This Week in Tech

Google’s New Logo

MANILA, Philippines - If you’ve missed this bit of news, then you’re probably not on the Internet much. Last September 1, Google unveiled a new logo. It’s not the first time they’ve done this, but this new one is more whimsical and streamlined. Gone is the serif font that has graced iterations of the tech giant’s logo since 1998. Instead, the new design reflects “a world of seamless computing across an endless number of devices and different kinds of inputs.” Google also replaced the blue lower case “g” icon and replaced it with a multi-colored capital “G”.

30-Second Video Ads coming to Instagram

You may not see ads on Instagram yet (they’re already available in some regions) but they’re coming soon, and are going to be even longer than the platform’s 15-second video limit. Instagram announced this week that 30-second video ads are coming soon and it’s not just going to be available to a select few. Small business in more countries including South Korea and India will also be able to start buying ad inventory on the service, with even more countries coming soon.

Jawbone update brings passive heart rate tracking

Jawbone is rolling out a firmware update for its Up3 and Up4 fitness trackers to deliver on features promised when both wearables were unveiled last year. Both bands will now measure a wearer’s heart rate periodically throughout the day, in order to paint a better picture of how certain activities relate to a wearer’s heart rate. The bands are also now smart enough to go into sleep mode (when the user goes to sleep) without any action from the user.

Samsung debuts 6GB RAM modules for smartphones

Many of this year’s crop of smartphones sport at least 3GB of RAM, some even, like the Asus Zenfone 2 and the Galaxy Note 5 from Samsung, have 4GB. But soon, phones may sport up to 6GB of RAM – that’s almost as much found on today’s mid-range laptops. Samsung recently showed off these new memory chips that are 30% faster but consume 20% less energy. They are also 50% denser, meaning manufacturers can choose to keep RAM at 3GB but with half the required amount of space.