Due to a recent DOJ decision, Google’s lucrative relationship with Apple’s iPhone is in jeopardy, and that means the Pixel is even more important than ever to the company’s success. In 2024, it seems like the company will be leaning into AI. It’s got the Pixel 9 Pro with plenty of Gemini AI features, plus the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. The company’s also launching a new Pixel Watch 3 as well as the Pixel Buds Pro 2.
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.
These might just be the Pixel phones we’ve been waiting for, but it all depends on how much trust you’re willing to put into Google.
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Google’s addressed a lot of what annoyed me about the first Pixel Watch, but repairability and continued Fitbit integration are still question marks.
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.
That’s progress, but then again, Apple and Samsung each shipped hundreds of millions of phones last year, so those new Pixel 8 phones have a lot of ground to make up.
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.
We reached out to Samsung to ask if it’s considering software updates, too. It would be exciting to see the rest of Android world follow Google’s hopefully historic example.
Allison Johnson has our first impressions of Google’s new flagships, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, with their new Tensor G3 chipsets, Android 14, seven years of updates, and, as we heard during the Made by Google event on Wednesday, all of the AI you can fit in a phone.
Victoria Song walks you through everything that’s new about the Pixel Watch 2, like its new sensors and promise of longer battery life. The wearable was fully revealed earlier today during Google’s big Pixel 8 event along with the new phones, Android 14, and lots of AI-powered features.
Google is rolling out Android 14 to Pixel 4A 5G devices and up. You can view the full list of fixes coming this month to all supported Pixel devices from the link below.
[support.google.com]
The biggest announcements from today’s Made by Google event for the release of the Pixel 8 phones, Pixel Watch 2, Android 14, and a slew of new generative AI features coming to Photos, Assistant, and more are all right here.
Bluetooth Super Wideband is only for Pixel 8 and newer — it’s in the fine print.
Wi-Fi 7 is limited to the US, CA, UK, EU, and AU for now.
For both phones, the “Beyond 24-hour battery life” claim is tested “across a mix of talk, data, standby, and use of other features. Average battery life during testing was approximately 31 hours.”
[support.google.com]
Big, big, big round of applause as Osterloh says support for the Pixel 8 will continue until 2030. We’re wrapping up at the Made By Google event now. Allison and I are about to go run and get some hands-on time with all these new gadgets!
I have a Pixel 6A that’s almost solely for Google Recorder, an incredible tool for journalists due to great real-time transcription. AI summaries... would they be useful? Exclusive to the Pro, apparently.
Pixel 8 starts at $699, and Pixel 8 Pro is $999. They’re available for preorder today and on shelves next week.
A lot of the cool stuff we’re seeing here today isn’t coming at launch. You’ll have to wait for future updates coming in December.
After all that Assistant with Bard barrage, Rick Osterloh is back onstage to give us a highlight reel of everything coming to Pixel. He’s showing off a demo of the Pixel phones creating summaries of long articles. He’s also saying the Pixel phones are the first to run foundation models directly on the device.
