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Google Maps Flaw Leads To Intercepted FBI And Secret Service Calls

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Anyone can add new listings to Google maps and, usually, this is a good thing™. Unfortunately spammers have discovered this, and some categories (such as locksmiths) are overrun with fake listings. There’s a new twist now that may have very serious consequences: anyone can add government agencies to Google Maps with almost no spam filtering on Google’s part. One hacker added fake entries for the FBI and Secret Service with phone numbers under his control. If you called one of those fake numbers you were automatically rerouted to the right number, but the hacker in the middle was recording your call.

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imo Discontinues Support For All Third-Party Messaging Networks

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photo courtesy www.blogdoandroid.com

In an email sent out to imo users, the company has decided to discontinue support for third-party messaging services. The company says it wants to concentrate on strengthing its own services and effective March 3rd support for all others will terminate. With all of the available messaging services on the market it makes some sense that imo would want to focus on its own development. Although some users do enjoy having a place to concentrate all of their services in one place. We will see what user reaction is to this announcement, could go either way.  Read the full email after the break.

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Google Now Launcher Available For All Nexus Devices

google-now-launcher-on-nexus-7Google released a standalone version of the Google Now Launcher on February 26, 2014 that supports all Nexus Android devices. The Google Now Launcher is available for Google Play Edition devices as well, but users should note that it is only supported on Nexus and Play Edition devices running Android 4.4 KitKat or later.

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Google’s Sundar Pichai Says Android Not Designed To Be Safe, But What Does That Mean?

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photo courtesy of www.eyeonwindows.com

The blog’s are exploding with one short quote that Sundar Pichai has made about Android. Before I get any further, read the quote below.

We cannot guarantee that Android is designed to be safe, the format was designed to give more freedom. When people talk about 90% of malware for Android, they must of course take into account the fact that it is the most popular operating system in the world. If I had a company dedicated to malware, I would also be addressing my attacks on Android …

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Google Lobbying Against Distracted Driver Legislation

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photo courtesy of extremetech.com

Reuters is reporting that Google is actively lobbying at least three states (Illinois, Missouri and Delaware) to stop suggested laws against driving with devices such as Google Glass. This is likely just the start of these types of legislative battles that Google is likely going to face. There are eight other states that are also considering such legislation against wearable computing such as Google Glass. Lawmakers are saying, users could become preoccupied with data coming into Glass rather than paying attention to the road which could lead to accidents. New York, Maryland and West Virginia also are in the midst of such legislation but Google has yet to deploy lobbyists to those states to defend their product.

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App Review: Learn A New Language With Duolingo

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The details of the English language are something that I have always been very good at, and consequently, I had always had an interest in other languages. Especially interesting to me is the language of my ancestors, specifically German. I had taken two German language courses in college, but had always found the pace too rapid to learn the language effectively. Sure, I’d gotten some key base knowledge down, but the courses weren’t at a pace that suited me.

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Google Buys spider.io British Ad Fraud Company

photo from http://www.wallpaper.ge/
photo from http://www.wallpaper.ge/

Google continues to reach into its pockets to buy yet another tech company. In this case they’ve purchased a British company that detects ad fraud in online advertisements. We know Google is built on advertising online, it’s their bread and butter. So it makes perfect sense to continue to strengthen that investment by implementing this software that is supposed to detect fraudulent advertising practices. This will not only benefit Google but also their advertising partners as well as those websites using Google’s ad program. Probably won’t make the any of those people trying to take advantage of the system very happy but we’re not worried about them. DoubleClick/Google’s full press release is below.

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Google Looking To Expand Its Fiber Availability To 34 More Cities

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San Jose Mercury News is reporting Google is courting the city of San Jose to receive its Google Fiber services along with 33 other cities. For those who do not know what Google Fiber is, in a nutshell, it’s supersonic internet. With speeds up to 1000mbps it pretty much blows your current ISP speeds out of the water. Hopefully these 34 cities are not a stopping point for the service, there are many more people who love to get this kind of speed.

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Google Withholds Acquisition Numbers For The First Time In Annual Report

photo from The Huffington Post
photo from The Huffington Post

As competition gets fierce in the technology space companies generally find it important to protect their interests. Those interests also include information. In this case it seems Google has withheld its acquisition numbers on its annual report, IBN Live reported. This is the first time Google has ever withheld this information from its annual report,

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Upper Crust Virgin Atlantic Passengers To Be Checked In Using Google Glass

photo from dailymailuk
photo from dailymailuk

The DailyMail is reporting that Virgin Atlantic is running some trials using Google Glass. The idea is to know the customer before they even hand over their boarding pass. The host/hostess will already have all your details using Glass, name, destination and even dietary information. The trial begins at the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class lounge at London Heathrow.

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Google Continues Cross Patent Campaign; This Time With Cisco

image from businessweek
image from businessweek

Google continues to extend a hand of cooperation to its competitors in the industry. First they sealed a deal with Samsung and Ericsson, in which they cross licensed each others patents. Now they’ve done the same with Cisco, effectively bringing their disagreements to an end. Google is taking a proactive approach to this whole thing and in my opinion, this is what’s best for not only Google and their partners, but for the consumer as well. Here’s what Cisco had to say about this recent deal with Google.

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