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Tech community stands by Dreamers after Trump ends protections
As expected, President Trump announced today via Jeff Sessions that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would be dissolved. In six months, the government will begin phasing out protections for undocumented immigrants that came to the US as children and many members of the tech community are voicing their dissent over the decision.
Google employee behind 'echo chamber' diversity memo fired
Over the weekend, a Google employee's internally-shared 10-page document attacking a supposed "echo chamber" around diversity and inclusion went viral. Now, Bloomberg reports -- based on an email from the employee himself -- that the author of the memo has been fired. Recode has published a note sent to employees by CEO Sundar Pichai, which maintains that while "People must feel free to express dissent," "To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK. It is contrary to our basic values and our Code of Conduct." Pichai closed the note by saying he is returning early from a planned family vacation for a company town hall meeting Thursday to discuss issues including "how we create a more inclusive environment for all."
India will ban driverless cars in order to protect jobs
As self-driving cars are being tested everywhere from the US to South Korea, Germany to Australia, reports today make it clear that it won't be happening in India. The country's transport and highways minister, Nitin Gadkari told reporters today, "We won't allow driverless cars in India. I am very clear on this."
Google gives $4 million to pro-immigrant causes
Google has revealed that it will donate up to $4 million to humanitarian causes in response to the president's latest executive order. The search engine will hand the cash to four bodies: the ACLU, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, International Rescue Committee and the UN Refugee Agency. According to TechCrunch, half of that cash is coming from the company itself, with the rest being donated by employees.
Google reacts to Trump immigration order by recalling staff
The President's latest executive order could spell bad news for the tech industry that's known for hiring overseas talents under a working visa. In fact, Google chief Sundar Pichai has just issued a memo to employees overseas, urging them to fly back to the US ASAP or risk not being able to get into the country at all. "It's painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues," he wrote in the memo. According to Bloomberg, the employees in question work in the US but are abroad either on business or for a vacation. A lot of them tried to get back into the country before the President signed on the dotted line, but not everyone made it back in time.
Google wants to share VR with one million UK school kids
As virtual reality becomes more and more popular, companies are looking at new ways to integrate it into people's everyday lives. Google, for instance, is keen to ensure that children grow up enjoying the benefits of VR, so the search giant has committed to bringing the technology to one million UK schoolchildren. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in his first visit to Britain since becoming chief, confirmed that the company will offer VR training and resources via its Expeditions programme, allowing teachers to take their students on virtual field trips from the comfort of the classroom.
Status update: The rise of the social-media extortionist
If you've read recent headlines about high-profile tech CEOs getting hacked, you probably felt a stab of dark amusement at the thought of internet fat cats finally getting a taste of what the rest of us have had to drink. A single group, called OurMine, has managed to catch Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai, Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, AOL's Steve Case and, most recently, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with their password pants down. And it's nothing more than a sleazy PR stunt.
Google's Sundar Pichai latest target of social media hackers (updated)
Hacking group OurMine is continuing to make some of the tech industry's elite look more than a little silly. After a string of high-profile hacks, including recent takeovers of social media accounts belonging to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, the team appears to have successfully targeted Google CEO Sundar Pichai. A now-deleted string of tweets seems to confirm a breach of his Quora profile, which then allowed OurMine to post to Pichai's Twitter feed thanks to the two accounts being linked.
Google will add special touches to Nexus phone software
For years, Google's Nexus devices have been synonymous with stock Android. While they may be showcases for new features, they still represent the baseline for what the platform can do. That might not last for much longer, though. CEO Sundar Pichai told guests at the Code Conference that Google will "thoughtfully add more features" to Android on Nexus phones going forward. The company will also be more "opinionated" about the design, the exec said. Third-party companies will still make the hardware, but it's evident that rumors of Google taking greater control of the Nexus program were well-founded.
Microsoft and Google agree to work out regulatory disputes
Microsoft and Google have reached a worldwide ceasefire agreement in their ongoing regulatory disputes, Re/code reports today. In September, the two tech superpowers dropped the boatload of lawsuits they'd carried against each other for years. Today, the pair announced they will work together to settle any further disputes before going to court or involving any number of regulatory bodies around the globe.
Pichai unveiled Cardboard before seeing the final design
Deep within a long, expansive profile piece about Google's CEO Sundar Pichai, BuzzFeed's Mat Honan has offered a fresh tidbit about the unveiling of Google Cardboard. Clay Bavor, VP for virtual reality at Google, says he was summoned to Pichai's office in 2014, eight and a half weeks before the company's I/O developer conference. Pichai was impressed with Bavor's work and told him to get Cardboard ready for a launch at the event.
Google CEO: FBI's request of Apple could set a 'troubling precedent'
Tim Cook did not mince words in a lengthy open response to the FBI's order that Apple create a backdoor to allow the agency access to a terrorism suspect's iPhone. Plenty of privacy groups and Apple customers have praised Cook's words thus far, and now one of Apple's biggest competitors is showing support for the company's stance. Google CEO Sundar Pichai just posted a series of tweets regarding Cook's letter and it seems he firmly comes down on the same side as Apple's leader.
Google has the best-paid CEO in the US
Google is an enormous company by most standards, but it now has one more notch under its belt: the US' best-paid CEO. A company SEC filing has revealed that Sundar Pichai received the equivalent of $199 million in stock earlier in February, giving him a total $650 million stake in Alphabet. He won't get to cash that in all at once (the shares vest in quarterly phases through 2019), but that's a lot of money for three years' work. In comparison, Apple's Tim Cook got "just" $376.2 million when he assumed the CEO role.
Sundar Pichai: Maybe we'll use a poll to name Android
Google has never had a problem coming up with sweet-related nicknames for each new version of Android, but after Marshmallow it might start taking suggestions. During a Q&A at Delhi University (jump to 47:11 in the video to hear for yourself) Sundar Pichai was asked why no Indian sweets were on the name list, Pichai said he would ask his mother for suggestions, before opening the possibility of an online poll. Of course we think that's a good idea, but the real question is what should the options be? Let us know what you've got for Android N in the comments.
Google CEO speaks up against 'intolerant discourse'
Following a slew of tech CEOs coming out against anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric, Sundar Pichai published his first essay on Medium tonight. Like Mark Zuckerberg and others his words stand in contrast to those of Donald Trump and others who suggest the country close its doors to immigrants from certain places or religions. According to Pichai, "Let's not let fear defeat our values. We must support Muslim and other minority communities in the US and around the world."
Google to move all of its cloud services under one umbrella
Google's shuffling its alphabet again. The company announced on Thursday that it will condense all of its cloud-based internet services -- including Google for Work, Cloud Platform, and Google Apps -- under a single company that has yet to be named. "This new business will bring together product, engineering, marketing and sales and allow us to operate in a much more integrated, coordinated fashion," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement. Former CEO and founder of VMWare Diane Greene is expected to head up the new company.
Android and Chrome OS may be combined as early as next year
For years, people have wondered if Google would merge its Android and Chrome operating systems, and the company has steadfastly held to them important but distinct pieces of its strategy. That might be changing: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google has been working for two years to merge Chrome OS and Android. The results of that unified operating system is expected to be officially released to the public in 2017, but we may see an early version as soon as next year. Update: While some have reported Google might "kill" ChromeOS, the company seems to still have some kind of dual-strategy in mind and has disputed that interpretation. As the Senior VP of Chrome OS, Chromecast and Android Hiroshi Lockheimer probably knows the the most about each project's potential fate, and he tweeted tonight that "we are very committed to Chrome OS."
Google CEO Sundar Pichai does some exec shuffling
Sundar Pichai must have gotten used to his shiny, new CEO seat, because according to Recode, he's just announced the first exec shuffling under his leadership. By the looks of things, a number of Googlers are celebrating their promotions at the moment, one of the biggest winners being Hiroshi Lockheimer, who used to be the Android division's VP. While he's been overseeing Chrome OS' development and Android's expansion into cars and wearables since last year, he's now officially the Senior Vice President handling Android, Chrome and Chromecast. Android VP Dave Burke, on the other hand, has taken up more leader-level engineering duties.
Google is now Alphabet, the owner of Google
The paperwork is filed and it's official: Google has restructured itself into Alphabet. As of the close of business today shares of the old Google are now part of Alphabet, which counts Google as a subsidiary. On our end, this doesn't change much -- unless you're a big fan of Ingress or Pokemon -- but now Sergey Brin and Larry Page can chase innovations in seemingly unrelated areas. Sundar Pichai will keep running day-to-day operations at the new Google, except now with the title of CEO. Google now includes Android, Search, YouTube, Apps, Maps and Ads. Meanwhile, Alphabet can focus on Google Fiber (high speed internet), Calico and Life Sciences (health), Google Ventures and Google Capital (investments), Nest (home automation) and Google X (everything fun, like drone deliveries, self-driving cars and city-wide WiFi). [Image credit: Jeff Chiu/Associated Press]
Google balloons and drones bring global wireless closer to reality
Google's aerial ambitions continue unabated. Need proof? Just talk to Sundar Pichai -- just before he sat down for a Q&A with Bloomberg's Brad Stone at MWC, the Google SVP confirmed the company's internet-beaming Titan drones would take their flight in the coming months, and that its Project Loon balloons now stay afloat for "six months at a time." The last time Google decided to speak publicly about its fleet of internet-beaming Project Loon balloons, they could languidly hang in the atmosphere for about 100 days. That's not a bad stretch considering these things can now deliver LTE data speeds to devices on the ground, but Google's got these things running even better than before.
