Google has announced that they have acquired Tenor, the GIF platform and GIF keyboard creator. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the long term goal is to bring Tenor technology to Google Image Search as well deeper integration into Gboard.
The company will continue to operate as a separate entity under Google and you will still be able to access their site and use their keyboard app.
Google has announced that physical USB security key support is coming to all version of G Suite over the next few weeks. Support of security keys, to this point, has been limited to Enterprise level customers. That is changing as all variants of the service will be gaining support.
Security Keys are a physical USB key that you plug into a device that gives you access to it. It is perhaps the ultimate in 2-Factor authentication. Yubico is perhaps the most well known of these types of keys and they are readily available at low cost.
Google has announced that by the end of 2018, the basic mobile management feature on G Suite domains will be enabled by default. The announcement comes as part of a series of announcement the company has made regarding data and device security.
When the change is enabled, it will require that all users of Android and iOS phones associated with a G Suite domain to have, at a minimum, a password or PIN to unlock their phones. Without it, users will not be able to access G Suite associated apps and thus, the data associated with those apps.
A new cloud-side change is rolling out to the Google+ app for Android that brings the same “Delete, Report, and Block” feature that is found on the web site to your mobile. So long as you have the latest G+ app installed on your phone, you should see this new feature roll out over the course of the next few days.
Google+ has had a spam problem for a long time and the company has continued to try to give administrators of communities and collections the tools needed to deal with it. The ability to delete a comment, report it and block the user is something that admins have had for a while but with this update, everyone gets it.
ARCore, the Augmented Reality SDK that allows for Android phones to create AR experiences, looks set to be one of the many things that Google is going to be releasing at Mobile World Congress next week. According to an exclusive report in Variety, the Mountain View company will release the first version of ARCore to the public and it will work on Android Nougat and Oreo devices.
Google is set to make a major push to bring augmented reality technology (AR) to Android at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, Variety has learned from sources familiar with the company’s plans. Central to these efforts will be the release of the company’s ARCore framework, which will allow third-party developers to bring AR apps to Android phones.
This is a significant step forward for the company’s AR plans as, to this point, ARCore has only been available on Google Pixel devices in a pre-release state.
The beta version of the Google app for Android has a new update rolling out that brings a handy screenshot editing feature – but it only works within the Google app itself. The new feature has arrived in version 7.21 for those keeping score at home and, given it is in beta, it will likely hit the stable channel for everyone over the course of the next couple of weeks.
The new screenshot editor allows you to take a screenshot of something in your Google app feed, search results, or pages viewed within Chrome custom tabs in the app. Once you snap the screenshot, by pressing the Power+Volume Down button on virtually all Android phones, you will get a lower notification for you to edit or share the screenshot.
If you have noticed a change in your Google Feed from the Google app on your phone, you are not alone. The shortcuts to weather, restaurants and other information at the top of the page has been removed in an effort by Google to improve the overall user experience with the Google app.
To be clear, the Google Feed is accessed either by going into the Google app or, if you have a Pixel phone, a swipe to the right on your Home page. There you see information cards you have configured, news and other information. Previously, there were shortcuts at the top of this page for one-tap information which are now gone.
Four years after being acquired by Google, Nest has now become merged into the Google hardware team. The announcement came today from Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz and it made it clear that the goal of merging the teams was to accelerate smart home technologies with Google AI at the heart of that innovation.
By working together, we’ll continue to combine hardware, software and services to create a home that’s safer, friendlier to the environment, smarter and even helps you save money—built with Google’s artificial intelligence and the Assistant at the core.
While details on when the full merging of teams would be complete, the announcement highlighted that the teams already work very closely together, indicating it would be in short order.