On May 9, according to foreign media reports, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, Google’s annual I/O developer conference officially kicked off. In a brief keynote speech, the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, talked about how Google approaches product development with a "high sense of responsibility." After that, he handed the stage to his subordinates to showcase the company’s latest products and technologies.
Google calls its latest operating system an "AI vision with the operating system at its core." Here are some of the new features it has previewed for the operating system, which could be released later this year.
Simpler design. The new version of Android is going to be even simpler. At the bottom of the operating system, Android P replaces the three buttons with a single Home button. With this Home button, you can use shortcuts to open the five apps the operating system thinks you might want to open the most. Swipe up the screen again to reveal all the apps on your phone. Swipe left and right on the Home button to scroll through all the open apps.
"shush "Quiet mode. Android P will have a new "shush" mode that turns off all notifications, vibrations and beeps when the phone is not in use. The goal is to allow users to focus more on the task at hand when they shouldn’t be checking the phone, such as when attending a meeting. Calls from important people (such as family members) will still be released.
Calm mode. The new mode will turn your phone’s screen gray after an hour, which Google says will help stop you from using your phone in bed. But if you don’t want to sleep now, you can turn it off.
Monitor application usage frequency. The Android app tool will show you how often you use certain apps. In the past, it only let you know how much battery those apps were consuming, but now it will also let you know how often you check your phone. You can also set up apps to remind yourself to stop using them.
Rotation control. You will be able to control when the phone screen rotates: you don’t have to turn on or off the rotary lock switch specifically, the operating system will automatically display a small icon when you rotate the phone, allowing you to choose whether to turn off or open the rotary lock for a specific interface, but the general rotary lock will remain in its original state.
On Android P For a specific screen, you can choose whether to rotate the screen.
Better battery management capabilities. Android P knows which apps you use frequently and will try to burn power only on those apps. Google says that in testing Android P, the processor wakes up – how often the device turns on the processor – 30 percent less. It will also introduce adaptive brightness settings, where Android learns your brightness preferences.
Apply action. Over time, Android will learn more about how you use your phone. If you always call your sister at night or go for a run after work, you’ll see those activity alerts on the launch screen. If you connect a headset, Android will suggest that you continue listening to the album you last listened to on Spotify. The Google search bar will now also support deep links for apps. For example, if you search for "Avengers: Infinity War" in the search bar, it will show you options to book tickets on Fandango or watch trailers on YouTube in search results suggestions.
Fragment information. Developers will be able to add their own information to the Google search bar: for example, if you type "Lyft" to open the app, to get a taxi somewhere, you will see the time the car picked you up and the time it took to get to your home or office.
ML Kit Machine learning toolkit. Various machine learning tools will be made available to developers to make their applications smarter. The ML Kit includes tools for image tagging, text recognition, facial recognition and other artificial intelligence tools developed by Google.
Android P Beta version. Google will today launch a beta version of its next operating system, which will be available on select devices including the Pixel 2 and phones from Essential, OnePlus, Nokia, Vivo, Xiaomi, Oppo and Sony.
Google has not said when Android P will be fully released or what it stands for, but judging from the past few years, we are likely to learn more about it in the fall.
Artificial intelligence update
Google Assistant The natural dialogue. You don’t have to keep saying "Hey Google" to talk to your Google Assistant. Once you get the Assistant’s attention, you can naturally ask it follow-up questions. For example, you can have a conversation like this:
"Hey Google, tell me about the Warriors’ game."
"Okay."
"Oh, can you turn off the lights?"
Google will listen to and execute your orders.
Ask multiple questions at once. Now, you’ll be able to give several questions and instructions at once, and Google Assistant will be able to deduce what you want to know when you ask several questions at once. On stage, Google asked: "Kevin, who was the governor of California when Kevin Durant was picked in the NBA draft? Who chose him?" Google Assistant successfully determined that these were independent questions, replying that Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor in 2007, the year Seattle elected Durant.
Strengthen children’s polite behavior. Like its main rival in the virtual assistant market, Google announced that it was building a feature to enforce polite behavior when children ask Google Assistant questions. When people add the word "please" to the assistant’s request, it will say something like "Thank you for the polite inquiry" before replying.
Natural sounds. Google has built a new sound structure called "Wavenet" into its virtual assistant, introducing six more natural sounds, including the melodious voice of the famous singer John Legend.
Singer John, legendary as Google Assistant Record his voice.
Other Google Assistant Update. Google is teaming up with Starbucks, Dunkin ‘Donuts, Dominos and others to introduce voice ordering for Google Assistant. You will soon be able to order your usual beverages directly from the app. Users will also be able to share their arrival time when navigating using Google Maps. Other forms of Google Assistant will also be updated, such as the upcoming Lenovo touch screen and other products that support Google Assistant, as well as cars with Google Auto, Google’s in-car system.
Lens update. Google Lens, the computer vision technology built into Google Camera, now scans the real world in real time. Point your phone around you and it should be able to figure out what you’re looking at, whether it’s the name of a book, how tall a building is, or the breed of dog in front of you.
Google says all of these features will be available later this year.
TPU 3.0 Chip. Google also announced the third version of its Tensor Processing Unit, a chip designed for high-performance artificial intelligence devices. Pichai said the new version is eight times more functional than the version launched last year.
Artificial intelligence phone
Google announced a new feature for its Assistant called Duplex. In the future, users will be able to ask the Assistant to make various appointments, such as table reservations. The Assistant will call the merchant itself and make an appointment by talking to them.
Pichai showed some conversations between the Google Assistant, which is tasked with making haircut appointments and determining whether a restaurant reservation is required, and a real person. While these conversations were relatively straightforward, in both cases they managed to make the human on the other end of the phone feel like he was talking to another person. Google Assistant even added modal words such as um and uh to the conversation.
Pichai did not give a timeline for Duplex’s rollout to users. He said the company wants to get the technology ready before launching it around the world, but the demo was impressive and offered a glimpse into the company’s current AI research progress.
Google Maps update
Augmented reality in maps. Soon, when using Google Maps, you will be able to use your phone’s camera to ask the app to point you in the right direction to help you reach your destination. Floating arrows will appear on the map to guide you in the right direction. Google says it is also considering getting a cartoon fox to point you in the right direction. Turn on the camera on Google Maps and you will also get an augmented reality view of businesses and activities near you.
Personalized Recommendations For You … Google is introducing a new tab in Google Maps that shows what you should be interested in, including new businesses in your area, places you like (based on your past review history), and places the app knows you’ve visited. The latest information on the businesses you’ve visited will also be available in this tab, and soon you’ll be able to book directly on it too.
Lists List. If you’re thinking about where to go for lunch with friends, instead of copying a bunch of links, you can make a simple list of potential restaurants on Google Maps and share it with your friends. Your friends can also add their own suggestions.
These updates will be released later this summer.
On Google Maps, a cartoon fox guides you.
Gmail Help you write emails easily
For many people, writing an email is an annoying task, and Google is going to make it easier for you. It’s about to launch an assistive technology called "smart compose" to help users complete the sentences they’re writing. When you start typing a common phrase or information Google knows about yourself, like your address, Gmail will now prompt you what to type. Press the tab key and it will write what it prompts.
Google introduced "Smart Reply" to all users last month when it launched a new version of Gmail, and "smart compose" is arguably a super version of the feature. The new feature will be available to individual Gmail users in the coming weeks and to professional G Suite users in the coming months.
Google Photos Update
Google Photos will automatically identify users’ friends in photos and suggest they share them with those friends. Google has also introduced new special effects features, including the ability to colour old black-and-white photos. Users will also be able to convert photos of documents to PDF format, meaning there will be less need for scanners.
The update of driverless cars
Google gave Waymo, one of its Alphabet siblings, some stage time. John Krafcik, the company’s chief executive, announced that Waymo will launch a fully autonomous car-hailing service later this year. The service will initially launch in Phoenix, Arizona, one of Waymo’s recent test cities.
Waymo CEO John Krafcik addressed Google I/O.
Google News Update
Google has rebuilt its news app around artificial intelligence. The app will continually show you five pieces of content it thinks will interest you. It will constantly search the web for local news and your search history to determine what you really want to know. It will also bring content from non-traditional news sources, including YouTube and podcasts. "Our artificial intelligence will constantly read the Internet’s news stream for you," Google said.
It will also show you relevant information about the news, including headlines, tweets and other stories with more content, as well as a timeline of relevant coverage. This feature is called "full coverage." No matter what political leanings, no matter where you are, everyone will see the same information.
You can also subscribe to newsletters through Google News. Instead of filling out a form on the news site and entering your credit card information, you can subscribe directly to the credit card stored in your Google account with the click of a button.
The new version of Google News is available in 127 countries starting today and should be available to everyone by next week.
