Google is finally giving Samsung some competition in the folding phone space with the Pixel Fold, a device that transforms between a standard smartphone and a small tablet by folding in half.
7
Verge Score
It’s $50 more than the Pixel 6A, but some key upgrades keep Google’s A-series at the top of the midrange class.
This year, Google has a lot to prove — and at least one product to unfold.
Google announced the Pixel Watch a year ago during its I/O event and launched the wearable last fall, delivering what Victoria Song called “a good-but-not-yet-great smartwatch for Android users.”
Maybe we’ll see more Wear OS updates this week during I/O 2023, but 9to5Google is already citing a source saying the Pixel Watch 2 will launch this fall along with the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro smartphones.
That’s according to 9to5Google, citing lines of code in upcoming apps. Right now, Bard is only available via a browser, whereas Microsoft’s Bing app is available on iOS and Android. This would be a big upgrade. Says 9to5Google:
“[T]he Bard AI is set to arrive on Android in the near future, complete with a homescreen widget. At this time, we don’t know whether Bard will be integrated into the Google Search app or arrive as a standalone app.”
Expect to hear more at Google I/O next week.
For anyone keeping their Android phone current with the latest patches, Google has two new patch levels, dated for the first and the fifth of this month, to address security issues discovered on the platform; you can get all the info on those right here.
And for Google Pixel owners, here are the details on the May update, which is supposed to improve touch screen response on the Pixel 7 Pro and address a glitch that could make lock screen elements overlap with the home screen launcher UI.
