Nov 6th 2019
This Week in Google 533
Smart Home Has Jumped the Shark
Hacking Alexa, Google buys FitBit, Twitter Topics
Records live every Wednesday at 5:00pm Eastern / 2:00pm Pacific / 21:00 UTC.
This Week's Stories
- Hacking Alexa with Lasers
- Google's open-source security chip
- Google Nest Max uses sonar to know when you are nearby, tells you the weather
- Google buys FitBit
- How Ring tracked your kids on Halloween
- Google Employees protest Google's climate change stance; Google invests in green startups
- Trading Gutenberg for Porn
- Kevin Tofel's 3000-Word Pixelbook Go Review
- What tech from the 2010s changed your life?
Tips and Picks
- Jason's Tip: From BillBoling on TWIT.COMMUNITY: "This is for Jeff and others that would like to get to 'Recent' within the Assistant search bar. Click or touch the 'G'. Click or touch the 'G' again in the upper left. In the bottom options bar click or touch 'Recent'. You will then find all the recent pages or links you went to in the recent past."
- Jeff's Number: Twitter is rolling out Topics, a way to follow subjects automatically in the timeline
- Stacey's Thing: Neeo Remote from Control4
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.
Links
- Google buys Fitbit for $2.1 billion
- Helping more people with wearables: Google to acquire Fitbit
- Google can make a success of Fitbit if it can be managed as well as the integration of HTC's smartphone team
- Amazon-Owned Ring Shared Data About Tracking Kids On Halloween
- Stacey: Amazon missed a huge opportunity by not buying Fitbit
- Amazon testing workout tracking in Echo Buds earbuds, software reveals
- 1,100+ Googlers sign a letter asking Google to commit to eliminating its carbon footprint by 2030...
- Google launches new program for green start-ups as employees revolt over its record on climate change
- Commission on Obscenity and Pornography
- What a very bad day at work taught me about building Stack Overflow’s community
- Researchers hack Siri, Alexa, and Google Home by shining lasers at them
- Google Is Helping Design an Open Source, Ultra-Secure Chip
- Google’s Nest Hubs can now sense when you’re standing nearby and show you the weather
- Google extends the life of over 100 Chromebooks w/ extra year of software support
- Pixelbook Go review: Premium price for a premium device
- Dog and ring
- Was there any tech released in the 2010s that completely changed your life (like how smartphones did or even a fraction of that)
- Alphabet’s board of directors is investigating executives over inappropriate relationships
- Google update makes Chrome ready for web-based VR
- Chrome OS 78 Stable rolling out with Virtual Desks and improved printing
- Google's Waze-like app for public transit hits five more cities
- Google Play Points, which rewards Android users with store credit or discounts for purchases like apps and movies, expands to US
- Google Photos adds video frame exporting for Pixel 4, rolls out album sorting for all
- Google Camera 7.2 rolls out to older Pixels with new UI, social sharing, and astrophotography [APK Download]
- Google News for Android and iOS now supports bilingual feeds
- Google Maps adds large city landmark icons
- Also, Incognito mode for Maps is rolling out now
- Pixel 4 voice recorder app headed to older phones
- Twitter is rolling out Topics, a way to follow subjects automatically in the timeline
- Neeo Remote from Control 4
- "From BillBoling on TWIT.COMMUNITY: This is for Jeff and others that would like to get to “Recent” with the Assistant search bar