Now you can stream apps with google

Google’s push to organize the world’s information has recently been focused on figuring out the best way to index mobile apps. Today, the company started indexing Android apps that don’t have matching web content, and even began experimenting with letting users stream apps that they don’t have installed.

Google has been testing various levels of app indexing for years, with features showing up as early as December 2013. The company typically begins with Android, and then considers expanding functionality to iOS. This time is no different: Both of these new features are only available on Google’s mobile operating system.

Until now, Google has only indexed apps that have matching web content, meaning you could always find a corresponding website with the same information. Now, the company is going after content that lives primarily in apps (it doesn’t exist online or it provides a poor user experience). Today’s debut begins with just nine apps: Hotel Tonight, Weather, Chimani, Gormey, My Horoscope, Visual Anatomy Free, Useful Knots, Daily Horoscope, and New York Subway.

“We want to make sure users are engaging with this app-only content” and that “the streaming experience works well,” Rajan Patel, Google’s director of mobile search, told VentureBeat. “If users enjoy it, and we see they’re using it, we will expand the scope.”

Additionally, if you don’t have a given app installed, Google will now let you stream content — as long as you’re on a reliable Wi-Fi connection. That means you don’t have to install the app to get the information you’re looking for.

In fact, you can even accomplish tasks like booking a hotel room without installing the app. When these apps show up in search results, they are accompanied with a Stream button. Tapping it takes you into a streamed version that you can interact with as if you had the app on your phone. Android Lollipop is required, tablets are not yet supported, and the search has to be conducted through Google (streaming won’t work through Google’s mobile site).

But how does the feature work? Well, the streaming technology is built “at least in part” into the Google app. But Google also can’t just stream any app.

“These apps are running on virtual machines on Google Cloud Platform, using the same technology as the Google Cloud Test Lab,” a Google spokesperson told VentureBeat. “It’s similar to a streamed video, but interactive, with swipe, tap, etc. signals being sent to the streamed app in essentially real time. We are experimenting with a few apps initially to get the user experience right, but we are looking to scale to more apps soon.”

This is a big play from Google, as it could fundamentally change how searching for in-app content works on mobile devices. Right now, Google serves up the app if you have it installed, possibly even the specific section with what you’re looking for. If you don’t have the app installed, Google gives you the corresponding mobile webpage. Going forward, Google will give you the app whether you have it installed (it just launches) or not (it just streams).

In its announcement today, Google also shared it now has over 100 billion deep links into apps in its search index. These include popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, and Pinterest. In fact, over 40 percent of Google searches on Android now surface app content.

Google is well aware that search has evolved from simply entering queries into a desktop browser. “We’re not thinking about desktop at all right now, in terms of experience,” Patel explained. This is all about mobile.

“Today, you’re more likely to be searching on your mobile device, and the best answers may be buried in an app … perhaps one that you don’t even have installed yet,” the company acknowledged.

And that’s exactly why Google is investing in indexing apps: The company wants all the world’s information, wherever it resides.

 

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Move Whatsapp conversations from one Android to another

Whatsapp is one of the most widely used messaging app in android & iPhone Smartphone till today. It has various features like real time messaging, media sharing (images, videos etc), group chatting and so on. Apart from this, Whatsapp also offers some hidden features that most of the people don’t know. And one of the most important is the conversation backup and its portability. That is you can use this backup file to get your conversation on any android device where you want to retrieve your conversations. And in this post we will be discussing on the same that is the method to move your chats from your old android to your new one. So have a look on complete method discussed below to proceed.

How to Move Whatsapp Conversations Of One Android To Another

The method that we are going to discuss right is simple and straight and you just need to copy paste and nothing else and you will get conversation from one android device to another. You just have to move the backup file of conversation that is there is database of your whatsapp to the device where you want to get all the chats. just follow the below steps to proceed.

Steps To Move your Whatsapp Chats From One Android To Another:

1. First of all go to your wahtsapp settings -> conversations and then backup now to backup all your chats records to the current time.
2. Now in your android device you need to do is go to the Internal storage and then navigate to the folder Whatsapp in your file manager.
3. Now there you will find Database folder, you just need is copy that folder and then paste in external sd card to transfer conversations from your current device to any other.
4. Now put that External Sd card in your another android where you want to get your chats
5. In that android uninstall the whatsapp if already there and then go to Whatsapp folder in internal storage and rename Database folder to Database1.
6. Now copy the Database folder from external sd card and then paste in the Whatsapp folder of internal Storage and this folder will contain your chats of your previous android.
7. Now install whatsapp and this time when you see the Restore button simply click on that button and all your chats will get retrieved in your whatsapp.

 

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View and delete Google Now Voice command history

Google Now Voice command is a cool feature in android that helps you to control your android device without actually touching your device. When you speak to this google now then your voice get recorded and the audio files of that audio get upload to google servers and that actually get stores. Many user doesn’t know about this, That is why we are here discussing the same. In this guide i will tell you the method or say the way by which you actually view all your saved voice commands in your account and also even delete all the saved history of your google now voice search. So follow up the complete guide discussed below to proceed.

How to View & Delete all Google Now Voice Command History

For viewing and deleting these commands records you will be exploring out your google account that you linked with your android and that account will contain all the saved records and you can easily manage all of them according to your wish. Just follow some simple steps below.

Steps To View & Delete all Your Google Now Voice Command Search History:

1. First of all you need to be logged in your google account in your browser in which you want to view and delete all your voice command history.
2. Now visit the Google Voice History page in your browser.
3. Now you will see all the voice commands history that being stored in your account and all these will be sorted according to the date they had made.

4.Now if you want to listen them then simply click on the play button in the front of the every command

5.This will contain all the command that intentionally or accidentally made by you in your android device.

6. Now if you want to delete them then simply click on three doted buttons at the top and then select Delete Options.

7.Now you will select the duration for which you want to clear your history, if you want to clear all of the history then simply click on advanced and then in drop down select All time now click on delete button there.     8. That’s it you are done, this will clear out all your voice command search history that being stored in your google account.

 

 

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Top 10 Evil Ways to Use Technology

Like other powerful tools, technology can be used for great good or for great evil. Learn how people use technology for wrongdoing so you can protect yourself—or use their tricks to actually do good. Here are the top 10 “evil” ways you can use technology.

 

10. Spoof Caller ID

Pranksters and scammers use caller ID spoofing to take advantage of us—in common telephone scams, for example, where “Microsoft” calls to warn you your computer has a virus and they’ll help you fix it (for a fee). There are legitimate reasons why you might want to make your phone number show up differently on caller ID (e.g., place a call to a young kid as Santa or Cinderella), and there are lots of spoofing apps and services to help you do this.

9. Uncover Blurred Information in Photos

People blur out the information in photos to make sure sensitive information isn’t readable to others, but it turns out this strategy isn’t that secure—particularly when you’re trying to hide numbers. The takeaway: Don’t use simple mosaics to blur your image.

8. Create a USB Password Stealer

It’s bad enough that major password leaks happen so often, hackers can steal our passwords with just a USB flash drive and a single script, grabbing our cache of passwords stored in our browser and elsewhere. You might want to test your vulnerability to this trick yourself, but either way, to protect yourself, remember the security basics: always have physical control over your computer, use a secure password manager and turn on two-factor authentication.

7. Get into a Private BitTorrent Tracker or Usenet Indexer

Private trackers and usenet indexers are great communities, but they take dedication and they’re hard to get into. While some of our strategies for getting into one aren’t necessarily “evil,” you’ll be working your way into exclusive private file sharing communities.

6. Spoof an Email Address

Caller ID isn’t the only thing spammers spoof. If you’ve ever gotten a strange, spammy email from a friend—or, worse, your email account just spammed all of your contacts—you know how annoying spoofed emails can be. Here’s how data thieves spoof email addresses to phish for information or con us into sending money to Nigerian princes. If you think you’ve been impersonated, you’ll need to take some advanced steps to secure your account.

5. Snoop on Someone’s Phone or Computer Without Them Knowing

Is your company monitoring you? Possibly. The NSA? Your ISP? Yeah. But it’s pretty easy too for a friend or family member to dig into your phone or computer without you knowing—whether by gaining physical access to your phone or computer or using remote monitoring tools. Parents might snoop on their kids, significant others might snoop on their partners out of insecurity or suspicion, whatever the reason, covering those snooping tracks isn’t that hard. If you think you might be the one being snooped on, look for signs any of those stealthy steps weren’t followed. If you share a computer with someone else, learn how you can still protect your privacy with this guide.

4. Crack a Wi-Fi Password

WEP passwords are too easy to crack with tools like BackTrack making it super simple to get into a WEP-”protected” router. That’s why everyone recommends using WPA—or really, WPA2, the latest encryption standard.WPA can be cracked too, though! That is, if your router has WPS turned on. So disable WPS if you can or try open-source router firmware like DD-WRT, which doesn’t support WPS.

3. Hack a Wi-Fi Network

Why would someone want to steal your router’s password? Besides stealing your Wi-Fi bandwidth, to spy on everything going on over your network, of course. It’s amazing the DIY creations hackers can use to sniff out network packets. Fake routers and networks, created with the help of Kali Linux, for example, can be used to trick machines into connecting, and then eavesdrop on network communications. (Yes, there’s a lot of spoofing going on in this article!) This is a good time to remind you to check your router’s settings—especially these top security settings.

2. Sniff Out Passwords and Cookies

This is somewhat related to hacking a Wi-Fi network, but it’s more about the dangers of using public Wi-Fi. It’s really easy for hackers to steal your logins and snoop on your browsing session, when the network is not secure or you’re connecting to sites that don’t use HTTPS. To protect yourself, your best bet is to use a VPN whenever you’re using public Wi-Fi or follow some of these other safety precautions.

1. Break into a Computer

Finally, you might shudder to know it’s pretty easy to break into a computer, whether it’s a Windows PC or a Mac—even if your computer is password protected. If your computer is encrypted, however, such as with BitLocker (for Windows) or FileVault (on Mac), you’ll be protected from some of the more common methods hackers use to steal data from a computer. You’ll also want to make sure you have a very strong, unique password for your computer login. If you get locked out of your computer, however, and forgot your password, well, now you know how to get back in.

 

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Facebook launches messenger for people at work

Facebook has launched a version of Messenger that’s meant for the office. The app, first spotted by TechCrunch, is an expansion of Facebook at Work, a business platform Facebook has been testing that allows co-workers to talk and collaborate. Everything about Facebook at Work and its new Work Chat app looks almost identical to the Facebook and Messenger we all know — which means, thankfully, you can still use stickers — the only real difference is that the network is limited to people within a single company. Right now, Work Chat is only available on Android and only for people in companies using the limited Facebook at Work beta. TechCrunch reports that an iOS app is in the works.

Messaging had already been built inside of the core Facebook at Work app, but like with the standard Facebook app, it’s being unbundled, seemingly because the stand-alone app is a bit more capable. There’s also a larger battle around workplace chat that Facebook wants to be part of. Most notably, Slack has been storming the startup world as the chat app to replace basically every other communications tool in your business. Slack doesn’t do much on its own other than chat, but it can be integrated with many other popular tools, like Trello. Facebook at Work, on the other hand, has the advantage of already being familiar to people and offering many of its own built-in tools, like event invites and team pages.

source:TechCrunch

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Access PC files on smartphones

Yes, you heard that right. You can access your computer’s hard drive with your smartphone in few simple steps.  For this, you don’t have to download or install any big software on your PC or  smartphone. Your Android’s file explorer can do the task easily.

The good thing with this tutorial is that you can copy and paste big files, software, and other things easily to your phone at high speed. Let’s take a look at how this works:

To make this trick work, you should be connected to same network (Wi-Fi).

Step 1: Right click on the drive you want to share.  Use the below-mentioned path to share this folder. You will see an icon appeared which mean the drive is shared.

Properties> Sharing> Advance sharing>share this folder.

Step 2: In order to access files from hard drive with smartphone open ES file explorer.  Now click on the three line hamburger symbol then click on LAN

Step 3: Now perform a scan and you will see  your PC if it’s connected to the same network. Now enter the username and password of your PC.  There you will see the shared folder. 

Step 4: Here you will all the items in your computer’s drive. You can tap and hold to copy or cut any folder to your smartphone.

I performed copy action and achieved nearly 5 Mbps speed.

 

 

 

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Know about CyanogenMod

CyanogenMod is one of the best known custom ROMs out there, enabling millions of users around the world to customize their devices to the fullest. With the popularity of CyanogenMod, the developer community enjoyed great success over the years. So much so, that the people behind CyanogenMod started Cyanogen Inc, and developed partnerships with phone manufacturers to have CyanogenMod as the default operating system.

What is a custom ROM?

CyanogenMod started out as a simple alternative to stock Android on the HTC Dream and HTC Magic.

Google releases the source code for Android via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which allows anyone to download the source code for stock Android and modify it to their liking. Many people add features or try to further optimize the operating system to improve performance. When people talk about flashing ROMs, they are referring to overwriting the old version of Android that is installed and replacing it with a third party alternative, like CyanogenMod. This sounds sketchy in a way, but just because the ROM is supported by the community, rather than a commercial entity, it does not mean that they are any less stable. In my experience, custom ROMs have been just as stable if not more so than OEM supplied ROM, depending on the ROM of course.

However, the term “ROM” is not necessarily used correctly when talking about the third party custom firmware. A “ROM” in computer science is “Read-Only Memory” which can only be read and not written to more than once in the most basic sense. Smartphones and tablets use flash memory to store the Android OS, so the correct term should be “custom firmware”. This naming convention may lead to some confusion when talking about custom ROMs, just remember, the firmware is being changed, not any ROMs that might be in the device.

The roots of CyanogenMod

CyanogenMod started out as a simple alternative to stock Android on the HTC Dream and HTC Magic with the initial release of CyanogenMod 3.1 in 2009. With Android’s open source nature and the ability to obtain root access, anything is possible, and with the popularity of the custom ROMs, the CyanogenMod community blossomed. CyanogenMod really started to be recognized with CyanogenMod 7, based on 2.3 Gingerbread. This release added new and improved features over stock Android like BusyBox in the shell, as well as improving the stock apps.

CyanogenMod release cycle and style

CyanogenMod version numbers work just like Android version numbers, i.e. CyanogenMod A.B means that “A” is the major release number and “B” is a minor release number. From version 9 to 10.2, there were a few different types of releases. These included:

• Nightly – A build generated every 24 hours, newest features but HIGHLY unstable in most cases, not good enough for a daily driver.
• Experimental – More stable than the nightlies and may be used in other custom ROMs as a base.
• M Snapshot – More stable than the last two, but still may have some minor issues.
• Release Candidate – Basically stable, some very minor issues may be present, good enough for daily use.
• Stable – Pretty much all of the bugs have been squashed. These builds will take a very long time to actually be released.

After 10.2, CyanogenMod has changed the release cycle and the names of everything to simplify the process. This time there are only two options:

• Development Channel – Same as the nightlies from before, every 24 hours and are highly unstable.
• Release Channel – M snapshots are made each month which are suitable for daily use, although they lag behind the nightly builds by two weeks as far as features and improvements.

Impact on the dev community

Being the biggest custom ROM, there is obviously an impact on the rest of the dev community, XDA is full of custom ROMs that are based on CyanogenMod. Even the custom ROM that I helped on was based on CyanogenMod for certain devices. Getting everything set up and working from a CyanogenMod base is easier than using stock Android, since a lot of stuff like the theme chooser is already built in, so there is no need to add it.

Advantages over stock Android

The whole reason behind installing a custom ROM is to add features, improve performance, or change the look of stock Android. This is exactly what you get to do with CyanogenMod. There are features in CyanogenMod that are simply not available in stock Android, like the ability to change the status bar to your liking, or apply different themes.

CyanogenMod brings a lot to the table in terms of options, but one of the biggest advantages is root access. Root gives you administrative rights (in Windows terms) to your file system. This means that you can access all of the system files, which in turn allows allows app to do more. For example, there is no official way to backup app data easily, however you can use Titanium Backup and its “root needed” features. This is one of the best apps I have ever used and it should be standard for all devices, you can backup apps no problem and transfer them to any device without fail. There are many other apps like this that just make your life a lot easier. However, a word of warning, root access is not as secure as non-rooted.

How to flash

The first thing you need to do is download the ROM from the development channel or release channel. The general download page can be found here, it is helpful to know your device’s codename, which can easily be looked up with a quick Google. From this page you can download the latest nightly, the option to download a M snapshot or experimental build on the left panel. The next steps can get complicated, but it gets easier once you get used to it. Quick note, this WILL NOT work on all devices, only supported ones.

• Kiss your warranty goodbye (Android Authority is not responsible for your device, proceed at your own risk.)
• Unlock your device’s bootloader – This can be very difficult in some cases and is pretty much different for all devices. This will wipe the device clean, so make sure to backup any important data.
• Install a custom recovery like TWRP or CWM Recovery. This can be done a few different ways, but the best way is through the terminal. Simply download the .img file from the respective site then save it to your computer in a convenient location. once downloaded, make sure ADB and the Android SDK are installed on your computer and working properly. In the terminal or command prompt type “fastboot flash recovery (location of recovery on computer)“. An example would be: “fastboot flash recovery c:\recovery.img”. Once this is finished, reboot your device. The device should boot normally.
• Flash the ROM zip file, it is basically the same for each recovery, just click “install” then navigate to the folder with the file or if you are using CWM Recovery click “Install” then “Choose zip from SDCard” then navigate to the folder with the file. Then accept the prompt to install it, do not reboot yet, stay in recovery.
• Flash GApps zip – GApps stands for Google Apps, since these are owned by Google, CyanogenMod can not come pre-installed with them, so just simply flash the zip like you would for the ROM right after installing CyanogenMod. Android 5.1.x GApps and Android 6.0 GApps can be found here, just select the options you want.
• Reboot! If everything went according to plan, the device should boot into CyanogenMod.

Wrap-Up

CyanogenMod started as an alternative to stock Android and grew into a company that influences a lot of the dev community, it even has phone manufacturers backing them. While flashing CyanogenMod may be sketchy to install at first, once master it is worth it. With the customizability of CyanogenMod and the things you can do with root, the sky’s the limit.

source:AndroidCentral

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Some household items that our smartphone replaced

Do you find yourself rubbing your eyes from looking at the same screen all day? Are your friends and family complaining about you always being distracted? Is your phone the first and last thing you check every day?

These days we spend more of our time staring at our smartphones and tablets than ever, and that’s because they have replaced an increasing number of household products over the years. Here are some that maybe, just maybe, you might want to start using again.

Alarm Clocks

Many of us started using our mobile phones as our primary alarm clocks the moment we got our hands on one. After all, this is a feature that’s been included long before cell phones became “smart.” Doing so has its advantages, such as setting a ton of alarms (I want to be up at 7, so here’s one for 6:00, 6:30, 6:40, and 6:55), having them with you wherever you go (great for workers who travel), and waking up to something other than a blaring beep.

But most of us are waking up at around the same time and place day after day. And considering how quickly smartphones drain, if they’re not plugged in, they may not make it until morning. By investing in a separate alarm clock, you can still get up on time in the morning and manage to do so without making the phone the first thing you interact with. You can even get one with a backup battery, so that you’re still awoken on time if the power happens to flicker overnight.

And while you’re picking out that alarm clock, keep in mind what else it can do…

Radios

You may have grown accustomed to only using a traditional radio inside of a car, but standalone ones are still a thing, and they don’t all look like this anymore.

Radios are not hard to find, and some modern ones don’t require an old-fashioned antenna to pick up reception. For people who predominantly listen to local stations while at home, it may be an investment worth considering.

Sure, you can stream radio stations over the Internet with apps like TuneIn, which gives you access regardless of how far away you are from a tower, but there’s a downside to doing so. Online streams may sound live, but they can get delayed due to initial load times and buffering. This isn’t usually a big deal, but when the station tells you what time it is, you might want to double-check, or have a standard radio around to serve as the final word. And a battery-powered one is still a great thing to have around in case of an emergency.

Books

I know, many of you probably (perhaps even begrudgingly) just transitioned over to reading e-books, and you’ve been consuming more novels because of it. I understand. I started reading books exclusively on electronic devices several years ago, and I’ve loved the convenience of it.

But hear me out here. Physical books still maintain a number of advantages, and encouraging you to put down your phone is one of them. It’s great to cuddle up with a good book in the evening after work, but if you’re reading it on your smartphone, that’s several more hours spent looking at the same device you’ve already been glued to for much of the day. Picking up a paperback lets you perform the same task while taking a break from your phone, and you’re less likely to get distracted in the process.

If your entire library must be digital, consider using a dedicated e-reader instead. It’s better for your eyes, you still put your phone down, and you project a completely different demeanor to others when you’re seen reading a Nook or Kindle versus being just another person buried in their phone.

Magazines & Newspapers

You might think the case for physical magazines and newspapers is the same as the one for books, but there are a few significant differences. For one, the digital selection isn’t quite as thorough with magazines and newspapers as it is for books, so while you may be able to purchase all of the same tomes on your bookshelf in a digital format, switching to a phone or tablet can mean giving up on a bunch of smaller, local publications that don’t publish each issue online somewhere.

If you don’t live in a major metropolitan area, you might be surprised just how much is going on where you live if you don’t pick up the local publications. They paint a detailed picture of an area that mobile news apps just don’t do.

It’s worth mentioning that much of this content is still available on websites, even if you can’t necessarily buy a digitized version of each issue. But online articles are covered with links and surrounded by any number of distractions that you’re less likely to get burdened down with by picking up a paper or magazine while eating a sandwich at the kitchen table.

This may sound old-fashioned, but it can be liberating to take a task that’s become so associated with mobile devices, such as reading the news, and being able to do it without draining your battery and staring at the same old screen.

Games & Consoles

There are no shortage of ways to get glued to a smartphone or tablet, but the sheer volume of free games makes it especially easy to get sucked in for hours. Yet while this may be one of the most talked about trends in gaming at the moment, it’s far from the only type on the rise.

Board games are making a comeback in a big way. While the name used to draw up thoughts of say Monopoly, Candy Land, and Sorry!,things have changed. Board games like Pandemic,Eldrich Horror, and Eclipse can be even more fun played with adults over a beer than with young children. And when it comes to card games, there’s everything from the extremely irreverent Cards Against Humanity to the comic book-inspired Sentinels of the Multiverse. Even if you can find a digital version of some of these, it’s a good time right now to put the screen down and get together with some friends.

As for video games, it’s still worth holding on to your dedicated machine. Console games offer a deeper experience than most mobile software out there, and they probably will for quite a while to come. Not only that, they allow for more social interaction with the people around you than tapping at a smartphone (which has become recognized around the world as a signal for “leave me alone”). Even if you’re playing a single-player game, there’s still something social about a friend being able to pull up a chair and watch.

And while this may sound funny to gamers who grew up under parents telling them it’s not healthy to stare at a TV all day, looking at the big screen can be a nice break from holding a smaller one much closer to your eyes.

What Items Have You Replaced With Your Phone?

Do you still lug around a digital camera? Probably not. Phones have made it easy to capture life’s moments without having to haul an extra bit of equipment around, and the few moments it takes to snap a shot don’t add up to spending all that much more time with your phone. Nor does opening up a calculator app, using navigation software in place of a dedicated GPS, or listening to locally saved music instead of carrying around an MP3 player. You won’t see me switching back to a flip phone anytime soon.

It’s okay to let our phones replace things, as long as it’s not everything. Phones, like all things in life, should be enjoyed in moderation. If your phone isn’t able to keep its screen on long enough for you to get from one charge to another, getting a model with a bigger battery might not be the only solution worth considering. The thing probably needs a break, and you might too.

 

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Google refuses to patch android vulnerability, leaving millions of android devices vulnerable!

Owning a smartphone running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or an earlier versions of Android operating system ??Then you are at a great risk, and may be this will never end.

Yes, you heard right. If you are also one of millions of users still running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or earlier versions of the operating system, you will not get any security updates for WebView as Google has decided to end support for older versions of Android WebView – a default web browser on Android devices.

WebView is the core component used to render web pages on an Android device, but it was replaced on Android 4.4 KitKat with a more recent Chromium-based version of WebView that is also used in the Chrome web browser.

Just a day after Google publicized a bug in Windows 8.1 before Microsoft could do anything about it, Tod Beardsley, a security analyst from Rapid7 who oversees the Metasploit project, discovered a serious bug in the WebView component of Android 4.3 and earlier that possibly left millions of Android smartphone users vulnerable to malicious hackers.

Android KitKit 4.4 and Lollipop 5.0 are not affected by the vulnerability, but over 60 percent of Android users – close to a billion people (950 Million) – still use the older version of Android 4.3 or below, which clearly states that the bug still affects more than a lot of people.

However, the response from Google after Beardsley notified the vulnerability made him and everyone of us stunned. Well, the tech giant won’t patch the vulnerability in the WebView at all. The quote from Google to Beardsley is as follows:

“If the affected version [of WebView] is before 4.4, we generally do not develop the patches ourselves, but welcome patches with the report for consideration. Other than notifying OEMs, we will not be able to take action on any report that is affecting versions before 4.4 that are not accompanied with a patch.“

As a result, only devices running KitKit 4.4 and Lollipop 5.0 will receive security updates for WebView from Google and the remaining Android versions will remain unpatched or rely on fixes from third party developers. The company has said that it will welcome third-party patches.

“Google’s reasoning for this policy shift is that they ‘no longer certify 3rd party devices that include the Android Browser’, and ‘the best way to ensure that Android devices are secure is to update them to the latest version of Android’,” explained Beardsley.

“On its face, this seems like a reasonable decision. Maintaining support for a software product that is two versions behind would be fairly unusual in both the proprietary and open source software worlds.“

In other words, in case if a hacker or a cyber criminal finds a way to exploit WebView on older versions of Android OS, Google will not release any patch for the vulnerability itself. However, if any outsider develops a patch, Google will incorporate those patches into the Android Open Source Project code and will further provide them to handset makers. This is where the company’s responsibility get over.

Though, Google says that WebView support in older versions of Android operating system is baked firmly into the operating system in such a way that it makes much harder for Google to create a patch to affected devices. This issue has been mitigated by the search engine giant in newer versions of Android by dropping WebView from the core OS and incorporating it into the Google Play Services app.

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Google Updates Translate App With Awesome New Features

Google was expected to push out a drastically improved version of its translation app in the near future, but it looks like the new version of Google Translate has arrived even sooner than expected. The company revealed the upgraded service for Android and iOS today, introducing a couple of new features that should prove extremely useful for world travelers.

The first improvement is instant text translation, thanks to the overdue integration of Word Lens, which Google bought over the summer. In the past, you could snap a photo of foreign text to get a quick Google translation using the app. Now, you can simply point the viewfinder at the sign in question and get an even faster translation. The new feature works without an Internet connection, though for now it’s limited to just a handful of languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Google also added a “conversation mode” that should make it possible to communicate with anyone using your smartphone. Simply tap the microphone icon in the app and start talking. Google Translate will quickly figure out which two languages are being spoken and offer written translations of everything you say.

Google says the update should roll out to both Android and iOS within the next few days. We just checked and the update was not yet available in either Google Play or Apple’s App Store, but you can hit the source links below to see for yourself.

 

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