Google

Report: Google Is Hoping to Buy Twitch For Perhaps as Much as $1Bn

According to two separate reports—from Variety and the Wall Street Journal—Google is thinking of purchasing the video game streaming startup Twitch. That would get Google one of the web’s most highly trafficked sites. The two reports do, however, differ. Variety claims that the deal is virtually sealed, and will see Twitch being purchase for $1…

Apple and Google Agree to Stop Suing Each Other into Oblivion

According to breaking reports from the Wall Street Journal, consumer electronics titans Google and Apple have just agreed to drop pending lawsuits against one another and work together to reform patent law. Wonder Twin powers activate! http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304908304579566583336822024 Earlier this afternoon, Apple and Google informed a federal appeals court that they had agreed to settle all…

Google Maps Now Shows How Steep Your Bike Route Is

Bike directions are an amazing feature of Google Maps, but if you don’t know the landscape, you might find yourself pedaling up some steep hills. No longer. Google is now providing elevation info so you can avoid, or seek (you beast), those inclines. The feature is technically unannounced, but TechCrunch was able to confirm with…

Google Has Most of Your Email, Even If You Don’t Use Gmail

Even if you’re careful about choosing how and where your email is sent, chances are you reply to plenty of messages sent from Gmail. And, as it turns out, that probably means that Google has most of your email, whether you like it or not. Benjamin Mako Hill—who runs his own email server—decided to work…

Google’ rather ambitious plans to build a 950,000-square foot HQ in the King’s Cross district of London have been delayed: it now won’t arrive until at least 2017.

Google is making a push to show Glass as a great tool for travel with the addition of TripIt, Foursquare, and Open Table apps for the $1,500 face computer (that’s in addition to Field Trip, Word Lens, Google Now, Search and Maps). Looks like they’re actually trying to sell it.

Anyone in the U.S. Can Buy Google Glass Now

Google has formally announced that it’s opening sales of Glass to everyone in the U.S.. If they’re in stock and you have $1,500 to spare, you can buy a pair. The move follows a one-off day in April which saw Google open its sales up to everyone in the country, and then an unofficial report…

Google search for iOS just got updated with Siri-style voice searching—including follow-up questions like “what’s the weather like?” followed by “how about this weekend?”. It also features custom alerts to keep you updated on your favorite sites, blogs, and more. Download it here for free. [iTunes via 9to5mac]

The European Union Court of Justice has ruled that people can ask Google to delete sensitive information from its Internet search results. Maybe that’ll happen in the U.S. at some point, too?

Motorola Adds LTE to the Moto G and Launches Budget Moto E

The Moto G is Motorola’s best-selling smartphone ever, and it just got a little bit better: there’s now an LTE version available, as well as budget version called the Moto E. The original Moto G was, and still is, a wonderful phone the money—we said that it was a “solid smartphone to help you improve…

Are Nest Thermostats Killing Air Conditioners?

Everybody loves the Nest thermostat. Or at least, they love the idea of it. Who wouldn’t want a futuristic thermostat with a brain that automatically adjusts to your habits and optimizes your energy usage? Well, a growing number of people say they’re encountering unexpected problems with their devices. Kinja user AFSpecialSauce recently posted a well…

LG’s G Pad Will Now Come In Every Size You Could Ever Want

Like LG’s G Pad 8.3 but not convinced by the size? No problem: the tablet will now be issued in three other sizes to make the range exhaustively complete. We liked the G Pad 8.3 when reviewed is Google Play edition last year. Now, that 8.3-inch version will be complemented by 7-,8- and 10.1-inch versions.…

Geek.com seems to have spotted an experimental new web Gmail layout that replaces the left-side control panel with a slide-in menu, uses pins instead of stars, and adds a “reminder” feature—all within a heavily-redesigned layout. No word if this test setup will ever roll out to users. [Geek.com]

HTC One (M8) Google Play Edition Review: Great But For that Camera

Android purists have a common refrain they like to bust out every time a beautiful new piece of hardware comes out: “If only it ran pure Android!” in F-sharp. There’s a pervasive belief that unpasteurized Android—and only unpasteurized Android—directly from the great teat in Mountain View is all that’s needed to transform a good phone…

What Could Google’s Mystery “Flounder” Device Be?

A listing in a tracker database has pulled out a Google-made device operating under the codename “Flounder.” Google likes to give new things in the Nexus line fishy names, so this may be the anticipated Nexus 8. Or the mythical Nexus 10 update. Or… something else altogether. Not many additional clues are offered by the…

Popcorn Time for Android: Stream Movie Torrents on Your Phone for Free

You remember Popcorn Time, the Netflix for torrents that suffered a self-inflicted death? Well, it never really died. The open source project lives on in the form a forked appversion, available for download for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Today, it comes to Android. The app is a faithful reproduction of the original streaming website: Pick…

A Street View Mash-Up Shows Your Neighborhood After Sea Levels Rise

Ever wondered what New York, London, Paris, Dubai or even your home town might look like when sea levels rise? World Under Water by Carbon Story uses Google’s Street View to do just that. The mod shows how the streets of the world will look if sea levels continue to rise. Simply type in your…

Google Maps Now Tells You What Lane to Get Into and More Goodies

El Goog is rolling out a bunch of improvements to its Maps apps for Android and iOS. Some of them are small improvements, and some of them are friggin’ awesome. Most significantly, when you’re using Maps for turn-by-turn navigation, it will tell you which lane you should stay in (or move to), so you won’t…

Released Emails Show the Cozy Relationship Between Google and the NSA

A series of email exchanges between Google executives and (now former) NSA director Keith Alexander show that tech companies behind the services you use aren’t being all the way forthcoming about how closely they’ve worked with the NSA over the years. The two 2012 exchanges, one between General Alexander and Google chairman Eric Schmidt, and…

7 Google Search Redesigns That Are Better Than the Real Thing

Google’s homepage is one of the most immediately recognizable websites on the internet—if not the most. And it’s for that very reason that it’s also one of the most overlooked. So why fix something if it’s not broken? Why the hell not. There’s always going to be room for improvement, which is whycollaborative, challenge-based design…