We have everything waiting for you RIGHT NOW. Including interviews with Sundar Pichai and Rick Osterloh.
You know what, there are too many links.
Well that was very fun. Thank you for reading! Do not take Clips photos of me without my consent!!!!
OH BOY OH BOY
STAND BY
A BIG EXCLUSIVE THING
WE HAVE A BIG THING TO SHOW YOU
HANG ON
NOW>>>
That's it!
The Google online store has also been redesigned, apparently.
Maybe the Clips camera will end up being super cool. But I also think this could be an example of technology serving itself rather than an actual need people have expressed?
Like 8 of them all told.
It is a lot of products, y'all.
And we're looking at a family shot of all the products.
"Your personal Google is ready."
For $249 you too can capture every moment you weren't entirely sure you wanted to capture before!
He's talking about how Clips and Buds use AI to make better hardware.
Anyway, Osterloh is back onstage.
Time for a montage! Or more like a collage.
$250 is a lot of money!
Coming soon, $249
Swipe to save to Google Photos. It's like Tinder but with pictures of your dog.
You can edit any clip and pull out the still you want.
Looking at the app. It's a vertically scrolling list of photos. They're also "clips" that move.
Pin Clips to your lapel to make yourself seem fun at parties!
See, it recognizes faces, which is maybe creepy? So they made it look like a camera and nothing gets shared to the cloud.
All the machine learning happens on the device itself
This is the way personal privacy ends, not with a bang but with a tiny toy-like camera
"It looks like a camera, and it has an indicator light so everyone knows what the device does"
You can just set it down somewhere, apparently.
Clips is tiny. It weighs almost nothing. So you can lose it without even knowing about it until many weeks later.
It is really small. "It's a hands-free camera"
Clips looks for moments "for you" to take pictures of.
It has "an AI engine, at the core of the camera."
You can clip it to stuff, with a little case.
And it has a shutter button, because it's a camera.
Slip one of these bad boys on the dresser to catch your wife cheating on you!
Looks like 130-degree, f2.4 lens.
It has a lens, it's pretty thing. "Designed with parents and pet owners in mind."
Say hello to Google Surveillance!!!
It is a tiny little camera.. thing
Google Clips
"An entirely new type of camera."
"We love these totally candid shots that we set up with perfect lighting in an office on our campus."
"Some of our favorites are the candid ones."
"We have one more product to show you. It's about photography."
...no release date?
$159. Preorders today
In white, blue, and black
With Pixel Buds, you can have a natural conversation in 40 languages. But with AirPods, you can tap them repeatedly to make the sound turn on and off at random!
provides up to 5 charges to headphones
charging case too
Dieter I think I need to travel to another country to test these
Works with 40 languages.
She's holding the phone in front of her, but they're speaking pretty naturally? I can't tell if this is canned or not -- they are piping the audio out on the main speakers
The more I've worn AirPods though the more I wish they had swiping for volume which THESE HAVE.
It seems to work really well!
We're going to get some Swedish translated.
Is that a quarter in your ear or is that a PIXEL BUD
Demo Time
Real-time translation - huh!
Guys. These things are huge.
I love that somehow, over the course of about 18 months, there emerged 12 different product categories that every major tech company felt compelled to make their own version of.
They work wth the Google Assistant (of course they do). You touch and hold to activate them.
You tap to play. Swipe for volume.
They're kind of big earbuds, you tap them to control them.
Squeeze Pixel Buds to hear them scream!
They are ...neckbuds y'all.
Google Pixel Buds
New audio accessory - wireless headphones.
Available for $99
New video content coming, original series in YT VR. Google Play Movies will have IMAX movies for free for Pixel users.
250+ VR titles in Daydream
Upgraded lenses and fabrics on the headset.
What do you think Juston's name auto-corrects to most often?
Newly updated Google Daydream View.
"Some new products"
Google has a lot of swagger a this event. Digs at Apple, Microsoft... maybe Amazon, too?
(Buckle up for this one)
Juston Payne is on stage
I'm still thinking about the squeeze-based UI.
Gorilla Glass 5, btw
"cute"
"No Need" for a second camera. Also a "storage full" iPhone dig. Lots of cute digs at the iPhone!
The biggest question remains how many of these Pixel 2s Google will be able to manufacture and distribute. And we didn't hear anything about that.
Video time. It's a video of the phone features.
Queiroz out.
Google Home Mini free with purchase. (huh!)
Made for Google case program, too. 25 partners.
You can make a custom case with your own photo. There are also fabric cases for people who are insane and want that kind of thing.
2 XL coming to Italy, Singapore, Spain later
Partnering with Verizon in US
Avail in US, Aus, Ger, India, UK, Canada
Preorder today.
2 XL starts at $849
Pixel 2 is $649 to start, 64GB
Transfer from an iPhone in less than 10 minutes.
(I wonder how "resistant")
"Water resistant"
"If you had to use iCloud, you'd reach your free limit in three months," he says, based on average Pixel camera use.
No hands were lost in the alligator-petting part of this Pixel video.
Including 4K videos, full-resolution photos.
Pixel 2 users will still get free, unlimited storage in Google Photos.
I know you can't judge a photo from a keynote screen, but it seems good? I mean obviously they wouldn't put bad photos up.
Wow. As an Instagram influencer myself, I feel extremely left out.
Instagram Influencers take good photos and videos with the Pixel 2, it seems from this video montage
We're about to watch a movie made by Instagram influencers.
But Google uses machine learning to remove "uninteresting" things, like putting your phone in your pocket.
Motion Photos - takes 3 seconds of video, kind of like Apple Live photos.
"Motion Photos" lol
And OIS is even on when you do video, it combines with software stabilization. "Fuze Stabilization"
It also has OIS (hooray!)
It seems like a very nice camera!
It does it with one lens, creates a depth map.
Basically the camera is dope. It can do portrait mode on the rear and selfie camera.
Google says Pixel 2 has greater high dynamic range, optical image stabilization, and a portrait mode that doesn't use a second camera but dual-sensor image technology. Lots of image processing going on. Another example of "machine learning" being used to make portrait photos look good.
Hey sorry Google's Wi-Fi went dark on me!
BTW, there's only one lens on the back, and the camera bump is basically nonexistent from what I can tell.
CAMERA TIME
"The Pixel camera also takes awesome photos." Queiroz is back onstage.
I am of the unpopular opinion that Stranger Things' greatest narrative tool is nostalgia and not the actual narrative. But I digress.
Okay, exclusive(?) Star Wars AR stickers? Good get Googs.
SNL, YouTube, NBA, and Star Wars.
Eleven just banished it. And she is eating waffles. Because Eleven.
Now Eleven is in the scene too. The Demigorgon is yelling at her.
Multi-character AR is pretty novel and cool.
The sticker moves around a bit. I can't tell if this is better than Apple's AR stuff or not.
Demo time. In the camera it recognizes the floor. And the Demogorgon plops down and acts scary (also cute)
Ha, Stranger Things in AR.
You put little characters into your scene.
Google is also making AR stuff itself. "AR Stickers" built into the camera, exclusive to Pixel.
League of Legends in AR. Lego in AR.
Time to talk Augmented Reality and ARCore.
@casey all tech events are like this. Why aren't techies ever vacationing in Bridgeport, Connecticut, or Warwick, Rhode Island? (Shout out to Walt Mossberg.)
"We want to bring Lens everywhere," but Pixel users get it first. In Google Photos and Google Assistant.
"Accuracy rate of over 95 percent for voice recognition."
"It's early days for Lens." DRINK!
"I have been on so many trips that I literally do not even remember which Japanese temple we even went to lol!!!!"
Lulz she's showing a photo of a muffin that looks like a dog.
It works in very "noisy" conditions, photography-wise.
I love how rich Google people are. All of their examples are like, "Hey Google, where did we have lunch in Antarctica for my 21st birthday???"
Google's deep learning can actually identify objects in a scene, e.g., it knows that a building is made out of wood, for example.
You an ask follow-up questions about the thing the Lens sees.
"You can just Lens it." "Lens it" is a verb, apparently.
I'm fallen off the live blog for a bit to post updates on our Instagram account (which you should look at! but later!)
Chennapragada is showing Lens features, which we originally saw at I/O. It can recognize phone numbers, addresses, art, etc.
She's going to talk about Google Lens.
Aparna Chennapragada is onstage.
I once bought 20 grams of Pure Android Oreo in an alley in Bogota.
"Always be the first to get OS and security updates."
Launching with "Pure Android Oreo."
You can, of course, customize the routines.
My Pixel 2 would be like "You have one unread message. It's from Frank Tinder. It says, any nudes?"
It also sends an "on my way home" text.
"Lets go home" tells her her commute time, reads her a text, and starts a podcast.
I'm going to start squeezing all Google devices now just to see what happens.
You can broadcast to Google Home from the phone. And it's getting routines.
It works, though. She squeezed it and it worked. "We're really able to identify an intentional squeeze." Same. Me, too.
"Your Assistant is just a quick squeeze away." That was the policy at Uber, too!
SQUEEZE UI
Do you like squeezing things?
"Active Edge" you squeeze the phone to launch Assistant.
Wow the meeting is a joke "Pixel Ultra meeting," referencing an earlier "leak" that was ridiculously fake.
The top has an "at a glance" widget that can show meetings.
Where is the Bixby button on this phone?
The search bar is integrated into the dock at the bottom, I see.
Live demo, finally!
You can tap on the song title and the Google Assistant searches for it. (Hey, she mentioned Google Play Music! It still exists!)
I guess this is Google's way to .... Beat Shazam
It just sort of pops up automatically, "without your Pixel 2 sending any information to Google." It is all local.
The always on display can tell you what music is playing
Nope. All on slides. The Pixel 2 has an always-on display.
We might actually see real hardware on stage now? Maybe? MAAAYYBEE?
Sabrina Ellis comes onstage for a demo.
"We don't set aside features for the larger device." Another zinger from Queiroz!
Two colors: "just black, and black and white"
"We've integrated a circular polarizer" FINALLY!!!!
It has a circular polarizer so you can see the thing if you're wearing polarized sunglasse.
Pixel 2 XL screen is pOLED, QHD+, 18:9
"Just black, kinda blue, and clearly white"
He makes a not-so-subtle dig at the LCD on the iPhone.
Smaller Pixel 2 is a "full HD OLED" display with 100,000:1 contrast ratio.
Bluetooth 5.0 support
"Use your existing analog headphones with the included adapter" #donglelife
Front-facing stereo speakers
The visor is made of glass, the fingerprint sensor is placed "where you finger naturally falls" ......SAMSUNG
All-aluminum body with "premium hybrid coating."
It has the glass shade. It looks like the back of a phone.
Wow. The designs looks just like it did on the 47 occasions that it leaked.
Two sizes. "5-inch and a 6-inch XL"
Pixel 2
The Google Pixel has 0.7 percent market share.
"What if smartphones got smarter and simpler?"
Queiroz is onstage in front of a big ol search box.
...after a video montage about making smartphones smarter.
"When you change a period to a question mark, it changes everything." I already hate this video.
Mario Queiroz coming onstage to talk phones.
You can preorder today. Available in US, Canada, UK, and in 1,000 retail locations. In stores beginning October 31st.
It's great that the Pixel Pen is sold separately so that you do not have to buy it.
The pen is $99.
$999 to start.
Available in three configs.
(I bet a lot.)
(But how much does it COST?)
Okay, so is this $3,000 or what?
This video montage is definitely a video montage. But the laptop looks nice!
Video time. "Play Discover Weekly on Spotify." How sad is the Google Play Music team today?
IT'S A SNAPTOP Y'ALL
If you are coupled up I hereby give you permission to dress up as a Pixelbook + stylus for Halloween, but one of you has to stand upside down/in a V all night.
You can use Snapchat on your laptop. Snapchat is making a custom large-screen version for Pixelbook
SNAPCHAT FOR PIXEL WHAT
Also supports Android apps, natch. Hopefully they work better here than they do on other Chromebooks!
Claiming 10ms of latency is pretty bold.
The stylus has 2,000 levels of pressure sensitivity, which is way more than my ex-boyfriend did.
Built with Wacom. 10ms latency, 60 degrees of angular awareness, 2,000 levels of pressure sensitivity.
You can also take notes and draw with it, because, you know, a pen.
You can circle stuff with the pen and use the Assistant to search for stuff.
Love to take notes on my upside-down V laptop with my Chrome stylus. How else would you even get work done.
Google made a stylus. It looks... kind of big?
Pixelbook Pen.
If you type the request, presumably it won't talk back at you. (That's how it works on phones.)
I love the slideshow of photos showing the device in ever-less probable configurations. "Here it is in an upside-down V, for reasons!"
You can say "OK Google," but it also has a button on the keyboard so you don't have to talk to it.
First laptop with Google Assistant built in.
Vokoun is touting the benefits of ChromeOS: automatic updates and security, etc.
(I also see a headphone jack, which is a thing I have to point out in 2017.)
Does it run Flash???
You can automatically set a Pixel phone to tether. "Instant tethering."
Two USB-C ports, but I don't see an SD card slot.
Core i5 and i7 processors, up to 16GB ram, up to 512GB storage. 10 hours of battery.
"Soft touch keys" and they're backlit.
12.3-inch touchscreen. 235 ppi, Quad HD LCD
"It's the first convertible laptop that actually feels natural to use as a tablet." I think a bunch of Google's partners would beg to differ.
"First convertible laptop that feels natural to use." Surface dig!
4-in-1 design.
It's "just around 10mm thin and a kilogram"
Pixelbook does look very pretty!
The laptop looks great. It has a glass shade on the back. It looks like aluminum. It looks thin.
Vokoun not messing around, just went and announced it with only a couple minutes of build up.
Google Pixelbook
We'll always have avocado toast, Casey.
"Laptops haven't changed in 20 years" is a very hot take.
Yep, he's talking laptops.
....As an outline of laptop appeared on screen
I love this fantasy world where young people own homes and foosball tables.
Matt Vokoun is onstage.
"This is dope," Diplo says.
(it's a low bar)
(Yes I know Diplo is cooler than me but)
Diplo is listening to the Google Home Max. He asked for Major Lazer. Because of course he did.
This is happening to us.
Google must really want to goose YouTube Red subscriptions if it's giving away a year for Max buyers. (YouTube Red is very good and worth it for the ad-free YouTube alone.)
We're watching a video of Diplo.
Sooooo which will come to market first: Google Home Max or Apple HomePod?
(Well, YouTube Red, which is YouTube Music, too. Very complicated.)
It also comes with a year of YouTube Music.
$399 in December.
The base attaches via a magnet, so you can have it vertical if you want.
Because it supports Voice Match, it can play your playlists instead of somebody else's.
Supports free and paid Spotify, YouTube Music. Sorry Google Play Music, nobody love you enough to mention you anymore.
Oh wow, it has YouTube on it.
Later, it'll be able to do other stuff like automatically have the volume lower in the morning.
If the speaker is near a wall or on a shelf, it sounds different. Google is automatically tuning it. "This is all done dynamically" and it can change sound automatically.
"Smart Sound," the speaker adapts to your room.
Confusingly, Google Home Max is named after Mark Zuckerberg's first daughter.
"20 times more powerful than Google Home" for volume.
"we obsess over the bass." 4.5-inch woofers that "can move a lot of air."
Going to use Google machine learning to make sound better.
"Our biggest and best-sounding Google Home ever."
Woos in the crowd
They are playing the music louder in the venue to convey the idea that this big speaker plays music louder.
Google Home Max
It works horizontal or vertical
it's official, shouting at virtual assistants will be the dial-up modem sound of Gen Z
with "smart sound"
It is a big-ass speaker.
Oh good, another video!
"One more exciting thing..."
Rolling out later this month.
This is Google Home's first Disney partnership since Home mysteriously invited people to buy Beauty and the Beast tickets a few months back.
Partnered with Disney -- exclusive Disney stuff in Home. Including Mickey and Star Wars.
Male reader just sent me an email saying "Untucked t-shirts, no woman in sight," and then minutes later sent a retraction: "Google has had two women onstage in the first 35 min." Good to know we're not the only ones watching.
Home does lessons, games, and story time.
"It's great to see the kids without their screens."
These may look like children, but many of them have already graduated Y Combinator and are millionaires on paper.
We're watching a video and kids the playing music chairs with Home. And freeze tag. And other stuff. They are kids. Other people probably find them adorable.
Assistant is getting better at understanding the little scamps. Oh kids, you scamps.
Google is making kid-friendly features for Home, too. Support for family link accounts, so kids can have their data in Home, too. Yay kid data!
Can I send daily "RISE AND SHINE" voice messages to Casey, though, or is it only within my own home
Kids are totally going to troll their parents with Broadcast.
Broadcast: you can ask Google to broadcast a message to all the home devices in the house. "Parents are going to love this feature. Kids are going to hate this feature."
He's back on talking about how great the Google Assistant is. More Assistant features.
Matsuoka, by the way, is a rock star in the tech/UX world. A robotics professor who co-founded Google X, worked at Apple, and then re-joined the borg when she joined Nest in 2016. (She has also battled a life-threatening illness. https://medium.com/@yokymatsuoka/getting-another-chance-on-life-6f7d7a28595)
Chandra is coming back onstage.
Something powerfully dystopian about the idea of going to bed and a polite voice saying "I've armed your security system"
The routines feature works with Nest products, too. So "Hey Google, goodnight" can arm your security system and do other stuff.
Nest Hello doorbell can automatically ring your Google Home devices. And if the face detection works, Home devices will say who it is.
Yooooo Matsuoka has a pet pig. I want to hear about the pig more than I do security cameras.
OMG PIG CAM
(Btw all these "OK Google" demos are done with, like, slideshows on screen, not actual devices.)
If you have a Nest cam, you can ask Google Home to show your camera on your TV if you have Chromecast.
She is talking about Nest's recent hardware announcement. They released a bunch of stuff.
Oh god, I'm getting old.
Maybe I'm a control freak but I usually like to set things to a specific temperature not "warmer."
Huh, Nest is coming onstage. Nest is not Google? It's Alphabet.
Maybe Yoky Matsuoka from Nest can explain the difference to us.
You can do stuff in more natural language like say, "make it warmer."
Amazon also showed off routines last week.
Assistant works with over 1,000 smart home products from over 100 brands, Chandra says.
Google can do find my phone with Android. It can work with iPhone too -- it calls the phone.
So you'll be able to set up macros of multiple things you do to routines. So say, "good morning" and a bunch of stuff happens automatically: lights, coffee maker, etc.
Google is "extending routines."
Hrmmmm....
Wait so you can only connect this to a Chromecast speaker? Not any speaker?
Chandra is back onstage.
"It's smaller than a donut and weighs less than a full-grown chipmunk — without the nuts."
157 shades of gray is my Halloween costume this year.
... It's an ad. It's a fine ad, with a narrator telling you what it can do.
Time to watch an ad!
Going to all 7 Google Home countries.
Stores October 19th. Preorder today.
It's a pretty simple product! She's said about all there is to say except price: $49 in the US.
Comes in three colors: coral, chalk, and charcoal.
You can connect Mini to a Chromecast speaker, too.
It lets though some light, so you can see 4 LED lights under the fabric.
Fabric is "core to the product experience," she says.
Google Home Mini answers the question: what if we took the old Mac hockey puck mouse, and upholstered it?
My cat is going to claw the hell out of that.
It looks just like the leads. A little ovoid puck with fabric on top.
Google Home Mini.
"Form and size really matters." and it should have intuitive interactions.
Home products should look good in your house, she says.
Fun fact: Isabelle was the lead designer of the original Google Glass.
We might actually get a hardware announcement soon.
Isabelle Olson, lead designer for Home hardware, is onstage.
Starting today, you can call out with your own phone number.
Hands-free calling coming to UK later this year.
Voice Match is getting rolled out to all regions where Home is sold.
"Over half of all queries are from people who've trained the Assistant to recognize their voice."
All features need brand names, you see.
"Voice Match." Google is putting a brand on Home's ability to recognize your voice and customize answers to your account.
Chandra claims 50 million voice samples have been used to train its voice recognition software.
Home launching in Japan later this week.
"Products there when you need them: at work, at school, and on the go." One area where Google and Apple clearly have an advantage over Amazon is that "on the go" part. Amazon has tablets, sure, and is pushing Alexa in cars, but you still can't really use Alexa "on the go."
Chandra says, "You don't have to talk like a computer or teach Google Home any new skills." Subtle Amazon dig.
And now a few words from the company's Amazon Catch-Up division.
Starting with Home. Rishi Chandra is coming onstage.
"Made by Google products represent the ultimate Google experience." You don't say!
Will we see an updated Nexus Q today?
"We weren't first with many of our successful products." Heeey taking a page from Apple here, ain't ya?
The "designing hardware from the inside out, software and hardware working together" approach Osterloh is describing sounds a lot like... full stack.
"Neural beam forming" means the Home only needs to mics, for example.
Osterloh hitting this "Machine Learning makes Google products better" thing pretty hard. Running through a bunch of examples.
I hope the build up to this phone reveal goes on for another three hours.
I grew up at the intersection of AI, software, and hardware. It was a very dangerous neighborhood. I barely got out alive.
"The intersection of AI, software, and hardware."
And that Moore's law is dead... So instead, Google has "a very different approach."
Modem Throughput was Casey's AOL screen name.
He's playing a tiny violin for how hard it is to be a hardware review. He's arguing specs are all the same.
MODEM THROUGHPUT
Osterloh's aesthetic today is very John-Wick-in-retirement, btw.
... and now... the build up... is taking forever to announce the next phone.
People seemed to really like the first Pixel, raising the question of why Google only manufactured 20 of them.
"I just wish we had more around," Osterloh quips about the Pixel. Yes. You should have sold more of them.
Osterloh makes a supply and demand joke!
(Btw every time somebody from Google says "early days" you have to drink.)
Google Wifi the #1 selling mesh router. Assistant can answer 100 million new answers.
55 Million Chromecasts sold.
"We're still in the early days of our hardware line."
Well that was self-congratulatory.
However huge respect to Google for showing many pictures of Verge dot com web pages in this montage.
I saw Dan Seifert's name in this montage. Hi, Dan.
(And yes they cited The Verge review, also Wired and others.)
They really like that Modern Family product placement.
Google is showing the media a collection of clips of the media talking about Google.
Those acquired HTC engineers are entirely phone-focused, btw. HTC's VR team still separate. Not hard to imagine those 2,000 engineers eventually working on other hardware, though.
It's ...a montage of a bunch of news talking heads talking about Google? Also YouTubers.
Video time - montage of Google products over the last year.
He's going over Google's progress since they first launched hardware a year ago. Mentions getting those 2,000 HTC engineers.
"A few surprises," Osterloh promises.
WHERE'S YOUR POLAR WATCH RICK
"Some of our top sales reps from Verizon" are in the front row. A hint, hey?
Rick Osterloh is wearing a T-shirt, y'all.
Google just spent the first 11 minutes of its hardware event talking about software. Because it is, at its core, a search and software company.
Rick Osterloh coming onstage. It's hardware time, y'all.
He's talking about kids using Google Translate to communicate with each other. "Computing needs to evolve where this happens in a more natural, seamless, conversational way."
This is a fairly in-depth discussion about AI considering Sundar gave a similarly in-depth one at I/O just a few months ago.
I think that object detection is the killer app that would actually make "smart glasses" a viable product.
No word on object permanence, though. Congrats, toddlers, you still got one up on Google's AI.
He also says AutoML can do object detection (telling things apart).
Google's AutoML models "are more accurate than the best human-generated models" for image recognition.
Sundar says notifications should work differently if they're sensitive, such as something about a doctor's appointment. I love this idea, too.
But one thing I do love almost more than AI and ML is WWF (working Wi-Fi). About that...
Pichai still on AI, talking about "Auto ML." It's auto machine learning, a clever thing where there are multiple layers of ML.
Sundar is talking about how bad Google Calendar is. Respect!
Amazon had an entire panel devoted to AI at its event in Seattle last week, with people from robotics, Prime Air, AWS, and more all talking about AI. And Apple now has Core ML, a new machine learning framework. So yeah. This stuff isn't going away.
Pichai is laying out his principle of AI-first computing. 1. Conversational. 2. Ambient. 3. Contextual and ...
Artificial intelligence has been a big, big theme at all the fall hardware events this year. (The irony! The hardware evolves incrementally; it's the software the makes all the difference.)
Google focuses so much on AI because it's the company's core advantage over Apple and Amazon. Although they are catching up!
"Computers should adapt to how people live their lives, rather than people adapt to computers."
"We are excited about the shift from a mobile-first to an AI-first world."
"We are rethinking all of our code products," Pichai says, and "working hard to solve usage problems" by applying ML and AI.
The connectivity is better in Lagos than it is in this dump.
Pichai has been running through a ton of examples of different ways Google can use AI to make its products better.
Pichai now talking about using machine learning to improve infrastructure, parking.
Hey, we're back online!
Google's Wi-Fi dropped. Of course.
After that, he's moving to talking about the SF Jazz Center.
How fucked up is it that every tech event now begins with heartfelt words about the most recent national tragedy?
Here we go. "We were all devastated by the news coming out of Las Vegas, and that's coming out of a challenging past few weeks" with hurricanes, Pichai says.
"I've been moved an inspired by everyday heroism."
Rock star reaction for Sundar.
CEO Sundar Pichai takes the stage.
The dots are bouncing and swooping on screen, drawing more stuff.
The BEEP-BOOPS just got louder. I think it's about to pop off.
IT'S ALL HAPPENING
Here we go!
The swoopy dots on the screen are drawing outlines of Google products, by the way. Daydream. A laptop (?!), a phone. etc.
I'm hoping the event kicks off with a series of vicious personal attacks against Google's many rivals.
Or at least, try to act like they have a soul.
T-minus three minutes. Everybody stop making jokes except Blade.
So in all seriousness: I'm curious if Google execs will address the horrible news out of Las Vegas this week at the top of the event. Apple fall event kicked off (after Jobs tribute) with remarks about hurricane victims. A lot of tech companies are in a position right now where they have to prove to people they have a soul.
Good morning, everyone. I'm looking forward to sharing all the news today with my friends via Hangouts, Allo, Duo, Android Messages, and any new chat apps that Google announces this morning.
I wish I could convey to you how well the music here would fit with slicing a vampire in half with a sick sword. I wish you knew how badly I want Wesley Snipes to stand here in a trench coat and sunglasses and ask the undead if they're ready to die... again.
THEY LOVE CAPSLOCK
Muisc by PARISI, the screen claims. Powered by ROLI on GOOGLE PIXEL.
The lights are dimming and rising. But nobody said "OK Google." I think it means we have 10 minutes to go.
Dieter is about to burn me for saying out loud that I have never seen Blade or Blade Runner. (I am going to a screening of the new Blade Runner tomorrow night, though, and Dieter is not. So.)
The music is not this but it's not NOT this.
Is that a giant Google Home?
Some Vampires are about to get FUCKED UP.
The music is changing. I am pretty sure this is when Blade comes out.
Okay, now I feel bad. There are DJs making this music in real time. I wouldn't be surprised if they're using a Roli Seaboard Block. with Android to do it.
So, I think we still have 17 minutes here, and I'm not sure how many comments we can make about this music loop. But we'll try!
This is the kind of music you say "enhance" at a screen to.
This is the kind of music used during one of those scenes in a movie where a bunch of people buckle down and get shit done. Like a montage of people clacking away on keyboards and ordering late-night takeout and then high-fiving when the project is miraculously completed after three days of not sleeping.
It is a very, very, very chill vibe in here. Not a massive space, either. And the music is like the future of elevator music. Everybody is just like hanging out.
They did that because Google knew, somehow, Dieter, that you've been searching for details about this phone. Somehow. Somehow they knew.
This image appeared inside the Google Home app.
What are you doing, Google? Leaking your own phones just before your event, apparently.
And actually, that Sonos Speaker is getting Google Assistant next year ....sooooo yeah, that's some competition (co-opetition?) for whatever Google announces today.
(But come back to this live blog after you read that, k?)
Looks like Sonos isn't letting Google hog the spotlight today.
I mean, I'm sure it's not Spotify. It's probably Google Play Music Unlimited YouTube Red What Do We Even Call This Service This Week.
You know that music in the Spotify playlist that's like "inoffensive ambient electronic to work to" that you sometimes try? That's what Google is playing right now.
Hello! We are in and seated. The event starts in about 40 minutes.
We are in the waiting area at the SF Jazz Center, and yes, there is avocado toast. Guess Google can't buy a house now.
In the meanwhile, here's what we expect from today's event -- but there may be surprises!
Hello, you're a little early. The event is expected to begin at 9AM PT / 12PM ET on October 4th. You can read more about what to expect here.
Event Details
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