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.
Android users can now customize Gmail swipe actions
It's not long since Google rolled out a major redesign to Gmail on the web, bringing not only a new look, but also new features. Now it's the turn of the Gmail app for Android.
The mobile app has supported swipe gestures for some time now, but the options have been rather limited -- toggling between read/unread or archiving/deleting messages. With Gmail 8.5.20 Google is now giving users no fewer than five actions to choose from when performing a left or right swipe.
Google says it will continue to work with the military on AI, but won't get involved in weapons or spying
Google has published new guidelines describing its principles for the development of artificial intelligence.
The document -- entitled "Artificial Intelligence at Google: Our Principles" -- the company sets out its objectives for the future of AI. As well as saying it will incorporate its privacy principles into AI, Google says that it will continue to work with the military, but commits to avoid helping with the development of weapons or other technologies that could injury or kill.
Google brings Wi-Fi to 400 Indian train stations
For many in the USA, having access to the internet is a given -- we don't give it a second thought. When you are home, you have broadband and Wi-Fi, and when out and about, your smartphone has LTE.
In other countries, however, access to the internet isn't as ubiquitous. India, for instance, has many locations where getting online is a hardship. Google has been looking to change this with its "Next Billion Users" initiative, and one of its projects -- "Google Station" -- has seen tremendous growth. You see, the search giant has been gradually adding free Wi-Fi hotspots to Indian train stations, and today, it announces a huge milestone -- there are now 400 stations with Wi-Fi.
Keep track of the World Cup with Google
With just days until the 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Russia, Google is rolling out a series of tools to help football fans keep track of what's going on.
A range of Google services -- Search, News, Assistant, Trends and more -- have been updated with World Cup-specific bits and pieces to help enhance your enjoyment of the tournament. From match streams and detailed reports to behind-the-scenes footage and tips about where you can watch games, there's something for every fan here.
No, Google hasn't given up on tablets! Blame a bug for the confusion
Yesterday -- following the sudden and unexplained disappearance of the Tablets section of the Android website -- we, like many others, wondered if Google was walking away from tablets completely.
Today we know that the answer is "no". The section has made a reappearance after its earlier vanishing act, and a bug has been blamed... but not everyone is convinced.
Is Google getting out of the tablet business?
Google has removed the Tablets section from the top of its Android website, sparking talk that the company is dropping tablets altogether.
It has been some time since we saw an Android tablet from Google, so the move would not be entirely surprising. What took many people by surprise however, was the fact that Google dropped the Tablets section of its website without any sort of announcement.
Recent Headlines
Most Commented Stories
BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.