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The name Google is synonymous with online searches, but over the years the company has grown beyond search and now builds multiple consumer products, including software like Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Android, and hardware like the Pixel smartphones, Google Home, and Chromebooks. Its name can also be found on internet services such as Google Fi, Flights, Checkout, and Google Fiber. Here is all of the latest news about one of the most influential tech companies in the world.

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Boox Palma 2 review: ain’t broke, not fixed

There are so many things about the Palma 2 that could be better. But it’s still great at what it does.

The government’s plan to break up Google

On The Vergecast: what will come of Chrome and Search, AI woes for Amazon, and the Threads / Bluesky battle rages.

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Google TV’s 2024 recap.

Shōgun was the most watched show on Google TV devices in 2024 while Road House was the most watched movie. And starting today you’ll find a curated “best of 2024” collection under the “For You” tab on the Google TV Streamer (4K), Google TV built-in devices, and the Google TV apps.


Two telephotos for the price of one.

Oppo has launched the Find X8 series globally, including the X8 Pro with dual telephoto lenses. The standard X8 comes with just one zoom lens, and it looks an awful lot like the OnePlus 13 — also expected to launch globally sooner than later. Both brands sure are leaning into the big circular camera bump look, but there’s an essential piece of hardware still present: the alert slider.


Rendering of the Find X8 and Find X8 Pro.
The Oppo Find X8 in shell pink and the Find X8 Pro in pearl white.
Image: Oppo
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Apple and Google may have to verify users’ ages through their app stores under a coming bill.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. John James (R-MI) are prepping a new bill granting Meta’s wish of putting the onus for age verification on app store operators, The Washington Post reports. Parents could reportedly sue those companies if their kids are exposed to things like sexual material, but businesses could shield themselves by implementing age verification.


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Google responds to DOJ’s ‘extreme proposal.’

Alphabet’s top lawyer says the agency’s proposed remedies, which include selling off Chrome, are part of “a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”

If adopted, Kent Walker says the security and privacy “of millions of Americans” would be endangered, trade secrets would be sent to foreign companies, AI progress and innovation would be stymied, and the world as we know it would basically end.


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Could Chrome be ready to Rumble?

Rumble, the YouTube rival popular with the right for its anti-”cancel culture” approach, is “very interested in acquiring Google Chrome,” CEO Chris Pavlovski says. He was responding to a Bloomberg report that the government is planning to ask a court to require Google to sell the browser as part of the antitrust case against its search business. Rumble notably brought its own antitrust suit against Google years ago.


The people who ruined the internet

SEO experts got very rich filling the web full of garbage. But are they to blame, or is Google?

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Google is reportedly prototyping a keyboard case for the next Pixel Tablet.

That would solve a notable omission from Google’s first Pixel Tablet. But this next tablet might still be “many months away from launching,” Android Authority reports, so we might have to wait awhile for it.


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Google will now issue frequent scam advisories.

The search giant has released two new blogs that examine recent scam trends that people online should be wary of, and share policy recommendations Google is urging governments and tech industries to take to better fend against them.

“Preventing user harm from malicious scams requires effective cooperation across the online ecosystem,” says Google’s Trust and Safety head Laurie Richardson. “Bad actors are constantly evolving their tactics and techniques.”