Google

Climb 3,000 feet up Yosemite’s El Capitan in Google Maps’ first-ever vertical Street View

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 24, 2015

Yosemite National Park's El Capitan isn't just the world’s most famous rock wall, but the official name of Apple's latest desktop operating system, too. Coincidentally or not, Google Maps has teamed up with legendary climbers Lynn Hill, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell to capture an awesome panorama tour of El Capitan's epic 3,000 feet climb.

You can explore it inside your browser with Google Maps' marvelous vertical Street View mode offering high-quality 360-degree photography of the rocks from the climbers' perspective that can be rotated and panned around.

Google’s native Calendar app picks up 7-day week view, Drive integration and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2015

Google's native Calendar for iPhone with Material Design and other cool features made its App Store debut a little over three months ago. Tuesday, it has received its first feature-focused update.

In addition to the existing ways of viewing your calendar, the new Google Calendar 1.1 for iPhone introduces a 7-day view giving you an overview of your entire week. Also, week numbers can be enabled for different calendar views in settings.

Google launches free ad-supported Internet radio just ahead of Apple Music launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2015

Ahead of the June 30 Apple Music debut, Google has cunningly enabled a free streaming tier on its music subscription service called Google Play Music.

The ad-supported tier, which acts as a personalized radio station, is only available in the U.S.

It has hand-made playlists that are personalized around activity, feelings or musical tastes and designed to accompany every moment of your day. You can instantly start radio stations based on songs, artists, or albums—or browse stations by genre, mood, activity, decade and more.

Google secretly buys technology for streaming smartphone apps without downloading

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 19, 2015

Late last year, the Internet giant Google stealthily snapped up a startup called Agawi whose technology let people stream an app to a phone without the need to actually download and install it first.

The deal went under the radar until yesterday, when it was reported by The Information's Amir Efrati. Agawi's tech can stream Android apps and Windows PC games to connected TVs, as well as iOS and Android devices.

While it's unclear whether Google plans to bake app streaming into Android, the acquisition signals a potential new direction for mobile software deployment.

Nest roundup: home security camera, improved smoke alarm, revamped mobile app and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2015

Google-owned Nest launched some new home automation gear while refreshing its entire lineup at a media event held in San Francisco this morning. Designed for personal home security, the new Nest Cam is born out of Nest's acquisition of Wi-Fi video streaming camera maker Dropcam.

The $199 camera has a magnetic stand and can capture and stream a 130-degree video in Full HD 1080p resolution so you can keep an eye on your home while at work.

Moreover, it has advanced night vision, Nest Aware-powered activity alerts and boasts some other cool features worth mentioning.

How to find great quotations without visiting any Google Search results

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 15, 2015

The Internet is the perfect place to research some of the greatest quotes from the world's most insightful people, but often searching for a quote feels like finding a needle in the haystack. What if you could find great quotations without having to click through a bunch of links in search results like an animal? Well, now you can as Google has quietly rolled out handy Quotes cards that inject your search results with—you guessed right—quotes.

In this post, I'm going to teach you how to retrieve quotations on your Mac, iPhone, iPod touch or iPad without visiting any Google Search results.

How to move pictures from the Mac Photos app to Google Photos

Ankur Thakur ∙ Updated March 22, 2022

This complete guide shows you how to upload photos and videos stored inside your Mac's Photos app (your entire macOS Photo Library) or a Finder folder to Google Photos. We show you both automatic and manual methods.

Google Drive receives Material Design overhaul with faster scrolling, syncing and image viewing

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 3, 2015

Google on Wednesday issued a version 4.0 update to its free of charge Google Drive for iOS application in the App Store. The first thing you'll notice is a brand new design which follows Material Design guidelines set forth by Google itself.

In addition to a cleaned-up interface, other changes in Google Drive 4.0 for iPhone and iPad include much faster syncing of your files, as well as image viewing.

Scrolling performance has been improved, too, and they've finally implemented iOS's standard swipe gesture to go back.

Tim Cook takes jabs at Google and Facebook in speech about privacy and security

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Tim Cook took time out of his busy schedule yesterday to talk about privacy with folks attending EPIC's Champions of Freedom event in Washington. EPIC, a non-profit research center focused on emerging privacy issues, was honoring the CEO for his superior "corporate leadership."

Cook addressed attendees via a remote video feed, and spoke about a number of topics regarding privacy, security and what they mean to Apple versus other Silicon Valley tech giants. TechCrunch has a transcription of the speech, and he takes quite a few jabs at Facebook and Google.

Google Maps gains enhanced transit data with live arrivals for buses, metros and subway systems

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 2, 2015

According to a post on the official Google Lat Long blog, the company's mapping service now includes improved real-time transit information for select cities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hungary and the Netherlands.

The more accurate transit data includes real-time information on arrivals for buses, metros and subway systems, Google said. Google Maps will even alert you to cancelled routes, so you can “better navigate the intricate and unpredictable world of transit in major cities around the world.”

Google’s new Hands Free app will let you pay in stores without even reaching for your phone

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 29, 2015

If you thought paying with Apple Pay is ridiculously easy and frictionless, think again. No, I'm not referring to Android Pay, Google's near exact replica of Apple Pay that was unveiled at Google I/O yesterday.

Quietly unveiled yesterday, Hands Free is a new Google mobile app currently unavailable to the general public that promises to let you make in-store purchases without ever reaching for that phone in your pocket.

Details are scarce at the moment but it seems that Hands Free requires you to just tell the cashier you’d like to pay with Google. It's basically Android Pay without taking your phone.

Poll: how does Google Photos compare to Apple’s Photos app + iCloud Photo Library combo?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Among a flurry of yesterday's announcements at the Google I/O developer conference, the Internet giant launched Google Photos, its brand spanking new photography service available across iOS, Android and on the web. It offers unlimited storage (with a few caveats) and has many other compelling features that give Apple's iCloud Photo Library a fairly good run for its money.

To name but a few: world-class facial recognition that understands aging, sleek design, fast performance, unmatched search and machine intelligence, the ability to create a movie, collage or animated GIF in seconds and more.

The question is, will you be turning to Google Photos as a backup solution for the media you've amassed on your iOS device? Or, perhaps you'll be sticking with Apple's iCloud Photo Library even though it offers a meager five gigabytes of free cloud storage? Planning on using Google Photos alongside iCloud Photo Library, are we? Not a big fan of either service, you say?

Tell us in today's poll!