Google Stadia will be “faster and more responsive” than local gaming hardware

Google Stadia will be faster and more responsive than local gaming systems in “a year or two,” according to VP of engineering Madj Bakar. Thanks to some precog trickery, Google believes its streaming system will be faster than the gaming systems of the near-future, no matter how powerful they may become. But if the system is playing itself, does that really count?

Speaking with Alex Wiltshire in Edge magazine #338, Google’s top streaming engineer claims the company is verging on gaming superiority with its cloud streaming service, Stadia, thanks to the advancements it’s making in modeling and machine learning. It’s even eyeing up the gaming performance crown in just a couple of years.

“Ultimately, we think in a year or two we’ll have games that are running faster and feel more responsive in the cloud than they do locally,” Bakar says to Edge, “regardless of how powerful the local machine is.”

This would be achieved using Google’s homegrown streaming tech, which it’s been teasing ever since Stadia was first announced late last year with Project Stream. The company believes its tech is capable of overcoming the hurdles presented by over-the-web gaming, despite its extensive web of datacentres sitting potentially hundreds of miles away from a user.

Specifically Bakar notes Google’s “negative latency” will act as a workaround for any potential lag between player and server. This term describes a buffer of predicted latency, inherent to a Stadia player setup or connection, in which the Stadia system will run lag mitigation. This can include increasing fps rapidly to reduce latency between player input and display or even predicting user inputs.

Yes, you heard that correctly. Stadia might start predicting what action, button, or movement you’re likely to do next and render it ready for you – which sounds rather frightening.

So does that count as the fastest system if technically some clever algorithm is anticipating your actions for you? We’ve received a heads-up (thanks!) that negative latency, powered by a datacentre’s worth of computing silicon, may offer future cloud gaming systems flexibility to anticipate the likely action of a user and ensure a speedy response ready for that potential eventuality. Whether or not a player takes the anticipated path or another entirely remains dependent on local player inputs.

This flexible approach is possible due to the sheer mass of power available to a cloud gaming service, the likes of which is far beyond that of any local system. But it still relies on the technology maturing to a point that enables game devs to implement it.

Google is plenty confident Stadia will delight users, and in my own experience with the tech back at E3, I didn’t notice any actions going awry. However, that was in a Google-approved environment, and we’ll have to wait until Stadia’s launch this November to find out how efficient Stadia’s streaming algorithms are in the real world.

Essential Project Gem phone is taller and thinner than usual

Essential CEO and ex-Googler Andy Rubin have been teasing his company's second smartphone via Twitter. Starting with a video, Rubin, highlighted the color-shift material which covers the backs of his new smartphones. However, the bigger story is the form factor evident at first glance of this design from almost any angle. The official Essential Twitter account has since joined in with the sharing and hash-tagged the smartphone design 'Project GEM'.

The Essential PH-1 was Essential's first and only smartphone, so far. Announced on May 2017, and shipping from August the same year, it was the first mainstream device to feature a top of screen notch in its otherwise 'edge-to-edge' screen. The PH-1 was discontinued in December last year but a follow-up device promised, and it continues to be updated, reports Engadget.

The Essential PH-1 was Essential's first and only smartphone, so far. Announced on May 2017, and shipping from August the same year, it was the first mainstream device to feature a top of screen notch in its otherwise 'edge-to-edge' screen. The PH-1 was discontinued in December last year but a follow-up device promised, and it continues to be updated, reports Engadget.

Last year Rubin touted the combination of a relatively small smartphone screen and better voice commands as a combination that can reduce smartphone addiction. It will be interesting to see if such a feature is an advertised bonus of the PH-2. If not, how else will this be marketed in a world where smartphone screens are now commonly 6-inches in diagonal, and others are looking at foldable or dual screens to increase our pocketable device screen areas?

Google Faces iPhone Privacy Lawsuit After Court Reinstates Case

A U.K. lawsuit filed against Google by millions of iPhone users over data-collection claims was given the go-ahead by London appeals judges who overturned an earlier ruling that had thrown out the case.

The group, known as Google You Owe Us, were seeking as much as 3.2 billion pounds ($3.9 billion), according to documents filed with the court last year. The organization, which represents more than 4 million people, said the Alphabet Inc. unit unlawfully gathered personal information by bypassing Apple Inc.’s iPhone default privacy settings.

Led by consumer advocate Richard Lloyd, the group was given permission to hear the case as a “representative action” that is akin to a U.S. class action, after arguing that all the customers share mutual interests. The court said Lloyd had agreed to seek the “lowest common denominator” of damages, potentially lowering the value of the lawsuit.

“This case, quite properly if the allegations are proved, seeks to call Google to account for its allegedly wholesale and deliberate misuse of personal data without consent, undertaken with a view to a commercial profit,“ Judge Geoffrey Vos said Wednesday in the ruling.

Google plans to seek permission from the U.K.’s highest court to appeal.

The judge said that by tracking and collecting data from users’ browsing history, Google took something of value from them. That meant all users suffered the same loss and could be counted as one group, he said. The customers had no remedy available to them but to file the litigation, Vos said.

“Today’s judgment sends a very clear message to Google and other large tech companies: you are not above the law,” Lloyd said. “Google can be held to account in this country for misusing peoples’ personal data, and groups of consumers can together ask the courts for redress.”

Google responded by saying that the case should be dismissed.

“Protecting the privacy and security of our users has always been our No. 1 priority,” a Google spokeswoman said in an email. “This case relates to events that took place nearly a decade ago and that we addressed at the time.”