Google

Google thinks I’m dead

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New York Times:

For much of the last week, I have been trying to persuade the world’s most powerful search engine to remove my photo from biographical details that belong to someone else. A search for “Rachel Abrams” revealed that Google had mashed my picture from The New York Times’s website with the Wikipedia entry for a better-known writer with the same name, who died in 2013.

And:

When an acquaintance said she was alarmed to read that I had passed away, it seemed like an error worth correcting.

And so began the quest to convince someone at Google that I am alive.

This is a riveting story, a trip down the rabbit hole trying to convince Google to change something they are locked in certain is correct.

This reminds me of another story, about Google’s algorithmic approach to deleting videos they found objectionable, which cut funding from videos that got caught in the bigger sweep. To read about this, Google (ironically) the term adpocalypse.

Matt Birchler: Android Oreo, as seen through the eyes of an iOS user

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Matt Birchler has his magnum opus, a massive 8-part, 13,000 word review of Android Oreo. But written with iOS in mind.

It’s a worthwhile read, lots of talking points, a chance to see what switching to Android would be like.

If you are considering the move, read this first. Nice job, Matt.

Android to iPhone: What I’ve liked about switching to the iPhone X

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This is a two part series, written by David Ruddock, Android Police.

The first part, titled, I’ve never used an iPhone, part one: Switching to the iPhone X and first thoughts, ran a few weeks ago.

The second part, titled, Android to iPhone, part two: What I’ve liked about switching to the iPhone X, ran last week.

There’s a lot to process in these two posts. Some of the comments reflect someone new to the iPhone X and new to iOS. But all in all, solid takes, both the negative and positive.

A couple of highlights from the most recent post:

When I first started using iMessage, I immediately appreciated how much it modernized my texting experience (I do a fair bit of SMSing) when chatting with my iPhone-using friends and family.

And:

I would use an iMessage client for Android in a heartbeat if Apple were to release one. Even if it were terrible, I’d probably seriously entertain paying a subscription for such a thing. It’s not about iMessage being amazing or revolutionary or even an especially good messaging client – it’s just about using the same platform as my friends and family and being able to have those conversation move seamlessly across devices and operating systems.

And:

I know a lot of people turn off haptic feedback on their smartphone. That is because, I have now learned, essentially every Android smartphone has absolutely awful haptics. Your $930 Galaxy Note8 has haptic feedback that is, frankly, bad. So does every other Android phone. Yes, the difference is that clear after going to the iPhone X.

Apple’s Taptic Engine doesn’t just buzz – it clicks, it taps, it knocks. And it can do so with an incredible range of intensities and precision.

And:

I do miss intelligent package tracking being pulled directly from my Gmail (versus now just getting Amazon tracking, which is a bit of a downgrade).

This last was an interesting core difference between iOS and Android. I do see the Android advantage in reading all my emails and understanding that I’ve got a package coming, weaving intel about the package into my notifications.

But the issue is privacy and what is done with my private information. Google profits off the shared details of its users, in the form of steered and focused advertising. That is the price you pay for more informed device intelligence. That price makes me uncomfortable.

All in all, an insightful read.

3 top reasons people dump Android for iPhone

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Jonny Evans, writing for Computerworld, on the top reasons switchers are switching to iPhone, as laid out by Creative Strategies. Though the title might seem click-baity, the logic is thoughtful.

A taste:

Today’s smartphone user may have subscriptions with multiple such services. They are also likely to own multiple devices, and that’s where the problem emerges. In contrast to competitors, Apple’s platforms are far better at syncing passwords, settings, images and other items between all your devices using the same Apple ID. You can even set up a new iPhone just by tapping it with your old one in iOS 11.

That kind of convenience makes it so much easier for consumers rapidly engaging in a multi-device, multiple-service, cross platform digital existence. This sync extends across to Apple’s Macs, of course.

Solid read.

Featured Snippets: The latest frontier in Google search and discovery

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Google blog:

Featured Snippets are algorithmically generated highlights of what’s available on the web that provide quick, relevant answers for your queries. Today, we’ve added more images and related searches inside select Featured Snippets to help you learn even more about your topic, or to discover new things related to your interest.

If you use Google for search, you’ve no doubt encountered Featured Snippets, a block of info at the very top of your search results, often with exactly the info you need.

Two interesting reads:

Apple’s HomePod isn’t about Siri, but rather the future of home audio

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Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider:

Rather than being the phenomenal, exciting new product category launch that pundits love to praise, the Alexa-powered Echo is Amazon’s salvaged booby prize for failing in smartphones: a few million units sold at low margin, versus the tens of millions of smartphones other Android licensees have been able to sell (or the hundreds of millions of high-margin iPhones Apple has been selling each year).

Ouch. But I agree with the premise. The Echo is a highly successful pivot. If Amazon’s 2014 Fire phone had caught on, it’s not clear that they would have gone down the Echo path.

Echo and related Alexa-based smart speakers are really “smart mics” for listening to commands. Amazon’s retail background works to leverage this to take online orders from Alexa users, but its original goal in hardware was a mobile phone with a camera, display and mic all working together to identify potential products to sell, not just a simple voice appliance. Amazon laid this out in excited detail at the Fire Phone launch, it just wasn’t able to sell it.

And:

Google’s Home is a straight up knock off of Echo, designed to counter the threat of Amazon reaching audiences of online buyers before they ever think to search Google.

And:

HomePod isn’t a “smart mic” seeking to force Siri into more places to intercept users’ attention. Despite cloying narratives of how Amazon is dominating the “smart speaker” market it created out of necessity after Fire Phone imploded in a cloud of smoke, Apple has always had a commanding lead in the number of people using its Siri voice assistant worldwide.

And:

Unlike Amazon, Apple isn’t trying to intercept buyers before they head to a retail store. Apple’s happy with connecting users with either stores or online retailers; Apple Pay works for both, and iOS apps create a blurring line that serves either, or both at the same time. Apple’s Siri doesn’t attempt to keep people out of rival apps or stores; it seeks to help them launch apps to find whatever they need.

And:

HomePod responds to Siri commands and passes them to your iPhone for launching apps or presenting a visual answer. But HomePod isn’t just a “smart mic” like Echo and Home. Primarily, It’s an intelligent speaker designed to produce exceptional home audio that intelligently fills whatever space it is installed in.

These are just snippets. There is so much more to process in this insightful, well written post, but the quotes laid out above should give you a basic sense of where Daniel is going with this.

Terrific job, definitely worth your time.

Android Oreo: An iOS user’s review

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Matt Birchler, in the introduction to a week long review of the Pixel 2 running Android Oreo:

I have been using the Google Pixel 2, which is the latest and greatest Android phone out there. I chose this phone for my experiment because I wanted to leave no room for my conclusions to be colored by a bad OEM skin on top of Android or by a lower quality phone as my comparisons to iOS should be as fair as possible. Since I wanted to review Oreo, a Pixel was my only option in October, and thankfully that Pixel has top of the like specs and the best Android camera out there. This is Android how Google intended it.

And, then, this TL;DR conclusion:

Android has grown up considerably over the last decade. It’s no longer a complete disaster of a user experience, and some elements have actually surpassed what Apple is doing with iOS. Notifications are much better than they are on iOS and Google Assistant is more accurate and more helpful than Siri. that said, there are a million little (and not so little) things that truly make Android a sub-par experience for me. Your milage may vary, but the abysmal third party software available for the platform, poor inter-app communication, and countless stability issues make Android a place I only want to visit for a month or two per year, not something I can see myself using full time.

Hop over to the front page of Matt’s blog to dig in. He’s got the intro and the first two parts of the review up on the site.

A peek inside Google’s X ‘moonshot factory’

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This is a fascinating glimpse of Google’s R&D organization, known as X. What I found most fascinating, was the coverage of one of the earliest X moonshots, Project Loon:

Loon took the spotlight in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which knocked out power and communications for nearly all of Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million residents.

Before the storm, Project Loon’s team had been working on an AI-based navigation system that can keep high-altitude balloons over a given area for weeks or months at a time to provide aerial internet connections. Peru was the primary testing ground, and Puerto Rico was one of the launch sites. After the hurricane hit, the focus shifted to filling the gap in Puerto Rico. The team quickly worked out arrangements with Puerto Rico’s government and federal authorities as well as AT&T and T-Mobile to boost connectivity.

And:

X says Project Loon is currently providing basic internet connectivity for more than 100,000 people in Puerto Rico.

Loon may not be as well known as Google’s self-driving vehicle project, Waymo, but Project Loon has achieved a real-world impact.

Apple: 52% of devices are now using iOS 11

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Apple has updated their pie chart. Amazingly, more than half of all devices have updated to iOS 11, which was released less than 2 months ago. Let’s take a look at the adoption rates of iOS and Android side by […]

Some Google Pixel 2 XL oleophobic coatings are already wearing off, leaving behind smudges

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Ben Schoon, 9to5Google:

Almost every Android smartphone ships with an oleophobic coating on the glass, and the purpose of that is to help make fingerprints easier to get off of the display. In short, it keeps the oil from your fingertips from adhering to the glass, and it also makes water easier to wipe away.

Over time, this coating wears off, but it usually takes at least a few months or years of intense usage. On the Pixel 2 XL, however, some owners are having this come up within just a couple of weeks.

iPhones have shipped with an oleophobic coating, starting with the iPhone 3GS. This is mature technology. Surprising to see this issue crop up with the Pixel 2.

I’ve got an email in to Google PR asking about this issue, will update this post if and when I get a reply.

Google officially addresses Pixel 2 issues, doubles warranty to 2 years

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From the Google Forums:

Since launch, we’ve also received reports of suspected issues related to the Pixel 2 XL display. We take these reports very seriously and wanted to provide an update. First, there’s been some feedback about the Pixel 2 XL displays not appearing as vibrant as other phones, and in the past few days, there have been a small number of reports of differential aging (also referred to as “burn-in”) on the Pixel 2 XL’s pOLED screen.

And:

Regarding differential aging, we put all of our products through extensive quality assurance before launch and in the manufacturing of every unit. Thorough testing of the Pixel 2 XL display shows that its decay characteristics are similar to OLED panels used in comparable products. Our current investigation of burn-in, which started as soon as we received the first user report on October 22, confirms that the differential aging is in line with that of other premium smartphones and should not affect the normal, day-to-day user experience of the Pixel 2 XL. Regardless, we use software to safeguard the user experience and maximize the life of the OLED display, and we’ll make ongoing software updates to optimize further.

And:

We’re very confident that the Pixel 2 delivers an exceptional smartphone experience, and to give users peace of mind, every Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL will now come with a 2-year warranty worldwide.

Hard to know how to react to this. The way I read it, the burn-in is being sold as normal, nothing to see here, move along. If this is the case, there should be reports of burn-in on all OLED displays, no?

As to the Pixel 2 color issues, there’s a detailed explanation in this Google Forums post. It focuses on the Pixel 2 XL using wide Display P3 color gamut, white point temperature settings, and old school sRGB being translated into that space.

Lots to process, props to Google for doubling the warranty.

Collection of Google Maps tips

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If you are religious about Apple Maps, avert your eyes. Me, I use Apple Maps and Google Maps pretty equally.

With the exception of the “OK, Google” tip at the beginning, this is a useful list. Ignore the upper-left, lower-right sorts of references, as this seems written primarily for Android. But the tips work in the iOS Google Maps app.

Worthwhile read.

Facebook and Apple can’t agree on terms, so Facebook’s subscription tool will only launch on Android phones

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Peter Kafka, Recode:

Facebook’s effort to help media companies sell subscriptions has hit a snag: Apple.

The two companies are butting heads over Facebook’s plan for a new subscription tool in its mobile app. The tool will put paywalls around some articles in Facebook’s news feed, and then send users to publishers’ sites to buy subscriptions.

The issue: Apple wants to take as much as 30 percent of any subscription revenue Facebook helps generate. Facebook wants all of the money to go to publishers.

This is nothing new. The 30 percent model has been in place since inception. But:

People familiar with Facebook’s plans say Google won’t take a cut of subscriptions users sign up for using its Android operating system.

And there’s the rub. I don’t think there are many people who will switch platforms because of this issue. This is about the publishers.

Note that not every publisher likes Facebook’s subscription plan. Notable holdouts from the test plan the company is announcing today include the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

And you can see why. Both the NYT and WSJ have existing paywalls that work for them. This is a complex problem, one I hope gets resolved quickly.

Netflix hides their viewing numbers, but Nielsen uses audio recognition software for a clue

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John Koblin, New York Times:

In the five years since Netflix started streaming original series like the Emmy-winning “House of Cards” and “Master of None,” the shows have had a question hanging over them: How many people are watching?

Outside of Netflix, nobody knows the answer.

But Nielsen (the people who, for decades, have been crunching data to tell us who is watching what) has worked out a scheme to tell us:

Nielsen announced the initiative on Wednesday morning, but it has been collecting Netflix viewership data over the last two months in a kind of test run.

The company said it was able to determine how many viewers were streaming Netflix content through audio recognition software in the 44,000 Nielsen-rated homes across the United States.

Yes. Audio recognition software. They are eavesdropping on Nielsen households, obviously with permission, and parsing exactly who is watching Netflix, and exactly when and for how long.

This is fascinating to me, but it also made me wonder about Amazon and Google. With the Amazon Echo and Google Home in more and more homes, this kind of data would be easy enough to gather. With permission, of course.

The Pixel 2 XL would be the best phone in the world if its screen wasn’t so weird

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There’s been a ton of controversy over the past few days as Pixel 2 XL reviews come in. Though some reviews are glowing, a number of reviews (here’s one launch point we posted yesterday) are taking the Pixel 2 XL to the woodshed.

Vlad Savov, The Verge:

Look at that New York Times icon in the image above. Stop flinching and really look at it, soak in the kaleidoscope of colors washing over it. Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, I’m seeing a haze of green in the middle of the gothic “T”, which then blooms into a red that eventually transitions into the white that the icon is supposed to be. But the fun isn’t over; when you get up real close, you’ll see the edges of the icon are all fringed by a sort of purply-red and, again, green. The neighboring heart icon, which is also supposed to be white, presents us with a crosshatch of red and green and white micropixels.

Click to Vlad’s review and really get up close and personal with that image. Hard to argue with his logic.

Pixel 2 reviews — disappointing screens, bad color tuning

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Rene Ritchie, iMore:

I’ve owned almost every Nexus and the original Pixel, but problems with the Pixel 2 display may force me to look elsewhere for my yearly Android fix.

I bought most of Google’s Nexus phones, starting with the Nexus One. I bought the original Pixel. I pre-ordered the Pixel 2 XL right after the event. Now I’m thinking of canceling that order. The reason? It seems like Google chose to ship bad displays on their flagship phones.

Rene follows up with a host of quotes from other reviewers, almost all from traditional Android bloggers. This was really surprising to me. I expected a best-in-class display at this price point.

Read the post, and dig into the other quoted reviews. I’m not sensing Google-bashing here, more disappointment at the screen performance from people who want to love their new Google phone.

Apple HomePod: 3 lingering questions

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Dan Moren, Macworld:

Smart speakers are here, and they’re not going away anytime soon. In the last month or so alone, Amazon has rolled out an entirely new lineup of its Echo devices while Google has supplemented its standard Google Home with both a smaller and larger version. Even Microsoft has gotten into the game, with a Cortana-based smart speaker from Harman Kardon, and multiroom audio purveyor Sonos has announced an Alexa-based model of one of its speakers shipping later this month.

And in all that time, Apple has sat quietly, saying nothing more about its upcoming HomePod than was announced at this summer’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The company didn’t so much as mention its smart speaker during its event last month, though to be fair it had little time with the occasion packed full of iPhones as it was.

That means that with only a couple months left before the HomePod is out on the market, there are still more than a few questions about Apple’s smart speaker play.

A bit eerie how little has said about the HomePod. All is quiet. Holiday buying season is easing into view and there’s zero buildup so far.

Dan raises some interesting questions. It’ll be interesting to see if anything changes now that the Amazon Echo and Google Home product lines have matured/evolved.

Dow Jones technical error spreads fake news story of Google acquiring Apple

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Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

The Dow Jones newswires had a ‘technical error’ which caused the portal to report several spurious stories including several headlines claiming Google was acquiring Apple for $9 billion, and that the deal was pre-arranged with Steve Jobs in his will.

I get that a technical error caused the stories to flow, but where did they come from in the first place? It’s not like someone accidentally wrote them.

From Dow Jones:

Please disregard the headlines that ran on Dow Jones Newswires between 9:34 a.m. ET and 9:36 a.m. ET. Due to a technical error, the headlines were published. All of those headlines are being removed from the wires. We apologize for the error.

Nope. An error is the release of the stories. But the creation of those stories is something else entirely. This should not be dismissed as a simple mistake.

Google puts clock on free Photos storage

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Ryan Whitwam, Android Police, quoting the Pixel 2 product page fine print on the Google Store:

Free, unlimited original-quality storage for photos and videos taken with Pixel through the end of 2020, and free, unlimited high-quality storage for photos taken with Pixel afterwards.

There’s been a lot of discussion about exactly what this means. At the very least, if you want to keep taking uncompressed, original-quality pictures past the cutoff date at the end of 2020, you’ll need to start paying for storage. What is unclear is what that means for all the original-quality photos you’ve already placed on the Google Photos servers. Will they continue to be stored for free? Will you have to pay for those, too?

To be clear, I have no issue paying for the storage. Apple, after all, charges for iCloud storage already. Just looking for clarification.

Someone at Google know the details? Please let me know and I’ll update the post.

[H/T Oliver Thomas]

UPDATE: Someone at Google reached out to clarify this issue. As fair a response as I could have hoped for. Here’s the Q&A:

  • Me: If I have original-quality photos stored for free, what happens to them once the end of 2020 deadline passes? Do they get deleted? Compressed? Do they stay there but I lose access to them unless I pay for enough storage so they fit?
  • Google: They remain at original quality, for free. The change is only for taken photos thereafter.

As I read this, you can take all the original-quality (non-compressed) photos you want and they will always be available, non-compressed. Once the deadline passes, you’ll have a decision to make that only impacts photos taken after the deadline. Those post-deadline pics will be limited by the tier you choose after the deadline. Make sense?

Thoughts on new Google phone, PixelBuds

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Lots of news from Google yesterday. Among the product announcements are a pair of new phones, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, and an AirPods-like set of wireless earbuds, the PixelBuds.

A few thoughts: […]

How to zoom an Apple Map with one finger

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I love this tip. Here’s how to do it:

  • Bring up Apple Maps.
  • Double-tap in the map, but on the second tap, don’t lift your finger. So tap-lift-tap-leave.
  • Now slide up or down to zoom in and out.

This also works with Google Maps but, interestingly, it works the exact opposite way. On Google Maps, slide up to zoom out, down to zoom in.

Here’s an Apple Support document that contains this tip and a ton more iOS 11 chewy goodness. [H/T Fabrice Dubois]

Google pulls YouTube from Amazon Echo

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Jan Dawson, Tech Narratives:

Amazon announced last night that Google had pulled its YouTube app from the former’s Echo Show device, the company’s first screen-based voice speaker. YouTube was one of very few video options available on the Echo Show, with Amazon’s own Prime Video being the main alternative.

Amazon has something Apple wants and seeks to emulate in Prime Video. Amazon wants to protect Prime Video, is using its storefront power to horsetrade with Apple, swapping Apple TV presence on Amazon.com for a Prime Video app on Apple TV.

Google and Amazon are fighting a different battle. At the very least, there’s Google Home vs Amazon Echo. But there’s a subtle shopping competitiveness as well, with both trying to work into the first place consumers go when they want to make a purchase.

All of this might have nothing to do with why Google pulled YouTube (the claim is that Amazon’s implementation broke YouTube’s terms of service). It might have more to do with ads and tracking than anything else. But make no mistake, each pairing is its own chess match.

Bill Gates on Steve Jobs and iPhone, John Gruber on Bill Gates and Android

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First things first, take a look at the video embedded in the main Loop post, a Fox News interview with Bill Gates. Jump to about 11:28 in, where Bill is asked about his “famously tempestuous” relationship with Steve Jobs and the new iPhone.

With that in mind, this is John Gruber, from the linked Daring Fireball post:

I say this with no snark intended: who would have guessed 10 years ago that Bill Gates would be using a personal computing device running a non-Microsoft OS? Or really, an OS that didn’t have “Windows” in the name?

And:

While I’m at it, it occurs to me that Apple is the only company left where all its employees are using only systems made by their own company.

Read the whole post, including the update. Fascinating.

Droid Life: Google to roll out $49 Google Home Mini

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Droid Life:

When Google takes the stage on October 4 at a phone-related event in San Francisco, most of us expect there to be non-phone related product announcements too. We’ve heard rumors about a Google Home “mini” possibly being on the way and today we can confirm that it exists, how much it costs, and the colors it’ll be available in.

The home assistant market is evolving, and all before Apple’s HomePod has an official release date. Amazon’s Echo Dot is priced at $49.99 and now it looks like Google is playing in the same space at the same price.

Begs the question: Will Apple roll out a HomePod Mini to compete with the Dot and Home Mini?

The Dot has a speaker, but is not designed to play music. A HomePod Mini could offer remote, always on Siri queries, and fire up music on the HomePod.

That said, is there a need for a HomePod Mini in a home that likely already has iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches? Gonna be interesting to watch this market unfold.

Jean-Louis Gassée on the “hiccuping coexistence” of pedestrians and cars

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Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:

Imagine the 1 pm Sunday scene with crowded sidewalks and sticky car traffic. In today’s world, pedestrians and drivers manage a peaceful if hiccuping coexistence. Through eye contact, nods, hand signals, and, yes, courteous restraint, pedestrians decide to sometimes forfeit their right-of-way and let a few cars come through. On the whole, drivers are equally patient and polite.

That’s the current picture. But with self-driving cars, what then?

Can we “algorithmicize” eye contact and stuttering restraint? Can an SD car acknowledge a pedestrian’s nod, or negotiate “turning rights” with a conventional vehicle?

No, we can’t. And we don’t appear to have a path to overcome such “mundane” challenges.

Great post by Jean-Louis, per usual. Read the whole thing.

CNBC: Thousands of ‘innocent’ Android apps watch videos and view ads behind your back

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CNBC:

That cute cat wallpaper for your Android phone or free photo-editing software app you downloaded may be using your phone without your permission and running up fraudulent ad views, according to a recent report from online marketing firm eZanga.

EZanga used its Anura ad fraud protection software to look at one module from a software development kit (otherwise known as an SDK) that hides in apps, then activates to run advertisements and play videos while the user is not on their phone. While the person may be sleeping, the malware chews up bandwidth and battery life.

And:

A Google spokesperson said all apps submitted to Google Play are automatically scanned for potentially malicious code and spammy developer accounts before they are published. Google said it also recently introduced a proactive app review process, as well as Google Play Protect, which scans Android devices to let users know if they are downloading a malicious app. There is also Verify Apps, which warns about or blocks potentially harmful apps.

And:

Google Play did remove all the apps eZanga named in the study within a few weeks, Kahn said. However, when they looked after the study in early August for the same SDK module, they found 6,000 more apps online (not necessarily in the Google Play store) that contained a morphed version of the malware.

Sounds like there’s a hole in the review process. This is the number one thing that keeps me from buying an Android device.

Google introduces ARCore, plays catch up with Apple and ARKit

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Back in May, just before Google I/O, Google released this blog post, updating developers with the latest on their Augmented Reality project, known as Tango:

With Tango, devices can track motion and understand distances and their position in the real world. For VR, we’ve used technology from Tango as the foundation of WorldSense. For AR, it can be used to enable smartphone AR experiences by placing digital objects in real spaces. The next phone with Tango technology will be the ASUS ZenFone AR, available this summer.

That last sentence is key. Tango was a device specific technology.

A month later, at WWDC, Apple rolled out ARKit, as part of their iOS 11 announcement. Though there is a minimum hardware requirement (requires A9 or later), it will run on any devices that meet the spec.

This is a huge difference. Tango plays to an audience limited to a few specific phones, while ARKit plays to a vastly broader audience, anyone with a relatively recent iOS device.

Google has now leveraged their Tango investment with their own ARKit-like SDK, known as ARCore.

From Google’s official announcement:

We’ve been developing the fundamental technologies that power mobile AR over the last three years with Tango, and ARCore is built on that work. But, it works without any additional hardware, which means it can scale across the Android ecosystem. ARCore will run on millions of devices, starting today with the Pixel and Samsung’s S8, running 7.0 Nougat and above. We’re targeting 100 million devices at the end of the preview.

Just how many A9 chip or later has Apple sold to date? Not sure. But I’d bet it’s closer to 500 million than 100 million (please Tweet at me if you have an actual number).

We know they sold 11 million iPads last quarter and about 41 million iPhones. That’s more than 50 million qualifying devices in just the last quarter. As a reminder, ARKit will run on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, both released in September 2015.

For Google, feels like ARCore was a direct (and seemingly hurried) response to ARKit’s wave of adoption and publicity. Interesting developments.

Latest iOS 11 beta removes AMP wrapper from shared URLs

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Great find from Federico Viticci:

https://twitter.com/viticci/status/900396684844433409

To me, AMP serves Google and Google only. It does not move the web forward, it just keeps browsing within Google’s ecosystem.

To see this for yourself, start with an AMP URL. Here’s one example. If you open this link in Safari, you’ll see the link is a Google link, not a Verge link.

If you are running iOS 10, when you tap Safari’s share icon and share the link in, say, Messages, the AMP version of the URL will be shared.

If you are running the latest iOS 11 beta, when you share the AMP link in Messages, the unwrapped Verge link will appear. And that’s the way it should be.

Nice find, Federico. Way to go Apple.