Tag Archives: TechCrunch

May of 2020 marked the end of an era for the Pixel. Google’s team lost a few key players, as it looked forward toward a transformative future. Understandably so. The Pixel has never been bad a phone (though it’s had some struggles through the years), so much as an unremarkable one. But in an era when it’s hard to buy a bad flagship smartphone, pretty good is not good enough. Google’s attempts to differentiate themselves from the Apples and Samsungs of the world have largely come… Source link

Google is set to announce new Pixel phones today. The company is holding an event at 10 AM PT (1 PM in New York, 6 PM in London, 7 PM in Paris). And you’ll be able to watch the event right here as the company is streaming it live. Google already said that it plans to unveil its own Tensor chip for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The company has also shared a ton of details about the new phones. The Pixel 6 will have a matte… Source link

Google has today launched TaskMate in Kenya, a crowdsourcing app that lets people use smartphones to do tasks and get paid, tapping the growing gig economy. The tech giant said it has rolled out the beta version after a year-long experiment in the East African country, and is preparing to introduce it to other countries across the continent. The app is available in India too, where it’s also in the pilot stage. TaskMate mobile app users fulfill skilled and… 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. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American 

Hardware season is heading for a dramatic finale next week, with three events from three major companies, three days in a row. Apple, Google and Samsung (in that order) are all hosting big events next week, getting their last big announcements (hopefully) out of the way ahead of the upcoming holiday season. That means your friendly neighborhood hardware editor — and much of the TechCrunch staff — is set to be busy for the next few weeks, writing about and reviewing all manner of… Source link

Google’s Arts & Culture team launched its “Pocket Gallery” experiences in 2018 to allow AR-enabled smartphone users to view artwork from artists like Johannes Vermeer for the first time in history, including pieces that are usually inaccessible publicly. Today, the team announced that it’s making the entire series of Pocket Galleries available to anyone on the web. The company’s original goal with Pocket Galleries was to digitally bring never-before-seen… Source link

Google announced today it’s changing the way search works on mobile devices, initially in the U.S. Now, when you reach the bottom of a set of search results on your phone, you won’t have to tap to go to the next page. Instead, the next set of results will automatically load so you can continuously scroll down to see more information. The change will roll out on the mobile web and will be supported on the Google mobile app for both iOS and Android in the U.S. for most… Source link

Google’s Arts & Culture team is today launching a new online experience that lets users virtually walk the Great Wall of China. The “Walk the Great Wall of China” experience includes an exclusive 360-degree virtual tour of one of the wall’s best-preserved sections, including 370 images of the Great Wall in total and 35 stories that go into architectural details about the landmark. “As the largest man-made structure in the world, the Great Wall of China is… Source link

Russian tech giant Yandex is expanding its mobility footprint in Israel with the acquisition of shared e-scooter company Wind’s Israeli operations. The two are not sharing the terms of the deal, but Israeli financial newspaper Globes reported that it is estimated to have cost $40 million to $50 million. Wind is one of the top e-scooter sharing operators in Israel, alongside competitors like Lime, Leo and Bird. Yandex has already been operating its Yango mobility… Source link

As the Apple v. Epic Games lawsuit goes under appeal, Google on Monday afternoon filed an answer and counterclaim in the Epic Games’ antitrust litigation against the company. The tech giant and Android maker denies Epic’s allegations of antitrust behavior and instead says that it’s owed relief, as Epic Games breached the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA) by allowing Fortnite players who download the app through Google Play to use Epic’s own payment processing… Source link