Tag: Google Pixel

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A flood of new Pixel 7a leaks give us the full rundown of specs

Leaks and rumours about Google’s next Pixel A phone are relentless. This time, we have a collaboration between leaker Yogesh Brar on Twitter, and 91mobiles. 

The list of specifications posted by Brar mirrors what we’ve seen in previous leaks regarding the upcoming mid-range smartphone.

The addition of wireless charging is a welcome one, though we still don’t have the exact wattage information. The 6.1-inch display size and compact footprint is paired with a fairly large 4,400 mAh battery. This is a rather impressive combination if true, and will hopefully lead to some excellent battery life.

Other key specs include a Tensor G2 SoC, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 64-megapixel primary camera.

Another separate leak from MySmartPrice suggests the same lineup of specs. The site has leaked some possible marketing material as well.

With this much Pixel 7a information already out in the open, it’ll be interesting to see how Google plans to hype up the phone at its reveal event.

The Pixel 7a is expected to be announced as early as next month.

Source: @heyitsyogesh Via: Android Police

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New Adobe update brings RAW image support to Pixel A smartphones

Editing RAW images directly shot on midrange Pixel phones just got more convenient for Adobe users.

Thanks to an April update from Adobe, its Camera Raw extension now includes official support for the Pixel 4a, 5a, and 6a devices.

While it was possible to edit RAW photos before this update, it’s now a smoother process. Users can directly import and edit their photos into Adobe apps such as Lightroom on their phone.

It’s great to see Google’s midrange devices gaining the added support directly from Adobe. That being said, Pixel A smartphone users will still be missing out on the camera matching and lens correction profiles.

RAW image capture is a feature that has become widely available on flagship (and some midrange) smartphones. In exchange for much larger file sizes, users can take advantage of the flexibility and extra detail the images provide while editing.

To get started with the new capability, Camera Raw extension 15.3 needs to be installed, as well as Lightroom 6.3 or Lightroom Classic 12.3. Adobe provides an official website that lists phones that currently support its Camera Raw extension.

Source: Adobe Via: Android Police

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Google’s Pixel Tablet reported to launch with 8GB RAM and four colour options

Google’s Pixel Tablet, which was first revealed at its 2022 I/O event, will likely release in June or July.

While we already know a lot about the upcoming tablet, many are still eagerly waiting for details regarding its specs and design.

Now, sources familiar with the Google tablet (via 9to5Google) have revealed new information about the Pixel Tablet, including RAM and colour options.

According to these sources, the Pixel Tablet will be available in a total of four colours, two of which have already been shown off by Google: a green rear case with a black bezel, and a white bezel with a beige/cream rear. The other two colours remain unclear for now.

Further, the Pixel Tablet will reportedly feature an aluminum body with a nanoceramic finish designed to provide a “soft matte look and textured feel.” It will also reportedly come equipped with a Tensor G2 processor, run Android 13, along with 8GB of RAM and two storage options.

Interestingly, the Pixel Tablet will ship with a Charging Speaker Dock. This dock will charge the tablet via the rear pogo pins, with power coming from a jack on the rear. This means that Google will likely not include a USB-C charging brick in the box.

Finally, sources have confirmed that Google will offer an official case for the Pixel Tablet.

With its powerful specs, sleek design, and innovative features, the Pixel Tablet promises to be a game-changer in the tablet market if Google truly commits to the space this time around. We’ll likely learn more about the tablet during Google I/O on May 10th. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Source: 9to5Google

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Google debuts new Pixel 7 Super Bowl ad

Football fans taking in Super Bowl LVII this Sunday can expect to see a new ad for the highly acclaimed Google Pixel 7.

The upcoming spot focuses on Google’s latest smartphone’s ‘Magic Eraser’ and ‘Photo Unblur’ features, allowing users to unblur noise in photos, or delete/change the color of objects in their pictures. The ad runs 90 seconds and will air sometime during the second quarter of the big game.

See the full ad below:

It shows users erasing various mishaps from their photos. They go about deleting everything from a goofy sibling to even that one ex they probably want to forget about, all set to Missy Elliot’s “We Run This.”

The Super Bowl spot  even features appearances from comedian Amy Schumer, rapper Doja Cat, and NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.

This comes as the second year in a row that Google spotlighted its smartphone line at the Super Bowl. Last year, the tech giant employed the talents of Lizzo for a commercial focused on the Pixel 6’s Real Tone feature.

Super Bowl ds centered on their hardware have been uncommon for Google. The company usually opts to use the advertising time to promote its software and services.

Image credit: Google

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Developer resurrects OG Pixel with Android 13

If you want to spend a few hours playing around with your old first-generation Pixel this week, you can now load Android 13 on it.

Savvy Android tinkerer Husson Pierre-Hugues has been able to use Google’s Project Treble framework to good use to load a vendor version of Android 13 on his ancient smartphone.

The Android 13-powered OG Pixel isn’t perfect since it can’t access a data connection, but Wi-Fi, GPS, texting, the fingerprint sensor and calling still work. This is excellent news since Google’s Pixel phone stopped receiving system updates after Android 10. That said, it’s important to note that this isn’t something most people will be able to do.

To run Android 13 on a Pixel or Pixel XL requires coding and knowledge of how Google pushes updates to non-Pixel devices through its Project Treble framework. Treble is a developer tool that allows manufacturers like Samsung and OnePlus to quickly swap out the Android version underneath their Android OS skin when new updates release.

This allows for faster updates in theory, but in the case of the original Pixel getting Android 13, it lets Pierre-Hugues apply the update to specific sections of the phone. This is why most of the Pixel works, but he can’t use his data plan.

It’s interesting to see Android 13 running on such an old device, but the real silver lining is how a random Android enthusiast has been able to take advantage of treble. Ideally, years later, this will finally help big brands update their smartphones with consistency and efficiency. However, as we saw back in August, it doesn’t seem like manufacturers are picking up Android updates faster than before.

For comparison, Apple released the iPhone 7 series in 2016, the same year as the first Pixel, and the iPhone no longer gets official updates either.

Source: Husson Pierre-Hugues Via: Android Police

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Google aims to achieve net-zero emissions across its businesses by 2030

Google is on its way to making its products as environmentally friendly as possible and reaching its goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2030. At its ‘Made by Google’ Pixel launch event today, the Mountain View, California-based company announced that its new products are “Designed for Impact.”

Google said that every new product that it revealed today, or recently, including the Nest Wifi Pro, the Pixel 7 lineup, the Pixel Tablet and the Pixel Watch are made of recycled materials.

Starting off with the Pixel Tablet, Google used a nano-ceramic coating infused into the tablet’s body’s coating, which it says is made up of 100 percent recycled aluminum. The nano-ceramic coating is meant to give the tablet a “soft-matte-ic-textured” feel while not compromising on durability.

The aluminum in the Pixel 7 series’ phone enclosure is made of 100 percent recycled content, reducing the enclosure’s overall carbon footprint by over 35 percent.

The Pixel watch case, on the other hand, is made of 80 percent recycled stainless steel, while the fabric on the watch’s stretch band is made of yarn that is 100 percent recycled.

“We have a deep responsibility to create sustainable technologies, and I’m so proud to be a part of a team of designers, product engineers, and operation specialists who are doing impactful work to help our planet,” said Isabelle Olsson, Senior industrial designer for Google.

For emissions associated with powering Google’s data centres and campuses, the company’s goal is to operate on carbon-free energy throughout the day by 2030, though the company didn’t expand on its roadmap.

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Early Pixel Watch unboxing images leak online

We recently reported on a supposed Google Pixel Watch band early hands-on that displayed the “Active” watch band in ‘Chalk’ and ‘Lemongrass’ colourways. Now, courtesy of a Reddit user who got their hands on the Pixel Watch, we have hands-on images of the upcoming watch and its unboxing process.

According to the Reddit user, they couldn’t turn the watch on as they “didn’t wanna get caught.” Further, the watch box reads “Demo.” This might indicate that the user is an employee at a retailer that has received early shipments of the wearable.

The Pixel Watch comes with its band pre-attached, with the USB-C charging puck included and Wear OS 3.5 pre-installed. While the box doesn’t state how much the watch retails for, previous leaks have suggested a $399 USD price tag (roughly $518 CAD).

If you love unboxing new gadgets and are excited to get your hands on the upcoming Pixel Watch, these images below will give you an early taste of Google’s first wearable.

Image credit: u/Suckmyn00dle

Source: u/Suckmyn00dle

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Amazon U.S. indicates Pixel 7 will release on Oct. 13

Google’s Pixel 7 is one week from launch, but it looks like Amazon U.S. jumped the gun as the phone was spotted on the e-commerce site. Discovered by Brandon Lee, was Google’s upcoming flagship with an October 13th shipping date.

The handset retails for $599 USD (roughly $821 CAD), features 128GB of storage, sports Google’s second-generation Tensor processor and offers “the best photo and video quality yet on Pixel.”

The most significant piece of information in this listing is “this item will be released on October 13 2022,” giving us an actual release date for the smartphone. Of course, this might be incorrect, but it corroborates with a leak from Jon Prosser from back in August.

It seems like the press release has been removed from the company’s website.

We won’t know for sure until October 6th when Google officially unveils the Pixel 7 series, but if I were a betting man, I’d guess the phone will actually release on that date.

Source: Brandon Lee

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Android 13 QPR1 Beta 1 code reveals more details of Pixel face unlock

Ahead of the release of Google’s Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, rumours swirled that the devices would support face unlock. However, the phones arrived without the ability to unlock with your face and ever since, publications have obsessively followed the software development of a face unlock feature now expected to arrive with the Pixel 7 series later this year.

The latest details come from 9to5Google, which dug into the Android 13 QPR1 Beta 1 software to examine new code related to face unlock. QPR1 is expected to hit stable in December, but the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will arrive in October. Also, as with any software investigation like this, it’s important to keep in mind that pre-release and in-development features are subject to change. In other words, what 9to5 learned might not be an accurate reflection of the final product.

Anyway, let’s dig into what they found. First, 9to5 says it spotted several strings — snippets of code including text that will be shown on-screen for users — that describe certain aspects of face unlock. One string says that “Face Unlock works best when there’s enough light and you’re not wearing a mask or dark glasses.”

The bright light requirement effectively confirms that the face unlock feature will use the front-facing camera and not special hardware, like the Pixel 4 or Apple’s Face ID-capable iPhones. An important note here is that the Pixel 6 Pro selfie camera supports dual-pixel autofocus (DPAF), which can be used to develop depth maps of users’ faces. The Pixel 6 selfie camera is different, and likely won’t support face unlock based on DPAF, but the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro are expected to use the same selfie camera hardware with DPAF support.

9to5 also found details about how users interact with face unlock. According to details from the code, users will need to hold their phone at eye level to start the scanning process, and face unlock will only support one face.

Plus, 9to5 extracted a new animation for face unlock:

Credit: 9to5Google

Wrapping things up, 9to5 found details about the accuracy of face unlock, with a warning that face unlock is “less secure than a strong pattern, PIN, or password.” Other warnings include that looking at the phone may cause it to unlock when you don’t intend to, the phone can be unlocked if someone holds it up to your face, even if your eyes are closed, and the phone can be unlocked by someone else who looks a lot like you. Face unlock will require users to pick up their phone or tap the screen, indicating that scanning starts at that point.

Interestingly, code related to face unlock is referred to as ‘Traffic Light’ and was found on the Pixel 6 Pro running QPR1 Beta 1. 9to5 says it didn’t find similar references on the Pixel 6 or 6a.

Source: 9to5Google

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Google’s next-gen Tensor gets official name, will focus on photos, security

After announcing the ‘Made by Google’ event for October 6th earlier today, where Google will unveil its latest Pixel 7 lineup alongside the long-awaited Pixel Watch, Google has updated the Pixel 7 product page on its website, giving us a better idea of the colours the phone will be available in, some of its features, and most importantly, the Tensor chip’s successor.

First reported by developer Kuba Wojciechowski on Twitter, via AndroidPolice, the second-gen Tensor chip is called Tensor G2, and according to Google, the new processor will “bring even more helpful, personalized features to photos, videos, security, and speech recognition,” for the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, when compared to older Pixel devices.

What the ‘G’ stands for is currently unclear, though it could mean ‘Generation,’ as in Generation 2 of the Tensor chip.

Unfortunately, that is all we know about the chip so far, though more information should start pouring in as we approach the ‘Made by Google’ event on October 6th.

Image credit: Google

Source: @Za_Raczke, Via: AndroidPolice