Dubai: Google launched two new phones to take on Apple and two artificial intelligence-enabled speakers to take Amazon at an event held in San Francisco on Wednesday night.
The Pixel 2 phones, available in two sizes — 5.2-inch and 6 inches for the larger Pixel 2 XL, are set to compete with the recently announced iPhone 8 and the going-to-be-launched iPhone X.
Were excited about the shift to an AI-first world, not mobile-first. At a higher level, it should be about computers adapting to people, not the other way round, said Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Pichai said that this will happen in four ways — AI will become conversational, it will become ambient and always on, it will be thoughtfully contextual and it will constantly learn and adapt.
The companys widely used search engine, Gmail, maps, Chrome web browser and other services have yielded a fountain of data the company has used to smarten up its software and gadgets. AI in smartphones is nothing new. Apples Siri, Samsungs Bixby and Googles very own Google Assistant are evolving as people communicate with their devices. We focus too much on giving users options about security and privacy, but a good AI system will learn to treat a doctors appointment differently from a work meeting. We are rethinking all of our core products and working hard to solve usage problems by applying machine learning and AI, he said.
Both the phones come with Google Lens, a smart app that identifies objects in images and with Googles augmented reality AR Core, similar to Apples ARKit. The new Pixel phones also come with AR stickers, which allow users to create AR objects superimposed on real-world images and videos.
The new camera in Pixel 2 has been specially tuned for AR experience. Choose whichever phone you want, you will get same features. We dont set aside best features only for the bigger device, said Mario Queiroz, vice-president of product management at Google.
He revealed that both the phones are rated by DxOMark as the best phone camera ever with 98 points, much higher than Apple iPhone 8 Plus and Samsung Note 8s 94 points. Last years Pixel devices had a rating of 90 points.
DxOMark measures the performance of a cameras lens and sensor, higher the better. Pixel 2 has a 12MP f/1.8 aperture single-lens camera and OIS compared to iPhone Xs 12MP dual-lens camera, with f/1.8 and f/2.4 lenses. The front of Pixel 2 has an 8MP camera while the iPhone X has 7MP. Larger ecosystem
Queiroz said that it delivers better depth sensing capabilities for each pixel, enabling it to offer a new portrait mode without the need for physical dual lenses. Googles devices are the only one major flagship left without dual rear cameras.
Tuong Nguyen, principal research Analyst at Gartner, told Gulf News that the phone is just one component of a larger ecosystem and the hardware is just a way for Google to show people the best way to experience its services.
It [smartphones] is not available in all the major markets and it is even limited in the markets where it is available. They are directly competing with other smartphone manufacturers. Google is launching device to show the power of the overall Android software, similar to what Microsoft is doing with its Surface PC devices, he said.
Google acquired HTCs Pixel team for $1.1 billion (Dh4 billion) recently to strengthen its R&D team. Google moved into smartphones five years ago with the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility and later sold it to Lenovo.
Nguyen does not expect Google to become a hardware company and compete directly with its OEM partners. Most of the money Google is getting is from advertisement but it will launch some models every year to show its software prowess.
According to research firm IDC, Google sold just 2.8 million Pixel phones, accounting for less than one per cent of the worldwide market last year.
New and exciting products
Even though the design is similar to its predecessor, Google has added a notable addition — Active Edge — similar to what HTC has its squeezable sides on U11. By pressing the sides, the user can launch Google Assistant.
Queiroz said that Google is bringing the best AI, hardware and software. The competitive field for smartphones is levelling off.
Its going to be tougher and tougher for people to develop new and exciting products each year because thats no longer the timetable for big leaps forward in hardware alone. Smartphones might be reaching parity in their specs, but were seeing huge breakthroughs in the kinds of experiences were able to deliver to users, he said.
The Pixel 2 users will get free and unlimited storage capacity on Google cloud.
Queiroz said that Pixel users upload twice as many phones as iPhone users, and would run out of the free iCloud storage in just three months if they were with Apple
The Pixel 2 comes in kind of blue, black and white colours while Pixel 2 XL comes in black and white colours. The phones have OLED displays with super-fast charging, water and dust resistant.
The pixel 2 is priced at $649 (64GB) and $749 (128GB) while the Pixel 2 XL is priced at $849 (64GB) and $949 (128GB), both available for pre-order in six countries — Australia, Canada, Germany, India, UK and the US from Wednesday and in Italy, Singapore and Spain later this year.
Keeping smartphones aside, much of Googles launch event focused on creating a broader ecosystem of connected products, which the company referred to as the Google family.
Were creating a family of products that are there when you need them, said Rick Osterloh, Googles senior vice-president for hardware at Google.
Google Clips
It is a tiny hands-free GoPro-like camera that takes pictures automatically. The machine learning is on the device itself. It is priced at $249.
Daydream headset
The upgraded headset comes with new lenses and new fabrics. It has more than 250 VR titles and can now cast your VR experience to the TV. It will cost $99.
Pixel Buds
It is a wireless headphone to make up for the lack of headphone jack on the Pixel 2 devices. It works directly with Google Assistant and allows direct voice-to-voice translation in real time in 40 languages. The phone hears the speech and the earbuds play the translation in your native language. It comes with a charging case too, capable of providing up to five charges to headphones. It is priced at $159.
Pixelbook
Its a small and sleek 12.3-inch Chrome OS laptop. It weighs one kilo and with a fold-back screen that lets you use it as a tablet. It has 16GB RAM and up to 512GB storage capacity and 10-hour battery life in Core i5 and i7 processors. It is also the first laptop with Google Assistant built in. The PixelPen is AI-powered. Circle something on the screen, and Google Assistant will look it up. Handwrite some text, and it will recognise it automatically. The Pixelbook starts at $999, and the pen at $99.
Google Home Max
It is a large music-focused AI speaker. The speaker supports YouTube Music, Spotify, and other top music services for over 40 million songs. It is 20 times more powerful than Google Home. To sound great, the speaker needs to adjust to you and your home. It also comes with a year of YouTube Music It is priced at $399.
Google Home Mini
The Home Mini is a small speaker wrapped in fabric and designed to be placed anywhere in the house. It can be connected to Chromecast-enabled speaker wirelessly. The Home can also tell you who is at your front door, by name, if you have a Nest doorbell, and the Assistant can shut your home down for the night as one of the new routines. It is priced at $49.
The Pixel 2 phones, available in two sizes — 5.2-inch and 6 inches for the larger Pixel 2 XL, are set to compete with the recently announced iPhone 8 and the going-to-be-launched iPhone X.
Were excited about the shift to an AI-first world, not mobile-first. At a higher level, it should be about computers adapting to people, not the other way round, said Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Pichai said that this will happen in four ways — AI will become conversational, it will become ambient and always on, it will be thoughtfully contextual and it will constantly learn and adapt.
The companys widely used search engine, Gmail, maps, Chrome web browser and other services have yielded a fountain of data the company has used to smarten up its software and gadgets. AI in smartphones is nothing new. Apples Siri, Samsungs Bixby and Googles very own Google Assistant are evolving as people communicate with their devices. We focus too much on giving users options about security and privacy, but a good AI system will learn to treat a doctors appointment differently from a work meeting. We are rethinking all of our core products and working hard to solve usage problems by applying machine learning and AI, he said.
Both the phones come with Google Lens, a smart app that identifies objects in images and with Googles augmented reality AR Core, similar to Apples ARKit. The new Pixel phones also come with AR stickers, which allow users to create AR objects superimposed on real-world images and videos.
The new camera in Pixel 2 has been specially tuned for AR experience. Choose whichever phone you want, you will get same features. We dont set aside best features only for the bigger device, said Mario Queiroz, vice-president of product management at Google.
He revealed that both the phones are rated by DxOMark as the best phone camera ever with 98 points, much higher than Apple iPhone 8 Plus and Samsung Note 8s 94 points. Last years Pixel devices had a rating of 90 points.
DxOMark measures the performance of a cameras lens and sensor, higher the better. Pixel 2 has a 12MP f/1.8 aperture single-lens camera and OIS compared to iPhone Xs 12MP dual-lens camera, with f/1.8 and f/2.4 lenses. The front of Pixel 2 has an 8MP camera while the iPhone X has 7MP. Larger ecosystem
Queiroz said that it delivers better depth sensing capabilities for each pixel, enabling it to offer a new portrait mode without the need for physical dual lenses. Googles devices are the only one major flagship left without dual rear cameras.
Tuong Nguyen, principal research Analyst at Gartner, told Gulf News that the phone is just one component of a larger ecosystem and the hardware is just a way for Google to show people the best way to experience its services.
It [smartphones] is not available in all the major markets and it is even limited in the markets where it is available. They are directly competing with other smartphone manufacturers. Google is launching device to show the power of the overall Android software, similar to what Microsoft is doing with its Surface PC devices, he said.
Google acquired HTCs Pixel team for $1.1 billion (Dh4 billion) recently to strengthen its R&D team. Google moved into smartphones five years ago with the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility and later sold it to Lenovo.
Nguyen does not expect Google to become a hardware company and compete directly with its OEM partners. Most of the money Google is getting is from advertisement but it will launch some models every year to show its software prowess.
According to research firm IDC, Google sold just 2.8 million Pixel phones, accounting for less than one per cent of the worldwide market last year.
New and exciting products
Even though the design is similar to its predecessor, Google has added a notable addition — Active Edge — similar to what HTC has its squeezable sides on U11. By pressing the sides, the user can launch Google Assistant.
Queiroz said that Google is bringing the best AI, hardware and software. The competitive field for smartphones is levelling off.
Its going to be tougher and tougher for people to develop new and exciting products each year because thats no longer the timetable for big leaps forward in hardware alone. Smartphones might be reaching parity in their specs, but were seeing huge breakthroughs in the kinds of experiences were able to deliver to users, he said.
The Pixel 2 users will get free and unlimited storage capacity on Google cloud.
Queiroz said that Pixel users upload twice as many phones as iPhone users, and would run out of the free iCloud storage in just three months if they were with Apple
The Pixel 2 comes in kind of blue, black and white colours while Pixel 2 XL comes in black and white colours. The phones have OLED displays with super-fast charging, water and dust resistant.
The pixel 2 is priced at $649 (64GB) and $749 (128GB) while the Pixel 2 XL is priced at $849 (64GB) and $949 (128GB), both available for pre-order in six countries — Australia, Canada, Germany, India, UK and the US from Wednesday and in Italy, Singapore and Spain later this year.
Keeping smartphones aside, much of Googles launch event focused on creating a broader ecosystem of connected products, which the company referred to as the Google family.
Were creating a family of products that are there when you need them, said Rick Osterloh, Googles senior vice-president for hardware at Google.
Google Clips
It is a tiny hands-free GoPro-like camera that takes pictures automatically. The machine learning is on the device itself. It is priced at $249.
Daydream headset
The upgraded headset comes with new lenses and new fabrics. It has more than 250 VR titles and can now cast your VR experience to the TV. It will cost $99.
Pixel Buds
It is a wireless headphone to make up for the lack of headphone jack on the Pixel 2 devices. It works directly with Google Assistant and allows direct voice-to-voice translation in real time in 40 languages. The phone hears the speech and the earbuds play the translation in your native language. It comes with a charging case too, capable of providing up to five charges to headphones. It is priced at $159.
Pixelbook
Its a small and sleek 12.3-inch Chrome OS laptop. It weighs one kilo and with a fold-back screen that lets you use it as a tablet. It has 16GB RAM and up to 512GB storage capacity and 10-hour battery life in Core i5 and i7 processors. It is also the first laptop with Google Assistant built in. The PixelPen is AI-powered. Circle something on the screen, and Google Assistant will look it up. Handwrite some text, and it will recognise it automatically. The Pixelbook starts at $999, and the pen at $99.
Google Home Max
It is a large music-focused AI speaker. The speaker supports YouTube Music, Spotify, and other top music services for over 40 million songs. It is 20 times more powerful than Google Home. To sound great, the speaker needs to adjust to you and your home. It also comes with a year of YouTube Music It is priced at $399.
Google Home Mini
The Home Mini is a small speaker wrapped in fabric and designed to be placed anywhere in the house. It can be connected to Chromecast-enabled speaker wirelessly. The Home can also tell you who is at your front door, by name, if you have a Nest doorbell, and the Assistant can shut your home down for the night as one of the new routines. It is priced at $49.
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