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Welcome to Alphabet City, this is a show that normally covers everything to do with Alphabet.
Alphabet happens to own lots of companies like, Verily, Chronicle, Waymo, and Google.
Today we're sticking to Google, since the company is doing it's I/O conference.
I'm your guy [UNKNOWN] Tara, we are in the lovely state of California even though my shirt says New York and you are the exceptional audience.
Today we're talking about the Nest Hub Max Assistant.
Your comments and more.
But first up let's go to Pixel Park.
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The Pixel 3A is real.
By now you've probably seen all the specs.
So let's focus.
Where does it stand out?
It's a Google phone that starts at $399.
It's got Night Sight, android updates, and stereo speakers.
It's even got a headphone jack.
Now that announcement drew a huge cheer from those in attendance at Google I/O.
Google showed off AR on Google Maps on the Pixel 3a which means there's some power behind this phone The phones are headed to a number of carriers in the US.
Verizon, T Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular, and Google Fi.
It won't be at AT&T stores, but you get the phone from Google and bring it over if you want.
On the downside, there's no waterproofing or wireless charging.
Storage is capped at 64 gigs.
Photos uploaded to Google Photos are backed up at a compressed high quality mode and not the originals.
All right, great, so how is the actual photo in real life?
Let's go to Me with the phone, me.
I'm here with the Pixel 3A XL, this is the larger version And the first thing that strikes you when you see it, good gosh, it's a boring look.
This phone looks like it could be two or three years old.
And the thing is, for the price, I get it, I kinda get it.
But you can have cheaper phones with better looks.
Look at Motorola, they've got some nice, sleek phones.
You've got a large bezel on the top and bottom.
You've got speakers up here and down here.
For some reason, Google did not do the front facing
Speakers.
I will say it gets very loud.
I was impressed by that.
I've been playing around with this for a little bit and I've been using it like my daily driver.
I've been using YouTube.
I've been redditing.
I've been watching YouTube while I've been redditing.
And it's pretty dang snappy.
The fingerprint sensor is terrific.
It works very, very quickly.
It's in a really good spot on the back right in the middle.
Not like those little ones on Samsung that used to be on the edge or in the screen.
This is on the back.
There is a headphone jack on this so if you want you can actually use something called wired headphones.
Look at this fancy.
That's right.
This isn't even available on Pixel 3. So if you want a headphone jack the 3A or 3 Xl is the way to go.
I've taken a couple of pictures with this device.
The portrait mode works pretty well.
Takes a little bit of time to process but it's not too shabby.
I was very impressed by the camera quality.
Is it worth $400, this one for 479?
Maybe, I will say getting Google updates right away is super important.
I'm gonna play around with this phone some more.
I'm gonna throw it back to me at the studio Thank you, field Ayez.
We're going to shake things up and mention your comments throughout the show.
We got a question from R M. Help- Buy a Budget flag ship killer or Previous year flagship ???
Now, this is a great question for right now with the new Pixel 3a showing up.
So here the deal, if you want a phone with great hardware that will last a couple of years I say go for the older flagship.
It should have a fast processor and lots of RAM.
Now, if you're thinking about getting software updates on time, I'd say go for a lower cost device like the Pixel or phones by Motorola or OnePlus.
They will get the latest features that you might actually use.
Speaking of latest features let's talk about Android queue.
We finally got some features that seem interesting.
First up is live captioning with this android queue.
We'll be able to take audio and turn it to text.
This will work on any video or audio even your own.
Also smart replies coming system wide.
That means Google will suggest replies on any messaging apps.
The thing that made the audience isle audience happy.
Dark theme is coming to queue.
Chancelor asks, "Why do people keep buying pixels if they just end up having problems with them?" I believe he's referring to screen issues with the Pixel 2 audio problems And even issues with the headphone dongle, amongst other things.
Chancler, I think people are looking for an all in one solution.
Google makes the hardware and the software.
They should work well together.
I say should.
Additionally, people who live in Google Docs, Chromebooks, and Chrome are already so used to using Google products.
I think that the Pixel line is going to become even more interesting in October.
The expected Pixel 4. This should be the first real phone Google has worked on from start to finish since purchasing HTC's design team.
The rumor is that Google has several teams working to build the Nest Pixel as well.
Back to IO, Google made some smart home announcements.
First up, it's using the Nest name for some products.
The Google Home Hub got renamed as the Nest Hub and has a price of 129.
Then there's the Nest Hub Max.
It's like the Hub, but with a larger screen at ten inches.
You can use the Hub Max as a Nest cam and for video chats.
Similar to Facebook's Portal, the camera can follow people around so you're always in the center of the shot.
I'm at IO and I wanna get my hands on the
Hub Max, now this is the original Hub, it looks tiny compared to this.
I'm not allowed to touch the screen, though.
So I'm gonna actually get my hands on this thing to see how it is.
It's definitely heftier, because there's a subwoofer in this and stereo speakers.
You've got the camera on the front, obviously.
There is a physical switch on the back, which is pretty easily accessible.
It's supposed to cut off the mic and the camera.
That's pretty neat.
229, and when you compare that to the Nest cameras themselves, it's not a bad price, actually.
So this is me with hands on with the Nest as much as I can, cuz if I touch the bezel, it's okay.
Back to me in the studio.
With all those I/O announcements, the thing I am most excited for is what Google called the next generation Assistant.
Instead of data going from your device to the cloud and back, the new Assistant Will handle all the work on your device, no cloud necessary.
The demo even looked insanely fast.
There was even a small score up with the assistant did not catch a request.
Even if you cap the time of the mistake and saying a command a second time it seemed way faster than the current generation of assistant.
That does it for this special episode of alphabet city thank you to everyone for letting in.
If you've enjoyed your stay in Alphabet City, please like and subscribe.
I'm Iyaz Akhtar and I'll see you online.
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