Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 05/19 – Google I/O Roundup

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Wednesday, May 19th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Google I.O. continues and continues to produce new headlines for us to cover. Invita is nerfing the ability to mine crypto. Ethereum says it's going to go super energy efficient real soon. Microsoft 10x is officially no longer a thing. And reviews of the new iPad Pro reveal it to be an iPad. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Often the day after the Google I'm, I.O. Keynote, it's worth doing another dive-in, not just to collect things that I missed from the keynote, but because, you know, IO is a whole multi-day event where headlines continue to be made

Starting point is 00:01:16 over the course of several days. For example, let's just run down a few things of interest, especially to developers. Google has unveiled version 2.2 of its open source UI development kit, Flutter with a payment plugin for in-app payments. And Google said 200,000 plus apps in the Play Store, were built using Flutter. Google Cloud launched Vertex AI, a managed machine learning platform for developers to deploy and maintain AI models. There are two new APIs in AR Core, providing more detailed raw depth maps, as well as new recording and playback features for developers. We also didn't talk about Google giving plenty of space during the keynote yesterday to their cloud computing, super computing, and quantum computing efforts. They even enlisted actor Michael

Starting point is 00:02:05 Pena to try to explain where they think these efforts are going. For example, Google announced plans to build a commercial-grade quantum computer by 2029 and unveiled its new quantum AI campus in Santa Barbara, California, quoting in gadget. The campus has Google's first quantum data center, hardware research laboratories, and the company's very own quantum processor chip fabrication facilities. As we look 10 years into the future, many of the greatest global challenges from climate change to handling the next pandemic, demand a new kind of computing, quantum AI lead engineer Eric Lucero said.

Starting point is 00:02:42 To build better batteries, to lighten the load on the power grid, or to create fertilizer to feed the world without creating 2% of global carbon emissions, as nitrogen fixation does today, or to create more targeted medicines to stop the next pandemic before it starts, we need to understand and design molecules better. That means simulating nature accurately,

Starting point is 00:03:03 but you can't simulate much, molecules very well using classical computers, end quote. Luchero further outlined the company's goal to, quote, build a useful error-corrected quantum computer within the decade, end quote. But some interesting consumer-facing things have dribbled out as well. Google says it's working on a new digital car key feature for Android 12 to unlock or start your car, quoting Google itself. Android Auto is designed to make it safer to use apps from your phone while you're on the road. Today, Android Auto is available in more than 100 million cars, and the vast majority of new vehicles from loved brands like GM Ford, Honda, and more will support Android Auto wirelessly.

Starting point is 00:03:43 No more cords. To make your phone even more helpful, we're working with car manufacturers to develop a new digital car key in Android 12. With this feature, you'll be able to lock, unlock, and even start your car from your phone. By using ultra-wideband technology, you won't even have to take your phone out to use it as a car key. and for NFC-enabled car models, it's as easy as tapping your phone on the car door to unlock it. Since it's all digital, you can also securely and remotely share your car key with friends and family if they need to borrow your car, end quote. And how about Project Starline? A video booth with a 65-inch display and several sensors and cameras allowing for 3D representations of video call subjects.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Is this the future of telepresence? Zoom is so yesterday. Quoting Lauren Good and Wired. The phrase video booth really is the simplest way to describe Starline in its current form. It's a large booth like the kind you'd find in a diner, just way more technologically complex. I had the chance to test drive it in early May. After an initial conversation with Clay Bavor, the high-energy Googler who heads up the company's augmented and virtual reality efforts, outside of Google's campus in Mountain View, California, I was led inside the almost empty building and escorted to a private office.

Starting point is 00:05:03 There was the Starline booth. Part wood paneled and partly encased in gray fabric with a built-in bench on one side and a 65-inch display on the other. I was instructed to sit opposite the display. There were lights, cameras, and not a whole lot of action until a product manager sat down across from me. Or should I say, from a very specific angle he looked as though he was sitting across from me, but he was on a different floor of the building piping into our meeting through Starline. Andrew Narker, the lead product manager for Project Starline, has been bringing an apple into meetings recently. It's a way of showing how objects present in Project Starline, and perhaps more creepily, a way of tracking eyes.

Starting point is 00:05:43 I can show you this apple from Whole Foods and I can see exactly what you're looking at, Nartker says to me after I take my seat in the booth. The image of Narker is jarring. He is life-size and sitting directly in front of, with volume and depth and shadows and the apple. Narker and the Apple appear to be trapped in a clear box. Nartker is conferencing in from another Project Starline booth identical to the one I'm using. The imagery is remarkable, and the visuals are complemented by spatial audio. What I'm actually looking at is a 65-inch light-field display. The Project Starline booths are equipped with more than a dozen different depth sensors and cameras. Google is cagey when I ask for specifics on the equipment. These sensors capture photorealistic three-dimensional imagery. The system then compresses

Starting point is 00:06:27 and transmits the data to each light field display on both ends of the video conversation with seemingly little latency. Google applies some of its own special effects, adjusting lighting and shadows. The result is hyper-real representations of your colleagues on video calls. Volumetric video, sometimes called holographic video or just 3D video, is often captured in large multi-camera studios like Microsoft's Mix Reality Capture Studios, or this now shuttered volumetric capture stage from Intel. On the one hand, Project Starline likely isn't going to have a place in your ad hoc home office anytime soon. Google also hasn't said how much it costs to build a project Starline booth. My best guess is a lot. On the other hand, Project Starline

Starting point is 00:07:09 is a distillation of much larger volumetric capture studios. And what's more notable is that the video isn't being rendered after the fact. It's all happening live. All of the data is being transmitted over WebRTC, the same open source infrastructure that powers Google Meet, the company's main video conferencing app. What Google claims is unique is the compression techniques that has developed that allow it to synchronously stream this 3D video bi-directionally. And while it's hard to imagine this kind of tech working seamlessly over your shoddy home Wi-Fi connection, Google did confirm that the booth I was sitting in was hardwired to the building's network. One of the engineers on Project Starline insisted that the tech would work

Starting point is 00:07:49 using Google's standard speed office network, no fiber required, end quote. And you thought you had to worry about the background in your Zoom calls. If you're heavy into crypto, then you probably had a bad morning this morning. We won't go into that now, but I'm wondering if one of the many factors, possibly depressing crypto markets right now, is the fact that Nvidia has started introducing restrictions for doing cryptocurrency mining using their latest and greatest cards, including the G-Force RTX-3080, RTF3070, and RTS-3060T graphics cards, quoting the verge. Nvidia is now starting to label new cards with a light hash rate or LHR identifier to let potential customers know the cards will be restricted for mining.

Starting point is 00:08:42 This reduced hash rate only applies to newly manufactured cards with the LHR identifier and not the cards already purchased, said Matt Wobling, and Nvidia's head of G-Force marketing. We believe this additional step will get more G-Force cards at better prices into the hands of gamers everywhere, end quote. Invidia's new LHR cards are part of a broader effort to make its latest 30-series less desirable to cryptocurrency miners. PC gamers have been trying and failing to get their hands on new graphics cards for months

Starting point is 00:09:10 due to the great GPU shortage, and miners have been blamed for part of the shortages. Nvidia offers a separate cryptocurrency mining processor or CMP for Ethereum miners instead. These cards include the best performance for mining and efficiency but won't handle graphics at all. Nvidia's move to Nerf new cards will undoubtedly drive up prices for existing 30-series GPUs that don't have these restrictions in place. It will also likely mean the rumored RTX 3080T card will have similar cryptocurrency mining limits in place as this card is expected to be announced later this month, end quote. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation has announced that in the upcoming months,

Starting point is 00:09:53 Ethereum will fully transition from proof of work to proof of stake, which requires far less power consumption. So might this by itself also be putting the kibosh on graphics card mining, quoting cyber briefing? Ethereum will reduce its energy consumption by 99.95% following its transition to proof of stake, according to a new blog post from Carl Beekhoisen of the Ethereum. Ethereum Foundation. B. Coison estimated there are 87,000 at-home stakers using about 100 watts of energy for a total of 1.64 megawatts. Additionally, there are another 52,700 exchanges and custodial services that use about 100 watts per 5.5 validators for a total of 0.98 megawatts. Based on those estimates, B. Coison says that Ethereum will consume about 2.62 megawatts when it switches to proof of

Starting point is 00:10:46 stake. B. Coizan added that his estimate may be too large. He noted that his own personal staking setup was optimized to use 15 watts, while some staking services use as little as 5 watts per validator. This means that Ethereum will no longer use the energy equivalent of a country or even a city. Instead, its total consumption will be comparable to a small town that contains around 2,100 homes. Additionally, B. Coison drew attention to the fact that Ethereum's proof of stake network will be approximately 7,000 times more energy efficient than Bitcoin, end quote. Microsoft has finally confirmed that Windows 10x won't launch in 2021 as planned. Instead, Windows 10X will be integrated into parts of Windows and other products.

Starting point is 00:11:39 Quoting Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet. Windows 10X was supposed to be Microsoft's answer to Chrome OS, a simpler Windows 10 variant that was slated to debut first on PCs for education, and the first-line worker market. Microsoft has been struggling to figure out how to position and deliver Windows 10x for the past couple of years. Initially, Windows 10X was going to be Microsoft's Windows variant for dual-screen PCs, including the currently tabled Surface Neo. Then, official switch plans deciding instead to debut Windows 10 on single-screen PCs, both clamshell laptops and two-and-ones. Windows 10X was not designed to run on existing PCs. It was being built

Starting point is 00:12:14 to run on new PCs only. It was going to debut on Intel-based devices first and possibly also be available on arm-based PCs at some point in the future. Here is an excerpt from Microsoft's May 18th, Windows 1021 H1 post that highlights the fate of Windows 10X, quote, following a year-long exploration and engaging in conversations with customers, we realized that the technology of Windows 10X could be useful in more ways and serve more customers than we originally imagined. We concluded that the 10x technology shouldn't just be confined to a subset of customers. Instead of bringing a product called Windows 10x to market in 2021 like we originally intended. We are leveraging learnings from our journey thus far

Starting point is 00:12:54 and accelerating the integration of key foundational 10x technology into other parts of Windows and products at the company. In fact, some of this is already reflected in the core of Windows in Windows insider preview builds. For example, the new app container technology were integrating into products like Microsoft Defender, Application Guard, and enhanced voice typing experience and a modernized touch keyboard with optimized key sizing, sounds, colors, and animations, Finally today, the new iPad Pro reviews are out, and I'm going to go with Dieter's review to stand for the lot. Basically, Deeter says it's an iPad Pro, but with an amazing new screen and the fast M1 chips, so if either of those two things are important to you, then it might be worth an upgrade. The iPad Pro is simply a more beautiful, more premium object than even Apple's own laptops.

Starting point is 00:13:49 The reason to get the iPad Pro 12.9 or even the 11 is simply to get the best nicest iPad, unless you can specifically answer right now which app in your workflow is slowed down by the specs on a lesser iPad. The $599 iPad Air or even the $329 base iPad offer the same core features that most people really use. Except for a slim minority of people, the justification for getting an iPad Pro isn't its feature set. It's the experience of using a well-made high-end object. until I hit the limits of iPad OS, which I hit regularly, I enjoy using an iPad Pro more than I do any other computer. The wonderful mini-l-D display on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro doesn't change any of those equations. It just makes the nicest iPad Pro even nicer.

Starting point is 00:14:35 And so my yearly refrain about the iPad Pro remains. If you want the very best iPad, this is the very best iPad. Just remember, it's an iPad, end quote. So the Twitter space tonight has been canceled or at least postponed. We will still talk to Julia Alexander about all things streaming wars, but for a whole bunch of scheduling reasons, we're going to push that back a week. So no Twitter space tonight, but watch this space, if you will, because hopefully we'll have some news on our overall Twitter spaces experiments next week.

Starting point is 00:15:14 Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 05/19 – Google I/O Roundup

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.