News & Reviews:   Google

Loot boxes has been deemed a form of gambling in gaming which is pretty detrimental as the audience in games are usually younger children. Due to that, Google has now asked developers of apps and games on the Google Play Store to show the loot box odds.

Forbes reported that Google intends on ditching ad block extensions for Google Chrome and limit them only to enterprise users, leaving regular consumers exposed to advertisements scattered throughout the world wide web. The removal of ad block extensions is expected to be carried up based on a proposal called “Manifest V3”, which will drastically change the Google Chrome extension ecosystem.

ZDNet and Reddit have spotted a recent addition to Google Maps, which enables the application to detect speed limits as well as speed traps in more than 40 countries. The aforementioned features were initially available on another Google-owned application, Waze.

With the month of Ramadan coming to an end, Waze has graciously released a few predictions as to how the “Balik Kampung” traffic will pan out for the year of 2019 as to help fellow road warriors stay safe on their ride back.

This June, Google will be rolling out Gmail confidential mode to all users starting on the 25th of June. Technically, it works just like a self-destructing email would - the email will come with an expiration date whereby the email will be wiped out then. Senders may also revoke the email. As for the receiver, they are not able to forward, copy or download the email. This mode is perfect for emailing out sensitive data.

Not too long ago, Google had announced that they will be shutting down Youtube Gaming app at the end of March but that didn’t happen. At least, not yet. Now, the company has announced that they will be officially shutting the doors to the gaming streaming app on the 30th of May.

Things are seemingly grim for Huawei. Ever since Google announced that it will stop its services for Huawei, Qualcomm and Intel will also cut ties with them. But all is not lost, as of recent news, not everyone is on the same page with the US Government. This includes TSMC, Panasonic, Aptoide, and an official statement by Huawei CEO, Ren Zhengfei on the future of Huawei.

Huawei has responded on their Facebook page, regarding Google’s decision on suspending business activities between the two tech giants. As previously mentioned, Google’s call to cease all operations with Huawei was based on the premise that the company has been blacklisted by the US government.

Recent news that Google has stopped access to certain services and updates for Huawei on US orders has sent any number of Malaysians into a frenzy. The first thing we have to say is, chill and keep calm, the stopped access only affects future updates to certain proprietary Google apps and the upcoming Android Q. If you’re a Huawei device user, you won’t lose access to GMail or YouTube today (we used Google Docs to type this with no issues). We'd recommend taking a chill pill for now and seeing what else Google details in their official statement and what Huawei has planned.

Trade wars have always been brutal and the current trade war between the United States and China is potentially about to leave many Huawei users disappointed. Huawei’s business with Google has been suspended and among the services affected include the transfer of hardware, software and technical services. TL;DR: Huawei users would potentially lose access to popular Google services such as Google Play Store, Gmail and Youtube.