Google and Samsung mentioned they had been teaming up on a joint software program platform for smartwatches and different wearables in a transfer ramping up competitors with market chief Apple.
The transfer, introduced on the Google developer convention in California, means Samsung will use Google’s Wear OS for its upcoming Galaxy smartwatches as an alternative of its personal Tizen platform.
“We’re bringing the best of Wear and Tizen into a single, unified platform,” mentioned Google Wear challenge director Bjorn Kilburn.
“By working together we have been able to take strengths of each and combine them into an experience that has faster performance, longer battery life and more of the apps you love available for the watch.”
The mixture will permit all system markets to use this platform, creating an ecosystem that might problem Apple, the longtime chief within the smartwatch phase with a few third of the market, as Google integrates its newly acquired wearables maker Fitbit.
Samsung vice chairman Janghyun Yoon mentioned in a separate assertion the South Korean agency “constantly pursues new ways to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers,” including, “That’s why we decided to team up with Google… to bring the best of our platforms together into one unified experience.”
The announcement got here at Google’s annual developer convention, held on-line for a second consecutive yr due to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the occasion, Google unveiled a collection of updates and upgrades to its providers together with maps, search, buying, and images, whereas giving a preview of its ongoing analysis initiatives.
Google supplied a glimpse of its deliberate AI search instrument which it goals to deploy extra complicated duties throughout a number of languages.
With the so-called Multitask Unified Model, “we’re able to better understand much more complex questions and needs,” senior vice chairman Prabhakar Raghavan mentioned, noting that that is “trained across 75 different languages and many different tasks at once, allowing it to develop a more comprehensive understanding of information and world knowledge than previous models.”
Google launched a take a look at model of Android 12, updating the cell system utilized by some three billion gadgets, with elevated privateness controls and personalisation.
The tech large additionally unveiled its new Quantum AI campus in Santa Barbara, California which is able to perform analysis within the rising subject of quantum computing and develop its personal quantum processor chips.
Chief government Sundar Pichai introduced a push on geothermal power as a part of Google’s sustainability efforts. This will embrace a geothermal-powered information heart in Nevada and set up of “the largest geothermal pile system in North America” at its new California campus.
“We need to go beyond wind and solar and tap into sources of on-demand clear energy like geothermal,” to meet sustainability targets, Pichai mentioned.
