The Tech Landscape 101
In George Orwell’s 1984, Room 101 is a torture chamber used to subject prisoners to “the worst thing in the world”: their own greatest fear. Orwell reportedly named it after a room at the BBC where he sat through many tedious meetings. The artist Rachel Whiteread made a cast of the room before it was demolished in 2003.
This week was dominated by the announcements made by Google at its developer conference, IO. Strap yourself in: there were a lot.
Google IO
Like Facebook at its F8 keynote, Google talked a lot about privacy. Unlike Facebook, Google backed it up with tools and services to give real control to users, and with technology like on-device machine learning that means data stays local instead of going to the cloud. But more than just private, Google says its technology is helpful. Instead of being defensive, Google made the case that it’s good. Lots of emphasis on saving time, giving more information in a more unified way, and giving assistance to people who need it.
Google Assistant
A “next-generation” Assistant will run locally on devices, not the cloud, so will be much faster and able to chain together sequential commands much more easily. It will work across multiple apps, and offline, and be available on the new Pixel phones later this year.
Current Assistant gets a new “driving mode” optimised for in-car use, and is coming to Waze. It will be more personalised with “personal references” providing results based on user-supplied information—friends, family, etc—and “picks for you” on smart displays will show results such as recipes based on your historical activity.
It’s now easier to use Assistant on Android to launch certain actions from within apps, such as ordering food or starting a workout. Smart displays and phones get richer visual results using “interactive canvas” (initially only available for games). Website owners can mark up instructional / ‘how to’ content for better display in Search and on smart displays.
Duplex, the Assistant service that makes phone bookings on behalf of users, will also be able to fill in multi-stage web forms for rental cars and movie tickets, based on data from Gmail, Calendar, and your choices.
AR & Lens
AR comes to search as selected results, from partners including New Balance and Wayfair, will show 3D models which can be viewed in the user’s environment. Lens also gets AR features: selected partners can make printed content into a marker that activates AR content, such as recipe videos in Bon Appetit magazine or paintings in the de Young Museum. Also scanning a restaurant menu with Lens will highlight popular dishes with photos and reviews from Maps, and scanning a bill will calculate tips and how to split it.
Android
Android Q will support foldable screens and 5G. “Smart reply” will offer suggested responses to all messages shown in notifications. Users will have more visibility and control over the use of location data by apps. Core parts of the OS will be updated frequently and without requiring a device restart. “Family link” gives parents control over their children’s phone use, and “focus mode” switches off distractions from selected apps.
Hardware
All of Google’s Hub devices will be brought under the Nest brand, and existing Nest products will be connected to Google accounts. The Nest Hub Max is a new smart display with bigger screen, YouTube programme guide, camera for Duo video calling and face matching in multi-account households, and gesture controls. Coming this Summer to the US, UK and Australia for £219. The Nest Hub (formerly Home Hub) will launch in twelve new countries, with a permanent price drop of £20. The Local Home SDK lets Nest Hub and Home devices communicate directly with smart home appliances.
Two new phones, the Pixel 3a and 3a XL, are available now in 13 countries, including the UK, priced at £399 and £469 respectively. They have inferior hardware to the Pixel 3 but all the top-range camera and software features—and a headphone jack.
Privacy and Accessibility
Maps and Search will get Incognito mode to temporarily mask activity. Users can choose to auto-delete activity data after 3 or 18 months, or keep it indefinitely. Privacy tools will be made easier to find and access across all products. Chrome will get better protection against dodgy ad trackers. A series of commitments to privacy in the home will be published, and a new series of ad transparency measures will give more information about personalisation to users.
Users of Android Go can use Lens to read text aloud, or translate it into other languages (useful in areas of high illiteracy). “Live relay” transcribes all incoming phone calls and auto-suggests replies, and “live caption” can automatically add subtitles to any audio or video that the user plays.
Further reading
- Video highlights of the keynote
- Summary of the keynote
- Key highlights of the keynote
- The eight biggest announcements
- 100 things announced at IO
Assistants & Voice
A new version of Microsoft’s Cortana is getting better at holding natural conversations, using technology acquired from Semantic Machines.
fastcompany.com/90344562/microsofts-nadella-shows-off-a-chattier-craftier-cortana-at-build
Google Assistant is coming to the Sonos One and Beam in the US “in the next few months”. The speakers have supported Alexa since release.
variety.com/2019/digital/news/sonos-google-assistant-1203210270/
Google Assistant is now available in Vietnamese on phones, which usually precedes a launch of hardware in the near future.
androidpolice.com/2019/05/08/google-assistant-is-now-available-in-vietnamese/
Google and Qualcomm have released a reference design which makes it easier for manufacturers of hearables to include Google’s Fast Pair technology and Google Assistant in their products. Qualcomm previously partnered with Amazon to do the same for Alexa devices.
qualcomm.com/news/releases/2019/05/09/qualcomm-expands-smart-headset-platform-include-support-google-assistant
XR
Nike will use the camera on your phone to measure your feet and suggest shoes in the right size. The feature is coming to their app in the US in July, and Europe in August.
theverge.com/2019/5/9/18538101/nike-fit-new-app-ar-measure-feet-shoe-size-online-order-augmented-reality
It seems there’s an AR version of Minecraft on the way. A full announcement is being teased for 17th May.
theverge.com/2019/5/6/18524676/microsoft-minecraft-ar-mobile-game-teaser-build-2019
Retail & Payments
NBCUniversal is trialling new ‘shoppable TV’ content by displaying QR codes on screen when products are shown.
techcrunch.com/2019/05/06/nbcuniversals-scannable-shoppabletv-takes-viewers-directly-to-e-commerce-sites/
The UK government is trialling mobile payments with Apple Pay and Google Pay on four services, with plans to roll it out more widely later in the year.
gov.uk/government/news/government-starts-to-accept-apple-pay-and-google-pay-for-online-services
Facebook has opened an office of 100 people in London to work on WhatsApp, focusing largely on payments. It’s the first product team based outside of California.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-08/facebook-picks-london-to-drive-whatsapp-mobile-payments-globally
Everything Else
Microsoft also held their developer conference this week, but most of their announcements were aimed at Office users so received comparatively little press.
microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/05/06/build-2019-people-centered-experiences-microsoft-365-productivity-cloud/
Android Auto has been redesigned for quicker access to information and less distraction to drivers.
blog.google/products/android/android-auto-new-look-io19/
Fresh from its announcement at IO, podcasts are now appearing in Google search results and can be played directly from the web.
theverge.com/2019/5/10/18564035/google-search-podcasts-ios-desktop-web-player
Facebook is adding birthday cards to its Stories feature. This wouldn’t ordinarily be notable, but it’s another move to get people off the News Feed.
newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/05/birthday-stories/
Digital ad spending in the US exceed $100bn for the first time in 2018. Almost ⅔ of that was on mobile.
techcrunch.com/2019/05/07/iab-internet-advertising-report/