Tag Archives: TechCrunch

Google is expanding its Google Play for PC program to eight more countries, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore in open beta. That means all players in these regions with Windows systems that meet the minimum requirements can access Google Play on a desktop computer. The company first launched the program under a limited test in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia. Later it expanded it to all… Source link

Google today announced it’s making several changes to the Google Play Store that will impact Android apps’ discoverability, how developers can market their apps to consumers and various trust and safety concerns. Most importantly, Google is now advising developers that the Play Store will begin to prioritize apps that deliver on both technical and in-app quality by promoting them in more places across the Play Store where they can be discovered by consumers. The changes hint at… Source link

There are countless big problems left to solve in the world of automation, and robotic learning sits somewhere near the top. While it’s true that humans have gotten pretty good at programming systems for specific tasks, there’s a big, open-ended question of: and then what? New research demonstrated at Google’s AI event in New York City this morning proposes the notion of letting robotic systems effectively write their own code. The concept is designed to save human developers the… Source link

Google Hangouts, a text, video and voice chat app built into Gmail, is finally being shut down today. As announced earlier this year, Google is switching Hangouts users over to Google Chat, the company’s Slack-like instant messaging app for businesses. Starting today, November 1, the Google Hangouts web app is no longer available. This was the last Hangouts offering available to users. The Android and iOS apps died in July of this year. Hangouts had an arguably… Source link

If you want to take a break from work or the never-ending news cycle, Google is here to give you an escape. The search giant has launched a new Halloween-themed playable Doodle that opens up to a Snake-like game that you can play with your friends or random players from around the world. The goal of the game is to collect as many wandering spirit flames as you can in two minutes and return them to their homebase. After time’s up, the team that has collected the… Source link

A Google regulatory filing appears to have confirmed rumors in recent months that the European Union’s competition division is looking into how it operates its smartphone app store, the Play Store. However TechCrunch understands that no formal EU investigation into the Play Store has been opened at this stage. The SEC Form 10-Q, filed by Google’s parent Alphabet (and spotted earlier by Reuters), does make mention of “formal” investigations being opened into Google Play’s… Source link

India’s antitrust watchdog has hit Google with a $113 million fine for abusing the dominant position of its Google Play Store and ordered the firm to allow app developers to use third-party payments processing services for in-app purchases or for purchasing apps, the second such penalty on the Android-maker in just as many weeks in its largest market by users. The Competition Commission of India, which opened the probe into Google in late 2020, said mandating developers to use… Source link

Google says the Indian competition regulator’s order is a “major setback for Indian consumers and businesses” and it is reviewing the decision to evaluate “next steps.” The Competition Commission of India fined Google $161.9 million on Thursday for anti-competitive practices related to Android mobile devices and ordered a number of redressal measures that could force Google to make fundamental changes to its business strategies. A Google spokesperson told… Source link

Amazon says over half a dozen hardware vendors have indicated that they cannot enter into a TV manufacturing relationship with the e-commerce group over fear of retaliation from Google, escalating tension with the search giant with whom it competes on several businesses. The revelation, officially shared by Amazon for the first time, was made by the company’s unit in India to the Competition Commission of India as part the antitrust watchdog’s years-long… Source link

India’s competition regulator fined Google $161.9 million on Thursday for anti-competitive practices related to Android mobile devices in “multiple markets” in a major setback for the search giant in the key overseas nation where it has poured billions of dollars over the past decade. The Competition Commission of India, which began investigating Google three and a half years ago after a complaint from two junior associates and a law school student, said in a… Source link