The Tech Landscape #166 🦕
This is issue 166 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.
A very eventful week—lots of stories, with one very big one: Epic Games suing Apple and Google for monopolistic practices on the App Store and Play Store, respectively. It started with Epic releasing a new server-side update for Fortnite on mobile, which offered users a permanent 20% discount (also available to everyone on PC and console) if they paid directly to Epic rather than using Apple Pay or Google Pay. Apple and Google kicked Fortnite from their stores, and Epic announced lawsuits (along with an in-game satire of Apple’s famous 1984 ad). The Verge has the best coverage of the whole thing:
theverge.com/2020/8/13/21367923/fortnite-apple-app-store-epic-games-need-to-know
I don’t buy the argument that this is purely about money for Epic, because a) it started with that permanent 20% discount for all Fortnite users, and b) Epic’s own store on PCs charges a flat 12% to every vendor, covering costs and a roughly 5% profit. Tim Sweeney has always maintained that growing the market suits everyone—including Epic, which is well positioned to profit from it. If you have a spare hour, I highly recommend Matthew Ball’s multipart essay on Epic, Unreal, Fortnite, and the metaverse.
matthewball.vc/all/epicgamesprimermaster
Personally, I’m broadly sympathetic to the concept of app marketplaces: that is, not allowing people to install unvetted, uncertified apps on their phones, especially as they’re increasingly used to store personal, confidential information and documents. But I’m dead against app marketplaces being (ab)used to levy an unfair tax.
Top Stories
XR Snapchat announced a new Lens which tracks full body movement. The move from augmenting the face to augmenting the whole body opens up a whole new category of opportunity for creative special effects.
twitter.com/SnapLensStudio/status/1293925278972956680
Social Facebook launched Online Paid Events, where small business owners can charge for access to events on Live. The announcement makes a point of saying that it asked Apple to waive its 30% in-app purchase fee to help businesses, but was refused—opening another front in the app store assault.
about.fb.com/news/2020/08/paid-online-events/
Messaging Facebook has apparently begun the merging of all its messenger services, as some users are reporting that Instagram DMs are being replaced by Messenger, although an announced ability to communicate across the apps doesn’t appear to work. It’s possible that it was accidentally released before time, but a clear sign that the merge is coming.
theverge.com/2020/8/14/21369737/facebook-merging-instagram-messenger-chats-update
XR Nreal Light, the consumer AR headset from former Magic Leap technicians, will finally go on sale to the public—in S. Korea, at least. Branded the U+ Real Glass, it will be available with the Galaxy Note 20 or LG Velvet as the processing unit (connected by a USB cable). Hopes are high for these glasses as a breakthrough XR wearable, but the rest of the world will have to wait until the end of the year to try them.
engadget.com/nreal-mixed-reality-glasses-vr-cover-consumer-market-021228380.html
Android
Google announced a slate of new features for Android ahead of the imminent launch of Android 11, with a focus on its use beyond phones.
Wearables Google is promising a better Wear OS experience with improved performance and redesigned tiles in its next update. The deal to buy Fitbit will be investigated by the EU before approval, but if Google doesn’t improve the platform soon it’s going to be out of contention before that happens.
android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/08/whats-happening-in-wear-os-by-google.html
Snart Home Android TV got an update to support Instant App previews, a better on-screen keyboard, and low-latency gaming mode. Rumours abound of a new plug-in stick to which will run Android TV, Chromecast, and Stadia, and these changes are a good indicator that it’s coming.
android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/08/6-new-ways-to-engage-with-users-on.html
Transit Android Auto is expanding its range of apps to include navigation, parking, and electric charging apps from selected partners.
android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/08/android-for-cars.html
Safety Android phones can now detect earthquakes, and users in California can have alerts sent to their phones as soon as a quake is detected.
blog.google/products/android/earthquake-detection-and-alerts
Everything Else
Browsers Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, announced plans to lay off 250 staff and refocus the company around products—and monetisation. Firefox will have less focus on developer tools, the Reality XR browser will close, and products like Pocket and VPN will be the focus of investment. The browser has been in decline for a number of years, dropping to under 5% market share globally, and a massive proportion (some 90%) of its revenue comes from Google search referrals. It’s a shame that the champion of the Open Web is in this situation, but having no place on mobile means a limited future.
blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/08/11/changing-world-changing-mozilla/
Events TikTok’s first virtual concert, featuring The Weeknd, drew a total audience of around two million viewers, with 275,000 viewing concurrently at peak.
variety.com/2020/digital/news/the-weeknd-tiktok-virtual-concert-2-million-viewers-1234733104/
Accessibiity Google’s Lookout app, which uses the phone camera as a ‘seeing eye’ for visually-impaired users, can now identify products from food labels, and read longer text like letters.
blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/lookout-updates/
Gaming Amazon is rebranding its premium gaming service, Twitch Prime, to Prime Gaming. The service, which is included in Prime subscriptions, offers discounts and exclusive for gaming titles. It’s possible that Amazon sees the future of Twitch as much more than just gaming, so is doing this to better distinguish the services.
blog.aboutamazon.com/amazon-prime/more-from-prime-free-content-for-todays-hottest-video-games-plus-free-games-every-month
Search Google is making it more convenient for small business owners to update their profiles on Maps and Search. In the rapidly-changing COVID-19 landscape, this can only be a good thing.
blog.google/outreach-initiatives/small-business/business-profile-maps-and-search/
Search Google users in India can add their personal details as cards in Search, acting as a kind of online business card. It’s a kind of LinkedIn-lite. India seems to be a bit of a test-bed for many new identity and privacy features.
india.googleblog.com/2020/08/introducing-people-cards-virtual.html
Beauty & Fashion Pinterest rolled out its skin tone search modifier globally, and has improved its technology for more accurate results. It also expanded its AR try-ons to include new cosmetics brands offering 10,000 shades.
newsroom.pinterest.com/en/skintoneranges2020
Fintech Facebook created a new division, Facebook Financial (F2), which will manage all of its payments and commerce, from Facebook Pay to its Novi digital wallet.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-10/facebook-financial-formed-to-pursue-company-s-commerce-ambitions
Audio Amazon is getting further into podcasting through Amazon Music and Audible, on both free and premium tiers (you can already listen to podcasts on Alexa through TuneIn and other Skills, and Audible has some premium originals).
thedesk.matthewkeys.net/2020/08/podcast-amazon-music-audible-streaming-echo/
XR HTC’s new Vive Cosmos Play VR headset will no longer be sold to consumers, and will instead be aimed at museum and educational customers. It’s the latest XR headset manufacturer to ‘pivot to enterprise’—the consumer market just isn’t there yet.
uploadvr.com/htc-vive-cosmos-play-update
Privacy Samsung launched a new privacy-first service, AltZLife, on some of its entry level phones in India. It will keep some data in private folders so that the phone can be securely shared with friends and family members, and will suggest content that might want to be kept private.
news.samsung.com/in/samsung-launches-the-ultimate-private-mode-for-your-smartphone-introducing-altzlife-on-galaxy-a71-galaxy-a51
Earlier this year French scientists announced they had found three sets of the footprints of an unknown type of titanosaur, the largest land-dwelling dinousaur, on the roof of a cave 500 metres deep—turned upside down by geological processes since they were made some 166 million years ago.