Fitbit Users Will Be Forced To Have A Google Account In 2025
As The Verge reports(Opens in a new window), Google updated a Fitbit support page(Opens in a new window) to confirm that, at some point in 2023, "Google accounts on Fitbit" will launch. At that point, activating newly released Fitbit devices, and features, or signing up for Fitbit will require a Google account. Existing users with a Fitbit account can continue to use them, but only temporarily.
Once Google accounts on Fitbit are available, Google will provide the option to migrate a Fitbit account over to Google. However, support for Fitbit accounts is only guaranteed until early 2025, after which "a Google account will be required to use Fitbit." There is no getting around the migration in 2025—you either have to accept it or switch to an alternative brand for your health and exercise tracking.
Google is promising to be transparent about when the Fitbit account support will end and is also very keen to point out that Fitbit users' health and wellness data won't be used for Google Ads. There were binding commitments made by Google(Opens in a new window) during its acquisition of Fitbit to ensure the data remains separate.
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When asked for comment, a Fitbit spokesperson told The Verge, "“Google accounts on Fitbit will remain in full compliance with our commitments to global regulators. After a user signs up for or moves to a Google account, we will continue to keep Fitbit users’ health and wellness data separated from Google Ads data and this data won’t be used for Google Ads."
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The Best Thing Google Can Do For The Pixel Line Is to Stay Consistent
Google first showed off the Pixel 7 series back in May at its I/O 2022 conference, revealing two phones that seemed more iterative than revolutionary.
Both devices offer similar designs to the Pixel 6 series, featuring those camera visors, center-mounted punch-hole cutouts, and near-identical camera specs to last year. You’d be forgiven for thinking these were Pixel 6 variants. But there’s a strong argument to be made that this is exactly what the Pixel line needs.
A history of flip-flopping Robert Triggs / Android Authority
It’s easy to see a historic lack of commitment to consistency when looking at older Pixel hardware. Each successive device often felt like an experimental release rather than part of a cohesive product line and long-term strategy. It’s almost as if the company decided on features by throwing darts at a board.
Perhaps the most prominent example of this was the Pixel 4 series ditching the Pixel 3 line’s rear fingerprint scanner, dual selfie cameras, and single rear camera in favor of 3D face unlock, a single selfie camera, and main/tele dual rear cameras. The move to 3D face unlock meant the phones couldn’t be sold in some markets (such as India), owing to the use of Soli radar tech to start facial recognition as soon as you reached for the phone.
Google has historically taken a scattershot approach to its Pixel phone strategy, making major changes on what seems like a whim.
Then there was the Pixel 5, which ditched the Pixel 4’s flagship power for a mid-range chipset and abandoned a main/telephoto camera setup for a main/ultrawide combination. Google has been a bit more consistent with its software features, but you never really knew what you were getting with Pixel hardware.
This inconsistency is also reflected in the numerous problems we’ve seen with Google phones over the years. Whether it’s the original Pixel’s boot loop and microphone woes or the Pixel 3 and 4’s rear cover coming off, it seemed like every release was accompanied by a serious issue of some kind.
The Pixel line's lack of focus might also be partially to blame for numerous hardware and software woes.
These defects aren’t a thing of the past either; Google’s current Pixel 6 series suffers from numerous problems. The company’s semi-custom Tensor chipset is prone to heating, while its poor wireless connectivity has also been well-documented. The phones have also suffered from software bugs related to fingerprint scanners, phone calls, Bluetooth, and more.
Why consistency would help the Pixel 7 Google
The looming Pixel 7 series phones, on the other hand, seem to represent a more iterative Google rather than a company starting from scratch once again. And there are plenty of reasons why this is a good thing.
The biggest reason to welcome an evolutionary Pixel series release is that it gives Google an opportunity to focus on fixing these aforementioned problems it encountered with the Pixel 6 family. After all, it’s not starting from zero again, which means it doesn’t need to spend a ton of time on aspects like hardware and the overall design.
The time it would’ve spent on a complete rework will hopefully, therefore, go to addressing software issues, for one, making the bug swarm of the Pixel 6 series launch a thing of the past. It also means Google can theoretically refine its Tensor processor in a bid to reduce overheating and unreliable connectivity.
Google can focus on solving Pixel 6 pain points as it's not starting from scratch with the Pixel 7.
An evolutionary approach also means Google can focus on refining what already works, such as the cameras. Google stuck with a 12MP main camera for years, allowing it to polish its image processing with each successive Pixel release until it decided to adopt a 50MP sensor with the Pixel 6 series. All signs point to the 50MP sensor being retained, giving Google a chance to fine-tune its image processing and algorithms once again.
Do you think a more iterative Pixel release is a good thing?874 votes
Finally, this approach also potentially frees up resources for future Pixel feature drop updates. Plus, the shared hardware DNA between the two Pixel generations could potentially allow for the Pixel 6 to gain Pixel 7 features down the line.
Aside from software fixes and product refinement, there’s also an over-arching potential benefit to taking an evolutionary approach. This strategy could help Google lay the foundation for future growth.
An opportunity to address what the Pixel actually is Jimmy Westenberg / Android Authority
Even if Google isn’t able to address every single major Pixel 6 problem with the Pixel 7 release, a more familiar phone will allow the company to refine its smartphone strategy in general. Although its phones offer great camera processing, years of updates, and some innovative software features (e.G. Call Screening, Recorder), Google hasn’t really done a fantastic job of communicating why people should buy its phones in years gone by. At least not to the mainstream public, which was reflected in its shipment figures for the longest time prior to the Pixel 6 family’s release. But that’s changing.
The switch to semi-custom silicon and a consistent design language suggests Google is finding its Pixel strategy footing.
There are signs that the company is indeed drilling down on a strategy, with the firm’s Tensor processor playing a crucial role. The semi-custom chipset is packing plenty of machine learning power, which Google uses for differentiating features such as offline voice dictation, Magic Eraser, and face unblur. We already know that the Tensor G2 is coming to the Pixel 7 series, so we’re expecting Google to build on this already impressive foundation for more AI-powered features.
Another sign of Google finally adopting a consistent strategy for the Pixel line is simply the Pixel 7’s look. The design is broadly in line with the Pixel 6 series, featuring the distinctive rear camera bar that shows an effort to maintain a cohesive design language across generations. We haven’t seen this from a Pixel flagship line since the Pixel 3 series. That’s really important; you certainly won’t mistake the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series for Samsung or Apple imitators.
A more iterative Pixel 7 allows Google to keep going uphill instead of stopping to change wheels once again.
All of these points suggest that Google and the Pixel team are finally pulling in one direction. A more iterative Pixel 7 release means Google isn’t reinventing the wheel this year, but it does allow the company to keep going uphill instead of stopping to change wheels once again.
Google Wants To Help Singapore Firms Tap Data, AI Responsibly
Google wants to provide Singapore organizations with the cloud tools and skills they need to tap data for greater efficiencies and better service delivery. It also hopes to help them leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and to do so responsibly, based on its own set of best practices and principles.
With organizations worldwide digitally transforming their business, including those in Singapore and Malaysia, the US cloud vendor is keen to figure out how its technology and infrastructure can facilitate its efforts.
Data, specifically, will prove critical in enabling companies to tap new opportunities in a digital economy, said Google Cloud's Singapore and Malaysia country director, Sherie Ng, in an interview with ZDNet.
She said businesses would need to figure out how to leverage data to better understand and serve customers as well as to reduce inefficiencies and improve work processes. The ability to generate insights from the right data also would be essential for companies to not only birth new businesses and products and services but also identify ways to measure and reduce their energy consumption and costs, Ng said.
This meant building digital infrastructures that were global in scale and able to support real-time access to data, she noted. She added that organizations in some markets such as Singapore now we're looking to gain more value from their cloud adoption as they moved up the model.
"They're interested not just in moving workloads to the cloud. We're seeing customers that want to be truly cloud-native," she said. These organizations were building their DevOps teams and deploying cloud-native technologies, such as containers and Kubernetes, Ng added.
In doing so, however, they faced challenges in finding the right talent and skillsets to help them transform into cloud-native environments, she said. This was an area Google hoped to address through schemes such as the Skills Ignition SG training program, which was introduced in 2020, and developer hubs for startups, she noted.
Google also aimed to offer the technology that could establish the transparency businesses needed, for instance, in measuring their carbon footprint, she said, adding that an organization's entire ecosystem should be sustainable, including its core infrastructure and supply chain.
Ng, who took on her current role in December 2021 from Microsoft where she was public sector general manager, said her top priority for the next couple of years was to enable companies in the two Asian markets to transform not just digitally, but also to do so on a green and sustainable foundation.
In Singapore, this encompassed working with the government on AI research and competency building, where Google would offer training resources and certification schemes to build proficiencies in AI and machine learning amongst local public-sector officers.
In addition, the cloud vendor would support the government's initiatives in driving AI governance and ethics in sectors such as finance. Google contributed to Singapore's Model AI Governance Framework and self-assessment guide for businesses and sat on the country's Advisory Council of the Ethical Use of AI.
Ng noted that AI was an important technology, but needed effective regulation to ensure it was used for good. Echoing the Singapore government's call for "guard rails", she said these were necessary to instill responsible use of AI.
"And there will be conversations about what works for Singapore as a country...Every country will have its nuances," she said, adding that Google was keen to share its own AI best practices and principles that it had adopted globally. Data that it uses, for instance, must be inclusive to mitigate the risk of bias. Humans also are involved in final decisions to establish accountability.
Google itself had to deal with some controversy involving its ethical AI unit when it fired a team member last year due to--the company said--violations of its code of conduct and security policies.
Reports suggested the move was related to another researcher's departure over her criticism that Google was "silencing marginalized voices" and she had co-authored a research paper urging tech giants to ensure AI language systems did not promote gender bias.