Breaking down the Pixel 9 "Made By Google" event | Engadget Podcast

[Music] Bo [Music] [Music] what's up everybody welcome back to another live and Gadget podcast stream I'm sen editor dwier Hardware this week joined by Deputy editor Shin though hey Shin this week this week I mean charlin you're not here you're you're a busy person now charlin and right now charlin is in California at the Google what the made by Google event for launch so hello from California how you doing um it's been a day but actually not that bad of a day I don't know how did it come off from your from your end dindra it's uh I'm always happy when we get a lot of the stuff we need to cover ahead of time and we can just like think about the news and write that so it was good hey folks uh I don't know if you've noticed but there was a pretty big launch event today over in in gadget we cover the pixel 9 launch also everything else around that right the pixel 9 Pro the pixel the pixel 9 fold Pro or profold I gotta look up the exact name for that Pro fold the names are quite a lot yeah I have thoughts on the name of that foldable it's very stupid yes um we've got the watch three is it now yes yes and watch buds Pro 2 yes a lot of gear a lot of stuff and we'll T we'll chat a bit about that on this stream um hey yeah we we don't normally get to do this right after events but it's always a fun thing who's here who's joining us well okay so Dro 9 in the chat is like the Google Afterparty was weird are you talking about the great Kiki Palmer Afterparty that I did not you love Kiki Palmer I did not stick around for that I did not either um I wanted to say hi to uh yeah Deo 9 James Wy uh let us know how to pronounce your name correctly Clint Ferguson says hi I don't know who else might be here say hi folks oh h is here um and says that if the fold can get to 90 to 95% of camera capabilities of the pixel Pro that would work I think it's close like not maybe 90 to 95% but yeah we we've got questions about the camera on the fold and everything but hey yeah so we've survived and Gadget has survived you can go check out all of our content hands-ons everything about all the new devices over at the site but right now we've got charlin and we can have like AIT all you got charlin is all we've got sadly um and on Thursday Sam Rutherford will join me on the proper podcast and we will dive into some of his Hands-On thoughts too but charlin yeah First Impressions uh from this launch event and also of the devices that you've seen so far I think I was just talking to Lisa a chico from Cena about this um and we were very impressed by the event but Lisa mentioned that she felt like it it it felt more like an IO it felt less like a pixel Hardware launch event and more like a a focus on software you know what I think I think she's right because like I feel as if Google has reached a point with this pixel Hardware that it's almost iterative every generation I mean other than the pixel fold pixel 9 Pro fold because that's still very new as a product category for them but yeah on on everything else the hardware is basically a canvas a very capable canvas now for Google's real Flex right the like software is where Google really really flexes and really really you know has an advantage over the likes of Apple I mean Google Go's AI I think is still far in away better than Apple's Apple intelligence we obviously haven't seen a lot of Apple intelligence in the real world other than not on a developer beta but yeah it felt like a software show really which isn't a bad thing I like I am so hyped for some of these features well it was a software show except uh where where was the actual next new software where was Android 15 like where's the thing that everyone is kind of waiting for it is weird how yes we got a lot of software stuff we got a lot of AI stuff and new features that um like the what was it adding yourself into a photo add me stuff like that is cool the whole like screenshot it'll remember info from your screenshots you can ask um you know Gemini about that and that's cool yes yes and then updates to the weather app and then there's like some updates that we didn't see um but they're coming to um keep something about uh lists also um image Studio don't forget those very not wonky hot air balloons that you can add to your picture through image Studio yeah a lot of different apps but no full release of like Android 15 you know what yeah yeah I wonder if this is like a hint of things to come because for a very long time for I want to say at least the last two if not three years Google has like ass shoed ISU I don't know sure sure yearly big software release thing and opted for like feature drops every quarter or so and I feel like they're just going to do that moving forward and go on and Android number generational every year thing you know that tells me I'm going to go ask someone here at Google in a little bit whether this is the way forward because you're definitely like I was surprised so we did a lot of this coverage I'm surprised Google is not very upfront with everybody that hey these new phones are not going to be launching Android 15 they're launching with Android 14 and that news kind of trickled out because we're like huh they're talking about a lot of new features but these phones are coming out like soon in a couple weeks and it's this is first of all this is early for Google right like typically get this Stu shortly after the Apple stuff and I think this year Google's like what if we what if we just beat Apple what if we just go a full month before the Apple event and kind of take all that news take all that AI hype even if our software isn't fully ready I feel like that's what happened here so it feels weird I don't know if they were trying to beat Apple to the punch necessarily but I think it is good timing for someone like me who's been complaining very publicly about like how awful October usually is for all of us and this year it's been like a little more reasonable right we had Samsung July Google August maybe probably iPhone September Apple September and then August October might be okay like we might survive this you guys like it is yeah we're we're spreading out the wealth a little bit October is normally like a fall Crush for us we call it toober um I'm probably okay with no events in August I feel like you know these companies do have to take a break at some point yeah if like I mean it used to be it used to be Samsung had it unpacked in August and then now it's more early or late July um and this year was an anomaly again because it was very early in July but like all that timing sort of stuff aside I want to say like Debon in our chat also points out that like the pixel Pro Models the pixel 9 Pro Models they are going to come with one year at least of Gemini events which is something was talked about during the the show um and then also two terabytes of Google storage right for every person that buys a Google even the standard pixel 9 will also come with that so not just the pro yeah um that's awesome right I mean I don't know if Advanced will come with I don't think Gemini Advanced is going to come with a regular pixel 9 but the two terabytes of storage you're saying it might um will have that okay so yeah so like clearly Google is using these devices as a canvas to sell you AI it's Gemini AI it want on device AI it wants to put them in your hands and for you to find the good use case for them and did you see anything that you like like not sure the screenshot stuff is kind of cool I mean what is it Gemini live the sort of like a live helper which oh yeah you know we saw a bunch of these similar announcements from open AI as well like everybody wants to get to this point where you have a smart conversational AI helper um that's kind of cool I am very glad because when before we covered WWDC together charlin I was kind of dreading seeing a similar subscription from Apple from Apple saying hey buy our new device and if you want the best AI and the best software features you also have to pay us $20 a month and apple didn't do that Apple specifically was more focused on on device AI tools there is going to be some Cloud stuff but you're not paying extra for that that's just a part of buying into the ecosystem and I think that's a very Apple move and for Google to be like oh this is we could just be a full-on subscription here I think that's also very Google move to like shift a lot of it to the cloud for processing um and also basically turn this into another subscription model because more money on top of buying the devices on top of their typical storage subscriptions um I'm not a huge fan of that I do think these devices are getting so much more powerful we I love to see these companies focus on what you can do on device without sending my data somewhere else you know without making us pay extra fees extra fees for AI especially for for features that aren't fully baked yet yeah um I'm looking at the co-pilot Pro stuff a lot of that stuff is just not very useful it's still $20 a month right it's it feels like a ripoff so I hope Google makes it worthwhile that's my own that's my thought on that I even then I mean to to to be honest like Google's already selling some of this stuff right the Gemini advanced stuff baked into the workspace stuff like a lot of the Early Access to some of these features that it's like launched with Gemini first rolled out to these premium e workpace business types of customers and then it's like starting to trickle out um but I agree with you that Apple's perspective or approach there is the more sound one in my opinion because you still haven't given me a compelling use case for AI that I would pay money for um and so for Apple to wait till it maybe finds that it's smart plus it's basically giving you like chat gbt for free right like you you be able to use some chat gbt features through Apple intelligence um sure I will say that like bringing mentioning Apple I'm very happy we flew to Mountain View well I flew to Mountain View for this like event and didn't sit and watched a pre-taped video like it was thank you Google for having live people on stage and trying to do live demos which like some of them fell flat and that's not a bad thing like I the very first demo fell really flat which was the thing about hey pict of this uh take a picture of this um what was it invite and add it to my calendar and it was three tries I was we were like counting the seconds too like it felt like it took at least a full minute of failure and um and other things for that to finally start working I felt really bad for Google but also like also the people poing fun at Ai and who don't give a crap about any of this kind of on point like this is the problem he was trying to he looked at an invite he was trying to just like add that stuff to the calendar or check if he has a conflict with this calendar right and everybody in our chat in the gadget hangouts I'm sure online was just like look at your calendar why don't you why don't you look at your calendar and see if this information conflicts like like a human being process some information on your own and instead of doing that which would have taken five seconds yeah he did the demo of the AI thing which took 60 seconds failed multiple times was not ultimately easier so and not going to always be accurate too right the problem with AI is that it doesn't always do like perform correctly um some of the other stuff that like Rick OS say for the end of the show was like research with Gemini and like it's supposed to be able to do multistep multimodal like lots of like uh reasoning that will think ahead even in the future and present things like a research proposal sure yeah um but like even then if like if just one step along the way the Gemini AI is not accurate your entire report and proposal falls apart um and it just has to happen once and you've lost trust in this sort of situation so it's really difficult um I think for for Google to prove that Gemini has a use case there I will say I think um I I I can't remember like on hindsight like how everything flowed just because it was like a blur to me I was live blogging in a frenzy but I think what did we get first like some mention of Gemini and like improvements to the model then we got like the pixel 9 devices announced and then we got n Pro fold and then we moved on to pixel watch 3 and then pixel buts Pro right that was the General events yeah I mean and and there were a lot of cameos we said I think we quickly mentioned Kiki Palmer at the start of the stream Jimmy Butler or Jimmy buckets as he's more fondly known uh also made an appearance to demo this ad me um photo or camera feature coming to the pance series which I think is a smart application of like AI AR and like camera stuff sure I think Google is having fun it's it's I hate that is using the word era but it isn't it's like AI having fun era and you know what live go live your life Google go do it go live your life I mean as an event I I can't really judge I will say it does suck that that demo fell flat for them that shows all the pitfalls of AI right now and when we've talked about stuff like um Amazon's assistant and Siri and everything like the thing that was always must frustrating about the early virtual assistance was that if it misher you one time if it makes a slight when you're talking to something like if you're talking to another human being and they don't like understand you or they're it's it's more frustrating than if you're clicking a mouse and like it doesn't click or you type something in like the computer's wrong because it feels like you're actually engaging something so I think the frustration level as a human with AI is going to be a lot higher so there's a higher threshold for them to clear yeah also just I nothing that they really showed me is something I'm like super excited for I guess I take a lot of screenshots so calling screenshots that's kind of cool but also I love the screenshot stuff oh my goodness it's kind of it's cool the whole like recording um basically transcripts or not transcript but the basic backs of your calls call notes is good I hope the security behind that is is really strong on device is based on recorder Tech I think so should be should should but it's also like if somebody it's not that unusual for people to have bad pins or other people to get access to their devices unlocked like people are not super security conscious so somebody grabs your device and it's open they see a lot of information they see a lot of like information between those calls and sometimes you're throwing out personal information sometimes you're reading your social security number over the phone or something and like that's not that's not great I I always think of like calls as my like most secure means of transmitting confidential sensitive information in the sense that if I had no other choice versus over email or versus over text I rather call someone because there's no like written you know Trail but this is true yeah this might make it like now we have recorded Trails exactly like there's a paper trail now um do want to point out in the chat there are a few like great comments um Mike Jones Jr said I hate when they show up all these features and rarely say which ones are pixel exclusive and which ones are just Android and like I would assume that everything agree with you 100% but I would assume that a lot of these things are pixel first to begin with and they might eventually trickle out to Android they're just not always very clear which ones do come out to Android which to your point is very frustrating mik Jones and um nuron Jen bond in the chat agrees with you uh D Pro 9 says Gemini will ship to all Android phones I'm sure they will because Gemini Advan is something you can sign up for um and pay for regardless of whether you have a pixel phone or not that's what Google wants it is the new Android basically like it is a new layer on top of Android so Google wants that everywhere fingers in every single pie yeah yeah and then Jared Williams made a funny uh mistake that we honestly here at Ina have been making the same mistake so jedah Williams said in the chat the the N Pro fold 2 looked good my bad n Pro fold and like when I was watching Sam shoot his Hands-On video for the N Pro fold the number of times he tripped saying pixel 9 Pro fold has been immense I felt for him and I just went like like lean into it if the name sucks the name sucks you just call call call it the f I think the name sucks and the name is also representative of a lot of problems that Google has like I think that name is such an indicator of like oh my you're just a bunch of freaking nerds and you don't understand how humans think people know what the pixel fold is you had it for a long time it was over a year I think or at least yeah it's a while no it's a it's a year yeah so if you call it pixel fold 2 we get it oh it's running the same Hardware is the pixel 9 or 9 Pro who cares who like it does it does it's a longer name to say it's super annoying people don't remember it and it's inherently confusing and I think some Google some Google nerd was like oh this looks cleaner on the spreadsheet you know like oh our on the spreadsheet or you have the family picture you have the family table on the pixel site right now it's cleaner if if they all have the same name and I'm just like Google you guys somebody needs to slap these engineers and be like a human will want a pixel full too not not what you're thinking I don't know if this got you heated at all but I just it felt indicative of like the problems Google creates for itself just because somebody was like oh this looks better on our website you know yeah I I didn't get too heated about this I just I mean I will say it was funny watch dumb error yeah but but I think pixel fold 2 is a better name but I was just thinking to myself that like even the pixel 9 fold would have been like a better name then if you drop the pro word that some people would get confused and think it's not pro and then like I can see why they want to add nine to the name because they want to make it clear that this is something they might be investing in year over year and it's not going away and it's also like part of the family of devices and therefore you should think of it as a more like mainstream viable but high-end option like the Galaxy but the Galaxy Z series is very clear right I think I think go can to learn a little bit from Samsung here no how dare we're saying Google could learn from Samsung's naming another company where we with the worst names but wor they changed it a little bit for the better with the s24 becoming like Bas on the year as opposed to like random number but like excuse me I almost choked um please don't but yeah uh the pixel like nine what is it the nine and then the N9 Pro and then n Pro XL and then n Pro fold folks that's the whole lineup of the big one9 family right now and if they had just a random pixel fold you know like designation out of nowhere would you get confused I don't know tell us um buddy 305 love is here and Buddy 305 love says that the marketing team usually has the last say on names oh my goodness here too it depends on a lot of things and usually it's the per it's the leaders of that product like the product leads will have a lot of say but I will say that must have been in a really heated like boardroom session or like session in a conference room like everybody's just like fighting cuz I'm sure there are people at Google who think like normal human beings and be like guys we just released the pixel fold everybody just wants a pixel fold too don't make it so hard sure and then then other people are like but how will they know it's part of the pixel 9 family you know and then it's it can't just be the ninefold it's a little better than the N has to be the nine Pro so now we're just adding more words to this stupid thing what a it's it just to me is is a silly silly mess um but sure what do you think that device overall because that is the most interesting one that we have it's a really good looking and Good Feeling device and and for a foldable phone um Sam has mentioned this in his hands on but I will Hammer at home that the aspect ratio of that middle internal screen is really like unique in the space especially compared to Samsung where you have like a bit thinner uh a different orientation for internal screen plus it's a little less skinny compared to Samsung's Galaxy zold 6 which is more like a a baton when it's folded up whereas the pixel Pro fold actually feels see I did the pixel 9 Pro fold actually feels kind of like a regular phone when it's folded in half like it's I like it it's the this the hardware is solid now whereas last year you know the original pixel fold felt like it had still a little bit too chunky bezels still a little unpolished it felt like a prototype almost but now now we've got something that feels grown up so I think it's a nice um device and Sam rightly always wants camera performance to be basically equivalent on your most expensive phone as compared to your like you know highend Flagship um and to um deo's point in the chat $1,800 I think this thing is $799 or 1,700 I forget but like before yeah yeah the same as before but it is an expensive phone so you can't charge people this much money and be like the camera's just going to suck a little bit compared to the like $1,000 phone so and it does kind it does kind of cuz did you guys ever got confirmation is it the new sensors that's in the nine Pro in the fold or are they the older ones Sam might know better I've left the entire full coverage to him so I read his hands on I don't think he got confirmation I don't think Google's fully saying but that's basically what happened last year and kind of what we're used to uh we're looking at the video of Sam's Hands-On right now on the stream and I do have to say the hardware does look nice um like you were saying early on TR this didn't really feel like a hardware event but to me this felt like a pretty Monumental Hardware event for Google because finally the pixel does not look like garbage how about that it doesn't look like you know this is your speaking yes you're bias speaking why it looks like an iPhone this it looks like an iPhone but it also looks like um so they so the main deal was the camera bar which has been on the back of the pixel phone since the pixel 6 um that was like a thing I think when we talked about it it was like oh that's unique that's interesting um sort of like in polite society when you're like oh that's like you're T tasting somebody's dish that they bring to potluck that's interesting yeah yeah nice nice flavor in that really unique um the pixel that design always looked interesting but not attractive I'd say and not particularly stylish and now the camera bar is still there but they rounded the edges to Like a Pill Box shape and it almost feels like a dig against Apple CU it looks like the magic Island and now they're like the dynamic Island the the the dynamic Island yeah but it looks like the Notch from Apple except it's on the back and Google has that's you stretching that's what it looks like to me like that's the shape that we're all we're kind of it's a pill almost yeah it's a pill overall though the pixel 9 and the 9 Pro and the fold look nice and that's something I could I don't think I've been able to say for any of the pixel phones like they've always been functional early on they were kind of ugly and basic they kind of got more interest with the pixel 6 because they wanted a different sort of like camera bump so I would love to know what people think of the new design like I I they are going a little more stylish but it's also $100 more than last year that's a big Downer for me yeah yeah um I think they're bringing like improved things like RAM and storage um obviously for the full details check out the post that we have on ing.com can I just quickly shout out that this video that you're showing on screen right now um for the stream uh I shot most of the b-roll for Sam is that why it's so shaky and unfocused extremely shaky and unfocused so it's like if y all have like issues with it you send your emails to me but also I am like wow look I'm actually watching this video back for the first time oh okay oh this Sam that part was Sam that one the shaky unfocused shots are all Sam nice me for full background everybody we're all trying to get used to using the DJI osmo pockets for a lot of our hand handheld shoots and hey we're getting video we're getting video so it's it's something bear with us bear with us we're transitioning these are some transitional friction things that we're we're working out we'll get better in time but um yeah this I also want to point out we've had a few like late joiners to our party in the chat um in addition to Markell and Buddy 305 love that I shouted out just now we have had uh turbine with a one in the name join uh we've had people like Redmon and um I'm still scrolling uh oh just R rent Jo all um leaving comments which we love leave us more comments in here um but I didn't want to like answer so D are you like the type of person that makes use of every single camera on your camera lineup I listen I paid I paid good money for the iPhone 15 Pro Max and I use every single camera as much as I can we're gonna use the most like I don't um what is great is the telephoto one the one where I can actually Zoom 2X or 5X because when you got kids or you got animals sometimes the correct framing if you move too close to something it kind of goes away so the capture moment zooming is super helpful yeah right you want to scare away a deer or like let your kids or my kids are doing something cute like catching something candidly you it's good to have a zoom yeah not to bring it back to the topic at hand too quickly but there's a new like magic editor feature called autof frame that will help you like rework an image recompose an image and it can do so by maybe generative filling the background if you've like you know shot something a bit off center and stuff like that um which is nice right I think magic editor also has some like cool new features that I said the reimagine one already where you can like select parts of a photo and then ask a magic Editor to reimagine it filled with hot air balloons or filled with storm clouds or like wild flowers as per the demo uh during the Google event so those are interesting I mean I want to play with them but I don't think they'll necessarily be helpful um with image Studio they did pixel Studio image studio is the Apple One pixel Studio they did the um uh that you can use prompts to tell AI to generate certain like graphics for you so they did like a ocean party inside like a campfire in front of the Golden Gate Bridge and and then they created stickers of PE their friends faces from photos right and that's obviously been an iOS feature for a little bit I think at least since iOS 17 if not 16 and P stickers can put be put into pictures in these um pixel Studio ones but not elsewhere in the ecosystem so still a little bit limited compared to apple but yeah I definitely enjoy that I'm definitely like making stickers of myself all over the place um and I think it's fun totally fun uh should we take some questions from the stream because uh Hey we've got General thoughts we've got a lot of coverage up there I want to know what people are thinking of these devices are you impressed by the pixel 9 like to me just looking at the pixel 9 I was like huh Google finally made after many many years because they were making phones even before the pixel series like the Nexus phones were a thing I covered those way back in the day um some of those looked really cool but they never quite figured out iPhone level style they picked up HTC's Hardware Team rip HTC um they had some good smarts there and now it's like oh just make make it a little just make the materials a little nicer give give us a little more of a Polish uh maybe charge people more because of that but there's more RAM in other Hardware too so maybe that's partially Justified I think they're goodlooking phones um how do how do these stack up with the latest galaxies in your mind well really quickly speaking of like charging people more you said for for you know improving and iterating on that design like J Williams has asked this twice in the chat now I'm pretty sure how much you know Jedi is wondering how much Gemini AI will be once that free sort of allotment has expire that onee Gemini Advance coverage um and dindra it's $20 a month yeah for co-pilot you're $20 a month or are you saying Gemini Advance Gemini Advance like I looked it up on the site too right now it's $20 a month they could get it more expensive any subscription gets more expensive yeah yeah so I guess if your like pixel9 Pro you're buying for $100 more is you know comes with that Gemini events access for a year that's like $240 I guess off the like you're saving maybe or like balancing out I I don't think it balances but anyway lot of people in chat are like I'm getting a pro XL I am more hyped for the pro non XL y'all like this is the first time we're getting a pixel9 pro or a pixel Pro in two sizes yeah it's like a smaller size I am mildly excited if only because I want to use it to has a lot these AI features out um and I love a pixel camera so there's that um but yeah I mean I don't know for us to like specs to Specs how they compare right are you talking about like just the candy bar flagships or the foldables that are like we're we're facing off right now that's a good question that's a good question uh I'm which one are you more yeah yeah I think the candy bar foldables just the fact that they're cheap like they're so much cheaper now they're 700 800 bucks I'm seeing them in the wild I've never seen a Galaxy fold or a pixel fold you know outside like outside of tech people in New York even like I just don't see them around it's funny we've seen a lot but they're all in New York I think York coastal cities yeah yeah it totally makes sense but I would just looking at this one Tran like I think this looks like a really nice foldable fixes a lot of the problems we had with the first one what will it take for you to main this or at least make this your secondary phone along with your iPhone yeah you're the mobile you're the mobile lead come on what it would take is oh well I mean I I would relinquish the title of mobile lead to but uh I already do um but like um some of their camera features and you know of course I love the camera features like some of the camera features on the pixel fold um n Pro fold specifically like made you look Isn't that cool though dendra like using the external screen to like get your kid to look at the camer I thought that was like smart as fun it was such a great demo because there cute babies involved um and I think that to to the point of Buddy 305 love in the chat buddy 305 love says the zf6 is a lot better because one UI is clutch I think yeah there's a lot of productivity things that Galaxy zold 6 might do better even though I prefer pixel UI I think one is a bit more productivity focused and one's a bit more entertainment focused Google is the latter and also a bit more AI focused um what would it take I don't know more camera what it would take is for Pixel flip I want Google to make ax pixel flip yeah uh I see some people in the chat I I was not saying $1,800 is the cheap slot price I'm saying the price under $1,000 so the Galaxy flips right now is what seven or 800 bucks like more reasonable not the cheapest thing in the world but more re flip yeah oh sorry the Z flip not the Z flip I think that I think if I'm not remembering wrongly it's like more like 9.99 there there was one there was one that was like a little low but yeah oh the motor Razer plus those are way cheaper but just the fact that we have those out there you're right a pixel flip would be kind of interesting I think we've gotten to the point where those things got cheap enough where it's like you need an Android phone like why why don't you consider one of the flips whereas if you want something like the pixel 9 Pro fold or the Galaxy fold whatever we're on um you're paying close to $2,000 and that's Insanity you know like that's a lot of money like better off buying a flip you know phone or a normal phone and buying like a small tablet yeah because a really good tablet is cheap not that much much cheaper uh rant rant Joe very appropriately to their name says I don't want the AI feature it's just a gimmick I don't care about it yeah you rent on R rent r on don't pay don't pay the extra fee for it yeah don't pay and and if you don't want the good thing about AI features the way they're baked them right now it's like if you don't want it you can still like opt to not use it I think that's the way it should always be like no one should ever be forced to use like a feature they don't want to be used be using um so yeah if you don't like it you don't like it that's fine I find that most of these like AI like summarize and like generate graphs or par writing for you I don't like any of them I'd rather do my own writing so it is what it is we write for a living yeah exactly there are people that like it though and then um Corey dor bush in the chat says you that they just got the upgrade push notification from Google 5 five on the pixel 9 which is interesting are you saying you already have a pixel 9 um I want to point out that Michael kwood just join the chat and said hi hi to Michael kwood Yash Rasta says that nobody cares about Android while you are tuning into to an Android based live stream so I don't know what you're saying here um apple and that Android is a bit confusing and then you play Assassin's Creed on your iPhone and you're still here on our live stream so that's that's nice that's nice good for you um The Punisher says that you might be in the minority but you can't wait to use the AI features I can't wait to use some them I'm really stok for some of them it's really cool some of them some of them I mean there's a lot of stuff in our in our own chats like we were all like neg we were all wondering like a lot of this stuff just feels like the downfall of humanity a little bit too like um asking asking an AI thing what do I do with my niece this weekend um I don't know talk to your freaking niece see what she likes learn learn to communicate with her on a human level and form some sort of social Bond maybe do that instead of ask Gemini so I do think a lot of this stuff is a little like overbaked like I don't I don't know how useful this is to normal people it may make a cool demo to Google and I think investors are like all up on AI right now but yeah we have been covering this stuff for pretty much two years now like the the rise towards generative Ai and large language models and everything they're producing and I'm not sold on any of the stuff sherlin except the stuff that actually helps us do work so I use descript dcom for transcription and some podcast stuff I know a lot of people are using tools like that people are using AI tools within Photoshop and other media creating tools like that sort of stuff seems directly functional and useful and I won't deny that that's helpful but these things not I mean I think I think a lot of the things that I found useful over the years it's hard it's you know weird to say over the years but like remember AI is a term that's been around for a very long time generative AI is the one that's recent right but like even Google's like smart replies in its inbox is of it's not generative to that extent but it is contextually looking at your emails and then generating replies and those have I found small language models yeah right very very small they're not huge l or whatever like but then I I I find that that was helpful I find like you said the generative fill stuff that uh image editors or photo editors like that have also help they've been around for so long though and that's why they've become more useful I think when smart replies was first announced people had a lot of similar initial apprehension like if you use a Smart reply to reply to my email I will not talk to you ever again like I remember that I'm like me too I thought that too but now I do actually click on those chips just click on it but it does it is inherently a little dehumanizing though like that's the thing we talked about this when it comes to like the Google the stupid Google like phone call thing where you tell you know Google Assistant to call stores for you and I'm like that's bad for service workers it's bad for just like on a basic level like you're not actually talking to another person then you're sending this stupid robot that could could have all these errors to potentially go ruin somebody else's day and you are so oblivious from it it's like sending a drone strike from across the planet right you have no clue what damage you've done to this person if Google's assistant uh is not good at actually capturing this reservation yeah and then you get mad at the restaurant if you go later and something about that reservation is messed up Google's almost yeah you may get annoyed at Google but it's the you go there for dinner or something and something's messed up you're mad at that and yeah The Fallout from The Fallout from AI networking does get caught by like human intera human people just trying to do their best and like got screwed over by the AI so that's not good um I don't know we'll see right like I think we we'll see a lot a lot of this we'll see in time the impact and effect of I I think there's a lot more going on in the chat which by the way I love it you're all very Lively right now um rant rant Joe is saying I'm waiting for the pixel 88 to be more of a Deeper Discount now that the nine came out yeah keep an eye out I mean like Horizon November's coming up we got Black Friday coming out um jam Johnson says the real question is how come Apple hasn't made a fold or flip smartphone yet we shall see like I again my money my money is on a foldable iPad mini um in the next two years that's not a like a it's it's a good thing you bring that up but also is it any question why Apple hasn't done this because the tech is still super early these devices are really really fragile compared to a normal smartphone and the functionality I don't think it's Justified the cost for a lot of people you may see those super rich Gadget nerds with a with a Galaxy fold or something or pixel fold but it's not fully Justified for everybody so I think I think apple is the sort of company that's like let's sit and wait and let's do this right if we're if the apple does a fold there's not going to be a crease on it like Apple's probably sitting and waiting for just folding display Tech to get to the point where there's no visible crease like I we're getting we're getting so close to that there's a lot of devices that have very very little visible creas anymore especially on the Asia side of things but I think to someone else's question earlier on in this chat the pixel fold doesn't have that noticeable Pras either I think it looks pretty good pretty good um also uh Mike Jones Jr responded to say that not to worry Apple will invent the photo bows in a few years um Jedi Williams points out that they just saw the specs for the profold and it added uh you know it added wireless charging which is a good thing for that phone and yeah I think that's good too I also want to point out that a spec sheeet Discovery later in the day after the Google event um somewhere it was found out on the internet I think it was 9 Google that discovered um 45 watt wireless charging is Now supported on the pixel 9 family with the included like 45 watt charger in the box so that's very fast which is good still not T2 which is basically Max safe which we're all kind of waiting on but there you go and then uh Markell AI Peak at sherlon uh and Gadget podcast listeners will know um and also uh I want to say buddy 305 love was like can AI tell me what like uh pickup line to use to and then Marell responded certainly here's a playful pickup line for Shirin low and Gadget Deputy editor reviews quote are you a tech review because you've got my heart racing with every word smiley face phone symbol heart um Mark rejected I have ghosted you I am sorry um yeah lots of gosh y'all are hilarious in this little chat I also want to point out that Yash shasa who earlier on was like saying Android not cool um and I was like why are you here bro was like no but you were like you did have a follow up that was like yes Android needs to win back the average consumer they need a marketing strategy to make Android cool again I love the Innovation I don't want new ideas to die out from Apple and it's dominant so it sounds like you're actually an Android fan and you want it to be cool um yes so I I I mean it's hard to be a fan of anything now days because you know they all just it's hard they all disappoint you in the end everyone disappoints you in the end so maybe just don't invest not even in me don't don't be a fan of me I say I'll disappoint you one day but like that there's your pickup line buddy 305 love I'll disapp I've heard your movie review charin I yeah so I I get disappointed we leave from charlin come on folks any other questions that we want to hit uh we will be talking about any other like further stuff on the final and Gadget podcast or the final pixel 9 in gadget podcast uh on Thursday I'll do that with Sam yeah chance chat yeah what's up I do want to mention at the very least the pixel watch 3 and the pixel buz 2 Pro or Pro two yes um so the pixel watch 3 is something that I did a Hands-On with and it's a it's I mean the big thing this year is similar to the pixel9 pro it's got a different size it's got a new size uh cool 45 millimeter version now yay cool cool um I you know have been always using the 41 not always but like I've used the 41mm pixel watch um when it launched as well as the Watch 2 and this year we've got a 45mm version which doesn't look all that much bigger um if you're on the live stream you can see it on my wrist uh right now on the screen and yeah it's it's if not too overwhelming but you get to see like quite a lot more content on it and I think that people who have hard of uh like a difficulty reading small font and whatnot or or smaller interfaces will benefit from this which is good one size doesn't fit all and I think Google learned here which is nice the other thing is these displays are like um have more of an Adaptive refresh rate so can go down to one Hertz and up to 60 hertz that's because of the actual displays that are on them right now um and then yes the the OLED I I hate when they're making up new names for these things just it's basically Google making the point that it's like got its own branded display like similar to like other company but also so these would go up to like 2,000 nits of brightness which is twice as bright as the like last Model and then it can go down to one nit which is something the Apple watch also did so um the pixel watch 3 in terms of Hardware like that's really a lot of the changes is in the screen the new size again the screen also on the original size a 41 millimeter one they shaved out like 16% of the bezel so even without you know exchange like getting a bigger case you've got a bigger screen for a bit more stuff uh and then there's this new thing called loss of pulse detection that's launching with the pixel watch 3 I don't know if you have heard of that phrase I saw that whole the whole thing that they launched um yeah what a L of pulse okay is it loss of the pulse or loss of the detection like girl use dashes I don't know but but yeah but it's interesting so it's being touted as this first of its kind feature it's still working through the regulatory channels and it's like launching for us in some countries in the East launching in Europe yeah yeah not um yeah so so you know obviously there are different regulatory like Hoops jump through um but I think they're working on bringing it here I mean I think it's an interesting feature right like it's kind of like um the fall detection feature that's emergency um related on a lot of SmartWatches these days because everyone copied Apple but yeah when I fell somewhat recently like in July I fell off a bike and my Apple Watch series 9 that I was wearing like within seconds was like wow it like seems like you just fell should we call Emergency Services that's great good job very smart but I was crying and like absolutely not in the mood to look at my watch that was buzzing incessantly on my is okay I but if you were if you were actually if you had like broken your leg or something yeah you would have been crying but you would also been like yes Apple watch please send help and had I not been surrounded by people who were willing to help too I was in New York people were actually being nice so that was good um I do want to point out with the pixel watch 3 that I also uh unearth a little nuget of information and yall are hearing about it here first on the live stream chat um and the article is already live on in gadget.com so go for the details but basically I don't think if I don't know if it's been clear to you the VRA before but if have you wondered what happened to Fitbit branded SmartWatches I I have wondered what happened to Fitbit in general for the past few years yeah but yeah well so it was like about three years ago that Google completed its like acquisition of Fitbit and uh it's what since then released like three pixel watches including the pixel watch 3 you saw today um and then also in that sort of time frame uh fitbits only really launched the sense 2 and Versa 4 and those are both its own branded smart watches that it's been making for years on his own before being bought by Google um and since then it's been quiet that was like in 2022 until now so I think like when the sort of merger more or less first happened there's a lot of chatter around what this means for Fitbit devices Fitbit brand Fitbit watches and my sense and I'm sure if you go back to old episodes of the engag podcast you'll hear this okay I've predicted this all right Fitbit I think was never going to make another Smartwatch but I I knew they were going to continue making activity trackers because it always made sense for Fitbit as a brand that's so heavily associated with that category to continue making trackers like the Inspire the like whatever else they make the fibit Inspire the basic step trackers that also do more than just steps now um and then there's also fibit premium which they're I think kind of somewhat pivoting to becoming like more of a coaching content based sort of um ecosystem which I think it's fine they're also using AI to like generate workouts for you so I think I I mean I think I'm the first person to get them on record saying that they're definitely no longer going to make Fitbit smart branded smart watches I mean not not so many words I think they're saying like they're basically saying that like look the next Fitbit Smartwatch you should think of it as the pixel watch 3 in that like Fitbit smart watches have evolved like a Pokemon into the pixel watch um family I I will say this by the way sense it makes sense I think we all kind of expected that as just after the acquisition was over and Google went all in on the pixel watch um this one doesn't look so bad honestly I I wish there was like an Apple Watch variant that kind of had the rounded face and like looked a little more like this I think like again with the pixel9 and the N Pro and the fold and everything like this is a good design year for for Google so hey Color Me surprised I'm just sitting here wondering how this is all going to fall apart for them it's it's usually like a little thing it's like calling the full Vol two what should have been the Vol two no no no the smartest thing the nine Pro full that's a very googly and I think like Google as a company is just so unused to they're not good with consumer Hardware we've talked about this a lot and I just don't know if I can fully trust it but hey I know yeah I know where you're coming from I would say that like the pixel watch um looks nice it felt comfortable you know it's one of the more comfortable watches especially when paired with the right bands the like stretch band is chef's kiss um because it's basically the Apple solo Loop but in a more is a softer stretchier material it doesn't maybe like overtime it might lose it elasticity but I haven't experienced that yet um so I love those and I I think that that is Testament to like Google meeting Fitbit with Hardware I mean Fitbit was never good with style I think in my opinion but it's got St ones yeah I mean I I took issue with one of your like reviews before we worked together dendra where you were like this was before I join a gadget and you were like Fitbit Lux is the first stylish Fitbit I was say stylish that was that was I know we good it was the first one that looked like it was not a square like they were more uh like they were hard on Fitness stuff like they were a fitness device company that did really good data work and like that was the that was the core of Fitbit they didn't have great design work either but I think it had more personality than a lot of the Google stuff so you know and now now they're kind of fin finalizing what the pixel brand identity is and it's Sleek it's it's very Sleek now yeah yeah so I think like also if you you know anyone listening watching this has time to go read that report that I wrote about like what what fibit is doing with it Smartwatch slash how it's working together with Google it's a lot of things I've I've included in one which is how Google and Fitbit now work together on the pixel watch and where Fitbit still continues to fit in the industry and within Google because even if like other people in the chat like Yash are saying like Google just make Fitbit free already or like Ash is saying Fitbit naming like Google just keep it simple peeps um the uh body 305 love was the one who said that Google should just make Fitbit free already yeah like it it seems better to integrate Fitbit into Google's ecosystem and not have that logo key jumping up at you but I will say Fitbit still does have a lot of this brand recognition and especially in the tracking space especially in heart rate tracking where they've been like a Pioneer in sleep stage tracking overnight too so like a lot of that stuff fibit deserves to keep its name on and it it deserves to stick around for a little bit um I do want to correct something Yash trasa says that you can use a pixel watch on iPhone I double checked either today or yesterday no you can't um you cannot use a pixel watch with iOS it is currently Android only um which you know okay like if Honestly though if pixel watch was like iOS compatible I may consider I feel like the I I would say this new pixel watch looks so good I almost wonder if Apple's like let's just hit that button to unlock Android compatibility with the Apple watch if Apple did Apple watch on Android they would win over the pixel watch kind over we'll see yeah because for now for me it really boils down to Apple has hit consistently for me a two-day mark on this watch battery life the Apple Watch series 9 um if if I'm using it heavily then it's like one and a half days but if I'm not it's two days so like pretty good Google is still struggling to meet a 24hour mark so like you need the pixel watch battery life is gonna gonna like really make or break its like how we evaluated this time abely like loss of pulse are hard to test I'm not going to go like have a cardiac arrest moment just to like test lot of pulse shn just let me I'm gonna hold this pillow over your head for a little bit okay just trust me this is how dedicated we are to the job you all yeah didn't you you went on a hike with the uh the Apple watch Ultra right you went you went you went to the wilderness for that thing almost got lost thing that was whole thing were you the one that no Sam threatened me with a good time Sam was like I think I said something like oh oh my God we forgot about this satellite SOS satellite SOS texting uh coming to Android phones for the first time by way pixel they found that on the the other pixels too like they sort of like ghost unlocked some of that for the pixel8 didn't they they could have I don't know uh I I just saw I saw news about that could have been um but pixel 9 is where we're seeing it first and when I when I mentioned this on our live blog which by the way you guys can go back and read it's a hoot and a half um the the this satellite SOS feature I was like I'm so hype I don't know why and then Sam was like why don't you go on a hike and test it I was like yeah don't give me more reason to go on a hike for work because I will although I really should take the Galaxy watch Ultra on a hike and I still have refused to put it back on my wrist I'm sorry Samsung it just oh man uh I I think this is the story I was seeing uh there post on Reddit saying satellite SOS randomly showed up on my pixel 8 safety and emergency settings so people were seeing it in settings but it does look like officially the pixel first time hey that's a good that's a good thing I do love that this is and people kind of made fun of it when Apple did it as well but hey we don't have connectivity everywhere it is it is sometimes important like there are still stories you hear of hikers just dying in the middle of nowhere because they lost power they got lost they didn't have water like it's still happens um this is like a super easy thing to do and like satellite texting has just gotten cheap enough to do that me started yeah don't get me started on like cave exploring gone bad but um I also want to point out that Yash in the chat who I've mentioned a few times now says that watchos worked with iOS that you looked it up and it was a nice while it last I think you're talking about were OS which was Android Wear before weos and were OS did work with iOS or I think it was Android Wear that did work with iOS Fossil watches that ran Android where whereare OS were compatible with iPhones I remember the the Moto 360 I remember trying to test that on an iPhone I think and that was a good it so basic though you could not reply to text you could get text but not reply and then eventually it was reply with an emoji God I in like those were the wild west days when everything was bad and everything is so bad we should probably wrap this is there anything else you wanted to mention Shin from just you were you were at Google anything you not there did you get to talk to Kiki Palmer because I love her so much no I did not I mean I think the event was well planned well executed the devices themselves sure I think that I quickly shouting out the buts Pro to just go read our uh uh News Post by Billy Steel on our website and g.com but for them to be the first like design for Gemini is quite the claim it's also the first to have like a tenser A1 chip a design for like wearables like again oh for for headphones again like it feels like a really every product we've talked about so far especially in the wereable Spades has some something significant newswise attached to it which I think is cool um but yeah obviously we'll have to see when uh these get in our hands protesting in the real world I'm already like seeing fun pictures of people using ad me I will use ad me till the day I die just to get pictures of me with me with me with me Som I'm not surprised somehow I'm not surprised that's what it's I am on brand I am nothing if not on brand um but maybe we should say goodbye to people it's been an hour um thank you all so much for joining us today we really appreciate all of you even those of you who have already pre-ordered the the phones because what are you thinking if you pre-ordered it you let us know you you come back to the podcast on get yourself a good deal like we we keep an eye out for in gadget because we will often post like a lot of a lot of the deals we see but don't rush there are often good deals look at what your carrier is doing what is the tradein your carrier is going to offer you for your existing device take it easy I basically got the 15 Pro Max for not much or not because I waited like a month or two and Verizon had a really good tradeing deal be smart folks yeah waited out a little bit for a better deal so people are saying bye I want to say bye to the people who have already started saying bye de 9 Markell um was saying that you should play cat videos on the stream now that you can do these videos we can't do videos it's just hard to manage so very hard to skipping around really doing his best right like doing amazing job while talking um also yeah thanks to dendra for hosting this and actually right now it's I almost p.m where you are D think um and then Yash is going to a future concert now Mark does point out if you have any thoughts not only can you come back on Thursday morning at about 10:30 a.m. eastern to this YouTube channel to join in the live stream of the Engadget podcast with dindra and sford from our team you can also send us emails podcast engadget.com or like me like sherlin atg.com c h e r l y NN atg.com and then yeah we will see you shortly goodbye bodyy 305 love Bell J Johnson Debo 9 everyone bye everybody thank you so much I also say hey go check out our coverage go read our coverage share the coverage there's some videos online and uh yeah let us know if there's any other I don't know any other questions you've got about these pixel devices uh hopefully charlin makes it back safely to the east co uh everybody is dealing with flight delays today but yeah thank you so much folks for joining us podcast and gadget.com and be sure to subscribe to the show thanks folks we're out