The first Tango smartphone in the world was made by Lenovo, and was due to launch in September. That didn't happen, and Lenovo quietly delayed the release "to this fall". Now, a Google representative has confirmed that the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro is coming to markets next month.
For those unaware, the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro was unveiled at the Lenovo Tech World event in June this year. The smartphone has been made in collaboration with Google, and is the first smartphone that uses AR and VR to sense and map surroundings. The smartphone will make "AR and VR as pervasive as the GPS", and will be intelligent enough to understand the size of the room you're in, and even sense the presence of people in it. Project Tango (now renamed as just 'Tango') is expected to transform how we interact with e-commerce, education and gaming.
During the launch, the company claimed that the smartphone would hit the market in September, but that didn't happen, and Lenovo quietly pushed the release to fall. Now, Clay Bavor, head of VR at Google, has told CNET that the phone will go on sale this November.
Around the same time Google's two Pixel smartphones will hit the market as well. The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro's abilities are based on machine vision, with a camera and sensor setup that provides motion tracking, depth perception, and area learning. This can enable augmented reality applications like indoor navigation, search, and gaming. With depth sensing, it can be used for gesture tracking in virtual reality as well.
The newly launched Pixel and Pixel XL have some unique features
Other Android users won't be getting most of these features
Google Assistant will become available to all users in time
At its event in San Francisco, Google announced thelaunch of two new phones, the Google Pixel and theGoogle Pixel XL, as well as the starting price in India and other markets. The Pixel starts at Rs. 57,000 for the 32GB variant, and the Pixel XL will set you back by Rs. 67,000 for the 32GB variant.
The two phones are identical except or the screen size and resolution, apart from the battery capacity, and both are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor with 4GB of RAM. They come with the same 8-megapixel front camera, and 12.3-megapixel rear camera, and in many ways live up to the premium pricing. You can see the full specifications of theGoogle Pixel and Google Pixel XL.
The phones also pack some unique features that are only going to be for the Pixel line; these features aren't supposed to extend to the rest of Android, except one. Here are five features unique to the Google Pixel phones:
1) Unlimited photo and video storage for life As a regular user of Google Photos, you can back up your images without having to pay a paisa. It's great, but Google compresses the images to a "high-quality" size. That's not really an issue if you're only going to be viewing the images on your phone's screen, but if you're taking printouts, or perhaps viewing them on a 4K monitor, then the compression starts to look bad. Google's Pixel phones will offer unlimited backups of photos and videos at full resolution - even videos recorded at 4K will be backed up for free on the cloud, with no limit.
2) Smart storage You know what's better than having unlimited backups? Not having to worry about managing unlimited backups. Google calls this feature Smart Storage, and it automatically removes images and videos from your phone to the cloud when it decides that you're running short on space. It picks the files automatically so you're not wasting time managing your storage, and thanks to the unlimited backups Google is offering, you don't lose out on the quality of your videos at all.
This means that your 32GB storage will still be adequate for use, even if you decide to film 4K videos - the files will just live on the cloud instead of filling up your phone needlessly.
3) Google Assistant The Google Pixel and Pixel XL are the first smartphones with Google Assistant built-in. Google Assistant is the new smart assistant that some of the people reading would already have experienced thanks to Allo. The Assistant gets promoted to the home screen, and you can call it up with a long-press on the home button.
The Assistant is more than just a voice search interface - it's backed up by AI smarts, and it contextualises the information it digs up through your earlier interactions. In our usage of Allo, the Assistant came across as a work in progress, but Google says that the more you use it, the more useful it will become. As of now, you can already use it to add events to your calendar, make a grocery list, and navigate home.
Google has told Gadgets 360 that the feature will be coming to other phones, but didn't announce a timeline for this.
4) Pixel Launcher Google's Pixel Launcher is exclusive to the Pixel phones, and is the evolution of the Google Now Launcher. This includes replacing Google Now with the Google Assistant, a dynamic calendar icon that shows you the date in a glance, a revamped app drawer, new, round app icons, and more.
Google might bring it to more devices down the line, though given the name, don't get your hopes up for this happening in the near future. Sideloading could be an option, as was demonstrated when the unofficial version leaked last month.
5) 24/7 customer support One of the biggest problems with buying a phone is getting customer support. Google is aware of this, and is offering 24/7 customer support via both voice and text and it also has a screen sharing solution so that the tech-support can directly see what's on your screen to diagnose problems. It's an optional setting, in case you were worrying about security issues.
Putting this in place requires a lot of manpower, which is why Google can't roll this particular feature out to all phones, though of course, other manufacturers could add a similar feature themselves if they wanted to.
These five features will clearly distinguish the Pixel phones from other Android offerings and help them stand out.
Bonus One of the coolest offerings of the event was also one of the smallest - Google's Quick Switch feature and dongle. The adapter will enable you to quickly switch to a Pixel phone, copying all your data from an iPhone or another Android handset with on-screen instructions to transfer your data.
Other brands including Samsung and Motorola have their own solutions to migrating from other hardware so this isn't completely unique, though the implementation is slick and appealing.
What do non-Pixel users get? The Pixel phones also launch with Android 7.1 Nougat before anyone else gets to use the operating system. However, this at least isn't exclusive to them, and the rest of us will get the new OS at some point in the line. Android 7.1 also brings some cool features that people will benefit from though this will take some time to happen.
1) Daydream VR The biggest of these is clearly Daydream VR - support for the Daydream Viewheadset and Google's new VR ecosystem. As of now, the headset will be certified for use only with the Google Pixel phones but Daydream is supposed to be a platform and phones with Android 7.1 Nougat will also support the use of Daydream View headsets and have access to the Daydream VR platform.
2) Fingerprint gestures Android 7.1 Nougat also gets fingerprint gestures – Among other manufacturers, Coolpad has done something similar with the Coolpad Note 5 but with Android 7.1, you will be able to have features like swiping on the sensor to open notifications as a standard.
3) Night Mode Some Android manufacturers already ship phones with night mode which filters out blue light, and the same is true for iOS. Now Google has made the feature standard and phones from Android 7.1 onwards will also be able to switch to night mode to reduce eyestrain.
It's a small feature that nonetheless has a huge impact, and it's surprising that it wasn't the norm across devices much sooner.
1. Exclude certain words from a google search by adding a minus sign (-) followed by the words you want to exclude.
2. If you search your favorite food, and then click “Search Tools", you can filter recipes based on ingredients, cook time and calories. Perfect for anyone with dietary restrictions.
3. Search within a website by typing “site:” followed by the URL of the site and your search terms
4. Have Google do math for you by simply searching the equation
5. Adding “intitle:” infront of your search term will only produce results with that term in the title of the webpage
6. Do two Google searches at once by adding ‘or’ between the search terms
7. Find hilarious GIFs easier by clicking “Search Tools” and then changing “Type” to animated
8. Type "translate 'language A' to 'language B'" to put a translator out of a job.
9. Use Google News to search 100 years' worth of digitized newspapers just as you would the internet.
10. Search for sites that link another site on their pages by searching “link” and then the website
11. Searching the name of a holiday will tell you what date that holiday is on
12. Convert currency and units
13. Don’t remember the name of a song you heard? Fill in the blanks of any search with asterisks (*) and Google will try to complete your search for you.
14. Looking for a PDF or Powerpoint on a specific topic? You can search by file type by searching “filetype:PPT”
15. Putting the search term in quotation marks will search for words in that exact order
16. Putting “..” between two numbers will search within that range.
“Donkey news 2008..2010” will only show news articles from 2008 to 2010, while “digital camera $200..$300” will only show cameras within that price range. 17. If you include the word “anagram” in your search, Google will make anagrams for you. Even if you’re trying to define anagram.
18. Define a word by typing “define:” followed by the word.
19. Set a timer by typing “set timer for” and then the amount of time.
20. Google has a built in calculator for tipping, just search “tip calculator”
21. Search for “Songs by” and the name of a band, then Google will display all of their songs.
22. Search for “Books by” and the name of an author, Google will display all of their works.
23. You can even search for plane information by searching the flight number
24. If you need to know what time the sun will rise or set, just search it on Google
25. Search for the origin behind words by adding “etymology” onto the end
26. Google will also let you pitch two foods against each other
27. If you search for “Google gravity” and hit "I'm feeling lucky" then you'll get a rather literal definition of gravity
28. Ask Google for "recursion" and you'll get recursion
29. Ask Google to "do a barrel roll" and it'll do a barrel roll
30. Search “Atari Breakout” on Google Images and you can play the legendary block breaker with the results.
31. If you Google "zerg rush", you'll have to protect your search results from being eaten by Google's o's. Yes, this is a thing.
32. If you hit 'I'm feeling lucky' without actually typing anything into the search box, you'll get a catalogue of all the Google doodles — all the way back to 1998
Google unveiled an array of hardware products on Tuesday
The products are the fruits of the unified hardware division
The central theme of the products was smart home automation
Google at its #MadeByGoogle event unveiled its hardware portfolio, the fruits of the newly-formed hardware division under Rick Osterloh, the former President of Motorola Mobility. Apart from the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, Google unveiled the Home smart speaker, the Daydream View VR headset and controller, the Google Wifi smart router, and Chromecast Ultra.
The Google Daydream View virtual reality headset and controller have been priced at $79 (roughly Rs. 5,300), and will go on sale in the US in November. The Google Home smart speaker, powered by Google Assistant, will be available for $129 (roughly Rs. 8,600) - it goes up for pre-orders on Tuesday, and will start shipping from November 4 with a 6-month subscription to the ad-free YouTube Red.
The Google Wifi router is priced at $129 (roughly Rs. 8,600), and will be available for pre-orders from November, and will ship in December in the US. A 3-pack of the router will cost $299 (roughly Rs. 19,900). The Chromecast Ultra, which now supports 4K video streaming, will be available in November for $69 (roughly Rs. 4,600).
The Google Home (seen below) smart speaker represents an important move in an intensifying battle between Google and other major tech players to establish the dominant "digital assistant." Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri are vying for supremacy as more people search the Web and make purchases online through voice commands, which may eventually supplant keyboards and touchscreens as the primary means of controlling some digital devices.
Google Home was described as a voice-based virtual assistant that lets people tap into the company's online capabilities to answer questions, manage tasks, set up alarms and calendar events, control devices in homes, stream videos, audio casting, and more. Activated by the 'Ok Google' hotword, it acts as the centre of home automation, it connects to third-party IoT devices and platforms such as Next, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, and IFTTT. It features a mic mute button, to reassure privacy conscious users it is not listening to you all the time. A Google Assistant SDK will be released later this year to help developers create compatible bots - for example, booking an Uber through the speaker.
Describing the audio capabilities, Google says the Home speaker features a three-speaker setup, alongside a dual passive radiator design for "crystal-clear highs and deep lows". It also sports two omni-directional microphones and neural beamforming for hearing the user despite background noise and music. Apart from grouping several Home speakers across the house, the speaker can also be paired with Chromecast Audio and Cast-enabled speakers for multi-room support. The base will come in several colour variants and finishes, while the top portion remains the same, and features a capacitive touch surface to control it if required.
Coming to Google Wifi (seen below), the smart router uses mesh Wi-Fi technology to support modularity, letting users distribute several of the small routers across their home to ensure a widespread Wi-Fi network, instead of one single massive router for the purpose. The 3-pack is meant for users with a house larger than 1,500 square feet. It sports a LED light to show network status, an Ethernet port, and a USB Type-C port for power. It supports dual-band 5GHz Wi-Fi and AC1200 standards, with additional support for the Bluetooth Smart specification.
Google says the router uses machine learning-based Network Assist tech to let connected devices intelligently switch between one router to another, with a handoff time of less than 150 milliseconds. Everything about the router will be managed by a smartphone app for both Android and iOS, including administrator settings like parental controls and bandwidth prioritisation. Privacy and security features like verified boot and auto updates were also touted.
The Chromecast Ultra's biggest USP is its support for 4K video streaming as well as HDR and Dolby Vision. The company is touting major Wi-Fi improvements that will let it load videos up to 1.8 faster than previous Chromecast dongles, and bears an Ethernet port if required. Chromecast Ultra (seen below) supports the new Google Home smart speaker hub, letting users control their TV via voice commands.
Finally, we come to Daydream View, the company's first Daydream-ready headset and controller. The company says the headset is inspired by clothing, and features soft, breathable fabric that make it comfortable to wear and also 30 percent lighter than competing devices - it also works over spectacles. The headset is also hand-washable - a thoughtful addition considering the sweat and grime that can collect after hours of use. It will be available in Slate, Snow, and Crimson colours. Google says users just have to insert their Daydream-ready smartphones in the headset, and it takes care of alignment by itself.
As for the Daydream View controller (seen below), Google says the Bluetooth powered device can fit into the headset for easy storage, and features motion tracking sensors and a volume button. Apart from the US, the Daydream View headset will make its way to Canada, the UK, Australia, and Germany. Content partners such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and J.K Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them were also announced, apart from MLB, NBA, Hulu, HBO, and Netflix.
Google Pixel XL price in India starts at Rs. 66,000
Google Pixel and Pixel XL have India release date of October
Google unveiled the first-ever Google-branded smartphones, the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday. With the launch of the two phones, Google is saying goodbye to the Nexus line, with the Pixel and Pixel XL designed to showcase the best that Android has to offer.
Google Pixel price in India Here is the price in India of all Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL variants:
Google smartphone
Storage
Price in India
Google Pixel
32GB
Rs. 57,000
Google Pixel
128GB
Rs. 66,000
Google Pixel XL
32GB
Rs. 67,000
Google Pixel XL
128GB
Rs. 76,000
Google Pixel India release date 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.
Google Pixel price in US Here is the price all Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL variants in the US:
Google smartphone
Storage
US Price
Google Pixel
32GB
$649
Google Pixel
128GB
$749
Google Pixel XL
32GB
$769
Google Pixel XL
128GB
$869
Google Pixel specifications 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, an f/2.4 aperture, and 1.4-micron pixels.
Google Pixel release date The Google Pixel and Pixel XL are already up for pre-order in the US, UK, Canda, Australia, and Germany, with an expected release date of October 20. As mentioned above, the phones are also headed to India.
