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Nest Wi-Fi Pro

Google to release Nest Wi-Fi Pro update next week to fix slow internet speed

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Google will launch a software upgrade for the brand-new Nest Wi-fi Pro close to the start of the next week to resolve some users’ slow Internet speeds.

Nest Wi-fi Pro
Image Source: thegoandroid.com

Google unveiled its newest IoT products, such as the Nest Wifi Pro, on October 4. The model looks hardly anything like most Wi-Fi routers and costs 200 USD, but it may be valuable for those who are committed to the Nest ecosystem and want a mesh networking setup. Why? The model includes Wi-Fi 6E, which expands on 802.11ax connectivity to provide customers with access to the 6 GHz band. As a matter of fact, the device is evidently future-proof and performs better.

Sanjay Noronha, Google Nest Wifi’s product lead said that “the company is currently investigating reports of a small number of users experiencing reduced Internet speeds on Nest Wifi Pro routers, and that its teams are working to roll out a fix,” as reported by The Verge.

Source: business-standard.com

Considering the combo of performance assurances and high price tag, it is not surprising that some customers were dissatisfied when they discovered a bug that in some cases, was restricting the Nest Wifi Pro to speeds of only around 50 Mbps.

Read More: Apple Restricts iPhone AirDrop With Everyone to Just 10 Minutes in China

It is noticeably slower than what one might anticipate out of a Wi-Fi 6E device which in actuality, for so many customers, may have signified a dramatic drop compared to the hardware they were using before purchasing Google’s. Luckily, it appears that the firm has heard the complaints and is hard at work on a bug fix.

Not every Nest Wifi Pro owner has reported slow internet speed issues. Google told The Verge that this issue affected only a small percentage of its users. The spokesperson said that Google is working on a bug fix for the issue and that it will begin the launch to consumers close to the start of the next week that means Monday is unclear, but it appears to be only a matter of days away.

According to the statement provided to The Verge, it appears that users in the United Kingdom were more likely to be affected by this glitch than consumers in the United States. That reason for the bug might well be connected to point-to-point protocol over ethernet (PPPoE). It is generally used by DSL service providers in the United Kingdom and DSL is still accessible in many other places, and those users may also be affected.

Google did not go into detail about why these slow speed issues are occurring, allowing the reader to presume what they can, from the information given. In the meantime, if you’ve a non-Pro Google Nest Wi-fi mesh network router and are undergoing slow speeds, the firm has an assistance document outlining possible solutions.

Software Defined Vehicle

Google, Renault Group to build ‘software-defined vehicle’ for the future

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Google has made breakthroughs in the automotive industry in the span of the last few years with Android Auto, which mimics the smartphone’s features for in-car news and entertainment, and Android Automotive which is an operating system particularly designed for cars that include Play Store support and a built-in Google Assistant. On Tuesday, Google and Renault Group revealed the expansion of their collaboration to produce the digital layout for the future ‘Software Defined Vehicle (SDV).

Software Defined Vehicle
Image Source: dtnext.in

The ‘Software Defined Vehicle’ will enable the car to receive new on-demand services and continuous upgrades, utilising the present Android Automotive Operating System with the Google Cloud technology participation.

“Our collaboration with Renault Group has advanced comfort, safety, and connectivity on the road. The announcement will help accelerate Renault Group’s digital transformation by bringing together our expertise in the cloud, AI, and Android to provide a secure, highly-personalized experience that meets customers’ evolving expectations,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet.

Source: pgurus.com

Renault Group will broaden its utilization of Google Cloud technology for this SDV to effectively manage data capture and analytics, along with software development for the vehicle, securely and confidentially.

The companies will establish a set of SDV-specific onboard and offboard software components, as well as expand synergies and use cases that are in relation to the group’s “Move to Cloud” strategy.

The partnership on cloud computing, which began in 2018, is gaining momentum with the development of a Digital Twin, a virtual twin of the machine with the most advanced AI capabilities.

“Equipped with a shared IT platform, continuous over-the-air updates, and streamlined access to car data, the SDV approach developed in partnership with Google will transform our vehicles to help serve future customers’ needs,” said Luca de Meo, Renault Group CEO.“Our strategic partnership with Google will allow us to accelerate our end-to-end digital transformation, from the design of the car to its market launch through its production, and ultimately to bring added value to our customers, he added.

Source: pgurus.com
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Google Fined $275m for Anti-Competitive Practices

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Umar Javeed, Aaqib, and Sukarma Thapar, three young informants, finally forced Google to pay a whopping Rs 1,338 crore fine for abusing its dominant position in different markets itself with Android mobile operating system.

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Image Source: pragativadi.com

Although Sukarma Thapar and Umar Javeed were working as research experts for the CCI at the time, younger brother of Umar, Aaqib, was studying law at the University of Kashmir.

The CCI, India’s national competition regulator, is in charge of encouraging competition and attempting to prevent activities that have a significant adverse effect on competition in the market. Umar and Aaqib are Valley residents. The three young informants filed a complaint in 2018 alleging that Google was misusing its dominant position in various markets.

The Competition Commission of India fined Google Rs 1,337 crore for anti-competitive practices in the Android mobile device ecosystem.

The three young subjects are all lawyers by profession now, with Umar working for a government agency, Aaqib a practising advocate in Delhi, and Sukarma an independent law and policy consultant. Umar stated that gathering evidence was difficult because they only had direct exposure to customer information to back up their case.

“We can look at an Android phone and say there are some Google-owned apps that cannot be deleted even if we wanted to, but besides that, as consumers, we have little information on how exactly Android smartphone manufacturers and app developers are affected by the role Google plays in the Android ecosystem,” he explained.

Source: latestly.com

Aaqib stated that the three of them were already interested in how India’s digital market was shaping up and how technology policies and laws influenced consumers and tech companies.

“There were many late nights and early mornings where we would just work throughout the night. “I was still a law student then and helping these guys meant I was juggling research along with studying for exams and assignments,” Aaqib said.

Compiling a comprehensive documentation of information was a difficult task that took about two months. “We had to focus on our day jobs and then research for this later in the day. That is when we would have some free time,” Sukarma said. After that, events which were related to Google attracted the trio’s attention in Europe. “In July 2018, the European Commission (the EU’s competition watchdog) imposed one of its largest fines on Google of 4.34 billion Euros for violating EU antitrust rules,” Umar said.

Source: latestly.com

After reviewing the information provided by the three informants, the CCI began an investigation into Google’s behaviour in the Android mobile device ecosystem in April 2019, which resulted in the October 20 CCI judgement and fine. Google responded by saying it would look into the competition watchdog’s decision.

“CCI’s decision is a major setback for Indian consumers and businesses opening serious security risks for Indians and raising the cost of mobile devices for Indians.”

Source: latestly.com

CCI has tightened its knot about other big technology firms such as Apple and Facebook following their hauled up by European and Australian regulators, thanks to the whistleblowing of these three informants. CCI, on the other hand, has not been successful in going all in on such anti-competitive activities by these companies.

Aside from the current penalties, Google is also under investigation by CCI in two other cases. CCI hopes that these cases will serve as a “guideline note” for other businesses that may be breaking competition laws.

Chrome OS 107 update

Google Rolls Out Chrome OS 107 Update With ‘Save Desk for Later’ Feature

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In an effort to enhance user experience, technology giant Google has unveiled the Chrome OS 107 update with a “Save Desk for Later” feature.

Chrome OS 107 update
Image Source: indulgexpress.com

In the past few months, Google has vowed to continuously update its ChromeOS operating system. The search engine giant has just released an upgrade called ChromeOS 107 that includes a number of new features.

Users now have the option to save their Desks for afterward in addition to merging them. When a user saves a desk, all of the open tabs on that Desk are also saved so that one can return to them later.

As per 9to5Google, the new release brings two enhancements to Desks. The first enhancement will allow a user to quickly “Save desk for later” from the overview screen by clicking the button located above the leftmost window. When a user clicks the button the “Saved for later” screen, which can be found to the right side of “New desk,” appears.

Users may give it a name, view the creation date, and quickly see the icons. It is now simpler to close open desks from the Overview menu, and if you accidentally close a desk and wish to undo it, a brief “Undo” prompt appears. 

A merge feature that enables a user to consolidate opened Desks into a single one is apparently also being tested by Google. One of the most widely used productivity tools to appear in ChromeOS in recent times is Virtual Desks, which has gained popularity swiftly. The max number of virtual desktops is now eight, but Google is working to extend it to sixteen.

With so many areas to manage, Google has included a helpful function that allows users to merge one desk with the desk adjacent to it with just one click. In ChromeOS 107, users will see an icon to the left of the “X” used to close a desk when viewing a desk in overview mode. Users can delete that desk from their lineup and relocate its content to the desk just to the left by using this merge icon.

A new “Documents” filter has been added to the “Recent” view in the Files app, and the list underneath has been arranged by time to make it simpler to navigate. Users can now access “accent letters” by simply long tapping on the virtual keyboard. U By, users of Chrome OS 107 update will be able to perform the same action by pressing down on physical keys. Users might need to manually enable it if that fails.

Chrome OS 107 update also introduces auto-framing to the platform, enhancing the productivity toolkit of the platform. When auto framing is activated while using the camera on a device that supports it, the camera will intelligently zoom on the user’s face to keep one in front and center in the frame.

ChromeOS is a Linux-based operating system developed by Google. Its primary user interface is the Google Chrome internet browser, and it is adapted to the open-source ChromiumOS operating system.

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Google To End Support for Windows 7, 8.1 in 2023

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Google will stop Chrome support on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 from February 7, 2023, onwards.

Google
Image Source: engadget.com

Both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 won’t support Chrome 110, which is set to go live on February 7th. On Windows 7 and 8.1, earlier releases of Chrome will still work, but users will be unable to install updated builds, which will incorporate new enhancements and security upgrades.

Users of these operating systems won’t receive any new updates, but earlier Chrome versions will continue to work. Google advised transitioning to Windows 10 or Windows 11 in order to continue receiving Chrome updates. However, this may be challenging for those whose systems don’t support more modern versions of Microsoft’s operating system, companies that are still using Windows 7 or 8.1, and individuals who can’t afford to purchase a new computer.

Google had to eventually stop providing support, though. The company noted that its plan coincides with Microsoft’s decision to cease extended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 from January 10th onwards. Microsoft officially stopped support for Windows 7 in 2011, although due to the product’s popularity, it provided additional years of extended support.

Google noted, “With the release of Chrome 110 (tentatively scheduled for February 7th, 2023), we’ll officially end support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. You’ll need to ensure your device is running Windows 10 or later to continue receiving future Chrome releases. This matches Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 7 ESU and Windows 8.1 extended support on January 10th, 2023.”

Data indicates that Windows 7 is still being used on a large number of devices, even though it was originally launched in 2009 and Microsoft formally ended support for it in 2020. As late as last year, it was estimated that at least 100 million PCs were still running Windows 7. That might pose a serious security concern because many users may soon have both an outdated operating system and a web browser.

According to a recent report, Google Chrome is the most vulnerable browser currently in use, with over 303 vulnerabilities and a combined total of 3,159 vulnerabilities as of 2022.

According to the report, the findings were based on information drawn from a database covering the period from January 1 to October 5. Of the five days in October, only Google Chrome had vulnerabilities, including CVE-2022-3318, CVE-2022-3314, CVE-2022-3311, CVE-2022-3309, and CVE-2022-3307. The CVE program monitored security vulnerabilities and weaknesses on various platforms. The report stated that the vulnerabilities could cause memory corruption in a system, however, the database does not provide information about them.

Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser created by Google. It was created using open-source technologies from Mozilla Firefox and Apple WebKit. It was first made available in 2008 for Microsoft Windows. With a market share of almost 65 percent, Google Chrome is the most popular web browser, followed by Safari (18%) and Microsoft Edge (4.32%).

Chromebooks for cloud gaming

Google to introduce Chromebooks for Cloud Gaming

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It’s only been a few weeks since Google announced that its cloud gaming service Stadia will be discontinued next year. And now, the company has made a new cloud gaming announcement that it is launching Chromebooks made by various manufacturers that are optimized for cloud gaming.

Chromebooks for cloud gaming
Image Source: techviral91.com

To bring users marquee titles, Google has also partnered with cloud gaming services such as Nvidia GeForce Now, Microsoft Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Amazon Luna. Furthermore, Acer, Corsair, HyperX, Lenovo, and SteelSeries have collaborated with the company to create “Works with Chromebook” certified peripherals for these devices.

“Chromebooks have always been known for being fast, secure, and easy-to-use devices. Since their launch more than a decade ago, we have improved their capabilities and expanded the variety of devices for people to choose from,” the company said in a blog post.

“Today, we are taking that effort a step further by introducing the world’s first laptops built for cloud gaming along with our partners Acer, ASUS, and Lenovo,” it added.

Source: business-standard.com

Hardware specifications

This first generation of Chromebooks for cloud gaming from Acer, Asus, and Lenovo includes numerous gaming-related features. High-resolution displays with refresh rates of 120Hz or higher, Wi-Fi 6 or 6E compatibility, high-quality audio, and RGB keyboards with anti-ghosting are among them. Anti-ghosting is a feature that registers all the key presses accurately even when you press multiple keys at once.

The first set of devices is priced between $399 and $799 to appeal to a wider audience. These laptops use Intel processors ranging from Core i3 to Core i7, depending on the price. Here’s a quick rundown of the three launch models’ specifications.

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook

It sports a 16-inch display with a WQXGA screen (2560 X 1500), and a 120 Hz refresh rate and has a 12th Gen Intel Core i3/i5 processor and 8 GB RAM. There are two versions with storage of variations of 256 GB/512 GB SSD and 128 eMMC. It features 4 X 2W speakers with Waves Audi and supports 2 X 2 Intel Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5. Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook contains 2 USB 3.2 gen 2 type C ports, 1 X USB 3.2 Gen 1 type A, 1 X HDMI 2.0, 1 X audio combo jack, 1 microSD card reader, and a battery backup of 71 Wh.

Acer Chromebook 516 GE

Acer Chromebook 516 GE features a display of 16-inch WQXGA screen (2560 X 1500) with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It contains a 12th gen Intel Core i5 processor with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. It sports DTS audio with quad-force vibration cancellation stereo. Some other features are 2 X 2 Intel Wi-fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, 2 x USB 3.2 gen 2type C, 1 x USB 3.2 gen 2 type A, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1x audio combo jack, 1 x Ethernet RJ-45 port and battery backup of 65 Wh.

Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip

Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip sports a 15.6-inch Full HD (1920 X 1080) IPS touchscreen with 144 Hz refresh rate, 11th Gen Intel Core i3/i5/i7. It is available in 128GB/256GB/512GB SSD. It sports 2X Harman/Kardon certified speakers. Other features are 2X2 Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, 2 x USB 3.2 gen 2 type C; 1 x USB 3.2 gen 1 type A; 1 x HDMI 2.0; 1x audio combo jack; 1 x microSD card reader and a battery backup of 57 Wh.

Google does not currently have a set of requirements or certification for Chromebooks for cloud gaming. So, we don’t know if future devices must meet certain specifications to be included in this initiative, but Google will prioritize future devices with high refresh rate screens and good Wi-Fi connectivity.

However, the company stated that GameBench independently tested all three launch devices to ensure they provide a consistent and smooth gaming experience at 120 frames per second with a latency of less than 85ms.

All of these devices will be available for purchase in October. Acer, Corsair, HyperX, Lenovo, and SteelSeries supported accessories including headsets, mice, and controllers.