Tag Archives: google

The Cheapskate Show podcast: Cheap

You can certainly spend $1,000 or $1,500 or more on a laptop, but the question is: Should you? After all, it doesn’t take a lot of horsepower to delivery a satisfying experience web browsing or doing ordinary productivity work like creating documents and spreadsheets. To figure out how much laptop you really need, we enlisted …

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Privacy groups demand Google disclose details on geofence warrants

Over the last three years, Google has received a surge in geofence warrant requests — a type of request that allows police to gather information on devices in a certain region. The company has also been complying with keyword warrants, which gives police information on anyone who’s looked up specific phrases on the search engine. But the public doesn’t know …

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Google’s Look to Speak app launches on Android 9.0 and up

Google’s Look to Speak app will help nonverbal people communicate on the go. It’s rolling out widely on Tuesday on Android 9.0 as well as later versions.. The app presents a few options of phrases, and you choose the one you want with a glance. Your phone will then speak that phrase for you.  Designed primarily for those with speech …

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California partners with Apple and Google for COVID

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said the state has partnered with Apple and Google on an app to let people use their phones to track potential exposure to COVID-19. The digital system uses Bluetooth signals from phones to alert people if they’ve …

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Walmart Plus review: A fast delivery service for groceries and everything else

Grocery shopping wasn’t my favorite thing before the coronavirus pandemic, but once March lockdowns and quarantines began, I absolutely dreaded it. Each excursion became a tactical mission to get in and out as fast as possible to avoid catching the virus from other shoppers. It was stressful in the first months, planning trips around shipment trucks to get items before …

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iPhone 12 vs. Apple’s major 5G rivals: Galaxy S20, S20 FE, Pixel 5, OnePlus 8T

The iPhone 12 lineup, Apple’s 5G family of iPhones, is here and you can order all four models now. Coronavirus disruptions delayed the iPhone 12, but it made its debut alongside three siblings last month via a virtual event. The $799 iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, the iPhone 12 Mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max feature a revamped design reminiscent …

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Fitbit OS 5.1 update: All the new features coming to the Sense and Versa 3

If you’ve got a Fitbit Sense or Versa 3, you have a few new features to explore on your smartwatch. With the update to Fitbit OS 5.1, you’ll now have the option to use Google Assistant as your Fitbit’s voice assistant instead of Amazon’s Alexa, which has been available on the watches since launch. The update will also allow you to take …

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iPhone 12: I had high hopes for a return to USB

I had high hopes that the iPhone 12 would move to a universal port that’s already everywhere. Instead, it’s traded one proprietary format for another. The iPhone 12 didn’t get USB-C at Apple’s October event. (Here’s how to buy all four Apple 12 models.) Instead, it kept Lightning and added a new MagSafe connector.  I’ve been impressed by MagSafe on …

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Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon phone chip won’t support AV1 video streaming

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 processor won’t support a much ballyhooed video compression technology developed by Google, Netflix and other technology giants, dealing a blow to data efficiency and streaming quality improvements for the next-generation of Android phones. Judd Heape, a Qualcomm vice president for product management, says the mobile chip leader couldn’t include AV1 technology in the new chip because …

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Android Emoji Kitchen update will let you customize more emoji

Android is giving emoji lovers more ways to mix and match emoji by expanding its Emoji Kitchen feature, Google said in a blog post, Thursday.  Emoji Kitchen, which launched in February, lets you combine emoji (think adding a face mask to an alien). The feature will now offer more than 14,000 combinations, up from just a few hundred. You’ll also …

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