Tag Archives: alphabet-inc

Texting on Android phones is about to get a lot better, Google said Thursday. The maker of the widely used operating system is launching a major update to its Messages app in the US that will modernize texting on Android phones. The update will include several features that iPhone users have long enjoyed in iMessages, …

Fitbit shares surged Monday on a report that Google’s parent company Alphabet is looking into buying the wearable company.  Alphabet has “made an offer” to buy Fitbit, Reuters reports, though terms weren’t disclosed. After briefly being halted, shares of Fitbit resumed trading late Monday morning, with the company’s stock price rising by nearly 28% to $5.51 at time of writing.   …

Google‘s search engine will now better understand your confusing search queries, the company said Friday. Google said it’s updating the tool to improve analysis of natural language. The idea is to let people type in queries that reflect how they speak in real life, instead of entering a string of keywords they think the software is more likely to understand.  …

Earlier this week, Google unveiled its flagship Pixel 4 phone (along with the larger Pixel 4 XL). It’s a premium device with a high-end camera, radar chip for motion controls and facial recognition software (here’s how the Pixel 4’s face unlock compared to the iPhone 11’s Face ID when we tested both in four typical scenarios). It also came with a price …

Google on Tuesday unveiled a spate of highly anticipated new devices, including its flagship Pixel 4 phone, Pixel Buds to compete with Apple’s Airpods, and a new version of the Google Home Mini speaker, renamed the Nest Mini. But if you really want to understand Google’s goals when it comes to consumer hardware, one of the company’s less-celebrated products, a …

Amid a steady stream of leaks related to its upcoming Pixel 4 phone, Google released a “leak” of its own in July. The search giant posted a 22-second YouTube video of a woman in front of the new phone, waving her hands in the air to control the device from a few inches away. The video was accompanied by a …

UPS said Tuesday that it’s expanding its drone delivery service after it received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate a drone airline. UPS subsidiary Flight Forward was awarded a Part 135 Standard certification on Friday, which the company called an aviation first.  UPS’ first approved flight, operated under its Flight Forward subsidiary, was launched at the WakeMed hospital …

Google targeted people of color — including homeless people and college students — to help improve its facial recognition software, according to a report Wednesday by the New York Daily News. In exchange for face scans, the company gave volunteers $5 gift cards.  The project was reportedly an effort to improve biometric features on Google’s devices like facial unlock features …

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki rejected calls to spin off YouTube, Google’s massive online video service, from the search giant and its parent company, Alphabet.  “We use technology from Google that’s really helpful, like all the machine learning … to find the violative content. Being able to do that at scale, we benefit from the Google technology,” she said Wednesday at the …

Google on Monday launched Play Pass, a monthly subscription service that gives people access to a library of games and other apps on Google’s Play Store, as the search giant experiments with new pricing models for its products. The service, which costs $4.99, includes more than 350 apps and games, including Monument Valley, Risk and Star Wars: Knights of the …