Google

Alongside the canceled Pixel Tablet 2, Google may have released an accompanying pen with a button to open a note-taking app, as reported by Android Authority. The pen would reportedly dock to Google’s rumored keyboard accessory.

While investigating apps that let livestream viewers pay to watch child abuse, The New York Times reports that it found “more than 80 apps that advertised children” on the Apple and Google app stores.

The livestream apps downloaded from Apple and Google illustrate an even darker aspect of the social media technology boom, particularly for children living in poverty in developing countries. There, with the ease of a smartphone, parents and other adults can connect with pedophiles in the United States and elsewhere who pay to watch — and direct — criminal behavior.

Trigger warning: This Times story includes descriptions of child sexual abuse.

Today has been a busy day. I was working on some OpenAI news — but Mother Nature doesn’t care about my plans!

There was a 7.0 earthquake, and now there are tsunami warnings here in San Francisco. Interestingly, though, Google Docs and Drive both warned me about the Tsunami (sometimes it shows a button for “More Info” and sometimes not).

The company’s take on Android 15 looks like a major update, with a Dynamic Island-ish feature called the Now Bar and a redesigned camera app UI, along with refreshed widgets and app icons. It’s available starting today to Galaxy S24 owners via the Samsung Members app.

Senior product manager Raiza Martin, along with NotebookLM designer Jason Spielman and engineer Stephen Hughes, say they have left Google to work on a new project.

NotebookLM is the AI note-taking app that became known for its AI podcast feature, which even made an appearance in this year’s Spotify Wrapped.

Here at the The New York Times DealBook Summit, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was just asked if he has talked about the US government’s ongoing case to break up the company. He said his convos with the President-elect have had “nothing to do with ongoing litigation.”

“He is very focused on American competitiveness,” Pichai said of Trump when asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin. “There are real areas where I think he’s thinking about making a difference. Hopefully, we can make progress there.”

If you’ve changed your mind (or have a family member who accidentally backed up their entire camera roll) Google Photos now offers an “Undo device backup” option in the settings.

Images and videos will be removed from the cloud but will remain on the device and backup will be turned off. The feature is now available to iOS users, and is coming to Android soon.

Setting your phone’s wallpaper to the image you’re viewing in Google Photos is more complicated than it needs to be.

That could soon change, according to Android Authority, which discovered an update potentially coming to a future version of the app that adds a “Set as wallpaper” option to the toolbar that appears after tapping the three-dot menu button in the corner of an open photo.

Recent Pixel phones have a reputation for running hot. While largely fixed in the Pixel 9, the 6, 7, and 8 can get quite toasty. Now, a new troubleshooting tool can tell you just how toasty with a realtime estimate of the phone’s internal temperature along with steps the device is taking to reduce heat, like pausing charging. Kinda cool.

An unreleased version of the Pixel Watch face with a ring of complications appeared in a Black Friday promo post on the Made by Google YouTube account that 9to5Google spotted.

The outlet saw the same watch face in a video about the Pixel Watch 3’s design that Google published last month that has since been made private.

I would have sworn this feature already existed — probably because it does on desktop Gmail! But Google says it’s new for Android. Just expand your CC and BCC fields, drop your finger atop any email address for a moment, then drag it where you’d like.

As expected, the search giant is seeking to overturn a ruling that would force it to overhaul the Play Store. Google argues that Judge Donato should have never left the decision to a jury, and failed to recognize Apple as a smartphone competitor like another judge did in Apple v Epic.

If not reversed, the injunction and the flawed liability ruling underlying it will directly undercut Google’s efforts to compete against Apple and the iPhone, a competitive dynamic that has spurred innovation and brought concrete benefits to consumers around the world.

Google may not have to open up its Play Store for years, if at all, while it appeals the verdict. Oral arguments are scheduled to begin on February 3rd.