The Tech Landscape #153 🐟
This is issue 153 of The Tech Landscape, a weekly collection of news about consumer digital technology. Stories are selected by me, Peter Gasston, with a little insight and opinion where appropriate.
The Christian bible twice mentions apostles making a miraculous catch of exactly 153 fish. Scholars have debated the meaning of this number for hundreds of years, and have come up with nothing.
Quite a few stories about video conferencing / online collaboration / social listening and watching this week, because that’s all there is to do.
Messaging
Facebook launched Messenger Rooms, its multi-user video messaging tool, in Facebook and Messenger. It’s easier than setting up a video call and allows users to join even without a Facebook account.
messengernews.fb.com/2020/05/14/messenger-rooms-is-now-available/
Facebook bought GIPHY for a reported £330 million. It says it intends to integrate the service more closely with Instagram but will also keep it open for anyone else to use—although now Facebook gets more insight into how people are using the images.
about.fb.com/news/2020/05/welcome-giphy/
Google made Meet, its video conferencing service, free for all users. Originally only for Gsuite business customers, growth in use and increased competition has forced a consumer roll-out too, and will hopefully replace Hangouts and make Google’s various messaging services a little easier to understand.
blog.google/products/meet/google-meet-is-here-to-host-everyones-video-meetings-for-free/
XR
Apple acquired NextVR, a company which provides sports highlights in VR & AR, for a reported £82 million. The public platform has closed already, and its unclear if Apple intends to provide an exclusive version of the service or use the company’s talent or IP—but either way, you know something big is coming from Apple in the XR space soon.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-14/apple-acquires-startup-nextvr-to-gain-virtual-reality-content
Spatial, a VR collaboration startup, made its service free to offer an alternative to video conferences. It also launched access through a browser or apps for people who don’t have a VR headset (that is, most people).
engadget.com/spatial-ar-vr-meetings-free-oculus-quest-100008450.html
NVIDIA announced CloudXR, a service which streams high-quality 3D video to end devices, making them capable of displaying pro-level graphics without requiring pro-level hardware.
blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2020/05/14/cloudxr-sdk/
Entertainment
Spotify launched Group Session, a social listening feature which lets two or more Premium users control playlists and music playback together. The feature has been in testing for a year and just moved to Beta status, probably accelerated by the desire for sociability brought on by lockdowns.
techcrunch.com/2020/05/11/spotify-officially-launches-a-shared-queue-feature-called-group-session/
Houseparty ran In The House, a three-day virtual arts festival for social watching. The app is owned by Epic Games, makers of Fortnite, so its interesting to see them turning into a live events powerhouse.
houseparty.com/in-the-house/
Everything Else
Google’s new Nest Aware home security subscription service launched in 19 countries. It uses Nest cameras to detect motion and unusual sounds (like breaking glass) in your home, and sends alerts to your phone.
blog.google/products/google-nest/5-things-know-about-new-nest-aware/
Amazon launched new versions of its popular Fire 8 tablets, with improved hardware and an all-new Kids Edition. They run on Android but don’t use Google’s Play Services, which people always seem to forget when trying to make the case that Google runs Android as a monopoly.
developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/f4979f00-43d9-4240-bf23-ada9bedd26c9/new-tablets-for-the-entire-family-the-all-new-fire-hd-8-fire-hd-8-plus-and-fire-hd-8-kids-edition
Cerence, the company specialising in in-car voice technology, announced its first customisable voice assistant, ARK. Its available to auto manufacturers which want to offer voice control in their cars without the cost of developing from scratch.
cerence.com/news/posts/cerence-launches-cerence-ark-assistant
Twitter will add labels or warnings to tweets which send misinformation (or disinformation) about COVID-19, or even automatically remove this with the potential to cause severe harm. This extends its recently announced policy of labelling harmful manipulated or synthetic tweets.
blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2020/updating-our-approach-to-misleading-information.html