Tag: Google

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel Tablet with magnetic dock coming in 2023

Google shared more details about the Pixel Tablet at its October 6th event, noting that the Pixel family “doesn’t feel complete” without a larger screen.

Throughout the event, Google showed several teases of the tablet before announcing it towards the end of the event. Google also talked about the Pixel Tablet’s design, highlighting a “nano ceramic coating” applied to the recycled aluminum body to create a soft, grippy finish.

The company says it partnered with app developers to ensure apps support larger screens and features like stylus input.

Moreover, Google confirmed long-running rumours when it revealed a charging speaker dock for the Pixel Tablet, which effectively turns the tablet into a Nest Hub Max when you’re not using it.

However, that was all that Google said about the tablet, which is still coming in 2023. The company will share more about the tablet when it arrives next year.

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Mobile Syrup

Here’s how much the Pixel 7, 7 Pro, and Pixel Watch cost in Canada

Google’s much-anticipated Pixel 7, 7 Pro, and Pixel Watch are finally here. The search giant detailed the new devices during its October 6th event, but they’re also now available to pre-order ahead of an October 13th release.

If you want to buy one of the new Pixels in Canada, read on to find out how much you’ll need to pay. We’ll start with buying them from Google, and then add carrier pricing as it becomes available.

Google Store

ThePixel 7 comes in ‘Obsidian,’ ‘Snow,’ or ‘Lemongrass’ while the Pixel 7 Pro comes in ‘Obsidian,’ ‘Snow,’ or ‘Hazel.’ The Pixel Watch comes in ‘Matte Black / Obsidian,’ ‘Polished Silver / Charcoal,’ ‘Polished Silver / Chalk,’ or ‘Champagne Gold / Hazel’ (the first colour refers to the stainless steel case colour, while the second is the band colour).

  • Pixel 7: $799 (128GB) or $929 (256GB)
  • Pixel 7 Pro: $1,179 (128GB), $1,309 (256GB), or $1,439 (512GB)
  • Pixel Watch: $449.99 (Wi-Fi), $529.99 (LTE)

Pixel Watch bands start at $69.99, while the charger starts at $39.99.

Carriers

Keep an eye on this section for updates as carrier pricing goes live.

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Mobile Syrup

Google unveils Pixel Watch with ‘health by Fitbit’

As expected, Google unveiled its new Pixel Watch at its October 6th Pixel event. The new Wear OS-powered smartwatch boasts “health by Fitbit” and “help by Google.”

The Pixel Watch looks, well, exactly like all the leaked details. It’s not much of a surprise — Google itself posted teaser videos showing off the Pixel Watch design in the weeks leading up to the reveal. I’ll keep the design section short since we already know most of those details.

The watch will be available in ‘Chalk,’ ‘Charcoal,’ ‘Hazel,’ and ‘Obsidian.’ Google says there will be seven band families, including active, leather, metal links, stretch, woven and other bands. Each band family includes several colour options.

Now, onto important things, like price! The Pixel Watch comes in two variants in Canada: LTE and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. Those start at $529.99 and $449.99, respectively. Moreover, Pixel Bands start at $69.99 for active, $79.99 for woven, and $109.99 for leather. The Pixel Watch charger starts at $39.99.

Google also shared Pixel Watch tech specs, including that it uses 80 percent recycled stainless steel, uses custom 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5, a 320ppi AMOLED display with up to 1000 nits of brightness, a 294mAh battery, Exynos 9110 chip with Cortex M33 co-processor, 32GB of eMMC flash storage and 2GB of RAM. Google says the battery last 24 hours and a 45-minute charge gives you nine hours of battery life. Speaking of charging, the Pixel Watch uses a magnetic charger with USB-C.

Finally, the Pixel Watch supports Android 8.0 and newer. Notably, Google said the Pixel Watch wouldn’t work with iOS.

Health by Fitbit

Google says the Pixel Watch’s co-processor handles the Fitbit experience, including health features like heart rate tracking. Moreover, Google said the Pixel Watch includes Fitbit’s most accurate heart rate tracking.

Regarding tracking, the Pixel Watch includes several Fitbit tracking capabilities, like ECG, but lacks some functions present in Fitbit’s latest Sense 2 smartwatch, including temperature sensing. Google says the Pixel Watch also supports SpO2, but that it had nothing to announce about SpO2 yet. Presumably, that means the Pixel Watch will get support in the future.

In all, the Pixel Watch features a compass, altimeter, blood oxygen sensor (SpO2), multipurpose electrical sensor, optical heart rate sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and ambient light sensor.

For the swimmers out there, the Pixel Watch is 5ATM swim-proof, which means the watch can withstand pressure equivalent to a depth of 50 metres.

Google says that the Pixel Watch will offer sleep tracking, access to 40 workout modes, Fitbit’s ‘Daily Readiness‘ score, Active Zone Minutes, and more. However, to make the most of the Fitbit-based health features, you’ll need to use the Fitbit app on your Android phone. Google went so far as to describe Fitbit as the “heart” of the Pixel Watch fitness experience.

Also like Fitbit watches, to make the most of the Fitbit experience on Pixel Watch, you’ll need a Fitbit Premium subscription. Google includes six months of free Premium with the Pixel Watch. Fitbit Premium costs $12.99/mo or $104.99/year in Canada and offers expanded data and insights, more workouts, mindfulness sessions, and access to things like Wellness Report and the Health Metrics Dashboard.

Help by Google

On the Google side of things, the Pixel Watch will get a bunch of capabilities aimed at making people’s lives a little easier and safer. The Pixel Watch runs Wear OS 3.5 and will offer Google Maps, Wallet, Assistant, and ‘Emergency SOS’ for 911 calls and fall detection.

Google says the Emergency SOS features require a cellular connection, and fall detection won’t arrive until the winter. It’s unclear if (or how) these features will work in Canada, but that will hopefully change in the near future.

Google’s Pixel Watch will also have access to other Wear OS apps, with Google highlighting options like Spotify, Strava, Bitmoji, Adidas Running, MyFitnessPal, Calm, and more available from the built-in Play Store. Moreover, Pixel Watch will offer integrations with Google’s Pixel smartphones, such as the ability to use the watch as a remote control for a Pixel phone’s camera, use Find My Device, and more.

Finally, the Pixel Watch will offer 18 watch faces with complications, generally split between ‘personal’ and ‘informative.’ However, Google indicates users would be able to customize this, adding information to personal faces or reducing items on the informative faces to make them less cluttered.

The Pixel Watch will be available to pre-order on October 6th and will release on October 13th. You can learn more on the Google Store.

Additionally, stay tuned to MobileSyrup for a full review of the Pixel Watch.

Image credit: Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google Home app code points to two Pixel Tablet docks

Google’s set to unveil its Pixel 7 and 7 Pro later today, but one device we might not see at the company’s October 6th event is the Pixel Tablet expected to arrive next year. Now, new details suggest the Pixel Tablet will have two dock models.

The details come from the newly redesigned Google Home app the company announced alongside the new Nest Wifi Pro and Doorbell. An internal build of the Google Home rolled out to some people via the Play Store, and now 9to5Google and others have dug into the code and found details referencing docks for the upcoming Pixel Tablet. This further backs up rumours that the Pixel Tablet would be able to turn into a Nest Hub Max-like smart home device when placed on the dock.

The new Home app includes references to ‘Tangor,’ the codename for the Pixel Tablet, alongside references to ‘Yuzu’ and ‘Korlan.’ 9to5 found a separate code comment posted by a Googler that confirmed the codenames were all related. Interestingly, yuzu and tangor are both citrus fruits, while korlan is a tropical fruit similar to lychee.

It’s not immediately clear what’s different between the two docks. Android Police theorized that one of the docks may be destined to work with a possible Pixel Tablet Pro, which allegedly sports the codename ‘Tangorpro.’

9to5 notes that Korlan appears to be further along in development, and Esper’s Senior Technical Editor Mishaal Rahman was able to manually enable a set-up flow for the Korlan dock in the Home app.

If the Pixel Tablet and dock combo is real, it may be one of the more exciting products that Google will launch. I’ve had a Nest Hub Max for years and, while I like it, I’ve always felt like it’d get more use if I could just pop the screen off and use it as a tablet. So far, it sounds like the Pixel Tablet could be just that.

Source: 9to5Google, Android Police, Mishaal Rahman (Twitter)

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Mobile Syrup

Google Stadia fans find workarounds to use controller wirelessly on other platforms

On September 29th, Google made the completely unsurprising announcement that it will be shuttering its Stadia game streaming service in January 2023.

Following that news, the platform’s small-but-dedicated fanbase has been pleading for Google to make Stadia’s controller available wirelessly on other platforms. Currently, Bluetooth connectivity is limited to Stadia itself, and the controller can otherwise only be used elsewhere via a wired connection.

While Google says it’s looking into enabling this through a potential firmware update, Stadia fans have taken matters into their own hands in the meantime. One solution, created by engineer Parth Shah, requires users to install Python 3 onto their PC and download version 1.2.0 of his software from GitHub. From there, follow Shah’s guide to download a ZIP file, which contains a URL that will need to be typed into a browser on the Android device connected to the Stadia controller. However, this method is limited as the controller still requires a wired connection to the Android device.

Alternatively, YouTube creator LateStageTech has an app called Wiredless Pro that lets you connect wired controllers to an Android device, which can then be sent wirelessly to a PC. While this does work with the Stadia controller, the trigger buttons aren’t actually recognized, meaning games that require those inputs are effectively out of the question.

Evidently, neither method is ideal. It remains to be seen if and when Google may come up with an official solution within the next three months.

While there were many shortcomings with Stadia, the controller was generally regarded to be one of its strengths. With a solid Nintendo Switch Pro-esque design, it looked and felt quite good to use. What’s more, it was made in collaboration with Google’s Kitchener-Waterloo team, which is a neat factoid for Canadians.

Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Google shares new design teaser video for Pixel 7, Watch, and Buds Pro

Google released yet another teaser video highlighting the design of products it’s set to release at an event on October 6th.

The latest video joins design videos for the Pixel Watch and Pixel 7 Pro, although this time around, it shows multiple devices, including the Pixel 7, 7 Pro, Pixel Watch, and — strangely — the already-released Pixel Buds Pro.

The video starts by showing a few angles of the Pixel 7, particularly focusing on the camera bar, before switching to the Pixel 7 Pro. However, if you watched the Pixel 7 Pro design video, then the few shots in this video will look very familiar.

At about 16 seconds, the video moves over to the Pixel Watch — again, it seems to recycle shots from the smartwatch design video. Finally, it shows a few views of the Pixel Buds Pro, including an x-ray-like shot highlighting the internals. Then there’s a shot of the Buds Pro sitting in the charging case before the video closes out by cycling through all the colour options for the earbuds.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing in the video that we haven’t seen before. Google has extensively detailed its upcoming products since first teasing them at the I/O developer conference in May.

Google’s set to release the Pixel 7 series, Pixel Watch, and possibly more at its event on October 6th. You can check out a full breakdown of what’s expected here.

Header image credit: Google

Source: Google Via: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s new Nest Wifi Pro is all about Wi-Fi 6E

Ahead of Google’s upcoming Pixel event, the company unveiled new Nest products that aim to make the smart home a little more intelligent.

One of the headlining announcements was a new Nest Wifi Pro, a new mesh router system with support for Wi-Fi 6E coming later this month. The Wifi Pro sports combined speeds of up to 5.4Gbps, and each mesh point can cover 2,200 sq. ft. Plus, the Wifi Pro sports a tri-band connection with 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz access.

Google focused on the Wi-Fi 6E aspect of the Nest Wifi Pro since that will usher in some of the most significant changes compared to previous Nest Wifi devices. Wi-Fi 6E isn’t so much about improved speed (although that is a benefit) so much as it is about handling more devices.

In a briefing, Google repeatedly referenced a statistic that the average U.S. household has 25 or so devices connected to Wi-Fi. Boosting a router’s ability to handle high numbers of devices could go a long way in helping improve home networks.

Another way the Nest Wifi Pro will help improve home networks is by detecting issues with some devices and automatically adjusting and improving the connection.

Google says it made the Nest Wifi Pro with 60 percent recycled materials, and it comes in four colours: ‘Snow,’ ‘Fog,’ ‘Linen,’ and ‘Lemongrass.’

There are, unfortunately, some not-so-great details about the new Nest Wifi Pro. Google confirmed it’s not backwards compatible with the company’s other routers, mostly because of the Wi-Fi 6E upgrades. Similarly, the Nest Wifi Pro won’t feature a built-in Google Assistant speaker like the Nest Wifi does.

The Nest Wifi Pro will be available starting October 27th and starts at $269.99 for a one-pack and $529.99 for a three-pack.

Matter and Thread improvements coming to Google products

Google also took time to highlight its Matter and Thread support. For those unfamiliar, Matter is an up-and-coming platform for connected home devices — one way to think of it is as a common standard for smart home tech to communicate with other tech. Matter was previously called Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP).

Thread, on the other hand, is a Wi-Fi-like wireless networking technology designed specifically for IoT and smart home devices. It should benefit low-power devices and improve latency issues. Thread relies on a network of border routers that smart home tech can connect to — handily, that’s where Google devices come in.

Google’s new Nest Wifi Pro will act as a Thread border router, but so will other Google smart home tech (once updates arrive), including the Nest Hub Max and Nest Hub (2nd Gen).

Moreover, Google said it’s updating Android’s FastPair system to help set up Matter devices. It also plans to update Nest products to enable local controls.

Google also recently revealed an updated version of its Nest Hello Doorbell and a refreshed Home app. 

Header image credit: Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google reveals new, more customizable Home app

Google’s smart home hub app is finally getting a facelift.

According to the tech giant, the new app’s goal is to offer users more customization through a new ‘Favourites tab’ that aims to make it easier to access the smart home devices you use the most. As someone with dozens of connected devices in their Home app but only regularly accesses a few of them, I’m looking forward to this feature.

The tech giant is also adding a new feature to Home called ‘Spaces’ that allows you to group several smart home devices under one category. For example, if you have a pet camera and feeder for your cat, you can now create a custom space. Google says that the new Home app also features pre-created Spaces for categories like lights, cameras and thermostats.

Other new features include an in-app media mini player that lets you see what content is playing in your home and a refreshed Nest camera experience that gives you quick information about your device directly in the Home app. For example, you can now find important moments captured by the new Nest Doorbell directly in the Home app.

Finally, Google is also expanding ‘Household Routines’ to support more smart home devices and has plans to launch a detailed Home app script editor in 2023. It’s also worth mentioning that overall, Google’s new Home app looks cleaner and easier to navigate.

The new Home app is coming to iOS and Android through Google’s public preview program in the coming weeks. It’s unclear when the final version of Google’s new Home app will be released.

Google also recently revealed its new Nest Doorbell and Nest Wifi Pro.

Image credit: Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google officially reveals new wired Nest Doorbell with 24/7 video recording

After months of rumours and leaks, Google has finally officially revealed the new version of its wired Nest Doorbell.

The new Doorbell looks identical to the battery-powered version the tech giant released last year but is slightly shorter and overall 30 percent smaller than the Nest Hello.

Further, unlike the battery version, the new wired Nest doorbell is capable of 24/7 continuous video history as long as you have a Nest Aware subscription ($8/month).

The smart doorbell also supports three hours of event video history for free. This means that as long as you jump into the soon-to-be-revamped Home app relatively quickly after receiving a notification that someone is at your door, you might be able to avoid paying for a Nest subscription.

Google says that the new Nest Doorbell also supports Activity Zones and alerts for people, packages and animals without the need for a subscription, though recognizing familiar people requires nest Aware.

Other features include video backup if there’s a Wi-Fi outage, HDR video support and routines through the Google Home app.

The new Nest Doorbell costs $239 and is available to order now in Google’s online store in ‘Snow’ and ‘Ash’ colours.

Unfortunately for Canadians, Google hasn’t detailed plans to update its current battery-powered Nest Doorbell despite the fact that it suffers from cold weather-related issues related to its battery holding a charge.

Google also revealed its Nest Wifi Pro, a new version of its router that supports Wi-Fi 6E, and a refreshed Home app. 

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Mobile Syrup

Stadia players plead to Google to expand wireless Stadia controller support

Following the announcement and confirmation that Google is shutting down its cloud-based gaming service Stadia next year, fans are asking the tech giant to expand wireless support for the controller.

Last week, Google informed Stadia players that on January 18th, the platform’s servers are going offline. Alongside this announcement, the company confirmed it’s providing refunds for hardware and software through the Google Play Store. Additionally, Google doesn’t require players to return the hardware to claim a refund.

With this in mind, fans of the Stadia controller have taken to the Google Stadia subreddit to plead with Google, asking the tech giant to update the gamepad to enable wireless use without the need for Stadia or Chromecast. The goal is for the Stadia gamepad to live on as a third-party wireless controller with universal Bluetooth support.

Players can currently use the Stadia controller as a wired gamepad on several platforms, including PCs, Macs and smartphones. However, the gamepad does not support wireless Bluetooth.

Even if Google was unwilling to fulfill the request to update the controller and enable universal Bluetooth, there could still be an option. Some are hoping Google provides a solution to open source the controller’s firmware, which in theory, would allow the feature to be added by Stadia users.

We’ve seen the untimely demise of both hardware and software in the past. In the case of Google Stadia, the writing was on the walls for quite some time. Although the cloud-based gaming technology worked to a certain degree, game support always remained lacklustre.

While it’s hard to gauge how many Stadia controllers there are in the wild, there’s no harm in using them elsewhere, especially since Google doesn’t want to go through the hassle of asking players to return the controller.

Source: Game Developer