Over the past two years, Google has committed to eventually bringing its employees back into the office as part of a “flexible workweek.” Google’s latest commitment to this model is purchasing its existing UK office for $1 billion.
In 2011, Google moved into the mixed-use Central Saint Giles development in central London. Featuring very colorful facades, it has 408,000 sq ft of office…
Google Meet gets live translated captions [Update: Exits beta]
January 14, 2022
Back in 2019, Google introduced real-time video call transcriptions and has since added support for more languages. The next step sees Google Meet beta test live translated captions.
Update 1/13/22: Google Meet’s live translated captions capability is now out of beta…
Google’s ‘Device Utility’ app from Sonos lawsuit is off to a rough start with review-bombing and messy performance
January 14, 2022
Google Assistant speakers and Chromecast-compatible products were hit with some big changes last week, as Google lost a lawsuit from Sonos that required the company to make some changes. Now, the “Device Utility” app Google built to work around those changes is being…
With Android 12 having been a massive overhaul to the platform’s visual makeup, at least on Pixel phones, Android 13 is mostly expected to be a relatively minor update on that front. As details have started to leak out, though, one thing that certainly has our attention is Android 13’s potentially-greater control over Material You.
The folks over at Android Police obtained a handful of…
Google Meet ‘Companion Mode’ rolling out on the web, starting with Nest Hub Max calls
January 14, 2022
Back in June, Google previewed a second screen experience for video conferencing. Google Meet’s Companion Mode is now beginning to roll out “when joining a meeting using Google Meet hardware or the Nest Hub Max.”
Companion Mode lets you text chat, hand raise…
The aftermath of the Sonos versus Google lawsuit changed a lot about how Nest speakers and speaker groups work. Now there are a few extra steps to set up a Nest speaker in Google Home. Follow along to learn how to do that as smoothly as currently possible with the Device…
Nest Hub Max may soon run Fuchsia as Google ramps up internal testing [Update: Vulkan approval]
January 14, 2022
The Nest Hub Max may soon be switched to Fuchsia — Google’s homegrown operating system — as internal testing ramps up.
Update: The Nest Hub Max’s upgrade to Fuchsia is becoming increasingly likely as new evidence comes to light.
Earlier this year, Google took the bold step of updating existing first-gen Nest Hub smart displays from their Linux-based Cast OS to the company’s…
WhatsApp for iOS has been working for at least six months on a new Reactions feature, which will look similar to iMessage and Facebook’s functions. Now, a new report shows Reactions are actually really close to its public launch.
As spotted by WABetaInfo, version 22.2.72…
After a short hiatus due to the holidays, Apple is restarting its beta testing process yet again. iOS 15.3 beta 2 is now rolling out to registered developers, just over three weeks after the release of the first beta. Apple is also rolling out new betas of watchOS 8.4, tvOS…
Apple says iOS 15 adoption is lower than usual, but here’s why
January 14, 2022
For the first time since iOS 15 was released to the public last September, Apple has updated the official installation and adoption numbers via its Developer website. According to Apple, iOS 15 is currently installed on 72% of iPhones released in the last four years. This is lower than previous iOS updates, but there are multiple factors to keep in mind…
Here is the current breakdown of iOS…
