Tag Archives: alphabet-inc

Alphabet’s newest smartwatch is not what you’d expect

Verily Life Sciences, formerly known as Google Life Sciences and owned by Google parent company Alphabet, has unveiled a new smartwatch — one you’ll probably never wear. The Study Watch features a simple circular e-ink display that only shows the date and time. It’s not intended to be a consumer product but instead passively records …

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Google fights fake news in search with ‘fact check’ tags

Google is bringing tools to fight fake news to its most important and iconic product: search. The tech giant said Friday that it’s adding “fact check” labels to some of the results in its search engine. If you search for something and a story from a credible fact-checking source like PolitiFact or Snopes comes up, it will get that label. …

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Android Wear 2.0 rollout delayed (again) due to bug

If you’re waiting to finally use the next generation of Google’s smartwatch software, you’ll have to keep waiting. Android Wear 2.0, the most significant update to the search giant’s operating system for wearables, is being delayed in its wider rollout. The culprit is a bug that Google found in its final testing of the software. 9to5Google earlier reported the news. …

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Goodbye, GChat! Hello, Hangouts

If you still use an alternative instant message app to connect to Google, life’s about to get harder. Google is once again streamlining its services, and that means Google Talk (launched in 2005, and also known as Gmail Chat or GChat) is being replaced with Hangouts on June 26. For most people, this won’t mean much other than now it’ll …

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Longer battery life and better notifications in Android O, Google’s upcoming operating system

Now playing: Watch this: Android O will make your battery last longer 1:28 Google is hoping its newest version of Android is sweeter than the last. The search giant on Tuesday announced the next generation of its mobile software, which powers almost nine out of every 10 smartphones on the planet. For now, the software is just called Android O, …

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Google vows to change ad policy after boycotts in UK

Google is rethinking some of its advertising policies after coming under fire in the UK. Some advertising customers in the UK have pulled ads from Google-owned YouTube after some of them reportedly appeared alongside inappropriate and extremist content. The list of clients includes the British government and big brands in the UK, such as the Guardian newspaper. For example, one …

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Alphabet’s Jigsaw wants to explain tech jargon to you

It might sound obvious, but the thing about tech is that sometimes it can get really, well, technical. So Alphabet wants to help make nitty-gritty tech jargon simpler to explain to the masses. On Tuesday, Jigsaw, a tech incubator owned by Google’s parent company, launched a website called the Sideways Dictionary that takes jargon and puts it into terms normal …

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Google cracks down on inaccurate and offensive content

Google is the latest tech company to try to tackle the problems of fake news and offensive content. The search giant is cracking down on search results that are upsetting or inaccurate, according to a report Tuesday by Search Engine Land. It sounds like Google is taking a long-term approach to the problem. The company has introduced a new flag …

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Google says ‘Android Wear is not a hobby’

Now playing: Watch this: Google is committed to Android Wear, says VP 1:16 Even if you buy into Tim Cook‘s pitch that he can’t make enough Apple watches to keep up with demand, the tech industry hasn’t had much luck popularizing smartwatches. But Google‘s not giving up. After a months-long delay, Google on Wednesday released its first major update to …

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Will Apple blow you away in 2017? (The 3:59, Ep. 153)

Apple’s iPhone design hasn’t changed in two years. Will 2017 be different? Looking at what the new year could bring from the tech giant, we consider what the next iPhone and Apple Watch could look like. We also chat about new iris-scanning tech from Qualcomm that could help kill off passwords and about Google’s parent company reportedly axing plans to …

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