Hasta La Gadget!

There’s no question that most of the talk between Google and EU regulators over the firm’s search ranking practices have taken place behind closed doors, but now the antitrust inquiry is one step closer to a binding resolution. Following a preliminary assessment in which the European Commission laid out its concerns, Google has offered up a formal list of commitments in attempt to assuage the regulator — and in the process, avoid a nasty fine that could top $5 billion. Reuters sources suggest that one concession may involve labels within search results that distinguish Google’s services from those of its rivals, but whatever the final resolution entails, EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia asserts that it’ll be a legally binding agreement. As for the next step, Google’s proposal will be subject to input from its peers, which includes complainants such as Microsoft. If there were ever an opportunity to kick up some dust, we reckon this’d be it. Then again, it could be that Redmond is more preoccupied with Android nowadays.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: Reuters

Many of us probably wonder what will happen to our online accounts and information once we pass away one day. Then again, since we’ll be dead, we won’t really care, right? In any case, Google has launched what they’re calling the Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to control what happens to your Google accounts after you pass away.

Inactive Account Manager comes with several options to choose from as far as what happens to your Google account data and information. You can choose to have an alert sent to a mobile phone after a certain amount of time of inactivity has passed, and you can also add up to 10 “trusted contacts,” who will be given your account credentials should your account become inactive for a long period of time.

Or if you’d rather not give your Google account information to anyone, you can simply have your entire Google account deleted after a specified amount of time of inactivity has passed. Deleting your account will result in all Google data being wiped, including Blogger, Contacts and Circles, Drive, Gmail, Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams, Picasa Web Albums, Google Voice, and YouTube.

This makes for an easy way for your loved ones to handle your digital life after you’ve passed away. Of course, they could easily log on to your accounts by looking up your saved passwords in the web browser settings, but not everyone saves their passwords, and many users put passwords on the computers themselves.

Google introduces Inactive Account Manager for when you’re deceased is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Created by illustrator H. Caldwell Tanner, this wonderful, mind-numbing visualization of the internet’s very essence brings together more past and current memes than you probably ever knew existed. More »

If you thought that Mark Zuckerberg’s aspirations ended at commanding your smartphone, then think again. The Facebook chief has teamed up with a raft of other tech heavyweights including Eric Schmidt, Marissa Mayer and Elon Musk to form FWD.us, a political lobby group designed to promote tech-friendly causes. The first issue it wants to tackle is immigration reform to make it easier to woo foreign engineering talent, but it also has designs on scientific research, education reform and job creation. Evidently, these people still have spare time even after their stressful day jobs.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: FWD.us

Google rolled out a Chrome Beta update yesterday, bringing with it a couple of improvements that have been long-anticipated, and that provide Android users with some much-needed functionality. After updating, Chrome Beta for Android users will have easy full-screen Web browsing and improved search via Omnibox. The update can be grabbed now from the Play Store.

Users have been waiting quite a while for such the fullscreen feature added into Chrome, with it now automatically switching into the browsing mode when the user begins scrolling, causing the upper navigation bar to disappear from sight. By touching the screen, the navigation bar will reappear, making it all-around unobtrusive and convenient.

Swiping upwards will make the toolbar reappear with the URL field and navigation options, such as the back and refresh buttons. Fullscreen feature aside, the latest update also brings with it simpler searching than before by altering the way Omnibox search works. While the current version requires searches to be retyped in their entirety, after updating users will be able to edit queries via the search bar without hassle.

There are a few other more minor things, such as holding the back button to reveal search history and added client-side certificate support. There are also some known bugs, including a “noticeable lag” when typing in certain text fields, duplicate items in the history tab, slow tab opening on occasion, and possible flickering pages.

[via Android Community]

Chrome Beta for Android updates with full-screen mode and improved Omnibox is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.