After months of rumours involving Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple, Vice President of Google Geo Brian McClendon has announced that the company has closed the acquisition of community-based traffic and mapping app Waze.

“We’ve all been there: stuck in traffic, frustrated that you chose the wrong route on the drive to work,” says McClendon, “but imagine if you could see real-time traffic updates from friends and fellow travelers ahead of you, calling out “fender bender…totally stuck in left lane!” and showing faster routes that others are taking.”

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Women@Google South Africa and Google for Entrepreneurs in cooperation with JoziHub are proud to be hosting the first open Women in Tech event, with the objective of fostering the local entrepreneurship community.

The event aims to equip female entrepreneurs/startups with the network, product knowledge, and other resources needed to be successful entrepreneurs.

The event will include guests Enyo Kumahor, Gustav Praekelt as well as Craig Wing, Daniel Acton, Julie Taylor, Jacqueline Rajuai, Natasha Matos and Sara Adams from Google.

You can submit your questions in advance here. 

There are only a few tickets available so book now!

Event Details:

When: Friday 21st June, 9am – 1pm

Where: JoziHub, 44 Stanley Road, Milpark, Johannesburg

Cost: FREE

RSVP: To attend this event or for more information go to: googlewomenintech.eventbrite.com

Google has patented new facial recognition technology which allows users to unlock phones with a wink and a smile. The first time we saw this feature was with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but since then Google has been hard at work to improve the technology and make unlocking your device easier and more unique. In the process they have also attained more IP protection. (more…)

About one month ago, news surfaced that Facebook was in negotiations to acquire crowdsourced mapping and navigation app Waze for $1 billion. Shortly afterwards new reports claimed Google was also interested and had attached a $1.3 billion price tag to the deal.

However, last month both companies reportedly called off the negotiations after failing to reach an agreement.

Rumours of the acquisition go as far back as 2012, during which time Apple was also reportedly interested in the startup.

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There are many flavours out there for people who want to change the keyboard on their Android device. Most of the proper ones, however, aren’t free. Not anymore, as Google has just made its stock Android keyboard available in the Google Play store. Its initial rollout includes a multitude of countries, with the rest to follow soon.

There are many people that aren’t crazy about their OEM’s typing experience (nudge, nudge, Samsung), so this is the perfect opportunity to check out another option. (more…)

Going green is still all the buzz around the world of sustainable business. Not only is it ‘cool’ and considered the right thing to do among large businesses, you also receive several tax benefits when using green power.

Google have secured the electric output of an entire 72 MW wind farm in Maevaara, Sweden. According to the official blog, they will buy this electricity for the next ten years to run their data centre in Finland. The deal was brokered through the multinational insurer Allianz, which bought the farm, and will begin selling electricity to Google by 2015. (more…)

The previously rumoured HTC One with stock Android has now been officially announced by Google’s head of Android and Chrome, Sundar Pichai at the D11 conference.

The HTC One running Android 4.2.2  Jelly Bean offers a so-called Nexus user experience with all future software updates being handled by Google as with the Google Edition Samsung Galaxy S4.

According to The Next Web Pachai said that, “Part of what we’re going to do is actively work with partners to make [the best customer experience] happen.  At I/O, we announced the Galaxy S4 with the experience you see on Nexus devices, Google’s take on Android. That’s a small step in the right direction.”

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We all try to keep up with all the messages that land in our inbox, and even the best filtering tools have a tough time getting rid off mails you do not want to see.

Gmail has always had the labels and folders features, but it is not always the most logical tool to set up for everyone. Now Google is placing these categories of mail upfront and center in the interface of your inbox, in a new tabbed interface:

The new “Primary” inbox button ought to keep only email from actual people mailing you, while other automatically sent emails will land under the other tab buttons. You can also add your own, and also customize where mails do land. You simply drag the mail to the right tab to set the rule in place.

The new Inbox categories will also be available on Android and iOS apps soon enough, but Google is still rolling these out.

If you want to see the new inbox in action, check out the video below: (more…)