Pixelated - A very different Made By Google

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

The Pixelated crew reassembles after an absolutely exhausting week covering Made By Google. Abner, Damien, and Will break down Google's wild swing at this year's event, featuring countless celebrity cameos alongside a musical performance, all hosted by Jimmy Fallon. After talking through all of Google's various new devices, they also touch on the surprise release of Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1, that blink-and-you-miss-it look at new smart speaker hardware, and deliver a quick tease for the next 9to5Google podcast. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Timecodes 00:00 - Made By Google event impressions 12:13 - Pixel 10 series thoughts 24:24 - Pixel Watch 4 thoughts 30:23 - Very, very brief Pixel 10 Pro Fold thoughts 31:53 - Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1 39:56 - New smart speaker hardware 42:45 - Housekeeping Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more Everything announced at Made by Google 2025: Pixel 10, Pixel Watch 4, & more Here’s everything that’s actually new on the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro/XL [Gallery] The Pixel 10 is a colorful, Qi2-packed crowd pleaser starting at $799 [Hands-on] Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL are all about upgrades you can’t see, still starting at $999 [Hands-on] Pixel Watch 4 hides Google’s biggest upgrade behind classic design & same price [Hands-on] Pixel 10 Pro Fold packs Qi2 and IP68 in a thicker design that’s thinner where it counts [Hands-on] Here’s everything new in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1 [Gallery] Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek The Buzz Podcast Space Explored Rapid Unscheduled Discussions Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer.

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 it. It did something different. Now, I want to hear your guy's 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

so there's a real justification for trying something different but 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 techy, tech people. No. I didn't see any... I know that's disappointing.

I didn't see any clips outside of, like, the typical tech people sharing them yesterday. Like, I didn't see... Because on... I'm sorry to make this comparison, but it's the obvious... I mean, Google did it 100 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 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 yeah, 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 uh 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 70,000 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 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 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 nobody else wants to watch a smartphone launch. Like, I really think that. I don't even think people really watch the Apple ones. I think they just see Marquez Brownlee tweet about it. And then they go, wow, like, I'm so excited for the iPhone 17 or whatever. Like, I guess I just like, if you know you have a specific audience, I don't know why you don't at least, at least throw one person in that I think maybe people on like Google pixel Reddits would be excited about. I don't know. They absolutely want to break the audience.

They want to find a different audience, breakthrough to a different audience. And I think the mix of social people they got, okay, they got YouTubers, they got sports people. Did they get any other category? I mean, just entertainers and Fallon and. Influences, yeah, influences. Whoever that Peloton guy was that they kept,

I liked him. He was fine. But they introduced him, like, I should know who that is. And I'm like, I don't have a Peloton. I have no idea what this man is. No, I don't. I think they hit a lot, a wide smorgas poured. It's the lack of a better word.

And it was very online, which in a way is reflective of, like, that YouTube audience, which they, in theory naturally have built in. Like YouTube, when they do these big up front events, they succeed at being this online person out, at having such an online event with online references, et cetera, et cetera. 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 like what's impressive video improvements

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 with a broken true if they went that route yeah do you think this is one of the few ways so that google couldn't or they maybe were initially thinking how we're 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, they have a,

it sounds like a status symbol, like a luxury thing, I guess. They haven't, 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 100% 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'm confusing with Jimmy Kimmel. There's too many of those terrible American talk show TV hosts. Hey, Kimmel's good. I was going to say, I think Abner is. Do you like that?

I'm Kimball agnostic or whatever. I see him once a year when he hosts the Oscars, except he doesn't do that anymore. Right. I'm a student of late night, for reference. I'm a student of right night talk shows. So 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 Fallon 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 describe it, because it was dorky in a good way in some respects, because 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 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 positive 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. They're thinking, we have a product here that they, I mean, clearly we're proud of it, and then we're talking about it 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 Suini on to take a picture with the flip.

They did it. They did Sydney Sweeney twice in it. was worse the second year. So yeah, we're getting away from that. I think, I think, 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.

I haven't obviously you there in person. How did you feel like, did it feel confusing? Did it feel like what the heck are we doing? It felt like, it felt like a late night. TV rate night slash TV show

taping the audience was not it wasn't a hot audience standup stand up is what I think most people

have experienced with experiencing like there was a standup ask vibe to it there's like somebody in the beginning

like 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.

And let me say, the audience was not in on it because it's like people working. It's, it wasn't all tech journalist, but it was quite a bit of generous. Every time they showed the audience, it was filled with laptop screens as you would usually expected these events, but then, and, and I, 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, et cetera, are, our staff are like, Google staff, Samsung staff. Okay, there are a lot of staff there.

There are a lot of retail partners. So that's the other half of the audience that's built in. Yeah, no, agreed there. Whether or not it was canned, right? It didn't sound authentic. I think 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 was some funny jokes. I think there was a bit when, there was a bit when Jimmy just shouted tensor. Now that's credit to our Google Tensor G5 chip. Tenser! You know there's Tenser nerds out there. You know what I'm talking about.

Tenser G5! Yes. Which was 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, Tensor. Was it something about you Tensor nerds out there?

I know you... That was absolutely genius. I was genuinely one of the funniest things I've heard in a keynote. I just came up with a horrible thing. I think the rhythmist test of this event is real 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 it like the Big Bang Theory is an embrace of how nerd culture has kind of

one 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 like that. At first I was like, this is so weird. 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 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. Yes. Especially when the next one rolls around and get our expectations out of the way. There was some hardware there. Yes. Let's start with some phones. Yeah. What do you think? They work the same. They work the same. They work the same. They work the same. You can't tell a difference. With that out of the way, cameras, like we said, pro resumed was really impressive. We've had some

demo experiences with it and it's it works yeah i mean i my first instance of seeing it in person was and i swore when i'm not going to swear in this podcast obviously because it's a family friendly show but um i genuinely couldn't believe that the difference between the initial 100 times zoom it was a blurry mess like every 100 time zoom camera and then it put in the definition of the of flowers on a tree that was in a paris street and i was like And I didn't even filming it. I was just literally just looking at it. Yeah.

And I genuinely were 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, on the bench, it suddenly brings everything to life. Yeah, it can look a little bit like blown out and blow, 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, if the regular pixel 10 has a telephoto lens, like, then why would you get the pro? Yes. feels like the missing information that we didn't have of like why you would get the pro

because because correct me if I'm wrong guys it's 20x is the the max on max yeah on the regular 20 model okay yeah so like that's look 20x is going to be great I'm really looking forward to trying the base model but but like yeah obviously a really solid 100x like AI uh centric zoom is great yeah because I think we're conditioned most tech people conditioned to, like, look at 100x and be like, that's a pointless feature. Well, because every time Samsung tries it, it's terrible. Yeah, it is, sadly. So, yeah, that's actually comparing.

Do you think, 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 a 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. goes a little bit beyond computational photography, right? And we've 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 is, what have I taking 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 TENC5 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, the, It's same sentence on the pro, but the autofocus has been enhanced, 2X the range or something like that. And I think that could be the thing. 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 pro is, 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 on 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 the 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 what the telephoto was like there.

But I know you guys had a little bit longer to kind of mess around with the camera. Do you manage to see that when you were at their keynote yesterday or any sessions that you had previously? Stay tuned on that. But it's, I think, okay, I'm to, I think the pixel four is absolutely right in doing telephoto 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 like having this tool on your phone.

I think that is should not be, 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 and 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, like I know you, I know you're like me, you want to try this telephone while until it's basically

going to run out of battery. Yeah, mostly because it's pretty rare that I need to zoom more than 20x. And so to a certain extent, I'm like, okay, well, if this is the more colorful device, 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 even compared to last year, where people were already asking, like, why get the, why get the 9 pro when the 9's right there?

Like, 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. whatever percent of users being satisfied with the experience that brings to the table. And then for real enthusiasts, right,

like true hardcore enthusiasts, the people listening to this show, you have, you know, the better camera system and more RAM correct, right? It's fully 16. And, 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.

Because they don't. 256 to get UFS4. Okay, okay. So, but there are like, 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 okay. 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 by the base model, $800, big full package,

there you go. Or you want a big screen, go by 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 has to. I assume the nine pro also sold the least of the three.

But this year, I cannot imagine the pro not being in third place. And that's okay. Like I really think that like it's good that this exists for people who want it. I feel like, yeah, the model that Google has taken is, and 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, 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 there are enough upgrades to say if you have a seven or a six. If you have a pixel six, 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 nine to the 10 unless you get really good trade-ins. 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. what, I think that makes it not an S year. I'm, 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 get these, put these devices to the paces. But it certainly

feels like that, right? Like externally it feels like that. It probably is not going to be the case. The visually, the original couple S models, we're obviously referring to to the iPhone, were, 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 S's, the initial S models from Apple were typically focused on either software or under the hood changes. I would say the pixel 10 qualifies as that because 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 in top of that power, uh, and, you know, that are primarily exclusive. We'll see what comes to the pixel nine in a few months, because that is usually how Google's cadence works. I,

real quick before we move on, I do want to point out, uh, to your point, Damien, that, um, it is a really,

uh, solid year to upgrade, uh, to, to a pixel 10. If you have an older pixel device, I, I rounded up the,

the, the tensor powered, uh, pixel trade-ins. from the Google store yesterday. And like, you know, the sixes are, 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 seven pro, you're getting four hundred twenty five bucks back for that three year old device. Like, that's, that's great. I actually think that like, pixel seven owners in particular should really consider upgrading this

year because that's a great value. Pixel 8 pro is like 500. it's it's maybe not quite as big of a jump but still excellent and and you know i would maybe hold off if you have a pixel nine 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 seven 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 and i think this is a detriment to how how stuff has leaked and influences people's perception on things but 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 is inspired by a water drop-wits and when you actually

put water droplets on a coin, that experiment or whatever, it's not a flat, 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 its design language. So the unfortunate thing is you have to experience in purpose. 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 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 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 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 call-com chip, I believe. Is that correct? Yeah. I'm 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 wrist watches. But actually, they're

There's no performance upgrades. 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 piece of mind, I guess, and means you don't have to take your phone everywhere, but it's not the performance upgrade we've been rocking.

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 getting this year, but it clearly comes out 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 it is, 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 a 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

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, to, to, to any, 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 you'd feel a little bit more generic. So I kind of like fair play to Google for continuing with this pebble design and really, really refining it over time. It's just a shame we have until October to see it in, in flesh, I guess.

Yeah. What are people doing with their watches outside of, like, really rugged sports that, you know, that they're, like, worried about breaking. I've never, 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 know, 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, et cetera, like countless times.

And left marks, but I've never broken one. I've never had the glass shatter. I've never had something come off. I think the idea there is depending on what you do. Like, it just happens constant multiple times in the day. At that point, I would say be more careful with your arm, perhaps. Just if it's happening that often, maybe just pay attention to where your arms. Has no hand-eye coordination.

That is a very hard thing to ask. So, yeah, I think with pixel watch, I mean, the up. side is, is like, say that there is a lot of upgrades there. 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 Hot Word and which Google apparently is keeping. We'll talk about Gemini for home in a bit. Yeah.

Yeah, it's hard 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 not to ask a question, that's a step towards using AI anyways. Yeah, and obviously that is, that delayed, 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 name convention is terrible. But like, like this one feels like, Yeah, apart from the IP 68 rate, and this feels like a 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 don't, I have zero opinions on it, sadly. The jade colors pretty. I like the jade.

Yeah. That's it. colors. Weird that they went from porcelain and obsidian to two of these kind of more, I would call it a bit flashy colors. But it's a strange because I assume this was, the original justification was black and white because they're more businessmen like. I wonder if they want to put a little bit of fun and playfulness into Material 3 expressive

and Android 16 QPR 1. 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. Yeah. 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 profile, 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, where we had Android 16 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 is it's black in my head this is this has drained me mentally and physically over the past 24 hours yeah it's is this cycle more than others there's a run beat of constant new features of constant software. It's, I kind of want, well, material treat. When Android 60 QPR comes out, well, 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

updated, more first-party apps should get updated. The average 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 i do wonder how this affects third parties so for instance there are going to be people out there who get an S-26 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 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 S-26, 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 of mine that I had about Material 3 expressive.

I guess that's why Samsung always push so hard to do their own apps, right? 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, the entire experiences you're using system apps, like the dialer, for example. I feel like that disconnect has existed a little bit, like kind of like,

Samsung never really fell like one on, like perfectly in line with, with, you know, like the more recent, Material You. I was like, I was like, what is it? Why can I not think of the name? Material You, they, 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 It is a it is an odd disconnect and I think that's why I wonder if psychologically that's why every time I 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

in 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 to, 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 company that is not the platform holder, that is like kind of the price Samsung has to pay. Is their devices feeling less unified? Yeah, this is such a tangent, but I just want somebody to at Samsung to tell me why I need to know why I need to know that I'm on Wi-Fi 6 or whatever. Why? Who does that?

No, this entire segment has just been saying why. Who cares? I feel like the dead tech, the dead into tech person, and that sounded weird, sorry. The tech enthusiast is what I was thinking. I couldn't think of the word. If you're really, really into your 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 Wi-Fi networks. Possibly. It's just baffling that I see the stupid number in the status. 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 app drawer. Like that's, that's how you get there is because it's like, but we've always had it this way. It's why when you, you don't set up in a Samsung device, you still have three virtual

buttons that are in an odd layout to me. Wrong gestures, yeah. That to the point where Google is apparently like being like, ah, you know what? but we'll just make that an option on pixel then. Clearly, Samsung's not going to 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 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, obviously this now has little, there's some bigger changes in this particular release, like widgets on the home screen. lock screen,

sorry, 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, like user pool, how's it going to look on the 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, 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 going to drastically affect how Pixel develops and Android in general because they can almost, how would I describe it,

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 the one UI or is already doing it, Google can prototype it a lot quicker and then get it in these 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 smartphone so then get the next OS

that's not coming for a three months and obviously it's nothing new. QPR release has been there for a while but it feels weird the release cadence but 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 Proxel but yeah I think it's a, 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 load down on everything in the next few weeks. We, we hinted at it, but I am happy to see that they, they, they, or apparently making a new smart speaker of some kind. I'm thrilled. Yes. I, as we, as again, as we hinted at, I, just let me change the wake word. I will, I will even say, hey, Gemini. Don't they want me to say that?

Like, 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, to just dive into that. It's kind of weird how they shoehorned, it kind of did feel shoehorned, 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. cram closer to October, whenever it happens. But that's a pretty big announcement that is not really thematically fit

with the rest of the event. Yeah, I think it's a strange one as well because it almost feels like the preparing is for what's coming. And obviously they've had this Gemini preview and this potential new piece of hardware as well as like briefly tea. Well, I guess it wasn't tease.

It was just kind of like, here it is kind of thing. Whether or not that makes it to kind of production is, we're none the wiser, but I think with Google pushing, it was one of their first product lineups, right? We had Chromecast, the hardware. We've had Google Home or Google Ness. Is it Ness Mini? I still call it Home Mini.

So it makes sense. They're probably two, 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 like this if they want to get Gemini out in the wider world. Chat GPT are not going to be able to compete with this open AI. So, yeah, 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 a 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 this subscription that they can feel it. I can feel it. $200 a month AI Pro to change a keyword. But yeah, I don't know. I think that kind of summates everything, guys. I know 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, all things considered. We've had a lot on our plates. Yeah. 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 called The Side Load, where we will be talking more about this.

a pixel 10 event in detail. It'll be myself and Ben Shone. But the podcast itself will be like a rotating 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 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. So that should be launching on Monday. Did I time that to my 30th birthday on purpose?

Yes, I did actually. 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 review, a five-star review now. Just go leave a five-star review now. Oh, there'll be video. For everybody who wishes this is 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 a video. Critiquing my editing, please. Legendary, right. Thank you, guys. This has been, I think it's episode 66, which is insane to think that we're, were this far into the year as well. But yeah, it's not over yet. Pixel 10 season is still well underway and we'll speak to you soon. Bye. Bye.