After running limited tests in the US and elsewhere, Google Maps is rolling out speed limit warnings and both fixed and mobile radar locations in over 40 countries, Google has confirmed to TechCrunch. The features are borrowed from Google-owned Waze and will appear in the iOS and Android Maps. The speed limit signs are located in the bottom corner of Maps and the radar and photo radar traps appear as icons on the virtual roads.
The features are available in Australia, Brazil, US, Canada, UK, India, Mexico, Russia, Japan, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe, Google said.
On Reddit, users in France, Switzerland and Germany noted that they aren't seeing the radar trap locations, likely because such features are illegal in those countries. In France, police are allowed to check your mobile phone for illegal apps and can levy steep fines and even confiscate your vehicle if they find them.
While both iOS and Android users can benefit from the new features, only Android users can report fixed photo radar and mobile radar location, for now. Google borrowed the features from Waze, and uses official sources and driver feedback, according to TechCrunch. Waze, however, has a richer feature set. It also warns of accidents, red light cameras, and other hazards.
Google Maps is widely used despite being a pretty bare-bones navigation app -- it still doesn't show your vehicle's speed, for instance. So speed limit and radar trap warnings are big changes that are long overdue.
But unlike the 10-inch Hub Max -- a direct competitor to the 10-inch second-gen Echo Show -- the Echo Show 5 is aimed at the entry level side of the smart display category. With a 5.5-inch display, the Echo Show 5 is smaller than the Echo Show, but only slightly smaller than the the seven-inch screen on the Google Nest Hub (formerly the Google Home Hub), the popular smart display Google released last fall.
An even smaller Google Assistant-based display called the Lenovo Smart Alarm Clock debuted at CES 2019 with a four-inch touchscreen, and is expected to hit the stores this spring for $80. The Echo Show 5 appears to want to split the difference between that product, and the larger Nest Hub.
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Like Amazon's other smart displays, the Echo Show 5 has a built-in camera, but this time the tech giant included a camera shutter that's integrated into the hardware, as well as a separate, dedicated camera and microphone off-button.
Amazon also says it has added a privacy-oriented feature wherein you can say "Alexa, delete everything I said today," and it will purge the audio recordings of your Alexa conversations from Amazon's servers. This comes after reports that Amazon holds onto text recordings of your voice conversations with Alexa, even after you've deleted those audio clips. A US senator has asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for more information about its privacy policies, including how it stores information.
Amazon isn't the only company dealing with privacy questions, though. Google is also facing questions for putting a camera into its Nest Hub Max device. Its original smart display, the Nest Hub, doesn't have a built-in camera.
Keeping up with Google
Other features of the Echo Show 5 include an auto-screen brightness feature built around an ambient-light sensor, which sounds similar to the same feature in the Google Nest Hub. Amazon also says it's added a dedicated smart home control screen with more granular controls for any connected thermostats, light bulbs or other devices you've paired with Alexa. This is also similar to the smart display software Google introduced with the Nest Hub last year.
The Echo Show 5 can handle all the standard Alexa commands as well, like asking Alexa general questions or the local weather forecast and to play your favorite podcast. You'll be able to view your security camera's video feed through the screen and also carry on a two-way conversation with your Ring doorbell -- features limited to Amazon's screen-equipped displays.
Amazon also promises upcoming support for WikiHow on the Echo Show 5, which should make it possible to get simple answers to questions like "Alexa, how do I clean my electric cooktop?"
The $90 Echo Show 5 comes in dark gray and white color finishes (that's "charcoal" and "sandstone" to the folks at Amazon) and you can buy an adjustable magnetic stand as an optional accessory for $20.
It's a safe bet that the Echo Spot, Amazon's round, 2.5-inch smart display is dead at this point. Amazon said it would continue selling the Spot for $130, but it's hard to imagine it living for long next to the Echo Show 5 given the latter's larger display, lower cost, and more privacy-friendly features. The Echo Show even creates some problems for the $100 Amazon Echo speaker, which has fewer features than the $90 Echo Show 5 and no screen. Maybe this will be the device that makes me rethink smart displays?
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The battle for the best smart display: Google Home Hub...
Three years after the Pokémon Go craze temporarily boosted Nintendo's market value, the Pokémon Company onWednesday revealed a handful of products in Tokyo including an app called Pokémon Sleep.
The company shared few details on the app, but said it would track the amount of time players spend sleeping and when they wake up, that information will have an effect on game play.An external device that comes with the app will send sleep data to users' smartphones.
The app, which is expected to launch sometime next year, "aims to turn sleeping into entertainment," The Pokémon Company said in a statement.
The Pokémon Company was set up 20 years ago by three Japanese game developers that share copyrights for the Pokémon franchise — Nintendo, Creatures Inc. and Game Freak.
Wednesday's announcement also included a play for the world's biggest gaming market.
The Pokémon Company said that its first mobile game in China would be an "enhanced version" of Pokémon Quest. The company also said that 1.7 million players in China have signed up for Pokémon Quest since early May, when it said it would bring the game to China as part of a partnership with Chinese developer NetEase.
Nintendo(NTDOF) has faced limited access to the Chinese market, but its shares soared last month on news that one of its other Chinese partners, Tencent(TCEHY), had won preliminary approval to distribute the Nintendo Switch device there.
To keep the momentum going, the Pokémon Company now plans to blitz the market with more new titles across platforms, including "Pokémon Masters," a battle game for iOS and Android, and "Detective Pikachu," a Nintendo Switch offering that aims to capitalize on the success of the recently released hit movie of the same name.
It also plans to debut "Pokémon Home," a new app for Switch devices and smartphones that will let users access all their Pokémon games in one place, starting next year.
Amazon usually saves its big product reveals for the fall, but it's shaking things up this year. Today, it unveiled its latest take on the smart display, the Amazon Echo Show 5. That's right, I said 5, even though this is only the third iteration of the Echo Show to date. The reason behind this appears to be the size of its display, which measures just 5.5-inches across. It comes in both black ("Charcoal") and white ("Sandstone"), and each display will retail for $89.99.
Amazon says that the Echo Show 5 is meant for the bedside or desk, which explains its compact form factor. I also can't help but notice its resemblance to Google's Nest Hub (formerly known as Home Hub) -- it has a similar curved and rounded aesthetic, and the black and white colors are similar too. It even has that soft touch fabric finish. No, it's not an exact clone, but the Echo Show 5 does look eerily like it. Unlike the Nest Hub, however, the Echo Show 5 does have a camera. Thankfully, it does come with a physical shutter for those who are concerned with privacy. It also has an ambient lighting mode that will adjust the screen's brightness according to its surroundings.
Aside from the Echo Show 5, Amazon also announced a few new features that are coming to Alexa smart displays. You'll be able to access how-to video clips from wikiHow, a new smart home dashboard that'll let you control all your connected gadgets in one spot, and a new "Alexa Sunrise" alarm that will cause the screen to brighten slowly, mimicking daylight's arrival. Amazon also added compatibility with the Arlo baby camera, so you can say "Alexa, show me the nursery camera" to see how little Junior is doing.
Last but certainly not least, Amazon also announced a brand new privacy feature that is coming to all Alexa-enabled devices. Instead of manually deleting your Alexa voice history, you can now say "Alexa, delete everything I said today" to wipe out your history for that day. You can also say something like "Alexa, delete what I just said." According to Amazon's press release, it'll also have a new "Alexa Privacy Hub" which will act as a single information source on the settings of all your different Echo devices (We have a deeper dive on this feature here).
As mentioned, each unit is $89.99. You can also opt for an additional $19.99 magnetic stand that lets you tilt the Show's viewing angles. The Echo Show 5 is available for pre-order right now, and will start shipping to the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia in June. It'll ship to India starting in July, and it'll also eventually arrive in Mexico.
Apple has published a lengthy post explaining and extolling the App Store's guidelines and developer program, following the Supreme Court's decision in an antitrust case related to its application emporium. On May 13th, the Supreme Court has ruled against the tech giant in a long-standing price-fixing suit, which accuses the company of maintaining a monopoly over iOS app distribution to keep prices high and to be able to take a 30 percent commission.
The court's decision allows customers to proceed with a lawsuit against Apple under antitrust laws -- something the company argued shouldn't be allowed, because it takes its cut from developers and not consumers themselves. After the ruling was announced, Apple released a statement to stress that the "App Store is not a monopoly by any metric" and that "[d]evelopers set the price they want to charge for their app[s]." It added: "[The company] has no role in that."
Today, Cupertino has reiterated those sentiments in its post, stressing that 84 percent of the apps in its Store are free and that it doesn't always earn anything from them. The company even detailed the pricing tiers developers can choose from, which all state that it only takes a 30 percent cut from paid apps or from in-app purchases and subscriptions within free ones.
All those lead to the final part of the post, which highlights a line that says the App Store is "[a] store that welcomes competition." The tech giant listed its own apps (such as Apple Music and Maps) alongside their competitors (such as Spotify and Waze) available on the App Store. Perhaps as a way to say that while it's true that the iOS platform doesn't allow downloads from third-party services, users still have a lot of non-Apple options to choose from. Apple also reminded everyone in the post that all those options went through a rigorous review process to ensure "that apps are held to a high standard for privacy, security, and content..."
While the Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs in the antitrust case, that particular court battle is far from over, seeing as their victory only means they can proceed with a lawsuit. In its statement after the decision came out, Apple said it's "confident [it] will prevail when the facts are presented." The company's post likely gives us a glimpse of the "facts" it intends to present in court.
It’s been nearly seven years since Windows 8 first debuted, ushering in an era of weird and wonderful laptop designs. We witnessed the birth of Lenovo’s Yoga laptop, some crazy hinge gymnastics from Acer, and even the early beginnings of Microsoft’s Surface line. While most of the more wacky designs have come and gone, we’re now entering another phase of wild experimentation: dual-screen laptops.
Computex is one of largest computer and technology trade shows in the world, and it’s an annual event where PC makers like to show off their latest laptops and crazy concepts. Laptops have largely focused on better displays, trackpads, and battery life in recent years, but this year we’ve started to see laptops with multiple screens emerge.
HP led the way ahead of Computex by announcing a dual-screen gaming laptop for gamers that lets you watch Twitch and play games simultaneously. The secondary 6-inch display is housed above the keyboard, and it works like any regular dual-screen monitor setup you’d find on a desktop PC. Asus also introduced its new ZenBook Pro Duo laptop with two 4K screens this week. Asus thinks it has solved laptop productivity problems, thanks to a 14-inch screen above the keyboard and a regular 15-inch display where you’d normally find a laptop screen.
Asus has developed some window-management software to extend the main screen into the 14-inch panel above the keyboard, or to even use multiple windows across the wide display. Asus also morphed its traditional laptop trackpad into a 5.5-inch display last year, showing that it’s willing to experiment and push the boundaries of what you’d normally expect to find in a laptop.
Perhaps the most wild of them all is Intel’s idea for dual-screen laptops. “Honeycomb Glacier” is Intel’s concept of the future of gaming PCs, and it attempts to combine a 15.6-inch main display and a 12.3-inch secondary display into a single laptop with a unique double hinge. The result is a laptop where the displays stack at multiple angles thanks to a mechanical one-way roller clutch. Intel is unusually bullish about this design, and claims PC makers have shown an interest in adopting it for future laptops.
Intel is also pushing to build dual-screen laptops out of fabric, and just dual-screen devices in general. We’ve seen Microsoft use Alcantara fabric on its Surface Laptop, and HP is using leather and even wood on some of its laptops. Intel’s concepts are particular relevant if we’re truly entering a new era of dual- or even flexible-screen laptops. Lenovo has been developing a “foldable PC” for more than three years, complete with the foldable screen tech we’ve already seen start appearing on phones. It’s just a concept for now, but it does hint at where PC makers think this technology is heading.
All of these wacky designs and hardware are nothing without software, though. We saw that play out with Lenovo’s dual-screen Yoga Book last year, and Microsoft previously failed to popularize Windows SideShow, a way for developers to extend apps and notifications to small screens on laptops while they were powered off. Apple’s Touch Bar has also failed to gain much traction, despite it offering a touchscreen above the keyboard.
As much as PC makers can experiment with hardware they have to rely on Microsoft to get Windows to adapt to these new form factors. Microsoft has been dreaming of a pocketable dual-screen Surface device for years, but that project, codenamed Andromeda, has stalled inside the company.
Microsoft is now preparing for this new hardware with a new lightweight version of Windows for dual-screen devices and Chromebook competitors. Codenamed Windows Lite, Microsoft hasn’t officially even acknowledged its existence yet. Windows Lite is a more stripped-down version of Windows that is initially being prioritized for dual-screen devices.
Microsoft has seen the work OEMs and Intel are doing on dual-screen devices, and wants to be ready to properly support it. The Windows Lite interface will be similar to Windows as it exists today, but it will be more of a blend of what Microsoft uses with its Surface Hub shell and the simplicity of its Windows Phone Continuum user interface.
Microsoft has gradually been creating a new Composable Shell (C-Shell) and Windows Core OS, a more modular version of the existing Windows Shell that powers many parts of Windows 10 today. Microsoft was expected to talk about some of this work at the company’s Build conference earlier this month, but all it’s doing for now is hinting about a “modern OS” future for Windows.
The software work will be key to whether these new dual-screen laptops really take off. Some make sense for gaming laptops, but smaller devices that would compete against phones offer questionable benefit. Google is also planning to natively support foldables in Android, and it already has the mobile platform advantage to better bridge the gap between phones and tablets.
That won’t stop PC makers, though. We’ve seen years of wild 2-in-1 PCs, and with foldable displays, new hinges, and this push for dual displays we’re about to witness laptops getting really weird and wonderful again.
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