Articles about Google

We've known for several weeks now that Google+ is to close down, and Google has even brought forward the shutdown date. Now the company has revealed details of the timeline for the closure.

As of next week -- February 4 specifically -- it will no longer be possible to create a Google+ account, and commenting options will be removed in March. When April rolls around, Google+ will not only close down, but data associated with consumer accounts will start to be deleted.

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If you don't have an account with a streaming music service these days, you simply aren't living your life right. Look, I don't care which service you choose -- Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, or something else -- it is foolish to buy and download songs. If you are still buying CDs, you are probably beyond hope, but I digress. Streaming music is simply the best value in entertainment. For a small monthly fee, you get access to more music than you can possibly listen to in a single lifetime.

YouTube Music is yet another streaming music service, although it is not as popular as, say, Spotify. Google seems intent on growing this eventual Play Music successor, and today, the company announces a huge new feature -- Sonos support. Yes, if you have both a paid YouTube Music account and a Sonos speaker, you can finally use them with each other.

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A new Android Q leak suggests that Google is ready to copy another of the features iOS users have come to know and love: facial unlock.

There are already a number of Android handsets -- including recent phones from OnePlus -- which have their own implementation of the biometric security feature, but with Android Q, it is looking as though the feature will be hard-baked into the operating system.

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If you're anything like me, you probably inwardly roll your eyes -- or laugh outright -- when you hear of someone falling for a phishing scam. Surely you'd have to be a certified idiot to be taken in by one of these, right?

You may have avoided falling victim up until now, but maybe that's been more through luck than good judgement. Or perhaps you really do think you could spot a phishing scam at a hundred paces. If you think you're up to it, why not put yourself to the test and take Google's phishing quiz?

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From social media sites to online stores, from forum accounts to financial institutions -- there are now so many websites that require the use of a username and password, it's little wonder than so many of us turn to some form of password manager to save them.

If you use Google's Chrome browser, you have almost certainly saved numerous passwords so you don't have to manually enter them every time they are requested. You may have wondered how to export these passwords for the purposes of backing them up, or to import into another password manager. Here, we show you how.

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The inclusion of a system-wide dark mode in Android Q is something that has been rumored for a little while now, and a new leak of the next version of Google's mobile operating system seems to confirm this.

A leaked build of Android Q not only features a customizable dark mode option, but it also shows that Google has tightened up permissions to help improve privacy. There are also exciting references to a Desktop Mode feature which would appear to be similar to Samsung DeX in making it possible to connect a phone to a monitor and use it like a desktop computer.

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While 64-bit software is pretty much the norm on the desktop, the same cannot -- yet -- be said on mobile platforms. There is a steady movement away from 32-bit apps, and Google wants to accelerate things.

The company is encouraging Android developers to concentrate on 64-bit versions of their apps as it sets out its timetable for the end of 32-bit software.

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With the emphasis it places on privacy, it should come as little surprise that search engine DuckDuckGo is less than keen on Google. The latest demonstration of this is the company's decision to eschew Google Maps in favor of Apple's MapKit JS framework to power its map-related searches.

DuckDuckGo says that this brings users a "valuable combination of mapping and privacy", both on the desktop and on mobile.

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Google has reminded developers that their apps will be removed from the Play Store if they request SMS or Call Log permissions. The policy change was announced last year, and over the next few weeks the app removal process begins.

While these particular permissions have been used to give Android users a choice of dialers and messaging apps, Google says there have also been instances of abuse. The company is introducing far stricter restrictions in the name of privacy and protecting user data.

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If you were hoping to get your hands on a Chromecast Audio, you're out of luck: Google has stopped manufacturing the device.

More than this, the audio-only version of Chromecast is out of stock pretty much everywhere, so your only hope of getting one now is probably to pick one up second hand. Google says it has a range of products that users can turn to if they want to enjoy music, so Chromecast Audio was deemed surplus to requirements.

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With so many apps and games available in Google Play, it's easy to get carried away and fill up your phone. You can use Settings to keep track of how much space you have left, but now Google has made it possible to monitor free space from within the Play Store.

A new storage indicator lets you monitor the amount of storage space you have available, so you can easily tell if you're going to have room to download more from the store -- and also to make room for those apps you desperately want to install.

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If you want to be part of the in-crowd, adding a dark mode to your software is essential. Google has already shown a lot of love for gothic hues, and it looks set to continue this with Android Q -- or Android 10, if you prefer.

Over on the Chromium Bug Tracker, Google worker Lukasz Zbylut appears to confirm that Android Q will feature a system-wide dark mode, with all preloaded apps offering the option natively.

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An increasing number of apps and websites are gaining dark modes, often simply for the sake of aesthetics, but also because of power-saving considerations. Having added eye-saving dark modes to numerous Android apps, Google has confirmed that it is doing the same for the Windows 10 version of Chrome.

While there is no particular time frame in which we can expect to see Chrome's dark mode, a Chrome developer has confirmed that the feature is in progress.

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Spam may be something that's most commonly associated with email, but it's also something that blights text messaging. Google is trying to do something about the problem with a spam protection feature for Messages on Android.

This is a feature we learned about earlier in the year, and it is now starting to roll out to handsets. In order for the feature to work, "some" information about the messages you receive needs to be sent to Google -- something that it sure to raise a few eyebrows (and hackles) among the privacy-centric.

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It’s a fair bet that we’d never have heard of Facebook, Instagram, Google and WhatsApp if the internet hadn’t been invented, but London-based graphic designer Thomas Ollivier has put his skills into re-imagining how some of today’s top tech brands might have looked in the pre-internet days of the 1980s.

The collection of images, which he’s titled Re:Birth, provides a fun glimpse into how technology has changed in the past 30 years. And boy has it changed.

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