Tech & Gadget Stream

Over the previous few years, Google has produced numerous reliable wireless earbuds, but the most recent Pixel Buds Pro are still the company's greatest product. You can now purchase the buds while they are on sale for the first time after receiving a score of 87 in our review last month. The Pixel Buds Pro in charcoal and lemongrass are available on Amazon for $175, which is a record low and a savings of $25 off the regular price. Additionally, the more cheap Pixel Buds A-Series have been reduced in price to $69, which is the lowest they have ever been. Basically, Google tweaked the earphones' appearance somewhat and also added a few significant capabilities to make them deserving of the "Pro" label. Since they are somewhat more oval in form than the previous generations, the buds themselves suit the curves of the ear better. They are IPX4-rated, so they can withstand sweaty workouts, and they include integrated controls that let you play/pause, skip tracks, adjust ...

Google's initiatives to enhance the entire experience on Android smartphones have been disclosed in the most recent APK breakdown of its Play Services app, which comes as more and more Wear OS devices have begun to hit the market. Google Play Services is getting ready to add support for storing up smartwatch data when moving to a new device, according to an app deconstruction by XDA-Developers that uncovered new strings in the beta version 22.32.12 edition of the app. One of the strings included the following prompts in its name: "Back up your device with Google One/Back up via Google One/Choose backup account." Users now need to factory reset their Wear OS smartwatches in order to transfer them to a new Android smartphone. A device backup option would greatly improve the user experience. It's intriguing that Google One, a premium Google membership, is mentioned. Although a Google One membership is not necessary to access the service, Google's device data backup s...

To make it easier for its employees to retrieve Coke and chips from the break rooms, Google is fusing the eyes and arms of actual robots with the knowledge and conversational abilities of virtual chatbots. The mechanical waiters, which were demonstrated to reporters last week, represent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that paves the way for multifunctional robots that are just as simple to operate as ones that carry out specialized chores like vacuuming or being on watch. The business's robots aren't yet ready for purchase. They only carry out a small number of straightforward tasks, and the corporation hasn't yet given them the "OK, Google" summoning capability that users are accustomed to. Although Google claims to be pursuing development responsibly, fears about robots turning into surveillance tools or having chat technology that can respond in an inappropriate manner, as Meta and others have recently encountered, could ultimately cause adoption to s...

Google’s high-end Pixel range just expanded. At today’s Nexus Event, Sundar Pichai announced the new Pixel C, a 10.2-inch tablet with USB-C that starts at $499. And instead of running Chrome OS, this Pixel runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Like so many of today’s reveals, much about the Pixel C recently leaked. However, that doesn’t make it any less interesting. The new Pixel eschews the Chromebook form factor that Google used in the original Chromebook in 2013and the more recent refresh. Instead, as a large tablet, it has a lot more in common with the Surface and iPad Pro. (Microsoft clearly was onto something.) Under the hood, the device has an Nvidia Tegra X1 processor and 3GB of RAM, which Google says makes it powerful enough to handle work and entertainment. Onstage, Google took time to highlight how the keyboard will work with tablet. The accessory doesn’t need a kickstand and can be adjusted from 100 to 135 degrees. It also connects via Bluetooth, so Google boasts it doesn’t h...

Reports coming out of Microsoft Russia claim that a new VR kit strikingly similar to the Google Cardboard is being provided to developers at a hackathon later this month and it apparently isn’t related to the HoloLens in any way. The kit will be provided to attendees on October 17 and it works by inserting a Microsoft Lumia smartphone inside a cardboard surround that to all intents and purposes looks exactly the same as Google’s creation save the Microsoft branding. Microsoft wants developers to use the kit to create apps in one of three different categories, which are games, education and corporate. It will then present an award to the best one in each section and the team behind it will get a VR kit to continue developing it. Even though the two are apparently unrelated, a cardboard VR kit is likely part of Microsoft’s wider plan to throw considerable weight behind the HoloLens wearable headset, which was originally announced in 2015 and is expected to arrive at some point du...

A new trademark filing by Google has been discovered, just in time to get tongues wagging before the weekend. According to the report, Google has trademarked the term "Speedbook" under computer hardware, so speculation is that it could refer to an upcoming tablet or netbook powered by Google's upcoming Chrome OS. No actual details on what the Speedbook might be have been mentioned just yet, so until Google decides to tell us what it is, we can only guess and dream.

Google seems to be interested in dipping their fingers across a wide range of devices, and we have whiff of Google TV in the works. This ambitious platform looks set to deliver web content to Android-based set-top boxes as well as TVs through a series of partnerships including Sony, Intel and Logitech among others. Google has hopes that this new platform will be able to break the previous failures of prior efforts from other companies, with a bright spark that could seamlessly integrate web content onto TVs. According to The Times, Google TV will see set-top boxes that are powered by Intel Atom processors as well as those that run on an Android-based platform. Do you think that Google might be overextending themselves here?

The Motley Fool has a good point: unless the upcoming G1 Phone is a complete and utter failure, Google wins whether or not its entry into telecom hardware market does well. The money quote: Google wins when more people use the Web. If the Android platform kills the iPhone, that’s great. Google wins. If Apple ends up killing the Android, it’ll have to be with better software that takes full advantage of connectivity everywhere. Again, Google wins. The only way to lose is to release a total dud, so failure this month is not an option. In any case, a 1.5 million pre-sale figure is pretty impressive. It’s proof that Google’s concept for mobility is interesting enough for lots of people to shell out money—despite the lack of any significant experience with the phone. Unfortunately, it’s still ugly!

Google announced on their blog that they're offering additional storage for their Gmail, Google Apps, and Picasa services. Storage sizes of 6, 25, 100, and 250 GB are available at prices ranging between 20 and 500 dollars a year. We hoped for more flexibility in how the storage could be used, but it's nice for those running low on space.

Google adds street view imagery to Google Maps for San Diego (go Padres!), Los Angeles, Houston and Orlando, Fla. The controversial Street View, which lets you virtually walk down a street and see ground-level, 360 photography of your surroundings, launched at the end of May with imagery of San Francisco, New York, Denver, Las Vegas and Miami.

A new feature in Google Maps, Mapplets, places data overlays onto your map - like movie times, crime rates and real estate prices. We've covered dozens of Google Maps mashups since Maps launched, and Mapplets just makes those mashups available on Google Maps proper, instead of having to go to another site to see them. Mapplets have graduated from the developer preview and are now live on Google Maps. To add multiple layers of data points to your maps - like information about real estate prices, weather, earthquakes and movie showtimes - from the "My Maps" tab hit "Add content," and watch all those third-party Google maps mashups get consolidated onto GMaps proper.