Google Updates: Sex, Yandex and Bad Ad Hex
It's the week in Google....
WELL IT'S not like there's no news out of Mountain View this week, so we'd better dive straight in.
The big news has been Google's dramas over alleged sexism following the memo and then sacking of an engineer. It has led to up to sixty women threatening to sue for discrimination. Things reached (another) head on Thursday as Google was forced to cancel a ‘town hall' meeting with staff after threats and intimidation emerged online.
So this week, we've had Movette get clobbered for pretending to be Google. They is not from Google. They is from Manchester.
If you is not from Google or Manchester, but from Russia, good news as new rules mean that Google can't force themselves onto your browser, even if it's Chrome, with Yandex being the local option. You can also have mail.ru as your default mail provider. Joy.
Elsewhere in the company this week, the Google app has had an update that brings shortcuts above the main stuff which can get you straight to useful info like a sports score or the weather. It's a little thing but it's really handy.
The company has also sent a warning shot across the bows of 1000 advertisers that are using invasive tactics such as autoplay ads with sound and rollover pop-ups to shape up or face a ban. The company is bringing adblocking to its Chrome browser before year end.
Also new this week, the company is looking at using its AMP technology, which preloads content for faster access to create a clone of Snapchat Discover, potentially bringing user-sourced footage to its news. The service is said to be called STAMP.
And with that, time for another three apps that are temporarily free!
If you're the type of person that has owned a smartphone for years and found themself thinking "if only it had a millimetre ruler down the side", then Millmeter (sic) Pro screen ruler is the app for you. And it's reduced from £1.39 to FREE!
Combat in space? Well it's fairly self explanatory from the name - No Gravity - Space Combat Adventure. For a limited period, it's free.
Draw lines, make transections, win points! That's Linia, which has a high review rating and is Free for a limited period. µ
More on Software
What are APIs, why do you keep hearing about them and why do you need them?
API is one of those terms that people vaguely understand but skip over because it sounds complex, but in fact APIs are surprisingly straightforward and very useful
Microsoft previews Azure's automatic VM guest patching feature
The new capability allows Azure to automatically update Windows virtual machine against vulnerabilities
Microsoft announces deepfake detection tools to combat disinformation
The company hopes its new tools will have an impact in the lead-up to US elections in November
Astronomers identify 50 new exoplanets using AI
This is the first time that a machine learning technique has been used to validate exoplanets
Apple ordered not to restrict use of Epic's Unreal Engine on its platform
But Apple has been spared from immediately reinstating Epic's Fortnite game on its App Store
