Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package
Most of it is tied to performance, including new stock incentives linked to Waymo and Wing, its drone delivery venture.
This phone starts fires on purpose
Until now, most mobile phone companies have worked to ensure their phones won’t start fires. (Occasional Samsung devices excepted, of course.) But this week at Mobile World Congress, we found a company that dared to go in a different direction. Oukitel’s WP63 rugged smartphone includes a built-in fire starter, and this is what it looks […]
Seven tech giants signed Trump’s pledge to keep electricity costs from spiking around data centers
Leaders from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenAI, Amazon, and xAI met with President Donald Trump today to sign a “rate payer protection pledge.” It’s one way they’re responding to growing bipartisan concerns about electricity rates rising as tech companies and the Trump administration rush to build out a new generation of AI data centers. “[Tech […]
Tim Sweeney signed away his right to criticize Google until 2032
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney might be one of the most outspoken people in the history of the world. He fought two of the world’s most valuable and powerful companies almost all the way to the US Supreme Court, insulting them again and again: “crooked,” “deceitful,” “insanely sneaky,” calling Android a “fake open platform,” calling both […]
Here’s how Google describes its fee-reducing Apps Experience and Games Level Up programs
Today, Google killed its 30 percent app store fee, partially uncoupled Google Play from Google Play Billing after they were declared an illegal monopoly in the US, and much more. From July, depending on where you live, Google will now generally charge developers 20 percent for in-app purchases, or 10 percent for subscriptions – but […]
Epic and Google have signed a special deal for a new class of ‘metaverse’ apps
Epic Games and Google are burying the hatchet, but documents released today reveal that they aren’t only aligned on how Google is shaking things up for app stores. The two companies have also agreed to terms about a new class of apps that they’re calling “metaverse browsers,” according to a heavily redacted section of a […]
NotebookLM can now summarize research in ‘cinematic’ video overviews
Google’s NotebookLM can now turn users’ research and notes into fully animated “cinematic” videos, going a step further than the original video overview feature Google introduced last year. Previously, video overviews could only generate narrated slideshows, but the upgraded video overview feature uses a combination of Google’s AI models, “including Gemini 3, Nano Banana Pro […]
Google settles with Epic Games, drops its Play Store commissions to 20%
Google has dropped its commission, charging a 20% service fee and an optional 5% to use its billing services. It will also offer a new process for third-party app stores.
Google’s AI-powered workspace is now available to more users in Search
Google is bringing Canvas to everyone in the US using AI Mode in Search. The feature opens up a dedicated workspace within its AI-powered search tool, allowing it to use the latest information from Search to organize plans, develop tools, and draft documents in a panel alongside your chat. Though Google initially launched Canvas inside […]
Google’s Gemini rolls out Canvas in AI Mode to all US users
Canvas in AI Mode is available to U.S. users in English for creating plans, projects, apps, and more.