March 28, 2024

Web and Technology News

This Week in Apps: Google I/O 2023 recap; Android, apps and AI; Twitter’s new CEO

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of […]

This Week in Apps: Google I/O 2023 recap; Android, apps and AI; Twitter’s new CEO by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Hands on with Google’s AI-powered music generator

Can AI work backward from a text description to generate a coherent song? That’s the premise of MusicLM, the AI-powered music creation tool Google released yesterday during the kickoff of its I/O conference. MusicLM, which was trained on hundreds of thousands of hours of audio to learn to create new music in a range of […]

Hands on with Google’s AI-powered music generator by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Project Starline is the coolest work call you’ll ever take

I don’t have any images from my Project Starline experience. Google had a strict “no photos, no videos” policy in place. No colleagues, either. Just me in a dark meeting room on the Shoreline Amphitheater grounds in Mountain View. You walk in and sit down in front of a table. In front of you is […]

Project Starline is the coolest work call you’ll ever take by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s new Labs page lets you sign up for its AI experiments

This year’s Google IO was all about AI. The company announced a number of AI-powered features across its products on Wednesday. The search giant also launched a new page called Google Labs to let people sign up for these experiments and test out AI-powered features for feedback before the wider release. Currently, you can look […]

Google’s new Labs page lets you sign up for its AI experiments by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Google ‘Perspectives’ integrates Reddit, YouTube, TikTok and more in search results

Alongside its work to integrate more AI features into Search, Google today also announced it’s introducing a new “Perspectives” filter will be coming to the top of some of its Search results when the results “would benefit from others’ experiences,” Google says — like posts on discussion boards, Q&A sites and social media platforms, including […]

Google ‘Perspectives’ integrates Reddit, YouTube, TikTok and more in search results by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s latest Project Starline prototype uses AI to make 3D images of people

Today at I/O, Google announced the latest prototype of Project Starline, its 3D teleconferencing video booth. On the face of it, the biggest difference a dramatic reduction in hardware. The earlier model, which it showed off late last year, relied on several cameras to capture speakers from all angles. This time out, however, the system […]

Google’s latest Project Starline prototype uses AI to make 3D images of people by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

With over 1M published apps, Google’s Flutter expands its support for web apps and WebAssembly

Flutter, Google’s open-source multi-platform application framework, has been seeing quite a bit of momentum lately, with both Google’s internal teams betting on it for projects like the new Play Console App, the Google Cloud mobile app and Android’s Nearby Share app for Windows using it, as well as developers at Canonical (for the new Ubuntu […]

With over 1M published apps, Google’s Flutter expands its support for web apps and WebAssembly by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Building Wear OS watch faces just got easier

At its I/O developer conference today, Google announced a new way for developers to build Wear OS watch faces, along with overall updates to the Android Wear platform, including Wear OS 4. With this update, developers now get access to a new declarative format to design and build their watch faces, using the Jetpack Watch […]

Building Wear OS watch faces just got easier by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Android Studio gets a built-in coding bot

Android Studio, like so much of Google’s product portfolio, is getting its infusion of AI today at the company’s annual I/O developer conference. Android Studio Hedgehog, the upcoming version of Android Studio currently in the canary release channel, will be the first to add support for the here., a new conversational experience in Android Studio […]

Android Studio gets a built-in coding bot by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s Health Connect platform is coming to Android 14 with new features

At its annual Google I/O conference, Google announced a few updates to Health Connect, which is a platform that allows users to store health data and adjust privacy settings all in one place. Health Connect is currently available in Beta, but starting with the release of Android 14 later this year, Health Connect will be […]

Google’s Health Connect platform is coming to Android 14 with new features by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

Google Play developers will be able to push you to update your apps

In addition to its AI-powered Play Store updates, Google also introduced today several new security and privacy features for both app developers and Play Store users at its I/O developer conference. These include updates to its Play Integrity API, the introduction of a new beta version of the Play Console app, changes to the Data […]

Google Play developers will be able to push you to update your apps by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google brings AI and more to the Play Store

Google is bringing its AI technology to the Play Store. At this week’s developer event, Google I/O, the company announced several new ways for developers to use its AI to build and optimize their Android apps for the Play Store, alongside a host of other tools to grow their app’s audience through things like automated […]

Google brings AI and more to the Play Store by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s Firebase gets AI extensions, opens up its marketplace

Firebase, Google’s backend-as-a-service platform for application developers, is getting its fair share of new features at the company’s I/O developer conference today, but the marquee update is the addition of AI extensions, powered by Google’s PaLM API. That’s in addition to support for the Python language in Cloud Functions for Firebase (2nd gen), updates to […]

Google’s Firebase gets AI extensions, opens up its marketplace by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Microsoft Office, Netflix, Amazon Kindle and more are tuning their apps for the new Pixel Fold

Google launched its first foldable device, the Pixel Fold, at the Google I/O developer conference today. While the device itself will be available later this summer, the company is working with some notable organizations — including Microsoft, Zoom, Netflix, and Amazon — to make some of their popular apps well-suited for the Pixel Fold. The […]

Microsoft Office, Netflix, Amazon Kindle and more are tuning their apps for the new Pixel Fold by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s $1,799 Pixel Fold arrives in late June

Google long ago abandoned the pretense of surprise about the Pixel line. There’s an extent to which you can point the finger at the hardware rumor industrial complex. But at the end of the day, the company was always going to take matters into its own hands and announce its most anticipated hardware device a […]

Google’s $1,799 Pixel Fold arrives in late June by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s Pixel Tablet ships with its own speaker dock

We knew the Pixel Tablet was coming. In fact, we’ve known it for a year. Google teased the device at last year’s I/O. It was one of those “don’t worry, we’re working on stuff” sort of deals, with an extremely broad 2023 release date. The company offered a (slightly) better look at the system at […]

Google’s Pixel Tablet ships with its own speaker dock by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

WhatsApp is working on a native app for Wear OS

Google said that WhatsApp is working on a native WearOS app at its developer conference Google I/O. Earlier this week, WhatsApp launched a beta version of its app compatible with Google’s smartwatch platform. Folks using WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.23.10.10 will be able to link their Wear OS-based smartwatch. Users will be able to […]

WhatsApp is working on a native app for Wear OS by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s Find My Device network to warn about unknown AirTags with you

Shortly after last week’s joint announcement which saw Apple and Google teaming up on Bluetooth tracker safety measures and a new specification, Google today introduced a series of improvements coming to its own Find My Device network, including proactive alerts about unknown trackers traveling with you with support for Apple’s AirTag and others. The news, […]

Google’s Find My Device network to warn about unknown AirTags with you by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google brings new generative models to Vertex AI, including Imagen

To paraphrase Andreessen Horowitz, generative AI, particularly on the text-to-art side, is eating the world. At least, investors believe so — judging by the billions of dollars they’ve poured into startups developing AI that creates text and images from prompts. Not to be left behind, Big Tech is investing in its own generative AI art […]

Google brings new generative models to Vertex AI, including Imagen by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Google Cloud announces new A3 supercomputer VMs built to power LLMs

As we’ve seen LLMs and generative AI come screaming into our consciousness in recent months, it’s clear that these models take enormous amounts of compute power to train and run. Recognizing this, Google Cloud announced a new A3 supercomputer virtual machine today at Google I/O. The A3 has been purpose-built to handle the considerable demands […]

Google Cloud announces new A3 supercomputer VMs built to power LLMs by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

Google launches a GitHub Copilot competitor

At its annual I/O developer conference, Google today announced the launch of a number of AI-centric coding tools, including its competitor to GitHub’s Copilot, a chat tool for asking questions about coding and Google Cloud services, as well as AI-assisted coding in Google’s no-code AppSheet product. At the core of virtually all of these new […]

Google launches a GitHub Copilot competitor by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Google is experimenting with a new AI-powered conversational mode in Search

Google Search is introducing a new experimental conversational mode that is powered by generative AI, the company announced at its annual I/O developer conference today. Instead of rolling out the product immediately, Google will be opening a wait list under a new experimental program called Search Labs. In this new experience, users will see suggested […]

Google is experimenting with a new AI-powered conversational mode in Search by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch