Daily Archives: June 20, 2020

What's that COVID-19 tracking 'app' that's suddenly appeared on your Android or iPhone device?

Social media is buzzing with complaints from people after apparently discovering that Apple or Google has suddenly uploaded a COVID-19 tracking app to their phone without permission. Here's what actually happened.

If you have opened up your Facebook or Twitter apps only to be bombarded by messages from people warning that Apple or Google has suddenly and stealthily installed a COVID-19 tracking app to their phone, and you should check yours, then you are not alone.

I'm sorry to disappoint those readers looking forward to a good old rant about the state violating their right to privacy or expecting fuel to feed another conspiracy theory fire. Neither Apple nor Google have uploaded an app to your smartphone without your permission; no stealthy and automatic tracking app installation has taken place.

Yes, there is now an entry at the top of the Google settings on my Android smartphone, for example, that states: "COVID-19 exposure notifications."

Android device settings for Google show COVID-19 exposure notification entry

No, that does not mean an app has been installed. Indeed, if I were to click on that entry, it would take me to a screen that tells me I have to install or finish setting up a participating app to activate the exposure notifications.

One click and you would discover exposure notifications are disabled

So, what has been installed? This is a case of nothing to see here as all that's happened in the last Android or iOS update is that the application programming interface (API) that will enable exposure notifications to work has been added. It's not an app; it's the framework within the operating system that will allow such an app to function once it becomes available and if you decide to install it.

It's quite clear that you have to download the tracking app before exposure notifications can work

Apple and Google published a joint statement about this back on May 20. "What weve built is not an app - rather public health agencies will incorporate the API into their own apps that people install. Our technology is designed to make these apps work better."

To sum up, then: nobody can or will install a COVID-19 tracking app on your phone but you. At that point, you will have to agree to the various permissions the application requires to work effectively. As you were, nothing to see here.

See original here:

Have Apple And Google Suddenly Uploaded A COVID-19 Tracking App To Your Phone? The Facts Behind The Furore - Forbes

He started with the unglamorous search advertising team where his job was to make sure the systems remained up. Even in those days, an outage could cost Google $1,000 a second. His rise at Google mirrored a shift in how people bought ads. It was no longer the realm of art directors but something more akin to traders making automated bids on where ads would go and how much to pay.

In 2013, he became Googles senior vice president for advertising and commerce, overseeing all of the companys ad systems. His responsibilities included overseeing advertising at YouTube to take a video service replete with problematic content and turn it into something that could challenge television networks for advertising revenue.

He felt it was a no-win situation. If YouTubes automated systems held a high bar for what was suitable for advertising, the company risked angering some vocal creators upset at being ineligible for ad revenue. With a less restrictive approach, the chances of a troubling video running with ads was higher. This would anger advertisers and effectively create a financial incentive to keep making problematic content.

In 2017, when The Times of London published examples of videos that exploit young children and appeal to pedophiles carrying ads, Mr. Ramaswamy reached a breaking point.

This is an impossible conflict and we kind of muddled our way through it, he said. All of us have boundaries for what we will tolerate in our jobs. There comes a point where you say the environment I am working in has a situation that is not acceptable to me.

After he left Google, Mr. Ramaswamy appeared ready to follow the well-worn path of accomplished Silicon Valley executive to venture capitalist, joining Greylock Partners. But after a few months, he quietly started working on Neeva, recruiting former Google colleagues including his co-founder, Vivek Raghunathan, a former vice president at the company who worked with Mr. Ramaswamy on search ads and YouTube ads during his 11 years there.

Neeva, which is based in Googles hometown, Mountain View, Calif., has raised $37.5 million with equal investments from Greylock, Sequoia Capital an early investor in Google and Mr. Ramaswamy himself. It has 25 employees.

Continued here:

A Former Google Executive Takes Aim at His Old Company With a Start-Up - The New York Times

You may want to wait until you've had your first cup of coffee before diving into the news report from a Google Home.

I'm not a morning person. I am, however, hooked onGoogle Home Routines. But there's one type of Routine I've just never been able to nail down: a morning Routine. The problem is I need awake-up routinethat's just barely motivating enough to rouse me out of bed, but not so grating that I just end up shouting "OK,Google, stop!" and pulling a pillow over my head. So, I decided to take on one of the greatest challenges I've ever accepted willingly as a smart home enthusiast: tocraft a morning routine that I'll actually use.

This has been especially important these last few months, as quarantine and working from home have all but obliterated my old set of morning rituals. Maybe you're in the same boat and, like me, long for more consistency. Or maybe there's just stuff you want your Google Home to do for you in the morning (play the news, report the weather forecast) but you haven't quite figured out how to get it all done with just one command.

Well, I cracked the code. I sussed out which elements of a Google Home ($30 at Best Buy) morning Routine energized me -- and which ones made me want to crawl back beneath the covers. Here's how I did it.

You can start a Routine from any compatible device, like this Nest Hub on a nightstand, but then direct other Google Home smart speakers to carry out various Actions.

In case you're unfamiliar, a Google Home Routine is a set of tasks Google Assistant will carry out in response to a single voice command. You can create your own Routines, but there are a handful of default ones you can use and customize as well -- including one you trigger by simply saying, "Hey, Google, good morning."

To see which Routines you have for your Google Home setup, open the Google Home app, tap the Routines icon near the top and then at the bottom of your screen tap Manage routines. At the top of the list you should see your Good morning routine, which you can tap to edit. (To create a Routine from scratch, tap the + sign icon in the lower right corner.)

What Routines are not, however, is automatic. You have to trigger them with a voice command, which means if they annoy you so much you just avoid them, you probably won't get any benefit from them. That's why it's important to set them up right.

The average smart speaker household now has 2.6 devices,according to an April recent survey by NPR and Edison Research. I've got three Google Home and Nest Mini speakers and two Nest Hubs ($80 at Best Buy), so practically one for every room in my house (including the owner's suite bathroom). When crafting a Routine, you don't have to limit Actions to the speaker that hears the command -- you can actually direct traffic, as it were, to any or all of your other devices.

The average smart speaker household has an average of 2.6 devices, according to a survey by NPR and Edison Research.

This was key to creating a morning Routine that worked for me. You see, there's a conflict between what I want my morning to look like and what I'll actually tolerate -- but distributing my wants across multiple devices gives my brain the space it needs to wake up on its own terms.

For example, I want to hear the news in the morning, but in the first few minutes after waking up my brain just isn't ready for it. Solution: Play the news on the kitchen speaker, so I can start listening just as my first cup of coffee starts to kick in. Same goes for music -- I know an upbeat playlist will jazz me up in the morning, but I'm not really ready to rock out while I'm still struggling to open my eyes. Solution: Play music from the bathroom speaker to coincide with my morning shower.

There are really only a couple of things I want to happen with my smart home devices when I first wake up: I want to turn up the thermostat and turn on my bedroom lights. Both my Google Nest Learning Thermostat and my Philips Hue lighting system are connected to my Google Home account, which makes this easy.

You can reorder your Google Home Routine's Actions by tapping "Change order."

The only confusing part is the Google Home app has two settings that could affect my smart bulbs: Adjust scenes and Adjust lights, plugs and more. I control my Philips Hue color bulbs by selecting Adjust scenes and choosing a scene I created called Golden White that turns my three bedroom lights on to a nice, warm white light set to 50% brightness. If you want that kind of granular control, you'll have to set up a scene in your smart bulb app ahead of time.

The other option, Adjust lights, plugs and more, only gives you the choice to turn your bulbs either off, or on to their most recent state. That means if the previous night I had been chilling in my bedroom with my Blood Moon scene (two dim dark blue lights and one dim red one) that's what would turn on -- not really a great vibe for in the morning.

Once I realized I could distribute Actions across multiple devices, I had to decide what I wanted my bedroom Nest Hub to tell me about in those first few moments of consciousness. Turns out I'm mentally competent enough to handle the weather, my calendar and reminders and not much else.

If you have a Google Nest Learning Thermostat, controlling it with a Google Home Routine is a breeze.

Here's what my morning Routine now looks like:

Now that I have a Google Home morning Routine that doesn't get on my nerves, waking up with a Google Home has definitely earned its place on mylist of the top five ways I love the Google Home ecosystem (even though I doadmit the Google Home isn't perfect). To get the most out of your own Google Home, I highly recommend you go in and change these five settings right away.

Now playing: Watch this: Google Home's best talent lets you customize responses

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Google Home Routines can get annoying. Here's how to avoid that - CNET

Google is rolling out a software update that improves network performance for Nest Wifi and Google WiFi routers on slow network connections, the company announced in a blog post. Your Wi-Fi will better support multiple video calls, gaming sessions and more simultaneously, Google Nest product manager Sanjay Noronha wrote in the post, adding that the latest software update will also improve device connection speeds on wireless networks and optimizations so your devices move to faster Wi-Fi radio channels.

The update includes improvements to general security and stability. The priority device feature, which lets users choose which device temporarily gets the strongest Wi-Fi available, is getting smarter as well, according to Google. That should be a welcome update to families working and schooling at home; theres nothing like slow Wi-Fi freezing your Zoom call with the boss because the kids are playing Fortnite.

Google launched the Nest Wifi system back in October, combining a router and smart speaker into one product. Prior to that, it released the Google WiFi mesh router system.

Read more:

Google and Nest routers now work much better with slow home internet connections - The Verge

Google is booting online far-right website The Federalist from its ad platform for publishing content about the ongoing protests against police brutality that violated the companys rules around content that promotes hate.

As NBC News reports, Google determined that both The Federalist and right-wing website ZeroHedge violated its policy against monetizing content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race.

When a page or site violates our policies, we take action. In this case, weve removed both sites ability to monetize with Google, a Google spokesperson said in a statement to NBC.

Update:Google is either walking back its own statement or disputing the report from NBC News. In a statement to TechCrunch provided by Google spokesperson Christa Muldoon, the company said the following:

To be clear, The Federalist is not currently demonetized. We do have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on, which includes comments on the site. This is a longstanding policy.

Google also said that the issues with both sites arose from content in their comments sections violating its policies against dangerous and derogatory content.

It sounds like The Federalist was issued a warning that it will face demonetization if it doesnt remove the content while ZeroHedge was warned previously, did not fix the policy violations and was demonetized.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a British watchdog group, recently sent a report to Google flagging racist content focused on the ongoing protests across a number of U.S. sites, including The Federalist and ZeroHedge. The report also noted that such sites stood to make millions through Googles ad platform.

As NBC News reported, ZeroHedge published stories claiming that the protests were actually fake while The Federalist pushed a narrative that the media was lying about what happened at the public demonstrations. On its site, The Federalist [keeps] tally of those fired from lack of allegiance to the new woke overlords, referencing fallout from the current movement for racial justice. Weve reached out to Google for more information on which specific articles prompted the action.

Both sites have come under scrutiny by tech giants before. In March, Twitter removed a tweet from The Federalist recommending controlled voluntary infection as a solution to COVID-19. The tweet violated the companys rules banning content that puts people at higher risk of spreading the virus.

Twitter suspended ZeroHedge from its platform in February after the account published the personal details of a Chinese scientist it claimed was linked to a coronavirus conspiracy. After a review, Twitter reinstated ZeroHedge over this past weekend, saying that it made an enforcement error in choosing to suspend the account.

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Google kicked ZeroHedge off its ad platform, put The Federalist on notice for racist protest content - TechCrunch

Google is partnering with Parallels to bring native Microsoft Office applications and other legacy enterprise Windows applications to Chromebooks. Google revealed the new partnership in a blog post looking at the future of Chrome OS for enterprises.

While Chrome OS has long supported Windows desktop apps that are streamed via the cloud through a Parallels Remote Application Server, this new partnership means the apps will run virtualized on Chromebooks instead. The new feature is set to be available this fall for Chrome Enterprise customers.

Parallels Desktop will be integrated natively into Chrome OS, improving performance and enabling offline access for these applications on Chromebooks. Its a surprising, but welcome move that will mean Chrome OS will be able to support both Android apps and Windows apps in the future.

It will also likely entice businesses to seriously consider Chromebooks as Windows laptop alternatives for certain employees, without having to invest in solutions to stream business apps to a Chromebook.

Google isnt providing many details about the Parallels partnership just yet, but the company promises more to come on this over the coming months.

Update June 16th, 4:00pm: Added additional details, including the planned fall release window.

See the original post:

Google is bringing Microsoft Office and other Windows apps to Chromebooks - The Verge

Google has leased the top-floor office space at the Buffalo Heights District, a mixed-use development at 3663 Washington Ave. (Contributed photo)

Google, the California-based technology giant, is opening an office in the Heights area.

The company has signed a lease to establish an office on the top floor of the Buffalo Heights District, a mixed-use development at 3663 Washington Ave., according to a news release from the land owner and developer, BKR Memorial II, LLC. Below the One Buffalo Heights office space is the St. Andrie luxury apartment complex, while an H-E-B grocery store opened last October on the ground level.

Google is a major player, not just as a driver of innovation and economic transformation, but also as an engaged member of the community, Russell Gordy, the owner of BKR Memorial, said in a news release. We are pleased they chose Buffalo Heights when they were making a commitment to Houston.

Google will occupy a 12,000 square foot office space at the Buffalo Heights District, which also announced its plan to expand the development with additional residential units, office space and retail and restaurant offerings. The idea is to continue fostering a walkable urban streetscape that includes green space as well.

BKR Memorial said the Houston Endowment philanthropic organization plans to construct its 40,000 square foot headquarters adjacent to the Buffalo Heights development and overlooking Spotts Park.

Innovative companies such as Google understand how walkable, mixed-use environments positively impact recruiting and retaining the best talent, said CEO Jonathan Brinsden of Houston-based Midway, another developer involved with the Buffalo Heights District.

Continued here:

Google leases office in Buffalo Heights development - The Leader

You dont need Googles own gamepad or dongle to try its Stadia cloud gaming service, particularly now that it works on practically any Android phone but if you want to fire up Stadia on your 4K TV with a wireless gamepad, you can do that for cheaper now.

Today, Google is offering a new Stadia Premiere Edition starter kit for $99, which comes with the companys Chromecast Ultra HDMI dongle and the Stadia Controller youll need to control it from your couch, and which also works plugged into a phone or wirelessly with a computer.

Previously, Google sold both devices in a $129 bundle that also came with a free three-month subscription to the Stadia Pro service, which offers 4K-ish streaming, surround sound, and access to free games each month. The new bundle no longer comes with three free months of Stadia Pro, so its not exactly a $30 savings but if youre planning to take advantage of Googles free version of Stadia, which comes with a one-month free trial of Pro anyhow, youre paying less than you would have before.

Currently, the Chromecast Ultra is the only officially supported way to play Stadia on a TV, and the Stadia Controller is the only controller compatible with the Chromecast Ultra experience because the Chromecast doesnt communicate directly with controllers. (The Stadia Controller can send its commands directly to Stadias servers using your home Wi-Fi, which lets it get around that limitation.)

You could theoretically plug your Android phone or tablet into your TV with an HDMI cable, however, and use any of the many other supported controllers to play.

If you already own a Chromecast Ultra, check your old emails; you might be able to take advantage of a free three-month Stadia Pro trial offer, as well.

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Google has a new Stadia starter kit, and its $30 cheaper - The Verge