Articles by Michael Allison

Google purchased Fitbit last year, but EU scrutiny of the deal prevented the transaction from reaching completion.

What you need to know

Google has promised tighter controls around the use of Fitbit data and promised to allow third-party wearables to work well on the Android platform in a bid to allay EU concerns around its Fitbit acquisition.
These assurances are said to have paved the way for an approval of the acquisition.
The European Commission will make its final decision by December 23rd, though it could make an earlier declaration if it chooses.

Googles Fitbit deal is set to be approved by the EU before the end of the year as Google has made fresh assurances to the body. As reported by Reuters, Google now says it would be restricting the use of Fitbit data for ads and tightening the monitoring of the process for whatever exceptions exist.

In a statement to Reuters, Google said:

We’re also formalizing our longstanding commitment to supporting other wearable manufactu…

A YouTube Music test borrows one of Spotify’s best features.

What you need to know

Google is testing My Mix playlists, a selection of up to 7 curated personalised playlists, in YouTube Music.
It’s similar in concept to Spotify’s Daily Mix feature.
The test comes just weeks before Google is scheduled to kill off Google Play Music.

Google is set to kill off Google Play Music in just a matter of weeks, and the company continues to build up YouTube Music as a successor that better competes with rivals like Spotify and Apple Music.

A new feature spotted in testing by Android Police showcases a selection of playlists under the “Mixed for You” tab. There, users will see 7 playlists, each one built around a single genre or artist. So you may get one with sounds inspired by Bring Me the Horizon, and another one that’s entirely BTS and BTS adjacent music.

If it sounds familiar, its because Spotify already offers something similar with Daily Mixes.

Introducing the feature back in 2018…

Users had experienced slowdowns and connectivity issues on Slack.

Update, September 29 (11:45 am ET): Slack confirms that the issue has been resolved

What you need to know

Slack is down for many this morning, the company confirmed.
The outage started around 8 am Eastern.
Slack is investigating for the root cause and hopes to have an update soon.

Having issues on Slack this morning? It’s not your fault. Many users have reported a Slack slowdown from around 8 am Eastern this morning going via DownDetector reports. The company itself confirmed the issue on its status page, noting that users may experience “performance issues, message send failures, boot failures or connectivity issues, and API slowness.

The Slack team said:

Some people may be experiencing slow performance and trouble sending messages in Slack. We’re currently investigating and will have more information shortly. Thank you for your patience.

As of 9:30 am Eastern. the issue is still ongoing, and Slack promis…

Amazon’s new gaming platform already has an advantage over Stadia for game developers.

What you need to know

Amazon’s Luna is powered by Windows servers, the company shared.
This is part of an effort to make building games for Luna as low-effort as possible.
Amazon has managed to build up a launch catalog of 100 titles as a result of this.

Amazon launched Luna and the service hit the ground running hard. It’ll be supporting multiple platforms from ranging from Android to MacOS, but its biggest feat remains its game availability. Luna will launch with over 100 games including Resident Evil 7, Panzer Dragoon, and GRID.

But how did Amazon manage to build out such a gaming catalog when Google hasn’t been able to with more time? Well, it’s simple; the company is backed by Windows and Nvidia, making themselves already known quantities for developers. Speaking to Ars Technica, Amazon Luna Director of Product Oliver Messenger said that the aim was to make porting apps as “low effort” a…

A really useful tool to alleviate the most boring part about drafting essays.

What you need to know

Google is rolling out a new citations tool to Google Docs this month.
The tool aims to speed up the citation process and remove the need for students to use third-party tools while drafting essays.
It’ll support popular referencing styles like MLA, APA, and Chicago.

Writing an essay with your latest revolutionary and world-changing ideas all well and good, but sooner or later you’re going to have to back up your most salient points with citations and sources. Unfortunately, if you’re writing in an academic capacity, you can’t simply drop in a link with a handy CMS tool and call it a day. No, you’re going to need to engage in the most tedious part of the essay process: referencing.

As many students use G Suite and Google Docs for essay creation, the company is adding a new citations tool that’ll help alleviate that tedium.

“Using this feature, you can easily insert in-text citati…

You could always cast from the Disney+ app to your Nest Hub, now your voice can do all the talking

What you need to know

The Google Nest Hub and other assistant-enabled smart displays are getting enhanced Disney Plus support.
Now you’ll be able to stream from Disney’s service with just your voice.
Google is making this feature available today in select countries.

Google is updating the Nest Hub with support for Disney Plus. The company today announced that Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, and other Assistant-enabled smart displays owners in select countries (presumably ones with access to the service) will now be able to navigate Disney Plus content on their devices using their voice. You’ll need to have linked your Disney Plus account to your Nest Hub via the Google Home app, but it should be smooth sailing once that’s done. You’ll be able to play shows and movies ranging from Pinocchio to Inside Out to Avengers just by saying “Hey Google, play ‘Name of Show]’ on Disney Plus.”

For what…

The pricing is mostly in line with expectations.

What you need to know

E-commerce stores in Europe have listings for Google’s Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 already gone live.
The listings broadly confirm what we expect in terms of pricing and color options.
Google is expected to launch both products at an online event next week.

Google is set to launch new hardware including the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 at an event next week, but some retailers in Europe have already jumped the gun and spilled the metaphorical beans.

Courtesy of eagle-eyed twitter users and 9to5Google, we’ve spotted three listings so far. The UK’s BT has the Pixel 4a 5G listed for a sales price of £499. It falls in line with the expected $499 release pricing of the 4a 5G. The listing also says the phone will be available from October 15th, just over two weeks after the launch event. There are no other specs listed on the page and the details drop-down reveals the advertising copy for the regular Pixel 4a.

Germany’…

We’re going to be spending a lot more time in virtual concerts than in-person ones.

What you need to know

Spotify will now list virtual concerts the same way it does for in-person events.
The company notes that this is a necessity born out of the ongoing pandemic and the cancelation of most events through 2021.
Artists will be able to have their events listed no matter the platform due to a Spotify partnership with Songkick and Ticketmaster.

Spotify wants to make it easier for you to attend concerts in the 2020 way — virtually, probably with wireless earbuds on in your room or other socially distanced setting. The company is now adding virtual concerts to an artist’s “On Tour” listing in their profile, making it easier to learn where an artist is holding a virtual event. From today, you’ll be able to see upcoming online events for your favourite artist or band whether they’re hosting them on Twitch, Instagram Live, YouTube Live, a self-hosted website, etcetera.

Writing to art…

You can stay at home and still laugh at videos with your friends.

What you need to know

Facebook is rolling out a new feature known as Watch Together.
It’ll be available on Messenger for both iOS and Android.
A case of accurate naming, the feature will let you view Facebook videos together with your friends — albeit obviously virtually.

As the summer months wind down and we move into the ember months, it’s going to be a lot harder to hang out and socialise with friends. As such, Facebook is expanding Messenger’s feature set with Watch Together, a new tool that will let you watch videos with your friends over a video call.

It’ll work with both Messenger one-on-one video calls and Messenger Rooms, and a user can share any video that can be found on Facebook Watch. Facebook probably figures that as there are over 200M videos shared on Messenger and more than 100M video calls made daily, a little streamlining couldn’t hurt.

Writing today, Facebook’s Nora Micheva explained:

…

Google wants to avoid being a conduit for conspiracy.

What you need to know

Google is making some changes to autocomplete with Search.
It will no longer fill in results for some election-related queries.
Results will still show up if a search is manually completed, however.

Google is making some changes to Search in the run-up to the 2020 elections. Now, it will remove search autocomplete terms that can appear when typing in certain search terms.

Google’s Pandu Nayak, Vice President of Search explained why in a post this week:

[W]e will remove predictions that could be interpreted as claims for or against any candidate or political party. We will also remove predictions that could be interpreted as a claim about participation in the election—like statements about voting methods, requirements, or the status of voting locations—or the integrity or legitimacy of electoral processes, such as the security of the election.

What this means in practice is that predictions…