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Google boss Larry Page debugged, voice still not fixed

Softly spoken super-nerd now EVEN QUIETER

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Google's CEO Larry Page is back at work after being laid low for a few weeks by an undisclosed illness or bug that caused him to lose his voice.

The search giant's chairman Eric Schmidt told reporters on Thursday that Page had returned to Google at the start of this week.

"He's still recovering. Larry is doing much better," Schmidt said, before adding that Page had headed up a meeting at the company and was "talking, but talking softly". However, Schmidt declined to be drawn on what had caused Page to lose his voice.

The Google boss missed a busy few weeks at the internet giant. It had its annual I/O conference and got serious about the hardware biz with its multibillion-dollar acquisition of Motorola Mobility without the CEO being present.

But Google has also been under immense pressure from competition regulators, particularly in Europe. Brussels is seeking a quick end to its investigation of the ad giant's business practices - which some rivals claim stifles the search market. Schmidt has written a private letter to the EU's competition commissioner claiming that he has addressed the four areas of concern outlined by Joaquin Almunia in May this year.

Reuters reported that despite returning to the Mountain View helm, Page is still expected to miss Google's post-earnings conference call at the end of July, due to his recovery from the unspecified ailment. ®

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"..... bug that caused him to lose his voice."

Is it the same bug that affects Android voice prompts over Bluetooth?

One day somebody will produce a Phone OS that can download official update patches for stupidities like this, rather than leaving the user hoping against hope that a) it'll be fixed in the next full release and b) that release will be made available to their device. I'd buy it.

Until then, rooting and applying some charitable hacker's patch will have to do.

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I had an interesting glitch in Google Maps Navigation last week while testing it driving to a known location, which I presume was caused by not updating the variable's contents which stores the next directions to read aloud. Every time it spoke the directions, I was told to "Turn right onto <repeated street name here>". even in the middle of a bridge over the Ohio River.

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Anonymous Coward

"At the traffic circle, go straight on"

LOL...

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