With expectations of a U.S. government lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google within weeks, two progressive Democrats tweeted support for legal action against tech giants who break the law, in a rare instance of agreement with the Republican administration amid a polarized political environment.

The tweets come as the Justice Department, which has been conducting an antitrust investigation of Google and others, plans to bring a lawsuit against the search and advertising giant as soon as this month, according to sources who said that the probe focused on search and advertising.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, long a critic of Big Tech, tweeted late Thursday that Google “uses its size to bully competitors.”

In her tweets, she reiterated concerns from more than a year ago when she called for antitrust enforcers to force Big Tech firms like Amazon and Facebook to unwind some mergers. Google, she said then, should be forced to sell mapping subsidiary Waze, connected home products company Nest and ad management tool DoubleClick.

“For the good of our country, we must demand our regulators do their jobs & take swift, aggressive action – not kick the can down the road,” she said on Thursday.

The Federal Trade Commission’s Rohit Chopra, a Democratic commissioner, tweeted support on Friday for the investigations into “tech titans,” but did not name Google.

“No company, no matter how big, can be above our laws. It’s time for regulators to take action against any companies that broke them,” he tweeted on Friday.

Google had no immediate comment on the tweets.

source: Reuters

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Google is reportedly working towards replacing the video-calling app Duo with Meet in due course of time. The decision was made by the G Suite head Javier Soltero who took over the position earlier this year in May. According to 9to5Google, Soltero announced to his employees that having two video-calling apps does not make sense.

Apparently, the combination of the two apps is in process and has been codenamed as ‘Duet”. Google Meet has posed as a tough competitor to video-conferencing app Zoom which has been a hit among office-goers as ‘work from home’ became a new form. Zoom was also used for casual family and friends meeting who were unable to meet each other in-person.

Reportedly, the Google Duo team is surprised by the recent series of events as the app was widely used during the lockdown. Especially after Google announced in May that there was a total of three billion minutes of call duration in the month and close to three million daily new users. The engineers who worked on the app either left or were shifted to the Meet team.

“We’re fully invested in Duo, which has seen astonishing growth during the pandemic. People around the world are relying on video calling more than ever, and we have no plans to interrupt that. We’ll continue to invest in building new Duo features and delivering a delightful experience for our users, customers and partners. We brought the Duo organization under Javier Soltero’s leadership in May, and it follows that we’re looking at ways that our video calling products can improve alongside one another,” Google said in a statement.

Earlier, Duo let the users call anyone from their contact list. Then, they added the ability to call people using their email addresses. However, the update in April helped improve video quality followed by 32-person calls, a family mode, and the more popular link-based invites.

Google Meet has been a part of G Suite from the start. After Zoom’s popularity grew manyfold, Google announced in May that Google Meet will be free for everyone till September 30 including enterprises. Google Meet’s integration with the Gmail app made it more accessible and easy to use.

 

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TVS Automobile Solutions , an independent automotive aftermarket player, today announced that it has picked Google Cloud as its technology partner to build its digital transformation strategy. Through this deal, TVS ASL will advance its goal of creating a ‘Digital Ecosystem’ that will empower thousands of small entrepreneurs across automotive retailers and garages.

TVS ASL has migrated its on-premise data center infrastructure and existing public cloud deployments onto Google Cloud to develop the ‘platform of platforms’ tailored to the needs of the automotive industry. This new innovative initiative will bring vehicle owners, retailers, garages and insurance companies from a fragmented market place into one seamless digital technology architecture to provide service, parts, roadside assistance and insurance.

G. Srinivasa Raghavan, Managing Director, TVS Automobile Solutions said, “The range of solutions include Connected Vehicle (passenger cars, two wheelers and commercial vehicles), Diagnostics & Predictive Service Management on Cloud, Mobility solutions for all stakeholders to address their requirements and real time integration with all stakeholders for fulfilment. The innovative initiative will be seen as an accelerator in Digitizing the Global aftermarket landscape.”

He further added, “We selected Google Cloud for its superior tech stack across Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Big Data, Marketing & Marketplace solutions that will enable us to scale globally with shorter time to market.”

Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Google Cloud India said, “They are unlocking the potential of their business data at scale using machine learning to automate and optimise their supply chain, and leveraging managed services so they can focus their engineering effort on IT-led business initiatives that will pave the path for a strong digital future.”

The Indian Independent Automotive Aftermarket is estimated around $10 billion and growing at a CAGR of 7-10% over the past five years. The market is highly fragmented with over 40,000 retailers, 100,000 garages and thousands of small distributors across the country. In the last five years, TVS ASL has established a strong leadership by empowering over 2 million customers, 20,000 retailers, 10,000 garages along with fleet management for over 70,000 vehicles. By bringing these stakeholders into a seamless supply chain and technology platform, TVS ASL helps them by delivering service or parts within 24 hours across the country.

source:economictimes

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Alphabet Inc’s Google and Apple Inc on Tuesday announced a new system that will enable public health authorities to use smartphones to assist in contact tracing without having to build an app.

The new system - called Exposure Notifications Express - will allow public health officials to submit a small configuration file to Apple and Google. The two tech companies will then use the file to set up systems that phone owners can opt in to in order to determine whether they have been near someone who has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

In the case of iPhones, a new version of the iOS operating system being released on Tuesday will alert users whether an exposure notification system is available from local health authorities and allow users to set it up without downloading any new apps. On Android devices, users will also get a prompt from the phone’s operating system, but will still have to download an automatically generated app.

The two companies said Maryland, Nevada, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., will be the first U.S. places to use the new system. The new system also works alongside tools that the two companies released in May that enable public health officials to build apps that allow iPhones and Android devices to use Bluetooth signals to detect proximity to a person who has tested positive.

Six U.S. states and about two dozen countries have launched exposure notification apps based on the Apple-Google technology in recent weeks without major hitches.

The apps are increasingly compatible with each other, allowing for cross-border tracking. A few jurisdictions, such as Hawaii, are moving forward with separate tracking technology.

However, the effectiveness of exposure notification apps in helping slow coronavirus spread remains a major question. Most governments are not tracking detailed data on app usage in the interest of user privacy.

In Alabama, for example, more than 1,000 students caught the virus in an outbreak in August. But a university representative said it was too early to tell whether a two-week-old state app had made any difference.

source:reuters

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