Pixel leaks keep flowing on the eve of Google’s big event
Everybody keeps spilling the beans on Google’s upcoming Pixel phones. After a UK retailer and a Canadian carrier posted about them early, it’s now Verizon’s turn. Gizmodo has spotted listings of the upcoming devices on the carrier’s Enterprise website, where you can find both the Pixel and the XL under its smartphone section. They also come with a short description of the devices’ features, including a mysterious one called “Google Magic.” We’ll probably find out what that is at Google’s big event. Serial leaker Evan Blass (aka evleaks) has also tweeted out an image of the devices for Verizon, and it looks like they will be available in silver/white and blue.
Across the pond, Google has applied for a trademark on the name “Pixel,” according to The Trademark Ninja. He found the official application on the EU’s Intellectual Property Office website after expressing concerns that other companies might block the devices’ release in member countries, since Google doesn’t own the trademark for the name.
In case you’re sick and tired of Pixel leaks by now, though, here’s an unconfirmed detail about another device that the big G’s expected to reveal tomorrow: its Daydream VR headset could be priced for as little as $79. According to Variety, Daydream could be more affordable than the Gear VR and could ship later this month.
Google Pixel (bottom) and Pixel XL (top) for Verizon Wireless, in blue and silver pic.twitter.com/o1phG9esbP
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) October 4, 2016
Source: The Trademark Ninja
Google hires Amazon exec to develop its new phones
Google has hired one of the key personnel in Amazon’s hardware division, according to The Information. The Big G has apparently signed up David Foster (no, not the composer) to head up the development of its Pixel phones and fill a new position in the company. He’s now Google’s vice president of product engineering, underlining Mountain View’s bigger focus on hardware going forward. Foster was with Amazon for five years, leading hardware development of the Echo speakers, the Kindle Paperwhite and Voyage, among other devices at Lab126.
That laboratory, as you might know, is Amazon’s formerly secret hardware facility, which was originally formed to create the Kindle e-readers. It eventually spawned not just the Echo speakers, but also the company’s other devices, such as the Dash buttons, Fire tablets, TV and even the late Fire phone. The last one turned out to be a huge flop — Amazon kept slashing its prices for a year in an effort to move stocks before killing the product altogether. Due to its failure, the company decided to shelve its sequel and several other projects in the pipeline.
Before Amazon, Foster worked on hardware for Microsoft, helping create the Zune HD. He was also with Apple for five years, developing hardware components for its devices. It’s not clear what role he played in creating the Pixel phones Google is expected to reveal tomorrow. But the company’s future devices will have his fingerprints all over them.
Google just hired a key Amazon Lab 126 hardware guy to lead development of the Pixel phones you’ll see tomorrow. https://t.co/ohmQ9qi8VA
— Amir Efrati (@amir) October 4, 2016
Source: The Information
Watch the trailer for Netflix’s spoof of YouTube stardom
You’re about to find out how Netflix tackles the rapid rise of YouTube stars. The streaming giant has posted the first trailer for Haters Back Off, its send-up of internet video success. As mentioned when Netflix bought the show, Haters follows well-known YouTube personality Miranda Sings (Colleen Ballinger-Evans in real life) as she embarks on her fictional bid for fame. It’s about as ridiculous as you’d expect. There’s a slew of awkward YouTube clips, drama over trivial comments and, of course, an explanation as to why Miranda wears that over-the-top lipstick.
All eight episodes for the first season will be available on October 14th. Whether or not it gets a second is up in the air. This is really a litmus test for a YouTube celebrity’s ability to translate success to other video formats — it’s the first time that a YouTuber has had a scripted streaming series on another service. Miranda Sings stands a better chance than many of her rivals with nearly 7 million subscribers, but there’s no guarantee that the same people who watch her vlogs are ready for a TV-length comedy.
Source: Netflix (YouTube)
Huawei reportedly turned down Google’s new phone strategy
You may be wondering why Google appears to be going with HTC for this year’s Pixel phones instead of Huawei. Wasn’t the Nexus 6P a rousing success? Apparently, Huawei and Google aren’t getting along quite as well as you might think. An Android Police source understands that Huawei bristled at Google’s plan to take more control over its Android hardware, which included erasing any mentions of the phone builder’s name. Huawei wanted a larger footprint in the US, and it wasn’t going to get that by being reduced to a contract manufacturer.
The decision to back out wasn’t helped by trouble with the Nexus 6P launch, according to the tipster. Google had originally promised deals with all four big US carriers, but that never happened. Talks broke down, and the grand launch (which would have included a “multi-hundred-million dollar” ad strategy) was reduced to sales through Google and Huawei stores. Neither this nor the Pixel problem appears to have permanently soured the relationship between the companies (there may even be a Huawei-made Google phone in 2017), but Huawei would undoubtedly be frustrated.
The incidents may be hints of a broader problem with Huawei’s US division. Reportedly, the only device to get any significant traction is the cheap-but-capable Honor 5X. The GX8 (which shares ties with the Honor phone) has seen virtually no sales, while the MateBook is an “absolute flop.” There are hints that Huawei ousted most of its American leadership and has otherwise gone through major management changes in a bid to turn things around.
We’ve asked Huawei for comment on the report. Whether or not the Google stories are accurate, though, it’s no secret that Huawei hasn’t had the best time in the US. Outside of the Nexus 6P and Huawei Watch, the company doesn’t have much stateside recognition or a fiercely competitive lineup. Unlocked phones (beyond Google’s lineup) don’t garner nearly as much attention as their carrier-bound counterparts, and it’s hard to argue for the MateBook when the Surface Pro 4 is both better-known and better-built. In short, it’s not enough to show up — Huawei has to demonstrate that it compete with its biggest rivals on their home turf.
Source: Android Police
Verily’s wearable microscope sees beneath your skin
UCLA and Verily, Google Alphabet’s life sciences division, has developed a wearable microscope that could help doctors in the near future. The device is designed to track fluorescent biomarkers inside the skin, a vital tool used to detect certain cancers and to monitor the delivery of drugs inside a person’s body. These biomarkers are, essentially, glow-in-the-dark dyes that medical professionals can follow as they journey around your veins.
It’s possible to track these currently, but the technology isn’t very portable or cost-effective for day-to-day care. By creating a device that can do the same job, but weighs just a tenth of a pound, cancer suffers could keep one strapped to their bicep for real-time tracking of their medication. It works by firing an angled laser at the skin, with the microscope then capturing the illuminated image that’s produced afterward.
This data is then sent back to a computer where an algorithm filters out the noise generated by the skin itself. The resulting image can then let doctors track the chemicals in isolation, and if the tech can be developed further, might have several other applications. Slowly, and without much warning, it looks as if Alphabet’s life sciences division is pushing hard to get us closer to the future we’ve been promised by so much sci-fi.
Via: Science News
Source: UCLA
Leaked Images Reveal Google ‘Pixel’ Smartphones Ahead of October 4th Event
U.K. mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse was today guilty of publishing a series of visuals and spec slides for Google’s upcoming own-branded smartphones, a day ahead of their official unveiling (via 9to5Google).
Due to be announced at the company’s October 4th San Francisco event, Google’s 5-inch ‘Pixel’ and 5.5-inch ‘Pixel XL’ smartphones feature Snapdragon 821 processors and 4GB RAM, a 2770mAh battery for the Pixel and a 3450mAh battery for the Pixel XL, and screen resolutions of 1080×1920 and 1440×2560, respectively.
Both similar-looking handsets are available in black or white, and come with a choice of 32GB and 128GB storage capacities with the addition of a microSD slot for storage expansion, as well as what appears to be a headphone jack on the top and a USB-C port on the bottom. A 12-megapixel camera, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, and a circular fingerprint scanner on the rear also feature.
The pulled slides from the U.K. retailer’s website also show off a number of Google software services on the Android Nougat 7.1 powered devices, including free photo storage via Google Photos, and the company’s Duo video chat and Allo messaging apps, not to mention a quick charge feature that claims seven hours’ battery life after 15 minutes of charging.
The two smartphones signal the company’s first foray into own-branded phones in the manner of Apple and Samsung, and will allow it to have more control over the hardware running its Android OS.
Google is said to be relying on HTC to manufacture the devices, which will be unveiled tomorrow along with a number of other expected hardware announcements, including the company’s Amazon Alexa competitor, Google Home, a Daydream VR headset, 4K Chromecast ‘Ultra’, plus a successor to its OnHub wireless router.
Tags: Google, Google Pixel
Discuss this article in our forums
UK retailer leaks Google’s Pixel phones in detail
Here are Google’s Pixel phones. Again! In some unfortunate error somewhere along the way, UK phone seller Carphone Warehouse has full listings for two phones, cementing what we’ve already heard or seen, as well as demonstrating how Google hopes to pitch the two devices to smartphone shoppers.
The company that made Android is showcasing its latest software chops in these promo images, and the notable parts added to the mobile OS in recent years. This includes its new Assistant AI Allo, Google Photos (free unlimited storage at full-size!), its Facetime Duo videochat app, and other bells and whistles, like customizable phone covers and rapid charging through its USB-C port.
There’s a whole pile of specs attached to the listing, however as Android Police also notes, the mention of microSD storage is a wee bit suspicious. The rest of the details (five-inch screen on the Pixel, a 5.5-inch one on the Pixel XL) all chime with what we’ve heard already. Unfortunately they don’t appear to be all that remarkable looks-wise. I miss the sparkly Nexus 4.
What about that matte backing? See how it doesn’t reflect the companion phone in the image above? What’s that about? Could that be a secondary touchscreen? It would tally with the tagline: “the power of Google at your fingertips”. It might also make a huge amount of sense for steering bigger phones. Or perhaps I’m looking for something thrilling when the rest of the device seems so by-the-book. Surely, surely, Google has a few more tricks to pull out of its hat ahead of its big showcase. It’s got 24 hours to reveal something.
Source: Carphone Warehouse, Android Police
Google releases massive visual databases for machine learning
It seems like we hear about a new breakthrough using machine learning nearly every day, but it’s not easy. In order to fine-tune algorithms that recognize and predict patterns in data, you need to feed them massive amounts of already-tagged information to test and learn from. For researchers, that’s where two recently-released archives from Google will come in. Joining other high-quality datasets, Open Images and YouTube8-M provide millions of annotated links for researchers to train their processes on.
The Open Images set comes from a collaboration between Google, Carnegie Mellon and Cornell, with 9 million entries that were tagged by computers first before having those notes verified and corrected by humans. The Google Research team says it has enough images to train a neural network “from scratch,” so if you’d like to try your hand at a DeepDream-style project, better version of Google Photos or the next Prisma then it’s ready to go.
Announcing YouTube-8M: A Large and Diverse Labeled Video Dataset for Video Understanding Research – https://t.co/kxLUxGpLxU pic.twitter.com/J6n6TyIwLb
— Google Research (@googleresearch) September 28, 2016
On the other hand, the YouTube8-M file points to 8 million videos (adding up to more than 500,000 hours of footage) that the group says “represents a significant increase in scale and diversity compared to existing video datasets.” The idea here is to create a library for video analysis that rivals those already in existence for still images, that’s also accessible for people without big data. Part of that is because Google has also extracted and tagged still images from the videos for researchers to download. Whether you’re working on the next self-driving car AI or something simpler, you can browse or download the database right here.
Via: Google Research Blog (1), (2)
Source: Open Images, YouTube8-M
Google’s VR paint game ‘Tilt Brush’ will get multiplayer
Google’s Tilt Brush debuted in September 2014 as a virtual reality painting experience — immersion with the creative simplicity of MS Paint, as The Verge put it. They’ve added more in-game tools and hosted the odd art exhibit in the two-year interim. But as more VR headsets filter into players’ hands, the game will soon get a big feature: Multiplayer. There’s no release date yet, but here’s a few things to look forward to while we wait.
It seems obvious to stuff a bunch of gamers into a single (digital) room and let them collaborate. But there are some lovely little touches to emphasize the painting, not the people: Each player is represented by a simple neon outline of a headset, preserving the sort of bodiless anonymity that draws the focus back to creating. You can even decorate each other’s headsets, so expect the playful innocence of mustaches and fairy wings until less mature gamers inevitably invade Tilt Brush.
There are a few other features coming that aren’t tied to multiplayer, like a poseable mannequin and letting players make crude animations, zoetrope-style: Adding doodles frame-by-frame on the outside of a wheel and “spinning” it.
Another tool on the horizon is the portal brush, which uses the HTC Vive’s cameras to let you peer into the real world. Of course, these are all just experiments that may or may not make it into the game, but since the team keeps putting out niche features like the audio reactive brushes, we could see any of these come out in a future update.
Via: The Verge
Source: Google blog
Google Maps will show where your next Calendar appointment is
Google has been all about change for its suite of productivity apps this week, and now we’re seeing what happens when some of the disparate services combine. On Android, Maps and Calendar are joining forces to give a quick visual reference for where your various appointments will take place. You need to be signed into both apps with the same account, of course, but other than that it all seems pretty easy to set up and use. Just put the event’s address in the “where” box when creating a Calendar entry and you should be good to go according to Google’s Keyword blog. Maps information has cross-pollinated into Calendar previously, so it’s pretty cool to see this go the other way, too.
Via: VentureBeat
Source: Google Keyword blog
AIVAnet 