Google is bringing Google Assistant voice controls to select third-party Android apps, the company announced in a blog post Thursday. Examples of new, app-specific voice commands Android users can take advantage of. Google “Opening and searching within Android apps using ‘Hey Google’ is now available to all Assistant-enabled Android phones,” wrote Google product manager Adam …
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Google is celebrating the 197th birthday of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an American-Canadian newspaper editor and publisher — as well as a journalist, teacher, lawyer, abolitionist and suffragist — on Friday with a dedicated Doodle. Shadd Cary is credited as North America’s first Black female newspaper editor and publisher. She was also the second Black woman to earn a law …
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Microsoft is developing an iOS app to bring Game Pass to the iPad and iPhone, circumventing Apple App Store rules, Business Insider reported Thursday. “We absolutely will end up on iOS,” Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer told employees at an all-hands meeting Wednesday, according to Business Insider. Microsoft announced in August that its Project xCloud video game service would be …
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Microsoft announced 10 new app store principles in a blog post Thursday, needling Apple‘s and Google‘s policies in the process. The new guidelines from Microsoft are intended to promote choice, fairness and innovation for software developers on Windows 10. “Developers will have the freedom to choose whether to distribute their apps for Windows through our app store. We will not block competing …
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Microsoft has been testing its xCloud cloud-gaming platform, the technology that lets you play Xbox games on your phone, streamed from remote servers, for more than a year. Now we’ve come to the part where the free ride for testers ends and it’s time to pony up for the privilege via a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. And as frequently …
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Google on Wednesday unveiled a pair of online products designed to better protect the security and privacy of Google users’ information. The company said it will soon introduce a redesigned critical alert to warn Google Account users when a serious security threat is detected, such as a suspected hack. Unlike alerts that arrive in your email or on your phone, …
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Lawmakers from the US House of Representatives accused Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple of “abuses of monopoly power” in a 449-page report released Tuesday. The House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee drew its conclusions after a 16-month investigation that culminated in an hours-long hearing with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai in July that featured tense exchanges portending a …
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Let’s talk TVs. You know where I stand: A lot of lower-end models are perfectly good — and definitely easier on the wallet. But what do you sacrifice when you choose a cheap TV instead of a high-end model from, say, Samsung or Sony? For answers, we brought in CNET TV guru David Katzmaier. Trust me, if you’re in the …
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In late 2014, I pulled CNET TV editor David Katzmaier into a conference room to show him a black plastic pair of goggles fitted over a Samsung phone. I seated him in a comfy swivel chair. I wanted to see what he thought of what I was about to show him, from a display perspective. A few 3D 360-degree videos …
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In Fortnite: Battle Royale, the free online title from Epic Games, 100 players take control of characters wielding everything from axes to sharpshooter guns to rainbow-colored unicorn stick horses. Their objective is to battle to the last person standing, kinda like the Hunger Games, but much more silly and cartoonish. Fortnite‘s become an international phenomenon, attracting more than 350 million …
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