The Tech Landscape #158 ☀️
This is issue 158 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 Roman emperor Constantine decreed a weekly day of worship and rest dedicated to Sol Invictus, the god of the sun—i.e. Sunday. The earliest known reference to Sol Invictus dates from 158 CE.
Welcome to new subscribers! There were a lot of announcements this week, so without further preamble…
XR
Google made public its Maps Platform gaming service. Previously only available to selected partners, Maps Platform can be used for building location-based AR Pokémon GO clones (like Jurassic World Alive).
cloud.google.com/blog/products/maps-platform/google-maps-platform-gaming-services-now-available-everyone
Facebook acquired Mapillary, a kind of crowdsourced Street View. This is Facebook’s second big mapping acquisition after Scape—both help Facebook build its version of the AR ‘mirrorworld’ service that everyone is working on. Some users are vocally unhappy about the acquisition: they thought they were contributing to an open rival to the big platforms.
blog.mapillary.com/news/2020/06/18/Mapillary-joins-Facebook.html
Apple is reportedly working on two XR headsets, one for VR entertainment and one for lighter AR information, according to a report in Bloomberg. This isn’t the first time two devices have been rumoured, so it’s starting to look real. The VR headset apparently to be announced in 2021, released 2022, with the AR glasses coming in 2023.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-19/apple-team-working-on-vr-and-ar-headset-and-ar-glasses
Etsy’s iOS and iPadOS app gained an AR camera for visualising wall art. AR product previews, especially for home goods, is fast becoming a requirement.
blog.etsy.com/news/2020/visualize-wall-art-with-augmented-reality-on-the-etsy-app/
Amazon Canada is trialling virtual cosmetics try-on through a partnership with Modiface, the XR cosmetics company owned by L’Oreal. Interesting to see if this rolls out to other countries, or if Amazon starts using virtual try-ons of other products.
betakit.com/modiface-amazon-partner-allowing-canadian-shoppers-to-try-on-cosmetics-virtually/
HTC Vive announced XR Suite, a cloud service offering collaboration, productivity, and social tools for remote working. It’s an ambitious attempt to find a market in XR that’s more than entertainment or enterprise.
prnewswire.com/news-releases/htc-vive-launches-vive-xr-suite-to-meet-new-needs-of-businesses-dealing-with-the-coming-next-normal-301077272.html
Bose is shutting down its audio AR program. Seems like it never got enough device support to build a community of users or developers.
protocol.com/bose-gives-up-on-augmented-reality
Adobe Aero, the XR creativity/prototyping tool, now supports spatial audio. You can add short audio files to digital objects and explore them as you walk around—like Bose was trying.
theblog.adobe.com/june-2020-release-of-adobe-aero-new-features-to-create-even-more-immersive-ar-experiences/
Assistants & Voice
Google announced a big upgrade for Assistant developers, including a new Actions Builder tool which largely removes the need for Dialogflow, an improved interaction model, and support for AMP on smart displays. I honestly thought Google had given up on third-party Actions for Assistant, but this shows it’s still interested.
developers.googleblog.com/2020/06/voice-global-2020-new-improvements-to-core-platform.html
Google’s Nest WiFi is now compatible with its Local Home protocol, meaning you can execute certain Assistant commands directly on the routers. This is faster and more private than using cloud networks.
developers.googleblog.com/2020/06/local-home-sdk-support-on-google-nest-wifi.html
Messaging
WhatsApp launched digital payments for users in Brazil, letting them send money to each other or businesses. Brazil has a large informal economy on WhatsApp, and this is a step towards integration with Facebook Shops in the future.
about.fb.com/news/2020/06/whatsapp-payments-brazil/
Facebook Portal gained some new features including 50-person calls with Messenger Rooms, live streaming to Pages, and new AR and background effects. Portal has been one of the COVID-19 success stories.
tech.fb.com/introducing-new-ways-to-connect-with-family-and-friends-using-portal-from-facebook/
E-commerce
Walmart (US) has partnered with Shopify to add 1,200 sellers to its third-party marketplace. There definitely seems to be growing competition to Amazon, with Shopify at the heart of it.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-15/walmart-partners-with-shopify-to-expand-web-marketplace-business
Google announced new tools for small business owners, including a new site (US and CA) promoting bookable local services, highlighting delivery and kerbside pickups in Shopping, and Promoted pins in Maps.
blog.google/products/ads/helping-businesses-and-nonprofits-recover/
YouTube is trialling a new video ad format which shows products from an online catalogue below the ad—moving the storefront one step closer to the user. If this takes off, expect it to become more automated and contextual in future.
blog.google/products/ads/new-ways-to-drive-action/
Everything Else
Adobe confirmed that Flash will fully end its life on 31st December this year. The Player will no longer be updated or available to download, and Flash content will no longer play in existing Player software. This means that a generation of digital art and games could be lost forever.
adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html
Twitter is rolling out tweets with audio to some users of its iOS app. You can record up to 140 seconds of audio, although you can thread multiple clips together. Predictably, there’s been a knee-jerk negative reaction to it, but I think it opens up a lot of creative opportunity.
blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2020/your-tweet-your-voice.html