Google has a panopticon view into your life. It’s hoping its products will be so “helpful” you won’t mind. Google opened its Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View today (May 7) by releasing new services and features introducing artificial intelligence into our everyday lives. Google’s pitch was that its new products would be irresistible useful by “giving you the tools to increase your knowledge, success, health, and happiness,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai in his May 7 keynote. “We feel so privileged to be developing products for billions of users, and with that comes a deep responsibility for creating products that improve peoples lives… and society as a whole.” Barely a minute passed before Pichai mentioned security and privacy—a theme that cropped up over and over. Google reassured its users it had their best interests at heart. As it becomes unavoidable our lives at work and home, Google has unprecedented insight into our personal lives. That might give it a leg up as it races against Apple and Amazon to become the operating system for all our personal needs. The demonstrations elicited plenty of impressed sounds from the crowd. Want to book a rental car? Google Assistant can find your emailed flight reservation, and then pick out the time, place, pickup location, and model you’ll likely want the car on the web. Just tap a button to confirm. Sending texts or emails to mom, dad, or “my” doctor? Personal References means Google figures out exactly who you mean among your friends, families, and acquaintances to make the connection (or even hold conversations on your behalf). Take together, today’s announcements point to a future where we’ll never need to leave Google behind, and we may not mind. AI was everywhere Google opened the day by handing the DJ booth over to its AI, which took turns mixing tunes with a human (one machine learning expert in the audience told me “not bad.”). It quickly became clear that the day would focus on ways Google wants to integrate its technology in the real world. Duplex for the web: During last year’s conference, developers demoed Duplex—an AI system that understands natural language and holds conversations like a human— making a dinner reservation at a real restaurant. This year, the virtual assistant took a verbal command from a would-be user to book a rental car. To do so, it fetched information about an upcoming flight from email, filled in an Enterprise car rental form on the website with personal information, dates, and preferred model, and let the user click to finalize it. Google claims this wasn’t a one-off example built for Enterprise: Duplex can adapt to work with websites across the internet (it’s preparing to roll this out to everyone late this year). Google’s amazing shrinking Assistant: Google has been obsessed about reducing the size of its algorithms to fit on a smartphone. Until recently, Google’s Assistant worked by streaming voice data to the cloud, processing it there, and then sending back to the phone. That causes delays. To allow the digital assistant to work natively on the phone, Pichai said reduced its 500GB language-processing database to just half a gigabyte. That allowed every phone to carry the AI-powered Assistant on the device so interactions feel fast and seamless. They’re so fast, in fact, that voice may now be a credible replacement for the touch screen. A live demo on stage allowed the user to zip between apps—maps, messaging, photos, and more—without ever touching the screen, a feat not possible before now (and maybe not even now, since Pichai said more was coming “later this year.”). Less bias please, Google: AI is making more decisions for us, and our inability to comprehend the decision-making process is risky. Machine learning models train on databases that can lead to biases. Our understanding of how those biases emerge is still murky. Google’s new methodology surfaces such biases by highlighting what features the algorithm prioritized to draw conclusions. If a model was trained to identify doctors based on digital images, for example, this approach reveals the algorithm (incorrectly) associated “males” as a predictive variable, allowing designers to correct it. Google’s new approach to detecting bias in AI Accessibility and social impact: Google is testing algorithms to diagnose early-stage lung cancer and to predict floods in India. The Live Transcribe service lets people with hearing problems see spoken words transcribed accurately in real time. Live Relay lets people reply in text to spoken conversation. Google also created personalized language-learning models so the algorithm can instantly transcribe speech from those with speech impediments. Finally, Live Captions transcribes videos in real time, no matter whether it’s a YouTube clip or a home video. All about Home Google announced the Nest Hub Max ($229) to be released this summer (the standard Nest Hub is $129). The new Hub comes with a camera (and thumping bass). It’s designed with features as convenient as they are creepy: The wide-angle camera will follow you during a video conference if you move across the room. You can use a hand gesture to turn off the music rather than a voice command. Google never wants you to leave search A search for news on Google will soon bring up “knowledge panels.” The search giant is pulling together a much richer series of media sources from the web so you never leave the search results page. Google will index podcasts by crawling the content (not just titles) and offering it in search results; users can play the podcast that comes up or save it for later on the results page. Users can also access 3D models, created by companies and that appear in search results, by clicking on a 3D icon in your search results. Organizing the physical world Google is turning its prowess indexing the web into cataloging the physical world. Google Lens can now use the Android camera and Assistant to apply a rich digital layer to the world. Google product director Aparna Chennapragada pointed a Pixel phone at paper menus to show food reviews and photos, as well as at a recipe in Bon Appétit Magazine showing an overlaid video of a chef preparing the meal (Google is working with other commercial partners to bring this to more interactions). “With Lens, we’re indexing the physical world for billions of people and places much like search indexes the billions of places on the web,” she said. Chennapragada also showed off how shoppers might match virtual New Balance sneakers with an outfit laid on a bed, or transport a virtual great white shark anywhere. Michael Coren Aparna Chennapragada demonstrates Google Lens. No more “Hey Google” It was always a bit of a hassle to utter “Hey Google” before issuing a command. So Google dropped it. For alarms, you can now just say “stop” to shut off the alarm for all devices. To text, you can simply issue commands and Assistant is able to differentiate between the message content and the command (it wasn’t possible to really evaluate it based on its performance on stage). As the voice assistant wars heat up, the ability to seamlessly weave those digital helpers into users’ normal speech patterns might be the deciding factor in who wins. Android Q and Pixel hardware Android got a raft of updates. The mobile operating system is ready for foldable phones, even if foldable phones aren’t ready for it (Samsung’s model has been delayed although Google’s Stephanie Cuthbertson says models are coming later this year). Dark Mode will be launched with Android Q (developers rejoice), which spares users’ eyes the strain of staring at high-contrast white backgrounds. Lots of machine learning goodies are being crammed onto the devices’ native apps, such as Smart Replies (which let suggests replies and anticipates your next action such as opening maps). It’s “Digital Wellbeing” initiative re-emerged this year with more parental controls, Wind Down timers for app usage, an Focus Mode to pause distractions. Google will soon let users know when its time to put the phone down, or place limits on children’s screen time. A Beta version is available now. Google also made sure it was zigging when Apple was zagging. Every comparison of its Pixel camera’s was placed against a generic “Phone X,” a loosely-veiled swipe at the $1,000 iPhone X. Google announced it would pack in premium features, camera, and services into its starter smartphones. The new Pixel 3a and 3a XL start at $399 including a 30-hour charge, slick camera features such as Night Sight, and, yes, a 3.5 mm headphone jack. You’ll be giving up wireless charging and waterproof casing for that price.<doc-sep>This is not the first time Google scheduled its annual developer conference on the same days as Microsoft. While Microsoft prepared for the Day 2 of Build, Google took the stage to announce their plans for this year and the things they’re working on. If you couldn’t watch the conference live, then here’s a round-up of everything Google announced at I/O today. Cheaper Pixel devices At Google I/O, the company finally announced the highly-anticipated Pixel 3A and Pixel 3A XL. Google didn’t receive the response it was looking for, from the Pixel brand so the new budget-oriented devices might help the company to capture some market share. Both the Pixel 3A and 3A XL are powered by Snapdragon 670 and come with storage options up to 64 GB. The Pixel 3A comes with a 5.6-inch Full HD+ OLED display while 3A XL comes with a 6-inch Full HD+ OLED display and has 4 GB of RAM. The major attraction of the devices is the Pixel camera which comes with the Night Sight mode and Portrait features. The Google Pixel 3A comes with a 3,000 mAh battery while the Pixel 3A XL comes with a 3,700 mAh battery. In terms of design, Google has gone for a simple device with a polycarbonate back and no wireless charging. Both the devices also miss out on IP ratings but do come with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Google is also promising 3 years of OS and security updates for both phones. Google Pixel 3A and Pixel 3A XL will be available with T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon, and is available for purchase right now. Both the devices will be available in black, white, and purple. The Google Pixel 3A is priced at $399 and you will have to shell out $479 for the Pixel 3A XL. Android Q As expected, Google gave a sneak peek at the upcoming Android Q. Not only that Google also expanded the Android Q beta program to non-Pixel devices and included the first generation Pixel devices and the new Pixel 3A and Pixel 3A XL to the list. The supported Android devices are- Xiaomi Mi 9, Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, Asus Zenfone 5z, Essential Phone, Nokia 8.1, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, LG G8 ThinQ, OnePlus 6T, Oppo Reno, Realme 3 Pro, Sony Xperia XZ3, Tecno Spark 3 Pro, Vivo X27, NEX S, and NEX A. Google also showcased some of the features that are coming to Android Q later this year. The feature list includes a system-wide Dark Theme, improved navigation gestures, support for 5G and foldable displays, Live Captions, Smart Reply, improvements to Focus Mode and Family Link. If you want to try the new Android Q Beta 3 then you can enrol your supported device here. Google Nest Google has also announced the new Nest Max Hub which is the latest device to join the Nest home automation device lineup. The latest device from Google comes with a 6.5-megapixel video camera on the top to take Duo calls with a 127-degree wide-angle camera being able to track you around the room, facial recognition so the Hub can offer you personalized information, Gesture recognition for controlling video and more. It can also work as a security camera and can be paired with CCTV to watch your front door and can allow you to monitor your home from your Android phone. In addition, the 10-inch HD screen is optimised for showing photos, with a matte display with automatic colour temperature adjustment. It also features two 10W tweeters and one 30W woofer for good but not great quality audio. The Google Nest Hub Max will be available in Charcoal and Grey (both with a white photo frame) and will retail for $229 this summer. Google Duplex Google announced Duplex last year and has been making improvements to it since then. The latest addition will now allow users to book an entire holiday using the service. The software will check your availability and with a very convincing “human voice”, make your bookings for you. It does this by checking your calendar and Gmail account. This will certainly make life a little easier for those of us who dread making phone calls or can’t communicate via voice. If you’re going on holiday, Duplex for the web can even research dates and times for flights for you. After checking your availability, Duplex can open the National Car Rental website in Google Chrome, and assist you in the process of booking a car. The software will then book your favourite car with your preferred payment method, using your previous history as a reference. Project Mainline Google always had problems with delivering Android updates to users since there are too many devices from various companies. To fix this issue, Google, today announced Project Mainline. Starting with Android Q, Google will be distributing security updates directly via the Google Play Store. The service will address 12 different modules of the operating system in a component-type way, allowing Google to only patch media components for example if there is a vulnerability discovered. Android has been componentized since the 2017 Android Oreo, and the effort should start paying off with Android Q. This will not address all update issues, unfortunately, with full version updates still needing to pass through OEMs for customization and validation. Google Lens Google Lens is getting an AR-related feature update which should make searching the real world as easy as searching the web. Google, today, showed off such features as being able to translate text on a sign, and then having the translated text persistently stick over the sign when viewed on the phone again. Other examples are translating a menu using Google Lens, and then having Google highlight the most commonly ordered items. Google is hoping to make these features available widely, supporting 12 languages and phones which cost only $35. The features should start rolling out “later this month” to both iOS and Android. These were some of the major announcements at Google I/O. The company is expected to continue with the same tomorrow however, it will be more developer oriented moving forward.<doc-sep>
This year at Google IO 2019, we were shown all manner of things - and once again, it was the hardware that stole the show, although there were some rather intriguing new concepts that show Google is both worried about privacy and not seeming inclusive enough. Last year we saw a huge update to its Android P operating system, first mention of a Google Maps AR mode, and a host of new features across Google's extensive software and hardware ranges. This year, there was plenty of hype around the event - helped in no small part by the rumors surrounding the Google Pixel 3a handset, and Google's own accidental leak of a successor to the Google Home Hub. Sure enough, we got the goods on both these products, and more. Read on below for everything that was announced at the Google IO 2019 keynote, and anything we know about their release dates, prices and features. Want to know what happened, as it happened? Read our Google IO 2019 liveblog Google Pixel 3a Image Credit: Google We'd had a good look at leaked renders in the build up, but this was Google's first public announcement of the Google Pixel 3a handset, a mid-range offering with some flagship specs at $399 (£399, AU$649). Unlike the more premium Pixel phones, you even get a 3.5mm headphone jack, for those of you who haven't yet jumped to wireless headphones. You can see what we make of it so far with our hands on: Google Pixel 3a review. Google Pixel 3a XL Image Credit: TechRadar If you're after a cheaper Pixel handset but don't want to compromise on screen size, then the 6-inch Google Pixel 3a could be the phone for you. It's a touch more expensive than the standard Pixel 3a (AU$799), and you get the same power, cameras, design and features including a headphone jack. It's a solid handset and you can find out what we think with our hands on: Google Pixel 3a XL review. Google Nest Hub Max Image Credit: Google As accidentally leaked on Google's own product website last month, we are getting a Google Nest Hub Max - a union between Google's Nest and Home product ranges, which apparently will be joined together going forward. Confusing branding aside, the Nest Hub Max boasts a 10-inch screen over the Home Hub Max's 7-inch display, and will also feature a Nest security camera for video calls and keeping an eye on your home when you're out. Google is clearly aware what a hot topic privacy is these days, and was quick to clarify that the Nest camera would only record when actively enabled, while the Hub would come with a physical switch on the back of the device to disconnect the camera and microphone. With Google Duo, users will also be able to chat with any iOS or Android device, or any PC with the Chrome browser. The Nest Hub Max will launch this summer in the US, UK and AU for $229 / £175 / AU$349. Read our hands on: Google Nest Hub Max review to find out what we make of it. Google Home Hub gets cheaper, comes to more territories Image Credit: Google As Google shifts it focus to the Nest-branded speakers, the Google Home Hub will drop from $149 to $129 (down to £119 in the UK and AU$199 in Australia), and is coming to "12 new markets and supporting nine new languages." Android Q beta 3 and some dark, dark themes Image Credit: Google The next Android operating system, Android Q, isn't launching until later this year, but that didn't stop Google from showing off some new features for the next update. The OS will bring your security settings higher up in your phone settings, and give you reminders whenever an app accesses your location history (and stop the app doing this when you've closed it). We also got a glimpse of Android Q's dark theme, which turns your phone's interface black and will automatically turn on with battery saver (you know, to save battery life). Enhanced search results and AR models Image Credit: TechRadar Google kicked off the keynote with Full Coverage: an expanded algorithm for Google search results that will be smarter about what it shows to you. If you're researching a recent news story (say, Brexit), it will show you a timeline of events and explainers that go into finer detail alongside more general results.