The Tech Landscape #123 🖼
The Jackson 5 claimed that ABC is as easy as 123, but all evidence indicates that counting was developed long before writing.
I was reminded this week that some people still believe that, given easy access to cameras with instant, no-cost processing and infinite storage, previous generations wouldn't have taken a lot of selfies.
Assistants & Voice
Alexa got new tools for developers, including smarter natural language understanding and de-duplication of training data, which should help make Alexa Skills a tiny bit smarter.
developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/a5b37f34-83c8-4274-b576-073a21dfdb7a/build-test-and-tune-your-skills-with-three-new-tools1
Google Assistant is getting its next guest voice (in US English): actor and writer Issa Rae.
blog.google/products/assistant/hey-google-talk-issa/
One in five UK households owns a smart speaker, the highest share in Europe, according to a new report by Strategy Analytics.
voicebot.ai/2019/10/11/over-20-of-uk-households-have-smart-speakers-while-germany-passes-10-and-ireland-approaches-that-milestone/
Messaging
Facebook Messenger has had a small platform update, with richer Private Replies and dynamically updated Persistent Menus. It’s all about the CRM.
developers.facebook.com/blog/post/v2/2019/10/08/messenger-platform-update/
Facebook announced Stories ads that click to Messenger, where a swipe up on an ad can start a conversation with the business that placed it.
messengernews.fb.com/2019/10/01/messenger-brings-fast-growing-surfaces-together-to-drive-valuable-experiences/
Social
Quite a few Instagram changes this week, for some reason.
Instagram launched Create mode for Stories, a new approach to the camera that mixes photo, text, stickers, and new features including a ‘Throwback Thursday’ archive photo. This places Stories as the primary way people interact with Insta.
techcrunch.com/2019/10/08/instagram-create-mode/
Instagram removed the Following tab, which showed Likes by people you follow, apparently because no-one was using it.
buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/instagrams-following-activity-tab-is-going-away
Instagram introduced a new privacy tool called Emails From Instagram, which lists all the emails Instagram have sent you in the last two weeks so you can check if one you’ve received is genuine or a phishing attempt.
twitter.com/instagram/status/1181290576878002176
Games
Fortnite ended its first ‘chapter’ by imploding its map. Players must now wait for a new game update with a new map to start Chapter 2. This is unprecedented for an online game, I think, and a sign of how Fortnite approaches gaming very differently. Fascinating.
eurogamer.net/articles/2019-10-13-fortnite-just-waved-farewell-to-its-first-chapter-in-spectacular-style
The first mobile game in the Call of Duty franchise has hit 100m downloads in its first week, smashing the records of rivals Fortnite and PUBG Mobile (albeit under different circumstances).
thenextweb.com/gaming/2019/10/09/call-of-duty-mobile-crosses-100-million-downloads-in-just-a-week/
Epic Games, publishers of Fortnite, announced Unreal Indies, a content portal that makes it easier for indie games developers to use its popular Unreal Engine.
twitter.com/AlanNoon/status/1182172204668084224
Accessibility
Google’s Chrome browser will offer the option to automatically describe images without a supplied description, a very useful feature for users with impaired vision.
blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/get-image-descriptions/
Google Maps now offers more descriptive voice guidance to users with vision impairment in Japan and the US.
blog.google/products/maps/better-maps-for-people-with-vision-impairments/
Apps
Pinterest released a Lite version of their app into Google’s Play Store in some Central and South American countries. Pinterest Lite is their Progressive Web App with Android packaging, aimed at expanding into new markets where data connection can be spotty or expensive.
techcrunch.com/2019/10/09/pinterest-launches-a-lite-app-for-emerging-markets/
Grasshopper, Google’s learn-to-code app, was released for desktop browsers. It says 2 million people have used the app to date.
blog.google/outreach-initiatives/grow-with-google/grasshopper-desktop-learn-to-code/
Everything Else
Apple will reportedly launch an AR headset in the first half of next year. The headset will look more like traditional glasses than devices like Magic Leap, will be powered by the iPhone, and run a new operating system called Reality OS (or rOS). This is still a rumour, but the analyst who reported it has a good track record, and this rumour is very persistent.
macrumors.com/2019/10/09/kuo-apple-ar-headset-launch-q2-2020/
Tinder released Swipe Night, a video story which lets users interact with left and right swipes. The decisions that are chosen will be displayed on user profiles for matching. US-only.
help.tinder.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034563391-What-is-Swipe-Night-
Google has made it easier to move audio and video around different devices with a new approach called Stream Transfer.
blog.google/products/google-nest/move-your-music-stream-transfer/
AMP, the faster mobile web technology, has joined the OpenJS Foundation. AMP is an open source project but largely driven by Google engineers and given priority in Google search rankings, so this move is at least partially aimed at changing the perception that it’s a Google technology.
blog.amp.dev/2019/10/10/amp-is-joining-the-openjs-foundation-incubation-program/
Standard Cognition, an automated retail company (it offers cashier-less checkout), has bought DeepMagic, another company in the same market. This is largely a defensive move to acquire patents in case of action by Amazon.
techcrunch.com/2019/10/10/autonomous-retail/