We live in a cruel world, a world where people find joy in spoiling story endings for others on the internet. They see a movie on release day (or worse yet, pirate a movie), turn around and spew the ending of said movie on the web. Today I've been shown a tool that could mitigate internet-based spoilers in a big way. Let me turn your attention toward Redact It.
Facebook, and more recently Amazon, may be at the center of most privacy-related reports these days but there was a time not too long ago when it was Google who was always on the hot seat. Reports, regulations, and sanctions have made Google change much of its processes, at least the public ones, and is slowly turning its image around. At I/O 2019, the pervading theme, more than AI and technology, is privacy. It's not that Google is no longer interested in your data. It's just making it a lot easier for users to opt out. If they remember or know how to, that is.
The pervading theme in Google I/O 2019 seems to be privacy. Ironic considering the company was, at one point, regarded to be its biggest violator. Whether you believe it turned over a new leaf or is cooking up something is for you to decide. The fact is that, at least for the moment, Google is giving users, especially Chrome users, more control or at least more information about the things that could violate their privacy on the Web.
There's a flaw on your phone's web browser. That's assuming you're using Chrome, and assuming Google's not fixed the situation by the time you've read this article. Someone's realized that when you're scrolling through a webpage on the internet, and your URL bar disappears, they've got an opportunity. An opportunity to trick you.
After arriving on macOS last month, Chrome's dark mode is finally making its way to Windows 10 today. The feature is shipping as part of Chrome 74, which is beginning its roll out to Mac, Windows, and Linux users. Google, unfortunately, is only launching dark mode on Windows 10 to a small number of users before sending it live to everyone, so it looks like we'll have a little while to wait before it's available for all.
Web pages today are a far cry from their ancestors. Many of them offer rich experiences that come at a literal price of data consumption and load times. That is why Google developed a Data Saver feature for Chrome to help ease the burden at the expense of sending your web traffic through Google's servers. Despite calling it a success, Google is ironically killing that feature for Chrome on the desktop while giving it a new name on Android.
Man in the middle attacks are a major concern when it comes to protecting login credentials online, and Google is looking to better protect against them in Chrome. The company has announced that later this year, it will begin blocking logins from embedded browsers, like the Chromium Embedded Framework. This will give end users more safety against phishing, but it also might make things a little more inconvenient.
Google just revealed their plan to turn Android phones into 2FA (2-factor authorization, 2-Step Verification) keys using Bluetooth and Chrome. Users need an Android phone running Android 7.0 or newer, as well as a desktop or notebook computer running Mac OS, Windows, or Chrome OS. Users can activate this security method right this minute.
Microsoft has practically admitted defeat in the browser space. After decades of its Internet Explorer dominating the Web browser market, IE has become synonymous to malware and bloat. It tried to do a redo with Microsoft Edge but it has failed to even make a dent. Its last-ditch effort gives a nod to Google by building Edge on top of the open source Chromium browser. That version seems to have suddenly leaked online way before Microsoft can even a public preview for it.
With a release date inside 2019, Google Stadia seems like a cloud gaming service that should be pretty much ready to launch. To that end, we've got a few unanswered questions we'd like to explore. Like what will this service cost, and at what point can I play Crysis on my device that was never, ever meant to handle such a massive processing nightmare?
It's becoming more and more a gesture-based technological world, be it on large screens but especially on smartphones. As phablets become the norm, the ability to use our phones with one hand becomes increasingly more difficult, even for simple things like going back and forward through browser history. Fortunately, along with ditching the button-based Android navigation panel, Google has thought of giving Chrome on Android some more gesture-based actions, but you have to find them first before you can enable them.
While it remains mostly unchallenged in the US, Google has been facing tough opposition in Europe. It has fought and lost not a few legal battles with the European Commission, forcing it to change many of its practices and business strategies just for that region. Those changes aren't done yet and the latest might be more of a nuisance rather than an inconvenience. Without going into much detail, Google says that Android users in Europe will be asked which browse and search app they'd like to use, even if the majority of them will probably answer "Google" anyway.