Samsung has a long history of duplicating applications and services which are already offered by either AOSP or a proprietary service from Google. Some OEMs have chosen to embrace the fully-featured applications and services that Google offers (like we saw with the HTC 10), but then some OEMs like Samsung have chosen to be as independent from Google as possible. This actually results in a divisive debate within the community.

Some people feel this is filling up their internal storage with too many duplicated applications and services, while others enjoy it because they don’t like being tied down to Google’s ecosystem. We can’t really blame Samsung for doing this though because the more they rely on Google for these services then the more control they’re giving over (which sometimes results in less money they can potentially earn too). Samsung shut down their music service late last year (Samsung Milk Music), which is likely why they chose to go with Google Play Music this year.

So last week, Samsung announced they would be using Google Play Music as the default music player and the default music service on both the Galaxy S8 as well as the Galaxy S8+. Not only are the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ getting this treatment, but Samsung says it will happen on all Android-based Samsung phones and tablets launched in 2017.  However, there are some limitations and restrictions put in place depending on a couple of variables.

Samsung says this could change depending on which market you are located in, and which carrier you buy your device from. We’re also told that device support will be expanded on in the future too. These customers will have the ability to uploaded as many as 100,000 tracks to their own personal library (up from the regular 50,000). Lastly, those who purchase the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ or the Galaxy Tab S3 can activate a 3-month free trial of Google Play Music (which also includes access to YouTube Red).

Source: Samsung Newsroom

In July of last year, Google announced two new APIs for their Google Cloud Platform customers that had to do with speech recognition. These were made available in beta form to a limited number of developers and the Cloud Natural Language API and the Cloud Speech API. Along with being limited to a certain number of developers, the functionality of these APIs were also quite limited as Google was still working to enhance and optimize their capabilities.

The Cloud Speech API is Google’s own Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) service and it actually powers the speech recognition capabilities for a number of Google’s products (such as Google Search, Google Now, Google Assistant). Google took that technology and adapted it to fit the needs of Google Cloud customers and this was how the Cloud Speech API was born. Earlier this week, Google not only made this technology generally available to developers, but they also announced a big update for it as well.

This update includes a couple of enhancements to previous features and added support for some new file types. Some developers had complained that transcribing long-form audio wasn’t very accurate, so Google says this update will improve things on that end. The service is also faster in certain cases with developers seeing it being 3 times as fast as before for batch scenarios. The last highlight of this update is the added support for WAV, Opus and Speex file formats.

Since the launch of the Google Cloud Speech API, the company has seen a couple of popular use cases for the service. Naturally, Google has seen a number of developers adopting the service to add voice search, voice commands and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to their product. But they’re also seeing it being used for speech analytics and this has proven useful for businesses who are looking for real-time insights from their call centers.

Source: Google Cloud Platfrom Blog

According to a new report by The Wall Street Journal, Google is working on a built-in ad blocker solution for desktop and mobile versions of its Chrome web browser. The ad blocker will be turned on by default and will block out those specific types of ads which are responsible for ruining the browsing experience, the report says.

Not all ads will be blocked, though: Google’s own ads will still be displayed. The ad blocker will reportedly filter out pop-up ads, countdown timers, auto-playing audio and video ads and other objectional ad experiences which are defined to be unacceptable as per the standards of Coalition for Better Ads. According to the report, Google will require site owners to follow a specific set of standards to ensure their ads doesn’t get block by the Chrome’s built-in ad blocker. In short, say bye to those annoying, buzzing adds taking over your phone for a few seconds.

The move is said to be an attempt to combat the annoying ads and bad advertising practices. By implementing a native ad blocker, Google is also seeking to lower down the increasing usage of ad blockers.

A built-in ad blocker will make far more sense for the mobile version of Chrome than its desktop counterpart. On the desktop version, you can install a third-party ad blocker to effectively block all ads, but there is presently no such way to do so on Chrome for mobile, not without modifications most people don’t have access to at least.

The WSJ says the feature is currently being developed, and Google could announce the new feature “within weeks.” At the same time, the report also notes that such feature may never come to fruition and that Google could decide to scrap the plan altogether, just like it has done with many other projects in the past.

Either way, a built-in ad blocker in Chrome sounds like a great idea and even if doesn’t help get rid of all the ads, it can, at least, improve the browsing experience to a great extent for end users by blocking out only the nasty ones. By making this a default feature, ad companies would be compelled to weed out bad ads and actors. It’s also a smart move for Google, as it’d mean the ad-creator controls the ad-blocker… for better or worse.

What do you think of this kind of ad-blocking strategy? Is it a genius idea, or is it bound to fail? Sound off in the comments below!

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Ad-blocking has risen sharply in recent years as advertisers have tried increasingly intrusive ways of getting readers’ attention. As ad-blockers have gotten more robust, ads have gotten more and more obnoxious. Ad-blockers work on most any web browser out there, but it seems that there might be a new ad-blocker built into a web browser, and really, you’ve seen the title so you already know, but it really probably isn’t the browser you’d think. Google is reportedly considering adding a built-in Chrome ad-blocker according to the usual “people familiar with the situation.”

You’d probably think it odd that a company whose fortune was built almost entirely on advertising would voluntarily add any sort of advertising blocking to their own software. It could very easily be seen as a move to cut out non-Google ads in order to promote their own ads, but at least on paper, the search and advertising giant seems to be on the up and up. The Coalition for Better Ads released a list of “unacceptable ad types” back in March, and rumor is that the Chrome ad-blocker would likely block ads deemed “unacceptable,” which consist of:

According to those standards, ad formats such as pop-ups, auto-playing video ads with sound and “prestitial” ads with countdown timers are deemed to be “beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability.”

Google has naturally declined to comment on what is as of this time largely a rumor, but the move does make a lot of sense in some ways. As ad-blocking increases, the chances of getting Google’s ads blocked increases as well. By adding their own ad-blocker they can control a bit more about what comes and goes through their own filter. It’s possible that Google will decide to skip the whole matter entirely, but the Wall Street Journal knows “people familiar with the situation” (who are those people, anyway?) who believe there’s at least a chance. This could also be a colossally bad idea for Google, who is already embroiled in their fair share of anti-trust lawsuits around the world.

What do you think about the possibility of a Chrome ad-blocker? Good idea? Too much potential for Google to “be evil?” Tell us what you think in the comment section below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.

  Source: Wall Street Journal

Root Google Pixel Android O Preview 1 Install TWRP Recovery

Root Google Pixel Android O Preview 1 was Released in April 2017.It comes with Nougat Version.Nougat update is from an official from Google Pixel Version.If you feel the Mobile is Junked with Unwanted Mobile Company applications.You can recover it By rooting.When rooting you can change your ROM.But normally You can delete some company applications and free your mobile memory and also you can increase your Phone memory.You can Easily root your mobile with computer.You can Free Your Mobile From lots of unwanted applications.

About

Tonight the Wall Street Journal reports that, according to anonymous sources, Google will introduce an ad-blocking feature for Chrome on mobile and desktop platforms. Ad blockers for browsers are hardly a new thing, and Google itself already pays into Adblock Plus’ “Acceptable Ads program, but this is interesting because Google is at its heart an advertising company. Based on the report, Chrome’s ad blocking will target bad advertisements as defined by the Coalition for Better Ads, including pop-ups, autoplaying ads, time countdowns and others.

Here at TechCrunch, we tend to pay close attention to the earnings reports of the big companies. And for good reason! It gives us some insight into major technology trends and some signals that can help us not only predict what products are going to be around in a few years (not mentioning any names), but also directionally what kinds of startups might be successful.

But!

Sometimes these reports can be dull. And sometimes these reports can be quite boring and fall directly in-line with what Wall Street and everyone else expects. We have a couple new entries this quarter like Snap, but since we’re here, we might as well have a little bit of fun. So we’re going to set out some of the odds of some of the fun, stupid and interesting things that might happen this earnings season.

NOTE: WE ARE NOT GOING TO PAY OUT THESE BETS. WE DON’T HAVE THE MONEY OR RESOURCES. OUR PARENT COMPANY JUST BOUGHT YAHOO FOR SOME REASON.

Twitter

Anything bad happens because it’s 4 A.M.: 3/2

Jack Dorsey says he’s still running both companies: 3/1

Twitter’s ad business shrinks: 2/1

Twitter talks about its great new executive team: 5/1

More Twitter layoffs: 50/1

Jack Dorsey accidentally calls Twitter “Square” and has to apologize: 25/1

Square shares go up after Twitter falls for some reason: 3/2

Apple

Apple grows revenue and/or iPhone sales: 5/1

Over/under on “Customer Sat” mentions on the earnings call: 3

Apple breaks out Apple Watch numbers: 100/1

Apple services revenue breaks $9 billion: 10/1

Self-driving car mention: 15/1

Tim Cook says services revenue will be “size of a fortune 100 company” in 2016: 3/1

Someone mentions augmented reality: 15/1

Apple stock rises more than 3%: 7/1

Over/under on number of Qualcomm lawsuit mentions (analyst or otherwise): 3

An Apple executive actually names Qualcomm on the call: 7/1

Greater China revenue shrinks: 4/1

Someone says something about the Apple car: 15/1

Apple TV is called a “hobby”: 25/1

Alphabet

Line on Other Bets loss: $900M

Larry Page shows up to earnings call: 40/1

The Waymo lawsuit is mentioned in some fashion: 20/1

Someone actually mentions Uber by name: 50/1

Alphabet breaks out cloud revenue: 25/1

Alphabet cost-per-click grows: 50/1

Alphabet declares a regular dividend: 3/2

Alphabet shares go up more than 3%: 6/1

Someone mentions currency fluctuations: 7/1

Yahoo

Yahoo discloses another hack: 25/1

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg says something about his USA tour: 3/2

Instagram is fully broken out: 100/1

Analysts ask about fake news: 5/1

User growth stalls completely: 50/1

A Facebook executive actually addresses fake news: 15/1

The number of stories posted to Instagram is mentioned: 3/2

Someone says anything about GIFs: 10/1

Facebook stock goes up by 3%: 8/1

Snap

Snap somehow discloses some number that’s beating Instagram: 50/1

A Snap executive actually mentions Instagram by name: 75/1

A Snap executive actually answers the inevitable question regarding Instagram Stories DAUs with some clarity: 45/1

Snap actually beats expectations enough to warrant its current revenue multiple: 25/1

Snap announces some new corporate governance method to share control with public investors: haha yeah right

Snap stock goes up by 3%: 4/1

Snap breaks out Spectacles revenue: 10/1

Microsoft

Microsoft discloses last quarter’s Windows Phone sales: 100/1

Microsoft breaks out Surface Studio sales numbers: 75/1

Microsoft breaks out Azure-specific run rate: 25/1

Google Cloud or AWS is actually mentioned: 30/1

Satya Nadella quotes some poetry: 35/1

Microsoft shares go up 3% or more: 9/1

IBM

Some ominous mention or signal of additional future layoffs: 5/1

Amazon

Amazon actually breaks out Kindle sales numbers in absolute terms: 15/1

Amazon makes money by some accident: 5/1

AWS hits a $12B annual run rate: 8/1

Amazon shares go up at least 3%: 3/1

Media is mentioned for some reason: 4/1

An Amazon executive mentions the number of Alexa skills: 3/2

Over/under on number of Alexa skills if mentioned: 7,000

Box

Box returns to negative free cash flow: 5/1

Over/under on mentions of “cohort analysis” during earnings call: 2

Box stock goes up 3% or more: 6/1

Verizon

Verizon apologizes for calling it “Oath”: 100/1

TechCrunch shoutout: 200/1 (come on Tim!)

Netflix

Netflix somehow beats expectations for domestic subscriber growth: 7/1

Netflix original series The 3% is mentioned: 8/1 (great show by the way)

Over/under on 2017’s content spend if mentioned: $6.5 billion

Iron Fist is mentioned by an executive or analyst: 5/1

Paypal

PayPal’s stock goes up 3% or more for some reason: 4/1

PayPal actually has some breakout of Venmo: 5/1 (💪💪💪)

Qualcomm

Apple is actually mentioned by name with regards to the pending lawsuit: 15/1

Over/under on number of mentions or questions regarding the Apple lawsuit: 5

Fitbit

Fitbit’s market cap falls below GoPro after its report: 3/2

Over/under on gratuitous vanity metrics mentioned: 7

Tesla

Tesla is GAAP profitable: 7/1

Tesla actually beats expectations for car shipments: 5/1

Tesla says it will raise more money with a stock sale: 25/1

Discussion concerning the raising of new external capital: 5/1

Over/under for the number of analyst questions regarding SolarCity: 4

Pandora

Someone says Pandora is “exploring strategic options”: 5/1

Cisco

Something interesting enough that’s worth mentioning happens: 50/1

GoPro

GoPro’s stock hits another all-time low: 7/1

Something dumb happens: 3/1

Square

Another minor beat: 3/1

Be sure to check out TechCrunch in the coming weeks for its coverage of earnings for major tech companies.

Alex Wilhelm, editor-in-chief of Crunchbase News, contributed to this post.

Featured Image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images