Tech News - Mobile

At the Google I/O Event held in May 2018, Google advised all developers to update to the latest Android APIs by August 1, 2018. Google has instructed that all the new Android apps on Google Play should target API Level 26 (Android Oreo) in order to be published. The main reason for this strict decision is Google’s focus on security updates. Google plans to introduce Project Treble in Android 7, making it easier for mobile phone manufacturers to release Android OS updates to the devices. Google is working hard on backward compatibility and support APIs; however it is very important to target latest APIs to fully utilize the new features and backward compatibility support. Google’s roadmap for the new Android updates All Google wants the users to do is update all new and existing Android apps immediately. Here’s Google’s plan for users to ensure which apps to update and when. Things to do in August 2018 All the new apps are required to target API level 26 (Android Oreo 8.0) or higher. This means all the new apps that are not yet uploaded on Google Play (including the alpha and beta apps as well.) In November 2018 The updates to the existing apps--available on Google--are required to target API level 26 (Android Oreo 8.0) or higher. Please note here that existing apps which are not providing any updates are unaffected and will continue to work in a normal manner. Only the updates to those apps are required to target the latest APIs. 2019 Onwards Google mentions that each year the targetSdkVersion requirement will advance to the new level. And all the new apps and existing apps will need to target the corresponding API level or higher within one year of time. Developers can freely use a minSdkVersion of their choice. This means, there is no change to one’s ability to build apps for older Android versions. Google encourages developers to provide backward compatibility as far as reasonably possible. The updating process It is a very easy procedure per Google. There are some APIs which have been updated or removed in the latest API level. If any app is using those, then one will have to update the code accordingly. Following are some changes specified from recent platform versions: Implicit intents for bindService() no longer supported (Android 5.0) Runtime permissions (Android 6.0) User-added CAs not trusted by default for secure connections (Android 7.0) Apps can’t access user accounts without explicit user approval (Android 8.0) Know more about this update process by watching a Google IO 2018 session on ‘Migrate your existing app to target Android Oreo and above’ given below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyDnYaFtRS0&feature=youtu.be Unity partners with Google, launches Ml-Agents ToolKit 0.4, Project MARS and more Working with shaders in C++ to create 3D games GitHub for Unity 1.0 is here with Git LFS and file locking support  

There is no denying that Amazon Echo, HomePod and Alexa have brought about a revolution in the digital assistant space. A careful study will however point to few common observations about these products. They are merely a representation of what the assistant is thinking. They can only perform scheduled tasks like playing a song, answering predefined questions, making a todo list. This is where the latest innovation by Lenovo on the Google powered Smart Assistant stands out. It’s not just an assistant that can perform pre-planned tasks, it’s a Smart Display. How does Google’s Lenovo Smart Display look? Source: Techhive The Google Smart Display UI comes in two versions: an 8-inch model with a 1280 x 800 resolution touchscreen for $US200, and a larger 10-inch version with a 1920 x 1200 display. Although Lenovo is the first company in the Smart Display UI domain, others like JBL, LG are also planning to come up with their own versions of this. The screen is not merely an add-on to the speaker based systems like Alexa, but it is a display based on the Google smart assistant, which really increases its functionality. The rear design is sleek and it’s easy to be used on Desktop. What does it do? The Smart Display runs on Qualcomm's 624 Home Hub platform, which is the faster of its two architectures for Android Things devices. While the Qualcomm 212 platform works well for things like smart speakers and low-power smart home accessories, the 624 Home Hub platform is better suited for the Smart Display UI. It helps to process Google Assistant requests both audio visually. How is the Smart Display different THe main question here is how is it different or better than the existing solutions like Amazon Alexa, or Echo? SImple tests of performance have yielded different results in favor of the SMart Display UI. A search on Alexa makes it search the internet and read out the first few answers. This can be interpreted as a question answer based smart system. Whereas the Smart Display UI doesn’t just bring up a relevant graphical display, it displays some relevant links and the most important aspect of your search on the screen. This is significantly faster than others. The reason being the powerful Google AI behind the system. From Android to Fuchsia The smart display UI and the already successful launch of chrome OS has triggered discussions around the possible replacement of Android with the Futuristic Fuchsia. The discussion is centered around Google’s intentions of creating a mobile OS that will have a formalized update cycle. An OS which won’t have different versions running across different devices. Chrome OS seems to be the first step, which runs on the same Linux kernel as Android. While the recent developments related to Fuchsia are still under the wraps, Google might want to finally use Android as a runtime on Fuchsia. This can be a difficult task to perform, but it is a better option than running two kernels in the overhead, one for Android and the other for Fuchsia. The signs that show that this smart display UI is a way to test waters for Fuchsia are plenty. The smart display UI is completely based on the Google Smart Assistant, which will be the core of Fuchsia. It doesn’t have a home button or an app menu button. You can navigate and search using voice command. Voice command is also at the heart of Fuchsia. Rather than swiping on screen, you will be able to navigate and search with voice command. Android P, next in line for release, is also moving towards a similar UI. Android P will display your apps as cards and will promote them to the system level and avoid a complete launch. This will help in reducing system overhead and stop apps from running perpetually. From all these indicators, it seems to be a natural progression for this smart display UI system to become the face of the Fuchsia operating system. The challenge will be in migrating the present Android phones to Fuchsia. Since Android is currently written in Java and bundled in a JVM bubble to cater to the android system, developers believe that it wouldn’t be a difficult task to create such an intermediate layer for Fuchsia which is written in Dart. The shift however seems a bit far fetched for now. Some discussions on reddit suggest it might be as as late as 2022.  But the drive for this change is pretty clear, The need to have a uniform OS across all devices The independence of the OS performance on system resources Taking backend operations to the cloud Making the UI voice controlled and reducing the touchscreen for a mere visual tool. We can only hope that Fuchsia can solve the problems for the users that Android couldn’t. Uniform mobile computing platform can be a good start, and Fuchsia seems to be the perfect successor to carry forward the legacy of Android and its huge fan base. Android P Beta 4 is here, stable Android P expected in the coming weeks! Is Google planning to replace Android with Project Fuchsia? Boston Dynamics’ ‘Android of robots’ vision starts with launching 1000 robot dogs in 2019

After a record high June quarter performance results in this year, it came as no surprise that today Apple greeted analysts’ expectations by crossing $1 Trillion in market capitalization to shareholders’ delights. What is surprising many is the resilience Apple’s showcasing amidst escalating US-China trade dispute and a highly volatile tech stock market. Apple has managed to achieve this remarkable feat by staying true to its brand values of thinking differently, questioning the norms and making great products that are useful and intuitive. It has made a sustained investment in not just product strategy and innovation, but also by optimizing its operations and supply chain, adapted to emerging trends while staying consistent and predictable to users and shareholders. What is even more interesting are the paths Apple has chosen to do differently from its other tech peers. no free products/services, Quality and security first, premium hardware balanced out by affordable software and services, no new product announcements on earnings call, providing a more pessimistic outlook to shareholders, and valuing user privacy at the cost of slower growth in areas like AI/machine learning where products like Siri could have benefited from a more permissive data guidelines. CNBC Analyst, Cramer of Mad Money fame believes Apple is still selling quite cheap at $207 (with a PE of around 17%) when it has the potential to go north of $280 (with a PE near 30%). He thinks Apple should no longer be treated like a tech stock but like a consumer products company such as PepsiCo or a Colgate, that follow the razor-razor blade model.   I am going to go out on a limb and say, Apple behaves neither like a pure tech nor like a fast moving consumer products company. Here is why.   Why Apple is unlike other tech companies Tech stocks are typically growth stocks with a high level of volatility built into them. You either win big or go home, middle grounds are boring. Given the nature of tech, hype cycles are extremely short and so product releases are more frequent and new announcements made every quarter. This means tech companies must make a lot of investment in software research and development in a range of technologies, iterative tests, learning from user feedback, launches and further iterations to improve winners and decisions to kill off underperformers. In order to scale, they tend to offer free products and open source their popular tools. On the tools’ adoption by a critical mass of users, they then build an ecosystem where monetization opportunities like advertising, subscriptions etc can be leveraged. Apple, on the other hand, invests in hardware R&D, to build strong products and prices them high. And once users become captive to its ecosystems, it further extracts value from them through a plethora of services that are exclusively available only on its App Store. If we look at the FANGAM tech stocks, apart from Apple, everyone has placed their major bets on one of the other emerging technologies and almost everyone brings AI into their shareholder discussions. Microsoft and Amazon are going big on cloud, with Google playing catch up. Google, Facebook and Netflix are all about AI and machine learning, with Microsoft bringing up AI only in the context of the cloud and edge. Facebook is vocal about investing heavily in AR/VR while others like Microsoft, Google and Apple are doing so quietly and cautiously. There was a time when Apple and Microsoft competed closely in the same spaces vying for the same markets, but off late they seem to have come to some kind of a mutual understanding. Microsoft has chosen to focus its efforts on the Enterprise customer while Apple has been ruling the consumer market. The above In its Q3 earnings call, Apple talks a lot about services, iPhone and wearables (clubbing in Siri here). And there is only a passing reference of AR and AI. Instead of talking about the tech, Apple chose to talk about ‘double digit growth’ repeatedly throughout the call and about how they honor their users’ privacy, how their business model is aligned with their customer’s long term benefits, and how they are investing in China’s clean energy Fund to reduce their supply chain footprint.   To me that looks like a company, that know where it’s heading, how it is going to reach its goals and more important why shareholders should care. Apple is nothing like selling apples or cola for that matter Now coming to the consumer products analogy. Apple share a lot in come with consumer products companies in terms of how it manages its operations, logistics, supply chains and even its marketing and advertising spends and branding strategies. But the resemblance ends there. Consumer products are a high volume, high variety game. While wearables may behave this way to some extent, Apple does not produce 7 different colored AirPods for example. If we had to make a consumer product analogy, I would go for a car maker like Telsa that wows consumers with its right blend of technology, software, hardware, manufacturing finesse and design excellence. (without the falling stocks and controversies). Apple builds cutting edge ecosystems that have great functionality, aesthetics and make a statement; with hardware often as the gateway into that world. Recently though, services are proving to provide a sneak peek into Apple’s world for first time users. And that is a good thing for its hardware business too. Looking ahead To me the key challenges for Apple now in this next phase of growth are Should it decouple services from it’s hardware offerings to allow for higher services growth or should it keep it tightly knit to improve the plateauing hardware side? Protecting iPhone’s market share from the likes of Huawei, Samsung and Android Gearing up for a tough competition for AppleTV and also its streaming services Penetrating the self-driving car market Deciding whether to take others headon in the digital assistant market. If so, then making AI and cloud a larger priority for the business Mainstream adoption of wearOS and other wearables Disclaimer: The author does not own any Apple stocks or have investments in any allied tech and neither a longtime Apple user or advocate.   

Apple announced its financial earnings for fiscal 2018 third quarter yesterday. The Company hit revenue of $53.3 billion, seeing an increase of 17 percent from the last year’s quarter revenue of $45.4 billion, making it company’s seventh consecutive quarter of “accelerating growth”. Also, Apple generated earnings per share of $2.34, which is an increase of 40% from last year. These values beat analysts expectations of $52.31 billion in revenue and $2.18 earnings per share. As you can tell from the chart below, its stock has reached an all-time high of $190.29.  Apple stock report Over the earnings call, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple said: “We’re thrilled to report Apple’s best June quarter ever, and our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth”. He also added that “Our Q3 results were driven by continued strong sales of iPhone, Services, and Wearables, and we are very excited about the products and services in our pipeline.” Apple’s other financial highlights of Q3 2018: Here are the figures, as reported by Luca Maestri: Net income is $11.5 billion this quarter which is up $2.8 billion, or 32% up as compared to last year. Diluted earnings per share were $2.34 which is up 40% from last year’s $1.67. Cash flow from operations is $14.5 billion, a high from last year’s $12.5 billion. iPhone revenue was 20% year over year, with iPhone ASP increasing to $724 from $606 a year ago. During the quarter, 41.3 million iPhones got sold with double-digit unit growth in several mature markets. Services hit an all-time record revenue of $9.5 billion dollars, a 31% higher than last year’s $7 billion. Macs hit double-digit year over year growth with nearly 60% of purchases during the quarter coming from customers who are new to Mac. Wearables ( Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats ) revenue exceeded $10 billion over the last four quarters, a remarkable accomplishment for a set of products that have only recently entered the market.   Apple data summary Among these, the top three highlights for the company this quarter, as mentioned by Tim, are iPhone revenue, services revenue, and Wearables revenue. According to Tim,“iPhone had a very strong quarter --  active installed base grew by double digits, driven by switchers, first-time smartphone buyers, and our existing customers -- iPhone X was the most popular iPhone in the quarter -- with a customer satisfaction score of 98%”. Now, talking about services, paid subscriptions from Apple and third parties have surpassed 300 million which is an increase of more than 60% last year. Revenue from subscriptions played an important role in increasing the percentage of its overall services business. With almost 30,000 apps available in the app store now, the number of apps offering subscriptions also continue to grow. Other services such as Apple music, cloud services, Apple pay, Apple News, Facetime calls are also going strong these days. And third highlight, Wearables revenue “was up over 60% year over year with growth accelerating from the March quarter”. Other than that, Apple had organized a developers conference in June which included a preview of major advances coming soon to Apple’s four operating systems: iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Tim said over the call that “Developer and customer reaction has been very positive -- we have over 4 million users participating in our new OS beta programs”. Apple’s guidance for its upcoming September Q4 2018 Following are the guidance figures as reported by Luca Maestri: Expected Revenue: Between $60 billion to $62 billion Expected gross margin: between 38 percent and 38.5 percent Expected operating expenses: between $7.95 billion and $8.05 billion Other income/(expense): $300 million Tax rate: approximately 15% before discrete items Apple is constantly taking initiatives to make sure that its current state continues to grow. In fact, major additions are being made to iOS 12 as Tim mentioned that “Siri will take a major step forward with Siri shortcuts which will deliver a new, much faster way to get things done and allow any app to work with Siri”. Other features like Activity Reports and Screen Time in iOS 12 will enable parents to monitor their children's activity from their own iOS devices. With macOS Mojave, new apps like News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and Home will be available on the Mac for the first time. He also added that “Developers will be able to build even more intelligent apps -- using the power of machine learning with CoreML and CreateML. With ARKit 2, iOS 12 will provide an even more powerful platform to make dynamic AR apps, integrating shared and persistent AR experiences, object detection, and image tracking”. The earnings result speaks highly of how Apple’s strategies and efforts have worked for them. Apple’s current market capitalization is worth $956.48 billion, which makes the tech giant only 7% away from becoming the first trillion-dollar company. Apple changes app store guidelines on cryptocurrency mining Apple USB Restricted Mode: Here’s Everything You Need to Know  

A good news for Android developers; Android Studio 3.2 Beta 5 is now available and ready for download. This is the latest beta channel preview version. Android Studio is Android’s official IDE, which is purpose-built for Android. It helps in accelerating application development and helps in building the highest-quality apps for every Android device. Read Also:  What is Android Studio and how does it differ from other IDEs? The last major release was Android 3.1.0 released in March 2018. The current stable version available is Android Studio 3.1.3. The latest Canary channel preview version is Android Studio 3.3 Canary 3. The Canary build allows one to experience latest features which are lightly tested as compared to the apps in the Beta build. What’s new in the Android Studio 3.2 Beta 5 update? Change in behaviour This version update now includes a minimum Protobuf Gradle plugin version of 0.8.6. This Gradle plugin compiles Protocol Buffer (aka. Protobuf) definition files (*.proto) in any project. Apart from this change, some bug fixes in this Beta 5 version include: Translations Editor rows are now aligned properly after scrolling Running another project using GradleBuild was causing java.lang.IllegalMonitorStateException: attempt to unlock read lock, not locked by current thread. This bug has now been fixed. Layout styles which were improperly requiring API level 17 instead of 15 are now fixed. Android Studio that was not properly navigating to certain styles with error message: "Cannot find declaration to go to" has been fixed. Linter is now properly resolving some API level values. Read more this update on Android Studio Developer page 9 Most Important features in Android Studio 3.2 The Art of Android Development Using Android Studio Build your first Android app with Kotlin

With Android P expected to release sometime in August, Google released the beta 4 version of Android P. Android P Beta 4 is the last preview before the official launch of Android P platform. Android P beta 4 consists of a release candidate build with updates to final system behaviors and official Android P APIs. Android P is the next major release after Android Oreo released last year in August. With the Beta 4 version of Android P,  Google has provided “everything” that developers need to wrap up their testing. There are different devices such as Google Pixel phones, Oppo R15 pro, Sony Xperia XZ2, etc, on which you can run the latest Android P beta 4.  Here’s a look at key features that Android P will include. The latest release is available for users who have enrolled themselves in the Android Beta program. Android Beta program is necessary to start testing the update which delivers over-the-air (OTA) updates to its user base. With all the APIs and system behavior updates in Beta 4, we might not see any major changes between Android P beta 4 version and the official stable version of Android P. Android P Beta 4, for now, is available for Google Pixel devices, namely, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL. Pixel users can get Beta 4 on their phone by using the Factory images and OTA files carrying build PPP5.180610.010 to install the latest Android P Beta on their devices instantly. If you don't want to install the latest beta version on your Pixel device then there is a new version provided by Google for Android Emulator where you can test out Beta 4. For more information on Android P Beta 4, check out the official documentation. Top 5 Google I/O 2018 conference Day 1 Highlights: Android P, Android Things, ARCore, ML kit and Lighthouse Google updates biometric authentication for Android P, introduces BiometricPrompt API

Ionic has been a popular UI library among web developers because of it being completely framework-agnostic. Now they have announced the much anticipated Ionic 4 Beta release with a focus on performance, build time improvements, theming and multi-framework capabilities, and more. Although the release is in beta, Ionic invites developers to try testing and migrate their existing ionic-angular apps. You need to install the latest version of the Ionic CLI (4.0.0) using: npm install -g ionic Since v4 is still in beta, creating projects with it requires a flag when starting a new Ionic app: ionic start myApp tabs --type=angular Your v4 beta app will be created using ng cli conventions and the new Ionic 4 components. Let’s talk about the features Ionic 4 comes packed with. Focus on Web standards Ionic 4 has been rebuilt using standard Web APIs, and each component is packaged as a standards-compliant Web Component. With this standardization, the framework will now rely solely on APIs browser's native support keeping the public API for each component stable. The Ionic team has also developed and open-sourced a Web Component compiler Stencil, to use Web Components for each component more easily. Ionic 4 completely embraces modern Web APIs such as Custom Elements, CSS Variables, and Shadow DOM. Updates for Angular This release also adopts new Angular tooling and features following Angular standards and conventions to make Ionic 4, Angular’s leading mobile solution. Angular developers can now use the Angular CLI directly for Ionic apps. ionic-app-scripts are now replaced with Angular CLI and Router. Changes to Documentation Ionic 4 comes with a completely redesigned Ionic Framework documentation. The documentation increases load and navigation performance, making it easier to update and maintain. There are more examples and previews along with more code snippets. The new docs are built with Stencil. Other improvements New Ionicons 4.0 with reduced sizes, and brand new icon forms reflecting the latest iOS and Material Design styles. Ionic Native 5.0 Beta has been upgraded to be framework independent. Check out the new Native API Docs CLI 4.0, is heavily refactored offering powerful Cordova integration with livereload, custom schematics for generators, and support for multiple projects. New CLI Docs, provide more information in a cleaner and easier to read layout. Shadow DOM, makes it easy to reduce the amount of client-side code by embracing native browser APIs and web-standards. Additionally, Shadow Dom helps in easily consuming Ionic components from any web app by encapsulating its styles. You can learn more about the Ionic 4 Beta release in the Ionic 4 beta docs. The Migration Guide and the Installation guide are also available. Ionic Components Creating Our First App with Ionic How to use SQLite with Ionic to store data?

Who doesn’t love to watch 3D movies in the theatre? The concept of 3D television is also a novel one. Irrespective of the 3D technology having a lot of takers, the one universally accepted fact is, that 3D glasses suck big time. The same issue of cumbersome headgear has plagued Virtual Reality development too. The broad consensus has been that there can be better ways of visualizing 3D and VR content. Although the 3D and VR development methodologies have improved quite a lot in recent times, the display systems have not. A latest innovation project by Kickstarter is trying to tackle this issue head-on, by introducing LookingGlass, a holographic display for 3D creators. Source: LookingGlass Project How does LookingGlass work? The traditional 3D systems create two stereoscopic images of the primary video which can be viewed by one person only - with the use of a glass. The LookingGlass comes with a different underlying tech. It generates 45 distinct views of a three-dimensional scene so that multiple people standing around a LookingGlass can see different parts of the scene in the real world. The feature of 45 distinct 3D space representations enable multiple people to view the 3D image simultaneously without the need to use glasses. LookingGlass functionality: Source - Kickstarter How to use it? The LookingGlass team has already released a free HoloPlay SDK that runs on Unity and helps developers to import their 3D designs and models into the LookingGlass easily. There’s also the option of using the Model Importer for 2D and 3D models. In the early beta release of the application, only gLTF, OBJ and glb file formats are accepted but more are to come soon. The Model Importer uses a special type of control to allow you to view your model from different perspectives in 3D. You can rotate around your model by left clicking and dragging. You can pan around the scene by right clicking and dragging, and you can zoom in by scrolling. Supported devices on LookingGlass All major 3D devices which need a headgear, can be displayed on the LookingGlass. It can be used as a Leap Motion Controller, Nintendo Joy Con controller and as an Ultrahaptic development kit. You can also seamlessly connect two Looking Glasses together for a bigger display size. Challenges An honest review by the VR industry reveals that LookingGlass has not lived upto the initial hype and faces disillusionment. The major reason seems to be the cumbersome headgears and the impracticality. The UX design is also not adaptive for the immersive nature of VR content. The animations turned out to be bloated and non-impressive. The reason being the absence of a display system that is truly immersive and 3D. The LookingGlass might prove to be the perfect launch pad for futuristic 3D apps, games and immersive mixed reality content. We are certainly looking forward to that. Top 7 modern Virtual Reality hardware systems Game developers say Virtual Reality is here to stay Why mobile VR sucks  

Google is adding support for two controllers to its popular VR operating system Daydream, which until now, only supported a single controller. The reveal came to light as XDA developers noted mentions of multiple controller support in the latest Google Daydream VR SDK for Unity. Google partnered with Lenovo to launch the first standalone Mirage solo headset back in May. Now, with support for multiple controllers added in Google Daydream SDK will allow for far more applications with Google-powered headsets. As per the official release notes, the headset will be able to prompt the users about devices that support “one controller” and those supporting “two controllers”. The prefab is capable of automatically tracking the Daydream controller on devices supporting only one controller. To get automatic tracking of Daydream Controller on devices supporting two controllers, a second prefab instance should be added. One of these controllers on will play the role of a “dominant” controller and depending on your preferences, you can set either right hand or left-hand controller as the dominant. Support for multiple controllers does not necessarily mean that multiplayer gaming will be possible on the handset. It is just additional controllers added to the device. Having a controller in each hand that does different things can make your gameplay experience way more immersive. As for now, Google hasn’t provided any clear indication regarding how the two controllers will work in conjunction with each other. Whether it is going to use a standalone headset or a Bluetooth 5.0 compatible device to establish the connection between two controllers haven’t been specified. With the new support, Google’s Daydream will pose competition to popular VR headsets such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, etc which already come equipped with multiple controllers. There aren’t a lot of games supporting Daydream at the moment but the new update might pave the way for new games being run on these headsets in the future. It’ll be a while before we see anything in action. Although, the new addition will take these headsets a step ahead when it comes to bridging the gap between mobile games and console-level gaming on VR. For more information on the new update, check out the official Google VR SDK. Magic Leap’s first AR headset, powered by Nvidia Tegra X2, is coming this Summer Qualcomm announces a new chipset for standalone AR/VR headsets HTC Vive Focus 2.0 update promises long battery life, among other things for the VR headset

Google has been stealthily working on its mystery Project Fuchsia OS for the past few years. There are suggestions that it could succeed Android. The project was discovered via Google’s Github repository as the company started posting code there back in 2016. Once Project Fuchsia launches, it will be Google’s first open source kernel and operating system. According to Bloomberg’s new report, Google’s aim with this project is to solve the issues that Android poses as more devices and gadgets make it to the market. It wants to create a single operating system which would be able to run across all of Google’s key products, including Pixel phones, smart speakers, Chrome as well as third-party apps that rely on Android. Fuchsia is currently being powered by around 100 engineers at Google. The team includes Matias Duarte, a design executive and the person behind Google’s several pioneering projects. How is Fuchsia different from other Google operating systems? Fuchsia is built on a new, Google-built kernel called “Zircon” (earlier called Magenta). This is a departure from the Android and Chrome OS which are both based on Linux. Fuchsia’s kernel makes use of a microkernel;  this is very different from the larger monolithic Linux kernels that usually power Google’s operating systems. Fuchsia has undergone a major transformation from the command line form it existed in when it was first uncovered in August 2016. Ever since then Google has been working on changing its UI. It has, for example, added an early user interface to Fuchsia that features a card-based system. The user interface design for Fuchsia is called “Armadillo” and was first revealed by Kyle Bradshaw at Hotfix last year. This is considered to be “the default system UI for Fuchsia.” Armadillo uses Google’s Flutter SDK. This SDK helps in creating cross-platform code which is capable of running on multiple operating systems.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7rRK4S9uk0   Fuchsia OS May 2017 Armadillo preview What are the key features of Fuchsia? Voice interaction technology appears to be at Fuchsia’s core. Google is already experimenting with different applications for the system by playing around with features like interactive screen displays and voice commands for youtube. Rich security is another key focus for Fuchsia. This is an initiative which could help Google efficiently compete with Apple’s more secure iOS. In terms of the timeframe for Fuchsia’s release, Bloomberg reports that Google plans on releasing fuchsia-based connected home devices within the next three years. It will then move on to rolling Fuchsia out to larger devices such as laptops within the next five years. Its ultimate plan would appear to be replacing Android. This isn’t going to be an easy process as Android is one of the most dominant mobile platforms in the world. It supports a lot of hardware partners, developers and billions of consumers. Google is keeping its cards close to its chest Currently, there’s no indication from Google’s side as to what it plans to do with Fuchsia. In a statement to Bloomberg, a Google spokesperson simply stated: “Google views these open-source experiments as an investment in innovation”.   It’s also worth noting that back in 2015 Hiroshi Lockheimer, Senior Vice President, Platforms & Ecosystems at Google, wrote a blog post stating that “while we've been working on ways to bring together the best of both [Android and Chrome] operating systems, there's no plan to phase out Chrome OS.” What are your views? Do you think Fuchsia is the future operating system to replace Android and Chrome OS? Or is it simply an experiment to try new development ideas? Let us know your thoughts below. For more coverage on project Fuchsia, check out its original documentation. Google AI releases Cirq and Open Fermion-Cirq to boost Quantum computation A quick look at E.U.’s antitrust case against Google’s Android Google becomes a new platinum member of the Linux Foundation  

Google got fined with €4.34 billion yesterday for breaching EU antitrust laws. According to EU, Google has been found guilty of imposing illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and network operators, since 2011, in an attempt to get all the traffic from these devices to the Google search engine. Here’s a tweet from Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager confirming the penalty. https://twitter.com/vestager/status/1019537297925197824 Google will now have to end this illegal conduct within 90 days of the decision, says the press release from the regulator. The Commission wants Google to completely stop its engagement in the following types of practices: Illegal tying of Google's apps such as Google Play Store, Google search app and the Google Chrome browser with the device manufacturers. Illegal financial incentives conditional on exclusive pre-installation of the Google Search app. Illegal blocking of development and distribution of the competing Android operating systems, thereby, preventing device manufacturers from using its alternative version, which is not approved by Google (Android forks).  For instance, Amazon’s Android fork, Fire OS, a rival Android platform has suffered greatly from Google’s restrictive contracts with the phone makers. Here’s a quick look at E.U.’s antitrust case against Google’s Android. Apart from engaging in the aforementioned practices, Google is also required to refrain from any measure that has the same effect as these practices. Google's activities will be watched closely by the commission and Google is under an obligation to comply with EU’s decision. If Google fails to comply with the decision made by EU, it will further face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet (Google’s parent company). Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, has challenged the decision made by the commission in the official press release. Google is now preparing to appeal the decision. According to Pichai, the decision ignores the fact that Android phones pose tough competition to the iOS phones. He argues that Android has provided a wide scope of choices to a huge number of phone manufacturers, mobile network operators, app developers and billions of users (who are able to easily afford these Android smartphones). This fact has been completely missed by the commission. He also raises a point saying how history has proved that without the rules set for compatibility, open-source platforms tend to fragment which causes extreme discomfort to the users, developers as well as the phone makers. Google Android’s compatibility rules help avoid this situation and make the platform more reliable for everyone. “Web browsers such as Opera Mini and Firefox have been downloaded more than 100 million times, UC Browser more than 500 million times” states Pichai. He mentions that “the Commission’s Android decision — ignores clear evidence about how people use their phones today.” He insists that preventing Google from bundling its apps would “upset the balance of the Android ecosystem” and that the Android business model guaranteed zero charges for the phone makers. This now seems like a warning from Google’s side that its Android business model may consider licensing the popular operating system to phone makers. Mozilla, on its official blog, openly supported the European Commission’s decision against Google saying that EU’s decision “drives home the importance of true openness in the mobile ecosystem”. It also hopes that the result will “level the playing field for mobile browsers like Firefox, and foster openness to creates and sustain the competition and innovation”. Many Experts are comparing this case to a previous EU investigation into Microsoft and its desktop web browser. But, Google claims that the two cases are quite different as Android is free, while Microsoft charged for Windows. At the press conference with the commissioner on the antitrust decision, Vestager was asked about breaking up Google as a better remedy than the current decision made by the Commission. To which Vestager replied “here we have a decision which is very clear, which will allow mobile device producers to have a choice. That will allow us as consumers to have a choice as well. That's what competition is about. And I think that is much more important than a discussion of whether or not breaking up a company would do that." Public opinion about EU’s decision against Google is varied. https://twitter.com/gchampeau/status/1019550037888716801 https://twitter.com/BenVanRompuy/status/1019563725085343744 https://twitter.com/Visualfy/status/1019845990185144320 https://twitter.com/axa1981/status/1019543107971502080 Google begs to differ. “Today’s decision rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less. We intend to appeal” says Pichai. Google releases Android Things library for Google Cloud IoT Core Top 5 Google I/O 2018 conference Day 1 Highlights: Android P, Android Things, ARCore, ML kit and Lighthouse  

Update, 18th July 2018: The European Commission fined Google with €4.34 billion today for breaching EU's antitrust rules. According to the European regulators, Google has put illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators to maintain its dominant position in the internet search market. Google, now, needs to bring this conduct to an end within 90 days or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet ( Google's parent company). For more coverage on this news, check out the official press release by EU. Google is expected to face a record penalty this month from the European regulators. This is over the concern that Google’s policies threaten its corporate rivals by having manufacturers provide consumers pre-installed Google’s apps on Android devices. The European Union had already charged the tech giant with a $2.72 billion antitrust fine last year for unfair promotion of its shopping services in its search result pages, thereby, breaking the antitrust laws. Many experts speculate that the penalty from Margrethe Vestager, European Union’s Competition chief, could range somewhere around $11 billion which is 10 percent of Alphabet’s (its parent company) annual turnover. Even if it doesn’t get fined for the full $11 billion, any amount over $2.7 billion is bound to set a new record for the company. This antitrust case has the power to cause some big changes to the world’s most widely used mobile operating system. It subsequently has the potential to cause a ripple effect on the overall mobile market altering existing business models. Here’s what you must know about the case before the decision gets made later this week. What are the charges made against Google? Back in April 2015, the E.U. commission had initiated an official investigation into Google and released a statement accusing the company of allegedly using Android to maintain its dominance in the online search market, thereby, hampering the competition. Here are few of the concerns raised: Limiting access to its Play Store unless the phone makers also include the Google search and other Chrome apps, a practice that breached E.U. antitrust rules. It reportedly blocked phone makers from creating devices that are based on the Android open source code but are not affiliated with the Google-owned property. It also provides financial incentives to manufacturers for pre-installing its Search services on devices. For instance, HTC and Samsung need to set Google Search as the default search app and include its Chrome browser within the devices. If not, they lose access to Android’s popular app store which will make it hard for the Android smartphone owners to easily download games or other apps. What has Google got to say? Google doesn’t deny the fact that Android has helped expand its advertising business. But, it has dodged the accusations made by E.U. by saying that its play store allows it to offer the entire package to phone makers which include the browser and other apps, for free. It argues that it provided a base to the phone makers to create low-cost and reliable Android devices. It also emphasized the fact that users are free to download other apps if they want. According to Kent Walker, senior VP at Google, an average Android user downloads more than 50 apps in addition to the ones pre-installed on his/her phone in Europe. It doesn’t take a lot of time to download or replace an app. So, is E.U. convinced with Google’s arguments? E.U. acknowledges some of the points made by the tech giant but is not convinced entirely. According to E.U., Google has set up a restrictive contract with the mobile set manufacturers which forces them to pre-install its apps within the devices. With the help of Android, it has managed to extend the reach of its super popular apps such as YouTube, Google Maps and its play store to millions of users. The E.U.’s concern is that when provided with pre-installed Google services, users would prefer to leverage the existing Google apps over other apps. This unfairly expands Google’s control over the mobile web market. According to comScore, a data provider, six of the top 10 smartphones apps downloaded in Europe’s markets which includes France, Germany, Britain, Spain, and Italy are Google apps. Also, the Chrome browser is used by roughly 65 percent of the smartphone users in Europe. What’s at stake for Google? The stakes are quite high for Google. Apart from the hefty fine, it might have to unbundle its apps from Android and the related contracts. Now, though these apps are widely loved by the Android smartphone users, removing the tech giant's “required” apps from the future Android phones would greatly diminish its market share. It would also hit hard on its advertising sales which is worth billions of dollars. It will also hamper Google’s product quality because it collects the user data through these apps which helps it improve the product quality. All these efforts were a part of its strategy to beat the competition from Apple, Facebook and Amazon to remain at the core of the ever-expanding mobile web. But, if EU had their way, it is one decision away from a domino effect trampling Google’s mobile growth strategy. What next? E.U.’s decision would not mean the end of the world for the tech giant. It can still appeal, but, it’ll have to carefully alter its business practices and decisions. Otherwise, it risks additional penalties for each day as it fails to comply. As for now, we can only wait for the EU decision to watch Google’s next move. Google releases Android Things library for Google Cloud IoT Core Top 5 Google I/O 2018 conference Day 1 Highlights: Android P, Android Things, ARCore, ML kit and Lighthouse  

LEGO, the Danish Toy Maker, came out with a new and free Augmented reality Android app named “ BrickHeadz Builder AR ” last week. Android users with the latest version of Google LLC’s ARCore can now download the newly launched AR app on their phones. With the magic of Augmented Reality, users can interact virtually with tiny toy figures and building blocks of BrickHeadz toys as it brings the kids’ BrickHeadz toys to life. The BrickHeadz line, launched in March 2017, includes the classic LEGO bricks along with an instruction manual for fans which directs them to build characters with big heads and little bodies. It features characters from the very popular Marvel (such as Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, etc), DC (Batman, Robin, Batgirl, The Joker) and Disney (Belle, The Beast, Captain Jack Sparrow) franchises. The company is also planning to expand the line by including more characters. LEGO has always been on the look-out for ways to make the physical play experience even more fun by blending it with virtual play, according to Sean McEvoy, VP of digital games and apps at the Lego Group. Let’s have a look at what the new BrickHeadz Builder AR app is all about. Key Features In the BrickHeadz Builder app, different lego related creations such as characters and objects can be easily accessed. It also enables these characters and objects to interact with each other in interesting ways. The app directs kids through the steps of construction from beginner to free builder. It enables them to discover new characters and objects by solving play formulas in a “magic book”. The “magic book” comes with tutorials and information on challenges that can provide you with rewards. You can also personalize characters by playing with their behavior and outfits. They can also build their own objects with the building blocks despite the prebuilt characters and objects. Unlocking new characters and items is also possible by playing with your creations. More industries are catching interest in AR apps these days, especially after the launch of Pokemon Go in 2016 which managed to exceed $1.8 billion in revenue in the past two years. It is by far the most popular AR game ever to be released. There is also a VR version of the BrickHeadz Builder android app that Lego launched back in October last year. That product also allows children, and adults, to build and play with virtual Lego blocks and characters. For iOS users, the company released LEGO AR-Studio last year in December. The Brickheadz Builder android app is free with no in-app purchases. All you need is the most recent version of ARCore running on Android 8.0 or later. It can The app can also run on few of the qualified phones ( such as Asus Zenfone AR and LG V30 ) running Android 7.0 or later. For more coverage on the BrickHeadz Builder AR app, check out the official LEGO blog. Niantic, of the Pokemon Go fame, releases a preview of its AR platform Adobe glides into Augmented Reality with Adobe Aero Qualcomm announces a new chipset for standalone AR/VR headsets at Augmented World Expo  

Earlier this week, Facebook announced to test augmented reality (AR) ads onto the news feed to attract more advertisers. Ty Ahmad-Taylor, Vice President Product Marketing at Facebook made the announcement at the marketers' event hosted by The Social Network. The event highlighted how Facebook plans on advertising for the Christmas holiday season. Demo ads were presented by Ahmad, one where his face was incorporated into Candy Crush gameplay footage and the other, where shoppers could virtually test out makeup and sunglasses on their face, thereby, converting the ads into virtual fitting rooms. At 2017’s F8 developer conference Keynote, Mark Zuckerberg confessed that he thought of Augmented Reality in the context of AR glasses only. But, that’s clearly not the case anymore as Facebook changed its course by bringing AR to their messenger platform for developers as well as to their camera platform. Now, it is bringing the same AR experience into its news feed by giving chance to advertisers to test out the new AR ads. Facebook is looking forward to introducing AR ads to more industries in the future but as of now, it is working with companies that have physical ads. It is working with companies like ASUS, Nike, Sephora, and Kia to create AR experiences on its Messenger app. In fact, ASUS noticed 10 times higher user engagement on the app that used AR experience than those who did not. AR Ads appear like regular ads on news feed but there is a “tap to try it on” option with AR capabilities. You click the button, try the product virtually and if you like it, go ahead and make the purchase. Initially, it was tested by Michael Kors. It let users try on the sunglasses using the AR effects. Now, brands like NYX Professional Makeup, Pottery Barn, Sephora, Wayfair, Bobbi Brown, and King are also planning to test their ads later this summer. This feature will allow users to interact with the virtual version of fashion accessories, cosmetics, and furniture before actually buying them. Facebook is also bringing Shopping on Instagram to Stories. Shopping on Instagram was launched last year and allowed brands to tag their products on News Feed posts. Now, they will be able to do the same with Stories. This feature will be made available globally to all brands that have enabled shopping on Instagram before the Christmas holidays. Lastly, Facebook announced a new Video Creation Kit consisting of tools for advertisers to incorporate images into templates of mobile video ads. This will help them set up video ads easily to step into the advertising game more effectively. For more information on Facebook AR ads, check out the Facebook’s official blog page. CTA announces its first AR/VR Standard terminology Game developers say Virtual Reality is here to stay Adobe glides into Augmented Reality with Adobe Aero

Firefox has been experimenting with some intriguing new apps as part of its 'Test Pilot' scheme: Firefox Lockbox and Firefox Notes. Both are, according to Mozilla, "the first steps toward bringing Mozilla’s mission of privacy, security and control to mobile apps beyond the browser." Both Lockbox and Notes are Firefox's first venture into mobile for its Test Pilot scheme. Find Firefox Lockbox here. Find Firefox Notes here. What is Firefox Lockbox for iOS? Firefox Lockbox is essentially a password manager for iOS. It allows you to log into an app - like Twitter or Facebook, for example - without opening a web page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOniFEypZhQ What is Firefox Notes? Firefox Notes is a note taking application for Android. It allows users to sync their notes across different devices. It's basically a multi-platform, cloud-based note taking app. Firefox is also keen to point out that these notes "are encrypted from end-to-end, which means that only you can read them." What is Firefox's Test Pilot scheme? Firefox's Test Pilot scheme allows users to try out Firefox applications and features before they're officially released. It allows developers to get useful feedback quickly so they can iterate, or even kill the apps before they go properly live. The Activity Stream feature in Firefox's desktop browser started life in Test Pilot. To try out any of the Test Pilot features - including Lockbox and Notes - all you need is a Firefox account and the Firefox sync plugin set up. If you use Firefox regularly, it could be well worth your while taking part in the project. You could provide some really useful feedback and help the development team improve the product. Read next: Someone created a div that looks different on every browser Firefox 61 builds on Firefox Quantum, adds Tab Warming, WebExtensions, and TLS 1.3