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Google Maps introduces community feed to give users information about their local area

21st October 2021
"Users can like and follow places or posts they would like to see more on their feed, using the new feature on Explore Tab."

Google Maps is rolling out a community feed that will give users information about the activities, recommendations, and updates about their local area. The news feed is rolling out for Android and iOS users. Google Maps users can keep track of top recommendations, fresh reviews, and updates about a particular area with the new community feed feature.

Google notes that the sources uploading the recommendations are trusted and that the feed shows the latest reviews, photos, and posts added to Google Maps by local experts. The posts will also include updates from business owners who use My Business on Google to alert customers about new deals, menu updates, and other offers that will mainly revolve around food and drink businesses.

"Every day, people submit more than 20 million contributions—including recommendations for their favorite spots, updates to business services, fresh reviews, and ratings, photos, answers to other people’s questions, updated addresses and more," Google in a blog post noted.

The Explore feed on Google Maps will have a Like button with a thumbs-up icon, as noted by TechCrunch. It will also let users follow Google accounts and businesses to get updates from them. Google noted that it will also post content from select publishers on the Community Feed including The Infatuation and other news sources from Google News.

The feature can come in handy to users while traveling or researching other areas as the Community Feed is not just based on the user’s local area but also where the user is looking on Google Maps. “By panning and zooming the map, you can find helpful information for almost any location in the world, thanks to contributions from in-the-know locals,” Google noted.

The feature is also aimed at helping local businesses. Previously, users would have to specifically tap to follow the business’s profile to receive their updates. With the current update, posts from businesses will be surfaced to Google Maps users who do not necessarily follow a business. Google noted that through the enhanced exposure businesses can reach customers and inform them about current offerings and operations, like takeout and delivery options, new online services, and the safety precautions they are taking.

Google noted that in early testing of the community feed, posts from merchants are seen two times more than before the feed existed. To access the community feed, Android or iPhone users have to simply go on the Google Maps app, tap on Explore, and swipe up to view recommendations.

Source: indiatoday


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Google latest AI tool turns your MS Paint doodles into extraordinary monsters

24th October 2021
"Another example of AI-assisted artistry"

To quote Google CEO Sundar Pichai: AI is “more profound than fire or electricity.”

To back up this claim with incontrovertible evidence: here’s an AI tool made by Google researchers that turns doodles into weird monsters. What could be more profound?

It’s certainly fun, anyway. The tool is called Chimera Painter and uses machine learning to generate imagery based on users’ rough sketches. This sort of dynamic is becoming a relatively common one in machine learning. Nvidia has done it with landscapes before; MIT and IBM did it with buildings, and now Google is ... doing it with monsters.

The team behind Chimera Painter explained their methods and motivations in a blog post, saying the idea was to create a “paintbrush that acted less like a tool and more like an assistant.” Chimera Painter is just a prototype, but if software like this becomes common it could “reduce the amount of time necessary to create high-quality art,” claim the team.
The researchers gave themselves the challenge of creating artwork for a fictional fantasy card game, in which players combine features from different monsters and battle them like mutating Pokémon. They trained a machine learning model on a database of more than 10,000 sample monsters, which were themselves in part procedurally generated using 3D models rendered in Unreal Engine. Each image is paired with a “segmentation map” — an overlay that divides the monsters into anatomical parts like claws, snouts, legs, and so on.

Once the model has been trained on this data, users can then paint their own segmentation map which is then rendered using photorealistic textures. If you load up Chimera Painter you can see some of the preset monsters and they’re impressively cohesive. However, painting one yourself takes more time and effort than you might think. Our attempt below, for example, looks like a knock-off Gruffalo depicted using mud. It’s monstrous, but not necessarily a monster.

Source: theverge


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Fitbit adds Google Assistant support to Sense and Versa 3 smartwatches

21st October 2021
"Plus automatic SpO2 tracking at night, and new phonecall functionality"

Google Assistant support is coming to the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 thanks to a new update rolling out starting today in the US. Alongside it, Fitbit OS 5.1 also adds new blood oxygen monitoring features, support for audible replies from Alexa, and enhancements to the watches’ calling and messaging features.

Both smartwatches already support Amazon’s Alexa, but with the addition of Google Assistant Fitbit says they’re becoming the first smartwatches to offer a built-in choice between the two voice assistants. Support for Google Assistant has been on the cards since the company announced the smartwatches earlier this year. It’s unlikely that these will be the last Fitbit devices to support Google’s voice assistant, given the search giant is currently in the process of buying Fitbit. If you want to switch which voice assistant you use, Fitbit says you can do so from the companion app.

 

ALEXA IS ALSO GETTING SOME UPDATES

That doesn’t mean Fitbit is ignoring its Alexa functionality, however. Fitbit OS 5.1 also adds the ability for Alexa to audibly reply to your queries via the smartwatch’s speaker, rather than just displaying its responses onscreen.

The watches’ calling and messaging functionality is also being improved with the update. The Fitbit Versa 3 and Sense can now answer calls directly when a phone is nearby using their built-in speakers and microphones. Previously the watches could be used to accept or reject calls, but users still had to speak into the phone itself. Fitbit also says the watches will now support voice-to-text commands for responding to text messages on Android.

Finally, the watches’ SpO2 blood oxygen tracking is receiving some improvements, with Fitbit saying you’ll no longer need to use a special clock face to see blood oxygen data. However, if you’re someone that does want to get this information from a watch face, the company says it has new SpO2 clock faces coming to the watches by the end of the year.

Source: theverge


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Google News will allow free access to pay walled articles from news sites

22nd October 2021
"Not yet in the US, though"

As part of its $1 billion investment in partnerships with news publishers, Google will start paying for some paywalled content for its News Showcase program. News Showcase, a new addition to Google News that launched in October, displays story panels curated by publishers — but it's not available in the US yet.

News Showcase will “start offering people access to paywalled content in partnership with select news publishers,” says a Google blog post. Google will pay partners for limited access to paywalled content. To access that content, users will still have to register with the individual publishers.

Users in the US shouldn’t get too excited about free articles just yet. Google lists partnerships with publishers in several countries, but the US is not currently on the list. News Showcase went live in October in Brazil and Germany. Publications in other countries, including Argentina, Canada, France, UK, and Australia, have since signed on. “Conversations are underway in a number of other countries,” Google says.
Google also announced a new kind of story panel, enabling individual publishers to display curated lists of important articles of the day. These selections will appear in users For You feeds, as well as a new dedicated area within the Newsstand on Google News.

News Showcase was first launched for the Google News app on Android and is now available on iOS. Google says it will be coming soon to news.google.com and Google Discover.

Source: Theverge


Reviews is conducting a weekly contest. Answer a simple question and get a chance to win exciting gift hampers from Aiken Care Package. Go to our Facebook page for more details or also can check the details on our Instagram page


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