The Tech Landscape #91
Kazakhstan’s biggest boy band, 91, were created in 2015. Their music genre, called Q-POP (Qazaq-pop), was created at the same time.
There’s a fair bit of Google Assistant stuff in this week’s newsletter because Google announced a huge amount of news ahead of MWC19; annoyingly they did it last Monday morning just as the previous newsletter was being sent. In that newsletter I mentioned as one of my trends from MWC19 that
Google is pushing Assistant hard on low-to-mid-range phones, especially in developing markets.
I’ve written a short article where I explain that a little more: Voice-forward phones: Google Assistant and the next billion users.
Assistants & Voice
Third-party branded Actions will soon come to Google Assistant on phones running Android Go and KaiOS (designed for lower-powered devices). Seven new Indic languages are now supported, and multi-language input will expand to six new languages.
developers.googleblog.com/2019/02/build-actions-for-next-billion-users.html
Google Assistant will be integrated into Messages, using on-device models for privacy. Google Assistant in Maps, currently US-only, will be available in all other supported languages soon.
blog.google/products/assistant/building-google-assistant-phones-everyone-everywhere/
Apple Music is rolling out as an option for Google Home devices. Unlike Apple’s usual exclusivity, Apple Home is more attractive as a service when it’s available on more devices.
macrumors.com/2019/02/25/google-home-apple-music-integration-possible/
Some Epson printers are now directly controllable through Google Assistant and Siri, adding to their Alexa integration from last year.
voicebot.ai/2019/02/28/epson-announces-printing-integration-with-google-assistant-and-siri-shortcuts-another-advance-for-voice-interactivity/
Smart speaker shipments grew by 125% in 2018, according to Canalys. Amazon are still number one in volume but Google had an excellent year and are only slightly behind. Alibaba and Xiaomi saw the biggest market share increases.
canalys.com/newsroom/smart-speaker-market-booms-in-2018-driven-by-google-alibaba-and-xiaomi
Adobe’s latest US State of Voice Assistant survey shows smart speaker ownership growing, and regular use increasing.
slideshare.net/adobe/state-of-voice-assistants-2019
XR
Niantic, developers of Pokémon Go, have been showing off their new multiplayer AR game, codenamed Neon. It’s not likely to be released imminently as it depends heavily on low-latency 5G networks.
fortune.com/2019/02/26/niantic-5g-harry-potter-ar-pokemon/
Qualcomm are working with other hardware partners on an ‘XR Certified’ platform that will aim to standardise 5G support on any AR or VR device using its latest processor.
theverge.com/2019/2/25/18239108/qualcomm-5g-vr-ar-xr-viewer-headset-platform-mwc-2019
A new platform called Traverse aims to let people explore XR through audio rather than video. Users can map their physical environment then walk around it to hear immersive audio.
variety.com/2019/digital/news/spatial-audio-platform-traverse-sxsw-elvis-1203151221/
Audio
Popular podcasting app Pocket Casts is now available as an Alexa skill, which syncs your collection to Echo smart speakers.
theverge.com/2019/2/27/18243069/podcasts-pocket-casts-alexa-skill-features
Pandora (huge in the US, not outside) has launched Pandora Stories, a way for artists to create enhanced playlists for fans. Didn’t Apple Music try this with Connect, then shut it down?
techcrunch.com/2019/02/26/pandora-stories-launches-combining-music-and-podcasting-in-a-new-format/
Retail
Amazon will no longer sell its Dash buttons, that were used for single-action reordering of common items. This is partly due to the success of Alexa.
cnet.com/news/amazon-stops-selling-dash-buttons-goofy-forerunners-of-connected-home/
Amazon may be planning a second chain of physical grocery stores, distinct from Whole Foods, stocking items from more mainstream brands.
businessinsider.com/amazon-to-launch-new-supermarket-chain-report-2019-3
Everything Else
Google is rolling out an update that will let users of Android 7.0 and above log into apps and websites without a password (although the services will have to make the feature available to its users first). DEATH TO PASSWORDS.
theverge.com/2019/2/25/18239389/android-7-update-fido-alliance-fido2-password-free-authentication
TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) has been fined a record $.5.7m by the FTC in the US for illegally collecting data on children under 13.
theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/28/tiktok-video-sharing-app-fined-for-collection-of-childrens-data
Google’s personal video calling app, Duo, is now available on the web. This is part of Google’s effort to harmonise their various messaging services: it’s Meet for business, Duo for personal.
duo.google.com/
Microsoft are rumoured to be working on a very stripped-back version of Windows. Currently called Lite OS, it’s their attempt to head off the challenge of Google’s Chrome OS.
petri.com/microsofts-lite-os-starts-simple-with-plans-to-scale-up
Internet subscriptions in Uganda have fallen by 2.5 million since the government introduced a ‘gossip tax’.
theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/27/millions-of-ugandans-quit-internet-after-introduction-of-social-media-tax-free-speech
Andrew Ng, leading light of AI at Google and Baidu, has released a new machine learning course for non-engineers.
coursera.org/learn/ai-for-everyone?action=enroll
Author’s Note
You may have noticed the text in the footer of this email says:
This was issue #3 of The Tech Landscape.
Well, it isn’t. It’s issue #91, like it says in the subject line. It’s because I changed email provider from Tinyletter to Buttondown and they add that automatically and I don’t think I can change it.