Read My World: Microsoft’s language learning app

Language learning App

A team of eight Microsoft interns inspired from the Microsoft Education Team Challenge to build an app that could empower literacy and English Language Learning (ELL), developed an app named Read My World. Basically, Read My World is a Microsoft Garage project which aims to improve the English literacy skills by building a stronger vocabulary.

Read My World either works as a supplement to classroom training or offers a way to learn some words for those with lack of time or funds for language learning classes. This app uses the smartphone’s camera encouraging users to snap photos of real-world objects they encounter in their daily life. It uses the Azure Cognitive Services API’s to identify the object in photos. It then shows the spelling of the word and speaks the phonetic pronunciation of the identified vocabulary words. The app also consists of three in-built vocabulary games which motivate users to practice newly discovered words to strengthen comprehension and memorization.

This app takes a learn-as-you-go approach; when users encounter everyday objects or documents in their lives, they can use the app to take a picture and detect vocabulary words. The app is limited in terms of replacing formal instruction as it only focuses on things a user sees. As the learner uses the app not only he will master the everyday vocabulary but also gain confidence.

Key features of Read My World app:

  • Click a photo to identify an object from a library of over 1500 vocabulary words.
  • Click a photo to identify vocab words in documents or other written mediums.
  • See how the word is spelled and hear the phonetic pronunciation of identified words.
  • For later reference, you can save the photos with corresponding identified words to a personal dictionary.
  • Three vocabulary games help to practice saved words.

Organizations supporting literacy and willing to try and share feedback on Read My World, should request an invitation to join via a short questionnaire and the sponsoring team will be in touch.

What are Language Learnings Apps?

Language learning apps guide you learn a language from start to finish. They help you sharpen language skills that you may already have. Some apps are designed to learn new vocabulary, pronunciation, word games or dictionaries and some are designed as a full course.

Benefits of Language Learning Apps:

  • Learn new words
  • Practice speaking a language
  • Help you read and write a new language
  • They help accomplish your language learning goals

When you think of learning a new language the first question that comes to your mind is: When am I supposed to do this? Language learning apps do not have a time constraint. Instead, they provide you with time mobility to learn lessons whenever you get time.

FlipChat: TikTok owner ByteDance launches new chat app

FlipChat messaging app

TikTok owner ByteDance has introduced a new messaging-focused app called as Feiliao or FlipChat in English. FlipChat is the interest-based social app for iOS and Android which combines the usual chats and video call with social network style feed.

FlipChat encourages users to create forums and chat groups based on their hobbies. Users can join different chat groups of different topics, ranging from eccentric boyfriend to popular TV series. Inside the app, there are two chat groups Open group and other is a Normal group. In the open group, all the posts are visible to all users and there is no limit to the number of members. Whereas, normal chat groups are similar to the other chat groups and have a limit of 100 users per group.

As of now, the biggest chat group in the app contains 3500 people which appears to be a group of testing features and not posting actual content. The person who creates a group automatically becomes a group administrator and can name other members as moderators. The other features of FlipChat include sharing photos and videos along with text-based posts, voice recognition to chat including support for GIFs. There’s also a camera with special effects, beauty filter, rich stickers along with mood stickers and soundtrack.

Before the launch of Feiliao, ByteDance had already made its moves with video chat app called as “Duoshan” which was launched this year in January. This app is currently limited to China. Alibaba has partnered with ByteDance providing Alipay as the only payment method in the app. This enables users to transfer cash between users using hongbao or red packets and tip official accounts using gold “likes”.

How to install Flipchat?

The app can be downloaded on iOS devices from the Apple app store, Android users have to download the APK from the official website and then install it, for now. While downloading the app from the App store it shows that the app is still at early stages of its launch. FlipChat is set to compete with WeChat, the messaging app that dominates China. The arrival of FlipChat might also be a threat to Facebook. In its F8 conference, Facebook has bet on private messaging as the future of the company. With TikTok’s popularity, FlipChat may create a strong competition for privacy oriented Facebook’s messaging apps.

ByteDance – world highest valued start-up

According to the reports from Forbes and Bloomberg, ByteDance is the world highest valued start-up. Over 11% of Chinese users spent time on super apps and it is growing rapidly. TikTok being the most downloaded app on the app store for the fifth consecutive quarter, their success might help FlipChat to expand beyond the Chinese audience.

Do more with Instagram Explore

Instagram IGTV

Instagram has announced new designs in Explore tab allowing you to discover more photos, videos, products, and stories. The updated Explore tab has brought a new navigation bar with fast access to common features and tasks. Since its launch, IGTV has been struggling to make its mark, even after making it first in the new navigation bar. This navigation bar features shortcuts to Shopping along with other channels such as Food, Art, Travel, etc. In other words, navigation bar can be customized according to your interest.

Instagram wants to provide a more immersive experience so that people can engage with content, be more specific, about what they want to discover. Now on Explore grid, you will get to see auto-playing stories clips. Tapping on one will play the story and swiping will show more similar stories on the same topic. This will help influencers and artists to reach out to more people and gain more followers.

IGTV and Shopping

IGTV and Shopping are the most important features of the company. These shortcuts are pinned to Instagram navigation bar, therefore, making it easier to find products and videos of your interest. In addition, this shortcut of IGTV on the navigation bar will let you browse recommended videos from creators you follow. Tapping on the ‘Shop’ in the navigation bar allows you to browse specific types of products on Instagram such as clothing, beauty, and home decor.

Instagram Stories

Over 500 million people use Instagram stories every day. Explore recommends the posts based on the topics you are interested in. The grid will now provide you with personalized stories recommendations. Instagram is going to roll out this feature in the coming weeks. More than half of the accounts on Instagram use Explore every month, in other words, it is the most important step for Explore.

Amount of data posted on Instagram every day, Explore surfaces the content which is more relevant to you. As stories are an integral part of Instagram, Explore will make stories reach even greater audiences. It is designed to help people discover the contents, of the people, they don’t follow. Social media wants you to use and see more of the stories.

Instagram and Businesses

This could be beneficial for businesses to boost sales that sell Instagrammable products. For businesses, in order to be eligible to have their products tagged, they need to be a part of Instagram’s Checkout beta. Checkout feature lets you shop for products without redirecting, to the third-party website, as well as Shopping in Stories and Shopping Collections. Initially, Instagram is rolling out product tags to a small group of prominent influencers. Both the influencers and artists will receive performance insights into their shopping posts.

In conclusion, Instagram is trying to make Explorer even better with new ways to discover, and a better place to connect with your interests.

Kotlin: The future of Android App development

Future of Android App Development

Every now and then we can see major or minor technological updates. Tech giants hold developer conferences (Google I/O or Microsoft Build) to share the updates and announce upcoming products. In this process, Google has introduced a new programming language for Android app development named as Kotlin. JetBrains is behind the development of Kotlin and is currently working to bring Kotlin to iOS and embedded systems as well making it a one-stop language for all application areas.

Kotlin is a statically typed programming language based on Java Virtual Machine which is compatible with Android and is concise, expressive, and designed to be type- and null-safe. Kotlin works smoothly with the Java language, therefore, making it easy for the developers to use Java language and incrementally adding Kotlin code. Above all, it makes development faster, easier and more fun.

Advantages of Kotlin:

Concise:

In many cases, Kotlin is way more concise than Java such as solving the problems with fewer lines of code. This improves readability and code maintainability which helps developers to write, read and change the code more effectively. Type inference, smart casts, data classes, and properties help Kotlin to achieve conciseness.

Safer Code:

Kotlin code prevents common programming mistakes by design which results in lesser system failures and application crashes. Whereas, these common errors occur while using Java. With Kotlin, developers can think about potential problems with their code in a detailed manner, in other words, it will help them to write stronger codes.

Better support for functional programming:

Functional programming was introduced in Java 8, but Kotlin has better support for it. It is a development model that allows developers to solve tasks more easily and consistently. Performance can be improved with the help of lining which is not possible in Java.

Lesser error and bugs:

Whenever possible Kotlin compiler aims to fail fast which greatly facilitates searching for bugs and can prevent them in the first place. Therefore, it performs many checks, avoiding runtime errors and reducing the cost and effort of fixing errors.

Code base shrink:

Technical debt is a deadweight carried by the developers because of the shortcuts made in programming, often to reach a deadline. It slows down future development resulting in reduced productivity. With Kotlin, code base shrinks while increasing the quality at the same time and if implemented correctly it can also reduce lines of code by 20-30%.

Faster development tasks:

With the number of handy features, Kotlin facilitates everyday development tasks something that Java does not offer. Default parameter values, object declarations, extension functions are some of the features which speed up Android app development time while keeping the code base more maintainable.

In addition to Java, Kotlin is the most strongly supported Java Virtual Machine language in the Android ecosystem. Kotlin is interoperable with Java as both generate the same bytecode, therefore, you can start using Kotlin in your existing project with all your old Java code.

Once you understand the syntax, Kotlin is way more readable and short as compared to Java. In conclusion, Kotlin makes a developer’s life easier than any other language.

All you need to know about Google I/O 2019

Google i/o 2019

Search giant Google hosted its annual developer conference I/O 2019 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, California. This annual event was for three days starting from 7th May up to 9th May. On the day one of Google I/O 2019, the company announced consumer-focused keynote followed by developer-focused keynote. Google began its I/O 2019 developer conference just a day after Microsoft started its Build 2019 developer conference. In three days of the developer conference, Google made many revelations from Artificial Intelligence to the latest Android Q and Augmented Reality.

Artificial Intelligence (AI):

Project Euphonia:

Google is launching a new initiative in order to make speech technology more accessible for those who are vocally impaired and the company named it as “Project Euphonia”. It includes a wide range of research and collaboration with non-profits and volunteers. Speech software’s such as Google Assistant is built to respond to the normal voices of humans and not to those with vocal impairments. The focus of Euphonia will be to collect more and more voice data from people with impaired speech. Hence, collecting data will improve its algorithms and eventually integrate the updates into Google Assistant.

Live Caption and Live Transcribe:

Now there will be a live caption for the media on your phone including saved podcasts and videos you have recorded. Android will be able to add subtitles to the media playing on your phone. With a feature called “Live Relay”, Google is adding Live Caption to phone calls by adding a Live Transcription to the current conversation for the people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Live Relay is still in the research phase and there is no time confirmation from Google as to when it will be released to the public

Project diva:

Project Diva stands for DIVersely Assisted which will help people to give commands to Google Assistant without using their voice. A person with a vocal disability and limited mobility can use an external switch device to command Google Assistant. Various trigger commands were examined including pressing a button with their chin, foot or even a bite. After months of efforts, the team came up with a solution which was a box that you plug in an assistive button into using a 3.5 mm jack. The signal received from the button was then converted to a command sent to the Google Assistant.

Google lens:

Now Google Lens will soon be able to show the top meals in a restaurant by simply pointing the camera at a menu as well as it will highlight other information such as online ratings and reviews. You can also translate a text, split a bill, or calculate a tip through Google Lens by pointing your camera at printed content after a meal.

Google Duplex for web:

The Duplex was launched for phones as an AI-powered customer service tool which helped small businesses to take more phone calls, answer common questions and schedule reservations. Now at I/O 2019, Google has introduced Duplex for the web which will be able to do more things such as renting a car, filling up your information and make purchases in a few taps. Duplex on the web will be made available for Android phones later this year.

Google “next-gen” Assistant:

Google has shrunk its voice recognition models from hundreds of gigabytes to half a gigabytes, making them small enough to fit on a phone. To eliminate the latency involved in the back-and-forth pings to the cloud Google stored it locally making conversations with Assistant almost instantaneous. It can also work even in airplane mode. Google tested the speed by firing off voice requests rapid fire, with a very little delay between commands and resulting actions. According to Google, the next-gen Assistant will hit new Pixel phones later this year.

Features of Android Q:

Gestural Navigation:

This mode hides the navigation bar area and allows other apps and games to use the full screen. Rather than visible buttons, you can now swipe through the edges to go Back, Home and Recent windows.

Focus Mode:

With Focus mode, you can select and disable particular apps that you want to avoid for a certain time period and enable them by turning off the Focus mode.

Privacy:

This feature gives you control over the apps asking for the location. Now you will have a choice to allow the apps to access your location while using the app, all the time or never.

Encryption:

Android Q supports TLS 1.3, the latest version Transport Layer Security, which succeeds the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. TLS 1.3 helps securely send information over the internet which brings major improvements in security, privacy and performance. Latest version of TL 1.3 is used for all TLS connections made through Android’s TLS stack conscrypt regardless of target API level.

Dark Theme, Project Mainline, Smart Reply are some of the other features which Google has introduced in Android Q Beta 3.

Devices from Google:

Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL:

Google newly introduced Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are budget-friendly phones of the flagship Pixel 3 family. Although they still feature the Google’s signature Pixel camera they are a bit step down regarding specifications by using plastic rather than glass for the rear along with basic Snapdragon 670 processor and maximum storage limit up to 64 GB omitting wireless charging and certified water resistance. The good thing is that with Pixel 3A Google has brought back the headphone jack.                      

Nest Hub Max:

Google announced a new product Nest Hub Max which is a combination of Nest camera, Google Home Hub, and the Google Home Max and also offers a security camera, smart display, and loudspeakers all in a single gadget. The camera can perform facial recognition to bring up personalized results in family members. The Nest Hub Max is set to arrive later this summer.

Augmented Reality in Search:

Google Maps AR mode rolls out to Pixel phones:

Google released its augmented reality directions but only for Pixel phones. The feature offers real-time navigation through phones camera, just hold it up and you can see arrows and directions overlaid on your surroundings. This feature is available for the Pixel 3a as well as older Pixel phones. Previously Google had said that it would roll out AR walking directions as the feature gets ready but still, we are not seeing a full roll out.

Privacy and security:

Incognito mode in Google Maps:

Just like the incognito mode in browser Google has introduced new incognito mode in Google Maps which prevents your destination searches or routes from being saved in the history of your Google accounts. You just need to tap the profile icon, then choose “turn on incognito mode”, and the app will stop tracking you.

Inside the Microsoft Build 2019 Developer Conference

Microsoft Developer Conference

It is time for the technology giants to host the big developer conferences to launch and announce their upcoming products and technological updates. Facebook hosted its F8 developer’s conference last week at San Jose, C.A., now it is Microsoft and Google’s turn. Just a day ahead of Googles annual developer conference I/O 2019, Microsoft is hosting its annual Build developer conference at Seattle this week. Following are the announcements which Microsoft made on the day one of its Build developer conference:

Quantum Computing:

Microsoft is working hard to build the tools to program future quantum computers. The company announced both Q#, a programming language for writing quantum codes and a compiler for this language as well as a quantum simulator. It also said that it will open-source these efforts in the coming days. With this move, Microsoft has made quantum computing and algorithm development easier and more transparent for developers.

Autonomous Robots:

Microsoft announced a new Azure-based platform that is partially built on Bonsai a start-up which was acquired by Microsoft which will help developers to train the models necessary to power these autonomous physical systems. This platform is combining Microsoft tools such as machine learning and machine teaching with simulation tools like AirSim or third-party simulators to train models in a realistic but safe environment.

Microsoft Word Online to use Machine learning:

As Microsoft announced Word will soon get a new feature called Ideas this will help writers with their documents. It will help them to write more concise and readable text. It uses machine learning to suggest a rewrite when you make a mistake. Ideas can automatically extract key points from a document which is more interesting for a reader than a writer. It will also have “Word Designer” to the Word processor which will help writers to style different parts of the document including tables.

Braille-enabled controller:

Microsoft is developing such type of controller for visually impaired gamers to play some games. This is very much like an ordinary Xbox One gamepad except on the back there are six paddles correspond to the six dot positions on a Braille coded character which is a Braille display. Although the difficulty can’t be entirely reduced but kudos to Microsoft and Xbox for taking some concrete steps towards its development.

Microsoft and GitHub:

On October last year, Microsoft acquired GitHub by a huge amount $7.5 billion. At the Build developer conference, Microsoft announced a number of integrations between its existing services and GitHub most of them focussing on identity management. This allows GitHub Enterprises users to use Azure Active Directory to access GitHub. Developers will also be able to log into Azure Portal and Azure DevOps by using their existing GitHub accounts.

Visual Studio Online:

Visual Studio Online is an online code editor to which Microsoft is positioning as a companion to Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. Services are based on Visual Studio Code, Microsoft’s popular free and open source code editor. Visual Studio Online will support all the extensions that are available for Visual Studio Code as well as features like Visual Studio Code workspaces.

React Native for Windows:

Microsoft is implementing React Native to Windows rewriting many components in C++ to get maximum performance. This gives freedom to developers to target any Windows 10 device, including PCs, tablets, Xbox, mixed reality devices and more. As Microsoft is supporting this project, developers will be able to provide users with faster and more fluid apps.

IntelliCode:

Microsoft has made its AI-assisted coding tool IntelliCode available which supports C# and XAML in Visual Studio and Java, JavaScript, Typescript and Python in Visual Studio code. IntelliCode is the next generation of intellisense which is Microsoft’s most popular code completion tool. IntelliCode makes developers life easier, increases productivity, and reduces the probabilities of bugs.

Kubernetes:

Kubernetes autoscaling or Kubernetes-based event-driven applications (KEDA) is a new open source collaboration between Red Hat and Microsoft which helps developers to deploy serverless, event-driven containers. It also allows users to build their own event-driven applications.

Microsoft Edge:

Microsoft Chromium-based Edge browser was released a few weeks ago and now the company has announced three new privacy settings for the browser: Unrestricted, Balanced and Strict. These settings will influence the tracking ability of third parties across the web. Businesses which rely on legacy applications and only run on Internet Explorer will now be able to run on IE tab in the new browser.

Fluid Framework:

It is a new software development kit that will help developers faster and more flexible applications which will change people perspective towards document and collaborative editing. Users will be able to edit documents in applications like Word and then share a table from that document in Microsoft Teams and other third-party applications. Microsoft is also planning to integrate Fluid into some of its Office 365 applications later on.

Windows Terminal:

Windows 10 is getting a new terminal for command line users which will be launched in the midst of June. Windows terminal will be a major update of the existing Windows Command Prompt and PowerShell experience. The Terminal will be the default environment for PowerShell, Command Prompt and Windows Subsystem for Linux. The features of the new terminal include a faster GPU-accelerated text rending and emoji rich fonts. Windows terminal will also support shortcuts, tabs, tear away windows, theming as well as extensions. It will also support Unicode and East Asian fonts.

ElectionGuard:

It is a more secure and transparent method of voting as compared to the traditional systems which according to Microsoft will be made available this summer and be piloted during the elections of 2020. ElectionGuard is not a complete voting machine but a platform for handling voting data through which existing systems can be empowered or new ones can be built on top of it. It is a part of defending democracy program and a sister product of NewsGuard and AccountGuard.

Google rolls out “Tiles” on Wear OS watches

Google Wear OS watches

Google’s annual developer conference I/O 2019 is a couple of days away and the company has already started disclosing few details. Google has shared details about a new feature that will roll out “over next month” on Wear OS which Google calls as “Tiles”. Last year Google introduced a widget like function that previewed Google Fit on Wear OS similar to that of Tiles. 

In the recent version of Wear OS, Google Fit was the only available Tile which opened with a single swipe. But with this new feature, you can swipe further to bring up more Tiles. This is really a smart update brought to Wear OS by Google which features four quadrants and six Tiles. Swiping up brings up your notifications, swiping down brings up settings, swiping right brings up the Google Assistant, and swiping left shows Tiles.

The Tiles are informative and each Tile comes with a piece of different information which helps the users to quickly access the information gathered on the watch. Each Tile has a pretty straightforward design with all the information on a full screen with actionable buttons to enter into apps whenever required. These Tiles can be customized by both Wear OS mobile app and directly on the watch. To customize it on the watch, just touch and hold a given Tile and then drag it to the left or right according to your preference.

The six newly introduced Tiles for the Wear OS include Goal, Next Event, Forecast, Heart rate, Headlines, and Timer. Goal assists to check progress towards your fitness or start working out to reach the goal. Next event helps you follow the upcoming calendar appointments by telling where you should be next. The forecast gives you an overview of how today’s hourly weather is going to be. Heart rate displays the beats per minute data of your heart. Headlines keep you updated giving the latest breaking news around the globe on the Tile.

As the usage of smart devices is increasing, people are more and more comfortable in using their smart devices for more than just calling and messaging. Although Google is planning to add more Tiles to this list but has not mentioned any specific date for the Tiles to roll out for watches. It just said that they will roll out over the next month with unstated features which may vary according to phone OS, watch or country.

Google Assistant brings “Tell me a Story” feature to Android and iPhones

google assistant tell me a story

Google assistant’s “Tell Me a Story” is a story telling feature of Google Home smart speaker which Google has brought to Android and iPhones through Google Assistant on the occasion of National Tell a Story day on April 27. This feature was first introduced in 2018 but it’s made available only now on Google Home devices. Google is taking a serious approach towards Assistant as last month, Google added free YouTube music to Google home devices.

In the month of October last year, Google teamed up with Disney and Penguin Random House to develop a feature called “Read Along”. This feature automatically plays sound effects to the stories you read from select Disney Little Golden Books like Coco, The Three Little Pigs, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Toy Story-3. You just need to say “Hey Google, let’s read along with Disney” and the speakers will play the sound effects to key points in the story.

There is also an inspiring book “Ara the Star Engineer” for young girls to explore the wonders of STEM illuminating the motives like courage, creativity, coding, and collaboration. Over 20 stories including the classic bedtime stories such as Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood and other family favourite stories such as Goldilocks, The Tired Alien, The Chef Who Loved Potatoes, The Cats Elopement, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Blaze and The Monster Machines are available on Google Assistant.

Few of the family favourite books are available for download:

  • Charlotte’s Web
  • The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom
  • Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
  • The Collected Stories of Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Penny and Her Marble

There are options to pause, resume or skip the audiobooks through the voice assistant. Just say “Hey Google, read my book” and you can resume from where you left. To skip to the next chapter just say “Hey Google, skip to the next chapter” and Google will read you the next chapter.

Although the selection of supported books remains limited for now. If you have a good collection of Google play books then you can simply ask Google to read the book with a specific title “Hey Google, read Sleeping Beauty”. 

However, Google is not the only one offering audiobooks and narrated stories to kids. Amazon’s Alexa assistant can play audiobooks as well as books without professional narration when connected to Kindle or audible accounts. Amazon has announced last year to make more than 1,000 kid friendly titles available through its free time unlimited program where parents need to pay around $2.99 per month.

Audiobooks are available on the Google assistant in English in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany, and Japan.