Google Inc unveiled payment services, security upgrades and access to HBO movies and shows for its popular Android software, seeking to push back against growing competition from rivals such as Apple Inc.
The new version of the mobile software, called Android M, is to include Android Pay, which enables transactions at more than 700,000 stores in the US, Android engineering vice president Dave Burke said at the Internet company’s annual developers’ conference in San Francisco on Thursday.
Google is investing to extend Android’s reach by keeping users engaged on its services and attracting them to new platforms using the software, such as televisions, autos and wearable devices. The Internet search company’s mobile operating system garnered 79 percent of the global smartphone market in the first quarter, down from 81 percent a year earlier, as Apple’s iPhone gained ground, according to Gartner Inc.
“For M, we have gone back to the basics,” Google senior vice president of products Sundar Pichai said. “We have really focused on polish and quality.”
The conference, called I/O, comes less than two weeks before the start of Apple’s developer event at the same location. The companies are vying to attract software makers with more media platforms, better tools and new opportunities to make money from applications. Innovative mobile apps, such as messaging features, puzzle games and news services, can help keep users on the companies’ platforms.
Android users are set to get faster battery charging, more fingerprint-related features and greater control over the information accessed by their devices. Users will be able to designate which Android apps can access personal data such as location, contacts and a device’s camera, Google said.
HBO Now, the standalone Internet streaming service, is to be available across all of Google’s devices, including televisions and mobile gadgets.
Google also unveiled a feature of its mobile software that is set to bring the personalized notifications of its Now service to any application on Android. With the new Now on Tap service, users can query Google directly within an app, such as searching for more information on a musical artist while a song is playing.
Following last year’s introduction of a cardboard-based device to turn Android phones into virtual-reality headsets, the company on Thursday showed how its Cardboard effort can be deployed in classrooms, giving teachers an affordable way to use virtual reality as a tool. Using Cardboard, students can be taken into a detailed virtual underwater environment, the Great Wall of China or 17th- century Verona, Italy.
One of the key advantages of Google’s virtual-reality gadget is the cost. A Cardboard headset can be put together with a smartphone, free software and a piece of cardboard.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last