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Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

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Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#131

Post by robsun »

schwuk wrote: post #127
robsun wrote: post #90

Just noticed. They all wear Android smartwatches... I don't know single person in Europe who uses his Android smartwatch after couple of months!

Anecdotal, but I've worn my LG Urbane every day since I got it last September. Very happy with it.

Happy to hear that. I sold my Moto 360 after ~year.

I used it every day and until a software update broke it (it run into infinite loop of crashing Play services). I sent it to warranty and Motorola reinstalled the OS but in meantime I used my old, classic watch. It turned out I didn't miss 360. Other people I know have similar stories.

Hopefully the platform is still alive. Does anyone develop apps for Android Watch? AFAIR there is no special category in Google Play for this.

Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#133

Post by dragonwriter »

callahad wrote: post #113
outside1234 wrote: post #104

"Android Instant Apps" -> aka web hijacker

I really wonder how this pairs with Google's push for Progressive Web Apps. The two seem to be in direct opposition.

I see them aligned in terms of what they are trying to achieve UX-wise, one serves the community that is already building web apps, one serves the community that's already building mobile apps, both get you low-friction, native (or native-like) UX.

Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#134

Post by 1_2__3 »

wstrange wrote: post #89
robsun wrote: post #80

In my humble opinion Google isn't solving new problems anymore. They created great company thanks to solving very important problem: people couldn't find right things on the Internet. Now it is all about ads and reducing number of taps required to order a pizza. The keynote is just boring.

Yea - I hear ya. Self driving cars, conversational AIs, VR hardware - same old same old.

Mm, yes, hoover up that Google marketing hype and spew it back out here to create the echo chamber necessary to convince people these technologies are just around the corner.

Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#135

Post by yaantc »

chatmasta wrote: post #106
jon-wood wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, and let me address it with something other than "OK, Google". Let me name it, or set the trigger phrase, or do an interpretive dance. Anything but that awful phrase.

I might be totally wrong about this, but I think the reason "OK Google" or "Hey Alexa" are immutable phrases is because the listening for them is implemented via an ASIC chip at the hardware level, in order to save on battery life. That is, instead of a software based `while(listening) {...}`, an actual hardware component looks for the correct wave forms from the microphone output.

I looked into this recently. Voice triggering is typically done on DSP and the digital processing power is typically already small compared to the microphone (which is not much itself). For power optimized applications the DSP implementation is power optimized (low speed, low leakage) and processing is done in two steps: a coarse, basic recognition with some false alarm probability, with an accurate second step. For a plugged device there's no need to super optimize, the DSP part should be in the single digit mW. A fixed trigger makes the system simpler however: no configuration to manage, no risk of having the kids randomly changing the trigger for something funny, etc.

Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#136

Post by uptown »

berberous wrote: post #38
cwyers wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But these devices only listen when they hear the wake word ("Ok Google" or "Alexa") It's not like there's a law of physics requiring that always be true, you're trusting that to: A) Be true now, and B) Keep being true in the future. And it's the sort of claim that is very very easy to lie about.

Google and Amazon are huge companies and would face serious liability for falsely advertising that their devices only listened upon hearing the wake word. Moreover, I'm sure someone out there would analyze the network traffic and figure out it did not work as claimed. They have nothing to gain by secretly transmitting data, and everything to lose. State adversaries are a different story. I don't doubt the NSA might s…

"State adversaries are a different story. I don't doubt the NSA might somehow break into Snowden's Echo, but most people don't have such adversaries."

State adversaries have repeatedly demonstrated a desire to "collect it all" and sort it out later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

The entire emphasis of what Snowden revealed was precisely that the method employed by the NSA were not targeted.

Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#137

Post by switch007 »

rdtsc wrote: post #69

Duo -- video calling, competitor to Skype? A "knock-knock" feature -- you see a preview of the caller before picking. Uses quic protocol, built by webrtc team, claims seamless transition when connections switch from wifi to cellular. Graceful degradation if network quality goes down. Allo -- video chat, e2e encryption and expiring messages. That looks good but unless someone else audits, I'll be suspicious. Android N…

> Seamless updates -- phone downloads system image in background. Then on next boot it switches to new image.

That better be configurable or I'll nickname Google 'Microsoft'

Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#138

Post by ErikAugust »

lanestp wrote: post #49

Google knows that this is a developer conference right? I feel like I'm at CES. I don't care about any of their apps unless there is some really cool integrations I can do. Talk API's or this is just noise.

Yeah, the first day is a huge hype show.

All the journalists buzz around, and all the product managers/execs/reps are there to show off for them.

For example, when I went, the wi-fi was horrible, basically unusable - except if you were in media. If you were media, then you got your own area to connect to better internet.

That said, the subsequent days were noticeably quiet in comparison.

Not too many people there to actually go to dev talks, etc. It's very relaxed by then.

Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#139

Post by espeed »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #111
berberous wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Amazon are huge companies and would face serious liability for falsely advertising that their devices only listened upon hearing the wake word. Moreover, I'm sure someone out there would analyze the network traffic and figure out it did not work as claimed. They have nothing to gain by secretly transmitting data, and everything to lose. State adversaries are a different story. I don't doubt the NSA might s…

I think it would be entirely possible within US legal framework for Echo/Home to be able to selectively switch from "wake word" to "always listening" mode, on the whim of Amazon/Google or a request of the government. Now, if the government isn't stupid about it and would use it selectively, then good luck tracking it down.

Your phone could be turned to "always listening" for that matter, and it's typically with you 24/7.

Re: Google I/O 2016 Live Keynote

#140

Post by tdkl »

wstrange wrote: post #89
robsun wrote: post #80

In my humble opinion Google isn't solving new problems anymore. They created great company thanks to solving very important problem: people couldn't find right things on the Internet. Now it is all about ads and reducing number of taps required to order a pizza. The keynote is just boring.

Yea - I hear ya. Self driving cars, conversational AIs, VR hardware - same old same old.

> conversational AIs

Because I always wanted a chat app that I could talk to AI with, not my actual real life friends, as they're too busy not giving a fuck at another $chatapp from Google and are still mad at me at the last two I was trying to make them use.

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