Official Google Canada Blog

Supporting Educators as they teach from home

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Editor’s note: This guest post is authored by Michelle Armstrong, Director of EdTechTeam Canada.By offering up to ten sessions a day along with personal follow-ups, we’ve now hosted hundreds of live workshops and impacted tens of thousands of educators across the country, representing over 350 Divisions, Districts and School Boards.Learn now, thrive long-termEdTechTeam Canada websiteExplore new ways to engage studentsGoogle SiteshereSupporting learners is more important than everGet Started with Google MeetGoogle Classroom for ParentshereTeach from Home

New features for better sleep, personal safety arrive on Pixel

Monday, June 1, 2020

Adaptive Battery improvements

Bedtime made better
The new bedtime feature in Clock helps you maintain a consistent sleep schedule and strike a better balance with your screen time each night. Fall asleep to calming sounds and limit interruptions while you sleep — and if you stay up on your phone past bedtime, you'll get a snapshot of how much time you’re spending awake and on which apps. Each morning, you can wake up with your favourite track or with a gradually brighter screen with Sunrise Alarm.

Recorder, Docs and the new Google Assistant all working together
The Recorder app (available in English*) now lets you start, stop and search voice recordings using the new Google Assistant. Simply say “Hey Google, start recording my meeting,” or “Hey Google, show me recordings about dogs.” You can even save a transcript directly to Google Docs, making it easier to share with others. Learn more about using the Google Assistant with Recorder on your Pixel phone.

Personal safety features
The Personal Safety app on Pixel 4 will now be available on all Pixel devices.

We’re introducing new safety features, too, like safety check, which schedules a check-in from the app at a later time. For example if you’re about to go on a run or hike alone, safety check will help make sure you made it back safely. If you don’t respond to the scheduled check-in, the app will alert your emergency contacts. In the event that you need immediate help or are in a dangerous situation, emergency sharing notifies all of your emergency contacts and shares your real-time location through Google Maps so they can send help or find you.

And to be ultra-prepared, you can enable crisis alerts in the Personal Safety app to get notifications about natural disasters or other public emergencies.

For more information on the new features that just dropped and to see when the update will land on your phone, head to the Pixel forum.

*Transcription and search are available in English only. Use of the Recorder app with Google Assistant is not available in all countries and requires a Pixel 4. For more information, see g.co/pixel/recorder. Exporting transcripts to Google Docs requires a Google Account.

Bedtime tools to help improve your sleep

Monday, June 1, 2020

Turn on Bedtime mode to limit interruptionsDigital Wellbeing

Bedtime mode limits interruptions by keeping your phone dark and quiet.

Get more consistent sleep with Clock
A regular bedtime and wake-up schedule (including on your off days) helps your body establish a strong circadian rhythm and can improve the quality of your sleep. With the new Bedtime tab in the Clock app, you can set daily sleep and wake times to maintain a consistent sleep schedule.

Set a sleep schedule and see your bedtime habits with the new Bedtime tab in Clock

While sticking to a schedule is something to strive for, real life often requires flexibility. It’s helpful to start with a wake-up time and work backwards when you set your bedtime schedule. In Clock, you’ll see a preview of tomorrow’s calendar and a tally of the total hours of sleep you’d get, and you can adjust your bedtime if needed.

To help you get to bed and fall asleep, you’ll receive a reminder before bedtime and an option to play calming sounds from Calm, Spotify, YouTube Music and more. For those with Digital Wellbeing installed, you can pair with Bedtime mode to limit interruptions while you sleep. And if you happen to stay on your phone later than planned, you can see how much time you’re spending and which apps you’ve used after your set bedtime.

Being woken up by an alarm can be jarring. To avoid interrupting deep sleep and wake up more gently, try waking up before the buzz of an alarm. With the help of the Sunrise Alarm, you can get a visual cue that your wake up time is approaching, 15 minutes prior to your audio alarm. Make it an even more pleasant experience by adding your favourite song or sounds.

The new bedtime experience is rolling out to Pixel devices starting today and will be available in the Clock app on other Android devices later this summer.

Set a bedtime reminder in YouTube
We also made it easier to manage how much time you spend watching on YouTube on your phone after bedtime.You can now get a reminder that it’s time for bed in the YouTube app. You can choose to see the reminder at bedtime or after your video completes. And if you need a bit more time, you can snooze to continue watching and be reminded again in 10 minutes.

YouTube’s bedtime reminders make it easier to set helpful boundaries.

Keep devices locked at bedtime with Family Link
Family Link helps you set digital ground rules for your children, including managing their screen time activity, app downloads, in-app purchases and even bedtime for their device. You can create a daily bedtime schedule, adjusting it on certain days or weekends as needed. Once bedtime rolls around, your child’s device will lock, but will still allow calls in case your child needs to reach you.

With Family Link, you can lock your child’s device at bedtime.

We hope these bedtime tools can help you and your family unplug and get the consistent, restful sleep you need.

Providing emergency funding local news organizations in Canada

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Journalism Emergency Relief Fundset of criteriaestablished criteriaeligibility rules

Canada:

The Discourse Cowichan serves a rural region on Vancouver Island, B.C., including Cowichan Tribes, the largest First Nation in the region. It will increase reporting capacity to cover the impact of COVID on vulnerable communities. This week also marks the launch of Indiegraf, a network of journalist-entrepreneurs and independently-owned digital publishers sharing resources to serve their local communities sustainably. Google News Initiative provided seed funding to the network and several of its members received support through JERF. "Entrepreneurship and innovation are urgently needed to fill gaps in local news that have widened as a result of COVID-19,” said Erin Millar, co-founder and CEO of Indiegraf and The Discourse. “I'm grateful to Google for recognizing the essential role that small, digital publishers and startups play in serving local communities."

CEO Jeff Elgie, who oversees Ontario-based Village Media, says: “Google has been an incredibly important partner in the development of our business. From their business productivity tools to platforms that run everything from our analytics to our ads, we simply couldn’t do it without them. To see them launch the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund in these difficult times further proves to me their sincere interest in supporting the industry.”

Europe, the Middle East, and Africa:

Mediacités’ (France) fact-checking tool “Veracités” has seen a huge increase in questions from local readers but can currently only answer 10 percent of them. The fund will allow them to invest in the tool and answer more peoples’ questions.

Eco di Bergamo (Italy) Data journalism techniques have helped local communities understand what’s happening in the Bergamo area which suffered heavy losses during the crisis. Funding will be used to increase investment in new means of production (video, audio, photo, data) to give readers a deeper more analytical knowledge of what’s happening in their territory.

Bihoreanul (Romania) intends to provide information necessary to fight the spread of COVID-19, and talk about the consequences of the pandemic to its readers.

Rochdale online (UK) will keep their journalists working during the crisis. They’ll focus on helping the community understand the latest advice on COVID-19 and promote the work of local businesses, charities and volunteers.

Baraka FM (Kenya) will focus on on-air campaigns to encourage listeners to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They’ll buy personal protective equipment to keep reporters safe when conducting interviews and give emergency stipends to reporters who’ve traveled to cover special reports.

Asia Pacific:

The Murray Pioneer (Australia) will set up two online meeting rooms so they can communicate with remote journalists, local governments and interest groups. Their advertising department will also maintain virtual contact with clients and coordinate campaigns more effectively.

Saitama Shimbun (Japan), a 75-year old newspaper covering the Saitama prefecture, plans to detail the impact of the pandemic to preserve a record for future generations.

Suara Surabaya (Indonesia) goes beyond being a news portal, allowing readers to submit complaints like a public service hotline and working with stakeholders to find solutions. They will use funding to bridge cash flow impacted by COVID-19.

Minnambalam (India), a Tamil language publication from Chennai, will be able to keep their newsroom going, the funding giving them the confidence and financial support needed to carry on with their work.

East Mojo (India), a digital-only news organization, plans to allow journalists to go to remote parts of Northern India to shed light on the impact of COVID-19 once the country’s lockdown is lifted.

Latin America:

Agencia Amazonia (Brazil) will support Project #CoberturaCovid19Amazônia, which investigates the socio-cultural impact of the coronavirus on traditional populations in the Amazon region, giving priority to stories about indigenous, quilombolas and riverside dwellers.

El Colombiano (Colombia) will maintain the quality and resources that characterize the journalism of Medellin newspaper (the second most important city in the country).

La Discusion (Chile) will help finance an integrated radio-digital platform, developing informative, interpretive and opinion content across a variety of subjects like health, minorities, education, and sports etc that have been affected by COVID-19.

El Imparcial (México) will drive their strategic business plan, which includes improving multimedia content, newsroom training and growing their community.

other effortsworking to help the industry towards a more sustainable future

Helping 50,000 Canadian small businesses get online by 2021

Thursday, May 28, 2020

90%According to the OECDShopHEREeconomic activity of $23 billionwebsiteAbout ShopHERE powered by Google

4 things to know about the new Nest Aware

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

new Nest AwareNest Aware

More affordable, simplified pricing. Instead of paying per camera, all of your devices per home—including your cameras, speakers and displays—are covered for one low price, even when you add a new device. For just $8 a month (or $80 for an annual subscription), the new Nest Aware comes with 30 days of event video history. Or, for those who want 24/7 video history, you can choose Nest Aware Plus for 60 days of event video history and 10 days of 24/7 video history for $16 per month (or $160 for an annual subscription).

Get alerts that matter. With the new Nest Aware, now your devices will start recording event clips when they detect motion or sound and give you the clips you need to see. When something happens that needs your attention—like a package being delivered—we’ll send you an alert. If you prefer 24/7 continuous recording, for example, on your outdoor camera during the night, that’s also still available with Nest Aware Plus.

Take care of loved ones. If your elderly parent or relative has a Nest Hub Max, not only can they stay in touch with loved ones through Duo video calling, but you can also look out for them with the new Nest Aware. All they have to do is invite you as a home member and enable their speaker or display, and you’ll get notifications if something needs your attention.

Easily upgrade from old to new. If you already have an existing Nest Aware subscription, you can upgrade to the new version through the Google Store. Keep in mind that upgrading to the new Nest Aware requires that you migrate to a Google account if you haven’t already. You also have the option to keep your current subscription if you choose.

package detectionNest HubNest Cam Indoor

Meet Canada’s Group of Seven

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Group of SevenMcMichaelFranklin CarmichaelA.J.CassonLionel LeMoine FitzGeraldLawren S. HarrisEdwin HolgateA.Y. JacksonFrank JohnstonArthur LismerJ.E.H MacDonaldFrederick VarleyPosted by Adam Heardman, Editorial Coordinator

Official Canada Blog