Google’s AI focus means it Amazon tablets and drops the price on Fire 8 HD will monitor more of our lives
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California: Google kicked off its annual developers conference Wednesday by outlining a broad vision of how it thinks artificial intelligence (AI) will shape the way we communicate, travel, work and play.
Chief executive Sundar Pichai said that improving artificial intelligence is Google’s top strategy in its continuing goal to organise the world’s information.
Using AI, Gmail will now suggest phrases for your replies, based on its interpretation of your conversation. Google Photos will figure out which of your snapshots are best for sharing, and it will use facial recognition to figure who should get those photos.
A software called Google Lens will analyse your photos and be able to remove obstacles, such as a chain-link fence, that obscure your shot. Google Assistant will also be more proactive, now nudging you to leave earlier if the traffic to your next appointment is bad, rather than waiting for you to ask about it.
The differences are subtle, but significant, said Gartner research vice president Brian Blau. “We’re not going to see that many new features - maybe some new buttons and dials. But what will improve is how well these apps relate to the individual.”
With those personalised improvements, however, will come an even greater demand for data from Google services. For example, one big addition to Google Photos is the ability to auto-share your photos with a person of your choosing. That means that users not only allow Google to process their pictures, but also tell the company who their closest confidantes are.
“Many of these new features in Google Assistant, Photos, and Home add value but also require the sharing of a lot of personal voice, photo, video and location information,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insight and Strategies. “Google has the most personal information, (and) does the processing in the cloud, so I think right now they have the richest consumer AI capabilities.”
Google released some brief details about its plans for stand-alone virtual reality headsets – which will not rely on a smartphone or a computer for power. Lenovo and HTC (which already makes a rival headset, the HTC Vive) are working on these products with Google; the company did not announce an official release date. But Google, like Microsoft and even Apple, seems to be focusing developer attention more strongly on software and services rather than solely on gadgets, analysts said. “I think, in general, we’ll start to see devaluation of individual devices over time,” Blau said. Instead, he said, companies are likely to focus on making “whatever screen you’re looking at more personal and a lot more meaningful to you as an individual.” — Washington Post AMAZON has cut the price of its Fire HD 8 tablet by US$10, with an upgraded model that will be available next month for US$80 (RM352).
The company also announced a new version of the 7-inch Fire tablet, which will keep its US$50 price tag. It also introduced two new versions of its tablet for children – a US$100 update to its Fire 7 Kids Edition and brand new US$130 Fire HD 8 Kids Edition - and a limited promotion that will slice 20 per cent off for anyone who buys at least three Fire devices at once.
The price cut comes as Amazon and other manufacturers try to settle on the right price for a tablet. Apple recently dropped the price of its cheapest iPad to US$330 (RM1,452) in an acknowledgement that people aren’t as eager to update their tablets as they are their smartphones.
Tablets have become a tricky product for many gadget-makers to address, as enthusiasm for the devices continues to cool. In an industry obsessed with growth, tablets have been a particularly dark spot, with analysis firm IDC recently reporting that sales of tablets are currently down 8.5 per cent from the same time in 2016.
Tablets saw incredible growth between 2010 and 2013, filling the need for a device as portable as a smartphone but still a bit more powerful. But now, large-screened
Many of these new features in Google Assistant, Photos, and Home add value but also require the sharing of a lot of personal voice, photo, video and location information. — Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insight and Strategies
smartphones and a surge in sales of detachable laptops are growing and have many of the same selling points as tablets.
Shipments of Amazon tablets, IDC said, are currently down eight per cent from the same time last year.
Amazon’s strategy of dropping prices to sell its tablets is what’s keeping it in the fight for the topselling tablet manufacturers in the world.
“Regardless of the changing industry dynamics . . . Amazon seems poised to remain a competitor given its market strategy,” IDC analysts said in the report. — Washington Post.