Category Archives: Google

The Pixel Fold is Google's first foldable. It has unique features that help it stand out from the competition. While we noted glaring hardware and software issues in our Google Pixel Fold review, it has plenty of standout features that make this a good first attempt from Google.

The Pixel Fold ships with Android 14. If you're unfamiliar with the new features introduced in the latest Android OS version, we recommend catching up with everything your Pixel Fold can do on the software side.

The Pixel Fold's wider outer screen looks strange, especially if you're used to Samsung's ultra-narrow foldables. When you spend time with the Pixel Fold's 5.8-inch 17.4:9 outer screen, you'll wish that every foldable manufacturer took this approach. The wider aspect ratio makes the Pixel Fold usable when closed, whether typing, watching videos, or browsing the web. It doesn't quite make up for the lackluster inner screen, but you won't have to open the Pixel Fold to perform a simple action.

App support for the Pixel Fold's wide screen is spotty, but some apps blew us away with their customized interfaces. These are limited to Google's apps, and they look fantastic.

The Weather and Calendar apps are particularly stunning. You can view all the information you need at a glance while organizing buttons and menus into accessible spots. Other apps like Drive are similarly useful on the Fold. However, there are a few shortcomings, like with Gmail, which doesn't let you open an email in full-screen unless you rotate the screen.

Android 14 introduced the ability to navigate your phone while dragging and dropping text or images. This is a useful feature, and on the Pixel Fold, it's even better. Open two apps simultaneously on the Pixel Fold, and drag and drop text or images between them. While this might not sound exciting, Android 14 introduced a way to make this more powerful.

On Android 14, you can hold text or an image while navigating around your phone. Tap and hold an element and swipe with your other fingers to change apps. On the Pixel Fold, you can do this between either app on your screen, so you can copy an element, close both apps, and open two new ones without losing it.

While other manufacturers have struggled to impress us with their foldable's cameras, Google lives up to its claim of offering the best camera on any foldable. Like most Pixel phones, the Pixel Fold offers powerful post-processing that makes it easy to capture great photos. The Pixel Fold avoids the oversaturation that plagues Samsung's Z Fold phones and some Pixel phones.

The selfie camera is average. But as this is a foldable, you can open the phone and use the rear camera to take selfies. This is our recommended method for taking Instagram-worthy shots.

The Pixel Fold's software tricks aren't limited to its camera. Using Conversation Mode in Google Translate on any other phone (including other foldables) involves both parties looking at the same screen. The Pixel Fold helps conversations feel more natural by mirroring the translated text on the outer screen.

We recommend folding the Pixel Fold to 90 degrees and placing it on the table between you and your friend. This way, you can converse normally while glancing down to check the translated text.

The Google Pixel Fold offers five to six hours of screen time when using both displays. In our review, we ended the day with about 25% battery life. While the Pixel Fold's Tensor G2 chip is efficient, its two 120Hz screens use a lot of power. This extensive battery life is a surprise, but a welcome one.

We recommend always using the Pixel Fold's rear camera, even when taking selfies. But when taking shots of someone, use the phone's outer screen to help your subjects adjust themselves. Activate Dual Screen Preview in the Camera app and the view from your camera displays on the Pixel Fold's outer screen.

One of the best things about owning a Pixel phone is receiving exclusive features through Google's quarterly Feature Drops. These updates bring new features and tools to your Pixel devices, including the Pixel Fold.

The Pixel Fold's Dual Screen modes for Google Translate and Camera were included in previous feature drops, and the phone will continue to receive updates until 2026 alongside yearly Android releases.

There's plenty to get excited about with the Pixel Fold. If its flaws are too much for you, consider an Android foldable that offers a more reliable experience.

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Google Pixel Fold: The 8 best features for your new foldable - Android Police

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

A couple of weeks ago, Google Maps started rolling out improvements to the transit experience in many cities, including Paris where I live. I was quite excited to discover the new features until I realized theyve been live for me but I didnt notice them thats how minor these changes are.

In short, there are two improvements to transit directions in Google Maps: station exits and entrances and route options. The former lets me see which side of the road I have to go in/out of, while the latter allows me to set route preferences with less walking or fewer correspondences.

These are good changes, certainly, but as someone who has spent the last two and a half years carless and exclusively taking public transport, these count as the most minor changes on the list of improvements Id wish Google Maps would introduce.

My personal experience with Google Maps transit veers between fine and frustrating on a good day. It all starts with the fact that transit directions dont show up on my Pixel Watch 2, for some reason, and I have to keep looking at my phone. Or switch to Citymapper if I want my train and bus directions to pop up on my wrist. I dont know why transit is treated as a second-rate citizen in Google Maps on Wear OS perhaps those rich enough to buy a smartwatch dont take buses, ha?!

Then theres everything to do with transit directions. Any associated walking is treated as dots on the map, period. Theres no turn-by-turn navigation, the map doesnt flip while I walk, and I have to keep glancing down at my phone to make sure I havent missed a turn or gone off in the wrong direction before reaching my station or destination. Worse yet, I have no idea if the walk is manageable or if its pure uphill or downhill before picking it. Should I manually find the elevation of my starting and end points to get an idea? And why doesnt Maps treat transit plus walking as a mixed-mode navigation, to offer the best of both?

Plus, Google Maps doesnt calculate how long it takes to enter the station and get to the train track, or exit it. Some stations are huge and require a few minutes of walking time that isnt calculated or shown in Maps. There is no info on escalators, stairs, or lifts, and no indicators for more accessible exits or correspondences.

Things get even more complicated when you dive into the weeds of daily transit usage. If the route Ive picked offers a few different bus or tram line options (i.e. they both go from A to B, but through different tracks), I only see the stops of the bus or tram that Maps thinks I took, even if Im on the other track option. I noticed this a lot in Prague, where I kept getting confused thinking I missed my stop or jumped on the wrong tram, only to realize Maps was showing me the alternative lines stops.

Worse was my experience in a few cities where Maps, for some reason, kept ignoring the nearest (in time) train or bus, and offering the one after. Even if I was already at the station and the next bus was scheduled in four minutes and the one after in 10 minutes, Id see the 10-minute bus as the default option. This messed up all my correspondence timings and recommendations. I had to start setting manual departure times five minutes earlier to get the right directions.

All of these, and more, are issues that Maps has to figure out with transit directions to make life easier for the millions of people and billions of trips that people take every day. Yes, entrance and exit stations are cool, but the experience is still severely lacking in many other aspects.

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Google Maps transit is still a frustrating experience despite the latest changes - Android Authority

Google released a blog post on Dec 19 explaining its plans to implement restrictions on specific election-related queries that its artificial intelligence (AI) bot Bard and its Search Generative Experience can answer.

It said this restriction will be enforced by early 2024, in the run-up to the presidential election in the United States.

The post pointed out that 2024 will see many other important elections around the globe alongside the U.S. presidential election. It said it will work with an increased focus on the role artificial intelligence (AI) might play.

One of the primary priorities Google named was to help users identify AI-generated content. In September, it was among the first Big Tech companies to develop AI to mandate AI disclosures in political campaign ads.

Related: US politician uses AI campaign caller ahead of 2024 elections: Report

YouTube, owned by Google, also updated its policies in November 2023, requiring creators to disclose generative AI use or risk suspension of their accounts.

In the same vein, Google said a new SynthID tool is now in beta stage from Googles DeepMind, which directly embeds a digital watermark into AI-generated images and audio.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, banned the use of generative AI ad-creation tools for political advertisers in November.

AIs influence on elections has been a pressing theme as the U.S. elections draw closer. One study pointed out the potential impact on voter sentiment that AI usage on social media can present.

A study out of Europe revealed that Microsofts Bing AI chatbot, which has been rebranded to Copilot, gives misleading or inaccurate information about elections in around 30% of answers it gives.

Magazine: Real AI & crypto use cases, No. 4: Fight AI fakes with blockchain

The rest is here:

Google to limit answers to election queries on Bard AI tool and generative search - Cointelegraph

Key Takeaways

Alphabets (GOOGL) Google agreed to pay $700 million to consumers and states, and make changes allowing for greater competition in its app Play Store, according to the terms of an antitrust settlement disclosed Monday.

Of the $700 million, $630 million will go into a consumer settlement fund and $70 million into a state fund, according to the settlement, which still awaits judicial approval. Eligible consumers are expected to get at least $2 each, and that may increase based on their spending in the Google Play Store between August 2016 and September 2023. All 50 states, alongside the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, were part of the settlement.

Google VP of Government Affairs & Public Policy Wilson White also outlined some changes to the company's app store in a blog post. Among these will be user choice billing, where developers can now show different pricing options within the app. The company is also looking to streamline "sideloading," which is the installation of apps outside of the Play store.

While Google said it was "disappointed that the verdict did not recognize the choice and competition that our platforms enable," the changes will come into effect after formal court approval of the settlement.

Google had reached a tentative settlement in September, but the terms were kept under wraps ahead of a trial between Google and Fortnite maker Epic Games. A California federal jury ruled in favor of Epic last week in a case alleging that Google's Play Store maintained illegal monopoly power. Google said it intends to appeal the ruling.

Shares of Google parent Alphabet were up 0.5% at $136.42 per share as of about 10 a.m. ET Tuesday, and have gained over 53% in 2023 so far.

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Alphabet's Google Agrees to Pay $700 Million in Settlement Over Play App Store - Investopedia

COMMENTARY

Ever since large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT burst onto the scene a year ago, there have been a flurry of use cases for leveraging them in enterprise security environments. From the operational, such as analyzing logs, to assisting detection of phishing attacks, to the more mundane, like rewriting documentation.

While there's been a lot of focus on ChatGPT, I have been testing Google Bard for rewriting and simplifying old security documentation that needed a touch-up. Most notable is the dreaded security policy. You'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who loves writing (or even reading) security policies. But as they form the skeleton of most enterprise security frameworks, they are quite an important bit of documentation.

So how does Google Bard stack up to ChatGPT for rewriting security documentation, and specifically security policies? Before I answer, I'll share some tips for getting started.

First thing first: Remove any proprietary data or personally identifiable information (PII) from your documentation. As policies are generally high-level, there shouldn't be much of this.

Next, write the prompts you'll feed into the LLM with the policies you want to update. Here are a few prompts that work well for Google Bard:

"Rewrite the following security policy, removing duplicates and being as succinct as possible. Structure the response in bullet-point format."

"Using as few words as possible, rewrite the following security policy. Remove any redundant phrases and structure them an easy-to-read format."

"Make the following security policy easier to read. Remove any legal-sounding words and simplify terminology where possible."

Now that you have your prompts, the LLM can start ingesting your policies or procedures.

Google Bard has several useful features that are not available in ChatGPT.

One, it understands that it's writing a security policy so, while it always follows the prompt's directives, it will also change suggestive language to authoritative language. For example, it will change "should" to "must," which is important in a policy. This is a nice feature that ChatGPT lacks.

Bard also has a neat "draft" feature that can be easy to miss. In the top-right corner of the generated document, there's a "view other drafts" button. By clicking the button, you gain access to two alternative texts generated by your prompt (to give you three drafts in all).

You can move between the three drafts and pick the one that best suits your preference. If you're unsatisfied with any of the drafts, just click the "regenerate drafts" button to the right of the three boxes, and it will generate three more options. While ChatGPT can regenerate options in unitary fashion, it won't present them in the user interface like Bard does; you have to regenerate them individually.

Once you pick the draft that suits you, you can modify it again by selecting the "modify response" icon (highlighted below) at the bottom of the draft:

This gives you options to make your document shorter, longer, simpler, more casual, or more professional.

The "Simpler" option prompts Bard to reduce word count, simplify language, and shorten sentence length. "More casual" isn't appropriate for security documentation, as it produces almost comical directives like "don't do that, man!" This is probably not what you want for an enterprise security policy. The "More professional" option makes sentences longer and words more complex, effectively pushing your policy towards "legalese." These options impact the tone and readability of your document, so play with them to your heart's content.

Bard has a couple of other neat options that don't exist in ChatGPT. The "Google" button at the bottom of the draft can quickly dig up (via Google search) a comparison of what you've written. If you paste in a physical security policy, for example, it will search for something like, "What is the purpose of a physical security policy?" or "What is a physical security policy?" Hopefully, you already know what your security policy is for.

Once you're done, you've effectively got a nice, shiny new security policy without superfluous language and that's readable to the common mortal. You've also saved yourself a huge amount of time. You can export it directly into Google Docs (no Microsoft integration yet), copy it directly, or share it with a link.

What's the resource gain on using this method? After running it through 300 pages of documentation, the answer to that is "significant." It takes an hour or so to manually proofread a single 10-page policy, remove excess verbiage, tidy up grammar, remove duplicates, and improve readability and formatting. The Bard approach reduced it to minutes.

This effectively compressed weeks' worth of work into a few hours with significant resource savings. And most important, our policies are now readable and understandable to a layperson. While I still had to review the policies at the end to tidy up sentence structure and formatting, I found that Google Bard is a very good companion for rewriting security documentation that, at this time, has several advantages over ChatGPT.

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Why I Chose Google Bard to Help Write Security Policies - Why I Chose Google Bard to Help Write Security Policies - Dark Reading

Google addresses the chat elephant in the room briefly.

Im sorry, your honor, but I believe this is contrary to the courts order, interrupts Epic lead attorney Gary Bornstein, The judge lets Googles attorney proceed but tells him to walk carefully.

Consider this: the facts remain unchanged. The data remains unchanged, begins Kravis.

Time and again during this trial, you saw Epic overreach, he adds, explaining how Epic wasnt able to prove things like Project Hug were direct bribes or that Samsung was in collusion with Google.

Perhaps thinking about the judges warning, Epic moves on Kravis is now pointing out that Epic is just trying to get a free ride on Google Play now. Heres one quote from that:

Epic cant pocket the money in its own store and then stand up here and tell you its trying to protect the consumer.

The rest is here:

Epic v. Google: everything we're learning live in Fortnite court - The Verge

Google fixes flaws in the Chrome browser.

Google has released seven security updates for Chrome to address critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cyber attackers. The updates fix bugs that could have allowed cyber attackers to take control of affected devices. Google said that it may restrict access to bug details and links until a majority of users are updated with a fix.

Google will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third-party library that other projects similarly depend on but haven't yet fixed.

Google recommends that users of the Google Chrome browser and other browsers built on the Chromium engine promptly install and activate the latest update. This critical security update aims to address an exploit (CVE-2023-6345) that is confirmed to be active in the wild, emphasizing the importance of keeping browsers up to date for enhanced security.

In the advisory, Google has highlighted fixes that were contributed by external researchers.

High CVE-2023-6348: Type Confusion in Spellcheck Reported by Mark Brand of Google Project Zero on 2023-10-10

High CVE-2023-6347: Use after free in Mojo. Reported by Leecraso and Guang Gong of the 360 Vulnerability Research Institute on 2023-10-21

High CVE-2023-6346: Use after free in WebAudio. Reported by Huang Xilin of Ant Group Light-Year Security Lab on November 9, 2023

High CVE-2023-6350: Out of bounds memory access in libavif Reported by Fudan University on 2023-11-13

High CVE-2023-6351: Use after free in libavif. Reported by Fudan University on 2023-11-13

High CVE-2023-6345: Integer overflow in Skia Reported by Benot Sevens and Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group on 2023-11-24

See more here:

Google Urges Immediate Action: Security Update Released Amid Active Chrome Exploit Threat - NDTV

1. Google begins process of deleting inactive Gmail accounts  ABC News
2. Google is deleting inactive accounts. Here's what that means  NPR
3. Make Sure Your Google Accounts Are Active, or They Might Be Deleted  The New York Times

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Google begins process of deleting inactive Gmail accounts - ABC News

Judge James Donato is overseeing Epic v. Google, a case that could determine the future of the Android app store but testimony in this case may have more repercussions for Google too.

On Friday, Judge Donato vowed to investigate Google for intentionally and systematically suppressing evidence, calling the companys conduct a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice. We were there in the courtroom for his explanation.

I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible, he said, adding he would pursue these issues on my own, outside of this trial.

Testimony in the Epic v. Google trial and in a parallel DOJ antitrust suit against Google in Washington, DC revealed that Google automatically deleted chat messages between employees, and that employees all the way up to CEO Sundar Pichai intentionally used that to make certain conversations disappear. Pichai, and many other employees, also testified they did not change the auto-delete setting even after they were made aware of their legal obligation to preserve evidence.

And Pichai, among other employees, admitted that they marked documents as legally privileged just to keep them out of other peoples hands.

On November 14th, Pichai told the court that he relied on his legal and compliance teams to instruct him properly, particularly Alphabet chief legal officer Kent Walker and so Judge Donato hauled Walker into court two days later.

But the judge was not satisfied with Walkers testimony, either, accusing him of tap-dancing around.

Walker said he never attempted to audit whether employees were actually retaining evidence it was left up to individual employees to decide which communications might be relevant to a legal case, and more than one employee testified in court they had the wrong idea of what was relevant.

The most serious and disturbing evidence I have ever seen in my decade on the bench

Today, Judge Donato said it was deeply troubling to me as a judicial officer of the United States that Google acted this way, calling it the most serious and disturbing evidence I have ever seen in my decade on the bench with respect to a party intentionally suppressing relevant evidence.

This conduct is a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice. It undercuts due process. It calls into question just resolution of legal disputes. It is antithetical to our system, said Judge Donato.

And yet, the judge decided today that he would not issue a mandatory inference instruction one that would tell the jury they should proceed with the understanding that Google destroyed evidence that could have been detrimental to its case.

Instead, there will be a permissive jury instruction the jury may infer that the missing evidence might have helped Epic and hurt Google.

The best course of action is for the jury itself to decide whether it will make an inference. I am not going to constrain the jurys discretion by making that inference for them, he said.

Even though it would be well within bounds to issue a mandatory inference instruction, said Judge Donato, I can pursue these issues on my own, outside of this trial, in subsequent trials.

I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible, he said. That is going to be separate and apart from anything that happens here, but that day is coming.

Google declined to comment to The Verge on Judge Donatos statements. Walker testified in court that the auto-delete setting is now off by default for all Google employees.

Today, Epic and Google rested their case in Epic v. Google. Well be returning on December 11th for closing arguments and jury instructions.

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Federal judge vows to investigate Google for intentionally destroying chats - The Verge

November has been a big month for RCS the mobile messaging protocol championed by Google and now, the company is capping it off with the announcement of a milestone and some festive new features. First, the number: according to Google, over 1 billion monthly active users are using RCS in Google Messages. Thats huge, considering support was scarce just a handful of years ago, though not entirely surprising since its been the default messaging service on Android phones for a few years now.

As for the new messaging features, a couple of them might sound familiar to iOS users. Theres a new feature that ties into your Google account to create a Contact Poster-like profile with your name and photo. Google is adding something called Photomoji, which lets you cut people out of your photos and use the photos to react to messages as you would with an emoji.

Apple offers something similar in iOS 17, though you have to turn your photo cutouts into stickers to add them to iMessage conversations. Based on an extremely scientific study of, like, five of my friends, this isnt catching on very quickly.

Google Messages will also let you attach an emoji when you send a voice message, which Google calls a mood. Thats a nice way to help someone get the tenor of your message at a glance. Emoji shared in group chats or used as reactions will sometimes include an animation, too. And in a little nod to the whole green bubble / blue bubble situation, Google Messages will now let you change the color of the chat bubbles on each of your conversations.

I spoke to Android messaging VP and GM Sanaz Ahari about the new features and where RCS is generally, which of course, means asking about Apple. Theres good reason to be excited about RCS on the iPhone because as Ahari aptly puts it group chats are just really, really broken today between Android and iOS. Apples commitment to supporting the RCS universal profile 2.0 means that image and video sharing across platforms will get much better, but Ahari acknowledges that the 2.0 spec doesnt include end-to-end encryption.

We are actively working with the GSMA and Apple is a member of the GSMA to evolve the spec to include not only end-to-end encryption, but also a lot of features that arent in the RCS spec that were working on adding back to the spec. Threaded replies, read receipts, and reactions are a few of those features that are unlikely to be supported for iPhone users as the standard exists today. Overall, what we hope is that the modern messaging features and end-to-end encryption will be a reality cross-platform.

Thats all a ways off, but in the meantime, Googles new messaging features will be trickling out to RCS users on Android phones. Todays feature drop also includes some handy smart home integrations with Wear OS so you can set your Google Home status, trigger a group of lights, or start a routine from your watch. It all rolls out starting today, with the new messaging features debuting first in open beta.

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Google adds Photomoji, profiles, and custom colors to RCS in Messages - The Verge