Google Pixel 3 Launched for $799, Pixel Slate, Home Hub Unveiled

We’re all set to go live from Google’s main event in New York where the tech giant is prepped to launch the Google Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL smartphones along with more consumer hardware.

On Monday, Google got embroiled in a controversial storm due to a breach in its platform where private data of more than five million Google+ users was compromised. Subsequently, the company has decided to permanently shut down its Google+ social network division for consumers.

This revelation has jolted the tech world and there is a lot of ambiguity about whether Google will bring up the issue at its hardware launch event.

Here we go people! The event is live. And the topic of the day! “How to help people?”. Osterloh talks about how Google Translations has helped people around the world communicate.

Also, Gmail’s Smart Compose feature is highlighted at the event.

More Google products talked about!

“You’ll see a lot of products today”, says Osterloh.

Osterloh talks about a new feature called Titan Security to protect user data. Is this a knee jerk reaction to the recent data leaks? Seems so.

Rick talks about the Pixel Book but sadly it never came to India. How are we Indians supposed to know how good it is?

Okay! Here a video on how Google has worked on the design of the products. Lots of colours here!

Another products that didn’t hit India being talked about: Google Wi-Fi. Why is India left out? and another one, Google Nest.

Diya talks about the design of the products and how the company has been intricate with the design.

Woah! There is no camera on the Hub. It works on a dedicated software that reacts of ambient lighting and blends according to the lighting in your house.

Google Hub will be able to recognise individual users according to their voices to provide personalised responses.

Mark Spates, product lead, Google Speakers ushers in to talk about how Google Hub is personalised.

YouTube demoed on YouTube Hub. It’s going swell till now! No hiccups.

Google Home Hub will come with six months of YouTube premium services in the US.

Google Home View gives you quick access to all you devices and appliances like A/C, lights and more. Google Home app is the mobile controller for you household appliances. You can even control the devices via an app.

This is something that Amazon already lets you do with the Amazon Echo devices!

200 million devices from over 1000 brands already compatible with Google Home Hub.

Google is talking about a feature called Google Home View that’s basically a screensaver linked to Google Photos.

Google Home Hub launched for $149 (Rs 11.026 approx.) and will be initially available in US, UK and Australia.

Osterloh is back on stage to talk about the Pixel Slate. He starts with how Chrome OS has changed the game for the company.

And Trond Wuellner, product director for Google Hardware, is here to talk about the Slate. It’s got 293 ppi and Google thinks that movie creators will love watching 8k content on this.

The sound performance of the Slate was also demoed on microphones at the event! Yeah sure, that ought to tell us about the audio quality of the Pixel Slate.

More free YouTube content with the Pixel Slate to be offered.

The Pixel Slate comes with 8-megapixel front and rear camera that supports portrait mode and also comes with a wide-angle lens.

The Pixel Slate supports multi-window mode and also comes with a do not disturb mode. Virus protection is built-in and the OS updates in the background. It also has a Titan security chip for data protection.

The Pixel Slate power button is a fingerprint scanner.

And there is a Pixel Slate Keyboard with no pairing or charging needed.

Pixel Slate offers support for multiple editing and multimedia applications. And, also most of the regular apps on Google.

Pixel Slate will be available in the US, Canada and UK later this year. The Slate has been priced starting at $599 (Rs 44,300 approx.).

The Pixel 3 and XL will come in three colour variants – White, Black and “not Pink”. Both phones come with bigger displays and high definition OLED screens. Front facing speakers are said to be 40 percent louder than before.

The Pixel 3 camera also gets a major upgrade, according to Brian Rakowski , VP, Product Management, Google.

The Pixel 3 camera will now come with a feature called Top Shot that will help users get the perfect shot by clicking multiple pictures before clicking the shutter. The zoom in feature is also said to be much better now.

Google Pixel’s Night Sight feature was also showcased for low light photography. The demo shows a comparison between the iPhone Xs and the Pixel 3 in low light, and the results speak for themselves.

The second camera, on the front, is a wide angle lens to accommodate more in the frame. The wide-angle camera on the Pixel covers 184 percent more scenes than the front camera on the iPhone Xs.

There are also enhancements in auto focus, depth control and also now you can control the blur in the background after clicking the picture. The Pixel 3 will also offer unlimited storage for photos in high resolution format.

The Pixel Stand is also here! Relax, it’s just a wireless charger for the Pixel 3. It also has more features. Looks like what we have seen on an Apple Dock.

The Pixel Stand is priced at $79 (Rs 5,800 approx)