That’s kind of the thing about pilot programs – they don’t always result in a successful launch. Less than a year after beginning testing at select locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Google is pulling the plug on its Hands Free payment system. The company notified users of the unceremonious wind down via email […]
Waymo’s self-driving software had far fewer disengagements in 2016 than it did in 2015 in the state of California, despite a big increase in the number of miles driven overall. The California Department of Motor Vehicles just published Waymo’s most recent disengagement report, which tracks al the times that a self-driving software system must be […]
If you’re willing to hunt for flaws within its vast array of software and services, Google’s happy to pay up. Over the course of its 2016 Vulnerability Rewards Program, the company paid out $3 million—a third of the total $9 million that enthusiastic researchers have earned since the initiative, more colloquially known as a bug bounty program, launched in 2010. The […]
Over 2,000 Google employees rallied against President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans immigration from seven majority Muslim countries today. Googlers all over the country, including at campuses in Mountain View, San Francisco, New York and Seattle, are rallying against the immigration ban. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin, who was spotted at one […]
During today’s earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new milestone for the adoption of Google’s G Suite productivity tools. “G Suite achieved a significant new customer milestone last quarter,” he said. “More than 3 million paying businesses are now using G Suite to collaborate smartly and securely in the cloud.” The last time […]
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has outlined his disapproval of the impact arising from Trump’s dangerous, inhumane and short-sighted sweeping immigration order, which imposes for at least 90 days a block on entry to the U.S. for citizens (including valid visa holders) from seven countries, blocks indefinitely refugee admittance from Syria and also caps the total number […]
Here’s a fun story that I wish was true — Google Maps today decided to turn Bangkok, and a large swathe of the rest of Thailand, into the world’s largest park. Users of the Google Maps mobile apps and visitors to its website who look up the Thai capital will notice that the entire city and much of […]
Between the Pixel and Google Home, 2016 was a big year for Google voice search, but the company’s plays in the space still seemed to pale in comparison to Amazon’s infiltration, courtesy of its wildly successful Echo devices. In today’s Q4 Alphabet earnings call, Google Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai addressed what looks to be a […]
As first reported by The Information, Dropcam co-founder Greg Duffy has found a new home at Apple. The move comes after a bit of a tumultuous stint at Google, when its subsidiary Nest picked up Duffy’s internet-connected security camera business in 2014 for $555 million. Duffy reportedly butted heads with Tony Fadell, accusing the Nest founder […]
Google was a bit late to the connected home party. Its Amazon Echo competitor, Home, officially launched in November of last year, and slowly but surely, the company has been adding some key partners to help expand its reach. Last year, Nest, Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings all were added to Google’s burgeoning connected home ecosystem, and […]