Okay, so there's a little bit of a weird one this week, Abner. We're going to look at a Google product, but through the lens of an Apple product. And if anyone out there doesn't already know, Apple quietly released... the iPhone 16e. It's not available to buy yet. It's available to pre-order in the next couple of weeks. The iPhone 16e, the brand new affordable 16 series iPhone. I think it's a really strange product. I think looking...
to the future. We haven't really talked about the 9A much here on the podcast. And it really does kind of set the scene for Google having a really good affordable device that is going to undercut Apple by quite, but according to rumors anyway, some central prices, right? How do you think... This 9A versus the 16E. It's interesting because the 16E ended up being...
Instead of a new iPhone SE, which has historically been the cheaper phone with an older design, the 16e replaces the last SE that had a home button. Apple decided to release a new variant of the main model series. So it's a derivative of the 16, a cheaper version of the 16, which in itself is interesting and follows what Google has been doing for the past few years. So that's an interesting way to see it as Apple's newest iPhone is a derivative of their annual releases.
So in that context, I think it's a bit more expensive than we assumed at $5.99. And again, like I said, it's more expensive than the current 8A and what the 9A is rumored to stay at the same price. So from a pricing standpoint, that's new. The 9A hasn't released yet, but we know quite a bit about it from the design to the rumored specs. Honestly, there's really no surprises with the 9A, with the A series in general.
What's a bit new this year is the design. We've seen the pictures. We've seen more vendors this week, official-looking press vendors. It's going to be flat, I think. That's what remains to be seen what that feels like. It would turn to almost the original Pixel feel. But yeah, the 16E, funny name. Yeah, I think the name in... I was thinking about this before we started recording, is that I think the 16E, initially it sounded like a terrible name, but I actually wonder how much there's been...
Apple have kind of looked at what Google were doing. Obviously, the difference between Apple and Google is the fact that, let's be completely honest, Apple has such a huge mind share and a market share as well, which goes with that. Whereas Google is almost fighting...
I don't want to say losing battle, but it is a battle that is really, really difficult to get people on board when you're in the grand scheme of things. You're fairly new to the market. Google as an actual, the Pixel series is a lot newer. than Apple. And I know that over the last couple of months, we've seen huge marketing campaigns ramped up even to the 11th degree effectively. And I feel like with this particular launch, the 1680, I mean, it's difficult for me to...
to sit from a position and be like, this is impressive, this is not impressive. I think the only thing that I find interesting is how... apple releases these kind of products versus how google may do things with the 9a like this this is effectively was an email blast and then we've had information off the back of it and a lot of the information has been held back um they
Apple really do obscure things as much as possible. And I think that benefits in some ways the, in air quotes, average buyer, which I hate as a phrase. people don't care about the intricacies of the device as long as it has iOS running on it for the most part. But I think it's really bad. I think it's genuinely, I think it's a bad value product at that proposed.
£599 or $599 price because this just seems like a vehicle to get Apple's AI products into their cheapest device possible. And the amount of cutting that they've done... I do not see how anyone would be happy. I mean, I guess the kind of people who are going to buy this because we'll get it on our sale plan and it'll be fairly subsidized, I imagine, to get one camera lens and then potentially relying on...
I don't know how they've worded it. It's typical Apple obscurity again. Obscuring the truth is that they say there's a 2X telephoto integrated into it. So effectively, it's just digital crop, but they don't want to outright say that. because they have to be different from everybody else. I think the only interesting thing from this perspective is that C1 modem. I'm interested to see how that performs. But yeah, it kind of made me think...
Google could really have a big win this time around with the 9A if they position it correctly. And I feel like, yeah, I'm on the fence if they're going to position it correctly, obviously where it is in terms of its lineup. We then have a 10 series coming in a few months. But yeah, what do you think so far about the design? Because obviously there's some similarities here as well, like boxy, potentially flat across the board.
These devices are going to go toe-to-toe in terms of design at the very least, and price point particularly. The thing with the... Well, I think... The thing with the 9A is I don't think Google's doing anything different with it. It's a standard A series release every single year. Yeah, I don't think there's going to be anything surprising going by the 8A last year as a comparison. It's the same strategy, just watching a bit earlier to account for...
The other factors, which don't really have anything to do with the A series itself. It's just Google's moving up the launch of the main series phones. In that regard, in comparison... the 16E is it's I wonder whether the 16E slash the SE series in the past there's really I don't really think there's an audience that's just buying that. I don't think there are SE users that are on the lookout for the next SE series phone.
If you get what I mean. I think it serves a non-smartphone interested market. I think if you own an SE and you are looking to upgrade, you just look at whatever. the main series phone is that year. I think the audiences are probably a bit different of who buys this Apple's quote unquote cheapest phone. versus I guess the market for the 9A, it's still Google's...
I don't know, the 9A by nature of it being released, an A-series phone being released annually. I think there's maybe more of a dedicated audience like you buy the A-series phone. Maybe, but... At this point, at this price point, I think it is the cheapest possible Pixel, the cheapest possible Android, that kind of thing. I agree. Yeah, and I agree with you quite heavily there because I feel like there is...
I don't necessarily think the loyalty is the same. That sounds like a ridiculous thing to say out loud, but I feel like the loyalty towards the Pixel series is very different to the loyalty towards iOS, whereas iOS feels like a stranglehold loyalty. Google, in particular the Pixel series, is more driven by feel, experience,
quality, all that kind of things. And that's not to say that, I mean, it would be ridiculous for me to say that iPhones are not a quality device because they are in their own ecosystem. And I hate that phrase ecosystem, but I feel very much or very strongly that the 9A now is in a position where when you go...
especially in the rest of the world. I don't necessarily think it's going to be the same in North America, but for instance, when I go out and about and I see people of a, what's a polite way to say this, of a certain vintage. They will use the cheapest phone that's available to them. They'll go into a carrier store or a website and they may be able to get a cell plan or a mobile phone contract here in the UK for...
I don't know, £13, what, about $17, $18 a month? Usually that'll come with a Pixel A series device, which I think is a really good runway and entryway into Android period because... You have the ease of use. It's a really nice experience. The camera's exceptional for the price, considering the hardware isn't that great. I do wonder if Google is there for...
When the 9A comes along, which obviously this is probably the closest, isn't it, in terms of like launches we've had for an A series and an iPhone, like you said, SE, which is now the E. I'm interested to see what will happen in terms of like how they market this compared to their flagships, because obviously Pixel sponsors NBA, it sponsors MLS, it sponsors the England national team.
Are they going to throw the A series into the ring and be like, hey, we have a cheaper device than Apple here. We have all of these things that they don't have. We have dual cameras. I'm going to hazard a guess that the pictures will be... fairly similar by this point in time, but you therefore have 120 hertz screen, same size there, thereabouts, we think. It looks like it's going to be about six inches. You're probably going to have a brighter display.
And the design is much more like the, and you hear this on social media all the time, that the iPhone 4 series and the iPhone 5 series were perfect because they were the flat, flush, boxy device. And this could be it.
in the 9a so yeah i'm really really intrigued and this is one of the reasons why i'm like looking at looking at the 9a now a little bit more intently because i don't know i don't think i even it was even on my radar what was going to happen with the 16e but now it's more There's definitely a lot more riding on this from Google's perspective. Is $499 the magic price point, I think? I feel like €499, $499, $499 is perfect. We've discussed this in the past. It's the idea of whether...
The A-Series has gotten a bit more premium over the years, over the generations. And this is back to my question. Is the A-Series the cheapest possible... phone that Google can make that still has an audience. I think it feels that way with everything getting a bit more premium. But this is something I was thinking about with the 16e too. Is that a whole new... Did...
Do these companies, they start from taking what they have, the original, the Pixel 9 or the iPhone 16. They start there and start stripping things out or these ground. was it uh ground up rebuilds are these are they designing something from the ground up and i am again i've said this in the past i think it would be interesting if google did that If they made a true, what does a truly, I don't know, 350-ish pixel look like in 2025? Is that possible? Or has the market for that passed?
I assume with the strategy that they've been taking, yeah, the market has probably passed. They're even cheaper phones that companies make even cheaper phones that serve that. sub 350 but I always thought it was a shame that like we were after Pixel 3a and the Pixel 4a pricing was relatively early and To jump in there, I wonder how much of that is driven by the fact that we have Google almost...
I mean, they lead the way with Android. They have to have some sort of relationship with their Android partners and these OEM manufacturers. And if they say they're going to do every single price point, I mean, even if they did a... an AE or an AS or something like that and then did it even cheaper do you think that I feel like there's a level of perceived quality from a $350 or £350 Android phone that
is still really, really tough to... Probably. Yeah, it's tough for people to kind of shrug that off. And I feel like, especially from iOS users, you see, I saw a lot of it yesterday on social media. I decided to throw my... my hat into the ring and basically tweet that I think the 9A is a better value proposition if you're willing to put up with Android. And that was mostly driven by the fact that I don't think iOS fans, well, most of the time, they just don't like Android, which is fine.
I just feel like this is probably what Google has thought about. If we put it too low, we're going to be cutting to the bone. And in terms of like what we can actually put in the device without it becoming a bad experience. And I think I wonder how much of that is driven by the Tensor processor. But again, I can't, off the top of my head, I don't know what their actual cost.
for the SOC years in terms of the 9 series. But I think that's very interesting is how Apple can effectively release a device that I think is it $100 less than the base model? $15? $15, yes. May 16 is $200 off. Okay. And the $15 that Jay still sells, $100 off. Right, so in theory, what you would think is... Why would you pay 599 for what is in theory an inferior chip to the base model 15 in terms of its actual power output?
you're literally only doing it as a way to get access to the AI services, which I don't think Apple's doing very well, to be quite honest with you, because they just... I don't know. I don't think their approach to AI has been great. But then again, does the market care about AI? I'm not really sure. There must be some interest in it because people are using ChatGPT and services like it and Gemini, obviously.
Yeah, there's a lot of wondering I have about this. And I think it also kind of gives me another question in the back of my mind where Google was always known as the services company. And I do very much think we've seen that in the last few years. Apple has started to realize that services are where they're going to make their real money. And obviously you can see that with Apple TV Plus, as it's called. I can't remember the name of it. That's how much I care about it.
That is now on Android, obviously. Apple Music is now on Android. And I imagine they have almost as many subscribers on Android as they do their own services just because of their actual global market share. I do wonder how... Apple is going to approach their own AI services moving forward because there clearly isn't enough people globally necessarily using their products given the fact that the mobile market share is 70% in favor of Android.
as of the last information that I've seen online, don't quote me on that, but I think it's definitely well above 60%. So yeah, there's only so much runway they have with these AI services and it's only going to cost them money. So there needs to be some recouping of costs for all these services that they're going to have. So having a 599, to go back to my original point, to have a $599 phone and only really sell it as their entry level into AI, which...
watching their intro video, that's effectively what Tim Cook is talking about, the 16 series and not the 16e specifically right at the start. I found that really odd. It's just a mishmash of things, and I do wonder where they're going to go with this, if this is going to be their...
their sales pitch for every device this is an entry level into apple ai i don't think it's it and i think it will hurt them well it won't hurt them but it will do damage to their product kind of view from people looking in at their products moving forward I don't know again it's a bit of a wild take from me but at the same time it just reiterates how well
that Pixel has fared in the last couple of years. I think it's a change of tact. Whether or not Apple has reacted to what Google is doing, I'm not really sure. I feel like yes. I feel like I've looked over and think, well, they're going to beat us. in the pure AI prowess stakes in terms of what Gemini can do. We can't do that. So how are they going to get people to effectively help them build their own version of Gemini internally for their devices?
they're going to have to get their AI products out there to more people. And SE feels like, sorry, SE, whatever the hell they want to call it, feels like a play to try and do that. I just think at 599, it's a tough sell. Well, again, we'll see the 16E at the end of this month and probably the 9A at the middle of next. So that's that. To talk...
more about bread and butter. You have a new watch this week. I do, yeah. I've been currently using the OnePlus Watch 3, which was released earlier this week. And in terms of Wear OS... The move that OnePlus made to go from their own not smartwatch, smartwatches to Wear OS was a really good decision. And I think it kind of raises, it's a really, really strange product in that as of mid...
I was about to say mid-2025, but early 2025, we only really have like four players in the Wear OS space now, which in and of itself is insane. Yeah, it feels different from the early days.
when you're at Fossil, well, making smart watches for everybody. But at the same time, I think it's easy to argue that the quality bar has definitely been raised with Wear OS 3 and then Wear OS 4. So, Wear OS 5. I wonder how much of that is driven by the fact that Fossil left the space and it allowed the actual people who really, truly cared about Android and making Android smartwatches more space.
I feel like over time, you could have... Fossil probably came in at a long time. The chips weren't that good at that point. All that stuff. The Samsung... integration of ties and stuff kind of helped probably but yeah I'm lazing the ball it's specifically looking at these pictures of the of this new one plus And compared to the Pixel, well, you can compare the Pixel versus everybody else, the Galaxy and the OnePlus. It's...
It's so much more like a traditional watch with some people like that a lot. The Pixel watch just really comes off as so much more, I don't know, maybe not futuristic, but it's absolutely a different design language.
for what you want to put on your wrist. I was about to say, I think for most people, I do love the Pixel Watch 3 and since... um the oneplus watch 3 arrived i haven't used the pixel watch 3 i've been using the oneplus i've almost switched to it more or less permanently now i think it definitely feels more like a time like
I don't want to use the term timepiece, but it feels more like an actual timepiece. Absolutely. I think that with the Pixel watch, I think it definitely feels like technology, but it also feels like... luxury technology if that makes sense and i don't know why i think that i think it's more because it's like pebble like and it's more it i think again i i've i use this comparison
far too many times when I talk about the Pixel watch, but there's a resonance, like $138,000 watch that it looks like, like the concentric watch face, you can tell that they've effectively stolen the idea from there. And I think that... Maybe in the back of my mind, it feels like a premium.
But that's not to take away from the OnePlus watch because this is a very, very high-end watch. The materials I've used, they're fantastic. It feels ultra durable. When I'm at the gym, I know if it clashes with a weight stack or something like that. like a couple of weight plates, it's not going to do any damage. You can't say that about the Pixel Watch. And yeah, that's it. I think that's one of the biggest things. And then the knurled crown that you have that rotates, it's really nice.
even the little things like the haptic feedback the haptic feedback is almost identical weirdly to the pixel watch like it feels like i'm wearing the pixel watch sometimes and To OnePlus and Oppo's credit, I do think that they are probably making some of the best haptics on smartphones. So it only stands to reason that they would bring them over to a smartwatch and leave it.
I mean, in an excellent position. You've not used many Wear OS smartwatches for a while or beyond the Pixel series. No, the last one was the Galaxy Watch 4. So Galaxy Watch 4 was, I was about to say, you've... The Galaxy Watch 4 is about the closest approximation I can kind of think to this, but this is a little bit bigger. I didn't use the Watch 7 Ultra from Samsung last year. I believe that a lot of people still think that is the best of the best.
But this feels like it should be right up there. The battery is fantastic. Like three days without having to charge a watch is just mind-blowing in some ways because while I was only charging the Pixel watch every two days or one and a half... Three days without a charge whilst doing all the fitness tracking and all those other things is just... I mean, I can't get my head around it in some respects. No, it's like I wear a...
I wear the Pixel Watch on one wrist and I wear a mechanical on the other. It's, I don't know, psychological, I guess. It's putting on something on your wrist. and not having to enter a code or to make sure it's on. That's kind of nice in the case of a mechanical watch. But just not having to think about whether it's charged, that's pretty nice.
But yeah, it's... Q-morphism is probably not the right word in terms of these... like the Samsung watches, the OnePlus watches, there's almost a skeuomorphism in that it tries to replicate a physical watch, like the knell crown, like you were saying.
the design very much evokes what people are comfortable with on their wrist. So people absolutely want that. I'm not to take away with it. But for my smartwatches, I kind of want something that's, I don't know, like... pixel watch a bit more modern a bit more futuristic the pixel watch definitely feels like it's it's design its form is befitting a digital device versus
Again, like the OnePlus and Samsung. I know people very much love the rotating bezel that absolutely has a place versus maybe the crown as an alternative. I don't know. When I look at the landscape, there's a skeuomorphism or something trying to replicate a physical watch as a mechanical watch person.
It doesn't really speak to me as something I want on my wrist for whatever reason. Yeah, because you don't want to replace it. You want something that augments... Digital. I want something digital. Yeah, digital. Yeah. One thing I will say is that... It's a very acquired taste. This is a big smartwatch. It's a very different experience than the Pixel watch. And I think a lot of that is driven by the fact that Fitbit is so intrinsically...
part of the Pixel Watch experience. And if you don't get on with Fitbit, and I know a lot of people, if you're a real fitness buff, I do genuinely think you probably should be looking at a Galaxy Watch or just go and get a Garmin. or polar or a proper fitness focus watch. But what I will say is that take almost surgically removing Fitbit from Wear OS.
has meant that this has been a very, very different experience using the OnePlus Watch. And because, I mean, they use a service called Oh Health, which I imagine is OnePlus Health, OnePlus or Oppo Health. In its data that you can derive from, it's very, very basic. But the actual fitness tracking modes that you have available to you are fantastic. I think they're as good as if not in terms of the actual selection you have. I don't know how they differ.
But you can go to the gym, for instance, and do, like I did today, for instance, a bicep workout. And I can track a bicep workout. Whereas with Fitbit, I can just do a general workout, weightlifting, which to me... When I want to go back and look at what I've done almost potentially as a workout tracking system, general workout is not the same as, say, for instance, someone who does weightlifting. You may do biceps one session.
Chest and triceps, another session. Legs, another session. So I think that in that respect, OnePlus and Oppo have really listened. I know this was on the previous versions, but even stuff like that, I'm like, from a fitness tracking perspective, at least I know I can... get a little bit granular, even if the data might not be necessarily perfect. But yeah, little things like that are quite refreshing. Having used a Pixel Watch now since August, was it? It's been a long time.
September, but yeah. Yeah, September, yeah. It's been a long time, but I guess not having so many options as well is a good thing. I know that sounds really reductive to say. No, it's experience. It's easy. Yeah, yeah. Fossil had so many different variations. It was almost like a lottery of what chipset you were going to get from each manufacturer.
There were some very good looking fossil watches. There were some very bad looking fossil watches. Yes. Especially the diesel series. I don't want to signal out diesel, but it just is what it is. And I feel like now we only have four. So we have TicWatch, OnePlus, technically Oppo. I guess if Oppo does a Wear OS watch, that will only be available in global markets, so we'll count them as OnePlus. Samsung and...
Google. Four players really... No, three. Three? You wouldn't classic watch in there? I guess they haven't released anything for a while. No, I wouldn't. Three big players in the space. Three... I mean, Oppo, Moron. Samsung side of the fence where they're, like you say, skewomorphism, trying to make an analog watch digital. Whereas I think Google are doing their own thing and it definitely feels more of a companion for your Pixel phone.
Yeah, that's why I'm really interested to see if they ever made a pro pixel watch, what that will look like. Yeah, I was about to say, what do you think it would look like? Let's do a thought experiment. Do you think it would be something akin to...
what samsung has done with the watch ultra or apple with their watch ultra do you think it'd go down that route or do you think it would be something a little bit more more just maybe a frame around the current design the absolute the absolute easiest option would be what you said, it would be a current Pixel Watch with that speak and case on it, and that speak and rubber case on it. But I...
I guess battery life would have to be the defining feature. Battery life and durability would have to be the defining feature of a pro. I think pro is nicer than ultra in that regard. device um the pixel watch the 45 millimeter pixel watch already gets you that multi-day battery life two to three easily um so it's about making it durable
How do you make it durable while keeping some semblance of this curved design? I don't know if that's possible or whether they end up making something square or whether it ends up looking like an Apple Watch, really. But yeah, I don't know. Battery life has to be a defining thing. More buttons, probably. Honestly, the main Pixel Watch line could benefit from an extra button that you can program to do whatever.
might be nice or well personally this is not to make this too much of a pixel watch for wish list or I kind of want to see what happens when they get rid of the crown and use something like haptics or just make it a smooth, completely circular device on all edges. I think that would look kind of cool. But that's neither here nor there. You, what are you looking for in the pro watch? Do you know what? I'm going to go the opposite direction, and I would rather see a Pixel A series watch.
I would rather see a cheaper option that would... Yeah, the current strategy of the Pixel Watch 2 being sold, I guess that's fine. I still see people by asking if the original Pixel Watch is a good value. I'd say no, because the chip is so old. But the Pixel Watch 2 is still kind of not a bad value. I guess it's not a bad product in that respect. I do wonder, I would love to delve deep into...
Google sales figures for their 45 millimeter watch this year. I would not be surprised if it's outselling the 41 by three to one, three to one at least. And I know that when the first Pixel Watch came out, did they say they sold half a million in the first six to 12 months? Which is insane growth. But I guess that just shows you there is enough interest in Wear OS for people to go out and buy them. Because like I said, there's...
There's just no players in the space. And I think that's a good thing for OnePlus Watch. I think the OnePlus Watch 3 is a really... They're absolutely serving the market. It is serving the market. I think it's a really nice product. I cannot fault it. too drastically. We haven't done our review yet, but I will get into that in the next few weeks. Yeah, it's an interesting time for iOS because, like I say, we have some very high-end stuff and it almost feels like we've caught up with...
With the quality of Android now, but on a wearable front, if you're going to be doing rigorous stuff, yeah, you've got the Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra, whatever, just a Watch Ultra. This is probably sitting right in the middle, and I think the price point's very good as well. I think it's $329, which is, don't get me wrong, that's a very, very expensive accessory, but it's the kind of thing you wear every single day. I'm enjoying it.
So far, it's a really, really good product. I'm excited to see what happens with Samsung with their Galaxy Watch series later this year, if this is going to make them make some changes over the next couple of years, because OnePlus could potentially... start to make inroads on the Galaxy Watch market share. But yeah, really good product, at least at this point in time. To be fair, credit to OnePlus and Oppo.
Over the past 18 months, they've really, I don't know if it's they've listened to criticisms or they've just, this cohesion working with the company almost merging is that they have really done great with their smartphones. They've done really fantastic accessories such as earbuds and now smartwatches. For the first time in a long time, it's very, very easy to recommend OnePlus hardware. And the watch is probably top of the totem, I'd say, at this point in time alongside the...
OnePlus Buds Pro 3. Always terrible names, but really, really good products. And I think that kind of sums up where we are in this point in time. Just great products available to us and we're very, very nitpicky with it. I'm excited to see what happens with the 9A. I'm sure we'll learn more in the next few weeks. But yeah, I don't know if you had any...
Any other thoughts about the OnePlus Watch 3 that you wanted to share or you wanted to ask me before we kind of like shoot off? No, it's a good choice. Like having an alternative to Samsung is a good choice. I think... Just to round things out, we have to talk about the disappointing Android 16 Beta 2 with nothing really of note. So I've moved my...
Well, my main phone, my daily phone, is still 15 QPR, whatever, QPR1. But I have moved my... secondary device which runs um which used to run the qpr 2 beta 15 qpr 2 beta 216 i use that a bit more regularly throughout the day and there's absolutely zero differences stability is actually pretty good which is to its credit as a beta I could not tell you that this is 16 versus 15
Like we've said before, Modes, which is the most significant change, is coming with QPR 2 in March, sometime in March. That would have been the biggest user-facing change to speak of, but now it's here. It's coming soon. And honestly, it's... I mean, we have at least two more sizable betas in March and April. But right now, in terms of user-facing changes, there's kind of nothing.
Yeah, it's sad. It's kind of hitting me right in the feels because I used to love the fact that we'd end up in a beta phase and effectively have so many publicly facing changes. And it almost feels like every single time we're talking about an Android update now, it's minuscule. I don't know, is that an indictment of where we are in terms of the actual OS? Has the OS hit so much maturity now that...
It's changing of fonts. It's moving of logos. Are we at that state? I don't know. Yeah, it's frustrating because we kind of want to dive into stuff. I feel like we were saying the same thing at 15, and then... maybe there was something coming down the way to betas but no there were no other things in future betas it's I don't know it's I mean, again, there are two more betas. Hopefully there are more things. Maybe... I don't know. It's disappointing from...
From an enthusiast standpoint, I'd say. Yeah, that's a great way to put it, enthusiast standpoint. I think maybe the kind of people who are going to see these changes are the people who... Probably using a Galaxy S10 or something like that and managing with that. They're kind of like making something last as long as possible. And they've hit the end of the road in terms of updates on their current device.
they're going to make this switch and it's going to feel like a brand, a completely new experience. But yeah, maybe, maybe we're, maybe we're a bit too, too overzealous with our criticism of no changes.
is that Google is working on something big, and the big thing that I want is deeper Gemini level control of apps, analogous to what Siri is doing with... you being able to control apps with your voice which I'm not sure if people I've been advocating for this since the Pixel 4 and I think when iOS adds it it will be a big test of whether that's how people want to use their phones, having voice control in the truest sense, whether that's how people want to do it. But...
I don't know. It's, again, like we said, disappointing. We haven't seen anything major yet. Hopefully, like that Gemini stuff that launches at 16. I don't know. Maybe they've been working all this time on Android XR, getting that out the door, or they're getting ready. Okay, to Android XR's credit, the Gemini stuff, the Astra control stuff is truly impressive, being able to control apps with your voice.
That absolutely works. And since Android XR was built from the ground up with AI in mind, that's probably a simple development process than what Google is presumably doing now, which is... re-architecting this android architecture for this voice control stuff um yeah hopefully that's the big hope but i don't know i think people are definitely angling for a visual refresh of of quick settings of the status bar lock screen whatever it's people seem ripe for it
Yeah, I do agree. I agree with you. I feel like maybe, I mean, I'm always going to say this because I'm trying to be positive and put a positive spin on it, but I think maybe the next release is the release where we finally get these changes that we want. I'm not going to say I'm not excited because I'm always excited for Android updates because, like I say, like you mentioned slightly earlier, we're enthusiasts and we care about these little things. And when things change, it...
It's our duty, if that makes sense, to kind of catalog it and make sure that people are aware of it. Sometimes things fly under the radar and some things you can miss because there are just so many little areas now of Android that can change, even if it's so... even if it's something moving by a few pixels. But yeah, I'm a bit disappointed, but at the end of the day, I probably wasn't expecting much because of this shunted release and development cycle. So yeah, I think there will be something.
Android can't stay flat for so long because it's just going to become iOS then, which never changes and over-reliance on the settings menu. But that's another argument for another day. But yeah, we'll probably see one in a few weeks' time. I'm excited. for all of the things that are happening over the next few weeks, particularly, as I say, the 9A launch is going to be interesting. And I do wonder if they may have something planned along that period for beta releases, and we'll get into it.
Yeah, I just want to say thank you, Abner, for joining me. We are very much starting to get into the rhythm of the year, and we're going to start seeing releases coming up. I think we've had quite a busy little cycle. Yeah, it's just exciting to see how other sides of the industry as well. Apple releasing the products is always interesting because Android therefore has to react to that and roll with the punches. But yeah, this has been episode 42 of Pixelated.
Thanks for joining me today, Abner. And yeah, we'll see you all next week. Bye.