Sundar Pichai takes control of Google's crucial products

Sundar Pichai takes control of Google's crucial products

Chris Velazco

Engadget 

Well, we guess congratulations are in order. According to Re/code, Sundar Pichai, the senior vice president at Google who used to just be in charge of the Chrome, Android, and web apps teams now basically has control of almost every other Google product division of note. Search? Google+? Ads? Even the company's infrastructure? All of that has been apparently moved off of CEO Larry Page's plate and onto Pichai's -- not a huge surprise considering his heightened prominence within Mountain View over the past months. Pichai, a nine year Google veteran, was even rumored to be one of the leading choices for Microsoft's new CEO, though the role eventually went to longtime company insider Satya Nadella.
Anyway, that's a lot of power in one man's hands, especially considering that the advertising division Pichai inherited basically pays for all the other weird, amazing things Google gets to do. It's worth noting that not every Google product falls under Pichai's newly opened umbrella, though. There's YouTube, for one; that still remains under Susan Wojcicki's control, which she took over earlier this year. Oh, and all the really neat stuff -- Nest's growing internet-of-things team, the biotech innovations in the works at Calico, the moonshots under construction at Google X -- are all still firmly in Page's pocket. In fact, his love for the latter may be what caused this seismic leadership shift in the first place. Re/code notes that Page has expressed an interest in focusing on the "bigger picture" stuff that'll define what the Google of tomorrow will look like, lining up with earlier reports that he's been tapping internal talent to figure out what big, world-changing problems Google should really be trying to fix.
Source: Re/code

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Queen Elizabeth II takes to an iPad to send her first Tweet

Queen Elizabeth II takes to an iPad to send her first Tweet

Ben Gilbert

Engadget

Queen Elizabeth II of England is pretty seriously old-school. She casually signs her name, "Elizabeth R." (the "R" stands for "Regina" or, in English, "Regent"). She wears killer matching outfits (as seen above) that would be at home in 1962. But she's also not above jumping into the modern age every now and again. Take, for instance, the tweet that she sent this morning -- her first ever -- from London's Science Museum. It's how she helped open an exhibit on "The Information Age" -- a live-action tweet from an iPad.
There's some contestation over whether she sent the tweet herself; the tweet originates on an iPhone, though the Queen was clearly using an iPad. Does it really matter? Do you care? This is all a publicity stunt anyway, right? Let's all just enjoy that beautiful blue dress and the killer matching hat. The tweet, in all its glory, can be found below.

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Canadians now have faster mobile data than you

Canadians now have faster mobile data than you

Andy Bowen

Engadget

Our Canadian neighbors have already been given a taste of Rogers' extremely data-friendly LTE, but now the carrier is officially rolling out its LTE-Advanced network across 12 different cities. In fact, it's the first North Amercian carrier to launch an LTE-A network, period. So? Well, that means denizens of the poutine-filled country can stream much more video than you can, faster than you can. And since Rogers' new tech is a combination of AWS and its 700MHz spectrum (which is the same frequency some US AT&T clientele are also accustomed to), customers will see a big improvement on their data service while indoors, in a basement or other fringe areas. Head below for the full list of cities getting upgraded.
If you live in any of the cities listed below and want even faster mobile data, today's your lucky day:

• Vancouver
• Edmonton
• Calgary
• Windsor
• London
• Hamilton
• Toronto
• Kingston
• Moncton
• Fredericton
• Halifax
• Saint John

Source: CNW Group

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AT&T Confirms Apple SIM Gets Locked to Its Network, but Says Switching Carriers Still Easy

AT&T Confirms Apple SIM Gets Locked to Its Network, but Says Switching Carriers Still Easy

Ina Fried

Re/code

One of the big changes with the latest iPad was the arrival of the Apple SIM, which lets customers buy an iPad and then choose with which carrier they want to use it.

Though not mentioned onstage, the Apple SIM was quickly highlighted as a big shift. It suggested to some the possibility of an exciting new future in which customers paying full price for their device could effortlessly hop from network to network whenever they want.

The picture gets a little less rosy when you consider that Verizon requires a separate SIM. The idea of easily switching back and forth among carriers took another hit when it became clear that AT&T was participating in the Apple SIM but is choosing to lock that SIM to the network once a customer uses it on AT&T.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel confirmed to Re/code that customers who use the Apple SIM on AT&T will need another SIM card to switch carriers, but stressed that the device itself remains unlocked.

“With us you can change carriers with this iPad any time you want,” he said. “It is an unlocked device. … All [you] have to do is switch out the SIM in the device so it works on another carrier.”
As for why AT&T is locking the SIM card to its network while other carriers are not, Siegel said that “it’s just simply the way we’ve chosen to do it.”

That said, the latest iPad is still a pretty darn open device, with a single model working with all four major U.S. carriers and some overseas as well. The ability to change with just a switch of a SIM is far more open than most devices sold in the U.S., which typically support at most a couple different options.

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Yep, Apple Will Shut Down Beats Music App And Roll It Into iTunes

Yep, Apple Will Shut Down Beats Music App And Roll It Into iTunes

Josh Constine

TechCrunch 

Last month I reported that Apple would shut down Beats Music and likely add streaming music to iTunes. Apple denied, specifically, that Beats Music would be shut down.

Shortly thereafter, ‘unnamed sources familiar with the matter’ conveniently surfaced to engage in a battle of semantics about whether Apple might modify Beats Music over time, including its brand.
As we noted at the time, that was another way of saying Beats Music would get rolled into iTunes. And that’s just what the Wall Street Journal, (I’m sure they just forgot to cite us) is reporting today. “Apple is rebuilding Beats Music and plans to relaunch it next year as part of iTunes, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

Yep.

As I reported before the Beats acquisition became official, iTunes executives wanted to acquire Beats Music because they knew that music download sales were plummeting, and it needed a way to gracefully transition into streaming. And lo and behold, the WSJ writes “Digital music sales at Apple Inc. ’s iTunes store have fallen 13% to 14% world-wide since the start of the year, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring the fragility of the music industry’s nascent recovery.”


With download sales cratering and streaming coming up quick, Apple needed to get serious about streaming before Spotify, Google Music, and Deezer got a bigger lead.

 So rather than pour investment into Beats Music, which only had 250,000 people signed up for paid subscriptions as of May, it will roll streaming into iTunes, which has 800 million users and 400 million credit cards on file.

Apple doesn’t have to make money on music. It’s just a loss leader for or way to entice sales of its high-margin iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs. That, combined with its industry clout, means when it relaunches iTunes with streaming, it may be able to negotiate a much cheaper subscription rate, such as $5 a month rather than the $10 Spotify charges.

A cheap price, a massive built-in user base, and Apple hardware as a vector for distribution could make an iTunes streaming service tough to compete with.

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First Look At 3D Camera App 3DAround

First Look At 3D Camera App 3DAround

Josh Constine

TechCrunch

What if you could shoot those cool 360-degree, swivel-around photos you see on ecommerce sites or in The Matrix with just your smartphone? Then you’d be using the 3DAround camera app that launches next month from Dacuda, which gave TechCrunch an early peek. Simply hit record, revolve your camera phone or tablet around an object, and 3DAround stitches together all the photos into a 3D image the viewer can spin at will.



Dacuda is famous for its PocketScan app that lets you wave your camera over a document to get a digital image of it without a bulky scanner. Now Dacuda’s 25-person team and 5 years of experience are combining to make your phone a 3D scanner that always gets the perfect angle…because it gets every angle. For starters, it’s going to add some 360-spice to a ubiquitous but often boring type of photography: food porn.

“It’s a really good time for this kind of tech because Apple just opened up the camera APIs” Dacuda founder and CTO Dr. Alexander Ilic tells me. “We need pretty low-level access to controlling exposure time, focus, and more.” That’s just what Apple allowed with iOS 8.

Illic says the inspiration for the app came from watching food blogger friends take dozens of photos of plates of grub from different angles and struggle to decide which was best. He thought “Why can’t you just go around the whole thing, so you don’t have to worry about the perfect shot with a single angle.” Originally he figured that would require a camera with expensive 3D sensors, but in fact, newer iPhones are capable if given the right software. That’s where Dacuda comes in.

Spun out of top Swiss engineering school ETH Zurich by students from the university and MIT, Dacuda’s expertise is in image stitching. It’s backed by Wellington Partners, Swiss bank Schwyzer Kantonalbank, and Austrian entrepreneur Hans-Peter Metzler.


The 3DAround app extracts depth and structure information from a success of rapid-fire photos to create the 360-degree views. You’ll be able to interactively view the swivel-able photo through the 3DAround app or WebGL-equipped browsers like Chrome, and share some version of the images to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterst

The app will launch for free next month on iOS 8 devices for the iPhone 5 on up. While some phones like the HTC EVO now have stereoscopic double cameras that can take slightly “3D” photos, 3DAround looks like the real deal. We’ll have hands-on coverage once the app launches, so check back to see us spinning around some delicious food.

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Taylor Swift's '1989' Album Leaks & Her Fans Are Not Happy!

Taylor Swift's '1989' Album Leaks & Her Fans Are Not Happy!

Taylor‘s new album 1989 leaked online that day and her fans are not happy about it at all. Her fans are encouraging people to not listen to the leak and instead wait to purchase the album when it gets released on Monday.

It is being predicted that Taylor‘s album will sell between 800-900k during its first week of sales, which will make it the highest selling album released in 2014 after just one week.

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Did Taylor Swift Make Nashville Furious by Leaving Country Music?

When Taylor Swift announced her full-on transition to pop music with her upcoming album 1989, we didn't even think about the fact that she was leaving country music. (We were just too excited.) But how does Nashville feel about her decision? In a new interview with Billboard, the "Shake It Off" singer says that she actually hasn't experienced that much backlash from the country music industry.

"They know that they're the ones who brought me to the party and they know I am very well aware of that. But I honestly haven't experienced anyone really being upset," she said.

"I think that me being honest and unapologetic about it helps people understand that I'm not trying to fool them."

We've always appreciated how honest Taylor is about her music and her life. You can't get mad at her for that! Even though her style is changing, it just feels like a natural evolution – and she still gives props to the people who helped her out at the start of her career.

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Selena Gomez Quotes BFF Taylor Swift in Her We Day Speech!

Selena Gomez Quotes BFF Taylor Swift in Her We Day Speech!

Selena Gomez  is smart, talented, classy and always inspiring her fans, which is why we knew she’d be an amazing speaker at the We Day event in Vancouver. We Day events, held by Free The Children, encourage kids and teens to take charge and be the change we want to see in the world and to make our homes and societies safer, healthier and better places. When we heard Sel was speaking, we knew she was perfect for the job, but she went above and beyond all of our expectations.

In the speech , Selena talks about not letting the haters get to you and reminds us all that we’re not defined by what other people think and say about us, we’re only defined by yourselves. If people have something mean to say, Sel says to forgive them, and then just shake it off like her BFF Taylor Swift.

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Zendaya’s Hilarious Message to Everyone Who Mispronounces Her Name

Zendaya’s Hilarious Message to Everyone Who Mispronounces Her Name

Instagram

Zendaya always had trouble with people pronouncing her name wrong, but instead of getting upset Z’s been laughing it off – and using it to inspire some seriously awesome Halloween decorations.

Earlier today, Zendaya posted this spooky pic to her Instagram, and we can’t help but laugh every time we look at it. “In honor of Halloween and everyone saying my name wrong, (I’m ZenDAYa) but my nieces made the ZenDIEa,” Z captioned the pic.

ZenDIEa is hilarious, and probably the most blinged out skeleton we’ve ever seen. We wish we had some ZenDIEa Halloween decorations for our office – she’s awesome!

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Google plans to make a component store for its modular phone

Google plans to make a component store for its modular phone

Edgar Alvarez

Engadget

Project Ara is surely one of the most exciting things Google is working on right now -- at least from the ones we're aware of. Better yet, given how young it is, chances are it will only keep getting better and more interesting. While speaking at a Purdue University event, Google's Paul Eremenko, director of Project Ara, recently revealed that the company will be taking a cue from the Play store to create a similar shopping experience for its modular smartphone. What this means, essentially, is you'd be able to buy or sell different components from a single hub, just as is the case now with apps, music, books and more on Google Play -- and it would also include reviews and recommendations. Eremenko didn't mention any details related to the status of Project Ara, but you can check out the full talk after the break.
Source: YouTube (Purdue Convocations)

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'Super Smash Bros. for Wii U' adds an eight-player mode for double the madness

'Super Smash Bros. for Wii U' adds an eight-player mode for double the madness

Timothy J. Seppala

Engadget

Think you know everything there is to about Super Smash Bros for Wii U? Think again: during today's Smash-centric Nintendo Direct event, the gaming giant announced an eight-player mode for absolutely bananas action. How will you even keep track of all that madness on the Wii U? We're willing to find out. There are sure to be some more announcements coming out of the broadcast, and we've embedded the live player just after the break.
Source: Nintendo

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