When you saw the unveiling of the Pixel Fold during the I/O keynote yesterday, you probably took a long look at the $1,800 handset and said to yourself, “Cool, but I don’t really want to spend that much money on something so weird.”
Turns out, the urge to not buy a folding phone is a common one; folding devices have captured less than two percent of the smartphone market and still exist firmly within a niche. But that reluctance is actually fine for Google, since the company most likely does not expect the Pixel Fold to sell in huge numbers. Instead, Google expects the device to show its designers a whole lot about how we use folding phones, and how Android needs to adapt to best serve this growing market of handsets with multiple screens.
Anshel Sag, an analyst at the firm Moor Insights & Strategy, points to the high price of the Pixel Fold as a marker for Google’s intentions with the device. Its going rate is about the same as something like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold4, and nearly $800 pricier than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip4. If Google really wanted to sell more units, it might have dropped the price enough to undercut Samsung’s larger foldable, or tried to entice folks who’ve never considered a folding phone because they don’t have a couple grand to spare. Priced as it is, the Pixel Fold cannot be expected to become the next big hit. It’s instead meant to be a vessel on which Google can perfect its foldable software future.
“They have to build hardware to be able to understand how that software will be used,” Sag says. “Most of the issues with foldables have been resolved with the exception of software. Google needs to improve the experience and, more importantly, enable developers to make the most of foldables as a form factor.”
For comparison, consider Google’s Pixel Watch, the Android-powered wearable which was recently released into an already mature wrist computer market dominated by Apple, Samsung, and Garmin. It was years late to the starting line and emerged as a smooth and beautiful device that was nevertheless underpowered and buggy. The Pixel Watch has still sold reasonably well, though nowhere close to the competition. So why bother making it at all? Well, because there is a whole ecosystem of software for Wear OS devices that Google knows it needs to be on top of. And because it makes both the hardware and the software, Google can use the Pixel Watch to experiment with new interactions, apps, and experiences.
Building a proprietary folding device once again gives Google total control of the hardware and software for a new class of gadget. On its own foldable phone, the company can better tinker with things like multitasking, screen switching, or app behaviors specific to larger screens. The company doesn’t need to sell millions of units to learn how these things should work. It needs to sell just enough Pixel Folds to get an idea of how people are using it in the wild.
“It’s very much a first generation product,” Sag says. “There are some unique capabilities we won’t see in anything else, but this will be a low volume device.”
Cleaner Slate
The Fold could also be a way to revamp an older form factor in Google’s wide-ranging lineup: tablets. Android tablets have languished in the shadow of Apple’s iPad for years now. Neither consumers nor Google itself seem certain of how an Android tablet is supposed to fit into peoples’ lives. Google is pitching its newly announced Pixel Tablet as a casual device meant for controlling a smart home and consuming entertainment and not as a productive or creative workhorse. To underscore this strategy, the table comes with a charging dock that has a speaker built in; docking the tablet turns it into a photo frame that doubles as a controller for the smart home.
“One of the things they realize is tablets don’t really leave the home all that often,” says Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at the tech analyst firm IDC.
Google could be using insights from the Fold’s large display to spruce up the way apps work on a tablet that stays in your lap. Apps meant to work on a device where you constantly fold, unfold, and spin the screen have to be dynamic enough to match those changes. The Fold could be the testing ground for an ecosystem of apps that are more adaptive and responsive to these actions, seamlessly spinning and scaling to different orientations.
Of course, Google also sees each new product as a playground for its artificial intelligence efforts. Sag points out that many of the company’s services are thinly-veiled vessels for machine learning algorithms that track your movements, study your behaviors, and collect your data. During yesterday’s I/O keynote, Google executives spent 80 minutes on the topic of generative AI before they even got to the announcements about Android devices.
But when they did, those announcements were given a sprinkling of AI pizzazz. Android phones are getting AI-generated wallpaper images, AI-powered photo editing tools, and messaging apps that can send AI-assisted texts. Google is sticking AI inside every mobile device for every context. The Pixel Fold and the Pixel Tablet, as odd as they are, will only help Google better learn how the new types of interactions the devices enable should fit into our lives.
iOS 17 beta 1 offers an overhauled Apple Translate app that is more straightforward and easy to use. The redesign is available on iPadOS 17, too.
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WWDC is our favorite time of the year for many reasons. Not only do we get to try out the upcoming major updates to Apple’s operating systems, but we also sometimes get fresh hardware releases. This time around, we witnessed the debut of Apple’s Vision Pro, some new Mac models, iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, and watchOS 10. And while the Cupertino firm has provided the public with a comprehensive list of what’s new in these releases, many additions remain undocumented publicly. For example, we have just discovered that iOS 17 beta 1 redesigns the built-in Apple Translate app. The new user interface offers more intuitive controls, making the application more straightforward and easy to use.
As our screenshots above reveal, Apple Translate on iOS 17 beta 1 (right) is cleaner than that on iOS 16 and earlier versions (left). The new design simplifies the entire section, making it both more intuitive to operate and easy on the eyes. As someone who tries to rely on Google services as little as possible, I had always found Apple Translate unintuitive to use when compared to its Google counterpart. Through the iOS 17 update, users finally get to enjoy a more direct app.
For example, Apple Translate on iOS 16 continues to shift between the two selected languages, making it hard to tap on the right field straightaway. Furthermore, dismissing a translated phrase to type another one was also a pain. On iOS 17, pretty much all of my concerns have been addressed in the Apple Translate app.
While Google Translate remains superior in terms of translation accuracy and language availability, Apple Translate can handle my occasional translation needs just fine. And thanks to this overhaul, I feel even more motivated to depend on it and ditch Google’s solution completely. We can only hope that this design makes it to the final release in September, as Apple could change its mind at any given moment.
Samsung may bring dust resistance feature to Galaxy Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5
Tech giant Samsung will reportedly bring the dust resistance feature to its upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 smartphones, which are scheduled to be launched next month.
The Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip series are already recognised as the first water-resistant folding phones in the world, reports SamMobile.
According to tipster @chunvn8888, the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 will be dust resistant with an IP58 rating.
Earlier, it was rumoured that the company will use the teardrop hinge design for its upcoming AZ Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 devices.
It was also reported that the tech giant was upgrading the hinge of the Z Fold 5 smartphone which is expected to withstand 2,00,000 folds.
Also, Galaxy Z Fold 5 is likely to feature a 108MP primary rear camera and in-built stylus pen (S Pen) slot.
Meanwhile, in March this year, it was reported that the company would unveil a new tri-foldable smartphone, alongside its Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 devices.
On Monday, Apple unveiled a new product that’s either revolutionary, or very expensive hype, depending on whether you read the company description of the Vision Pro or media reviews of its unveiling.
Launched during the company’s annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Cupertino, Calif., the Apple Vision Pro is a wearable headset. The device will be capable of toggling between virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR), which projects digital imagery while users still can see objects in the real world.
It can be used for immersive experiences in everything from work meetings and FaceTime, to photos, movies and apps.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era for computing,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The headset, which Apple says will be available in 2024, won’t be cheap, starting at $3,499 US, or about $4,700 Cdn.
Can Apple’s new $4,700 headset take VR mainstream?
3 days ago
Duration 1:56
Apple unveiled its first new product since the Apple Watch in 2015. The Vision Pro VR headset lets users blend augmented reality with everyday life, but its $4,700 Cdn price tag may be a tough sell.
“VR kind of resurfaces every 10 years or so as the big thing,” Alla Sheffer, a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia whose research areas include virtual and augmented reality, told CBC News. “And then it goes away.”
The question on many people’s minds: is this time different?
What’s the difference between VR and AR?
To grasp the technology’s implications, it helps to understand the technology itself. Traditional virtual reality is a computer-generated environment. Typically, a user wears a head-mounted display or headset like ski goggles, Sheffer explained. But instead of looking through those goggles, users see a display.
“You only see the virtual content. You don’t see the outside world,” Sheffer said.
VR also includes capture setups, and software that responds to them: think, for example, of a virtual reality golf game where you’re moving your hands, and that’s captured automatically and translated into a gesture using a virtual golf club.
Meta staff wear Oculus VR headsets during a visit by Ontario Premier Doug Ford to the Facebook parent company’s Toronto office on March 29, 2022. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
There are two types of augmented reality, Sheffer said: head-mounted display, and cell phone. With head-mounted display AR, imagine you’re wearing the same ski goggles, but now they’re transparent. You can see what’s in front of you in the physical world, but you can also see what’s on the screen.
Cell phone AR, Sheffer explained, combines what you see on your phone’s camera with virtual elements. Imagine choosing a couch model on a retail website, and seeing it in your living room through your phone’s camera.
“You probably interact with AR a lot and don’t realize it,” said Bree McEwan, an associate professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto, and the director of the McEwan Mediated Communication Lab.
Pokemon GO, Snapchat, TikTok filters and even Google Maps already utilize AR, McEwan said.
Guests use a Snapchat filter during HBO’s Mixtapes & Roller Skates in Philadelphia on July 19, 2018. (Lisa Lake/Getty Images for HBO)
What already exists in this sphere?
The Vision Pro combines both VR and AR in one device, McEwan and Sheffer explained. But Apple is far from the first company to venture into the virtual and augmented worlds.
There are a number of VR headsets already on the market, including Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 and Pro. Its Quest 3 is set to launch later this year, starting at $499 US or about $667 Cdn. That device will feature colour mixed reality, which combines augmented and virtual reality elements, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest Pro devices comprised nearly 80 per cent of the 8.8 million virtual reality headsets sold in 2022, according to an estimate by market research firm IDC. Still, Meta has struggled to sell its vision of an immersive “metaverse” of interconnected virtual worlds and expand the market for its devices beyond the niche of the gaming community.
AR has been a trickier market to break into, McEwan said, noting the failure of two products, Microsoft’s HoloLens and Google Glass.
WATCH | The National reports on Google Glass in 2013:
Google Glass
10 years ago
Duration 2:35
Aaron Saltzman takes a closer look at Google’s new computerized glasses.
When Snap, the company that owns SnapChat, made AR glasses, “they went nowhere,” Sheffer said.
“AR didn’t take off the way people thought it would,” McEwan said, noting there have been a number of technical issues.
Sheffer said the struggle may come down to a simple issue: “Humans don’t like to wear things on their heads.”
What are the real-world applications?
Right now, the biggest use for VR is games, McEwan said, adding: “Games is a big business.”
It’s also been used effectively for simulators, such as driving and flying simulators, practicing sports, and for training purposes, Sheffer said. “I think there’s a lot of value there.”
U.K. virtual school takes education into the metaverse
15 days ago
Duration 2:48
A pilot project at Reddam House School in Berkshire, England, has students using VR headsets in the classroom to learn traditional subjects in a new way. Petting woolly mammoths, holding planets in their hands, and examining the human heart are just a few of the experiences students have in this future-facing take on education.
It’s also used for interpersonal skills and public speaking training, McEwan said. Education is another major opportunity, she added. In one of the classes she teaches, McEwan gives students headsets and they do five weeks of classes virtually. It’s a model she started utilizing during COVID, instead of using Zoom.
Screen-based AR is already used in several industries, such as warehousing and manufacturing, Sheffer said, where you can point your camera at an object and a recognition software identifies it.
So, is the future virtual?
McEwan sees a potential future for headsets in the business sphere, and predicts more organizations may start providing them for meetings and training. And if people get comfortable using something in a business setting, that may bleed into the social environment, she said, noting that’s what happened with e-mail and intranet messaging systems.
But while there’s what she calls a “cultural imagination,” for popping a device on your head and appearing in the metaverse, she said we’re not there yet. “The average person is probably not quite ready to jump into VR all of the time.”
Whether or not headsets are going to finally take off is what Sheffer calls “the billion-dollar question.” VR had surges of popularity over the last several decades, but people didn’t want to wear the headsets, she said.
“I think if anyone can make it, it’s Apple,” she continued. “If they can make the headset convenient, and make people want to wear it, then all of the sudden this can go places.”
Hiroaki Yano, a researcher at the Tokyo University’s Intelligent Modeling Laboratory, extends his hands to touch carbon atoms in the microscopic world at the laboratory’s virtual reality room on Aug. 18, 1998. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)
