Google autonomous car project teams with FiatChrysler

SAN FRANCISCO, California — Google parent Alphabet on Tuesday announced that it has partnered with Fiat Chrysler in a major expansion of its fleet of self-driving vehicles.

The Google autonomous test fleet would be more than doubled with the addition of 100 new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans, with the companies aiming to have some on the road by the end of this year.

The collaboration with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) marks the first time that the California-based Internet giant has worked directly with an automaker to build self-driving vehicles.

“FCA will design the minivans so it’s easy for us to install our self-driving systems, including the computers that hold our self-driving software, and the sensors that enable our software to see what’s on the road around the vehicle,” the car team said in a post at the Google+ social network.

The minivan design also provides opportunity to explore the potential of large self-driving vehicles that could be used mass-transit style with features such as hands-free sliding doors for getting in or out, according to the post.

Alphabet said it was not licensing its autonomous car technology, nor would it be selling the self-driving minivans.

The move signals that Google has a particular interest in “people mover type vehicles” with the potential to autonomously shuttle passengers about in settings such as college campuses, cities or shopping districts, Kelley Blue Book analyst Karl Brauer told AFP.

“I’m confident that Google feels that is where the greatest mission potential for the autonomous vehicle is.”

Google began testing its autonomous driving technology in 2009, using a Toyota Prius equipped with the tech giant’s equipment. It now has some 70 vehicles, including Lexus cars adapted by Google and its in-house designed cars unveiled in 2014.

FCA will design and engineer minivans uniquely built for self-driving technology that Google will integrate into vehicles, according to the carmaker.

Accelerating efforts

The companies will position engineering teams at a facility in Michigan to accelerate the design, testing and manufacturing of the self-driving Chrysler Pacifica.

“The opportunity to work closely with FCA engineers will accelerate our efforts to develop a fully self-driving car that will make our roads safer and bring everyday destinations within reach for those who cannot drive,” said Google Self-Driving Car Project chief executive John Krafcik.

The US agency in charge of highway safety early this year provided feedback indicating that a bubble-shaped autonomous car built by Alphabet could qualify as being its own driver.

In a written response to a query from the Silicon Valley-based technology firm, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that since the self-driving cars lacks steering wheels or other controls for humans, it is “more reasonable to identify the driver as whatever (as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving.”

While the administration’s response didn’t change rules of the road, it is seen as a green light of sorts for getting autonomous vehicles to market.

Packed starting line

Google has been testing self-driving cars on California roads for a while, and an array of automobile makers including Audi, Ford, Mercedes, Lexus, Tesla and BMW are working on building self-driving capabilities into vehicles.

FCA chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne said the partnership may help boost innovation in the sector.

“The experience both companies gain will be fundamental to delivering automotive technology solutions that ultimately have far-reaching consumer benefits,” he said.

The US administration pledged in January to help clear the way for autonomous vehicles with an investment of $4 billion to fund research and testing projects.

A Chinese auto firm revealed last month that it was buying two foreign companies and their self-driving technologies for more than $1 billion.

Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp. said it signed an agreement to buy US-based Key Safety Systems (KSS) Holdings Inc.

Ningbo, which provides driver control systems to auto giants such as General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, also plans to buy the car navigation business of Germany’s TechniSat Digital GmbH.

Chinese tech giant Baidu, which has opened a California research center for autonomous driving, has said it is planning to produce driverless cars by 2020.

The Alphabet-FCA collaboration could “easily encourage an Apple, an Uber or another technology company to follow the same path and work more closely with an auto maker,” according to Kelley Blue Book’s Brauer.

source: interaksyon.com

Facebook plans low-key birthday bash

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has grown into an Internet giant over the last decade, but it is celebrating its birthday with a low-key, belated party and an eye toward the future.

While the arrival of its 10th anniversary on Tuesday has pundits analyzing the social network’s past and theorizing about its future, the Internet juggernaut is trying to stay focused on the job at hand.

“Just as we do every year, we will have an internal party on Friday afternoon,” Facebook spokeswoman Arielle Aryah told AFP in response to a query regarding the company’s birthday celebration plans.



It remained to be seen whether the Menlo Park, California-based social network, which now boasts over a billion users, had something playful planned for its actual anniversary on Tuesday.

In an earnings call last week to discuss stellar quarterly results, Facebook chief and co-found Mark Zuckerberg gave a nod to the growth seen during the past decade but focused on the future.

Zuckerberg spoke of making “apps” for showcasing Facebook features on smartphones or tablets to stay in synch with mobile Internet lifestyles.

Long-range goals included using artificial intelligence to figure out how pictures, videos, comments and more shared at Facebook are related and of shooting toward helping people share anything they want, with anyone they want, whenever they want.

Facebook broke ground late last year on an expansion to its campus in former Sun Microsystem digs in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park.

The new West Campus was designed by respected architect Frank Gehry.

As Facebook celebrates its 10th anniversary, the world’s biggest social network is finding its path as a maturing company, adapting to an aging user base.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly described Facebook’s mission as “making the world more open and connected,” and some say he has accomplished just that.

The company created in a Harvard dorm room in 2004 has established itself as a phenomenon, securing its place in the world of the technology giants.

“Facebook has made the world much smaller, much more interactive,” said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.

In its short history, Facebook has become a part of daily life for more than a billion people around the globe.

“More than 20 percent of all time spent on the Internet is spent on Facebook,” says Lou Kerner, founder of the Social Internet Fund.

Facebook says it has a global total of 1.23 billion monthly active users, including 945 million who use the social network on a mobile device.

And, a Pew Research Center survey released Monday suggests no slowing momentum for the network, even though more than half of US Facebook users said they are turned off by oversharing and didn’t like the fact that they showed up in pictures without giving permission.

After a calamitous initial public offering in May 2012 plagued by technical glitches, Facebook saw its share price slump by half.

But the company has been on a roll for the past year, with its stock hitting record highs.

According to the research firm eMarketer, Facebook has become the second-largest recipient of digital advertising spending behind Google, and is particularly strong in mobile ads.

“Facebook appears the best way to play the social Internet,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note to clients, preferring Facebook to the up-and-coming network Twitter.

source: interaksyon.com

Google interns get preview of Hollywood film about them

SAN FRANCISCO – Google interns got an early look at a Hollywood take on their world and chatted with celebrities who play them on screen in ‘The Internship’ film set for release next week.

Actors Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson along with director Shawn Levy walked on stage to a standing ovation from an audience of ‘Googlers’ in the wake of a private viewing of the film in a San Francisco theater.

“I had heard mythical, weird things about Google culture,” Levy said while recounting how Vaughn pitched him the idea the idea of a pair of 40-something buddies challenged to re-invent themselves for the Internet Age.

“When I came to Google with Vince and looked around, I was amazed to see all the things I’d heard about like nap pods and free food within 150 feet at all times were all true,” he continued.

“It seemed a really good backdrop for a comedy and a good backdrop for an aspirational movie about two guys who were really trying to write their next chapter.”

Levy was quick to point out that while the film was true to the spirit and scene at the Internet giant’s campus in Mountain View, California, the internship program was made fiercely competitive to power the story.

“There was no way to do this well if the company wasn’t going to have a sense of humor about themselves,” Levy said.

Stickers, tee shirts, bicycles and other details down to equations or code written on white boards at Google were all authentic, and scenes on campus inspired lines or characters in the film, according to the director.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin ended up in the film by chance, after Levy noticed what he thought was a colorful character in “yoga clothes and fuzzy green slippers” pedal by on an elliptical bicycle.

When he asked who it was, someone whispered reverentially ‘Sergey.’

‘I loved the look,” Levy said, adding that he coaxed Brin into peddling through a scene.

In true Silicon Valley style, many Googlers were as excited about Brin’s involvement in the film as they were in seeing the actors on campus.

Levy recounted Vaughn and Wilson never passing a micro-kitchen on campus without stopping to sample edibles.

The actors rode off so often on Google bicycles that a tracker had to be assigned so they could be found for filming, according to the director.

“It seemed like a kind of nice resort,” Wilson said of Google, confiding that he had tried in vain to use his film intern badge to explore buildings on the campus.

“It is not all loosey-goosey at Google, there is security there,” he quipped.

Levy and the actors said that a big draw for them at Google was that workers there seemed to want to do good.

“The three of us are commitedly non-cynical,” Levy said. “A lot of people who work at Google are genuinely trying to make life better for humans better; I got that and I wanted the movie to have the same heart.”

Vaughn recounted taking the idea to Google marketing vice president Lorraine Twohill two years ago with Wilson in tow.

“I had an idea where, unfortunately, there were a lot of people who were having a hard time in the economy; the types of jobs they were doing were going away,” Vaughn said.

“If you lost your job, where is a fun, exciting place that seems foreign to you to go to work? Google.”

Google associate product marketing manager Raymond Braun, who had two internships at the company before being hired last year, said his experiences were more collaborative than competitive, but that the film was fun.

“I love that they capture the essence of Google being a place that wants to make a positive impact and celebrate diversity in an open environment, but there is certainly a Hollywood take on the experience,” Braun said.

In the film, a key quality sought at the company was “Googliness.”

“Googliness is all the things that make you a complete person beyond smarts,” Levy said.

“This idea of being a holistic person with an ethical center, and work ethic, and empathy and consciousness of people and the world around you.”

source: interaksyon.com

Google says FBI watching the Web

WASHINGTON — Google says the FBI is monitoring the Web for potential terrorist activity. But it can’t confirm the extent of the surveillance.

As part of the Google Transparency Report, the Internet giant released data this week on so-called National Security Letters — official requests for data under the Patriot Act passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks.




But Google said it was only allowed to provide broad ranges of numbers: in the years from 2009 to 2012, for example, it received between zero and 999 requests.

The requests affected between 1,000 and 1,999 accounts, except in 2010, when the range was 2,000 to 2,999 accounts.

“You’ll notice that we’re reporting numerical ranges rather than exact numbers,” said a blog post from Google law enforcement and information security director Richard Salgado.

“This is to address concerns raised by the FBI, Justice Department and other agencies that releasing exact numbers might reveal information about investigations.”

He thanked government officials for collaborating with Google in providing “greater insight” into the use of National Security Letters.

The numbers, while inexact, were believed to be the first data from a private company about the requests, criticized by civil liberties groups for giving the government too much power to conduct surveillance without a warrant.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls the letters “dangerous” and has challenged the authority, along with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Google’s actions are “an unprecedented win for transparency,” EFF’s Dan Auerbach and Eva Galperin said Wednesday.

Despite a lack of exact data, “Google has helped to at least shed some limited light on the ways in which the US government uses these secretive demands for data about users,” they added in a blog post.

“While we continue to be in the dark about the full extent of how the law is being applied, this new data allays fears that NSLs are being used for sweeping access to large numbers of user accounts — at Google, at least.”

One inspector general review found “serious deficiencies” in the FBI’s handling of the process and noted that the letters concerned tens of thousands of US citizens and non-Americans.

EFF said public records have documented the FBI’s “systemic abuse” of the power.

source: interaksyon.com

Google wins Australian sponsored links case

SYDNEY — Internet titan Google was cleared Wednesday of allegations it hosted deceptive advertisements, with Australia’s highest court saying it was not responsible for companies who diverted users from their competitors’ sites.

Australia’s competition regulator had taken Google to court, alleging that adverts using keywords for Honda, Harvey World Travel, Alpha Dog Training and Just 4X4 Magazine published by Google had led consumers to rival firms.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) lost the initial case but won an appeal in the Federal Court, which ruled that Google’s technology created its search results.

Google had argued that it should not be held responsible for the content of ads on its platform because it was paid for and submitted by the advertisers under the highly profitable Google AdWords programme.

AdWords allows firms to create their own ads and bid for keywords linked to their products. In the Australian case, travel, automotive and pet-care companies successfully bid on the names of their rivals as keywords.

The High Court of Australia overturned the appeal decision on Wednesday, agreeing that the advertisers, not Google, were responsible for the content of so-called sponsored links.

“Google did not create the sponsored links that it published or displayed,” the court said.

“Ordinary and reasonable users of the Google search engine would have understood that the representations conveyed by the sponsored links were those of the advertisers, and would not have concluded that Google adopted or endorsed the representations,” it added.

“Accordingly, Google did not engage in conduct that was misleading or deceptive.”

The Internet giant welcomed the judgment, which brings to an end a six-year legal battle.

“We welcome the High Court’s unanimous decision that Google cannot be held responsible for the ads that advertisers create for Google’s search engine,” Google said.

The ACCC had seen the case as an important precedent on the accountability of search engine providers as publishers of paid content, and said it will review the decision carefully for any broader ramifications.

“The ACCC took these proceedings to clarify the law relating to advertising practices in the Internet age,” said ACCC chairman Rod Sims.

“Specifically, we considered that providers of online content should be accountable for misleading or deceptive conduct when they have significant control over what is delivered.”

Sims said the High Court had focused solely “on Google’s conduct” and it had not been disputed that the “representations made in the sponsored links by advertisers were misleading or deceptive”.

“In the facts and circumstances of this case the High Court has determined that Google did not itself engage in misleading or deceptive conduct,” he said.

“It remains the case that all businesses involved in placing advertisements on search engines must take care not to mislead or deceive consumers.”

It is not the first time Google has landed in legal strife in Australia — the firm was ordered to pay US$208,000 last year to an entertainment promoter after publishing material linking him to mobsters which was ruled to be defamatory.

Google also attracted the ire of authorities in 2010 after breaching privacy laws by collecting private wireless data with its “Street View” mapping ca

source: interaksyon.com

Google results miss; shares dive after premature report

SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc’s quarterly results fell well short of Wall Street’s expectations after its core advertising business slowed, stunning investors accustomed to consistently rapid growth from the Internet giant and wiping more than 9 percent off its market value.

The disappointing numbers on Thursday came hours ahead of schedule in a rare instance of premature filing. Google blamed the misfire on an unauthorized filing by its financial printers, RR Donnelley & Sons Co, and later confirmed the numbers’ accuracy.

The earnings report, which had not been expected until after the market close, revealed a weakening in Google’s core Internet advertising business and persistent losses at its recently acquired cellphone business, Motorola Mobility.

Shares of Google, the world’s No. 1 Internet search engine, finished Thursday’s regular trading session down 8 percent at $695 after a brief trading halt. Some analysts said the inadvertent results release spurred confusion and exacerbated its stock price decline.

Google executives maintained in a conference call on Thursday that the company’s various businesses continued to benefit from healthy growth and that Google was well-positioned to capitalize on consumer’s increasing use of mobile devices.

Chief Executive Larry Page, speaking on his first earnings call since an unspecified voice ailment sidelined him from public speaking in June, said that Google’s mobile business was now generating revenue at an annualized run rate of $8 billion.

Page acknowledged that mobile ad rates were below the rates that Google garners for ads that appear on its standard website. But he said the variety of Web-connected devices used by consumers is creating “a huge new universe of opportunities for advertisers.”

“We’re uniquely positioned to get through that transition and to really profit from it,” Page said, citing Google’s Android mobile software, the world’s top operating system for smartphones by market share.

Google, which has been struggling to turn around a Motorola Mobility hardware business it bought for $12.5 billion, reported a 20 percent dive in net income to $2.18 billion. Excluding certain items, it earned $9.03 a share, vastly underperforming the $10.65 analysts had expected, on average.

“We have been saying this thing was ripe for a pullback. It’s not like they’re Google not being Google, but you still have some major issues,” said BCG analyst Colin Gillis.

“Click prices declined for the fourth consecutive quarter after rising for eight consecutive quarters before then. That’s a negative. This is the mobile problem.”

“The other bit is the Motorola millstone had been ignored by the market, and – boom – now you’ve got weak revenue from Motorola. When you acquire a business and you’re about to whack all kinds of people and close offices, you know what happens to the employees? They take their eye off the ball. Sales are down,” Gillis explained.

Net revenue growth at Google’s main Internet business increased 17 percent year-over-year, the first time growth in that business has fallen below 20 percent since 2009. Google Finance Chief Patrick Pichette stressed on the conference call that the revenue growth rate was higher if the impact of foreign currency exchange rates was backed out.

“It was just too rapid a deceleration,” said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser. “Many of the same underlying trends drive Facebook advertising.”

Shares of Facebook Inc, which headed south shortly after Google’s inadvertent filing, closed down 4.6 percent. Google’s snafu recalled Facebook’s debut, which was marred by technical glitches that also spooked traders and contributed to the stock’s first-day decline.

The decline in Google’s shares come after a three-month run-up in its stock, which reached an all-time high of $774.38 earlier this month.

A bad miss?

Google reported net revenue – excluding traffic acquisition costs – of $11.3 billion for the third quarter, below Wall Street’s expectations for about $11.9 billion.

For the fourth consecutive quarter, the company reported a decline in average cost-per-click (CPC), a critical metric that denotes the price advertisers pay Google.

Average CPC declined 15 percent from a year ago and 3 percent from the second quarter of this year. Analysts say that Google, like many of its peers in the Internet industry, has been struggling to adapt to the rapid consumer uptake in mobile devices. Advertisers pay far less for ads on smartphones and tablets than for similar ads on desktop computers.

“The core business seems to have slowed down pretty significantly, which is shocking,” said B. Riley analyst Sameet Sinha. “The only conclusion I can look at is, search is happening more and more outside of Google, meaning people are searching more through apps than through Google search.”

“That could indicate a secular change, especially when it comes to ecommerce searches. The big fear has always been, what if people decide just to go straight to Amazon and do their searches? And potentially that’s what could be happening.”

But Ryan Jacob, chairman and chief investment officer of Jacob Funds, said he viewed Google’s results as only “minorly disappointing,” with most of the weakness coming from Motorola as expected.

“Unfortunately, by dropping an 8K in the middle of a trading day, people kind of shoot first, ask questions later,” said Jacob, whose fund owns Google shares.

JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said in a note that the Google results were “light” but not as bad as they appeared at “first blush.”

Filing snafu

Google, which recently overtook Microsoft Corp to become the second-largest U.S. technology company by capitalization, had been due to release its results after the market close.

The second paragraph of the press release merely read “Pending Larry quote,” suggesting that space was reserved for comment from CEO Larry Page.

“Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization,” Google said in a statement. “We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document. Once it’s finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PM PT.”

Shares of RR Donnelley, the U.S. printing services company, slid as much as 5 percent. They closed down 1 percent at $10.76.

Reed Kathrein, a plaintiff lawyer with Hagens Berman who sues companies on behalf of investors, said investors would not have a claim against either Google or RR Donnelley because the earnings disclosure was likely a mistake.

“There’s no fraudulent intent here,” Kathrein said.

However, Google could have a negligence claim against RR Donnelly to recover any additional costs it incurred in responding to the incident, Kathrein added.

“Everyone is trying to figure out if there’s any legal issue with respect to RR Donnelley,” said Michael Matousek, senior trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc, which manages about $3 billion in San Antonio.

source: interaksyon.com

Google Play celebrates 25 billion downloads with 75% off sale

Google Play, the Internet giant's competitor to Apple's App Store, has surpassed 25 billion downloads and is celebrating the milestone with a 75-percent discount for its top apps.

 

Visitors to Google Play (play.google.com) can download apps for their devices running Google's Android operating system, with "75+ percent off."

 

Angry Birds Space Premium, one of the storefront's top apps, was available for download for only P10.43.

 

"Google may hope to add a little fuel to its app buying fire with five planned days of 25 cent prices on mobile gaming favorites, starting off with Angry Birds Space, Asphalt 7, Draw Something, and others," reported GamesRadar.com.

 

Tech site All Things Digital reported Apple’s App Store hit the same 25-billion milestone "with much fanfare" only last March.

 

AllThingsD said Google Play now has 675,000 apps and games, compared to Apple’s recently announced milestone of 700,000 apps.

 

"Google said earlier this month that there have been about 500 million total activated Android devices, and Apple counted 400 million iOS devices sold as of June — a number that’s not standing still," it noted.

  

It also said Google is celebrating the milestone by offering 25-cent featured apps and other discounts on movies, books, albums and magazines for the next five days. — TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Google pays tribute to Austrian symbolist painter with doodle

Internet giant Google on Saturday paid tribute to Austrian symbolist Gustav Klimt on his 150th birth anniversary, with a doodle depicting one of his more prominent works.

Visitors to Google's homepage (www.google.com) Saturday were greeted with an image of "The Kiss," Klimt's painting of a couple kissing.




As in the past, clicking on the doodle will bring the visitor to a Google Search Results page for "Gustav Klimt."

Klimt, born July 14, 1862 and who died on February 6, 1918, was one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement.

He spent much of his childhood in poverty and trained at the Vienna School of Decorative Arts.

While he had a liking for gold, silver and marble in his creations, not all his patrons could afford his expensive creations.

Klimt's major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects, with his main subject being the female body.

A separate article on IBN Live noted "The Kiss", a 1907-08 oil and gold leaf on canvas painting, was Klimt's most famous work – and one that many believe was Klimt's only self-portrait.

It said Klimt was also a marketing wizard, allowing others to produce copies of his work to increase his reach and impact.

Also, it said Klimt was reputed to have many lovers, including designer Emilie Floege.


He died in Vienna on February 6, 1918 after contracting Spanish flu during the 1918 flu pandemic. — LBG, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Google celebrates gay pride with Easter egg

Internet giant Google marked Gay Pride with one of its Easter eggs: a rainbow ribbon that appears below the search bar.

The rainbow appears when a user types "Google Gay Pride," "LGBT," "gay," "lesbian," "NYC Gay Pride" and "SF Gay Pride," tech site Mashable said.

Mashable said Google has a history creating "whimsical" Easter eggs, often hidden in its search function.

It added Google is also known for its pro-gay rights stance.

Recently, Google publicly expressed its opposition to California’s Prop. 8, a constitutional amendment that took away the right of same-sex couples to marry, in a 2008 blog post written by co-founder Sergey Brin.

"While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love,” it quoted Brin as saying. — TJD, GMA News

article source: gmanetwork.com