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The new and improved Scratch Blocks is now open on developer preview, and young aspiring coders who took part in this year’s I/O Youth event got to test it out. “Scratch Blocks” based on Blockly, Google’s own visual programming code. MIT’s Media Lab started working on Scratch in 2007, which was conceived as a visual programming language. The idea behind Scratch was to find an easy way to teach young children the basic knowledge needed for programming and IT aptitudes....

The Google Android Basics Nanodegree class is available on the online learning platform Udacity, which is designed to teach those who have little or no programming experience all the basics needed to create their own Android app. “Google, in partnership with Udacity, is making Android development accessible and understandable to everyone, so that regardless of your background, you can learn to build apps that improve the lives of people around you,” Shanea King-Roberson, program manager at Google, said in a blog post....

The new website ‘opensource.google.com‘ is aimed at bringing all the Google Open Source initiatives along with information on how it uses, releases, and supports open source. “This new site showcases the breadth and depth of our love for open source. It will contain the expected things: our programs, organisations we support, and a comprehensive list of open source projects we’ve released. But it also contains something unexpected: a look under the hood at how we ‘do’ open source,” wrote Will Norris, software engineer at Google’s Open Source Programs Office....

The Competition Commission of India (CCI), the country’s competition enforcement body, is investigating allegations that Alphabet’s Google is exploiting its market dominance for highlighting its mobile payments app, Google Pay. By doing this, the U.S. tech giant gives itself an unfair advantage over apps of competitors, which hurts consumers and other payment platforms available in India. The complaint, which was filed in February, accuses the U.S. tech giant of using its strong control on the Play Store for promoting Google Pay inside its Android app store in India, which puts mobile payment apps of competitors at a disadvantage....

Google said on Monday that it has struck a deal with mobile phone payment firm Softcard that will help help it to bring Google wallet app pre-installed with smartphones sold by three of the major US carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The carriers will begin shipping the Google Wallet app later this year on mobiles running Android 4.0 “KitKat” or higher, according to a Monday blog post by Google’s Ariel Bardin....

Google is testing out its top secret 5G drones at New Mexico’s Spaceport Authority. The solar-powered drones are being tested with the help of Virgin Galactic, a spaceflight company owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin. The Google project, codenamed SkyBender, involves testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America using new millimetre wave technology to deliver data from drones – potentially 40 times faster than 4G SkyBender involves testing several prototype transceivers and drones using millimeter wave radio transmissions and Google is reportedly paying Virgin Galactic $1,000 a day for the use of a hangar in the Gateway to Space building....

“We started with what is the ideal mobile experience from Google and what things that would come together to give you that,” said Chris Breithaupt, Project Manager for Pixel. “There’s the device, peace of mind that if you drop your phone you can get an easy repair, and then there are these mobile services, YouTube streaming and music streaming, apps and games. It feels like the right set.” Let’s have a look at the features and specifications of Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro: Google Pixel 6: The Google Pixel 6 has a 6....

First spotted by Windows Latest, the Chrome Web Store page on Microsoft Edge browser flashes a warning when users try to download extensions, “Google recommends switching to Chrome to use extensions securely,” along with a link to download Google Chrome. The warning message does not explain as to how using Chrome extensions in Edge is any less secure, it, however, does not appear for users while using other Chromium-based browsers such as Opera, Vivaldi, Brave, and Epic....

Google Wi-Fi router will offer longer range connectivity than most off the shelf routers. It will also apparently offer some smart features similar to OnHub, which boasts integration with Phillips smart lights, IFTTT support, all-in-one security updates and more. The report also notes that Google Wi-Fi could offer a “mesh” network feature by connecting multiple routers around the house, which means you won’t drop offline if you walk into a far-away room in your house....

In 1967, researchers believed that they had the right solution to the problem: a mechanical coronary heart fuelled by radioactive decay. Yes, an atomic coronary heart. Two separate government-funded teams of researchers, the National Heart Institute (NHI) and the Atomic Energy Agency (AEC) for a decade have been pursuing the dream of designing a nuclear-powered heart. They stated that this was the only feasible solution for substituting diseased hearts. While the other power source for artificial hearts was conventional batteries, but these had some very huge limitations....

Pricken has today cleared his name from all charges through community service. “Today all of the charges regarding my incident with the University of Georgia have officially been dismissed,” he posted on his Facebook site Thursday. “I would like to take a moment to tell my story about how I ended up in a jail cell Christmas 2014.” Pickren, a computer engineering major, “became desensitized to the impact that a computer breach could have on organizations....

According to Tomi Tuominen and Timo Hirvonen, security consultants for Finnish data security company F-Secure said that they discovered a vulnerability in the software of the electronic hotel room keys of VingCard Elsafe (a brand under Assa Abloy), a global provider of hotel locking systems. The vulnerable software in question is called ‘Vision’ and it could affect millions of rooms as they are available in 166 countries and in over 40,000 buildings, F-Secure researchers estimate....

Bastille says that a flaw in the way these wireless mouse transmit data could leave thousands of computers at risk from hackers. Bastille says that a hacker standing within 100 yards of the victim’s computer and using a $30 long-range radio dongle and a few lines of code can intercept the radio signal between the victim’s mouse and the dongle plugged into the victim’s computer. Once he/she has intercepted the legitimate signals between the mouse and computer, this hacker the signal with her own and gain control over the victim’s PC....

In the eagerness to catch the latest episodes, many fans turn to other methods of digital distribution like torrents and illegal online streaming for downloading recent Games of Thrones series. Apparently, cybercriminals are using this opportunity to disguise malware inside torrents and spread onto computers of such users, claims security firm Kaspersky. According to a recent report from security firm Kaspersky, cybercriminals are using the latest episodes of Game of Thrones as bait to target unsuspecting users....

Trend Micro security researchers state that the leaked data stolen from Hacking Team, a company known to sell surveillance tools and communication interception, have a number of unpatched and unreported Adobe flaws. The researchers while examining the leaked data dump found at least three software exploits – two for Adobe Flash Player and one for Microsoft’s Windows kernel. Out of two, one of the Flash Player susceptibilities, known as Use-after-free vulnerability with CVE-2015-0349, has already been patched....

Getting a job in Google is a dream come true for millions of engineers. Google has been ranked by job-community website, Glassdoor as ‘best workplaces’ year after year. Many job aspirants aspire to get a job in Google but getting one seems to be the toughest assignment according to Glassdoor. We already know that Google takes on board only the best talent available in the world over and therefore it is well known for asking difficult and tricky interview questions....

Dmitry Belenko, an ex-Googler writes that once he started working for Google, he had a difficult time coming to terms that he was no longer a big fish in a small pond and that he was no longer the best at everything: “The overarching disadvantage is that your ego will be bruised quite thoroughly. Google hires some amazing people, and until you realize that you can’t be amazing at everything, you will feel like an imposter....

As a result, developer Niantic has started testing a new tracking system that brings a new way to track Pokemon in Pokemon Go to a “subset of users”. “We’re currently testing a variation of the “Nearby Pokemon” feature with a subset of users,” Niantic explaining in the latest patch notes. “During this period you may see some variation in the nearby Pokemon UI.” Please note that you won’t be able to see the new ‘Nearby’ feature when you load up the game unless you are a part of that “subset of users....

The video footage shows two men arriving at the male victim’s house in a car at 9 pm carrying “relay boxes” on September 24. One of them approaches the front door with a relay box in his hand and then waves the device at the front door of the house, and the car gets unlocked. The crooks then drive off with the Mercedes-Benz. So, how did this happen? Apparently, the relay boxes are designed to receive a signal from the car key through walls, doors and windows....

The state of software development at the moment is focusing on negative splits, so to speak, and it’s all thanks to DevOpsDevOps. For someone new to the DevOps scene, DevOps is an evolution of fast software development, where frequent releases and feedback are demanded in order for applications to move steadily toward the business goal. So in DevOps, code is sent out continuously to production for feedback and bug discovery, making release cycles occur more often – such as daily, or even hourly....