FileHippo News

The latest software and tech news

Google To Ban Cryptocurrency Adverts
Ads for all cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency affiliates will be banned from Google AdWords program from June 2018. Google’s move to ban cryptocurrency advertising follows a similar ban by Facebook earlier this year, and recent warning from IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde. While the brief post by Google relates to part of... Read more
Third-Parties Can Now Control Google Assistant
Google allows its Assistant voice commands to be customized. Fans of Google’s in-home virtual assistant will be impressed with a new feature that will allow the Assistant device to interact better with smart devices. Thanks to the new functionality, users can tell their devices to follow commands that operate things... Read more
Hearprint Software Adjusts Volume To User’s Needs
New Google Chrome extension is part of a campaign by Cochlear. No two people see or hear the world in exactly the same way, according to the developers of a new software called Hearprint. Issued in part as a campaign by Cochlear, makers of the well-known implant, this software... Read more
Is Google Chrome The Be All And End All Of Web Browsers?
It may be the most popular, but is Google Chrome really the best web browser out there? Here are some thoughts, stats, and comparisons for you to chew over. Google Chrome remains by far and away the most-used web browser, accounting for well over half of all web traffic,... Read more
Google Now Sells Audiobooks… Is That A Good Thing?
Google Play Store features new audiobook section and integrates them with Home smart speaker. Google has recently announced that it will now sell audiobooks to its customers, opening up the doors of competition against Amazon’s widely popular Audible. The move will mean that the Google Play Store will host... Read more
Half Million Users Infected By Harmful Chrome Extensions
Click-fraud browser extensions pulled from Google’s Chrome Web Store. In much the same way that smartphone apps help you personalize your device to your own specifications for productivity and enjoyment, browser extensions help you use the internet with your own key personalizations. These extensions are typically downloaded from the... Read more
Google, Microsoft And Amazon Join Forces To Appeal FCC Net Neutrality Ruling
Several of the US’s Major internet firms have banded together to form a group known as the Internet Association with the sole intention of suing the FCC and preventing the government body from overturning the Title 2 2015 net neutrality rules. The IA which is backed by heavyweight tech... Read more
Google To Open Chinese AI Research Lab In China
Artificial Iintelligence (AI) centre to open despite the fact that its search services remain blocked in the country after the best part of a decade. The subsidiary of Alphabet will build the new AI research facility in the city of Shanghai. The project is to be headed up Fei-Fei... Read more
Google’s AlphaZero AI Beats World’s Best Chess Software
AlphaZero artificial intelligence software triumphed at chess against the world’s best chess program after amassing all human knowledge of the game in just four hours. Google researchers have published a paper in which they detail how their latest AI evolution, AlphaZero, managed to display a “superhuman performance” in chess, taking just four hours to learn... Read more
Google Faces UK Lawsuit Over Privacy
Action sought over alleged snooping on iPhone users. In the digital age, there are a few universal truths: nothing is ever deleted from the internet, and nothing is truly private. Even with the strictest security settings, every available tech tool, and the best of intentions, someone out there can... Read more
US Users Hit By Google Docs Outage
Los Angeles, San Francisco and West Coast hit hardest; rest of G Suite unaffected. Google Docs users suddenly found themselves without access to any of their docs, when Docs itself became inaccessible late Wednesday afternoon. While the outage only lasted a few hours for a “significant subset of users,” panic... Read more
WhatsApp ‘Fake’ Downloaded More Than One Million Times From Google Play
Fake Android update appeared in Google’s official app store. It is understood that more than a million people downloaded a fake version of WhatsApp onto their Android devices through the official Google App center, before Google realized and removed the fake app from the Play store. It’s easy to see... Read more
Google Pixel Buds To Surpass AirPods In Connectivity
The race between the two tech giants for seamless headphone pairing continues. Apple and Google have both taken on the wireless headphone space with a Bluetooth-connected feature on their latest phones, but both products have similarities and striking differences. In the race to get rid of the wire–although Google’s... Read more
Google Appeals EU’s €2.4bn Search Engine Results Fine
Tech giant lodges appeal against massive fine by European Commission. Back in the middle of summer, the regulator ruled that Google’s positioning its own shopping comparison service at the top of Google search results, ahead of competitors, such as Amazon, was an abuse of power. The €2.4bn fine was, and... Read more
Google Pulls 500 Apps With Secret Spyware Backdoor
Google kills secret plugin download after being alerted by researchers. It’s terrible when an app that collects data in order to target users with advertising turns on you, but that’s exactly what prompted Google to pull 500 apps from the Play Store last week. Those apps, ranging from games... Read more
Ransomware Not Going Anywhere Anytime Soon, Says Google
New study by Google warns that Ransomware is ‘here to stay’. According to Google, the surge of Ransomware is now an endemic scourge of the internet, and the problems associated with it are only going to get worse. Ransomware has “become a very, very profitable market and is here... Read more
Google Glass Returns, Marketed Exclusively for Business
Alphabet’s Google smart glasses, Google Glass have returned, and it turns out they never really went away… But this time instead of attempting to sell it to the consumer market, the tech giant are selling it directly to industry and business calculating that the new ‘Glass Enterprise Edition’ with... Read more
Google Facing Second Record EU Fine: This Time Over Android.
Another week, another antitrust case. Google has found itself facing a second record fine from European regulators in another antitrust case, in as many weeks, according to a report by Reuters. As the dust still settles over the EU’s 2.4 billion Euro fine against Google’s comparison search practices, last... Read more