New Google Photo App Launches

New Google Photo App Launches Today, Includes Unlimited Free Storage Of High Quality Photos And Video

We already have already posted a pretty thorough preview of the features coming with the new Google Photos app, but that doesn't mean Google didn't save a couple of surprises for IO. The big bombshell is that, starting later today, users will be able to upload an unlimited number of photos and videos for free. If you weren't using Google as your primary source for photo archiving, this news may give you reason to reconsider.

Your pictures and videos won't be compressed into oblivion either, they will be stored at up to 16MP for images and 1080p for video. That's plenty big enough for most typical consumers and will still allow for high quality prints of photos.

In addition to the unveiling of Google's generous new gift of unlimited photo storage, another cool feature was also announced. With the new Photos app, it will now be possible to send a group of photos by simply hitting the new "get a link" button. This will create a custom link to a web gallery of the photos you have selected. That link can be sent to anyone and opened in any web browser without having to log in or download an app.

If the recipient is logged in they will have an additional option besides just being able to view the photos. They can touch the cloud icon at the top of the image gallery and instantly import all the high quality shared photos and videos into their own library. This new feature, paired with unlimited storage, could make Google Photos one of the most compelling photo sharing and archive services on the web.

The new Google Photos will be available later today on Android, iOS and across the web.

New Google Photo App Launches

11:59 AM android, App, GOOGLE I/O, Google photo

Google I/O 2015 The 12 most important announcements

At its 2015 I/O keynote, Google focused mostly on optimizing Android — but that's actually a pretty big project. A lot of the updates involved reducing friction: there were updates to Android designed to make moving between apps and the web smoother, updates to Android Wear designed to make it easier to glean information from watch faces at a glance, and a new photo app that will organize all your pictures and back them up for free.

There are also some new, potentially interesting features for the existing apps. Google Now will start to anticipate your needs wherever you are on your phone. If you’re in a region with poor connectivity, Chrome and Maps will be capable of more, including giving directions while offline. As for hardware, there’s a new Google Cardboard — and an educational field trip initiative — and a VR camera system that will be sold by GoPro, but the plans for which will be made available this summer for anyone to make their own.

Android M

Android M looks a lot like its predecessor Lollipop. It’s more like a reorganization of Android, with power optimization, new services, and changes to how your apps interact. If you’re a developer, you can check out the preview today. Otherwise, you’ll be getting it later this year.

App permissions get less intimidating

Android has traditionally given you a wall of permission requests — accessing your location, using your microphone — whenever you install a new app. That’s all supposed to be changing with Android M. There are fewer update categories, and you’ll no longer be asked to look at them on installation. Instead, Google will ask you to approve individual permissions when the developer calls them up. You can also look up everything that the app is accessing, or which ones are using, say, your calendar or camera.

Chrome in all your apps

Right now, when you click on a web link from within an app, you either have to load the browser or use a stripped-down web view in the app. Google announced something called Chrome Custom Tabs, which looks like an in-app Chrome browser and is supposed to make loading pages faster by preloading certain elements, including passwords and autofill. Google also announced measures to make it easier for apps to link to other apps, for example, loading the Twitter app automatically when you click on a link to a tweet.

Better battery life and USB-C

In an effort to save battery life, Google introduced a new feature called Doze. Android M uses motion detection to go into deeper sleep if inactive for longer periods of time. Google said it trades "app freshness" for battery life. While dozing, devices can still respond to high-priority messages and use alarms. In a test against a Nexus 9 running Lollipop, Google, said the M Nexus lasted up to two times longer in standby. USB Type-C will also be supported on Android.

Google Now on Tap

Google Now is getting smarter, and it’s going to be incorporated throughout the phone, through a program called Now on Tap. With Now on Tap, you can hold the home button and bring up Now cards with relevant information, whether you’re in an app, email, or web browser. For example, if someone emails you about going to a movie, summoning Now displays information about whatever was mentioned, with links to YouTube trailers, ratings, and other info. If you’re messaging about laundry and dinner, it can prompt you to set up a to-do item, and give you restaurant listings, along with buttons for Yelp, Maps, and OpenTable. It’s a big expansion for Now, and Google emphasized improvements in contextual understanding. In the demo, asking "What is his real name?" while listening to Skrillex in Spotify brought up the answer without needing to specify "Skrillex."

A new Google Photos app with free online storage

Google already has a photo tool for your Android phone, but Google Photos is a revamped appthat will back up an unlimited number of photos and videos for free (photos up to 16MP, video up to 1080p), organize them as a timeline, and group them together by locations, things like "beaches" or "boats," and people — using what purports to be some pretty advanced auto-tagging. And there are new interface tools for sharing your photos or making collages and movies out of them. Yes, it’s competing with some similar iOS tools, but it could stack up pretty well; it’s available starting today for Android, iOS, and web.

Offline Maps and Chrome for developing countries

Google announced a bunch of updates designed to make its products work better in parts of the world with poor connectivity. A new streamlined search results page will load faster with a spotty connection and optimize pages to load fewer images. Google already lets people save YouTube videos offline in some countries, but now, Chrome will also be able to save pages for offline use, and Google Maps will be able to run a bunch of features offline. In an onstage demo, it could autocomplete searches, show reviews and information, and give turn-by-turn directions offline.

Android everywhere

There's more to Android than phones, obviously. If Google has anything to say about it, it'll be on your wrist, in your house, and in your wallet... sort of.

Some more polishing for Android Wear

Google added some powerful new apps to its Android Wear smartwatch OS, including an easy option for calling Uber cars. It also reiterated some of the ways it's smoothed out the platform. The screen in Android Wear is always-on, Google noted several times, and now apps will be always-on as well, displaying information in a low-power black-and-white mode. If you’re navigating with Google Maps, for instance, directions will stay on the screen, making them glanceable as you move. There’s also a new app launcher designed to make loading apps faster and easier. There are a bunch of other small updates as well, including the ability to recognize drawings and turn them into emoji.

Google wants to manage your smart home

Project Brillo is an operating system built on the "lower layers of Android," Weave is a communications system that will let smart devices talk to each other, and Google hopes you’ll install both of them on your door locks, light bulbs, and thermostat. There’s built-in support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and Google will have a certification platform for Weave, which companies can use with or without Brillo. A lot of people have tried to create a standard for home automation, including Google — it announced Android@Home back in 2011 — but Google will officially be throwing its hat in the ring again by the end of this year.

Android Pay gets closer

We’re getting some more details about Android Pay — which is both Google’s answer to Apple Pay and a second chance for the largely failed Google Wallet service. Android Pay will let you make purchases in apps or tap an NFC sensor to pay for physical goods. Android Pay will work with phones running KitKat and higher, and it’s supposedly being pre-installed by AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile; Google promises 700,000 stores will accept it, including Chipotle and Dunkin Donuts. And if your phone has a fingerprint sensor, you can use it to authenticate payment.

HBO Now is coming to Android

We thought we might hear more about TVs from Google this year than we did, but though there wasn’t much news about the Chromecast or Android TV, we did get one new development. HBO Now, the streaming-only service for watching everything from Game of Thrones toTrue Detective, is coming to Android. There’s no firm release date, but this marks the end of Apple’s exclusive access.

Virtual reality

Yes, this gets its own section now. It might still be a fledgling field, but Google put some decent effort into promoting VR during the keynote.

New, iPhone-compatible Google Cardboard

Phones have gotten a lot bigger in the year since Google Cardboard launched, so Google is releasing a new version which can fit phones as large as six inches. The new unit, which goes on sale from partners today, is ditching the headset’s original magnet clicker for a cardboard button that will work with any phone. Google is now making its SDK available for iOS as well as Android, and a dedicated Cardboard app launched on Apple’s App Store today. In order to help kick-start VR use, it’s also announced Expeditions, a virtual reality education tool that lets students take VR field trips while teachers control their experience with a tablet.

A VR Camera rig for everyone

In an effort to make it easier for people to film VR-compatible video, Google partnered with GoPro to build a circular 16-camera rig. The geometry of the rig, called Jump, will be made available this summer for anyone to build their own. Once you’ve recorded something with these cameras, Google’s assembler will figure out depth data from the different images and stitch them together into a stereoscopic VR video. Google said the assembler takes "thousands of computers" and would be available this summer to a "select few" people.

What's next

There wasn’t much talk of Google's new Project Fi wireless carrier at the keynote, or of Android Auto, though the introduction mentioned that 35 car brands are participating. Instead, the focus was on improvements in Google’s machine learning, deployed in Google Photo and Now on Tap. Expanding connectivity was also a theme. Sundar Pichai concluded by saying that Google is about solving problems for everyone: "it's about putting technology to work on important problems that users face and do it at scale for everyone in the world." In the last few minutes, he touched on Google’s self-driving car, the latest version of which will soon begin driving around Mountain View, and balloon-based internet service Project Loon, which he says will expand connectivity to the next billion users.

Google I/O 2015 The 12 most important announcements

8:34 AM Android M, featured, GOOGLE I/O, Google Now, smart phones

Native Fingerprint Authentication In Android M

Fingerprint Authentication

Google's yearly I/O conference is taking place at the end of next week, and if a recent report is worth taking into consideration, then we might witness the new fingerprint authentication feature being released with Android M

This year’s Google I/O conference will take place at the end of next week, on May 28-29, and it’s said to bring a lot of news regarding the upcoming Android M version. Google is also expected to discouss about aew Google Glass device, the updates on Android One, a new Chromecast and much more.

Now, a fresh rumor from BuzzFeed suggests that the upcoming Android M software version will feature native support for fingerprint authentication. Of course, there are already plenty of Android device which feature fingerprint readers but they are using software built specifically by the OEM. With this new native feature, Google wants to make it easier for phone-making companies to include a fingerprint scanner in their devices.

ArsTechnica too says that there have been hints in AOSP (Android Open Source Project, the Google leaded project for Android) that fingerprint readers were a planned feature. The publication says Google was working on the:

setup and enrollment process, a fingerprint lock screen, and a “service to manage multiple clients that want to access the fingerprint HAL API

Ron Amadeo with the publication further adds:

a Google-standardized API would encourage the entire Android ecosystem to finally jump onboard the fingerprint bandwagon. Widely used Google apps like the Play Store would support it, and it would even open up the possibility for Chrome to fingerprint website logins. A Google API would be stable enough and universally supported enough that third-party apps would begin to support it.

If Google does decide to announce fingerprint reader support at I/O, then chance are they will release preview build of Android M just like it happened with Android L back in 2014. But it also needs pointing out that Google currently has no device with a fingerprint sensor, even if the Nexus 6 was very close to getting one.

So, taking this into account, it makes sense for Google to announce this feature when it has a device with a fingerprint reader, as well, so that it could take the chance to promote it. But as Google usually releases its Nexus devices around fall, then we could wait for a little longer. Or, who knows, maybe they will surprise us and announce a new device at the event from next week. Whatever happens, we’re going to be here to report it.

Native Fingerprint Authentication In Android M

5:59 PM Android M, Fingerprint, GOOGLE I/O, NEXUS, smart phones

Brillo a Homekit From Google

Google appears ready to tackle Tizen, HomeKit with its own IoT platform

It's not terribly surprising that Google wants to connect everything to the web. After all, more web usage, particularly with Google search and apps, leads to more information for the company. And that in turn leads to more potential revenue through targeted advertisements.

What may be more surprising is a new Google platform specifically for the Internet of Things (IoT): The Information reported that Google is working on software called Brillo for that very reason. I would have thought Android, or at least parts of it, could be the underlying IoT platform.

Perhaps Android is too "heavy", however.

By that I mean the software has relatively hefty hardware requirements compared to a smart light switch, garage door opener, doorbell, or smart electricity meter. Brillo could run on devices with as little as 32 to 64 MB of memory while phones minimally have ten times or more memory.

Google actually headed down a similar path in the past. You'll be forgiven if you don't: The platform was introduced at the 2011 Google I/O Developer event and never amounted any tangible products.

The landscape has changed much in four years, however.

Now, we're on the verge of seeing products that support Apple's year-old HomeKit platform, for example. And at a January Consumer Electronics Show keynote address, Samsung announced its Tizen software would be central to the company's IoT strategy. There are now more competitors in this space and we're seeing actual progress in it.

Google itself has made some of that progress, at least on the hardware side. The company bought Next for $3.2 billion and later added DropCam to its acquisition list.

It could be that some of the old Android@Home bits will live on in Brillo but that's the least of my questions.

I'm wondering how open Brillo will actually be since Apple and Samsung are making a platform play here: It's near a certainty that you'll need an iOS device for HomeKit, for example.

Will Google, which touts more openness than its peers, lock users in with Android for Brillo or will it provide a truly open framework?

And how will Google entice hardware partners to embrace Brillo? Samsung faces less of a challenge here because it is its own best hardware partner: The company makes televisions, household appliances, computers and more that could work with Tizen.

As I said, Google has meandered down this road before. Let's see what it announces at next week's Google I/O event to see if the company is any farther along towards a final destination.

Brillo a Homekit From Google

8:37 AM Brillo, Google, GOOGLE I/O, homekit, Internet of things, IoT, Tizen

10 Skills You Need To Get A Job At Google

Google is among the most sought after employers in the world. Engineers are the rock stars at Google — and they’re paid like one.

Interns start at $70,000 to $90,000 salaries, while software engineers pull in $118,000 and senior software engineers make an average of $152,985. But one does not simply walk into the Googleplex.

The company receives upwards of 2.5 million job applications a year, but only hires about 4,000 people.

For would-be Googlers, the Google in Education team has released a list of skills that they want to see in potential engineers.

“Having a solid foundation in computer science is important in being a successful software engineer,” the company says. “This guide is a suggested path for university students to develop their technical skills academically and non-academically through self-paced, hands-on learning.”

Here are the skills Google wants its tech talent to master, complete with online resources to get you started…

1. Learn To Code

Learn to code in at least one object-oriented programming language, like C++, Java, or Python. Consult MIT or Udacity.

2. Test Your Code

It’s not just important to know how to code. You should also be able to test code, because Google wants you to be able to ‘catch bugs, create tests, and break your software.’

3. Have Some Background In Abstract Math

It is important to have some background in abstract math, like logical reasoning and discrete math, which lots of computer science draws on.

4. Get To Know Operating Systems

Get to know operating systems, for they’ll be where you do much of your work.

5. Become Familiar With Artificial Intelligence

Become familiar with artificial intelligence beacuse Google loves robots.

6. Understand Algorithms And Data Structures

Google wants you to learn about fundamental data types like stacks, queues and bags as well as grasp sorting algorithms like quicksort, mergesort and heapsort.

7. Learn Cryptography

Learn cryptography. Remember, cybersecurity is crucial and important for security.

8. Learn How To Build Compilers

Stanford says that when you do that, ‘you will learn how a program written in a high-level language designed for humans is systematically translated into a program written in low-level assembly more suited to machines.’

9. Learn Other Programming Languages

Add Java Script, CSS, Ruby and HTML to your skillset. W3school and CodeAcademy are there to help.

10. Learn Parallel Programming

Also, learn parallel programming because being able to carry out tons of computations at the same time is powerful.

10 Skills You Need To Get A Job At Google

8:11 AM AJAX, android, Apple, C LANGUAGE, Google, GOOGLE I/O, JAVA, JAVA SCRIPT, LINUX, PHP PROGRAMMER, PROGRAMMERS, PROGRAMMING FACTS, TECHNOLOGY, UBUNTU, WINDOWS