Internet & Media

Syria regains Internet access after latest outage

Syria's Internet connection is up and running again.

Content delivery network Akamai revealed the Internet's return to life in the country, tweeting that traffic over its network to Syria started to flow again at about 15:30 UTC (8:30 a.m. PT). An image tweeted by Akamai showed Syrian traffic climbing up to within reach of its normal level.

Internet monitoring firm Renesys said routes to Syrian networks were restored at 15:26 UTC, which means the latest outage lasted 8 hours and 25 minutes.

A tweet earlier Wednesday from the state-run Syrian news agency said workers … Read more

Google Play redesigned to focus on tablet apps

Google rolled out a new design for Google Play on Wednesday, showing some extra love to tablet apps.

Google Play's recommendations -- some of which are based on a user's Google+ account -- will now surface apps designed for tablets in its top app charts, Google announced at its Google I/O developer's conference.

Engineering Director Chris Yerga said the new Google Play will make it easier for users to find the apps they want.

90 percent of Americans won't wear Google Glass, survey says

I had always thought Americans were willing to try something new -- at least once.

This sense of adventure often explains the nation's predilection for naivete, war, and forgiveness.

So I had imagined that from Alaska to New York, there were people desperate to adorn their faces with the new intellectual's makeup: Google Glass.

And yet, despite the fact that pioneers like Rep. Michele Bachmann have already been game enough to pose in them, ordinary Americans still seem to be feeling resistance.… Read more

Google beats Apple to it with streaming music service

Google launched a music streaming service Wednesday, taking its first stab at the growing industry with a new service linked to Google Play for Android.

The All Access service costs $9.99 a month and you get a 30-day free trial. And it's launching Wednesday in U.S., with additional countries coming soon. If you sign up by June 30, you get it for $7.99 a month.

The move puts Google in direct competition with music streaming companies like Pandora and Spotify, and also potentially with Apple, which has been inching in that direction. Just last week, for … Read more

Google Play adds cloud saves, leaderboards, matchmaking

Google is trying to make gaming a little better on its Android and iOS platforms with a handful of new features for developers. Chief among them is a new cloud save service, which stores game progress on Google's servers and syncs up gaming activity between devices.

Google also has a new matchmaking service, which like Apple's Game Center, can match up players for live and turn-based games. Google says this works on both Android and Apple's iOS. A demo of the feature at Google's I/O keynote crashed and burned, but the company says it works … Read more

Google: Android activations to total 900 million this year

Google expects users to activate about 900 million Android devices this year, more than doubling the number activated in 2012, an executive said Wednesday.

Sundar Pichai, head of Google's Android and Chrome operations, said at the company's developers conference that users activated 400 million Android devices in 2012 and 100 million in 2011.

"The momentum has been breathtaking since then," Pichai said.

And Hugo Barra, vice president of product management, said Google Play has just passed 48 billion app installations, with 2.5 billion installations in the last month alone.

Google is hosting Google I/O, … Read more

Forget Google Glass, Recon debuts Android-friendly glasses at I/O

No doubt, Google executives will spend plenty of time at the annual Google I/O conference that begins Wednesday in San Francisco talking about Google Glass, and all the opportunities for developers to create programs for the geeky eyewear.

But outside the conference hall, a Google partner plans to unveil a pair of sunglasses that comes with its own heads-up display. Even though Google invited the company, Recon Instruments, to demonstrate the glasses at its premier developer event of the year, the specs have nothing to do with Google Glass.

Instead, Recon is launching Jet, heads-up display glasses using its … Read more

Google's stock zooms past $900 on Google I/O day

Google's stock price has been on a steady climb over the past month. For the first time, it cracked $900, up about 2.5 percent in early trading Wednesday. The breakthrough comes on the day Google will reveal its future products at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco.

Live Blog: Tune in to Google's I/O keynote on May 15 starting at 9 AM PT

Read: Full coverage of Google I/O

Investors may be inspired by what Google is expected to roll out at the event. The lineup includes updates to its Android, Chrome, … Read more

Netflix: More work to do to rebuild customer relationship

Netflix still has some work to do to rebuild its relationship with customers, the company's financial chief said Wednesday.

David Wells, speaking at the J.P. Morgan tech conference, said Netflix expected the process to regain customers' trust would take about three years, and that's likely still the case. The company in 2011 angered users and lost nearly a million subscribers in four months after hiking prices and taking steps to separate Netflix's DVD operations from its streaming video business.

Wells noted at the tech conference, which offered a live feed of the conversation, that Netflix continues … Read more