NHS partnership with DeepMind puts Google AI in charge of sharing patient data
Google is no stranger to working with user data, but its latest partnership with the National Health Service sees the company entering unchartered waters. Having already been granted access to the records of more than 1.6 million patients in London, Google's DeepMind will be used by the NHS to alert medical staff to the condition of people under their care.
Given Google's track record of using data gathered from its users as part of its ad business, there are understandable concerns from privacy groups about the company's involvement. But data shared with DeepMind will not make its way to Google itself, and will also be encrypted as an extra level of security. But is artificial intelligence really the future of medicine?
Google has tips and new features to help you beat the crowds in the Black Friday sales
Black Friday can be a great way to bag yourself a bargain, but it can also be a nightmare in terms of stress. If you're looking to save a few bucks in the run-up to Christmas but want to avoid the Black Friday crowds, Google could just be able to help.
Google Search and Google Maps now not only show you the times of day that a particular store, bar or other location tends to be busy, there's now also real-time updates about just how busy places are. Armed with this information you can time your shopping trips more effectively. But Google has more to offer to ease the pain of Black Friday shopping trips.
Google Cloud Platform will offer GPU options next year
Google has announced that early next year it will be adding graphics processing units (GPUs) as a service to its Cloud Platform in order to better compete with its rivals.
GPU as a service is already available on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and IBM's Bluemix, but Google's Cloud Platform will seek to differentiate itself by offering a variety of GPUs for customers to choose from. The company will allow users the option to use two AMD FirePro S9300s or either a Nvidia Tesla P100 or K80.
Facebook fake news guru Paul Horner credits himself with getting Donald Trump elected
Fake news stories are on the rise, spreading across the internet via social media. They spread at a quickening rate thanks, in large part, to well-known people sharing them. Now some services are cracking down on these stories, but is it too late?
Just recently we learned that both Google and Facebook are clamping down on the spread of fake news stories, with Google withholding ads that appear on sites it deems to contain misleading content.
Google will offer digital skills training for free in UK
Google has just announced that it will be offering free digital skills training to everyone in the UK with the aim of ensuring that the country's population is able to take advantage of its online tools.
The company's CEO Sundar Pichai offered further details regarding Google's latest program, saying: "No matter where you live, no matter where you're from, no matter what your job is – you deserve access to all the information, education, and opportunity the web has to offer. Our aim is to make sure that every individual and business in the UK has the support they need to make the most of online tools to innovate, compete and have fruitful careers in the digital age".
Google PhotoScan turns your smartphone into a scanner for your old photos
Despite the name, smartphones are generally used for anything but traditional phone related activities -- and one of the most popular usages of the devices is snapping photographs. But while an entire generation of photographers has grown up with digital photography, there are plenty of physical photos out there waiting to be digitized.
Google thinks it has the answer in the form of PhotoScan. The app is available for iOS and Android, and it transforms your smartphone into a scanner so you can preserve old photos. Unsurprisingly, it is packed with smarts to simplify the whole process, and it all ties in neatly with Google Photos.
Google Translate gets better thanks to Neural Machine Translation technology
The internet has made the world feel smaller, connecting people all over Earth. The problem? Many of us speak different laguages! Sure, some of you speak multiple languages, but for many of us -- including yours truly -- one is all we know.
Thankfully, translation services -- such as Google Translate -- removes barriers, allowing people to more easily communicate despite language differences. Today, the search giant announces that it has massively improved its service thanks to Neural Machine Translation technology.
Office 365 and G Suite now in 59 percent of organizations worldwide
Cloud adoption has hit an all time high in 2016, largely driven by productivity packages like Microsoft Office 365 and Google's G Suite, according to a new report.
Data protection company Bitglass scanned the cloud use of more than 120,000 companies to identify the primary cloud productivity suite used. It finds 59 percent of organizations worldwide now use one of these two apps, up from 48 percent in 2015.
LG V20 Android 7.0 Nougat smartphone [Review]
Android is in a weird place. The latest version, 7.0 Nougat, is on very few devices, which highlights the operating system's biggest issue -- fragmentation. True, most apps will work fine on slightly older versions of the OS, but the true problem is security -- not compatibility. Once a manufacturer stops supporting a smartphone or tablet, the user is at risk of future vulnerabilities.
With OS upgrade concerns in mind, I decided to test Android Nougat on a new Verizon smartphone -- the highly anticipated LG V20. This is the followup to the sleeper-hit V10. The new device retains the famed "second screen", but improves upon its predecessor in every way. Is it worth your money, however?
The new Google Play Music rolls out to Android, iOS and the web
Starting today, Google is rolling out an updated version of Google Play Music, its streaming music service. The company says that the update sees the use of machine learning to create contextual playlists based on where listeners are and what they are doing.
The latest version of Google Play Music is more "assistive" than ever, with Google making much of the personalized playlists it is able to automatically create.
Google updates its site verification process to flag 'repeat offenders'
Google has decided to rework the way it classifies dangerous and harmful sites in an effort to better protect users from being infected by malware.
The search engine has tried to protect its users for a number of years by displaying a warning when a link appears that could lead them to an unsafe site trying to infect their systems with malware or trying to obtain their personal information through phishing.
Google flatly denies claims that Android has hurt competition -- quite the reverse
Google's battle with the European Commission has raged on for many years, and the company has faced frequent accusations of anti-competitive behavior for one reason or another. Today the Android producer has hit back at the European claims, saying that the existence of iOS is proof that its own mobile operating system is not anti-competitive.
Senior vice president of Google, Kent Walker, writes on the company blog that "Android is not a 'one way street'; it's a multi-lane highway of choice". He also points to the fact that the cost of smartphones running Android has dropped dramatically over the years, but one of his primary arguments against the anti-competitive claims is that phone manufacturers are free to use Android in whatever way they want.
Microsoft patches Windows flaw reported by Google
Microsoft has kept its promise and delivered a vulnerability patch for its Windows operating system, for a flaw, revealed by Google, which allowed attackers to gain full control of a targeted system.
Releasing the details in a security bulletin, Microsoft says the flaw in the Windows kernel "could allow elevation of privilege if an attack logs onto an affected system and runs a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerabilities".
Google fails to patch Chrome browser bug -- Microsoft Windows users at risk of scams
Many people use Google Chrome, and rightfully so. The cross-platform web browser works brilliantly, and is super-fast. Plus, the search-giant's browser is very secure too, right? Not so fast...
Today, Sophos drops a bombshell by revealing that scammers are actively targeting Chrome users by leveraging a bug. These bad guys pose as Microsoft tech support and display an in-browser message that says the user's computer is infected with "Virus Trojan.worm! 055BCCAC9FEC". To make matters worse, Google has apparently known about the exploit for more than two years and simply failed to patch it.
Google's new Safe Browsing site is home to malicious site reporting, transparency reports, and policies
Google today launches a revamped version of its Safe Browsing site, bringing a number of tools and services under one roof. The tag line for the site is "Making the world's information safely accessible," and Google makes much of fact that it now keeps more than two billion devices safe online -- desktop and Android, as well as devices running Google tools such as Chrome and Gmail.
One of the main purposes of the site is to make it easier for people to report malicious sites they encounter, so other internet users can be warned and protected. But the updated site is also home to additional information from Google, such as its Transparency Reports and company policies.
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