Any new device launch involves the carriers these days, unfortunately for Google a side-effect of that is leaks. A leak is exactly what’s happened overnight with a brochure from UK carrier EE showing off most of Google’s upcoming new hardware.
The leak comes from the Twitter account of Jon Prosser, the YouTuber who has been behind a number of videos about the ‘Ultra Pixel’.
Hey, speaking of @madebygoogle.
Enjoy this "leak" straight from us. Was gonna wait until tonight's show, but f**k it.
🤷🏼♂️ pic.twitter.com/Ez8A9obpCD
— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) October 5, 2018
The photos attached to the tweet show off a new feature for the Pixel called ‘Top Shot’, a photo feature designed to pick the best shot and take group selfies – guessing that’s what ‘Super Selfies’ for the wide-angle front-facing camera got renamed to. The description for Top Shot reads:
Use Top Shot to get smiles, not blinks, and take groupie selfies that get everyone in the photo (without selfie sticks).
The feature likely uses AI to grab the best photo from a burst captured by the camera to find a shot that’s the best of the lot where everyone, or most people have eyes open, and are smiling.
The other feature named is something likely linked to the Digital Wellbeing which offers you the option to simply flip the Pixel 3 over to turn enable a Do Not Disturb like mode to turn off notifications.
The New Chromecast is listed, but no details on any new features of the device are listed. The new Chromecast has Bluetooth on-board as seen when it went through the FCC in August, but there’s no details on how this will benefit users. Perhaps an option to offer Bluetooth audio to speakers while video plays on the screen?
Lastly, the Google Home Hub is listed on the last page showing the unit will be heading to the UK at least. The launch date in the UK for Home Hub is October 22nd, so hopefully we may see a broader international launch of the device.
In terms of features for Home Hub, the picture shows it will operate as a Smart Display, however it doesn’t make any reference to video conferencing so there’s almost definitely no camera on-board.
This isn’t a complete list of everything that Google will announce in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with their Chrome OS devices and Pixel buds missing from the list. These may simply not be launching on EE, which is likely for Chrome OS devices, or they may be sticking with US-only availability. Either way we’ll find out on Wednesday.
Such unwarranted self-importance, why you not accept others’ taste in design?
So big bezel, why Google always made so ugly phones?