latest
Google reportedly wants to turn the Pay app into a shopping portal
Google Shopping already exists, but let's not go there
Google Pay is the primary method of contactless payments on Android devices, but Google might have greater ambitions for the app than just storing all your credit cards. A new report from The Information claims the app could become a shopping portal, if retailers and delivery companies sign on.
Google Express has been around for years, but it has seen a renewed growth lately. The service has gained hundreds of retailers (while also losing one of its biggest partners), but it's still struggling to compete with Amazon and other online giants. According to a report from The Information, Google has big plans for Express — including a name change.
Xiaomi is probably recognizable among our readers for its phones, and maybe even for its earbud headphones. But I doubt many of us think of cameras when we think of the 5th largest smartphone manufacturer. That said, someday we might. According to Bloomberg, Xiaomi is considering making an offer on GoPro.
The smart speaker wars are in full swing, with Amazon and Google dominating most of the market. Amazon's Alexa assistant was first on the scene, but Google Assistant is making progress, particularly with the Home Mini and third-party speakers. According to a report from The Information, Amazon is working on its own AI chip designed to make Alexa-powered devices respond quicker.
It's fairly simple to create unobtrusive advertising on computers, phones, tablets, and other devices with a screen - users can simply ignore the ads. However, that doesn't translate to smart speakers, since the only interface is speaking. There's no unobtrusive way to stop in the middle of a sentence and start talking about a sale.Thankfully, at least for the moment, Amazon agrees that ads have no place on smart speakers. According to a report from The Information, Sony approached Amazon several times about running ads on its Jeopardy Alexa game. The company refused each time, explaining that advertising could alienate users. This frustrated Sony, which felt like it could not generate revenue from the Alexa skill it created.Right now, there are only two ways Alexa skills can generate revenue. First, skills can obviously be used to purchase products, thus generating more revenue for a given company. For example, Pizza Hut allows you to order pizza through Alexa. Secondly, Amazon is allowing some developers to create subscriptions with more functionality. You can pay a $1.99/month for extra questions on the Jeopardy skill, but I can't imagine many people are doing that.Last year, Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast film was promoted in the Google Home's morning summary. Many believed this was the first instance of Google monetizing the smart speaker, but Google later said in a statement, "This wasn’t intended to be an ad. What’s circulating online was a part of our My Day feature, where after providing helpful information about your day, we sometimes call out timely content."Smart speakers are still in their early days. As they become more popular, and as Google and Alexa continue to pour more development resources into their assistants, maybe we'll start to see limited advertising. But for now, Amazon is vehemently opposed to the idea.Source: The Information
The Joneses have new things, so Google decided to jump on the bandwagon. At least, that's according to a report from The Information which says Google is hard at work developing a platform for chat bots in the same vein that Facebook and more recently Microsoft have done. Some, but perhaps not all, the details will be discussed at I/O this week. Details are thin in the report, but the backbone of the initiative seems to be developer tools.
Read update
It's not easy being a chip and component maker in the smartphone industry and trying to turn a profit when competitors are driving the prices down to a point where an entire phone can cost somewhere around $50. It's even harder when the high-end market is being governed by a few players, the major one of whom decides to "dump" your chips and use their own for its flagship. That's Qualcomm's conundrum right now. The company, which has been a mainstay on the spec sheet of a grand majority of the Android phones we talk about here on Android Police, is hitting a rough patch — not enough to sound the alarm sirens, but enough to jeopardize the employment of thousands of its workforce.
The 'Internet of Things' is a bit of a nebulous concept, but it boils down to adding smart, connected features to the objects and tools you use in everyday life. Things like wearables can loosely be put into this category, but it's usually applied to less conventional products like connected thermostats, home monitors, "smart" appliances, remote car tech, et cetera. It's a growing if somewhat unfocused segment, and according to a report on The Information, Google wants to get in on the ground floor.
Google's Ingress, made by Niantic Labs, has been quite a phenomenon. Those who have paid attention know the game has had a storied history since its initial launch as a closed beta in 2012, and a quick Google+ search shows that engagement doesn't really seem to be slowing down. The Ingress YouTube channel continues to pump out content and updates for players on various in-game goings on.
