Tag: tech

Here’s what’s new in Android 12, from big changes to subtle tweaks

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With a personalized color scheme on the outside and a reinforced app-privacy structure on the inside, the next version of Android should at least avoid a common fate of some previous Android updates: being mistaken for one of its predecessors. Android 12 , previewed in detail on Tuesday at Google’s I/O developer conference, leads off with those changes to form and function. But the next edition of its mobile operating system bundles many less obvious—but still notable—changes, including some that didn’t get mentioned during the two-hour keynote that opened the online event. Material You While many operating systems have offered personalization features, Google’s concept aims to make customization an automatic feature, not a distraction for interface nerds. Android 12 will derive highlight and contrast colors for its interface by analyzing your screen wallpaper. If your own screen decor already matches the current Android palette, you should still notice how many onscreen elements will be less rectilinear. For example, Google has already advised developers of onscreen widgets to get ready for rounded corners . [Photo: courtesy of Google] New visual effects will extend to animations to convey more clearly what’s going on. For instance, scrolling to the end of an onscreen list will cause it to stretch up and down the screen, and pressing the power button to wake the screen will send light rippling across the display. Quick Settings The set of toggles for such functions as airplane mode (remember that?) that you can invoke by swiping deeply down from the top of the screen should look a lot different in Android 12. The tiles you see today will be replaced by larger panes that show more detail about the state of each function. Android 12’s Quick Settings will also fold in new features. Read More …

New iPad Pro: Amazing hardware in search of equally amazing software

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There’s a long-standing urban myth that Apple designs products with planned obsolescence in mind—intentionally engineering them so that you’ll grow dissatisfied over time and want to replace them with something newer and shinier. Don’t you believe it. The company actually has a pretty impressive track record of building products that remain useful for the long haul, even well after they’ve been discontinued and replaced. One of the best recent examples is the iPad Pro that arrived back in November 2018 . Now theoretically two generations out of date, it belies its age by feeling just about as fast, fresh, stylish, and capable as it did on day one. It’s even compatible with Apple’s Magic Keyboard, which shipped 16 months later and took the iPad Pro to new heights as a laptop replacement. That 2018 iPad Pro was so good, in fact, that it hasn’t cried out for reinvention. Last year’s iPad Pro  acknowledged that by focusing on improvements to the rear camera system, including some aimed at making augmented-reality apps work better. For most iPad Pro users, it was the kind of update you could sensibly skip, biding your time to see what came next. That time has arrived. Apple is about to release  another new iPad Pro that, like last year’s model, retains the industrial design and basic feature set of the 2018 version. (It officially arrives in stores on Friday, though it’s already in enough demand that Apple is quoting availability dates for new preorders in late June and July.) I’ve spent more than a week with a prerelease 12.9-inch unit provided by Apple, along with a Magic Keyboard case and Pencil stylus. (The keyboard is the new white version , which looks mighty sharp—and, unlike any previous iPad keyboard, is color-coordinated with the Pencil.) Finally, an iPad keyboard case that matches Apple’s Pencil. [Photo: Harry McCracken] In terms of sheer technical excellence, this new iPad Pro is a good-size leap beyond its 2018 and 2020 predecessors. Read More …

How two Southeast Asian superapps beat Uber at its own game

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In 2009, while Uber’s cofounders were gearing up to launch, a cadre of young Asian entrepreneurs-to-be entered the MBA program at Harvard Business School. Out of that group came two ride-sharing startups that would evolve quite differently than their American cousins. The company now called Grab was conceived by Malaysian students Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan (no relation) as their entry in a business-plan contest. They didn’t win—but later, they wound up out-Ubering Uber in burgeoning cities across the 10-country ASEAN region in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, another classmate took a zigzag route to the top. Nadiem Makarim, working remotely with buddies back home in Indonesia, started Gojek as a side project while finishing his MBA. This ride-share app has branched into businesses from massage therapy to moviemaking. And just this week Gojek announced the largest business deal in Indonesia’s history, its merger with e-commerce giant Tokopedia. (Disclosure: Golden Gate Ventures is a small shareholder of Gojek via its acquisition of Ruma Mapan. We’ve also invested in Gojek’s spinout, GoPlay.) Both Gojek and Grab are now venture-funded decacorns. Each is headed for a dual IPO on New York and Asian exchanges. And they’re racing to dominate much more than ride-hailing on Southeast Asians’ mobile phone screens. Grab and Gojek each offer what hasn’t yet been seen in the U.S. market: a superapp combo, featuring a payment app that’s a potential gateway to selling anything people may wish to buy. Gojek’s Winding Road Gojek began modestly in 2010. At first it was a “minimum viable product” venture—a local, low-tech operation led on a part-time basis by its faraway founder. Read More …

Don’t get too excited about Apple Music’s ‘spatial’ and ‘lossless’ music

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I’ve often gushed about my admiration for Apple’s commitment to music. The company employs a lot of musicians or ex-musicians, and even more music lovers. It’s not trivial: It says something about the company’s culture and the way it approaches creativity and collaboration. Apple has obviously made many important music-related announcements in its time, but this week’s announcement about Apple Music offering “lossless” and “spatial” audio probably won’t end up rocking the world. Spatial audio Apple has been working with Dolby to begin making some of the Apple Music catalog available in Dolby’s proprietary Atmos format. Those recordings are meant to sound something like the experience of watching a movie with surround-sound technology, where sounds might come from behind you, above you, or anywhere else within a spherical audio surface around you. And sounds can move around in that space, so a guitar solo might seem to slowly circle above your head (which is cool, because guitar solos are boring). Apple says it’s going to start off with a few thousand Atmos songs in June, including some from Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgraves, and others, and then add more tracks over time. When the spatial support launches next month, Apple devices will be set to play available songs by default, rather than the regular binaural mix. I’ve no doubt the Atmos mixes themselves will be true to the spatial concept. Read More …

Google’s new AI dermatologist can help you figure out what that mole is

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On Tuesday, at Google’s annual developer conference I/O, the company announced the launch of a new search tool for skin, nail, and hair conditions to serve the two billion people around the world who suffer from them. The technology, validated in a paper published in Nature last year , is nearly as good as a dermatologist at identifying 26 skin conditions, and more accurate than the primary care physicians and nurses in the study. The new search tool, which will launch later this year, serves as another example of how the company thinks that it can support doctors and patients through everyday products. The dermatological assistant lives inside of Google Search and requires a 3G minimum connection. To use it, a person must provide consent and then upload three well-lit photos. The program will ask them a series of questions about their condition. You can bypass this section, but Google product manager and physician Dr. Lily Peng says answering these questions will make the results more accurate. Afterwards, the tool will serve up a list of possible matches with the top three being the most likely culprits. If the AI is less confident in its suggestions, it will note that it is still learning about certain conditions. In addition to skin conditions, the tool will show articles and other related content. [Image: courtesy of Google] Users can then either save their results, delete them, or donate them to Google’s internal research efforts. For those that choose to save or donate, the data is encrypted both in storage and transit, and the company says it will not use the data to target ads. [Image: courtesy of Google] During the three years of research and development that went into the tool, Google trained its dermatological assistant on millions of de-identified skin images. To ensure its technology worked across skin type and tone, Google partnered with 17 clinics to bring in 65,000 de-identified photos of patients’ skin. It can now identify 288 skin, hair, and nail conditions of the over 3,000 conditions that fall within the purview of a dermatologist, according to the American Academy of Dermatology Association . Google says its dermatological assistant is not a diagnostic tool, though both the U.S Read More …