Android 13 and Pixel Watch

Last Wednesday, this year’s edition of the Google I / O developer conference kicked off at the technology giant’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.

As usual, Google presented a huge range of news on both the hardware and software front during the opening day. Below is a review of the most interesting things that were launched.

Pixel Watch, Pixel 7 – and Pixel Tablet

It has been almost eight years since the LG G Watch, the world’s first Android Wear smartwatch, saw the light of day. Since then, a huge bunch of Android watches from various manufacturers have followed – but the venture has never been as successful as the major competitor’s Apple Watch.

Now Google is making a comeback on the clock front. Pixel Watch has been surrounded by rumors for several years, and yesterday the watch was officially launched. It is a completely round clock with what appears to be a rotating crown in the middle of the right side.

Pixel Watch has a sporty look, which unwittingly makes one think of wandering to Google’s acquisition of Fitbit, known for, among other things, activity watches and bracelets.

The clock can be controlled with both input and voice commands, and functionally the focus is on measuring different types of physical activities, as well as heart rate and sleep. There are also two (!) Health platforms on board the Pixel Watch: Google Fit and Fitbit. The explanation for this is that Google, with the acquisition, has promised that health data from Fitbit will be kept separate from other Google data.

Question: How much does the Pixel Watch cost?

Interoperability is a word that appears far too rarely when the tech giants show off new gadgets. The Wear Os operating system has long supported Iphone / Ios, but now new winds are blowing. Pixel Watch will therefore only be able to be used with Android phones.

At present we do not know how much the Pixel Watch will cost, but Google is marketing the watch as a “premium product”, so the price will probably be in line with the Apple Watch. It is also unlikely that Pixel Watch will come to Sweden, but we will see what happens when the watch is released this autumn.

Pixel 6A and Pixel 7 Pro

Just over six months ago, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones arrived. Now Google is tightening its grip again. The sequels will be two new mobiles.

Little Pixel 6A is cheaper than the autumn models, with a starting price of the equivalent of just over SEK 4,500. Previous Pixel A headsets have used Qualcomm circuits, but on the inside of the fresh Pixel 6A is Google’s self-developed 5nm chip Tensor, which we have seen before in Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.

However, Google has saved on gunpowder when it comes to other performance. The phone has a 6.1-inch screen with an update of 60 frames / second (60 Hz). Pixel 6A has fewer cameras than other models in the Pixel 6 series, and has to settle for a main camera of 12 MP, accompanied by a wide-angle lens. However, the tensor chip will give the phone all the ai-based photo features that Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are proud of.

More luxurious flagship headphones

Otherwise, the Pixel 6A comes with 6 GB in frame, 128 GB in storage memory, fingerprint sensor under the screen and a 4,400-mAh battery. Sales begin on July 21, and the phone will reach 13 countries – but Sweden is not one of these.

Yesterday’s big launch on the mobile front, however, was Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Or launch and launch – it was really about a taste in the form of a picture of the new mobiles.

The photo reveals some details about the upcoming gadgets. The black horizontal, elongated camera body on the back of the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro has been replaced with one with a recycled aluminum finish on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.

Updated ai-chip

Not much is known about the Pixel 7 series at the moment, except that the phones run with Android 13 and should be equipped with the “next generation” Tensor chip, which brings improvements in photography, security and voice processing, for example. Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are expected to get a proper launch this fall.

Pixel Tablet was responsible for the big bang of the launch. Yes, Google has made tablets before. Many Android fans still remember Google Nexus 7 with warmth. The latest Google album, Pixel C from 2015, was not a great success. Pixel Tablet will change that, the search giant hopes.

New Google tablet

The tablet will not arrive until 2023, but according to Google, it is a “larger tablet” in the premium price range with a Tensor chip on the inside. Google does not have, unlike Apple, a customized operating system for tablets.

Instead, the company is investing in optimizing the system even for larger screens, something that the upcoming Android 13 will be sharper on than its predecessors.

Pixel Buds Pro and ar-glasses

No launch event 2022 without the manufacturer talking about:

1. Wireless in-ears.
2. Ar-technique.

Google I / 0 is no exception. Pixel Buds Pro is an update of last year’s wireless headphones Pixel Buds A. The new headphones cost the equivalent of just over SEK 2,000, and this year Google has built in active noise reduction.

Inside the headphones is a six-core audio chip that uses Google-developed algorithms to sort out unwanted background noise such as traffic, wind and other clutter.

Can switch between several devices

Multipoint Connectivity is a new feature that will make it easier to switch between multiple devices connected to the headphones.

According to Google, you should be able to listen to music in Pixel Buds Pro via the computer, answer the phone and talk on the headphones – and then continue listening to music from the computer after the call without having to pair the headphones to the laptop again. It sounds smooth, but it remains to be seen how well this works in practice.

Pixel Buds Pro is controlled with touch controls on the side of the headphones, is IPX4-rated (water and sweat resistant) and comes in a case that can be charged wirelessly. The battery life should be eleven hours without active noise reduction, and seven hours with that function switched on.

Ar-glajjor with direct translation

Google ended yesterday’s presentation with a sneak peek at a prototype of a pair of augmented reality glasses (es) that are under development.

In a presentation video, Google showed how the prototype, which looks like a pair of conventional glasses with thicker temples, can be used for automatic real-time translations of what is said to the wearer in a foreign language.

If someone speaks to the user in a language that the spectacle wearer does not understand, a translation of what is said is projected directly on the spectacles.

However, it is unclear how far Google has come in the development work, or whether these glasses will even be launched as a sharp product. On the other hand, it’s interesting to see what types of applications and uses Google sees for AR technology.

Here is Google’s software news

New hardware requires fresh software. In addition to a bunch of new products, Google also showed off news on the software front during yesterday’s event.

• New features for Android 13. The first pre-release version of Android 13 was released in April, but the updated operating system will not come until this fall.
  The second beta version, released yesterday Wednesday, gives a slightly clearer picture of what Google wants Android 13 to contribute.
• Focuses on privacy control. The focus right now is, just like at Apple, on personal privacy and new features that give users greater control over how personal data is handled, and what data is to be distributed to different apps.
  As an example, users no longer need to give apps like Instagram or Tiktok access to the entire image library without being able to select individual photos and images instead.
• Encrypted group message. The Google Messaging messaging service also provides enhanced support for rich communication services (rcs), a standard that will serve as a more versatile replacement for text messaging. This means, among other things, that Google Messaging in Android 13 also supports end-to-end encryption in group messages.
  In addition, the interoperability of the service will be improved to make it easier to access Google Messaging messages on several different devices.
  Android 13 also supports Matter, a new open standard for smart home gadgets. The standard should, for example, be able to be used to more easily display images from pictures or video from your Android mobile on TVs and other screens with support for Matter.

“Next generation search”

Google’s search engine is still perhaps the technology giant’s most important service. Last month, the new search function “multisearch” showed up. Basically, it is about whether users can combine text and image at the same time in the search.

The new feature Near Me will make it possible to also add local search results, for example in restaurants, when you do a combined text and image search. The multisearch function is currently being tested in the US, and will be released globally later in the year.

Smarter voice assistant

Another area of ​​interest is Google’s digital voice assistant. The promises on this front have been many and ambitious over the years, but have not really been fulfilled. Google now believes that recent developments in natural language processing (NLP) and chip manufacturing enable a “new era” in voice control.

By using large language learning models (llms), machine learning models with huge amounts of language data, Google’s voice assistant will become better at understanding and processing voice data. In this way, the system will be able to provide more natural, human-like answers during a conversation, and be better at interpreting even linguistic errors when a voice command is given.

Skip “Hey Google”

The voice assistant should also become better at what could be called contextual understanding. As an example of this, it was mentioned that the system should be able to understand commands such as “Hey Google, order the pizza I bought last Friday”.

Speaking of “Hey Google” – in the future, Google sees that phrase is no longer needed to activate the voice assistant. At least on some types of devices. The Pixel 6 phone already supports certain “quick phrases” to answer calls or turn off alarms without using “Hey Google”.

The voice assistant “sees you”

The next step is to be able to start voice assistance with the help of face recognition on gadgets like Google Nest Hub Max.

However, Google is aware that face recognition is a sensitive issue, and therefore emphasized that the feature will not be enabled by default, and that all biometrics data is handled locally on the device and not in the cloud, for example.