Monthly Archives: July 2020

Some Android users in Europe say they feel misled by their governments. Instructions on many of the apps direct Android users to turn on location, for instance, but make no mention of Google or that users can stop the company from determining their precise locations by turning off the accuracy feature within the location setting.

With this app, youre invited, by the government strongly appealing to your sense of responsibility and morality, to give away your live location to entities that are getting a profit out of it, in order to protect public health, said Massimo Zannoni, an electronic engineer in Zurich.

Health officials in Denmark, Germany, Latvia and Switzerland said their governments had deliberately designed their national virus alert apps for maximum privacy.

No government, no security agency has any chance to misuse the technology, Gottfried Ludewig, director general for digitalization and innovation for Germanys Ministry of Health, said of the Corona-Warn-App, which has been downloaded more than 15.5 million times. He said more than 500 people who tested positive for the virus had used the app to notify other users of possible virus exposure.

He added that if Google used location data for any other purpose than enabling the Bluetooth services in the app, it would need legal grounds to do so under European data protection law.

Others involved in the German app said it was Googles issue, not theirs.

You need to ask Google about the specs of their operating system, Marcus Winkler, a spokesman for SAP, which helped develop Germanys app, said in an email. If you turn on location tracking you get a message from the operating system this has nothing to do with the app.

Professor Dmitrienko, the software security expert, said the solution was for governments to push Google to stop requiring Android users of the virus alert apps to turn on location.

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Google Coronavirus Apps Give it Way to Access Location Data - The New York Times

The Google Nest Mini replaced the Google Home Mini last year and muddied the waters of Google's branding even further (see no. 4).

Since the originalthe original Google Home smart speaker first debuted, many have felt the search giant's foray into the smart home has been stuck playing catch-up withAmazon's Alexa assistant and Echo speakers. But that viewhas shifted considerably in recent years, as Google has addeda slew of long-awaited features -- some of whichAlexa already had, someit still doesn't. Not to mention, Google now sells some of the mostbreathtakingly vivid smart displays (the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max) andsurprisingly full-spectrum mini speakers (the Nest Mini) available.

In other words, Google Home ($99 at Crutchfield) is no longer just a smart home contender but abona fide market leader, and --for the most part --we're fans. So think of this as more of a wish list of features we're hoping to eventually see than a laundry list ofpet peeves,gripes andcomplaints about theGoogle Home ecosystem, (though we have some of those, too).

Our newsletter sends you the best tips for your Google Home smart speaker.

No platform is flawless, but Google Home (orGoogle Nest) could edge just a little closer to perfection if it would address these nine little bugbears. (Plus, a few ways to work around some of the pitfalls.)

Google knows where you are anyway, so why not let you trigger Google Home actions based on your location?

If only there were some magical way to make your gadgets do your bidding without having to actually say anything. Well, there is, and it's whyAmazon's Alexa excels at automation in a way Google Home still falls short: Alexa supports location triggers. In other words, Amazon's digital assistant tracks your GPS location and can fire off actions (control smart home gadgets, play music, welcome you home) based on where you are.

For now, if you want Google Home to turn on the lights when you get home (or off when you leave) or perform any other action based on your location, you have to tell it to with a voice command. What's even more vexing is that theGoogle Nest Learning Thermostat has ahome/away mode that uses -- you guessed it -- location triggers to turn your heat or air conditioning up or down.

Plus,Google already knows where you are all the time anyway, so why not add this simple feature? For now, the best you can do iscobble together a location-based action using If This, Then That, aka IFTTT.

If you have multiple Google Home smart speakers and you set an alarm or timer on one of them, the only way to turn it off with a voice command is by talking to the speaker you set it on. Sure,there are a few workarounds (including shouting at it), but Alexa knows when another speaker connected to the same account is sounding off, so why doesn't Google Home?

Apple's HomePod can stream music directly from Apple Music, but so far Google Home still can't.

We get it -- Apple and Google are grudging frenemies at best, but it's time to open up more. You can use any number ofmusic streaming services on Google Home devices, and even set some non-Google options like Spotify to be your default.

But the only way to pipeApple Music to your Google Home smart speakers is by playing it on a compatible device, then connecting to Google Home with Bluetooth. That'sso 2010. If you canstream Apple Music on a Samsung TV these days, you should be able to do it with Google Home, too. For people like me who use Apple and Google products and services, being barred from my tools is an unnecessary pain.

Let's do a roll-call: There's the Google Home Max, the Nest Mini, Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max. Then there's the discontinued original Google Home speaker (fret not, it appears a replacement is on the way -- under the Nest banner), the original Google Home Mini ($30 at Best Buy) (replaced by the upgraded Nest Mini) and Google Hub (rebranded Nest Hub).

Confused? So are we.

It makes sense that Google would want to fold its Nest line of smart thermostats, security cameras and other smart home devices into its Google Home platform (or vice versa). But doing so one device at a time has fractured the lineup's branding and mixes up the naming. For example, "Nest Home" isn't a thing, but "Google Nest" is.

If you whisper to Alexa on Amazon Echo, it'll whisper back to you. We only wish Google Assistant could do the same on Google Home.

Yes, Google Home has a night mode that will reduce the speaker's volume during scheduled times of the day, but that's literally all it does -- knocks it down a couple of notches. Do you know what Alexa can do? If you whisper a command to Alexa,Alexa literally whispers back. Not only does that make Alexa seem more, well, human, a whisper is leagues less jarring when kids or a partner are sleeping or you're just trying to enjoy some quiet time.

Apple has Siri and Amazon has Alexa. Microsoft -- Cortana. Even Samsung has Bixby. But Google? Google just has... Google. We get it -- you can't make just any old word a wake word. Digital assistants accidentally dip into conversations not intended for them often enough as it is, whenever you say something close enough, like "Hey, Boo Boo," "OK, Frugal" and even "OK, Boomer."

Actually, you can use Google Home's slightly less-than-perfect ear totrick it into answering those alternatives and more ("Cocaine Poodle" anyone?), but it would be nice if Google at least offered options. Once again,Alexa can. Beyond just its name, Alexa can answer to "Computer," "Amazon" or "Echo." OK, Google?

Amazon Echos have an audio out port, but Google Home can only connect to an external speaker system using Bluetooth.

Amazon Echoes ($34 at Amazon) have physical stereo outputs ports, which let you wire them to a bigger, better, louder stereo system. The only way to connect Google Home to other speakers is with Bluetooth, which just isn't quite as high quality of a signal. But why would anyone want to connect a speaker to another speaker?

First off, as far as smart speaker technology has come, Google Homes (and Amazon Echoes and Apple HomePods ($299 at Apple)) -- even ultra-premium devices like the Google Home Max -- really can't compete with high-end gear, like CNET'sbest bookshelf speaker for 2020, the Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2. Besides, why wouldn't you want to put Google Assistant on akiller Bose system?

With a smart speaker, someone's always home. Sorta. So, if Google Assistant is going to lounge around the house all day anyway, it might as well keep an eye (err, ear) on things, too, right? Last year Amazon launched Alexa Guard, whichlistens for suspicious activity -- like a window breaking -- when you're not home. It might not be as robust as adedicated security system, but it's still better than just sitting there while burglars empty out your jewelry box.

The new Google Messages app lets Android devices send iMessage-like text messages to other Android users, but Google Home still can't even send a basic SMS.

Seriously? You can connect your phone (even if it's an iPhone!) andmake calls from Google Home, so why no text messaging? Alexa can handle SMS whether your phone is an iPhone or Android. And Apple's HomePod can send your SMS or iMessages if you use an iPhone. Google just recentlyintroduced Google Messages (think iMessage for Android), so why they didn't add the app to Google Home is a mystery. Hopefully Google gets this message, though, (and we don't get left on read) sooner rather than later.

In spite of these shortcomings, however, Google Home does get more than just a few things right. Check outthese five things Google Home can do that Alexa and Siri can't. And here's anotherfive things Google Home does better than the competition. To really tweak your Google Home for the best experience, you have to trychanging these five settings -- you won't regret it.

See more here:

Google Home: 9 simple things it still can't do, but Alexa can - CNET

Ahead of its debut on July 21st OnePlus released an Instagram video indicating its Nord phone will come with Googles Messages and Phone apps installed instead of its own SMS and dialer, 9to5Google reported. The device also will have Googles Duo video chat app pre-installed, according to the video.

Why OnePlus decided to roll with Googles apps isnt clear, but its apparently in pursuit of the smoothest-est Android experience, according to the video. As 9to5Google notes, using Google Messages provides Nord users with access to RCS messaging.

OnePlus has said the Nord, slated for an augmented reality launch event on Tuesday, will be a more affordable device. The Instagram video references a pretty great price, but doesnt offer specifics, however OnePlus said in a video last month the Nord will cost under $500.

Along with several official announcements, other details about the new phone have leaked over the past few weeks. OnePlus confirmed its name and said the Nord will be powered by a Snapdragon 765G 5G processor, 6.55-inch 90Hz OLED display, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage. Its also expected to have a 48-megapixel main camera and a 16-megapixel wide-angle lens.

The OnePlus Nord is expected to be released first to users in Europe and India.

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OnePlus says the Nord will come with Google Messages and Phone pre-installed - The Verge

Google CEO Sundar Pichai

Pradeep Gaur | Mint | Getty Images

Google next month will ban publishers from using its ad platform to show advertisements next to content that promotes conspiracy theories about Covid-19. It will also ban ads that promote those theories. In cases where a particular site publishes a certain threshold of material that violates these policies, it will ban the entire site from using its ad platforms.

Alphabet's Google already prohibits ads from running against content that makes harmful claims about disease prevention and unsubstantiated cures, including anti-vaccine promotions or content that encourages users to forgo treatment. The company is now taking it a step further and banning ads against content that make claims going against authoritative scientific consensus. Banned claims would include conspiracy theories like vaccines being attempts to genetically modify the population, that Bill Gates created Covid-19 or that the disease was a bioweapon made in a Chinese lab.

Google received nearly $135 billion in advertising revenue in 2019, in part through programs like AdSense and Ad Manager, in which websites that are approved can run programmatic advertising on their sites and make money using Google. About 15% of Google's revenue in the first quarter came from "Google Network Members' properties," which the company said in its annual report primarily comes from sitesparticipating in AdMob, AdSense and Google Ad Manager programs.

Google will begin enforcing the change on Aug. 18, and can remove ads from single articles or, in some cases, entire sites. When it comes to removing ads from an entire site, the company said for most of its policies it has a percentage threshold for policy violations before it will fully demonetize a website. (The violation of some policies, like one preventing child sex abuse material, is considered by the company to be so egregious that they result in immediate site-level action).

The news comes the same week as CNBC first reportedthat Google had begun running ads again on financial market website Zero Hedge.In mid-June, Google said it had taken action against Zero Hedge because of the comments section of the site, which Google said consistently violated its policy against dangerous and derogatory material.Google said Zero Hedge appealed the demonetization after deciding to remove the content and implementing comment moderation.

Excerpt from:

Google will ban ads from running on stories spreading debunked coronavirus conspiracy theories - CNBC

ViacomCBS is cutting ties with Nick Cannon following the actor's anti-Semitic comments on his podcast, 'Cannon's Class.' USA TODAY

When it comes to job searching, recruiting and retention,diversity has increasingly become part of the conversation.

Amid the recent Black Lives Matter protests, more companies are pledging to diversify workplaces by hiring more people of color, and CEO's canplay a vital role in making sureit happens. Chief executives can also set the stage for a safe, supportive and inclusiveenvironment for minority workers after they'rehired.

So which business leadersdo it best?

The heads of Microsoft, RingCentral and Google, according to results from a workforce surveycompleted bythe compensation, culture and career-monitoring websiteComparably.

India-born Sataya Nadella is at the helm of the software giant Microsoft. Ukraine-born Vlad Shmunis cofounded the cloud communications company RingCentral and Sundar Pichai, who was also born in India, leadsthe search giant Google.

Comparably unveiled its annual"Best CEOs for Diversity" list on Monday to underscore leaders who create inclusive work cultures based on ratings from employees of color.

"We need to point out when a company is falling and see what we can change to make better, but we also need to point to great examples of leaders of companies that are fantastic for people of color," Comparably CEO Jason Nazar told USA TODAY.

Home is where the health is: Ask yourself 6 questions about aging in place

Streaming: Netflix names Ted Sarandos as co-CEO, surpasses subscriber forecast during pandemic

Each CEOon the list hasa top 5% approval rating by employees of color.

Comparably asked employees of color to anonymously rate their chief executive officers over a 12-month period (June 30, 2019 and June 30, 2020). So the results include sentiments held by workers as protests for racial equality gripped the nation.

Ranked highest to lowest

(Photo: Microsoft)

1.Satya Nadella - Microsoft

2. Vlad Shmunis - RingCentral

3. Sundar Pichai - Google

4. Eric Yuan - Zoom Video Communications

5. Carlos Rodriguez - ADP

6. Steve Bilt - Smile Brands

7. Sid Sijbrandij - GitLab

8. Tim Cook - Apple

CEO Tim Cook holding the billionth iPhone.(Photo: Apple)

9. Mike Walsh - LexisNexis

10. Chris Caldwell - Concentrix

11. Doug Mack - Fanatics

12.Shantanu Narayen - Adobe

13.Vishal Garg - Better.com

14. Jim Loree - Stanley Black & Decker

Accenture (US) CEO Julie Sweet(Photo: Comparably)

15. Julie Sweet - Accenture (US)

16. Manny Medina - Outreach

17. Annette Brls - Medela

18. Charles Butt - H-E-B

19. Brian Niccol - Chipotle

20. Kenneth Frazier - Merck

21. Hirokazu Hamada - Anritsu

22. Robert Frist Jr. - HealthStream

Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta(Photo: Comparably)

23. Apoorva Mehta - Instacart

24. Jorge Gonzalez - City National Bank of Florida

25. Mark Mader - Smartsheet

Ranked highest to lowest

Centrical CEO Gal Rimon(Photo: Comparably)

1. Gal Rimon -Centrical

2. Robert Sadow - Scoop Technologies

3. David Cancel - Drift

4. Giuseppe Incitti - Sitetracker

5. Ganesh Shankar - RFPIO

6. Paddy Spence - Zevia

7. Elizabeth Cholawsky -HG Insights

8. Mark Faggiano - TaxJar

9. Pedro Chiamulera - ClearSale

Unemployment: Think that extra $600 in unemployment benefits will last until the end of July? Nope

Want a cheap mortgage?: Move to these cities

Wonderschool CEO Chris Bennett(Photo: Comparably)

10. Chris Bennett - Wonderschool

11. Neha Sampat - Contentstack

12. Alex Austin - Branch

13. Payam Zamani - One Planet Group

14. Peter McKay - Snyk

15. Alex Goode - GoSite

16. Amit Jnagal - Infrrd

17. Rahul Kashyap - Awake Security

18. Karl Mehta - EdCast

19. Tim Chen - NerdWallet

20. Shiv Gaglani - Osmosis

21. Christian Gormsen - Eargo

22. Cesar Carvalho - Gympass

23. David Woodhouse - NGM Biopharmaceuticals

24. Brandon Rodman - Weave

Snapdocs CEO Aaron King(Photo: Comparably)

25. Aaron King -Snapdocs

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Survey says Microsoft, Google CEOs are among top CEOs for diversity, inclusion in 2020 - USA TODAY

Google Play Pass, the Android alternative to subscription-based game store Apple Arcade, is expanding. Launched in September 2019 with more than 350 apps and games, Play Pass today announced it has added 150 new titles, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Golf Peaks and kid-friendly content like apps from Sesame Workshop, for example. In addition, the service will be offered in a range of new non-U.S. markets for the first time and is adding an annual subscription option.

Unlike Apple Arcade, Google Play Pass at launch offered a combination of games and premium apps, like AccuWeather, Facetune and Pic Stitch, for example. (Facetune and AccuWeather have since been removed). It also included a notable list of launch titles, like Stardew Valley, Risk, Terraria, Monument Valley, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Reigns: Game of Thrones, Titan Quest and Wayward Souls.

The company has been steadily growing its lineup since its debut. Google says that over the past few months, it has added more than 150 titles and is preparing to roll out even more. A series of new titles will also premiere on Google Play Pass this year at launch, starting with the newly released The Almost Gone from Playdigious, available now. This will be followed by The Gardens Between and Kingdom Rush, then new releases like Bright Paw from Rogue and Line Weight from The Label coming later this year.

With the expansion, Google Play Pass now includes more than 500 apps and games.

The company is also offering a different way to pay for the subscription. Play Pass first offered users a $1.99 per month promotional subscription for the first year, which would increase to $4.99 per month afterwards. As early adopters are nearing the price change, Google is instead giving them a chance to save by paying for a years subscription upfront. The new annual subscription option brings the price down to $29.99 per year in the U.S., which works out to roughly $2.50 per month.

Existing subscribers will be able to make the change to an annual subscription from the Play Pass tab in the Play Store app for Android this week.

The service is also launching internationally with availability in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom, starting this week.

Because Play Pass didnt rely as heavily on exclusives and included non-game apps, it was able to offer a larger catalog than Apple Arcade did at launch. Today, Apple touts that Arcade offers more than 100 games, while Google has added more apps than that in just the past several months.

Google also ties its payouts to developers based on Play Pass downloads, while Apple had offered upfront funding for Arcade titles, with more for exclusives. iOS developers are also under NDA about their agreements, but a revenue share is reportedly involved here, as well.

Both services cater to a growing audience interested in subscription-based entertainment, which is no longer limited to just streaming music and video. Outside of standard mobile game revenue, app subscriptions have been driving increases in consumer spend across the app stores for some time.

The Google Play Pass expansion to new markets and the annual subscription option are both rolling out this week.

Correction: Google initially described the annual subscription as U.S.-only. It will be offered elsewhere. The company updated its own announcement on the matter to clarify this.

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Google Play Pass expands outside the US, adds more titles and annual pricing - TechCrunch

Google recently launched the Open Usage Commons (OUC) foundation to offer open source projects support specific to trademark protection and management, usage guidelines, and conformance testing, according to the OUCs website. Seems sort of bland, right? Well, maybe.

Depending on who you are, you either hate OUC or you love it. On the hate side seem to be IBM and the Linux Foundationon the record, and others off. On the love side seems to be just Google, though a rising chorus of experienced open sourcerors like Shaun Connolly and Adam Jacobhave suggested that maybe, just maybe, this isnt the end of open source as we know it.

However, if your response to a foundation to shepherd trademarks is Huh?, its worth trying to unpack what just happened with OUC, and why it matters.

Confused turtles all the way down

At issue in all of this is governance, though OUC doesnt have anything to say about governance. Not directly, anyway. All OUC does is provide a place for open source projects to park their trademarks. Nor is OUC the first foundation to do so: the Linux Foundation, Software Freedom Conservancy, and others also provide this service.

The difference with OUC, however, is that trademark protection and management is all that it does. As OUC board member (and former Googler) Miles Ward put it:

If such benevolent experimentation seems a bit too convenient, well, theres no shortage of cynical or Oliver Stone-level conspiracy theories to explain it all. OUC, for example, is completely staffed by current or past Google employees, or academics who have received funding from Google. Its hardly a neutral organisation.

With this in mind, some suspect Google instituted OUC as a way to ensure that a Kubernetes never happened again. Yes, Kubernetes has been an incredible success for Google, but it has also been an incredible success for Googles competitors. Some believe that not enough of the financial rewards have gone to Google.

But if this is the suspicion, the OUC seems to go out of its way to allow others to profit from OUC projects. To wit, the OUC FAQ says:

Well, what about governance? OUC explicitly disavows any impact on governance or source code licensing. According to Googles open source chief Chris DiBona, OUC doesnt change anything [related to governance] for good or for bad. If your perception is that [Istio governance] needs to be fixed, then it still needs to be fixed.

Does this mean that Istio or Angular or Gerrit, the three projects used to seed the OUC, could later be contributed to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, or another foundation? It seems the answer is yes.

But doesnt Google control these projects, with a new neutral-sounding but still-controlling lock on trademarks? Well, maybe. But if we look at the Istio steering committee its the same 60/40 split as before (Google has six members while IBM/Red Hat has four).

What about Angular? Yes, its contributor crowd is mostly made up of Googlers, but not exclusively so. Gerrit? Half of its maintainers dont work for Google.

This needs to be kept in mind when reading open source legal expertAndy Updegroves comments to Steven Vaughan-Nichols: A project that is primarily important to a single vendor and primarily staffed and controlled by developers employed by that employer can continue to exercise effective control while avoiding the market suspicion that might arise if the vendor owned the mark.

Hes right, but theres also an existing governance structure in place for these projects that OUC doesnt eradicate.

Promises, promises

Strip away all of the bilious bickering associated with OUC and it feels like the heart of the matter is unfulfilled expectations.

As CNCF executive Chris Aniszczyk stresses, this is really about one company lying to their community partners and dragging their feet for a couple years. [Lets] focus on the loss of trust here... and why a new gerrymandered org was necessary vs. ASF [Apache Software Foundation], EF [Eclipse Foundation], SPI [Software in the Public Interest], etc. Lying is a strong accusation. What is Aniszczyk talking about?

For years vendors like IBM, a co-creator of Istio (one of the three projects Google contributed to OUC), worked on Istio under an implied (or actual) promise, as IBMs Jason McGee writes:

Whether OUC affects a projects governance (it shouldnt, at least as outlined in its charter), this allegedly broken promise is the issue. As much as I recognise this concern (and know, respect, and am friends with people on both sides of the issue), ultimately it may be too soon to predetermine OUCs impact.

Its quite possible, as John Mark Walker has noted, theres a large number of individuals with GitHub projects who have no desire to officially join a foundation, but who would benefit from low-touch trademark protection.

It could be, as Shaun Connolly points out, that OUC could be a real boon for individuals with open source projects, without denting the need for larger projects to get white glove treatment from a foundation like the Linux Foundation.

So, could OUC be good? Sure. Could it be a veiled attempt by Google to control the universe? I guess? But were really not at a point where we can draw a final conclusion.

It will be worthwhile to watch how the governance of the Istio, Angular, and Gerrit projects evolves in light of OUC, as well as take note of the market adoption of OUC by other projects. Stay tuned.

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What is Google's Open Usage Commons - and why? - Reseller News

Lawmakers on the House Oversight and Reform Committee continue applying pressure to Google and Apple, seekingat a minimumcommitments from the tech giants to be more transparent with users about the applications in their app stores.

In separate letters to Google and Apple Tuesday, Rep. Stephen Lynch, chairman of the subcommittee on national security, sought assurances that the companies would warn users about applications that are developed, operated or owned by foreign entities and could pose privacy risks to Americans.

The letters followed recent testimony from intelligence and FBI officials outlining national security risks posed by foreign-owned apps, including the ability to create backdoors into user devices and sharing user information with the government in which it resides.

As industry leaders, Apple and Google can and must do more to ensure that smartphone applications made available to U.S. citizens on their platforms protect stored data from unlawful foreign exploitation, and do not compromise U.S. national security, Lynch said in the letters. At a minimum, Apple and Google should take steps to ensure that users are aware of the potential privacy and national security risks of sharing sensitive information with applications that store data in countries adversarial to the United States, or whose developers are subsidiaries of foreign companies.

Were Apple and Google to comply, users would be warned about the potential dangers before downloading certain applications like TikTok, a popular social media app owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance.Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo floated the possibility of the U.S. government banning TikTok over its connections with China. Currently, neither Google nor Apple requires developers to provide users with information regarding where their data is storedor which country has jurisdiction over that data. The companies also do not decide what user data can be accessed by a third-party application.

In the letters, Lynch requests answers from the companies regarding whether theyll up their transparency game with users, whether theyve removed foreign-connected applications from their app stores and why, and whether they have recommendations for improving user protection from foreign-connected applications.

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House Oversight Lawmaker Wants Apple, Google to Step Up Security on Apps With Foreign Ties - Nextgov