Hello folks,
And welcome to another experimental episode! Instead of just reading the newsletter, today, Jason Howell and I read it together and provide some additional context. Let me know what you think!
– Tom
Big Story
"Epic Games to pre-install its game store on 'millions' of devices with new Telefónica deal | TechCrunch"
Telefónica will preinstall the Epic Games Store on all new Android devices on its networks, including O2 and Movistar, in Germany, Latin America, Spain, and the UK. Telefónica estimates that this means about a million phones.
Right now, the store features Epic's own games like Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Rocket League but will eventually include games from third parties as well. The move comes as a result of Epic's lawsuit against Google. Judge James Donato ruled in October that Google must not stop third parties from offering apps on its Android platform.
The Epic Games Store launched in August, but this is the first major deal to preinstall it. Epic also previously worked with Telefónica to let customers on Movistar in Spain charge Fortnite purchases to their phone bill.
Is this Epic finally prevailing against the corporate might of Google to give customers a choice? Or is this bloatware? Because preinstalling things for people without their choice can look a lot like bloatware to some. But then, app stores may be different. And yet, if we get lots of other third parties offering app stores, how many of them do we want to be preinstalled? I believe this slope may be slippery.
More Stories
"Android XR: Google's Bold New Vision for Extended Reality" | Android Faithful
"I Tried Google's Android XR Glasses" | Jason Howell
"Google wants Android XR to power your next VR headset and smart glasses" | Android Police
"Android XR and Project Moohan hands-on: Gemini is the killer app" | The Verge
Google announced a new platform for mixed-reality headsets called Android XR. It's a version of the Android Open Source Project customized to work well on headsets. It's Google's first new variant of Android since Android Automotive in 2017. Google built it to integrate its Large Language Model, Gemini. Google thinks AR and VR headsets are a more natural way to interact with Gemini, especially by voice.
Samsung's Project Moohan VR headset will be the first to run Android XR on chips created for that purpose by Qualcomm. Google says other companies, including XReal and Sony, are also working on Android XR devices. Google will run Project Astra on smart glasses that use Android XR as well.
CES, anyone? Jason got a chance to try it out and shared some thoughts on his Substack, but also in the second half of the audio today!
"Harvard and Google to release 1 million public-domain books as AI training dataset | TechCrunch"
"Harvard Is Releasing a Massive Free AI Training Dataset Funded by OpenAI and Microsoft | WIRED"
Harvard and Google will release a training dataset created from one million public-domain books. It's still undetermined if copyright laws prohibit using texts for training without permission, but these books do not fall under copyright, so there is no legal question. The texts were taken from the Google Books initiative and are part of Harvard's Institutional Data Initiative, which is meant to create a “trusted conduit for legal data for AI.”
"FCC Opens Entire 6-GHz Band to Very-Low-Power Device Operations | TV Tech"
The US FCC has opened the 6-Gigahertz band across all 1200 Megahertz for use by very low-power unlicensed devices, including WiFi. Part of the band had already been opened for use by WiFi. Broadcasters had opposed the expansion because they use the band for newsgathering operations, though not for public broadcasting. The FCC opened it in the hopes that it will be used by low-power wireless devices like healthcare devices, learning gadgets, and VR headsets. Those devices will be required to use a contention-based protocol and not be part of fixed outdoor structures.
"YouTube TV Hikes Price by $10 to $83 per Month, up 14%" | Variety
"YouTube TV Hikes Price $10 to $82.99" | The Wrap
Starting December 12, YouTube TV is raising its price from $72.99 a month to $82.00 a month for new users, and effective January 13 for existing users. YouTube says it is “due to the rising cost of content.” It last raised its price in March 2023. YouTube TV is the largest internet-delivered pay TV service of its kind, with around 8 million subscribers. Hulu + Live TV is second, with 4.6 million.
"Google Adds More Bluetooth Tracker Protections to Android" | Thurrott.com
"Android’s Unknown tracker alerts adding ‘Find Nearby’ for FMD" | 9to5Google
"You can now use AirTags to expedite a lost luggage reunion through United’s mobile app" | The Verge
Google added new features to its Unknown Tracker Alerts that let you know if a Bluetooth tracker is tagging along with you without your knowledge. Temporary Pause Location stops the phone's location updates from being used by the unknown tracker, giving you a better chance to find it. Find Nearby guides you to a tracker's location with an on-screen graphic. Unknown Tracker Alerts work with Apple's AirTags as well as several other types of trackers.
In slightly related news, United Airlines now includes Apple's Share Item Location in its iOS app so you can use it to help the airline find things like lost luggage.
"Intel Arc B580 review: The first worthy budget GPU of the decade" | PCWorld
It may seem like a Pyrrhic victory, but Intel's Arc B580 reviews seem fairly positive. OC Gamer sums it up nicely by calling it, "The first worthy budget GPU of the decade. Finally, a good gaming option for PC enthusiasts on a budget!" The main negatives are a slightly higher power draw and slow support for low-latency features.
"It sure looks like OpenAI trained Sora on game content — and legal experts say that could be a problem" | TechCrunch
We don't know if OpenAI trained Sora on gameplay footage or not. But people have used it to simulate Mario, Counter-Strike, and Call of Duty, so it certainly somehow knows what gameplay footage looks like. It also can create video streaming screens that look like an unholy merger of YouTube and Twitch. Even if OpenAI got permission from the video platforms like Twitch, it may not have received permission from the game makers themselves, which could lead to more lawsuits and licensing negotiations.
"Nvidia Steps Up Hiring in China to Focus on AI-Driven Cars" | Bloomberg
"China’s Instagram-Style Xiaohongshu Crosses $1 Billion in Profit" | Bloomberg
A couple of notable tidbits out of China:
Nvidia has added around 200 new positions to its Beijing office as it ramps up efforts to develop products for autonomous cars there. When you can't sell your best AI stuff to the country, you have to do something to make up the gap. It will also help make the Chinese government happier as its 2020 acquisition of Mellanox is now under investigation for antitrust concerns there.
Meanwhile, Xiaohongshu, a Chinese photo-sharing service, just projected it will finish the year with $1 billion in profit and is looking to try an IPO again.
"Australia to force tech giants to keep paying for news" | BBC
Meta has canceled its deals with news publishers in Australia, saying that allowing news links on the platform just isn't an essential thing, so it's not worth the money. Australia's government says it is now preparing a successor law to the one requiring negotiations for payments.
This new law would require companies that earn more than A$250m ($160m; £125m) in annual revenue to make commercial deals with news organizations or pay higher taxes—even if they don't carry news content. Australia is saying that social media platforms, specifically Meta, Google, and TikTok, must subsidize journalism in the country whether the platforms benefit from it directly or not.
"Google says feedback shows old search result format is bad for hotels" | Yahoo Finance
Remember when Google told the EU it would test what happened if it provided a good old-fashioned list of ten blue links for certain hotel search results? Well, it conducted the test in Germany, Belgium, and Estonia. Instead of maps and algorithmically personalized results, it just showed the links.
Google says after a week it found that "People were measurably less satisfied with their search results," and "traffic to hotels and intermediary sites went down." Google has submitted the results to the European Commission to request their feedback on finding a solution that strikes a balance between preferencing Google's own results and providing unbiased results for third parties.
Interesting Reads
"Calif. man arrested at SFO, allegedly flew drone over military base" | SFGate
"Mexico uses AI-powered app to reduce suicides in Yucatán" | Rest of World
"Amazon Paused Rollout of Microsoft Office for a Year After Hacks" | Bloomberg
"Malaysia’s internet crackdown forces creators to self-censor" | Rest of World
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