Tag Archives: google

With a digital mapping service called What3words, residents of even the smallest, most rural village in the African nation of Ivory Coast now have an official address. The country’s postal system just adopted the startup’s technology, which assigns a three-word phrase to each 3-meter square on the map. For example, heaven.mallard.houseguests is a structure on the outskirts of Mberie. The …

Is the world about to get a smart speaker that features Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant? That’s the question Windows watching are asking after getting a glimpse of a video posted by audio-equipment maker Harman Kardon. The 30-second video doesn’t give much away, preferring to rely on its self-evident title, “Harman Kardon + Cortana: Premium audio meets personal assistant.” That combination …

Now playing: Watch this: The best phones you can get right now 1:51 You’re up to date on everything you need to know before buying a phone, and now the time has come to actually dig out your wallet and go for it. There are tons of great phones that will fit your exact size, price and carrier needs, but …

Imagine you’re on a guided tour in Chartres cathedral in France along with tourists from Brazil, China, Russia and Germany — but none of you speaks French. For the last few decades, you’d each need your own tour guide. A new app from Microsoft aims to flatten this multilanguage barrier, though. The Microsoft Translator app, running on your phone but …

Google‘s Pixel phone ($695 at Amazon) launched without any sort of feature to make notifications quickly viewable on a locked device. In order to view an alert, you had to pick up the phone and press the power button or touch the fingerprint sensor. In early December, Google released a software update for the Pixel that adds two important, and …

Virtual reality is a somewhat understandable concept in 2016. You put on a headset, you find yourself in 3D worlds. But augmented reality — AR — is still a bit less understood. You could engage with augmented reality with a headset, and see 3D objects “projected” into your real world — something that’s usually called “mixed reality.” Augmented reality doesn’t …

Google‘s YouTube will now be able to load a lot faster in Cuba. Google on Monday signed an agreement with Cuba’s national telecom provider, ETECSA, to store data for Google services on the Caribbean island. Previously, signals had to travel from Cuba through Venezuela, which hurt the quality of the data. Google sites like YouTube and Gmail should be able …

Android Pay, Google’s mobile payments service for phones running the OS, is up and running in Japan, two months after Apple’s rival service went live on the island nation. The launch will allow Android handset owners to use their devices to complete transactions at more than 470,000 locations that already accept Rakuten Edy, a prepaid e-money service, Google said in …

Recently a friend asked for help setting up her new cable modem and router. I was only too happy to help, and she was as grateful as if I’d given her an expensive gift. Which, come to think of it, I sort of had. Help with technology is worth a lot to people who aren’t especially tech-savvy. Lightbulb! If you’re …

Now playing: Watch this: This VR/AR headset uses your iPhone to make mixed reality 1:00 Odds are, you might have tried VR. But maybe you’re not as familiar with “augmented reality” or “mixed reality” headsets that blend virtual things into actual reality, like Microsoft’s HoloLens does. That could change once more affordable phone accessories start to arrive. Occipital Bridge is …