Daily Archives: April 16, 2024

Were a month out from Google I/O, where the company will likely announce its new Pixel 8A phone. At this point, there have already been plenty of renders and even some real-world shots. And now, courtesy of Android Headlines, it appears official marketing images of the device have leaked.

If accurate, they show that Google plans to offer the Pixel 8A in four colors: black, porcelain, blue, and a very vibrant green. Its certainly more saturated than the subdued mint that Google added to the Pixel 8 color choices earlier this year.

Like its predecessor, the phone is rumored to have a 6.1-inch display, though its not yet clear whether itll top out at 90Hz or 120Hz. The 8A still has thicker bezels than the flagship Pixel 8 and 8 Pro especially at the bottom. Just like those devices, itll be powered by Googles Tensor G3 chip.

The rumor mill has indicated that this could be the final A-series Pixel phone at least for a while. Later this year, Google is expected to release three versions of the Pixel 9: the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL. All of them will have different screen sizes (and prices). Toss in an eventual Pixel Fold 2, and there just might not be enough room in the lineup for a 9A. Even from a pricing perspective, there just isnt much room between the 7A and constantly-on-sale Pixel 8 models.

Googles I/O 2024 keynote is scheduled for May 14th. Compared to the many 8A leaks, we havent seen quite as much regarding the Pixel Fold 2, so its feasible that the company could hold that one back until October to bring the whole premium series into alignment with the same Tensor G4 processor.

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Google's Pixel 8A leaks in all colors including a bold green - The Verge

Google's Long Exposure photo mode is actually decent. There, I said it. Photographer me is putting his neck on the line by saying that another smartphone computational photography mode, recently given its own tab in Google's revamped Camera app, is one less reason to use a 'proper' camera and mine's a TechRadar-approved best mirrorless camera, no less.

I was on a short family break at the coast recently and set an early alarm to sneak out for a little solo time at first light at a secluded cove nearby. It would be me, the gentle lapping waves, and hopefully a little color in the sky. Of course, I would take a camera too.

Hot tea in a travel flask, banana, notepad and pen, mirrorless camera, two pro lenses covering the 24-200mm focal length between them, an ND filter plus a tripod, and I was good to go. Oh, and the Google Pixel 6 was in my pocket.

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A steep descent through a wooded area and the sheltered east-facing cove came into view. I've learned the importance of enjoying nature first before taking a camera out of the bag, especially given my screen-intensive day job.

After grounding myself in the peace and unrushed pace of the quiet sunrise I started moving around the beach looking for compositions that caught my eye, for photos that would transport me back to what it was like being there.

Sunrise was lovely not award-winning, but adding a splash of color. The outgoing tide was steadily revealing more of the beach. Small waves crashed against the clay-red sandy incline, climbed up the beach a little, and then retreated around small rocks, creating interesting patterns.

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I've taken a few long exposure seascape photos down the years, and love the technique, especially for accentuating the movement of water as it retreats around rocks. I take a quick snap of the scene on the Pixel 6 and it occurs to me that I've not properly used its Long Exposure photo mode yet, now prominent in the camera app with its own tab.

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The Long Exposure photo mode blurs movement, while keeping still objects sharp. The creative technique can be used in several ways, with blurring moving water a popular choice. Having observed the water trails, I line up the picture and take the snap.

It works a little like Night Sight you need to keep your phone as steady as possible while the long exposure is captured. That way the still objects in this case the rocks, cliff faces, and untouched sand remain sharp. This computational photography mode is like a pro mirrorless camera's in-body image stabilization on steroids.

The phone stores both the regular photo and the long exposure effect image (I've included both versions of every image for comparison). I have to say, the effect in this scenario is convincing (see above), similar to what I'd expect from my mirrorless camera which remains in the bag 50 meters away up the beach.

Whatever camera you use for long exposure photography (be it mirrorless or a cameraphone) in this context of accentuating retreating ocean waters you need to keep trying and trying and trying to get the shot. Timing is so hard.

Your best bet is starting the capture with the wave at its peak up the beach and just as the water starts to retreat. That way the natural path back to the ocean, be it straight or snaking around rocks, is accentuated and depicts the tidal energy.

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Google Pixel's Long Exposure mode isn't perfect detail is usually softer than in the standard version but it's pretty darn good and convincing enough that I didn't really need to bring my mirrorless camera, tripod, and ND filters along for the ride. If I owned the OM System OM-1 II (or OM-1), I could use that camera's Live ND computational photography mode instead and leave the tripod and ND filters behind.

I haven't lost faith in my 'proper' camera, far from it. Towards the end of my time at the beach, while still alone, a playful seal popped its head up like a floating rock. I steamed back up the beach to my bag, grabbed the camera with a 70-200mm lens, and got a few photos that far exceed what I could possibly hope to get with the Pixel 6 though some of today's best cameraphones might have done a decent job.

I'll also still use my 'proper' camera with tripod and ND filters for long exposure photography, too. It's just that now I might think twice if lugging all of that gear to get the creative effect is worth it when I have the computational mode in a device that slips into my pocket.

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I tested the Google Pixel's Long Exposure photo mode and it's another reason to leave my pro mirrorless camera at ... - TechRadar

Users have noticed in recent weeks that Google is requiring device unlocks for every tap-to-pay transaction regardless of the amount. At the same time, Google Wallet appears to be testing a second change related to more frequent verification.

Officially, Google says your credit and debit card wont be charged for retail payments unless youve recently used a verification method, like your fingerprint or PIN.

While the support documents dont specify the exact duration of recently, people myself included have noticed it get shorter.

To give an example: When Im in line at the supermarket, I unlock and use my phone until I get to the register. Usually, the phone is still active (screen on) when its time to pay. This week, when I tapped the terminal, my Pixel 8 asked me to authenticate again. In the past, Ive never had to verify during this specific tap-to-pay situation.

Since then, Ive found that three minutes after initially unlocking via fingerprint, Google Wallet wants me to re-authenticate.

In fact, in testing with a timer, Ive noticed a new For your security, you need to verify its you before paying prompt at the top of the Google Wallet app. This is only appearing on that Pixel 8 where I encountered the change.

The message did not appear on two other Pixel phones that I had side-by-side during the at-home tests unlock phone via fingerprint, keep the screen active, and open/close Google Wallet at 1, 2, and 3-minute intervals until the verify its you prompt appears Ive performed.

This suggests Google is either still testing this behavior or has yet to widely roll it out.

For comparison, Apple Pay on the iPhone requires that you authenticate every tap-to-pay transaction. Android and Google Wallet is moving closer in that direction, but is still providing more leeway.

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Google Wallet 'verify it's you' request appears minutes after unlock - 9to5Google

Nothing is official yet, but if we had to make an educated guess, we'd say the Google Pixel 8a is going to be unveiled on the first day of Google I/O 2024, which is May 14. Now two new leaks have given us more of an idea about what to expect from the handset.

To begin with we've got leaked renders of the Pixel 8a courtesy of Android Headlines. There are four colors on show here, apparently called Mint, Porcelain, Obsidian, and Bay (or light green, pale gray, dark gray, and light blue, as they're otherwise known).

These colors are similar to the ones we saw for the Google Pixel 7a, though Mint appears to have replaced Coral (orange). Mint is an option on the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro, though here it looks a lot more garish which might just be due to the way the image is edited.

As Android Headlines points out, we also got a paler Mint color with the Google Pixel 6a in 2022, so this wouldn't be a first for the mid-range series. We noticed that the Pixel 6a was recently removed from sale on the Google Store, leaving space for the Pixel 8a.

The renders we can see here back up previous leaks: the design is similar to the Pixel 8 and indeed the Pixel 7a. It's possible that the corners are going to be slightly more curved, but there's not a lot in it, and this is a phone that still looks very much like a Pixel.

Google may have already revealed the Pixel 8a design in an advert for Google Fi Wireless, and the picture in that ad does match the renders from Android Headlines. The colors seem plausible too provided that green gets toned down a bit.

Elsewhere in Pixel 8a leak news, serial tipster Evan Blass has spotted some Pixel 8a tutorials have gone live on the website of a US carrier not ideal from Google's perspective. How long they remain up remains to be seen.

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Another potential upgrade we've heard about is a bump to a 120Hz screen, though the Tensor G3 chip may be underclocked to keep the phone below the Pixel 8 in terms of performance. In around a month's time, all should be revealed.

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The Google Pixel 8a leaks twice, hinting at its design, and four color options - TechRadar

The latest Made by Google Podcast episode talks to the development team behind Circle to Search (CtS).

The team spent a ton of time thinking about what is the fastest way to access, because we knew that could make or break the product. It was important to them that you could access it anywhere across the OS. They of course landed on long-pressing the gesture bar (referred to as the home handled today) or home button to activate Circle to Search.

With 3-button navigation, CtS replaces Assistant activation, with users having to use the app shortcut, power button, or hotword. Some that use gesture navigation with its wide but short touch target, complain about accidentally triggering Circle to Search. Fortunately, Google is aware of this:

We still have further to go, and were working a lot on making sure its triggered when you want, [and] its not triggered when you dont want.

Also of note is explicit acknowledgment that Circle to Search actually works with Lens.

A lot of the technology is in fact Lens, the visual searching capabilities, OCR on the screen. The key differences are rarely that its universally available.

The animation that sweeps across your screen is called the shimmer, while development on CtS started around January of 2023. Google acknowledges that tapping to select (like in Lens) is faster than circling, but that the team found the circle to be delightful. Circle to Search also accepts highlighting (or crossing out text) and squiggling over. The team is finding that copying text is an increasingly popular use case.

And so when youre doing a circle, we have very, very finely tuned the region selection over lots and lots of testing so that its extremely accurate.

Besides launching in-line translation, Google has a lot more planned for Circle to Search: we have lots of ideas about what to do. One thing that was suggested is a merging of both the Search result page with the Lens result page, and thats going to be rolling out over many, many months.

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Google working to prevent accidental Circle to Search activations - 9to5Google

Is that Google Slides? Nope it's Google Vids, the new video editor that seems to just make souped-up slideshows.

Google

Google's demo starts with an existing slideshow and then generates an outline.

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Choose a theme, which all look like PowerPoints.

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Write a script, preferably with the help of Google Gemini.

Google

You can record a voiceover, or pick from Google's robot voices.

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This is a Google Workspace app, so there's lots of realtime collaboration features, like these live mouse cursors that were brought over from Slides.

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Comments work too.

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It's interesting you get a "stock media" library while apps like Slides would use generative AI images here.

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Record a talk from your webcam.

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Embed your video in the slideshow.

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If you had asked me before what Google's video editor app was, I would say "YouTube Studio," but now Google Workspace has a new productivity app called "Google Vids." Normally a video editor is considered a secondary application in many productivity suites, but Google apparently imagines Vids as a major pillar of Workspace, saying Vids is an "all-in-one video creation app for work that will sit alongside Docs, Sheets and Slides." So, that is an editor for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and videos?

Google's demo of the new video editor pitches the product not for YouTube videos or films but more as a corporate super slideshow for things like training materials or product demos. Really, this "video editor" almost looks like it could completely replace Google Slides since the interface is just Slides but with a video timeline instead of a slideshow timeline.

Google's example video creates a "sales training video" that starts with a Slides presentation as the basic outline. You start with an outline editor, where each slideshow page gets its own major section. Google then has video "styles" you can pick from, which all seem very Powerpoint-y with a big title, subheading, and a slot for some kind of video. Google then wants you to write a script and either read it yourself or have a text-to-speech voice read the script. A "stock media" library lets you fill in some of those video slots with generic corporate imagery like a video of a sunset, choose background music, and use a few pictures. You can also fire up your webcam and record something, sort of like a pre-canned Zoom meeting. After that it's a lot of the usual Google productivity app features: real-time editing collaboration with visible mouse cursors from each participant and a stream of comments.

Like all Google products after the rise of OpenAI, Google pitches Vids as an "AI-powered" video editor, even though there didn't seem to be many generative AI features in the presentation. The videos, images, and music were "stock" media, not AI-generated inventions (Slides can generate images, but that wasn't in this demo). There's nothing in here like OpenAI's "Sora," which generates new videos out of its training data. There's probably a Gemini-powered "help me write" feature for the script, and Google describes the initial outline as "generated" from your starting Slides presentation, but that seemed to be it.

Google says Vids is being released to "Workspace Labs" in June, so you'll be able to opt in to testing it.

Listing image by Google

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Google Vids is Google's fourth big productivity app for Workspace - Ars Technica

Google Cloud partners break down the benefits of Googles new GenAI agent technology and Vertex AI Agent Builder for the channel.

Google Cloud unveiled a slew of new AI products this week at Google Cloud Nextfrom new AI agents to new Tensor Processing Unit hardware to accelerate the artificial intelligence revolution.

Google partners, in particular, were bullish about Googles new Vertex AI Agent Builder and agent technologies that will help them drive customer productivity levels to new heights.

Googles agents are the manifestation of real value in remedial workflows. So we can help customers go from an agent being partially helpfullike in a traditional chatbot scenario that we think aboutto actually completing a complex task, said Tony Safoian, CEO of Google Cloud Premier Partner SADA, an Insight company.

Partners of the Mountain View, Calif.-based $37 billion cloud computing and AI giant can create custom tasks and capabilities for agents in Vertex AI Agent Buildera new no-code offering for deploying generative AI assistants that are rooted in Googles Gemini family of models.

For example, if someone is asking about coverage for a complex health-care [plan], it used to be that the agent can give you part of the answer. Now theres no reason these new powerful agents can not only give you the complete answer, but also maybe change your health plan in the background to meet your specific health needs that are now different than they were last year, said SADAs CEO.

[Related: Google Cloud CEOs 5 Bold Remarks On New Chip, AI Agents And The New Way To Cloud]

So things that youd normally partially surface to a human for the human to complete, right now were entering the era of automation and trust in these AI capabilities to complete the task of actually maybe changing your membership, changing your subscription, changing your deductible, etc. to complete the circle of the workflow, said Safoian. Another easy example is you lost your password. It used to tell you, Heres the steps to follow. Now, it could just do those steps and reset the password for you and text you the password after. This kind of workflow completion is going to unleash a new era of productivity.

To help partners create these AI agents for customers, Google unveiled its new Vertex AI Agent Builder this week.

The new Vertex AI Agent Builder brings together foundation models, Google Search and other developer tools for partners to build and deploy agents, alongside orchestration and augmentation capabilities. With Vertex AI Agent Builder, Google said partners can now quickly create a range of generative AI agents grounded with Google Search and customer data.

Quantiphi, a Google Cloud Premier Partner and AI superstar, said Vertex AI Agent Builder will help customers solve business problems and achieve their AI goals. Quantiphi CEO Asif Hasan said Google agents are the next evolution of AI assistants.

The assistant way of doing things is you have a search bar and you can ask any questions, and the system will go fetch the answer and give it to you so you dont have to browse links and all that type of stuffthats like the assistant paradigm, he said.

The agent paradigm is where, instead of asking a question, youre giving it a goal. Then its breaking down the goal: its reasoning, its planning, its generating the first draft of the answer, it is reflecting on the answer, and its making it better, said Hasan. And then through an iterative set of steps, its either reflecting on its own or its asking you for feedback. Then at the end of the process, its going to help you accomplish your goal. Were super excited about it.

Google also launched new enhancements this week to help organizations build data agents, including injecting Gemini into Googles popular products such as BigQuery, Databases and Looker.

Another area that excited partners at Google Cloud Next was Googles push to create microprocessor hardware that will power Googles and Google customers AI ambitions.

Google this week unveiled its first-ever custom ARM-based CPU chip designed for the data center with Google Axion, delivering up to 50 percent better performance than comparable current-generation x86-based instances, Google said.

In addition, Googles new AI accelerator Tensor Processing Unit v5p is now generally available. Each TPU v5p pod is composed of nearly 9,000 chips over Googles highest-bandwidth inter-chip interconnect (ICI).

The customer hardware piece of AI is becoming very interesting, said Quantiphis CEO. What weve seen with the recent events in the market is there is an insatiable demand for custom AI hardware.

The combination of CPUs and GPUs, or TPUs, is what organizations will leverage in many AI workflows.

The workhorse in AI is an accelerated compute chip, which is either a GPU or Googles variant, which is even a more specialized Tensor Processing Unit, said Hasan. Googles [innovation engine] here is amazing.

SADAs CEO echoed Hasan in believing that Google Clouds end-to-end AI portfolio is a market differentiator.

So when you look at what Google is doing, youre really talking about the entire spectrum of valuefrom the core chips required for any company to building those types of things on Google, and packaging them around Workspace and other SaaS technologies, said Safoian.

The challenge is and will continue to be the collective partner ecosystem helping our customers derive real value out of these building blocks in a way thats measurable, thats credible, thats scalable, thats repeatable, thats secure, thats safe and easy to operate, Safoian said. So theres a tremendous amount of work for the partner ecosystem to do.

Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas runs from April 9 to April 11.

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Google Unleashes 'New Era Of Productivity' With AI Agents: Partners - CRN

In the months to come, Google will be shutting down the VPN that was available as a part of Google One. Theres been plenty of outcry surrounding the shutdown, but did you even use it?

The Google One VPN first made its debut in 2020 as a layer of protection for Android devices, and later also made its way to iOS and desktop platforms too. Much of the appeal of the system is that it is very simply to use and also incredibly affordable, as its available through even the cheapest Google One plans.

However, Google says that the reason Ones VPN is shutting down is that hardly anyone was using it.

Google didnt provide any numbers on how many people were using the VPN service, so its hard to quantify just how underused it was. Google One as a whole has around 100 million subscribers, and its safe to assume that most of them are subscribed for the sake of additional storage on their Google accounts.

While there were many perks to the Google One VPN, its important to think about the context of what the product was. Google was distributing this as an add-on to the subscription rather than a standalone product, and given the main focus of One is storage, its reasonable to think that that vast majority of users didnt even know this VPN is an option.

And for those more versed on what a VPN is, Google Ones offering doesnt really stack up to competitors. While its drastically cheaper, other VPNs have more features, such as the ability to spoof your location. Google didnt offer that, and its a big part of the appeal for many users.

Googles VPN offerings wont be disappearing entirely. The company is still going to offer this functionality on Pixels, but this is still a considerable loss for those who were enjoying the service on other devices.

Were you a fan of the Google One VPN? Did you use it regularly, or not at all? Vote in the poll below!

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Did you even use the Google One VPN? [Poll] - 9to5Google

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When considering generative AI in the classroom, many people think of its potential for students; however, teachers can benefit just as much from the technology, if not more. On Thursday, Google and MIT Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE) unveiled a free Google Generative AI Educators course to help middle and high school teachers use generative AI tools to enhance their workflow and students' classroom experience.

Also:Have 10 hours? IBM will train you in AI fundamentals - for free

The self-paced, two-hour course instructs teachers how to use generative AI to save time in everyday tasks such aswriting emails, modifying content for different reading levels, building creative assessments, structuring activities to students' interests, and more, according to the press release. Teachers can even learn how to use generative AI to help with one of the most time-consuming tasks--lesson planning--by inputting their existing lesson plan into the generative AI models to get ideas on what to do next in the classroom.

"This course empowers educators to confidently integrate AI into their teaching, creating richer and more accessible learning experiences for all students," MIT RAISE Director Cynthia Breazeal said.

The course consists of five 40-minute-or-less modules, accessible by teachers and administrators on the Generative AI for Educators webpage.

Some school districts across the country plan to offer the course as well, including California's Anaheim Union High School District, Florida's Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Illinois' Chicago Public Schools, New Mexico's Albuquerque Public Schools, Oklahoma's Glenpool Public Schools, and Wisconsin's Sun Prairie Area School District, according to the press release.

Also: I spent a weekend with Amazon's free AI courses, and highly recommend you do too

"In a rapidly evolving world, our teachers cannot afford to fall behind in accessing powerful generative tools that will help them develop new approaches to teaching and learning," Michael Matsuda, the superintendent at Anaheim Union High School District, said.

OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, once highlighted the benefits of giving educators generative AI tools and shared use cases in which teachers across the country are already using the technology.OpenAI's examplesincluded using a chatbot to role-play conversations meant for students, building classroom materials, providing English language assistance for non-English speakers, and teaching students about critical thinking.

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Google and MIT launch a free generative AI course for teachers - ZDNet

Google is going ahead with a redesign that changes how you access the Bookmarks, Reading List, and History columns that appear to the right of your browser. The side panel button is now gone from desktop Chrome.

Once rolled out, youll no longer see a side panel button (square-ish icon thats almost half-way filled) in the top-right corner next to your profile image. Chrome explains how: You can open most side panel features through the Chrome menu.

Previously, the side panel button usually opened Bookmarks by default, while a dropdown provided access to the other pages.

You can pin this side panel for easy access

With this change, the side panels themselves Reading List, Bookmarks, History, Reading Mode, and Search remain available. Youre now able to pin the ones you use to a new partitioned section for immediate access, though it does fill up the space to the right of the address bar. Its somewhat similar in behavior to how extensions can appear today.

Bookmarks and Reading List can be found in the three-dot overflow menu > Bookmarks and Lists, while History (or Grouped History) is a few spots above. You can launch Reading Mode by right-clicking on a page.

Chrome introduced the side panel UI in 2022 and slowly expanded its capabilities, with Google Lens also located there.

Were seeing this removal of the side panel button on Chrome 123 (stable) after restarting the browser on Mac, Windows, and ChromeOS.Its also controlled by this flag: chrome://flags/#side-panel-pinning.

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Google Chrome removes side panel button in favor of pinning - 9to5Google