‘Wonder Woman’ and Google want teen girls to code

You may or may not have heard of Google’s Made with Code initiative, a project that encourages young girls to learn to code. Just in time for the release of Wonder Woman, Google is making use of the badass superheroine to teach young women to code. The project lets teenage girls code three unique scenes from the film with introductory coding principles shown along the way. In Los Angeles, 100 girls were invited to an advance screening of the film before trying out the program. If you’re interested or know someone who might want to try this out, you can take a look at the various Made With Code projects here in this link.

Source: Android Authority

Facebook reportedly developing a teen-centric chat app with parental controls

Steinar Engeland/Unsplash

Facebook is still adamant to get teens to use its services. And we know Snapchat has managed to capture the younger market. Now, it’s been discovered that Facebook might be developing a new chat app to attract the teenagers in your life. A report from The Information found code inside the main Facebook app that shows a new, unreleased app called Talk. One of the comments in the code says “Kids love using the creative tools in ‘Talk’ to play games and share fun masks with family and friends.” The app would most likely be restricted to users 13 years or older.

And its main differentiator is that it gives the parents of kids control over who they get to talk to. A line of code says, “Talk is a messaging app where you fully control the contacts.” One more line in the code says children will talk to parents in Messenger and it wouldn’t require a Facebook profile to use. But we’re not sure if this is something that will click, especially if parental controls are involved. Facebook declined to comment about this app and whether it is something they will release.

Source: Engadget

Google Photos now suggests pictures to archive

Just over a week since archive feature came to Google Photos, the app will now suggest what photos you might want to archive. Archiving images on the app will just hide certain images you pick from the main view of the app. The update will build on that and have Google Photos do the thinking for you. The suggestions will show up in a card in the Assistant tab within the app. Google began rolling out the feature to its users but it’s not coming to all devices at the same time so if it hasn’t come your way, be a bit patient.

Source: Android Headlines

Google Home smart speaker coming to Canada on June 26

Canadians now finally have a smart home assistant coming in Google Home. Google Home is coming to Canada on June 26th and is available for pre-order starting today from the Google Store and Best Buy Canada. With it, Google is bringing Google Assistant to Canadians in both English and French. The device can be used to access news and weather, play music, set alarms, solve math problems, tell jokes, control home automation devices and can even make phone calls. All you have to do is say “Okay Google.”

Check out Google Canada’s blog for additional details.