Google had another surprise up its sleeve at Google I/O today, announcing that it will be expanding its lineup of first-party Android products with its first Pixel Tablet.
Although it’s not expected to arrive until 2023, Google wanted to give us a sneak peek at its new tablet. The company said there’s so much energy around tablets in the developer community that it wanted to ensure everyone was in the loop and ready for it.
It’s a next-generation Android tablet powered by the Google Tensor chip and designed to be a perfect companion to your Pixel phone. Google says it will work seamlessly with Pixel devices to be “the most helpful tablet in the world.”
From the images that Google showed, it appears the Pixel Tablet will have a single rear camera plus a landscape-oriented front camera set into a white bezel.
Along with the upcoming Pixel Watch, this new Pixel Tablet effectively rounds out Google’s products into a “true Pixel family of devices” that will ensure there’s something for everybody. Google calls it a “holistic approach to hardware” that will tie in nicely with its new seamless multidevice experiences.
This also makes it easy to see why Google is optimizing Android 13 for tablets in a whole new way. Android 13 will offer a more refined experience for larger screens, with improvements to notifications, the ability to see more information at a glance, and even support for dual-columns and a new app taskbar. It looks as though the Android 13 tablet experience is edging a bit closer to Chrome OS.
While the new Pixel Tablet may not arrive until Android 14 is out next year, the enhancements in Android 13 pave the way for developers to build apps that will be ready for the Pixel Tablet when it lands in 2023.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.