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How Google Software Won 2018 (engadget.com)
Google is relatively new to the hardware game -- at least compared to rivals Apple and Samsung. But it's not just what's outside that matters. An analysis, by Engadget : The Pixel 3 is the best example. Physically, the phone is a more premium version of the Pixel 2. But aside from that, nothing about the Pixel 3's design makes me yearn for the phone. In fact, the 3 XL even has one of the biggest screen notches in the market, which some people find hideous. And yet, the Pixel 3s were still one of our favorite phones of the year, and ended up on our best gadgets list. But if you can stomach the notch, or don't mind using the smaller phone, then boy, will you be blown away by Google's software. Let's start with my favorite -- Call Screening.
On the Pixels, you can have Assistant field calls for you without having to answer the phone or even say a single word. It's easy to dismiss this feature as simply a glorified voice messaging system, but it's so much more than that. Assistant will ask your caller what they want, transcribe what they're saying in real time and suggest actions for you. Say you realize it's your doctor calling. You could ask them more questions, dictate a real time reply, or use a preset action like hang up or promise to call back. Can your voicemail do that? I don't think so.
[...] Nowhere is the importance of software exemplified as effectively as it is in Google's imaging algorithms, which are so powerful they helped the Pixel 3 nab the smartphone camera crown in our tests. Not only can the phones capture clear, colorful pictures with just a single rear camera, but the Pixels produced the nicest Portrait mode effects using pure software alone. And with the magical Night Sight mode, Google easily kicked Apple and Samsung's butts in low light photography, turning dark, noisy pictures into shots that look like they were taken in daytime. [...] Counter-point: DxOMark's Pixel 3 camera score shows AI isn't enough.
On the Pixels, you can have Assistant field calls for you without having to answer the phone or even say a single word. It's easy to dismiss this feature as simply a glorified voice messaging system, but it's so much more than that. Assistant will ask your caller what they want, transcribe what they're saying in real time and suggest actions for you. Say you realize it's your doctor calling. You could ask them more questions, dictate a real time reply, or use a preset action like hang up or promise to call back. Can your voicemail do that? I don't think so.
[...] Nowhere is the importance of software exemplified as effectively as it is in Google's imaging algorithms, which are so powerful they helped the Pixel 3 nab the smartphone camera crown in our tests. Not only can the phones capture clear, colorful pictures with just a single rear camera, but the Pixels produced the nicest Portrait mode effects using pure software alone. And with the magical Night Sight mode, Google easily kicked Apple and Samsung's butts in low light photography, turning dark, noisy pictures into shots that look like they were taken in daytime. [...] Counter-point: DxOMark's Pixel 3 camera score shows AI isn't enough.
Google software is a piece of shit.
YOU are the product.
I hope some of these Pixel features will shame Apple into action.
If only Google wasn't such an untrustworthy piece of shit...
Android is full of malware. No thanks. Nice ad though.
"And yet, the Pixel 3s were still one of our favorite phones of the year, and ended up on our best gadgets list.>
"Our"? Who is he talking to? Where does he get off making claims for "us"? I don't even have a "best gadgets" list.
Why do I get asked to login to your site before I’m given a chance to read the article?
#DeleteChrome
The name "Google Assitant" is very pertinent here. It's not your assistant, it's Google's assistant. This means that Google knows (in detail) what someone is calling you about/for. But nobody cares about inviting Google into their life like this any more, do they? I mean it's not like it is the government doing this. Except that the government can subpoena or ortherwise make representation to find all this out and because Google isn't a telecommunications provider, the rules and regulations regarding long term storage, etc, of your data that would apply to your local telco do not apply.
DxOMark is the most obvious paid reviewer website ever. I don't have proof, but man that top 10 can't fool anyone.
KILL YOURSELF and make the world a better place.
What is impressive of software that doesn't let you do what you want? Seriously. I can't even record my calls. Simple feature that should be easily enabled on my phone. But no. It is disabled by Google software on their hardware. Can we stop giving credit to companies who cant't get the basics right. The software prevents me from using MY phone legally. Google even went out of their way to disable the feature. How can this even be considered great.
The other day I was just talking and Google assistant jumped in telling me it can't help with my request. There was none made. I'm not impressed I'm bored. I have real tasks to handle on a regular basis where Google software gets in the way.
If my doctors calls I would much prefer to automatically record the conversation in case I misinterpret his instructions not have a stupid assistant possibly give them the wrong message.
Not to mention the hardware/software integration is over rated and flaky especially that stupid dongle. I think /. is looking for stories on a slow day.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
of course not, but then my answering machine doesn't spy on me nor does its manufacturer profit from the data gathered or messages left, either.
My SO has been quietly using her Chrombook for a couple years. Never am I asked to "fix it" or clean-up virus or anything. The damn thing just works. And all along Google has been updateing Chrome OS periodically with new features and improved security. I hadn't looked at her Chromebook in ages but recently I took a peek to see what her DNS settings were. I think I reset them to Cloudlfare 1.1.1.1. Whatever. But while I was poking around I noticed a new setting. It was "Run Linux". Chromeos has quietly added an option to run Linux applications on Chromeos. I was blown away. That is really cool but non-techie. Evidently you just click this optioin in settings. No need for special boot loaders or rooting or anything. Pretty amazing stuff from a corporate monster.
...their 'Assistant' can detect that it is a scam artist or robo-caller on the line and can try and waste as much of their time as possible. They simply will not go away until it becomes very expensive to find those 'suckers' that P.T. Barnum told us about. If it costs them 10 minutes of a real person's time (even if it is some poor guy in India) every single time they robo-call someone and they get nothing in return (because you were just pretending to look for your 'lost' credit card), then they will eventually stop trying. Call blockers or Do Not Call lists or laws will do nothing to stop them.
Choo-choo! Dog food that gets pooped out on astroturf is still nothing but shit.
They have to be. I don't care who does it but it has to be done.
Corporatism != Free Market
The market spoke for us.
That shit chrome OS/Android mashup was rejected again. Yet again they didn't deliver a proper tablet Android version. Pixel 3 didn't achieve more than modest market share.
This "winning" you speak of? You're saying Google's AI team fixed up the shit of the other teams and management?
Software is not what he thinks, it is definitely not a name for this or tha tablet .
"How x won y". What a stupid, mindless, clickbait title. It means nothing.
I don't respond to AC's.
Let folks think freely... Quality of life... ?
[($)]
No matter what you do a phone's images are going to be fucking shit in low light. HDR isnt a solution at all.
And if you try to use BOKEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH in any serious way in an article you are just a fucking wanker. BOKEHHHHHH on a smart phone? HAHAHAHAHAHA get fucked.
Call screening is a service, not software. The only software that the article mentions is user interfaces. That is not Google's strong point. If Google "won 2018" in any way, whatever that is supposed to mean, with any feat of software, it would be in the updates to Chrome OS to add more application compatibility.
A happy boxing day my friend! I hope your Christmas was whiter than could be imagined. Looking forward to the New Year and great things for the White Race. A very merry Sieg Heil to you and yours!
If you don't pick up when I call you, I will stop calling you, and the second I know I'm talking to a machine I hang up. I don't care if you're screening calls the old fashioned way or with the help of an ad-company. No, I will not follow up with a message either. Don't get a phone number if you're not going to answer the phone.
Why is this advertisement appearing in my feed? And what happened to slashdot?
the best software in the world canâ(TM)t change the fact that I donâ(TM)t trust Google as far as I can throw them.
That and they suck at interface design.
Say you realize it's your doctor calling. You could ask them more questions, dictate a real time reply, or use a preset action like hang up or promise to call back. Can your voicemail do that? I don't think so.
Wait, what?
So instead of, you know, talking to my doctor's office when they call, I can now listen and watch some weird interface, and then clumsily choose from preset actions in real time, hopefully before they say "WTF?" and hang up on "me"?
Wow, that's great! Thanks Google!!
"How x won y". What a stupid, mindless, clickbait title. It means nothing.
Of course it means something. Google won! Not sure what competition they were in, but they won! Woot.
*nm*
Welcome back you useless piece of shite.
This ain't.
Keep your comedy posts elsewhere.
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