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Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Google Earth

Canada Promo : Buy a Google Pixelbook and a free Google Home

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

If you buy Google new premium Chromebook, the Pixelbook, you now receive a free Google Home. This promo is live now and runs until December 31, 2017, and is open to Canadian customers. 

To receive your free Google Home, all you have to do is add it to your shopping cart with the Pixelbook, and the price will be $0. 

Offer is available while supplies last (shouldn't be a problem) and remember that the Pixelbook is not available in Quebec (probably since they don't offer french keyboard, box and manuals. 

Google Store

Install IOS Update 10.3.3

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

As mentioned in my various articles, keeping your operating system and applications updates is a critical component to good overall security. 


Apple released IOS 10.3.3 yesterday, and amongst all of the bugs it fixes, there is one nasty security vulnerability that justifies installing it now. Right now. Do it. I'll wait. Come on, we don't have all day. 

Put Apple's banal sounding description aside for a second ("A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling".) This vulnerability comes from the Broadcom BCM43xx wifi chipset (CVE-2017-9417) and allows an attacker to execute code on the targeted device with kernel privileges.

To be clear, millions of Android smartphones (e.g. HTC, LG, Nexus and most Samsung devices) are also vulnerable to the BroadPwn vulnerability. 

Google also issued the BroadPwn fix in its July patch bundle (you are receiving the security updates for your phone right?)

Google helps man find lost family 25 years later

technologyEdward Kiledjian
lost_indianboy.png

Technology has empowered us to do incredible things and Google's quest to index all human knowledge has been an incredible multiplier. Now a 30 year old man of indian origin shares his story on Youtube. 

He lost touch with his Indian family at 5 years old and was adopted by an Australian foster family. 25 years later, he used fragments of old memories and the power of Google earth to find his original village, make his way back to that location and find his birth-mother. 

A beautiful example of how technology properly implemented and made available can make the unthinkable possible for everyone.

A cleaner, faster and more personalized Google Maps is coming

technologyEdward Kiledjian
Although Google has kept most of its secrets close to the chest, it seems an updated Google Maps may be announced today at Google IO 2013 based on a discovery by DroidLife. They discovered a special landing page that says
"tailored map for every search"
Based on the screenshots they provided, it looks much more like a mobile influenced design with WebGL overviews (taken from Google Earth), built in Flight Search and a feature to compare multiple modes of transportation on the same map. 
We also see hints of Google Now style proactive recommendations at your destination (like restaurants). The site is no longer online but head over to Droid Life to see more screenshots.