Google

The online forms creator is rolling out a beta that lets you share surveys and sign-up lists with specific people — just like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It’s a nice little update, as Forms previously only let you restrict responses to anyone with the link or those within your domain.

Google’s new December Pixel software update includes the “experimental” ability to force any app into fullscreen mode on the Pixel Fold or Pixel Tablet — even those that wouldn’t usually support it.

How about that, Instagram? Does this look completely silly? Well, sure. But it works. It’s a fullscreen Instagram app for a tablet. Victory is mine.

I’m certain there are better examples of where this might be useful.

Google launched its Gemini AI model earlier today to compete with OpenAI’s popular GPT-4. While Google has a number of videos demonstrating Gemini’s capabilities, the one below stood out to me.

This multimodal AI model is capable of reasoning across images, audio, video, code, and, of course, text. So you can start drawing, and Gemini will understand you’re drawing a duck, or you can set some cups down on a table with a paper ball and Gemini reasons you want to play a game. If Gemini can understand my poor attempts at doodling, then I’ll be the one shouting, “what the quack!”

Google brought hundreds of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to its TV platforms this year. They’re already deeply integrated with the Google TV interface, and now Google has crammed a bunch of them into a “Free TV Channels” app that appears on the homescreen of older Android TV products like the Nvidia Shield. There’s no escaping FAST content.

In other news, the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) was briefly cracked to allow custom OS installations. It’s already been patched, and even if you haven’t updated your device, the process of taking advantage of said exploit is a real doozy.

The phrase became an internal joke after ChatGPT’s popularity exploded right out of the gate, according to the NYT’s recap of its launch a year ago and the reaction among Big Tech companies.

Google and Meta scrambled AI teams to launch competing products — even if that meant removing some guardrails — like Bard and LLaMa. And Microsoft’s rush to beat Google had Satya Nadella saying, “We have a big order coming to you, a really big order coming to you,” to Nvidia’s Jensen Huang as he ordered $2 billion in chips.

Then you should watch this excellent video from Quinn Nelson at Snazzy Labs. He breaks down exactly what it's doing behind the scenes and why it will likely be a challenge for Apple to stop it from working.

If you’re seeing less spam it might be due to Gmail’s ability to better handle “adversarial text manipulations” — techniques whereby words like “𝐂0NGRATULATIONS!” are compromised of special symbols or numbers to bypass filters while remaining legible to humans. Ars Technica has a good writeup explaining how the changes have already improved things now that Google has rolled them out for all Gmail users.

It’s not technically off for everyone: the judge ordered Epic and Google to discuss a settlement this week while court is out of session. But the judge, jury, and journalists won’t be back until Monday, December 11th — that’s when we’re coming back for closing arguments (unless, of course, they settle).

Meanwhile, I’m working on an epic recap of everything we’ve learned. Stay tuned for that!

Oh, in case you missed it on Friday:

Did you know the product was previously called “Messages by Google?” I didn’t until I read this 9to5Google article about the recent name change.

Just don’t get Google Messages and Google Chat confused.

I can’t believe it didn’t have one already. Google says the feature is available on Android and rolling out now on iOS.

In 2016, an employee sued Google for having too strict of a confidentiality program, which allegedly discouraged workers from reporting illegal activity in violation of California’s labor laws.

Google’s decision to settle means the majority of the $27 million will go to the state of California, while employees will get anywhere from $20 to $70, according to Semafor. A Google spokesperson tells the publication “that resolution of the matter, without any admission of wrongdoing, is in the best interest of everyone.”

Android Authority reports that there’s code in the Microsoft Phone Link app that “suggests that the company is working on letting your Android phone provide a video stream to your Windows PC.” Sounds handy — and potentially like a Windows-ified version of Apple’s Continuity Camera feature.

In a blog post, Google detailed the Messages improvements, some nice Wear OS and accessibility updates, and more. With Wear OS, for example, you’ll soon be able to set home or away statuses in Google Home, which could be handy if you forget to change your status when you leave the house.

He’s a VP of product management at Google who left Australia (and Australian telecom biz Telstra) to join the firm in 2008, he says.

In 2010, he joined the Android team as a product manager reporting to Jamie Rosenberg, whom we’ve already heard from in court. He worked on Android strategy — and was intimately involved in Play Store decisions, it seems.

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