Episode 47 – Apple in Asia, Google I/O Announcements

Aaron is finally back from his travels in Africa, and so we returned to something more like our usual format this week. We kicked things off with a News Roundup, with two of the topics concerning Apple in Asia. We first discussed Apple's investment in Chinese ride-sharing service Didi, and what that's really about, and then talked about Apple's smaller but still significant investments in India, also announced this week. Lastly, we discussed Microsoft's sale of its feature phone business to Foxconn. Our main topic this week, though, was Google's I/O developer conference, and the announcements it made there. We kick things off with a discussion of the Google Home device and the Google assistant that will power it but also exist elsewhere. We next discuss the two new communications apps from Google – Allo and Duo – and whether they're likely to help Google's position in this space (spoiler: probably not). We also discuss Android N and the thinking behind moving up the preview release earlier this year, Android Wear, and especially VR and Google's Daydream initiative. Lastly, we talk about the fact that Android apps will soon be able to run on Chrome OS. As usual, head over to the website at podcast.beyonddevic.es for related links and other ways to listen to the podcast.