Android Marshmallow: Google Reveals Name of Android 6.0

Google’s Android Marshmallow

Google has revealed its latest version of its operating system which was earlier known as Android M and will now be called Android Marshmallow. The tech giant usually names its operating systems after sweet treats like Jelly Bean, Lollipop and KitKat featuring in the past and hence there is speculation about what the latest release, earlier known as Android M would be called.

Jamal Eason, Android product manager had written on the Android Developers Blog - `whether you like them straight out of the bag, roasted to a golden brown exterior with a molten centre, or in fluff form, who doesn’t like marshmallows? We definitely like them’.

The announcement coincided with the release of the final developer preview update for Android Marshmallow that comprises of the official Android 6.0 software development kit and developers can also publish their app on the Google Play store for Android Marshmallow. The updated operating system that had been first unveiled at Google 1/O on 28 May 2015 is estimated to be launched to the public by the third quarter of 2015.

New Features - Doze

Google states that the Android Marshmallow is the most powerful release so far wherein the update brings in hundreds of improvements, though several of them are very incremental and will be almost invisible to most of the users.

For instance, new features by the name Doze tends to detect when the device’s motion sensor is inactive and cuts down on the level of background app activity which Google states can double the battery life of the device.

Android Marshmallow also supports a new type of USB connector known as USB-C which charges devices three to five times faster than the present microUSB chargers according to Google. The USB-C charger similar to the Apple’s Lightning connector, can be plugged either way round which will save the user from struggling in the dark in trying to plug in the charging cable.

A new permission system tend to be easy for users in deciding what information the apps on the phone could use by providing them with the opportunity to confirm or deny access in context.

Google Now Personal Assistant

For instance, if one tends to download WhatsApp on Android device, you would be asked for permission for WhatsApp to access the contacts, location, calendar, photos, camera, microphone and much more which could be very intrusive.

 In the case of Android Marshmallow, users will not be requested to grant permission at the time of download. It is only while sending voice memo, for instance that they would be asked to grant access to their microphone. Permission could also be withdrawn to access certain informationthrough a new option in the setting menu.

Owing to Android Marshmallow release, Google would be updating its Google Now personal assistant enabling users to access information anywhere on the device irrespective of what they intend to do. On holding and tapping the home button, user could put up a query without the need of leaving the app they are in and could also use Google Now on Tap in order to locate new apps and in-app content.

The Android Marshmallow update would be bringing in support for Android Pay, Google’s answer to Apple Pay that enables the user to pay for things in stores with the use of Android Smartphone.

Google, Samsung to Issue Monthly Android Security Fixes

Google/Samsung to Release Monthly Security Fixes

Google Inc. as well as Samsung Electronics Co will be releasing monthly security fixes for Android phones due to the increasing target for hackers after the revelation of a bug that was designed to attack the world’s most known mobile operating system.

 This change came up after Joshua Drake, a security researcher exposed Stagefright hacking software which enables attackers to send special multimedia message to Android phone and to get hold of sensitive content even if the message is not opened. Adrian Ludwig, Android security chief had commented at the weeks’ annual Black

Hat security conference in Las Vegas, that `they had realized that there was a need to move faster’. Earlier Google had developed a patch and had distributed it to its own Nexus phones after getting to know about the security flaws but other manufacturers would wait till they wanted to update the software for various reasons before making a fix, exposing several of the over 1 billion Android users to probable hacks as well as scam till the fix. Ludwig has informed that Google has also made other security changes.

Google – Regular Weekly Security Scans of Russian Phones

He had informed Reuters, in an interview that earlier this year, the team had broken out occurrence rate of malicious software by language and the rate of Russian language Androids with possibly harmful programs seems to have spiked suddenly to around 9% in late 2014.

Google had made its weekly security scans of Russian phones more regular and was capable of reducing the problem, close to the global standard. Ludwig had also mentioned that improvements to the recent versions of Android would also limit an attacks’ efficiency in more than nine out of ten phones. However, Drake informed that the attacker could keep on trying till the ploy tends to work.

 He also said that he would be releasing a code for the attack by August 24, and put pressure on the manufacturers in order to get their patches out before then. Ludwig has said that the Nexus phones are being updated with protection and most of the major Android handset makers will be following suit.

Stolen Files – Hacking Team Indicated Key Avenue

Rick Segal, Vice President of Samsung,had agreed that his company could not compel the telecommunication carriers who purchase its devices in bulk to install the fixes and some would probably only do so for higher-end users.

Segal had mentioned in an interview that `if it is your business customers, you will push it’. Samsung is the biggest manufacturer of Android phones. Ludwig also stated that several Android security worries were overblown and added that only about one in 200 Android phones Google could peer into have any possibly harmful applications installed at any point.

Drake had also observed that those figures had excluded some products which included Fire products from Amazon that utilise Android. In the case of Apple’s iPhones, the main security risk comes with apps which have not been downloaded from the official online stores of the two companies

The files stolen from Hacking Team – an Italian Company that sold eavesdropped tools to government agencies across the globe, indicated a key avenue which was intended to convince targets to download legitimate seeming Android as well as iPhone apps from fraud sites

Google's Modular Ara Phone Delayed

Google’s Project Ara Delayed – 2016

Google has delayed its plan in releasing its modular smartphone concept, codenamed `Project Ara’ hardware till sometime in 2016. The Ara team had tweeted a messaging confirming the delay and shift away from plans to test the modular phone project, later this year, in Puerto Rico. However Google had been quick to note that it is in the process of exploring few locations in the US for Ara.

The explanation for the change by Google recommends that the team had been working hard in making Ara a reality. The team had told followers in a sequence of tweets,that `Project Ara is not going anywhere’, but had been set back by `lots of iteration, more than we thought’. Project Ara enables users to swap out as well as upgrade the core components of smartphone namely processor, camera etc. independently instead of replacing the complete device.

It portrayed a dramatic rethinking of the device and those attending the Google I/O were pleased when the working prototype was showed on stage in May by the company. The development of the product seems to be longer than expected but Google had earlier aimed to have between 20 and 30 Ara modules made available for the now scrapped Puerto Rico trial.

Components Can be Added/Taken Away

Project Ara seems to be Google’s interesting efforts in developing a smartphone which comes in bits, which means that certain components could be added or taken away without the requirements of complex alterations to the device. It would also be less costly to replace smashed screens or worn batteries as well as enable others to develop modified hardware for a particular task.

San Francisco based designer Garrett Kinsman while writing on a forum for developers who were interested in working on Project Ara, had said that he felt a sense of overwhelming sadness at the delay. The Project Ara team had announced at the beginning of this year that it would launch the modular smartphones this year in Puerto Rico as a part of its pilot program.

But the team has now confirmed that its phone will not launch till 2016 along with the announcement of pilot market re-route to a few locations in the US instead of Puerto Rico.

DIY Smartphone

The company has not yet revealed any particular location in the US where it intends launching modular phones. In a tweet, it said, `when? 2016’, followed by the hastags yes we are late and Project Ara - #yeswearelate and #ProjectAra.Project Ara further clarifies that the re-routing does not seem to mean that there would be no modular phone launched in Puerto Rico. It stated that `and this is not goodbye Puerto Rico’. The project expects to kick-start an era of do-it-yourself smartphones which Google has been stressing that it is not targeting weeds.

Google had showcased its Spiral 2 modular smartphone prototype in January Project Ara Spiral 2 prototypek had a HD – 720x1280 pixels screen, choice of Nvidia Tegra K1 or Marvel PX1928 processor, 5-megapixel primary camera, battery, Micro-USB port, speaker as well as connectivity options which included Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G. The Spiral 2 prototype comprised of 11 working modules inclusive of 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Receiver with light as well as proximity sensors, USB charger module and a 2x2 battery module. Spiral 3 also tends to feature the electro permanent magnets in the exoskeleton, thereby saving space in the modules.

Google’s Alphabet

Google took the world by surprise when it announced its creation of a new parent named “Alphabet Inc”. Google had made it clear at the announcement that this particular entity is intended to build any products and brands. However many companies having similar name were quite taken aback with this development and viewed it as a potential trademark infringement instance if Google goes further by bringing in products and services under this brand name.

Google founders Page and Brin had cunningly given the name Alphabet to its newly created parent entity, which will specifically house the Google search business along with other smaller holding. Among the smaller holding, the most important ones are Nest, which is a maker of smart thermostats, Calico, which is focused on longevity and a division, which focuses on developing smart contact lenses and driverless cars.

A lot of firms use Alphabet in their names

Alphabet is rather a common name, which finds itself in many derivates and moderations among the companies listed in US and worldwide. Within US there are 103 trademark registered which includes the word Alphabet or in some other variations as per the database with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. These registrations had been done by companies coming from various fields such as computer games, furniture, clothing label, books, toys, children accessories makers and others.

On Wall Street, there is a company which goes by name Alphabet Funds. Another company Alphabet Energy in Hayward, an Alphabet Plumbing in Prescott, an Alphabet Record Company in Austin along with numerous inns, restaurants and preschools using Alphabet in its name with different variations.

Conflicts might arise with Google’s Alphabet

BMW a premier carmaker already has a robust subsidiary car division named Alphabet, which manages the fleet management at BMW. On a good note, it already possesses the premium domain name alphabet.com. There are chances of Google finding itself broiled into trademark infringement by using the same name and providing similar kind of services to the end users. Since Google is not going to offer similar goods and services there is no likelihood of creating confusion among the consumers at the moment.

Larry Page envisions a separate road for Alphabet

During the announcement, Google CEO Larry Page had made it clear that the new parent company namely Alphabet is not intended for creating a big consumer brand with related products rather it will provide the independence in creating and developing their own brands. Regarding the choosing of name Page emphasized that alphabet actively represents a language and it even signifies “core of how we index” in a Google Internet search.

A history getting into troubles

Google had even experienced legal over intellectual property in the past. Google is frequently targeted by the companies, which claim it off aggressively violating their patents. Currently Google is handling a severe copyright battle with the Oracle Corp exclusively over the royalties, which are used in the Java programming language and being used by Google in its Android operating system.

How Google Quietly Revved Up Its Very Own Car Company

Google is all set to surprise the big names in automobile industry by secretly registering its car company way back in 2011. For a long time Google tried to work with big names in the car industry to develop its ambitious self driving cars. At the North American Auto Show, which was held in January, Google announced that they were having serious talks with major car plays such as General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen and Daimler.
 
The project lead for the Google’s self driving cars Chris Urmson even went on to say that manufacturing cars is hard and a tedious job which is aptly done by the car manufacturers and it will be wise to find a partnership rather do everything by oneself. Unfortunately, no partnership had come into being till now.

Chris Urmson emerges as Google Auto LLC CEO

The most viable reason of not coming up with any partnership is that Google already had its own Company named Google Auto LLC registered in California. This company is registered as a passenger vehicle manufacturer with both the national and international organization across the world. Google subsidiary as ‘car manufacturer company’ received its license last year as a dignified car maker in California and being headed by no other by than Chris Urmson.

Legal documents brings more insights

All this is revealed by the Guardian had after obtaining legal documents through Public Records Act request in California. Legal documents even show that Google Auto was formed as a limited liability company, which was used initially by the parent company to modify and test its fleet of driverless Lexus SUV’s. Google Auto LLC finds itself mentioned as the sole manufacturer of 23 autonomous Lexus cars registered in California. Interestingly all the vehicles have been involved a number of minor accidents in and around Google’s home town of Mountain View. However, no law suits were filed in these accidents and it is quite common among the large businesses to set up subsidiaries in order to try new and risky projects.

Signs of Google’s rising ambition

Over the years, Google had shown incredible sign in the rise of its driving technology marvels. But nobody had perceived this might have grown with presence of a secret car making company in the veil. Google Auto LLC was in being since 2011 and just last Google appointed Chris Urmson as the manager of the Google Auto which gave him the reigns of company’s daily operations. By the nest day Google took the world by surprise when it announced that it is all set to build 100 prototype self-driving cars right from the scratch. The prototype cars created a sensation when it was said that these cars will not contain any steering wheels, accelerator or brakes.

Google Auto LLC applied even for the VIN codes in order to identify each of its self-driving cars like other car manufacturer. It organized emission testing in California and in order to avoid safety requirements and crash, test it and kept its cars lightweight with low speed capability. All of these activities simply show that Google’s ambition is always to go through research to the end product with doubt.

Google Street View Cars will Soon Measure Pollution

Recently a firm by the name of Aclima, building environmental sensors has teamed up with the web giants Google, and in turn has set out with a novelty…the street car of Google that is equipped with environmental sensors and a load of other new technologies that is capable of accumulating a vast and varied amounts of data directly from the street while this supposed techy piece of automobile shall cruise the asphalt. The greatest implication of this novelty is its radical technological outfit that makes this vastly suitable for some of the mundane street jobs which are yet of greatest value…namely monitoring pollution.

The hardware placed on these vehicles is equipped with sensors that are capable of measuring the components of air like nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) etc.

Though the whole idea is still in its early foetal stage, it can be expected that in near future there will be a time when the atmosphere information will be added even to the Google maps. The joint venture by both the companies has already had their set of trial runs and experiments on the streets of Denver.

Three of the Google vehicles fitted with their new outfit cruised the streets of the city for about a month and gathered information. A remarkable 150 data points was the net accumulation, a result of 750 hours of driving. The soon to be expected new development in this mass project is its shift to a new ground for experimentation and further modification.

San Francisco has been chosen as the new ground for operations, where local scientists are expected to take up quite an important role in developing the whole setup to a finer tuning, thereby making it conducive to this new locale and also increase it potential. A more viable method to utilize this gathered information is also on the agenda to make this even more conducive and productive.

What’s more? 

Usually stationary air pollution sensors are placed across the city that measure and give a feedback of the air pollution in a specific locale. This monitoring setup is a design dedicated at air quality regulation. However, this is barely capable of providing a detailed picture of a community or an urban area, and its exact pollution situation to the people.

The new cars fitted with the new technology are more conducive at mapping and setting up a friendly model of the environment, which is much more specific and easily understandable; thereby opening a new portal for the masses. A quite interesting happening is the already successful use of these street cars to measure gas leaks.

American Business Act on Climate Pledge

Google and twelve other American businesses have already signed the American Business Act on Climate Pledge and thereby committing to a 140 billion dollar in low carbon investments. Google themselves have also decided to power its operations with 100 percent renewable energy.

What is worth noting in all these new developments in the field of tracing the rising pollution levels across the globe is the simple hope for a better morrow where even if the world is not much greener, one will have the option to choose a greener pocket in his or her locality.

Motorola Launches New Moto X Range, Next Generation Moto G

Motorola is all set to give competition to the rivals who had aggressively introduced new mid budget phones at affordable price points. Motorola has launched its successful flagship Moto G and Moto X Smartphone to compete both at the low and high end of the highly competitive Smartphone market. Motorola has introduced two new versions of its high end Moto X and a new version of Moto G Smartphone. With this it is taking head on against the popular products from rival Chinese manufactures and esteemed Samsung and Apple brands.

The new Moto G brings more features at low price point

The earlier version of Moto G launched in 2013 showed how a great Smartphone experience can be provided at a low price point. But this time around Motorola had even better by bring enhanced specifications at affordable range without comprising on the user experience. Moto G offer irresistible user experience coupled with amazing specifications, which a consumer can think about.

Moto G comes in 2GB RAM and 16GB Internal storage as well as 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage variants. Moto G new version is dust and water resistant, supports dual Sim cards and both can be used to access 4G connectivity. It comes up with a large 5-inch HD IPS display screen including Corning Gorilla Glass protection. The latest stock Android Lollipop will found on this device. This device is motorized by 1.4GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor. The cameras are also upgraded to 13 Megapixel on the back with dual flash and 5 megapixel snapper at the front.

Moto X Style Steps up the high end Smartphone user experience

Moto X Style is an enhanced and beautiful version of the flagship Smartphone which is coupled with a highly powerful hardware under the hood. It features a QHD screen display of 5.7 inches coupled with latest powerful Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 808 Hexa core processor and Android 5.0 OS. Motorola has clocked this premium processor at 1.8 GHZ to provide an exceptional performance in handling multi tasking. Moto Styles offers 3GB of RAM and comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB storage variants along with external storage expansion support via MicroSD card.

Motorola has laced the Moto X Style with a 21 megapixel front camera having dual CCT flash with capability of shooting videos at 4K resolution. For selfie Moto X have 5 megapixel snapper. Moto X Style has a marathon battery of 3000mAh, which can provide 30 hours of standby in a single charge. On connectivity front, it has 4G LTE, 3G, WiFi and other options.

Moto X Play: a commendable upgrade over last year’s model 

Moto X Play's features a 5.5-inch display of FHD 1080p screen and comes loaded with a 3630mAh battery. Moto X comes with latest Android Lollipop 5.1 coupled with 2GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage. A similar camera of 21-mega pixel and 5 megapixel selfie cameras will be found on the device.

Motorola flagships Moto X Smartphone are serious contenders to take on the likes of premium devices launched by the Apple and Samsung in the recent past.

Terrain-based virtual camera tilting, and applications thereof

Terrain-Based Virtual Camera Tilting & Applications

Google has recently been awarded U.S. Patent for Terrain based virtual camera tilting and application. Systems prevailing in navigating via a three dimensional environment tends to display three dimensional data which comprises of a virtual camera defining what kind of three dimension data to display.

The virtual camera has a viewpoint based on its orientation as well as position and by changing the viewpoint of the virtual camera one can navigate through the three dimensional setting. Environmental information system could be one form of system which utilises a virtual camera in navigating through a three dimensional setting. It is a system for the purpose of storing, recovering and manipulating and display spherical three dimensional model of the Earth.

The three dimensional model could comprises of a satellite descriptions surface which could be mapped to terrain like canyons, valleys and mountains. In the terrestrial information system, the virtual camera tends to view the spherical three dimensional of the Earth’s model from various perspectives and the internal viewpoint of the model of the Earth tends to portray the satellite images though the terrain could be difficult to view. While on the other hand, ground level viewpoint of the model may portray the terrain in detail.

Method of Swooping Between Perspectives

To changeover from aerial viewpoint to a ground level perspective, U.S. Patent Application by Varadhan et all explains a method of example of swooping between perspectives, describing reduction of distance between the virtual camera as well as the target in determining a tilt value based on the condensed distance.

The virtual camera is then positioned as per the tilt value as well as the condensed distance. A method is available for swoop navigation and in cases where the terrain seems to be flat; a viewpoint which is parallel for ground could not be much interesting to a user than in instances where the terrain differs in altitude. On applying single swoop trajectory to a complete three dimensional environment which could comprise the flat as well as the rugged terrain, could lead to incidents where the swoop trajectory would not provide an optimal user experience.

Embodiment to Change Swoop Trajectory

To manage with the variation in terrain, embodiments tend to change the swoop trajectory based on the terrain inside the view of the virtual camera. A virtual camera could be positioned at an angle comparative to the upward normal vector from the target, to swoop into a target, the angle of which may be stated as a tilt angle.
As per the embodiments, the tilt angle could rise more quickly in areas of high terrain variance for instance, mountains or cities with high buildings, than in areas with less variance in terrain such as flat plains. In order to determine the level of terrain variance in an area, embodiments could weight terrain data with higher detail more deeply than terrain data with less detail.

Moreover, the tilt angle could also be varied depending on the amount of terrain variance even if the camera is otherwise static and/or the tilt angle may be varied at the time of another manoeuver rather than a swoop.

Eddystone: Cross-Platform Beacon Format Gets Google Launch

Google is all set to introduce its upcoming Eddystone beacon format, which will work along with other API to offer hardcore connectivity solution. Eddystone beacon is expected to make it easier for variety of devices to communicate with each other in close proximity. Google had caused frenzy among the developers with its update where it talked about beacon with headline: “Lightning the way with BLE beacons.”

How Eddystone Beacon Will Work? 

Fundamentally, beacon is not a new concept rather it works on the age-old technique wherein it acts as a transmitter. Beacon will acts as a transmitter, and it will send out the information about a certain point and that particular information is later is picked up by a smartphone or tablet within its range. In this connectivity becomes fast paced and much more synchronized and streamlined than before.

In the earlier times, we used to have a lighthouse, which helped the sailors in navigating through the treacherous ocean. On the same idea, modern electronic beacons are designed and developed which helps in navigating to the precise location and contextual cues already fed in apps.

A beacon can work on different levels to provide much more comfort and swift operational capability such as it can label a bus stop so phone knows to keep the tick ready in advance. Similarly, museum app will be able to provide background on the work of the artist a person is viewing at that particular moment.

Eddystone Is Google Open Beacon Format

Google is known to develop and launch such services, which are free and provide wholesome user experience without spending a single dime. Similarly Eddystone is open beacon format from Google. Its specification shows that it includes a large number of broadcast frame type most importantly Eddystone-URL which acts as backbone of Physical Web.

Very soon, Google will begin its rolling out of features in different sets for the developers to build new apps based on this technology. Google will also roll out a new open format for Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons in order to communicate with people’s devices. Google had ensured that its Eddystone remains an open source project by getting an Apache v2.0 license.

Developers Can Develop Apps As Much They Love To

This license makes sure that this new revolutionary beacon is free for any who wishes to use and improve its functionality further. The manufactures of the physical beacons can also access this remarkable technology as well as utilize it in their beacons. Even embed in their existing beacons making it Eddystone compliant through a firmware update.

Eddystone beacon possesses some amazing feature, which includes extensibility which means new functionalities can be added with ease. Highly scalable and having the capability to communicate with a variety of devices running either iOS, Android with perfection.

Google believes that beacon will provide an important way of delivering better experience to the users of different apps by embedding Eddystone in the products and services.

Beacon technology is being praised by all but now it is required to get business and transit authorities as well as other private enterprise to invest in compliant hardware to make it a success.

In Tests, Yahoo Uses Google to Power Search Results and Ads

Presently, Yahoo is already in the deal of 10 years to use Microsoft's Bing to power its search results and due to that this software giant is not happy as Google is entering in its territory.

To work together, Yahoo and Google is testing:

According to the reports of New York Times, Yahoo and Google are entering into partnership to test the Google powered search results and search ads for Yahoo. However; the discovery was first time reported by Aaron Wall of, owner of SEO Book (One of the best company in industry). The more he added that this arrangement is only for the test and may be in future it will not convert into actual deal. According to Yahoo spokeswoman, “We are working together to provide the best experiences to our users and it’s our regular work to run small test or pilot projects with different partners to power up the search results for users benefit. The more she added that at this time we don’t have anything more to share.

Microsoft and Google didn’t respond immediately:

Google is the leading and its most popular search engine as it has more than 71 per cent market share in all over the world, as per the reports of NetMarketShare. However; in this list Yahoo lead by Marissa Mayer, former Google executive is at the third position with 9.6 per cent share in all over the world and Microsoft powered Bing search engine is at second position with 10 per cent market share. Only in US Google has more than 64.40 per cent share in search market, followed by Bing with 20.20 per cent and Yahoo with 12.70 per cent market share in search industry, as per the latest reports of ComScore.

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo have seen the same search results in her career earlier when she was in Google and due to that she signaled that now our company is focusing on powering up the Yahoo search engines to cover more market share. But any search deal between Yahoo and Google will definitely come under antitrust scrutiny because European Commission has already antitrust pending cases about Google’s dominant position. However; earlier in April 2015, Yahoo and Microsoft have announced the agreement, which will provide flexibility to yahoo to enhance the search experience of users across multiple devices such as; mobile, tablets, and desktops. Whereas; the key component of agreement was that yahoo is free to get in partnership with other companies to power up its own search platforms.

In past, Microsoft has lost few important deals including recent deal with Facebook as in December 2014, Facebook announced that they have ended the deal with Bing to provide web search results through Bing because now we are focusing on helping the users to find what people are sharing on their walls through our Facebook search box. According to tech experts, its clear indication that Google is trying to enter in the Microsoft's territory.

Google Has Set Its Terrifying, Dreaming Image Robots on the Public

Google’s Images Recognizing Robots

Software engineers of Google has recently revealed the results of an experiment which looked at how computer can think, identify and understand objects, animals and people in images. Google has opened its images recognizing robots to all, enabling users to create strange and horrifying images from their very own images. It has released the somewhat horrifying, half amazing images created recently with pictures.

The company has made the `Deep Dream software available on code sharing website Github wherein users could download the same and run their own pictures through it. The software is said to operate on turning image recognising computers on themselves and by prompting the system to over interpret image, which they would otherwise pick out meaningless things, exaggerating them. For instance like turning clouds into bizarre llamas.

With regards to Google’s own image, it tends to transform thing into animals, with dogs being the favourite and eyes. There is also the possibility of overlaying everything with a swirly rainbow colouring. Google has stated that the technology could enable us in understanding where the creativity of human comes from and the same is being put to the test.

The Day Dream System

The `Day Dream’ system tends to feed an image via a layer of artificial neurons, asking an AI to improve as well as build certain features like edges. Over a period of time the pictures could get distorted which is morphed into something that is completely different or just a cluster of colourful random noise.

With the code for the system made available, user have the option of uploading an image of their choice and watch it metamorphose into a surrealistic image. On being fed with several pictures, the image recognition software developed by Google allows artificial neural network of computer to view shapes in images and creates strange, psychedelic and fantastic images which could be likened to entertainer art.

With immense deal of interest generated from the AI research published together with the generated images, Google decided to make the code for its algorithm available to the public. The source code needs to be hosted on a site and some software developers have hosted the same like Psychic VR Lab and Deep Neural Net Dreams where users can now upload a picture to these sites and run it through the algorithm in creating images of their choice.

Artificially Intelligent Neural Network of Google

Artificially intelligent neural network of Google comprises of 10 to 30 stacked layers of artificial neurons wherein each layer tends to look at images and detects various aspects like a corner or a shape and conveys information to the next layer till the final layer tends to formulate an answer.

At times the network understands shapes and decides to understand mild images such as clouds or faces as animals which portrays unusual effects layered over the images like plenty of creepy eyes staring back at the viewers, fantastic dog heads merged into objects and animals with striking touches. The engineers mentioned that `the techniques presented helps to understand and visualize how neural networks are able to carry out difficult classification tasks, improve network architecture and check what the network has learned during training.
It also make us wonder whether neural networks could become a tool for artists, a new way to remix visual concepts, or perhaps even shed a little light on the roots of the creative process in general’.

Google's Nest Labs Unveil HD Security Camera

Google’s Home Sensing Unit – Security Camera/Smoke Alarm 

Nest Labs, which is Google’s Home sensing division has revealed its latest set of a new version of home security camera enhancing technology connected to smart homes. The so called Nest Cam has been designed on technology obtained when Dropcam had been purchased by Nest last year for US4550 million. Dropcam founded in 2009, permitted users to install cameras in their home for the purpose of live viewing and recording combined with the option for night vision.

 The camera had the potential of shooting video at full 1080p high definition an improvement from the Dropcam’s 720p. It provides an 8X digital zoom, motion sensors, as well as leverages 8 infrared LEDs in order to capture flawless footages especially at night. Besides this it also had the capabilities of differentiating between the various kinds of movement in the videos together with alerts to the users should some untoward incidents takes place at home in their absence. The videos which is captured is said to be uploaded directly to the Nest Aware cloud storage wherein live feed could be run on a smartphone or a computer thus enabling Nest Cam with the capabilities of accurate alerts to the users in case of movement in the house.

Modernize Home Gear – Intelligent/Connected Devices 

It is said to be available in seven countries, inclusive of US, Canada and several parts of Europe, namely Germany and the U.K. Google’s Nest unit is putting in resources in its product line-up in convincing consumers that they need to modernize their home gear with intelligent, connected devices while competing with rivals like Apple and Samsung. If users intent to review recorded videos, they would have to buy a subscription and customers can pay subscription fee of £8 and £24 per month in order to keep the video for 10 and 30 days respectively.

Nest Product – the Protect smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector, another product unveiled, detects fire quicker than the first generation product according to Nest and comes at a price of $99 and will be shipped next month. It appears to be thinner and has various features which automatically ensure its working while it avoids false warnings. Nest is said to be partnering with home insurance companies which includes American Family Insurance and Liberty Mutual Insurance with its Protect product.

Mobile/Desktop App – Control Nest Devices 

Qualified consumers could get their device for free or at reduced cost to receive discounts on insurance premiums through reward program. Tony Fadell, co-founder of Nest Labs has his focus in getting the product paid off when he was at Apple, where he had worked during the rise of the company in 2001. He had been a long time deputy to co-founder Steve Jobs as well as central to the development of the iPod and iPhone.

At the time of the event in San Francisco, the company also unveiled a new mobile and desktop app which will help users in controlling all their Nest devices and with the inclusion of the Nest Cam, the company has now three products inclusive of the Nest Protect and Nest thermostat. These products are a part of internet connected devices collecting sensitive data which come under Google’s umbrella. According to Nest’s senior product manager and head of its developer program, Greg Hu commented during an interview following the announcement, that Google will not gain any data unless authorised by the users. That authorisation, which was announced earlier, enables a variety of third party services and Google services to inter-relate with Nest devices.

Google to Offer Mac-Friendly Version of Chrome

Much after people reduced the use of old-school Microsoft Internet Explorer and chose the most beloved browser Google Chrome, Google finally announced Mac friendly version of the web browser, which will consume less battery and will offer better performance. It was high time for US tech giant Google to spread their wing into iMacs and Mac OS, as the company now expects the Chrome to work with its full potential in Mac computers. According to tech pundits, Google have placed a well-planned and firm bet by releasing Mac-friendly Chrome, only to triumph Apple’s own web browser, Safari. Though Safari works just perfectly as a web browser on Apple systems and offers lot additives, Google officials and developers are confident enough to beat the likes of Safari and to claim the favourite spot for Mac-freaks.

The news got proper shape when Senior chrome engineer Peter Kasting recently announced an update to Google chrome with some intelligent tweaks are coming very soon. Though Google have not announced any launch date, but the update details are coming from trusted official sources. According to official sources, Google developers’ team is currently testing the latest tweaks, which are expected to reduce the load by chrome on the processor and also promises for longer battery life and enhanced performance.

What is coming with Mac-friendly Chrome! 

Last week Casting posted on Google+ about the Chrome update for Mac users and stated that the new Chrome version will change how it processes the idle tabs, which are not in use at that point of time. In technical words, the new chrome will render the tabs differently and the unused tabs will be less prioritised further. The tests conducted have showed better browsing performance, better idle wake up time and also showed less battery consumption, which have been always a great concern on Mac systems. Google have also integrated some intelligent moves with new Chrome, like waking up from low-power mode to check necessary tasks and it will reduce idle wake time.

For Mac systems, some of the biggest problems reported for Chrome are huge battery consumption, high memory acquisition. Google tech team have been preparing Chrome for this launch for a long time now and stated that the team has been restless during this time as they could not allow their users are having issues with their product. Also the newer version of Chrome is coming with stable enabled flash service.

Vs Safari

According to the technology experts, Google Chrome is going for a direct assault with Safari by matching their performance graph on Mac systems. Certain quality check tests have been conducted and showed significant boost in performance level. For example, a test showed the consumption of processing power by new version of Chrome reduced to 0.1 percent from 0.3 percent.

According to the official source, Google will be releasing the new version of Chrome through its beta channel in a while and the final version will be launched in next month or so.

Google’s Security News: Malware’s Down, and You’re Heeding More of Its Warnings

According to the Google’s security product manager, the company defines their success in simple term- invisibility. As per Stephan Somogyi they are targeting as the main outcome when we encountered a blank browser window appearing in front of him. He was able to give some insight on the status of the online security, during the Google’s I/O conference at the half-hour presentation called the Second annual Google Security update at I/O.

Phishing and Malware Sites: 

He gave some more details on the Safe Browsing service of the company. He calls them as a collection of systems that have the ability to hunt down the badness all across the net. It has the ability to protect the visitors who are searching the web using the Google search site or even Chrome, Safari as well as Firefox. This indicates the total reach to the audience amounting to 1.1 billion people.

According to the reports released by the company, they have located that the Malware is becoming is not a huge problem anymore. But they have also found that phishing sites that are able to fool the customers into entering their details like password and more financial details are increasing in numbers.

During the last week of Mat, they were able to detect nearly 14,977 malware sites and nearly 33,571 phishing sites using the safe browsing. The Malware has shown a big drop and Phishing has shown a bigger increase. Somogyi has given all the credit to the enhanced security in all their operating system in every device. Due to this the Malware authors are now more concentrating on the phishing sites and targeting the software’s.

The much needed push for encryption: 

Google has been among the first companies who were advocating the use of encryption to avoid people from snooping on users online. The acceleration to this push came in the form of the revelations made by Edward Snowden, who confirmed that NSA has been eavesdropping on their traffic from quite some time. He further expressed his anger pertaining to the effort that is being put forth by Google to get other emails providers to try and adapt the TLS, which is the Transport Layer security encryption. Through this all the third party companies care unable to reading the messages when they are transit.

The company is hoping to reach to larger companies that work in sending email and find out the reasons why they are unable to implement TLS. But from the perspective of the company, they do not want to resort to public shaming.

They are not ready to disclose the names of the company who have still not followed or implemented TLS. Compared to TLS, Google has been able to attain much more success in terms of encouraging different websites to implement HTTPS encryption to completely secure the user visit to websites. The company is making all effort to ensure that the users feel completely safe when spending their time online.

Google: Your Hands May Be the Only Interface You’ll Ever Need

Project Soli – Hands Only User Interface

Wearable devices tend to get smaller and smaller and our hands and fingers find it difficult in keeping up with them. Hence gearheads at Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group – ATAP have been working on ways in controlling devices with simple hand gestures. Google ATAP is aware that the hand is the best method for interaction with devices though not everything seems to be a device. Project Soli the latest wearable is not a wearable one would think, neither a watch but ‘you’.

Project Soli intends to make the hands and fingers the only user interface that would be needed. It is actually radar which is adequately small to be fitted into a wearable like a smart watch where the small radar tends to pick up on the movements on real time, utilising the movements made to modify its signal. While the hand rests, it is actually moving slightly which tends to end as a baseline response on the radar and moving the hand away or from side to side with regards to the radar could change the signal and amplitude. Crossing the fingers or making a fist could also change the signal.

ATAP to have APIs

In order to make sense of the signal to a service or app, ATAP would be having APIs which could tap in the deep machine learning of Project Soli. However, it is still early for the new entry though it has got the people at Google I/O eager and instead of going hands-free, Project Soli would make the hands the UI which could be a better option than voice control could be. Ivan Poupyrev, technical program lead for Google ATAP comments that `should Project Soli become a reality someday, users would be able to control smart watches, fitness trackers as well as other devices with the use of gestures in utilising their smartphone, only without the phone’.

 He informed the audience at Google I/O that their hands tend to be always with them and are ergonomic and could be the only interface ever needed in controlling wearable devices. Nevertheless, gesture based interfaces tend to already exist and several of them such as the Kinect or PlayStation Move utilise camera in detecting the hand movements. Thus they work only when there happens to be clear lines of sight which are worthless in the dark.

Flares out Radar Signals – Numerous Antennae

The Soli chip is said to flare out radar signals from numerous antennae, thousands of time each seconds creating an arena that could measure the minute movements of the fingers, detecting when the fingers are crossed or record signals at once from both hands. It is a kind of software developers generating a vocabulary in interpreting each gesture, translating it into action similar to deleting a message or taking a call on the smartwatch.

The latest radar chip has the capabilities of a range of 5 feet or more, enabling it to be integrated to all types of devices which include the walls of the home. Probably there may be a time in the near future that one may be capable of turning on the lights on snapping the fingers or turn up the volume on Sonos by turning an imaginary dial in the air. Presently Project Soli is just a research project.            

Google's 'Smart' Food Diary Is Actually Kind Of Dumb

Google – Automated Food Diary to Estimate Calorie Count

Google has been building an automated food dairy which could help to estimate calorie counts from the images taken of our meal according to a report in Popular Science. Named Im2Calories, the project is said to utilise technology from DeepMind, which is an AI start-up Google acquired in 2014. Google has filed a patent for Im2Calories, however there is no mention yet on when the service is likely to be made available.

Meanwhile, several other companies are making similar attempts on the projects like Im2Calories which are being supported by equally questionable science. Im2Calorie is said to measure the size of the food, in absolute terms as well as relative to what is on the plate and could also identify the condiments. According to the report, it does not even matter if the picture tends to be high resolution or not. Presently, the technology is still imprecise in estimating calorie counts.

According to Kevin Murphy, a researcher at Google acknowledges as much to Popular Science stating that `it’s okay fine, maybe we get the calories off by 20%. It does not matter’. The focus for Google is in minimizing those inaccuracies over a period of time, claims Murphy. There does not seem to be any doubt in Google’s ability in collecting and processing data from large section of users though the company would still have to solve a big problem for the function of Im2Calories – calorie counting could be unreliable.

Counting Calories – Look at Kinds of Calories Eaten

A main study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2011 observed that the quality of food is a main contributing factor than quantity. Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, lead author of the study informed the New York Times - `Conventional wisdom – to eat everything in moderation eat fewer calories and avoid fatty foods, isn’t the best approach.

Just counting calories won’t matter much unless you look at the kinds of calories you’re eating’. However if calories seems to a good measure for health, food labels, - the basis of Google’s date, has also considered to be inaccurate. In 2010, there has been much uncertainty with regards to calorie counting where David Kirchoff, the CEO then of the Weight Watchers acknowledged that `calorie-counting has become unhelpful’ for those intending to lose weight. Since then the company is said to have abandoned its calorie first approach.

Im2Calories – A Potential Tool

Im2Calories, which is the potential tool, had been announced at the Rework Deep Learning Summit, recently. Murphy had unveiled a project that utilises `sophisticated deep learning algorithms to analyse a still image of food, estimating how many calories could be on the plate. In one instance, the system viewed an image and counted `two eggs, two pancakes and three strips of bacon.

Although the food stuff does not seem to be a universal unit of measurement, the system could scale the size of each piece of foot with regards to the plate together with the condiments. Murphy has no intention of shaming users with this new system but wants to have the `process of keeping a food diary and awareness of foods and this seems to be much easier than feeding information manually to a food app which could include portions of food items, types of food and much more.

It is assumed that the latest tool Im2Calories could be popular especially in the US since obesity tends to be a crisis. However, even if Im2Calories does not seem to be accurate, Murphy is of the opinion that the new system will tend to have an impact on the users.

Google's Project Vault Is a Security System Disguised As a MicroSD Card

The search engine giant is coming up with new project where it is planning to use make phones much more secure than ever by the use of microSD card which will act as the security powerhouse. In present both web and mobile security is the primary concern of consumers and enterprise companies because both have to secure their personal information such as; financial detail, clients detail and other very sensitive data, so it is expected that Google’s Project Vault will be much useful in future.

Recently, at the I/O developer conference, Google unveiled its latest projects. In Project Vault, Google is trying to make phone more secure, without changing the way to manufacture the Smartphones. On last Friday, the company announced its Project Vault, which will enable the microSD card to act as the the digital security system apart from traditional use where computers and phones was recognizing it as the storage device.

According to the statement of Regina Dugan, who is Team lead for ATAP or Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Vault will make your mobile devices more secure than ever which is also known as big security in the small package. Google is trying to cater the need of consumers where due to advanced technology today users are able to get each and every service at on their Smartphones, but still the cyber security is their primary concern. It is expected that Project Vault will be useful for all the platforms such as; Android, iOS, Windows and OS X.

The Vault card will be the secure way to protect the data and personal information of phone or computer users. For an example:- It will be able to encrypt the chat messages which will be on app and by doing this it will provide the extra levels of security or secure authentication, so that device will be able to identify your correctly. In industry, the Google will be the first company to develop this kind of technology for personal use as well as for the use of enterprise companies.

According to Google officials it will easily meet the standards of consumers and high bar of well known companies. The card will have the NFC or near-field communication, chip for communication to contact to the nearby devices and 4 gigabytes of storage as well.

According to experts, unfortunately the consumer segment will not able to secure their mobile or other device anytime soon because in present, Google is developing its microSD card for enterprise companies and later it will focus on the consumer segment.

The idea behind this concept is that enterprise companies need to secure the data of their customers, clients and product information as well. Project Vault will provide the secure way to communicate and store data as well for free services such as; Gmail email service, Google Maps, Chrome Web browser and more. Officially, Google has not stated that when it will launch the SD card as this tech giant is involve in several other projects.

Google I/O Rumours: Android M will Aim to Improve Battery, RAM Usage

Google I/O began on 28th May and a lot of rumors have started making its way out in the open. Most of it center round the new development and features integration in the Google’s latest and upcoming Android iteration which is termed as Android M. Rumors have indicated the effort is given towards boosting battery usage and RAM performance in the upcoming Android M.

Better Battery Life and Flawless Multi Tasking For Android Users In Store

These reports had been first publishing on the Android Police which has maintained that Google has some extraordinary plans to impeccably improve the battery in Android OS along with improving the RAM performance. The battery performance will be improved through cutting the number of “location checking.”

Google is focusing its energies towards reducing the RAM usage, which will bolster the multi taking on the Android devices. Improved RAM usage will make the device to run a wide number of apps with ease at the same time without any glitches and freezing. Google is also seeking to keep the activities to minimum when the device’s screen is off in order to save the battery for a longer period.

Set Privacy Controls In New Android M

An earlier report has affirmed that Google also has plans to bring new advanced feature in its Android OS to make it more secure and user friendly. Google will be reintroducing the feature to tweak the privacy controls in Android M. This feature will give the users the much-needed option of deciding what information they are willing to share with apps.

Apple’s prominent and much popular iOS already possesses this feature which allows its users to control which app will get access to which permission. Google’s plans of bringing a similar kind of feature will make Android OS at par with Apple’s iOS. But currently Android OS doesn’t have any such feature to restrict permissions like locations, contacts, messaging etc. during the installation of the app.

Android M To Make Debut In August 2015

The latest Android OS will make a debut in August, which is quite early by the Google’s standards. Moreover, it should be noted that new OS rollouts for the Android devices that do not come underway much earlier than the December. So most probably Android users will get the taste of the advanced OS no sooner than next year and it even depends on the manufactures to bring in updates after its release. This inconsistency in getting updates over a longer period of time rather than quick deployment can be blamed upon the fragmented ecosystem of Android.

However, one should not get too excited about these reports and rumors at the moment as it might even end up being a hoax. If these rumors happens to be true then Android users will be sure-shot winners wherein there device will become much more powerful and robust with its given specification. Users should wait for the time when Google Android M is revealed and launched. And it might happen the name of the Android may change at the last moment just like in case of Lollipop.

Atmosphere With Google: Think Creatively and Innovate Boldly

 

Atmosphere With Google – An Event Platform

Google has recently planned an event platform called `Google Atmosphere’, at the Googleplex for around 300 technology professionals largely for CIOs and CTOs of leading organizations to discuss how the technology will evolve in the near future and how to mainstream it. It is considered to be an economic forum for the leading decision makers of the world. Atmosphere is about how Google Enterprise could be a game changer for enterprises.

 It is said to be a conference wherein Google would be displaying its top innovations and provide glimpses of what would be in store for the future. Some of the highlights in the past few years were Driverless cars, Cloud, Google Glass, Maps. Google Atmosphere was first held in 2008 in London and what began as a conference with 250 CIOs has now turned into a global event which is held annually at numerous cities. This grand event, this year will be organized in London, Paris, Munich, Sydney and several other places are tend to be the hub of technology. Google would be having bright minds to speak at this event and has also invited some of the most innovative brains to express their thoughts.

First Time in India – 19th September

Some of the geniuses like Nicholas Carr, Marc Benioff (SalesForce), Werner Vogels (Amazon), Amit Singh; Nikesh Arora had conferred the event in the past. Google Atmosphere, for the very first time is coming to India and the grant event would be held in Delhi on 19th September at ITC Maurya. Those intending to have glimpses of the future and be part of the event could register at – http://goo.gl/wIWZxf. Seats would be limited and hence registering early with MediaAgility - Premier Google Enterprise partner could be done, to avoid disappointment.

 It would be a great privilege in getting to hear from Google executives, experts as well as customers and get to envisage the latest innovations transforming business.For business operations, HR executives, marketing and sales, one could learn about Google’s vision in enabling employees to work out the way they live and get things done in a quicker and innovative way. In case of finance and IT, they could get deep into the financial as well as operational benefits of Google Apps, the leading communication and collaboration solution in the cloud.

Foundation of Cloud Computing Boils down Application/Platform/Devices

On stage, Google Enterprise President, Dave Girouard, had called cloud computing a `fundamentally disruptive’ technology, stating that it brought about a bit of emotion from anyone talking about it. At one end of the range there are some who tend to consider cloud as a computing nirvana while on the other end there are those who do not trust it.

It would be a day which would be filled with plenty of discussions together with debate on the cloud and some even making light issues at the close mindedness of some technology leaders who try to down play the cloud, which could be some of the executives from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. Girouard has offered smart presentation which would break down old school business IT where everything is behind the firewall. He has commented that the foundation of cloud computing boils down to application, platforms and devices. He has pointed that a couple of key app have long broken out of the wall like mail (Gmail etc.) and CRM (sales force).

Google’s Project Fi

One of the most exciting information that was revealed on Wednesday has to be from Google. The confirmed announced their plan for launching their wireless service called Project Fi. The information highlighted that this service will be leveraging the obtainable Wi-Fi networks and only switch to another carrier’s network like Sprint on T-mobile in the absence of Wi-Fi accessibility.

Looking at the current approach towards the mobile communications, market experts have named the same as “Wi-Fi first”. Although this is an approach, which is being followed by many companies like FreedomPop, Republic and even scratch Wireless. Recently Freewheel was launched by the Cablevision Company with the sole aim of providing only the Wi-Fi service.

Impact on the Wireless Industry: 

This announcement from the web giant has comes as a boon for the wireless industry, for the Wi-Fi First industry and not to forge the customers who are associated with the company. As if now it has been reported that typically a customer has to pay around $10-20/GB for data usage however we all know that the conventional cell phone service cost around $140 per month for every subscriber and according to the study conducted by Validas in 2013, every smartphone user ends up wasting nearly $28 worth of unused data each month. Contrary to all charges we do not, want the cell phone service is not supposed to be costly.

Reports released by Cisco in 2014 indicated that the company saw nearly half of their total mobile data traffic indicating the usage of Wi-Fi. With the increasing, number of updated and options for Wi-Fi, the company can certainly expect the numbers to go up high to nearly 90 percent. With the 1GB of mobile data costing around $10 to the customers, most of them have shifted to Wi-Fi and thereby saving nearly $700 billion every year.

If the system will get implemented properly, so it’s clear that the Wi-Fi model will have a capability to fill all the gaps and regulate the cellular networks and also end up hurting the business of both Verizon and AT&T around the world.

Google has been able will help the customer saves, so that they can trillions of their money through the Wi-Fi First model. The new project of Google will be able to increase the adoption of this new model through few of the critical steps whereas; the first step is to ensure that all Android devices have built in Wi-Fi First intelligence at outset. This is to ensure that the phones rely on the Wi-Fi system and incase of unavailability switch to the cellular services.

The second step is to ensure constant Wi-Fi connectivity. Although it is available everywhere not every customer uses the same for taking the maximum advantage. Google is aiming to make the entire experience seamless and more towards mainstream. We know that Wi-Fi is a critical part of every industry and given the excellent track record of Google, the has potential of taking down both Verizon and AT&T.