Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL might make you forget those Nexuses
Goodbye, Nexus. Hello, Pixel. Google pulled back the curtain on two new smartphones at its keynote today, marking the end of a hardware era and signaling the start of something exciting. The Pixel and Pixel XL were tailor-made to reflect Google’s changing priorities, and after a little bit of hands-on time, I’m cautiously excited about this new direction.
But first, an admission. All those leaked renders didn’t fill me with much hope, and seeing the Pixels in person didn’t change my mind much. They’re definitely well-built phones — as befits a pair of products assembled by HTC — but they’re not particularly striking. Then again, one has to wonder if that was the whole point; it’s not hard to look at the Pixel phones as a blank canvas meant to let Google’s software prowess shine.
We’ll get to software a little later, though. I spent most of my time with the standard Pixel and its smaller, 5-inch, 1080p AMOLED display — it would’ve been nice to get a Quad HD screen in here, but text was plenty crisp and colors were sufficiently bright in Google’s too-dim demo area. (Don’t worry: the Pixel XL’s 5.5-inch AMOLED screen brings the Quad HD heat.) Everything feels nice and fluid too, though that’s to be expected from pair of smartphones with quad-core Snapdragon 821 chipsets and 4GB of RAM. All told, the Pixels have more than enough horsepower to keep even the pickiest phone buffs pleased. Beyond pure computational power, I’m looking forward to seeing how the Pixel and Pixel XL’s batteries hold up — their capacities are 2,770mAh and 3,450mAh, respectively.
And then there’s the camera, which Google and the independent researchers at DxOMark say is the best you’ll find in a smartphone. I’m not ready to weigh in there yet — testing cameras in a scrum like this is always a tricky exercise — but the Pixel and Pixel XL do at least make a hell of a first impression. The photos I snapped with their 12.3-megapixel cameras achieved a level of detail I didn’t see coming, and the HDR+ mode did a great job of boosting brightness and colors. More importantly, that HDR mode (which is on by default) is almost shockingly fast. Most HDR camera modes take one long exposure and processes that image for clarity, which can mean trouble if your hand isn’t steady. The Pixels’ HDR+ modes take a series of shorter exposures that get stitched together for a crisper, brighter shot without a delay.
Now, about that software. That new aesthetic we’ve seen in leaks for months is finally in place and it’ll take a little getting used to — it’s one of the biggest visual changes to Android in recent memory. Swiping to the right on your homescreen reveals the traditional list of Google Now cards, but you now have to tap on that Google logo pill to bring up the search bar. All of your apps still live in a separate launcher (as opposed to being splayed all over your homescreens), but you’ll now get to them by tapping on an arrow icon that’s almost imperceptibly small. You can also set up the Pixel to display trending topics right on your homescreen, which can ultimately felt pretty pointless — I don’t know what Candace Cameron Bure did to make headlines today and I really don’t care.
Of course, these are the first phones with Google’s helpful “Assistant” onboard, and you can access it by long-pressing the home key. From there, you can kick off a conversation that feels a lot like talking to Siri — the Assistant can rattle off facts and hook into apps like Uber to finagle rides. It isn’t long before the true power of Assistant comes to light, though. While it ultimately does a lot of the same things Siri can, the Assistant’s ability to more deeply dig into your preferences and connected Google services just make it feel more capable. What’s more, the Assistant is ready and able to keep track of the context between your requests — getting answers to a series of follow-up questions doesn’t require you to specifically tailor your syntax. It’s casual, it’s conversational and it works.
It’ll be a little while before we get to review either Pixel phone, but for now there’s a lot to be excited about. Beyond the addition of some valuable new software features and a camera that just might put all the rest to shame, there’s a lot to be said for Google owning the phone production process from beginning to end. Full control means tighter integrations of software and hardware, and more importantly, the latitude to implement innovative, weird stuff without compromise. Make no mistake: These Pixels have potential, and they’re just the beginning.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Google’s fall event.
‘Great British Bake Off’ host stars in a Daydream VR game
Plenty of people were wondering what comedian and actress Sue Perkins would get up to now that she’s done hosting The Great British Bake Off, and now we finally have the answer: She’s starring in a virtual reality video game for Google’s Daydream platform. EarthShape is a game about the first astronaut to leave humanity’s home planet on a millennia-long mission to terraform the universe. The StarSeeker, as the astronaut is called, travels the universe planting flowers and cultivating life “through a fun new gameplay mechanic.”
Developer Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone and Volume, started EarthShape as a hobby project before Google even announced Daydream. He describes the game as a “little arcadey puzzler,” but he doesn’t delve into details about how it actually plays. Aside from featuring Perkins’ venerable voice talents, the development team includes Fable composer Russell Shaw and Saints Row animator Tim Borrelli.
“I am very excited; that may be coming across,” Bithell writes. “Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing more about the project. I think we’ve made something rather cool.”
Apparently, Perkins agrees:
I love this game https://t.co/ioymH7lel2
— Sue Perkins (@sueperkins) October 4, 2016
This isn’t Bithell’s first foray into VR. His stealth puzzle game, Volume, is getting an add-on that’s made specifically for PlayStation VR, which comes out on October. The DLC is called Volume: Coda and it’ll be free for anyone who owns the base Volume game on PlayStation 4.
Daydream headsets cost $80 and start shipping in November, while the VR-ready Pixel phones are available for pre-order today, starting at $650. Google has prepared a handful of experiences for Daydream’s launch, including a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them game.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Google’s fall event.
Source: Mike Bithell
Google’s play for the living room starts with Home
Today marked Google’s biggest hardware launch yet. Not only did it announce two Pixel phones and a Daydream VR headset — it also unveiled a slew of products for the living room. We already heard about Google Home, its voice-powered assistant-and-Bluetooth speaker combo at the company’s I/O developer conference this year. New today, though, was a mesh networking router and an updated Chromecast. We took a closer look at all three immediately after the event and came away with a dream of a Google-powered home.
First up is Google Home, which was obviously intended to compete with the Amazon Echo. Instead of saying “Alexa” to trigger a voice command, you’d say “OK Google,” just like you would with any other Google-powered device. Obviously, you can use it to search the internet for various factoids, like “how tall is a giraffe?” or “what’s the weather in Mexico?” You can also harness the power of Google’s AI-powered assistant to text your friends and ask for directions to a restaurant. What’s more, it works with a variety of Internet of Things products like the Nest Thermostat, Samsung SmartThings, the Philips Hue lights and anything powered by IFTTT.
During a brief hands-on, I found that Google Home did a good job at recognizing my voice, even in a crowded room. It did hiccup occasionally if there was too much noise interference, but that was fairly rare. Google Home works with several different music sources like Pandora, Spotify, YouTube Music, TuneIn and iHeartRadio. So I could say, “Play Hello from Adele on Spotify” and it’ll do just that. It also reacts to commands like “pause” and “volume down.” What I found particularly impressive is that even in a loud room it managed to figure out what I was saying without me having to raise my voice. A Google spokesperson said that’s because Home is smart enough to differentiate voice patterns from background noise.
Speaking of audio quality, I have to say Google Home is impressive for such a small speaker. It’s not exactly surround sound, but it’s definitely a lot louder and fuller than your typical laptop. Of course, we’d have to test it for a more extended period, and in real-world settings, before we really weigh in. That said, if you do want good audio quality, there’s some good news here: Google Home works with any pair of Chromecast-enabled speakers. You can either get compatible speakers from the likes of Sony or LG, or you can just plug in a Chromecast Audio to any pair of speakers you want. Once you map those speakers appropriately, you can say things like “Play Shakira in the kitchen” or “Play my Spotify playlist in the living room.” You can also just have multiple Google Home speakers if you want. All of a sudden you can have a multi-room audio system like Sonos, but with voice commands.
Another neat trick is that Google Home works with Chromecast and your TV. Right now you can only use it to play YouTube clips but Netflix will be supported eventually as well. So you can soon just say “Play Stranger Things” to start your binge-watching session.
If you don’t feel like using voice commands, Google Home also has a capacitive touch surface on the top. Tap it to play or pause, and you can draw a circle with your finger to turn the volume up or down. There’s a mute button on the back as well, just in case you don’t want it to always be listening. Google Home comes with different colored bases, and you have the choice of either fabric mesh or metal.
I also had a look at Google WiFi, which is essentially the company’s answer to mesh networking routers like the Eero. If you live in a small apartment — say, around 500 square feet — then one WiFi Hub should suffice. But if your place is larger than that you might want to consider getting multiple units. Like the Eero, Google recommends putting the WiFi hub every 30 feet or so, or at least within line of sight. It supports AC1200 wireless speeds, dual-band 2.4GHz and GHz networks plus it’s compatible with the 802.11s mesh networking standard. Each WiFi hub also has two Ethernet ports just in case you want a wired connection instead.
I asked a Google spokesperson what really sets the WiFi Hub apart from the Eero and he says there are three components. First, is that it has a Network Assist companion app that makes set up super easy and simple. Next, there’s a network analyzing tool for each hub, so that you always know the most optimum place to position your hub for the best possible signal. Finally, it’s smart enough to let you maintain a connection as you move through different hubs, so you can keep your Hangouts call going as you move from room to room.
Lastly, I had a quick look at the Chromecast Ultra. True to its name, it’s the first and only Chromecast right now to support 4K content. It has a pretty similar look to the last Chromecast with its circular puck design, though it doesn’t come in different colors this time. Google showed me a demo of some 4K content playing through it and it looked really nice to my eyes, though obviously it would need extended testing to know for sure.
With Google Home, Google WiFi and the Chromecast Ultra combined, Google has made what appears to be a compelling bid for the home. Together, these products go after not just the Amazon Echo, but also Sonos, Roku and mesh networking routers like the Eero. Get all three, and you arguably have one of the most advanced home theater and connected home setups that money can buy right now.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Google’s fall event.
Google’s Daydream View is the VR headset for the masses
It’s pretty clear by now that virtual reality — like it or not — is probably here to stay. The tricky part is getting people to start using these requisite VR headsets on the regular, and Google’s approach is equal parts simple and elegant. With a new Pixel phone (or another Daydream-compatible device) and the $80 Daydream View headset, Google might have just cooked up the most comfortable, coolest-looking VR experience out there.
First things first: Damn this thing feels nice. It’s crafted from technical fabrics (you know, the sort of stuff that winds up in workout clothes) and has eye cups wide enough to fit even my enormous hipster glasses. Those materials also make the Daydream View crazy-light, to the point where I think I could veg out for hours without issue. It looks surprisingly cool too, with color choices that evoke runways more than production lines. That’s something I could never say about the more cumbersome Gear VRs of the world.
Speaking of the Gear VR, Samsung’s mobile headset does have one crucial advantage: field of view. The Gear VR was recently updated to be more comfortable, and while it’s not as nice to wear as Google’s View, it’s slightly more immersive. Don’t get me wrong, the View isn’t bad (especially for the price), but everything you look at fits into a circular frame that sits in the center of your field of vision. It’s not ideal, but it’s certainly not bad if you look at the View as a crash course in virtual visuals. Where the View really shines is its control scheme — undo the elastic latch that holds normally holds a phone in place and you’ll find a tiny remote.
See, rather than make you connect a Bluetooth gamepad or fumble with controls on the side of your face, the View comes with a motion-sensing wand that lets you interact with things as though you were playing with a Wii. It works well — most of the time. The main button has a nice click to it and swishing the wand in front of your face is tracked almost one-to-one by the on-screen cursor.
After a while though, I just sort of lost it. While working through a magical demo that tied into J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, the telltale point of light somehow shifted way off to my right. The issue persisted even after I jumped back into the main Daydream menu. It frankly got pretty annoying until someone told me I could hold down a button to recenter everything.
It was clear from the outset that the Daydream View wasn’t the perfect VR headset, and you’d be crazy to expect perfection out of a face-screen that costs just $80. Still, Google’s willingness to experiment with style and its devotion to sheer ease-of-use make the View even more exciting than I had expected. The View might not be for me — I won’t know for sure until it ships next month and I can get one in for review — but there’s a decent chance this thing could find a foothold where other, more unabashedly geeky displays couldn’t. For a small piece of kit, that’s huge.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Google’s fall event.
How to watch the US vice presidential debate
In this US election, the vice presidential debate matters more than ever — both the Democrats’ Tim Kaine and the Republicans’ Mike Pence have had relatively little time in the limelight beyond their home states. You may want to watch just to see where they stand, not to mention how they handle themselves on the national stage. But how to do that online? Never fear: we’ve rounded up the major streaming options that you’ll have when the VP debate starts at 9PM Eastern.
As before, Facebook is going all-out to make sure that you can tune in. ABC News’ partnership with Facebook will let you watch an ad-free debate with pre- and post-event commentary, including responses to your questions. You should also see Facebook streams from BuzzFeed, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News, the New York Times, PBS, Telemundo and Univision, although they won’t all offer similar presentations.
Twitter is making debate viewing easy: thanks to a team-up with Bloomberg, it’s offering live streams just about everywhere it has an official presence. You can visit debates.twitter.com on the web, or stream on the go through its mobile apps. Wherever you go to watch, both Bloomberg and Twitter users themselves will offer commentary.
YouTube
YouTube won’t be outdone when it comes to debate streaming. Bloomberg, Fox News, NBC News, PBS, Telemundo and the Washington Post will all lean on YouTube to stream the vice presidential event. Online-focused outlets such as Complex and The Young Turks should also have on-the-floor material if you’re looking to go beyond what Kaine and Pence have to say.
Conventional media outlets
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the traditional TV broadcasters using their own internet footprints to stream the debate. ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox Business and Reuters will all offer access through their mobile news apps. You can also expect to them to air through their respective news websites. Watch out, though: some apps (such as ABC’s general app) may ask you to authenticate through a conventional TV provider before you can get started.
Images: AP Photo/John Minchillo; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images (second and fourth photos); Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Google Unveils Pixel Phone, Smart Home Hub, and More at AI-Focused Event
At its media event today in San Francisco, Google announced a few new pieces of hardware, mainly centering around the company’s artificial intelligence initiatives and the confirmation of a new pair of smartphones called the Pixel and Pixel XL.
Additionally, the company revealed the new Chromecast Ultra streaming dongle, a VR headset called Google Daydream, and gave more details about its connected smart home hub device, Google Home. Bits and pieces of information on the Pixel smartphones and Google Home have surfaced online over the past few weeks, correctly predicting most of today’s announcements.
Google Assistant
The company started off by providing details on its artificial intelligence platform, called Google Assistant, which the company says is like “your own personal Google.” The assistant can perform normal tasks like playing music, performing search queries, and providing navigation directions, as well as carrying on a normal conversation with the user. The company showed this by providing an example of a user asking for directions, then inquiring about restaurants at the destination’s end, and finally setting a reservation at one.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai also discussed a few intelligent updates coming to the company’s search system, including improvements to image descriptions, better translation fueled by machine learning technology, and more human-like text-to-speech abilities. Pichai said that the assistant will “constantly get better” as the company introduces it to more and more users, which it’s started doing with the recent launch of Google Allo.
Pixel and Pixel XL
Senior vice president of hardware at Google, Rick Osterloh, mentioned the company’s goal to introduce Google Assistant within each of its new hardware announcements, beginning first with the confirmation of its new smartphone: Pixel. The company’s new handset is the first official device with its machine learning AI built directly into it.
The company said that Pixel was built to be “simple and smart,” with Google Assistant fueling a few streamlined interface features throughout the user interface. In the demo, vice president of product management at Google, Brian Rakowski, gave examples of using the assistant to show photos from a few months ago, playing music through YouTube, and texting his wife.
Rakowski also mentioned that Pixel has received the highest DxO Mark camera rating (89) of any smartphone on the market. The 12.3 megapixel camera has a f/2.0 aperture and includes features like “Smartburst,” which intelligently selects the best image from a burst of images, while HDR+ lets the smartphone shoot images in bright and low light situations. Unlike other smartphones, Pixel keeps HDR+ on by default, with “zero shutter lag” according to the company.
Google also confirmed that the smartphone comes in two versions: a 5-inch ‘Pixel’ and 5.5-inch ‘Pixel XL.’ They each feature Snapdragon 821 processors and 4GB RAM, a 2770mAh battery for the Pixel and a 3450mAh battery for the Pixel XL, and screen resolutions of 1080×1920 and 1440×2560, respectively. There’s also a fingerprint sensor, hi-definition AMOLED Display, and all of the smartphone’s components are covered by a combination aluminum unibody and polished glass encasement. Referencing Apple, Google mentioned during its presentation that the Pixel has “no unsightly camera bump” and includes a 3.5mm headphone jack.
In regards to battery life, the company said that Pixel includes “quick charging” that can get users up to 7 hours of battery life in only 15 minutes. A transfer tool will make it easy to transfer from iOS, as well. For those interested, Pixel will be available in 32GB and 128GB options as a Verizon exclusive in the United States, but will also be available unlocked for $649 on the Google Store. Each phone comes in “Very Silver,” “Quite Black,” and “Really Blue” colorways.
Google Daydream
Google unveiled a few details about its new virtual reality headset, Daydream, which it has crafted with a focus on comfortability and affordability thanks to its support of Pixel. Over fifty companies have partenered with Google and will bring VR experiences by the end of the year, including video games, video streaming apps like Hulu and Netflix, and even journalism publications.
The company’s first-party apps like YouTube and Google Streetview will also introduce Daydream support soon. The headset itself will launch for $79 in November.
Google Home
Lastly, vice president of product management, Rishi Chandra, formally introduced the company’s hands-free smart home speaker, the Google Home, which continues the company’s focus on Google Assistant in its hardware categories. The assistant will be able to infer the context of a user’s speech patterns when using Google Home, like asking the device to “play that Shakira song from Zootopia.” The AI then leverages Google’s search index knowledge to play the correct song from a user’s preferred music service, including Spotify, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, YouTube Music, and more.
Chandra also demoed basic search queries (how to get a wine stain out of carpet), asked about traffic before leaving the house, and went through a language translation feature. The VP said that eventually the company plans to introduce Handoff-like support for picking up search inquiries from Home onto Pixel, like asking for directions with Google Home and following the directions on Google Maps on Pixel.
At launch, Google Home can “voice cast” YouTube videos from the device and onto a Chromecast dongle, so users can speak to Home to play videos on a TV. Netflix and other services are expected to come soon. Google Home will cost $129 and comes with a free six month trial of YouTube Red. Users can pre-order the device starting today, with an expected launch date of November 4.
Miscellaneous
The company also revealed a few other smart home devices, including Google Wi-Fi, which will bring support for the expansion of network throughput in a home with a modular system that users can place in each room that needs a signal boost. Google Wi-Fi is coming in December with a single pack for $129 and 3-pack for $299.
On the entertainment side of the home, the company also officially announced the Chromecast Ultra, which supports streaming of up to 4K video content. The streaming device is also 1.8 times faster than the previous Chromecast, includes Ethernet support, and will be available in November for $69.
The company closed out the press conference by revisiting Google Assistant and announcing an SDK for the AI will be coming for developers sometime in 2017, which will further allow the voice assistant to grow and learn on the company’s ecosystem of products. For more information on all of the devices announced today, Google has accumulated information on its Made by Google website.
Tags: Google, Google Home, Google Pixel
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We’re live from the #MadeByGoogle launch event!
Not-so-cryptic teasers, seemingly ironclad leaks and a truly surprising advertising push have all led to this. Buckle up, folks: today might be a turning point for Google as an honest-to-goodness hardware company, and we’re bringing you all the news live from the company launch event in San Francisco.
By now, you probably know what Google’s going to unveil as well as we do: expect a pair of new Pixel smartphones that could spell the end of the Nexus legacy and more detail on Google Home, the Echo-like assistant that looks an awful lot like an air freshener. Throw in a new Chromecast that’ll stream 4K/Ultra HD content, a potentially tiny new wireless router and the first Daydream VR headset and we’ve got a hell of a day ahead of us. It might seem a little odd for Google to announce all this stuff on one day, but hey — what better way to celebrate the work pulled off by Rick Osterloh and the company’s new hardware division.
While Google has spent months marshalling its supply chains, the biggest announcement of the day might actually deal with software. Android and Chrome OS chief Hiroshi Lockheimer has said that we might soon look at October 4, 2016 with the same sort of historical respect as the day Android 1.0 launched — it’s big talk for sure, but I doubt we’re going to be let down. Maybe this is the day we finally get to see Andromeda, the hybrid Android-Chrome OS that has been the stuff of legend for years. Stay tuned: you’ll know everything just as soon as we do.
Google baked its AI ‘Assistant’ into the new Pixel phones
The Pixel and Pixel XL may look new on the outside, but just like grandma says, it’s what’s inside that counts. Google has tweaked the underlying software that powers the Pixels, baking its AI Assistant directly into the phones and launching them with Nougat 7.1.
Assistant is Google’s conversational AI helper, similar to Microsoft’s Cortana or Apple’s Siri. Assistant’s machine learning capabilities already power Allo, Google’s mobile-only messaging app, and it also shows up in products like Google Home. In Allo, Assistant allows users to search for things like directions, restaurant suggestions and weather conditions with conversational phrases, and it even suggests responses (a la Inbox). Chatting directly with Assistant activates even more features, like the ability to receive top news stories from around the world, see your own work emails, pull up your calendar agenda and navigate other personal items.
During its Made by Google event today, CEO Sundar Pichai described how Assistant will help users operate within a “personal Google” that understands context unique to each individual. This means you can quickly pull up local sports scores, your own bike-lock combinations and other specialized features. On the Pixel phones, Assistant remembers your personal preferences, such as listening to music via YouTube rather than another player.
The Pixel phones are the first to launch with Assistant. The Nougat operating system provides automatic updates and the Pixel features a built-in, 24/7 customer support system.
Additionally, Pixel comes with Google Photos built-in and it relies on the cloud, meaning you’ll never run out of storage for photos and videos at full-quality, even 4K. Google Duo, the company’s video chat service, will be available on the Pixel out-of-the-box. The phone is also made for mobile virtual reality, which suggests it’s Daydream-ready.
The main Pixel and Pixel XL screens are going to look a little different, too. Google has redesigned its launcher, which covers all of the Pixel’s apps, add-ons and home screens. Pixel software lead Brian Rakowski took the stage and showed off the the phone’s new launcher, including circular icons with white backgrounds for Google’s own apps.
It’s nice to see there were still some surprises around the Pixel and Pixel XL, after many of their hardware and software details were outed in a handful of leaks this week.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Google’s fall event.
Google’s Pixel phones make their debut
For years, the Nexus mobile range has been synonymous with a “pure” Android experience. No more. Google just announced the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones developed in-house that the company hopes will redefine the Android platform. Pitched as “the first phone with Google Assistant baked in,” the devices are focusing on that, plus photos, storage, communications and VR (they’re also the first phones built for use with Google’s $79 Daydream VR headset.)
The phones will be available for pre-order starting today, however, at least at first, the only US carrier selling them directly will be Verizon. Otherwise, you can buy the device unlocked (via the Google Store or other retailers) or for use with Google’s Project Fi service. The price starts at $649, and you can have one in “Quite Black,” “Really Blue” or “Very Silver.”
Click here to catch all the latest news from Google’s fall event.
Built with a 12.3MP camera, Google claims these phones scored an 89, the highest rating for a phone ever, on the DxOMark test for cameras (if you’re keeping score, the iPhone 7 rated an 86, while the iPhone 7 Plus has not been reviewed yet). Software lead Brian Rakowski didn’t stop there, claiming they also have the fastest capture speed of any phone tested, while Google even pointed out that unlike the iPhone (and the Nexus 6P) there’s no camera hump here. Finally, since it comes with Google Photos built-in, it’s promising unlimited photo storage for your pictures and video, in their original quality.
The Pixel has a 5-inch display, while the Pixel XL’s measures 5.5-inches, and they’re powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 CPUs. The cameras are 12.3MP, and they have 4GB of RAM plus either 32GB or 128GB of storage onboard. Despite rumors of different displays, Google said both will feature a “high resolution” AMOLED screen (and yes, there is a headphone jack), although the Pixel XL gets a larger 3,450mAh battery. The best news, however, is that with Pixel’s fast charging over USB-C, you should expect 7 hours of battery life from a 15-minute charge.
The first demos onstage focused on the software, specifically how it can respond to a user based on what it knows about their app preferences, and provide relevant information in response to a question. They’ll also come with a tool to transfer your old data to the new phone, including stuff from iMessage. Built-in customer support software will bring help 24/7, with a screensharing feature so you can show reps exactly what your phone is doing.
Developing…
Source: Google Store
Google Assistant will be the core of new hardware
Google CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off today’s keynote event by emphasizing the company’s shift in focus from “mobile first” to “AI first”, and saying it wants to create a personal Google for each user. The company demonstrated the fruit of its efforts earlier this year by giving us a taste of its Assistant bot in its Allo messaging app. But that isn’t enough. Pichai said for Assistant to be truly helpful, it needs to be available universally, and so the company today showed how it will be bringing the helper to phones and homes.
Hardware chief Rick Osterloh detailed how the company is working on hardware built around Google Assistant, starting with the new Pixel phone. Google Assistant starts listening on the new Pixel phones when you hold down on the Home button (similar to how you’d activate Google Now before), or when you say the hotword (“Ok Google”).
In a demonstration, Google Assistant brought up (and rattled off) a list of events from the Hearst Greek Theatre in response to a query about happenings there. Then, when asked to play music by The Lumineers, the helper brought up a YouTube video of the band’s music and automatically started playback. You can also ask Assistant to show you your pictures from a specific date, and it will return images that match that criteria.
Pichai said Google improved the quality of its artificial intelligence from 89.6 percent in 2014 to 93.9 percent today, and this helps the system better recognize pictures so Google Photos can more accurately find the images you’re looking for. This helps Assistant be more helpful to you. The Pixel phones come with Photos built in.
To bring the Assistant into our abodes, the company is also adding it to the Google Home smart speaker. You can use it to manage everyday tasks and play tracks from YouTube Music, as well as Spotify, Pandora and Google Play Music. In addition to the voice trigger, a touch panel at the device’s top lets you activate Assistant. You can tell the speaker to turn the volume up or down, or play specific compilations. Plus, if you don’t remember the exact title of a song, you can say something like, “Ok Google, play that Shakira song from Zootopia,” and Assistant will know you’re looking for the song “Try Everything.” That’s powered by Google’s search engine.
You can also get answers to your questions through Assistant in Home, such as what singer Adele’s real (or full) name is. It’ll understand follow-up questions, as demonstrated onstage when Assistant understood that it was still talking about Adele when asked, “How many awards has she won?”
Assistant also understands traveling and navigation information. Google showed how a query for “nearby camping stores” returned companies such as The North Face and REI in the area. Then, it provided traffic information for and the time needed to get to each of those locations.
At the start of the day, Assistant can also run down your list of upcoming activities and reminders, and does so somewhat colloquially. For instance, in a demo, it said, “By the way, remember to cook dinner for your kids tonight,” instead of something more stilted, like “You have a reminder for ‘cook dinner for your kids.’”
Assistant can also control your connected home appliances, and Google is partnering with Nest, IFTTT and a growing list of brands to integrate the service. Plus, Chromecast (and Chromecast Audio) owners can also use Home to play videos, songs and pull up specific Google Photos on your TV (or speakers).
Lead engineer for Assistant Scott Huffman said the company plans to launch an open developer platform to let anyone create actions for Assistant. It will let partners come up with so-called Direct Actions for easy, straightforward tasks such as turning on the lights. Another method is conversational actions, which creates a back-and-forth between you and Assistant to get you what you need, such as an Uber ride. More information on Actions will be revealed in December, said Huffman, but the goal is to get Assistant working with every app and platform available.
Google promises that Assistant will get better with time, but it already looks to be a solid amalgamation of all of the company’s services that you can access from basically anywhere. That is, if you have a Pixel phone or Google Home.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Google’s fall event.
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