Google buys Limes Audio for better sound in Hangouts

Google has bought Limes Audio, a company with technology to improve sound quality in video calls, to improve its conferencing products like Hangouts, according to a blog post Thursday.

The tech giant said audio quality -- "so that you can hear the person you're talking to, and they can hear you" -- is critical as more businesses adopt its videoconferencing services like Chromebox for Meetings and Hangouts.

T-Mobile will credit low-data users $10 a month

T-Mobile is making the case that you should be on its unlimited data plan -- even if all you do is view photos of your grandchildren.

At the CES 2017 show, the nation's third-largest carrier on Thursday introduced its "Kickback" program, designed to give customers who don't use a lot of data a credit of $10 a month. It only applies to T-Mobile One unlimited data customers who use less than 2 gigabytes of data a month, or roughly 8 hours of streaming video.

 

Google Calendar update makes it easier to track fitness goals

Just when you were ready to ditch that New Year's resolution to go running every morning, Google is here to help. Well, it's here to help people who use the Goals feature in Google Calendar.

Google on Thursday said you can now connect Google Fit and Apple Health to your fitness goals in Calendar. "When you do, activity in your favorite fitness apps will be recorded and used to mark your goals in Google Calendar as 'done' automatically," reads a post about the update.

 

Google's AI continues to crush humans at ancient game Go

The AI program developed by DeepMind, a Google-owned artificial intelligence company based in the UK, has been secretly playing and beating some of the world's best Go players online. DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis revealed in a tweet Wednesday that AlphaGo has been playing under the usernames "Magister" and "Master" on online Go sites Tygem and FoxGo.

Master, aka AlphaGo, has been crushing other players over the last few days and managed to beat Ke Jie, the world's reigning Go champion, twice, reported New Scientist. In total, AlphaGo won 50 out of the 51 online games it played, with one game being a draw due to an internet connection time out.

 

8 tech tips I learned while traveling abroad

During the week between Christmas and New Years, I was lucky enough to visit the City of Light. It was breathtaking from start to finish, and if you heard reports of a man being dragged kicking and screaming onto a flight leaving Paris, well...

The last time I'd been abroad, there were no smartphones. Meaning no Google Maps, no Uber, no Yelp, etc. How I managed to get anywhere, I can't imagine. Thankfully, modern technology makes modern global travel infinitely easier, especially if you plan ahead. Here's what I learned on my holiday vacation.

SIM in advance

Traveling abroad? Slap a KnowRoaming sticker on your SIM card and it'll automatically connect to a local network once you arrive.

Photo by KnowRoaming

Conventional wisdom says that once you reach a foreign country, you should just buy a SIM card and switch over to it while you're there.

Conventional wisdom is wrong. For starters, you need service the moment you land, whether it's to call the hotel, summon an Uber or just text family that you've arrived safely. You may be able to find a SIM vendor at the airport, but do you really want to rely on that? And what if there's a language barrier and you need tech help?

My advice: Get your SIM card in advance. You may pay slightly higher rates overall, but you'll also be good to roam as soon as the plane touches down.

I recommend KnowRoaming, which comes in two flavors: a straight-up replacement for your existing SIM card and a sticker that permanently affixes to your existing card -- effectively putting two SIMs in your phone at once.

I had the opportunity to test both in France, and for the most part they worked very well. The big challenge -- as with virtually any SIM swap -- is that you inherit a new phone number, which can cause text-messaging complications. More on that below.