The Tech Landscape #105 š¤
Alexander of Abonoteichus, born in 105 CE, was the leader of the cult of Glycon, a snake-god with a human head. The cult was alleged by the writer Lucian to be a fraud, and Glycon itself nothing more than a glove puppet.
Lots of Amazon news this week, as they held their first re:MARS conference which featured lots of robots and space stuff, but also some things about Alexa and shopping.
Assistants & Voice
Amazon announced Alexa Conversations, a new service that creates natural conversation flows from a handful of dialog examples, reducing the time and effort spent on providing training data. The service is available in Beta in the US.
developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/44499221-01ff-460a-a9ee-d4e9198ef98d/introducing-alexa-conversations-preview
Amazon also showed off Cross-Skill Goal Completion, a new approach to handling conversations with Alexa that involve multiple skillsāfor example, planning a night out using skills for finding a restaurant, booking a movie, and calling a cab in the same conversation.
developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/9615b190-9c95-452c-b04d-0a29f6a96dd1/amazon-unveils-novel-alexa-dialog-modeling-for-natural-cross-skill-conversations
Alexa is now available to owners of LGās 2019 range of TVs in 14 countries, following a software update.
voicebot.ai/2019/06/04/alexa-now-activated-on-2019-lg-smart-tvs/
Third-party Actions for Google Assistant are now available to users of Android Go, the version of Android which powers a claimed 70% of all new entry-level Android devices.
twitter.com/ActionsOnGoogle/status/1137026430783676417
Googleās Nest Hub smart displays will soon be able to play Netflix, it seems. Fits Googleās positioning of the Nest Hub Max as āthe kitchen TVā.
9to5google.com/2019/06/05/google-nest-hub-netflix-smart-displays/
Retail
Amazon announced StyleSnap, a new visual search app feature that suggests fashion items based on submitted photos of a ālookā.
blog.aboutamazon.com/shopping/stylesnap-will-change-the-way-you-shop-forever?linkId=68601865
Amazon showed flight footage from its new Prime Air delivery drone. Has a range of 24km (15 miles), can carry up to 2.25kg (5lb), capable of detecting obstructions in-flight.
blog.aboutamazon.com/transportation/a-drone-program-taking-flight
Messaging and Payments
Messaging app LINE is launching a digital wallet in partnership with Visa, for its 187m (mostly in Japan and Taiwan) users.
linecorp.com/en/pr/news/en/2019/2734
The owners of the KIK messaging app are being sued by the US authorities for their cryptocurrency āinitial coin offeringā which raised $100m. This could be a test case for the many companies which have offered digital token investments.
fastcompany.com/90359537/kiks-100-million-ico-for-kin-crypto-was-illegal-sec
Travel
Google Pay is gaining some new features for faster checkout on the web/in apps, boarding pass integration with Assistant, and an open API for transit tickets.
developers.googleblog.com/2019/06/google-pay-launches-new-dynamic.html
Googleās Trips app, for travel planning, will close in August. Most of its functionality has already moved into its new Travel website.
digitaltrends.com/android/google-trips-app-shutdown/
Everything Else
Google announced details of its Stadia games streaming service. It will cost Ā£8.99 for the Pro account with 4K streaming, there will be a free tier with reduced quality later. Access will be available initially through a āFounderās Editionā in November, with a Ā£120 cost for a controller, Chromecast Ultra, and three months free Pro for the buyer and a friend. Some aspects of the service are still unknown, and more announcements will be made later.
blog.google/products/stadia/summer-announcement/
Google paid a reported Ā£2bn to acquire Looker, a business intelligence platform. This is said to be aimed at bolstering its Cloud business, which is currently being out-performed by Amazon and Microsoft.
cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/expanding-our-platform-for-business-intelligence-and-embedded-analytics
Skypeās mobile app has been redesigned for better video calling and now supports screen sharing with friends.
blogs.skype.com/news/2019/06/04/screen-sharing-goes-mobile-and-more/
Spotify Stations, a personalised playlist app, has launched in the US after a long trial in Australia.
billboard.com/articles/business/8514383/spotify-stations-lean-back-listening-app-launches-in-us
Google is improving its SOS alerts, which give information to people affected by natural disasters, with visualisations of earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Google Maps will also steer you away from affected areas.
blog.google/products/maps/updates-maps-and-search-help-during-times-crisis/
Mail Online saw a 50% drop in search engine traffic after the most recent Google search algorithm update.
pressgazette.co.uk/mail-online-search-traffic-halves-after-google-algorithm-update/