under control. This year the company is considering options for its TV and …
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