Category: Google

As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick From self-driving cars to contact lenses, Google makes a surprising amount of stuff Google began the 21st century as a small but growing search engine. 14 years later, the California-based company has built smartphones, mapped the globe, purchased a firm that makes advanced smoke detectors, and obtained a veritable army of robots. It’s sometimes tempting to still think of Google as a search engine, but the strides the…

Continue reading

As reported on TechCrunch. by Darrell Etherington Google has released some new research about it efforts to maximize performance and minimize energy use at data centers through machine learning today. Long story short: Google is building superintelligent server farms that can learn from their past performance and improve themselves in the future. Google’s AI data centers are a 20 percent project – the result of an employee, Jim Gao, working on something he found interesting that falls outside…

Continue reading

As reported on Engadget. BY SHARIF SAKR It must be hard being Ernő Rubik. Back in the 1980s, the architect and toy inventor had the rare good fortune of becoming one of very few self-made millionaires from communist Europe. But in the process he was horribly pigeon-holed. His patented Rubik’s Cube sold 350 million units, while his other creations — Rubik’s Snake, Rubik’s Magic, and presumably a few blocky buildings somewhere in Hungary — barely got a mention.…

Continue reading

As reported on TechCrunch. by Darrell Etherington Google cites the 1939 World’s Fair ‘Futurama’ ride for GM as the inception point of the passion for self-driving vehicles, but the self-driving car project kicked off at Google in 2009 under Sebastian Thrun, with an initial focus on the relatively uncomplicated (but still monumental) task of negotiating freeways. The past year or so has been focused on tackling city street driving, with improvements including pedestrian and cyclist detection,…

Continue reading

As reported on TechCrumch. by Anthony Ha NS Raises $35M From Cisco For Its Cloud-Based Enterprise Network Security As A Service A day after Google announced that it will sell Google Glass to anyone in the United States, the company is unveiling some new “Glassware” (basically, Google Glass apps) that’s supposed to be particularly useful for travelers. This isn’t the first travel-related Glassware. The company announced Word Lens for Glass last fall, so if you saw a sign written a…

Continue reading

As reported on Engadget. BY RICHARD LAWLER There’s no longer a need to attend a golf tournament or carefully log on for a one-day sale, as Google has just announced it’s opening sales of the Glass headset to all (in the US). As long as they’re in stock and you have $1,500, you too can join the beta Explorer programand be part of a nearby #glassnightout. Now that Glass is more widely available, Google is saying thank you to its first Explorers…

Continue reading

As reported on The Verge. By Dante D’Orazio Gmail may soon look nothing like the Gmail we all know so well. Google has invited a select group of users to test a completely new interface for the webmail client, according to Geek.com, which appears to be part of the trial. The test version of Gmail — which may never see an official release — dispenses with design elements that have been present from the very early days of…

Continue reading

As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON Google Glass may not be permanently available for sale to the general public, but Mountain View recently promised to find new ways to expand the Explorer program. The pricey gadget’s first stop? The Player’s Championship in Florida, a golf tournament where many participants can easily afford the device’s $1,500 price tag. Despite the prime location, Google still bundled the eyewear with a free mini-camera that clamps onto a golf club to sweeten the…

Continue reading