Please don’t send me Smart Replies
Yesterday, Google announced Allo, a new AI-powered messaging app. One of its key features is Smart Reply, which makes use of Google’s machine learning tech to suggest responses if you don’t feel like typing for whatever reason. Similar to the Smart Reply feature in Inbox, it’s apparently clever enough to learn from your behavior, allowing it to make better and more relevant suggestions over time. While this seems like a neat feature at first, I ultimately wouldn’t want any of my friends to use it in a conversation with me. In fact, I’d feel pretty insulted.
See, I think having Smart Replies completely misses the point of a messaging app. I can understand canned responses like “Be right there!” or “I’ll be late!” if you’re in a car and only have a few seconds to reply before you have to get back to the business of driving. But if you aren’t behind the wheel and already have your full attention on the app — which should be the case anyway, because distracted driving is bad — then Smart Replies seems like an unnecessarily lazy way to have a conversation.
At yesterday’s keynote, for example, Google gave a demonstration on how you could respond with “Cute!” to a photo of a puppy or “Yum clams!” to a photo of clam linguine. Are you so devoid of creativity that you can’t think of “Yum clams!” by yourself? Is typing so much of a hassle that you can’t enter in “Cute!” before hitting send?
Further, I don’t care how intelligent these Smart Replies are: They can never capture the personality and character of a real human conversation. My colleague Mat Smith discovered this when he allowed Google’s autoreply to respond to his emails for a week. Instead of saying “Cute!” to that puppy picture, for example, I might’ve typed “Ugh, disgusting.” Not because I don’t actually like dogs (I do!) but because I have a tendency to be sarcastic. Having the option of Smart Replies encourages me to give a more straightforward response rather than coming up with something that’s perhaps more emblematic of my real personality. It’s dehumanizing.
But more than that, using Smart Replies instead of your own words and thoughts robs your friend of you. It means that you don’t value the friendship enough to fully engage in the conversation. You’d rather have a robot do all the talking for you instead of spending time and energy on them. That’s terrible.
I know, I know, Smart Replies are optional. You don’t have to use them. But if we’re any kind of friends at all, I sure as hell hope you don’t.
What the hell is Google Assistant?
Google Assistant is a conversational successor to Google Now. But it’s also a competitor to the chatbots we’re seeing from Microsoft and Facebook. And of course, it’s also being positioned to take on Amazon’s Alexa and its Echo speaker. Assistant in many ways looks like the future of Google, but at this point it’s also pretty confusing. Engadget’s Chris Velazco tries to figure sort out what it means in the video above.
For all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2016, follow along here.
Google has big plans for Daydream VR but not much to show
Google revealed the Daydream VR platform at its I/O conference yesterday, and even though the company is definitely building a headset itself, there’s nothing for us to get our hands on just yet. Daydream is a complete VR ecosystem from Google, starting with software baked into Android N and ending in partnerships with Samsung, HTC, LG, Alcatel and other major brands. Google has drawn up reference designs for Daydream hardware, including a Wiimote-like controller with a clickable touchpad. Engadget’s Chris Velazco walks through the Daydream details in the above video.
For all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2016, follow along here.
Return to Arkham with the remastered ‘Batman’ games
Batman fans, rejoice! Soon, you’ll be making another sojourn back into the Batman: Arkham video game franchise with the upcoming Batman: Return to Arkham remaster collection, releasing July 29th for $49.99.
Following leak after leak and silence from Warner Bros., a trailer finally dropped today showing off the graphical enhancements both games in the collection have undergone. Both Batman: Arkham Aslyum and Batman: Arkham City, as well as all of the DLC content previously released for both, is included with the package.
Both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners can get in on the fun, but curiously there’s no PC version announced as of yet. The ports for both consoles are being handled by Virtuos, the studio that worked on both Final Fantasy X and Heavy Rain’s remastered editions, and the games will feature improved graphics, models, lighting, effects and additional augments.
Both of Rocksteady’s first two dalliances with Arkham in the Batman mythos are excellent games on their own merits, and it’s well worth a walk down memory lane to experience them again. This time, maybe you’ll even find all of the Riddler’s trophies.
Researchers could help cops tap into public surveillance cameras
Researchers from Purdue University found a way for law enforcement to tap into any surveillance camera that’s not password protected. As Wired points out though, the goal with this newly developed system isn’t to help cops perform questionable acts, but rather make it easier for them to figure out how to better assist during a crime or emergency. To make that possible, engineers developed tools smart enough to find open-network surveillance cameras, including public ones, and then send their location to officials who are looking to scan a nearby scene.
Obviously, there’s a concern for privacy with the project — thanks, NSA. But Purdue University Researchers say it’s only a proof of concept right now, according to Wired, noting that they’re taking the necessary steps to ensure people’s privacy if the system ever goes online. “I can certainly see the utility for first responders,” an investigative researcher for the Electronic Frontier Foundation told the publication. “But it does open up the potential for some unseemly surveillance.”
Source: Wired
Android apps will know when you need them and open automatically
That slab of plastic and glass in your pocket might be called a smartphone, but Google is hoping to make the applications running on it smarter yet. The folks in Mountain View hope to achieve that by giving them access to contextual data like time of day, where you are, what you’re doing, the weather and if you have headphones plugged in. Oh, and if there are any Physical Web devices (beacons) near by. A post on the Google Developers blog says that combining the aforementioned data would allow an app to, say, suggest a playlist when you plug in headphones and go for a run.
That’s because the new framework takes that recipe, or “fence” in Google’s parlance, and can use it to ping an app even if it isn’t open. Thus, Spotify triggering some workout jams when you’re out for a jog. Maybe future implementations could trigger WebMD to open when you hit the local pizza buffet for the third time in a week. You know, to remind you that maybe you’re not making the most healthy decision for lunch.
On a more serious note, TechCrunch writes that this could also trigger your camera app to be open and waiting when you go outside, based on the amount of nature snapshots you’ve taken. What’s more, the weather info could be baked into a photo’s metadata so you’d be able to search Google Photos for pictures that were only taken on hot summer days, for instance. Developers can sign up for early API access right now, but when users will see apps supporting the feature isn’t clear.
For all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2016, follow along here.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Google Developers
YouTube is Google’s not-so-secret weapon in the VR wars
If virtual reality is going to take off the way Google, Facebook, Samsung, Sony and a host of other smaller players think it will, it’s going to need great content. Video games, Oculus’s first focus, are a logical place to start, but it’s clear now that VR will also need mainstream video content if it’s going to be a hit. That puts YouTube — and by extension, Google — in a pretty strong position of power. When the company’s just-announced Daydream VR experience starts arriving in the hands of consumers later this year, a brand-new YouTube VR app will be front and center.
It took a year for Google to make YouTube more VR friendly. Updates included 360-degree video (both pre-recorded and live), spatial audio and the ability to view any video on YouTube when using Cardboard — all things that Google is drawing on in its new YouTube VR app. “What you’re seeing now is our next step, which is taking all these early bets we made on the technology and bringing them to life in an experience built from the ground up for VR,” says YouTube VR product manager Kurt Wilms.
That “ground-up” experience is built on three things. The first is surfacing VR-ready content, with the home screen featuring personalized recommendations for VR videos as well as content with spatial audio. The second pillar is that all of YouTube will be available — all of the videos as well as the features that are familiar to users. “Watching any video, browsing the home screen, the ability to sign in, your subscriptions and recommendations are all available,” Wilms says.
The last major component of YouTube VR is that the app was designed to make viewing sessions as comfortable as possible. “Unlike Cardboard, which we think of as ‘snackable video,’ this is built for longer sessions,” says Wilms. This means there’s a lot of customization to make the video “screen” fit your field of view properly. The app is also fully integrated with the Daydream remote, which means you won’t have to use your head’s movement to navigate through the interface (which is how Cardboard currently works).
Nothing here seems wildly transformative, but Wilms stressed that Google went through a ground-up rethinking of how YouTube should be experienced when viewing it in VR. “The analogy I use is it’s building an experience like we did for the living room,” he explains. “YouTube on smart TV is obviously different than using it on your phone.” The content may be the same, then, but each experience necessitates a different approach to how you use the app.
That principle of building an experience specifically designed for VR applies to videos as well as the app itself. As I said earlier, content is king, and YouTube has a lot of it. You can watch anything on YouTube using a Daydream headset, and you can also watch any VR video from a phone or browser. The experience obviously won’t be as immersive, but if users find content that excites them on their phone, they might be more inclined to upgrade to a VR headset down the line.
“Instead of having an admittedly narrow [virtual reality] audience that we have today, you actually have the opportunity to reach a much broader audience,” says Jamie Byrne, a director in YouTube’s creators program. “What that’s going to do is encourage people to continue investing in the space.” Byrne believes that YouTube has “probably the deepest content library available to anyone who buys a headset,” and that content continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Case in point: The number of VR uploads to YouTube is doubling every three months right now.
Byrne also thinks we’re in the early days of virtual reality experimentation, much like we were with user-uploaded video on YouTube a decade ago. It remains to be seen what types of content end up being the most compelling to VR users YouTube is trying to solve that puzzle. “We want to work with creators, from the biggest partners to the smallest to help them learn and experiment,” Byrne says. “We want to help discover what’s the ‘beauty tutorial’ or the ‘let’s play’ [gaming] videos of VR that no one could predict today,” he continues, referencing two of YouTube’s most popular categories.
To that end, Google says it’s working with creators to help them get their hands on VR-capable rigs like the GoPro Odyssey, not to mention Google’s own Jump Assembler software for stitching together VR footage. Additionally, YouTube’s LA and NYC studio spaces are now equipped with Jump gear, and creators can apply to book time there. Byrne says there are plenty of enthusiasts building their own VR rigs, but YouTube wants to make shooting and processing complicated VR footage much easier. After all, the more people out there are making VR video, the better off YouTube will ultimately be.
Apple Previews New Flagship Union Square Store in San Francisco
Apple today invited journalists to San Francisco to preview its new Union Square store, set to open this weekend. Dozens of images are being shared on Twitter and other social networks, giving us our first glimpse at the revamped store that’s been under construction for more than two years.
As it shows off the new location to journalists, Apple has also published a press release outlining all of the new features in the store.
“Fifteen years ago today Apple opened its first two stores and we’re thrilled to mark the occasion with the opening of Apple Union Square in San Francisco,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores. “We are not just evolving our store design, but its purpose and greater role in the community as we educate and entertain visitors and serve our network of local entrepreneurs.”
Inside the new Apple Store, via Shara Tibken
The store features a next-generation design that’s been adopted by other retail locations in Brussels and Memphis, with wide, open spaces, high ceilings, enormous windows, redesigned product display areas, and a 6K video screen that spans most of one wall. Unique to San Francisco is a set of massive 42-foot tall glass doors that slide open 40 feet to leave the front of the store open to the street.
“We have a deep commitment to the cities we work in, and are aware of the importance that architecture plays in the community,” said Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “It all starts with the storefront — taking transparency to a whole new level — where the building blends the inside and the outside, breaking down barriers and making it more egalitarian and accessible.”
Massive sliding glass doors opening, press preview of global flagship Apple Store in Union Square, SF. 🍎👀 #curbed pic.twitter.com/JIzz6iOgeA
— Brock Keeling (@BrockKeeling) May 19, 2016
Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts was on hand to walk journalists through some of the new features installed in the store, including a 50-foot green wall accessible through a second set of doors that open out onto an area Apple has nicknamed “The Plaza.” Included in this area is seating for 200 people and a fountain created by sculpture artists Ruth Asawa, positioned front and center. Apple agreed to incorporate the fountain, which has long been located in that spot, as part of the redesign. The Plaza will feature a regular weekend series of acoustic performances.
5) 65-foot green wall, seating for 200, wi-fi, opened 24/7, fountain. pic.twitter.com/ZDtmIPGILh — Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) May 19, 2016
In the back of the store, for small business customers, there’s an area called “The Boardroom” with a conference table, couches, a product demo area, and a large television screen.
Image via Matthew Panzarino
The Apple Store is organized into distinct sections, such as Genius Grove, where users will get help with their Mac and iOS devices, and “The Avenue,” where customers will be able to try accessories and find Apple-exclusive third-party products. A new position at the store, the “Creative Pro,” will see employees offering advice and expertise on the creative arts.
A main area, called “The Forum,” houses the aforementioned 6K Video Wall and is designed to bring artists, photographers, musicians, and more to inspire and educate customers through year-round programs for kids, monthly events for teachers, sessions for developers, Game Nights, and Creative Sessions.
The grand opening of the new Apple Store in Union Square will take place on Saturday, May 21 at 10:00 a.m.
Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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Apple’s iPhone Casing Supplier Says ‘Only One Model’ Will Shift to Glass in 2017
Apple plans to adopt a glass body for at least one iPhone model set to debut in 2017, reports Nikkei, citing a statement from Catcher Technology CEO Allen Horng. Catcher Technology is one of Apple’s main suppliers for the casing of the iPhone.
According to Horng, Apple is planning to use glass for the casing of the 2017 iPhone to differentiate itself from the multitude of aluminum-bodied smartphones on the market.
“As far as I know, only one [iPhone] model will adopt glass casing next year,” Horng told reporters after the annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. “I don’t think this move will have an impact on Catcher’s revenue as glass casing still needs a durable metal frame which requires advanced processing technology and would not be cheaper than the current model.”
Horng does not expect Apple’s transition to glass to impact Catcher’s business because Apple will still be using a metal frame for the device. Horng says there will be no Apple iPhone using a glass-only casing without a metal frame in 2017.
The information sourced from Catcher Technology aligns with predictions from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has also said Apple will use a glass-backed design for the 2017 iPhone. Kuo has also indicated that a glass body may only be present in some of the devices planned for 2017, suggesting Apple may release a mix of glass-bodied and aluminum-bodied devices if more than one iPhone is planned.
The 2017 iPhone is rumored to be a radical upgrade to the iPhone, so it is not clear if Apple will stick with its 4.7 and 5.5-inch screen sizes, introduce new screen sizes, or consolidate down to a single iPhone once again. From Kuo:
In 2017, the ratio of new iPhone models using aluminum casing will likely drop significantly from current 100% to 40% or less. In addition to reiterating our view from the March 25 report, we believe the share of new iPhone models using aluminum casing will significantly fall from the current 100% to 40% or less.
Apple last used glass for the body of the iPhone 4s in 2011, with devices since the iPhone 5 in 2012 featuring aluminum bodies. In 2017, Apple may pair the iPhone’s glass body with an edge-to-edge OLED display that includes a Touch ID sensor embedded into the glass, doing away with the home button for a sleek, all-glass look.
Because of the major changes rumored for the 2017 iPhone, there is speculation that Apple will name the device the “iPhone 8” rather than the “iPhone 7s” to denote its status as a significant upgrade.
Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
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Apple Working on OS X 10.12 Feature Allowing Macs to Be Unlocked via iPhone’s Touch ID
Unlocking an iPhone via Touch ID in lieu of a passcode makes it much easier to maintain security while preserving convenience, and Touch ID’s ease of use has left many Mac users wondering when a similar feature might be introduced for Apple’s desktop and notebook machines.
There has been speculation Apple might introduce dedicated Touch ID fingerprint scanning hardware for the Mac, but as it turns out, Apple is working on a simpler way to allow a Touch ID to unlock a Mac, and it’s a feature that could be included in OS X 10.12.
Apple engineers are designing an auto unlock function that would allow an iPhone to unlock a Mac when in close proximity, alleviating the need to enter a password on a password-protected Mac.
The feature, which uses Bluetooth LE frameworks, will presumably work similarly to the automatic unlocking function on the Apple Watch, which allows an unlocked iPhone to bypass the passcode restriction on a connected Apple Watch. In this scenario, an iPhone’s Touch ID button would likely be used as a verification method for simpler logins.
It’s also possible that a connection with an Apple Watch could be used to unlock the Mac even when an iPhone isn’t present, making the process even simpler. This concept has already been demonstrated through the Knock app for the iPhone and Apple Watch, using a Bluetooth connection to unlock a Mac instead of a password. Knock requires an iOS app and a Mac app to work, but an Apple-designed feature will undoubtedly be simpler.
The unlocking feature would likely work hand-in-hand with Apple Pay support for web browsers, also rumored to be coming soon. Remote Touch ID authentication from the iPhone or Apple Watch may be used to confirm purchases made via Siri on the Mac.
Features planned for OS X 10.12 are not yet set in stone, so there is a chance that the unlocking function could be shelved until a later date if work is not completed in time.
Because OS X 10.11 El Capitan focused heavily on internal updates and optimizations, Apple appears to be aiming to debut new features in OS X 10.12. Along with the unlocking feature, Apple is also working on integrating Siri into the Mac and we may see improvements to Photos and iTunes.
Details on Siri for Mac and the prospective design of the dock and menu bar icons can be seen in a post we shared yesterday.
Related Roundups: WWDC 2016, OS X 10.12
Tag: Touch ID
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