• 4 months ago
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.

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Transcript
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.

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