MOBILE TECH

Google Gives iOS Users 1st Crack at Gboard App

Google on Thursday introduced Gboard, an app that combines search with a new soft keyboard for mobile devices running iOS.

Gboard, which supports glide typing, allows users to perform searches from the keyboard without leaving the application they're in. Once the information is found, they can paste it into their application without leaving the keyboard.

Information from searches appear as cards on the screen. With a single tap, the information on the card can be pasted into an app such as iMessage.

Searches, which are conducted by pressing the "G" button at the top of the keyboard, can be for more than Google search results. Users can search for emojis and gifs, too.

iOS First?

Google typically introduces cool apps on its Android platform before iOS, but that's not the case with Gboard -- it's available only for iOS devices.

"They may be saving Gboard as part of an Android upgrade," suggested Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

Google also might be trying to gain insights into iPhone users that it otherwise can't get.

"Google's business model is very dependent on advertising and profile quality," noted Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

"On iOS, Google has the least access to this, but Google's hope is that will improve with this new keyboard," he told TechNewsWorld.

WhatsApp Goes Through Judicial Revolving Door in Brazil

A Brazilian court on Tuesday overturned a different court's Monday order that blocked WhatsApp, the messaging site owned by Facebook, amid a criminal investigation into drug trafficking in the state of Sergipe.

The earlier judicial demand that WhatsApp provide data considered critical to the investigation came soon after a ramp-up in the level of encryption built into the app. Five major Internet service providers faced hefty fines of about US$142,000 daily if they failed to comply with the order.

The ban resulted in more than 100 million people temporarily losing access to the service.

This is not WhatsApp's first brush with Brazilian law. Facebook Vice President Diego Dzodan earlier this year was jailed for a day after WhatsApp failed to comply with a data demand in connection with a prior drug case. WhatsApp said that it could not access messages sought by legal authorities as evidence in that case, and the executive was held briefly in contempt.

WhatsApp last month upgraded its internal security protocols to create full end-to-end encryption, which appears to be a growing trend among Silicon Valley firms to increase their security following a high-profile legal battle between Apple and the FBI. Apple fought government demands that it compromise the encryption built into an iPhone that was a key piece of evidence in the San Bernardino terrorist case.