Tag Archives: google

You’re inside nearly all the time now, and time is meaningless. You’re free to binge Netflix or work from bed, and lounge around in a bathrobe and bunny slippers all day, skipping showers and “forgetting” to shave. Such unbridled sloth sounds fun, but in reality there’s a better way to keep yourself happy and sane …

Easter is this weekend, and Google has planted some real (virtual) Easter eggs for users of its search engine when they query terms related to the holiday. Users who search for “Easter,” “Easter 2020” and other Easter-related topics will see a banner in the top-right corner of their search results page that illustrates some of the adorable animals associated with …

State and local governments are evaluating an MIT location-tracing app to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, an MIT researcher leading the app effort said Friday. “We have lots of pilots going on and lots of discussions,” said Ramesh Raskar, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who’s involved in creating the app, called Private Kit SafePaths. “There are many …

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites. Accidents happen. Cracking your iPhone’s ($500 at Best Buy) screen or breaking your Android phone’s charging port is the last thing any of us wants to worry about right now. Especially with most of us under stay-at-home orders, practicing social distancing and wearing face masks in …

The first smart speakers, the Amazon Echo and Google Home, broke new ground in voice control and artificial intelligence wizardry. But they simply didn’t sound very good for music. It took until the creation of the Sonos One for a relatively affordable smart speaker to couple voice assistants with proper sound quality. The Sonos earns our Editors’ Choice Award for its sound and reasonable price. …

Google Meet’s premium features will now be available for free to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers until Sept. 30. The company on Thursday said it’s extending the offer, which was originally set to end on July 1, to support people working and learning from home during the coronavirus pandemic. The high-end add-ons include the ability to hold …

Once upon a time, everyone wanted us to use our phones as VR headsets. Do you remember this? There was the folding, giveaway Google Cardboard, that ended up in magazines and promo giveaways. There was Samsung’s Gear VR, sold alongside every Samsung phone. There was Google Daydream View. I wrote a eulogy for phone VR last year, because for the …

Braille has been helping the blind and vision-impaired to read and communicate for more than 150 years. Now Google wants to help blind and vision-impaired Android users put braille to work on their smartphones. To do so, Google developed a virtual braille keyboard called TalkBack. In essence, it divides the user’s screen into six zones, each one representing one of …

Google’s game streaming service, Stadia, opened up the free tier of its service in 14 countries Wednesday. Those who sign up for the service will have their subscription upgraded to Stadia Pro for two months (it’s normally $9.99 a month) and can receive nine free games as part of the upgraded plan.  Since its launch back in November of 2019, Stadia has …

Google’s new Chrome OS 81 update for Chromebooks is set with new navigation gestures for easier use in tablet mode. With more Chromebooks featuring touchscreens and keyboardless options such as Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet, the update introduces Android 10 and iPadOS-like gestures when they’re used as tablets.  Read more: Best Chromebooks for 2020 With the new set of gestures, you can go to …