Made by Google Event: Everything Announced at Google's Tuesday Event

Google hardware event started with an enjoyable conversation between Dinesh and Gilfoyle, two main characters from the Valley favourite sitcom, Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is a popular television show produced by HBO depicting lives of a group of coders running a startup called "pied piper."

Google's "Made By Google" event held at a power station of a chocolate factory in San Fransisco featured some of its best hardware, the expected release of Pixel and Pixel XL, a release date for Google Home (announced in May), and the Daydream VR set. It hinted at Google Action's developments but offered no further details. Oh, and it also announced a new 4K Chromecast. But the Highlight of the event was Google Assistant bot ecosystem.

So, here's the coolest things the company announced.

Pixel & Pixel XL

Google unveiled two brand new phones, the Pixel and Pixel XL. The Pixel line will be replacing the Nexus phones by providing the "pure Android" experience from now on. Surprisingly there was no mention of HTC anywhere during the presentation, making it clear that Google wants to move ahead from the Nexus.

The Google Pixel and Pixel XL are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, with two cores clocked at 1.6GHz, and two cores clocked at 2.15GHz. Both the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones will pack 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and sport Pixel imprint fingerprint sensor. They sport a 12.3-megapixel rear camera with a Sony IMX378 sensor, PDAF, a large f/2.0 aperture, and 1.55-micron pixels. Both sport an 8-megapixel front camera with a Sony IMX179 sensor, a f/2.4 aperture, and 1.4-micron pixels.

Check out the complete specs here.

The Pixel phones will also include unlimited photo and video backup through Google Photos. It even saves them at full resolution including 4K. They will be available in 'Quite Silver' and 'Very Black' colours with a limited edition 'Really Blue' version only available in the US on Verizon network.

The Google Pixel and Pixel XL will be up for pre-orders in India starting from October 13, with a shipping date and retail availability confirmed as "end of October". The phones will be available from Flipkart, Reliance Digital, and Croma, as well as smaller retailers.

Daydream View VR

Google unveiled Daydream View, the first VR headset which will be compatible with the Daydream VR platform supported handsets. Currently, only Google Pixel and Pixel XL phones support Daydream VR platform, but more devices are expected to be added to this list. Along with the Daydream View VR headset, a companion controller was also released.

The other half of the headset is the Daydream controller, which was shown as a sketch back in Google I/O. The controller looks like the air remote we see on smart TVs, and it has a circular patch which is clickable on the top and in the centre there are two buttons – one Home and the other Menu button. There are volume buttons on the side and it houses sensors to detect motion. The controller can be slid inside the View’s flap when it is not in use.

The Daydream View VR headset will start selling in November at $79 (approx Rs 5300). The Daydream View will be up for pre-order in the US from 20 October and it will go on sale on Best Buy, Verizon and the Google Store in the US. It is also expected to launch in Canada, the UK, Germany, Australia in early November. India launch date is not known.

Google Assistant

Well, Google had started its event talking about Google Assistant, and honestly, it was the focal point of nearly every product. A lot of Assistant’s functionality is similar Google Now and Google Now On Tap.

You can search for events nearby, make reservations, send text messages, and play music, but Assistant makes it a more conversational experience. For example, you can search for a restaurant, then follow up that command by asking "How far away is it?" and Assistant will understand that "it" refers to the "restaurant".

Developers and the rest of the world will soon be able to make bots that interact with Google Assistant and new Google devices made public.

Google Home

Google first mentioned the Google Home at its I/O Event this year. Now, we have a launch date, November 4th, a price. It will cost $129, and you can pre-order it right now.

Just like the Echo and its companion AI Alexa, Google Home is a speaker with Google Assistant integration. It's a speaker that responds to voice commands, answers your queries, populates your shopping lists and more.

If you have a Chromecast, Google Home can control your TV. If you have Chromecast Audio, Google Home can control your speakers. If you have multiple Google Home devices, Google Home can play and sync music playback across all of them. If you have a compatible smart home setup, Google Home can control your house. The capabilities of Google Home know no bounds.

Google Wifi

Google WiFi is the router that was launched to enable multi-point mesh Wi-fi routing. Google WiFi router can work as a stand-alone router or work with multiple Google WiFi routers to create a sort of multi-point router network inside your home. The Google WiFi is built by improving on the Google OnHub router which Google had announced last year.

The Google WiFi router supports AC1200 speeds along with simultaneous dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz network support. It also uses Bluetooth connectivity for simpler set-up purpose and making the mesh network.

The Google WiFi also comes with a Network Assistant app which works in the background to ensure that you can easily add more routers to the network, have strong signals by optimising the network depending on your movements, and also letting you control the routers in different rooms. A companion app also lets you enable or disable router connections.

Coming in a one-pack configuration for $129 (approx Rs 8,600) and a three-pack variant for $299 (approx Rs 20,000), the Google WiFi will be available for pre-order in the US in November and start shipping in December. There is no idea when it will be released in India as there was no mention of international availability.

4K Chromecast Ultra

Chromecast has been a popular Google device since its first generation. With the latest Chromecast Ultra, Google has decided to go all out and enable 4K streaming. Chromecast Ultra will also support HDR and Dolby Vision.

Chromecast Ultra is around 1.8x faster than standard Chromecast, in terms of loading content due to improved Wi-Fi connectivity says Google. It also comes with an ethernet port which is integrated into the power adapter making is simple to connect to. You can mirror content from your phones or laptops and it is also expected to work with Google Home when it is released.

The Chromecast Ultra continues with its circular design, and it now has a magnetic back where the HDMI cable of the Ultra attaches itself when not in use. It comes with a piano black finish with a prominent G logo instead of the Chrome branding.

Do Subscribe on YouTube!
Follow Me on Twitter>>> @iamBhavish
And like us on Facebook>>> The Gud1