Google denies bias after Trump launches accusatory attack on the search giant
Donald Trump has accused Google of rigging its search results so that "good news" about the president is drowned out by unfavorable stories from the "Fake News Media".
Using his preferred medium of Twitter, he alleged that 96 percent of search results for "Trump News" were from the "National Left-Wing Media", something he described as "very dangerous". Google denied these accusations of political bias, saying searching results are controlled by constantly-updated algorithms.
Epic calls Google 'irresponsible' for exposing Fortnite security flaw
The CEO of Epic Games has slammed Google's "irresponsible" disclosure of a security bug in its hit game Fortnite. Tim Sweeney accused Google of trying to "score cheap PR points" by revealing a vulnerability in the game's installer.
Epic chose to bypass Google Play when it released Fortnite for Android leading to concerns about security. On Friday, Google revealed details of a security flaw that could be exploited to secretly install malware onto people's phones.
Fortnite installer had a serious security flaw that Google just revealed
It seems that the concerns about Fortnite's security were well-founded -- although not necessarily for the reasons some people might have expected. Epic Games has been criticized for its decision not to make Fortnite available through Google Play, leading Google to show warnings to anyone conducting searches for the game.
Now a Google engineer just revealed that the first version of Epic's installer had a serious security vulnerability, placing Android users at risk. A post on Google's Issue Tracker shows that the installer could be abused to secretly download and install any app with any level of permissions -- a Man-in-the-Disk exploit.
Linux apps are NOT coming to many still-supported Chromebooks
The prospect of running Linux apps on a Chromebook is something that has many people excited since Google first announced the plans.
For those who like to live on the edge with the Canary and Dev builds of Chrome OS, Linux apps are already a reality -- but what about everyone else? While we know that Linux app support is coming to a range of Chromebooks from Lenovo, Acer, Dell and others, a post on the Chromium Gerrit reveals that devices running Linux 3.14 or older will miss out.
Google Assistant may lessen your crippling depression with 'Tell me something good'
The world is a terrible place right now. In Pennsylvania, it was revealed that thousands of children were allegedly abused by Catholic priests over several decades. The President of the United States -- who some say is mentally unstable -- has been separating immigrant children from their parents. Mr. Trump -- who should be a role model -- is also calling human beings dogs on Twitter. In Florida, red tide is killing precious marine life, such as manatees and dolphins. Shockingly, all of that negative news is just from the USA! There are many other horrific things happening in other countries.
With all of this going on, it can be hard to get out of bed in the morning. Thankfully, Google is here to save our sanity and hopefully lessen our negative news-driven depression.. The search giant has added a new experimental feature to Google Assistant called "Tell me something good." As you can imagine, the feature is quite literal -- the user asks the voice assistant for some positive news stories. If you say "Hey Google, tell me something good," you will be reminded that the world isn't all bad through a rundown of "good news."
How to unsend email in Gmail for Android
The ability to "unsend" emails has arrived in Gmail for Android -- for some people at least. The feature is already available on iOS and on the web version of Gmail, but now some Android users are finding that they have the option available on their phones too.
Google has not made any sort of announcement about the rollout of the feature, and it seems as though it could be a server-side update rather than a new version of the app. But if you're one of the lucky ones, here's how to make use of this handy option.
Two months later, switching to Google from Apple
Doubt disturbed my commitment to give up the Apple Way for the Google lifestyle two months ago. Preparing to pack up my wife's 64GB white iPhone X, I was taken aback by how pretty it was. She kept the thing in a case, which protected from damage but also obscured beauty. For fleeting seconds, I wondered why switch. Product design that generates joy is another benefit—and one transcending any, and every, feature.
But the moment passed, and I boxed up her smartphone along with my 256GB black iPhone X. Google gave great trade-in values, which dispatched the hassle of reselling the devices on Craigslist. Eight weeks later, writing this post on Pixelbook, I don't regret the decision. Confession: The transition isn't quite complete, but we're getting there.
Google confirms it misleadingly tracks your location even with Location History disabled -- but it's not changing that
Call it bad wording, call it blatant lying, call it what you like -- Google was recently found to have been misleading people about what disabling Location History on their phones actually meant. Many people understandably thought that turning off this setting would prevent Google from tracking and recording their location. They were wrong
But despite the upset caused by this revelation, Google is not backing down. Rather than changing the behavior of the setting so it did what people would expect it to do, the company has instead chosen to simply update its help pages to make it clear how misleading it is being.
Now you can send auto-expiring emails from Gmail on your mobile
With the recent update to Gmail, Google added a number of features to its email service. One of the new features is Confidential Mode which allows for the sending of auto-expiring messages -- although, as we have previously noted, it's not perfect by any means.
Available on the web version of Gmail for a number of weeks now, the feature is finally rolling out to iOS and Android users.
If you want to record calls in Android 9 Pie, you'll need to root your phone
Recording phone calls is dodgy territory legally speaking, but whether you choose to do it depends on where you are in the world, and whether you're concerned about complying with the law. Since Marshmallow, Google has made it difficult to record calls on Android phones by killing the recording API, but this has not stopped third party developers finding ways around it.
But with Android 9 Pie, Google has made it impossible for apps such as Call Recorder - ACR and BoldBeast Android Call Recorder to be used to record calls. Unless, that is, you're willing -- or able -- to root your handset.
How to enable Chrome's secret Emoji Context Menu to make it easier to type emoji
The likes of Duolingo have made it easier than ever to learn French, Spanish, Polish, Hebrew or whatever other tongue tickles your fancy, but the language of the internet is -- arguably -- emoji. On your mobile phone, these handy little characters are easy to type, but less so on your computer.
To make things a little easier, Google Chrome now has a hidden Emoji Context Menu that you can enable. Once activated, this menu can be used to access an emoji picker to add emoji to text fields. Here's how to enable it.
Google is tracking your location even when you tell it not to
An investigation by the Associated Press has found that Google is tracking the location of Android and iPhone users even when privacy settings supposedly explicitly stop this from happening.
The AP concedes that "for the most part, Google is upfront about asking permission to use your location information", but its investigation -- the findings of which were confirmed by researchers from Princeton -- showed that Google services recorded user data even when Location History was disabled.
Campfire leak: Google could bring Windows 10 support to Chromebooks, Boot Camp-style
Google could be about to add Windows 10 support to a range of Chromebooks, according to a new leak.
The appearance earlier in the year of a new project called Campfire showed that Google was working on bringing Windows 10 support to Pixelbooks. But now it seems that the option to dual boot Chrome OS and Windows 10 could spread to a wider range of Chromebooks.
Google Play shows warning to anyone searching for Fortnite APKs
The arrival of Fortnite on Android has not only been eagerly awaited, but also steeped in controversy. In addition to making the game a Samsung exclusive (for a few days, anyway), Epic Games decided to bypass Google Play and host APK downloads on its own servers.
But this isn't going to stop people looking for Fortnite in the Play Store. Google is well aware of this, and that there is the potential for fake, scam apps to appear, tricking users into downloading something malicious. As such, the company is taking action, and is showing a warning to anyone who searches for Fortnite in Google Play.
Google has slashed the size of Android apps
To tie in with the launch of Android 9 Pie, Google has given a glimpse into the improvements it has made to the app store.
In a blog post aimed primarily at developers, the director of Google Play, Purnima Kochikar, said that improved discovery features had helped to boost visits to the store by 30 percent while new tools helped to dramatically reduce crash rates. Google also points to new techniques which have enabled it to reduce app size by up to 65 percent.
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