Tag Archives: Google I/O

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[Google I/O 2021] Android 12 is a Big Visual Change for You

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Android is currently the most popular mobile operating system (OS) in the world. At least 72% of the entire smartphone market in 2021 runs on Android. That is also mostly because there are so many Android offerings out in the market that fits almost all sorts of budget.

There is also another good reason why Android becomes the OS of choice for plenty of enthusiasts. The fact that no two Android devices looks and feels the same is one of them. You could put a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra beside another similar device with similar colour option but when you pick them up, they could feel completely different in terms of its interactions and layout. If you are its owner, you know which one of the smartphones is which the moment you pick it up. Of course, there is the fact that you cannot unlock the other smartphone.

#Android12: Designed for you

Android 12 is not the largest update in terms of added feature on the user interface (UI), technically. It is the largest though in terms of visuals. The concept for the 12th major iteration of Android, as Google puts it, centers around You.

They call the new design language Material You. That also means that the design language is not entirely different from before. It is technically an evolution of the older Material design language. Thing is, it is not like the old Material design felt dated in 2021. Its simplistic and minimalistic language still does well enough in 2021, and we think beyond.

Still, Android 12 is coming and here are the major changes we think you might like; at least we like the changes.

More Personalisation

Source: Google

Colours turn out to be everything in our lives, and that includes our smartphones. We all wanted dark mode at some point in the past two years. Admittedly, Dark Mode looks sick and made our smartphones look extra sleek. But it does get a little boring when everyone starts doing the same things.

Adding some colours is a way to go to make your device even more unique to you other than having different home screen layouts. That is what Android 12 is, colours for your life. The UI can cleverly extract dominant colours and determine complementing colours from your wallpaper and turn your whole theme around that chosen colour. That extends even to the new widgets Material You is introducing. Of course, you can change those colours as well in the settings, if you want to have a different colour scheme for your theme. You technically can decide how thick you want your on-screen volume control knob to be too.

Better, Faster, More Sensible Animations

Source: Google

The UI is designed to be more intuitive and allow certain things to come up front and center for you. For example, picking up the device can turn your screen on, but the fluid animations can flash up according to how you pick up your device. The display might come to life from the bottom of the device up, or vice versa. It responds to touch and gestures too, apparently.

The most visible change on Android 12 in terms of animations though is on your lock screen. On Any Android device, you can view your notifications via your lock screen. You can close the notifications from your lock screen too. Once you cleared out your notifications though, Android 12 brings out your clock front and center to let you know that you are all caught up and tell you the time, obviously.

With Material You as well, Google have supposedly improved animation load times and speed by up to 22%. The development team somehow found a way to cut back on CPU loads for animations which both sped up the animations and extend battery life in the process. On top of that, the cut back in CPU reliance also means that older and lower-end devices can benefit the full animations of Android 12.

Bigger Means Better

Source: Google

A part of system designs in Material design is making things more compact, cleaner, simpler, and more minimalistic. A lof of quick access spaces and buttons are made smaller, more rounded, and take up so little space you could cram a million of them on your large 6-inch display. They sort of rolled back on that for the sack of intuitiveness and better-looking spaces though.

In Material You the notification is a much cleaner space to look at. Gone re the clutter that you might see in the current iteration of Material design. The notification page is much easier on the eyes to navigate and work with as well with a slightly larger interaction space.

You see the biggest change in Quick Settings though. Instead of little round balls that you are used to, they are now bigger buttons to work with. This not only prevents clutter, but also wrong presses when you use your device one-handed. The have added Google Pay and Home Controls button too for you to quickly access your ewallet payment gateway and even quickly control your Home IoT devices just through a couple of taps.

Privacy Dashboard

Source: Google

Transparency over data collection and sharing has been one of the most important features we look for in our smartphones today. Apple’s iOS now allows you to track each app and what they do with your data. For Android, it is a little different.

Instead of implementing app specific algorithm to identify what data is being used by each app and how, Android 12 gives you a one stop shop to understand what apps are using what and when. The dashboard allows to check also the kinds of permissions you give each app. You even can revoke access of the apps too from one Privacy Dashboard.

At the same time, Android 12 tells you when an app is using your camera or microphone. In some ways, Android 12 can help you track which apps use the two items when it does not need to as well. You can either revoke camera or mic privileges from apps via Privacy Dashboard in that sense.

There is more to that, however. You can revoke the entire systems access to both microphone and camera. All you have to do is pull down the notification bar, and then pull down again to quick access and turn off camera, or microphone access, or both. In that case, even if you launch your camera app, you are not going to see anything.

Regarding location, sometimes apps do not need to know where you are precisely. In that case, Android 12 allows you to set “approximate location” sharing with some of the apps that you feel might not need your precise location. An example of that kind of app is the weather app, to tell you what the weather is like in your general area.

And More…

Source: Google

There are more subtle changes in Android 12. To be really honest, we have not had our hands-on with the Android 12 Beta just yet, because we do not own devices that supports Android 12 Beta at this time. We are hoping that the list might expand a little more soon though. If you want to get your hands on Android 12 Beta, you can check if your devices are supported at the Android 12 Beta page.

Android, Business, Computers, Consumer Electronics, Editorial, Health, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

Google I/O 2021: Everything You Need to Know

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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.

Accessories, Editorial, Health, Lifestyle, News

[Google I/O 2021] Google & Samsung Take Wear OS to the Next Level

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Android Wear or Wear OS as it was renamed a few years ago has been a little anaemic when it comes to updates; that is until NOW. Google took the stage at I/O 2021 to announce what could be the biggest and most important update to Wear OS: Google and Samsung are partnering to push Wear OS to the next level. The announcement confirms rumours which have been making their rounds for months.

Source: Google

The new partnership sees Samsung bring their know-how, expertise and features from their successful Tizen OS to Wear OS. As the companies put it, they are bringing “the best of their platforms together into one unified experience”. So what does this mean exactly? Well, the biggest change is that Samsung’s next Galaxy Watch will be shipping with Wear OS instead of Tizen OS. While this might seems like Samsung will be leaving their older watches behind, the company reassures its users that Galaxy Watch and other Tizen OS powered wearables will be receiving updates and support for at least 3 years after their launch.

Improvements Under the Hood

That aside, the new collaborative Wear OS approach also brings a slew of improvements that will not only be improving the user experience but also making developing for Wear OS a lot easier. The collaboration’s biggest improvement comes in its improved load time. Google is touting a whopping 30% improvement in app load times. In addition, Samsung and Google have made improvements to the lower layer of Wear OS to improve battery life. If you’ve used Wear OS smartwatches, you’d know that battery life can be an issue with them.

Source: Google

Google and Samsung have optimised background processes, making them more efficient and less intensive on the processors. In fact, processor-intensive processes like continuous heart rate monitoring have been optimised to use lower power cores to conserve power. This also opens the doors to more power-efficient features for wearable devices. Samsung has also helped with power efficiency with its bundled sensors which allow them to include more than one sensor in a single module.

More Diverse User Experience

Aside from improvements under the hood, the improvements are also creating a more diverse user experience. Manufacturers are now allowed to skin the operating system to have a more unified look across their devices. This also means that we might see slightly different experiences from manufacturers like Tag Heuer, Fossil and even Samsung will have their own design language when it comes to the user interface for their wearables. Google is expecting that the new customizability will result in a more diverse Wear OS ecosystem.

Google is also opening up more features in the OS to developers. Developers will be able to bring features like tiles to their apps. They have also integrated development for Wear OS into Android’s Development Studio. They are creating a more unified development experience across Android and Wear OS with a single touchpoint for development. Development is also made easier with Google’s Jetpack development suite which allows developers to call and implement API more readily. In addition, they are bringing Kotlin APIs to Wear OS.

Wear OS is also getting more focused on health with help from Samsung. Developers will be able to create new apps and improve their current apps with a more streamlined and simplified work flow. This comes thanks to the new Health Services platform which allows developers to retrieve data without building from scratch. Developers are able to take advantage of continuous data from the sensors and other contextual metrics without impacting the battery life of the device too much.

New Apps, Better Experience

Finally, these improvements directly impact how the OS performs and how accessible apps will be for the platform. The most direct improvements that users will be benefiting from is improved navigation on wearables. Google is bringing simple improvements like a double-tap to jump to your most recent app and even simpler swiping gestures to access your information.

Source: Google / Double Tap for Recent App
Source: Google / Tiles

Google is starting the ball rolling with updates coming to its core apps like Google Maps, Google Pay, Google Assistant and YouTube Music. The first change that will be coming to these apps is the adoption of the new “Material You” design. In addition, Google Maps will be getting better, more visible turn by turn navigation to help with using the app on the go. There are plans to take Google Maps offline. The same applies to YouTube Music as well. Google Assistant and Google Pay will be getting improvements as well. The latter will be making its way to 26 countries in the next few months while the former will become more user friendly on Wear.

It isn’t just Google that is improving its offerings. Spotify has revamped its experience on wearables; allowing users to seamlessly move on the go. The simplified interface allows users to not only control their music but also seamlessly switch between speakers and their Wear OS device. Other companies like Nike, Calm and Adidas have been working on revamping their experiences on OS. Fitbit will also join the Wear OS family. Wear OS apps will also be more visible on the Play Store with a dedicated section and recommendations.

The new Wear OS will be making its way to the market in the coming year. Current Wear OS devices find out if they are getting the big update in the coming months.

Android, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

Wear OS Gets New GBoard -Fresher, Faster, Better

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Google’s I/O is just around the corner and there are plenty of things to look forward to in Google I/O. One of them is improvements and updates to Wear OS. If you do not know what Wear OS is, it is basically Google’s perception of what a wearable interface should look like. The smartwatch OS can be found on plenty of smartwatches you can find on the market that is not a HUAWEI, or Samsung, or Fitbit, or Apple. In Malaysia, the most popular Wear OS smartwatch currently are still from Fossil.

While it is considered one of the major smartwatch interfaces you can find in the current market, contents for Wear OS can be limited. Of course, the app ecosystem for Wear OS is still growing and there are still room for improvements for the wearables that are equipped with Wear OS. Google also hardly updates or releases new apps on their own Wear OS, weirdly enough. Until now that is, with a certain GBoard.

GBoard is a keyboard, yes. In fact, it is one of the most popular and most loved keyboards in the world of Android. Some of the best and most popular Android smartphone sports GBoard as their default keyboard, that is how good it is. Wear OS also sports Google’s own default keyboard on the platform that has not been updated until now.

Previously known as Google Keyboard, GBoard gets a new update that borderlines a makeover of the app on Wear OS. The new Wear OS still retains the full QWERTY layout but with a more streamlined and cleaner design compared to the clunky Google Keyboard of old. Of course, GBoard also retains gestures and voice input functions. They are much easier to access now though.

Source: Google

The new GBoard also still has word suggestions, except that it is now scrollable instead of a drop-down menu. That makes word suggestion a lot more accessible and much more intuitive to work with. The word suggestion bar is also your quick access to input methods now. To allow for a bit more space and accessibility on the keyboard, the language toggle is now moved to the spacebar instead of a dedicated language button.

The update for Gboard for WearOS should be a huge welcome for the platform and its users. The platform, since its 2.0 release five years ago, have stagnated a little. Its last update was a minor update to version 2.23 with minute changes to improve its connectivity support and battery life mostly. Wear OS is expected to receive a major update in the upcoming Google I/O.  

Android, Mobile, News

Google I/O 2021 Full Schedule is Out – What to Expect from Google in 2021

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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.