Articles about Google

Google has long been focused on artificial intelligence. Its Google Now and voice assistance projects have used AI to better the lives of users. The Google Home voice-based hardware unit brings its assistant to life, making traditional inputs and displays unnecessary. With just the power of your voice, you can interact with the device -- nothing else is needed.

The search giant has decided to take artificial intelligence to the maker community with a new initiative called AIY. This initiative (found here) will introduce open source AI projects to the public that makers can leverage in a simple way. Today, Google announces the first-ever AIY project. Called "Voice Kit," it is designed to work with a Raspberry Pi to create a voice-based virtual assistant. Please keep in mind that the Pi itself is not included, so you must bring your own. For this project, you can use a Pi 3 Model B, Pi 2, or Pi Zero. Want a Voice Kit? Here's how to get it. Heck, you might be getting one for free and you don't even know it.

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Gmail users will now be protected from phishing attacks on their Android phones thanks to a new update from Google. The company is rolling out a new security feature similar to that found in the web version of Gmail, warning people when an email contains a suspicious link.

For now, the update is only rolling out to Android users, and Google has not indicated whether it will make its way to iOS in due course or not. The update comes just shortly after a phishing scam emerged in which recipients were encouraged to click on a link to open files purporting to be stored on Google Docs.

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Many people don't seem to understand who Windows 10 S is for. That's why you'll read many comments and stories, including here at BetaNews, saying that Microsoft has introduced a crippled version of Windows 10 that will not appeal to anyone or that the operating system is only here to get people to pay an upgrade fee to the "proper" Windows 10. They're missing the point... by a mile.

If you look at the context in which Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 S, which is its #MicrosoftEDU event, you'll understand that this operating system has a specific scope. It's here so that educators and students who have complained of the complexity of using Windows and migrated to Chromebooks can fall in love with Windows again. That's it. There is no conspiracy, and there's nothing more to it.

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Three weeks ago, we explained how you could enable YouTube’s hidden Dark Mode. The process then only worked in Chrome and required a little tinkering.

Google has now made it possible for anyone to easily switch to the dark side, and that’s not all. There’s now a whole new Material Design look for the site which Google says will make YouTube "easier and more fun to use."

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It would appear that the Apple Watch is losing its shine. A number of big-name apps have dropped support for the wearable, including Google Maps, Target, eBay and Amazon. It's not clear exactly why support was dropped, but as it took a little while for users to notice and start complaining on social media, a general lack of interest is likely to blame.

Google has offered a vague promise that Google Maps will return to Apple Watch "in the future," but gives no sense of timescale, and there are no similar assurances from any of the others who have quietly killed off their apps.

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It was supposed to have died a long time ago, but, for a near-cadaver, the password has managed to hold onto its last breath for over two decades. Bill Gates declared passwords passé way back in 2004, but it was only late in April that the company he founded introduced a replacement for the outmoded authentication system.

For years, organizations have sought to educate employees about the importance of secure passwords and of resisting phishing attacks -- and both efforts have failed. A Verizon report indicates that 63 percent of confirmed data breaches involved leveraging weak/default/stolen passwords in 2016. Meanwhile, a new report from Proofpoint says that phishing and similar attacks using e-mail were up 45 percent in the last quarter of that year. Clearly, the constant haranguing by security teams of employees to change their passwords and make them more complicated, as well as their pleas not to click on suspicious links/attachments, are falling on deaf ears.

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Google+ finds itself the butt of many a joke, but the company behind the service is happy to proclaim that "millions of people use" it. There are already numerous ways to discover content on Google+, and now there's yet another: Topics.

This is essentially Google's take on the idea of related content, and it's a bid to keep users on the site -- or in the app -- for longer. Not content with having people reading what they set out to read, now additional "Topics to explore" will be suggested.

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Malware is something of a recurring problem for Android users, and it seems as though Google is fighting a never-ending battle to keep the blight out of the Play Store. The latest large-scale batch to be discovered takes the form of adware known as FalseGuide.

As you may have guessed from the name -- and your own experience of Google Play -- this malware spreads by fooling people into installing apps purporting to be guides to popular games. The apps themselves are fairly innocuous -- and often are guides as they claim to be -- but they then download additional modules which can be used to bombard users with ads.

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Forgetting where you parked your vehicle can happen to anybody at any age. It happens to me quite often, as I am known to be daydreaming as I walk from my car to a store, such as the mall. On more than one occasion, I've walked around a parking lot, hitting the "panic" button on my keys so that I can hear the horn honk. Heck, there is an entire episode of Seinfeld that deals with the topic.

Thankfully, Google is giving us some relief. The search giant's Maps app has a new feature that will record where you parked your vehicle. It is not an Android-only affair either, as it also works on iOS.

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While YouTube can be a great platform for viewing quality family-friendly content, there are a lot of offensive videos on there too. No, I am not just talking about PewDiePie, although some of his content is arguably questionable. Actually, I am talking about videos from other creators that show blatant racism, sexism, and actual pornography -- it is shocking to see some of the content that gets through.

Luckily, Google developed the YouTube Kids app for mobile devices, which tries to block offensive content. This app helps parents to be more confident that their children will only see family-friendly videos. Today, the search giant brings the app to LG, Samsung, and Sony smart TVs.

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The fight against fake news continues, with Google announcing not only changes to search algorithms to help prevent false information from rising to the surface, but also new tools to allow users to report "unexpected, inaccurate or offensive" results.

While the algorithm tweaks should impact on general search results, the reporting tools have been designed for Google's Autocomplete predictions and Featured Snippets which have been problematic in recent months. Updated algorithms should help to ensure more authoritative pages receive greater prominence, while low-quality content is demoted.

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Thanks to the internet, consumers are less likely to visit a gross restaurant or other bad location. You see, by reading online reviews, they can avoid these negative experiences. This is particularly helpful when travelling to a new city, as you may be unfamiliar with the area.

Unfortunately, when visiting somewhere that speaks a language that you do not understand, these reviews are useless on their own. To read them, you have to copy and paste them into a translation service, which can be an inconvenient chore. Thankfully, Google has come up with a solution for this dilemma. Starting today, the search giant will automatically translate local reviews into your language when you use its Maps or Search services. How cool is that?

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Around this time last month, Google was facing criticism for appearing to censor LGBTQ+ videos with the Restricted Mode feature. Now the company says that it has addressed the problem and will no longer be "incorrectly filtering videos."

Google says that this means hundreds of thousands of videos with LGBTQ+ content have been unlocked, and more than 12 million videos in total have been affected. The company has already issued an apology for the filtering, but now it is keen to be seen making amends.

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Microsoft is due to hold an event in NYC on May 2, and it's widely expected that the company will unveil Windows 10 Cloud -- although it may not be until Build slightly later in the month. On paper, Windows 10 Cloud sounds very much like Microsoft's answer to Google's Chromebook, and leaks suggest this is precisely the market that Microsoft is targeting.

As the May event has an education focus, it's apparent that any low-cost Chromebook-like Windows devices will be aimed at the education sector -- but that's not to say that there won’t be interest from other people looking for cheap hardware. And thanks to the latest leak, we know the recommended minimum hardware spec to run Windows 10 Cloud.

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To coincide with the launch of the Galaxy S8 and S8+, Google has announced a new partnership with Samsung. The deal means that Google Play Music will be the default music player and music service on all phones and tablets from the Korean manufacturer around the world.

But the partnership has a few bonuses for Samsung users that go beyond just a change in music player. Kicking things off is a boost in free Google Play Music storage: Samsung users will be able to take advantage of double the usual quota.

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