Kate Conger:
A software engineer’s 10-page screed against Google’s diversity initiatives is going viral inside the company, being shared on an internal meme network and Google+. The document’s existence was first reported by Motherboard, and Gizmodo has obtained it in full.
Diane Greene:
G Suite’s Gmail is already not used as input for ads personalization, and Google has decided to follow suit later this year in our free consumer Gmail service. Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization after this change. This decision brings Gmail ads in line with how we personalize ads for other Google products. Ads shown are based on users’ settings. Users can change those settings at any time, including disabling ads personalization. G Suite will continue to be ad free.
This is a great decision. Surprising, but great. It still doesn’t change the fact, that Gmail’s proprietary implementation makes it terrible to use with third-party email clients, but hopefully this is the beginning of a more privacy-focused Google. I doubt this, but I can be hopeful, right?
Google update on the Nik Collection:
The Nik Collection is free and compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 through 10.10; Windows Vista, 7, 8; and Adobe Photoshop through CC 2015. We have no plans to update the Collection or add new features over time.
I knew this would happen. This is fucking unacceptable. There’s also a petition going, if you want to try to save it.
Nick Heer:
Consider this: Google owns the most popular search engine and the biggest video hosting platform in most countries, operates one of the most-used email services on Earth,1 has the greatest market share of any mobile operating system, makes the most popular web browser in many countries, serves the majority of the targeted advertising on the web, provides the most popular analytics software for websites, and is attempting to become a major internet service provider. And, to cap it all off, they’re subtly replacing HTML with their own version, and it requires a Google-hosted JavaScript file to correctly display.
Jack Marshall:
Alphabet Inc.’s Google is planning to introduce an ad-blocking feature in the mobile and desktop versions of its popular Chrome web browser, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.
The ad-blocking feature, which could be switched on by default within Chrome, would filter out certain online ad types deemed to provide bad experiences for users as they move around the web.
Google could announce the feature within weeks, but it is still ironing out specific details and still could decide not to move ahead with the plan, the people said.
I wish this meant that they would block their own ads, which I find incredibly offensive. Especially aesthetically.
Edgar Cervantes:
Recent rumors have been suggesting the Search Giant plans to end the Nexus legacy, altering the naming scheme. The murmurs were vague and hard to wrap our heads around, but now a couple sources are claiming this is true… and that the next Google phones will be branded under the Pixel series.
To be more specific, these sources claim Google’s new handsets will be named Pixel and Pixel XL. Both are independent and one of them seems to have a great track record of information. The guys over at Android Police swear by them and multiple publications have said similar things now, so there’s a good chance of accuracy here.
As for these phones, the standard Pixel is said to be the 5-inch version, which has been so far code named as Sailfish. On the other hand, the Pixel XL is said to be the 5.5-inch Marlin.
I prefer ‘Nexus’, but ‘Pixel’ seems OK. No idea why they would do this though — Nexus has been a brand for years now and is hard to mistake for anything else.
Andrew Cunningham:
After doing some digging and talking to some people, we can say that it will be either very difficult if not completely impossible for any phone that uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 or 801 to get an official, Google-sanctioned Nougat update (including the Z3). And that’s a pretty big deal, since those two chips powered practically every single Android flagship sold from late 2013 until late 2014 and a few more recent devices to boot.
This situation has far-reaching implications for the Android ecosystem. And while it can be tempting to lay the blame at the feet of any one company—Google for creating this update mess in the first place, Qualcomm for failing to support older chipsets, and the phone makers for failing to keep up with new software—it’s really kind of everybody’s fault.
This is such a cluster-fuck. Still.
Mohit Kumar:
Android users are at severe risk when it comes to encryption of their personal and sensitive data.
Android’s full-disk encryption can be cracked much more easily than expected with brute force attack and some patience, affecting potentially hundreds of millions of mobile devices.
And the worst part: There may not be a full fix available for current Android handsets in the market.
Mark Bergen:
Now Google plans to up the ante at its app store: It will also move from a 70/30 split to 85/15 for subscriptions — but instead of requiring developers to hook a subscriber for 12 months before offering the better split, it will make it available right away.
I’m pretty sure developers aren’t complaining.
Chris Thoburn:
Chrome has taught us to idealize features for so long that we’ve become blind to its many glaring faults (…)
I’ve learned the hard way that Chrome is the new IE. I’ve learned that you have to architect an application well from the beginning for it to work well on all platforms. I’ve learned you can ship large ambitious JS apps to mobile, but it takes dedication and experience, and every trick you know to do it well for Android. I’ve learned that Apple loves the web, probably more than Google, and has invested heavily in ensuring we have a high quality platform upon which to build apps.
But most of all, I’ve learned that we’re wasting a ton of effort right now trying to fix Chrome from the outside. We’re dancing around the issue; pretending that universal rendering, service workers, app-shell architecture, and keeping more of our applications on servers (where they don’t belong) is more than just a workaround for how bad Chrome is. Yes, these ideas have uses, merits, and probably are the future; however, our need and love of them right now is because our performance expectations have been badly distorted by the situation Chrome has left us in.
Danny Yadron:
Silicon Valley’s leading companies – including Facebook, Google and Snapchat – are working on their own increased privacy technology as Apple fights the US government over encryption, the Guardian has learned.
The projects could antagonize authorities just as much as Apple’s more secure iPhones, which are currently at the center of the San Bernardino shooting investigation. They also indicate the industry may be willing to back up their public support for Apple with concrete action.
Within weeks, Facebook’s messaging service WhatsApp plans to expand its secure messaging service so that voice calls are also encrypted, in addition to its existing privacy features. The service has some one billion monthly users. Facebook is also considering beefing up security of its own Messenger tool.
Snapchat, the popular ephemeral messaging service, is also working on a secure messaging system and Google is exploring extra uses for the technology behind a long-in-the-works encrypted email project.
At this point in time I would like to see more action from the other tech companies — this is obviously a delicate situation, but too much is at stake.
John Gruber:
Could Pichai’s response be any more lukewarm? He’s not really taking a stand, and the things he’s posing as questions aren’t actually in question. I’m glad he chimed in at all, and that he seems to be leaning toward Apple’s side, but this could be a lot stronger.
Glad I’m not the only one in thinking that his response was weak.
I didn’t read his tweets that way — Sundar Pichai just said that this ‘could be a troubling precedent’ and that he’s ‘looking forward to a thoughtful and open discussion on this important issue’.
Nothing concrete.
Nilay Patel:
We were off to the races. It’s a month later and she loves the thing. It’s not fighting her, or asking her to learn anything new, or foisting complicated new products on her. There are no apps to update, and no new versions of the OS to install every year. It’s just Chrome, doing its thing. And because it’s still a thousand-dollar laptop, it’s incredibly fast. (Apparently the secret to making Chrome run really well is to totally dedicate a 2.2GHz Core i5 and 8GB of RAM to it.)
I’ve used a Pixel for a few weeks and even reviewed it — it truly is an amazing little computer, certainly much better in its second iteration. What I don’t still quite understand is why it requires a Core i5 and 8 GB of RAM to run as well as it does. It shouldn’t need it.
When we talk about laptops still being popular and important, we tend to talk about things like the precision of the mouse and the power and flexibility of a desktop operating system. We talk about all the things they can do better than a phone or a tablet. We talk about more. But it’s worth talking about the power of technology that strives to do less — much less. The thousand dollars I spent on a Pixel didn’t buy my mom crazy extensibility, or the ability to run powerful apps like Photoshop or Excel. It didn’t even buy her that much storage. But it did buy her a beautiful, well-designed product. And most importantly, it bought her focus, and the ability to spend her time using her computer instead of trying to learn how to use it.
That’s a lesson I think Steve Jobs would have liked very much.
I believe that Steve understood the concept quite well — please don’t take this as putting words in his mouth; that’s not my intent. I am referring to a product you can actually buy, which most certainly ticks the ‘focus’ box. It’s called the iPad. While probably not best suited for Nilay’s mom, you can’t beat the focus a single window into the internet gives you. That’s probably why I get so much done on my iPad Pro, with or without an external keyboard.
Eduardo Vela Nava for Google Security, recalling a past incident:
You may have read about Sanmay Ved, a researcher from who was able to buy google.com for one minute on Google Domains. Our initial financial reward to Sanmay—$ 6,006.13—spelled-out Google, numerically (squint a little and you’ll see it!). We then doubled this amount when Sanmay donated his reward to charity.
It always surprises me when huge companies forget something which seems to obvious. Then I remember that errare humanum est.
I do sometimes wonder what would have happened if in an alternate universe, Ved actually retained the Google.com domain, and set something of his own on it.
Joel Rosenblatt writing for Bloomberg:
Google Inc. is paying Apple Inc. a hefty fee to keep its search bar on the iPhone.
Apple received $1 billion from its rival in 2014, according to a transcript of court proceedings from Oracle Corp.’s copyright lawsuit against Google. The search engine giant has an agreement with Apple that gives the iPhone maker a percentage of the revenue Google generates through the Apple device, an attorney for Oracle said at a Jan. 14 hearing in federal court.
I assume DuckDuckGo isn’t. It also doesn’t track you. You can set it up as your default search engine on iOS and OS X.
For those of you wondering how much this influences Apple’s finances, Horace Dediu has a nice illustration.
Nick Bilton:
The Nest Learning Thermostat is dead to me, literally. Last week, my once-beloved “smart” thermostat suffered from a mysterious software bug that drained its battery and sent our home into a chill in the middle of the night.
Although I had set the thermostat to 70 degrees overnight, my wife and I were woken by a crying baby at 4 a.m. The thermometer in his room read 64 degrees, and the Nest was off.
These kinds of things are what make me stop and think if I ever want a ‘smart home’.
Brandon Chester:
One of the smaller announcements from Huawei at CES was the arrival of the gold colored Nexus 6P in the United States. The gold Nexus 6P, also known as the Nexus 6P Special Edition, was shown off at Google’s original San Francisco launch event for the phone.
Still waiting…
Joanna Stern:
Tablets are going through puberty. Google’s new Pixel C, which begins shipping Tuesday, is the best—or worst—example I’ve seen of this yet.
Make sure to watch her video.
Walt Mossberg:
But the worst part about this device, which starts at $499 for the tablet alone, is that Google has made no discernible effort to create software to match the screen real estate afforded by the first tablet it has designed and built itself. It has forfeited the big advantage its rival Apple has traded on for decades: the ability to blend your own hardware and software to provide a superior user experience.
I was curious what they came up with. I’m not any more.
If the answer is yes, then you’ll be pleased to know that Google prepared a beautiful Easter egg for the occasion. Go to google.com and search for:
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away
Don’t forget to turn your sound on!
I’m not a Google fan for various reasons, mainly due to their policies, sources of income, the way they operate, and so on. But sometimes they do something, and I just can’t stop smiling.
Read the document under the link—totally worth it. Hint: it has nothing to do with Gmail.
#BackToTheFuture
Alex Cranz published a “turbo charging” test on Tom’s Guide yesterday, with various Android handsets competing for the title of “fastest charging phone.” Oh, and there was an iPhone 6 in there too. And it came last.
He specifically noted that some phones need chargers that have to be bought separately to get maximum performance out of them:
Qualcomm’s technology promises to get your battery to a full charge in less than 2 hours, but some Quick Charge-capable phones, like the LG G4, don’t actually ship with the necessary brick. Other companies rebrand the technology. Motorola calls its solution Turbo Charge in the Droid Turbo and the Google Nexus 6. The Zenfone 2 uses Asus’s branded “Boostmaster technology” and requires a special power brick (only available with the $299 edition) that’s supposedly 17 percent more potent than the typical Quick Charge 2.0 brick.
He then proceeded to comment on the iPhone’s lacklustre performance:
As for iPhone 6 fans, your phone brought up the rear in almost every test.
Apple users will be delighted to know that the iPhone was no longer the slowest of the lot. It was charged to 36 percent (…)
Alex however forgot to mention one important detail—he used the 5W/1A charger with the iPhone 6, instead of one capable of delivering at least 2.1A, such as the iPad 10W/2.1A brick. This would cut the charge time from over two and a have hours by almost a full hour.
I’m sure it was an honest oversight.
P.S. To clarify—the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are the first iPhones capable of charging faster by using a more powerful charger, such as the iPad 10 or 12W/2.1A power brick. I personally use a Belkin 2.1A model and it gets the job done.