Man, Google’s devices are getting leaked this week.
A Redditor in Sydney, Australia, was in a shopping mall and received a prompt by a Fast Pair notification to set up a Google Pixel Watch. The notification showed a picture of the wearable in black with its obsidian band.
The notification said that the device app is required to start setup, with an option to go to Google Play.
This notification seems possible. Wear OS 3 requires its manufacturers to make their own Wear OS companion app. And it was previously reported that Google is working on one for the Pixel Watch.
The marginal change has kicked off a storm of arguments about whether Google edited its product video to make the Pixel Watch screen bezels look smaller than they actually are. The idea seems to be that Google edited the clip to make the watch look more attractive.
But after watching both videos, as well as this helpful GIF made by Droid Life that does a direct comparison of the edited parts, the only difference I can see is that the Taiwan video shows larger clock faces than the original video. Maybe I’m missing something, but the bezels aren’t actually visible.
Pixel Watch clock face compare GIF | Credit: Droid Life
One could assume that the clock faces extend all the way to the edge of the screen, and thus making the clock face bigger makes the screen larger and shrinks the bezel. In my experience, most smartwatches feature watch faces that don’t extend all the way to the edge of the screen. Instead, they’re often designed to blend in with the bezels to make the whole thing look more seamless. (For example, look at the photos in my Fitbit Sense review — you can’t see the bezel in most of the pictures, and in the few where it is visible, it’s quite large.)
Ultimately, I think people are reading a little too much into a teaser that’s less than a minute long and almost certainly uses renders, not the actual watch. Is there are argument to be made that the edit could be misleading? Sure, but we also don’t have the actual product to compare to. Plus, there are two versions of the same video — it’s not clear which one is more accurate to the real product.
And we likely won’t have those answers until October 6th at the earliest. Google’s expected to unveil the Pixel Watch alongside the Pixel 7 series at an event on October 6th. We may get a better idea of the Pixel Watch bezel situation at the event, or after when units get into the hands of reviewers. Either way, it’s a bit early to get up in arms over small changes in the clock size in a teaser video for an unreleased product.
The Season 34 premiere of The Simpsons on September 25th kicked off with a fun nod to Google Chrome’s Dinosaur Game.
In the intro, all five Simpsons family members appear as pixelated silhouettes and run in a 2D plane while jumping over cacti, just like in Google’s offline dino game. All the while, a chiptune version of Danny Elfman’s iconic The Simpsons theme can be heard. By the end of the gag, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Maggie successfully make it to the couch, while Homer runs into a cactus and yells “D’oh!”
You can view the gag in full on Twitter courtesy of PowerPage founder Jason O’Grady.
Titled “Habeas Tortoise,” The Simpsons‘ 34th season premiere follows Homer as he finds himself publicly humiliated once again and seeks refuge in an online group looking for a missing tortoise, only to discover something much darker.
The first 33 seasons of the animated sitcom are currently streaming on Disney+ Canada.
As we draw ever closer to Google’s October 6th Pixel event, more details continue to emerge about the company’s long-rumoured Pixel Watch. This time around, a picture appeared on Reddit showing off the Pixel Watch retail packaging.
According to a post on ‘r/PixelWatch’ from user ‘xXavi3rx,’ the picture was captured at a “Target DC,” which presumably means distribution centre. It shows the Pixel Watch box, which appears fairly compact, and sports a ‘with Fitbit’ logo in the bottom right corner.
Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t reveal much else about the Pixel Watch beyond that the smartwatch will likely get announced next week. Not that there’s much else to know about it. At this point, it seems nearly every detail has leaked.
Google’s Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro launch on October 6th, with pre-orders dropping on the same day. Alongside the Pixel 7 series, the tech giant is poised to reveal the Pixel Watch completely.
Google first unveiled the two handsets and the smartwatch at its I/O event back in May. However, we’ve only recently had the chance to look at front of the handset.
The smartphone’s rear features a new aluminum finish on its visor, making it more striking than the current Pixel 6 series.
The Pixel 7 Pro will launch in ‘Obsidian,’ ‘Snow’ and ‘Hazel’ colours, whereas the Pixel 7 will come in ‘Obsidian,’ ‘Snow’ and ‘Lemongrass.’ Additionally, the smartphones’ will run Android 13 and include the next-generation of Google’s Tensor chip and more.
I hope we get a sneak peek at the upcoming Pixel tablet and maybe a few other surprises at Google’s event. However, I’m also very excited to get the Pixel 7 Pro in my hands eventually.
Are you excited for fall’s Made by Google event? Let us know in the comments below.
If you use Google Photos to back up and store your pictures, you’ll be pleased — or maybe annoyed — to know there’s a hidden page full of AI photo edits.
This page lists all the Google Photos custom AI-generated edits the app has created over the years. You can delete the images permanently from this area if there’s anything you don’t want, but it’s strange Google hides it from the standard Google Photos interface.
Google has been using AI to make animations and collages out of photos since the app launched, and then in 2018, it added more powerful AI-auto-editing features like HDR bracketing, Colour Pop and more. Some people love these features, and others don’t use them, but it’s interesting to go through the full list of Google-generated images and videos and see how good, or bad the edits to your photos are. And yea, even the embarrassing ones are entertaining.
I’m not sure what makes me laugh more, Colour Popped Chris Meloni or Google grouping funeral flowers with house plants.
It’s quite interesting to go through the list since there are a lot of fun collages that I never really paid attention to and amusing comparison shots of my face over the years. Beyond that, there are also a few cool edits I’ve pulled out as well, so I think it’s worth it for everyone to browse their unsaved photos at least once.
I actually like these Google AI edits quite a bit.
Wojciechowski received the information from shipping EVT (engineering validation test) units to India, which indicates that there will be two storage versions Reportedly, there will be a 128GB model and a 256GB model, and both will feature Wi-Fi 6.
My first collab with @91mobiles is up, revealing new details about the Pixel Tablet including screen size, storage options, a bit of info about accessories and more! Go read it here 😀: https://t.co/bFqe7Fm2CP
The EVT also indicates that the tablet might launch before the Pixel 8 next year. This makes me think that it may come in the spring alongside Google I/O and the A-series Pixel, or during the summer around when the Pixel Buds Pro released this year.
Further, the Pixel Tablet features a 10.95-inch display, which will likely be around 11 inches when officially marketed. The display will support USI stylus standard — with confirmation of a USI 2.0 stylus from Google.
9to5Google also says that Google is also working on a second ‘Pro’ tablet. It’s not clear what specs the Pro tablet would use, with the only evidence so far suggesting it would have a different rear camera sensor than the Pixel Tablet. Given how Google has typically approached devices with the ‘Pro’ monicker, the Pro tablet could ship with improvements like extra RAM, a better display, or a better camera system (if not all of those).
The Pixel Tablet is expected to come out sometime next year.
Google dropped the closest look yet at its upcoming Pixel Watch wearable. A 51 second video posted to the ‘Made by Google’ YouTube channel shows off the watch from several angles and with several watch faces.
Called “The Design of Google Pixel Watch,” the short video really only includes about 30 seconds of actual Pixel Watch footage, with the rest of the video showing the Google logo and a collection of the company’s upcoming hardware, including the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.
The video clip gives a good look at the rotating crown, while at the seven-second mark we get an excellent side profile view that shows off how thick the Pixel Watch is. There’s the curved glass top, the middle case, and the bottom sensor layer. That said, I’ll reserve judgements on the thickness until I actually get my hands on one since it can be hard to tell how thick it actually is from a short clip.
Continuing on, we get a side view showing where the band attaches to the watch, followed by another view showing the bands actually attaching to the Pixel Watch. What’s particularly interesting about this is the watch rotates a little before the bands ‘click’ into place.
After that, the video flashes through different watch faces and Pixel Watch styles, gives a closer look at the clasp on the band (which is nearly identical to the clasp on the Fitbit Sense), and that’s it.
We’ll likely learn more about the Google Pixel Watch and more at the company’s upcoming October event.
As usual for a Google phone, we’ve seen a lot of the upcoming Pixel 7 and 7 Pro ahead of launch, thanks to plenty of official (and unofficial) pictures. One thing we haven’t officially seen is the front of the Pixel 7 Pro. At least, we haven’t until now.
9to5Googlespotted an image (above) posted to the Pixel Superfans Facebook page that shows the front and back of the Pixel 7 Pro, finally confirming long-running rumours that Google toned down the curved display this year. Interestingly, the Superfans group is private, but Google put the official render as the public-facing header image.
Unfortunately, the image doesn’t offer any additional new information. It includes two renders of the Pixel Watch, the Pixel Buds Pro, and the back of the Pixel 7 Pro in the ‘Hazel’ colour.
While fans of the curved display edge may lament the loss, it seems like a positive change to me. Curved display edges were all the rage a few years ago, but generally, phone manufacturers have moved away from them, perhaps because they suck. Curved screen edges are prone to accidental taps, distort what appears on the edge of the screen, are annoying for cases and screen protectors… the list could go on. I’m happy to see a subtle display curve on the Pixel 7 Pro this year.
We’ll likely learn more about the Pixel 7 Pro, as well as the Pixel 7, Pixel Watch, and other Google hardware, at the company’s upcoming October event.
9to5Googleuncovered code related to a Google Photos watch face in a teardown of the latest Photos APK. For those unfamiliar with teardowns like this, they involve cracking open an app APK (the file used to deliver an app from the Play Store and install it to your device) and digging through the code. Naturally, interpretations of code, especially for an unfinished or unreleased feature, can have inaccuracies, so it’s important to take these things with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Anyway, 9to5 found several code strings in Photos version 6.8 for Android that describe allowing users to select “watch face photos.” There are also strings that mention “Setting up watch face,” as well as options for adding and removing photos. Interestingly, the feature appears to be for WearOS, not just the Pixel Watch — the publication found that Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Wearable app was a share option.
Another interesting tidbit: the feature supports multiple pictures. One string mentions that there’s a maximum number of images you can select (although it doesn’t clarify what that number is). In other words, it seems like you’ll be able to pick several images in Photos and send them to your Wear OS watch, which will then cycle through the pictures throughout the day.
Unfortunately, that’s about all that’s known about the new Photos watch face so far. Still, it’s good to see Google working on watch faces. We’ve already seen quite a few potential watch face options for the Pixel Watch, but the more, the merrier.
