Google has just announced that Andy Rubin, chief of the search company's Android mobile platform, is stepping down from his role, with Chrome and Apps Vice President Sundar Pichai taking his place. Rubin has been at the helm of Android since the company acquired it way back in 2005, and has helped it become one the most widely-used mobile OS in the world. Pichai will take the reigns at Android, but will also continue his role as VP of Chrome and Apps for the foreseeable future.
A leaked video uploaded to, and subsequently pulled from YouTube has the internet aflutter tonight with news that Google may be about to bring its latest crown jewel to iOS.
Google Glass got a rare public outing at South By Southwest today, with the wearable computer getting some stage time in order to give the tech-loving audience a peak at where the product is heading.
Google Now looks set to become integrated into the company’s Chrome browser and Chrome OS platform, if the findings of one Chromium user are to be believed. The Big G's engineers have reportedly referenced such a feature in the most recent Chromium release, and Chromium enthusiast François Beaufort quickly latched onto the news.
The excitement and anticipation surrounding Google Glass seems to be growing by the day, and considering the seemingly endless array of possibilities the wearable tech could bring, it's hardly surprising. As we continue to laugh at the entertaining sketch of how a typical guy might utilize the new technologies at his disposal, the rather more serious folks at Duke University are developing an app for Glass which learns how your friends dress, helping you pick them out in a crowded place.
The common stereotype - that men tend not to listen to their female counterparts quite as much as they should - is age-old, and resident Web comedian Dartanion London has posted an humor-inducing video highlighting the ways in which blokes may utilize Google Glass to allow themselves to be largely absent from a conversation. The clip is all in good humor, of course, and sees a man, using the wearable tech to (try and) impress, take snaps, and watch a football game during a conversation with a girl. Little does he know, that she's using some tech of her own in order to suss him out.
When you're the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for one of the richest and most successful technology companies in the world, chances are that you've forged yourself a pretty successful career and people will listen to what you have to say. Technology lovers will be more than familiar with Phil Schiller - who fills the marketing SVP role nicely at Apple - due to his numerous appearances on stage during product keynotes, but he has now taken to his Twitter timeline to share the latest developments in mobile security.
Forget about the seventh-generation iPhone. Forget about the rumored Retina iPad mini and forget about the potential for any so-called "iPad killers" that may stem from the next-generation of tablet devices released by Google and their partners. If the speculation is to be believed, the next consumer technology battle could be fought by companies who are prepared to hit the market with some kind of advanced wearable technology. Google has already thrown their hat into the ring with the Glass project and it looks like Apple could be next if the iOS-powered iWatch becomes reality, but where would consumer allegiance lie?
If you had any doubt about the existence or the availability of Google Play Store gift cards, then the company themselves have dropped one of the biggest hints yet that their arrival is extremely imminent. We've been hearing about the gift cards for quite some time now, with various logs showing up in certain retail databases, but Google has updated one of their own support pages with extensive information about the cards and the balance of individual Play accounts.
With Android frequently making the news with regards to malware outbreaks, you may be forgiven for thinking apps on the the open-source platform were more likely to leak your private info than, say, the much more watertight iOS. Apparently, this is not the case, and as per a study by Appthority, which plies its trade in assessing mobile apps for numerous companies, free apps over at the App Store present a greater privacy risk to users than the free offerings over at the Play Store.
