Chance currently writes for both NewGeekGuide and 9to5Mac, in addition to 9to5Toys. He has previously written for several other online publications. He uses a Nexus 5, iPhone 5s, iPad Air, Hackintosh, and Macbook Air.
According to a report from Reuters, the U.S. House of Representatives’ information technology team has blocked members from accessing any services hosted by Google. The move comes in an effort to prevent hacking aimed at lawmakers and their staff. Earlier this week, Yahoo Mail was blacklisted as well in fear of ransomware infiltration.
Google today has announced that an update is coming to the Google Calendar app for Android that improves conference call support. With this update, Google Calendar will automatically add the passcode when a user dials in to a conference call.
YouTube today has announced several changes coming to its Google Preferred offering. Google Preferred is a premium content offering by YouTube that allows advertises to buy ad space on established creator channels. The company, however, is today expanding the capabilities of Google Preferred.
Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt recently attended what many call “Burning Man for the 1%” with a handful of fellow tech and entrepreneur colleagues (via The Guardian). The festival is called Further Future and covers 49 acres of land right outside of Las Vegas. While Burning Man hides its lavishness, Further Future touts that it offers “unabashed luxury.”
The Cleveland Cavaliers today distributed 750 virtual reality viewers to fans in attendance of the team’s playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks. The Cavs mark the first NBA team to integrate virtual reality content into the arena experience.
Popular video sharing service Beme from YouTuber Casey Neistat is now available on Android. The app originally launched in beta as an iOS exclusive, but today is officially out of beta and available on Android. The app was popular when it first launched but has since waned in use, though Neistat hopes that today’s update and release on Android will change that.
Earlier this month the head of the Recording Industry Association of America, Cary Sherman, spoke out against the deals that are currently in place between record labels and YouTube. Sherman voiced her displeasure with how effective the DMCA is, as well as with the negotiation process between labels and YouTube. Now, YouTube’s head of international music partnerships Christopher Muller has shared a blog post offering his response to the complaints by the RIAA.
Apple today is rolling out an update to the Apple Music app for Android users. The update continues to bring the app up to speed with its iOS counterpart and adds support for music videos and family memberships. The update follows the addition of widget support last month for the Android Apple Music app.
Instagram, following the controversial announcement that it would change the order in which images appear in user feeds, now appears to be testing a complete redesign of its app. Instagram has long stuck to the same skeuomorphic design, but if this redesign rolls out to everyone, the app could finally move forward and fall into line with the design trends being adopted by many other apps.
Google has long held close ties with politicians in Washington, D.C., and according to new data, nothing has changed. Watchdog group Campaign for Accountability has recently released new data detailing visits to the White House by various companies in the tech sector and other industries. According to the data, Google’s head of public policy Johanna Shelton has met with White House officials 128 times since President Obama took office in January of 2009.
We’ve seen Google Cardboard and other virtual reality solutions put to use in a variety of situations thus far, and now President Obama has gotten to experience the technology for the first time. As detailed by Inverse, Obama was in Hannover, Germany recently touring a technology trade show and had the opportunity to try out a virtual reality headset made by PMD paired with a Galaxy S7 and an “external 3D camera to provide both digital immersion and reality alteration.”
As expected, Alphabet has today shared its earnings results for the first quarter of 2016. The company is reporting revenue of $20.3 billion, which is up from $17.3 billion in the same quarter last year, but misses analyst expectations. Additionally, the company reports a net income of $3.5 billion for the first quarter of 2016. Based on these results, Alphabet stock is down over 4 percent in after-hours trading.
Re/code today reports that Silicon Valley icon and longtime Google advisor Bill “The Coach” Campbell has passed away at age 75 after a long battle with cancer. The unfortunate news comes from “many prominent tech players,” following earlier unconfirmed reports. Campbell was a mentor to many tech leaders, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos.
Earlier this month it was reported that Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs wanted to build a city from the ground up to test its ideas before rolling them out on a more wide scale basis. Now, The Information reports that Sidewalk is moving forward with this plan, codenamed “Project Sidewalk.”
We’re pretty big fans of the Huawei-made Nexus 6P, even arguing at one point earlier this year that it was the best Android device available. Now, if a trademark filing is any indication, Huawei appears to be planning some sort of successor to the device as the company this month has filed for a new trademark for a device named the “Huawei 7P” (via Phandroid).
Popular short-form video sharing service Vine has today announced a new feature that avid users of the service could appreciate. In a blog post, the Twitter-owned service announced that there is now a “Watch” button on all Vine channels that allows viewers to seamlessly watch all of the content from a single channel with one tap.
There has been quite a bit of press surrounding the behind-the-scenes aspect of Alphabet companies over recent weeks, mainly centered around Nest and Tony Fadell. Earlier today, it was reported that Fadell appeared at Google’s all-hands meeting two-weeks ago to address the stream of negative press. In addition to Fadell defending Nest, Re/code now reports that executive Sergey Brin also defended the company’s life science unit, Verily, at the meeting.
In a post on its Research Blog, Google today announced that it is making some significant improvements to TensorFlow. For those unfamiliar, TensorFlow is the company’s open source machine learning software that powers things like Google Translate and many Photos features. Today, Google revealed that it is adding the ability for TensorFlow to run across multiple machines at the same time with distributed computing support.
Computer peripheral company Logitech has today announced that it is acquiring popular audio company Jaybird. Jaybird, for those unfamiliar, has released a variety of headphone products over recent years, most of which have been wireless. Logitech says the deal is worth $50 million in cash, with an additional earn-out of up to $45 million based on achievement of growth targets over the next two years.
According to a new report from TechCrunch, Facebook is working with developers to build chatbots and Live Chat web plugins for business clients. The tools are said to be officially announced next week at the social network’s F8 conference. Chatbots will allow for businesses to offer automated response systems for responding to inquires from potential customers.
Samsung today has announced its earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2016. The company says that it will likely beat expectations with an operating income of $5.7 billion (6.6 trillion won), versus analyst expectations of 4.43 trillion won. The company reported strong results thanks to the release earlier release of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Samsung traditionally releases its new flagship devices in April, but this year released them in May.
Alphabet is known for aiming for the moon with a lot of its efforts, and its Sidewalk Labs initiative appears to be no different. Sidewalk Labs has been around for about a year now and aims to improve WiFi availability and traffic in cities, but it looks like its plans don’t stop there. Sidewalk CEO Dan Doctoroff hinted that the company may be looking to build a city from scratch while speaking in New York at an event held by The Information.
According to a new report from The Information, behind closed doors Google is much more interested in augmented reality than it is in virtual reality. Google of course has publicly marketed its Cardboard VR product heavily, but that’s apparently not the end-goal for the company — augmented reality is.
Recent reports have painted a dire picture for Nest, with executives reportedly leaving, funding potentially on the verge of being cut, and much more. Now, a supposed Nest engineer has taken to Reddit to voice some frustrations. The engineer, who didn’t disclose his or her name, says that the company is “on deathwatch” thanks to “dire” sale and growth figures and no new innovation since the acquisition occurred.
