Google has sued Sonos, alleging that its new voice assistant violates seven patents related to its own Google Assistant technology, CNET has reported. It's the latest salvo in a long-running smart speaker battle between the companies, with each suing and countersuing the other following a period when they worked together.
"[Sonos has] started an aggressive and misleading campaign against our products, at the expense of our shared customers," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
Sonos' Voice Control assistant arrived in June, letting users give commands with the phrase "Hey Sonos," much like Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant. In the complaint, Google said it "worked for years with Sonos engineers on the implementation of voice recognition and voice-activated devices control in Sonos products... even providing its Google Assistant software to Sonos for many years."
The fight erupted in early 2020 when Sonos sued Google for alleged patent infringement after the companies had collaborated for several years. Sonos claimed that Google gained knowledge of its technology when they worked together and used that information to develop its own smart speaker line. The company filed another suit in September 2020, claiming that Google infringed on five more patents.
Google countersued, alleging that Sonos was using Google’s search, software, networking, audio processing and other technology without paying a license fee and made "false claims" about their work together
In 2021, the US International Trade Commission ruled that Google infringed on five Sonos patents. That forced Google to change the way its speakers were set up to avoid an import ban. Most of those were related to the way speaker groups are controlled — for instance, users can no longer change the volume of a group of speakers and must adjust them individually instead.
"Google previously sued us all over the world and Sonos has prevailed in every decided case," Sonos' chief legal officer Eddie Lazarus told CNET. "[The latest lawsuits] are an intimidation tactic designed to retaliate against Sonos for speaking out against Google's monopolistic practices."
Google has been offering G suite apps for free to millions of users who signed up for the same before 2012. However, the arrangement is bound to get change as Google will discontinue its legacy G Suite app service, a suite of services that millions of people enjoyed for free for a decade. It means that all business users will have to upgrade to a paid subscription to Google Workspace.
In simple words, if you are among the lucky ones who have been feasting on free edition of Google G Suite for all your business communications, you won’t be able to make use of business emails, cloud storage along with fleet of other services from June 27, 2022 for free.
Google’s support document explains that G Suite legacy free edition is going end of life for businesses from June 27, 2022. And, those who continue to use the services will automatically be upgraded to a paid Google Workspace subscription, which offers new features to assist businesses in transforming the way they work.
The freeloaders of G Suite legacy-free edition are not thrilled about the new change. Going further, they will also have to pay for Workspace, or migrate to rival Microsoft. The New York Times reported that as the nearing deadline has generated complaints by small businesses who have been using G Suite legacy edition that Google used to offer for free until 2012. While Google stopped offering the legacy free edition to new users in 2012, it allowed existing users to enjoy the service for free until now.
One of the biggest concerns for those who banked upon the free G Suite service and offered the same to their client is to convince their clients to pay for the same service going further. However, there is a mix response from those consulting firms. The founder and CEO of Cave Consulting in Dallas, Texas, Todd Cave said that Google’s decision not to discontinue G Suite legacy edition has not had an impact on his clients. He said that his company was always mindful while making suggestions to clients and never recommend clients to trust any complimentary subscription.
Google’s decision to discontinue unlimited cloud storage offering for Google Workspace for Education customers is a clear example that users who are serious about their business must not bank upon free services at all. Google discontinued free unlimited cloud storage offerings in July.
Google first revealed its plan to end its legacy G Suite free edition in January. At that time it looked like everyone everyone who signed up during G Suite in its early days would be impacted. As a result, Google faced a lot of criticism and decided to moderate policy to only include users of G Suite who have been using the service for commercial purpose. Those who use G Suite legacy for noncommercial purposes (individuals and families) were given the option to opt out from the forced Workspace transition.
Customers who are able to opt out will be allowed to use Gmail with the custom domain that was created for Google Apps for Your Domain. They will also have access to Drive, Calendar and Meet at no additional cost.
For those who want to avoid the transition, opting out is essential. G Suite legacy edition accounts will be suspended starting August 1, 2022 if you fail to act.
The Workspace transition will not affect those who use the free version of Gmail with a Google Account or YouTube, Google Photos or the personal version Google Drive with 15 GB free storage.
The impact, however, is not going to affect millions of users as per the exact report published in The New York Times. The report claims that only few thousands of people still use G Suite legacy-free edition.
Update 10.40AM: Google has provided another update: 'Gmail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.'
Original article continues below…
Just as you thought 2020 couldn't get any worse, Gmail goes down, taking global productivity levels with it.
The good news is, if you thought you're the only one having Gmail issues, you're not – problems are being reported across the globe according to Down Detector, with complaints starting at around 6:30AM BST.
While the reason for the outage remains unclear, the Google’s status page (opens in new tab) says:
'We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 8/20/20, 10:38 AM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.
Gmail sending issues, Meet recording issues, Creating files issues in Drive, CSV user upload issues in Admin Console, Posting message issues in Google Chat, Sites adding new pages issues, Keep issues, Voice mail issues'
A map from Down Detector showing where people are reporting problems with Gmail.
(Image credit: Downdetector)
The problems aren't limited to GSuite products, but also services that use them, such as Whatsapp's backup function. We've been trying up save our precious chat history all morning, only to receive an 'in-progress' message.
Gmail issues seem to manifest themselves in different ways. Some people on Twitter are unable to log-in, while others are able to log-in but can't send emails.
We're having trouble adding attachments to emails.
We'll continue to update this story as Google releases more information, in the meantime, you can check Google's Status Dashboard (opens in new tab) to see which services are up and running.
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This report studies the Knowledge Sharing Platform Market with many aspects of the industry like the market size, market status, market trends and forecast, the report also provides brief information of the competitors and the specific growth opportunities with key market drivers. Find the complete Knowledge Sharing Platform Market analysis segmented by companies, region, type and applications in the report.
The report offers valuable insight into the Knowledge Sharing Platform market progress and approaches related to the Knowledge Sharing Platform market with an analysis of each region. The report goes on to talk about the dominant aspects of the market and examine each segment.
Key Players: Nuclino, Notion, Confluence, Microsoft SharePoint, Google Workplace, Papyrs, GitBook, SharePoint, Elium, Bloomfire, BoostHQ, EdCast, Gsuite, Evernote, Zoho, Kool Stories, Bitrix24, Knowmax, EduBrite, Happeo, and Tettra
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The global Knowledge Sharing Platform market is segmented by company, region (country), by Type, and by Application. Players, stakeholders, and other participants in the global Knowledge Sharing Platform market will be able to gain the upper hand as they use the report as a powerful resource. The segmental analysis focuses on revenue and forecast by region (country), by Type, and by Application for the period 2022-2028.
Segmentation by type
Segmentation by application
Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers
Research objectives:
The report lists the major players in the regions and their respective market share on the basis of global revenue. It also explains their strategic moves in the past few years, investments in product innovation, and changes in leadership to stay ahead in the competition. This will give the reader an edge over others as a well-informed decision can be made looking at the holistic picture of the market.
Key questions answered in this report
Table of Contents: Knowledge Sharing Platform Market
Chapter 1: Overview of Knowledge Sharing Platform Market
Chapter 2: Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions
Chapter 3: Global Market Status and Forecast by Types
Chapter 4: Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry
Chapter 5: Market Driving Factor Analysis
Chapter 6: Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers
Chapter 7: Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data
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Chapter 9: Cost and Gross Margin Analysis
Chapter 10: Marketing Status Analysis
Chapter 11: Market Report Conclusion
Chapter 12: Research Methodology and Reference
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google’s revenue growth during the past quarter decelerated to its slowest pace in two years as advertisers reined in their spending amid intensifying fears of an economic recession.
The regression reported Tuesday by Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet, is the latest sign that the tailwinds propelling big technology companies during the pandemic have shifted. The array of new challenges facing the industry has already caused the tech-driven Nasdaq composite index to plummet by 26% so far this year.
In Alphabet’s case, revenue during the April-June period totaled $69.7 billion, a 13% increase from the same time last year.
That would be impressive growth for most companies outside of tech. But it marked Alphabet’s lowest growth rate since the the April-June quarter of 2020, when the company suffered the first, and so far only, year-over-year revenue decline in its history. The cause: advertisers retreated while most consumers were being corralled at home during the pandemic’s early stages.
The more sluggish spending was especially evident at YouTube, where major advertisers have increasingly gravitated to promote their brands with short commercials. YouTube’s ad revenue rose by 5% from the previous year during the second quarter, the lowest rate of year-over-year quarterly growth since Alphabet began to disclose the video site’s financial results in late 2019.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet's chief financial officer, attributed some of YouTube's meager growth to “truly extraordinary" ad spending at the same time last year as vaccines emboldened more consumers to begin returning to their pre-pandemic lifestyles and spending patterns.
Despite the slowdown, Alphabet remains extremely profitable. The Mountain View, California, company earned $16 billion, or $1.21 per share, during the second quarter — although even that was a 14% decrease from last year. As usual, most of that money poured in from Google’s dominant search engine and a wide range of other popular services, including its maps, Gmail, Chrome browser, YouTube video site and Android software for smartphones.
Even though both the revenue and earnings came in slightly below analyst estimates, the numbers apparently weren't as bad as investors feared. Alphabet's slumping stock price gained more than 5% in extended trading after the numbers were released. The rally gained momentum after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and other top executives assured analysts during a late Tuesday conference call that the company intended to be more judicious about its spending in the months ahead — a commitment likely to bolster profits even if revenue growth continues to falter.
“Personally, I find moments like this clarifying," Pichai explained during the call. “It gives us a chance to look at everything we do through a critical lens."
The second-quarter results reflect greater caution among digital advertisers are remaining cautious as the Federal Reserve contemplates more aggressive action — meaning higher interest rates — to bring down the highest inflation in more than 40 years, a mission that threatens to drag the economy into a recession. The next rate increase is expected Wednesday.
“We use the term ‘uncertainty' because that is the best way to characterize what we are seeing,” Porat said during a conference call with analysts late Tuesday. She also acknowledged Google has been affected by “pullbacks" among an unspecified number of advertisers.
The tightening in ad budgets has repercussions beyond Google. It squeezed the social platform Snap so severely that its earnings plunged below management warnings of poor business results, creating such a cloudy outlook that its executives refused to make predictions for the current quarter.
Facebook’s corporate parent, Meta, also has been bracing for tougher times ahead. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to elaborate on his take on the current state of digital advertising Wednesday when the company is scheduled to release its second-quarter results.
Besides the current economic certain, both Snap and Facebook have been hurt by privacy protections that Apple imposed last year to prevent social media services and a wide variety of other apps from tracking people’s interests and locations on iPhones to help sell ads without users’ permission. That safeguard hasn’t affected Google as much because its search engine can learn so much about people from their queries.
Although the company is better positioned than most to navigate the economic turbulence that appears to be looming ahead, “it’s clear Google has its work cut out for it in the back half of the year," said Insider Intelligence analyst Evelyn Mitchell.
Google already began girding for potential recession by recently announcing plans to slow hiring and then went even further by imposing a two-week freeze on extending job offers to candidates.
But before that pause, Alphabet beefed up its payroll significantly during the quarter. It added more than 10,000 employees from the end of March through June, up from increase of roughly 7,400 workers during the first thee months of the year. The company ended the quarter with about 174,000 employees worldwide.- Porat told analysts the downturn in Google's hiring probably won't start showing up in its quarterly numbers until next year, partly because of the job offers already in the pipeline and the expectation that it will complete its $5.4 billion acquisition of cybersecurity specialist Mandiant and its roughly 2,300 employees later this year.
All W&M faculty, staff, and students now have access to Google Workspace collaboration apps!
To provide an additional productivity tool for remote collaboration, W&M IT has accelerated the project to provide Google Workspace collaboration apps to all active W&M faculty and staff. That means all W&M students, faculty, and staff can now collaborate on Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.!
Important Note: Google email (Gmail) and calendar are not included in the new accounts. As W&M faculty and staff already have email in Microsoft Office 365, the newly-created Google Workspace apps are linked to the @wm.edu accounts instead. Existing Gmail-enabled accounts will not change at this time.
All W&M faculty, staff, and students can use the Google Workspace Apps link in the featured box of links. It will lead to Google Drive. If you have a Gmail-enabled account, you will be able to navigate to the Inbox from the waffle icon in the top right corner.
Those who previously had Google Workspace accounts at W&M (Gmail-enabled accounts) can use the Gmail icon (in the box with 4 icons) to go directly to Gmail. If you do not have a Gmail-enabled account, you will encounter an error message when using this link.
Contact the Technology Support Center (TSC)
[[support]] | 757-221-4357 (HELP) | Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
If the pandemic-triggered proliferation of online meetings is killing your team productivity and sapping the attention of overloaded info workers, German startup tl;dv might have just the tool: It's built an extension for videoconferencing platforms, like Zoom and Google Meet, which bolts on a suite of capabilities that attendees can use to record, transcribe and timestamp key moments to quickly and easily (re)surface important info after the meeting has ended.
Idea being that, collectively, the suite of tools can help professionals keep on top of the flow of info coming at them and their co-workers without everyone needing to attend every meeting in real-time. (Hence the name, tl;dv -- which is internet slang for 'too long; didn't view'.)
While major videoconferencing platforms can offer basic stuff like a record function, the winter 2020-founded startup reckons there's a gap for bolting on a suite of extras that can enhance third-party live meeting platforms, while neatly integrating with other popular office productivity tools like Slack and Notion, and with CRMs like Hubspot and Pipedrive.
Going beyond pure, info-structuring convenience, it also features clipping tools which let users turn killer meeting soundbites into video snippets which could be used for various broader purposes, like internal training or external marketing, depending on the content.
The platform launched in summer 2021 and it now has around 300 paying customers -- the majority of which are start-ups and SMEs.
The vast majority (~95%) aren't yet paying as it's taking a freemium approach, meaning it's offering certain features (like transcription) cost-free; but -- overall -- "thousands" of professional users are happily tapping into its freebie time-saver tools.
While productivity software is a hotly contested space, tl;dv has managed to convince a bunch of investors it's onto something: Today it's announcing a €4.3 million seed raise, led by Madrid-based K Fund, with participation from existing investors Seedcamp, Mustard Seed Maze, and another.vc. Also joining the round are Shilling.vc, plus a number of other European founders and business angels, such as Oscar Pierre, co-founder and CEO of on-demand delivery platform Glovo.
"All over the world, knowledge workers are spending at least fourteen hours a week in meetings. Most of the time, they’re just passively listening with their microphone on mute. tl;dv helps people quickly catch up on meetings instead of attending every call live," tl;dv co-founder and CEO Raphael Allstadt tells TechCrunch.
"We measure success based on how often a user watches a recorded tl;dv instead of attending the live call. When a user frequently watches tl;dv highlights and clips -- quickly navigating to key moments before exiting the recording -- we see this as a sign they’ve gained the context they needed, and can start focusing on the work that really matters."
Commenting on tl;dv's seed raised in a statement, K Fund's Jaime Novoa added: “For a long time at K Fund, we’d been recording some of our internal meetings so that they could be consumed at a later time by those not able to attend. This exploded with the pandemic and hybrid forms of work. tl;dv brings this to another level and we’re obviously heavy users at the firm. It’s not only about the pure aspect of recording calls but also about the way it integrates with other productivity tools such as Calendar, Notion, Google Docs, etc so that it becomes an essential part of the way we work.”
Asked how defensible it is to bolt productivity features onto third party meeting platforms, given these players could just clone popular features and bake it into native functionality, undermining tl;dv's standalone utility, Allstadt argues that's not a concern as it can offer something they won't: A convenience-focused layer that works across different videoconferencing platforms, wherever office pros might be chattering virtually.
"The reality is that most of us are using more than one video call platform for work," he argues, predicting: "The live conferencing market will continue to fragment."
"Slack is increasingly used for internal meetings -- Discord, too. Some of our users have security requirements that mean they can only use Google Meet internally, however their clients insist on using Zoom," he goes on. "Our goal is to help busy professionals bundle insights from any live conferencing provider to any async platform where they collaborate. We will become a partner to Zoom and not a competitor."
So how does tl;dv work? Users manually trigger timestamps and/or add notes to flag key moments -- so, interestingly (and unlike some rivals) -- it's not (currently) trying to automate the generation of meeting minutes, e.g. by using AI to parse transcriptions and ID key moments. Although it does not rule out adding that functionality at a later date.
Asked about this, Allstadt says some early users recounted having a poor experience with automated note-taking tools -- hence he says they decided to focus on creating an interface/workflow that makes it super simple for real humans to do the note-taking work in the first instance.
"We are not a tool for automatic note-taking," he tells TechCrunch. "What is interesting is that a lot of our users have tested tools that offer some form of automated note-taking but feel the technology is not yet adequate. It’s important to be able to rely on meeting minutes, which is why tl;dv focuses on simplifying the note-taking of users (instead of attempting to take notes for users). We’re keeping a close eye on the advancements of automated note-taking software. When we feel this technology is good enough for our users, we’ll be integrating it!"
Explaining how tl;dv works currently, he adds: "During the meeting, tl;dv users can timestamp important moments with the click of a button or by writing short notes. This function also allows them to tag specific colleagues. The recording and transcript are instantly available after the meeting and automatically shared with all participants. tl;dv notifies the organizer whenever a meeting has been accessed to show them which content is especially useful or interesting for others. The organizer can also create short snippets and share these specific clips with teams, investors, stakeholders, or managers who weren’t in the call."
Image Credits: tl;dv
To make video clips from recorded meeting content, tl;dv users scan the transcript for important parts, select the relevant bit of text and hit a button to get the platform to turn that slice of the meeting into a shareable video snippet. So, er, let the meme-ification of colleagues commence!
Another convenience-focused feature tl;dv offers is baked in translations for meeting transcripts which Allstadt says are immediate available in more than twenty languages currently ("in the spirit of cross-continent collaboration!").
More features are incoming. "We will soon release a powerful search function that allows users to search for any word and instantly locate all the conversations recorded with tl;dv in which that word was spoken," he notes, adding that deeper integrations with asynchronous platforms like Hubspot, Salesforce and GSuite are also in the works.
The seed funding will also be put towards expanding utility with a feature that lets users group meetings in folders to simplify sharing and storing, per Allstadt, among other forthcoming extras.
Discussing the competitive landscape for meeting productivity tools, he points to Gong as "interesting" -- acknowledging that the well-financed revenue intelligence startup was an early entrant in the space and "paved the way in some sense", as he puts it.
But he argues that Gong's focus on sales teams creates an opportunity for the small European upstart to offer something "far more cross-functional" -- further suggesting: "Especially considering how customer-oriented businesses are increasingly sharing sales insights across their organization. In other words, we want to normalize the adoption of tl;dv across entire companies -- not just sales."
Another early mover he namechecks is Otter -- which had a first focus on transcription but has since been expanding its feature set to include productivity-focused features like automated meeting summaries, so there's more than a little functionality overlap there. Although Allstadt plays that angle down. "We believe the value lies in the video, which helps enrich communication with emotive, vocal, and visual cues," he argues, suggesting tl;dv's video snippeting features will be able to give it an edge with teams who may already be subscribed to Otter's rival offering.
One key thing to note about tl;dv's platform is that meeting recordings are not currently stored end-to-end (E2E) encrypted -- per Allstadt, it's storing customer data on Amazon Web Services facilities and encrypting all communication to and from the AWS with 256-bit encryption at present -- although he says that adding that extra layer of robust security is on its short term roadmap.
A lack of E2E encryption caused reputational headaches for Zoom during the pandemic -- when it emerged that its security was not as robust as it had claimed. The platform later promised to focusing on fixing these security and privacy concerns and went on to roll out E2E encryption, including for non-paying users.
William & Mary Information Technology has been making big changes to IT systems and services to facilitate the W&M response to COVID-19.
Here is a list of changes that have been made to facilitate the COVID-19 response at William & Mary.
Also see our Connect Remotely page for a full list of IT services you can use while working, teaching, and learning away from campus.
New features are available to help you connect remotely to the campus phone system from off-campus. Through the Mitel Connect phone client, you can turn your home/cell phone or computer into your office phone. See our Connect information page for more details.
For softphone activation, please fill out this form: https://bit.ly/2IP9NGbW&M IT is happy to announce that the "Pro" license of Zoom, W&M's videoconferencing tool, is now available to ALL W&M faculty, staff, and students with no payment or request process required! Just log in with your W&M Username to begin. Zoom Pro offers meetings of unlimited number of minutes for up to 300 participants. See our Zoom information page for more details.
To provide an additional productivity tool for remote collaboration, all W&M students, faculty, and staff can now collaborate on Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. Access Google Workspace apps by going to http://gsuite.wm.edu or use the "Google Workspace Apps" link on myW&M. For more information, see our Google Workspace information page.
Important Note: Gmail and Google Calendar are not included in newly-created Google Workspace accounts.
To facilitate working from remote locations, Qlik, W&M's data discovery and reporting tool, is now available from off-campus without the use of VPN or Virtual Desktops (VDI). Simply login to Qlik the same way you would from campus.
As a reminder, please only use VPN and VDI when necessary. We need to reserve those limited resources for the systems that do have a secure connection requirement.
Due to high call volume and to better address campus needs, W&M IT will be taking the following measures for tech support:
We apologize for the inconvenience this change may have. Please continue to check the IT website for further updates.
Contact the Technology Support Center (TSC)
757-221-4357 (HELP) | [[support]] | Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Update 10.40AM: Google has provided another update: 'Gmail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.'
Original article continues below…
Just as you thought 2020 couldn't get any worse, Gmail goes down, taking global productivity levels with it.
The good news is, if you thought you're the only one having Gmail issues, you're not – problems are being reported across the globe according to Down Detector, with complaints starting at around 6:30AM BST.
While the reason for the outage remains unclear, the Google’s status page (opens in new tab) says:
'We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 8/20/20, 10:38 AM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.
Gmail sending issues, Meet recording issues, Creating files issues in Drive, CSV user upload issues in Admin Console, Posting message issues in Google Chat, Sites adding new pages issues, Keep issues, Voice mail issues'
A map from Down Detector showing where people are reporting problems with Gmail.
(Image credit: Downdetector)
The problems aren't limited to GSuite products, but also services that use them, such as Whatsapp's backup function. We've been trying up save our precious chat history all morning, only to receive an 'in-progress' message.
Gmail issues seem to manifest themselves in different ways. Some people on Twitter are unable to log-in, while others are able to log-in but can't send emails.
We're having trouble adding attachments to emails.
We'll continue to update this story as Google releases more information, in the meantime, you can check Google's Status Dashboard (opens in new tab) to see which services are up and running.
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