TheNewsGuru

Tag: Google

  • Google Meet to limit meetings on free plans after September 30

    Google Meet to limit meetings on free plans after September 30

    Google has announced that after September 30, free versions of its premium video conferencing solution for schools and businesses, Meet will be limited to meetings no longer than 60 minutes.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports a Google’s spokesperson told The Verge in an email, “We don’t have anything to communicate regarding changes to the promo and advanced features expiring. If this changes, we’ll be sure to let you know”.

    During the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the company temporarily gave all users free meetings with no time limit.

    Google Meet and other video-conferencing platforms have been chasing the meteoric rise of Zoom, with Meet passing 100 million daily participants back in April.

    After September 30th, free versions of Meet will be limited to meetings no longer than 60 minutes.

  • First virtual Google for Startups class graduates

    First virtual Google for Startups class graduates

    Google on Friday said that its first virtual class of Google for Startups Accelerator Africa has graduated after a 12-week virtual journey mentoring and workshops.

    Onajite Emerhor, Head, Google for Startups Accelerator Africa said in a statement that the first online of Google’s accelerator programme for African startups has seen 20 startups from seven countries with Nigeria recording eight startups.

    Emerhor said that the 20 graduating Startups were Adi+Bolga, Ghana, Amitruck, Kenya, Beamm, South Africa, BuuPass, Kenya, Crediation, Kenya, Credpal, Nigeria, Crop2cash, Nigeria, Curacel, Nigeria, Festival coins, Nigeria.

    Others were Franc, South Africa, Ilara Health, Kenya, Judy, Nigeria, Kaoun, Tunisia, Send, Nigeria, Stears, Nigeria, The Smarthub, Nigeria, Thumeza, Zimbabwe, Uzapoint, Kenya, Zayride, Ethiopia, Zuka Data Science, Kenya.

    She said that the class had to go through a 12-week virtual journey to refine their offering and undergo mentoring and workshops in key areas such as technology, product development and business growth.

    “To date we have celebrated wins with one Nigerian startup playing their part in the fight against COVID-19 and through raising funding – one notable win being Franc raising a seed round of 250,000 dollars after joining the program.

    ‘’Class 5 of Google for Startups Accelerator Africa took part in three virtual boot-camps over the course of the program, covering technology, product, people and growth.

    ‘’The Tech & Product boot-camp focused on assessing the startups’ value offerings and technology to ensure they were optimised to run efficiently with solid business models, not leaving any money on the table,’’ she said.

    According to her, the Tech & People boot-camp took the founders – considered major pillars of startup success – through the Founders Lab, which evaluated their current managerial styles and advised them on how to become better leaders.

    she said that the final week saw the startups prepared to meet investors as they graduate.

    She said that Google for Startups Accelerator Africa gives early-stage startups access to the best of Google – its people, network, and advanced technologies.

    Emerhor said that the accelerator has trained participating startups on technology Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud, Android, product, data, business, design, people, growth and fundraising, through interactive workshops and labs facilitated by Google experts and mentors.

    According to her, the selected pool of startups for Google for Startups Accelerator Africa 2020 cut across an array of industries including logistics, transportation, education, agriculture, e-commerce, media, health and professional services.

    Emerhor said since its launch in 2018, the Google for Startups Accelerator program has worked with 47 startups from 17 African countries: Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

    She said that Google have contributed to economic prosperity and empowerment by collectively raising millions of dollars in investment, and creating hundreds of jobs.

    Google continues to support developer communities across Sub-Saharan Africa, through Google Developer Groups, Developer Student Clubs and Women Tech-makers, providing training and support for developers aligned with real-life job competency requirements.

    Community groups engage in activities like Study Jams: study groups facilitated by developers, for developers. Today there are over 120 active developer communities across 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Google for Startups Accelerator Africa is Google’s first regionally-based startup accelerator programme which run in a dedicated space in Lagos.

    Announced in 2017, Google was committed to training 60 African startups over 3 years, representing over 3 million dollars in equity-free support, working space, and access to expert advisers from Google, Silicon Valley, and Africa.

    Participants also received travel and PR support during the three months programme.

  • Literacy Day: Google upscales ‘Read Along’ app for primary school kids

    Literacy Day: Google upscales ‘Read Along’ app for primary school kids

    As part of activities marking the International Literacy Day (ILD), Google says it is upscaling its ‘Read Along’ app, a speech-based reading app designed to help primary grade kids learn to read.

    Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Google Head of Brand and Reputation, Sub Saharan Africa, said in a statement in Lagos on Tuesday that the Read Along app used speech-based technology to provide personalised assistance in students’ reading journey, correcting them when they needed help and encouraging them when they got it right.

    Aderemi-Makinde said that students could select stories to read from a growing app-based library and earn stars and badges when they read correctly.

    She said that after an initial download, the app works offline, even on low cost phones, making it more accessible and relieving worries of privacy and security.

    According to her, the read along app now includes improved features that make it easier for multilingual children to switch languages or get phonics support when they tap a word.

    ‘’The app also has more than 700 unique books across all nine languages, including Arabic, with a refreshing new look for the content library.

    “Google is taking the education journey back to the basics by providing a digital platform that will make learning to read simpler and fun especially in the light of COVID-19 related school closures.

    ‘’We believe technology can help children around the world learn how to read to achieve the goal of basic universal literacy.

    ‘’Google will run a global story-a-thon from Sept. 8 to Sept.30, 2020 to encourage children bring out their imagination through writing,’’ she said.

    According to her, by participating, children stand a chance of getting published on the Read Along app.

    Aderemi-Makinde said parents could share stories written by their children in September while read along would publish some of those submissions on the app.

    She said that since the introduction of read along, children have cumulatively spent more than three million hours on the app reading over 32 million stories.

    She said Google’s internal analysis, as well as feedback received from parents and children across the globe was encouraging.

    Google had said beginner readers register an improvement of between 38 per cent and 88 per cent in their oral reading skills after reading for 100 minutes on the app.

    The theme for the 2020 UNESCO’s International Literacy Day on September 8 is “Literacy Teaching and Learning in the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond.”

  • Google to start helping Netizens avoid slow websites

    Google to start helping Netizens avoid slow websites

    Google has announced testing a new feature in the beta version of the Chrome browser for Android devices that will specifically flag optimized websites that load quickly.

    This means that in the long run, netizens would easily identify slow-loading websites and go for fast-loading alternatives.

    When a Chrome tab just won’t load, users would often wonder if there’s something wrong with the site or if it is the Internet connection. Google’s seemingly aware of this problem has created this tool to help users identify speedy-loading sites.

    “To help users identify great experiences as they browse, we are excited to announce that Chrome will begin to highlight high quality user experiences on the web, starting with the labelling of fast links via the link context menu on Chrome for Android.

    “This change will be rolling out starting in Chrome 85 Beta. We believe the web serves a critical role in our lives, and hope that fast labelling proves helpful to users who are on slow or spotty network connections.

    “Ultimately, our goal is to provide users of the web with a healthy level of transparency into the experience they may have with a page,” a post reads on Chromium Blog.

  • Google stops responding directly to data requests from Hong Kong government

    Google stops responding directly to data requests from Hong Kong government

    Google, on Friday, said it would no longer provide data in response to requests from Hong Kong authorities, following the enactment of a new national security law imposed by China.

    The U.S. tech giant had not produced any data since the sweeping new law took force in June and would not directly respond to such requests henceforth, it added.

    “As always, authorities outside the U.S. may seek data needed for criminal investigations through diplomatic procedures.

    “Google reviewed all requests for user data and pushed back on overly broad ones to protect the privacy of users,’’ Google said in an emailed statement.

    The Washington Post newspaper reported that Google would stop responding directly to data requests from Hong Kong authorities, implying the company would now treat Hong Kong effectively the same as mainland China in such dealings.

    The national security law has drawn criticism from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and further raised U.S.-China tensions after Washington’s decision to end the former British colony’s special status under U.S. law.

    On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Google notified Hong Kong Police that it would direct officials to pursue any requests for data through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the U.S., which involves routing through the U.S. Justice Department.

    In July, Facebook Inc, Google and Twitter Inc suspended processing government requests for user data in Hong Kong.

    Tech companies have long operated freely in Hong Kong, a financial hub where internet access has been unaffected by the firewall imposed in mainland China, which blocks Google, Twitter and Facebook.

  • Google highlights other usefulness of Google Search

    Google highlights other usefulness of Google Search

    Google on Friday highlighted 10 other usefulness of Google Search engine aside from the normal search for obtaining information.

    Mr Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google Communication Officer, West Africa, said that millions of people made use of Google Search to get answers and information every day.

    He noted that yet a lot of users were not harnessing the full power of Google.

    Kola-Ogunlade said that Google Search’s Web, Image, Video, News, Maps and More tabs could help ensure one got the kind of results needed.

    He said beyond simple queries, there were a lot more one could achieve with Google Search.

    Açcording to him, the 10 useful things that Google Search could do include search jobs, search lyrics, weather update, stopwatch, recipes for meals, about calories, just for fun, among others.

    “By searching for “jobs near me” or specifically for the job position you seek, you can find options that you are interested in and apply for them.

    “Google offers a quick and easy way to find your next job, whether it is full-time, part-time or an internship.

    “Search for lyrics to your favourite songs by typing, ‘song name’ plus “lyrics” in the search bar, you get the lyrics displayed at the top of the search results page.

    “This is useful for fans, music lovers, during karaoke, or for a chorister who wishes to learn how to sing a song,’’ he said in the statement.

    According to him, to get weather updates for any city on any day simply search “weather” plus “city name”, and the day you are interested in and you get the current forecast.

    He said that this was particularly useful for travellers and when planning for a choice of clothing for an outing.

    Kola-Ogunlade said that Google Search provided a personal timekeeper that helps measure the speed of activity.

    He added that you could get recipes for meals to beef up your cooking skills by searching for the recipe for any meal you can imagine on Google.

    He added that other usefulness of Google Search includes getting real-time games scores, search by voice and search health condition.

  • Google hit with record fine for privacy abuses

    Google hit with record fine for privacy abuses

    Google has received a record fine from Belgium’s data protection authority (APD) of 600,000 Euro for not complying with European rules on a person’s “right to be forgotten” online.

    The 600,000 Euro penalty is the largest ever imposed by APD, it said on Tuesday, and more than 10 times bigger than the authority’s previous record penalty.

    Google failed to remove links from its search results to articles which APD said were “obsolete” and damaging to the reputation of a person with a public profile in Belgium.

    The news articles, which appeared in results linked to the person’s name, related to unfounded complaints of harassment.

    Google was “negligent” in deciding not to remove the links, given that the company had evidence that the facts were irrelevant and out of date, APD said.

    Google said it intends to appeal the decision in court, and had worked hard to “strike a sensible, principled balance between people’s rights of access to information and privacy.”

    “We didn’t believe this case met the European Court of Justice’s criteria for delisting published journalism from search — we thought it was in the public’s interest that this reporting remain searchable,” a Google spokesperson said.

    The EU’s top court enshrined the “right to be forgotten” principle in 2014 when it ruled that people could ask search engines like Google to remove inadequate or irrelevant information from web results appearing under searches for their names.

    APD also ordered Google to stop referencing the pages inside Europe, and provide clearer information on which entities are responsible for handling “right to be forgotten” requests.

  • YouTube not obliged to inform on film pirates, Europe’s top court says

    YouTube not obliged to inform on film pirates, Europe’s top court says

    Google’s YouTube is not required to hand over the email or IP address of users who upload films illegally to its video platform, Europe’s top court ruled on Thursday, saying there must be a balance between protecting personal data and copyright.

    The case came before the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) after a German court sought guidance on what video platforms must do to combat film piracy in a case concerning German film distributor Constantin Film Verleih.

    The company, which had distribution rights to the films Scary Movie 5 and Parker in Germany, had asked YouTube and Google to provide the email addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses of users who had uploaded those films illegally onto YouTube in 2013 and 2014.

    Constantin Film took its case to the German court after Alphabet subsidiaries, Google and YouTube refused to supply the details.

    The CJEU backed the U.S. tech companies.

    “When a film is unlawfully uploaded onto an online platform, such as YouTube, the rights holder may, under the directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, require the operator to provide only the postal address of the user concerned, but not his or her email, IP address or telephone number,” judges said.

    They said EU countries could opt for more protection for intellectual property rights holders but there must be a fair and proportionate balance between various fundamental rights.

    A YouTube spokeswoman said Google and YouTube were committed to protecting copyright and safeguarding privacy of their users and their data.

    “Today’s CJEU decision provides the legal clarity on what information is appropriate to share with rights holders in case of a copyright claim,” she said in an emailed statement.

  • Apple faces criticism over additional permission to track users

    Apple faces criticism over additional permission to track users

    A group of European digital advertising associations on Friday criticised Apple Inc’s plans to require apps to seek additional permission from users before tracking them across other apps and websites.

    Apple recently disclosed features in its forthcoming operating system for iPhones and iPads that will require apps to show a pop-up screen before they enable a form of tracking commonly needed to show personalised ads.

    Sixteen marketing associations, some of which are backed by Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, faulted Apple for not adhering to an ad-industry system for seeking user consent under European privacy rules.

    “Apps will now need to ask for permission twice, increasing the risk users will refuse,’’ the associations argued.

    Facebook and Google are the largest among thousands of companies that track online consumers to pick up on their habits and interests and serve them relevant ads.

    Apple said the new feature was aimed at giving users greater transparency over how their information is being used.

    In training sessions at a developer conference recently, Apple showed that developers can present any number of additional screens beforehand to explain why permission is needed before triggering its pop-up.

    The pop-up says an app “would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies” and gives the app developer several lines below the main text to explain why the permission is sought.

    “It is not required until an app seeks access to a numeric identifier that can be used for tracking, and apps only need to secure permission once,’’ the associations said.

    The group of European marketing firms said the pop-up warning and the limited ability to customise it still carries “a high risk of user refusal.”

    Apple engineers also said last week the company will bolster a free Apple-made tool that uses anonymous, aggregated data to measure whether advertising campaigns are working and that will not trigger the pop-up.

    “Because it’s engineered to not track users, there’s no need to request permission to track,” Brandon Van Ryswyk, an Apple privacy engineer, said in a video session explaining the measurement tool to developers.

  • Apple borrows Android features for iOS 14 to make iPhone better

    Apple on Monday at the 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) unveiled the new iOS 14 and a redesigned iPhone home screen with new widgets, and other Android-borrowed features.

    While many of the iOS 14 features might feel new for Apple iPhone users, most of the features are already familiar with users of Android devices.

    Here are all of the new Apple iOS 14 features that Android already had.

    Widgets

    With the iOS, the home screens of the revamped iPhone and iPad will include widgets, which let users see information like the weather on the home screen at a glance. Prior to iOS 14, iPhone users could only have apps on the iPhone home screen. Widgets, which contain more information and are more functional than app icons, have been a mainstay feature on Google’s Android since its inception in 2008.

    App Library

    Another part of Apple’s redesigned home screen is an App Library that organizes apps into groups and lists. With the new home screen in iOS 14, users can also “hide” apps from their main home-screen. This is similar to Android’s app drawer, already in existence long before.

    App Clips

    Apple’s App Clips let users preview “small parts” of apps quickly without downloading them. Google introduced a similar feature, Instant Apps, in 2016. Instant Apps gives apps their own URL so users don’t have to download an entire app, except they really want to download it.

    Translate

    With iOS 14, Apple introduced a new Translate app that is designed for use in real-time conversation. As of March 2020, Google’s 14-year-old dedicated translate app could already transcribe conversations in eight languages in real time.

    Picture-in-picture

    Apple also announced a new picture-in-picture feature coming to iOS 14, which will allow users to be able to watch a video while using other apps. The video will shrink and be able to float anywhere on the screen. It can also be swiped away and the video’s audio can still play. While the audio doesn’t continue to play if the video is swiped away, Android phones already have the ability to float videos over other apps.

    Apple Maps cycling directions

    The updated Apple Maps app will provide ways to travel in a more eco-friendly fashion in iOS 14 and WatchOS 7. The dedicated Cycling option will help users find bike paths while taking into account elevation, whether the route a user takes is busy or quiet, and if a user will encounter any stairs. While Google Maps doesn’t factor in stairs, there has been the option to select “cycling” since 2010.

    Wind Down mode

    Apple also announced a Wind Down mode for iOS 14 that helps users get ready for bed. The feature, which works for iPhone and Apple Watch, let users set a desired bed time and wake-up time, and puts the phone into Do Not Disturb mode. There are also options to add shortcuts for meditation or playing relaxing music. While Google does not have a dedicated app for this, there had been a way to set up a bed time routine through the Google Home app for long.