The Tech Landscape #100 🎂
Ten duotrigintillion is 10 to the power of 100, written as the numeral 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. It’s more commonly known as a googol, which was intended to be the name of Google before a colleague of the founders mistyped the word while looking up domain availability.
Welcome to issue 100. A bit of an arbitrary milestone, but if you feel like celebrating it why not forward this email on to a friend?
Facebook F8
The opening keynote of Facebook’s Annual F8 conference is Mark Zuckerberg’s opportunity to tell the world of his company’s goals for the near future. This year’s overt theme was privacy; the unspoken theme was the beginning of the end of the News Feed. Here are the highlights of what was announced.
The main Facebook app has had a major redesign, which the company is calling FB5. The redesign puts more emphasis on Groups, Communities, and Events, with the News Feed pushed down in priority below Stories. The redesigned app is available now in the US and Canada, with a desktop refresh and global rollout to follow.
Messenger will gain the ability to send and receive WhatsApp and Instagram messages. It will have a design revision with a focus on close friends, and all conversations will be encrypted by default. The app has been completely rebuilt and is a fraction of its previous size, and faster-loading. There will be a new desktop app for MacOS and Windows.
Users of Instagram will soon be able to buy products tagged in creators’ posts, using Checkout (Instagram’s new payment system). The camera will be redesigned and gain a new ‘Create Mode’, where users can build Stories with text and stickers without the need for a photo.
Businesses on WhatsApp can display their product catalogue directly in the app. Payments, which have been tested in India, will roll out to other markets this year.
Facebook Dating, already released in Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, and Thailand, will be available in 14 new countries across Asia and South America, and will arrive in the US by the end of the year. A new feature called “Secret Crush,” lets users tell Facebook Dating which people in their friends circle they have a crush on; if the crush reciprocates they’ll be matched.
Two new VR headsets were unveiled. The Oculus Quest is a ‘standalone’ VR headset which isn’t tethered to a PC by cables, and has built-in tracking which doesn’t require external sensors. The Oculus Rift S is a more powerful, tethered VR headset. Both headsets will launch on 21 May, available to preorder now (in the US) at $399.
The Portal home device will get WhatsApp video calling in addition to Messenger. The device will launch in Canada soon, with an expansion to Europe to follow later.
- Facebook’s summary of the keynote
- The Verge’s summary of the keynote
- 12-minute video summary of the keynote
Assistants & Voice
In-skill purchases for Alexa, currently available only in the US, are coming to the UK, Germany, and Japan. The feature will be white-listed at first.
developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/72847a3d-3c61-4985-9179-b3f537fbe689/preview-in-skill-purchasing-isp-coming-to-the-uk-germany-and-japan
Alexa is available to developers in Spanish in the US, ahead of a launch there later this year. As of 2015, 13% of the US population speak Spanish.
developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/3c0adda8-3733-4083-9378-e63903f3e993/alexa-skills-kit-expands-to-include-spanish-in-the-us
Google Assistant now offers up product promotions from selected retailers in the US. Not paid promotions—this is just information that the retailer offers.
voicebot.ai/2019/05/03/google-home-serves-corona-beer-promotion-based-on-location-data-and-local-inventory-feed/
Hardware
Huawei grew their market share of smartphone shipments by 50% over last year, becoming the global number two smartphone manufacturer ahead of Apple, who saw their share drop by 23.2%—their largest ever single-quarter decline.
canalys.com/newsroom/canalys-apple-iphone-shipments-fall-23-as-global-smartphone-market-remains-in-freefall
Google’s Pixel 3 has apparently not sold as well as previous versions. The global smartphone market is in decline and the decision to launch a phone very similar to its predecessor doesn’t seem to have paid off.
theverge.com/2019/4/29/18523162/google-pixel-3a-sales-lead-up-announcement-smartphone-competition
Robotics startup Anki is shutting down.
vox.com/2019/4/29/18522966/anki-robot-cozmo-staff-layoffs-robotics-toys-boris-sofman
Audio
Spotify became the first streaming music service to hit the milestone of 100m paying subscribers.
digitaltrends.com/home-theater/spotify-100-million-subscribers-globally-q1-2019/
Spotify is trialling voice-activated ads, which play curated playlists—with ads—from selected brands when the user says a key phrase. Unilever is the first client to test the feature.
adage.com/article/digital/spotify-debuts-voice-enabled-audio-ads-unilever/2168626
Games
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the new AR game by Pokémon Go’s Niantic Labs, is now available to play in Australia and New Zealand as an ‘open Beta’.
theverge.com/2019/5/2/18526512/harry-potter-wizards-unite-beta-australia-new-zealand-niantic-portkey-games-pokemon-go
Samsung is rumoured to be launching its own gaming service, called PlayGalaxy Link.
mspoweruser.com/samsung-plans-to-launch-its-own-gaming-service-called-playgalaxy-link/
Video
Twitter continues to make content partnerships, signing new and improved deals with 13 (largely US-based) providers.
variety.com/2019/digital/news/twitter-2019-newfronts-live-streaming-video-viacom-espn-live-nation-univision-1203200239/
Facebook has shut down its app, Bonfire, which it created to take on Houseparty. The app was only tested in Denmark and never released in other countries.
theverge.com/2019/5/3/18528317/facebook-bonfire-shutdown-group-video-chat-houseparty-clone
Retail
Google are reportedly accelerating their attempts to take on Amazon by ‘rapidly’ signing up new stores for its Express service—which is also undergoing a rebrand to Google Shopping.
9to5google.com/2019/05/03/google-shopping-rebrand/
Sainsburys has launched its first till-free store, in central London. Customers use an app to scan each item they add to the basket, then scan a code when done and pay for the goods using the app.
about.sainsburys.co.uk/news/latest-news/2019/first-till-free-grocery-story-29042019
Everything Else
Google announced a new setting to auto-delete location history and activity data. Users can choose to auto-delete the data after 3 or 18 months, or to keep it indefinitely.
blog.google/technology/safety-security/automatically-delete-data/
Facebook is retiring Messenger Codes, its proprietary version of QR codes for the platform.
socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-is-killing-off-its-messenger-codes-option/553215/
Google’s Wear OS has had another design revision, gaining swipeable action-based Tiles which show goals, events, weather, heart rate, and more.
blog.google/products/wear-os/tiles-wear-os-google/
The Android Automotive platform for cars will open up to developers, although only media apps will be considered at first.
android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/05/developing-apps-for-android-automotive.html
Uber has added London public transit data to its app, as they aim to be a completely integrated transportation provider. Citymapper should worry.
theverge.com/2019/4/29/18522524/uber-public-transportation-london-underground-directions-schedules