Tag: Google

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Google starts laying off its Canadian employees

Google has sent layoff notices to some Canadian employees after its parent company, Alphabet, announced that it was cutting 12,000 employees from the company.

A Google Canada spokesperson spoke to Global News, and said that impacted staff have been aware of the cuts since last month. It’s currently unclear how many Canadian have been impacted by the layoffs. The spokesperson did mention any specifics about the layoffs.

“Canada remains an important priority market for Google,” the spokesperson told Global News in an email.  Google has offices in Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Vancouver, Montreal and Edmonton.

Back in January, Google began the process of laying off 12,000 employees around the world. In the blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he takes “full responsibility” for the decision behind the mass layoff.

The impacted employees are “across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.” The post indicates that impacted employees aren’t specific to one country and include U.S. employees.

Google isn’t the only company that had layoffs in the tech sphere. Companies like Meta, Shopify, and Amazon have also laid off many.

Source: Global News

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Mobile Syrup

February Pixel update, security patch hits Pixel 4a to 7, 7 Pro

It’s the beginning of a new month, so it’s time for Pixel smartphones to get their monthly security patches. Phones from the Pixel 4a to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will receive the patch.

Google has posted the February factory image and OTA 13.9 files for all the handsets.

The update includes the following updates.

Accessibility
  • Fix for issue preventing touch interaction with Braille keyboard in certain conditions.
Audio
  • Fix for issue occasionally causing instability while Clear Calling is enabled in certain conditions  for the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.
Bluetooth
  • Fix for issue occasionally preventing connection with certain Bluetooth devices or accessories.
Framework
  • Fix for issue occasionally preventing Work profile calendar information from updating in the background.

Head over to the Settings menu to update your phone over-the-air.

Via: Droid-Life

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Save up to $200 on Pixel, Pixel Watch, other products on Google Store

Although Samsung’s new Galaxy S23 series is stealing the headlines right now, those shopping for a new phone and who don’t want an S23 might want to consider Google’s Pixel phones, which are currently on sale (alongside several of the company’s accessories).

Currently, the Canadian Google Store has the Pixel 7, 7 Pro, Watch, Buds Pro and Chromecast with Google TV on sale:

If the Google Store isn’t your jam, Amazon also has some Google phones discounted:

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Google might be gunning for Continuity Camera in Android 14

Using your smartphone as a webcam has become increasingly popular over the last few years. While iPhone users can enjoy built-in features like Continuity Camera to turn their iPhone into a webcam for their Mac, Android users have had to rely on third-party apps so far. That might change in Android 14.

As detailed by Esper senior technical editor Mishaal Rahman on Twitter (via 9to5Google), a work-in-progress project called ‘DeviceAsWebcam’ aims to let users plug their Android phone into a device and use it as a webcam.

It appears Google will use the ‘USB Video Class’ (UVC) standard, which should enable the feature to work across a variety of devices, unlike Continuity Camera, which only works for Apple devices. However, it does look like users would need to plug in their Android phone, which is a fairly significant difference from Continuity Camera.

Moreover, Google’s work on the feature so far is only as a ‘service’ to provide video data through USB. There would also need to be a system app on your phone to put the camera video data into the right spot to transmit over USB. That means Google would have to make a generic, Android-ready app, or manufacturers would need to create their own.

Of course, we’re also still a ways out from Android 14, so it’s likely things could change before then. It’ll be interesting to track this feature through the Android 14 developer previews — if it makes it into the preview.

Source: Mishaal Rahman Via: 9to5Google

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Google working on lock screen customization, shortcuts for Android 13

Google appears to be working on improving the lock screen customization options for Pixel phones.

Mishaal Rahman, senior technical editor for Esper, shared several glimpses of the work-in-progress changes in a recent tweet thread (via Android Police). Rahman was able to find most of the details in the third Android 13 QPR2 beta.

First up, Rahman detailed a new preview user interface (UI) for picking a wallpaper and style. This includes a new fullscreen preview and some other tweaks. However, Rahman notes it appears unfinished (he suspects Google is making room for several upcoming customization options like custom clocks and lock screen shortcuts).

Rahman then shared a look at the lock screen shortcuts feature, which lets users assign functions to a left and right button. Some of the functions visible in the screenshots include turning on the flashlight, do not disturb, and smart home device controls. There’s also an option to pick a custom lock screen clock, and Rahman points to a Twitter thread he made in mid-January about the new clock options.

To activate the new lock screen shortcuts, Rahman says you have to long-press them instead of simply tapping them, which should help reduce accidental activations.

Overall, it looks like a future Android update will enable a ton of customization options on Pixel phones, bringing them more in line with Samsung and Apple — both companies offer ways to customize your lock screen.

Android Police suggests the features will arrive with the next Pixel Feature Drop, which should release in March 2023.

Source: @MishaalRahman Via: Android Police

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Google to hold Search, Maps event with AI focus on February 8

Google plans to host an online event dubbed ‘Live from Paris’ on February 8th, where the company will talk about AI, Search, Maps and more.

In the event description on the YouTube page for the event, Google notes that it’s “reimagining how people search for, explore and interact with information, making it more natural and intuitive than ever before to find what you need.” The company goes on to note that it’s “opening up greater access to information for people everywhere, through Search, Maps and beyond.”

Moreover, Android Police reports that Google told the publication it plans to talk about how it will use AI to reshape search.

While that all sounds interesting, it’s worth noting the timing of all this. For one, Google typically doesn’t do announcements like this early in the year — we’d see these at the company’s annual I/O developer conference instead. But that conference is still happening in May as usual.

This suggests Google is trying to react quickly to OpenAI and ChatGPT. Reports have swirled for the last few weeks that Google has gone “code red” over ChatGPT and is rushing to respond, such as by sharing a recent research project called ‘MusicLM‘ that makes music with AI and reportedly testing a ChatGPT-like chatbot called ‘Apprentice Bard’ based on Google’s LaMDA language model. (Yes, the same one that an ex-Google employee claimed was sentient.)

Adding to that, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on a recent earnings call that Google was preparing to let people “interact directly” with its newest language models “as a companion to search.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft has also been in the news for its massive investments in OpenAI and reported plans to integrate ChatGPT into various products, like Bing search. More recently, Microsoft revealed its Teams Premium service with AI capabilities powered by the GPT-3.5 language model — the same one used by ChatGPT.

It’ll be interesting to see how Google responds to all this, though it seems we may learn that sooner rather than later. Moreover, Android Police suggested Google was pushing its internal teams tasked with overseeing fairness and ethics in AI to approve projects faster, which could have significant drawbacks if AI projects aren’t properly vetted before the public gets access to them.

Source: Google Via: Android Police

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Here’s how to turn on Gmail’s new package tracking feature

If you need to track a lot of packages, a new Gmail feature might be right up your alley. Google’s popular email app now has a built-in package tracker, though for the moment, it seems you need to enable it manually.

9to5Google detailed the new feature and noted that Gmail should show a ‘Track your packages in Gmail’ card at the top of users’ inboxes when the feature rolled out. However, that card isn’t showing up for everyone, but the feature is still available for a bunch of people.

To enable it on Gmail for Android, you can head into Settings > Select your email address > Scroll to General > Tap ‘Package tracking’ to enable it. The process differs slightly for iOS users, who need to first switch to the Gmail account they want to enable the feature for, then head into Settings > Scroll to General > Tap ‘Data privacy’ > Toggle on ‘Package tracking.’

In my own testing, I was able to turn on package tracking on Gmail on my Pixel 7, but only for my personal accounts — my work Gmail account didn’t have the feature. Moreover, the toggle for Package tracking wasn’t present on Gmail on iOS.

Gmail’s package tracking feature in action | Image credit: 9to5Google

Once enabled, users should see a few things change in their Gmail app. First up, when browsing the inbox, emails with package tracking information should show an estimated delivery date in green text with a truck icon. Then when you open the email, you’ll see a card with more details about the package, including stages like ‘Order placed,’ ‘Shipped,’ and ‘Delivered.’ There are shortcuts to track the package or view the order details as well.

9to5 also notes Google plans to enhance the feature with proactive labels for delays as well as bring the email to the top of the inbox so it’s easier to spot. The package tracking feature will also make its way to Gmail on the web, but these changes will only arrive in the “coming months.”

Of course, if you prefer using a third-party app for package tracking (or if you’re like me and primarily do all your package tracking in a work Gmail that doesn’t yet have the feature), you can keep on doing that.

Source: 9to5Google

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Google Chrome Saftey Check feature provides new ways to securely browse the internet

Google Chrome is providing new ways for users to browse the internet, ensuring safety and protection are maintained. Through a recent expansion, Chrome’s Saftey Check suite is adding a variety of tools to better help those surfing the web.

Google has a Privacy Guide available, which it highlights as part of the recent Data Privacy Day. New features and those users may not know of are being showcased. For instance, users can take a look through the guide and find a wide variety of privacy options all available to curate to their preference. This includes the ability to enable history sync and enable Enhanced Safe Browsing. The latter of which provides tools to protect users against malicious sites, downloads, extensions, etc.

Additionally, Safety Check’s latest update reminds users of the permissions granted on a previously visited website. This then allows users to revoke said permissions if they wish to do so. Google Chrome already allows users to revoke permissions through its Privacy and security tab. However, the update merely adds a clearer overview. Now, when navigating to this tab, users will see a broad message near the top. This now gives an overview of the websites that may be providing spam or abusing said permissions. Beneath this message, users can select the ‘Review’ option to sift through sites that have sent a lot of notifications through Chrome.

In addition to providing further protective features, Chrome is adding a faster way of deleting browsing history. Rather than navigate to the three-dot menu and into the History tab, users can take advantage of the shortcut. By typing “clear browsing history” into the address bar, users can pull up the ‘Clear Browsing Data’ tab and select a time range of what they’d like to delete.

Finally, Android users are able to lock their incognito sessions within Chrome behind biometric authorization. Much like on iOS, Android users can select this option by going to Chrome’s settings, selecting ‘Privacy & Security’ and turning the ‘Lock incognito tabs when you close Chrome’ option on.

Source: Google via: Android Police

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Google’s AI generated music is unsurprisingly great

Google has shared a new AI research project called MusicLM that uses AI to make music, and it’s the latest AI to make artists scared for their jobs.

You can’t use this tool publically like ChatGDP, but Google has shared a ton of samples attached to a research document. These range from small ten-second snippets to full-length five-minute songs.

This tool takes simple text inputs or a person humming and turns that into beautiful music. You can even use a sequence of text prompts to write a song that changes over time. After listening to a couple, the AI doesn’t recreate human music perfectly since it can’t do voices well, but the beats are always interesting and melodic, to say the least. I’d also expect Google to make this much better at human singing soon.

MusicLM really shines by recreating soft beats like melodic techno and relaxing jazz. There are five-minute samples of each genre near the top of the research paper’s sample zone, and they are worth a listen.

There’s no word when or how Google will release this fully, but as we extend further into the AI world, it seems like no creative pursuits are safe.

Source: Google Research

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Chrome redesign is now live in Canary build

Google Chrome, one of the most popular web browsers, is set to receive a slight redesign in 2023, and work on it has already begun, as shared by 9to5Google.

As spotted in the developer version of Chrome — Chrome Canary, the changes are disabled by default, and need to be enabled using a flag. If you have Chrome Canary installed on your computer, type in chrome://flags/#chrome-refresh-2023 in the address bar and press enter.

It should directly take you to the ‘Chrome Refresh 2023,’ flag, highlighted in Yellow. Enable the flag and restart Chrome Canary.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice that the Tab bar looks slightly different than regular Chrome, with the redesign putting more emphasis on separating tabs and the omnibar. Additionally, the bookmarks interface has been redesigned with rounded shapes for text boxes and buttons.

Although the redesign is not a major one, it is a welcome change. The redesign is expected to be released on Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Fuchsia, and Lacros. It’s not clear when Google plans to widely roll out the redesign.

If you want to try out the redesign, you can download Chrome Canary here.

Source: 9to5Google