Google News

Google has outlined its vision for this year’s major Android update, which looks set to continue many of the customization and privacy initiatives that the search giant introduced with last year’s Android 12. Its customizable Material You color schemes will now be available as preset themes and are also expanding to cover third-party apps icons and the media player. There are also new security features, including a dedicated Privacy and Security menu. The direction isn’t likely to… Source link

Google has announced that it’s bringing back the Wallet app as a place to manage payment cards, gift cards, rewards cards, passes, and more. Wallet used to be a standalone app before it was folded into Google Pay. Now, the company is making it a separate app again, saying that consumers and companies alike are pushing for digital cards. Wallet will be the app you use to store and manage your debit and credit cards on Android. (You’ll be able to use it across Google’s ecosystem in… Source link

There’s a good chance you’ve spent much of the last two-plus years sitting at home, cycling through endless days of virtual meetings staring into your laptop’s webcam and talking into your built-in mic. This means you’ve spent much of the last two-plus years appearing to everyone else like a mushy pile of poorly lit pixels, sounding like you’re shouting from inside a tin can. It’s not your fault: your laptop’s webcam just sucks. And so does its mic. But Google thinks it can… Source link

It’s clear that the future of Google is tied to AI language models. At this year’s I/O conference, the company announced a raft of updates that rely on this technology, from new “multisearch” features that let you pair image searches with text queries to improvements for Google Assistant and support for 24 new languages in Google Translate. But Google — and the field of AI language research in general — faces major problems. Google itself has seriously mishandled internal… Source link

In April, Google introduced a new “multisearch” feature that offered a way to search the web using both text and images at the same time. Today, at Google’s I/O developer conference, the company announced an expansion to this feature, called “Multisearch Near Me.” This addition, arriving later in 2022, will allow Google app users to combine either a picture or a screenshot with the text “near me” to be directed to options for local retailers or restaurants that would have… Source link

Google today announced three new features for its voice-activated Assistant that will all make it easier and more natural to interact with it. The first is about making it easier to initiate a conversation with the Assistant by simply looking at a device like the Nest Hub, with its built-in camera, and talking to the Assistant without using the “Hey Google” wake word. This will roll out later this week to users who pair their Nest Hub Max with an Android device, while iOS users will… Source link

In the face of increased competition from Apple Maps and its 3D city views, Google today introduced its own vision for its next-generation Google Maps with a preview of its new more “immersive” viewing experience. The enhancement, presented during Google’s I/O conference keynote, leverages a combination of computer vision and A.I. technology to fuse together Street View and aerial imagery in order to offer a digital model of the world and a new way to explore cities, key… Source link

Google and OnePlus have each made headlines with their latest flagships, the Pixel 6 Pro and OnePlus 10 Pro. Both offer high-end specs, premium designs, and very similar feature sets. They also both start at $899, pitting them neck-and-neck in the increasingly competitive smartphone market. Because the Pixel 6 Pro and OnePlus 10 Pro seem similar on the surface, comparing the two can be tricky if you want to know which is better suited… Source link

Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O 2022, is virtually set to kick off today. The conference is a hub for developers looking to network, but the rest of us are watching to see if Google will unveil new product announcements and major updates. We don’t know exactly what’s going to be announced this year, but we have some good guesses. Some of those guesses include a new Pixel Watch and a midrange Pixel 6A, which could include a new processor and camera sensor and major… Source link

CNN  —  Today, it can feel like the sum of all human knowledge is only an internet search away. But until recently, some of the most important evidence of one of Africa’s most vibrant medieval cities was absent from the web. Located in the West African nation of Mali, the name Timbuktu has come to embody the idea of a distant place, but this city was once famed as a center of learning, religion… Source link