The Tech Landscape #198
TikTok music effects, Hey Spotify!, and Find My things: this is issue 198 of The Tech Landscape, a weekly collection of news about digital technology and culture. Stories are selected by me, Peter Gasston, with a sprinkle of insight and opinion where appropriate.
This week I had to put together a presentation to explain the metaverse to a client. The problem is, the metaverse is an emerging concept and nobody really knows what it’s going to be—it would be like someone in 1998 trying to predict what today’s web would look like. When most people today talk about ‘the metaverse’ what they’re actually talking about is social+ gaming and/or virtual concerts—both of which will be a facet of the metaverse, but not the whole of it.
If you want to understand the metaverse concept, the best place to start is Matthew Ball’s essay The Metaverse: What It Is, Where to Find it, Who Will Build It, and Fortnite .
Short email this week because of the Easter holiday. Hope you’re well!
Hardware Location
Apple opened its Find My app to third-party products. Accessory makers who conform to Apple’s program rules, including Belkin and VanMoof, can have their accessories appear in the Find My app. There are persistent rumours that Apple is imminently going to release AirTags, smart tags to help people track their objects, and Tile, which makes a similar device, is suing Apple in the EU and US for anticompetitive behaviour—which it seems this move would undercut entirely.
apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/apples-find-my-network-now-offers-new-third-party-finding-experiences/
Samsung launched its Galaxy SmartTag+, which uses Bluetooth and UWB to locate the tile when lost. The Bluetooth network created by connected Galaxy smartphones helps locate the SmartTag+ roughly, then UWB and an AR app pinpoints the exact location. It’s exactly how Apple’s much-leaked but never-released AirTags will apparently work.
news.samsung.com/us/introducing-the-new-galaxy-smarttag-plus/
Everything Else
TikTok announced six new responsive, interactive music effects. Its musical roots are a strong advantage that TikTok has over Instagram Reels, so it makes sense to double down on that.
newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/immersive-music-creative-effects
Entertainment
Spotify rolled out a “Hey Spotify” voice assistant in the US. Users can search for songs and podcasts, and control playback from any screen while the app is open. It seems to be a little pointless in this format as Google Assistant and Siri can already do this at any time, but we know Spotify is working on its own hardware so a voice assistant makes a little more sense then.
pr-newsroom-wp.appspot.com/2021-04-09/5-things-to-know-about-the-new-hey-spotify-feature/
Assistants & Voice
Users of Facebook’s Portal TV can now make Zoom calls. I remain pretty amazed that Zoom has made deals with pretty much all the major home smart display / video calling devices.
tech.fb.com/telecommute-from-your-tv/
Messaging
Google updated its search ranking to prioritise better quality product reviews. It will prioritise expert insight and comparisons with other products, amongst other signals. There’s a definite effort by Google to take back some of Amazon’s dominance in product searches.
developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/04/product-reviews-update
Search
The latest experimental app from Facebook is Hotline, for live Q&A. The app, from the New Product Experimentation team, mixes audio, text, and video for live interaction between creators and audiences.
techcrunch.com/2021/04/07/facebook-tests-hotline-a-qa-product-thats-a-mashup-of-clubhouse-and-instagram-live/
Social
TikTok added an automated captions option. Creators can opt to generate captions for their videos, then edit them if needed. It makes the platform more accessible to people with hearing impairments.
newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/introducing-auto-captions
Accessibility
Pinterest added new comment moderation tools to improve discourse. They include comment removal, keyword filtering, and featured comment tools for creators as well as automated spam filtering.
newsroom.pinterest.com/en/creatorcode
Social
Facebook is testing labelling post sources to combat misinformation. Posts will be given labels such as ‘public official’, ‘fan page’, or ‘satire page’ in the test in the US.
twitter.com/fbnewsroom/status/1379887135998763014?s=20
Social
The Signal messaging app is testing P2P payments, using the MobileCoin cryptocurrency. It’s launching in the UK initially as the coin isn’t permitted to trade in the US yet.
signal.org/blog/help-us-test-payments-in-signal/
Payments
Stat of the Week
88% of US teens own an iPhone and 90% expect an iPhone to be their next phone. The North American market, which is probably the wealthiest, seems to be almost completely lost to Android. On the other hand, this could help Epic Games, Spotify and others suing Apple over its Play Store monopoly. The data comes from Piper Sandler’s latest survey of 7,000 US teens.
pipersandler.com/1col.aspx?id=6216
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