Daily Archives: January 27, 2024

The medical industry is one of the toughest for patients to navigate, especially if youre dealing with a situation that requires a specialty doctor, as their schedules can often be grueling to work through. But what if an AI doctor could help make the diagnosis of patients easier and make the doctors job a little less difficult?

Bringing AI into the doctors office could help alleviate some of the stressors that doctors and patients have to deal with. And this is something that IBM has been working towards for quite a while now with its Watson computer system. Despite being around for 10-plus years, though, Watson hasnt really progressed too far.

With the advent of large-language models like ChatGPT, the possibility of revolutionizing the medical industry and actually creating reliable AI doctors is more likely than ever, especially with Google DeepMind working towards it, too. In fact, the team at DeepMind has proposed a new AI model theyre calling AMIE or Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer.

According to a new paper that was recently pushed to the preprint server arXiv, AMIE should be able to take in the information from patients and then provide clear explanations of where their medical conditions currently are.

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AMIE isnt designed to replace doctors, though. Googles AI doctor system is merely meant to act as an assistant for the doctor for wellness visits and consultations. Obviously, the idea of talking with an AI doctor might scare some folks.

After all, many of us already share a mutual hatred for the automated systems that many companies use on their call lines. But, with something like AMIE, Google hopes that it can make the lives of doctors easier and also improve the quality of visits that the patients receive. If the doctor doesnt have to do everything, like explain medical conditions and things, then it opens more room for a personal approach when it comes to other parts of the journey.

Of course, it remains to be seen just how well these AI systems actually work in practice. An AI doctor is fine and dandy in theory, but the true test will be in how it approaches people in everyday situations, as humans can be quite unpredictable in how they respond to things.

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AI doctor could help improve diagnosis of new patients - BGR

The Samsung Galaxy S24 isnt taking Googles Gemini AI with it to China. CNBC reported Friday that the Chinese version of the flagship phone uses Baidus Ernie chatbot to power the phones AI-powered features. Ernie arrived last August after reportedly receiving Chinese government approval.

Now featuring Ernies understanding and generation capabilities, the upgraded Samsung Note Assistant can translate content and also summarize lengthy content into clear, intelligently organized formats at the click of a button, streamlining the organization of extensive text, Baidu and Samsung told CNBC in a joint statement.

Samsungs description of the Galaxy S24 series on its Chinese website advertises many of the same Google-powered features it debuted last week in its San Jose, CA, launch event. These include a version of Circle to Search, real-time call translation, a transcription helper and a photo assistant. The Chinese Galaxy S24 product pages dont have any references to Google, which has limited operations in the country.

A recent report suggests Apple recently ended Samsungs 14-year run as the global smartphone shipment leader. In addition, IDC published data this week suggesting the iPhone maker claimed the top spot in the Chinese market (with a 17.3-percent market share) for the first time in 2023. Samsung didnt make the top five.

Engadget has tried the Galaxy S24 series, including the standard, Plus and Ultra variants. Samsungs 2024 flagship phone lineup launches in the US on January 31.

Continued here:

Samsung's AI features on the Galaxy S24 in China reportedly ditch Google for Baidu - Engadget

Googles Chrome browser is leaning into AI in a big way. Rather than just shove a Bard sidebar into the browser, Google is rolling out a couple of features that tap into its models in order to hopefully make your browser a little more pleasant to use. Theyre launching today in an experimental mode (you can go to settings and turn on Experimental AI to get them), and Google says theyre just the beginning of the AI browser takeover.

Chromes new Tab Organizer feature is the most compelling: you can right-click on a Chrome tab and select organize similar tabs, and Chrome will attempt to create a tab group filled with similar stuff. If youre shopping for something, deep diving some esoteric subject, or just opening all your news reading tabs at once, Chrome will try to keep all that stuff together. Chromes tab groups are an underrated feature in general theyre a helpful way to keep your stuff in order, but they do take some work to set up. This just makes it all automatic.

The Chrome theme store is also getting an AI upgrade: youll be able to pick an image, a style, a color, and a few other things, and Chrome will automatically generate a browser theme to match. Google says its using the same text-to-image model that powers Androids generative wallpapers, which, in my experience, are sometimes bizarre but mostly very cool.

The third new AI feature in Chrome, which is coming next month, is also a good hint of whats to come for the browser. Google is adding its Help me write feature to every site on the web; you just right-click on any text box anywhere, select the feature, and Googles AI will ask you what you want to write and then generate a first draft for you. Google suggests you might use Help me write to write reviews and emails or RSVP to parties.

That kind of web-wide AI integration is why Chrome could be such a powerful place for Google to integrate its Gemini model, the Bard assistant, and the rest of its nascent AI tools. Googles search engine is already like a layer on top of the internet; the company obviously wants its AI to work the same way to help you not just find things but also interact with and create more things. Were already seeing this show up in features like Chromes article summarization, and were going to see more of it soon.

If anything, Googles late to the party here. Microsoft has been bundling similar AI features into Edge for the last year, and smaller players like Arc and Opera are doing their own AI integrations as well. Chatbots may be the hot new AI app right now, but browsers are a place where developers can integrate and access practically everything.

Googles blog post announcing the new Chrome features says theres more to come, including plans to integrate the new Gemini model to help you browse even easier and faster. There may not be a Bard sidebar yet, but dont be surprised to see AI in every tab before long.

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Google Chrome is getting AI features for organizing tabs and custom themes - The Verge

The transition to ARM CPUs on the Windows side of the pond has not been as successful as Apple's own transition. While Apple managed to get things running well from the get go, partly thanks to the performance of the compnany's Rosetta 2 compatibility later, Windows has struggled. Many Windows apps are still x86 only, and Microsoft's solution to translate x86 instructions to ARM doesn't work as well as Rosetta 2. Now, though, Chrome is making it to ARM Windows computers at long last.

Google Chrome has quietly gone ARM-native on Windows, as Canary builds for Chrome have popped up in a previously-unseen win_arm64 flavor. That means that if you have a Windows ARM PC, like the 5G Surface Pro 9, you can now install Chrome on it if you're willing to play around with the canary-grade builds. The open-source Chromium browser codebase that Chrome is based on has worked on ARM Windows for a while, and the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge has been native on ARM Windows for years, but not regular Google Chrome.

Chrome was a significant holdout to ARM Windows until now, and the browser had already gone ARM-native on Mac, so it was really just a matter of time before it happened on Windows as well. Qualcomm said that 2024 would finally be the year that Windows laptops will be worth buying, and between this and the launch of Qualcomm's own Snapdragon X range of laptop chips, it's certainly looking like that might just become true.

It's worth reiterating that ARM-native Windows Chrome is, at the moment, only available in the Canary branch. That's on version 123 right now, which is scheduled to land for Stable users on March 19th, so in about two months time, we should see a stable version of Chrome land for Windows stable users. In the meantime, you can play around with the Canary version. Just be mindful that it's unstable more often than not, and that you should expect lots of crashes and bugsespecially so given that it's the first build publicly released for a brand new platform.

If you want to check out the new Chrome build, it's now available on the Chrome download website. Just be mindful of the warning, or otherwise, wait a couple of months just to be sure.

Source: Chrome

Original post:

Google Chrome Is Finally Native on ARM Windows PCs - How-To Geek

Despite efforts to push industry adoption of cookie alternative proposals in Privacy Sandbox, Googles demand-side platform, Display & Video 360, has not offered its clients any easy way to test Privacy Sandbox, two buyers told Adweek.

Were really wanting to test, but theres no opportunity, said one media buyer, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive industry relations.

Both buyers said there was no user interface to test Privacy Sandbox proposals directly, and Google representatives had not given them definitive answers about when a UI for testing on DV360 would develop. DV360 is run as a separate business and by separate teams from Google Chrome and Privacy Sandbox.

Google has promised to deprecate cookies by the end of this year, a process it started for 1% of Chrome users at the beginning of January. Whether Google can complete its cookie deprecation plan on schedule and offer its Privacy Sandbox solutions widely partly depends on approval from the U.K.s Competition and Markets Authority later this year.

The CMA said in April 2023 that it is keen to encourage firms to test the Privacy Sandbox tools so that we can assess wider market impacts.

Last year, Google announced that it was offering a limited number of grants to supply-side platforms and DSPs to test Privacy Sandbox. As one of the largest DSPs, DV360 has a role to play in this testing process.

Google said it is not offering scaled testing for the buy-side in its ads platform, adding that by testing Sandbox application-programming interfaces on global slices of traffic instead, it can generate learnings more applicable to its whole customer base. Advertising providers and developers, however, can use the APIs in their products and services.

Buyers dont need to take direct action to test within Google ad platforms, but they can take recommended steps to prepare for third-party cookie deprecation and help inform our learnings, said a spokesperson.

But this rankles some buyers, who want the opportunity and visibility to be able to test the old and new technologies.

The fact that other ad-tech firms are testing Privacy Sandbox means that the buy side can still test even if DV360 is not making it easy.

But its a discouraging sign for the efficacy of Privacy Sandbox that DV360 is making it hard to test the technology of its parent company, said Robert Webster, global vice president of strategy at CvE, whose brand clients are working to test Privacy Sandbox with Adform.

It is bad [that] Googles own cant test, Webster said. Privacy Sandbox is just a smokescreen; a subpar tool for other companies to use.

To be fair, the collection of solutions in Privacy Sandbox, to some extent, represents a new paradigm for how digital advertising works, especially the Protected Audience API, where ad auctions happen on a browser and not the ad server.

DSP RTB House is deploying over 60 employees to test Privacy Sandbox, Digiday reported. Reflecting the large technical lift required for ad-tech firms to test Privacy Sandbox, Googles testing grants to SSPs and DSPs were as large as $5 million, Digiday reported separately.

Another major DSP, The Trade Desk, says it will test Privacy Sandbox, although CEO Jeff Green called the suite of tools not innovative.

This article was updated to clarify that Google offered grants to SSPs and DSPs.

Read the rest here:

Buyers Can't Test Privacy Sandbox APIs in Google's Ad Platform DV360 - Adweek

The Google Pixel 8 line is only a few months old, and yet were already hearing the first rumors about the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro, and even a new third model that might debut alongside them.

Given that the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro were unveiled on October 4, 2023, these next handsets are probably almost a year away still, but Google is likely developing them already. So its not too soon to start talking, and speculating, about them.

As such, youll find all the credible Google Pixel 9 leaks and rumors that we've heard below. Early leaks mostly concern the screen, the design, and the chipset, but were sure to hear more about those, and about other specs and features, soon, and well update this article as and when we do.

Based on the specs and pricing of the Pixel 8 line, weve also added some speculation and educated guesses about other aspects of the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, followed by a wish list of the key improvements we most want to see, taking into consideration our impressions in our Pixel 8 review and our Pixel 8 Pro review.

There arent any Google Pixel 9 release date rumors yet, but the Pixel 8 was announced on October 4 of 2023 and the Pixel 7 was unveiled on October 6 of 2022, so early October of 2024 seems likely for the Pixel 8.

The Pixel 6 was announced on October 19 of its release year, so not every model landed in early October, but at the very least sometime in October 2024 seems most likely.

We havent heard anything about the Google Pixel 9s price either, but for reference the Pixel 8 starts at $699 / 699 / AU$1,199, and the Pixel 8 Pro starts at $999 / 999 / AU$1,699, so pricing for Google's next phones might remain the same, or they might rise a bit. Its unlikely that the starting prices would be any lower than this years models.

There may also be a third Pixel 9 model though (more on which below), which would likely sit between the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, and which, based on the prices above, could have a starting price of around $849 / 849 / AU$1,449.

One of the most interesting (and earliest) Pixel 9 rumors points to there being a third model in the series, with the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro being joined by another phone that has roughly the same screen size as the Pixel 9, but the improved specs of the Pixel 9 Pro.

So in other words it would see Google take a similar approach to Apple with its Pro line of iPhones (except theres no suggestion that youll be able to get a big-screen Pixel without getting a Pro model, as you can from Apple in the shape of the iPhone 15 Plus).

This leak came from an anonymous but trustworthy source speaking to Android Authority in December 2022. While wed always take such early leaks with a pinch of salt, its worth noting that this leak also included details of the Pixel 8 line, and almost all of these have since proved accurate, so the source seems credible.

The leaker who predicted that wed see three Pixel 9 models also claimed to know their screen sizes, saying the Pixel 9 will have roughly the same screen size as the Pixel 8 (which has a 6.2-inch display), while the Pixel 9 Pro will be around the same size as the Pixel 8 Pro (at 6.7 inches), and the unnamed third model will have a 6.3-inch screen.

However, this is slightly at odds with a more recent claim, with reputable leaker Ross Young saying shortly after the Pixel 8s launch that the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro will both have bigger screens than the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

They also, incidentally, claim that the Pixel 9a and Pixel Fold 2 will have bigger screens than their predecessors.

Image 1 of 2

To further confuse things though, an even more recent leak (this time from reliable leaker OnLeaks and MySmartPrice) points to the Pixel 9 Pro having a roughly 6.5-inch screen, making it smaller than the current model.

This leak also includes detailed renders of the Pixel 9 Pro, some of which you can see above.

You'll notice that the design has drastically changed if these images are accurate, with flat rather than curved sides shown, and a new camera design.

The leak also includes dimensions, which are apparently 162.7 x 76.6 x 8.5mm (rising to 12mm at the camera bump). That's very similar to the Pixel 8 Pro, which comes in at 162.6 x 76.5 x 8.8mm.

Image 1 of 2

The source of this has since returned with renders of the standard Pixel 9 too (above), this time in collaboration with 91Mobiles.

These show the same new design as the Pixel 9 Pro, and apparently this phone has a 6.1-inch screen (also making it smaller than its 6.2-inch predecessor), but is slightly larger (though slimmer) overall at 152.8 x 71.9 x 8.5mm (or 12.0mm including the camera bump).

You can also see that there's a third camera lens on the rear, which is absent from the Pixel 8.

There arent many Pixel 9 camera rumors so far, but leaked renders (shown in the previous section) show a triple-lens camera, complete with a square lens which would presumably be a periscope camera, for long-distance optical zoom. The Pixel 8 doesn't have a periscope/telephoto lens, so this would be quite an upgrade.

Similarly, we've seen leaked renders of the Pixel 9 Pro with three rear cameras, though that would be the same number as the Pixel 8 Pro. This leak also suggests one of the lenses might offer a variable aperture, and shows a single-lens camera on the front.

For reference, the Pixel 8 has a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 10.5MP front-facing one, while the Pixel 8 Pro has a 50MP main camera, a 48MP ultra-wide, a 48MP periscope (with 5x optical zoom), and a 10.5MP selfie camera.

Its likely that some of these cameras will reappear in 2024s phones, while others will probably be upgraded, either with more megapixels or simply a change in sensor. We doubt Google will add any additional cameras to the phones, but thats speculation for now.

Oh, and if there is a third model, that will presumably have the same cameras as the Pixel 9 Pro, if indeed its being positioned as a smaller Pro option.

Its also likely that well see some new camera modes, as Google often adds to the camera software with new models.

We havent heard anything about the batteries in the Pixel 9 line either, but the Pixel 8 has a 4,575mAh battery and the Pixel 8 Pro has a 5,050mAh one. So we might see similar sizes with the Pixel 9 line, though those are both increases on the Pixel 7 models, so another increase is also possible.

The Google Pixel 9 and its siblings will all almost certainly use the Tensor G4 chipset, since the previous three models used the first three generations of the Tensor chip respectively. Indeed, the source that pointed to there being a third Pixel 9 model has specifically said this, and claimed the chipset is codenamed redondo.

Weve elsewhere heard that the Tensor G4 will apparently be a smaller upgrade than initially planned, so the Pixel 9 line might not have much of a performance boost. Thats a shame, especially when you consider that Googles Tensor chipsets never match the top mobile chipsets from Qualcomm or Apple for power.

That said, the phone might have an improved AI assistant at least, with one leak claiming the Pixel 9 line will have a new AI assistant called Pixie, which is described as more personalized and powerful than Google Assistant.

Beyond that, we havent heard anything, but its very possible that Google will keep the temperature sensor that it added to the Pixel 8 Pro, and perhaps even bring it to more models.

Based on the Pixel 8 series specs, we already have a wishlist of what we want from the Pixel 9 line, with the following things being top of it.

Were big fans of the design Google introduced with the Pixel 6, but roughly the same design has been used for the Pixel 7 and now the Pixel 8, so we think its time to change things up with the Pixel 9.

Wed love to see a similarly distinctive design, one that stands out from the crowd, but which also stands out from other Pixels. That might be a big ask, but Google managed this once, so were hopeful it can do it again. So far leaks suggest the design might be changing, but arguably not for the better.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro can already optically zoom further than most phones, at 5x, but thats no better than the Pixel 7 Pro, and still lags behind the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and its 10x optical zoom. It also has more competition from Apple now, as that company introduced a 5x optical zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

So wed like to see Google increase the zoom distance to 10x for the Pixel 9 Pro, to help ensure this is one of the best camera phones.

One of the more intriguing additions to the Pixel 8 line is a temperature sensor, but Google has made this exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro.

While thats an understandable decision, its a feature that helps the Pixel 8 Pro stand out from other phones, and its a feature that could help the rest of the line do the same if it was offered on them. So wed like to see it included on all Pixel 9 models, to give them an extra selling point.

Here is the original post:

Google Pixel 9: latest news, rumors and everything we know so far - TechRadar

Google has fixed a loophole affecting an important cloud service after researchers discovered numerous organizations including a publicly traded company had systems vulnerable to systemwide security breaches as a result of the issue.

The issue affected Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), a system used to deploy, scale and manage how applications are containerized. GKE the tech giants implementation of the open-source Kubernetes project is used widely in healthcare, education, retail and financial services for data processing as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning operations.

Researchers from Orca Security explained that they uncovered an issue in GKE that could allow an attacker with any Google account to take over a misconfigured Kubernetes cluster, potentially leading to serious security incidents such as cryptomining, denial of service, and sensitive data theft.

The issue revolves around permissions, with GKE allowing users access to the system with any valid Google account. Orca Security said this creates a significant security loophole when administrators decide to bind this group with overly permissive roles. The researchers are calling the loophole Sys:All.

Orca Security said it conducted scans and found over 1,300 clusters potentially exposed. More than 100 of them are exposed enough to allow for widespread access.

Kubernetes connects its hosted containerized apps with various different types of critical data assets such as databases, code repositories and other 3rd-party vendors, which makes it a devastating tool at the hands of a malicious actor, they noted.

Containerization gives developers flexibility with how they build and deploy software, by bundling an apps code with everything else it needs such as files and libraries to run on any computing infrastructure.

At least one of the exposed clusters belonged to a Nasdaq-listed company, Orca Security said, and the exposure would have given hackers access to Amazon Web Services credentials enabling even deeper access to the companys systems and data. A malicious actor could potentially access these systems, extract or manipulate sensitive data, disrupt services, or even move further into the network. the researchers said.

Orca Security said it reported the issue to the company and worked with it to resolve the vulnerabilities, which involved tightening the permissions, securing exposed cloud buckets and more.

The researchers reported exposure to several other owners that they found were vulnerable, adding that in general, organizations should always aim for granularity in the realm of identity and access, so they dont give permissive access to entities that don't need it.

They also reported the issue to Google, which told them that it recognizes the severity of the issue and has been proactive with prevention measures and customer notifications, and continues to take action to ensure customers safety.

A Google spokesperson confirmed to Recorded Future News that it worked with Orca Security. The tech giant also released a security bulletin last week for the limited number of impacted GKE users detailing the steps they should take to protect themselves from any accidental authorization, the spokesperson noted.

Google also sent the bulletin in direct messages to some customers.

We have identified several clusters where users have granted Kubernetes privileges to the system:authenticated group, which includes all users with a Google account. These types of bindings are not recommended, as they violate the principle of least privilege and grant access to very large groups of users, Google said in the advisory issued on January 19.

Orca Security noted that Google considers this to be intended behavior because in the end, this is an assigned permission vulnerability that can be prevented by the user. Customers are responsible for the access controls they configure.

The researchers backed Googles assessment that organizations should take responsibility and not deploy their assets and permissions in a way that carries security risks and vulnerabilities.

Recorded Future

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Jonathan Greig

Jonathan Greig is a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.

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'Significant security loophole' found in Google software container system - The Record from Recorded Future News

As enterprises across sectors race to bring their AI vision to life, vendors are moving to give them all the resources they need in one place. Case in point: a new strategic collaboration between Google and Hugging Face that gives developers a streamlined way to tap Google Cloud services and accelerate the development of open generative AI apps.

Under the engagement, teams using open-source models from Hugging Face will be able to train and serve them with Google Cloud. This means they will get everything Google Cloud has on offer for AI, right from the purpose-built Vertex AI to tensor processing units (TPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs).

From the original Transformers paper to T5 and the Vision Transformer, Google has been at the forefront of AI progress and the open science movement. With this new partnership, we will make it easy for Hugging Face users and Google Cloud customers to leverage the latest open models together with leading optimized AI infrastructure and toolsto meaningfully advance developers ability to build their own AI models, Clement Delangue, CEO at Hugging Face, said in a statement.

In recent years, Hugging Face has become the GitHub for AI, serving as the go-to repository for more than 500,000 AI models and 250,000 datasets. More than 50,000 organizations rely on the platform for their AI efforts. Meanwhile, Google Cloud has been racing to serve enterprises with its AI-centric infrastructure and tools while also contributing to open AI research.

With this partnership between the two companies, hundreds of thousands of Hugging Face users who are active on Google Cloud every month will get the ability to train, tune and serve their models with Vertex AI, the end-to-end MLOps platform to build new generative AI applications.

The experience will be available with a few clicks from the main Hugging Face platform and will also include the option to train and deploy models within the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). This will give developers a way to serve their workloads with a do it yourself infrastructure and scale models using Hugging Face-specific deep learning containers on GKE.

As part of this, developers training the models will also be able to tap hardware capabilities offered with Google Cloud, including TPU v5e, A3 VMs, powered by Nvidia H100 Tensor Core GPUs and C3 VMs, powered by Intel Sapphire Rapid CPUs.

Models will be easily deployed for production on Google Cloud with inference endpoints. AI builders will be able to accelerate their applications with TPU on Hugging Face spaces. Organizations will be able to leverage their Google Cloud account to easily manage the usage and billing of their Enterprise Hub subscription, Jeff Boudier, who leads product and growth at Hugging Face, and Philipp Schmid, the technical lead at the company, wrote in a joint blog post.

While the collaboration has just been announced, it is important to note that the new experiences, including Vertex AI and GKE deployment options, are not available just yet.

The company hopes to make the capabilities available to Hugging Face Hub users in the first half of 2024.

VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings.

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Hugging Face teams up with Google to accelerate open AI development - VentureBeat

Earlier this week, Google updated the Pixel 8 Pro to let its strange new temperature sensor finally take readings of human bodies. I regret to inform you that, having used it, it doesnt make this feature any less baffling.

To measure body temperature, you have to sweep the phones infrared temperature sensor over the side of your forehead, right above the temporal artery. So far, nothing super odd here. Just this month, I got to check out the Withings BeamO, a 4-in-1 multiscope that also has you scan the same kind of sensor over the same artery to measure your temperature. The difference is the BeamO was quite easy to use, while the Pixel 8 Pro was incredibly finicky.

This is because the phones temperature sensor is located in the rear camera array. That makes total sense if youre using it to scan objects (though again, why?). But if youre trying to take your own temperature, its difficult to gauge if youre doing anything correctly because you cant actually see the screen. Google includes an instructional video, which shows you just how close youre supposed to hold it to your forehead (very close) and how it needs to be tilted at a slight angle. The phone will try to walk you through all of this. Once youre close enough, the phone will vibrate when its time to swipe the phone over your forehead (without touching) toward your temple. You can enable voice cues, but you still have to know where to tap and how fast to move. Its not what Id call intuitive, and youll likely need to try it a few times to get the hang of it.

Theres a reason people use the front-facing camera to take selfies, even if the rear camera takes higher-quality photos. Just from a user experience, this is best suited for taking someone elses temperature or, rather, taking someone elses temperature while using their phone because its weird to keep other peoples health data on your phone. You have the option of syncing your data with the Fitbit app, and it saves any readings from the past week by default in the native app.

Outside of the fiddly user experience, accuracy is another question mark. In this screenshot, my colleague Parker Ortolanis Pixel 8 Pro told him his body temperature was 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Granted, Parker said hed just been outside for this particular reading, but thats bordering on hypothermia. Its also highly unlikely. I also watched Parker take readings from his forearm and palm. Neither of those areas should have worked, but the phone didnt stop him. (The feature is only calibrated for the forehead, so you shouldnt trust results from other body parts.)

To be fair, this is one of the issues with temporal artery temperature readings in general. While theyre quick and generally accurate, they can easily be thrown off by things like direct sunlight, cold environments, or even sweaty foreheads. User error can also impact readings, and as I mentioned, this is one finicky way to measure your body temperature.

For this feature to make it to the public, Google says it got De Novo FDA clearance. Thats the same kind Apple got for the Apple Watch Series 4s EKG feature, but it mostly means that its a low to moderate risk device (aka generally safe) that doesnt have a similar equivalent yet. That said, the phone includes several disclaimers within the temperature app. You can see from these screenshots that Google notes that temperature readings may vary and are most accurate when done properly. There are also disclaimers that readings are general guides only, and on other screens, the app notes it cant detect any illness or replace advice from a healthcare provider.

All of this is to say, I cant imagine the average person using this feature. Ostensibly, this is something that Google started building in 2020 and 2021 a time when restaurants and other public spaces were scanning peoples temperatures to screen for covid-19. And if itd been around then, perhaps wed be thinking of this feature in a different way. For better or worse, I cant remember the last time a restaurant or event space took my temperature.

You could argue that having this on your phone is a matter of convenience. If Im on a plane and feeling a bit feverish, I probably wouldnt have a thermometer on hand. Theoretically, I could then whip out a Pixel 8 Pro and proceed to have an awkward time using the rear camera and sensor to measure my temperature. Thats perhaps the one instance where this would make sense and even then, a precautionary Advil and the good ol back of the hand to the forehead would probably suffice.

Read the original here:

The Pixel 8 Pro is one goofy way to take your temperature - The Verge

Googles rolling out its first update of 2024 for Pixel phones and it brings new health features and AI tools. Perhaps the most interesting new doodad is an actual working thermometer, which is only available for the recently-released Pixel 8 Pro. We knew this feature would come at some point, as the phone includes a temperature sensor and, well, a thermometers the most likely use case.

All you have to do is scan your forehead to see if your headache is just from staring at a screen too long if you have an actual fever. You can beam these results to your Fitbit profile and integrate them with other health metrics.

The companys also giving that Tensor G3 chip a workout with the addition of a new AI-powered circle to search tool. It works exactly as advertised. You draw a circle over something on your phones screen, and the AI will search for the image, text or whatever else you highlighted. This will likely come in very handy in future episodes of spy and detective shows.

Thats just the first AI-adjacent feature included with the new update. Theres something called Photomoji that works exactly as you assume. It turns your favorite photos into emojis or reactions. Magic Compose is like the Magic Editor tool, but for text. Google says the tool crafts stylized, suggested responses with the context of your messages.

Finally, theres the recently-teased Quick Share icon that shows you a list of devices nearby you can share content with. Googles actually working to also get this feature included with Windows PCs.

To accompany this new update, Googles releasing a mint green colorway for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. They look really cute and I sort of want to eat them. The new feature drop starts rolling out today.

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Google's latest Pixel phone update adds new AI tools and a working thermometer - Engadget