Google Pixel

Google’s Magic Editor is already capable of mind-bending photo retouching, but occasionally it’ll refuse to do certain edits. When this happens, it displays a vague message about violating Google’s AI terms.

When Google Keep got the ability to format notes, it only applied to new notes — you couldn’t format pre-update notes. 9to5Google reported today that Google is rolling out the ability to format your older notes as well.

Google Photos on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro is changing the way it handles RAW files: they’re now stored in the main photos view rather than a separate folder. They’ll be backed up along with your JPEGs, and those big files will eat up your account storage fast. You’ll want to shoot RAW with discretion or turn off automatic backup altogether.

Powerful AI tools are changing how people work and play — and in the future, maybe all our AI editing will leave us with a half-true, picture perfect unreality of our lives.

Google Pixel 8 phones manufactured in India will start to roll out next year. Google’s move is similar to what we’ve seen from Apple, which started producing iPhones there in 2017 as it diversified its production line beyond China. This year, for the first time, it had India-manufactured iPhone 15s for sale at launch.

9to5Google spotted the renamed camera app, which is exclusive to Pixel phones running Android 14, last night.

The new Pixel Watch 2 charges faster than the original, but after a new firmware update, it now charges much, much faster. Google says the original Pixel Watch will now take 45 minutes to reach 50 percent instead of 30, and 75 minutes to reach 80 percent. You can expect a full charge to take 110 minutes.

Did you know the Pixel Watch 2 was going to have UWB? Or that the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro would have higher clockspeeds? How about 8K video recording and 480fps slow-mo?

Not the Vegas one... the photo spheres that Google used to let you capture. They’ve been removed as a feature from the latest Pixels.

Pixel 8 reviews are live! So is the Pixel Watch 2 review! AI and cameras and Fitbit everywhere you look. We talked through them both, and then tried to figure out what to make of the new Chromebook Plus designation. Google gadgets: still here, and getting kind of good. Emphasis on kind of.

We tried to talk about gadgets, but ended up talking about the ethics of photography and why, as Nilay put it, “the market won’t correct for truth.” When does a photo become... something else? It’s a complicated question for a brand-new phone. We have some thoughts.

IDC VP Francisco Jeronimo posted this week that Google has sold 37.9 million Pixel phones globally since 2016. 9to5Google did some math concluding that the company sold about 10 million of them in the last 12 months — an improvement over its 2019 best of 7.2 million.

Samsung is reportedly “actively discussing” the possibility of going beyond five years of security updates, according to SamMobile. That’s noteworthy, if a little tepid, considering what just happened a few days ago over at Google.