Acer‘s upping its Chromebook offerings with two new Chromebook Plus Enterprise laptops designed for businesses and organizations that prioritize cloud-based work. These Chromebooks offer a combination of powerful specifications, Google AI capabilities, and Chrome Enterprise features to enhance security, manageability, and efficiency for workforces.
Powerful Performance and ChromeOS Features
Both the Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 and Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise Spin 514 are equipped with up to 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processors and up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, providing strong performance for multitasking and running cloud-based applications. ChromeOS ensures a secure and smooth operating system for legacy, enterprise, and private apps. Additionally, the Chromebooks boast up to 10 hours of battery life with fast-charging capabilities, keeping employees productive throughout the workday.
Enhanced Video Conferencing
Employees can leverage their preferred video conferencing app, including Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, on these Chromebooks. The webcams come with Acer’s Temporal Noise Reduction (TNR) technology for noise cancellation, while built-in Google AI video tools automatically enhance clarity, lighting, and background blur. High-quality dual speakers with DTS Audio complete the conferencing experience.
Large Displays and Durable Design
The Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 features a large 15.6-inch Full HD display with IPS technology, ideal for detailed spreadsheets, graphics, and photos. It also includes a dedicated numeric keypad, beneficial for data entry tasks in finance, retail, and STEM fields.
The Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise Spin 514 offers a 14-inch WUXGA display with a 360-degree hinge that allows it to transform from a laptop to a tablet. This convertible design caters to mobile workforces who value flexibility in their input methods, including touch and USI active stylus support on the Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass display.
Both Chromebooks feature a durable, MIL-STD 810H compliant chassis for enhanced impact resistance. They are available with optional backlit keyboards for low-light environments and come equipped with fast Wi-Fi 6E for reliable connectivity. In addition, a wide selection of ports, including HDMI and dual USB Type-C ports, allows easy connection to peripherals and charging devices.
Environmentally Friendly Design
These Chromebooks align with Acer’s Earthion mission by incorporating eco-friendly features like the OceanGlass touchpad made from recycled ocean-bound plastic. They also utilize recycled materials, sustainable packaging, and an energy-efficient design meeting Energy Star certification.
Seamless Deployment and Management
The Chromebooks come pre-unlocked with the business capabilities of ChromeOS, enabling IT departments to onboard employees quickly with zero-touch enrollment and manage device policies for a streamlined user experience. ChromeOS safeguards against security breaches with features like cloud-based management, advanced security tools, and granular controls. Additionally, 24/7 Google support and ChromeOS troubleshooting assistance simplify update management, reporting, and technical issue resolution.
Chrome Education Upgrade Option for Schools
The new Acer Chromebook Plus models can be configured with Chrome Education Upgrade, a management solution designed for schools. This upgrade empowers administrators to manage a large number of devices efficiently and offers features like zero-touch enrollment and 24/7 Google support.
Pricing and Availability
Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515:
North America in June with prices starting at USD649.99 (approx. RM3,077.40)
EMEA in June with prices starting at EUR579 (approx. RM3,032.23)
Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise Spin 514:
North America in August with prices starting at USD 749.99 (approx. RM3,548.42)
EMEA in July with prices starting at EUR 679 (approx. RM3,538.92)
Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (consumer model):
North America in August with prices starting at USD 549.99 (approx. RM2,618.45)
EMEA in July with prices starting at EUR679 (approx. RM3,538.92)
By integrating Gemini, a state-of-the-art AI model, into its Bard chatbot, Google is making its virtual assistant smarter and more adept. According to Google, with its improved reasoning, planning, and comprehending capabilities, Bard is now in a solid position to compete with ChatGPT.
Ultra, Pro, and Nano are the three varieties of Gemini. From cell phones to servers, these variations cover it all. Bard has a two-stage deployment. At first, it will receive an initial performance bump from Gemini Pro, and its abilities will spread next year. They hope to introduce Bard Advance, powered by Gemini Ultra, the most powerful version of Google’s LLM.
Gemini Pro has passed all eight benchmark tests, including six conducted before the big announcement, beating GPT-3.5. Even though GPT-3.5 has been around for over a year, Google maintains that Bard with Gemini Pro is the best free chatbot, according to independent tests. After undergoing a Gemini makeover, Bard can better comprehend and summarise information and reason, generate ideas, and plan to meet the user’s needs. Google claims a vast improvement, the most notable quality boost since Bard’s release.
Although Bard with Gemini Pro initially only supports word-based prompts, Google plans to integrate graphics, text, and more soon to provide multimodal help. When Bard Advanced makes its appearance in 2024, showing off Gemini Ultra, that’s when things heat up. Bard becomes an adaptable AI that can process code, graphics, audio, and video in this version.
In the following months, Gemini will power in several Google products and services, including Chrome, Ads, and Duet AI. The business will test out Gemini in Search to streamline and improve your web browsing experience. Besides that, Gemini Ultra and Bard Advanced guarantee a revolutionary AI experience—the capacity of Bard Advanced to comprehend and process various forms of data, including code. Before the wider launch, Google intends to implement a trusted tester programme to guarantee customer safety.
Now accessible in more than 170 countries in English, Bard with Gemini Pro is perfect for anyone looking to plunge headfirst into the upgraded Bard experience. Explore the improved chatbot at your leisure while Europe waits.
Google’s Generative AI, Duet is here to lend a hand when you use apps in Google Workspace. Duet has just entered general availability and is poised to transform how you work with Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Gmail.
Duet AI’s integration into Google Workspace is such that it’s your digital collaborator. It doesn’t replace you. As the name suggests, it works together with you; simplifying tasks and streamlining your workflow. Its capabilities are nothing short of remarkable, allowing you to harness the power of AI to improve your productivity and efficiency. Here’s a closer look at what Duet AI brings to the table:
1. Summarize with Ease: Imagine being able to instantly generate summaries on topics you’ve saved, like your business’s quarterly performance. Duet AI can do just that. It scours through your Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets to craft comprehensive summaries, saving you precious time.
2. Fact-Checking Made Simple: Duet AI is committed to transparency. When it compiles information, it provides links to the sources, empowering you to fact-check and verify data accuracy. It’s a handy feature that ensures the reliability of your work.
3. Presentation Perfection: Need to create a compelling presentation? Duet AI has you covered. It can generate presentations complete with relevant text, charts, and images sourced from your Drive. This feature streamlines the presentation creation process, making your work more visually engaging.
4. Gmail Assistance: In Gmail, Duet AI builds on the Smart Reply feature. With a click, you can access various options to help you compose emails effortlessly. You can instruct Duet AI to draft messages of specific types, refine tones, make drafts more elaborate or concise, or even opt for some creative fun with the “I’m feeling lucky” option.
5. Smarter Document Creation: Google Docs users will appreciate the AI’s prowess in generating documents. You can instruct Duet AI to craft drafts with different tones, create summaries for sections or entire documents, employ bullet points, or even use custom instructions to fine-tune generated content.
6. User-Friendly Interface: The “help me write” feature in Docs offers access to Smart Canvas features, enhancing your document creation experience.
Google is continuing to commit to transparency and responsible AI usage with Duet AI. The company reassures users that Duet will respect the privacy of their data, ensuring that their inputs and code remain theirs. Any data in private clouds, Google Drive and Google Workspace remain private and aren’t used for training shared models or product development.
While Duet AI is currently available for Google Workspace Enterprise users, Google has plans to roll it out to small- and medium-sized businesses and consumers in the near future. The pricing details for these expanded offerings are yet to be revealed.
Google has been working on creating a better, more unified experience with their bread and butter – search. The tech giant is looking for a more contextually relevant search as they move forwards. To do this, they are turning to MUM, the Multitask Unified Model, to bring more relevance to search results.
The new Multitask Unified Model (MUM) allows Google’s search algorithm to understand multiple forms of input. It can draw context from text, speech, images and even video. This, in turn, allows the search engine to return more contextually relevant results. It will also allow the search engine to understand searches in a more natural language and make sense of more complex searches. When they first announced MUM, the new enhancement could understand over 75 languages. MUM is much more powerful than the existing algorithm.
Contextual Search is the New Normal
Barely two months after the announcement, Google has begun implementing MUM into some of the most used apps and features. In the coming months, Google searches will be undergoing a bit of a major rehaul. The company is creating a new, more visual search experience. Users will be seeing more images and graphics in search results. you will also be able to refine and broaden searches with a single click thanks to MUM. You will be able to zoom into finer details such as specific techniques and more or get a broader picture of your search with a single click. In their announcement, Google used the example of acrylic painting. With the results from Google search, they were able to zoom in to specific techniques commonly used in acrylic painting or get a broader picture of how it started.
The search engine uses data such as language and even user behaviour in addition to context to recommend broadening or narrowing searches. They are even applying this to YouTube. They are hoping to be able to expand the search context to include topics mentioned in YouTube videos later this year. Contextual and multitask search is also making its way to Google Lens. Lens will be able to make sense of both visual and text data at the same time. It’s also making its way to Chrome. Don’t expect the rollout of the new experience on Lens too soon as the rollout is expected to be in 2022 after internal testing.
Context is also making search more “shoppable”. Google is allowing users to zoom in to specifics when searching. For instance, searching if you’re searching for fashion apparel, you will be able to narrow your search based on design and colour or use the context of the original to search for something else completely. In addition, Google’s Shopping Graph will allow users to narrow searches with an “in stock” filter as well. This particular enhancement will be available in select countries only.
Expanding Search to Make A Positive Impact
Google isn’t just focusing on MUM for its own benefit. The company has been busy bringing its technology to create change too. It’s working on expanding contextual data as well as A.I. implementation in addressing environmental and social issues. While this is nothing new, some of the new improvements could impact us more directly than ever.
Environmental Insights for Greener Cities
One of the biggest things that could make a huge impact is Googles Environmental Insights. While this isn’t brand new, the company is looking to make the feature more readily available to cities to help them be greener. Environmental Insights Explorer will allow municipalities and city councils to make decisions based on data from A.I. and Google’s Earth Engines.
With this data, cities and municipalities will be able to visualise tree density within their jurisdictions and plan for trees and greenery. This data will help tremendously in lowering the temperatures of cities. It will also help with carbon neutrality. The feature will be expanding to over 100 cities including Yokohama and Sydney this year.
Dealing with Natural Disasters with Actionable Insights
Google Maps will be getting more actionable insights when it comes to natural disasters. Of course, being an American company, their first feature is, naturally more relevant to the U.S. California and other areas have been hit by wildfires with increasing severity in the past years. Other countries such as Australia, Canada and even in parts of the African continent are also experiencing increasingly deadly wildfires. It’s more apparent that data on the wildfires is needed for the public.
As such, Google Maps will be getting a layer that will allow users to see the boundaries of active wildfires. These boundaries are updated every 15 minutes allowing users to avoid affected areas. The data will also help authorities coordinate evacuations and even handling of situations. Google is also doing a pilot for flash flooding in India.
Simplifying Addresses
Google is expanding and simplifying one of its largest social projects – Plus Codes. The project, which was announced just under a year ago, is getting more accessible. Google is making Plus Codes more accessible with Address Maker. The new app continues with Plus Codes but allows users and organisations simplified access to making new addresses. Governments and NGOs will be able to create addresses at scale easier.
Google I/O 2021 is happening right now. The three-day conference kicked off with a bang though. To put it bluntly, Google I/O 2021 kicked off with a two-hour keynote highlighting everything coming from Google in 2021. While two hours do sound like a lot of drag, the announcements do sound mighty interesting though.
Google Workspace for Everyone
Source: Google
They kick off with something that everyone is concerned about in the period of pandemic, working from home. For that Google has something called Google Workspace. Google Workspace has been one of the most popular and thriving services since the world has gone into isolation with the looming pandemic situation. In 2021, the suite is updated with something called Smart Canvas.
Smart Canvas is a collaborative workspace within Google Workspace built for project management and keeping track of a project with your team members. It is kind of like a private chat or conversation within the larger organisation, but much cleaner. You can create and share Google Docs, Sheets, and even Slides within the group and work on the files together in real time.
Workspace is also now integrated with Google Meet, Google Doc, Google Sheet, and Google Slides. That also means that you can have a meeting on Google Meet within Google Workspace, share your files across the chat, and even edit the files together with your team in the Meets room. It is all about making remote collaborative work as seamless and organised as possible. Google also said Google Workspace will be available for free later in the year.
More in Google Search
Source: Google
Google search can also bring contents or search results that comes from other parts of the world in different languages with the integration of Google Translate algorithm and Google Lens as well. On top of that, Google is improving their language understanding and processing algorithm that should benefit more than just Google Translate, Google Lens, and regular Google Search.
They developed something called Wavenet, to make Google Assistant sound more natural and more contextual. They put that together with something they call Multitask Unified Model (MUM). All these makes Google Search and Google Lens the most powerful search and item identification tool ever.
The technologies that got mashed together means that Google search is not just single words anymore. It could be a sentence, a photo, and even both. The results can turn to be more than just web suggestions too. The result can turn out to be top suggestions, a place, and even connect you to merchants to buy what you need. If you set up your Google wallet correctly with all your merchant memberships as well, Google can connect you directly to deals that might be tied to your memberships too. There is a bit more to that too with Google Chrome, where you can track back your shopping carts on various sites even after you close the page.
Cleverer Google Maps
Source: Google
Google Maps is technically the most popular navigation app in the world. But that does not mean the app is flawless. There is always room for improvements.
Eco and Safe Driving
For example, Google introduces an ‘Eco Mode’ into the app. That basically means Google will take you through the most fuel efficient and economical route to get you to where you want and need to be. It may not be necessarily the fastest though, just keep that in mind.
They also introduced ‘safer driving’ routes for Google Maps. Obviously, that is what we call it, not what Google calls it. The idea is to navigate you to routes that might avoid traffic with sudden braking points and overall a smoother, clearer ride. All these are obviously done with Google’s navigation algorithm, traffic analysis, and GPS data such as speed or acceleration that Google Maps itself can see and work with in real-time.
Better Live View
Source: Google
They have expanded on Live View too in this case. Google Maps Live View does not just include navigation data in Augmented Reality anymore. It now shows you street names so that you can navigate better. It also now includes points of interest, landmarks, and you can pull up information regarding a place including its reviews directly from Maps app itself. Google Maps is also introducing Live View indoors now. It starts with the major train stations and airport in Zurich for now. The feature will be introduced to Tokyo also next month.
More Details
If you are getting yourself around by driving though, Google Maps is also a lot more detailed. Major intersections with road crossings and traffic lights will now show on maps so that you are better prepared. With Google’s understanding on your behaviour, your routine, and your usual routes, Google can also highlight relevant information, landmarks, or points of interest for you. A breakfast takeaway for example, on a Monday morning drive to work.
On top of all of that, Google Maps can now be a tool to help you plan your day not just on the road. Google Maps can track or predict how busy and packed an area will be at certain times just so you do not have to squeeze into the area at that time. You could plan to go another day for example, or just not go at all if it is not important. This is important in this day and age where social distancing is a recommended practice.
LaMDA
Source: Google
LaMDA is meant to be a conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google says they have been using and testing it internally and it is powered by everything great about Google’s search engine and linguistic programming. In its demo, it sounds like an amazing piece of tech that could keep you having conversations with it from day to night.
It is programmed to know everything there is to know about our current world and situation. But it is not built to answer you with data necessarily. It is built to have natural conversations about the weather in general terms like “you might want to bring an umbrella in the afternoon”, rather than “there is a 78% chance of a light rain at 2.00 p.m.”.
While the answers that we saw from the demo does sound a little metallic and robotic at times, we cannot wait for LaMDA to be introduced into things like Workspace, YouTube, or even Google Maps. It is like having your own version of Iron Man’s JARVIS in your smartphone, or PC, or whatever you fancy.
More Organised Google Photos
Source: Google
Google Photos is a little bit more than just your photo gallery now though. It is now something you can use to create photo collages, to understand yourself better, and sort of your memory bank. Google’s image recognition recognises your photo patterns and puts all of them together to tell you that you tend to take photos of a certain context or a certain look. It tells you that you might be attracted to a certain sort of colour for example.
With Machine Learning (ML) as well, Google Photos can stitch multiple similar photos taken in succession to create a moving photo or video for you, even if there are gaps. Organisation and searching for your photos are even more intuitive too when you can find photos associated to certain celebrations for example.
Android 12 and Wear OS
Source: Google
Trust us when we say Android 12 is a huge overhaul of the Android OS. There is nearly no difference in terms of function, to be fair. Most of the changes are in the way things look and gets organised, and even customised. They call all this Material You design.
In terms of looks, things are a lot more intuitive, most organised, bigger, and a lot less cluttered. You get more control in how your User Interface (UI) looks in total as well. There are supposedly about 22% faster animation, they say.
You get more control over your own security and even privacy, and they are easier to access and understand with Privacy Dashboard. With the new UI as well, IoT controls are more front and center than before. There is a new improved remote app for your Android TV too.
Wear OS is getting a fresh lease of life too, thankfully. They want to make Wear OS a major smartwatch platform competitor to Apple’s WatchOS. To do that they managed to strike a partnership with their long-time partner, Samsung to bring Tizen and Wear OS together to make a more robust wearable operating system (OS) for everyone to use. Fitbit will also be introducing their own Wear OS later in the year and lend their expertise and know how in health and fitness into the upcoming Wear OS.
Your Safety, Privacy, and Protection Matters
Source: Google
Google has also improved their Google Password Manager. While the app still functions the same as before, you can now transfer password information from older devices. That also means that your passwords can be stored on-device instead of on-cloud. With Android’s on-device encryption nature, saving your managed passwords on your device could be a more secure option. With compromise alerts, you know when your accounts are accessed, and you can easily change passwords for whatever you have quickly via Password Manager.
Privacy Core
Google also introduced something called their Privacy Core. It is Google’s effort in giving control over information shared with Google back to its users. Supposedly as well, thanks to Privacy Core, you Live Caption sessions or translations will not be shared back to Google.
But security and privacy are more than that as well. It spreads to your search history, and even browsing history. Google is including an option now to delete ‘recent history’ on your Google Chrome.
Even in Google Maps, you can tell the app to not track your location history just so that the app does not collect your location data. You can allow Google Maps to track you accurately, or just give Google access to your approximate location now, in different apps. Not allowing Maps to track your data and build a history data also means that you are not going to get recommendations or suggestions from Google though. A worthy trade off, we think, for more privacy.
Better Health, Better Quality of Life
Source: Google
Since Google’s expansion and changing their own corporate name to Alphabet, they have been hugely involved in medical research. One of the places they have been pushing on is in the field of Mammograms. Google’s AI push into the platform means that screening for breast cancer is more accurate than ever. Their AI also helps doctors in understanding Mammograms and the severity in the diagnosis helping the health institutes prioritise different cases.
That is not all though. Dermatology is one huge field that could be expanded even using your own devices. Because this field has more to do with skin conditions, Google Lens can be an early diagnosis tool. You can take a photo of your skin conditions and Google can possibly identify what you have to a certain degree. Of course, nothing replaces a doctor in matters of treatments and full diagnosis, so Google can direct you towards a dermatologist near you via your browser. This feature will be available in the EU region by the end of the year 2021.
Project Starline
Source: Google
Speaking of health, we cannot ignore the current pandemic situation. We are all recommended to stay at home as much as possible and avoid as much human interaction as possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, while has brought humanity together more than ever, ironically has isolated us even more too.
Project Starline is a video chat tool that uses multiple cameras to create a 3D image model and project that 3D image to another part of the world. While that means that the file packages from that implementation are so bug that our regular internet speeds will not be able to cope, Google is working to compress the image files to a more sensible package size so that the images can be transferred using our regular internet connection.
The function of that is to implement a 3D video chat experience. While regular video chat today has progressed further than before, nothing replaces a physical presence and interaction. The idea with 3D projection calls looks to bridge that gap a little. Although you cannot touch the person still, having a 3D representation of a person is as close as you can get in having a physical presence in today’s world.
Google I/O 2021
Source: Google
To wrap up, Google announced that they are committing to shift their entire operation to carbon free energy sources by 2030. While Google has been proud of operating entirely on renewable energy, they are taking the first steps in relying on clean energy that does not leave any footprints. The commitment has led them to invest into Geothermal energy currently.
As promised by Google, the Google I/O 2021 is the largest ever. It is not just based on attendance though. It is also about the number of things that Google is introducing for 2021. It is also about Google’s commitments for the future, and we are excited, especially for Wear OS. For more information on what happened in Google I/O, you can check out Google’s Blog.
Google’s I/O even is set to happen on the 18th of May 2021 onward (19th May 2021, following Malaysia time). Usually also, Google’s I/O is where Google announces their latest and greatest Android version. We can safely assume that the latest update to Android (Android 12) will be announced in Google I/O with Beta version rolling out immediately after.
According to their three-day conference calendar too, a new Android update is definitely on the cards with all the talk about “What’s new in Android”, and “What’s new in Material Design” talks. But Google I/O is more than just Android. This year it really seems like Google’s biggest one yet.
According to the calendar also there seems to be a new Chrome OS lined-up for announcement with its own keynote. There is also a new update to Google Assistant in Google I/O. Smart homes ecosystem is getting some attention this year too at Google I/O with its own keynote segment. Google Play and Google Pay also get some new updates this year from Google I/O.
Oddly enough though there are no mentions of Wear OS within the schedule. While that also means that there should not be any update to Wear OS for the time being, do not discount Wear OS to be updated later in the year. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit will also not be addressed in Google I/O 2021, in this case. The Fitbit acquisition could also mean a new hardware announcement from Google in the wearable space though.
There are also numerous rumours surrounding Google’s upcoming or speculated Pixel device, the Pixel 5a. Alongside that, Google is also supposed to be announcing their new TWS earbuds in the conference. According to the schedule, there seems to be no acknowledgement on the hardware end of things. Most of the time though, hardware announcements are made in the first keynote of Google’s I/O. We are still expecting some new hardware from Google from Google I/O though. If you are too, keep your eyes peeled on Google’s I/O 2021.
CES 2021 is well under way. But we are not talking about CES at this point. No, we are talking about the merging of giants.
Google is undoubtedly one of the most successful tech companies you will ever see in your lifetime, beside Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. They started out in the Search Engine industry in the midst of the MSN and Yahoo! boom. They bloomed and grew to surpass two of their biggest competition at the time and now they are in everything. They are in applied sciences, corporate backend solutions, automotive, smartphones, computing, and even your homes.
They are also on your wrists with the guise of Android Wear. They do not make any watch hardware on their own though. They have always relied on their partners like Fossil, Motorola, OPPO, and even Vivo to design and create their own iteration of what an Android Wear watch should look like. This situation might change soon though.
As per Google’s Blog post alongside Fitbit’s one in their own blogs too, Fitbit is now a part of Google. As of the 14th of January 2021, Google and Fitbit finally concludes their deal. Google has officially acquired Fitbit.
As we mentioned also, Fitbit is also a giant. They are a giant in their field, the fitness tracker and smart wear field. They have revolutionised the smart wearable devices market in more ways than one.
They are, technically, the largest standalone smartwatch making company in the world currently. They have a more complete product range than any other smartwatch maker in the world right now too. They have simple fitness trackers that look like wristbands and can be easily hidden. They also have full on smartwatches now in their Fitbit Versa line-up. The Versa and Sense watches are clearly also a side effect of them acquiring Pebble a while ago.
Now though, they are a part of Google. What does this mean for you Fitbit users?
On the surface, Google says that this acquisition has always been more about hardware instead of software. They want Fitbit watches and wrist bands. They basically wanted to experiment making their own smart wearable in the future, like how they experimented with smartphone manufacturing when they acquired HTC years ago. They are still making their own hardware today with the Pixel line-up. They have an amazing line-up of Chromebooks too.
The only thing they have not been making on their own then, are smart watches and smart wearables. With Fitbit as part of Google, now they can. So, according to Google, it is not about software and data.
In terms of software though, Google has a thing or two to learn from Fitbit and vice versa. We at techENT love our Fitbit Versa devices because they are so simple to work with. Their interface is easy to understand and navigate it becomes second nature when you acclimatise with them.
We also think that the Fitbit line-up could use a little bit of Google’s magic touch. In that case, they will be easier to pair with Android smartphones, faster too, and probably even more intuitive to connect. We find that these are our biggest pain points using the Fitbit devices. Of course, there is the subject of software integration too. Currently Fitbit’s collected data does not sync to Google’s own fitness app. Maybe we might see a merging of the two apps. At the same time, we doubt we will see that integration happening too soon because Fitbit also has the premium subscription segment.
Source: TechPP
Google has ensured that they will not touch Fitbit’s data pool at this time. They also confirmed that Fitbit’s user data will not be used for Google Ads purposes at this time. From the blog posts from both sides too, it seems that Fitbit will continue business as usual at this time. Which also means that Fitbit devices will remain Fitbit devices for a little longer.
In Google’s blog post, Rick Osterloh’s statement also reads, “the combination of Fitbit’s leading technology, product expertise and health and wellness innovation with the best of Google’s AI, software and hardware will drive more competition in wearables and make the next generation of devices better and more affordable”. We are more excited about this than anything. It means that you can start expecting Google smartwatches soon. You might want to expect some changes in Fitbit’s software approach now too. We hope that it is for the better on both parties. You might even get an Android Wear update for your Fitbit Sense.
Still, we see this as a win-win situation. At this time anyway, the acquisition and merging of the two giants in their space may prove to be just what both companies needed for the uncertain times ahead. For us consumers, we only care about their upcoming devices, and we are expecting them to be miles better than what we have now. Google Watch anyone?
