Google Home learns Spanish
Do you know what the official language of the United States is? The answer may surprise you. If you said "English," you'd be quite wrong. Actually, it's a trick question -- there is no official language of the USA. That's why it's particularly ignorant to get mad at immigrants for not speaking English. Hell, getting mad at people for speaking their native language would be abhorrent even if English was the official language.
With all of that said, a lot of technology -- such as voice assistants -- are designed for English speakers. Today, Google bucks that trend by announcing its Home assistant is leaning a new language -- Spanish.
Google adds DRM to Android APKs to verify the authenticity of apps from Google Play
DRM is something that's usually associated with streaming music and video, but there's no reason that it can't be put to other uses. Proving this, Google has started using a form of DRM to improve app security by verifying that APKs originate from the Play Store. It's a system that works much like signed drivers in Windows.
The aim is simple: to improve the security of Android users by ensuring that they are using genuine apps that have not been tampered with in any way. Google is not referring to the new system as DRM, saying instead that it is adding a "small amount of security metadata on top of APKs to verify that the APK was distributed by Google Play".
Google Account revamped -- increased transparency and new security and privacy options
Google has unveiled a new look for users' accounts, making information clearer, improving transparency and adding new options.
To make it easy to find information, Google has added a search function and there's also a cleaner look to aid navigation. Building on the previous update to Security Checkup, your Google account now also highlights settings you can change to improve your security.
Google launches Podcasts app for Android
Google has never really shown much interest in podcasts -- despite their age and popularity -- but today this changes. The company has launched a new Android app called simply Google Podcasts complete with ubiquitous AI for personalized suggestions.
Available in 47 languages, the app currently provides access to a collection of around two million podcasts, but this number is likely to grow very quickly. Google boasts of integration with Google Assistant and Google Home, the main benefit of which is being able to start a podcast on one device and continue on another.
Google updates Android Messages so you can send texts from the web
Google is rolling out a series of changes to Android Messages, one of which makes it possible to send text messages from the comfort of your computer. Called "Messages for web" the feature enables users to use a desktop web browser to send SMSes rather than their phone.
While this is almost certainly the biggest and most exciting changes for Messages, Google is also pushing a number of other new features to the app, including Smart Replies, GIF search and link previews.
Google enters 'strategic partnership' with China's JD.com
Google is deepening it drive into China, and now the search giant has announced a $550 million "strategic partnership" with Chinese ecommerce goliath JD.com.
This is far from being Google's first venture in China, but the major investment shows the company's eagerness to take advantage of the market. It will enable Google to better take on the likes of Amazon in Asia, and it will also help JD.com to expand its operations to other parts of the world.
Google releases VR180 Creator for Linux and Mac only -- sucks for you, Windows users!
When you are a Linux desktop user, it can be very frustrating when popular programs are not available for your platform. The same can be said for macOS, but to a lesser extent -- at least it has access to things like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. Like it or not, Windows often gets premium programs as an exclusive. It's not hard to see why -- on the desktop, Microsoft's operating system reigns supreme from a marketshare perspective. Developers will simply follow the money, and who can blame them?
The world is changing, however, and Microsoft's stranglehold on the software community is loosening. Consumers don't really need Windows anymore. Sure, 10 or 20 years ago it would be almost unthinkable for a typical home user to run an alternative operating system, but these days it’s totally doable. Highlighting this, today, Google releases a really cool program called "VR180 Creator." Interestingly, it is not available for Windows -- the search giant made it a Mac and Linux exclusive. Oh my.
Google's latest diversity report shows little has changed at the company
Google has published the latest edition of its diversity report in which the company highlights the makeup of its workforce in the name of transparency.
Despite Google's seemingly endless claims that it wants to do more to improve diversity, the report shows that little has changed over the last year. Women still account for less than a third of the workforce, and the company has a high attrition rate for black employees.
Google releases open source 'GIF for CLI' terminal tool on GitHub
Tomorrow is the GIF's 31st anniversary -- exciting, right? Those animated images have truly changed the world. All kidding aside, it is pretty amazing that the file format came to be way back in 1987!
To celebrate tomorrow's milestone, Google releases a new open source tool today. Called "GIF for CLI," it can convert a Graphics Interchange Format image into ASCII art for terminal. You can see such an example in the image above.
Google revamps Ad Settings and 'Why this ad?' so you can see and control how ads are personalized
Google has given its Ad Settings page an overhaul in the name of transparency. The page gives people the chance to not only see how Google uses the data it has gathered about them to personalize the ads they see, but also exercise a degree of control over these personalized ads.
The page makes it possible to disable ad targeting, so you will see rather more generic ads if tailored advertising concerns you. The company has also updated its "Why this ad?" feature, so you will be able to determine why you are seeing certain Google-supplied ads on the sites you visit.
Google and The American Red Cross partner for World Blood Donor Day
Whenever there is a tragic event, such as a natural disaster or large-scale terrorist attack, people turn out in droves to donate blood. This is very noble, but such a donation is not only needed during publicized tragedies. Every day, hospitals around the world use donated blood to save lives.
Each year, we celebrate World Blood Donor Day -- an annual occasion to raise awareness regarding the necessity of this life-changing donation. On this day, people often want to donate, but it can be hard to know where to go. Thankfully, Google is partnering with The American Red Cross to make finding such a destination even easier. A Google employee has even chosen to share their personal story about how donated blood saved a family member's life.
Offline Google Translate to be boosted by AI
Google is improving the offline translation skills of Google Translate with an injection of AI in the form of neural machine translation (NMT).
The use of on-device AI helps to dramatically improve the quality of offline translations, and works in much the same as online translations do. The use of neural machine translation helps to improve accuracy by looking at complete sentences, rather than translating word by word.
Google doubles down on Chrome extension security by blocking inline installations
At the moment there are a couple of ways to install Chrome extensions -- either via the Chrome Web Store as Google would prefer, or via an inline installation from any website.
Aware that this latter option opens up the possibility of people installing malicious extensions, Google is clamping down. Starting today, all newly-published extensions can only be installed via the Chrome Web Store, and this restriction will extend to existing extensions over the remainder of the year.
Google Home can now handle up to three queries at a time
With there being a number of digital assistants to choose from, each is now focusing on becoming smarter than the competition. To this end, Google Home can now respond to strings of up to three commands at once.
The "multiple queries" feature is currently available in English for USA, UK, Canada and Australia, and enables Google Home users to perform up to three functions with a single utterance. Users, however, seem a little confused about how it all works.
Google celebrates Father's Day by sharing dad-related search trends, and Kanye West is on top
Google is all about data. Yes, the company has the ability to track individuals using the information it collects, but more importantly, it can analyze on a more macro level, discovering global trends. Heck, Google has the potential to change the world by properly leveraging its collected data.
Today, Google is sharing some search trends that, while fun, are not at all world-changing. Actually, they are bordering on silly, but that's OK. What are they? Dad-related trends to celebrate the upcoming Father's Day which is this Sunday!
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