Google has begun a live countdown of the days, hours, minutes and seconds until its annual developers’ conference. Google I/O 2022 will take place May 11-12, both at its Shoreline Amphitheater and online, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Wednesday on Twitter. We’ll be back live from Shoreline Amphitheatre for this year’s #GoogleIO! Join us online …

Streaming services have bolstered the home and theatrical entertainment industry as it recovers from pandemic shutdowns, hitting a record $99.7 billion for 2021, according to a Motion Picture Association report released Tuesday. The figure excludes pay TV but includes home/mobile entertainment like streaming services and disc releases, as well as theatrical releases. The global total was up 24% compared with …

Google introduced a swathe of new Android updates on Thursday. As well as paying for parking by using voice command and a whole bunch of Messages updates including iPhone-like reactions, Android also updated Google TV, Photos, Widgets, Gboard and Nearby Share. Here are the latest features on Android: Google Photos: Portrait Blur is coming to more types of photos, like those …

Google’s upcoming Pixel 6a phone and rumored Pixel Watch have reportedly leaked via a carrier’s inventory system. The online leak, reported earlier Tuesday by Android Police, was attributed to an unnamed source.  The US carrier’s database reportedly shows Google’s next flagship phone will come in black, white or green, and have 128GB of storage. The Pixel Watch leak shows it …

A Privacy Sandbox will be coming to Android devices, Google said Wednesday. The effort is designed to offer more privacy protection by limiting the user data shared with third parties for advertising. This follows Apple’s move last year that requires apps to ask for your permission before tracking your activity across apps and the web. That move was fought by some companies …

Twitter could be working on a new feature called Articles. The format could allow users to create articles and long-form posts within the app, unburdened by Twitter’s current 280-character limit. The capability was noted on Twitter by Jane Manchun Wong, tech writer and spotter of upcoming Twitter features, on Wednesday.  Twitter is working on “Twitter Articles” and the ability to …

VPN by Google One is now being rolled out to iOS devices, Google revealed on its blog Tuesday. It’ll be available to Google One members on Premium plans of 2TB and higher, and they’ll be able to share their plan and the VPN with up to five family members across both Android and iOS. iOS users can access the VPN …

Companies shipped 1.35 billion smartphones in 2021, a 5.7% increase over the previous year, market researcher IDC said Thursday. However, supply chain issues meant that fewer phones were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2021 than in the same period a year earlier. “The supply chain and component shortages started to have meaningful impact on the smartphone market as we …

Google has launched its new .day domain name system, allowing companies, charities, organizations and individuals to use the domain names to bring special attention to certain days and causes. The .day domain names are already being used by religious and cultural organizations, for example, to spread knowledge about how and why holidays like Ramadan, Diwali and Easter are celebrated across …

Facebook’s free internet service launched in developing nations and low socio-economic areas more than five years ago to provide people with free access to some online services. But many people are being charged small amounts for using data by their cellphone providers while using the apps in free mode — altogether amounting to millions of dollars every month in the …