At its first personal developer conference in three years, Google announced three new smartphones and its first internal smartwatch, as well as plans to launch a new tablet next year. Google has also announced updates to several of its most popular tools, including Maps, Google Translate, and the main search product.
Google surprised fans of its range of smartphones on Wednesday, annoying two new flagship devices – Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Although the company did not share many details, the two smartphones are expected to be released this fall.
Google also announced the Pixel 6a smartphone, a more affordable version of its Pixel 6 range, released earlier this year. Pixel 6a is powered by Google’s internal Tensor chip and will be available in three colors – green, white and black.
It will cost $ 449 and will be available on July 21.
Pixel Watch
There is no shortage of Android smartwatches on the market, but now Google is planning to produce a new smartwatch of its own for the first time.
The company is very annoyed by the advertised Pixel Watch, which will use Google’s WearOS operating system and will be compatible with services such as its voice assistant, Google Maps and Google Wallet.
The integration with Fitbit, which Google acquired in 2019, will add several features for tracking activity and fitness.
The Pixel Watch will be available in the fall, along with the Pixel 7 range. Google is also annoying the new Pixel tablet, which the company says will be released in 2023.
Pixel Buds Pro
Google has also announced a new iteration of its bluetooth headset called Pixel Buds Pro.
Available in four colors – orange, green, white and black – the new headphones offer features such as active noise reduction and surround audio. Pixel Buds Pro will cost $ 199 and will be released on July 21.
Immersion cards
In addition to the hardware, there were a number of new software updates. Google Maps users will soon be able to get a real view of certain cities through a 3D view of popular landmarks, restaurants and businesses to better visualize the space. While Maps now offers satellite and street view options, Google says its new immersive view feature combines the two to “create a rich, digital model” that makes users feel like they’re on the ground.
A sliding rock will allow users to see what the area looks like at different times of the day, how busy it is and local traffic conditions.
The immersive view will be available in Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo later this year on all mobile devices running Google’s Android operating system. The company said it plans to add more cities as it develops the feature.
Google translator
Google is adding 24 languages to its translation tool, Google Translate, a move that the company says focuses on the languages of Africa and India in general and languages not normally served by technology.
These include Quechua, which is spoken in the Andes, especially in Peru; Lingala, a language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Assamese, spoken in northeastern India; and a tigress spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The additional languages bring the total number that the tool can translate to 133 and will be available to all Google Translate users in the coming days, the company said.
New scale for skin tones
Google is launching a new skin tone scale that hopes to make its products more inclusive.
Many beauty and technology companies classify skin tones based on what is known as the Fitzpatrick scale. Developed in the 1970s by a Harvard dermatologist, it is used to classify how different skin colors respond to UV light (and thus predict a person’s risk of sunburn and skin cancer). Although it includes only six skin tones, it has been used by technology companies for years to inform everything from emoji colors and how wearable heart rate monitors work on different skin tones to efforts to make AI fairer in Facebook.
The company said it will start using the Monk skin tone scale, which was developed by Professor Ellis Monk of Harvard and includes 10 different shades. Google uses it to do things like test how well AI models (like the ones that can spot faces in photos) work on people with different skin tones. The company also uses the scale of Google Images search, for example, allowing people to narrow their queries for beauty-related images by skin tone.
Google will also open the scale with open source so that others can use it.
Virtual maps
Google is launching virtual credit cards to protect users’ financial information while shopping online.
The feature generates a virtual card number that users can fill out automatically instead of the actual card information on Android mobile devices or in Google’s Chrome browser, masking their actual credit card number from the companies they shop from.
Virtual cards will be introduced this summer – initially only for US users with Visa, American Express and Capital One credit cards. Google says it plans to add support for Mastercard later this year.
Search for privacy controls
Another feature, announced Wednesday, aims to give users more control over what results appear when someone searches for their name on Google.
The feature, which will be introduced in the coming months, will make it easier for users to request that their personal information, such as phone numbers, email and home addresses, be deleted from search results.
Google plans to allow users to customize what ads they see while surfing the web, with the ability to choose the brands and types of ads they make and don’t want to see.
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