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Enlarge ImageGoogle Crowdsource lets you help the company with language translation, handwriting recognition and map translation accuracy. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET Google has a formidable artificial intelligence team working on everything from photo recognition to email spam filtering. But for some tasks, it's looking for the human touch -- yours, specifically.The online giant on Monday released a new Android app called Crowdsource that lets you contribute your own suggestions to language translation, handwriting recognition and street sign transcription. "Each microtask takes no more than five to ...

Attendees at next month's Google Play Indie Games Festival will have a chance to play more than two dozen new games, some of which are not yet widely available.Google on Monday unveiled the 30 Android games selected from more than 200 submissions vying for a chance to be exhibited at the conference. Fifteen of the games showcased are on a very limited beta, so this is the best opportunity many will have to play them.Fans will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite games at the festival. A complete list of the games chosen for exhibition can be found here.Google also aounced that it has opened up registration of the event, which will be held in San Francisco on September 24. The even...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.Enlarge ImageWhere on the dashboard is its moral compass? KAREN BLEIER/AFP/GettyImages I think of morality as a feather that shifts in the wind and occasionally brushes your face delightfully as it falls to earth.I'm still perturbed, however, whether technology has a fine grasp of it. Or whether it can.I'm moved by the news that Uber has launched its driverless vehicles in Pittsburgh. It crossed my mind whether these cars have already been programmed whom to kill if they face a moral dilemma.For example, the car is abo...

On this date in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the National Park Service Organic Act, which mandated the creation of the National Park Service "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife" found inside the United States and make them available for public enjoyment. To celebrate the centeial of the service, Google has created an animated doodle that takes viewers on a virtual coast-to-coast tour of some of the sites and sounds that can be found on the 84 million acres of land designated as protected since the agency's creation. Starting with a collection of iron-on souvenir park patches, Google shows us the various wildlife that can fou...

Enlarge ImageThe two Koreas. Google South Korea has delayed its reply to Google's request for mapping data, a Reuters report said Wednesday. The Alphabet property first reached out to South Korea in June, requesting access to govement-held mapping information for distribution to outside servers. This would allow Google to offer complete Google Maps services there. South Korean officials had previously agreed to reach a decision by Wednesday but have now pushed their decision to November 23. According to Reuters, the information would improve South Korea's maps, but officials want to take more time to weigh sec...

Enlarge Image Google 2016 was a big year for VR, and it's about to get bigger. Google will be launching its Daydream VR platform in a matter of weeks, Bloomberg reports. Alphabet, Google's parent company, is said to be investing big money on content for the platform. Much of this is going toward development of video games and apps, licensing sports leagues and shooting 360-degree videos, many of which include YouTube stars, according to the publication. Daydream is being built into the Android 7.0 Nougat operating system, which launched this week. It said back in May that Samsung, HTC, ZTE, Huawei, Xiaomi, Alc...

Enlarge Image Google Who doesn't enjoy a good pop-up ad? Everyone, that's who. Now Google is trying to be the ultimate bro, aouncing on Tuesday that it'll soon be punishing mobile sites with obstructive advertisements. "Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible," product manager Doantam Phan wrote in a blog post. "This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller. "To improve the mobile search experience, after January 10, 2017, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the trans...

Google is sunsetting Chrome Apps for non-Chrome operating systems. Sarah Tew/CNET Google has touted its Chrome browser as all you need for desktop computing on any operating system. But the search giant said in a blog post Friday that it will gradually be phasing out the browser's apps for Windows, Mac and Linux machines. The apps range from photo-editing program Pixlr Touch Up to games like a now-discontinued version of Angry Birds. You download them from the Chrome Web Store, launch them from the Chrome browser and they open in a separate window, as if they were a program installed on your hard drive. ...

The high-tech hub is a production facility for the UK's top YouTubers....

Enlarge ImageParents can keep an eye on their child's workload. Google Sigh. Yes, the break is over and school awaits. But with a little luck you might be able to ditch class and go to the moon instead. With the new school year upon us, Google has souped up its Expeditions and Classroom apps for teachers and students. The Expeditions app, which lets students take virtual-reality field trips with the help of a phone and Google's Cardboard VR headset, now features more places to "go," the company said in a blog post on Wednesday. New Expeditions include a walk on the moon, a visit to the White House kitch...

RoadshowNewsCar IndustryOne is the loneliest number: Hyundai looking to buddy up with GoogleIt's dangerous to go alone! Take this! [hands Hyundai a map to Google's HQ] Mark Renders/Getty Images These days, automotive industry collaborations are commonplace. Ridesharing and tech companies are popular partnerships right now, as the industry moves toward self-driving vehicles and a new sharing economy. It's hard to go it alone, and it appears Hyundai is finally realizing this.The automaker is reportedly in talks with Google to discuss new partnership options, according to Bloomberg. Jeong Jin Haeng, Hyundai Moto...

Close Google's Hangouts on Air heading to YouTube Drag Hangouts on Air is a pretty good live-streaming app within Google's social network, Google Plus. However, Google is pulling the feature from Google Plus and a new version will head to YouTube Live. In mid-September, Hangouts on Air will no longer function on Google Plus. ...

Google's update to its productivity suite allows users to edit a document or spreadsheet while ruing a browser or another app on the other side of the screen. Ian Sherr/CNET iPad users will finally get split-screen multitasking on iOS versions of Docs, Sheets and Slides, thanks to an update Google released Wednesday.The update allows users of recent models of the iPad Pro and the iPad Air 2 ruing iOS 9 to edit a document or spreadsheet while ruing another app at the same time on the other side on the tablet's screen. The update comes nearly a year after Apple released iOS 9, which included the long-sought add...

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Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.Enlarge ImageThat would have been the selfie of a lifetime. Google/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET Google cares.It cares about the fact that you have an iPhone and it might be one of the 16GB variety that seems a little inappropriate for mode life.After all, you take selfies approximately once every four minutes. How can you keep them all on a phone with such paltry storage?In order to show that it feels for you, Google released an ad last week that mocks your iPhone's storage and expresses exactly how you...

This grape rides a spider in Google's latest Doodle for its Fruit Games event. Google Grape is getting its game on for Google on Sunday.As part of the search giant's third day of the 2016 Doodle Fruit Games, the delicious berry is showing off its show jumping prowess in an interactive game added to the Google app on iOS and Android. The game can be accessed by tapping the doodle inside the app.The game features a grape riding on the back of his trusty steed Spider as the pair leap over hurdles. Google says the bite-sized treat and its eight-legged friend have been inseparable since they landed in the same cra...

It's pineapple vs. orange on the teis courts of Google.Pineapple serves the teis ball to Orange in Saturday's Google Doodle, available in the iOS and Android app. Google / Screenshot by Mike Sorrentino As part of the search giant's second day of the 2016 Doodle Fruit Games, a teis minigame where players control a pineapple's match against an orange has been added to the Google app on iOS and Android. The game can be accessed by tapping the doodle inside the app.A Google Doodle featuring the pineapple is also one of two that can be seen on the Google website Saturday, the other being a doodle celebrating Boliv...

Chris Urmson (right) shows a Google self-driving car to US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx (far left) and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt at Google headquarters last year. Urmson has aounced his departure from the project. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Google's self-driving car project is losing its CTO, and two other key employees are reportedly also leaving.Chris Urmson, the project's chief technical officer, aounced his departure on Medium on Friday. "After leading our cars through the human equivalent of 150 years of driving and helping our project make the leap from pure research to developing a pr...

RoadshowNewsCar IndustryGoogle's monthly autonomy report: Mostly quiet on the weste front Close AutoComplete: BMW gets the green light for 2017 diesel models Drag Enlarge ImageMaybe folks keep hitting these cars because they get distracted trying to figure out what the hell it is. Goog...

The next batch of Nexus devices may rejigger the home screen. CNET Google's upcoming Nexus mobile devices may sport some renovations to the home screen.The 2016 models reportedly will feature a redesigned home screen with changes to the app drawer and other key features, blog site Android Police said on Monday, citing "multiple reliable sources."Specifically, Google will do away with the app launcher button at the bottom of the screen, which opens the app drawer showing your installed software, according to screenshots of the changes. Instead, you'll be able to open the app drawer by swiping up at the bottom ...