Blog posts now current

With reference to my post on 13 October 2018, I have now reposted all the chosen articles from my Bits & Pieces Google+ Collection to this Google Blog. This has been necessary as Google has decided to close Google+ in April 2019. All future posts in this Bits & Pieces Google Blog will now be current.

If you would like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at twitter.com/psfowler51 where I also share these posts plus other more general tweets!

Google Assistant Directory

Directory for Google Assistant Apps. Great idea! Makes it much easier to browse or search for Google Assistant Apps.

Google Assistant apps now have a web directory to view on your desktop – Ausdroid: Google Home has been a massive success for Google, selling more than one Google Home device every second since the Mini launched in October. Finding apps has been a difficult experience up until no…

MS Software Quality Problem

Microsoft needs give up on two releases per year. Using the Insider Program and consumers as their main software testing is non professional but it is cheap!

Microsoft Has A Software Quality Problem - Thurrott.com: Windows 10 October 2018 Update rollout highlights a fundamental problem with Microsoft's testing process.

Another Apple Quality Problem

Apple's not so good hardware. Apple makes huge margins on the sale of its hardware but it appears they are getting even greedier with sloppy design and falling manufacturing quality.

Oops, Apple Has Another Quality Problem - Thurrott.com: In yet another hit to its reputation for quality, Apple this week admitted to a manufacturing defect in the iPhone 8.

Downloading YouTube Videos

Downloading YouTube Videos. A common question I get asked is "how do you download YouTube videos?" There are obvious legal issues here that are discussed in the article. If you still want to download videos the article presents a number of alternatives.

How to Download YouTube Videos - PCMag Australia: Tons of footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute. But what if you want to download a video? Here's how.

Chrome OS to Tablets

Chrome OS finds its way to Tablets. I guess this was inevitable now that Chrome OS supports Android Apps.

Google Brings Chrome OS to Tablets - Thurrott.com: Google announced today what many have suspected since the Pixelbook release: It will now rely on Chrome OS, and not Android, for its tablets efforts.

Old pictures on Google Photos

How to upload old pictures to Google Photos from your PC.

How to upload old pictures to Google Photos from your PC | Drippler - Apps, Games, News, Updates & Accessories: I'm all about the Google Photos app for automatically backing up the photos I take on my smartphone. Thanks to its unlimited free storage and high quality, iCloud doesn't even begin to compete. And, when it comes to the hundreds of photos stored in shoeboxes in my closet, Google Photos also happens to...

Facebook loses $120 billion

Beginning of the end for Facebook?? Facebook has certainly got its work cut to stop the slide and its worsening credibility.

Facebook loses $120 billion in market cap after awful Q2 earnings | TechCrunch: Facebook’s share price fell more than 20 percent in after-hours trading today after the company announced its slowest-ever user growth rate and a scary warning that its revenue growth would rapidly decelerate. Before today’s brutal Q2 earnings, Facebook’s share price closed today …

Microsoft wants consumers

Microsoft knows it has lost consumers. Concentrating on "prosumers" in the future will not save the company. Microsoft is losing all segments to smartphones, tablets and Chromebooks. Education, Government and Industry are all looking at alternatives to expensive PCs that are based on 35 year old software.

Microsoft wants to win back the consumers it let down - The Verge

Microsoft's consumer business

Microsoft has given up on consumers? The Microsoft consumer market is little more than beta testers for Windows 10.

Microsoft offers three unconvincing reasons why its consumer business isn't dead yet | PCWorld: Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella tried to respond to concerns that Microsoft's consumer strategy may be floundering, though his response wasn't especially convincing.

Google’s new Fuchsia OS

Is Fuchsia Google's attempt at a unified OS? Apple keeps Mac OS separate from iOS and Microsoft tried the 'unified' Windows 10 but failed. Google's approach is much more realistic. Fuchsia might run alongside Android and Chrome OS for years to allow a smooth transition.

Google’s mysterious new OS may soon replace Android, but it’ll still run Android apps – BGR: Google isn’t ready to talk about it publicly, but Fuchsia does exist. It's a third OS that’ll supposedly replace Android and Chrome OS at some point down the road. We’ve already seen Fuchsia in action, and we know it’s supposed to work on a variety of devices, regardless of form factor.

Service NSW dumps Windows

Service NSW chooses Chrome OS. ACT Education and now Service NSW chooses Chrome OS as its platform of choice.

Service NSW dumps Windows for Chrome OS - Computerworld: Government agency rolling out Chromebooks, G Suite to its staff

Apple not America's favorite

Is Apple fading away? Interesting article about the results of an American survey bearing in mind that the US is Apple's key domain!

Apple is not America's favorite tech company - The Verge

iCloud now on Google servers

iCloud is not really Apple's. Apple is now storing its iCloud data on a combination of Amazon and Google servers. PayPal and Spotify are also Google customers for storage!

Your Apple iCloud data is now stored on Google servers—surprised? – Ars Technica

Facebook second thoughts

Facebook not flavour of the month for some. It would appear several people who worked on Facebook are having second thoughts about its value to society!

WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook - The Verge

Progressive Web Apps

This is the next big technology being embraced by Google, Microsoft and reluctantly Apple. PWAs are basically websites with some fancy add-ons that look like apps as far as users are concerned. An example would be an Android or iOS bank app that could be replaced by a PWA so that the bank only has to maintain its website and not the Android or iOS app. It is basically using the browser but without the familiar browser wrap around! If you can follow this guy, he answers a lot of questions!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OJ24kCV-J8&feature=youtu.be&t=7

Chromebooks in Canberra

Chromebooks in Aussie education at last. It has taken a while for common sense to prevail but we get there in the end!

Chrome OS is getting a big push in Canberra with 15,000 Acer Chromebooks on their way to students - Ausdroid: The education sector in Australia is catching up with the likes of New Zealand, the US and Canada wi

Tim Cook: Apple CEO salary

Apple customers continue to pay more and more for Apple products which enables Apple to make bigger and bigger profit margins. Their laptops are nearly 3 x the price of an equivalent Windows laptop and still going up! Apple has around $250 billion in the bank but they still price their products at whatever the market will bear. If they priced a MacBook Air at $10,000 their devotees would still queue up to buy them!

Tim Cook: Apple CEO salary, private jet perk revealed: APPLE’S CEO Tim Cook has been forced to take up a company perk by flying in style.

Chromebooks now 20% market

Despite Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi ceasing to sell Chromebooks it would appear they are missing out on sales as consumers are buying them online!

Update on 27/2/19 - Officeworks now has a section for Chromebooks again!

Chromebooks now have over 20% market share in Australia – Ausdroid: Since launching in Australia back in 2013, Chromebooks have been slowly inching their way into broader use. Now Google has released information saying that Chromebooks now have over 20% market shar…

Social media destroying society

Bit late now ... It is a shame it took so long to realise the bad side of social networks and to start taking their influence seriously!

Social media destroying society with 'dopamine-driven feedback loops': ex-Facebook VP: A former Facebook executive is making waves after he spoke out about his "tremendous guilt" over growing the social network, which he feels has eroded "the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other."

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas

Boston Dynamics continually improving its robots!

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is a parkour master – TechCrunch

Living with Chromebook

Interesting article from Paul Thurrott, a Windows guy from way back! Chromebooks still have a way to go with Android Apps but it will be a game changer when they sort out the technicalities!

Living with Chromebook: The Basics - Thurrott.com: In sharp contrast with my Windows 10 S experiences, Chromebook is surprisingly usable. But there are many caveats, so let's step through some of the basics.

Android overtakes Windows

Some interesting statistics on Operating System user bases for those interested in Windows vs OSX vs Android vs iOS.

Report: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system – TechCrunch

Bill Gates 15 predictions

Interesting article on Bill Gates vision in 1999! Shame Microsoft did not follow his vision more closely - maybe they would not have missed the Smartphone boat!

Bill Gates made these 15 predictions in 1999 - and it's scary how accurate he was: In 1999, Bill Gates made 15 predictions about the future that seemed a little outrageous at the time.

Android Apps on Chromebook

It's official - all new Chromebooks in 2017 and beyond will support Android Apps. I am guessing that a Touchscreen Chromebook will be an advantage!



Google says all released Chromebooks from 2017 onwards to support Android apps - Ausdroid: We have been waiting for a while for Andorid apps to become widely available on Chromebooks. We have

Google's New Backup & Sync

A very useful Google development. Have just installed the new Backup & Sync software and working out the preference settings. Not sure what happens if your desktop/laptop gets hit with crypto ransomware. This needs investigating!

Google launches a new Backup & Sync desktop app for uploading files and photos to the cloud | TechCrunch: As promised last month, Google has today launched its new "Backup and Sync from Google" tool, which aims to help users more easily back up the files and photos on their computer. The utility is meant to replace the older Google Photos desktop app, as well as the Google Drive client applications for…