Google Finally Dishes the Dirt on the New Chromecast

“Hi, the person you’re calling is using a screening service from Google, and will get a copy of this conversation”.

Compare it if you will to the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Pixel 3 has a smaller display in a body that’s pretty much the same size – and it’s more expensive too.

The Pixel 3 features a new Group Selfie Cam, which the company said captures “184 percent more of the scene than iPhone XS” and also has a portrait mode. As we previously reported at T3, Google used – Ling, Triton and Sardine – suggesting Google was working on three variants of the Pixel Watch. The California-based firm finally took off the wraps of its new-generation devices – the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL – and quite rightly there’s some amount of buzz around the phones. They are set to be launched on November 1. The graph below lists four of the Pixel 3 XL’s main rivals, all running the 845 chipset.

There is still a single rear camera on both phones.

The unveiling, which was held in NY for the first time, echoed Apple events with a clean, white aesthetic and touted celebrity collaborations, along with an emphasis on its smartphone cameras. However, receiving timely Android updates is not always the best for business and as we have seen over the past several months many of Google’s releases have been buggy with lots of issues that the enterprise does not need to deal with just to gain some minor feature.

The product is a direct challenge to other tech giants’ effort to do the same: Amazon is using the success of its Alexa digital assistant to flood the market with all manner of related products in an effort to tie people into its products. Just tap on a button for Google’s voice assistant to ask the caller about the goal of the call. By contrast, Facebook introducing a smart home device that makes video calls right after multiple data breaches feels somewhat tone deaf. This is where the new innovations have concentrated, as Google and its ilk focus on features and possibilities that can be generated from its artificial intelligence, machine learning, and sheer processing power.

It also doesn’t help that Verizon is charging more for the Pixel 3 XL than Google is. Why? The event ended with a short film by director Terrence Malick, which, you guessed it, was shot on the new Pixel 3. “It’s mostly about convenience here”.

The Google Pixel Slate doesn’t come with headphones, but does support Bluetooth pairs or wired models that use a USB-C connector. Google has sold an estimated 7 million Pixels over the past two years, nearly imperceptible next to the 3.6 billion phones shipped during that time, according to the research firm International Data Corp. By comparison, Apple sold about 217 million iPhones past year. For one, it comes with a “voice match” function that can recognize who is giving it orders and tailor the response to your individual user profile.

Like the current Google Home devices, it has multiple user recognition so can determine whether it’s you or your significant other that wants to create a calendar reminder and saves it accordingly.

Live albums is a feature that automatically adds photos of people and pets to an album as you take them. Whether that matters to you or not probably depends on how much you crave the latest hardware.

In any case, the only thing I care about is that Google doesn’t make a repeat of previous year where it burdened what was otherwise a cracking phone with a bad display.

Google’s positioned a pair of 2W front-firing speakers on the front of the Slate – when it’s held in landscape they’re positioned at either end. The Home Hub will sell for $149 when it launches at American stores October 22. The chip allows Google to prevent unauthorized access at the processor level, and it also scans hardware for tampering. There’s a decent windowing system and support for Android apps with very good overall fluidity.