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SAN FRANCISCO -- Google's expensive Chromebook giveaway here at its I/O 2013 conference can't handle connecting to digital cameras, but that's just one of many problems the laptop causes for its owners.

Chromebooks, which run Chrome OS (read review), are a perpetual work in progress. Updated every six weeks or thereabouts, just like the browser they're based on, Chromebooks rely on the promise of the modern Web.

But getting browsers to talk to commonplace hardware like USB ports, Webcams, and microphones is no easy task. Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), a plugin-free way to stream video, … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- A month and a half ago, Google began using its WebP image format in its Google+ app for Android, and now it's saving tremendous amounts of network usage as a result.

"We're saving many terabytes of bandwidth a day, and because of the cost factor, we're saving our users money," said Stephen Konig, a Google product manager, in a well-attended WebP Google I/O talk Friday.

Users' cost savings come because they're less likely to run into data usage caps or incur onerous roaming fees outside their home countries.

But of … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google's mapping service relies on mammoth data centers, vast quantities of satellite imagery, and a fleet of Street View cars. But it also relies on you.

At the Google I/O developer show here on Friday, Google engineers described how they've overhauled Google Maps, and two areas in which information from Google users is key to that.

First, using anonymous data collected from people using Google Maps on mobile phones, it picks the best navigation routes. Second, using photos people upload to its Panoramio and Picasa photo services, it generates immersive tours that swoop around … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Google Glass currently comes in five colors and has a pop-in sunglass visor, but no version of the Explorer Edition comes with prescription lenses. For glasses-wearers like me, that means getting contacts or jamming them over my frames. Next year, that may change.

You had to look closely on the Google I/O show floor, but a few Google employees were wearing Glass prototypes with actual prescription glasses attached. Designed in-house at Google, they actually look good: crisp modern lines, but not exactly for the Ray-Ban set. Mark Shandy, seen above, was kind enough to show them off … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google long has been a firm believer that JavaScript, the programming language used to build Web apps such as Google Maps and Gmail, could shoulder a much heavier computing load.

But even as the company continues to push JavaScript's abilities with Chrome's V8 engine, some at the company believe JavaScript is pushing up against its limits. For that reason, Google developed its Dart programming language, and at the Google I/O developer show here, the company made the case for Dart.

"The ultimate goal is to get Dart into Chrome. I hope you all … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Two of Google's top Chrome and Google Apps security experts confessed that the problem of passwords will continue to plague the people who use them and computer security for the foreseeable future.

On the second day of the company's I/O conference here on Thursday, Eran Feigenbaum, the director of security for Google Apps, suggested that people follow three recommendations to stay safer online.

"You should turn on two-step verification, make sure [the browser] is up to date, and make sure your password recovery options are set," the six-year veteran of Google said.

His colleague, … Read more

Let's stipulate for the record that Congress has every right to ask questions of private industry as it works on the nation's behalf. I remember reading something to that effect when I was studying social studies once upon a time.

Then you have this: A public letter sent to Google CEO Larry Page by eight members of Congress inquiring "whether this new technology could infringe on the privacy of the average American."

News flash: Congress has discovered the 21st century.

It's not that the congressional representatives who signed onto to this letter were necessarily naive … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google would like to endow Chrome with Microsoft's technology for letting Web applications deal with input from mice, pens, and touch screens.

Developers of the Google browser said at the company's Google I/O show here Thursday that Microsoft's Pointer Events approach -- built into IE10, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8, and being standardized at the World Wide Web Consortium -- has some real advantages.

"We're going to start landing some experimental support in Blink for Pointer Events," said Chrome programmer Rick Byers. Blink is the open-source browser engine at … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- By now Street View is a routine part of online mapping. But people might not be so familiar with how Google actually gets the data for its 360-degree panoramic views of the world.

Street View imagery launched in 2007 with photos taken by cameras perched on cars. That's still the mainstay of the project, but there's much more to it now, and Google was showing off its methods at its Google I/O 2013 developer show here this week.

Exhibits included not just a car, but also a snowmobile, tricycle, backpack, trolley, and self-propelled underwater … Read more