Just like those Fitness-obsessed TV hosts Hans and Franz, Google wants pump you.
The company plans to add fitness tracking technology and support for interactive home workouts to its Android TV platform, and integrate these software features into smart TVs also running software from others. companies. If the vision comes to fruition, supported smart TVs would sync with Fitbit trackers and smartwatches running Google’s Wear OS, like the Samsung Galaxy Watch or Google Pixel Watch, which could be used to monitor progress. of a user through a series of workouts in the living room. It will be like watching a video of Richard Simmons or Billy Blanks which can also track your reps and measure your heart rate.
The details of how it will work are unclear, as the news – first reported per protocol – came from a private meeting Google held out with other smart home companies. Still, it’s obvious that Google is set to compete with smart home fitness services like Apple Fitness+, which uses an Apple Watch and Apple TV, as well as devices like Mirror and Peloton’s Guide.
According to Protocol, this initiative could also include an expanded ability to connect Nest speakers or other wireless speakers to your Google-powered TV. The report also states that these changes will most likely arrive in 2023.
Google is a few years behind the big shift to home workouts that happened at the start of the pandemic. But this offer could also be seen as part of Google’s effort to bundle all of its products. The merging of smart home technology with Android, Wear OS and Android TV means your Google content is used more often and in more combinations.
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Google denounces Apple’s texting
In other Google news, the company posted a conflicting public service announcements earlier this week, calling on Apple to change the core standards it uses for its text messages. Apple converts messages to non-Apple devices into standard SMS messages, instead of using the more feature-rich RCS standard that Google began pushing heavily last year. For this reason, some crucial metadata can get lost when translating between platforms.
Google presented Apple’s decision not to support RCS as a power move, blaming Apple for not adhering to more modern standards. In reality, this is probably an attempt to level the playing field between Apple and Google when it comes to cross-device messaging, where the former enjoys significant competitive advantages over the latter; iPhone to iPhone messaging comes with a dizzying array of add-ons and special features that Apple enthusiasts are loath to give up. It is also ironic to hear such advocacy coming from Google, a company that has introduced a dozen different messaging apps over the years and can’t even keep the name of its messaging products right. Undeterred, Google launched its campaign to social media, trying to get other people on board. Now Google is just waiting for a response that Apple “loved this post”.
Ding Dong
Videos from ring cameras are controversial. The Amazon-owned company collects data about its users and the people in their photos, and then can share those videos with law enforcement without the user’s consent. Still, the videos themselves captured people’s attention. There’s a whole genre of viral videos (yes, on TikTok) that revel in the goofy antics of people and animals captured on Ring cameras. Now, Amazon is looking to turn those clips into a full show.
Called Nation ring, the show will be hosted by comedienne Wanda Sykes. The content will be pretty much what you’d expect: a collection of funny and/or horrifying videos the kind of chaos that occurs on people’s porches and in their yards. The show is produced by Big Fish Entertainment, the same production company that created Live DPa crime documentary show that was canceled following the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Ring Nation premieres September 26.
