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Google Is Shutting Down Project Tango (androidpolice.com)

Google announced that it is ending support for Project Tango, the company's first attempt to bring a solid augmented-reality experience to the average user. The project used an array of cameras and sensors to accurately map 3D areas, causing the devices support Tango to be relatively large and expensive. Android Police reports: The first Tango device put into production was the "Peanut" phone, which was given to early access partners in 2014. Then came the "Yellowstone" 7-inch tablet, which was initially sold for $1,024 before a massive price drop to $512. The only other devices with Project Tango were the Lenovo Phab2 Pro, which wasn't a very good phone to start off with, and the ZenFone AR. This move isn't entirely surprising, now that Google is working on a software-only solution called ARCore. Not only is ARCore similar to Tango in functionality, but it doesn't require specialized hardware like Tango does.

37 comments

  1. Thanks Obama! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is all Obamas fault!

    1. Re:Thanks Obama! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please tell me this post is Poe’s Law in action... The stupid. It burns!

    2. Re:Thanks Obama! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But what about the islamists in America?

    3. Re:Thanks Obama! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hal porter you are one dumb cocksucker but this takes the cake - even for you. Trump and Mattis DID NOT DO JACK SHIT about stopping ISIS. You're a moron lol. Learn to read so you know something about this, then spout.

    4. Re: Thanks Obama! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You bastard, you are one of Putin's cyberliars, aren't you? It's only Russians, Iranians and Syrians who repeat such lying garbage and there are hardly any of the last two here.

    5. Re: Thanks Obama! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama created ISIS in the first place, to force proxy war in Syria, you shill.

  2. NO! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    First AIM goes offline and now this?! I haven't been this surprised by upsetting news since I lost all my money in the bitcoin crash on January 7, 2018! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:NO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, terrible. I never used either. I didn't even know about Tango. This causes an existential crisis: Do I even exist?

  3. parse error. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously.

  4. Re:Missed opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your post should have been merged with /dev/null.

  5. Google: The ADHD addled child of Corporate America by Jarwulf · · Score: 1

    Chasing after every shiny fad. The only thing they can really pay attention to is hoovering up PI and going on jihads against engineers who dare to say men and women are carbon copies of each other.

  6. Re:Google: The ADHD addled child of Corporate Amer by Jarwulf · · Score: 1

    Chasing after every shiny fad. The only thing they can really pay attention to is hoovering up PI and going on jihads against engineers who dare to say men and women are carbon copies of each other.

    *aren't*

  7. Irony? / Sadness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I find it rather ironic(?) and a bit sad that so many products these days only get /. coverage when they're getting the axe.
    One of the main points of visiting a "news for nerds" site is to find cool new products early... or at least before they get canceled.

    My opinion: If the product hasn't been in multiple front page stories here, then the product's demise is not newsworthy and shouldn't make it to the front page.

    tl;dr: "We're announcing that we're canceling $(cool_thing_you_never_heard_of_but_probably_wish_you_had_before_it_was_canceled). Have a nice day!"

    1. Re: Irony? / Sadness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How old are you that you havenâ(TM)t heard of Project Tango? This is also the first time I have heard of ARCore.

    2. Re: Irony? / Sadness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Early 40s.

  8. Re:Google: The ADHD addled child of Corporate Amer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and going on jihads against engineers who dare to say men and women are carbon copies of each other.

    Except Damore was saying something far beyond this. Way to leave that nuance out.

  9. Next up Android Lite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Next up for the chopping block, the Android for phones with less than 1GB of RAM they've just announced/released.

    It has no purpose, nobody will make a cheaper phone running this, the cost of a phone is how much people will pay for it, not the price of the RAM in it.

    There's some seriously piss poor management in Google these days.

    1. Re: Next up Android Lite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If people want cheap android, it's already available in the form of "last years phone" - why would anyone spend engineering resources on making a hobbled new SKU?

      It's not like either of them are going to get software updates, so support costs are basically the same...

    2. Re:Next up Android Lite by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      the cost of a phone is how much people will pay for it, not the price of the RAM in it.

      180 degrees out.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  10. now that Google is working on a software-only solu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that Google is working to copy Apple's implementation because it has been "good enough"

    There, FTFY

  11. Re: Missed opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google should merge with dingus.com

  12. Re:Google: The ADHD addled child of Corporate Amer by rtb61 · · Score: 1

    The more VR spread, the more apparent it became how biological incompatible it is with the majority of people. Sure a bit of fun but for the majority, using it for hours, yeah, nah and or some not at all, nauseatingly impossible and that was bound to game style, some much worse than others. Pretty good guide, would be numbers for sea sicknesses and not tiny waves, but big sustained waves, "Roughly one third of the population are highly susceptible to motion sickness and most of the rest may get motion sickness under extreme conditions." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... . Some can make it through no problems but most struggle and some much worse than others, apparently something like 30%.

    So VR out by 3D in glasses stills survives, they just need to be far more compact, lighter, more comfortable and preferably custom fitted, lenses and frame. Not cheap but can turn any mobile phone into a 125" screen 6 ft away and people will pay for that, quite a bit and a whole lot more sans motion sickness.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  13. Why do developers still use Google nonsense??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They constantly throw out tools then abandon them. We got screwed on GWT, Google Code, App Engine (which is very badly maintained and remarkably costly for real world).

    We learned our lesson but people keep falling for their nonsense. I learned from Parse, JavaFX and the shitload of Google "hobbies"... Don't trust US based corporations who build stuff outside of their main focus area. Their CEO's believe in "focusing" and just don't give a shit over us... The problem is that most developers look at it in the exact opposite way which is ludicrous: "Oh it's from Google".

    1. Re: Why do developers still use Google nonsense??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speak for yourself! Many of us have known they were inept and disengenuous boobs out to make a buck through any means necessary for many years. It begs the real question: why do YOU keep falling for it? I haven't used anything of theirs that was actually within my control since 2007, haven't missed any of it. I also haven't lost any time recovering from their utter failures of imagination or recognition of the limits of reality. They are pathetic and have been almost from day one. If they disappeared tomorrow, hardly anyone would notice.

  14. News? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Outflanked and outdesigned by Apple, project goes from jewel to jail while Apple shines.

  15. Don't worry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ARcore will be shut down too in a few years for being unrealistic, unreliable, or simply not very functional or useful. Speculation is great for entertainment, in real life it's nice when things have a pragmatic reason to exist.

  16. Re:Google: The ADHD addled child of Corporate Amer by swillden · · Score: 1

    You didn't read the summary. Google isn't abandoning the goals of project Tango, just the approach. They think they can do it with typical cameras and software, rather than needing specialized hardware.

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  17. Re:Google: The ADHD addled child of Corporate Amer by swillden · · Score: 1

    The more VR spread, the more apparent it became how biological incompatible it is with the majority of people.

    Project Tango wasn't about VR. It was somewhat about AR, but not very much, or perhaps it's more precise to say that AR was a stretch goal. Mostly it was about 3D mapping of the environment.

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  18. I was close to buying the Zenphone for that reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Glad I didn't. Seems like Google is moving in the direction of Microsoft where they bring cool things to the table and nobody wants to put time money, and effort into a new technology unless it's an automatic success. Reminds me of people wanting to make money fast without any work. Things take time to grow. I hope Hololens doesn't go away and MS keeps with that technology at least.

  19. You Wouldn't Block With Paul Lynde by Pauldow · · Score: 1

    What's with today's joke line at the bottom at the page?

    ""Paul Lynde to block..." -- a contestant on "Hollywood Squares""

    Paul Lynde was always at the center square of the tic-tac-toe board, so he was almost always picked first. It would have been extremely rare for him to be picked to be a block.

    Wally Cox - Now there's your solid blocking move.

  20. shocking ... by Hugh+Jorgen · · Score: 0

    Of course Google is shutting down another project in which consumers were duped. Want to shutdown an internal project that didn't generate revenue or contribute to mass consumerism, ok. But Google doing this to "customers" is ever increasing.

  21. stop support or stop working? by someoneOtherThanMe · · Score: 1

    Does anybody know whether that means existing Tango-based applications will stop working, or just that you won't be able to record new environments anymore, or even just that there will be no more updates/support effort? (I am not very familiar with it, don't know if it does any server-side stuff or is all processing in the device.)

  22. Re:Google: The ADHD addled child of Corporate Amer by rtb61 · · Score: 1

    AR is still a good idea, again eliminating motion and adding information to the environment, control is awkward, corporations can simply not be trusted and the wrong image at the wrong time will cause accidents, then the is the threat of subliminal imaging. Still a good idea if done right, for a start people could always be wearing what are properly fitted protective glasses, you protect you feet, why wouldn't you protect you eyes. The best thing is a smart phone in your pocket you never need to take it, basically a remote screen, protecting your eyes, hell, when driving hook it up to the car for driving data. AR is a good idea, how it is implemented will be problematic.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen