Tag Archives: TechCrunch

Google is bringing a set of new kids-focused features such as parent-controlled watchlists and AI-powered suggestions to Google TV, the latest in a series of efforts from the Android-maker as it attempts to broaden the offerings of its TV operating system for family consumption. The company said it is adding these features to the kids’ profiles to improve content recommendation and exploration. Parents can directly push titles to the “must watch” lists for… Source link

The European Commission is facing fresh calls to make good on its 2017 antitrust decision against Google Shopping by banning Google from displaying its own shopping comparison ads units in search results — boxes which Google populates with revenue-generating ads — as they argue the self-preferencing units constitute an ongoing competition abuse by the adtech giant. The 2017 Commission decision found Google abused its dominance by systematically giving prominent placement to its own… Source link

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has slowed down. But overall, the app economy is continuing to grow, having produced a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and… Source link

Over the years, Google has made it harder to separate ads from organic search results at a glance. In its current iteration, when users perform a search, the only distinction between the two is “Ad” written in bold — and it’s easy to miss. The search giant is making a small change to that today by replacing the “Ad” label with the “Sponsored” label in bold next to the advertisements appearing in search results. The company is also moving the label… Source link

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. We just keep getting more excited about Disrupt, but it turns out there’s other stuff going on in the world. A lot of other stuff, in fact; it’s one of those days where keeping this newsletter to a manageable length was extra tricky. Here’s what we came up with. Enjoy! — Christine and Haje The TechCrunch Top 3 You, only holographic: Never mind… Source link

While Meta is trying to convince consumers to strap on its VR headsets to enter the metaverse, Google continues to experiment with a different sort of false reality: its holographic video chat project known as Project Starline. Announced last year, Project Starline is a video-calling booth that uses 3D imagery, high-resolution cameras, custom depth sensor sensors, and a breakthrough light field display to create a lifelike experience for callers on both sides of the screen — and all… Source link

Though it’s been available for the iPhone for months, Truth Social is now listed in Google’s app marketplace for the first time. Axios first reported Wednesday that Truth Social, former President Trump’s social network, cleared the necessary hurdles to get approval from Google. The app became available on Android shortly after and is now live in the Play Store, extending its reach to Google’s mobile operating system. Axios reported back in August that Google opted to block Truth… Source link

Following last week’s Google event, a colleague commented to me that the Pixel 7 wasn’t as big an upgrade as the Pixel 6. This is an objectively true statement. But also, it’s fine. Whatever you think about the yearly refresh cycle hardware makers are locked into, we’ve all come to accept that some upgrades are going to be more incremental than others. In fact, most years are going to be iterative. That’s how this works. The contrast is strong here, because last year was… Source link

It took some evasive maneuvering to get us here — the building out of a small-scale hardware ecosystem, coupled with a couple big-ticket acquisitions and a partnership with one of its largest potential competitors. But suddenly, Google emerging as competitive in the smartwatch space doesn’t seem an altogether outlandish proposition. One can make a compelling argument that the software giant learned some hard lessons from past smartwatch and earbud struggles. Entering an already… Source link

Samsung and Google announced a new partnership today that will allow easier setup for Matter-enabled devices on both Samsung SmartThings and Google Home systems. At the Samsung Developer Conference held in San Fransisco, the Korean tech giant said that it will update its SmartThings app in the coming months so that users can onboard Matter-enabled devices even if they are set up in Google’s ecosystem and vice versa. For the uninitiated, Matter is an Internet of… Source link