And there is no better team to talk tech than Andrew and James.
Another week of cool and the things you have questions about.
The alternative podcast link.
The notes.
Can’t get enough of prime
The new RED phone
Blockchain phone
Wish we had this when I was younger
Wow, great name, great product!
OK why not
Google doesn't just want to reserve Maps navigation icons for special occasions. If you're using iOS, you can now replace Google Maps' drab blue arrow with a 3D car. You can even choose a vehicle that more closely reflects what you're driving, whether it's a sedan, truck or SUV. Is it silly and purely cosmetic? You bet -- but it adds a bit of character to an app that (let's be honest) often feels a bit soulless. Here's hoping the selection widens over time to keep commutes lively.
This is SOOOO cool!
I thought this was interesting
Google’s unofficial motto has long been the simple phrase “don’t be evil.” But that’s over, according to the code of conduct that Google distributes to its employees. The phrase was removed sometime in late April or early May, archives hosted by the Wayback Machine show.
“Don’t be evil” has been part of the company’s corporate code of conduct since 2000. When Google was reorganized under a new parent company, Alphabet, in 2015, Alphabet assumed a slightly adjusted version of the motto, “do the right thing.” However, Google retained its original “don’t be evil” language until the past several weeks. The phrase has been deeply incorporated into Google’s company culture—so much so that a version of the phrase has served as the wifi password on the shuttles that Google uses to ferry its employees to its Mountain View headquarters, sources told Gizmodo.
Despite this significant change, Google’s code of conduct says it has not been updated since April 5, 2018.
The updated version of Google’s code of conduct still retains one reference to the company’s unofficial motto—the final line of the document is still: “And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!”
Florida Parrot learns Alexa Commands
An African grey Congo parrot in Florida has apparently mastered Amazon’s Alexa digital home assistant and has already moved on to conquering Google Home. Not so nice — the first thing Petra the parrot learned to do was to order all the lights off, at random.
Pixel Watch is coming!
Up until now Wear OS (previously Android Wear) has appeared to be a side project for Google, but it looks like that might be about to change with a new flagship device called the Pixel Watch.
Apple Watch, watch out!
It makes sense, Google build the flagship Pixel phones to show off everything Android can do, so why wouldn't they do the same for Wear OS?
It's reported that Google has been working on this smartwatch project for more than a year, and the devices are currently in the second level of design verification.
NEW PROCESSOR AND BETTER BATTERY LIFE
It is known that the Google Pixel watches will be based on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform.
In terms of power, this is similar to what is currently available in smartwatches. The main advantage of the Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform is the use of a new power management solution.
Developed under the name 'Blackghost', this low energy chip could run continuously whilst the main processor is only used when the device is in active use.
The could make way for a voice assistant which is always listening, and 'always-on' displays which use less power.
It will also introduce a number of new power-saving modes, so longer times in between charges can be achieved. The nightly charging of the Apple Watch is still one of the most cited reasons people won't buy the smartwatch.
Google really wants to catch up with Apple, and, in terms of technology at least, these changes could be enough.
In the past, though, Wear OS manufacturers have struggled to make a stylish smartwatch people are actually willing to wear (one reason the Apple Watch so successful). Will Google be able to achieve similar success?
Amazon studios
Amazon Studios has lined up some potentially heart-wrenching dramas, but nothing may be as compelling as the creation of the high five. The media company has ordered a script rewrite for a film about Glenn Burke, a Major League Baseball player who's credited with the first-recorded instance of the iconic gesture when he congratulated a teammate on a home run in October 1977. He's also the first and only MLB athlete to come out as gay to teammates and owners while professionally playing -- and conceivably, Amazon's High Five film will tell his story.
If you're a fan of binge-watching shows on Netflix, you're probably aware of the feature that allows people streaming on certain devices to skip the introduction to TV shows. Now, users on Chromecast can take advantage of that feature as well.
On the controller screen inside the Netflix app, there's now a button to skip the introduction at the bottom of the device screen. It's unclear as of right now whether the button will disappear after some time or remain present on the controller, but seeing as how the Roku and Android TV buttons don't persist, it's likely that this one will go away as well.
Look out world, Coca-Cola is introducing beverages to Bluetooth.
On Friday, the company announced its brand new soda machine, the Coca-Cola Freestyle 9100, which will utilize Bluetooth connectivity to allow users connect via the Freestyle mobile app.
Remember how Coca-Cola Freestyle brought its innovative touch screen soda machines — stocked with close to 200 drink options — to eateries, college campuses, and other beverage-loving establishments in 2009? Well, things have really taken off since then.
According to the company, "more than 50,000 Coca-Cola Freestyle units pour 14 million drinks per day" around the world, so they figured it was time to take the innovation to the next level.
In the future, not only will people be able to concoct their own beverages, but they can use the Freestyle app to connect to the machine with Bluetooth, create a mix via their mobile devices, and ensure it's ready to pour ASAP.
Chinese tech firms are throwing out applicants over the age of 30
Ageism at tech companies in China is running rampant, forcing people who elsewhere would be entering the prime of their careers out of the industry.
The “30+ middle-age crisis”: Three-quarters of tech workers in China are younger than 30, and recruiters are reinforcing this: some are instructed to cut off applicants at age 35.
Why? As one tech recruiter told Bloomberg, the perception is that “most people in their 30s are married and have to take care of their family—they’re not able to focus on the high-intensity work.” Younger workers also cost companies less.
The paradox: As Bloomberg points out, most of China’s landmark tech companies were started by people over 30. But, possibly because of ageist policies, that’s changing: more and more rising tech companies are led by founders in their 20s.
rtificial-intelligence programs could develop some much-needed common sense by competing in scavenger hunts inside virtual homes filled with simulated coffee tables, couches, lamps, and other everyday things.
Researchers at Facebook and Georgia Tech developed the scavenger-hunt challenge. The contest requires a virtual agent to look for something in a simulated home after parsing a natural-language question. An agent would be placed in room of a virtual home at random and asked something like “What color is the car?” or “Where is the coffee table?” Finding the answer requires an agent to understand the question and then explore the virtual space in search of the relevant object.
“The goal is to build intelligent systems that can see, talk, plan, and reason,” says Devi Parikh, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech and Facebook AI Research (FAIR), who developed the contest with her colleague and husband, Dhruv Batra.
Parikh, Batra, and their collaborators developed an agent that combines several different forms of machine learning to answer questions about a home. The agent also learns a rudimentary form of common sense by figuring out, through lots of trial and error, the best places to look for a particular object. For instance, over time, the agent learns that cars are usually found in the garage, and it understands that garages can usually be found by going out the front or back door.
The approach relies on reinforcement learning, a form of machine learning inspired by animal behavior, as well as imitation learning, a technique that lets algorithms learn by observation. The virtual homes were created by researchers at FAIR and UC Berkeley. The research was highlighted during Facebook’s annual developer conference today.
new app called Siempo wants to un-addict you from your smartphone and its numerous attention-stealing apps. To do so, Siempo replaces an Android device’s homescreen, while also taking advantage of a number of design principles to push distractions further away, and give you more control over your notifications.
The startup, which launched a few weeks ago on Google Play, actually began as a hardware company.
A hardware startup shifts to software
In 2015, the original co-founders Andreas Gala and Jorge Selva began developing a minimalist feature phone device called Minium, in response to their concerns with today’s always-on culture. But designing hardware from scratch is hard, so they pivoted to making a mindful smartphone called Siempo using an existing handset from China.
The following year, Siempo brought on Mayank Saxena (CTO), who previously ran data storage engineering teams at NetApp, and Andrew Dunn (now CEO), who was previously the number six employee at Flexport.
“I struggled with smartphone and social media addiction as a teenager and had been working on a wearable to help people balance their relationship with tech,” explains Dunn. And Mayank, he says, “had become increasingly concerned about raising balanced children in the digital age,” prior to joining Siempo.
A project codenamed Google A65 is thought to be a standalone AR headset, and now we may have more details about it.
German news site Winfuture.de says it has documents that indicate Google's working with Taiwanese manufacturer Quanta on the augmented reality headset. Google's previously worked with Quanta on the Pixel C tablet. The headset is expected to include camera sensors and microphones -- the latter aren't common on the VR and mixed-reality headsets out today. Chances are the mics are there so you can operate the headset with Google Assistant.
The headset is supposedly based on a custom quad-core internet-of-things-focused Qualcomm QSC603 based off the ARM Cortex-A75. The QSC603 supports up to 2,560 x 1,440 resolution (WQHD), 1080p and 1030p video capture, 3D overlays and rendering interfaces OpenGL, OpenCL and Vulcan, along with Gigabit wireless, Bluetooth 5.1 and GPS. It also supports the Android Neural Networks API.
At this point, AR headsets still need to be wired to a computer. Wireless VR and mixed-reality headsets are just becoming available, most notably the Oculus Go, Lenovo's Google-powered Mirage Solo and the Windows Mixed Reality crew. There are a host of AR headsets in development, or rumored to be in development, from companies like Apple and Samsung and the Magic Leap One. Of course, Google's most notable competitor in the AR arena is probably the Microsoft HoloLens, which is predominantly used for commercial applications.
