Google unveils the Pixel, Daydream, Google Wi-Fi, Chromecast Ultra and more at hardware event
Google is expected to focus on not just its new brand of smartphones, but also the official launch of Google Home, its Amazon Echo-like offering and other hardware like a 4K Chromecast and the much-talked about Daydream.
 "Google unveils the Pixel, Daydream, Google Wi-Fi, Chromecast Ultra and more at hardware event")
And that’s a wrap. Thanks a lot for tagging along.
Devices released by Google today: Google Pixel, Google Home, Google Wi-Fi, Chromecast Ultra, Google Daydream View, Daydream controller
Rick Osterloh is back on stage
Embedded Google Assistant SDK also in the works to ensure that Assistant is device-agnostic
Actions on Google: developers.google.com/actions
Creating rich conversations and actions with Google’s Assistant API for third-party developers…
Conversation Actions will concentrate more on conversational assistance, with the app/businesses in question itself
Direct Actions build upon voice commands partners have already programmed
Google Assistant new features: Actions on Google will have Direct Actions and Conversation Actions
Scott Huffman from the Google Assistant team on stage.
The base options for Google Home. Again, no gold or rose gold. Yay!
Here are the pricing options
Google Home will go on sale for $129, free 6 months trial of YouTube Red. Pre-orders for Google Home start today in the US
Google Home can play music on all Google Home speakers and Chromecast Audio devices around your house.
Google home will work with Philips, Sony, Toshiba, LG, Harman AV products
You can give commands such as “OK Google watch Stranger Things on TV” and Home will switch it on your TV via voice commands
Google Home can control your Chromecast as well
Google Home will work with Nest, Samsung SmartThings, Philips. Google Home can also be used to voice control your TV
Google Home can work in tandem with your smartphones, thanks to the underlying Assistant support
Google Home also lets you translate language using the underlying Google Assistant support
Google Home can also give you traffic information
Google Home music search is powered by Google. So you can query for a song like you would search on Google
The upper surface of Google Home is touch sensitive. It’s also got LEDs that show when it’s responding to OK Google.
Google Home supports YouTube Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Pandora, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio
Here are the Google Home’s drivers. The base can be swapped to match your home.
Rishi Chandra on stage to demo Google Home
Google Home comes with swappable base in different colours
On the rear side is the mic mute button as well
Here’s what to expect from Google Home
Google Home top has a capacitive touch pad and indicator LEDs. It has microphone systems to work even in noisy situations.
4 major points of Google Home: Enjoy Music, get answers from Google, manage everyday tasks and control devices at home.
Google Home announced
Chromecast Ultra to be available in November for $69
The Chromecast Ultra. This image says it all. I’m excited. I’m really excited.
Chromecast Ultra: Supports 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision and is 1.8x faster than previous generation Chromecast, comes with Ethernet support
Chromecast Ultra: Yuo can cast up to 4K content to your TV with 5.1 channel audio. Google Play Movies to roll out 4K content in November
30mn plus Chromecast devices sold last year
Google Wi-Fi will actively manage Wi-Fi and switch you to a better connection as required
Chromecast time
Pre orders start in November and Shipping in December. Single pack $129 and 3-pack for $229
Google WiFi lets you manage the router through an app.
Network Assist will keep your signal strong to ensure you are on the right WiFi channel and there is no speed drop
Google WiFi is a modular wifi router and it works in tandem across rooms to increase the range of WiFi. Network Assist will actively manage and optimise your network
Google building onto the OnHub router technology. Google Wi-Fi announced
Mario Queiroz on stage to talk about Google Home
Daydream View and controller will go on sale in November for $79
Dinosaurs coming to life in Daydream.
Entire library of YouTube videos available on Daydream. 360 and VR videos is where the Daydream experience really shines says McCallister
Gunjack 2, another Daydream VR game. It does look fantastic.
Street view demo of the Taj Mahal being demoed
Google Play Movies, Google Photos, YouTube, Street View will also be part of Google Daydream
Over 50 partners to bring apps and games to Daydream before the end of year
There’s a Harry Potter game available in Daydream. You play as a wizard, the controller is your wand.
Netflix, Hulu and HBO will be available on Daydream. New York Times VR app will also be part of Daydream
Educational experiences on Daydream. Starchart lets you explore stars and galaxies in VR
JK Rowling and Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them experience will be available on Daydream.
Adrienne McCallister of Daydream team on stage to talk about VR partners
It comes in three colours: Slate, Snow and Crimson
Daydream View will work with other handset makers’ hardware as well.
.
.and here’s the VR controller
Daydream Controller can be placed on the top flap of the Daydream View headset to prevent it from losing
The Daydream VR’s lenses…
Daydream Controller is a tiny handheld, there are two buttons and the top and base have circular touch sensitive areas
The Daydream View comes with a latch to hold the phone in place. It also comes with a wireless controller
Google has worked with material designers to get a soft well designed headset. The headset seems to have all sorts of cushioning at the crucial spots
Finally, the official Daydream View headset. Surprisingly, it’s made of fabric.
Clay Bavor announces Daydream View which is a Daydream ready VR headset
Pixel phones are the first Daydream ready phones
Virtual Reality will be an important component of Pixel. Daydream app seen on Pixel
Daydream time now!
Pixel will be available in 3 colours. I thank the Gods that Google didn’t jump on the Gold and Rose Gold bandwagon
Flipkart, Croma and Reliance Digital will be the Indian distributors. Pre sale in India on October 13. Price: $649
Here’s the hardware of the Pixel and Pixel XL
Specs: Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC, 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 12.3MP camera, 2770mAh (5-inch Pixel) and 3500mAh (5.5-inch Pixel)
Google Pixel will come in Quite Black, Really Blue and Very Silver colour options
Pixel will come in two sizes – 5-inch and 5.5-inches
Google Pixel will let you easily contact Contacts, Photos, Music, Videos etc from previous devices
Pixel comes with 24/7 live support with a screenshare option for improved support
There is a 24/7 customer care service built right into the Settings screen to help out with issues with Pixel
7 hours of usage from 15 minutes of charge. Impressive.
Pixel will come with Android 7.0 Nougat. New update will be downloaded in the background
Google Pixel to support Quick Charging feature. You can get 7 hours of power with only 15 mins of charging says Ellis.
Google Duo being discussed on stage
Sabrina Ellis from the Pixel product management team on stage
Woah! Pixel phone owners get unlimited full res photo and video storage
“For Pixel owners there will be free unlimited photos and videos at full resolution.” This is a big commitment
The Pixel phone camera comes with Video stabilisation
Pixel has a shorter capture time claims Google.
Pixel has a shorter capture time claims Google.
Pixel’s HDR mode does look incredible. Google says HDR is insanely fast!
HDR+ gives you extended dynamic range by reducing noise and blur. HDR+ is used by default as there is zero shutter lag. Images processed fast
1.55 micron pixels, f/2.2, 12.3MP sensor, HDR+ among other features
The DXOMark score of 89 means it’s the best camera anyone’s ever made. Big news indeed.
Pixel claims to have achieved a score higher than iPhone 7/7Plus
Pixel has received a DXO Mark Mobile rating of 89 which according to Google is the highest rating for a smartphone
Google Assistant can help you reserve tables at a restaurant just by voice commands
Assistant at work in SMS. But we’ve seen all this before… Come on, Google! We need more!
You can send text messages to your contact via voice commands. Assistant also works with WhatsApp, Viber and other messaging apps.
Assistant uses Google’s knowledge graph to provide contextual information without you asking for it
Google Assistant at work!
Pixel will have round icons. Holding the home button activated the Google Assistant
Pixel is the first phone with Google Assistant built in
Google photos in the centre
Cloud storage to be a major component
Communications: Duo and Allo
Pixel is made for mobile virtual reality
Pixel is the first phone with Google Assistant built in
Theres rear glass, aluminum finish. It has rounded edges. It looks exactly like the leaks we had seen earlier
Industrial design to user experience all designed by Google says Osterloh.
The Google Pixel is officially unveiled
Google Pixel announced
Next innovation is going to take place at the intersection of hardware and software with AI in the centre says Osterloh
Last year 1 trillion photos were taken. 50 trillion emails and messages were sent last year. People want the entire world’s music collection on their fingertips says Osterloh.
This is the right time to be focussed on hardware and software says Osterloh
Rick Osterloh is on stage. He’s Google’s head of hardware.
Rick Osterloh on stage
Today we will bring Google Assistant in new hardware products says Pichai. Looks like Pixel Time
Google Allo is the first product which comes with Google Assistant. Pichai says it has got a lot of questions on its Assistant and is helping with learning user behaviour
Google Assistant first made its debut in Allo. Have you tried it yet?
Pichai says its deep learning in the text to speech and machine translation can also distinguish between regular German and Swiss German
Image captioning has improved over the years of development. https://t.co/VsNxU8EGqi #MadeByGoogle #Pixel #Google @Google @madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/HtoEHzaozS
— Tech2 (@tech2eets) October 4, 2016
Text to Speech: We try to understand the text and try to make the responses as natural as possible says Pichai.
…and here is how Google’s new translation algorithm fares against the older method
Machine Translation: We translate individual phrases and combine them to form sentences. Neural machine translation translate entire sentences says Pichai
Pichai demonstrates the advancements in AI
Pichai explaining the use of Machine learning in image captioniong going beyond just object recognition and adding more context to images
Pichai says Knowledge Graph has around 70 bn facts; Natural language processing helps Google understand voice recognition
So what is Google Assistant?
Google Assistant which was announced at the Google I/O looks like it will be the focus of the event and the underlying AI for most Google hardware products
Sundar Pichai’s on stage
Google Assistant gets a shout out early on in the event. Assistant will be universal and will be available to all the users when the need it says Pichai
Sundar Pichai’s on stage
Pichai: Then the mobile revolution happened. We are now heading from a mobile first to an AI first world
Pichai: In the mid 90s web arrived. It brought the internet to many people. Fundamentally changed the way people communicate
Pichai: At I/O we talked about the future. Computing has always had big shifts every 10 years or so. It all started in the 80s when PCs reached mainstream
Sundar Pichai on stage
We’re live!
Dinesh and Gilfoyle from Silicon Valley start the proceedings
Google event is underway
2 minutes to start…
It’s almost showtime! Watch the @madebygoogle livestream starting at 9am PST. https://t.co/6psnOLjNIY #MadeByGoogle pic.twitter.com/HvPsn54PcL
— Android (@Android) October 4, 2016
We are around 10 minutes away from the start of the event
Good things are coming. Join us on https://t.co/qXN1k3Gatg at 9.30pm today, to know more. #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/DbTkYkvIg1
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) October 4, 2016
Google Pixel, Home and Allo: Why is it such a big deal? – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com
Tonight’s event will see the coming together of a lot of Google technologies. We try to see how Pixel, Allo and Home will work together
‘Google Magic’ seen on Verizon’s leak of its Google Pixel listing; and there’s a Really Blue variant as well – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com
Amidst all the Google Pixel and PixelXL product page leaks, today morning we came across one from Verizon which mentioned the presence of ‘Google Magic’ on both the phones. What that is, is yet unknown. Any guesses?
Google Daydream: Here’s everything we know about Google’s upcoming VR platform – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com
Back at Google I/O 2016 Sundar Pichai announced the Daydream platform, which would be Google’s native VR platform. Here’s everything you need to know about it
Will Google Home that takes on the Amazon Echo be a winner? – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com
Google Home is expected to be launched today as well, and this is being touted as Google’s response to Amazon’s Echo which has taken the US market by storm
For everyone else, we will be updating this live blog with details from the event as they happen
Here is how you can watch Google’s hardware event tonight – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com
Here’s how you can watch the Google event live
All the focus will be on Google made Pixel and PixelXL handsets, which are being touted to be Google’s answer to Apple iPhones.
Google Event: you can expect hardware, AI and VR announcements today – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com
The Google event is scheduled to begin in an hours time. So here’s what is expected from the launch event
Watch this space for all things Google.
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