Articles about Google

Earlier today, Google officially announced its latest Chromebook -- the affordable Pixelbook Go. While it is designed for portability, it can double as a makeshift desktop by connecting a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Since the Pixelbook Go only has USB-C ports, and one of them will be needed for video out and the other for power, this means you will pretty much need a wireless keyboard and mouse for a proper desktop experience.

Today, Logitech launches its first-ever "Made for Google" accessories -- the K580 wireless keyboard and M355 wireless mouse. Both of these products are designed for Chrome OS, but they should work with other operating systems too, such as Windows 10 and macOS. The K580 keyboard also has a cradle at the top to hold a smartphone -- you can then switch between Chrome OS and your phone by pressing a button.

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Happy Google Day, dear BetaNews readers! Yes, today in New York City, the search giant unveiled a bunch of new devices at its Made by Google event. Yours truly is in attendance, getting up close and personal with all the new stuff. True, much of the information leaked to the web beforehand, but it is still exciting nonetheless. There's a new Chromebook Go laptop, Nest Mini, and even a new Nest Wifi mesh system. Let's be honest, though -- the star of the show is the newest Pixel Android phone.

As expected, Google announced the Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL. The phones are largely the same except for differences in OLED screen size -- 5.7-inch vs 6.3-inch. The smaller phones gets a 2800 mAh battery, while the XL variant has a 3700 mAh battery. They both are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor and 6GB of RAM. Sadly, Wi-Fi is limited to 802.11ac and not the faster 802.11ax. There is no next-generation 5G cellular modem either.

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Google's original Pixelbook launched back in 2017, and two years on the company is launching a new lighter, thinner version called the Pixelbook Go.

Weighing around two pounds and only 13mm thick, the Go offers up to 12 hours battery life, backlit keyboard and a 13.3-inch 1080p touchscreen. Top end models will feature a 4K display.

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Amazon has been putting its voice assistant Alexa into as many devices as it can dream up, leaving Google trailing in its wake. Two years ago, the search giant announced its Amazon Echo Dot competitor, called the Home Mini, and today at its Made by Google ’19 event it debuted that device’s successor.

Nest Mini -- Google is rebranding its home hardware with the Nest name -- comes with an upgraded Google Assistant, and twice the bass. That’s not all though.

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I live in a house with very thick walls and floors, so as a result, my Wi-Fi coverage always used to be extremely patchy. I tried various solutions over the years, including a number of range extenders, but eventually I cracked the issue by switching to Google Wifi, a smart networking system that creates a whole home wireless network.

Today, at its Made By Google ’19 event, the search giant unveils the successor to its mesh solution -- Nest Wifi.

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At this year's Game Developers Conference in March, Google took the wraps off Stadia, a new, instant-play cloud-based gaming service.

With Stadia, games are "played" on Google’s servers, and streamed to compatible devices in the home, including smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, TVs and more. Google claims Stadia servers are capable of providing 4K, 60 frames-per-second performance.

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Does your laptop have USB-A ports? Gross! Don't you know no one uses them anymore? Everyone uses USB-C now. I am, of course, being facetious -- USB-C, while great, still has a long way to go before dethroning the ubiquitous Type A. With that said, there are computers that are USB-C only, such as Apple's MacBook Pro. Owners of those computers have to get dongles to use their USB-A devices.

Tomorrow, however, Google is making it possible to ditch the dongle when using a Titan security key. You see, the search giant is launching a USB-C variant of the two-factor authentication device. Not only will it be more convenient for those with USB-C laptops, but this new model looks nicer too (it's pretty).

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We have already seen Apple launch its new range of iPhones, and OnePlus bring new additions to its range of handsets -- now it is Google's turn.

Tomorrow in New York, the company is holding its Made By Google '19 event, and at it we can expect to see not only the launch of the Pixel 4 and Pixel XL, but also -- in all likelihood -- the Pixelbook Go. There may be a few other surprises, and you can tune into the live stream to get the news as soon as it happens -- and find out how many of the rumors are true.

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It can sometimes feel like technology is focused on the superficial, but there are constant technological advances that are improving lives too -- especially those with handicaps. For instance, a person unable to speak can be given a voice thanks to text to speech software, and a paralyzed person unable to walk can gain mobility by using an exoskeleton. Microsoft once helped a woman with Parkinson's Disease write again.

Today, Google is potentially improving the lives of people that are blind or have other visual impairments. You see, the Google Maps smartphone app for iOS and Android can now provide enhanced voice guidance for those with diminished or nonexistent sight. The search giant included one of its own employees -- a visually impaired business analyst named Wakana Sugiyama -- in the testing of the new feature.

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Google is bringing the vocal talent of actress and comedian Issa Rae to Google Assistant.

As with the John Legend voicing, Rae is only making a cameo as an Assistant Voice, and will only speak up in response to certain commands and queries. She can be found piping up on iOS and Android handsets, as well other devices that support Google Assistant such as Next Hub and Google Home smartspeakers.

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With more than one Nest device or Google Home speaker in the house, it can be a pain to manually switch music streaming from one speaker to another as you move from room to room.

But now Google has introduced a new feature that makes the process much, much easier. The "stream transfer" option can be accessed with your voice via Google Assistant, or using apps.

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Halloween used to be a day for children to collect candy and dress up in costumes, but lately, it seems like adults have hijacked the holiday. More and more grownups are dressing up in costumes -- a trend that is probably due in part to the popularization of nerd culture and events like Comic-Con. Hell, people are even dressing up their pets these days -- something I am guilty of. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with wearing a costume and having fun, it is just an interesting change culturally.

This year Google is sharing the top Halloween costumes based on search. Personally, I like when Google provides information like this, because the true value in collecting data is being able to tell stories with it. With the search giant slurping up so much data, it would be tragic if it didn't conduct analysis.

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Chromebooks used to be glorified web browsers running atop the Linux kernel, but these days, they are far more useful. If you need more than just web apps, you can now run Android apps and traditional desktop Linux programs on Chrome OS. Best of all, you can run them all side by side, making it all feel like a cohesive experience -- it doesn't feel like you are using a mixture of software intended for different platforms.

Today, Samsung launches its latest Chrome OS laptops -- the 11.6-inch Chromebook 4 and 15.6-inch Chromebook 4+. The former weighs just 2.6 pounds, while the latter is a heftier 3.75 pounds. Both laptops are powered by the same Intel Celeron N4000 CPU, and you can choose between 4GB and 6GB of RAM. Strangely, there is no option for 8GB of memory. Storage options are 32GB or 64GB, and sadly, regardless of capacity, you will get a sluggish eMMC drive. Both machines have USB-C and micro SD readers, which is cool, but the Wi-Fi is only 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) -- not the newer 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6).

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Google has today announced a raft of a new privacy features across a swathe of its products and services.

Google Maps is going to benefit from a new Incognito Mode just like Chrome and YouTube. YouTube itself is gaining a new option for automated history deletion, and Google Assistant -- recently dragged through the privacy mud along with other digital assistants -- is also getting new deletion options.

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According to a Harris Poll carried out for Google, 75 percent of Americans get frustrated trying to manage all their passwords.

This results in unsafe practices as 24 percent have used the following common passwords, or some variation: like 'abc123', 'Password', or '123456'. 59 percent of US adults have incorporated a name (their own, a family member's, a partner's, or a pet’s) into their password to an online account, 22 percent have used their own name and a third have used their pet's name or a variation as their password.

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