Yes, We Want a Pixel Watch

This week, we discuss all the news from Google I/O, including Android 13, translation glasses, and that fancy new wearable.
Google Pixel Watch
Photograph: Google

It’s springtime again, which means developer conference season is in full swing. (Hoo-ray?) This week marks the return of Google I/O, the annual conference for programmers who build apps for Google’s many platforms. But I/O, while technically a software conference, has also long been a launch pad for Google hardware. This year we saw new phones, new earbuds, a Pixel tablet, and even the oft-rumored Pixel watch.

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu joins us to talk all about Google’s announcements, from hardware to software to voice assistants. We also debate the ideal shape for a smartwatch (which, for the record, is round).

Show Notes

Read all of our Google I/O 2022 coverage in one place. We wrote about the hardware and software announcements, Assistant, and tablet enhancements for Android. Khari Johnson wrote about Google's new skin-tone recognition system for AI. We also have Lily Newman’s roundup of privacy and safety features coming to Android 13. If you missed the keynote address, watch a replay.

Recommendations

Julian recommends that you should try paying for professional movers if you move, but also get some mover’s insurance. Lauren recommends the book Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe. Mike recommends slip-on shoes for cycling, work, and life.

Julian Chokkattu can be found on Twitter @JulianChokkattu. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

How to Listen

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Transcript

Michael Calore: Lauren.

Lauren Goode: Mike.

Michael Calore: Can you set a timer for 12 minutes?

Lauren Goode: Sure. Is that really the best use of my time?

Michael Calore: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was talking to my Google Assistant.

Lauren Goode: You do have an Assistant on your Pixel phone there, don't you?

Michael Calore: Yeah. And that's all I use it for, setting timers.

Lauren Goode: Just timers?

Michael Calore: Pretty much.

Lauren Goode: Alarms?

Michael Calore: Sometimes.

Lauren Goode: What's the weather?

Michael Calore: Never.

Lauren Goode: Do you ever call it Siri by accident?

Michael Calore: Never.

Lauren Goode: That's probably better.

Michael Calore: Well, the Assistant's getting much better.

Lauren Goode: This is what we hear.

Michael Calore: And we heard about that today, this week, at Google I/O, along with a bunch of other things.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. Like a lot of stuff.

Michael Calore: And we're going to talk about all of it on this week's show.

Lauren Goode: Let's do it.

[Gadget Lab intro theme music plays]

Michael Calore: Hi everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I'm Michael Calore. I'm a senior editor at WIRED.

Lauren Goode: And I'm Lauren Goode. I'm a senior writer at WIRED.

Michael Calore: We are also joined this week by WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu. Julian, welcome back to the show.

Julian Chokkattu: Hello. Thank you for having me.

Michael Calore: Of course. It is springtime. So you know what that means? It's developer conference season. Hurray!

Julian Chokkattu: Woo-hoo!

Michael Calore: This week, Google is holding its annual I/O conference. It's a two-day-long virtual gathering, but the main thing we care about is the keynote address on the first day. It's when Google typically announces a whole bunch of new software and sometimes some hardware. And announce they did. There are three new Pixel phones coming, a tablet, some new wireless earbuds, and at long last a Google-branded smartwatch called the Pixel Watch. Google also showed off some Android updates and new features for its web tools like search and the G-suite. And we'll talk about the software later in the show, but first, I want to ask Julian about the hardware announcements. So let's see. Where should we start? The watch. I want to talk about the watch first.

Julian Chokkattu: Yeah. I mean, I've been hearing about a Pixel Watch for about six years. I think when they first launched the original Pixel, everyone was like, “Oh, they're going to make a watch.” Right?

Michael Calore: Yeah.

Julian Chokkattu: And every year since then, it's just been a continuous, like will they/won't they kind of thing. And now we're finally here, and it's finally happening. Pixel Watch is a round watch, which in my opinion is the superior form for a watch.

Michael Calore: Amen.

Lauren Goode: Ah, he just threw bombs on this show.

Michael Calore: Yeah. Amen.

Lauren Goode: And we're going to get to that. Go ahead, go ahead, Julie, please continue. Say more.

Julian Chokkattu: It's running the new Wear OS 3 that they launched last year. So it's a redesigned operating system that Google has been tweaking lightly over the past seven, eight years, something like that. But basically, it's going to have Fitbit support because Fitbit is now a Google company. So there's a lot of Fitbit apps, and a lot of that data tracking is going to be handled by Fitbit and Google Fit, which is kind of confusing. And it just looks pretty, round, and has customizable straps. I think they're proprietary. They didn't confirm that.

We don't really know that many other details, because they were pretty light on it, and because this product is technically coming out later this fall alongside the Pixel 7 Pro, which we can talk about as well. But that's happening. And the only other thing we know is that there is no iOS support, which is very weird. So this will only work with Android phones. And—

Lauren Goode: My head is just exploding right now. Please continue. No, please keep going.

Julian Chokkattu: And the nice thing is that Google has actually decided to make its apps available for its own fricking watch, finally. So you finally get a Google Home app, for example, so you can actually control all your smart lights on your watch. It's kind of crazy that they have not had a Google Home app for their Wear OS operating system these past few years, but we're finally going to see more first-party Google apps on there. And so that's kind of exciting if you are a Pixel user or just a general Android and Google Assistant user.

Lauren Goode: So Google acquired Fitbit, I guess it was a couple years ago now. It was probably about three years ago that they announced it, but it took about a year for the deal to go through. Fitbit, prior to that, at some point had acquired Pebble. A lot of people listening will probably remember the adorable Pebble smartwatch. I like to call that a wearables turducken because it's like Google buying Fitbit, which bought Pebble. It's all just nested in this little thing on our wrists now. But how much of this Pixel Watch, Julian, is going to have Fitbit's DNA in it?

Julian Chokkattu: Well, the words that they used were that Fitbit would be imbued throughout the watch.

Lauren Goode: Oh, imbued.

Michael Calore: One of our favorite words.

Lauren Goode: Wow. That must have been a millennial English major who wrote that for Google.

Julian Chokkattu: But the weird part is, because of the Fitbit deal, one of the agreements that Google had to make was that they had to keep Fitbit data separate from Google data. So what they said is that the Fitbit app on this watch will collect data, and it'll be sent to Fitbit, and it'll be kept isolated from Google's other data that it's collecting on the watch. So I'm not sure how that's going to work. It's especially weird because there will be Google Fit on the app as well. So I guess you can choose if you want to go the route of Fitbit or if you want to go the route of Google Fit. But it's going to be a weird thing that you just have to deal with and figure out which one you want to use. And I guess at some point maybe they'll merge it, but it also is pretty common with Google to see two of everything. So maybe that's just what this is.

Lauren Goode: Why the round face? Why?

Michael Calore: Hey buddy, why the round face?

Lauren Goode: Hey buddy. Right. It would work better if it was oblong, because then I could ask why the long face.

Michael Calore: That's right.

Lauren Goode: But really, why?

Michael Calore: Because watches are meant to be round. This is something that we have known for a long time. There are—

Lauren Goode: Have you seen a tank watch?

Michael Calore: Yeah, sure. Like a Cartier watch.

Lauren Goode: Yes.

Michael Calore: There are plenty of watches that are rectangular or square.

Lauren Goode: Oh, there's another one that's really popular. It's called—

Michael Calore: Well, it doesn't matter what—

Lauren Goode: It's called the Apple watch.

Michael Calore: Right.

Lauren Goode: Right?

Michael Calore: Right. The best-selling watch in the world.

Lauren Goode: Right.

Michael Calore: But those watches are imperfect because watches are meant to be round. The ideal, objectively, scientifically accurate shape for a watch is a round watch. I'm with Julian on this.

Lauren Goode: Why?

Michael Calore: Because the hands. The hands go around and you want the equal distance between the ends of the hands and the outside of the case of the watch at all times.

Lauren Goode: OK. I appreciate this mini lesson in horology, but we're talking about smartwatches. That's what it's called, right?

Michael Calore: So you're saying, like, if it's just an interactive tap-tap-swipe-swipe kind of screen, it should be the same shape as all the other screens that we use, like our phones and tablets.

Lauren Goode: No. OK. So in the abstract, I don't believe that smartwatches are or should be just mini smartphones on your wrist. I think that was the big question, especially when the Apple watch came out about seven years ago at this point, is this just going to be a smartphone on your wrist? And I actually do think that they've proven themselves as a device that's helpful in many other ways and exist on their own and run their own operating systems and have their own apps or micro apps or whatnot. 

But that said, a lot of app developers are developing apps for the rectangular slabs that we use in our day-to-day lives, whether that's a tablet or a smartphone. And so in app development, when you're designing these things in certain ways, I think there's a technical case for why having a square smartwatch might serve apps better than a round smartwatch. And I've seen some smartwatch makers do cool things with round faces. Like there was a Samsung watch where you would actually run your fingers along the edges of the round bezel.

Michael Calore: Yeah.

Lauren Goode: And that became an interaction method for while you're using it.

Michael Calore: Yeah.

Lauren Goode: Right? And by the way, I am wearing a round watch right now, as we tape this, I'm wearing a Garmin that I love.

Michael Calore: A smartwatch.

Lauren Goode: I consider this like a dumb smartwatch. It's a sport smartwatch. It's not a smart. It doesn't even have a touchscreen. Maybe that's the thing, the touchscreen, maybe it should be square.

Julian Chokkattu: I am of the opinion that for me, a smartwatch will always be a supplementary device. And so I prefer its design looking a particular way and making me feel a particular way when I look at it like a traditional watch, compared to just more focusing on the utility of that screen. So for me, I would rather it be round and look pretty and then give me some extra additional help every now and then if I can turn off my lights from my watch, for example, versus packing a lot of data into the perfect size and shape of a screen, just because it is more functional, I suppose.

Michael Calore: I will say that, that last point is exactly I'm with you on that. As long as it works flawlessly, I really don't care what shape it is.

Julian Chokkattu: Exactly.

Lauren Goode: All right.

Michael Calore: I think that's the bigger problem, is getting it to work.

Lauren Goode: I'm outnumbered here, but that's OK.

Julian Chokkattu: Exactly.

Lauren Goode: We can agree to disagree on this podcast.

Michael Calore: Yes we can.

Lauren Goode: Julian, will Fitbit continue to exist?

Julian Chokkattu: That is an interesting question, because obviously they're leveraging so much of Fitbit's brand name and their expertise in their tracking data here, but they also last year announced that Fitbit will be coming out with a premium Wear OS smartwatch back when they were initially announcing Wear OS 3. So presumably, we can expect a Fitbit watch with Wear OS, I think, later this year, that's going to compete with the Pixel Watch. So it's kind of a weird situation again, two of everything with Google, maybe that's what this is, but maybe this is just two different markets, two different audiences, and it's going to be interesting how that goes.

Michael Calore: Well, we don't have time to go deep on everything, but we should mention that there were three phones announced, the Pixel 6a, which is going to be coming out in July for $450. And then they also teased the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro, which are coming out in possibly September, October, which is usually when the new high-end Pixel phones come out. Julian, what is interesting about these phones?

Julian Chokkattu: Well, we don't really know much about the Pixel 7 series other than they have a similar design, a little more metal, and they are going to be running the second-generation Tensor chip, which was a given. But what is more interesting about the Pixel 6a is that, we thought that Google might rely on Qualcomm midrange sensors for their cheaper phone because it's probably more cost-effective that way, but turns out nope, they're just going to put the same Tensor chip that's in their flagship phones into the 6a, so you get this flagship level of performance for $450, all the same software and AI features.

And the only things that you're really going to sacrifice on are, it's a smaller screen and the camera sensors aren't going to be as fancy or new. But otherwise, you're getting the same types of 5G coverage. So that's sub-6-mm, which is extremely rare at this price. And yeah, OLED. This will have broader retail support over the Pixel 5a, so you can actually buy it from more than one store basically and in several countries as well, whereas the Pixel 5a, they only sold it into US and Japan. So overall, I think it's kind of a crazy deal and kind of one of those Apple moves. Apple has the iPhone SE that it sells with the same A13 ship that's inside the iPhone 13 series ... Sorry, A15. I'm completely at a loss as to what series number we're at. But I think it's A15 now.

Lauren Goode: I think so.

Julian Chokkattu: Yeah. So apple has the iPhone SE that runs the same processor that's in the iPhone 13 series, which is pretty cool that you can get the same level of power for a much lower price. And that's pretty much exactly what Google has done here. And honestly, I don't see many other companies being able to do that right now. So …

Michael Calore: There was also a tablet teased today. There were some crazy translation glasses, some live translation AR glasses teased today. We know that there are Pixel Buds Pro coming, which are like Pixel Buds that are $200 and have a few more features, active noise canceling, really crazy battery life. Lauren, there was so much hardware today at I/O. Why is Google showing us all of this stuff now?

Lauren Goode: Yeah, this is a good question. And Google has employed this interesting strategy around product announcements in recent years. It has started to increasingly leak or tease its own hardware before it is actually ready to announce it or actually ready to ship it. And so this is, I think, one of the longest lead times we've seen for a smartphone in a really long time. Like the fact that they're saying, I'm going to guess around five months from now, in October, just going to guess, you'll see the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro. They're just really putting it out there. Right? So that whole idea of the intrigue and the secrets around the product, the typical product release cadence is eliminated.

And part of that may be because Google has to manage expectations. We've seen a lot of shipments of products disrupted by the pandemic and supply chain challenges over the past couple of years. It could be partly because Google just wants … They realize they have a relatively small market share in all of these products, whether it's smartphones, which they only sell probably a few million of relative to Apple's phones. But yeah, their own smartphones, their own tablets, this new Pixel Watch, they're going to have mere slivers of market share. Right?

And so part of this must be if they can just lodge themselves into consumer's brains, as people are starting to make purchasing decisions, come August, September, October, that maybe they just have a chance of grabbing some of that share.

Michael Calore: Well, I guess we should thank Google for giving us one of the busiest weeks in recent memory as journalists who covered this stuff. All right. Well, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk about all the software announcements.

[Break]

Michael Calore: Everyone is talking about hardware this year, but I/O is still primarily a software conference. And Google did lay out a bunch of new updates for Android and for its web services, for example, the Google Assistant, which lives in phones, smart displays, and smart speakers. It got a little bit smarter with the addition of some natural language features. Now, Lauren, let's start with this, because you got to talk to some Googlers about the new changes coming to Assistant. Tell us about them.

Lauren Goode: That's right. Last week I went down to the Valley—Silicon Valley that is—and I met with Sissie Hsiao, who is the relatively new head of Google Assistant. She's managing Assistant, and she's promising that it's getting smarter, because when you think about something like Google Assistant, which is the thing where … By the way, I'm going to apologize in advance because for those of you listening, this is the part of our podcast where we may start triggering some of the smart devices or your Google Pixel phone sitting around.

Michael Calore: Triggering.

Lauren Goode: Because I'll say “Hey G,” as much as I can remember to. OK. So a lot of people are used to using “Hey G” to ask it a question. And that usage has gone up a couple of years ago. Google claimed that there were 500 million monthly users who would access Google Assistant in some way. And now that's gone up to 700 million users per month. But the commands and the queries that people are asking aren't generally super varied or complex. The dynamic is still very much, I have this one question, you are the assistant, answer the question. I mean, a lot of us do the same. Like Mike, you've mentioned this earlier in the show, we do the same queries over and over again.

Michael Calore: Yeah.

Lauren Goode: You ask it to set a timer. My big thing, I have a Google Nest Hub in my bedroom, and every day or night, I say, “Hey, Google ...” Sorry, I just did it to all of you. “Hey G, play ocean sounds.” That's it. That's the only thing that I do. Play ocean sounds.

Michael Calore: So you're saying that basically Google is making it easier for the devices to get to know you and know your habits, and that makes it easier for them to understand what you mean when you ask that question at the same time as you asked it yesterday, in the same tone that you asked it yesterday.

Lauren Goode: Right. But it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem because they want consumers to start asking more complex questions and having almost conversations with the Assistant, but consumers don't know it's there until they roll it out and demonstrate that it works. And so that was part of it today for Google, to say, hey, this Assistant actually is getting much more conversational. You can start to say things like “um” or take awkward pauses the way we do when we're talking to each other or taping a podcast. I would be afraid if someone tallied up all the ums that we say on this podcast. But there's a lot of ums. It's just the way we speak to each other.

And so Google is designing its Assistant now to be able to recognize that, or you could say something like “um, um.” You could say something like, “Hey G, order the pizza that I ordered last Friday night.” And it might have a recollection of that and understand it. Or you could say something like, this is another example they gave, “Hey Google, play that song by Florence.” And you sort of trail off, and it understands that you mean Florence and the Machine. And it's probably one of the most popular songs or a song that you've listened to before. So yeah. They're trying to make it more intelligent in these little ways so you can just start talking to it like it's not exactly a human, but a thing with human effects, human capabilities.

Julian Chokkattu: I think the coolest thing was that example with the “um” that they showed when you pause. Because I think I find myself at … I have a dog, so I'm always asking, “Can I feed it this? Can I feed it that?” All these different types of questions like that. And most of the time, or sometimes, I'll just pause because I'm thinking of what I wanted to ask. And usually it starts talking, thinking I've finished my query, and then it's just me shouting at it saying, “Please stop. No. Cancel.” Because one of the many Google Homes will go live.

So now, having it be able to actually detect that I paused, didn't quite finish my query, is kind of interesting. But my biggest issue is, usually they announce all these features and you're like, “That's awesome. I'm going to forget how to use it. Or just completely forget that it exists,” because it takes so long for them to really become commonplace features that the average person … Because I will train myself to probably utilize some of these new things, but my partner probably doesn't care enough or won't really know it. And so there's always usually a long time for them to really make use of it when it's deployed for normal people.

Michael Calore: I feel like it's the same thing with features that are not voice features. Phones are already so complex, and every time you introduce new features, you have to hide the old complexity in new places to make room for the new complexities. Do you know what I mean?

Lauren Goode: What's an example of that?

Michael Calore: Well, it's just, look at your phone now. Because over the last 10 years, things have been added to the phone, and new features keep being added, and they don't drop old features when they add new ones, right? They just make the list of … Like the settings list just gets longer and longer and longer with every release. One thing that a voice assistant is actually helpful for is just finding things on your phone, like turning on the flashlight or starting a song. Because you don't know where it lives, you just want to ask for it. And that is actually something that I think voice assistants are truly useful for, is helping us solve the problem that our phones have grown too feature-rich.

Lauren Goode: Right. There's this promise with the Assistant of having just effortless hands-free access to this boundless intelligence out there on the web, for any query or whim that you need answered. And then there's the utility aspect, where they're actually doing some deep linking or working with third-party apps or just the apps that are on your phone to be, like, let's just make this little thing easier for you to access.

Michael Calore: Yeah.

Lauren Goode: That reminds me of when Apple introduced something called Shortcuts on iOS a few years ago. And it was this total oxymoron, because you had to watch like some seven-minute YouTube video to watch someone put together their Shortcuts and then spend 45 minutes tailoring your Shortcuts to be like…. I think that's what they were called, right? The Shortcuts.

Michael Calore: Yeah.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. Julian's nodding. And now, every so often, something does pop up where it's like a shortcut to the surf line, surf report, the exact one I'm looking for. And I'm like, “Oh, that's working.” But just designing it, getting it to work, initially setting it up was so complicated. And I was like, “Oh, OK.” I think in some cases Google may still have a leg up on Apple there when it comes to just making the Assistant smarter for on-device stuff.

Michael Calore: Yeah. And speaking of Shortcuts, there's also better support for quick phrases coming to your system.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. Yeah. This is not entirely new, but now Google is saying that on something like the Nest Hub Max … You have to remember that Google bought Nest, and then they rebranded all their smart displays Nest Hub blah, blah, blah. Anyway. So that thing, that smart display, you don't even have to say, “Hey G,” you can basically program a phrase that you use frequently, such as “Turn on the bedroom lights” or “Turn on the timer,” whatever it is, “Set the timer,” to be the phrase itself.

So when you say that, the Assistant just knows. It wakes and then it processes it. So it's eliminating the “Hey G.” And another way that they want to do that is have you, to use your face, to face-scan you and voice-match you. So you basically peer at the device, the smart display for a few seconds. It recognizes you. And then you just launch into your question or your query. You don't have to say “Hey G” anymore. So they're taking away these little barriers that exist to just making it a more fluid virtual assistant.

Michael Calore: At the expense of our privacy.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. Yes. Google will say that it's only going to be your face and voice that can use the Look and Talk feature, that a lot of the processing, if not all, is happening on-device, which is a phrase we're hearing a lot these days in the world of AI. There's a privacy shutter on the cameras that are on these devices. The feature's totally opt-in. And they'll say all of that, but ultimately, there is this pathway, there's this … Right now, Sissie Hsiao tells me that Google has no plans to use ads to monetize Google Voice Assistant. Right? But ultimately, this is all part of Google search. This is fundamentally what Google does. Its foundational technology is search.

And Google processes billions of search queries a day from us typing in the search box, compared to hundreds of millions of voice queries per month, right? Which is small potatoes compared to the way we typically search. But Google is an advertising company, and that's how they make money. And so ultimately, this is all feeding that engine of like, it's getting to know you, it's becoming personalized, it's becoming more convenient, but at the expense of us telling Google how we're living our lives.

Julian Chokkattu: I am curious how this is going to work, because obviously this new feature where you just look at the Nest Hub Max, like that only works because the Nest Hub Max has a camera, and it is the only Nest Hub with a camera. And that's something that Google has routinely prided itself on, in not including a camera in some of their Nest devices. And it's the opposite of what Amazon does, which is shoving a camera into anything. But basically, it's just weird that this is such a big feature that requires the camera.

I would've thought they would've tried to figure out some kind of a solution where you didn't need to say the wake word by not having to have a camera there. Right? It just seems like a weird feature that seems a little backwards in some way, especially since earlier, like two months ago, I wrote a story about how they're trying to use radar to detect how you're walking around in your room with the Nest Hub detecting that you're walking past it and presenting information on the display when it realizes that your gaze has shifted towards it.

So it's like, one department is developing this way of showing you more information without invading your privacy. And this other department is, like, “Just stuff the camera in there and use that.”

Lauren Goode: Yeah. It is interesting. I asked about that, like the evolution of, first, there were smart displays and they all had cameras and microphones and people freaked out. And then there was this move away from the cameras, right? Because Google made the Nest Hub second generation without a camera, but added those radars. And then other third-party hardware makers like Lenovo that used the Google Assistant specifically designed privacy shutters so you could cover the camera. So then there was like this movement of, like, no, we don't want cameras in our smart displays. And now we're going back to, like, “Yeah, but this has a camera and what can it do? Oh, OK, great. It's going to make Google Assistant that much better.”

I do think too that if Google were to roll this feature out on the billions of other Android devices around the world with cameras, like smartphones right now, there would be such a huge backlash. It'd be a privacy nightmare. So they have to start it, I think, with a product that has a relatively small footprint, and that most likely is the Nest Hub Max.

Julian Chokkattu: Right. And maybe it's just kind of like, back in the day where Google Glass was just so offensive to everyone because it had a camera on your face, and now that's kind of normal.

Lauren Goode: I love your description of Amazon just throwing a camera in everything. Amazon's like, “We just want to know when you want toilet paper. That's it. We see you're out of toilet paper. You need more toilet paper. Here's a jumbo pack, 36 rolls, coming your way, two days or less.”

Michael Calore: Well, there was a whole mess of software announced this week at Google I/O that we're not going to get to talk about, because we're almost out of time. We did see a preview of Android 13, which is going to be arriving this fall. We learned a little bit more about it. There's going to be expanded support for RCS. There's going to be expanded support for Matter smart-home standards. So you'll be able to instantly pair your phone with any device that works with Matter. It's going to be easier to cast videos to more televisions because Google is expanding support to multiple manufacturers.

Also, Google Wallet is returning. The application formally known as Google Pay is going to turn back into Google Wallet. It's going to be able to hold all of your credit cards, your transit cards, your vaccine card, your Disney World fast pass. And you're also going to be able to put your driver's license in it. So that should be interesting. The next time you get carded, just show the person a QR code.

Julian Chokkattu: I don't think Google Pay is changing into Google Wallet. I think they're going to be now two separate apps.

Michael Calore: Of course they are.

Julian Chokkattu: I think that's the case.

Michael Calore: Of course they are. Because why would we have it any differently? Well, Julian, tell us what was the big software standout for you?

Julian Chokkattu: Well, there was a feature called Real Tone that Google introduced last year with Pixel 6, where it would do a better job of capturing people with different skin tones in photos. And now, they're translating that into all of Google's products so that even when you're searching in Google search to find foundation or makeup that would really be ideal for your skin tone, those results will actually come through in Google image search, for example, versus only seeing one type of skin tone when you search for it. You're just getting more of a diverse array of options, as well as tools that you can use to choose between different skin tones as well.

That's just one of the things that you think is already happening because it's 2022. And you're like, “Yeah, right. When I search for something, I should get a diverse set of opinions and images and results.” But no, that's only really being implemented now. But I mean, I'm not surprised, because Google launched Real Tone last year with the Pixel 6 in the camera with its ability to more accurately capture skin tones of people of color. And that's one of those things where you're like, “Hey, it's 2021. How is that not already a thing on every smartphone camera?”

And so, it's just nice to see that happening. Exactly how well it'll work across all of their Google products is  hard to say, but it's just nice to know that someone is thinking about stuff like that.

Michael Calore: I like the TL;DR feature. Google showed this feature where, when you open a document or you're joining a Google Meet, it will basically give you an AI-rendered summary of the thing that you're about to read or the meeting you're about to enter … so that you can get caught up very quickly on what it is you're going to be talking about or reading about.

Lauren Goode: Spoken like a true editor.

Michael Calore: Just the facts, ma'am.

Lauren Goode: I'll turn in ridiculously long copy to you and you'll be like, “Lauren, I'm just reading the TL;DR box.”

Michael Calore: No, I'm going to utilize Google's open APIs to have its AI write a summary of each story that you write from now on.

Lauren Goode: If I were to do a very quick Wired and Tired about what I'm most excited about from today—

Michael Calore: Please.

Lauren Goode: I would say the Wired is that I'm most interested in this unified vision of software experiences for consumers from Google. The way Julian said earlier that, across tablets and watches and phones, we have that offering with Apple and Samsung, but not so much with Google. Let's see if that actually happens. Also, I have to say, I really liked Brian Rakowski's sweater and Sissie Hsiao's blazer onstage today during the Google I/O demo. Good job folks.

I'm least excited about what you're kind of describing Mike, this flattening or shortening of our texts and languages by Google's AI into these increasingly smaller boxes of like, what does the world look like when all of our writing and all of our search results are just displayed in these cards? Not sure I love that idea. And then also Tired: the fact that Google launches a zillion things and not all of them come to fruition.

Michael Calore: And Expired: Google Pay.

Lauren Goode: Which is now Google Wallet. Google Wallet lives on.

Michael Calore: It is not. All right. Let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll do our recommendations.

[Break]

Michael Calore: Julian, you are our guest. You get to go first. What's your recommendation this week?

Julian Chokkattu: I just moved to a new apartment in Brooklyn. And I would recommend … First, I would recommend getting movers, because I have had a history of my parents just always instilling that you got to do it yourself. And my dad would stack the truck or his minivan with everything. And so I've always done that for the past seven, eight, nine years or whatever. But this year, I was like, “You know what? I'm just going to get movers and have them deal with it.” And it definitely is a lifesaver. At the same time, I also recommend getting moving insurance, because they completely destroyed my marble coffee table.

Lauren Goode: No.

Julian Chokkattu: But I should be OK, I think. I've never really gotten insurance for a lot of these types of things. So that's going to be my first experience with that. Hoping that it'll be good news and I'll look at a different coffee table or something. But still, it's just one of those things I think, as you go on in life, pay the seven bucks for the insurance and you will be happier if something goes wrong.

Lauren Goode: Julian, have you considered a smart coffee table?

Julian Chokkattu: No.

Lauren Goode: A giant touchscreen coffee table. I think Microsoft made one of those.

Michael Calore: Yeah, it was the Surface.

Lauren Goode: And Lenovo made one of those.

Michael Calore: That was the first Surface product.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. It's right. Yeah.

Michael Calore: You say that three times fast. Yeah.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. They showed it off at the conference back in the day.

Michael Calore: Yeah. 12 years ago probably.

Lauren Goode: It was a long time ago.

Michael Calore: It was called Microsoft Surface and it was an interactive coffee table.

Lauren Goode: Yeah.

Julian Chokkattu: So you have to plug it in.

Michael Calore: Yes. And connect it to the internet.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. Also you might not want to put your coffee on the coffee table.

Michael Calore: Please do not put drinks on the coffee table. Thank you.

Lauren Goode: Also, we need to update its operating system. At least once every three months.

Michael Calore: I've got the blue coffee table of death. Lauren, what's your recommendation?

Lauren Goode: Oh, my recommendation is Empire of Pain, a book by Patrick Radden Keefe. I've mentioned this a few times before on this show, but I typically follow that with, but I don't want to recommend it until I finish it. Well, folks, I have finally finished it. Those of you who are friends with me on Goodreads, aka Mike, because I think you're my only friend on Goodreads, will notice that I checked it off as completed this week. It's an excellent book. It is about the Sackler family dynasty, the family that is responsible for marketing, selling OxyContin, which fueled the opioid crisis in the United States. It's a really sobering book, deeply, deeply reported, and really excellent. And so I recommend reading Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe.

Michael Calore: Nice.

Lauren Goode: Mike, what's your recommendation this week?

Michael Calore: Slip-ons.

Lauren Goode: Slip-ons.

Michael Calore: I'm done with laces.

Lauren Goode: Just in general, in life, what are you wearing now? Well, you have laces on right now.

Michael Calore: These are elastic laces that turn any laced shoe into slip-on shoes.

Lauren Goode: What?

Michael Calore: Yeah. So I ride a bicycle. I don't know if you knew this about me, but I ride a bicycle, and laces are not great for bikes because they get caught in the chain and they get chain grease on them. And if you have a fixed-gear bike or a single-speed bike or a coaster-brake bike, a lace getting caught in the chain can bring you to a very sudden stop, which is unsafe. So I usually, when I'm riding, don't wear shoes with laces. And also now that travel is an option once again, I've been traveling more, and slip-on shoes work great for travel because you take your shoes on and off a lot when you go through airports and get on planes and things like that.

And also just like, I don't like bending over to tie my shoes anymore because I'm old and it hurts. And slip-ons, you can put on while you're standing up. There are just a bazillion reasons why they are superior to shoes with laces. So I'm going hard into slip-ons. I'm getting rid of all of my lace shoes except for my running shoes, because I've not found good running shoes that slip on. So if you have recommendations for running shoes without laces, send them to me. However, the shoes that I do have with laces, I'm replacing with those elastic laces, so it converts them into slip-ons.

Lauren Goode: Just seems like you wouldn't want to go running in shoes without laces.

Michael Calore: They have to be really snug. Yeah.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. They have to be really snug. They need ankle support.

Michael Calore: Yeah.

Lauren Goode: It's also just part of the process, right?

Michael Calore: Yeah.

Lauren Goode: Like, lace it up.

Michael Calore: Which is fine.

Lauren Goode: Going out for a run.

Michael Calore: But in all other scenarios of my life, no more laces.

Lauren Goode: What about Velcro?

Michael Calore: Velcro? What are you from? 1986?

Lauren Goode: Yeah. What's wrong with 1986?

Michael Calore: Do you also have the kangaroos with a little zipper pouch on the side of the shoe?

Lauren Goode: I don't remember those.

Michael Calore: OK.

Lauren Goode: I think you're just that much older than me, Mike.

Michael Calore: Julian, you're Team Slip-On, right?

Julian Chokkattu: Yes. Mostly because I'm lazy. I'm 6'4". I have to bend down really far to tie my laces. I'm lazy. I just want to slip something on. And I've got to walk the dog two times a day. I don't want to tie laces and things like that. So I am very much pro slip-ons.

Michael Calore: Yeah. Yeah. I went Vans, Sanuk, OluKai. There's a bunch of great ones out there to pick from. So ...

Lauren Goode: Oh, OK. So you're not 1986. You're 1994.

Michael Calore: No, no. This is thoroughly 2022.

Lauren Goode: OK.

Michael Calore: Yeah. I'm fully up to date on my fashion choices. Thank you Lauren.

Lauren Goode: I wear slip-ons when I take the garbage out.

Michael Calore: Well, there you go. You're halfway there. All right. Well that is our show. Julian, thank you, as always, for joining us in talking Google.

Julian Chokkattu: Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. This was fun.

Lauren Goode: Thanks Julian. It was super fun.

Michael Calore: And thank you all for listening. If you have feedback, you could find all of us on Twitter. Just check the show notes. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth. We will be back next week. So until then, goodbye.

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