Google reportedly wants in on Virgin Galactic's space business

Fresh from its $500 million acquisition of satellite specialist Skybox Imaging, Google appears to be ready to make another space-related investment. Sky News reports that the search giant is in advanced talks to take a minority stake in Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic business (which already counted Skybox Imaging as a potential customer) with a view to getting its internet satellite project off the ground. Google may invest around $30 million into the company, which is set to begin commercial flights to space later this year, forming a joint venture that would see Virgin Galactic offer up its technology in return.
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Google designs new self-driving vehicles that lose the steering wheel and pedals

Google has been tweaking its self-driving car project for years, but now it's taking another big step. Later this summer it will start testing prototype vehicles it's designed from the ground up, instead of merely retrofitting existing vehicles. Announced tonight the the Code Conference, the new prototypes aren't equipped with a steering wheel, mirrors, pedals or other vestiges of vehicles gone by, and for now are limited to a maximum speed of 25MPH. As explained in an early preview to Re/code, the car is driven entirely by computer, with backup automated systems for brakes and steering that would take over in case of a failure of the primary setup. So far, Google says it's not planning to sell the vehicles itself, but is looking for "friends and partners to bring them to market. Following rumors from late last year, the automated cars could partner with a "friend" like Uber for a delivery service that runs on autopilot.












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Chrome's 'OK Google' voice search rolls out to all

If

If you wanted to enjoy hands-free Google searching from your desktop, your only option was to install an extension or become an early tester. The downside was that you'd have to accept some additional bugs might come your way. No more -- Google has rolled out a Chrome update that integrates the company's now iconic "OK Google" command directly into the latest version of its browser and in Chrome OS. As long as you're based in the US or have Chrome set to US English, any time you visit the Google homepage or open a new tab, you can quickly say (or loudly shout, the choice is yours) "OK Google" to perform a search, ask a question or schedule a reminder. 

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Celebrate the 40th birthday of Rubik's Cube with today's Google Doodle

It must be hard being Ernő Rubik. Back in the 1980s, the architect and toy inventor had the rare good fortune of becoming one of very few self-made millionaires from communist Europe. But in the process he was horribly pigeon-holed. His patented...



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Chinese Search Giant Baidu Hires Man Behind the “Google Brain”

Leading AI researcher Andrew Ng, previously associated with Google, will lead a new effort by China’s Baidu to create software that understands the world.

Baidu has long been referred to as “China’s Google” because it dominates Web search in the country. Today the comparison grew more apt: Baidu has opened a new artificial-intelligence research lab in Silicon Valley that will be overseen by Andrew Ng, a Stanford professor who played a key role at Google in a field called deep learning. He was also a cofounder of the online education company Coursera.

Recent advances have triggered a technological arms race in Silicon Valley, with big Web companies competing for the best academic talent. Like Google, Facebook, and other companies rushing to invest in deep learning, Baidu is motivated by the promise of dramatic advances in artificial intelligence.


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Chrome Releases New Beta, Improves New Tab Page, Adds HTML5 Functionality [Downloads]

Chrome Releases New Beta, Improves New Tab Page, Adds HTML5 Functionality [Downloads]:

Google has released a new beta for Chrome, featuring changes to the new tab page including the ability to pin web site thumbnails, hide pages, and other improvements.
You can now use 'the new New Tab page' to pin web site thumbnails to a designated spot to keep better track of them. Another addition is the ability to use the layout buttons to hide parts of the page. Additionally, the Omnibox now shows icons next to each site in the drop down menu. Google has also started to implement HTML5 capabilities like video tagging into this release. And yes, the new release promises even more speed in the form of JavaScript improvements and optimizations in how Chrome fetches pages.
All these new features are available for testing on the beta channel. While you're updating, make sure to take a look at Chrome's new theme gallery.

A New Beta: Why Slow Down When You Can Speed Up? [Google Chrome Blog]

Google CEO Quitting Apple’s Board Not Enough to Stop FTC

Google CEO Quitting Apple’s Board Not Enough to Stop FTC: "
While the FCC’s investigation of Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice iPhone App has been making big headlines the last few days, another government investigation into the two companies seems to be slowing down (but not stopping): The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) interlocking directorates probe.

For the last few months, the FTC has been investigating whether Apple and Google have been participating in anti-competitive practices by having Google’s CEO on Apple’s board of directors. Considering Google has several competing products (Android, Google Chrome, Chrome OS), it made some sense.

Now that Google’s CEO has resigned from Apple’s board, you’d think the investigation would be over. Not so, according to the FTC. They put out a statement earlier today giving a thumbs-up to Schmidt’s resignation but clearly stating the investigation will continue:

On August 3, 2009, Apple announced that Eric E. Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google, was stepping down from its board. “We have been investigating the Google/Apple interlocking directorates issue for some time and commend them for recognizing that sharing directors raises competitive issues, as Google and Apple increasingly compete with each other,” said Bureau of Competition Director Richard Feinstein. “We will continue to investigate remaining interlocking directorates between the companies.”

So why isn’t this case going away? The answer’s simpler than you might think: Google and Apple still share a director: Arthur Levinson, the former CEO of biotech giant Genentech. Until he resigns from one of the two boards, the investigation will continue. Once he leaves though, it would be difficult to justify charging either company with any wrongdoing retroactively. Expect Levinson to leave one of the two boards in the near future.

Besides, neither company was really focusing on the FTC probe anyway. Now it’s about the FCC Google Voice investigation, where they’re on opposite sides. The events of the last few days are probably the beginning of a new era of standing on opposite ends for the two storied giants.

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Reviews: Android, Google, Google Chrome
Tags: apple, FTC, Google

5 Reasons Why Twitter’s Growth Cannot Be Stopped

5 Reasons Why Twitter’s Growth Cannot Be Stopped: "
Vadim Lavrusik is a new media student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is @lavrusik on Twitter and blogs at Lavrusik.com.

With all the skepticism of whether it’s just a social media fad and questions about how the company expects to generate revenue, Twitter has left many critics silent by continuing to grow. Though the company has made some improvements, including its recent redesigned homepage, many wouldn’t credit these changes with the successful growth of Twitter.

It’s all about the people and how the service has been put to use by the millions. Whether using it during their everyday lives, marketing a business or reporting on tragic events, users have shown the value of Twitter and will continue to contribute to its growth. Below are just five reasons why Twitter will continue to grow. Please add your thoughts below in the comments, as well as other reasons you believe Twitter will continue to grow.

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1. Consistent growth

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The microblogging site reached 23 million unique users in June, according to Compete, which was a 16 percent growth compared to May. This doesn’t even include the millions that do not visit Twitter.com and instead use third-party services to update. The site has had a consistent growth, and we expect it will continue to do so for July numbers.

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2. Gaining approval from big companies

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According to PR firm Burson-Marsteller, as reported by Mashable’s own Adam Ostrow, Twitter is the social media platform of choice at Fortune 100 companies. The firm reported that 54 percent of the companies have a Twitter presence and for the companies that use only one social media platform, 76 percent of them use Twitter as their preferred choice. And if the big guys are using it, well, the smaller companies will do so as well. Oh wait, small businesses are already using Twitter. So basically they have the ground covered big and small. Either way, the complete results of the study are below:

B M Social Media Fortune 100

View more documents from guest338fbe.

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3. Twitter is the number one most social brand

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Twitter is the most active Web presence and generates most conversational volume on the Web, making it the number one social brand for July 2009, according to Social Radar. It was at number one in June too. Social Radar analyzes the Web to see what brands are mentioned most by unique sources. This includes blogs, other social networks, forums, etc. The analysis includes brands, not just social networks. Facebook is at number 4, with the iPhone and Google at number 3 and 4, respectively. Check out the full list for July here. The point is there is a lot of buzz out there about Twitter and people are continuing to talk about it, and it’s even becoming part of everyday language.

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4. Twitter receives millions in free media coverage

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The media loves to cover Twitter and anything that relates to using the service. In fact, Twitter received $48 million worth in media coverage in 30 days, according to Ad Age, which also notes that the figure is about half of what Microsoft plans to spend on marketing Bing. So what amounts to $48 million worth in advertising? How about 3 billion impressions and 57 percent of that is from TV. These figures don’t even include the smaller newspapers that likely mentioned Twitter. The irony is that this very post is contributing.

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5. Continued growth internationally

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As news breaks, more users internationally are learning the value of using Twitter. Whether it is the protests following the Iran Election or the Jakarta bombings or the fact that the Chinese government felt they had to block Twitter during the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the site gets more users in those countries as the value of the service unravels during a time of need. Right now, about 55 percent of the audience is international, according to comScore. This number too will continue to grow.

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More Twitter resources from Mashable:

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- 5 More Twitter Related Trends to Watch Right Now

- Twitter Better: 20 Ways to Filter Your Tweets

- Twitter for Beginners: 5 Steps for Better Tweeting

- 5 Habits of Successful Executives on Twitter

- 5 Ways Twitter Can Save You Money

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Dalaj

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Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Google, Twitter, iStockphoto
Tags: Lists, social media, twitter

Goofram Neatly Combines Google and Wolfram Results [Search]

Goofram Neatly Combines Google and Wolfram Results [Search]:

As soon as Wolfram Alpha launched as a computational knowledge engine, avid searchers hacked up tools to combine its results with standard Google searches. The Goofram site is a clean-looking site that does all that mashing for you.
That's just about all the main Goofram site provides, although with the two search sites' results fit well enough to the page that it almost looks like a natural app. If the idea of broad search reach appeals to Firefox users, they can install a Goofram Firefox add-on that automatically brings Google searches back to Goofram. If you just want Goofram for occasional searching, the site also offers a link for installing the site as one of your Firefox quick search box options. One thing we've learned from using Goofram—Wolfram's suggested searches for "lifehacker" aren't exactly, um, cordial. Free to use, no sign-up required.

Goofram [via The Red Ferret Journal]

Google Reader Updates with Still More Social Features [Google Reader]

Google Reader Updates with Still More Social Features [Google Reader]:
Google's popular newsreader updates with new friend following features, private sharing of items, people search, and a 'like' feature that tells the world when you like a link. It's another nice social update, but we can't help but wonder who's using them.
The new features are very customizable. You can create groups who have permission to see and add comments about items you share; you can find and add friends via search or by finding people who 'like' items you like; and you can protect your shared items so that they only show up for your friends. The thing is, this sounds an awful lot like Facebook's newsfeed, or Twitter, but if those sites only allowed you to share links.
That's not to say that we've got any fundamental problem with Google Reader; it's the best online newsreader you'll find. But we are very curious about whether or not any of these social features are really taking hold. Your thoughts:

Do You Use Google Reader's Social Features?(opinion)
Whether you like every update or not, it's always nice to see what the folks at Reader are up to; it's one of Google's apps that's always been great about pushing out interesting and cool features with some frequency.

Following, liking and people searching [Official Google Reader Blog]

Google Reader Adds Helpful Mobile Options [Feeds]

Google Reader Adds Helpful Mobile Options [Feeds]:

If you're a fan of Google Reader's mobile-optimized interface for iPhones, Android devices, or the Palm Pre, you may not know that you can tweak its settings to load more items per page, mobile-format links, and start in any folder.
The Official Google Reader Blog highlights the settings tweaks any Reader user can make to their account. The last option on the page, controlling how many items load on the page per data grab, is a big sigh of relief for anyone who reads faster than their Wi-Fi, 3G, or especially EDGE connection can grab items—moving from 15 to 50 items should save you a good deal of frustration over hurry-up-and-wait moments. Even better, logged-in Google account holders can change their mobile settings without having to have their mobile device handy.

Customize your mobile Reader experience [Official Google Reader Blog]

Live Android

Live Android:

Excited about google Chrome? Can’t wait? Why not play with google’s other OS, Android. You can now run Android from a live cd on any X86 computer. Just pop it in and go without any damage to your existing data. They’ve already gotten it working on the EEE_701, let’s see one with touch screen installed.

FCC queries AT&T, Apple on Google Voice iPhone app rejection

FCC queries AT&T, Apple on Google Voice iPhone app rejection: "

Yeah, we're pretty much all peeved by Apple suddenly ejecting all traces of Google Voice from the app store, but now it looks to have drawn the ire of the Federal Communications Commission, as well. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the agency has sent out three letters, one each to Apple, AT&T, and Google. To the latter company, it asked for a description of the Google Voice app and whether previous Google apps have been approved for the store (it has, but that's another interesting story). To Cupertino, it's asking the phone manufacturer to explain itself over the sudden exorcism and what involvement, if any, AT&T had in this decision. The report doesn't make a direct indication of what the letter to the carrier said, but we can imagine it's similar to what Apple got, plus some doodles at the end of a stick figure letting out an exasperated sigh. In a statement today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said it "has a mission to foster a competitive wireless marketplace, protect and empower consumers, and promote innovation and investment." Hey Julius, while you're at it, can you see about Skype and Slingbox for us, too? Thanks.

Update: TechCrunch has published the three letters sent out, all very interesting reads. The FCC asks Apple specifically if any approved VoIP apps are allowed to be used over AT&T's 3G network, and more generally what are the "standards for considering and approving iPhone applications" and more details into the approval process. It also asks for the contact information of all developers of rejected Google Voice apps, presumably for further investigation. In the Google letter, it seems to be asking if Voice will be able to be utilized in any capacity over the web, without inclusion in the iTunes store. Unsurprisingly, a number of questions to Apple and AT&T concern the carrier's involvement in which apps or types of apps get rejected. All companies have until August 21st to respond and can request confidentiality on all or portions of their response.



Update 2: AT&T spokesman Brad Mays has sent us a statement denying any involvement in the app store process: "AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store. We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it," he says. That said, its involvement in Slingbox's rejection certainly does raise some eyebrows here.

Filed under: Cellphones

FCC queries AT&T, Apple on Google Voice iPhone app rejection originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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