When Google announced it was acquiring Nest for a little over $3 billion in 2014, analysts thought the company wanted to enter the home appliances market.
Wrong.
It was all about the data.
Google gained access to a treasure trove of information about consumer demands for heating and cooling. The company learned when people turned on their furnaces and shut off their air conditioners. Google could pair this information with the type of household, neighborhood and city.
The After Active Duty blog series examines the challenges, rewards and lessons learned for those who have transitioned from active duty to the private sector and the role AFCEA played in this progression.
Shannon Sullivan, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, learned lessons as an athlete that served him well throughout his active duty career and beyond.
“Athletics teaches teamwork, discipline and commitment, and those traits translate well to the military and industry,” says the former all-American pole vaulter and first alternate to the 1988 U.S. Olympic decathlon team.
Secure your Google apps with 2-step verification. The Google Authenticator app allows users enrolled in 2-step verification to add an extra layer of security to their Google Apps account by requiring a verification code in addition to username and password. The app lets you generate 2-step verification codes on a smartphone without a network connection. Features include automatic setup via QR code; support for multiple accounts; and support for multiple languages.
The Google Goggles app identifies real-world objects using a smart phone's camera, but that's not all. With the latest update, the program can even solve your Sudoku puzzle. The image-based search app is available on the Android platform and the Google for iPhone app. You simply snap a photo on your smart phone and instantly identify text, landmarks, books, contact information, artwork, wine and logos. With the latest update, the app provides faster barcode identification and the ability to recognize print ads. Just point your phone at an ad in a major U.S. magazine or newspaper and receive results on the products advertised.
The Sky Map application from Google turns Android phones into a stargazing tool with the click of a button. And a new "time travel" feature lets you see images of the sky from the past and the future. Users can identify constellations, planets, grids and deep sky objects just by holding their device towards the sky. The free app determines the locations of the planets and stars, zooms in and out, and directs users towards specific objects using a search function. The app utilizes sensors built into the device to portray a map or chart of any place the user is located without accessing the phone's camera.
Over the next two days, hackers from across the globe will team up on nearly every continent for the second Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event aimed at finding solutions to real-world problems caused by natural disasters. It's a 48-hour marathon of competitive computer coding with the best and brightest developers in Washington, D.C.; Sydney, Australia; Nairobi, Kenya; London; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Google. A noun so popular it became a verb. Everyone who uses the Internet knows about Google the search engine, and most are familiar with the free Gmail service, but what about the company's other offerings? From helpful business applications that enable more collaboration with fewer messages to tools that help individuals keep their Web pages organized, Google offers features that make the Internet experience more efficient and fun.
The U.S. Navy submarine force is moving to use a commercial geospatial information product to provide an integrated data picture to its crew members. The undersea fleet is striving to implement Google Earth as a common geospatial foundation across all systems aboard its submarines.
The new geospatial display system will allow sailors onboard submarines to view water depth, sonar contacts, distance from land, operational areas and forward-course tracks. Not only would all this information be displayed visually, but the same operational picture also would be visible to anyone at a console throughout the boat.
