Download Android Wear apps right from your wrist
Android Wear smartwatches aren’t yet completely independent of your phone, but they just took one giant step in that direction. Google is releasing a third developer preview of Android Wear 2.0 that offers Google Play Store access on your watch, complete with support for paid downloads, beta tests and multiple accounts. Browsing is limited to recommend apps and keyword searches, but you can choose to install apps only on the watch — important when some Android Wear 2.0 apps won’t be available on phones in the first place.
You’ll have to be comfortable with running unfinished software if you’re going to install this on your own watch, of course. Otherwise, you’ll have to be patient. Google isn’t expecting 2.0 to reach wearables until early 2017, so the preview program will be the only way you can try the new Android Wear experience this year.
Source: Android Developers Blog
Google hires industry vet Lyor Cohen as YouTube’s head of music
In a music world where exclusives and direct ties to artists are increasingly important, Google is hoping to give YouTube a boost with its latest hire: Lyor Cohen. The former Def Jam president has most recently been heading up his 300 Entertainment label that started in 2013 with financial backing from companies that included Google. In a letter to employees, Cohen said he will continue running 300, which has been home to artists including Fetty Wap, Migos and Young Thug for another 60 days.
Excited to welcome @lyorcohen as @YouTube’s Global Head of Music. Impressive track record working w/artists & music industry. Welcome Lyor!
— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) September 28, 2016
He’s the latest in a string of music execs making the jump to the tech side as of late, following Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine at Apple, Jay Z with Tidal and, as Billboard mentions, former Lady Gaga manager Troy Carter at Spotify. At YouTube, Lyor Cohen will be the “Global Head of Music” charged with working on its relationships with music companies and artists alike. We’ll see if that results in a series of exclusives to match recent releases from artists like Drake, Beyoncé, Chance the Rapper and Frank Ocean, but the bigger question may be how to get YouTube on a good footing with music labels upset about the rates it’s currently paying them.
Interestingly, this announcement arrives just as word leaks out of Spotify’s potential interest in acquiring SoundCloud, which faces similar challenges in blending user generated content and remixes with licensed major label songs. Now there’s the YouTube Music app, as well as YouTube Red subscriptions, and as Variety reported, claims it’s paid out more than $3 billion to the music industry. While YouTube CEO Susan Wojciki welcomed the new hire, Cohen said in a letter to the YouTube team that “I’m confident that we can bridge the worlds of technology and music in ways that benefit everyone, instead of the zero-sum mentality that exists today. “
Source: Susan Wojcicki (Twitter)
Google, Facebook and other tech titans form ‘Partnership on AI’
Five of the biggest tech companies have launched a collaboration to help the public understand the benefits of artificial intelligence. The New York Times reported in early September that Google, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon had been meeting to discuss an AI-related project. Now, the cat’s finally out of the bag. Their collaboration is officially called “Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society,” and it has a few goals other than to make sure people know that AI research isn’t all about creating killer robots.
Partnership on AI will support related research and recommend best practices in ethics, transparency and privacy when it comes to artificial intelligence studies. The project also aims to create an open platform where researchers and major players in the industry can communicate.
The initiative’s website explains its tenet as follows:
“We believe that artificial intelligence technologies hold great promise for raising the quality of people’s lives and can be leveraged to help humanity address important global challenges such as climate change, food, inequality, health, and education.”
All five founding companies have huge AI projects. IBM, as you know, has Watson, while Google has DeepMind, which you probably recognize as the the team behind AlphaGo. Amazon has Alexa, the voice assistance that’s loaded onto its Echo speakers, while Microsoft has Cortana and a whole bunch of chatbot projects. Finally, Facebook, depends on artificial intelligence for many of its features, including face recognition and its News Feed.
Despite the initiative’s solid lineup, people couldn’t help but wonder why it’s missing one key player: Apple. Microsoft’s Eric Horvitz, who serves as one of the project’s interim co-chairs, told The Guardian that they’ve been in discussions with Cupertino. “I know they’re enthusiastic about this effort,” he said, “and I’d personally hope to see them join.” Another missing name is Elon Musk’s OpenAI, a non-profit AI research project that promises to make its results available to all. That might eventually change, though, since the team plans to invite more companies and non-profits from around the world to be part of the effort.
Via: PopSci, The Guardian
Source: Partnership on AI
Google Express delivery expands along the East Coast
East coast residents now have a new way to shop online. Google announced on Wednesday that it is expanding its Google Express online delivery service to a dozen states throughout the Northeast. Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont are all now within Google Express’ delivery range.
Users can order from a variety of online retailers including CostCo, Whole Foods, PetSmart through Express’ single UI, then receive their orders two days later (or same day if you pay extra). It’s structurally quite similar to Amazon Prime except you’re able to order from a bunch of different retailers rather than a monolithic fulfilment center. Additionally, customers in New York can choose between the standard $95 per year subscription model or opt for a $5-plus per order, pay-as-you go system.
Alphabet’s health watch has changed a lot since last year
You know that health-tracking watch Alphabet’s X research division showed off more than a year ago, the one you’re looking at above? Yeah, you’ll want to forget about that design. MIT Technology Review managed to get a peek at a prototype of what should be “at least” the second generation of the now Verily-made design, and it bears precious little resemblance to the squarish block from 2015. At is heart is a familiar-sounding circular e-paper screen — not as exciting as the OLEDs and LCDs on smartwatches, but vital for a device that you’re supposed to wear as often as possible.
Logically, it’s loaded with sensors. There’s an outer ring that measures your electriocardiogram (aka your heart’s electrical rhythm), a heart rate sensor and motion detection. You’d also see four unknown metal pads, although it’s not clear if they’re being used for additional sensing (such as galvanic skin response, which reflects stress) or something more mundane, like charging. The device has a brass-hued analog-style casing that looks “ordinary,” according to MIT. That’s possibly a good thing for wristwear that you don’t want standing out.
You aren’t going to buy this watch yourself. Verily mainly wants to use it for research projects like Baseline Study, which will look for disease predictors in everything from blood to sensor data. The company’s Brian Otis also hints that the equipment could change: the company is “constantly iterating” on designs, he says. Even so, it’s a sign that Alphabet is committed to wearable tech that can answer vital medical questions.
Source: MIT Technology Review
Mastercard is offering free Tube travel with Android Pay
In a bid to boost mobile payments, Mastercard kicked-off a series of promotional events last year where it would pay for Londoners’ travel if they used its cards to tap in and out of the Tube with Apple Pay. It must have been a success, because today the card giant confirmed that it will do the same for cardholders with Android devices, allowing you to travel on London’s travel networks for free every Monday throughout October.
All you need to do is have a Mastercard loaded onto your Android Pay wallet and then use it to touch in and out, like you would an Oyster or contactless card. The offer is available on October 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th and covers travel up to £30.50 across bus, Tube, tram, DLR, Tfl Rail, London Overground routes and most National Rail services in London. It even covers Emirates Air Line cable car and the MBNA Thames Clippers River Bus service.
If that wasn’t enough, Mastercard has also teamed up with Caffè Nero to offer a free coffee or hot drink on those dates. For both offers, you will need to pay for your travel and drinks initially, but Mastercard will refund the fare (which could take up to 28 days).
Source: Mastercard
Google adds an Incognito search mode on iOS
Sometimes you need to find something that you don’t want to see listed in your Google search history, even while you’re on the go. Chrome’s Incognito browser sessions can be good for that, but a new tweak for the Google Search app on iOS makes it easy to open up disposable sessions there too. Additionally, it’s set up so that if you leave the app and need to come back to the search, you can lock it using TouchID, so even on a shared device like an iPad, someone else can’t easily see what was in there.
Google says that other changes have made the app more stable with 50 percent fewer crashes, increased compatibility with iOS 10 and added the ability to watch YouTube videos within the app. If you find Incognito searching useful, then you can jump straight into it with 3D Touch by hard pressing the search icon.
Source: Google Search Blog, iTunes
Google for iOS Updated With Touch ID Incognito Mode and YouTube Support
Google announced an update to its namesake app for iOS yesterday, adding a resumable private browsing mode and inline YouTube support.
The new private browsing feature apes Incognito mode from the company’s Chrome browser, along with its dark window theme, but adds an extra layer of privacy, too. Like Chrome, search and browse history are not saved when the mode is enabled, but Google app users can also enable Touch ID for the feature, allowing them to re-enter an existing Incognito session after exiting the app.
Additionally, the Google app gets inline support for YouTube videos, allowing for instant playback within search results, instead of being switched to another browser window or the YouTube app.
The update also renames Google Now to “the feed”, and brings increased stability for iOS 10 users as well as performance improvements that promise to reduce crashes by half.
The new Incognito mode does not appear to have rolled out to all users yet, but once it does, the mode can be enabled by tapping into the app’s account settings screen and selecting “Turn on incognito”.
A hard press of the Google app icon from the home screen also turns up a 3D Touch option to enter the mode on compatible devices. The Touch ID feature can be configured in Incognito settings.
Google Search can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Tag: Google
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Pixel 2 joins the few Chromebooks that can run Android apps
Prior to a few days ago, anyone wanting to run Android apps on their Chromebook had to be an early adopter. Google finally released a stable build of Chrome OS that included a Play store in beta that would allow users to run mobile apps…but only on the Acer Chromebook R11 and ASUS Chromebook Flip. Since the only one other machine supporting Android apps in beta Chrome OS releases was the Chromebook Pixel 2, we predicted it would be next in line — and we were right.
Starting today, users of that sadly out-of-production machine can run the Play store on a stable Chrome OS 53 build and load up Android apps. Which Chromebook will get cleared next is unclear, though Google does have a list of dozens that will get added at some point “later in 2016/2017.”
Source: Android Police
The first presidential debate broke multiple internet records
It won’t shock you to hear that the first US presidential debate shattered TV viewing records — Nielsen says the broadcast was the most-watched debate ever with an average of 84 million viewers. However, it also pushed boundaries of the internet, too. For starters, YouTube reports that Clinton-versus-Trump was the biggest political live stream “of all time,” with almost 2 million concurrent viewers spread across six major news outlets. It was also one of the largest streams in the site’s history, and had 14 times more live viewers than during the 2012 debate.
Twitter isn’t offering concrete data, but does say that it beat the 10.3 million tweets sent during 2012’s first candidate showdown. We’ve reached out to Facebook to see if it can provide its own statistics.
The heated discussion smashed a few other records, as well. CBSN’s young online-only service broke both its hourly and single-day viewership records with about 1.4 million unique viewers. The political predictors at FiveThirtyEight, meanwhile, had their highest single-day traffic to date. And this isn’t counting outages — there are numerous reports of Politifact and Trump’s own site going down at the height of the event. There’s no guarantee that you’ll see a repeat of this server-crushing activity during this election, but it’s clear that the internet is much more of a go-to source for election coverage than it was 4 years ago.
Source: YouTube Official Blog, CNN Money (1), (2), CBS News
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