Google held its annual I/O event this week, here are some of their biggest announcements.
Devices
Pixel Phones
Google announced two new versions of their Pixel phone, the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 6a.
The Pixel 7 is still a mystery, it will use a second generation Tensor chip, but that’s about all that Google shared.
The Pixel 6a is the new version of Google discount phone at $449, it features a 6.1 inch OLED screen, a Tensor processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage that cannot be expanded, and two rear cameras.
After mocking Apple for it, Google removed the headphone jack from its Pixel phones.
Pixel Buds Pro
The new earbuds feature noise cancellation, they have 11 hours of listening time without noise cancellation and 7 if the noise cancellation feature is on. They will retail for $200.
Pixel Watch
Google didn’t say much about this one either, it will run WatchOS 3, but that’s about all we know at the moment.
Service
Google also announced improvements to their services:
- Google Translate is gaining 24 new languages.
- Google Maps gets a new immersive view
- Available in “select cities”
- Will also allow you to look inside businesses
- YouTube getting auto-generated chapters, transcriptions
- Google is planning to automatically add chapter markers to 80 million videos by the end of the year. Google will also roll out automatic transcriptions for videos
- Google Docs will soon have a summary feature
- gives you the cliff notes version of a long document so you can get the gist of what’s included in just a few seconds
- Google previewed the future of Search
- A picture of a part you need for a home repair and the term “near me,” and Google will find that part, in stock at a local business. The same goes for a plate of food.
- Feature coming to Google Lens, will allow you to scan an aisle in the grocery store and view an overlay of information about the products in front of you.
- “Hey Google” is no longer required to activate Google Assistant on Nest Hub Max
- You just need to look at it and start talking
- Google Assistant will become more patient. Instead of timing out and saying it doesn’t recognize what you’re asking, Assistant will wait, and “encourage” you to finish your thought.