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It’s time for another update to our Stadia Savepoint series, recapping the new games, features, and changes for Stadia in October. This month we celebrated some Good Stuff on Stadia, teaming up with YouTube Creators Lamarr Wilson and LaurenZside who revealed free and exclusive week-long demos for PAC-MAN™ Mega Tunnel Battle and Immortals Fenyx Rising , plus an OpenDev Beta for HUMANKIND . We can’t wait for these amazing games to launch on Stadia, starting with PAC-MAN Mega Tunnel Battle on November 17. Over three days we also revealed new games and content coming to Stadia including the Drastic Steps expansion for Orcs Must Die! 3 (Nov. 6), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Nov. 24), ARK: Survival Evolved (early 2021), Hello Engineer (2021), Young Souls (2021), and Phoenix Point (2021). NEW Games on Stadia + Three FREE Demos | Official Recap Throughout October, players explored a Dungeons & Dragons adventure in Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access , fough...

A few weeks ago, Google introduced the Pixel 4a (5G) and the Pixel 5 . And new Pixels mean new Pixel accessories, starting with the new Made by Google cases.  As part of Google’s ongoing commitment to sustainability , the outer fabric of our new cases are made with 70 percent recycled materials. In fact, assuming each bottle contains about nine grams of plastic, two recycled plastic bottles can provide enough knitted outer fabric for five cases.  We did all of this while delivering a pop of color. In addition to the Blue Confetti, Static Gray and Basically Black, we’re adding two new colors: Green Chameleon for the Pixel 5 and Chili Flakes for Pixel 4a (5G). Pixel 5 Case Sustainability pixel case Pixel 5 Case Cases are only the beginning, though. How you outfit your phone says a lot about you, so we decided to find out what different members of the Pixel team are using in order to get some accessory inspiration.  Nicole...

Available today, the new Nest Thermostat is smarter and more affordable than ever. By using AI, it keeps homes comfortable while helping people save energy and even find out if something might be wrong with their eligible HVAC system. To learn a little more about what powers the Nest Thermostat, we took some time to talk to Marco Bonvini and Ramya Bhagavatula, software engineers on the Nest team. The Nest Thermostat has used AI since the beginning. What’s different about this latest launch?  Ramya: We really focused on what the experience would be like for people. Nest thermostats have always been really sophisticated, and with the new Nest Thermostat we really wanted to put more control in peoples’ hands. They’re able to label their temperature settings: “This is my comfort zone, this is the temperature I like it to be when I’m sleeping.” We’re using people’s preferences and adding machine learning to find you ways to help save energy. If you enable Savings Fin...

When fire struck Okinawa’s Shurijo Castle in October 2019, it damaged a part of Japanese history dating back to the Ryukyu Kingdom of 1429-1879. The Japanese government is planning to rebuild the site—but that process will take time. To preserve and highlight the castle’s heritage and culture in the meantime, Google Arts & Culture and the Okinawa Prefectural government are launching a digital project called Reconstructing Shurijo Castle .  We spoke with Denny Tamaki, the Governor of Okinawa, about the exhibition’s significance.  Tell us what you’re most excited about with this project.  It would definitely be the 3D reconstructed models of Seiden Temple, the main temple of Shurijo Castle. The model was built by a group of engineers, students and computer vision and VR researchers. They collected 80,000 photos shared by 3,000 people across the globe who wanted to see the digital reconstruction of this beloved site and preserve the legacy of Ryukyu culture f...

A socially distant Halloween doesn't have to be antisocial; there's plenty of family fun at home to be had. We're launching several spook-tacular features across our products to help you celebrate. From AR characters and 3D magical cats to Doodle games and Google Assistant riddles--you’re in for a real treat. Magic cats and Search surprises  This Halloween our 2016 Magic Cat Academy Doodle is back with a subaquatic shriek-quel! When you visit the Google homepage for the next 48 hours, click the Doodle to join Momo the cat in an underwater adventure filled with new friends, old foes, and spooky surprises. Want to find more hidden treats? Search for “Halloween” and hear from famous chefs on their favorite seasonal snacks. Then, scroll to the search results page navigation on desktop for more. Can you say, Boooooo-gle? AR Halloween Characters on Google  What do dressed up pets have in common with ghosts and jack-o-lanterns? They are way too cute to spook!...

On April 28, 1996 at the historical Port Arthur site in Tasmania, 35 people were tragically killed. Alannah and Madeline Mikac, aged six and three, along with their mother, died that day. Because of this terrible act of violence, Alannah and Madeline's father, Walter Mikac AM, and a small group of volunteers, created the Alannah & Madeline Foundation with the belief that all children should have a safe and happy childhood. For more than 20 years, the Alannah & Madeline Foundation has worked to safeguard every child’s basic right to live free from violence and serves as a beacon of hope for a better, safer world.  As the dangers children face today become increasingly complex, the Foundation is adapting and responding to modern challenges. To help young people become less susceptible to online harms like disinformation and hate speech, the organization is focusing on helping teens better understand their relationships with media. In Australia, as in the rest of the worl...

We’ve all done it. You’re sitting in a cafe browsing your favorite online store and you enter your credit card number while connected to an unsecured Wi-Fi network. While convenient, a public Wi-Fi network may be less secure than your personal one. This can put your personal information at risk of theft from hackers. To give you peace of mind that your data is safe, we’re announcing the new VPN by Google One on our 2 TB and higher plans to provide an extra layer of online protection for your Android phone.  We already build advanced security into all our products, and the VPN extends that security to encrypt all of your phone’s online traffic, no matter what app or browser you’re using. The VPN is built into the Google One app, so with just one tap, you can rest assured knowing your connection is safe from hackers. We’re also now rolling out Pro Sessions by Google One with VPN support. With Pro Sessions, you can schedule one-on-one online sessions with a Googl...

When we first launched the Google News Initiative (GNI), the vastness and diversity of Asia Pacific and its media landscape felt daunting. In countries like India and Japan, newspapers remain extremely popular. In Korea, news aggregators are the go-to way to get the news. Digital-first media have blossomed in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Malaysia—and been very successful in challenging incumbents. It quickly became clear that we couldn’t simply adapt GNI programs to Asia Pacific. We had to build programs for the region from scratch, tailored to local news businesses’ needs.  As our first GNI Impact report shows, we’ve invested $33 million in Asia since March 2018, working with more than 1,000 news partners in 32 countries. That includes financial help provided through the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund , which we launched earlier this year to support publishers through the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, our partnerships in the region have focused on three key ar...

There are two universal truths about the state of the news industry today: Demand for quality journalism has never been higher, and the need for news businesses to embrace the transition to digital has never been more critical. When we launched the Google News Initiative in 2018, many news businesses might have presumed they had time to make this shift in a methodical and considered way. COVID-19 changed that timetable drastically. The unanticipated upheaval of this year has affected how we continue to enable innovation in news. In planning for the future, it’s helpful to know what we’ve learned from the past. Our first GNI Impact Report looks at what we have done in collaboration with the news industry over the last couple of years to see what worked and where there are opportunities for growth. Over the last two years, the Google News Initiative has supported more than 6,250 news partners in 118 countries through $189 million in global funding, programs, tools and resources....

Five years ago, as we saw news publishers shifting towards digital formats and trying new ways of doing things in the internet era, we set up the Digital News Innovation (DNI) Fund to promote innovation and quality journalism. The €150 million program ran until 2019 and supported 662 digital news projects across Europe. Today we’re releasing a final impact report to show where the funds went and how publishers used them. Applicants were able to pitch for projects of up to €1 million, focusing on the most pressing issues identified by the news industry: boosting digital revenue, telling local stories, battling misinformation and exploring new technologies. And because we know that many advances only come after some experimentation, individuals and organizations were also able to apply for smaller prototype projects and utilize funding of up to €50,000.  We saw a wide variety of approaches from some of the biggest names in the industry as well as relative newcomers. The v...

This year we’ve seen people around the world change the way they purchase goods and services in response to the pandemic. This is causing businesses to rethink growth strategies , with many turning to digital transformation to address rapidly changing customer needs and new challenges. With Google’s integrated marketing tools, marketers can discover the industry and customer insights that can prepare their business for what’s next. In our new solution guide for Google Marketing Platform and Google Cloud, we share the successes of leading organizations who have used machine learning to unlock new insights to create extraordinary customer experiences that strengthen their brand and help grow their business. Quickly spot trends Bringing together first-party data helps organizations break down data silos, enabling them to identify emerging trends and take action. The marketing team for Nissan Motors’ Asia Pacific region was looking to better align their marketin...

Welcome to the latest edition of “My Path to Google,” where we talk to Googlers, interns and alumni about how they got to Google, what their roles are like and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews. Today’s installment is a little different because we’ll be talking to two Googlers: Holly Slonaker, a Program Manager and member of the Deafglers community at Google, and Tricia Martines, the recruiter who worked with Holly throughout the interview process. They’ll share how Google is striving to support candidates with the accommodations they need during interviews. Holly, what prompted you to apply for a job at Google? Holly : This was my first time applying to Google. I had been at my previous company for nine years and was looking for new career growth opportunities. I applied on Google’s career website and didn’t know anyone at the company. I never really expected to hear back, as Google was such a pie-in-the-sky company to work for. I was surprised and delighted when Tr...

In early March 2020, we conducted a survey to better understand people’s digital wellbeing and tech use. Shortly after, daily life took a turn as the COVID-19 pandemic surged and shelter-in-place orders went into effect in many places throughout the United States. Given that change, we decided to do the survey again in September to check in and see how families' digital wellbeing might have changed.  While these surveys represent a relatively small sample size of the U.S. population, they still provide valuable insight into recent behavioral trends and add to the ongoing conversation about tech use and mental wellbeing. When comparing the results, we saw some interesting changes to how parents are managing tech for themselves and for their children. We saw that parents are struggling more now to maintain healthy digital habits for their kids:  In March, 52 percent of parents said they’re overwhelmed managing the role of technology in their children’s lives . In Septem...

Today we are proud to announce on Google Arts & Culture a new online celebration of this week’s 20th anniversary of humans living and working on the International Space Station (ISS). Created in collaboration with NASA, this project includes NASA collections, stories, and some new games to help anybody learn more and engage in this important milestone in space exploration. 20 years ago, when the first crew of permanent astronauts, cosmonauts, and researchers arrived at their new home on the ISS it opened a new chapter in human space exploration. Today, we’re able to look back on all that’s happened, from cutting-edge research to benefit humanity , to building essential foundations for international cooperation on our shared home: Earth. For the first time on Google Arts & Culture, viewers will be able to explore a newly uploaded 3D model of the ISS in Augmented Reality , making it possible to bring the station back down to Earth and undertake fascinating examinat...