On the flagship podcast of the correct height-to-width ratio of a foldable phone:
The Verge’s David Pierce, Allison Johnson, Victoria Song, and Chris Welch discuss all the new gadget announcements from Google’s Pixel event — including the Pixel 9, the Pixel Watch 3, the Pixel buds, and more.
The Verge’s David Pierce, Allison Johnson, Victoria Song, and Chris Welch discuss all the new gadget announcements from Google’s Pixel event — including the Pixel 9, the Pixel Watch 3, the Pixel buds, and more.
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TechTranscript
00:00Welcome to the Vergecast, the flagship podcast of the correct height to width ratio of a foldable
00:05phone. I'm your friend David Pierce, and I'm back. I was on vacation for the last two weeks
00:10up in New England, looking at leaves and frolicking in fields and drinking fancy coffee
00:18and doing all the things that you normally do on vacation. I missed a shocking amount of news
00:24for late July and early August. Truly bonkers how much stuff is going on. But now I'm back.
00:30The team did an awesome job while I was out. Thank you to everybody who sent us feedback
00:33on the pilots we've been doing. We have lots more fun stuff coming up on that front,
00:38but it's gadget season, friends, so we have a lot to do. Today on the show, we are going to talk
00:42all pixel all the time. The reason this episode is coming out a little bit late is because Google
00:47is having an event today, potentially right now, as you're listening to this, announcing all of
00:52its hardware for the year. We've gotten some of the hardware already, the new Nest thermostat,
00:56the new TV streamer, but all the phones, all the everything that's been leaked and talked about for
01:01months, it's all coming out right now. A couple of folks on our team have seen this stuff. They've
01:06been briefed on the news. They know what's coming. So we are going to talk about all the new stuff
01:10coming from Google and what it means. I really can't figure out Google as a hardware company.
01:15I've spent a long time trying to figure it out and we're going to try and do it all at once on
01:20this episode. So that's what this episode is. It's all Google all the time. It's the pixel special.
01:26We're going to get into it, but first I just have one quick PSA for you. And I learned this again.
01:31I've learned this a hundred times and I keep forgetting every time I go on vacation, the buffer
01:36day is everything. When you get home from a trip, make sure there is one whole day between the end
01:42of that trip and whatever thing you have to do next, back to school, back to work, whatever it
01:46is you're doing, come home on Saturday, instead of going on Sunday night and then going back to
01:51work Monday morning. That's awful. Didn't do the buffer day, regret the buffer day,
01:56all hail the buffer day. Let's talk pixel. This is the verge cast. We'll be right back.
02:02Welcome back. There's lots of Google news to get to. So let's just get to it. I have a crew
02:07of people who, uh, by the look of it are very, very few of you are where you normally are when
02:11we do this. So let's, let's just go around and figure out what's going on V song. Hello. You
02:15appear to be where you usually are. I am in my normal spot. This is good. I'm very happy.
02:21Uh, Alison Johnson. I can't even begin to guess where you are right now. This is lovely mountain
02:26view, California, Chris Welch. Hello. Where are you right now? I'm in Brooklyn. All right. So
02:32you are the people who know what's coming from Google. And I should say just for people who
02:36are curious how this all works, we're recording this on Monday, Google's event and the embargo
02:40are on Tuesday, but you all have, because of your wiles and excellence as reporters,
02:45you know, what's coming. You have seen the things you've talked to people about the things.
02:48So we're going to talk about the things. Uh, and I have a list of gadgets that I want to talk about.
02:54And first what's going to happen is I'm going to give you the list. And then you're going to tell
02:58me if there's anything that I'm missing that are surprises because I'm coming back from two weeks
03:01of vacation and I missed a lot of things. And then I have ranked the things in the order in
03:06which I am interested in them. And then we're going to talk about them. That'll sound good.
03:09Great. So here's my whole list. I have the pixel nine, the pixel nine pro, the other pixel nine
03:15pro and the pixel nine fold. Are those all the phones? Did I miss any phones? Those are the
03:19phones. Okay. I have a pixel watch two and pixel buds. Pixel watch three. Oh God. Is it the pixel
03:25watch three already? It is the pixel watch three already. Okay. All right. Oh, and there's two of
03:30them. So we have the pixel watch three and the other pixel watch three and the pixel buds with
03:34a number attached that I can't be bothered to worry about right now. We also have the Google
03:38TV streamer, nay Chromecast RIP, which I want to talk about. Those are all the gadgets, but I also
03:44have, I have a nest thermostat, I guess we'll, we'll touch on that, but we're going to get to
03:47that with Jen later this summer, I think. Uh, and I have the pixel screenshots thing, a bunch of AI
03:51and just some other random nonsense to get to. Am I missing anything before we dive in? I don't
03:56think so. I think you got it. Probably, but we'll get to it. Yeah, this is Google. Like there's
04:01probably several gadgets that the leak between now and the event on Tuesday when folks are doing
04:06this. So for anything we missed, I apologize. Blame Sudarvichai. Let's start with the funds
04:10because I feel like this is, this is just where we have to start again. This, this is all new.
04:15I don't know any of the specs of these things. So the first thing you're all going to have to do is
04:18kind of give me the rundown of what's going on. And then we're going to, we're going to talk about
04:22our feelings about all of it. So let's, let's start with the pixel nine. Alison, tell me about
04:27the pixel nine. Yeah. Pixel nine. So we used to have two phones. Wow. Two phones that didn't
04:33fold. Now there's three phones that don't fold in half. So pixel nine is still the,
04:38the entry level is a hundred dollars more expensive this year, which seems to keep
04:43happening to this phone. Yeah. Remember when the pixel was like the cheap flagship,
04:48that was like its whole thing. I looked at it. Pixel six was 599 and we are $200
04:55further away from that. So this year has got 6.3 inch screen, which is like, they keep making it
05:02a tiny bit bigger without making the phone like meaningfully bigger. So it's still like the small
05:09phone of the pixels, like do without what you want, but there's more Ram this year,
05:15upgraded ultra wide camera, a little bit bigger battery, that kind of thing, like incremental
05:22stuff. And then there's all the AI, you know, there's a new chip, right? That's, that's like,
05:28I would assume for all the AI stuff they're trying to do, that ends up being like the big spec bump
05:31here would be the new chip tensor G4. And that's across the board in all of them. That is one
05:37thing Google does that I really like is have the same chip in everything. Uh, and they claim it's
05:41an AI thing and that sort of makes sense, but, uh, at least your phone should perform very well.
05:46No matter which one you buy is a, is a nice and not always common thing to have going on. Yeah.
05:52Good job. Google, not a lot of enthusiasm coming from you on the pixel. I got to say, like, I'm
05:56just, it's just, it's, there was not brimming with excitement. Yeah. It's it's the boring one
06:02this year. I think mostly because there's now a pro version and like pro phone, that's basically
06:09the same size. And I get excited about the size phone. So I want to see the pixel nine pro,
06:15unfortunately it is shipping much later than the other ones. So it's going to be
06:21TBD on like opinions about that one. The colors are nice this year on the,
06:26on the small fall, the boring phone. Are they, what are the colors? You know,
06:30there's always the two boring colors and then there's this winter green and peony.
06:36So it's very like pink and green. It's, it's a vibe. It's a very happy pink. It's, it's pink.
06:42It's not like, here's a drop of pink. It's basically white. They went for it. They went
06:48for it. They were just like colors. We love them. I actually appreciate that from Google.
06:52I feel like everyone else is out here trying to like come up with fancy names for beige
06:56on their phones every year. And Google at least is, is committed to the bit of,
07:01do you want this green phone? Yeah. And I do want this green phone. Yeah. Like I do Google. Yes.
07:07Thank you. All right. So let's talk about the pro because the, my guess would be that the pro
07:13is going to be vastly more interesting to most people than the regular pixel nine, especially
07:18because the pixel nine is not so cheap anymore as to be kind of a tiebreaker for money reasons for
07:25most people. So what, and, and like you said, you can now get a pixel nine pro at the same size as
07:30the pixel nine, which I think is also a big deal. So what's, what's the story of the pro here?
07:35Yeah, the pro. So all three other phones are pro something. There's the nine pro.
07:41That's the smaller one nine pro XL, which is a 6.8 inch screen, which is up in, you know,
07:48Samsung galaxy S 24 ultra territory. It's like a big one. And then the, the fold, the pixel nine
07:55pro fold is a pro phone this year. And as best I can tell, I made a spreadsheet of the specs
08:02pro means it has 16 gigs of Ram. That's the only like through line on the phones. So like you said,
08:10they all have 10s or G four. Um, you have two choices of pro phones that don't fold in half
08:16super big screen or reasonably sized screen. The nine pro is nine 99. So that's no, it's not a
08:25price increase even though the phone is small. It's weird comparing the eight pro to the nine
08:30pro. Cause it's, you really want to compare the eight pro to the nine pro XL. Uh, it's real wonky.
08:36Yeah. Chris, Chris, can you make sense of this lineup for me? Because you're,
08:39you're the person I trust to want the most phone at all times possible.
08:43And I, I appreciate that about you. What do you make of this lineup?
08:46Uh, it feels pretty conventional. Like once you just look at the nine and nine pro XL,
08:51which are going to come out first. So that's kind of like just the usual playbook for Google. And
08:55then a nine pro will be out sometime next month, they say, but yeah, I mean, I want the fold,
09:00obviously, uh, for no reason other than it's very pretty and they got the screen size, right. And
09:06yeah, there's a lot to like about it this year. Let's just get into that because I feel like I
09:10wanted to start with the pixel phones because I feel like a, they are the ones that most people
09:14who want these phones will buy, but also they are what they are, right? Like we're, we're in a phase
09:18with all of these phones, no matter what company you buy from where you can pretty much write down
09:22a list of what's going to happen next year. And you're almost always right. So let's move on from
09:26that because I agree. It seems like the fold is probably the most different and maybe most
09:32compelling thing in this phone lineup. And Chris, I particularly, I want you to explain this phone
09:37to me because you just wrote a thing that I would call like a deep backhanded compliment to the
09:42pixel fold where you're kind of like, I love this thing. It sucks. I can't wait for them to do it
09:48better. So, so tell me, tell me about the new pixel fold and what it seems like Google maybe
09:53did right this time. Uh, so they changed the whole form factor. So the first of all, there's
09:56like a passport style, like shortened squat. And that was fun. Like the outer screen was like,
10:02not quite as tall as most phones. So you could use it with one hand very easily. And then when
10:05you opened it, it was like a very wide, like inner screen. Now they're going towards like the one plus
10:09open direction where it's like a very tall outer screen. It's like a normal phone. It's like a 6.3
10:13inch display, like just like the pixel nine display, essentially it's like the same size.
10:16So you've got like a whole phone on the outside now. So you're not really like making any
10:19compromises there. And then you open it up. It's just like a giant, like whole tablet now. So the
10:25first told I like had a ton of like a black bars with many apps on the sides. Cause they it's
10:29Android and no one actually like, you know, cares about like one device. Uh, so hopefully now Google
10:34is going to say that like all these apps are going to like open the full screen by default now. So
10:37it's going to have like better app compatibility and it's way brighter to like the first fold.
10:41Wasn't that bright outside? This one is like very, very, very bright. So they've like fixed
10:45many problems. The cameras are still in nowhere near as good as the pros. Obviously that's the
10:48main issue. Uh, there's just like not much room to fit super nice cameras in there. Uh, so that's
10:53the main compromise you're going to make if there is one. Uh, but it just seems like a super refined,
10:58nice version of the first fall. That's like what the first fold should have been essentially. And,
11:01uh, but it's, uh, but it's now $1,800, which is extremely expensive.
11:07Improve flatness. It is very flat.
11:0918. Yeah. I just, the price kills me. And it's like Google, if I, if they made me the CEO of
11:14Google, I would be willing to lose so much money on pixel folds just to like, this is, this is your
11:20chance if you're Google. And I want, we're going to get back to some of the like big picture,
11:24where does Google fit into this universe stuff in a minute? Because I wrote a bunch of years
11:30ago when the first pixel came out that this was the best phone on the planet. And I believed it
11:35then. And I think Google has the potential to do it now. And like, just keeps getting in its own
11:39way in a thousand ways, but we're going to come back to all of that. But this is like, if I'm
11:43Google, this sounds like a real chance for this company to be like, we have done, we have done
11:48the thing. Like we got it kind of right. Samsung is getting a little closer to getting it right,
11:52but is doing sort of a series of boring iterative upgrades. And Alison, I remember at IO last year,
11:59we were talking and it was like, okay, this pixel fold feels like it's not, it's almost
12:03there, but it's not quite there. And the clear vibe from the first pixel fold was like, I cannot
12:08wait for the next one when they have another year to push at the hardware, another year of trying to
12:12convince people to make these apps. And it feels like this has a real shot of like, this might be
12:17the one, like in terms of the closest foldable phone to getting it fully, right. We might be
12:22almost there from Google. Am I, am I too excited about this? I, I think I'm just like a slightly
12:28less optimistic. It does feel like the move they should have made in like the phone that we wanted
12:34last year is here. I love the one plus open form factor. So like moving towards that, I think is
12:41a great move that my biggest complaint about the original pixel fold is so heavy. It was just
12:48uncomfortable to hold it for a while. And then it can be the best phone in the world,
12:52but if you don't want to hold it, there's a problem. So this one was significantly lighter.
12:58I think those are all really good things. I think I'm still confused by the, like, I get that they
13:03have to make trade-offs for the camera, but if you're putting pro on the name of this phone
13:09and you're still having to compromise on the camera, you're also charging $1,800,
13:15which I feel as the person who says prices very loudly, occasionally on this podcast,
13:19it's $1,800. That's so much money. I know that's like the going rate for a folding phone, I guess,
13:26which is like, fine. I get that that's, they're expensive and that's what they seem to cost. But
13:30like, I just don't, and I feel this way with everybody. I don't think you get to make
13:34any kind of significant compromise and get away with it at that price. And Google is going to say
13:40it can do a lot of stuff in software for the camera. And that what a lot of people are doing
13:44with the camera is not taking photos. They're doing all this AI stuff and that's all well and
13:47good. But I do think the, we are going to end up pretty rigorously stress testing this thing.
13:52And I think there is absolutely no room for error in the camera in these folds because they're just
13:56too expensive. Agreed. V, are you a folding phone person? I don't feel like you and I have ever
14:00talked about folding phones. It's too expensive for me. I am a cheap ass with my phones. Uh,
14:07well, not really because I have the iPhone pro backs. You know what I really don't like is I
14:12don't like how they keep adding adjectives to the ends of these phones along with numbers so that
14:16it's like an alphabet soup. But like, I'm always intrigued by them. I just, so I take my phone
14:22running and I have this feeling of if I drop this while I'm running, cause I have eaten it while
14:29running before, I'm just going to sit there and be like, oh, I'm bleeding. But also the repair bill
14:38is I'm bleeding both my blood and money. So, uh, that's why I haven't gotten any kind of
14:45folding phone yet because then I would feel the need to have like a safe phone for running. And
14:50then that's, we're getting into two phone, three phone territory. I'm already have it. I'm all,
14:54I'm already dual wielding phones because they've decided to make it so that, uh, wear OS, uh,
15:01watches don't work with an iPhone. I used to be able to get away with one phone and test all of
15:05these watches. Nope. I have to have two fricking phones at all times now. So I don't need a third,
15:12I don't need a third folding phone, even though I would like one, I would just want to play around
15:17with it. But you know, I'm still mad at you, David, for talking about the books, Palma so much. So
15:22stop asking me to buy more things. I talked about it once. Everybody needs to leave me alone about
15:27this. I got very excited about it one time and I was right. And now this is, this is somehow my
15:34legacy is I have convinced too many people to buy this deeply overpriced, adorable little gadget.
15:39And to all those people, I'm not sorry at all remotely. Sorry. Just be glad V that they didn't
15:44release a pixel ring. Uh, because I literally had the thought in going through this, that like V is
15:48going to run out of fingers. Like it's just, we're just, we're toast here. So like I'm basically
15:53testing all of these and I've narrowed it down to the three that I think are the best. If they
15:57came out with a pixel ring, that's probably next year. But if they came out with a pixel ring this
16:02year, I would be in so much trouble. I already have six ring tans. It's bad. So let's actually
16:09move on to the wearables. Cause while we're just running through the news, let's run through the
16:12news. So the, the pixel watch three, which I am reliably told is the new one. Uh, what's the deal
16:18with the pixel watch three? Well, there's a new size now they're, uh, after everyone complained
16:23that the 41 millimeter is too small, they have now come out with a 45 millimeter. And then they
16:28were like, okay, so the hardware it's basically going to look the same as last year, except we're
16:33going to add an ultra wide band chip and actual displays. They're bigger, brighter, bolder now.
16:39Uh, yeah, sure. They look the same. Most people looking at the watches are just going to be like
16:44that. That sure is a watch. The bezels are 16% slimmer. Love that. And then they were just like,
16:49and here is a laundry list of software updates that there's, it is physically impossible that
16:55I will remember every single bit of software that they've crammed into this thing. And it's like,
16:59actually quite impressive. The amount of software updates there's like, you can stream your Nest
17:06doorbell or cam feed straight to your wrist. You can unlock your BMW. If you have a BMW,
17:12you can also unlock your pixel phone. You can do custom runs now, which, uh, you know,
17:18other watches have been able to do for a long time, but now you can program your actual thing.
17:22It's very Garmin like you have a morning summary of all of your stuff. Uh, there's an auto sleep
17:27mode. There's cardio load. It's a lot. So Google is, is deep in the like health and fitness race.
17:35Now Google, there was a minute at the beginning of the pixel watch where Google was doing that,
17:39but also had some big ideas about like the assistant and this is an AI thing. And it feels
17:42like they're getting away from that and just pushing towards this as a health and fitness
17:45device. I actually think they're, they're, they're pushing equally towards the productivity stuff
17:51and the health stuff. Um, it was very heavy on the productivity stuff first, I think,
17:55because they were mostly coasting on Fitbit exists. This is a Fitbit platform. Sure. Now
18:00this time around, they've basically gone, what is Garmin doing? And let's just add it to the
18:05watch. So there's like a morning summary now, uh, you know, Garmin a couple of generations ago,
18:11they introduced this thing called morning, uh, morning report. And it'll tell you like your
18:15overnight stats and the weather so that you can wake up and go like, Oh, it's 90 degrees time to
18:21die on this five mile run. Uh, so now the Google, uh, pixel watch three is going to do that. Uh,
18:27and then, you know, they're adding something called cardio load. Now, I think if you've
18:32ever used a Garmin or a polar or just like a multi-sport watch, you know, what cardio load is,
18:37but that's not really something we've seen on these major flagship watches to be like,
18:41what's your cardio load and cardio load is basically how intensely your heart has been
18:46working in your workouts, uh, over a period of time. And it's kind of a gauge of like, Oh,
18:52you know, maybe my cardio load is really high. I should ease off or just do more like,
18:58I hate this, but like zone two training, it's, it's, it's very triggering to hear
19:02zone two training for me. So, you know, that's what that cardio load thing is.
19:06And then, you know, custom running workouts and running metrics like vertical oscillation,
19:12stride cadence, vertical oscillation is the most useless metric, by the way, I don't know what
19:16you're supposed to do with that. It just tells you how far up and down you move while you run
19:20and like the less, the better, but you're just gonna, what do you, what are you going to do?
19:25I'm a bouncy runner. How are you going to change the fact that you're a bouncy runner anyway,
19:28but it's going to tell you all those things. There's a new running dashboard within the,
19:32the Fitbit app. It's, it's a lot of stuff. And just like, Oh, the biggest one that I haven't
19:38mentioned that yet is that it can now detect a loss of a pulse and call emergency services for
19:45you. That seems good. Loss of pulse. Like it's basically like, are you dying? Yeah. I love it.
19:50Loss of pulse is such an amazing euphemism. Yeah. This is a serious one, right? Yeah. Yeah.
19:55It's very serious. So it's like, you know, if you overdose, if you have a heart attack
20:00and you're alone, it's going to call emergency services for you in the EU, not in the U S yet.
20:06Cause obviously this needs a regulatory go ahead for that because the potentials for
20:12a false alarm are very scary. I talked to Google and they were like sensor fusion.
20:18Don't worry if you just take your watch off, which is a loss of pulse event,
20:22it's not going to call emergency services, but you know, that's like kind of an interesting
20:27thing from Google because thus far they have pretty much been playing catch up in the smart
20:32watch space. They are very late. We're only on iteration three of the pixel watch Apple watch.
20:37We're coming out with number 10 and Samsung's up. They're numbering such a long time ago,
20:42but we are already on seven. So, you know, they're, they're, they're several generations
20:47behind, but they are coming out with a health feature that nobody else has by a gen three.
20:54And you know, they say it's because the pixel watch samples, your heart rate at a,
20:57at a much, much, much higher frequency than other flagship smartwatches, which is true
21:02because they're doing it every other second. Most other smartwatches, unless
21:06you are in the middle of a workout, we'll do it once every five minutes or so. So, you know,
21:11it's, it is something that they can differentiate themselves with so many updates. I literally,
21:16I'm sure I forgot like five or six software updates in there.
21:20Yeah. But there's an interesting theme there, which is like down this deep tracking yourself
21:26rabbit hole, which is kind of what everyone has, has leaned into in this space, which makes a lot
21:30of sense. Two more questions on this, and then we're going to take a break and then we're going
21:33to do the rest of these gadgets. Question number one, Fitbit where
21:37Fitbit is increasingly going the way of nest in that, like it is a word that we use. There's a
21:44lot of history there. Technically you still are using the Fitbit app, but it's all Google now,
21:50baby. The Google vacation of Fitbit is I think almost complete. I think next year is the deadline
21:57for migrating all of your Fitbit accounts over to pixel or Google accounts rather.
22:02And if you want to buy the new watches, you got to migrate. So
22:07my absolute hottest take on all of this is that Google branded these exactly wrong,
22:11that it should have gone all the way into the Fitbit brand. And all of these products should
22:16be called Fitbits, which were like Fitbit was like Kindle and Kleenex for the longest time.
22:20And Google was just like, nah, nevermind. Nobody, nobody knows what Fitbits are. They'll like pixel
22:24watches. Yeah. It's weird because they still have some Fitbits. It's just this main flagship
22:31Fitbit watch. That's actually a pixel watch. And I think that's just probably part of their
22:36ecosystem play because you do see it working more with other Google services, offline maps,
22:42you have Google maps, offline maps now. So there that's why, but at the same time, it's just
22:48very confused. Uh, and it was more so confused with the original and the pixel watch too. So.
22:54Okay. Last question on the pixel watch. Uh, if memory serves,
22:57we have broken our review unit, both years of the pixel watch, I believe.
23:03Chris cracked the first one. I cracked the second one. Oh, Chris, that was you the first time.
23:08Yeah. Yeah. And I, if, if memory serves, it was one of those, like you didn't do anything
23:13and then it was cracked. That's how it went. Yeah. Yeah. That Google doesn't believe me,
23:18put it on a charger, looked at it. I was like, why is it scratched to hell and back? And everyone's
23:22like you, there's no way you got those scratches without knowing what you did. I don't know what
23:27I did. They, it, I woke up and it was scratched. So yeah. And that to me is like the bar for me.
23:33Right. It's like, if I fall on the ground and scrape it against concrete and it scratches,
23:37like I understand how that happens, but if I don't even know how it got scratched and it scratched,
23:42that's, that's, that's a you problem. It's just a very fragile design. You know,
23:45it's like a glass dome that's going to happen. Totally. And it's not Sapphire. Yeah. I will say
23:50I wear a pixel watch with most of the Android phones I review and I'm just a dingus. I'm like
23:55always ramming it into like a doorway. Allison is seven feet tall is an important thing.
24:02Flailing all the time. Uh, it's been okay. I don't have any, I don't have any scratches. I don't know.
24:07I was totally fine with the first one. I legitimately am telling you, I went to bed
24:12and I either put it on the charger where I was wearing it. I don't remember it was a year ago.
24:16I woke up. It looked like my cat went to town on it, but my cat did not go to town on it. So I
24:22don't know what happened. Google actually took the watch from me and they sent it to a lab and
24:27they were like, abrasions happened. I was like, well, no shit, but we don't know what they were.
24:33Abrasions happened is the title of your memoir, by the way, just to, just to put that out there
24:37right now. Any word on if this one is going to be better at that stuff? Do we have any, like,
24:41we've been saying since the jump that one of the worries of this design was that it would
24:45be more fragile. And that has clearly, I would say proven out over time. No changes this time.
24:50No changes. Yeah. I'm very excited for the big watch, but like that's even more
24:54surface area for it to be damaged. So we'll see.
24:57All right. All right. Fair enough. All right. Well, we got to take a break,
24:59but we have a couple more gadgets to get to. We'll be right back.
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26:16advertisement. All right, we're back. We have more gadgets and I would say these are the two that I
26:24am maybe most interested in. One for reasons I can't even explain and then one for reasons that
26:29I think are very obvious. Let's do the Pixel Buds. Chris Welch, one of my running theories is that
26:33the Pixel Buds are like criminally underrated headphones and have been for a couple of
26:39generations now. What's the story with the newest Pixel Buds? They're smaller, lighter. The noise
26:44cancellation is said to be twice as good. So Google now has its own like tensor chip for earbuds,
26:50just like Apple has their own like silicon for the AirPods. Now Google has a tensor A1 chip,
26:54which is in the new Pixel Buds Pro 2. So the ANC is twice as good. The sound quality is said to be
27:00also much improved. And that's like my main reason for not really being like a very big fan of the
27:06Pixel Buds Pro is that they sounded okay. But if you buy the Sennheiser or like the new AirPods
27:11Pros or even Samsung's new Galaxy Buds Pro 3s, they sound quite a bit better. So I'm hopeful
27:16that Google has finally, you know, kind of made some strides there with the new ones. But yeah,
27:20they're smaller, lighter. They brought back the fin tip, which people were a fan of in the older
27:26Pixel Buds. So these will stay in your ears better during workouts. But on the whole, you know,
27:31same thing, same case. The case now has a speaker on the outside. So if you lose it,
27:34it'll make a noise. So some small quality of life improvements, but the main things are the much
27:39better ANC and the sound quality, which we'll see. Yeah, I'm very curious to see how the sound
27:43quality turns out. Because like, at least for my purposes, it's always been good enough. Yeah,
27:47definitely not best in class, but good enough. And it was the pairing was super easy. I always
27:52found them more comfortable than most of the other ones. I think just like they just fit my ears
27:57better for whatever reason. And I always thought their noise cancellation was pretty good. Anyway,
28:02they do a really good job with noise cancellation on mic performance. We've tested them on the show,
28:06and they did some they did really well, canceling out noise as you're talking into them. So if they
28:12can like vastly improve that again, yeah, that's pretty exciting. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah,
28:16they're like, they're just AirPods for Android territory. And I think that is a useful and good
28:20thing. And frankly, every company is going to end up having those and that works fine.
28:24Now we get to the big news, which is which is the death of Chromecast. This is the real story here.
28:30This is I went on vacation, Google lost an antitrust trial and killed Chromecast. And it
28:36was just like, I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with this when I don't have a podcast on
28:40which to talk about this. So Chris, give me the quick rundown both on the new thing that is coming
28:45out and the old thing that is dying. What's going on here? Yeah. So the new thing is the Google TV
28:51streamer, quite a name, terrible name, by the way, just before just before we get into the awful,
28:56awful name, Chromecast had brand recognition, but now let's do Google TV streamer just flows
29:02right off the tongue. It really does. What if we had more pixel streamer pick that pick anything?
29:06So it costs 100 bucks. It's a box. Now it's not a dongle anymore. So it's a set top box. It's
29:12it's nice. It's pretty. It's got like a built in ethernet jack, which is nice to have on streamers
29:17all the time. But it runs the same like software is the most recent Chromecast. So you can have
29:22all that. I'll have like Gemini AI features. Sure. It's going to be 20 percent faster than the
29:26Chromecast. People have always been like waiting for like a fast current cast. And so they claim
29:31that like the Nvidia shield was their like main like goalposts here to reach. I don't think it's
29:36going to reach that. So 20 percent faster than the four year old Chromecast with Google TV is like
29:41still not going to be a barn burner of a device. And it's like most of our comments were like,
29:45that's not going to get it done for me. I want to just go buy an Apple TV, yada, yada.
29:49But the Chromecast is dead, but the casting feature is still alive and well, obviously.
29:52So you can still cast to the box to all the same stuff. But the name is now gone.
29:57Quick poll before before I get it. How do all of you do your smart TV stuff like V? What's your
30:03what's your smart TV situation like when you want to watch Netflix on your TV? What do you have?
30:06I got two Apple TVs.
30:08OK, Alison, what about you?
30:10We have a Samsung TV. We do all the built in apps.
30:14Oh, my God, that's so brave.
30:15No. OK, we're going to come back to that because I think that I think
30:19this is the whole point of this device. Chris, what's yours?
30:22I mean, I have everything. So I've got the Apple TV, Fire, TV Cube, Roku Ultra.
30:27What is your like man when you're like not thinking about work and you're just like,
30:31I just want to sit down and watch something, which remote you grab?
30:33It's the Apple TV 4K.
30:35OK, so if I if I were to like big picture, try and explain what Google is doing here,
30:40it seems like the thesis is if you want just a simple kind of cheap,
30:46don't really worry about it way to stream shows.
30:50Performance isn't amazing, but you just like need a thing that plays your shows.
30:54You kind of have internet choice, right? Like your your TV probably does it.
30:58You probably have a dongle that does it. You probably have a box that does it.
31:00Your cable company will happily give you one like there's a million ways to do it.
31:04And so if you want to differentiate and win, you have to do better.
31:10Right. And we've been in this weird space for the last few years,
31:13where the only ones doing better have been the Apple TV and the Nvidia Shield,
31:18both of which are like old, outdated devices at this point,
31:21but both of which were so far beyond everybody else that they continue to be the only options.
31:25If you're like, I want my TV to be fast.
31:28And on the one hand, I think the idea of let's compete at the top end and make them better
31:32and make people want to buy them instead of just the default thing that they have
31:36is very exciting. But I do, I kind of agree with our commenters in the sense that I'm not
31:41sure, at least from what we've seen so far, we'll have to test the thing and see
31:45that this is that thing. Like if Google had come out and been like,
31:48we have five X to the performance of the Chromecast.
31:50It's going to blow your freaking mind through the back of your head.
31:54And it's $500. People would have freaked out.
31:57Yeah. But am I, am I, am I thinking about this the right way, Chris?
32:01Like, is that your read on the situation too?
32:02Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think like they're saying prices like they're sealing for like
32:06what they can do as far as like a device, which is fine. But even then, I think you
32:08could have squeezed some out, just toss like a two-year-old tensor in there, you know,
32:11like what's the issue here? Like you've got your own silicon, like toss a tensor G1 in there,
32:16you know, or whatever they are. And just, yeah, it's like 20%. I mean, it's not nothing. It's
32:20got like twice the RAM, which should also help out quite a bit. But as far as like a speed demon,
32:24you know, this is probably not going to be quite that. We could see a new Apple TV this fall.
32:29So that would just be like Apple, just kind of like lapping them again,
32:32very quickly. So we'll see how that shakes out.
32:35Allison, is there anything here for you? Are you excited about this at all?
32:39I just.
32:39There's, they're going for you, right? Like you're now the person who is not going to
32:43buy a Chromecast and because your TV does it fine, they're trying to give you something else.
32:48Okay. You know what they don't have is there's the, all the like 10,000 free,
32:53you know, ad supported channels on the Samsung TV. We have one called ocean vibes and that's
32:59just plays when we, when we turn the TV on is the best thing in the world. There's just like
33:06fish swimming around and coral reefs and you just sit there and you're like, yeah, this is all right.
33:12So talk to me. No, talk to me when you have ocean vibes, Google.
33:18That is so diametrically opposed from the answer I was expecting from you. I love it.
33:23That's great. That's fantastic. Fantastic outcome. But yeah, I mean, and I think to some extent,
33:29Chris, like this, this is the thing here, right? Is if I'm Google and I am curious what they've
33:35been telling all of you about the AI stuff coming in general here, because I'm very excited about
33:39the pixel screenshots feature, which is like a sort of managed AI organized library of all the
33:45screenshots you take. I think that's very smart. But in general, the idea here is like, we're
33:50going to put lots of new power into these new devices, dot, dot, dot AI. And I don't know,
33:56at least from what I've seen so far, again, it's Monday as we're recording this, the event is on
33:59Tuesday. I'm very curious to see if they can find a way to make a really compelling AI case for this
34:04stuff. But with the TV streamer in particular, I'm like, okay, you're giving me theoretically more
34:08power other than my apps launch faster, which is meaningful to me, but not to most people.
34:13You can use Gemini to make screensavers, which is interesting because they see like how all the
34:18frame TV's doing. So they're like, you know, they've got this whole ambient mode. So Gemini
34:22can make you open ocean vibes. Oh, no, no. That'll be your ocean vibes fix. I want real ocean vibes.
34:28I don't want your AI ocean vibes. So there's that. And also, I guess they're going to do summaries
34:35now. So they already show you like the Rotten Tomatoes scores for movies, but now it's going
34:38to like us bring in content from across the web. So it might be like, here's what someone on Reddit
34:42said about this show. Hopefully not that, but you know, we'll see. Oh, God. So that's the other
34:47thing is like summaries for everything that you were like seeing and browsing. But beyond that,
34:53you know, not, not too much compelling. Which kind of brings me back to like, I'm very sad
34:57the Chromecast is gone because I continue to think the Chromecast was a really good idea.
35:02Because I think this might be an unpopular opinion. I have no idea how people feel.
35:06I think Google TV is like by a mile the best interface. Yeah, I like it a lot. It does a
35:11really good job of like, it's very content first, but it also makes getting to the apps easy.
35:16Apple is super app first. I think the Fire TV is mostly just trash. Roku is super app first.
35:23And I think Google TV like does a pretty good job of showing you everything you would want to see
35:28relatively in one place. And so for me, like I have a Roku TV and I bought an Apple TV
35:33that I just use instead on my Roku TV. So my Roku TV is one job is just to take me to my Apple TV,
35:39because it is like an unusable interface on this trash TCL TV I bought at Costco a million years
35:44ago. That is probably true for many people these days. Yeah, right. So I think if I'm Google,
35:48I'm like, okay, keep pushing it, this idea of like a $30, $50 way to give you Google TV,
35:54which is better. And I feel like what Google is instead doing is saying, okay, we want to,
35:59they're like splitting a weird difference between make it easy to get Google TV and make a really
36:03powerful box. It seems like they're kind of in a middle ground that I'm not super positive is
36:08going to work for them. Yeah, they're not going to make anybody happy. It's like not quite the
36:11full speed, right box and not the cheap thing that the Chromecast was either. So we'll see. I
36:16mean, I'm looking forward to checking it out. You know, if it's faster, that'll be, that'll make a
36:19big difference. But yeah, I love Google TV like you, David, the ads aren't as in your face as Roku
36:24or, you know, so there's that, but yeah, we'll see. I'm excited to check it out. It's shipping
36:29like last month, all these devices in like late September. So it's going to be a while before we
36:32get it in our hands, but it's coming. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting fall for a lot of that
36:37stuff. So, okay. Any other announcements coming? Y'all have gotten all the news, seeing all the
36:42things, any, any other like newsy cleanup we should do here before we talk big picture? What is the
36:47future of Google and everything? No. Have you, have any of you tried pixel screenshots? Oh,
36:52they showed me a very, very briefly. It seems cool. If they did a search for like someone's
36:55wifi password that, that someone had like sent like a screenshot of that seems to be like the
36:59example every company shows. It's a separate app, right? Yeah. It's a separate app. Okay. Oh,
37:04it's its own app. It's not like I assumed it was like in the, in the photos app. Interesting.
37:09That's what I'm so curious about is like, that sounds great. We've got that feature over there.
37:14Like, how do you bring it all together? Is it going to be Gemini? Is it going to, am I going
37:19to have to pay for a version of Gemini that's going to do all these things? I don't know. That's,
37:24that's where I am with AI on pixel phones right now. It's like, show it to me.
37:29My thing is like, I was thinking about this recently. My go-to use case is, so we live
37:35maybe like a mile down the street from the library. Uh, and I'm frequently walking past
37:38the library and every once in a while they put up a banner with the dates of the book sales
37:44that they're doing. And every single time I take a picture of the banner, cause I'm like,
37:48oh, I have to remember when the book sale is. And every single time it just goes into my camera
37:53roll and disappears. Like all of those photos and screenshots and that kind of stuff does,
37:56uh, where I'm like, oh, this is a thing I should buy. And then it goes into my camera
37:59roll and disappears. And so the idea of like, I can just sort of constantly tell my phone,
38:04this is the thing I think is interesting. And then it can make sense of all that for me
38:08is so compelling to me. And I think makes way more sense than all the recall stuff
38:12is like, I, all I have to do is tell it, remember this for me and it will do it. Like that is
38:17perfect. But I think you're to your point, Alison, like how you integrate that with everything else
38:22makes a lot of sense. Cause if I have to take a photo and then put it in the screenshots app,
38:25I'm going to forget to do that. And I have now solved none of my problem. So I think it's going
38:30to be a really interesting, like push and pull. They're trying to figure out how do you make this
38:34not creepy, but really seamless, but not too in your face as you're trying to do other stuff,
38:39which I feel like it's kind of the story of all things AI and Google right now.
38:43Yeah. That is the thing I want. I want it to be able to look up the door code for the Airbnb
38:49without like digging through emails or logging into Airbnb or whatever. I, I don't need to put
38:56a hat on a picture of a bunny that I mean, to be fair, you have been doing that nonstop.
39:05It's a blast, but honestly it's where we're at. I think with Apple intelligence, which is still,
39:11you know, in developer preview, blah, blah, blah. It's like, it's still missing that thing of like
39:17what is going to tie it all together? And am I just going to be able to be like,
39:21Gemini put the book sale on my calendar. Tell me if I have a conflict or something,
39:26or is it going to just be like, I don't know. I think the latter based on the history of AI
39:35features. Yeah. I'm so nervous about it because I got, I'm doing the labs for the labs, like
39:42preview for Gemini in your Gmail, they fight, which they like finally integrated. And I was
39:47like, great, I'll search for this order number for my shoes. And it does this thing. And it's
39:52like thinking, it's like, there's no order number for your shoes. I'm like, this is now you had one
39:58job. Like it was right there. And like, I tried it again later and it, it able to do it. I don't
40:04know why you got caught up that time. It's like, it feels that one time for you. And you're like,
40:09why am I going to try and use this again? I'm not. Yeah. It is really funny. We're,
40:13we're in this phase of so many of these features where like, because I have this specific problem
40:18that these things can solve for me, I'm willing to try any of them, but the tech broadly speaking,
40:24just isn't there. And so like you try it twice and it doesn't work. And it's like, well,
40:29that's pretty much that. Or you could get nagged by it. Oh yeah. Oh my God.
40:35Google is, is just basically also kind of following Samsung's lead. And I forgot,
40:40but they're adding AI suggested workouts to the pixel watch three based on like your metrics.
40:46My suggestions are going to be like, just do anything, just stand up.
40:49Just, just what if you just walked around for once in your life?
40:52But you know, they were showing it to me and they were like, oh, you know,
40:55you haven't really been pushing it in terms of cardio load and you took a rest. So why don't
41:00you do like a bunch of sprints? And it's just like, oh, fine. I mean, it's hard. It's hard.
41:07Building a training plan is hard, but that I was just like, uh, okay.
41:11If my pixel watch tells me that I'm going to throw it into the sea.
41:14Yeah. Wait, V can we talk about the notification you got from a galaxy ring? This is just a little,
41:18little, little diversion into V's experience.
41:20I was about to say, so like I, you know, I'm sinking my ring this morning,
41:25looking at the energy score and it's like, Hey, you need to move around or you might start
41:29gaining weight. And I was like, excuse me, what, what I ran three miles this morning, go to jail.
41:36Wait, is that, that's literally the words that it said or you might start gaining weight.
41:40Yeah. Hold on. Let me, let me look at that.
41:42Absolutely not.
41:44Your active time is decreased compared to your usual
41:47insufficient activity may result in weight gain and other health issues.
41:51Try standing up, moving around and reducing your sedentary time. And it's because I let
41:57the dumb ring die yesterday. So it didn't, it didn't basically like, uh, capture my three mile
42:02run yesterday too. Cause you know, I be out here doing 10 hours of workouts a week. Uh, but you
42:08know, just like, it thinks I missed one day and it's like, get up, ho move around the AI, you
42:15might gain weight. And I was just like, yeah, but what if I want it? I'm trying to get jacked. I
42:20want to gain weight because muscles are heavier. So, uh, there's a lot of nuance and context with
42:26health that AI just completely the bed with. It's like the worst possible combination to you
42:32because it's like, do you remember the, the, the carrot apps that used to like ruthlessly make fun
42:37of you all the time? That was like their whole shtick. They had like a character who would be
42:41like, Oh, what if you check something off your to-do list today? Dumbass. It's like, if you're
42:46going to do that and like make it a bit of being mean to you that I actually, I could get behind.
42:51Like if, if my Apple watch is going to actively neg me, like that's actually pretty funny. And as a
42:57thing, some people would find useful, but this like concern trolling trend from wearables where
43:03it's like, Oh, I'm so sorry. But if you don't do better, you're going to die. Like, like potentially
43:08tomorrow. That's so embarrassing for you. It's like, screw you. Like leave me alone.
43:13It's like too heavily reliant on HRV, which is the proxy for your autonomic nervous system. So
43:18it can tell whether like how strained you are. Dude, if I have a, if I have a calf cramp,
43:25these things can't tell. These things have never been able to tell when I'm like injured. So it's
43:30sort of like, okay, you can just go away now. Like I'm not a big fan of AI and fitness. I get what
43:36they're trying to do because it is very hard to know what you should be doing and crafting a,
43:42a training program if you're new to it or if you have new goals, but this, this ain't, this ain't
43:47it. I can't wait to see what it tells me my AI workout should be. It's just going to be like run
43:53up, run up a giant hill. I already do that. Go away. Run up a giant hill. Or just say that when
44:00you wake up in the morning, it's like, what's up V time to run up a giant hill. Fine. I'm great
44:04with that. Yeah. It's going to be all Kate Bush on me. I love that. Um, all right, we got to take
44:10one more break and then I want to talk just for a few minutes about some like big picture Google
44:14stuff on the heels of the announcement and then we'll get out of here. We'll be right back.
44:23All right, we're back. So another year, another bunch of Google devices that I would say
44:28by and large seem to be very good. Kudos, right? Like this, this is whatever year,
44:34we're almost a decade into Google appearing to genuinely earnestly care about making hardware.
44:40I think for a long time we were all skeptical if this was going to be a thing Google kept caring
44:44about for a long time. I think to its credit, Google has kept caring about it for a long time.
44:48Never say never with Google, but it feels like this matters to Google in a very real way.
44:53What I still wonder and what seems to be true is that Google has not made any kind of like
45:00mainstream dent as a hardware company yet. I think ironically, like the Chromecast was probably the
45:06most successful piece of hardware Google ever made. It was a huge hit, especially at the
45:10beginning because it was cheap and it worked really well. And there's really nothing since
45:15then that feels like a sort of gigantic mainstream winner. Like there is still very much Apple and
45:20Samsung, especially in the United States, and then like gigantic gap down to Google.
45:25I would argue that the Pixel Watch is actually kind of the opposite. Like I think
45:30Samsung is hurting a little bit and they're having to actually bring up their game a little
45:35and because the Pixel Watch was wildly popular when it first came out to the point where Samsung
45:40was like, oh, I got to do things. Here's a copycat Apple Watch Ultra and a ring.
45:45So, you know, I think that's surprisingly one area that it's doing pretty well in. But,
45:50you know, smartwatches are kind of bifurcated into iOS and Android at the moment anyway. So
45:56it didn't have to really compete with Apple at all because people on Android can't get an Apple
46:00watch. It only really had to compete with Samsung, which is weirdly its partner in where OS land,
46:07but it's kind of been eating Samsung's lunch for a little bit because it's I don't know,
46:12it's it's it's interesting. They're doing weird, interesting stuff there,
46:15and it's kind of ecosystem in a weird way. Yeah, I mean, I think the Pixel Watch is actually is
46:21a good example. And it does seem like at least on that front with the first one,
46:24I remember people being so excited just about the way it looked that it was like this is the first
46:28smartwatch that doesn't sort of scream technology at you. And that was that was a big win for
46:34Google. So maybe that's one of the answers to my question, which is going to be, do we see
46:37anything here that feels like it has kind of breakout potential? I think I'm maybe the most
46:43bullish of the four of us on the possibility that the fold could be a winner. I think at eighteen
46:47hundred dollars, there's a pretty big and low cap on how big a winner it can possibly be.
46:53But from the stuff that you've seen and you know, you all have been testing and talking to folks
46:57about these things for years now. Do we see anything that's sort of a possible kind of game
47:02changer in the Google hardware business? Screenshots app really comes down to like
47:08past years have always been, oh, the camera is great, which it still is. Like people know the
47:11Pixel camera is great. That's it's like main thing. But this year it feels like all this
47:16AI stuff, like if it works, it's going to be great. You know, like if it doesn't, then it's
47:20going to be like I see pixels out in the world. I think they're selling some. They are selling a few.
47:24So I think like, you know, they've got a base of customers, but it's like, how do you get them
47:28to upgrade? Because like hardware is like all the same year over year, like all these like Pixel 9
47:32Pro and Pixel 9. It's like there was some like Tensor G4 benchmarks. It's like barely faster
47:37than last year's chip. So like it's not going to be like that. That's not why you're going to
47:40upgrade. You're going to upgrade for Gemini potentially for like some of these new camera
47:44software features. It's like software, software, software this year. And so like if the screenshot
47:48app works like that's going to be great. And if it doesn't, then it's then I'm going to buy the
47:53Fold. And for the next five years, that'll be my phone because I can't afford an $1,800 phone.
47:58I was going to say, and you are historically representative of people who buy smartphones.
48:02Yeah.
48:02That makes perfect sense.
48:03Exactly.
48:04No, I mean, the AI thing I think is a really interesting point because the
48:08bet from all of these companies really is that they can take a bunch of kind of little AI things,
48:15whether it's in the camera or in the productivity stuff or in some of the wearables, and that all
48:20of that adds up to something that is kind of a tiebreaker to other devices. And I feel like,
48:25Alison, this has been a theme of a lot of the coverage you've been doing recently is like,
48:28does all this AI stuff really add up to anything? And I'm curious how you feel. Obviously, we have
48:33to review all these things. There's still lots to be seen. And this is all changing really fast.
48:37But do you have an early read of like, is there a kind of hole greater than the sum of its parts
48:42in the AI story here?
48:44I wish I did. This is just one of those like, I feel like you got to live with the phone a little
48:49bit to see if it I think, you know, we we all bought a Chromecast because it solved a problem
48:55where like, this is incredible. It's 20 bucks and you just plug it in the back of your TV.
49:00I don't see anything like that, you know, like in the pixel phone series right now.
49:07Gemini could be that thing if it's if it really could, you know, bring all the AI pieces together
49:14and make your life easier. But I think we're going into this, this ecosystem era is really
49:20going to like, we're just going to drill down in it because so many of these things are going to be
49:25wrapped up in your Google One subscription or your Apple subscription. And totally agree.
49:30If you want smart Siri, you need the expensive iPhone and probably an Apple subscription plan
49:38at some point. I'm nervous about AI subscription hell.
49:43I think it's just the whole ambient computing thing. Like, I think completely to your point,
49:48it's going to be the whole ecosystem play, because, you know, the pixel, I'm just, you know,
49:53wearable lady. So, of course, I think in wearables, but like the pixel watch, when it came out,
49:57they were like, this works for anyone with any phone. And just increasingly year by year,
50:02more and more features are just going to work better if you have a pixel phone with your pixel
50:06watch. So like this year, it's going to be pixel recorder app on the watch. It's going to be
50:11seeing your doorbell feed, and it's just going to be one of those things where I think it's just
50:18what do my gadgets play well with? And that's how we win dominance. So if the pixel watch is great,
50:25and it works with other pixel hardware, that's Google saying,
50:28suck it, Samsung, because who uses smart things? Honest to God, I think that's like kind of
50:34what they're doing and why they just go ambient computing when you're not watching every once
50:39in a while, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Well, and I think that's what's been so
50:43sort of backhanded about Google's entire hardware strategy over the years is that,
50:48like, the reason people end up in the Samsung ecosystem is because they buy Samsung phones.
50:54And so then they're forced to use smart things. Google is trying to convince you that there is
50:58some like essential Googliness that is worth buying into the ecosystem. And it has just always felt
51:04like they needed the one hardware victory to get there. And it's like people, people want the
51:10gadget, and then they buy into the software. And Google is trying to do that backwards, which I
51:14think is really interesting, but doesn't really seem like it has worked in a huge way. Obviously,
51:19time will tell and the reviews will be really interesting. And I'm like, I think it's not crazy
51:23that the pixel fold might be a way a lot of people actually end up in this ecosystem because I think
51:27there is like latent interest in this stuff. All right, we all need to go. You guys have things
51:32to do and phones to touch and more watches to wear, I'm sure. Are we excited? Happy times?
51:39Are we bullish or bearish on Google heading into this fall? This feels like I'm a little like
51:44overall kind of like, yeah, it seems fine. But that seems to be where we are in so many gadgets
51:48this year. Optimistic with reservations. Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised because I was expecting
51:56nothing but a hardware refresh. And then they're like, wham, hit me in the face with all the
52:00software. So I'm curious to see how the software works. My smart home is mostly Google based. So
52:06if this pixel watch works with my smart home in a meaningful way, I'm just going to be really
52:11shocked. I like it. Yeah, I the pixel watch three being the star is not something I would have had
52:16on my bingo card, but me neither. I'll take it. All right. Thank you all. Super fun. Appreciate
52:22you doing this as always. Thank you. All right, that is it for the verge cast today. Thanks to
52:27all the folks who came on and thank you for listening. We have tons of coverage of the whole
52:32event, all of the new devices, everything on the verge.com. I'll try to put as much as I can in
52:37the show notes, but actually we've been covering this Google stuff for months now. The leaks have
52:42been really fascinating. So actually go back and look at the way this stuff has trickled out over
52:46time. It's been really interesting. And I have this odd feeling. We're not done hearing what
52:51Google is up to this year. I have no evidence to base that on, but I think it's true. Anyway,
52:56as always, if you have thoughts, questions, feelings, or foldable phone specs that you think
53:01are more important than I'm realizing, you can always email us at verge cast at the verge.com
53:06or call the hotline eight, six, six verge one, one. We love hearing from you. We love hearing
53:11all of your thoughts and questions about all things tech. I'm still looking for some tiny
53:15tech mysteries. We've gotten a few, we're working on some fun stuff, but keep them all coming.
53:20This show is produced by Andrew Marino, Liam James, and will pour the verge cast is a verge
53:23production and part of the Vox media podcast network. Neil, I, Alex, and I will be back on
53:28Friday to catch up on just, again, a truly crazy few weeks in the news. We have a, what is a photo
53:34apocalypse? We have a bunch of AI stuff going on. Lots to talk about. We will see you then rock and
53:39roll.