This week three new Street View vehicles will hit the streets in New Zealand, starting with the South Island, to gather updated, higher quality 360-degree imagery.
It’s been nine years since we’ve updated our camera technology, and just as smartphone cameras have dramatically evolved since then, we now have access to improved 360-degree camera technology. These new cutting-edge cameras fitted to our Street View cars will allow us to capture higher quality, sharper imagery and in low light conditions across New Zealand.
Google Maps’ Street View - a global collection of 360 degree imagery - is used millions of times every day by people looking to explore the world, to preview places before they go, or experience places virtually they might never have the chance to visit in person.
Keep your eyes peeled and you may see one of the new cars in your neighbourhood in the coming months. To see where they’ve been and where they’re headed next, check out this link. Imagery from their journeys will be made available via Street View later this year.
Posted by Posted By Cynthia Wei, Street View Program Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand.
This week three new Street View vehicles will hit the streets in New Zealand, starting with the South Island, to gather updated, higher quality 360-degree imagery.
It’s been nine years since we’ve updated our camera technology, and just as smartphone cameras have dramatically evolved since then, we now have access to improved 360-degree camera technology. These new cutting-edge cameras fitted to our Street View cars will allow us to capture higher quality, sharper imagery and in low light conditions across New Zealand.
Google Maps’ Street View - a global collection of 360 degree imagery - is used millions of times every day by people looking to explore the world, to preview places before they go, or experience places virtually they might never have the chance to visit in person.
Keep your eyes peeled and you may see one of the new cars in your neighbourhood in the coming months. To see where they’ve been and where they’re headed next, check out this link. Imagery from their journeys will be made available via Street View later this year.
Posted by Cynthia Wei, Street View Program Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand.
Whether it’s delivering search results in the correct language or recommending the quickest route home, data can make Google products more helpful to you. And you should be able to understand and manage your data—and make privacy choices that are right for you. That’s why easy-to-use privacy features and controls have always been built into our products. We made some privacy related announcements last week that we want to highlight during Privacy Awareness Week when a lot of people and businesses are actively thinking about privacy.
One-tap access to your Google Account from all our major products A few years ago, we introduced Google Account to provide a comprehensive view of the information you’ve shared and saved with Google, and one place to access your privacy and security settings. Privacy controls should be easy to find and use and now we’re making it even easier to find these controls. Today you’ll see your Google Account profile picture appear in the top right corner across products like Gmail, Drive, Contacts and Pay. To quickly access your privacy controls, just tap on your picture and follow the link to your Google Account.
Auto-Delete Options We are also introducing automatic deletion options, which will enable Google users to set a time limit for how long they want some data to be saved. They can choose to automatically delete data from their account after 3 or 18 months. These controls are available now for Web and App Activity and they will be launched for Location History in the coming weeks.
Your Data in Maps, the Assistant, and more Late last year, we launched a new feature called Your Data in Search, which puts privacy and security front and centre in Google Search. We are now making this feature available in Google Maps and the Assistant, with YouTube coming later this month. This provides quick access to the most relevant privacy controls by making privacy settings easy to access while using our products. Any older data will be automatically and continuously deleted from your account.
Learn more about how we use data to power Google Maps
Incognito mode in Google apps Incognito is a very popular feature in Chrome and we are bringing this functionality to additional surfaces this year. It’s available in YouTube and is coming soon to Maps and Search. Tap from your profile picture to easily turn it on or off. While using Incognito, a user’s activity, for example the places they search for or navigated to, won’t be linked to their Google account. When users turn off Incognito mode, their apps and devices will be cleared of this history, enabling them to confidently share screens with friends or family.
Chrome privacy enhancements We also announced that we are updating Chrome to provide users with improved controls for managing cookies and stepping up our efforts to restrict “fingerprinting,” to ensure that users’ privacy choices are respected. You can read more about these changes here.
Personalised ads Furthermore, as part of our continued work to improve privacy in the ads-supported ecosystem, Google will provide enhanced visibility into personalised advertising, and we will provide tools for others to do the same. We believe that we can build products and privacy for everyone and we are working to bring a thoughtful and thorough approach to improving user privacy in the ad-supported ecosystem.
Our work on privacy is never done and we will continue to consider new ways for our users to manage their privacy. You can learn more about these updates in our blogpost and check out these 5 things you can do right now to stay safer online.
Posted by Samantha Yorke, Public Policy and Government Relations Senior Counsel, Google Australia
Editor’s note: Privacy Awareness Week is an initiative by the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA). It is held annually to promote awareness of privacy and personal data protection issues.
Whether it’s delivering search results you’re looking for or recommending the quickest route home, data can make Google products more helpful to you. We think it’s important that you have the information you need, to make the choices you want, about your data. That’s why we build easy-to-use privacy features and controls into our products.
We made some privacy related announcements last week that we want to highlight during Privacy Awareness Week:
One-tap access to your Google Account from all our major products A few years ago, we introduced Google Account to provide a comprehensive view of the information you’ve shared and saved with Google, and one place to access your privacy and security settings. Privacy controls should be easy to find and use - today you’ll see your Google Account profile picture appear in the top right corner across products like Gmail, Drive, Contacts and Pay. To quickly access your privacy controls, just tap on your picture and follow the link to your Google Account.
Auto-Delete Options We’re also introducing automatic deletion options, which will enable Google users to set a time limit for how long they want some data to be saved. They can choose to automatically delete data from their account after 3 or 18 months. These controls are available now for Web & App Activity and they will be launched for Location History in the coming weeks.
Your Data in Maps, the Assistant, and more Late last year, we launched a new feature called Your Data in Search, which puts privacy and security front and centre in Google Search. We’re now making this feature available in Google Maps and the Assistant, with YouTube coming later this month. This provides quick and easy access to the most relevant privacy controls. Any data older than that will be automatically and continuously deleted from your account.
Incognito mode in Google apps Incognito is a very popular feature in the Chrome web browser and we are bringing this functionality to additional surfaces this year. It’s available in YouTube and is coming soon to Maps and Search. Tap from your profile picture to easily turn it on or off. While using Incognito, a user’s activity - for example the places they search for or navigated to - won’t be linked to their Google account. When users turn off Incognito mode, their apps and devices will be cleared of this history, enabling them to confidently share screens with friends or family.
Chrome privacy enhancements We’re also updating Chrome to provide users with improved controls for managing cookies and stepping up our efforts to restrict “fingerprinting,” to ensure that users’ privacy choices are respected. You can read more about these changes here.
Personalised ads As part of our work to improve privacy in the ads-supported ecosystem, Google will provide better visibility into personalised advertising, and tools for others to do the same. We believe that we can build products and privacy for everyone and we are working to bring a thoughtful and thorough approach to improving user privacy in the ad-supported ecosystem.
Our work on privacy is never done and we will continue to explore new ways for our users to manage their privacy. You can learn more about these updates in our blogpost and check out these 5 things you can do right now to stay safer online.
Posted by Ross Young, Government Relations & Public Policy, Google New Zealand.
Computer science skills are important across a wide range of industries, from health and science to agriculture or the arts. Equipping teachers with the knowledge, resources, and support to teach computer science has never been more important.
Google continues its support of CS education through the Digital Technologies curriculum in Australia and New Zealand with the 2019 Educator Professional Development Grants. Past awardees have reached over 15,600 teachers throughout Australia and New Zealand, which in turn, impacts over 390,000 students.
CORE Education have been providing quality professional development (PD) to teachers around New Zealand since 2003. In 2018, their Google funded PD project used their expertise to run online, accessible workshops for teachers focusing on digital technologies in years 7-10.
Workshop organiser Catherine Johnson said: “For educators to upskill in computational thinking for digital technologies is incredibly challenging”. CORE’s webinars and community of practice “presented both the digital capability, and the curriculum understanding to support this challenging 'middle school' sector, to be able to take the first steps to adopting these future focused pedagogies.”
Over four weeks, 400 teachers from around NZ participated in online webinars and joined a global community, learning how to implement the digital technologies curriculum content and learning to share with their communities and schools more broadly.
One teacher attending the program is now planning to “encourage other subject teachers at the secondary level to do more with digital technologies, and be actively involved in supporting our feeder primary schools to improve the learning of my future students.”
We’re excited to announce the following Awardees, who will continue to motivate and inspire educators around New Zealand.
2019 CS Educator Grants Funding Recipients New Zealand
Computer science skills are important across a wide range of industries, from health and science to agriculture or the arts.
Equipping teachers with the knowledge, resources and support to teach computer science (CS) has never been more important. Google continues to support CS education in Australia and New Zealand with the 2019 Educator Professional Development Grants.
Past awardees have reached over 15,000 teachers throughout Australia and New Zealand, which in turn impacts over 390,000 students.
When Mountain Creek State High School in Queensland received their first Google funded professional development (PD) grant 4 years ago, there were no PD opportunities in the Sunshine Coast region. Since then, more than 1,100 local teachers have received quality training in areas such as robotics, computational thinking and skills development through these workshops.
Last year, 120 teachers from the region attended the school’s workshop, focused on introducing robotics and computational thinking for primary and secondary schools.
Workshop organiser and teacher Graeme Breen said these workshops are a launchpad for teachers to further engage with technology: “The participation by these schools in robotics comps such as Sumo and FIRST LEGO League is really strong evidence that teachers and schools are keen, but perhaps just need some assistance getting started, which Google funding of this event provides.”
These workshops have been pivotal not only for the teachers that attend but also for the growth of opportunities for their schools, and the attendees were "excited to see what it will look like for students across the region".
We’re excited to announce the 2019 CS Educator Grants Awardees, who will continue to motivate and inspire educators.
With just over a week until election day, our interactive AusVotes Election Map is back to provide some of the most important information for the big day—like where to vote, how to get there, and who’s on the ballot. Plus, it has live data to show you where to snag a sausage sanga.
From today, Australians can visit g.co/ausvotes to find polling booths near them along with details about accessibility. Simply enter your postcode, suburb or electorate and voila—you’ll see all your local information.
Thanks to Democracy Sausage, you’ll also be able to see if there’s a sausage sizzle or cake stall at your local polling booth.
We’ve made it simple for anyone with a website to embed and display the map, which is fully customisable so you can show a national map or an electorate view (just follow the embed link in the footer).
Find out more here on how we are helping to connect Australians with useful and relevant information election information online, and enjoy your #democracysausage. Posted by Drew Jarrett, Brett Morgan, Leon Nemets and Akhilesh Singh, Google Sydney Engineering team
As part of Google’s AI for Social Good program, we launched the Google AI Impact Challenge, based on our strong belief that emerging technologies will help us address big social, humanitarian and environmental problems. We were blown away by the number of proposals we received: 2,602 applications from 119 countries, nearly two thirds of the world’s countries.
Today, 20 organisations were announced that will share $25 million USD in grants from Google.org, credit and consulting from Google Cloud, mentoring from Google AI experts and the opportunity to join a customized accelerator program from Google Developers Launchpad - including Australia’s Eastern Health!
Eastern Health will receive $1.2M AUD to develop a national monitoring system which has the potential to set international standards informing suicide prevention efforts. As ambulances are often the first point of contact with someone who is suicidal, ambulance clinical records are significantly under-utilised to treat and prevent suicide.
By using AI tools to analyse this valuable data, Eastern Health aims to uncover critical suicide trends and potential points of intervention to better inform policy and public health responses.
The other organisations selected as grantees of the Google AI Impact Challenge address issues in the areas of health, economic opportunity and empowerment, environmental protection and conservation, education, misinformation and crisis and emergency response. Find out more about other projects here.
Forty percent of the applications came from organisations with no previous experience with artificial intelligence, which is still a developing concept in the social impact field. Our job, as we thoroughly vetted the applications, was to choose the best projects based on feasibility, potential for impact, scalability and the responsible use of AI.
Next week, the grantees will converge in San Francisco for the kickoff of the Google AI Impact Challenge Accelerator, the six-month program run by Google Developers Launchpad. Eastern Health will join a local network of more than 20 non-profits in Australia supported by Google.org to use technology to help address Australia’s biggest social challenges. Congratulations Eastern Health!
Posted by Mel Silva, Country Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand
Today, we welcomed thousands of people to I/O, our annual developer’s conference. It’s one of my favorite events of the year because it gives us a chance to show how we’re bringing Google’s mission to life through new technological breakthroughs and products. Our mission to make information universally accessible and useful hasn’t changed over the past 21 years, but our approach has evolved over time. Google is no longer a company that just helps you find answers. Today, Google products also help you get stuff done, whether it’s finding the right words with Smart Compose in Gmail, or the fastest way home with Maps.
Simply put, our vision is to build a more helpful Google for everyone, no matter who you are, where you live, or what you’re hoping to accomplish. When we say helpful, we mean giving you the tools to increase your knowledge, success, health, and happiness. I’m excited to share some of the products and features we announced today that are bringing us closer to that goal.
Helping you get better answers to your questions
People turn to Google to ask billions of questions every day. But there’s still more we can do to help you find the information you need. Today, we announced that we’ll bring the popular Full Coverage feature from Google News to Search. Using machine learning, we’ll identify different points of a story—from a timeline of events to the key people involved—and surface a breadth of content including articles, tweets and even podcasts.
Sometimes the best way to understand new information is to see it. New features in Google Search and Google Lens use the camera, computer vision and augmented reality (AR) to provide visual answers to visual questions. And now we’re bringing AR directly into Search. If you’re searching for new shoes online, you can see shoes up close from different angles and even see how they go with your current wardrobe. You can also use Google Lens to get more information about what you’re seeing in the real world. So if you’re at a restaurant and point your camera at the menu, Google Lens will highlight which dishes are popular and show you pictures and reviews from people who have been there before. In GoogleGo, a search app for first-time smartphone users, Google Lens will read out loud the words you see, helping the millions of adults around the world who struggle to read everyday things like street signs or ATM instructions.
Helping to make your day easier
Last year at I/O we introduced our Duplex technology, which can make a restaurant reservation through the Google Assistant by placing a phone call on your behalf. Now, we’re expanding Duplex beyond voice to help you get things done on the web. To start, we’re focusing on two specific tasks: booking rental cars and movie tickets. Using “Duplex on the Web,” the Assistant will automatically enter information, navigate a booking flow, and complete a purchase on your behalf. And with massive advances in deep learning, it’s now possible to bring much more accurate speech and natural language understanding to mobile devices—enabling the Google Assistant to work faster for you.
We continue to believe that the biggest breakthroughs happen at the intersection of AI, software and hardware, and today we announced two Made by Google products: the new Pixel 3a (and 3a XL), and the Google Nest Hub Max. With Pixel 3a, we’re giving people the same features they love on more affordable hardware. Google Nest Hub Max brings the helpfulness of the Assistant to any room in your house, and much more.
Building for everyone
Building a more helpful Google is important, but it’s equally important to us that we are doing this for everyone. From our earliest days, Search has worked the same, whether you’re a professor at Stanford or a student in rural Indonesia. We extend this approach to developing technology responsibly, securely, and in a way that benefits all.
This is especially important in the development of AI. Through a new research approach called TCAV—or testing with concept activation vectors—we’re working to address bias in machine learning and make models more interpretable. For example, TCAV could reveal if a model trained to detect images of “doctors” mistakenly assumed that being male was an important characteristic of being a doctor because there were more images of male doctors in the training data. We’ve open-sourced TCAV so everyone can make their AI systems fairer and more interpretable, and we’ll be releasing more tools and open datasets soon.
Another way we’re building responsibly for everyone is by ensuring that our products are safe and private. We’re making a set of privacy improvements so that people have clear choices around their data. Google Account, which provides a single view of your privacy control settings, will now be easily accessible in more products with one tap. Incognito mode is coming to Maps, which means you can search and navigate without linking this activity with your Google account, and new auto-delete controls let you choose how long to save your data. We’re also making several security improvements on Android Q, and we’re building the protection of a security key right into the phone for two-step verification.
As we look ahead, we’re challenging the notion that products need more data to be more helpful. A new technique called federated learning allows us to train AI models and make products smarter without raw data ever leaving your device. With federated learning, Gboard can learn new words like “zoodles” or “Targaryen” after thousands of people start using them, without us knowing what you’re typing. In the future, AI advancements will provide even more ways to make products more helpful with less data.
Building for everyone also means ensuring that everyone can access and enjoy our products, including people with disabilities. Today we introduced several products with new tools and accessibility features, including Live Caption, which can caption a conversation in a video, a podcast or one that’s happening in your home. In the future, Live Relay and Euphonia will help people who have trouble communicating verbally, whether because of a speech disorder or hearing loss.
Developing products for people with disabilities often leads to advances that improve products for all of our users. This is exactly what we mean when we say we want to build a more helpful Google for everyone. We also want to empower other organizations who are using technology to improve people’s lives. Today, we recognized the winners of the Google AI Impact Challenge, 20 organizations using AI to solve the world’s biggest problems—from creating better air quality monitoring systems to speeding up emergency responses.
Our vision to build a more helpful Google for everyone can’t be realized without our amazing global developer community. Together, we’re working to give everyone the tools to increase their knowledge, success, health and happiness. There’s a lot happening, so make sure to keep up with all the I/O-related news.
These days, you expect a lot from a smartphone. You want a camera that can take vivid, share-worthy photos wherever you go. You need a tool that connects you to the world with all your favourite apps and also helps out during the day. And you want a phone that has a battery that is reliable for long stretches, while it stays secure and up to date with the latest software. The Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are all of those things and more, for half the price of other premium phones.
Pixel 3a has a familiar two-tone design like it’s predecessors, fits nicely in your hand, and includes an OLED display for crisp images and bright colours. The phone comes in two colours—Just Black, Clearly White—and two sizes, starting in Australia at $649 for the 5.6-inch display and $799 for the 6-inch model. Eligible customers who activate a Pixel 3a or Pixel 3a XL by 30/09/19 and redeem by 31/10/19 can get a 3-month trial of YouTube Music Premium on us (restrictions and terms apply).
High-end features: camera, Google Assistant, battery life and security
Google Pixel 3a delivers what you’d expect from a premium device. Known for its award-winning camera, Pixel 3a lets you take stunning photos with features such as portrait mode and HDR+, or use Night Sight to capture shots in the dark. Google Photos is built in, so you can save all your photos and videos with unlimited storage at high quality.1 The battery provides up to 7 hours of battery life on a 15-minute charge and up to 30 hours on a full charge.2
Squeeze Pixel 3a for the Google Assistant to send texts, get directions and set reminders—simply using your voice.3 We’ll help protect your Pixel 3a against new threats,4 by providing three years of Android security and operating system updates. It also comes with the custom-built Titan M chip to help protect your most sensitive data.5
New features at a more accessible price
Pixel makes it easy to use Google apps like YouTube, Google Photos and Gmail. And you'll get access to new features first. Pixel 3a and the entire Pixel portfolio will get a preview of AR in Google Maps—the next time you're getting around town, you can see walking directions overlaid on the world itself, rather than looking at a blue dot on a map.6 This helps you know precisely where you are, and exactly which way to start walking (in areas covered on Street View where there’s a good data connection and good lighting).
Time lapse is coming to Google Pixel 3a, so soon you will be able to capture an entire sunset in just a few seconds of video—great for posting on social media or messaging to your friends.
Buy it in-store or online from more places
Google Pixel 3a is now available in Australia with our exclusive carrier launch partner, Vodafone. Both Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are available at JB HiFi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and the Google Store. If you’re new to Pixel, you can transfer photos, music, and media quickly with the included Quick Switch Adapter.7 If you need a little extra help, 24/7 support from Google is just a tap away in the tips and support link in the settings menu. You can even share your screen for guided assistance.
Posted by Mario Queiroz, GM & VP, Pixel 1 Google Photos offers unlimited online storage for all photos and videos uploaded in high quality. Photos and videos uploaded in high quality may be compressed or resized. Requires Google Account. Data rates may apply. g.co/help/photostorage 2 Approximate battery life based on a mix of talk, data, standby, mobile hotspot, and use of other features, with always on display off. An active display or data usage will decrease battery life. Charging rates are based upon use of the included charger. Actual results may vary. 3Requires internet connection. 4Android version updates for at least three years from when the device first became available on the Google Store. See g.co/pixel/updates for details 5See g.co/pixel/security for additional security information. 6Requires published Google Street View imagery, bright outdoor light, and may not be available in all areas 7Some third party apps and data may not be transferred automatically. Visit g.co/pixel/help for information.
