The Tech Landscape #110 đ
Heron Tower (to use itâs popular appellation) is the tallest building in the City of London and has the largest privately-owned aquarium in the UK. When Salesforce leased six floors in 2014 they made it part of the deal that the building would be renamed after them, but other tenants disputed this and the City of London Corporation had to intervene, ruling that its name should be its address: 110 Bishopsgate.
After last weekâs lull, a glut. All the things that didnât get announced during Independence Day week seemed to get announced this week instead.
Assistants & Voice
Data from the NHS website will be available from Alexa using voice search. This seems to be using well-structured website data in Alexaâs search knowledge graph, as the Government Digital Service have already done with other content.
gov.uk/government/news/nhs-health-information-available-through-amazon-s-alexa
The Alexa/NHS story has had some negative reaction this week which I donât agree with; itâs no more or less private than searching Google (or another search engine) for the information. If you really donât trust Amazon or Google or whoever else, go to the NHS.uk website directly to get the same information. But if people are already asking Alexa for health information, I can only see that getting results from a trusted source is a good thing.
A Belgian news report got hold of audio recordings from Google Assistant, leaked by a human operator who trains the system. Google defended the practice, saying only 0.2% of recordings are sent, unidentified and at random, for review.
theverge.com/2019/7/11/20691021/google-assistant-ai-training-controversy-human-workers-listening-privacy
Voice services get better by human training. For natural language understanding to get better at voice input, search, transcription, automated subtitling, and all the other many ways that benefit huge groups of people, some human intervention is required. Thatâs an unavoidable factâat least for now. Could Google do better at anonymising the data? I donât know. Could they get better at making it clear to people what could happen (itâs a random selection of a tiny proportion of millions of voice queries) to their voice recordings? Almost certainly.
Heineken released a Google Assistant action to order beer for delivery. Based on their Drinkies service, itâs available to users in Netherlands, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico and Vietnam
voicebot.ai/2019/07/09/google-assistant-enables-heineken-beer-deliveries-by-voice/
Google is expanding the features of Assistant in Mexico to include ride booking, food delivery, and money transfers. It says the number of active users of Assistant in Mexico has grown by more than eight times in the past 18 month.
blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/google-for-mexico/
Research firm eMarketer have raised their forecast for shopping from smart speakers, saying the behaviour has grown faster than expected. They predict 31 million people in the US will shop by smart speaker this year, up 31% from 2018.
emarketer.com/content/smart-speaker-shopping-gains-traction
The Westin Buffalo hotel is the first in the world to let users log in to in-room Echo devices using their personal Alexa account, meaning they can get personalised services such as music when away from their home. Iâd be interested to know how they handle logging in and out.
voicebot.ai/2019/07/08/westin-buffalo-becomes-first-hotel-offering-smart-speakers-linked-to-guests-personal-alexa-accounts/
XR
Google showed off a Lens-based augmented reality promotion for the wildly successful nostalgia-fuelled branding opportunity, Stranger Things. This is, I think, the first example of using Lens to augment images, which Google announced at IO earlier this year.
blog.google/products/google-lens/stranger-things-new-york-times/
Armani launched a virtual lipstick try-on in WeChatâs Mini Programs, the first brand to launch an AR tool on the platform. The tool requires the latest version of WeChat, not available outside China as I write this.
jingdaily.com/armani-beauty-wechat-ar/
Social
Instagram released new tools to combat abuse and bullying on the platform: a prompt to reconsider when you might be typing something abusive, and an option to hide comments from everyone but the author.
instagram-press.com/blog/2019/07/08/our-commitment-to-lead-the-fight-against-online-bullying/
Google, through its experimental incubator Area 120, is trialling a new hyperlocal social media app called Shoelace. Itâs intended to help people find new friends, and is available by invite-only in New York.
androidpolice.com/2019/07/10/google-area-120-hyperlocal-social-shoelace/
Video
The streaming video skirmish between Amazon and Google has reached detente, as YouTube comes to Fire TV and Amazon Prime Video comes to Android TV and Chromecast. Still no news on whether the Echo Show will get official YouTube support, however.
theverge.com/2019/7/9/20686773/youtube-fire-tv-prime-video-chromecast-amazon-google-launch-today-available
YouTube is introducing Learning Playlists, curated in association with educational partners, and free from algorithmically-selected âup nextâ recommendations.
theverge.com/2019/7/11/20690736/youtube-learning-playlists-algorithm-recommendations
VidCon
VidCon is a conference for video creators and influencers. Itâs become a popular event for the big online video platforms to announce new content, new creator tools, and new revenue opportunities.
Facebook announced new choices of advertising formats, paid Groups, a Stars currency for micropayments, and new analytics tools.
engadget.com/2019/07/09/facebook-creators-fans-subscription-groups-stars-ads-vidcon/
Facebook will begin taking a cut of payments to fan subscriptions from the start of 2020. Creators can charge $4.99 per month for exclusive contract, and depending on circumstances Facebook will take up to 30% of that. Itâs all about the revenue diversity.
techcrunch.com/2019/07/09/facebook-subscription-revenue-share/
YouTube announced new merchandising partners, subscription options, and purchasable stickers for live streams.
theverge.com/2019/7/11/20690295/youtube-vidcon-2019-monetization-features-super-stickers
Snap announced Creator Shows, new exclusive content from celebrities including Serena Williams and Arnold Schwarzenegger
theverge.com/2019/7/10/20688944/snap-snapchat-creator-shows-serena-williams-kevin-hart
Privacy
The UKâs Information Commissionerâs Office (ICO) has announced its intention to fine British Airways ÂŁ138 million under GDPR for its 2018 data breach. This is the first GDPR fine the UK has levied.
ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2019/07/ico-announces-intention-to-fine-british-airways/
The ICO also announced a fine of ÂŁ99 million on Marriott International for a 2018 data breach.
ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2019/07/statement-intention-to-fine-marriott-international-inc-more-than-99-million-under-gdpr-for-data-breach/
Facebook has been fined a record $5 billion by the US Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations.
9to5mac.com/2019/07/12/facebook-5-billion-ftc-settlement/
Everything Else
Google News is getting a redesign in desktop browsers, with a new card-based Material interface that makes it more similar to its mobile version.
twitter.com/GoogleNewsInit/status/1149379937142317056
The camera view in Google Translate received a major upgrade with 60 new languages, automatically detecting languages, translating into more than just English, and more stability of the live translate feature.
blog.google/products/translate/google-translates-instant-camera-translation-gets-upgrade/
Google Maps in India now shows offers and deals from restaurants in 11 major cities, in addition to the Explore and For You tabs already available in some other markets.
androidcentral.com/google-maps-adds-three-exciting-new-features-users-india
Facebook launched a new tool this week which lets users see why theyâve been shown an ad. The tool gives full transparency of who bought the ad, and which broker they bought it from, and lets you opt out of future ads of they type.
buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/facebook-data-broker-why-i-see-ad
Huawei has released a few details of its backup phone OS, in the case that the US ban on using Android comes into force. HongMeng OS wasnât built for phones but is capable of running on them, and using Android apps. However it would not have access to the Play Store and so would have to build all that functionality too. Itâs clear that itâs very much a Plan B, with Android preferred as the default choice.
pocket-lint.com/phones/news/huawei/148575-huawei-interview-hongmeng-android-ios
Apple paid Samsung a ÂŁ545 million penalty for not meeting an agreed buying target for the OLED screens used in the latest iPhones. This suggests that newer models have not sold nearly as well as was forecast.
trustedreviews.com/news/apple-pay-massive-fine-samsung-oled-screen-orders-3904896
France has voted to introduce a tax of 3% on online sales by large digital companies with an annual revenue of âŹ25 million or more generated in the countryâlargely US giants such as Apple, Facebook, and Google.
bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48947922
A new machine learning algorithm has been developed that consistently beats human players at Pokerâa feat thought unlikely to happen any time soon. The algorithm, developed by Facebook and Carnegie Mellon university, has not been released publicly for fear it could be used to beat the gaming industry.
technologyreview.com/s/613943/facebooks-new-poker-playing-ai-could-wreck-the-online-poker-industryso-its-not-being/