Month: September 2023
$5,000 Google Jamboard Dies In 2024 — Cloud-Based Apps Will Stop Working, Too
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Even more Google products are getting the ax this week. Next up is Google Jamboard, a $5,000 digital whiteboard (and its $600-a-year fee) and software ecosystem marketed to schools and corporations. Google has a new post detailing the “Next phase of digital whiteboarding for Google Workspace,” and the future for Jamboard is that there is no future. In “late 2024,” the whole project will shut down, and we don’t just mean the hardware will stop being for sale; the cloud-based apps will stop working, too.
Most people probably haven’t ever heard of Jamboard, but this was a giant 55-inch, 4K touchscreen on a rolling stand that launched in 2016. Like most Google touchscreens, this ran Android with a locked-down custom interface on top instead of the usual phone interface. The digital whiteboard could be drawn on using the included stylus or your fingers, and it even came with a big plastic “eraser” that would remove items. The SoC was an Nvidia Jetson TX1 (a quad-core Cortex-A57 CPU attached to a beefy Maxwell GPU), and it had a built-in camera, microphone, and speakers for video calls. There was HDMI input and Google cast support, and it came in whimsical colors like red, gray, and blue (it feels like Google was going for an iMac rainbow and quit halfway). “We’re grateful to the consumers, educators, students, and businesses who have used Jamboard since its launch in 2016,” says Google. “While Jamboard users make up a small portion of our Workspace customer base, we understand that this change will impact some of you, and we’re committed to helping you transition…”
“Over the coming months, we’ll provide Jamboard app users and admins clear paths to retain their Jamboard data or migrate it,” Google tells users in its blog post. Third-party options include Figma’s FigJam, Lucid Software’s Lucidspark, and Miro.
Ars Technica notes: “[T]he whole cloud system is going down, too, so all of your existing $5,000 whiteboards will soon be useless, and you won’t be able to open the cloud data on other devices.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Even more Google products are getting the ax this week. Next up is Google Jamboard, a $5,000 digital whiteboard (and its $600-a-year fee) and software ecosystem marketed to schools and corporations. Google has a new post detailing the “Next phase of digital whiteboarding for Google Workspace,” and the future for Jamboard is that there is no future. In “late 2024,” the whole project will shut down, and we don’t just mean the hardware will stop being for sale; the cloud-based apps will stop working, too.
Most people probably haven’t ever heard of Jamboard, but this was a giant 55-inch, 4K touchscreen on a rolling stand that launched in 2016. Like most Google touchscreens, this ran Android with a locked-down custom interface on top instead of the usual phone interface. The digital whiteboard could be drawn on using the included stylus or your fingers, and it even came with a big plastic “eraser” that would remove items. The SoC was an Nvidia Jetson TX1 (a quad-core Cortex-A57 CPU attached to a beefy Maxwell GPU), and it had a built-in camera, microphone, and speakers for video calls. There was HDMI input and Google cast support, and it came in whimsical colors like red, gray, and blue (it feels like Google was going for an iMac rainbow and quit halfway). “We’re grateful to the consumers, educators, students, and businesses who have used Jamboard since its launch in 2016,” says Google. “While Jamboard users make up a small portion of our Workspace customer base, we understand that this change will impact some of you, and we’re committed to helping you transition…”
“Over the coming months, we’ll provide Jamboard app users and admins clear paths to retain their Jamboard data or migrate it,” Google tells users in its blog post. Third-party options include Figma’s FigJam, Lucid Software’s Lucidspark, and Miro.
Ars Technica notes: “[T]he whole cloud system is going down, too, so all of your existing $5,000 whiteboards will soon be useless, and you won’t be able to open the cloud data on other devices.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
DOJ finally posted that “embarrassing” court doc Google wanted to hide
Google exec said users get hooked on search engine like “cigarettes or drugs.”
Enlarge (credit: Yulia Reznikov | Moment)
The US Department of Justice has finally posted what judge Amit Mehta described at the Google search antitrust trial as an “embarrassing” exhibit that Google tried to hide from the public.
The document in question contains meeting notes that Google’s vice president for finance, Michael Roszak, “created for a course on communications,” Bloomberg reported. In his notes, Roszak wrote that Google’s search advertising “is one of the world’s greatest business models ever created” with economics that only certain “illicit businesses” selling “cigarettes or drugs” “could rival.”
At trial, Roszak told the court that he didn’t recall if he ever gave the presentation. He said that the course required that he tell students “things I don’t believe as part of the presentation.” He also claimed that the notes were “full of hyperbole and exaggeration” and did not reflect his true beliefs, “because there was no business purpose associated with it.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Using Vision Pro: ‘It’s an Aha Moment’
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with The Independent that the upcoming Vision Pro is part of his nightly routine, and that it has convinced him that spatial computing is the future. He described using the Vision Pro as an industry-defining “aha” moment.
“There are huge differences in how people look at it, depending on if they’ve read about it or actually tried it,” said Cook. “I believe even more about how profound spatial computing is. When you’ve tried it, it’s an aha moment, and you only have a few of those in a lifetime.”
While analysts don’t expect the Vision Pro headset to sell well during its first year of availability, and have expressed skepticism about Apple’s ability to bring costs down, Cook remains positive about the headset’s future impact.
Cook has been in Europe to meet with app developers, and he said that so far, Apple is seeing “some incredible work.” He went on to explain that there’s “so much [developer] excitement out there” over the headset, which is set to come out in 2024.
The headset will have a gaming focus, and Apple is solidifying its reputation for gaming with the iPhone 15 Pro models. There’s an A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max that allows for console-quality gaming, and Apple is working with developers to bring console games to the device. Cook said that Apple is “very serious” about gaming and that it is “not a hobby” for the company. “We’re putting all of ourselves out there,” he said.
Cook’s full interview, which also includes some tidbits about apps being created for Vision Pro, can be read at The Independent.Related Roundup: Apple Vision ProRelated Forum: Apple Vision ProThis article, “Apple CEO Tim Cook on Using Vision Pro: ‘It’s an Aha Moment'” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with The Independent that the upcoming Vision Pro is part of his nightly routine, and that it has convinced him that spatial computing is the future. He described using the Vision Pro as an industry-defining “aha” moment.
“There are huge differences in how people look at it, depending on if they’ve read about it or actually tried it,” said Cook. “I believe even more about how profound spatial computing is. When you’ve tried it, it’s an aha moment, and you only have a few of those in a lifetime.”
While analysts don’t expect the Vision Pro headset to sell well during its first year of availability, and have expressed skepticism about Apple’s ability to bring costs down, Cook remains positive about the headset’s future impact.
Cook has been in Europe to meet with app developers, and he said that so far, Apple is seeing “some incredible work.” He went on to explain that there’s “so much [developer] excitement out there” over the headset, which is set to come out in 2024.
The headset will have a gaming focus, and Apple is solidifying its reputation for gaming with the iPhone 15 Pro models. There’s an A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max that allows for console-quality gaming, and Apple is working with developers to bring console games to the device. Cook said that Apple is “very serious” about gaming and that it is “not a hobby” for the company. “We’re putting all of ourselves out there,” he said.
Cook’s full interview, which also includes some tidbits about apps being created for Vision Pro, can be read at The Independent.
This article, “Apple CEO Tim Cook on Using Vision Pro: ‘It’s an Aha Moment’” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
Apple Uses Tiny QR Codes to Track Display Manufacturing Failures and Cut Costs
Apple etches iPhone displays with small QR codes that let it precisely track the number of defective screens that are thrown out by suppliers, according to a new report from The Information.
One barcode is the size of a grain of sand and can be viewed only with special equipment, while the other is on the inside of the display along the bezel. Apple spent millions of dollars developing the barcode process and installing laser scanning equipment at Lens Technology and Biel Crystal, two manufacturers that make the iPhone’s cover glass.
With this system, Apple has a precise count of every piece of glass produced by Lens and Biel, and an exact read on how much material is wasted due to defects. A source that spoke to The Information said that when the barcodes were first implemented, Apple found that as many as three out of 10 pieces of cover glass were thrown away due to manufacturing errors, and with pressure from Apple, the suppliers have been able to cut that down to one in 10. Because Apple pays for production, lowering error rates has saved it hundreds of millions of dollars.
Apple has used the display barcodes to streamline manufacturing since 2020, and the company is able to see which company made the glass and the date it was manufactured for tracking production level and yield rate. Other iPhone components have had small barcodes to trace defects or find the source of leaks for many years, but prior to the display system, barcodes were primarily used for metal parts.
The Information’s full report goes into more detail on the barcode, including the complex, multi-step process that Apple uses to get the barcodes onto the displays.Tag: The InformationThis article, “Apple Uses Tiny QR Codes to Track Display Manufacturing Failures and Cut Costs” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Apple etches iPhone displays with small QR codes that let it precisely track the number of defective screens that are thrown out by suppliers, according to a new report from The Information.
One barcode is the size of a grain of sand and can be viewed only with special equipment, while the other is on the inside of the display along the bezel. Apple spent millions of dollars developing the barcode process and installing laser scanning equipment at Lens Technology and Biel Crystal, two manufacturers that make the iPhone’s cover glass.
With this system, Apple has a precise count of every piece of glass produced by Lens and Biel, and an exact read on how much material is wasted due to defects. A source that spoke to The Information said that when the barcodes were first implemented, Apple found that as many as three out of 10 pieces of cover glass were thrown away due to manufacturing errors, and with pressure from Apple, the suppliers have been able to cut that down to one in 10. Because Apple pays for production, lowering error rates has saved it hundreds of millions of dollars.
Apple has used the display barcodes to streamline manufacturing since 2020, and the company is able to see which company made the glass and the date it was manufactured for tracking production level and yield rate. Other iPhone components have had small barcodes to trace defects or find the source of leaks for many years, but prior to the display system, barcodes were primarily used for metal parts.
The Information‘s full report goes into more detail on the barcode, including the complex, multi-step process that Apple uses to get the barcodes onto the displays.
This article, “Apple Uses Tiny QR Codes to Track Display Manufacturing Failures and Cut Costs” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums