Pixelated - Rerun of a Rerun

Episode Date: July 18, 2026

Welcome to Pixelated episode 108. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will briefly dive into Google and Epic's decision to wrap up their legal battle without a settlement in place, leaving the door open for third-party app stores to live inside Google Play. They also discuss the ever-leaking Pixel 11, including some new Pixel Glow insights and Google's latest obsession with the color green. Enjoy the episode? You can listen to our brand new weekly members-only Pixelated Pro bonus episode by signing up for 9to5Google Pro! Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company’s suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Amazon Music Apple Podcasts Overcast

Welcome to Pixelated episode 108. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, we briefly dive into Google and Epic's decision to wrap up their legal battle without a settlement in place, leaving the door open for third-party app stores to live inside Google Play. From there, we jump into something we ironically have a few more details on, and that's the ever-leaking Pixel 11. If you're looking for a deep dive on Google's new obsession with the color green, you've come

to the right place. Plus, some speculation on Pixel Glow that, in the time since this, you're looking for episode was recorded, has turned out to be pretty accurate, according to Google's own teaser. It's all coming up after a message from our sponsor, Proton. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer right now. You've probably found yourself relying on these same old apps and services since the Nexus days, and what suited you best back then might not be the right choice in 2026. Luckily, Proton can help bring you into a privacy-first ecosystem built for our modern age.

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Upgrade to Proton today and save 30% on your annual subscription by heading to Proton. Dotme slash 9 to 5 Google or by clicking the link in the show notes. That's Proton.combe slash 9 to5 Google. Thanks to Proton for sponsoring Pixelated. Well, some big news to come out of Android today, overnight, I guess for me, or overnight for you guys. I don't know how time zones work, so forgive me. It looks very much like we are getting third-party app stores in the US on the Play Store

as part of that epic, epic-epic versus Google kind of court case. I genuinely think this might be a good thing for Android if it's been completely. honest. I don't know how you guys feel about it. Like third party app stores is something that I've relied on a lot for certain applications at open source, maybe not on the Play Store. I don't know. Let me let me know what you guys think. I'm really intrigued to hear what you think about this subject. Beyond, okay, so it's gaming. That's fine. That'll make sense. Yeah. That's the, and they say the only one? What's the case for non-gaming app stores? I'm not 100% certain reading into the report from The Verge.

I think it's very much a, like, it doesn't seem to just expand on one thing. It just looks like there's going to be options for new third-party app stores. I think this probably in some respects from what I can tell, I don't know if you read into this as well, Will, if you've ever used the Epic Game Store and having to side load it. I think having it on the Google Play Store might actually keep things a little bit safer for a lot of people. Yeah, it also, I, I, I, I think even more so than the epic game story specifically,

it maybe opens the door up to bigger, bigger budget or more traditional, you know, maybe not, we can't call it AAA necessarily, but certainly more traditional video games offered on Android in a way that we've seen a little bit of a push of on iOS, although the success of which, you know, remains to be seen. But like, you know, we've known for... Two-year-old games. Everybody wants that.

well yeah exactly well we've known for a little bit that that um Microsoft a company that is is running their gaming division really well has been sitting on an Xbox like app store basically for Android that I think they had ready to go like two years like two summaries ago and and they've just this has just been sitting there I've no idea you know they're under different leadership now they have jokes aside they have a lot uh uh to on their plate to phone focus on in terms of, you know, digging out of the hole that they've found themselves in. So I have no idea if they still plan to launch that Xbox store. But that is sort of the thing that I would, that I think that that would be the biggest benefit to come out of this is that we'll see more of an expansion of, you know, games that are maybe a little less predatory, a little less built around gotcha mechanics or in-app purchases. be successful is a completely different question, but I do think at the very, at least at the

beginning of this, we will see that push whether it lasts more than 12 to 18 months is another question. My thought process is, as you mentioned games, and you mentioned about Gatcha mechanics, I genuinely have a feeling that this could open up mobile phones and smartphones in particular to an almost, and I don't want to say golden age, but it's the only way, it's the only phrase I can think off the top of my head. We've had. this situation where gaming consoles are becoming a little bit financially inviable for lots of people and a smartphones are genuinely quite powerful now a lot of them are capable handles in their own right I do wonder if this potentially opens up

people to say do you know what we can make our game viable for for Android now because we're not having a huge maybe not necessarily reading into the lines here I don't think it's like doesn't outwardly specify how much there is going to be any cuts so to Google I I think that's obviously that was the argument to begin with. Definitely feels as though we could potentially see more indie developers on the store and have their own platforms. Maybe GOG finally say we're going to have an app store on the app store. I don't necessarily see a negative, if I'm completely honest with you.

I think it probably does give lots of flexibility to distribute your apps now, maybe more so than I did before. And it feels more secure for users because you know that it's going through one process as opposed to, and while I do use services like F-Droid and. and Aurora store on other devices. This feels like a better way of doing it. Maybe it does open the door as well for more like open source software

that potentially we haven't seen on the Play Store for a long time. Let me just read through the statement that a Google spokesperson, I believe it's Dan Jackson, it's attributed to the verge. They've said that we've agreed with Epic to withdraw our motion

to modify the US courts injunction rather than prolonging this process which creates uncertainty for the ecosystem. This allows us to focus on executing we now recently announced global business model evolution to deliver greater app store choice, lower prices and more opportunities for developers and users. We remain committed to maintaining Android's industry leading security and fostering a competitive ecosystem where every app store and developer has the freedom to compete.

In parallel, we continue to comply with the US court's injunction. Well, I think it's quite a strong response from them in terms of like, we want to give you options. So, yeah, hopefully this does genuinely stop people from complain. about this kind of thing and maybe Epic can finally rest their laurels a little bit. Now we're talking out to the gaming realm, I do wonder what the utility is. I just keep thinking about that Samsung phone, so they have the Galaxy App Store. And it's not like Samsung's the greatest steward of their store. It's mostly a basically at this point await for them to distribute first party applications.

I think at the end of the day, the choice is nice, but I think there's the power of defaults that I think the vast majority of people will just rely on the Google Play Store. And I don't think, for mainstream apps, and I don't think that opening it up

necessarily will affect the end-user experience to the mass majority of people, Okay, so I'll go, I'm just had a thought about a negative that Habner has kind of brought up for me is most people will use the default app store. I do wonder if you have this third-party app store within an app store, which sounds insane to sell out loud, that you may see more lower quality applications slipping through the cracks. Like we may see more vibe-coded applications that don't necessarily have as much security. I don't know what the security process will be. I don't know, obviously Google how hands-off they're going to be with those. it doesn't specify in this kind of judgment or this decision.

I do wonder how much of that is going to fall on them. Like you mentioned betting applications. We already have a lot of problems with betting applications here in the UK. So this looks like it's only going to affect the US for now. I think it's called registered. Is it registered app stores program? That's going to be the rest of the globe. I don't know how that is affected by this or how that differentiates itself.

I do worry that like you say, there are going to potentially be things that slip through the cracks. And this might be Google saying, well, we're addressing the side-loading issue by giving you a mechanism to do it. It is quite confusing, considering they've been so kind of pushing back against Epic in the last, what, is it longer than 18 months, isn't it? Is it nearly three years at this point?

I don't even know, actually. In the years, Catholic. It's dragged on so much. I think it is a strange situation to have app stores within app stores. But again, I'm kind of putting. a positive spin on it, I think for the kind of tweakers and tuners out there who want applications that Google wouldn't necessarily allow, isn't even maybe necessarily allow, they just don't pass a threshold where developers are willing to put it on the Play Store and have

a cut of their revenue taken. There's a lot of people who are vehemently against that. So this potentially opens up a route for developers to get their devices more widely adopted. I do think that we've gone in with the idea of games, haven't we? I think games feels like the best use case of this. could be presently see Steam, like a full Steam client with games running on Android. I know they've been working on it and then have like a true experience that way and maybe Valve get there,

maybe Valve get their cut on games again. You could end up jumping into one fire pit, from one fire pit, sorry, into another. If those third-party app stores want to cut, they may entice developers in with like nominal fees and then eventually start jacking up the price once they start reaching a certain user base. I mean, how do you think,

how do you think the guys are going to promote these on the play store? Is it going to have its own section? Because it's not an app, is it, in the traditional sense? Right. It's like a store within a store, right? So like, I don't know. Like this is the thing. It's like this, you know, again, obviously this news like essentially came out like over,

overnight for, I mean, even, you know, even for you, debut, this VERGE article was published at 5.30 a.m. your time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, 4.30 a.m. your time. So, like, overnight for you too, I would say. And, like, I don't, you know, it's, it's tricky to, like, predict what this is going to look like despite the fact that we're a week away from it because this was so unexpected, right? Like, this retroactive settlement, which is how Sean Hollister at the verge essentially describes it. Like, I like that language.

Like, I don't think any of us really saw this coming. it's like both sides just kind of throwing in the towel and being like, yeah, whatever, good enough. And I, they have seven days to, to paint us a picture on what this is going to be. So I don't, you know, I don't know. I have, I can speculate, but it's weird to speculate about something that is going to launch in a week or is going to start being available in a week. Hey, folks, if you're enjoying pixelated, don't forget to sign up for 9 to 5 Google Pro to gain access to our weekly bonus show,

pixelated pro. We're all over the map this week on the bonus episode as we talk about Che2 support on Android, the evolution of portable batteries, and share some brief thoughts on the MCU. Plus, the news that One Plus is shutting down broke while we were recording, and we deliver an impromptu eulogy to an unforgettable brand. Sign up at 9 to5 google.com slash pro. So we're, I guess guys, we're in the kind of the countdown to Pixel 11 series. We've been doing that for months anyway. And the leaks, this week seemed to be pretty kind of heavy compared to what we've had in the last few months.

I mean, I don't want to be the guy talking about colours again, but we've had a fairly good glimpse of what potentially the full colour lineup for the pixel 11, 11 Pro, even the fold briefly, which is kind of strange. And the watch. And the watch. I mean, these are a bit out there compared to previous years. If Google looks like they're swinging for the fences a little bit more than usual,

I don't know how you guys are looking at this. Really? My takeaway was it's kind of muted. The colors are kind of muted. Yeah. Because there's a pantone thing that Motorola likes to do. And I think Google also does in terms of they try to get colors that capture the mood. I think with the pixel 5 that they were kind of reflecting, I think, yeah, pandemic era stuff.

But they always try to capture mood for the year with all. that mood stuff a word that I'll keep saying but yeah to me it's a bit muted that said I do like it better than last year's but muted

I feel like there's a lot of green a lot more green there is a lot of green I wonder what I wonder where that's come from is green is green is green the in color now I mean I'm wearing a green shirt which sadly you can't see here on the podcast but is my favorite color but even I'm kind of like this is a lot of green for

for Google, considering they're not a color that they usually utilize. Yeah, it's, okay, so what's the flagship color? Last year, it was Moonstone, which I regret, absolutely regret for the 10 Pro, and my 10 Pro fold. It's this green one. It's pine, I think. Well, we're never really sure what the final name is, but if this is pine, yeah, it's, tree, it looks like the tree.

Again, absolutely better than Moonstone. I think the colors, as always, they're a bit more interesting on the Pixel 11. But then at the same time, do you think that some,

like looking at, they're calling it moss, I think, is their green equivalent. It's like, one of them looks almost yellow. One of them looks like a really light kind of metallic, metallic green

I don't know how you describe it it's almost like grey and then they have fog as well I feel like the the kind of

how am I trying to think of this it's almost like a the spectrum of colours is what I mean I think that feels like a swinging offences because last year did we have

we kind of had like a light yellowy colour we had the Moonstone which I mean we don't want to write home about that it wasn't grey

porceline obsidian pretty standard no worries this time around it's like they have that June colour which I guess we'll get on the time in a minute that looks like the headline

a really really bright kind of fuchsia which feels like a throwback talking about colours and software related and then I think there's got one called light fog and then sterling I don't know

these ones feel a little bit more broad than they probably would have done years ago yeah but I don't know what catches your eyes straight away the fuchsia it's really really bold even though again it is muted in the grand scheme of things versus the pixel nine which all the people love June do you think June is the right

color to go for this time around because we just talked about Moonstone briefly I think Moonstone was the one that stood out and people were looking at it and I vehemently regret going for that one yes I think it's Dune It has color It has more color than Rastia So baby steps I guess Yeah

Dune looks really nice And they should make one that has like a gold sandworm On the back to Teton Part 3 Which looks great I just finally I was I finally watch the trailer to that

It looks great Yeah You know, for me, the first takeaway was exactly what you said, Damien, which is, this is, this is a lot of green. There's like, it's like three shades of green and then also kind of a kind of a greenish blue. Yeah, yeah. And then a green spot is, it's like three and a half green. Which is, which is fine. It's weird to do this many takes on like such a similar shade.

And then like another one of them is, is more of a grayish blue. and so you're really playing on that side of the color wheel and that area of the color wheel and not so much in you know, oranges, yellows, you have the dune and fuchsia colors, which sort of make up,

I guess, what you would usually put there, but it's obviously not nearly as much variety as, as you have in the greens and blues. It's a colorful bunch. I think, a little dark, certainly not pastel by any means, but like in comparison to, you know, lots of other phones and certainly past pixels, I think it's, I think it's nice to see this, especially. And it does strike me as a year where Google is like aware that this is the third time

they've used this design. So they really need to kind of be a little bit punchier with their colors maybe, right? Like that's why there isn't really a traditional like white model this year, you know? Yeah, you know that. That did strike me straight. away now you think about it that there isn't a white model you think that they would do that i mean what i wonder why that is i wonder why that is the case you think that maybe because the white model and the the true obsidian model because it does to me it doesn't actually look obsolete like i don't know how to describe it it's not like a solid like an obsidian that we used to what they call it pine uh midnight midnight sorry yeah midnight yeah it looks a little bit green as well

which makes it even weird it looks it reminds me of of the pixel five is what that one reminds me of. Yes. Which is fine. I liked the color in the pixel five, and I think it's fun to kind of bring it back for the 11, a very similar sort of like greenish black. Although, again, lots of green.

Yeah, but I don't know. I think these are like interesting color choices to lead into a new generation, one that we're really not seeing a lot of other visual differences in. So I guess the only thing I would say that I that we should we should keep in mind and I'm saying this for myself is that we always have to remember pixels more than more than maybe other phones like often look different. The colors look different in person than in renders. Even official renders like once this is announced in a month like even the ones in the Google store will look slightly different than when you hold the phone person. Absolutely. I'm so curious to see like I think I think that do I agree with you guys. I think if I

were to pick one, like if I have, if it can have any of them, that that dune color looks great, but I would want to see how it looks in person before, before locking it down. Yeah, it definitely feels like it reminds me, it's very similar to one of the Galaxy S, I want to say S24 colors that was available, maybe the S23, there was a column very much like that. I don't know what they called. It's very rose gold. It reminds me of, what was that first rose gold iPhone?

That's what it reminds me of. I think 5E. Something like that, right? Five-S, five-s. My mom had, I think that was my mom's first iPhone. And I always remember thinking that the, that the rose gold, whatever rose gold one she had that they did, I always was like, that one looks good. People should use that color more.

Yeah. But, but I, and I like that this is kind of, it's got that highlighted with the, again, assuming this is what it looks like in person, it's got that highlighted like yellow shade with it. Like it, it comes together in a way that I think elevates it above beyond like just a standard rose gold shade from a decade ago. I think you bring up a big point, though, that I'll latch onto briefly

before we get into some specifications that these, these, I think they're probably placeholder listings on Amazon, where this came from. Basically, take it with a grain of salt, but these do look very, very accurate from what we can tell.

And they look very final, yeah. There's a little bit of pixelation here and there, which is bound to be the case from what is probably placeholder images before the full data go. in. But I'm surprised Google didn't just say, do you know what? It's our pixel 11. It's a rerun of a rerun, which I'm coining as my quote of the year. Everyone owes me royalties if they use that. I'm surprised that they didn't just say, do you know what, let's just do 20, like 20 random,

maybe not 20, but 11 colors. Let's just do 11 colors of a full spectrum because that's the only way we can truly differentiate. Because even on these images, we don't actually get to see pixel glow or whatever pixel glow is going to be from what we can tell. Bring back Motomaker. It would be a good idea. I feel like it's the perfect time for Google to have done this. But at the same time, if they don't anticipate big sales, maybe they're sat on a lot of inventory.

It's a catch-me too, isn't it? It's the economics of Motomaker. They didn't make that much sense back then, and I'm sure they won't. They absolutely did not today. Well, and Motor Maker was started under Google. like a thing that's easy to forget. In fact, it's truly I just remembered of like, wait, that's 2013.

They haven't sold it yet. Like that is the first MotoX. That is a Google phone. And although Motomaker continued for one generation past the sale, I guess, but it was kind of the phone that they were making next under Google. Although I think when the second generation MotoX came out, it was, I think they had already been sold. It was not the same.

Yeah. It was, it was, that generation was still okay. It was, I think they tried to do like a more paired down version of Motomaker maybe with the third one. I don't remember. Now we're talking about over a decade ago. But, you know, it, it was, I agree with you. There was like a sweet spot where that was a big pitch. But it just didn't catch on in the right way.

And even the nostalgia for it really remains. And I can tell you this from traffic data alone. Like any time I've tried to write about Motomaker, it's just. just people don't remember it the way that we remember it, which I get. I get. It's like the nerdiest thing in the world to be like, I'm going to play with this phone designer tool, but I love it. Okay, we're going to go back into this. Okay, that's official. Okay, so, so that was a, that was still technically the early smartphone era, right? It's, I mean, 2013 is kind of pushing it, but let's say it's still the, whatever the year of the

is still the first. We're not even material design does not exist when the photo X comes out. That is early that is early smartphone. I think

if it happened now people would love it. I feel like okay it goes back to the any of cases. You know? It's okay I don't know

maybe people use more clear cases if they to show off their customized phone but I kind of think like people's how boring or they are at their phones,

which is like Google's advertising strategy asked here with that ice cream ad. I think it would do insane in this day and age. If there's no price premium, if there's nothing, if it's included in the base of your phone, I think it would really,

like, it would make people so excited to show off their custom colors. I think it would benefit from a, it would benefit from reduced competition, right? Because because it would be, when the MotoX comes on the scene in 2013, it's competing against, you know, not even just 1,000 Samsung phones, right? Like,

Samsung, I guess in 2013 is like dialing back on doing carrier, like, specific versions for the GalaxyS lineup, but it's still making a billion like Galaxy devices at every price range at this point, even more so than today, you know, Motorola is competing against its own droid line essentially at the time, right? Like the droid is still a big thing at Verizon at that point. It's competing against HTC, right? In 2013, HDC released the 1M7. So like it's a massive amount of competition that this thing is against, you know, a decade and a half ago. today, right? It would be, you know, if Google was like,

here's PixelMaker, it's competing against Samsung and Apple. And I didn't even mention Apple previously. I was just looking at Android devices. Samsung and Apple and kind of it. Like, I guess technically Motorola in a way, but like, you know, it's,

it would be a lot easier to sell people on, on, you know, making their own device, because there's only so many devices. You're kind of picking from one of three or four manufacturers and then just buying whatever the device that fits your budget is. So I could see it being a lot more successful today, but you still get into the logistics of it being a little bit unfeasible, especially when we are already looking at the RAM crunch and so on.

Like it's clearly the wrong time for it, even if I'm with you. I would love to see it. That's perfectly timed because, Motomaker wannabes aside. It is interesting, these listings suggest that the base of pixel 11, and then there was an earlier rumor that we're all going to be 256

across the board. It isn't specified what storage technology we're going to use. I imagine it's UFS 4.0, but take that with a heaping of salt, because that's just me thinking that it probably is, because 2, 5, 6 modules are where UFS storage starts, UFS storage starts.

But it suggests that we're going to have 12 gigabytes of RAM on the base model, which goes against some previous claims that they would drop the base model to 8 gigabytes and we talked about it here at length on the podcast that that would worry us for certain AI functionality like when you need more wired RAM.

And then obviously the pro listings are listed at 12 gigabytes of RAM. Does this potentially put us in a situation where the Pixel 11, the base model, if it does get upgraded cameras as well, could be a genuinely good purchase this time around as opposed to the Pro series.

Yeah. again, a slightly more interesting colors that too, but I've been living with the pixel 10A, 8 weeks of RAM, it was fine, it's fine. Of course, there's no AI features, but I feel like 12 is a sweet spot. I think people will be fine with 12,

and I feel like 12 is going to be the default for quite a bit. From a technologist's standpoint, yes, it sucks that you're going from 16 to 12, on the base pro like conceptually the idea that we're going backwards and technology is

wild to me but from the consumer experience the end user experience 12 gigs is absolutely fine and I don't think you really notice a meaningful difference no does this impact I agree with you

I agree with you right like I and this is coming from someone I haven't even used a pixel 10 pro I have my entire pixel 10 experience has been either on the base model or the 10a, neither which have 16 gigabytes of RAM and I've had a perfectly fine experience. But does this make the like, does this weaken the seven years promise, right? Does this make, even if today you're like not going to impact you? Does it make it a little, does it impact someone's plans to hold onto the phone for five or

six years because we don't know, you know, it is difficult for me to predict what the right amount of RAM will be in five years. I truly, I don't know. And so it might be fine, it might not. I think get given that this is an industry-wide crunch and that for the for at least, what, two, three, four years that these RAM, their amount of RAM impact will be here. I think the onus is on Google to optimize Android, like to do a particularly hard run at optimizing Android for this RAM future. Yeah, I hadn't thought about this,

but that's a great point. Well, like, not just because, not just to make the platform better, but also because Google is, you know, a player in the RAM crunch, right? They are part of why there is a RAM crunch. Maybe not to the digital. Does that put them in an enviable position, though?

Because they can optimize their products for their services that they're creating. Yeah, well, I mean, I still think, like, overall, putting aside feelings I have about the general usefulness of AI in my own life. You know, if you're just looking at the ecosystem as it exists today, I still think Google is in the, I mean, look, like, we're looking at open AI leaking or leaks that are like, they're, first hardware product is actually, it turns out it is a smart speaker. And like, so I think Google is in a camera. Oh, yeah. Great. Yeah.

Yeah. But it, it, I think from a consumer perspective, like Google has always been in, you know, at least for the last couple of years, has been in the best place because it already has the hardware. It has this integrated tie in with Gemini on its hardware. It has, it has, it sort of has the perfect vertical integration to, to, to dominate. the AI space if they play their cards right and things go according to plan and their models are good, right? But it just depends on that.

But like to that end, they can optimize Android to be like, we know we know because of the RAM crunch, we need to be able to hit these, this, you know, minimum level of spec. Let's make sure Android can do that. And then the fact that RAM costs more doesn't mean as much to end consumers because the experience is the same. Yeah. I think also it will be very obvious to these companies that they can't just keep saying buying a new thing. People are not willing to spend the inordinate amount of money on these products just to get X feature. People will just stop buying them. And I think very quickly Google will not necessarily Google because I don't think pixels are flying off the shelf like probably other brands. But there is definitely going to be a pushback from consumers.

we're already seeing that in the gaming space. It's common. I'm so curious to see the response to whatever Samsung announces in a week because those prices, I mean, we're talking about foldables, right? So like we're already talking about two grand and like there's not a lot of wiggle room left

for them to bump up these prices without making even the most dedicated enthusiasts start to feel a little bit ripped off or a little bit like, okay, well, I'll wait another. generation, my galaxy Z fold six is fine. I'll just keep waiting. Like, you know, I don't, or five even, right? Like, I don't know. But yeah, I'm so curious to see the reaction of that. And I'm curious to see how we've seen some leaks, but I, you know, it's always so, especially

these days. Like, I don't think, it's so hard to trust a pricing leak until it's like 24 hours before the house. Like, like, I'm, you know, very curious to see where Google finally lands on the prices here and whether they could stick through them for another 12 months after the pixel 11 launches or if they'll have to do a February 2027 price hike like yeah I who knows like the word on the ram crunch right now is starting to change from you know maybe this is better at the end of 2027 to like 2028 29 30 you know what I mean like it's getting it's it's it's bad and and it's not getting better and no no ram manufacturer is stepping up to increase the amount of consumer level ram they're making because

they got burnt during COVID. And so they're scared of that despite, despite demand being. It's a whole mess and I don't even see the solution to it. And so I, yeah, I think this is going to continue to snowball. And I will be curious to see when consumers finally start saying like, enough is enough. I don't think it will be with, for example, this pixel 11 launch, like, even with, you know, the elevated prices we expect. But it's going to happen eventually. Yeah. You mentioned an enthusiast there,

and I think one good bit of news that's come out this week is that another news report suggests that the TENCG6 chip, which, again, we don't necessarily expect to set the world of light, and I mean that in an objective and a figurative way. Hopefully they don't. It doesn't overheat and they fix the problems with it. The TSM's two nanometer process is going to be first used, used on sensor G6. It means that it's going to be the first series of smartphones to hit the

market with this new process. Usually, I mean, according to this news report, that this is something that's usually said for Apple's chips. They get the latest kind of technologies and fabrication processes integrated on our iPhone hardware. So that's pretty impressive to think that Google have managed to push their way to the front and potentially have a device that's running on a two nine meter process. I mean, my interpretation of this is that this could potentially mean better efficiency? Would it mean better performance? I guess in theory it would. Do we potentially see, I mean, if Google is having issues with RAM configurations on the devices, yet they give us this big uplift with TENC6, which again, we're not expecting, but we're seeing some, there's going

to be some improvements. Could that potentially, like, level it out? Like, you get reduced RAM, but you get exponentially, potentially better chipset performance. I think that would make a lot of people happy in some respect, surely. Yeah, I guess the problem, right, is that I've spent the last couple of years being like, people should not expect like massive leaps in performance from TensorFlow. That is clearly not what Google is doing with this chip. And every year that people wait to see what people get hyped up and wait to see what Google. And I actually don't feel that as much this year.

But I feel like the fever broke with the G5, but people get hyped up and wait to see what Google is going to do and then the chip comes out and they don't like it, right? And I would say Google hasn't made a bad chip since I mean, really since the G2. The G3 wasn't like perfect. It ran warmer than its Snapdragon competitors, but it was not like the G2. The G2 was a bad chip.

And with each successive generation, I would say that performance has gotten at least like day to day not benchmarked performance has gotten a little better has improved over time a little bit and more importantly has stayed cooler and grown more efficient over time, right?

Like my pixel 10 is more efficient and runs cooler than my pixel. In fact, I think I remember when I set up my pixel 10 a year ago, I remember being surprised that it did not get warm during my setup, during my like device transfer process,

which I was impressed by. So I just like, it's not a game that Google seems interested been playing. I think you're totally spot on, Damien. This is going to be about efficiency and about, you know, just like general, like, what's the deal on foundries they're getting, right? Like, they want to, you know, keep moving forward. They're going to have to make this transition eventually. And so is this the right year? Yes or no. I think TensorFlow G6 will be a perfectly fine chip that disappoints the most dedicated of gamers. And it'll be like last year, right? Like, in a way,

the bigger question becomes Google's pitch for TensorFlow has always been well we're focusing on on you know the the AI the on device AI element of this like that's what we want TensorFlow to be really good at but Qualcomm is like as good and the RAM crunch is making

on device AI matter even less than it already did and we've talked enough we've talked about it before and I know Abner specifically you are very like nobody cares about on device and consumers don't care about on device AI which I agree with it does start to be you do start to go like

well okay then Google what are you what's what are you doing like what's the point of this chip if like the on device part doesn't even really matter anyway like should you just throw in the towel and go back to Snapdragon I that is definitely a discussion for a broader day

and I feel like the winds are already moving to more crowd processing with the pride with what we've seen with pixel screenshots. And again, like as we've historically seen, Google does not really talk about their chip in the, ironically,

for how much, for how custom it is, they really don't talk about it much. So I do hope that does change. I think that my final note on TensorFlow G6 and probably the most important one is that I hope to God

they play like a G6 thing. announcement. I think, yeah, if they don't do that, they'll miss a trick. And I think that's probably, I mean, this is being a shot. Hey, it killed LG. It killed LG. They didn't use it. Look what happened afterwards. That's true. That's true. You got to look at the historical record on this stuff, Google. You got. Yeah.

So if we move on like a G6 to pixel glow, I think, let's talk about, let's talk about what we think about this, because I think these leaks have kind of give us an idea as to what Pixar Glow isn't in terms of like an LED strip. We cannot see anything from an LED strip on this device unless there's one hidden. Like, what do you guys think? I'm, this could be a step down of functionality. The theory that I think people thought was that it was around the camera, the camera bar, camera mesa. Yeah, we talked about that a little bit last week.

Yeah. And that from the, from last week's invite teaser, there was solid metal. So it wasn't on this, it cannot be on the side. So I think the theory after that was it was which really the perimeter of the glass. But if you think about it, that's where the adhesive would be or something. Right. So maybe not that.

So all, I guess, and the other one is people want to embed it somehow under the black parts of the grass that people that you can't really see. But I don't know if that makes sense. So I think the best theory, right now is that it is just a camera flash, that it is a, it is integrate, it is part of the camera flash system, it can do multiple colors instead of just the flash whites, white, slash yellow, that it is just that, and it can pulse, it's a pulsing glow. So in many ways, it's like a really throwback to those RGB lights on, like, it was definitely, it was definitely,

definitely on the 1M7. But yeah, so it goes from like, with the Google books, we saw that Google did a light ball. At the very least, I thought it was going to be as exciting as that. That could be used really, a really fun usage for battery status or whatever,

but it's just a dot, a pulsing dot. I think, I think for me it's a case of like, just don't worry about these. external things in terms of like Pixar. Pixel Globe, I think we maybe all got a little bit caught up in what it could potentially be. I think obviously with a laptop doing that on that strip with the Google Colors on it. I don't necessarily think any smartphone that's done LEDs on the back has been truly, truly elegant. I know we mentioned Nothing Phone 3 a couple of podcasts ago or in the last few episodes. I don't think that's selling devices. I think maybe to the

to one or two people, or that's probably under-exaggerating it. I think it's definitely case of there are people who care about this, but realistically, was it going to be something that could resell this phone? I'm not necessarily sure. I would say that nothing phone, while it is practical, it green too much into that, like, techno, like techno gaming case lights. So I think Google's attempt to be a bit more mainstream. I have nothing against the functionality of an LED, right, especially if we're in this era of people not wanting to see screens, they put their phone on the desk, which again to me seems insane, and there's the AOD, which is not that stressful. But I don't know, lights.

Yeah, I guess I just don't, if this isn't a design thing, right? Like, even something as subtle as, again, like, let's imagine that it was like a ring of light around the camera. And it is, it is in addition to being like a throwback notification light bar thing. It was also just kind of like a, you know, essentially an RGB strip like you would put on a gaming computer. Like if we're not, if it's not that, then I don't, it's fine if they want to build this functionality and, and make it a better flash, right? Like I would love, I would love if this had the iPhone pro lines ability to adjust throw, the width of the beam, right? Like it's a very cool feature on on Apple's pro iPhones and like I'd be more excited about that than them just being like it's got different colors now. Although I don't see a reason it can't do both.

But I just I don't know like this is fine and all. But if all it is is like an RGB equipped camera flash that can like subtly like dimly flash when you have an alert, this thing better not take up more than 10 seconds on stage. Because we are no longer talking about a selling point. We are talking about like a thing you put together, but it's, it's, you know, I don't think an RGB strip would move a lot of people to upgrade their device, but it would move some people. And I don't think this thing, you know, does anything for anybody.

Like, it doesn't move the needle, right? This feature will be a nice to have, but I honestly could almost argue that the thermometer would move. needle more than this. Okay. Let me just say, I hope to God that this wasn't built just because to make Gemini look a bit cooler. Like,

there's rumors about when you activate Gemini, this grows. That's what it says it. I hope it's, I hope the origin was not that because, woof. Yeah. I,

I, I'm, I'm very skeptical that this is going to be anything really worth paying attention to at this point. Like, like, not that it won't be useful for some people, but I just,

I agree with you. I mean, I mean, look, let's, let's, let's think this through. In addition to smartwatches,

right, like the notification LED goes away, but is like dead by like 2015 for the most part, right? So like, in that time, smart watches have, have become massively popular, I would say.

We have gotten, we've moved to a space where every device basically has an always on display that can show you notifications and can typically be customized to show more or less, you know, information as you want it to. We are, we are, you know, in Abner, I think you're very excited about, but we're moving into the age of smart glasses, which are also going to prompt you with alerts in front of your eyes. Like, I just, I don't know who is like, I don't like any of these options. I wish I had an RGB camera flash on the back of my pixel. That's how I want. Like, I just, I'm like, we got it, we got to, like, there's got to be more to this than just that.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, again, I think the AOD, the horizontal display is infinitely more useful. And that, yes, I think, okay, again, this comes back to the idea. I do feel like the pattern here is that people not wanting to use their phones and people flipping over their phones. I think that is the vain Google's tapping into, not the Gemina. I said. I think that is the underlying origin of this feature.

And if Google can make this an Android feature proper, if they can get Samsung to also put it, I think there's something there to make the Android experience a bit unique for the entire ecosystem, like tapping into the idea of like people want to put their phone, fit their phone and not doing it, but they still want to keep alert. but that being said

I still think that it's if you don't you the AOD is right there that's what I keep going back to it's not that disruptive especially on pixel phones it's just the icons it's just the notification icons

yeah yeah I think my thought process is that it's probably something we've read into a little bit too much we've kind of expected a little bit too much from it and maybe it is just an external like a middling feature that is just kind of enhancing the experience you might have with your camera bar

and everything else to do with regards to the pixel camera system and notifications and stuff. But overall, I've got to say, we are probably going to learn more about this in the next few weeks. I'm excited to see what it does and what it doesn't do because we talked about it at length and ad nauseam and seeing something that kind of like, I guess it kind of quells the rumors because people are getting too out there maybe. Oh, it's going to light up your entire room. It's going to be all these things. If it is just Gemini glowing, absolutely fine.

I don't have a problem with that. It is what it is. But we're going to get into more details with some random stuff, bits and pieces, stuff that's going on over on the Pro tier. If you want to join us, go ahead and join 95 Google Pro. There is a link down in the show notes. We're going to get into anything else. We're going to go off record.

We're going to talk about random stuff. It's always a good time. Come join us. everyone else listen on if you're not speak to you soon bye

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