Articles by Michael Allison

Scheduling tweets was once the exclusive domain of third-party apps and services.

What you need to know

Twitter now lets you schedule tweets on the web.
The service started testing out scheduling for a select group of users earlier this year.
Twitter’s web-app has also been updated to include saving of drafted tweets and draft syncing to other instances of the web-app.

Twitter has officially announced and rolled out tweet scheduling for its web-app. Tweet scheduling is a feature that does exactly what it purports to do — it allows users to table their tweets to be sent at a specified time after being drafted and is effectively the bread and butter of many social media managers.

Before this announcement, users typically had to make use of third-party like Buffer, Tweetdeck, or Hootsuite to create scheduled tweets. Twitter making this feature native means it’s more secure and accessible to native, less-savvy end-users. It’s likely such tools will still remain necessary on mobi…

AI smarts push Pixel ahead.

What you need to know

The strengths of the Google Pixel line lies in the power of AI and machine learning.
The onboard speech to text is so speedy, it outperforms much more powerful iPhones.
Google has also released a recorder app for older Pixels.

Google’s Pixels rarely compete on pure power, but machine learning and AI pick up the slack and push overall performance to a place where it can be compared with an often overhwleminlgy powerful iPhone. One area where this is most evident is Google’s transcription speed when using speech-to-text on Pixels. It’s fast, as this video reminded us today.

I don’t think that people appreciate how different the voice to text experience on a Pixel is from an iPhone. So here is a little head to head example. The Pixel is so responsive it feels like it is reading my mind! pic.twitter.com/zmxTKxL3LB— James Cham ✍🏻 (@jamescham) May 27, 2020

As you can see from the short video, Google’s speech-to-text is power…

Spotify and Apple Music also offer a similar feature.

What you need to know

YouTube Music will now let users pre-save unreleased albums to their libraries.
Some tracks which have already been released as EPs or singles can be downloaded and played as part of an unreleased album.
Rival streaming services, Spotify and Apple Music offer this as well.

Google has added a slightly new feature to YouTube Music, the ability to pre-save unreleased albums to your libraries (via Reddit). Typically, some albums appear on the platform before their official release date, showing off a preview of unreleased tracks to tantalize potential listeners. In the past, you wouldn’t be able to add them to your library. Now you can — with some caveats. The most obvious one is that you won’t be able to play the unreleased songs on an unreleased album. YouTube Music instead marks those as “unavailable” instead of “unreleased” Another caveat, albeit a positive one, is that for some of those tracks, they …

A phone number-free Duo means a viable Facetime alternative.

What you need to know

Google no longer requires Android tablet users to register their phone numbers on Duo.
Prospective users may now access the service with just a Google account.
Google dropped the requirement for phone numbers on the web late last year.

Google’s video calling app, Duo, has been updated for Android devices to remove a particular bug-bear, the phone number requirement. But first, a caveat, Duo will still ask you for a phone number if you’re using an actual phone — it just doesn’t do so if you’re using an Android tablet (and presumably a Chrome OS one too).

This means that you can sign in to the Duo service with just your Google account and make and receive calls from there. Previously, only users of the Web-app could do so, with Android users being prompted for a phone number before they could register for the service. The update was spotted by the folks over at Android Police.

This change for Du…

Pixel 4’s Project Soli opens up new modes of interaction. Not much has been done with it.

What you need to know

Google has released a developer-focused Soli Sandbox app.
The app is intended to allow developers to test out new Soli experiences on Pixel hardware.
Soli is expected to leave the Pixel line come the debut of Google’s Pixel 5.

Google first rolled out its Project Soli-powered Motion Sense with the launch of Pixel 4, as its first showcase of what the technology could offer users in a consumer context. Now, it’s released the Soli Sandbox app to spur developer interest in the technology.

The app description aptly reads:

Soli Sandbox is a way to connect your web prototypes to Soli interactions on Pixel 4. Create a prototype on your computer, and set it in motion with Soli gestures through the Soli Sandbox app. You’ll be able to use touchless swipes, taps, and more in your own prototypes!

Project Soli, when initially debuted, it only had a few gestures enabled. Googl…

TCL promises at least one major OS update for its affordable phones.

What you need to know

The TCL 10 Pro and 10L are TCL’s first own branded phones.
The company promises to deliver at least one major OS update.
It will also deliver two years of security patches every two months.

While often cheaper and more powerful (broadly speaking) Android phones don’t get nearly the same amount of support as iPhones, with the TCL 10 Pro and 10L, being TCL’s first phones, we weren’t sure how long the company planned to support them. Fortunately for us, the company has come out to deliver some clarification on the topic.

“We can confirm both the TCL 10 Pro and 10L will, at minimum, receive one major OS update as well as SMR updates every two months to two years,” a TCL spokesperson said (via Matthew Moniz.)

With the use of the phrase “at a minimum”, TCL implies that this policy is flexible. Perhaps if the series moves enough units to prove themselves as a viable business, it would push ou…

Facebook is making using Messenger on Android and iOS safer.

What you need to know

Facebook is making Messenger more secure with safety alerts.
It’ll also alert minors when talking to strangers who are over-18, as well as automatically ban adults who have inappropriate conversations with children.
The company confirms that these safety features would work with full encryption when it rolls that out later.

Facebook is rolling out safety alerts fo Messenger on both iOS and Android going forward.

“As we move to end-to-end encryption, we are investing in privacy-preserving tools like this to keep people safe without accessing message content,” Facebook’s Jay Sullivan, Director of Product Management, Messenger Privacy and Safety said, “We developed these safety tips with machine learning that looks at behavioral signals like an adult sending a large amount of friend or message requests to people under 18. This ensures that the new features will be available and effective when Messe…

Wink announced that it was moving to a subscription-only model earlier this month, but customer backlash forced them to consider.

What you need to know

Wink has delayed its plans to move all customers to a paid plan by May 13, 2020.
The company had planned to end its free-service and move to a $4.99 plan, announcing this with only a week’s notice.
It was subsequently met with backlash on its social media pages are users revolted.

Wink announced earlier this month that it would be moving to a subscription-only service. Priced at $4.99 a month, it would come into play from May 13, 2020. The company also planned to disable existing Wink Hubs for users who didn’t pay for from that date, effectively moving all its customers to either a paid plan or nothing.
As you can imagine from the ratio, customers weren’t very impressed by this.
We’re moving to a monthly subscription on 5/13 in order to better serve our users. This will enable us to continue providing the functionality custom…

Amazon closed its warehouses to avoid accidentally breaching a ruling that restricted what items it could ship.

What you need to know

Amazon will repoen its French warehouses this week after negotiations with workers.
The company closed them in April after a ruling restricted them to shipping essential items.
Workers have secured benefits such as increased pay, staggered work times, and a gradual reopening.

After being ordered to ship only essential items in France a few weeks ago, Amazon closed all six of its warehouses to prevent accidentally falling afoul of the ruling. Now the company is reopening them after coming to an agreement with worker representatives in the intervening period.

To recap, Amazon was ordered to limit shipping to essential products while it put in place measures to protect employee safety. It was to do so in concert with worker representatives, as the company’s warehouses had been critiqued as being “health bombs.”

Now, Amazon and worker representativ…

Google seems set to drop a failed idea.

What you need to know

Google’s Pixel 5 may ditch the Soli radar chip.
Project Soli powered the Motion Sense feature of the Pixel 4 and 4 XL.
It also drained battery and added little benefit to the phone’s experience as a whole.

With the Pixel 4, Google brought a new feature — Motion Sense — to the Pixel line. Powered by the innovative Project Soli, Motion Sense added a layer of mystique to the Pixel 4. You’d be able to control your phone from a distance. It’s a fancy feature undercut by the inconvenient fact that a smartphone is 99% of the time located in your hand, but you have to give Google points for trying. With the Pixel 5, Google seems set to drop that feature, according to the folks over at 9to5Google (via The Next Web.)

In yesterday’s show, we also touched on some things we’re hearing about Pixel 5 from sources — specifically that it will likely leave behind hobbies like Soli— Stephen Hall (@hallstephenj) May 15, 2020

A…