GOOGLE is scaling up its digital skills training programmes to accommodate a million people from Africa in the next year, aiming to deal with high unemployment numbers on the continent.

The U.S. tech giant plans to train 300,000 people in South Africa, it said in a statement recently, a country where 35% of 15-to-34-year-olds are unemployed. A further 400,000 Nigerians and 200,000 Kenyans will receive free digital training, while another 100,000 people will be selected from other sub-Saharan Africa countries.

“Google is in Africa for the long haul and we are making an investment in talent,” Google South Africa country head Luke Mckend said. “We hope that the people trained will become pioneers in the field and do great things in digital for companies and for Google.”

The company has partnered with Livity Africa to develop training programmes and is rolling out a new online education portal for learners in the region. “We’re also talking to a number of other potential partners across Africa with a view to scaling the digital skills training programme and helping to reach even more young people in more countries,” Google said in a statement.

Partly to shore up their credentials as good corporate citizens, the companies have often funded free education programs and touted the number of jobs their businesses have helped create.

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Google, the world’s largest search engine, has added the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to the countries which are included in its mobile map application. The word TRNC is included in the map both in Turkish and English.

According to Turkish daily ‘Milliyet’, this step by Google has pleased TRNC officials since it had not been included until Wednesday February 17th, in the Google map application.

Commenting on this development, the chairman of the Turkish Cypriot travel agencies’ union Orhan Tolun, described this step by Google as very important and said that this will bring important touristic and political benefits to the Turkish Cypriots.

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If you thought it was only a matter of time before Google tried to turn your jeans into a computer, well, guess what, you were right.

Last week, the second day of its annual developer conference, Google I/O, one of the search giant’s semi-secretive research divisions announced a project that aims to make conductive fabrics that can be weaved into everyday clothes. The effort, called Project Jacquard, is named for the French inventor of the Jacquard Loom, which revolutionized textile manufacturing and helped pave the way for modern computing.

Much like the screens on mobile phones, these fabrics could register the user’s touch and transmit information elsewhere, like to a smartphone or tablet computer. They are made from conductive yarns that come in a rainbow of colors and can withstand the clothing manufacturing process, so “can be woven into textiles on the same looms that are used to make traditional fabrics,” according to a Google news release.

Google also announced a new partnership with Levi Strauss in which the companies would try to make interactive garments that would allow people to do things like send someone a text message by swiping their jacket cuff. The companies said they were hoping to integrate the technology into an apparel line next year, but did not say what kind of clothes or how much they might cost.

Project Jacquard was one of several new projects to come out of Google’s Advanced Technologies and Products group, or ATAP. Others included Project Soli, an attempt to use tiny radars that can detect fine motions like hand gestures and finger movements, which could potentially allow someone to use their hand to manipulate any digital interface. Ivan Poupyrev, a Google researcher, demonstrated this by rubbing his fingers in the air, at which point a bead-sized ball on a screen responded to his gestures.

Watch video below:

Credit: GOOGLE Project Jacquard

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Google on Monday announced a new addition to its alphabet. No, not that one. The company has given its next version of Android its official moniker: Marshmallow.

The company gives its new versions of Android alphabetically advancing, sugar-inspired names such as Jelly Bean, KitKat and Lollipop. As per usual, Google accompanied their official naming by revealing a sweet statue on the lawn at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Here's a snap of the latest statue from the Twitter account of Dave Burke, the vice president of Engineering for Android:

Google offered some details about the upcoming system at its June developers conference, saying that its main objective is to polish Android and give it a more coherent feel across devices, and while moving between apps and the Web. Google has also said that Android Marshmallow will have improved voice control software.

A version of the system is available now to developers. Google is expected to roll out the new system to consumers in the fall; the timing of Android updates vary by hardware manufacturer.

"Marshmallow" pops up on lists of frequently misspelled words (people think there's an "e" in there), so Google should get used to seeing its system's name get a little mangled.

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Run a search for your Android phone via Google, and its search engine will pinpoint the phone's location on a map. And the feature even works with a lost tablet.

We've all lost our mobile phone at one point or another -- sometimes in our homes, sometimes in the car and sometimes out in the wild unknown. Now instead of searching everywhere to track it down, you can rely on Google for help.


A new feature unveiled on Wednesday lets you search for your Android phone or tablet using Google's search engine on your PC, as long as you meet the right criteria.

Here's how it works:

First, you have to make sure you're logged in to the same Google account on your PC's browser that you use on your phone. You must also be sure to have the latest version of the Google app installed on your phone.

Now type the phrase "find my phone" into Google's search engine on your PC. In response, Google displays a map that attempts to zero in on the location of your device. Give it at least several seconds, and you should eventually see a location on the map that's accurate to a certain distance. For example, the map told me that the location of my device was accurate to 46 feet.

OK, that's fine. But what if your phone is lost somewhere in your home? Sorry, but Google won't tell you what room it's in. But it can ring your device so you can try to track it down yourself.

To pinpoint your device, click the icon or link for Ring on the map. Your device will ring at full volume for up to five minutes. Once you find it, simply click the power button to turn off the ringing.
But what if you own an Android tablet instead of a phone? You can still use the find feature. Google zeroed in on the slate's location.

The Google search feature isn't the only way to track down a lost Android device. A similar feature, called Android Device Manager, can locate and ring your device. If you think your device has been stolen, you can also remotely lock it and reset the password or erase its data.

Apple offers a similar tracking feature, called Find My iPhone. Using your iCloud account's find option or the Find My iPhone app, you can track down your iPhone or iPad, ring it to locate its exact location, lock it or erase its data.

So whether you own an Android phone or tablet, or an iPhone or iPad, you do have options for tracking it down the next time it goes into hiding.

[Source]

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Google has been making synthetic human skin as part of work to create a wristband that can detect cancer, impending heart attacks and other diseases.

Scientists in the life sciences division of Google X laboratories in California needed to create arms that were as realistic as possible to test the technology.

Dr Andrew Conrad said the system, which is still in the early stages of development, would detect cancer cells when they first appear by using nanoparticles that “search” the body for disease.

It would theoretically allow diagnosis long before any physical symptoms appear, enabling early intervention to reduce the fatality rate of illnesses.

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Google has been making synthetic human skin as part of work to create a wristband that can detect cancer, impending heart attacks and other diseases.

Scientists in the life sciences division of Google X laboratories in California needed to create arms that were as realistic as possible to test the technology.

Dr Andrew Conrad said the system, which is still in the early stages of development, would detect cancer cells when they first appear by using nanoparticles that “search” the body for disease.

It would theoretically allow diagnosis long before any physical symptoms appear, enabling early intervention to reduce the fatality rate of illnesses.

“We’re trying to change medicine from being episodic and reactive, like going to the doctor saying ‘my arm hurts’, to being proactive and preventative,” he told The Atlantic.

“We’re making good progress but the journey is long and hard. So I think we will get there and I hope it’s years, not decades.”

The idea is to identify slight changes in the person's biochemistry that could act as an early warning system.

Patients would swallow a pill containing nanoparticles tailored to attach to markers for different conditions, such as cancerous cells or chemical levels linked to disease.

Google believes it will be possible to make cells “light up” so the magnetic wristband can detect them as they pass through the arm in the bloodstream.

“We have (the nanoparticles) circulate around your whole body looking for those cells and we collect them using a magnet and basically ask them what they saw,” Dr Conrad explained.

When asked by the Atlantic whether people would be comfortable to have their body constantly monitored, he replied: “It’s way weirder to have cancer cells floating through your body that are constantly trying to kill you.”

Because the system relies on the light emitted by cells, researchers need to understand how light passes through skin and so have built models of human arms.

The eerily realistic moulds have been made with a combination of synthetic and real human skin, from donors, so they have the “same autofluorescence and biochemical components of real arms”.

Google X is dedicated to investigating potentially revolutionary innovations, although many ideas are discarded before being made public.

Previous work has included research into glucose-measuring contact lenses for patients with diabetes and a spoon to counteract the tremors caused by Parkinson's disease.

Non-health related projects include Google Glass, self-driving cars, delivery drones and internet balloons in the stratosphere.

Credit: Independent UK

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