Todd R. Weiss

To make Google’s online translation services even better, Google has created an online Translate Community where volunteers can add their personal language expertise to help make the services more accurate for people seeking help with foreign languages. The new Translate Community was announced by Sveta Kelman, the program manager for Google Translate, in a recent […]

Google’s Gmail service is now watching for inappropriate Unicode characters in emails so that the messages can be diverted and rejected, instead of passing them on to unknowing recipients. The extra layer of email anti-spam protection is being done to fight continuing and often escalating efforts by scammers who try to trick recipients into clicking […]

Google Classroom, a free, new tool in the Google Apps for Education suite, has been released by Google after a three-month preview period to help teachers streamline many administrative tasks so they can spend more time teaching subject matter to their students. The Classroom feature was announced by Zach Yeskel, Google’s Classroom product manager and […]

Google Search has been testing the idea of placing Websites higher in search rankings when they use strong HTTPS encryption by default. The idea, according to Google, is that by encouraging the use of those sites, it will help to make the Internet a safer place. The HTTPS experiments were announced by Google webmaster trends […]

Acer has just announced its latest Chromebook model, the Chromebook 13, this time promising up to 13 hours of battery life per charge for busy users. That’s a lot of time to work, watch movies or explore the Internet on just one charge. The new device was unveiled by Bill Brougher, a Google engineering director, […]

Since the start of email, users with names that include accents on letters or that include characters in foreign languages have not been able to use them for messages. Google’s Gmail service is now changing that. Gmail can now recognize email addresses that include characters with accents on a letter as well as characters in […]

Google has launched a preview Software Developers Kit (SDK) for its Fit fitness app platform, which it unveiled back in June at its annual Google I/O Developers Conference. The Fit platform is now available to developers to use to build fitness apps for Google’s Android platform. The new preview SDK for Fit was announced by […]

A California judge has ruled that a $324.5 million settlement offer from companies including Google and Apple is not enough to resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by some 64,000 former employees who alleged that the companies colluded to block employees from working for rivals. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, […]

Google Street View has just expanded its collection of images of college campuses in the United States and Canada so that new, returning or prospective students and their families can “see” what the campuses offer. The latest group of 36 additional campuses has been added to hundreds of others that were documented in images in […]

Prepaid wireless vendor Ptel Mobile has launched or updated five no-contract phone plans starting at $20 with no data capabilities, and ranging up to $65 a month, including up to 4GB of data. The plans were unveiled by Chicago-based Ptel in an Aug. 7 announcement. The company’s plans offer users service through T-Mobile USA’s 4G […]

Timex has introduced its IronMan One GPS+ smartwatch, which allows users to get direct wireless connectivity without having to use Bluetooth to connect with a smartphone. The new model will retail for $399 when it becomes available this fall, and it will work with AT&T’s cellular network, according to Timex. The smartwatch includes email-based messaging, […]

President Obama took a strong stand on net neutrality earlier this week when he told reporters at a business forum that an Internet that is equitably available to all is one that will allow the most innovation and fairness. “One of the issues around net neutrality is whether you are creating different rates or charges […]