The Tech Landscape #92
The Guiness world record of the longest placename is held by New Zealand’s Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaurehaeaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, with 92 characters.
Post-MWC19 and pre-SXSW there’s been little in the way of ‘hard’ tech news, so this week’s newsletter contains a little more in the way of research, reports, and rumours than usual.
My story about Google Assistant and the next billion internet users was chosen for inclusion in Medium’s new tech publication, OneZero, and has been polished up for readability, so maybe you want to give it (another) go: Voice Assistants Will Bring the Next Billion Users Online.
Assistants & Voice
Duplex, the Google Assistant feature which makes restaurant reservations by phone on your behalf, is expanding to 43 US states.
blog.google/products/assistant/book-table-google-assistant-across-country-more-devices/
An increasing number of people find it socially acceptable to use voice assistants in public, according to new research from Stone Temple.
stonetemple.com/voice-usage-trends/
XR
Apple will release AR glasses in 2020, according to a new report. It’s expected the glasses will just act as a display, with the processing happening on a tethered iPhone.
appleinsider.com/articles/19/03/08/apples-ar-glasses-arriving-in-2020-iphone-will-do-most-of-the-work
Google revealed a new system of face-tracking for AR, using machine learning to avoid requiring multiple hardware cameras.
ai.googleblog.com/2019/03/real-time-ar-self-expression-with.html
Machine Learning
(Maybe it was ahead of SXSW or maybe it’s just coincidence, but Google showed off a lot of machine learning tools this week, especially with regards to privacy and transparency.)
Google announced Coral, a hardware and software platform for running machine learning models locally on devices, meaning no data has to be sent to cloud servers.
developers.googleblog.com/2019/03/introducing-coral-our-platform-for.html
The Tensorflow project announced Tensorflow Privacy, a new machine learning library that helps train models using public data without revealing sensitive information. The idea has been around for a while, but it’s now much easier to use.
medium.com/tensorflow/introducing-tensorflow-privacy-learning-with-differential-privacy-for-training-data-b143c5e801b6
Google and OpenAI partnered to announce Activation Atlases, a new technique for making algorithmic training more transparent and less of a ‘black box’—a common criticism of machine learning.
ai.googleblog.com/2019/03/exploring-neural-networks.html
Social Media
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg wrote a long note explaining that the platform’s future plans will revolve more heavily around messaging, involving a lot more privacy, ephemerality, and interoperability. Many people see this as a justification of their plans to integrate their messaging services ahead of any potential regulation.
facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networking/10156700570096634/
15 million fewer people in the US used Facebook in 2018 than the previous year, according to new research from Edison. The biggest drop came in 12-34 year-olds.
marketplace.org/2019/03/06/tech/exclusive-look-numbers-showing-users-leaving-facebook-by-the-millions
TikTok’s app was downloaded 663m times last year—more than Instagram, but less than Facebook. It now has a total of over 1bn installs (although, not active users).
ft.com/content/e49446e8-3c08-11e9-b856-5404d3811663
Retail
Pinterest continued their evolution into a shopping destination with new tools including personalised recommendations and a dedicated shopping search box.
newsroom.pinterest.com/en/post/catalogs-shopping
Google have added shoppable ads into Image search results. Advertisers can include multiple products in a single ad.
blog.google/products/ads/shopping-google-images/
86% of UK adults use Amazon, with 70% of those saying its their primary online retailer, according to new research by Mintel. 25% of UK adults are Prime subscribers, with a further 13% having access through shared accounts.
theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/07/almost-90-of-uk-shoppers-use-amazon-research-reveals
Amazon are to close their 87 popup stores in the US and instead focus on their Books and 4-star physical retail brands.
uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-popup-stores/amazon-to-close-u-s-pop-up-stores-focus-on-opening-more-book-stores-idUKKCN1QN2M2
Everything Else
WhatsApp are rumoured to be launching their own in-app currency, which can be traded and exchanged with friends.
nytimes.com/2019/02/28/technology/cryptocurrency-facebook-telegram.html
The Financial Times have bought a controlling stake in tech news website The Next Web.
fastcompany.com/90315402/the-financial-times-has-acquired-the-next-web
Luminary is a new podcasting startup which has exclusive content for an $8 subscription fee. (If you can only get the content from one app, is it still a podcast?)
variety.com/2019/digital/news/luminary-podcast-subscription-service-1203154250/
A new report says that just 10% of payments in the UK could be made by cash in 15 years, and the economy isn’t prepared for it.
theguardian.com/money/2019/mar/06/uk-cash-system-on-the-verge-of-collapse-report-finds