Google’s Machine Learning Smarts Highlighted By I/O

 

Google has begun working on natural language understanding and Now on Tap, Inbox for Gmail and Google Photos are the few consisting of it.

A very few people might argue that this year’s keynote by I/O was the flashiest by the company. If any of the readers were expecting it to make them jump out of the blimps to unveil the new Google Glass version, the event might have been a disappointed one for them then. Instead, the latest Google news reports that the company used the low-key keynote conference for announcing the evolutionary update for the mobile OS by the company, considered to be the new effort for bringing Android itself to Internet of Things and also couple of new tools for developers had been introduced so they can monetize, analyze and also advertise their apps in better ways.

There are three new products that had been the attraction, as far as the consumer side is considered, Google Photos, Android M’s Now On Tap and also the Inbox for Gmail (not announced in the keynote). To some extent, all these products are inclined towards understanding of natural language expertise for deep machine learning and also huge database from Knowledge Graph that the search engine giant has focused on in the recent years.

For instance, Google Photos has the search engine for photos which is probably the best feature for searching through the pictures and is the best which has been introduced up till now. Search for ‘flowers’, ‘trees’, ‘mountains’ or ‘birthday’ and only experience what it might find for you in all the collections it has for your photos. Photos had been the standalone version of the feature in Google+ but now it has gained some additional features along with the improvisation in search engine.

As far as the Google Now on Tap is concerned, it can understand the happenings in the app and give the user contextual information and answer the users’ questions regarding it. Google news presented the demo of this in the keynote where it expressed that it played the Skrillex song in Spotify and asked the Now on Tap, “What’s his real name?” In order to answer this, it had to understand what was happening in the app, what was meant by “his” and also go deep in the knowledge base in order to answer it correctly.

Inbox got left out at the keynote, but its update now brings the natural language understanding in action and now is relying on it for generating the automatic reminders for the user when it notices someone is asking them to do something. It is also capable of organizing the emails regarding the forthcoming trips and also compiles them together in a single group.

 

 

 

Google Unveils Project Vault, A Secure Computing Environment

 

Google has introduced Vault which is the micro SD format device for users and developers.

Latest Google news is regarding the new project being launched by the search engine giant at the Google I/O Conference held in San Francisco. A micro SD sized device consisting of a secure computer that is what Project Vault is. According to ATAP by Google, since there are already many enhanced security features present on the phone, integrated in the SIM that protects the things that are important for carriers, micro SD set-up has made sense. Vault has been designed to display the important content pertaining to the user and also to be an equivalent.

The micro SD feature had been used due to the requirements where large amount of data throughput so video can be displayed, also for the storage (Vault consists of 4GB storage which is on board) and also for modularity, so the users can take it with them wherever they wished.

The Vault itself is running ARTOS and is said to be an ARM processor. ARTOS is a secure OS which focuses on data security and privacy. Furthermore it also consists of an antenna and NFC chip. The purpose of the antenna is to prove that the user is in control and also that the device is correctly authorized. Finally, it also consists of a collection of cryptographic services, which includes signing, hashing, hardware based random number generator and batch encryption.

Google news reports that the Vault provides the users with two factor authentication, in such a way that it’s a lot easy for anyone to use. Moreover, the developers are not going to need any stuff to prepare in order to work with this due to the fact that the system is this as a storage device which is rather generic and consists of standard file system.

The file system includes only two files, one is for read and one is for the write purpose, that any app would be going through if it has to communicate with Vault. This also points out that it can work with any operating system, including Windows, Linux, OS X and Android, since it is a general storage device to the phone or host computer.

ATAP has released the development kit which is open source so the people can test and also understand it before it goes live. There is also a first version of the product built for enterprises which is currently being used by Google internally and also there are initiatives to be taken for building consumer focused hardware.

During a demo, ATAP showed and described how the Vault can secure the chat conversation. Vault also takes care of encrypting the message and also sending the message via cypher text.

 

 

Google Introduces Inbox by Gmail, Acquires Timeful

 

Google is on the verge of making people more organized by introducing personal assistance apps in the form of Timeful.

Latest Google news is regarding the Inbox by Gmail feature that was recently introduced by the company. The main aim behind the release of it is to make the email experience of the people smarter than before. It seems that this is merely the beginning of plans by Google in order to help the users staying organized. In the blog post, Google announced that the tech giant has acquired Timeful app and also the brains behind it.

For anyone who has not come across Timeful, the app is iOS based and aims to make the lives of its users easier by combining all the management features such as scheduling, calendar and to-do lists and putting them in one place. The app acts as an intelligent assistant and also encourages the users to make use of their time in a better way by managing the tasks. Also, the app schedules the users’ days as per the time available, the deadlines and other stuff.

Still wondering what that means? Basically, the users tell the app what they wish to accomplish, the app in return helps the users fit all those things in the hectic schedule. For example, the user informs the app that they want to lift weights at least three times in a week and also that they have to buy the anniversary gift for their significant other by Friday and they have to get cardio for 30 minutes daily. Timeful shall observe the schedule that you go about and squeeze all these tasks in. Timeful will be continuing its services for now but the team of the app will be most likely focusing on the new project by the now parent company Google, as per the Google news. The tech giant has specifically mentioned Inbox, ‘Beyond’ and Calendar as few of those products that shall benefit the acquisition of Timeful.

Such acquisition also points that the company has now owned some iOS app to make it happen for Google as well. This management app can be of great help for the people as they are already praising the Gmail functionality but if the scheduling and the to-do lists for the people is enhanced to a proposed level of personal assistance then it will be worth it. There are many of us who are excited to hear about it and are also expecting some great news soon regarding the new management features and apps by Google. Now that the search engine algorithm has been enhanced to work for not only the suitable websites and topics but also suggestive android apps, in no time we might see these newly developed apps under the suggestion of management apps too maybe.

 

Google Improvises Scrolling for Chrome – gets inspired by Internet Explorer

 

Google has decided to incorporate Microsoft’s IE Pointer Events tool in Chrome after it emerged as a standard by W3C.

Google Chrome has made itself a pioneer and a very trustworthy search engine since its launch. It’s been decades and we still are fond of it. Not only due to the search-query results and their efficiency but also because it has grown the company itself as well.

However, we know that Google and Microsoft are not friends so to speak. But Google news is that both the companies have been working closely in order for Chrome to have a little Microsoft touch to it. Astonishing, isn’t it?

Latest Google news is about the introduction of Microsoft’s Pointer Events in Google Chrome. Pointer Events is a technology that controls mouse, stylus inputs and touch.

Pointer Events is a feature that has been adopted by Internet Explorer and Firefox earlier but Safari does not support it. The search engine giant says that the web developers’ feedback, vendors of the browser and other personnel from the web community have played a vital role for the company to add this tech into Chrome. According to the Google news today, the Point Events functionality will improve the scroll stammering that users have to experience while accessing Chrome from mobile. Further, Rick Byers said: “Replacing all touch event handlers with pointer event handlers will address the main longstanding source of scroll-start jank we see on Android.”

However, the developers are at ease here because they can take advantage of one input process technology across all the big browsers i.e. Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer.

One month after the W3C announcement of making this Microsoft technology a standard, Google has decided to incorporate it in Chrome.

The Pointer Events will not be seen that soon on your Chrome, just in case you are wondering. According to Byers, implementation will consume a little time as it has to build Pointer Events in Blink. Blink is a rendering engine that charges Chromium and Chrome.

After the implementation, there will be alpha and beta version of the feature before being launched officially to all the users for their desktop and mobile applications.

The Chromium team had not been interested in using the Pointer Events but has reversed the decision now. However, the team still believes that it has some issues and they are hoping to create a standard which will be interoperable between all the browsers, naming Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox. We are not sure when will the alpha and beta versions of the functionality be launched but we are sure that the end users are already excited to hear the news regarding Google, incorporating Microsoft’s tool.

 

Google Has Discovered Security Holes in SSL

 

Google lately discovered that a transitional certificate authority issued unauthorized certificates for Google domains.

As per the latest Google news, it has come across a new security hole in SSL. The transitional certificate authority issued unauthorized certificates for Google domains. In spite of not holding the domains itself, MSC Holdings issued the certificates for Google domains and that is where the problem arose.

SSL functionality breaks when the companies mint the certificates for the websites they don’t operate and therefore is a critical scenario. Let’s go through how the SSL system is supposed to function:

The PC links to a Google server which shall send it a certificate. The data session is encrypted by your machine via using that certificate. The server, in return, sends confirmation about the key being good and the secure session with your machine is built. Third parties, signing the certificates grants false server to perform Man-in-the-middle-attack.

As far as man-in-the-middle attack is concerned, a superseding Certificate Authority (CA) pretends to be a legit certificate issuing authority and that is exactly what has happened in this current situation. This isn’t an ideal situation and should not happen, as per the Google news, it has pointed out that the authenticate CA; CNNIC shouldn’t have given this authority to MCS Holdings.

In addition to the bugs in SSL system, the major faulty assumption is that it depends on the fact that CAs will be issuing good or legit certificates only. If we go through the history, we will come across of the fact that this isn’t true. There have been several Certificate Authorities being hacked. It includes companies like DigiNotar and VeriSign.

Latest Google news reports that it wants to revamp the certificate issuing process, the name of the project is Certificate Transparency initiative. It would be doing the following things in order to make the certificate issuing process transparent and legit:

1. Adding preventive layers in the process by making the process of issuing the certificate impossible or at least extremely difficult without it being noticeable to the domain owner.
2. An exposed monitoring and auditing system that will provide the ability to CA or domain owner to examine the certificates whether they have been issued by mistake or maliciously.
3. To protect the users from being tricked by the certificates that had been mistakenly or deliberately issued.

The certificates are supposed to be logged and that data shall be monitored by public servers. These servers will be checking for any malicious or mistaken certificate issued with the regular interval of time. If, for instance, Certificate Authority ABC issued a wrong certificate for Gmail, Certificate Transparency Monitor will detect this and alert the company. In order to check whether the logs had been tampered with or are improper maintenance of SSL certificates had been done, a cryptographic watchdog program will be maintained.

 

Queensland IT Company to try hands on Google Glass

 

Young professionals from the Queensland are set to enter the wearable tech-world with their association with Google Glass.

Google Glass has been an interesting revelation of the century. Though it wasn’t much of a hit but someone is ready to work on it more.

Company found by two young men, residing in South-east Queensland, has decided to break into the world of wearable technology. Buckham and Duffy, the two young men with an energetic start-up have set their eyes on Google Glass. Their company is among the handful of the Australian businesses Google approved to be a part of the development of its upcoming “Glass” technology.

This startup company was chosen by Google in early January later after the search engine giant announced that they will not be working on the Google Glass prototype. Google Glass is not merely a glass but creates a heads-up vision of the images when worn. Jordan Duffy said they were given a nod on the development because they have been aiming for the innovation, enhancement in technology for the better use by humans and blue-chip clients constantly referring them.

Mr. Duffy explained: “We can overlay a huge range of data in the user’s view using glass. “We can see this product increasing public safety, efficiency for organizations, with key areas of focus for us in agriculture, healthcare, security and education.”

Many praises and recognitions have been in the basket of Google Glass, such as naming it as best innovation of 2012 at the time of its release by Time Magazine. Wolfson College professor, John Naughton wrote that: “Machines should do what machines do best, thereby freeing up humans to do what they do best”

David Datuna became the first artist in December 2013 who incorporated Google Glass in the work of art.

There have been privacy concerns raised by people that it records the people in public without permission, slightly unethical. Some people wearing this glass might be able to recognize strangers and/or record or broadcast the private conversations. Another issue that was raised by US congressional committee was that if the device was lost or stolen, the data could be lost, to which Google replied that the lock system for the Google Glass was under development.

There have been many concerns regarding this product but with young professionals getting into the picture, we hope to see it evolve into the next big thing. However, we should keep Microsoft’s Hololens in mind as well, it has been talk of the buzz too.

 

 

Google (GOOGL) Drive Goes Efficient

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has made file searching and sharing easy than ever. The tech giant has released a new update in accordance to Google Drive application. This new update is available for iOS and Android both. One can now share files through Google drive rather than sharing links.

Google Drive now provides the option of searching files via voice on Android, “OK Google – search for (file name) on Drive”. One does not have go through the hassle of opening the application and punching in the keywords.

Firstly, before, one had go through the long process of opening the Google Drive application, tapping on the search bar and then tapping the mic button to be able to activate the voice search option.

Secondly, iOS now provides users with a special feature of uploading files from other apps. This efficient feature is only available in iOS 8 only.

Thirdly, custom maps from Google My maps can now be accessed and shared as well. This feature is available to Android and iOS users both.

“The Android update will roll out over the next week or so and the iOS app is already available on the App Store. Visit g.co/getdrive from your device for the latest”, says a post of Google+ on Google Drive account.

According to news, Google announced that the search engine did well last year, however, Craft beers were just not going to be there in Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s list because of the limited amount that they produce and regional affiliations. While Craft is still struggling, it was not anticipated that it will be a part of Google’s list. But according to Google’s list Budweiser is the king of beers and even searches.

What one needs to search Budweiser is beyond understanding, the taste or the popularity of the company has not faltered since people can remember. But here the company is at the top of Google’s most searched for topics list. On second place landed Corona and on third place came Keystone. The top ten searches are in this order: Miller, Blue Moon, Coors, Bud Light, PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon), Modelo, and Sierra Nevada.

When it is about food, pizza was the most searched for item. People preferred searching for restaurants more than recipes. Banana bread, meat loaf, and chicken were also a part of the top three searches. Particular fitness diets are also searched for such as, Atkins, Gluten-free diets and Paleo.