If you fancy splashing out on a new phone the Google Pixel devices has got some discounts now on offer which might make you hit that purchase button. Currently I use the Pixel 3a and its my daily driver and does all my daily tasks with no issues at all despite being a mid tier device and I throw alot at my phones and it is running fine months after release.. Also worth noting the Pixel 3a has a superb camera and is arguably one of the best on the market but for anything under €400 nothing comes near it..
The Pixel 3 has got a big discount too and again it might be worth the purchase, These discounts come as normal as the Pixel 4 will be due to launch soon and I for one cant wait to see what is on offer and Google have been dishing out some of the features on social of late to keep people on their toes. The Pixel 3 starts now at €699
An Irish schoolboy has made it to the global final of the annual Google Science Fair, the annual online science competition open to students between the ages of 13 and 18 from around the world.
Fionn Ferreira (18) from Ballydehob in West Cork will be flown to Google international headquarters in Mountain View, California, this July to compete in the largest science fair in the world. An alumnus of the BT Young Scientist Exhibition, Fionn is a student at Schull Community College who is about to sit his Leaving cert in June.
His project titled “An investigation into the removal of microplastics from water using ferrofluids” posits a novel way to filter microplastics from water by using magnets. It is one of 20 global finalists chosen from a shortlist of 100 regional entries competing for the top prize of a $50,000 bursary, with category winners each receiving $15,000 grants and exclusive STEM-related experiences.
The Google Science Fair has been running annually since 2011 and is held in partnership with Virgin Galactic, LEGO Education, National Geographic, and Scientific American.
In addition to becoming a finalist in one of the most prestigious STEM competitions for students, the 18 year old polymath is also about to undergo his Leaving Cert this June. Not content with an already busy schedule, Fionn also works as a curator at the Schull Planetarium, has won 12 science fair awards, speaks three languages fluently, plays the trumpet at orchestra level, and has even had a minor planet named after him by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Speaking about the announcement, Fionn Ferreira said, “It’s an incredible honour to reach the global final of the Google Science Fair. My project came about as I was constantly hearing about plastic pollution on the news, and as I live by the sea in West Cork I was also seeing the real effects on our beaches every day. I discovered to my dismay that at present no screening or filtering for microplastics takes place in any European wastewater treatment centres, so I started looking around for a solution.
“Seeing that there was none I decided to investigate further, eventually finding a way to use ferrofluid, a magnetic liquid which sticks to the plastic allowing it to be removed using magnets. I was inspired by an article I read about how non-toxic iron oxide powder can be used to clean up oil spills by making a ferrofluid from the spilled oil. So to adapt this for microplastics I used a mixture of magnetite (iron oxide) and waste vegetable oil, and the resulting ferrofluid sticks to and attracts plastic particles. After over 1,000 tests I have proved that my method would remove 87% or higher of microplastics in sample tests.
“I can’t wait to get to Google HQ in California to talk about my project, and I look forward to applying my findings and contributing towards a solution in tacking microplastics in our oceans worldwide.”
Read more about “An investigation into the removal of microplastics from water using ferrofluids” here.
Read more about Fionn via his personal website here. Read more about the Google Science Fair here.
Irish startups from across the country are being encouraged to apply for Google’s Adopt a Startup Programme which this year launches in an exciting new format. The new programme will be 8 weeks duration and will focus on Priority Growth Areas, identified by the companies themselves and the Adopt a Startup team in Google, which have a significant impact on a startup’s development and success.
The Priority Growth Areas include 4 crucial stages of growth: Understanding Your Customer, Building Your Brand, Growing Globally and Scaling Your Organisation. Participants will benefit from unmatched expertise and support in topics such as Analytics and UX, pitching and networking, automation and machine learning and how best to plan for global growth.
The new programme offers startups full support though a series of exclusive lectures and workshops, 1-on-1 on-site support with a team of passionate Googlers, and unique networking opportunities at Google’s EMEA Headquarters.
Paddy Flynn, Director, Google said: “We’ve achieved a lot of success over the past five years but we are always looking at ways to improve our impact. We’ve listened to feedback from startups and have reshaped this next iteration of the programme, including reducing the number of startups from 30 to 15 for this cycle. This will allow us to deliver a more intensive programme, will focus on 4 crucial stages in a startup’s growth cycle and will give participants more direct engagement with Google experts. We hope that this focus will enable them scale more effectively and learn from each other through the programme.”
Following the 8 week programme, each startup will have the opportunity to pitch their growth plan to a panel of select judges, with some unique prizes up for grabs including €10,000 in Google Ads credit and eligibility for the Google Cloud Programme which includes $100,000 in Google Cloud Credit.
The Adopt a Startup programme was launched by Google in 2014 and has mentored over 150 companies, helping them to develop and grow. FoodCloud, UrbanVolt, Jobbio, Beats Medical and Logograb are just some of the amazing companies who have participated in the programme and have gone on to achieve significant success in their industries. The programme was created in Dublin and has become such a success that is now being implemented in dozens of other countries around the world. In the last year the Startup team at Google have also worked on bringing Irish scaleups into global Google programs and helping Irish scale ups understand how to engage with Google at a global level.
Places on the programme are now limited to 15 companies, with applications closing on 22 April. More information on Adopt A Startup and full details on how to apply can be found at https://events.withgoogle.com/adoptastartup/
Non-profit organisations and social enterprises are the unsung heroes making Greater Dublin a better place for all its citizens, and today Google recognised their contribution by awarding a total of €1 million in grants to 15 organisations who are making a difference and have ambitious plans to do more.
Last month, 15 organisations were selected to receive €50,000 funding for their programmes (see Editors’ Note below for full list). A panel of judges was then tasked with choosing four recipients to have their funding doubled to €100,000, with a fifth organisation selected by an online public vote. The five winners were announced at a gala event held at The Foundry in Google last night.
Huge boost for Dublin communities as 15 local charities share in €1M Google.org Impact Challenge Dublin fund Five grants of €100,000 and ten grants of €50,000 awarded to local Dublin community initiatives Pictured are winners of the “People’s Choice Award” Sile Maguire, Mark O’Doherty both from Down Syndrome Ireland with Fionnuala Meehan, Head of Google Ireland. Picture by Shane O’Neill, SON Photographic
The four organisations chosen by the panel of judges to receive €100,000 each from the Google.org Impact Challenge are:
A Lust for Life, a new, innovative platform to share creative mental health content
Citywise Education, which provides educational support to young people in underserved communities
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, which removes barriers to accessing support for those who have experienced sexual violence
SeniorLine, a peer-to-peer IT education and drop-in facility for older people
Down Syndrome Ireland, which helps adults with Down Syndrome to secure meaningful paid employment, won the “People’s Choice Award” in a close-run online poll which saw a total of over 38,000 votes cast.
Fionnuala Meehan, Head of Google Ireland commented, “The five months since we launched the Google.org Impact Challenge Dublin have been really awe-inspiring. We received over 150 entries from all corners of the county and from every imaginable community initiative, and it was really heartening to see so much energy and enthusiasm being invested into local and grassroots projects.
“Dublin has been very good to us in the last 15 years, so we have been very mindful of supporting local projects as much as possible, and the Google.org Impact Challenge Dublin is the latest in a long line of these endeavours. We’re now looking forward to working with all of the winners and helping them use their funds in the best possible way to realise their goals.”
The Lord Mayor of Dublin Nial Ring said; “It has been wonderful to be part of the judging panel and to have the opportunity to recognise just some of the voluntary organisations and social enterprises who are contributing to our city. We had a tough time selecting the groups to receive double the funding, but the five charities named today – including one chosen by the general public – represent some of the most pressing issues and underserved communities in Ireland, covering mental health, disadvantaged community education, special needs and older people”.
The Google.org Impact Challenge Dublin judging panel included: The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Nial Ring; Senator Lynn Ruane; Mary Rose Burke; CEO of Dublin Chamber of Commerce; Bernard Brogan, Dublin GAA legend; Roisin Ingle, Journalist; Tomás Sercovich, CEO, Business in the Community; and the Head of Google Ireland, Fionnuala Meehan.
For more information visit g.co/DublinChallenge.
Huge boost for Dublin communities as 15 local charities share in €1M Google.org Impact Challenge Dublin fund Five grants of €100,000 and ten grants of €50,000 awarded to local Dublin community initiatives Pictured are winners of the “People’s Choice Award” Sile Maguire, Mark O’Doherty both from Down Syndrome Ireland with Stuart McLaughlin, Google.org Senior Regional Manager, EMEA. Picture by Shane O’Neill, SON Photographic
The fifteen organisations to receive funding from the Google.org Dublin Impact Challenge are:
Winners of €100,000 in funding:
A Lust for Life is creating a new, innovative platform to share creative mental health content
Citywise Education is providing educational support to young people in underserved communities
Down Syndrome Ireland Down Syndrome Ireland is helping adults with Down syndrome to secure meaningful paid employment
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. The DRCC is removing barriers to accessing support for those who have experienced sexual violence
Senior Line is offering peer-to-peer IT education and drop-in facility for older people
Winners of €50,000 in funding:
An Cosán Virtual Community College. An Cosán is harnessing the power of technology to grow and innovate community education
Music Generation Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Infinite Music is a music performance programme for young people with special educational needs
Irish Females in Technology (I-FITs). I-FITs is a Tech Apprenticeship Programme for unemployed females from Dublin’s ‘Silicon Docks’ area
GiveBack.ie. GiveBack.ie is technology that empowers individuals to break the cycle of homelessness
THEATREclub. THEATREclub wants to affect a shift in Dubliners’ view of addiction using audience activist groups
Irish Youth Foundation ‘Next Step’ is supporting students in the transition from primary to secondary level school
Peter McVerry Trust Peter McVerry Trust is establishing a culinary training program for people experiencing homelessness
Dublin City Farm and Ecology Centre St. Anne’s City Farm is a sustainable farm that promotes education and multiculturalism
Teen-Turn Teen-Turn is changing how girls from underrepresented communities identify with STEM careers
Young Social Innovators YSI is empowering Ireland’s most disadvantaged youth to address local issues using robotics and STEM
To celebrate the birthday of composer Johann Sebastian Bach today, Google has created the first AI-powered Google Doodle that allows anyone to create their own Bach harmony directly within the Doodle on Google’s search page.
The Doodle is an interactive experience encouraging players to compose a two-measure melody of their choice – users can add notes, accidentals, change tempo and key. Then, with the press of a button, the Doodle uses machine learning to harmonize the custom melody into Bach’s signature music style (or a Bach 80’s rock style hybrid if you happen to find a very special Easter egg in the Doodle…)
The machine learning engine behind today’s Doodle was trained by analysing 306 of Bach’s chorale harmonisations. His chorales always have four voices, each carrying their own melodic line, while creating a rich harmonic progression when played together, and it was this concise structure that made the chorales good training data for a machine learning model.
· The Bach Doodle is available today worldwide on Google.com.
Google today named the fifteen beneficiaries of its €1million Google.org Impact Challenge Dublin, with each receiving €50,000 in grants to bring their ideas to life. Launched last November, the Google.org Impact Challenge Dublin invited nonprofits, social enterprises, and educators throughout Dublin to submit proposals for bold ideas to grow economic and social opportunities in their local communities.
Pictured are some of the judges participating in the Google.org Dublin Impact Challenge: Stuart McLoughlin, Senior Regional Manager, Google.org EMEA; Fionnuala Meehan, Vice President and head of Google in Ireland; Dublin GAA legend, Bernard Brogan; Dolores Wilson from St Andrews Resource Centre, Pearse Street, Dublin 2; Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Nial Ring; Mary Rose Burke, CEO of Dublin Chamber. Picture Conor McCabe.
Of the fifteen recipients announced today, five are in line to receive an additional €50,000 of funding, bringing their total grants to €100,000 each. Four of these will be selected by Google’s esteemed panel of judges, with the fifth open to a public vote. Voting is open for one week from Tuesday 19th to Tuesday 26th of March at http://g.co/dublinchallenge. The five projects to receive additional bursaries will be announced at a celebratory event on the evening of Thursday 4th April and is funded by Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org.
Fionnuala Meehan, Head of Google Ireland commented, “We were blown away by the quantity and quality of the entries received. Over our 15 years here in Ireland we’ve supported many local projects but this is our biggest drive yet to support the community initiatives in the city we call home. The diversity and ambition of the submissions were very impressive, with small local initiatives through to more established charities all submitting entries.
“Choosing the final fifteen was not an easy task. Our aim was to tap into innovation across the city to support great ideas to build stronger communities, and the list of finalists represents a broad spectrum of charities and community initiatives across Dublin, with mental health, education, employment, support services, and more represented. I really hope that the Google.org Dublin Impact Challenge goes some way to assisting these great projects in achieving their goals, and I look forward to announcing the additional five bursaries in April.”
Pictured are some of the judges participating in the Google.org Dublin Impact Challenge: Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Nial Ring; Dublin GAA legend, Bernard Brogan; Mary Rose Burke, CEO of Dublin Chamber. Picture Conor McCabe Photography.
The Google.org Impact Challenge Dublin has been immensely popular with over 150 entries received by groups from all areas of the city covering a wide spectrum of initiatives. The public has been given the opportunity to double the funding of one of the winners by way of a “People’s Choice Award”, with voting now open at http://g.co/dublinchallenge for one week only (closes Tuesday 26th March).
The fifteen finalists are:
A Lust for Life
A Lust for Life is creating a new, innovative platform to share creative mental health content
An Cosán Virtual Community College
An Cosán is harnessing the power of technology to grow and innovate community education
Citywise Education
Fast Track Academy is providing educational support to young people in underserved communities
Down Syndrome Ireland
Down Syndrome Ireland is helping adults with Down syndrome to secure meaningful paid employment
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
The DRCC is removing barriers to accessing support for those who have experienced sexual violence
Irish Females in Technology (I-FITs)
I-FITs is a Tech Apprenticeship Programme for unemployed females from Dublin’s ‘Silicon Docks’ area
GiveBack.ie
GiveBack.ie is technology that empowers individuals to break the cycle of homelessness
THEATREclub
THEATREclub wants to affect a shift in Dubliners’ view of addiction using audience activist groups
Irish Youth Foundation
‘Next Step’ is supporting students in the transition from primary to secondary level school
Music Generation Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
Infinite Music is a music performance programme for young people with special educational needs
Peter McVerry Trust
Peter McVerry Trust is establishing a culinary training program for people experiencing homelessness
Senior Line
SeniorLine is offering peer-to-peer IT education and drop-in facility for older people
Dublin City Farm and Ecology Centre
St. Anne’s City Farm is a sustainable farm that promotes education and multiculturalism
Teen-Turn
Teen-Turn is changing how girls from underrepresented communities identify with STEM careers
Young Social Innovators
YSI is empowering Ireland’s most disadvantaged youth to address local issues using robotics and STEM
The Google.org Dublin Impact Challenge judging panel includes the following members:
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Nial Ring; Senator Lynn Ruane; CEO of Dublin Chamber, Mary Rose Burke; Dublin GAA legend, Bernard Brogan; Journalist, Roisin Ingle; Business In The Community CEO, Tomás Sercovich; and Head of Google Ireland, Fionnuala Meehan.
Google is now rolling out is much-anticipated Night Sight feature for its Pixel phones, a ground-breaking AI-driven feature announced first at the Made By Google event on October 9th.
Night Sight allows regulars users to capture vibrant and detailed low-light photos without a flash or tripod, or without any specialist knowledge – just switch on the feature, point, and shoot.
The Pixel phones have been available in Ireland via Vodafone and the Google Store since November 1st, with prices ranging from €899 (64GB) and €959 (128GB) for the Pixel 3, and €999 (64 GB) and €1099 (128GB) for the Pixel 3 XL.
Night Sight adapts to you and the environment so you can capture the moment effortlessly. Here are some additional tips to get the most out of your phone’s camera in low light:
If you’re taking a photo of someone, ask them to hold still for a few seconds before and after you press the shutter button.
Hold the phone steady. If you can, try propping it against a stable surface.
Make sure the camera lens is clean. It can accumulate oil from fingerprints, creating blurry and soft photos.
Try tapping on or around your subject to help your camera focus when taking photos in very dark conditions.
Avoid pointing your camera at bright light sources, which may cause unwanted reflections in your photo.
Cameras don’t work in complete darkness, so you’ll still need some light to capture a photo.
The much talked about and leaked device of the year has dropped in and today we will have a quick unboxing of the all new Google Pixel 3 XL. We have more videos to follow soon on this device and accessories. The Pixel 3 XL would have been my primary choice of the two as I prefer bigger smartphones but there is much talk about that notch on top which does not bother me at all being my first notched device.
On initial set up and getting the hang of the device so far I am liking what I am seeing overall and will be talking more about the phone in the coming weeks and if you have any questions as always just ask below or on our social channels and we will help with any assistance you may need.
For more information on the Google Pixel 3XL head over HERE and stay tuned for further updates on the device in the coming weeks as we give it a good test.
The Google Pixel 3 XL stand is a handy piece of tech to have complement your Google device which gives you wireless charging and information at hand and also entices you to use the Google Assistant which works quite well in most instances.
The stand will give you up to 10W fast charging on your Pixel 3 and if you have any other Qi- compatible devices they will work too but at half the charge rate. One feature I like on this is the digital wellbeing which enables you to take a break from your smartphone and this gives you a daily log of your mobile activies and perhaps after using such you might get a shock as to how much time you spend on your phone..
Whilst the device is sat in the stand youn have shortcuts to tap you can listen to the news straight away or get weather information and news for your locale. You can launch a bedtime routine too with the assistant and set alarm or get a virtual snapshot of the day based on the information provided. If you have Nest HELLO this is also has intergration built in. The nice thing for me here is the ability to have a digital photo frame and listen to my playlist too and the speakers on this phone are plenty aloud.
