The Tech Landscape #156 ◼️
This is issue 156 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.
156 years ago Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman to graduate as a doctor of medicine in the United States. In the year she started medical college there were over 54,000 physicians in the US, none of whom were African-American.
Understandably, and entirely correctly, technology news took a back seat to the events of last week. For completeness’ sake, here are the interesting things that were announced, plus a bonus link.
Everything
Niantic is improving the AR of Pokémon Go with two new features: Reality Blending, which makes digital objects appear to more realistically with the physical environment, and Pokéstop Scanning, where players can create digital maps of popular areas by recording volumetric video. This second one is particularly interesting as Pokémon Go has a large number of players which can contribute to Niantic’s 1:1 ‘mirrorworld’ digital map, an effort which every major tech company is quietly working on.
nianticlabs.com/blog/realityblending-announcement/
Pinterest added a Shop tab to its Lens camera, so users can snap a picture of an item and buy it (or something like it) instantly. Camera commerce is a thing, and Pinterest continues to be quietly impressive and largely overlooked in online retail.
newsroom.pinterest.com/en/post/shop-with-your-camera-pinterest-launches-shop-tab-on-lens-visual-search-results
The BBC launched a beta test of its Beeb voice assistant, which is intended to work across all BBC products and understand UK regional accents.
bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/45d6b6c9-9f40-4f90-8616-37d5a294490f
Facebook launched Manage Activity, a tool to archive or delete old posts in bulk. This makes it much easier to clean up the embarrassing old posts from a profile.
about.fb.com/news/2020/06/introducing-manage-activity/
The latest ‘Pixel Drop’ of new features for Google’s phones includes a useful safety check feature which notifies friends and family if you don’t respond to the app by a chosen time, and tools for managing bedtime routines.
blog.google/products/pixel/new-pixel-features-drop/
TikTok added new features to its web interface, including video uploads and liking and sharing content. It’s an interesting expansion from the previous app-only use, and makes life a little easier for professional creators.
newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-tutorial-series-expanding-web-experience
Medium announced an email Newsletters feature. It’s very light on features compared to competitors, but seems an obvious response to the growing threat of the hybrid blog/email platform, Substack.
blog.medium.com/medium-newsletters-4fe903b5bda7