Google today announced a preview of Android 12L, which may sound like a new version of Android, but Google calls it “a special feature drop that makes Android 12 even better on large screens.” The idea here is to provide users on tablets, foldables and Chrome OS laptops — anything with a screen above 600 […]
Delta Air Lines partners with TSA PreCheck to launch biometrics-based bag drops
Delta Air Lines, in partnership with TSA PreCheck, today announced an expansion of how it uses biometrics to let passengers drop their bags, go through security and board their plane by simply showing their face. For now, the newest part of this, the PreCheck bag-drop experience, is a pilot that’s only available in Atlanta and […]
Vercel brings new dynamic features to its Next.js framework
Vercel, the well-funded company behind the popular Next.js React framework, today announced the launch of Next.js 12 during a keynote at its annual conference. While Next.js, by default, mostly focuses on helping developers build static sites, Next.js 12 introduces what Vercel calls ‘middleware’ that makes it easier for developers to provide users with personalized content. […]
With Tensor, Google bets on its own chip design for the Pixel 6
I’m not sure there’s ever been a phone we knew more about before its official launch than Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. But in a world of samey Android phones, Google made some interesting choices, especially with regards to the chips that power it all. For the first time, Google now offers a […]
Spice AI wants to help developers build smarter applications
Spice AI, a Seattle-based startup that aims to make it significantly easier for developers to leverage AI in their applications, today announced that it has raised a $1 million seed funding round. That’s obviously not a huge round, but the investors will likely make you perk up a bit: Madrona Venture Group, Picus Capital, TA […]
Google brings AppSheet automations to Gmail, Jira support to Chat and Spaces
Google today announced a new feature for its AppSheet automation service that will allow developers on its no-code platform to create custom apps and automation that can interact directly with Gmail. By leveraging dynamic email, developers can now build applications that users can trigger and execute right from inside their Gmail inbox — and while […]
Google’s Looker partners with Tableau
In 2019, Google acquired the business intelligence service Looker for $2.6 billion and Salesforce picked up Tableau for $15.7 billion. But today, the two competitors are growing closer together thanks to a new integration between the two. Specifically, Tableau users will soon be able to access Looker’s semantic layer, while Google’s Looker users will soon […]
Google Cloud launches a managed Spark service
At its Cloud Next event, Google today announced the launch of Spark on Google Cloud as a fully managed service. With this, the popular open-source data processing engine will become a premium offering on Google Cloud. “With this innovation, Spark finally arrives in the cloud-native world,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, Google’s VP & GM for Database, […]
D-Wave plans to build a gate-model quantum computer
For more than 20 years, D-Wave has been synonymous with quantum annealing. Its early bet on this technology allowed it to become the world’s first company to sell quantum computers, but that also somewhat limited the real-world problems its hardware could solve, given that quantum annealing works especially well for optimization problems like protein folding […]