The coronavirus pandemic driven boom for new homes and the aggressive remodeling of existing ones by homeowners during quarantine continues to put serious upward pressure on prices for everything from plywood to copper pipes at the major home improvement retailers.  “Similar to what we reported in our previous three quarters, the growth in our comp average ticket was driven by elevated project demand, customers trading up to new and innovative products and continued inflation in many product… Source link

Google announced a series of upgrades to its Google Photos service, used by over a billion users, at today’s Google I/O developer event, which was virtually streamed this year due to Covid. The company is rolling out Locked Folders, new types of photo “Memories” for reminiscing over past events, as well as a new feature called “Cinematic moments” that will animate a series of static photos, among other updates. Today, Google Photos stores over 4 trillion photos and videos, but… Source link

It’s hard to remember now, but once upon a time, Google was terrible at design. Android was ugly. Google sites were ugly. And the company lacked a serious industrial design program. But in 2014, Google revealed a unified approach to design to help fix it all. Called Material Design, it reimagined all of Google’s apps with a new visual metaphor of digital paper and ink. Ugly pages were replaced by clear, clean cards. Supporting animations were simple and effective.  Google got design,… Source link

Ever wish you could delete the last thing you searched for on Google? Now Google will let you. Google announced the new feature Tuesday during its I/O software conference, part of a package of privacy controls the Alphabet Inc. company is pushing out to appease consumers and regulators. Users now can tap on a tab inside their Google accounts to remove the last fifteen minutes of search history. The company has offered a feature to clear search histories, but people have found that data useful… Source link

Bloomberg CNN Dodges Risk of MSNBC Tie-Up as AT&T Opts for Discovery (Bloomberg) — For months, Wall Street has called on AT&T Inc. to shed its media assets, including CNN, arguing that investors prefer companies with a singular focus.On Monday, AT&T finally relented, announcing that CNN and its corporate siblings will be joining forces with Discovery Inc., home of networks like HGTV, Food Network and TLC.For CNN, the deal could provide a number of strategic advantages — and avoids the… Source link

At its I/O confab, Google announced a new way for you to scrub your recent search history. Angela Lang/CNET You can… Source link

Stephen Shankland/CNET It’s standard for web browsers to warn you when they discover one of your… Source link

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, a metric that measures the current sentiment in the bitcoin market, has fallen to “extreme fear” levels not seen since April 2020, a report Tuesday showed. The drop in market sentiment follows the past week’s plunge in the bitcoin (BTC) price to about $43,200, down from last month’s record near $65,000. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is now at 21, down from a “greedy” level of 73 just last week, according to the report from hosting site Alternative… Source link

Wall Street is slicing and dicing the investment thesis on AT&T following its blockbuster sale of WarnerMedia to Discovery on Monday, and is coming to the conclusion there is really no reason to be optimistic on the stock in the medium-term.  Shares of the soon-to-be telco plunged as much as 7% in Tuesday trading as investors questioned the long-term outlook for the company.  “For AT&T investors, while we view this transaction, and the February announcement that it would sell DirecTV, as… Source link

Pixel Watch, Pixel Buds A-Series, WearOS We’ve been hearing rumors about a Pixel Watch for years. Could Google I/O finally be the event to showcase Google’s first branded wearable? A leak in April from Jon Prosser showed a circular watch likely powered by a new version of WearOS. The renders show a watch without a bezel around the screen, no physical buttons, interchangeable watch straps and indications the watch will have a heart rate sensor. This is also the first major… Source link