Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Google I/O 2021 will be held live online, different from offline venues in previous years. Two hours of Keynote speech, Google densely showed a large number of its product line updates, including Chinese developers concerned about Android 12 and TPU V4, the following is the nugget of the Keynote all content.
Keynote speech
The keynote, which began with the slogan “Building a more Helpful Google for Everyone,” aims to help users at important moments. Google, for example, recently added 150,000 kilometers of bike lanes to Google Maps. A new green route option has also been added to Google Maps, which will plan the most fuel-efficient route for users. Another feature, called safe Routes, will use machine learning to determine the safest route for users based on weather and real-time traffic conditions.
Google Workspaces launches Smart Canvas
Google is adding a new collaboration tool to Workspaces called Smart Canvas, which looks like a packaged and integrated product from Asana, Google’s forms, document and task management service. If you have used the flying book document, you will be familiar with the Smart Canvas function.
Google Meet is also integrated into the smart canvas, allowing users to communicate in real time while editing a document. Later this year, you’ll be able to join Meet video calls while collaborating on Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide. Google Meet also adds improvements to noise cancellation, while integrating artificial intelligence to improve video quality, optimize framing and focus, and provide translation capabilities.
Google Translate and natural language platform LaMDA
Last month, Google translated 20 billion web pages into its Chrome browser, which is a very large number.
Google also unveiled LaMDA, a natural language platform that is still in research and development within the company. The live use of LaMDA as Pluto simulates a conversation with the user, a conversation that naturally transcends the current mainstream voice assistant level. Another similar demonstration had LaMDA play the role of a paper airplane and talk to the user. Both conversations, while a bit odd, showed the puzzling circuits of an engineering student’s brain, but it did give the impression that Google was thinking about a future of voice interaction via computers or mobile phones. Google will include LaMDA in Google Assistant and search, and is working on ways to make the natural language platform available to developers.
TPU V4
TPU is in its fourth generation and has been applied to quantum computer technology. The TPU V4 is more than twice as fast as the TPU V3, and there are 4,096 V4 chips in a single Pod. TPU V4 delivers 10^18 floating-point operations per second on one Pod, which is awesome. That’s almost double the peak performance of the Fuyuak supercomputer, which topped the latest Top500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers, with a peak performance of about 540,000 teraFLOPS.
Google has said in the past that its TPU Pod has lower numerical accuracy than traditional supercomputers, making it easier to achieve such speeds. Deep learning models, such as voice or image recognition, do not require as precise calculations as traditional supercomputers, while TPU is mainly used to simulate the behavior of human organs or calculate the trajectory of the space shuttle.
“This is the fastest computing system we’ve ever deployed at Google, and it’s a historic milestone for us,” Chop said.
A big part of what makes TPU POD so fast is the interconnect technology that turns hundreds of individual processors into a single system. TPU POD features “interconnect bandwidth per chip 10 times that of other networking technologies.”
Chikwood said it would be available to developers by the end of the year, but as is Google’s custom, it’s already difficult for developers to get access to the last version of V3 by the end of the year.
Quantum computer
The image above shows Google’s quantum computer.
Google has begun building a new, larger quantum computing research center that will employ hundreds of people, in the latest sign of growing competition for magnitude computing talent. The new Quantum Computing Research Center in Santa Barbara, California, is Google’s first quantum computing lab and already employs dozens of researchers and engineers.
Google’s browser has updated its password tool
More integrated password managers are coming for Google and Android users. You can now import passwords into Google from other managers.
The most obvious improvement to Google’s built-in password manager is that it now advises you when to change your password. When it finds out that your password has been compromised, it will automatically guide you through the password change process. If you choose to change your password, Chrome will go to the site and guide you through the password change process, which will first be available on Android Chrome.
Google has enhanced privacy controls
For example, you can now delete recent search history from your Google account with just a few clicks, Maps will give you the option to turn off location history, and Google Photos will have a locked folder to help you keep your most private photos. All account activity data is automatically deleted after 18 months. You can change the amount of time you want Google to keep personal and private data related to your account. So far, 2 billion accounts have auto-delete enabled.
Search is getting some big updates
Google is developing new tools to improve search results and give users more search options. One example used in the keynote was to take a picture of a pair of boots and ask if they could be used to hike across Mount Fuji. The system then analyzes the boots in the photos and provides the required answer. Google is adding an “about this Result” feature to all of its English-language search results worldwide, providing key information and context for various websites and services. The purpose is to provide valuable, helpful, and accurate information from trusted sources.
Google Maps is getting some of its new features
You can now get more information about your business when using the VR live view of Google Maps. Hold up your phone, point the camera at a restaurant, and the new VR view will show people’s reviews and highlight street signs and even elevator alerts in an airfield. This is to make it easier for you to navigate and explore new cities. In addition, Google Maps will also get a more detailed street map view, making the map look more realistic.
Google Maps search results will also automatically adjust according to the time of day. Open the map early in the morning, for example, and coffee shops will display larger ICONS, or sandwich shops will have larger thumbtacks later in the day.
Use Google Lens to take photos and shop
You can use Google Lens to take pictures or identify screenshots and search for products you can buy online. For example, if you take a picture of someone wearing a pair of shoes you want, Google Lens can identify the shoes and tell you where to buy them. Sounds like taobao’s photo recognition function.
Google’s browser will soon have an option to show you all the items in your online shopping cart. Google will then look for any available coupons to see if there are ways to save even more money. Chrome will also monitor the items in your cart and alert you when prices drop.
Google Photos has 4 trillion photos, but almost no one sees them
Google is bringing a new AI feature to photos called Little Patterns. These patterns will identify photos with three similar objects in your account and then put them in the album. Google also wants to improve your photo browsing experience. Google will now create cinema-like photos by taking two similar photos and using artificial intelligence to create an animated image.
Finally, Google Photos is working on a tool that will make it easy to delete a person, or a time period in your life, from your photo archive. For example, hide an ex who keeps popping up in your awesome collection 🐶.
Android 12 update to Material You and open beta version
Tired of Android’s official color scheme and night mode? The new Material You allows users to customize the system and app color scheme by selecting their favorite colors from a customized palette, rather than the system’s own color scheme. And it’s not just for mobile systems. Your favorite designs will sync from your phone to other platforms, including Chrome OS, wearables, smart displays and “everything from Google.”
Overall, Android 12 looks like a massive redesign, possibly the biggest change to the operating system since Material Design in 2014. Material You will also include new UI elements and will be easy to adapt to many different screen sizes and different devices. Matias Duarte says Material You isn’t just about color, it’s also about accessibility. You can adjust features such as contrast, size, line width, and other features to match the visual look to your needs. Also, third-party apps will be able to use your Material You Settings.
Google’s Sameer Samat gave some details on how this visual redesign will work in his Android 12 share. The system will use a “color extraction” technique to analyze your wallpaper and identify the primary, complementary, and “great looking” colors. These colors are then applied across the entire operating system, including notification bars, lock screens, widgets, and more.
Material You will be pushed to Pixel phones this fall, and Duarte said it will be rolled out to more Google products next year. Given the historical performance of Material Design’s rapid expansion from Android to all Of Google’s products, we expect this transition to happen soon. If you can’t wait until the fall, try the Android 12 public beta, available today.
Among them, Google Pixel phones will get three major updates:
- Android 12 with the new Material You interface
- Lock folder in Google Photos to protect sensitive photos
- Real image quality that makes people of all skin tones look “natural” in photos
The first wave of support includes 11 handset manufacturers, including OnePlus, Lenovo, Asus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Tecno, TCL, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE.
Better cooperation with the industry
Android users will soon have a built-in app that converts their phone into a remote control to control the Android TV operating system. Automakers are also integrating wireless capabilities in Android cars, and some cars will even allow you to use your Android phone as a digital key to your car.
Google WearOS is deeply integrated with Tizen
The pairing of Samsung and Google, which integrates Google WearOS with Samsung’s Tizen wearable operating system, means WearOS has faster apps, longer battery life, ultra-long heart rate monitoring, and massive developer support. Developers will create apps for one platform and publish them simultaneously in the Play Store.
Meanwhile, Google-owned Fitbit will integrate its platform into Wear later this year, and the company will begin work on a Wear-based Fitbit device this fall.
Project Starline
Google has unveiled Project Starline, which uses a high-resolution camera and depth sensor to create a 3D image of a person in a video interaction as realistic as sitting across from us.
That’s all for the 2021 Google I/O Keynote. What features are you most looking forward to? Welcome to dig friends comment discussion.