Google Android discussion - Page 80

Google and Nest have a close relationship with the latter demoing Home/Assistant integration at the former’s major October 4h hardware event. Given this, Alphabet is now reportedly considering a merger of Nest into Google’s purview and specifically Rick Osterloh’s hardware division.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the integration of Nest Labs into Google would make tremendous sense given the numerous overlaps between what the two companies are doing in the smart home space.

Speaking to former Nest employees, the report notes how overlap between the two companies extends into development, manufacturing, and retail distribution. Meanwhile, as of late, Nest and Google have been working together on development and manufacturing.

Despite the shared name, Nest Weave and Google Weave are distinct software products, with different teams at each company working in parallel. Last year, several dozen Nest engineers developing the Internet of Things communication protocol were temporarily transferred to Google.

Additionally, in 2016, a hundred Nest employees were moved to Google to create a combined supply chain team.

Meanwhile, Google Assistant is making its way into Nest products, with an upcoming update adding Assistant to the Nest Cam IQ, while another integration will soon allow the Nest Hello doorbell to announce who’s at the door over Google Home speakers.

This increased integration, including the ability to control Nest products with Assistant, seemingly comes after the departure of former founder and CEO Tony Fadell.

Nest has a workforce of 1,000 employees according to the WSJ, with separate legal, marketing. and PR teams. Notably, it still uses Amazon cloud services, though is moving to Google’s. Purchased in 2015, Nest was one of the key examples of the Alphabet model. At the time, this walled off structure was seen by some as a move to allay privacy concerns. Given this merger, those would likely change again.

This merger would help Google better compete in the smart home against competitors like Amazon. The shopping retailer and Nest both recently launched home security systems, including cameras.

Google is about to launch a small but useful update to Google Maps that will give you live guidance and interactive real-time notifications during your journey.

The idea here is to give you real-time updates while you are on your transit journey. These updates will appear in the Google Maps app and, maybe most importantly, on your Android lock screen.

To get started, you search for your transit directions in Google Maps as usual. So far, so good. What’s new here is that you’ll soon be able to tap a “start” button at the bottom the screen with the details about your transit journey and then get live updates as you walk or ride on your local buses and trains.

Our understanding is that Google Maps will even remind you to get off your bus or train when you get close to your stop. That’s definitely useful when you’re traveling somewhere new (or sleepy).

The notifications on the lock screen are also new. One nifty feature here is that they are interactive, so you can scroll right through your journey’s steps.

While Google Maps always did a good job of giving you detailed transit directions (though it’s often nowhere as good and useful as CityMapper’s more detailed directions), the process generally involved keeping track of your own progress along the route. With this update, transit notifications become a bit more like using Maps for walking, biking and driving.

We expect this update to go live soon — and Google may already be testing it outside of its trusted tester community. If you’re already seeing it in Google Maps yourself, let us know in the comments.

Samsung wowed us all last year when it released the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The phones weren’t particularly huge updates over their predecessors overall, but they certainly were in terms of design. Samsung ditched the home button from the front of the phones and slimmed down the bezels above and below the screen. Since Samsung’s flagship phones already had barely any bezels on either side of the display, the result was an impressive screen-to-body ratio that offers a wonderfully immersive viewing experience.

There’s precious little doubt that the Galaxy S8 design is still among the best in the world. But there’s also precious little doubt that Apple one-upped Samsung with the iPhone X, which features a best-in-class screen-to-body ratio. With this year’s Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, everyone expected torch to be passed back to Samsung thanks to even slimmer bezels above and below the S9’s display. Unfortunately, a new report suggests the design we’ve seen leaked several times now has been canceled and we’re in store for a boring update instead.

“Disappointed, the S9 on the left did not pass the test and was killed,” Twitter user Ice universe posted early Thursday morning. “On the right is the real S9, which is almost the same as S8.”

Ice universe is one of a few gadget leakers who crossed over to Twitter from Chinese microblogging site Weibo. His track record is mixed, but he does often share information about unreleased smartphones that winds up being confirmed once the phones are announced.

Rumors up to now have suggested that Samsung would push its Infinity Display design even further by releasing a Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ with almost no bezel beneath the display and a slightly narrower bezel above it as well. To achieve the narrow bottom bezel, Samsung likely would have had to copy Apple’s iPhone X design, which makes use of Samsung’s flexible displays by folding them underneath themselves at the bottom. This allows Apple to hide the display controller behind the screen itself so it can be extended almost all the way to the bottom edge of the phone.

It’s a brilliant solution, and it’s only a matter of time before other smartphone makers copy it. Unfortunately for Galaxy phone users, it looks like Samsung’s Galaxy S9 won’t make use of this solution. It’s normal for smartphone companies to have multiple prototypes of unreleased smartphones, of course, and it looks like the prototype we’ve all been hoping for won’t actually make it to production.

Ice universe didn’t share any additional information, so it’s currently not known if Samsung ran into display issues with its new S9 design, or if other issues prevented it from seeing the light of day. Whatever the case, the end result if this report is accurate will apparently be a relatively boring update design-wise, akin to Apple’s “S” upgrades.

It’s time for the big dogs to come out to play. The Samsung Galaxy S9 has been popping up in rumors, but we’re soon to get a lot more intimate with the device. Samsung has confirmed that they will be unveiling their first flagship phone of 2018 at Mobile World Congress in February.

That phone, of course, will be the Galaxy S9 and more than likely the Galaxy S9+ as well. Samsung will be about a month ahead of their 2017 release schedule. The Samsung Galaxy S8 was announced in late March and launched in late April. We can expect the Galaxy S9 to launch about a month after MWC.

We don’t have much in terms of rumored specs right now. Most of the rumors and leaks have been about design changes. The fingerprint scanner should finally be moved to a more comfortable location on the back. Iris scanning will be more secure so it can be used like Face ID. Otherwise, the Galaxy S9 is looking like a smaller upgrade.

On January 26 2018 06:31 A3th3r wrote:
the new Samsung Galaxy GS8 costs seven hundred dollars to buy from Best Buy. That's about how much a set of new car tires costs!

The Google Assistant is all about you. And with Google Home, Google Home Max or your other smart speakers, the Assistant can help do everyday things like call your mom, turn on compatible living room lights, plan your day and even show you your photos from the holidays. Now, it’s getting even better, by helping you wake up, find a show and listen to your favorite songs (for some content, you might need a subscription).

• Waking up is hard to do...
  
  And waking up to a wailing alarm doesn’t always help to start your day off on the right foot. Luckily, the Google Assistant can help you wake up more peacefully.
  
  All you have to do is say “Hey Google, set an alarm for 6 AM that plays [insert favorite musician💃]” to the Assistant on Google Home (or your other Assistant-enabled speakers) and you can set an alarm and wake up to your favorite song, playlist or radio station.
  
  
• Finding your shows and music shouldn’t be
  
  The Assistant can already help you learn about actors or play a TV show, and now it can help you keep up with the TV shows you’re into right now. Just say “Hey Google, what channel airs The Flash” or “Hey Google, when does The Flash air next.” And don’t forget, you can set a reminder so you never miss the show, ‘Hey Google, remind me to watch Riverdale every Wednesday at 8 PM.” And when it's time to tune in, it's easy with voice casting and YouTube TV. Just say "Hey Google, watch Riverdale"
  

We've worked closely with Netflix to make your Netflix casting experience more personal. The first step is to link your Netflix account in the Google Home app or via the Google Assistant on your phone. From there, just choose your Netflix profile and get right to the things you want to watch. Thanks to Voice Match on the Assistant, you can just say, “Hey Google, play Stranger Things on Netflix" and it will pick up right where you left off. And same for your roommate or partner.

Finally, if you're a Google Play Music user, you can now enjoy all the music that you’ve purchased or uploaded to your music library. It’s as simple as asking for your favorite artist, song or album and singing along to the beat. So grab your Google Home Max from the Google Store, Verizon or Best Buy and you can sing and dance your heart out in no time.

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google is developing a subscription-based game streaming service that could work either on its Chromecast or a Google-made console, which is still being developed, the Information website reported on Wednesday.

The service, codenamed Yeti, would put Google at the forefront of a new part of the videogame business that lets people play games as they're being streamed, rather than using downloads or disks, the report said. (bit.ly/2FUNLOu)

The plan that Google has been working on involves use of its cloud servers to broadcast the games to users over the internet, the Information report said, citing people with knowledge of the project.

Google has discussed Yeti with game developers, but it is unclear whether any of them will develop a game specifically for Yeti or only make existing streamed games available, the Information reported.

Google declined to comment.

On February 08 2018 20:39 Faruko wrote:
I feel like Game Streaming MIGHT be the future, but hardly anytime soon...

With many ISP throttling speed and putting data caps, this would be a pain in the ass in many many countries (Even in the US lol)

You would need to change A LOT of how the world works for this to be a viable option in detriment of normal console/pc gaming