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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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.
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.
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.
[The Washington Post]
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.
DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open its search monopoly
Divesting Android is still on the table.
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.
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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.
[Android Authority]
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.”