Tag: Google

This weekend, Hurricane Harvey struck the state of Texas here in the US, leaving a path of complete destruction.  The death toll as of this morning sits at six but with another 24″ of rain expected in some areas, that is likely to rise.  Once the waters recede from the Texas coast, the billions of dollars in damage will be revealed and it is going to be very high.

The American Red Cross is already in the area helping victims of the storm and Google is helping their efforts.  Google.org, the charitable arm of Google, has grant donation of $250,000 to the American Red Cross and Google employees themselves have donated another $250,000.  This will help the ARC continue their work in the area, who will be active for a long time after Hurricane Harvey is no more.

It looks like everyone needs to go put a reminder in their Google Calendar for October 5th.  That day, according to a leak from Evan Blass, suggest that will be the day that we see the all new Google Pixel 2 and Google Pixel XL 2.

Google’s second-generation Pixel handsets, powered by Snapdragon 836 SoC’s, will be unveiled on October 5th.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 24, 2017

For those who may not know who Evan Blass is exactly, he’s a reporter for Venturebeat and has been one of the most reliable resources for inside leaks on upcoming device launch dates and details on those devices.  He’s pretty amazing actually and I recommend following him on Twitter.

Put it this way:  Those of you who are long time readers know I rarely post anything leak related.  But I will post something from Evan Blass because it is 98% likely to happen.

After months of delays sorting out bugs and upgrade issues, the Android Nougat 7.1.1 update has finally been released by Google for the Nexus 6.  The original update for the November 2014 flagship phone almost immediately caused issues for those who upgraded from Nougat 7.0.  Issues with the original update back in March dealt with Android Pay, as in, it completely broke.  Nexus 6 owners were not able to use the tap-to-pay service if they upgraded to Nougat 7.1.1.

To address the issue, Google actually reverted the devices back to Android Nougat 7.0 which sorted out the Android Pay problem but left “Shamu” owners out of luck on the latest & greatest features of Nougat 7.1.1.

The Google app for Android has a server-side update rolling out today that brings detailed Pollen forecasts at a glance thanks to the Weather Channel.  The update, much like the weather forecast feature of the app, will give you detailed information about how much pollen is in the air for your location as well as the different types of pollen.  The good news is, you don’t have to do anything to get the update.  Since it is a server-side update, so long as you have the latest Google app on your phone, it will come to your phone automagically.

To get to the new forecast, use the Google app to search for pollen forecast.  Using the location services on your phone, you will see the level of pollen in your area as well as the main type of allergen.  For those of us who suffer from seasonal allergies (Clinton raises his hand), it will mighty helpful in deciding how much time you spend outdoors or if you open up the windows at home.  Or maybe make double sure you take your allergy medication for the day.

Google has been working on the the Google app for Android a lot in recent weeks, with the most notable change coming last week with the introduction of Google Feed.  If you aren’t up on it, basically the Feed is similar to the features are found in the Google Now Launcher and Pixel Launcher, but it gives you more relevant information based on your searches and location.  It is more dependent on Artificial Intelligence to give you information that is more important to you.

There is now a new feature in the Google Feed feature:  Recents.  Now you have a third tab that shows you your recent search history on your device.  You can simply swipe left and right to see the history and tap on a result to go back to that site to continue reading it.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has released their Q2 2017 financial report and it is, in a word, impressive.  The company had earning of $26.01 billion US for the quarter, up some 21% over the same quarter in 2016.  This beat analyst expectations which had pegged earnings at just over $25 billion.

Operating income was down to $4.132 billion with an overall operating income margin of 16%.  Both of these were down from the same quarter in 2016.  Net Income was down to $3.54 billion for the quarter.