Tag: Google

Google’s Project Ara modular smartphone is for real

Article

Google Project Ara modular phone - for real

Google Project Ara modular phone – for real

Google’s Project Ara: build your dream phone | The Age

My Comments

There has been some previous coverage about Google’s “Project Ara” modular smartphone, but there was some doubt about this phone being for real.

This mobile phone, like the LG G5 smartphone, can be improved by you buying and adding extra modules that offer additional or better functionality. It is very similar to how the IBM PC evolved where it was feasible to add on extra parts to improve the computer’s functionality.

Google had put the Project Ara concept smartphone on the slow burner and LG advanced their take on a smartphone in the form of the G5 having an improved camera or a hi-fi-grade audio DAC module available as options. Now they have come forth with a firm proof-of-concept to be offered to developers so they can design the modular hardware and to have a system ready for the masses by next year.

Google will push the idea of requiring the modules to be certified by themselves in order to assure quality control and the user experience for installing or upgrading any of these modules will be very similar to replacing a microSD card in your Android smartphone. This is where you tell the operating system that you wish to remove the card before you open up your phone and swap out the card, something I do with my Samsung phone when I want to play different music because I see the microSD cards as though they are cassettes or MiniDiscs that contain music ready to play.

Like with computers, the modular phones will still appeal to those of us who are tech enthusiasts and don’t mind customising our phones to suit our needs. Personally, I would like to see this same modularity looked at for tablets, 2-in-1s and laptops pitched at this same user class who values modularity and customisability.

Cleaning up online advertising: Google and Bing make life hard for undesirable advertisers

Article

Advertising of predatory financial services

Google Will Start Banning All Ads From Payday Lenders | Mashable

Advertising of online tech-support scams

Bing brings in blanket ban on online tech support ads | Naked Security

My Comments

Google clamps down on advertising of predatory financial services

An issue that has caused a lot of concern with the Global Financial Crisis is the existence of predatory sub-prime financing services like payday and other short-term loans. This issue has been raised as a civil rights issue as well as a consumer-protection issue because predatory lending occurs more with disadvantaged communities and the kind of loan products charge exorbitant amounts of interest.

Google has attacked this issue by prohibiting payday and similar lenders from advertising through their Adwords search-advertising platform. As far as I know, it doesn’t affect any of Google’s display advertising services like Adsense or Admob. This follows similar action that Facebook had taken concerning their online advertising platform, with both these companies being the biggest online advertising platforms encompassing both their own properties and the ad networks that serve other publishers and mobile app developers. It is part of Silicon Valley’s reaction to contemporary issues of concern like civil rights.

This will effect the advertising of loan products that are due within 60 days or have an interest rate of 36% or more in the USA. But the issue that may surface is whether Google will apply this rule to their display advertising networks and if other online advertising services will follow suit and apply it across their products.

Bing clamping down on online tech-support scams

I have given a fair bit of airtime on HomeNetworking01.info about the online tech-support scams due to hearing from people in my community who have had near misses with these scams.

This typically manifested in the form of the phone calls that people received from someone pretending to be the tech-support team associated with a respected IT or telecommunications name, stating that the user’s computer has a virus or something else is wrong with the user’s computer hardware or software.  But they lead you to establish a remote-access path to your computer so they can “fix” the perceived “problem” or “threat” for a fee, with these scammers making off with a large sum of money or installing software of questionable provenance and relevance on your computer.

Most of us have become aware of these scams through the various customer-education efforts by the IT community and consumer-protection organisations, encouraging us to seek IT support from people whom you know and have met in person like your business’s IT department or the IT experts in your household, family or community.

This has led to computer users not answering these calls or simply hanging up when they receive those calls. Now the scammers’ MO has changed towards cost-per-click Web ads or popups that flash up warning messages saying that your computer has problems and instructing you to call a toll-free number. This plays on the fact that you are seeking a problem to be rectified by placing that phone call.

Bing Ads, which is part of Microsoft’s Bing search platform, have banned the advertisement of third-party tech-support services because of the quality issues that are affecting end-users’ data safety. There has been an unintended consequence from this ruling which has made it hard for honest IT-support providers to advertise their services on that platform.

Conclusion

I see it as one of many efforts by the online advertising industry to clean up its act and gain the same level of respect as traditional advertising but there could be a more uniform approach to the problem of questionable online and mobile advertising.

The only way I see this coming about is for the industry to adopt a code of practice with conformance being indicated to end-users, publishers, content-filter software and others through distinct trademarks and symbols. This could address issues like advertising that is allowed, the kinds of ad contracts offered including the tenure of these contracts and the kind of payment received, due-diligence requirements, and liaison with law enforcement, customer protection and other authorities.

Google makes further efforts against unwanted software

Article – From the horse’s mouth

Google

Year one: progress in the fight against Unwanted Software

My Comments

What has become familiar for me after some computer-support tasks was dealing with unwanted software that uses fraud and deception to have computer users install the programs on their systems. Such software like TubeDimmer typically takes over one’s online experience by serving up ads typically for dodgy businesses, slowing down the user’s computer or sending off the user’s private computer-usage data to questionable entities. In some cases, the software pesters users to download other worthless software or pay for worthless IT services.

There have been some efforts in the computing industry to tackle this problem, most notably MalwareBytes Anti-Malware providing the ability to remove this kind of software. But Google has approached this problem in a multi-faceted manner.

Firstly, they have revised the Safe Browsing API used in Chrome, Android and other browsers and endpoint-security programs that exploit this API to detect the unwanted nuisance software. They also provided an online “cleanup tool” for Chrome to remove ad injectors and similar unwanted extensions from that browser.

On the AdSense and DoubleClick advertising-network front, Google have tuned their Bid Manager which is used for buying advertising space on these networks to filter out chargeable impressions that are generated by the unwanted ad injectors. Similarly, they are disabling ads which appear on these networks but are leading to unwanted-software downloads. These include the ads that show the “Download this” or “Play this” kind of text or artwork without referring to what you intend to download and is augmented by an unwanted-software policy that applies to any advertising that is about software delivery.

If you are “Googling” for software, the Google Search Results screen will highlight links that lead to the delivery of unwanted software or advertised software links.

These efforts have paid off for Google in the form of reduced user complaints about Chrome and other Google client software. There has been increased Safe Browsing alerts regarding unwanted software which has placed a roadblock against this software being installed. Chrome users and personal-IT support personnel have been able to get rid of the unwanted software very quickly and easily.

Now Uncle Sam has joined in the fight against unwanted software downloads

Now Uncle Sam has joined in the fight against unwanted software downloads

But there needs to be further action taking place beyond what is happening in Google’s or Malwarebyte’s offices. Uncle Sam has lent his weight behind this effort with the US Federal Trade Commission classing this unwanted software as a form of malware.

Microsoft could help with this effort by extending their security and software-cleanup tools that work with Windows, Office and Internet Explorer to provide a “one-click remove” option. Similarly Web browsers and endpoint-security software can be part of the effort to slow down the deployment of unwanted software, reduce its effect on the system or simplify its removal.

As well, there needs to be efforts taking place within the online advertising industry to clean up its act.This may involve issues like:

  1. managing the availability of low-risk high-return advertising products like “cost-per-click-only” products that appeal to “fly-by-night” operators;
  2. management and supervision of advertisers, publishers and campaigns;
  3. advertising through client-side software rather than Webpages;
  4. advertising campaigns that lead to software downloads, amongst other issues.

Such issues may have to be dealt with via establishing an industry-wide code of practice and/or use of a “seal-of-approval”. Here, this is to make sure that online advertising has the same level of respect as traditional advertising has amongst advertisers; publishers, broadcasters and advertising-surface providers; and the general public.

Google celebrates Hedy Lamarr who is behind how Bluetooth works

Articles

Hedy Lamarr: Five things you didn’t know about the actress and inventor in today’s Google doodle | The Independent

From the horse’s mouth

Google

Celebrating Hedy Lamarr (Blog post)

Video

My Comments

Google is celebrating Hedy Lamarr who was an Austrian film actress who moved to France then America where she gained her footing as one of Hollywood’s most beautiful film stars. They have done this using their animated “Google Doodles” which shows you the pathway from a film star to the home network.

But it wasn’t all about being the most beautiful woman in Europe or starring in these films that made her significant. When Hedy was with her first husband who was a German arms dealer, she had taken an interest in applied science which was part of what made military technology work.

After fleeing Germany, she also wanted to contribute to the Allied war effort during World War II in a more useful way than selling war bonds. She realised that Hitler was using his U-Boats to sink passenger liners and wanted to do something about that.

Hedy Lamarr worked with George Antheil, an avante-garde composer who was her neighbour in Hollywood, to invent a frequency-hopping system for radio communications. This was a tool to allow successful communications to take place without being at risk of radio jamming which the Germans were good at. 

The proof of concept was based around a player piano a.k.a. a pianola and its perforated rolls that had the music and taught the instrument how to play. Here, a piano roll was used to unpredictably change radio equipment between 88 different frequencies with the setup only operating on the frequencies for a short time. The sequence was only known between the controlling ship and the torpedo and it would require a lot of power in those days to jam a large swathe of frequencies. 

This was not implemented by US Navy until the early 1960s where it earnt its keep as part of a blockade of Cuba. But this technology and the spread-spectrum ability that it allowed for ended up as an integral part of today’s digital-radio communications techology. Examples of this include Bluetooth, CDMA used in some cordless phone and mobile phone applications and COFDM which is used in Wi-Fi wireless networking which nearly every home network runs with, DAB and digital satellite radio and DVB-T digital TV.

Here, it is about a film star who appeared through Hollywood’s Golden Era but also contributed to the features essential for mobile computing and home networking.

At last an Ethernet adaptor for the Chromecast

Articles

HomePlug AV adaptor

The HomePlug powerline adaptor can now work with your Chromecast courtesy of the new Ethernet adaptor

Google adapter puts your Chromecast on wired networks | Engadget

Google Releases A $15 Ethernet Adapter For Chromecast [Update: Out Of Stock] | Android Police

Chromecast gains wired Ethernet dongle | The Register

From the horse’s mouth

Google Chromecast

Ethernet Adaptor Product Page (Order Here)

My Comments

Out of the box, the Google Chromecast connects to your home network via its integrated 2.4GHz Wi-Fi circuitry. But what use is this if the TV you are using it with is in a lounge area furthest away from your home network’s router. And the situation is made worse because you are dealing with a double-brick wall between what was the existing house and the newly-built extension. This is while the TV’s circuitry and chassis materials effectively attenuate the radio signals coming from the front. You end up with heaps of buffering because the Wi-Fi wireless signal is very poor.

You might try a cheap wireless range extender but find that you are taking it back to the store because it isn’t really effective and is a lot more difficult to deal with.

But Google has answered your need by providing an adaptor accessory that effectively gives it an Ethernet port which opens up some paths to improve the situation. This means that you could take advantage of the Ethernet infrastructure if you wired your house for Ethernet, or could use a HomePlug AV500 or HomePlug AV2 powerline-network kit to effectively provide a wired link between your home network’s router and the Chromecast-enabled TV. Even using a wireless-Ethernet client bridge that is positioned for best reception or supporting newer Wi-Fi technologies can work wonders with this device.

This adaptor is effectively a power supply for the Chromecast along with a USB-connected Ethernet network adaptor and connects to the Chromecast dongle via its microUSB port.  As far as I know, the installation involved for this device would simply be a “plug-and-play” affair.  But, if you are using HomePlug powerline networking, I would recommend a HomePlug adaptor with integrated power outlet to save on power outlets or a HomePlug adaptor with integrated Ethernet switch so you can allow the PS3 or Blu-Ray player to take advantage of the same wired backbone.

It didn’t take long for Google to sell out of this device in the USA so if the link says “out of stock”, check back later. This could mean that they would have to ramp up the number of units being built and reckon that it is tome to release it in to other markets.

As well, anyone who is designing a network media receiver of the kind that directly plugs in to a TV’s HDMI socket and connects via Wi-Fi wireless could make sure there is a way to connect an Ethernet adaptor to these devices and such an adaptor is available.

Google brings forward a feature that ends email remorse

Article

Compose Email or New Email form

Sometimes you may wish you haven’t sent that email

Now you can avoid email sender’s remorse with Gmail’s ‘Undo Send’ feature | Naked Security (Sophos blog)

My Comments

You end up sending that misspelled email to your boss or click “Reply All” instead of “Reply” when you send that reply. Or a late Friday night alone with some music playing on the stereo and a half-empty bottle of whiskey beside you means that you type out that inappropriate email to that former love interest. These can lead to situations where the email you sent can have embarrassing or disastrous consequences.

Google has now integrated a “delayed sending” feature in to the GMail service so that you can opt to cancel sending that email. Here, once you enable this feature, you can specify a certain amount of time to wait before actually sending that email. This enables a “Cancel Send” button which takes the email out of the Outbox so it isn’t on its embarrassing way and would cope with situations like misspelt or misaddressed messages or “half-the-facts” situations. This is another feature that Google dabbled with in their labs to beat the “I wish I didn’t send that” blues and they rolled this in to production GMail deployments.

The previous feature they worked on was a CAPTCHA setup that would come in to play when it is the late evening. Here, you would have to solve a maths equation before you could send out that email, as a way of assessing whether you had a bit too much to drink and were about to send that drunken email. But they could extend this functionality to cope with the drunk email by having a user-selectable option to hold all emails that you send during a certain time window like 10pm-6am on Friday and Saturday nights for a longer time or until the next day.

This can easily be implemented in email client software as well as Webmail setups so you don’t have to use GMail to have these features. But Google is the main email service provider who is targeting the issue of sender’s remorse by providing the delay options.

Pre-baked operating systems to be the norm for the Internet Of Everything

Article

Google reportedly building an OS for the Internet of Things | Engadget

My Comments

As part of developing Windows 10, Microsoft released a variant of the operating system for small-form embedded devices such as what would represent the “Internet Of Things” or “Internet Of Everything”. Now Google has fronted up with a similar operating system that is pitched for the same purpose.

But why these operating systems? Designing a device that is to be “connected” typically requires the manufacturer to shoehorn a task-specific operating system for this device and typically these devices require one that has a small storage, memory and power footprint.  There is also the expectation that the device will have very limited user interaction capabilities, perhaps only a switch and LED.

These operating systems won’t require the manufacturer to reinvent the wheel for functionality like communications or power management. Rather they can concentrate on what the device is all about and build the code necessary for its functionality. This may also allow them to concentrate on differentiating the device they build from the “rest of the pack” and make it more compelling.

But could this bring forth a level playing field for the “Internet Of Everything” which assures connectivity and interoperability along with devices that are secure by design?

What is happening with the way Android products are updated?

Article

Sports scoreboard app

Microsoft slams Android updates, claims Google ships a ‘big pile of… code’  | The Verge

Microsoft takes a pop at Android updates | TrustedReviews

Microsoft disses Android: ‘Google ships a big pile of … Code’ | Android Authority

My Comments

A common complaint by people who use Android phones and tablets is that it takes too long for an operating-system update to materialise on their device after Google releases the software code. Microsoft, a key competitor to Google, described Android as a “heap of … code” during the keynote speech for the Ignition 2015 business-computing conference’s keynote speech.

Typically what happens is that the update is delivered to the hardware manufacturers who will package it with their software like shell replacements before issuing it. In the case of smartphones or tablets that have wireless-broadband functionality, these updates have to be modified and approved by the telecommunications carriers before they are allowed on devices that their customers use.

Google has worked around this by using the Google Play Store to deploy updates to their software and, in some cases, offer plugins. Some manufacturers are even using this path or their own app store to roll out updates to their software.

Other platforms like iOS and Windows Phone allow the operating system’s software developer to push updates independent of manufacturer or carrier approval. This is similarly true for desktop operating systems like WIndows and OS X.

But what can Google do about this if the goal is to roll out security patches and bugfixes in between platform updates? This is important when, for example, my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 handset was failing frequently when it came to discovering Bluetooth devices and this was due to bugs in relationship to Android Jelly Bean’s Bluetooth stack which was based on Bluetooth LE / Smart functionality tacked on to an existing Android Gingerbread or ICS Bluetooth stack.

A way to assure the ability to work with manufacturers and carriers yet roll out the important patches could be to allow the deployment of the patches without need to have the prior approval. But Google would need to work with the manufacturers when rolling out major platform updates like when transitioning from KitKat to Lollipop.

A platform update for Google Android and any other operating system should also be about rewriting various parts of that operating system that gain functionality boosts that will change the device’s behaviour rather than “tacking on” the new functionality. This is what led to Windows Vista being criticised by the industry for its performance because the new security abilities were “tacked on” to an existing Windows XP codebase.

Treat your ears and eyes to a sneak peek in Abbey Road Studios

Article

Opening The Doors To The World-Famous Abbey Road Studios | Google Blog

Google invites the web into Abbey Road | GadgetGuy

Interactive Video

My Comments

Google has made available a virtual reality tour of the well-known Abbey Road Studios in London.

But what are these studios all about? Most likely, if you have a significant pop or rock recorded-music collection, you may have a significant number of albums or songs that were recorded or mixed at these studios. Some of your movies or games may have had their music scores done here as well.

These studios have been where a lot of popular albums have been recorded or mixed and where a lot of Britain’s well-known rock artists like the Beatles have recorded their iconic recordings. Examples of these include “Revolver” and “Abbey Road” by the Beatles, “Dark Side Of The Moon” and “Wish You Were There” by Pink Floyd, “I Robot” and “Eye In The Sky” by Alan Parsons Project.

There was even that famous album cover on the “Abbey Road” album with the members of The Beatles crossing that zebra crossing on Abbey Road that is outside the studio, with it becoming a tourist attraction especially for Beatles fans.

Even some of the recording techniques used to provide a “full” sound out of fewer instruments like chorusing, flanging or phasing have been improved upon here courtesy of this studio trying out and implementing automatic double-tracking as part of session recording.

But Google has not just put together a virtual-reality tour or interactive video of these famous recording studios. Here, they have provided the ability for you to try out mixing music on a virtual mixer as well as watching videos and browsing photos regarding the studio, the artists who have recorded here and the recordings laid down here. This also shows you how they get your music right so you can appreciate it better.

I would suggest that you don’t use your laptop’s speakers for this experience but use a good set of headphones or speakers to enjoy this experience. As well, make full use of the sound-tuning options that your laptop or tablet have been equipped with to treat your ears.

TAG Heuer announces an Android Wear dress smartwatch

Articles

TAG Heuer and Intel announce Swiss Smartwatch for 2015 | Smarterwatching

Watch Out Apple Watch, There’s a Swiss-Made Android Wear Watch Coming | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

Intel

Press Release

TAG Heuer

Press Release

Video Press Announcement

My Comments

Most smartwatches that were being released were pitched as “everyday wear” watches or sports watches which were something you wouldn’t really choose to wear if your goal was to impress someone special. That is unless they were someone who was impressed by the concept of the smartwatch and what it can do.

But when Apple put forward their Apple Watch, they put forward a few premium models that would go alongside or replace that Rolex Presidential as a status-symbol dress watch. Here, they set the cat amongst the pigeons when it came to providing a smartwatch of the calibre that you would wear in the Member’s Stand at Flemington during the Spring Racing Carnival (Melbourne Cup) or you, as the father of the bride, would have on your wrist as you walk the bride down the aisle at the start of the wedding.

TAG Heuer, along with Intel and Google, have worked on an Android Wear smartwatch that uses technology from the microelectronics name. Here, the idea is to create one of these watches that is pitched to the luxury-watch market rather than keeping Android Wear and the smartwatch scene for so-called “all-purpose” or “sports-class” wearables.

As well, TAG Heuer are even pushing to allow the qualification of a Swiss watch to expand to smartwatches that integrate electronics from other countries like Intel’s silicon but still have the watch assembled in Switzerland and have decorative and electromechanical parts coming from there. It can also be a good chance for Intel to investigate the idea of using Switzerland as a hub for activities associated with manufacturing, research and development for wearable technology.

What I see of this is the fact that companies are stepping forward to sell smartwatches fit for wearing at that exclusive club or in the boardroom of that Fortune 500 company in America. It also means that the smartwatch market can become like the traditional watch market with watches that suit different price ranges and different dress senses.