Google is giving up on tablet development, focusing on Pixel smartphones, Chrome OS devices, and throwing its weight behind its hardware partners in the run-up to Android Q's release. Unusually, for a tech firm, the search giant opted not to allow its products to wither away in silence. Instead, Google confirmed head-on that it was changing course.
It’s a pretty exciting time for fans of video games. We’re coming off an E3 that was pretty successful despite the fact that a couple of major players - namely Sony - didn’t host press conferences this year. On top of that, we now know that the next generation of game consoles is nearly upon us, with both Sony and Microsoft sharing the first details about their next gaming machines.
Once upon a time, when you talked about PC software, you could only think about Microsoft. Unless you were talking about games, in which case you'd still be talking about running them on Windows. These days, however, people and companies have begun asking what a computer is today and their definition doesn't always include "Microsoft", "Windows", or even "Office". In almost all sectors save for two or three, Microsoft has been slowly but surely losing its teeth and its market share. And if it doesn't take swift action, it could very well find itself on the verge of becoming irrelevant once more.
Things have gone quiet lately on Huawei's ongoing struggles to fight against the US government's attempts to bring it to its knees. Or use it as a bargaining chip in negotiations with China. In the background, Huawei has been reported to be going over its options when or if it can no longer really get Google's blessing. But as much as this entire ordeal is a test for Huawei, it is also becoming a litmus test for how Android can escape the threat of further fragmentation or, worse, exodus.
This year’s E3 signaled a shift in the coming years of gaming. The event wasn’t just about video games, but how we would get hold of them. It seems every publisher and their dog wants to implement a subscription service for video games – a Netflix for gaming of sorts. Google, EA, Microsoft and Ubisoft are among the list of publishers in the heated race. With all these similar announcements, the industry looks to be saturating quickly – even more confusingly than TV-streaming services.
Would you believe it? The time has come to talk about next-generation consoles again. The PS4 and Xbox One have been in service for almost eight years and it’s time for a new phase of gaming machines. While Microsoft and Sony have been rather tight-lipped about their upcoming consoles, the recent E3 press conference in Los Angeles has brought us some exciting announcements.
Next to Google, Facebook is perhaps the biggest tech company holds most of the population personal data. The amount of information, be it text or photos, that people upload, provide it data points that can be used to build very accurate profiles. Unlike Google, however, Facebook hasn't been grilled over its privacy practices, or lack of it, until recently. Now all its old practices, messages, and secret policies are being dragged into the spotlight, revealing that Facebook's culture of disregarding users' privacy comes from its top executives.
Word on the app dev street is that Huawei is trying to discreetly woo Android app makers to publish their wares on the Chinese OEM's app store. It isn't yet making a big campaign probably for fear of kicking up a media storm. Not that it was able to avoid that anyway. It really surprised no one that it's trying to sell the idea of reaching millions of devices across the world but unless Huawei offers a few missing pieces, its call will fall on deaf ears.
With E3 2019 underway, there is naturally a lot of focus put on the latest trends in the industry. One of that is game streaming, which has gotten a large seal of approval when Google formally announced the upcoming launch of Stadia. Game streaming has the potential to break down device borders and simplifying playing games the way Netflix simplified binge-watching. But while the nascent technology does hold promise, it could end up isolating more players than it tries to pull in.
With the announcement of iPadOS, one of the biggest question that repeatedly comes up is whether the iPad, specifically the iPad Pro, is finally ready to be that new computer thing that Apple has been advertising. Better yet, is it finally ready to become the primary computer for most people? The answer, as you might have guessed, is a "yes, but". More than that answer to that, however, what the combination of the iPad Pro and the new iPadOS has done is give people fewer reasons to bear with Windows and Android and more reasons to get hooked and locked into Apple's entire ecosystem.
Earlier today, Google dished more details about its upcoming game streaming service, Stadia, in the first of what sounds like a series of livestreams called Stadia Connect. Ahead of Stadia Connect's premiere, Google teased new information about launch games, release timing, and pricing. That's more or less what we received during the show, but after all is said and done, the way Google is launching Stadia seems to be needlessly convoluted.
Apple made a new Mac Pro, but not everybody is happy. The potent new computer is a total reset on its much-derided predecessor, instead reminiscent of the earlier Mac Pro models that developers had begun to reminisce over with rose-tinted glasses. Its replacement, though, has turned out to be a wake-up call.