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G oogle has a new device on display, and its for collaborative office work – Jamboard. This cloud-connected digital whiteboard is capable of connecting with the G Suite apps for its enterprise customers. You can read all about the G Suite  here . The whiteboard has been designed by Google, which is a 55-inch 4K touchscreen display that runs Android. Google also adds a new app, and no brownie points for guessing the name of the app, whiteboarding. Recode  says  that the Jamboard will be available in grey and blue, but the company will be pushing for a ‘bold bright red’ variant. The other highlights of the whiteboard are a built-in camera, speakers and capability to recognise up to 16 simultaneous touch inputs. The whiteboard can also recognise the difference between human finger touch and stylus input. It includes stylus that doesn’t require Bluetooth pairing or batteries. Users can either mount it on a wall or even wheel it around. However, users will have to wait until next

Chinese phone companies have developed a reputation, especially to western tech media, for its tendency to “borrow” hardware design cues from iPhones. While that stigma is not unearned, it’s a bit dated because some Chinese phonemakers, chief among them Huawei, have developed its own design language and style. (Conversely, when Apple or Google borrow ideas from Chinese companies, western media seem oblivious – just check out all the pieces gushing about the new iPhone’s dual-camera “bokeh” trick, or Google Pixel’s “swipe on the fingerprint sensor to pull down notifications” shortcut … Huawei’s P9 offered those things half a year ago). Plus, copying Apple is old news. Some Chinese companies have moved to Samsung for inspiration. Case in point: Xiaomi is set to announce a new phone on October 25, and as usual, all the key information about the device has leaked on Chinese social media, including its looks.  Follow Playfuldroid!   @playfuldroid Xiaomi Mi Not

Price tracking in time for the holidays Google’s built-in flight-searching tool just got a big improvement with the  addition of price notifications . Now, when looking up the cost of future travel plans using its search engine, you may see a card pop up telling you when the fare is expected to expire and how much you’ll save by booking sooner rather than later. If you still want to wait to purchase the ticket, you can track the flight or route and receive notifications about fare increases. Google sources the information from historic data on flight costs, so it won’t be entirely accurate all of the time. However, it does offer a useful resource when trying to save a few bucks on flights during high-demand times of the year or when planning a trip far in advance. The company is also making an effort to improve Google Flights for mobile users, as it’s chosen to leave the feature as a part of the mobile web and not break it out as a standalone app. So you’ll be able to save and

G oogle is now officially an adult. The internet giant is celebrating its 18th birthday on Tuesday with an animated Doodle shown to web browsers around the world. The company, founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, traditionally marks its birthday on the Google homepage on September 27. However, not even Google seems to really know when it was formed. Since 2006, it has celebrated its birthday on September 27, but the year before that,  had it as September 26 . I n 2004, its 6th birthday Doodle  went online on September 7  and in the year before that,  it was September 8 . In fact, none of these dates seem to have any particular relevance.  The company's own history  lists its incorporation date in 1998 - the nearest thing to a corporate birthday - as September 4. And the idea for Google began years earlier in 1996, as a research project at Stanford University, when Page and Brin had a new idea for a search engine that would rank pages by how m

Traveling in China, I spoke the universal language of app Landing late at night in Shenzhen for my first trip to China, I was nervous about being able to navigate the city. I didn’t speak the language and had never been to Asia. Starting the next day I would have the services of a local translator, but for that first night, I was on my own. Normally I use  Google services for everything , but those are blocked in China. I opened my iPhone, connected to an international Mifi, and tapped the Uber app. The interface alerted me that I would be switching to the Chinese version, controlled now by Uber’s rival turned business partner Didi. The black screen turned a deep shade of red, and just like that, I had hailed a cab. MY CHAT APP ALSO PROVIDED INSTANTANEOUS TRANSLATION I used Apple Maps to locate the apartment we had reserved through AirBnB. Then I found the same spot on the map in Uber, which automatically translated the location into Chinese. I showed that to the driver

Earlier in the year, during its annual developer conference, I/O, Google announced that it was working on a brand new video calling application called Duo . The promise made by the company on stage and in its promotional materials was that Duo would be the video chat platform for the every man. It was to be a stripped-down, no-frills, sans bells and whistles experience that users could just pick up and use with minimal instruction. It would also allow both Android and iOS users to chat with each other, seamlessly. Having tested the app out personally, I have to say that as a no-frills, easy-to-use video calling app, Duo is fantastic. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) You simply tap the call button, tap a contact’s name and the call is initiated automatically. The best thing is that Duo is tied to your phone number so you can call people in your existing contact list without having to maintain a separate one specifically for Duo. In essence, I like to think of Du

G oogle is planning a shake-up of  the smartphone market by releasing its own handset, a move that would tighten its grip on mobile software and see it compete directly with the iPhone . The technology giant is in discussions with mobile operators about releasing a Google-branded phone that will extend the company’s move into hardware, sources familiar with the discussions told The Telegraph.  Google already develops the Android operating system that runs on four in five smartphones sold around the world, and endorses a range of phones made by partners such as LG and Huawei under the  Google Nexus  brand.  But unlike Apple, it leaves manufacturing to other companies such as Samsung, with the company concentrating on developing the free software that runs on its phones.  Google's Nexus 6P T he new device, which will be released by the end of the year according to a senior source, will see Google take more control over design, manufacturing and software.