Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts



Google is discontinuing yet another app, opting to integrate its features into another platform instead. Last September, users were notified via email about the impending shift, and a recent follow-up email offers options to migrate subscriptions to YouTube Music or export them to compatible formats for other apps. The Google Podcasts app will cease to function after June 23, 2024. 

Google Podcasts used to be my go-to choice. Its simplicity and user-friendly interface made it my comfortable podcasting companion. Now, I'm left searching for a replacement. Although Google Podcasts is going away, making way for YouTube Music.  As Google podcast is going away, consider giving one of these alternatives a try. 



YouTube Music

YouTube Music, as will be an official alternative to Google Podcasts, it is a natural alternative I would first try. It will not only provide access to a wide array of podcasts, it is also primarily a perfect music app. With its integration with YouTube's vast content library and features like personalized recommendations, YouTube Music provides an alternative platform for discovering and enjoying podcasts.



Pocket Casts

 Known for its intuitive interface and robust features, Pocket Casts offers a seamless podcast listening experience with features like variable playback speed and automatic episode downloads.


Spotify

While primarily a music streaming platform, Spotify has expanded its offerings to include podcasts. With a vast library of podcasts, personalized recommendations, and the ability to create playlists that mix music and podcasts, Spotify is a popular choice for podcast enthusiasts.


Overcast

Overcast is another popular podcast app known for its clean design and advanced features such as Smart Speed, Voice Boost, and the ability to create custom playlists. It also offers features like recommendations based on your listening habits.


Stitcher

Despite being shut down by SiriusXM, Stitcher continues to exist as a podcast app. With a diverse selection of podcasts, curated playlists, and personalized recommendations, Stitcher remains a viable alternative for podcast listeners.



As I embark on this journey to find the perfect alternative to Google Podcasts, I remain open-minded and eager to explore other podcast apps. While I may not have found my ideal replacement just yet, I'm optimistic that with time and experimentation, I'll discover a new favorite that perfectly suits my listening preferences. So, here's to embracing change and the excitement of discovering new possibilities in the world of podcasting. Who knows? Perhaps in a few months, I'll have stumbled upon the perfect alternative that exceeds all expectations.





Google finally revealed Android N, which is Android Nougat, not Nutella, the name predicted by most of Android lovers before. 
Google revealed Android Nougat on June 30th , 2016, Google asked for suggestion for the name during Google IO in May. As we already know Android Nougat will have cool features like Multi-Window Support, The Notification Shade, Improvement in Doze Mode,  Better Data Saving, and new settings menu.



Android Nougat which will be available later this summer, can be downloaded as beta from google developer website. Android Nougat preview is available for Nexus5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player.





Google announced today that name of new Android M is Marshmallow. Next version is believed to be released this fall. With the announcement of Android M Developer Preview in May at Google IO, the guessing started for the name of next version of Android. However Android M was called Android Macadamia Nut Cookie (or MNC in short) internally as seen during Android 6.0 SDK update, Google officially announced that it’s Android Marshmallow.

New android version will have several enhancements over the Lollipop version. Besides new exciting features include, better permission management, Android Pay and USB Type-C support.


Android Marshmallow will be released soon with new Nexus Devices form LG and Huawei. 





In May, Google Announced new version of Android operating system ‘Android M’ which is now named Marshmallow. With the release of Android M Developer Preview during the Google IO earlier this year, we got a glimpse of what is being cooked as new Android version and after a couple of Developer Preview updates We finally have final Developer Preview version of System images available for Nexus devices. That means Android Marshmallow is coming soon. With the release of Android version, another exciting part is the Nexus device.There have been rumors that Huawei is manufacturing the next nexus device. But recently Business Korea wrote about LG releasing next Nexus phone in October. So, the chances are, we will have two nexus phones each form LG and Huawei.

After huge fame of Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, Nexus 6 couldn’t come at the same level of popularity. It was not because of the lack of good hardware though. Specs of Nexus 6 are sophisticated enough to be in the top of the line of Android high end devices. Only factor that made Nexus 6 from Motorola less popular was it’s size. Not all android users prefer phablets for daily use. Next Nexus devices are reported to be 5inch and 5.7inch form LG and Huawei respectively. Huawei having limited market penetration in the smartphone world LG nexus could be weigh more in the popularity scale. From the leaked photos of new LG Nexus 5 (2015), we can see Android Pay is one of the most promising feature of next LG flagship. 




Google announced Android M at Google IO 2015 in San Fransisco. Dave Burke, vice president of engineering at Google, outlined the features of Android M which will add more stability and usability.
App Permissions 
App permissions have been simplified in Android M. You won’t have to agree to the permissions when we install an app. The permissions will now be requested first time you try to use the feature. Permissions can be reviewed later and changed anytime.
Chrome Custom Tabs
Web experience has been enhanced by the new feature called Chrome Custom Tabs. This feature will allow developers to provide full chrome experience in an app. Chrome Custom Tabs will allow a customized Chrome tab on top of any app, instead of launching browser app for opening web pages.
Fingerprint support 
Fingerprint support is now “standardized” in Android M. Since fingerprint support will be available through Android framework, If the device has fingerprint hardware, it is no longer limited to unlocking to phone only.
Android Pay 
Android pay makes mobile payments much easier. It can be used for payment in more than 700,000 stores in US and is supported by American Express, Visa, MasterCard and Discover.
App Links 
App Links is one of the highly desired feature in Android. You might have noticed ‘Open With’ dialog when the system doesn’t know which app to use for the given link. Now developer can specify the apps that should open the link.
Power & Charging 
Google claims the new feature known as Doze will improve the standby time by reducing the background processes. And support for USB Type-C will allow charging one android device with another.
Besides these major features various other improvements have been added to Android M such as Auto Backup and restore for apps, New app drawer with a list of apps with alphabetical indexing. Enhanced Google Now and and Chrome will also make android better than before.
Android M Developer is available for download and the final version is due to launch in Q3, 2015.







Android 5.0 Lollipop has finally been announced by Google, and new Nexus devices will be launched soon. As we saw in Android L developer preview during the Google IO, the next version of android will be featuring material design with enhanced user interface, better battery life and many new cool features.
  
New nexus devices with this new platform release will also be available in coming weeks. Lollypop will be featured in Motorola Nexus 6 , also known as Nexus X,  and HTC Nexus 9. Also, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and other Google Play edition devices will be getting the initial Lollypop Updates.


Nexus Player is another new member of the Nexus device family, Nexus player will be running Android TV. Asus Nexus Player will be your companion if you want to enjoy your favorite android games on big screen. This Google Cast ready device will cast your favorite media to your TV from any Chromebook, Android or iOS device .




A researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany has created detection application which is world’s first real time emotion app for Google Glass. The application can correctly detect age and gender. All of the analysis is carried on board without being the use of cloud. The raw data also does not leave the device.  This real time emotion detection can be of great use for the persons with disorders such as autism who often find difficulty in interpreting facial expressions. This could also be helpful for other people who struggle a lot to determine their partner’s true emotions when they said that ‘they are fine’. This Google Glass application is being based on SHORE i.e. Sophisticated High Speed Object Recognition Engine system. SHORE started off as an object detection computer vision system but from last many years it has developed into face detection and fine analysis system. The application can pick out person’s face with 91.5 % success rate and let you know the gender of the person 94.3% time.  It can also provide the age of the person.  Earlier SHORE was essentially a highly optimized C++ library that has been developed on various computer systems from PC’s to tablets. But now IIS has used all facial analysis goodness onto Google’s Glass rather than the hardware. This application is a taste of the future of wearable’s computers.




Google Inc. will shut down its first social networking service Orkut which was launched almost 10 years ago but failed to put Google ahead. When the company introduced Orkut it was just 20% project. Google reported that they will close the services of Orkut on September 30th which is being widely used in Brazil and India. The company will now focus on their other’s social networking initiatives.
From the past few years, You Tube, Blogger and Google + has been widely used with different communities starting in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these various communities has overtaken Orkut’s growth, the company decided to shut down Orkut. Google reported this on a blog on Orkut on Monday. It is also cleared that until then there will be no impact on current Orkut users. They are giving user’s time to export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google’s Take out which will be available until September 2016. But from now onwards no one will be able to create new account on Orkut. Orkut was firstly launched in 2004, on the same year Facebook was also launched. Facebook has now become world’s 1 social networking site with 1.28 billion users all over the world.



Google reveals the prototype of the much awaited Drone from Google. Google Company is working for past two years to build a flying robot which is capable of delivering the products across a particular city within very less time. In the initial phases of developing the project, the company comes with an unusual design called as a tail sitter, which was a combination of plane and helicopter that takes off in vertical position but flies in horizontal position after rotating. For delivering the package it floats and delivers the package down to the earth by winching. At the end of the rope, there could be a little bundle of electronics, which detects that the delivery item has hit the ground, detaches it and which can be pulled back in to the vehicle.

The main motive of the programmer while designing the delivery drone is to create a self-flying vehicle or machine, to program it in such a way so that it can take off and land anywhere with a really fast speed and drops the accurate packet from the air to the desired location. Already large numbers of people are already working on this project. Google will start hiring new persons soon for this project. Most of the packages in this prototype will be dropped from the sky on a very small lifter from a robot which could be flying in the air.








Recent reports indicate that the antitrust regulators of Europe can launch an investigation into Google's business related to the android market. According to the latest reports, the European commission has already started sending questionnaires to different companies regarding their dealing with Google over the usage of popular android software in the market. These questions will examine whether the Google Company is guilty or not for dominating the market by illegally spreading the usage of its various services to their rivals. In one of the questionnaires it was asked, whether Google Inc has set any pre-requirement either in written or unwritten format that it cannot preinstall the various products and services on mobile devices that compete with the Google company software. These results will further highlight the concern of Europe over the increasing influence of Google on various matters. This is the second major investigation by Europe Regulations into Google’s business practice. Earlier investigation was focused on the matter that whether the company is giving undue prominence to its own services in search engine results and the result of this investigation is still pending. Android is a very strong platform with almost  80 percent of the smartphones which are shipped in worldwide mostly uses the Google's android operating system which is quite high if compared with the Apple's Operating System which is used only 17%.




Google play which currently has 1.5 million apps has came up with a new update. The news was confirmed in Google's latest blog. The new update will led to the introduction of indexing of apps, wearable services, dynamic security provider and much more. The update will enhance your gaming, movie, video experience. The update will give user new wearable’s sets and also increases persistent data storage. It will also update the security features in the apps and also helps an individual to customize certain things in app like game level change. 
The latest update is developer series API which will increase customer experience in every aspect. It will also help user in syncing data more efficiently and also data storage has been increased from previous versions. It came with a concept of "Quest" API which will give user the opportunity to set their own challenges in various places. The app also includes streamline of operations which will lead to uninterrupted services. The new update will be 5.0 which was unveiled recently in Google IO held in San Francisco. Google play has increased its customer base by many folds and latest addition and update to this will add many more in the coming years to come with more satisfactory results.



Smart contact lens prototype. Courtesy ©Google

Google, the software giant who is into smart lenses businessfor some time now has finally got someone to hold their hands in their dream venture.  Alchon , the eye care division of Novartis will be licensing Google’s highly dreamt project for medical usage.  Google and Alchon came together for this huge ambitious project of manufacturing "Smart lens" and also the firm will help the IT giant in commercializing the product as well.


Google has set a high benchmark in software industry and quite known as market leader in the same. The market leader has now planned to take a plunge and move to eye care industry. 

Google spokesperson added

 "This is not a few months’ journey.  Norvatis pioneers in medical along with Google best in technology will give something revolutionary to the consumers".  

The idea behind this revolution comes from millions of citizens who are not getting highly equipped instruments or latest technology to make their life better in every aspect. This idea came in when lot of people are suffering from cataract issues and also other eye problems. This smart lens as promised will lower down these problems and also help them in curing other eyesight problems. The use of sensors and microchips will take on all the issues happening with eye patients all over the world. The idea of measuring eye response and tear fluids will be one of the paths breaking invention in this field. We can only pray and wish both the giants for their noble cause.




Google glass, when combined with EEG headset, can take pictures by using just your brain waves. If we combine the glasses with EEG headset, we can click various pictures without saying a word, all we have to do is to focus on the subject.

A London based company reported that this device can be benefits in various different situations even during surgeries. The company has released the same software MindRDR for free on Github so that different developers will make something like that in the near future. This will not only show new direction to the developers but also lead to various possibilities in technology industry. This technology can also be used in gaming, making games more interesting. Besides it will make things easier for physically challenged people.

The application works well when the Google Glasses are being attached with an EEG headset. The headset is used to measure only when various parts of brain shows high level of activity. Within the glass screen of Google Glass a horizontal is being there and when user concentrates on that line, that line rises up on the screen. Once the line reaches the top of the glass , a picture can be taken by using the inbuilt camera within the glass.
Only one person out of ten in America likes to wear Google Glasses. Some of the people find it awkward while some of them find its too irritating. While such controversies exist in the society, Google glass seem to be getting better each day.







Google IO began with the short video compilation with the theme “Every little bit matters”. Sundar Pichai took the stage and the keynote began with the statistics about android devices and some interesting stats about number of selfies taken daily, number of steps taken daily. It’s no surprise that Google knows it all but the numbers are amazing, 93M selfies taken daily with android devices is some interesting figure. 

As expected by most of us the latest release of the most widely used mobile operating system was one of the interesting topics presented at the keynote. Android 'L' developer preview comes with better design, better notification system and the Project Volta for better battery life along with many other features that make it the biggest Android release in the history of Android. 

The most most noticeable feature of the new release seems to be the new Android design. The new concept of design applicable for web as well as mobile comes with the concept of pixels having depth instead of colors. Unlike holo design which have been quite popular in android devices since 4.0 release, Material Design is lighter but less translucent as compared to iOS design. Shadows and elevations of the ui elements make it feel more like the real world interaction. Round icons and bright colors gives it more material feel. Rich and animated feedback for touch input are other special elements of this design.


With Polymer similar material design can also be achieved in web application, making web and mobile computing feel similar. Material design in 'L' release makes Android UI feel more useful and real. Android 'L' developer preview will be available for download shortly from Android Developer site..  







Google announced the domain service as closed beta currently available on invite-only basis. Google Domains, Google’s new domain registration service appears quite promising in terms of the services it offers. 

The domain services currently offered by Google are:
- Buying and selling domains
- Free who-is privacy for the domains
- Free email addresses on the domain(upto 100)
- Phone support

However Google Domains service will not include hosting service. For hosting Google will partner with third party hosting providers. So far google seems to have partnered with Squarespace, Shopify , Weebly  and Wix  for hosting.

Google entering the domain business is definitely going to change the current domain business scenario as Google will be providing the services which current domain business giants don’t offer. Google will be providing domain privacy service free of cost while other registrants charge extra fee for who-is privacy. According to the statements in Google Domains home page, Google seems to be providing all the top level domains and plans to include all new fancy domain name endings such as .photos, .gallery .camera . etc. 

Having robust set of development tools already popular among the developer community will also be an advantage for competing with the existing Service providers. Google has been providing various platforms and libraries for web development. Services like App engine help developers make use of Google cloud services for scalable web app development. The developer community using such services are likely to use Google’s domain services for convenience. Control over Google search results, sophisticated
 optimization tools and best analytics tools from the same company could be benefits for most of the developers.


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