Google News - NEWS POLITE

Google’s June Update Brings New Features, Three Widgets to Android: All Details

Google has unveiled a slew of features for Android smartphones, tablets, and Wear OS smartwatches on Thursday. The latest improvements include three new widgets for Google Finance, Google TV, and Google New for customising the Android phone or tablet home screen. On top of that, Google’s June feature update brings “Reading practice” mode on Google Play Books to improve the vocabulary and comprehension skills of users. The Emoji Kitchen now lets users remix their favourite emoji into stickers. Further, the tech giant is offering Dark Web Reports available to Google One account holders in the US.

Google on June 1, announced the addition of new features coming soon to Android smartphones, tablets, and Wear OS smartwatches via a blog post. Google Play Books is getting a “Reading practice” functionality. This new mode will help readers improve their vocabulary and comprehension skills using their Android phones or tablets. With this, readers can hear the pronunciation of unknown words, practice mispronounced words, and receive feedback in real time. This is supported by e-books marked with a “Practice” badge in Google Play Books.

Further, Google is bringing three new widgets — Google Finance, Google TV, and Google News — for phones and tablets. This would allow users to customise the home screen of their devices with shortcuts and find personalised movie and stock suggestions, and important headlines right at their fingertips.

Emoji Kitchen is getting upgrades as part of the June feature drop. Now, users can remix emojis into stickers to send as messages via Gboard.

Additionally, the Dark Web report, which was previously available to Google One account holders in the US, is getting a wider rollout. First announced at I/O 2023, the feature allows users to check if their details have been exposed on the Dark Web and receive guidance on the actions they can take to protect themselves online. Google One members in the US can scan for additional personal information, such as their social security number through the website and App. The Dark Web report will be launched in 20 countries in the coming months.

Google I/O 2023 saw the search giant repeatedly tell us that it cares about AI, alongside the launch of its first foldable phone and Pixel-branded tablet. This year, the company is going to supercharge its apps, services, and Android operating system with AI technology. We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Google to Test Blocking News Content in Canada After New Bill Asks Big Tech to Pay Publishers

Alphabet’s Google is rolling out tests that block access to news content for some Canadian users, the company confirmed on Wednesday, in what it says is a test run of a potential response to the government’s online news bill.

The “Online News Act,” or House of Commons bill C-18, introduced in April by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, laid out rules to force platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content.

“We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users. We run thousands of tests each year to assess any potential changes to Search,” a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The tech-giant confirmed that the time-limited tests, which impact a random sampling of less than 4 percent of the users in Canada, “limit the visibility of Canadian and international news to varying degrees.”

A spokeswoman for Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said Canadians will not be intimidated and called it disappointing that Google is borrowing from Meta’s playbook.

“Canadians need to have access to quality, fact-based news at the local and national levels, and that’s why we introduced the Online News Act. Tech giants need to be more transparent and accountable to Canadians,” the spokeswoman said.

Last year, Facebook warned that it might block sharing of news content on its platform in Canada over concerns about legislation that would compel digital platforms to pay news publishers.

A similar Australian law, which took effect in March 2021 after talks with the big tech firms led to a brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in the country, has largely worked, a government report had said.

Canada’s news media industry has pressed against Facebook and asked the government for more regulation of tech companies, to allow the industry to recoup financial losses it has suffered in the years that Facebook and Google have been steadily gaining greater market share of advertising.

More than 450 news outlets in Canada have closed since 2008, including 64 closures in the last two years.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.

For details of the latest launches and news from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and other companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visit our MWC 2023 hub.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Google Faces Another Probe by CCI After Allegations of Unfair Revenue Sharing Terms

The Competition Commission of India has ordered another detailed probe against Google for alleged unfair revenue sharing terms with respect to news content.

The case will be clubbed with two other ongoing matters against the search engine major where the allegations are substantially same, according to the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

The latest order has come on a complaint filed by the News Broadcasters & Digital Association.

In January this year, CCI ordered a probe against Google on the complaint filed by the Digital News Publishers Association. Later, the Indian Newspaper Society also filed a similar case and that was clubbed with the first one.

Now, the regulator’s probe arm Director General (DG) will submit a consolidated investigation report, the watchdog said in an order released on Friday.

The News Broadcasters & Digital Association had alleged that its members are forced to provide their news content to Google in order to prioritise their weblinks in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) of Google. As a result, Google free rides on the content of the members without giving them adequate compensation, as per the complaint.

Among others, it was alleged that Google exploited the dependency of the members on the search engine offered by Google for referral-traffic to build services such as Google News, Google Discover and Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).

The search engine major provides news content to user through Google Search and through news aggregator vertical, Google News.

According to the complaint, in Google Search, users can either search directly for news through News Tab or receive news through result in SERPs. Google incorporated news content in its SERPs through featured snippets including ‘Top Stories’ carousels.

However, the revenue distributed by Google to news publishers doesn’t compensate for the real contribution made by the association’s members to these platforms, it added.

In a four-page order, dated October 6 and released on Friday, CCI said the allegations are substantially the same as that of the matter which is already being probed by the regulator.

CCI has directed the DG to club the matters and submit a consolidated investigation report.

Cases where there is prima-facie evidence of violation of competition norms are referred by CCI to its investigation arm DG for a detailed probe.

The complaint has been filed against Alphabet, Google, Google India, Google Ireland and Google Asia Pacific.

The association consists of national and regional private news and current affairs broadcasters and digital news media entities as its members.

Buying an affordable 5G smartphone today usually means you will end up paying a “5G tax”. What does that mean for those looking to get access to 5G networks as soon as they launch? Find out on this week’s episode. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Google Faces Another Probe as CCI Alleges Unfair Revenue Sharing Terms