Google is doubling down on building out its AI business in the U.K. On Monday morning in London, the CEO of Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian appeared alongside customers BT and WPP to spell out some of its plans. The company said it would expand U.K. data residency to include
Google will replace Google Assistant on Android phones with Gemini later this year, the company announced on Friday. Google said in a blog post that it’ll upgrade more users from Google Assistant to Gemini “over the coming months.” Later this year, Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available from app
Text messages sent between iPhones and Android devices will soon benefit from end-to-end encryption (E2EE), after the GSM Association (GSMA) yesterday published new specifications for the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol that include support for cross-platform E2EE. RCS is a long-standing effort to enable SMS-style cross-platform communications with richer features, such as group messaging, typing
Google announced new features around PC and mobile gaming today ahead of the Game Developers Conference (GDC), including new titles, control customization, and developer tools for making mobile games available on PC. The company first introduced Play Games for PC in 2022 in the beta phase. Over time, it has introduced the program to various
In the AI chatbot wars, Google thinks the key to retaining users is serving up content they can’t get elsewhere, like answers shaped by their internet habits. On Thursday, the company announced Gemini with personalization, a new “experimental capability” for its Gemini chatbot apps that lets Gemini draw on other Google apps and services to
Google announced on Thursday that Android phones will soon support Auracast, a new Bluetooth technology that uses a phone to enable a direct connection from hearing aids to audio broadcasts in noisy environments. With Auracast, compatible hearing aids and earbuds can receive direct audio streams, such as a PA system at a train station or
A U.K. competition authority investigation of Apple and Google’s mobile browsers has concluded that the mobile duopoly’s policies are “holding back innovation” and could also be limiting economic growth. “Mobile browsers are apps which provide the primary gateway for consumers to access the web on their mobile devices, and hence for businesses to reach them
Google DeepMind, Google’s AI research lab, on Wednesday announced new AI models called Gemini Robotics designed to enable real-world machines to interact with objects, navigate environments, and more. DeepMind published a series of demo videos showing robots equipped with Gemini Robotics folding paper, putting a pair of glasses into a case, and other tasks in
A group of hackers with links to the North Korean regime uploaded Android spyware onto the Google Play app store and were able to trick some people into downloading it, according to cybersecurity firm Lookout. In a report published on Wednesday, and exclusively shared with TechCrunch ahead of time, Lookout details an espionage campaign involving
Sometimes the smallest of news items can point to bigger trends lurking beneath the surface. Case in point: Google announced late last month that it has installed 100 million lithium-ion cells across its data centers to provide backup power to its servers. On its own, it’s not earth-shattering news. But it shines a light on
