The Tech Landscape #161 đˇ
This is issue 161 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.
Marcus Aurelius, who became emperor of Rome in 161 CE, famously followed the philosophy of the Stoics. Amongst his many personal notes he once wrote âyou are not compelled to form any opinion at all about this matter before you, nor to disturb your peace of mind at allâ, which is useful advice for the productive use of Twitter.
A weird week where it felt like there was a lot of news, but then there actually wasnât. I think a lot of it was outside the (loosely-defined and highly subjective) remit of this newsletter.
As promised last week, here are a few interesting patterns Iâve seen emerging in the first half of this yearâleaving aside the obvious, like âpeople are video calling moreâ and âe-commerce has got a lot more commonâ.
Virtual watch parties: Amazon, Twitch, Hulu, and the BBC have all released âsocial watchingâ tools or experiments. Obvious lockdown application, but will it continue when things get back to normal in 2024? Ditto virtual festivals; Fortnite/Travis Scott/Party Royale is the obvious one here, but Roblox has seen big attendance for its online events too, and the news that Sony has just bought a big stake in Epic Games points to something going on here. Could be just filling a temporary gap, or could be a stepping stone to the metaverse
Ecommerce entertainment: lots more brands experimenting with AR and live-streaming video to compensate for the lack of in-store inspiration. Christieâs, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry just a few of the brands pushing further into AR product previews, and LâOreal is an early adopter (outside China) of live-streamed commerce.
Moving beyond apps: something Iâve been talking about (and hoping for) for a few years and hasnât happened yet, but Appleâs App Clips and Snapâs Minis both point to a future where core app functions are broken out of apps and available to people through social sharing and in physical locationsâsee also WhatsApp Business Chat and QR codes (later in this email).
Location-based AR experiences: Appleâs Location Anchors and Snapâs Local Lenses join Googleâs Cloud Anchors and Microsoftâs Azure Spatial Anchors in adding persistence to ARâthat is, they stick around in a location for other people to experience later. A bit early, this; the tech is there, but not many people are using it yet. Nianticâs acquisition of 6D and Facebook buying Mapillary is also in the same space (no pun intended).
Thatâs far from all, but letâs move on with the newsletter for now, or Iâll be here all night.
Assistants & Voice
Google announced a lot of new smart home features for Assistant, including controls for entertainment devices (TVs, remotes, etc) from any Assistant devices (start recording with your watch), and occupancy detection which will run certain routines depending on if youâre home or away (turn off the lights when I leave the house). Thereâs a definite lean-in to Assistant and smart home lately, more so than third-party apps.
developers.googleblog.com/2020/07/new-user-features-and-developer-tools-build-helpful-home.html
Google showed off its new Nest smart speaker, following a number of leaks of the product. Details are sparse, official announcement likely to be around September.
theverge.com/2020/7/9/21319541/new-google-nest-smart-speaker-confirmed-photo
Messaging
WhatsApp unveiled QR codes for business profiles to launch a Business Chat session, and URLs for easier sharing of product catalogues. Following Appleâs App Clips announcement a few weeks ago, it looks like the QR code is making a comeback. (Of course theyâve been heavily used in China for years now.)
about.fb.com/news/2020/07/connect-with-businesses-on-whatsapp/
Microsoft Teams got a big upgrade with new features to make video calling better, including collaboration tools and a Together Mode which uses segmentation to show all attendees sitting together, as if in an auditorium. After years of video calling being quite basic and functional, itâs interesting to see this explosion of experimentation.
microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/08/reimagining-virtual-collaboration-future-work-learning/
Advertising
Google launched its immersive Swirl ad format, which allows embedding of interactive 3D objects into ad units. Just one small step away from AR adsâŚ
blog.google/products/marketingplatform/360/create-3d-immersive-ad-experiences-display-video-360/
TikTok launched its self-service ad platform with creative tools to help businesses create authentic TikTok advertising. The platformâs growing up, just as the app is blowing up.
newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-for-business-launches-new-smb-solutions
Stat of the Week
Mobile app use increased 40% globally during the lockdown, reaching an average of 200bn hours spent in apps in the last quarter, according to a new report by App Annie. Spending on iOS hit ÂŁ13.5bn, an increase of 15% over last year, while Play Store spending increased 25% to ÂŁ8bn.
content-new.appannie.com/en/insights/market-data/mobile-app-usage-surged-40-during-covid-19-pandemic/
Everything Else
Google is bringing the Knowledge Graph into image search, showing relevant information on certain results recognised by computer vision.
blog.google/products/search/knowledge-graph-google-images/
Epic Games launched Live Link Face, an iOS app which captures real-time face movement to send to digital puppets in its Unreal Engine. Until only recently this required a special hardware rig, but camera phonesâespecially TrueDepth in the iPhone X seriesâare getting good enough to replace them.
unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/new-live-link-face-ios-app-now-available-for-real-time-facial-capture-with-unreal-engine
Google Fit now suggests YouTube workout videos from a curated playlist of videos tagged #WithMe, for exercising at home with minimal equipment. A nice idea, but feels like it should have launched three months ago.
support.google.com/fit/thread/58014154?hl=en&msgid=58014154
PS I wrote this newsletter slightly drunk, so apologies if it doesnât all make sense.