Research by ESET found that the Android app, “iRecorder — Screen Recorder,” introduced the malicious code as an app update almost a year after it was first listed on Google Play. The code, according to ESET, allowed the app to stealthily upload a minute of ambient audio from the device’s microphone every 15 minutes, as well as exfiltrate documents, web pages and media files from the user’s phone.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/29/popular-android-app-microphone-spying-google-play/
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But Google’s onstage ideas were almost impressive in their ability to serve precisely none of writing’s core purposes. Its examples of Help me write calcify the worst tendencies of “professional” communications. They’re bland, bloated boilerplate that turns a human prompt into something that uses more words to say less.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/13/23719115/google-ai-help-me-write-communications-email
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“[Google] came to us and said, the internet is broken, ads aren’t loading, blah blah, blah. We want to provide a better user experience to users by coming up with this clean standard,” says one magazine product executive. “My reaction was that the main problem is ads, so why don’t you fix the ads? They said they can’t fix the ads. It’s too hard.”
https://www.theverge.com/23711172/google-amp-accelerated-mobile-pages-search-publishers-lawsuit
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We had expected to see it last year, but the Fold didn’t make the cut for I/O in 2022, and rumors about its launch haven’t slowed down in the year since. Google has focused on teaching Android developers to make their apps work on foldable devices and larger screens, which may pay off next week with the launch of this device and the new Pixel Tablet.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/4/23711353/google-pixel-fold-announced
After adding support for verified brand logos in 2021, Gmail is now going further by adding a blue checkmark to emails. The existing system is based on the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standard, where brand logos appear in the “avatar slot” next to the sender’s name and address. For example, instead of a generic “B” against a plain background, Bank of America can show its official flag logo.
https://9to5google.com/2023/05/03/gmail-blue-checkmark/
The magical(ly crappy) thing about webPs is that they seem to be simultaneously ubiquitous and also barely supported. Countless times I've tried to upload a webP to Twitter or PC Gamer's content management system only to have it rejected. Photoshop didn't officially support webP until February 2022.
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-why-you-have-to-deal-with-so-many-annoying-webps-now/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3mrq9pR3WQ8DG6WETVXuHkxhrq0u0LEeoGKuj1I-PrK7HtQZicgT0XvFU#lh4a7t6pr58zynm7m3i
Chromebooks have become a key part of many students’ educational lives, but like our smartphones, they aren’t built to last. It’s worse than that, though: They have an expiration date, one that creates a big problem with e-waste down the line. That’s a problem that has long been known about these low-end machines, but it’s something that “Chromebook Churn,” a new report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) Education Fund makes clear.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjv8mw/chromebooks-are-trash-literally