Google’s new “conversational search” feature for Chrome has quietly been enabled, with the new feature appearing in the latest version of Google’s browser. Announced at I/O, the new Voice Search feature builds on the existing ability for Chrome to accept spoken search terms, now listing out your query on screen as you say it, and then able to show the results in Google Now-style cards as well as reading out the answer.
Millward Brown Optimor has released its annual BrandZ list of the most valuable global brands for the year, and Apple and Google are in the top slots, with the former coming in at #1 and the latter at #2. On top of that, comparing the numbers, we see that both companies saw an increase in brand value over 2012, while IBM - which came in third on the list - saw a decrease in value.
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As Google Glass continues to be a unique sort of hardware / software platform in the industry, so too do the creators of the wearable computer stay hot commodities for question and answer sessions. In the feature you’re about to see, two members of the main Glass creation and development team discuss the social etiquette involved in the creation of the platform. Steve Lee, Product Director for Glass, and Charles Mendis, Engineer on Glass, spoke up during a fireside chat at Google I/O 2013.
This week the folks behind the web browser Opera have pushed their Android-based mobile edition past Beta into its first full-fledged release. They’ve done so with little fanfare, too – so little that it’s scarcely made waves here in the spring of 2013 – right between Google’s developer conference Google I/O and the technology conference CTIA. It’s a fine browser, all said, with a WebKit engine base and a free download set of innards that’ll have it competing with the other big guns in web browser downloads.
Google rolled out Google Wallet back in 2011, and now the time has come to retire Google Checkout. The news was made in an announcement earlier today, with Google notifying merchants using Google Checkout that in six months the service will go dark following a transition to Wallet. This follows the addition of Google Wallet to Gmail, allowing users to send someone money from within their inbox.
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At this years’ Google I/O developers conference, a Fireside Chat with several members of the core Google Glass team proved to reveal much on not just the future of the device, but its origins as well. While earlier in the day a single slide had been shown depicting a set of six original prototypes of what was then called Project Glass, here lead industrial designer Isabelle Olsson had one key prototype on hand to show SlashGear in the plastic, as it were.
This past week we noticed a bit of an oddity in how AT&T handled the video chat element in Google's new "Google+ Hangouts" app on cellular data: in effect, it didn't work. Asking AT&T about the situation, it was discovered that they had a policy in place for pre-loaded apps working with video chat, making it clear that it's the OS makers (Google and Apple) and the device makers (Samsung, BlackBerry, LG, HTC, Apple), that were responsible for enabling pre-loaded apps to be able to work with cellular data for video chat. Today, AT&T makes it clear that Apple, Samsung, and BlackBerry will be making a big change by June for all their pre-loaded apps.
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Google recently unified its various chat services into one last week with the announcement of Hangouts at Google I/O. This will allow you chat with friends like a normal IM client, but it also integrates Google's video chatting capabilities. However, if you use Google Voice religiously, you might have noticed that outbound calls from the desktop have been disabled, but Google says that this will come back in the near future.
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This year's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair has named its three winners, picking 18-year-old Eesha Khare for her invention of a supercapacitor that could soon charge a cellphone battery in 20-30 seconds. This little piece of technology has landed Khare a runner-up prize of $50,000 USD in scholarship funds which she'll use to attend Harvard University and continue her research. This technology will not only be able to be utilized by the relatively small capacity batteries of smartphones, but of future electric cars, as well.
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As Google’s first wearable computer Glass edges in past its initial run of devices, members of the general public begin to ask: when will the device be delivered in a form that any non-developers will be able to get their hands on? At a Google I/O 2013 “Fireside Chat” with several members of the main Google Glass team, this question was addressed more than once. In short: soon, but not nearly as soon as they’d like.
Google+ stepped up as the hub of Google's "context ecosystem" at I/O last week, with 41 new features now being joined by an updated Android app to take advantage of them. Google+ for Android 4.0 arguably makes its biggest advances in how photos are handled, tapping into the new auto-highlight and auto-enhance functionality which can automatically edit photos as well as pick out which are the most interesting from your uploads.
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Hisense, a company known for making budget Chinese tablets, will soon be releasing their Android tablets stateside. Late last month a new Hisense Sero 7 tablet was spotted clearing the FCC here in the US, and today we have all the details. Their first official Google Play certified Android tablet to go on sale stateside is pretty impressive. It has more to offer than the Nexus 7, and only comes in at $99. Read on for more details on this exclusive first look.
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