¶ Intro and Android for PCs
Welcome to Pixelated episode 71. I'm your host, Will Saddlebert. This week, Damien and I dive deep into the world of Chrome OS, hot off the news out of Snapdragon Summit that Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has seen Google's Android for PC's replacement, and that it's apparently incredible. What exactly should we expect out of Google's latest laptop venture? That question, plus many, many more, is exactly what Damien and I are about to ask ourselves.
So Google's Android for PC. It seems as though it's probably going to happen. Uh, we've talked at length about all kinds of versions of Android, but Hey, well, I want to know what you think about Android and PC. Do you think it works? I'm kind of on the fence about this one.
Well, so I'm really confused about this. Right. So we should we should set the stage. So this week is Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, where they go to to Maui every year. It's a little earlier than usual this year. And they, you know, unveil. their new SOCs for the next. 12 months right maybe sometimes longer in the case of the snapdragon x series right because we're just getting gen 2 of that um but but yeah so this week we got you know the snapdragon elite uh gen 5 which is
Qualcomm's naming scheme continues to find new ways to be convoluted. Aggravate and annoy, yeah. It's honestly impressive at this point. I thought they would have run out by now, but nope. Every generation, they figure it out. And then the Snapdragon X2. uh elite series or x elite see this is what i screwed up this is exactly what the problem is yeah this is the problem x2 right i wrote the post for this you'd think i'd remember um
It is X2, X2 Elite series for PCs that's coming next year. But in addition to all of this, right, like oftentimes Qualcomm will have partners on stage. Rick Osterlow is no stranger to this. He was on stage this week during the opening keynote with Qualcomm with with Cristiano Amon. And basically, they briefly mentioned. uh android for pc which is which is the the um long awaited long rumored uh merger between android and chrome
Do you think long awaited? I feel like- I don't know. I feel like we're just done with it now. We just can't just do it. Like we've been, this has been teased potentially for so long. There's been inklings of it, but for them to, for Rick to be there- Cristiano to be there at the same time talking about this openly is kind of yeah it's kind of like a oh finally we've there is no need to we don't need any more cloak and dagger with this we can just kind of get on with it
I'm a little I've been a little frustrated because of the cloak and dagger, because I think that if you're going to completely, you know, I expect Chrome OS to to. like exist and like not exist but but that there will be a you know transitional period where those older devices are now support whatever this new like android based experience looks and feels like. I don't I don't think that like the Chromebook you bought a year ago is going to just stop working or stop being supported or anything.
But at the same time, it's like, OK, but I do think those customers, especially when Chrome OS is so focused on education and enterprise, like should this shouldn't be a we're going to secret reveal like. come and come in as soon as possible uh like i think this should be a thing that is like in the open that they just talk about that they this shouldn't be like a secret surprise this should just be like
Hey, we're doing this like here are the early stages of it. We're going to be as transparent as possible. Like, I don't know, Damien, do you disagree? No, I agree. I never thought of it from the enterprise until you just mentioned it, which is weird. I was just thinking from regular consumer because Chromebooks are huge in education. So I don't know.
I'm going to write my brain now. I'm going to try and work this out of my brain without looking it up. I think that, was it 2018, 2019 when Android apps were first pushed for Chrome OS? Or I could be completely wrong. And I apologize if I am. That feels right. Yeah, it's been around for... The better part of a decade, yeah. Yeah, because I feel like when that was the first steps of putting Android apps to run on Chrome OS, it made sense to do that because there's obviously a common...
I mean, I guess not common language, but Google obviously have this huge storefront that potentially education can access. And I guess if you're a kid at school... You're going to love that because you're going to be able to put all your games on it, Subway Surfers, whatever it is. I'm definitely showing my age there. It could be Temple Run 2.
Like, you can run them on a Chromebook. But I just wonder what happens now when they make this transition for, I mean, are they going to keep Chrome OS around for enterprise? Yeah. Like, logically, you think... Yes. Like Chrome OS has to be its own thing. Maybe they just spin it off and it's like a bit like Windows and they have that Enterprise Edition that's slightly different. We'll continue supporting Windows 10. Yeah. I don't...
I don't know. Like, I really this is why I think Google needs to be open about this, because I genuinely think that just keeping people in the dark about it. And look, I don't expect every like IT department around the world that supports, you know. Chromebooks for their hundreds, if not thousands of students, you know, in each school district to like be following Chrome OS development. Right. Like I, I don't think that they're.
You know, not everybody is even aware this transition is going to happen. All the more reason to be open about it. Yeah, because you're too busy doing the admin, right? You're too busy like, oh, Karen's broke her Chromebook or a Windows 11 PC. I need to go fix that. You're not worried about what's going on with Chrome OS, right? Yeah, no, I can completely understand that.
It's frustrating because it's like this really won't matter to like, say, you know, my fiance's mother who has a we got a Chromebook a couple of years ago for Christmas and like. I don't think she really cares if it's running Chrome OS or Android. She uses it to browse the web. That's pretty much it. But it will matter to all of these other like enterprise and education.
users. And I don't know. I'm a little frustrated by it. Real quick, let's break down what Osterloh said, because there are some hints in here. on what this is. If we're going to, you know, we've gotten out of the way that we wish we didn't have to read into the hints. That said, let's read into the hints. So Osterloff said, and, you know, credit to The Verge for reporting on this easily, but.
In the past, we've always had different systems between what we're building on PCs and what we're building on smartphones. And we've embarked on a project to combine that. We are building together a common technical foundation for our products on PCs and desktop computing systems. The Verge then says... He went on to confirm that Google's plans involved bringing Gemini and the full Android AI stack, along with, quote, all of our applications and developer community into the PC ecosystem.
I think this is another way in which Android is going to be able to serve everyone in every computing category, to which Cristiano Amon said, I've seen it. It's incredible. It delivers on the vision of convergence of mobile and PC. I can't wait to have one, which is. Kind of a crazy like it's weird, right? Because when I'm listening to Osterloh and he's like, we are building a common technical foundation. I'm like, OK, this sounds more like behind the scenes changes than anything.
It's still going to look like Chrome OS. And then he comes in and he's like, it's incredible. It's the future of computing. The convergence of mobile and PC. And I'm like, OK, wait, is this like a complete? Is this a technical like? overhaul which is what it sounds like yeah or is it like this entirely new thing that anybody with a chromebook whether they're a student or just a regular user is going to have to like relearn how to use the laptop that they already.
own like i don't know i'm really confused about it am i misreading the like i you know you're definitely not misreading my my interpretation is is obviously there's a bit of a background to this that obviously google and it is samsung that are working together to build this desktop mode within Android OS, basically taking...
decks effectively because that's the de facto version of this i don't think there's anybody else else out there apart from and you might not even be able to remember this is just showing my age ubuntu ubuntu ubuntu They put this out there on a Kickstarter, probably Canonical did this, I want to say 2011, 2013, and then Mozilla had one because they had a Seabird, I think it's called the Seabird concept phone.
Back in the day, that was the idea. Linux is the future of this particular form factor. It's going to be a phone, laptop, PC, plug it into a screen. Conceptually, I think it's fantastic. It's been around for a long time. But if Google and Samsung are the only company who are actually actively doing this, right? So for Cristiano to come in and say, I've seen it, like...
What is he saying? Obviously, we're going to have to infer something from that. What has he seen? Has he seen this early prototype? But like you say, Rick has then... laid out the full the full gamut of what they're trying to do yeah and he's just coming like yeah i've seen it it's the best thing i've ever seen like what what are you doing that for you've just put a lot of pressure on something from a right
The chip maker side, yeah, sure, they're holding up their end of the bargain. I do think Qualcomm chips are like, well, they're getting very, very close to Apple levels of performance as an off-the-shelf component. Yeah, I do wonder if that has put a little bit of extra pressure on this from the Google side and the Samsung side. But what's it going to look like? Is it going to look like plugging in? Is it going to look like an actual laptop? Are we going to get a Pixel tablet running?
Mouse and keyboard, potentially. I don't know. I think we can't deviate too much from the laptop paradigm, surely, because that's what everybody knows. I don't know. Do you have any friends out there? Only one of my friends who's technically inclined would plug their phone into a screen and potentially use Dex. And I know because they have an S25 Ultra and they tell me all the time. It's...
that's the thing that like confuses me. Right. And maybe we could take a bigger step back and try to ask what we even want out of like an Android for PC experience. But like, I don't know, like a lot of like, like my friends who have like.
a monitor on at a desk that they could theoretically plug their phone into there's a computer plugged into that monitor already that's why they have the monitor right they like i don't know who is just sitting around being like I have this monitor I wish I could plug something into it and use it I have this monitor and this keyboard and this mouse right here and I just don't have a computer at all I just have my smartphone and so like
The Android desktop experience has always been like indexed, right, has always seemed niche and seemed like something that, in my opinion, works better on on a tablet, right, where you already have a big screen that you can just boot this into. And now it's like a different UI. It's not like you have to have these accessories in front of you, right, to use it. And so I guess that's the idea behind like, oh, well, we'll build this for.
the real sickos who want to plug their phone in, but also we'll have, we'll have Android for P in like that desktop UI will become, I guess, what, what, um, whatever the Chrome OS is about to evolve into, I guess. But again, to like.
to what end right so so google's success in this field has you know and i keep saying and i feel like i'm repeating myself but has come from enterprise and and education markets speaking right like especially over the last like five to ten years yeah exactly like chromebooks had a big phase early on i had one in college but um i feel like in in the last you know since 2018 2019 and certainly through the 2020s i think they've kind of been and we've seen this right like
like progress on Chrome OS has slowed. I don't think it's like evolving like a like a live ecosystem or platform anymore. I think like the hardware refreshes have been much slower and and and. You know, they've done stuff like Chromebook Plus, like they're clearly trying to keep it alive, but but it's I don't know to what end. And so, like, I guess the big question here is and.
Maybe I'll ask you, Damien, because I've been talking for a while and I can think about what I want my answer to be. But what do you want from Android for PC? Like whatever this new whatever Chrome OS is about to evolve into, like.
What would make you switch to this that you're not already satisfied from Windows or Mac? Yeah, I mean, you mentioned Windows, and it actually throws another spanner in the works, is that I think every single... year of my adult life everyone has said this is the year of the linux desktop yeah exactly and i recently switched my gaming pc to uh
Fedora, which is technically Bazite, which is a gaming OS, which if I hadn't have ever used a Steam Deck, I probably would have never even considered Linux for gaming. So I think there's a lot of things at play here. And I do wonder if Google have looked wider at the space because of... with potentially Valve releasing SteamOS, there is an actual competitor to Windows now. Android and Windows, they must be the two biggest operating platforms. Definitely.
most widely used anyway, most widely used and recognised. And I do wonder if this is Google getting ahead of that a little bit. And I know that's really, really... a broad view of the entire thing. So for me, in terms of switching, I don't think I would ever switch to Android for potentially a gaming PC. Maybe there's some productivity elements there.
But you mentioned macOS. I use macOS. I'm using it right now. That's what I use for productivity. The big question is, I've tried Chrome OS, and I'm sure you've tried Chrome OS, and sometimes it's like you come away feeling like, that's really fresh. That's really, really nice.
But, and there's always that, yeah, but something at the end of the conversation when we talk about Chrome OS. With Android as a mobile operating system, you don't have that. So I do wonder if Google is trying to tap into a little bit of mindshare from people that. With Android, you don't have as many compromises. Does that make sense? For instance, we had a situation a few years ago where Apple was leading in terms of creative applications.
But we've kind of seen a bit of a resurgence on Android in the last few years. Like you don't necessarily get the worst experience on Instagram. You don't necessarily get the worst experience on Snapchat anymore. Like Google is tying these companies in because of the, I mean, I'm guessing it's a financial muscle that Google has.
to do so how are they going to do that from a from a desktop paradigm if they're going to make something that is purely desktop based or this crossover thing that we're that is dex like does Does having Google really strongly pushing the traditional PC laptop paradigm benefit mobile or does having a big mobile platform benefit PC slash desktop? Like I... Yeah, for me, for form factor, it's got to be a two-in-one tablet. Yeah. Beyond that, do you genuinely see yourself moving away from...
Audition from. No. Adobe Premiere Pro from After Effects because we've had, what, 15, 20 years of using them. It's very, very difficult for me to say, hey, I'm going to throw the baby out with the bathwater and I'm going to start using LumaFusion. And that's no disrespect to LumaFusion. But it's just not going to cut it unless Google has a Gemini ace up its sleeve, in which case... Maybe. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't want to put my eggs in one basket, Will. I'm kind of like...
I could see myself using it is the way I would answer your question, but it would have to be, I genuinely think pixel book go, just make the pixel book go or pixel book again. That form factor will probably work the best. I don't. Yeah, because it fits a portion of the market that Google now don't have, I guess, a high-end product in. Pixel Tablet's, what, three years old nearly? I think that's the only way that Google can make it work for their first party, right? Yeah. But I don't know.
Could you genuinely see yourself saying, okay, give me the, I guess it would be an ISO. I don't know what it would be. Here's the ISO for Android for PC, dual boot Windows and Android. Are you going to do it? I don't know. I won't ask you. It's...
Google would need to take this seriously to a degree that I don't think they can because I think what they're going to do is they see you know having different uh code bases right different platforms for for android and chrome os as a waste of resources which is fair
I think. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. It makes the most sense. It makes a ton of sense to basically move Chrome OS over to like the Android stack. I think that makes sense on paper, right? It's when you start being like, and it's going to like... completely
and i know this is not google saying it but it's like when you have people on stage with google people being like it's amazing it the convergence of mobile and pc right it that's when i start to be like wait well hold on a minute like what what is this decision because if if it's just if it's what i think it is right which is like a fresh coat of paint based on the android desktop experience they've been building with samsung uh running on the android stack and it's got like
better android app support right full native android app support as opposed to emulating it like chrome os does um then then i don't Why am I switching? I already didn't want to switch to that when it was just Chrome OS. I don't know what the benefit is here. I'm going to jump in and ask you this question. I think you've made the most salient point there.
is how do you convince people that this is the way to go? Because Chrome OS has taken off. Chrome OS is a success, right? Chromebook as a line is a success.
¶ What convinces people to switch?
Android as its home platform is a success in various guises. Like, it doesn't matter what format it is. How are you going to convince people that this is, yeah, okay, now your Chrome OS... hardware is android hardware like Do they care? Like you say, do people care and do people need... People haven't made the switch in droves so far because everyone will be running a DEX. I mean, I'm sure there are very big hardcore DEX fans out there and I'm sure somebody listening is screaming at their...
their phone, their speaker, whatever it is, and you say, you're an idiot, Dex is amazing. And I, to an extent, I agree. Yeah. It's nice, but I'm not going to... give up my mac os or linux or windows right we're talking about i i think this really comes down to apps right like google can do whatever they want with this platform and and and whatever they decide is right for both their own internal resources and
for the consumer, for the end consumer, whether it be, you know, someone through enterprise or just you walking into Best Buy. But I think it's very apparent from the last five-ish years of Chrome OS, Android apps are not enough on their own.
to get people to switch like that already existed oh so so if the idea of this operating system is well they run better than before and maybe more of them are supported and it feels more native and it's better in sync with the android phone in your pocket that's all well and good I don't think it's enough I think
Google needs to be serious on the OS part of this to the point where it's like, we've worked with Adobe, like Premiere is coming. We are Photoshop, straight up Photoshop is here. Premiere is coming. Uh, uh, you know, Lightroom is coming and so on. so forth uh we've we've worked with here are our seven game developers we've worked with we're working with ubisoft to bring assassin's creed shadows i'm just picking the most the most obvious we could possibly we had stadia we had stadia we
We had it on, we threw it away. Right, exactly. It's like they would need to be like, this is like, this is like, we've taken what you liked about Chrome OS and made it like a real viable third party. not third party, but like third option platform. Right. Like, and I don't think they're going to do that. That's not what that's not what any of the language they've used around this change describes. So I don't.
I don't and I know some people might say like well I don't want that I want the simplification of of Chrome OS and like I don't need it to be everything, but I would, I would say one, like, I think the market has spoken that that's not what they want. I think people want a MacBook, even if, even if 99% of the time they're just using Chrome.
or Safari or whatever, but they're just browsing the web. Like, I think people want the flexibility of a full operating system. I think that's just kind of like baked into the idea of a laptop. And also like, like. If so, I just I don't know, like the more basic if you want a more basic experience, you can go buy a very large display like Android tablet right now or an iPad. So I just I feel like.
They've got these like, you know, if you want a good Chromebook right now, you're paying six, seven, eight hundred dollars for an experience that is so much more tied back than what you can get on a MacBook Air that are routinely on sale for.
$800 price yeah around that price and it becomes and that's without even looking at like the windows on arm side of the market like It becomes difficult to see where Chrome OS or this new Android version of it like fits into that market unless they're going to be full serious on like this is a real operating system that we think. you can replace Windows or Mac with regardless of your workflow.
And it will sink in now. And look, it's the final piece of the ecosystem that we've been wanting to build forever. And I don't think that's what this is. Like, I don't get that from Rick and I don't get it from the from Cristiano Amon's comments. Like, I think this is more. of a rebirth of Chrome OS, which is fine, but I don't think is going to be like a, you know, I think it's always going to kind of be on like the Linux scale of success, not the Windows or Mac scale of success.
I get the impression, and this is stupid because I'm extrapolating from his sentence, is that I wonder if they've shown him a bit of a phone hub. And basically everything is tied. And I wonder if that is it. Because when he says convergence of mobile and PC, like what the hell does that mean? To me, when we look at it from the, let's look at it from the iOS side, it just means everything that you do on your phone is effectively can be bridged.
Because it's that bridge, isn't it? And I think that's one thing that Chrome OS has tried to do. And I'm going to be honest, it maybe hasn't succeeded the way it should have done. Correct, yeah. Like they've added some cool stuff and it is great, but I do want, and obviously Google's trying to do that with Windows now as well because they understand. I wonder if that's like the first trappings of that. Like, hey, we're going to do this, but better. Like you like the...
You like the applications and the nearby share and all that stuff for Windows? Well, imagine that on steroids. Like, I wonder if that's what they're trying to do. But I guess it's... The proof will be in the pudding, right? I think how are they going to convince people to do that this is the right way to go about it? Personally, I don't think it's going to be Dex specifically. I don't think it's going to be a phone that you plug into a display.
that becomes your operating system. I don't think normal people want that. Like, I really don't. I kind of wish they did, and I've wrote about this. I genuinely wrote about it last year around the release of the Snapdragon 8 Elite that this is possible. And I love... the idea of it um
But I also I don't know if the like if I'm being perfectly honest, like just because I want it doesn't mean that like a normal person wants it. Like I'm I'm I'm the sicko. I'm the gadget sicko in that way where I'm like, yeah, just pile everything into one device and I can pop it. between but but you know again you need that software support which i think is is what all this comes back to
Yeah, but this is, let's talk about some positives then. If this does happen, this will happen, obviously. Yeah. We don't have a time frame, which is kind of a good and bad thing. Another thing that I think Google should be out there talking about. When is this happening? Like you should be.
like this is you're not just dealing with with like an android update like i feel like you should be communicating with your with your enterprise customers but you know neither i wonder how they'll temper that i do wonder how they'll temper that for people because obviously like
I mean, I still personally think Gemini is going to become its own platform, so I do wonder what's going to happen with that. I think they could spin it all off and have Gemini. It's just called Gemini now. Everything is Gemini, which kind of feels like what's happening right now. Like, if they want to make this platform that is...
that is as cohesive as I assume that they want it to be like iOS and Mac. They're saying they want to serve everyone in every computing category. So they want this to be for everybody. yeah i think that might be a bit broad i think sometimes sometimes stretching yourself too thin can can like this feels a little bit like the most recent i think is stadia i think the idea that they would have this gaming platform which
in my experience, was the best cloud gaming platform I've ever experienced. It was way better than GeForce now. It was as seamless as it could possibly be. They've then gone on to ditch Stadia. Now they want to make... Now they want to make a platform that's potentially going to serve gamers. Like you literally had an option there that would have worked for now that we're reaching a point where 5G is viable for most people and the chipsets and the modems in these.
are good enough to potentially power that yeah like It feels like they've had some fumbles to get to this point where like, oh, Hail Mary pass. Like, let's just go for this now. Or am I reading into that too drastically? Am I thinking of this negatively? Because I do think this is probably going to be a good thing. I do think deep down it's going to be a good thing.
person first and foremost so seeing new form factors is cool but then now i think about i'm thinking more broadly how the hell does this tie into android xr wow So how the hell are they going to tie all this stuff together? So we have Android XR, which is potentially going to go on glasses. Then we're going to have this unified platform. Does mobile now include VR and AR?
That's a great question. So you're going to have this huge massive headset, which is going to be, yeah, no, this is completely siloed away. What? Well, and that's how, I mean, that's kind of how Apple... treats the vision pro a little bit right like does the vision pro feel like a part of the apple ecosystem i would argue not like tangentially but like not even i would i would say to a lesser degree than even like
Apple TV like I it feels very like at arm's reach and I expect you know especially if if project muhan is priced anything like the vision pro i would expect uh you know android xr to start very similarly um Yeah, I don't I mean, I mean, really, and I've brought this up a couple of times, I think, on the on the show, but I think this really comes back to that that a lot of this is just Google wanting Gemini everywhere.
And so the difference between Google just partnering with Microsoft more and more on syncing Android with Windows is that Microsoft has their own. ai elements right they have co-pilot very true uh right they want they want you know they have their partnership with with open ai and chat gpt and Google is not going to be able to to really edge their way in there. They can get Gemini on Windows through Chrome, but they can't get it natively on there. And so I wonder if that this is this is.
Maybe we are so overthinking this and this is not a revolution in computing. What are you talking about? 30 minutes into this podcast. Absolutely not. It's not about a revolution in computing. It's not about a delivering... exact quote delivering on the vision of convergence of mobile and pc it's about gemini right which i think is like really when you're ever confused on what google's doing these days you can typically just answer gemini and it makes sense
it makes enough sense that you're like, okay, yeah, I see it. So like, I wonder if this is just kind of, I don't know why you need to rebuild Chrome OS for this other than like simplifying resources behind the scenes, but like. Is this just a play to be like, we have this exciting new operating system new with an asterisk next to it. And it's got.
Gemini natively everywhere scattered through it and that's our that's our ploy for desktop and for tablets and on mobile we've got Gemini and on XR we've got Gemini and like I wonder if that is a big part of it it's not so much you and i being like but where are our adobe apps it's yeah where where's our where's our steam support it's um which is going away from chrome os it's it's um
you have a chatbot with this key. You can hit this key and you have a chatbot. Maybe. I don't know. It seems weird. It does seem weird. The whole thing seems quite weird when you conceptualize it a little bit or you kind of compartmentalize it because...
They use Qualcomm chips in Pixel Watch, so that's the only current piece of hardware that uses Qualcomm chip. So why would they be on stage talking about this, about a platform? I guess, is he doing it on behalf of Samsung, maybe? Is Rick saying that, okay...
Because the only company that can potentially roll this out quickly at any scale is Samsung because they have Dex ready. Google's working with them on that. And I think that's because Google have recognized, hmm, these guys have been doing this for the better part of a decade. We might want to...
tap into their expertise, they have some experiences, good, bad, indifferent. Yeah. Maybe we can kind of steal some, I say steal, we can kind of work together on something. And Samsung still technically uses Qualcomm chips on all of their high-end devices. Yeah. But they have a tablet running MediaTek. There's a whole chipset kind of mess going on here. But that's why I find it all the weirder. They would come on stage and talk about this and talk about, obviously...
Cristiano said, he can't wait to have one of whatever it is, whatever this form factor is. I think he's talking about a tablet. Personally, I just think... Delving deep into it and getting really silly. I think he's talking about a tablet. And I would not be surprised if Google were like, well, we can't power this by a Tensor chip. Like, there's not enough power there. We're going to go with a Qualcomm chip. Or even the Elite.
series the uh the x elite series right like i yeah is it chromebook or even x it's x yeah yeah x2 elite extreme and x2 elite see i know i remember it uh but but but yeah i i wonder if it's if it's more of a partnership on on the on the tablet and and computing side of things because i don't think you know i would not
want to run a i would not want to use a tensor powered laptop even i just don't think like that that is a chip that is is really focused on what it does well but i don't think once you start throwing once you start throwing desktop uh class applications no no there's obviously zero chance to handle it yeah i don't know yeah there's i'm i'm sorry i posed more questions there than answers i think
Well, isn't that the whole thing though? That's the whole frustration about this entire transition is that it's like a billion questions up to including why? And like how and why and for what? I think most Android fans are going to fall into two camps. Why? And the other people are going to be very, very excited about this because it just means potentially more Google hardware and we don't.
¶ Does this mean more hardware to come?
Do we get enough? I know that's a silly thing to say when we're on the precipice of potentially two more pieces of hardware coming out and some earbuds in the what? next three weeks like that was silly for me to say out loud i'm sorry no but i i think google should make more hardware personally like i i'm i've stated on this show that i'm frustrated that they just kind of
they did a one and done thing with the pixel tablet, which I thought was a genuinely good idea. Um, I think they should be making laptops. Like I think this is what keeps their ecosystem from being.
uh as i i think i've straight up said this that like i think with like a good laptop like like google could have like an apple like level ecosystem like that could be the closest competitor to apple in terms of like ecosystem uh cohesion and they just like every three years they're like we're gonna throw something some crazy new idea at the wall yeah and it doesn't
It just like it doesn't work. It's always like a six out of ten experience and it doesn't sell. And they go, we tried like see you again in 2028 or something. It's really frustrating because I think if they just like. stopped trying to like be everything for everybody and just sat down and figured out what they wanted their vision of a desktop experience to be, which I don't know if they have because they won't share it. You know, I, you know, we're, we're.
six no not six five months into this and yeah technically they kind of have though right i think in my mind i think they have with that desktop mode that's still in preview on android q16 qpr i think i feel like that is the first kind of hey
If you want to test this out, this is potentially what it's going to be like. And if I'm being completely honest, it's not bad. I think it's fine. Like, it's not as good as Dex, let's be completely honest. And I think Dex is a bit more ubiquitous in that it can work in many, many places. And on that, actually.
I've used decks in a car. I had an adapter, and that was very, very dangerous, and that shouldn't be allowed. But that was kind of cool to show you this flexibility. It can work on a car dashboard. Like, that is insane. I do wonder if obviously this is going to be more aimed at, I guess, lap.
I just think laptop tablets is the only way Google can spin this. They can't have, imagine if Google was like, yeah, do you want to put this on a gaming laptop or gaming PC? I think the gaming community would laugh them out of, just out of existence almost. Yeah. They've already tried with Stadia and I think.
gaming public which at large can be quite aggressive and quite dismissive yeah and i say that as a gamer uh who has been dismissive and aggressive multiple times in online shooters i think that um i think yeah just trying to catch all is a bit silly i think this should be more either aimed at i guess the ipad crowd the kind of people the anti-ipad crowd i think there's a lot of us who don't want an ipad i have one but i don't use it i bought the
I think 2021, it doesn't fit into my, I guess, workflow. In terms of an entertainment device, I think Android tablets for me are personally better. I just wonder how they sell. They sell it like that. It needs to be kind of its own little microcosm of Android rather than say, hey.
you had a Chrome OS laptop, now go for this. Right, which is where it feels like it's building to. And I really hope not because I don't think that's a strong enough argument to- convince anybody to to any any any non-google enthusiast any non-android enthusiast to really give it a shot you know beyond if if they really like their
Chromebook but their Chromebook is seven years old and they need a new one but like that's then then they're already in the ecosystem so it doesn't really count you know I don't know I guess I just wish I guess I just wish Google would come out and be like, okay, so like... Chrome OS is combining with Android and like we've shown you our desktop experience, but really here are the three, you know, pillars we're trying to target with this. Just something so I can, I can have some, I can.
share the vision that they're they see even if they're not showing final you know screenshots or or previews or anything there's no beta build whatever if they were even just like this is what this is why we're doing this like it's it's sure it's to simplify resources but also it's because of this this and this and like we see the the future of computing you know on on large screens like tablets and and desktops and laptops as this and and without that context
And that's how you get us talking for 37 minutes, being a little confused about what Google's trying to do here. And I think as well, we're looking at this from a mobile-centric approach, which I guess... is bound to be the case when you talk about this on stage at iChipset, unveiling for mostly everybody's there for the, wants to see the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is a mobile chip. But yeah, let's...
Let's mull over that one. Let's kind of percolate on that. I think this is going to evolve over the next few months and potentially years. I think this could be years before this comes to fruition. But I'm... While I've been a bit dismissive, I am excited about this. I think having something new is always good to talk about. We haven't had Android XR, I guess, properly available yet until we get Wuhan, which...
I hope is by the end of the year, but again, it felt like an early announcement and not much talked about it. So this is kind of one of those things where Google has, Rick has been on stage and talked about it.
Cristiano has kind of not helped him out a bit with his comments, but they now need to kind of get, put their foot to the gas, right? And really start making some waves because otherwise we're going to constantly be asking the question, where is Android on desktop? Because it feels like we've been talking about that for...
four or five years at this point i i know i can't believe that this is only a thing that i i genuinely was like what yeah they confirmed this 18 months ago right it's like no they confirmed this in july it wasn't that long ago but you know yeah i i want to I just had a vision of the future and maybe, maybe we can leave it here, but I just realized we talked so much about like, you know,
how how current operating systems are built primarily for like productivity and for gaming and like that is neither of those things you know not counting docs or something like neither of those things is something that chromo has really uh excels at yeah and and i just had a vision that google is going to get up on stage when they decide to unveil you know this this revamped android for for pc
uh experience that is going to come to to all of these form factors we've been talking about and they're going to be like and don't worry um you know creatives out there video producers and image editors we've got you covered and then they're going to spend 20 minutes talking about how you can move your workflow over to their ai editing tools oh god i just i just saw i saw the vision that would oh that was so they're not it's not going to be partnerships
adobe and and all of these it's gonna be check is like remember the ai video editor we've been we've been building out well it's called flow it's flow thank you it's it's here it's here for you to use if you move away from premiere come come use our ai yeah come I just, I just had this vision and I was like, oh, that's what it is. Their, their bet is, you know, AI is the future of desktops and we're going to make, we're going to use Android to do it. And like, maybe they're right, but, but.
you know, that's not a thing that I think is going to get you at either of, of us, uh, with our current work. Yeah. You're going to take these products if you have some, I call dead hands, I think. Oh my God. I feel ridiculous that it took me 40 minutes to even have this thought pop into my brain, but there it is. And I, oh, I can feel it.
¶ OnePlus 15 early announcement
I want to talk about one more thing before we shoot off, because alongside all of this, for us, the Android new potential form factor is great, but there was one big OEM. I say big, OnePlus big. They just unveiled...
effectively unveiled the OnePlus 15. Yeah. It's had an early reveal. Like, I am genuinely, genuinely excited about this. I think OnePlus have been doing incredible things the past few years. And I feel like I've rightfully glazed them. They've turned a corner. They're making good hardware. They're making really...
performant devices like the image that we saw was a was an esports competition like yeah and then they've also i believe at a qualcomm china event they showed it off on stage like really early this morning as well yeah I mean, this... I mean, we probably won't get it in the West until early next year. Maybe, hopefully... I think it was January last year that we... Yeah, it was time to CES last year. Yeah. But this is early.
Yeah, so this is potentially going to be one of the first devices out with this new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8.
Elite 5? 5 Elite 8? It's so bad. Qualcomm changing naming systems. It's terrible. You know, and I wouldn't hold it against them. But when they... Oh, Damien, I don't know if you remember this, but when they announced the Snapdragon 8... like gen one like the whole thing with that was like they put out a whole blog post about how they were simplifying their naming structure and don't worry you don't have to remember all these numbers anymore it's just going to be
eight the eight series the seven series the six series and then like within two years we had like seven s gen three and eight eight minus gen seven and it's like i don't i truly cannot remember yeah i don't want algebra some of these chips are The same chip just rebranded. It's so frustrating. Anyway, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is the name of it. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm very, very excited about this. I thought the OnePlus 13 is still...
It's great. It's such a good device. I think it's a great phone. I am nervous about the lack of Hasselblad. processing like because i think that's gotten really good in the last couple generations basically since the open um was when i really fell in love with it i've really liked it ever since So, you know, fingers crossed that their their new imaging engine is as good as they are as they are promoting it to be. But but but yeah, I will say it looks like it's like a flat screen.
or like perhaps like close to a flat screen based on the couple of images we've seen. And I'm really excited for that because, you know, the OnePlus 13 was basically flat, but it was like just a little curved. And I was like.
guys just just go to flat it's fine you don't need to do this like it it is just more comfortable to hold the phone with flat with a flat display it's more comfortable to type on like that's just it's curved screens were a good idea for when bezels were thicker but they're not anymore let's move on
I think this just looks like if you took half of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold or the upcoming Pixel 10 Pro Fold and then they slapped a OnePlus badge on it. The camera array looks almost the exact same but slightly adjusted. think um yeah i'm this so this this is technically the first potential device i think xiaomi might try and beat oneplus to the punch like they often do yeah um with their
I don't know what version it is, but it'll have a Xiaomi Ultra of some kind, something like that. I think it's 17. I imagine this next crop of devices powered by this chip will start slowly being announced and everyone will try and... fall over themselves to say we have the first device with this but hey I feel like we hit a performance point with the gen the snapdragon
Gen 3? 8 Gen 3, which was so, we hit an inflection point there where these devices are so damn powerful that you can do anything you want, even with, say, the S23 Ultra. Like, the S23 Ultra is fantastic. So anyone out there who's looking to upgrade, I would say, hang on.
definitely hang on i think the one plus 15 is definitely going to be a candidate and it will probably come to north america as well but yeah these next wave of these next few months we're going to see we're going to start to see some um devices come out and
Yeah, it's all Qualcomm all the way down, right? It's Qualcomm all the way down. Yeah, we're not due for a tensor phone until... spring spring probably yeah i don't know the a series moves around so much that i don't want to confidently be like march no may no july i don't know so yeah it's um
it is an exciting time after we've had a huge rush of pixel to see other hardware because we can focus on something slightly different but there is some more more um pixel in the coming weeks i know i keep forgetting that the fold is like not even out No. Yeah. It's so similar. It's like one of those things where you're like, I don't, I think I know what that phone is, but exactly, exactly. But yeah, we will, we'll be delving into all of the machinations of those in the coming weeks.
I just want to say, Will, thanks for joining me today. It's been a deep dive into why we love and hate from OS in equal measure and why we love and hate Android in equal measure. I want it to be good so bad. Like, I want to. I don't like Windows. I just use it. Cause it's the platform I use. It's not like I, it's where the apps are. I would, I would.
Switch away in a second if I could replicate the same workflow, but that's really what it is. I was going to say, so you're not first in line for an Android desktop. I'm first in line once they have all the apps I need. I think that sums it up. I want to say, yeah, thanks to you out there listening. We'll be back, as always, on Pixelated next week. Thanks, Will. Thank you, Damien. I was going to say bye, and then I was like, that's so rude. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated.
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