A very different Made By Google

So, Will, Abner, we have just kind of, I say just, it was yesterday, right? We tuned out from the Made by Google event, very, very different tech event initially. Didn't like the concept. Afterwards, really liked that it did something different. Now, I want to hear your guys' thoughts. Different. That is, I would also say that's my takeaway. It's different. Got people talking.

But if hypothetically, let's say they did the second year, I don't think they have the same novelty on their side the second year. It's the Pixel 10, 10 generations, big number, people like Fat. people like anniversary so to speak yeah so there's a real justification for trying something different but what was that difference a success

Oh, really, really good question. Like, how do you feel? Well, do you think that it's like it's broken through to people who are not techie tech people? No, I didn't see. I know that's disappointing. Uh, I didn't see any clips outside of like the typical tech people sharing them yesterday. Like I, I, I didn't see cause cause on, I'm sorry to make this comparison, but it's the, I mean, Google did it a hundred times. Like.

on iPhone launch days, like iPhone keynote days, people will like normal people will be talking about the announcement on Twitter or whatever, whatever social network they want to use. And. I didn't see it crossover. It's totally possible that did because that's all. It's always going to be anecdotal, right? Like there's no way for me to, you know.

quickly get a glimpse as to how many people were talking about this event that don't typically follow tech events. But but but yeah, I I was genuinely surprised when I went to.

rewatch the event this morning and we can we can I can talk about why at the end of this episode but I went to rewatch the event and I it was at like six million views when yesterday throughout the stream it was only at like it was at like seven thousand concurrence like during the live event and so obviously they are back to like i assume this is being put as as a pre-roll or something on on videos because i don't know how else it gets to six million overnight um

But but yeah, I don't I didn't feel like this. I guess that was kind of my big question. And we don't have to focus on the event for that long. But but it was kind of like.

I don't know who it's for necessarily because it didn't feel like the guests they had on were really the sorts of people that like... tech focused viewers would would find exciting and at the same time i don't think i definitely cross off that tech viewer audience as who it's for but but nobody else wants to watch a smartphone launch like i really think that i i don't even

think people really watch the apple ones i think they just see mark has brownley tweet about it and then they go wow like i'm so excited for the iphone 17 or whatever it's like i i guess i just like If you know you have a specific audience, I don't know why you don't at least throw one person in that I think maybe people on Google Pixel Reddits would be excited about. I don't know.

They absolutely want to break the audience. That's, they want to find a different audience, break true to a different audience. And you don't, and I think the mix of social people they got. Okay. they got youtubers they got sports people did they get any other category um

I mean, I mean, just entertainers and Fallon and whoever that Peloton guy was that they kept. I liked him. He was fine. But like they introduced him like I should know who that is. And I'm like, I don't have a Peloton. I have no. idea who this man is no i don't i think they hit a lot a wide smorgasbord for the lack of a better word and it's it was very online which in a way is

reflective of like that youtube audience which they in theory naturally have built in like like youtube when they do these big upfront events they do they succeed at being this online person out at getting being having such an online event with online references etc etc i don't think that necessarily translates well to the main google brand to your point will but

I think all they need for this to be success is to get people talking about it. Quality-wise, back to that idea of quality or whether it was a good idea, I think... I mean, we're obviously technically savvy from that point of view. I think it was a shame that they didn't spend more time on a traditional keynote, tech keynote, because I think a tech audience would have loved that.

They didn't go that hard into Tensor G5, which we have a post on, and it was a pretty sizable update. They could have done more camera stuff, highlighting what's impressive video improvements. the it should have been like a solid chunk of us pro res zoom that would have done well so i think they could have done a traditional keynote this year that's tech tech features showing showcasing what's cool

I think the amount of cool new features they had would have broken through if they went that route. Yeah. Do you think this is one of the few ways, though, that Google can... Or they maybe were initially thinking, how are we going to break through to an audience who doesn't normally care about this stuff? Because I know you alluded to it a minute ago, Will, is that with Apple, it's very different. I think Apple has a very...

It's almost like a status symbol, like a luxury thing, I guess. It's the numbers game. They're absolutely smoking. Google doesn't even matter. It's like, what, probably 10,000 to one, right, in terms of sales. So it's kind of... you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. Right. So I feel like maybe they just said, let's just go for it. Let's see what happens. And I think I'm going to be completely honest. I think it was very different in a good way. Initially. I mean, I don't like.

It's Jimmy Fallon, right? I confuse him with Jimmy Kimmel. There's too many of those terrible American... talk show TV host. I was going to say, I think Abner is, I'm Kibble agnostic or whatever. I see him once a year when he hosts the Oscars, except he doesn't do that anymore.

I'm a student of late night for reference. I'm a student of late night talk shows. So you, you love the concept, right? So in terms of a concept, right, they have to get somebody who's going to be, I think the idea of having. be a bit inquisitive about the products. If they did just let him go off and host it like he hosts a TV show, I think it would have been a little bit less... What would I describe it? Dorky. Because it was dorky in a good way in some respects, because...

And it did feel salesy. I know a lot of people, I wasn't the first to say, but it felt a bit like QVC and a shopping channel kind of thing. But I think the personalities within... with the people who work internally at Google, some of them came across really, really well. And like you said, the Peloton guy came across really well as well. I think there's definitely some positives to take because they didn't take this too seriously.

But we're arguing now that they should have taken it more seriously. I think if you go watch an Apple keynote, it's dry. The humour is really, to me, it's really stunted. It's really forced. It's really, there's a level of self-importance there. I don't think Google put forward a letter face of... we are self-important we think they're thinking we have a product here that they i mean they clearly were proud of it and they were talking about it on a on a quite a

strange basis compared to some other keynotes that we see. They're very much like numbers and figures, whereas Google are just like, yeah, we have a good product. We think our product's really good. And I think we've got to give some credit for them to even try that. I think you could go back to what?

Some of these Samsung keynotes are absolutely embarrassing. At least the celebrity endorsements here felt more in tune with what their product is doing rather than, hey, let's get Sidney Sweeney on to take a picture with the flip. They did Sidney Sweeney twice and it was worse the second year.

year so yeah we're getting away from that i think i think um i mean i will be concerned because fallon i'm pretty sure he was in an iphone ad last year or during the keynote last year so i don't know kudos for trying it I would love to know what you thought when you were there. Obviously, you were there in person. How did you feel? Did it feel confusing? Did it feel like, what the heck are we doing? It felt like a late night.

wait night slash TV show taping. The audience was not, it wasn't a hot audience. Stand up, stand up is what I would. I think most people have experience with experiencing. There was a stand-up-esque vibe to it. There was somebody in the beginning hyping it up. I don't think that was on the live stream.

There was an applause sign, just like a sitcom. So, but I think if most people... stand-up is probably something they might have seen i think that's the best model for it um and let me say the audience was not in on it because it's like people working it's It wasn't all tech journalists, but it was quite a bit of journalists. Every time they showed the audience, it was filled with laptop screens as you would usually expect at these events. But then, and I'm...

I am 90% sure at least some of the applause and laughter in the in the live stream was canned because there's just absolutely no way the audience sounded like that. Like I have been was not at this event, but I've been to enough of these events to know that.

the only people who really ever applaud or laugh etc are are staff or like google staff samsung okay there are a lot of staff there there are a lot of part retail partners so that's that could be where that was coming from that's built in yeah no agreed there Whether or not it was canned, right? It didn't sound authentic. I think was my immediate like grasp on it was just like this does not sound authentic to what these events usually sound like.

And no joke was ever funny enough to get the reaction it was getting anyway. I don't know. I think... No, there were some funny jokes. I think there were funny jokes. There was a bit when Jimmy just shouted Tenser. Now that's credit to our Google Tenser G5 chip. Tenser! Come on. You know the Tensor nerds out there know what I'm talking about. Tensor G5! Yes.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen in my entire life. And I'm going to get that as a soundbite and I might set that as my ringtone. And he kept calling everyone, oh, I love you. Was it something about you tensor nerds out there? I know that was absolutely genius. That was genuinely one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

in the keynote i just came up with a horrible thing i think the rhythmus test of this event is low key do you like the big bang theory do you think the big bang theory is making fun of like nerds

Or do you think the Big Bang Theory is an embrace of how nerd culture has kind of won and everybody's a nerd? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I can see that. I think that's a really good... approximation i didn't think of it i kind of at first i was like this is so weird and then i never felt like jimmy was making fun of me which

To his credit, he's a late night host. He knows how to deal with people. He knows how to deal with big crowds. And most people, the vast majority of people do not. So I never felt made fun of. And I think that is a... And I don't think anybody watching would either. So I think that's sometimes hard to do, but it was never insulting. So that's something. Yeah.

Well, let's talk about these. Let's talk about the actual devices then, because I think that we could get, we could talk about this show forever and we probably should at some point, especially when the next one rolls around and get our expectations out of the way. There was some hardware there. Let's start with some phones. What do you think? They work the same.

they look the same they look the same they look the same you can't tell a difference um with that out the way cameras Like we said, ProRes Zoom was really impressive. We've had some demo experiences with it and it works. Yeah, I mean, my first instance of seeing it in person was...

And I swore, and I'm not going to swear on this podcast, obviously, because it's a family-friendly show, but I genuinely couldn't believe that the difference between the initial 100x zoom, it was a blurry mess, like every 100x zoom camera, and then... it put in the definition of the of flowers on a tree that was in a parish street and i was like and i didn't i wasn't even filming it i was just literally just looking at it yeah and i i genuinely was shocked at how good

the ai or the gemini model whatever it was was able to fill in the gaps i mean probably shouldn't be a shock right vo and all of the imaging tools that google's using is so good at filling in the blanks that i genuinely think this could be huge for people like tourists like

I call it the tourist. This is the tourist feature. The fun feature. Your friend goes to sit on a bench because they've had an argument with you in the park. You go take a picture, a funny picture of them looking sad on the bench. It suddenly... brings everything to life yeah it can look a little bit like blown out and blurry but it's a hundred times zoom you're not going to get perfect image quality but i was so impressed at how it fills in the blanks

it's genuinely, genuinely impressive from an AI feature. It feels like the built-in response, if we've spent months being like okay, if the regular Pixel 10 has a telephoto lens, then why would you get the Pro? This feels like the missing information that we didn't have of why you would get the Pro, because...

Correct me if I'm wrong, guys. It's 20X is the max on... Max, yeah, on the regular 20X. Okay, yeah. So, like, that's... Look... 20x is gonna be great i'm really looking forward to trying the base model but um but like yeah obviously a really solid 100x like ai uh centric zoom is great yeah because i think

We're conditioned and most tech people are conditioned to look at 100X and be like, that's a pointless feature. Because every time Samsung tries it, it's terrible. Yeah, it is, sadly. So yeah, that's actually compelling.

On that, I know we mentioned Samsung. I'm going to go on a tiny, tiny tangent here. Do you think that Google will outsource some of this technology if it's based on imaging and using Gemini models? Do you think that Samsung might eventually access this or be able to license it from Google? That's a, I don't, I think it's competitive advantage. It's a pixel camera feature. It's absolutely not an Android feature. It's a thing that the pixel camera team worked hard on.

this diffusion model. No, I think that probably stays in-house as a competitive advantage, rightly so. I mean, these are the kind of things which I think pixel cameras... should be kind of delving into a little bit more. This goes a little bit beyond computational photography, right? And we talked about that for like, what, 10 years now, 10 versions. And it definitely feels like...

this was always the next step. This is the way that it was always going to go. But I mean, I hate, I'm not a huge fan of the phrase. I was about to say, I hate it. I don't hate it. But the phrase like, what is a photo? I don't necessarily think that that's so, I mean, you can apply that to lots of things, but at the end of the day, this does.

definitely feel like, what is this photo? What have I taken a picture of here? And AI is clearly filling in the blanks really, really well. I mean, I've seen a little bit of discourse online, people complaining that it's the same hardware on the Pro, but... Surely this means that 10CG5 is doing enough to power these models locally or something. And yeah, it has a new image signal processor that...

is being ravaged throughout the camera pipeline. And I think the same sentence on the Pro, but... the autofocus has been enhanced 2x the range or something like that but i think yeah yeah ois i think that could be the underrated thing that really improves it and i don't know like camera tuning I'm sure they did more tuning. And I think year over year, that's something definitely to look forward to. I mean, just looking at what they've done with the pros.

I mean, it's great for software related stuff. It's just a shame we won't be able to get some of these on the Pixel 9 if it is locked to 10 to G5 and that new ISP. But then when we look at the regular Pixel 10. There's some downgrades. Like Google gives me one hand and takes away with another here because I think the telephone was going to be huge. Yeah.

What do you think? Because obviously I didn't spend quite as much time with a regular 10. I have a review unit here and I won't be able to talk about that. But what I saw was fine. I couldn't really make a summation of what the telephoto was like there. I know you guys had a little bit longer to kind of mess around with the camera. Did you manage to see that when you were at the keynote yesterday or any sessions that you had previously? Stay tuned on that. But it's, I think, okay, I'm...

I think the Pixel 4 is absolutely right in doing terraphoto over wide. And I'm glad that we're now finally at the point that all phones have these three lenses. And it's actually... to compare it to what the iPhone, I think the iPhone is still sticking, the base iPhone this year is still sticking with two lenses. So I think this is a meaningful competitive advantage. And I feel like advertising is going to go pretty hard into that.

But it's just the idea of having this tool on your phone. I think that's a pretty powerful selling proposition. I mean, it's weird, isn't it, Will? I'm about to ask you about this because I know you mentioned it just a second ago.

The addition of a telephoto makes a base model so much more enticing. Everybody kind of wants to look at it, like from the tech side of things. I know yesterday it might have been a different cell for Jimmy Fallon on the QVC network. But yeah, you tell me. I know you're like me. to try this telephoto out until it's basically going to run out of battery yeah mostly because it's pretty rare that i need to zoom more than than 20x and so to a certain extent i'm like

Okay, well, if this is the more colorful device, which I'm into, and it's cheaper, which I'm into, and there are not that many like true, like you're getting essentially the same software experience. It's just a few minor.

like hardware based downgrades but but even compared to last year where people were already asking like why get the why get the nine pro when the nines right there like i i think that's even more true this year and i don't mean that as a criticism I think it's great that the Pixel 9 is like a fully featured package that I can't imagine.

basically anybody right like 99 point whatever percent of users being being satisfied with the experience that brings to the table and then For real enthusiasts, right, like true hardcore enthusiasts, the people listening to the show, you have. You know, you know, the better camera system and and more RAM. Correct. Right. It's it's fully 16. And does the base model have UFS 4.0 at all? Or is it just.

No, we have found out that it's UFS 3.1 on 120 gigabytes. You have to go to 256 to get UFS 4. Okay, okay. But there are advantages to buying the Pro, but it's not like... I don't it's enough that I don't know. I feel like that device exists for a very specific buyer. And I think that's OK. I'm kind of accepted that like that can be a space where Google plays and then they can.

Otherwise point people to buy the, buy the base model, $800, big full package. There you go. Or you want a big screen, go buy the Excel. There you go. And like, I think that makes. sense. I'm glad the pro exists, even if I would expect it to. of the three by far be the one that sells the least. Like I, I has to, I assume the nine pro also sold the least of the three, but this year I, I cannot imagine the, the pro not being in third place. And that's okay. Like I, I really think.

like it's good that this exists for people who want it i feel like yeah the model that google has taken is and and this is this is just kind of something i've been theorizing for a little while it's almost like google has taken on this Apple's playbook circa five years ago. So we're going to have this like TikTok approach. We're going to have effectively, this is the, I think it's the Pixel 9S personally. And I think that's a good thing in a lot of ways because it's the,

There are enough upgrades to say if you have a 7 or a 6. If you have a Pixel 6, I think this is going to be absolutely great for you. You're going to make that jump and you're going to have a really, really good time. I think, yeah, nobody is probably going to go from the 9 to the 10 unless you get really good trading. Yeah, I think that's an important factor. But again, we have to use this stuff. But I'm going to say that I think Tensor and what Tensor makes possible.

on the ai features one i think that makes it not an s yeah i I'm basing it on what I've seen and tested so far, but obviously we'll know within a few weeks, right, when we put these devices through the paces. But it certainly feels like that, right? Like externally it feels like that. It probably is good.

not going to be the case. But visually- The original- couple s models uh we're obviously referring to to the iphone where you know the 3gs was specifically focused on speed the 4s was i guess kind of focused on siri but like you can look at it as like the the the s is the initial s models from apple were typically focused on either software or under the hood changes i i would say the pixel 10 qualifies as that because it is it is reusing last year's design you know

give or take a telephoto lens, but is then making it significantly more powerful and adding software features on top of that power that are... primarily exclusive we'll see what comes to the pixel 9 in a few months because that is usually how google's cadence works i real quick before we move on i i do want to point out uh to your point damien that um

It is a really solid year to upgrade to a Pixel 10 if you have an older Pixel device. I rounded up the Tensor-powered Pixel trade-ins from the Google Store yesterday. You know, the sixes are really, but like, I mean, we're talking about four years ago, right? Four years ago. Yeah, four years ago. Wow, Jesus. Four years ago for the sixes. But like, if you have a, you know, if you have a Pixel 7 Pro.

You're getting 425 bucks back for that three year old device like that's that's great. I actually think that like Pixel 7 owners in particular should really consider upgrading this year because that's a that's a great value. Pixel 8.

pro is like 500 it's it's maybe not quite as big of a jump uh but still excellent and and you know i would maybe hold off if you have a pixel line because those values are not that much higher and if they hold these hold this or next year you'll get a good bang for your buck, but Pixel 7...

and seven pro owners like that's like that sweet spot of like you've had that phone for three years you've gotten a lot out of it and now google's gonna give you back like a few hundred bucks towards your next phone it's it's not a bad time to update

No. Speaking of updates, I want to talk a little bit about the Pixel Watch because, again, this is one that I didn't spend a ton of time with. If you were to look at that, visually, it doesn't look like anything's changed at all, even less so than the Pixel.

phones in a lot of respects but like there seems to be a lot of the under hood stuff this is one of those like this was like a sleeper product in google's lineup this year like in terms of upgrades i know we have a little bit of time to wait for it but yeah in terms of upgrades this this is pretty substantial right Honestly, it's my best in show. It's so, yeah, it, I think this is a detriment to how, how stuff has weak that influences people's perception.

But at the same time, I don't think Google properly captured how different this screen is. This actual 360 display, it is fully domed. So that means... the center of the screen is taller than the surrounding edges. It's... When Google always described the Pixel Watch as inspired by water droplets, and when you actually, like... put water droplets on a coin that experiment or whatever it's not a flat this it's not a

the water isn't flat, it's domed. And Google has finally captured that. And it's probably like what they've always wanted to do with this design language. So the unfortunate thing is you have to.

experience in person you have to swipe in person you have to see it at different angles on your wrist because otherwise it's hard to capture that this is this display It's different in not being flat, but once you actually start using it, once you start actually going into it, the ripple effects of how that...

how it changes the way that you look at your watch at an angle or when you swipe it feels different there's a lot of ripple effects that you can only experience once it's on your wrist and i think that's unfortunate from an advertising perspective but it's that's going to be really interesting and i think this is another bigger upgrade than expected i mean it's the first watch as well with the latest

Qualcomm chip, I believe. Is that correct? Yeah. I don't know if I'm wrong. Do you think that adds a lot in terms of performance? I mean, then again, we're not doing tons and tons of stuff on our wristwatches. Actually, there is no performance upgrade. There's no performance upgrade. What, three to four years between? So wearable chipsets, they do not, they're up like smartphones every other year. They get an impressive improvement process. This is the exact same chip.

but with the addition of satellite connectivity, which adds a nice peace of mind, I guess, and means you don't have to take your phone everywhere, but it's not the performance upgrade you've been looking. Instead... Google's new co-processor is the big update there and it allows for more ML experiences. So that's the chip upgrade you're really getting this year.

It clearly comes down to the look and feel. As a piece of jewelry should, as something you wear, the look is very important. I've seen a fair few people complaining that... I mean, it is a piece of jewelry. It's going to be in the firing line a bit. Do you think that we could, and this is a more broader question, I personally think there's enough room in the lineup for a rugged wearable from Google, maybe with a little bit of a...

flat sides that kind of thing but I guess that doesn't fit with what they wanted to do with this like elegant really like classic timepiece I don't know it makes me sad a little bit because people all people want to say is it will break or it will do this and I'm like It is a good looking piece of technology, right? There are very few smartwatches that look like this. And I think...

Yeah, if somebody said, let's make a rugged version, they encase it with maybe flat sides a bit more like the Pixel 10 and Pixel 9. I don't know. I think that would diminish the experience a little bit. I think it would feel a little bit more generic. So I kind of like, fair play to Google first. continuing with this pebble design and really really refining it over time it's just a shame we we have um until october to see it in in flesh i guess yeah what what are people doing with their

watches outside of like really rugged sports that they're like worried about breaking. I've never, I've owned, I've owned, I could not tell you how many smart watches. It's the accidental bumps as you go about like, let's say you're working in the store.

it's so easy to accidentally bump. And that's who I see with bumpers so often. I've certainly done, I have hit my... various watches on door frames and doorknobs and and etc countless times and and left marks but i i've never broken one i've never had the glass shatter i've never had I think the idea there is, depending on what you do, it just happens constantly, multiple times in a day. At that point, I would say, be more careful with your arm.

Perhaps if it's happening that often, maybe just pay attention to your arms. Ask somebody who has no hand-eye coordination. That is a very hard thing to ask. so yeah i think i think with with pixel watch i mean the upside is is like say that there is a lot of upgrades there but yeah yeah i think the one software thing is this gemini race to wake In terms of you can just raise your wrist and start talking. We have no fondness for the Hey Google hard word.

which Google apparently is keeping. We'll talk about Gemini for home in a bit. Yeah, there's a lot to say about that. But it's, I don't know, I think that could be interesting from a... instant if you can condition yourself to just raise your risk every time you have to ask a question that's a step towards using ai anyways yeah and obviously that is that

I say delayed, it's a delayed launch, right? It's a lagged launch. We're going to have that in October time, but that's obviously going to be joined by the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. I nearly got the name wrong there because I think the naming convention is terrible. Like this one feels like, yeah, apart from the IP68 rating, this feels like...

Bigger battery. It doesn't feel like the hugest of upgrades to that particular device. I wonder if that's why they've held it back a little bit, just because it just gives a little bit of breathing room to their other devices, the slab phones. I spent a very, this was the least amount of time I spent with a device. Feels the same. I have zero opinions on it, sadly. The jade color is pretty. I like the jade. That's it. Fine colors.

Weird that they went from porcelain and obsidian to two of these kind of more... I would call it a bit flashy colours, but it's strange because I assume this was the original justification was black and white because they're more businessman-like. I wonder if they want to put a little bit of fun and playfulness into Material 3 Expressive and Android 16 QPR One.

And then they've changed the colors of the foldable devices. It doesn't seem to compute with me properly, but yeah, basically everything on that one is exact same. Again, we'll have to wait until October to get our thoughts on that, but it just looks like... a fairly TikTok upgrade over the Pixel 9 Pro fold, which I didn't mind. I thought the battery was a bit disappointing, but yeah, solid phone either way. Let's get into a little bit of extra stuff, though, that happened post.

event well we had 116 qpr 2 beta 1 which is going to be the first full release after the pixel for the pixel 10 sometime around december we're going to obviously have monthly patches until there It feels really strange, right? Confusing. We have QPR one that's waiting, 10 that's probably going to release with that as well.

We're going to get a preview of some features that are coming in December. What's happening right now? It's blagging my head. This has drained me mentally and physically over the past 24 hours. Yeah, it's... this cycle more than others there's a one beat of constant new features of constant software it's i kind of want well material tree

When Android 16 QPR comes out, I guess it's coming out for people who buy the Pixel 10 next week. But for everybody else, I think that is really the deadline for when more apps should get... they're updated more first-party apps should get updated the avalanche is coming there are many many updates in the past recent days widely rolling out so that's something but

i really there really needs to be right adoption for this too uh because after like you're done with the settings app or the quick settings redesign It's the apps that you use every day. They have to work new to contribute to the entire experience of this is a major software update.

I do wonder how this affects third parties. So for instance, there are going to be people out there who get an S26 device. They're going to have a lot of Google applications that look completely different to the UI on their phones. So this is a big, bold decision by Google to do this. I do wonder if they'll end up being a situation where we get pixel-only Google applications. I kind of feel in my bones that that might eventually happen.

It wouldn't be a good look, right? But at the end of the day, it would create some sort of exclusivity for Pixel phones. Because... I mean, even the new dialer looks great. There's some stunning applications, genuinely stunning applications. I just wonder if Google forces all developers to fall in line and then you get, like I say, you get your S26.

And one UI looks completely different to everything else on your phone. It's going to feel really, really like jarring. So I don't know. That's just a little thought I had about Material 3 Expressive. I guess that's why Samsung always push so hard to do their own apps.

right like they like maybe that was them trying to be like well we want to set our own design language not just on the operating system but on you know um the the entire experience as you're using system apps like the dialer for example i i feel like that disconnect has existed a little bit like kind of like samsung never really fell like one on one like like perfectly in line with with

uh you know like the more recent um material you i was like i was like what is it why can i not think of the name material you they were they had elements of it but i wouldn't say that like one ui five and six ever felt exactly how i thought of material you um it is a it is an odd disconnect and i i think that's why

I wonder if psychologically, that's why every time I switch to a Samsung device as my daily driver, it feels it feels like not cohesive. Like, I wonder if it is that thing where I am. jumping between a Samsung home screen and a Google application. And it doesn't feel connected in the way that on a Pixel, you jump from like a very Google home screen to a Google app.

you know google settings menus and so on and so forth and everything feels a little more cohesive and that is that is what samsung like as as the as a company that is not the platform holder that is like kind of the price samsung has to pay is is their devices feeling less unified. Yeah, this is such a tangent, but I just want somebody at Samsung to tell me why I need to know why...

Why I need to know that I'm on Wi-Fi 6 or whatever. Why? Who does that? No, this entire segment is just me saying why. Who cares? I feel like the dead into tech person, and that sounded weird, sorry. The tech enthusiasts is what I was thinking. I couldn't think of the word. If you're really, really into technology, I think you do kind of care, maybe. I don't know. If you're really into technology, you're probably not even going on to third party.

It's just baffling that I see the stupid number in the status quo. Samsung strikes me as a company, and this is not unique to them. I would even say Google has some of this as well, but a company that just... does things the way it does things because that's how they do things and i don't why would we do things a different way which is how you end up waiting

a decade for a vertical aperture like that's that's how you get there is because it's like but we've always had it this way it's it's why when you you don't set up in a a a samsung device uh you still have three vert uh virtual buttons that are in a in an odd layout to me yeah uh that to the point where google is apparently like being like ah you know what we'll just make that an option on pixel then clearly

the switch i think yeah it's a strange one it's a strange one and i think when you look at this particular in the context of this beta release or this um kind of the next next release. It's weird how it's fallen. It definitely feels like Google is taking on a lot more of Samsung qualities, for instance. I mean, I'm... Obviously, there's some bigger changes in this particular release, like widgets on the lock screen. I personally don't really see the point in that.

I'm going to unlock my phone to look at stuff. But I like the fact that they're going to add this. It definitely feels like they did it with Pixel tablet first because it's a smaller user pool. How's it going to look on phone?

It's a little bit broken right now. I think there are some other tiny little tweaks that definitely feel like... they are playing catch up with samsung like dark mode for more tuning for dark mode and things like that and it's enveloped a lot of the canary stuff but i do wonder how much the canary builds are gonna

drastically affect how pixel develops and and android in general because they can almost how to describe it they would they can prototype things at a rate that they never were doing before like we would have to wait six months until we had a preview And if Samsung does something with one UI or is already doing it, Google can prototype it a lot quicker and then get it in this QPR build, basically like this. So it is strange to see when we're testing...

We're about to test a load of brand new smartphones so then get the next OS that's not coming for a few months. Obviously, it's nothing new. QPR releases have been there for a while, but it feels weird, the release cadence.

It's very good. If anyone out there has installed it, it seems really stable so far. A lot of the stuff is working as normal. I think Google and their beta releases have been really good over the last few years. So no concerns from me running it on my device, on my Pixel 9 Pro Excel. Yeah, I think it's a busy time. We've got a lot of stuff to dive into in the next few weeks. We've had Jimmy spinning a yarn yesterday. I think that took a lot out of a lot of us. But yeah, I think...

I don't know if you guys have anything else to add to made by Google, but I think that kind of, we've covered it from end to end pre with leaks. Now with this event, all the devices we're now just going to dive into and kind of give you the lowdown on everything in the next few weeks.

at it but i am happy to see that they they are apparently making a new smart speaker of some kind i'm thrilled yes i i as as we as again as we hinted at i Just let me change the wake word. I will even say, hey, Gemini. Don't they want me to say that? I feel like they should want me to say that. Yes, but no.

It just never rolls off the tongue for me well. It always feels like it's, hey G, feels like it's stuck in my throat every time I say it. Yeah, just dive into that. It's kind of weird how they shoehorned. It kind of did feel shoehorn that they did a whole, this is a big update. There are so many speakers out there. There's so many people who know what Google Assistant is on.

smart speakers and smart displays and at the event they made this big announcement via blog post we'll talk more about this climb closer to october whenever it happens but that's a pretty big announcement that it's not really thematically fit with the rest of the event yeah i think i think it's a strange one as well because It almost feels like the preparing is for...

for what's coming and obviously they've had this this gemini preview and the new this potential new piece of hardware as well as like briefly t well i guess it wasn't t's it was just kind of like here it is kind of thing whether or not that makes it to to kind of production is is were none the wiser but i think with with google pushing it was one of their first product lineups right we had chromecast the hardware we've had google home or um

Google Nest. Is it Nest Mini? I still call it Nest Mini. So it makes sense. I would not be surprised if they're one of the most successful products. I know Chromecast is their best hardware selling product, right? So it kind of makes sense for them to go back to basics and have something else. this if they want to get gemini out in the wider world like chat gpt are not going to be able to compete with this open ai so yeah um the more that they kind of ramp this up

I think the more people are going to be aware of Gemini, using Gemini. And like you say, Will, if we can change the wake word, that would probably be, I think a lot of us would be very, very happy. I think that might be the biggest change to any assistant powered speaker ever. They're going to hide it behind the subscription.

that i can feel it i can feel it 200 a month ai pro for to change the keyword but yeah i don't know i think that kind of summates everything guys i know it's been a it's been a busy couple of days it's going to be a busy couple of weeks Busy couple of months probably. Thanks for joining me. Hey.

I thought yesterday wasn't that bad, all things considered. We've had a lot on our plates. Yeah. We'll have a lot more on our plates very soon. Real quick, if you guys will indulge me, I am launching, I'm recording it in like an hour, but I'm launching...

a new podcast on monday uh called the sideload where we will be talking more about this uh pixel 10 events in detail it'll be myself and uh ben shown uh but the podcast itself will be like a rotating uh guest every week right it'll be someone new every week that i'm talking to about I don't know this episode had a lot of tangents and that's kind of what I'm chasing on this. And I think it'll be a lot of fun. It'll be kind of a more low key offbeat.

android centric podcast i'm really excited for it we should be launching with two episodes i should also have an episode out with um The guys over at Nomad talking about building accessories for the Pixel 10 that I think is going to be like a particularly nerdy conversation that should be a lot of fun. That should be launching on Monday. Did I time that to my 30th birthday on purpose? Yes, I did.

Good man. Happy birthday to me. We'll give you a happy birthday in advance. Thank you. Yeah. Fantastic. Hey, this is what we're here to talk about. We want to talk about technology and I think people will be... Definitely go check it out. Subscribe to that now, guys. Leave a five-star review now.

Just go leave a five star review now. Oh, there'll be video for everybody who wishes this was a video podcast. I'm doing it as a video podcast. So there we go. Legendary. I will be tuning in and I will probably be leaving comments underneath the video. Critiquing my editing. legendary right thank you guys um this has been i think it's episode 66 which is insane to think that we're this far into the year as well but um

Yeah, it's not over yet. Pixel 10 season is still well underway and we'll speak to you soon. Bye.