The “Made by Google ’19” event was packed with hardware announcements. These hardware devices will enable Google’s ambient computing vision for the future. Two new products are the Pixel Buds 2 and Pixelbook Go.

Pixel Buds 2

The Pixel Buds 2 is Google’s new, true

wireless earbuds. The new devices are small, circular and packed with

technology.

Google worked its engineering wizardry and

produced an in-ear device that should be a good competitor to Apple’s AirPods.

The device supports long-range connections. Google claims the Pixel Buds 2 can

stay connected to a device from three rooms away while indoors or up to 100

yards (length of an American football field) when outdoors.

As part of Google’s vision for ambient

computing, the Pixel Buds 2 grants hands-free access to the Google Assistant.

All you need is your voice.

The devices will provide 5 hours of continuous listening, or up to 24 hours when paired with a charging case.

There’s also an adaptive sound feature that

will dynamically adjust the volume depending on the environment, negating the

need to constantly touch the volume switch. When on a call, beamforming mics

will isolate the user’s voice, limiting external noise, while accelerometers

will somehow detect speech by the movement of the jawbones. There’s also a

special vent at the base of each earbud that let in some environmental noise.

The Pixel Buds 2 also has built-in on-device machine learning chips.

The Pixel Buds 2 allows real-time language

translation, which is pretty cool.

If you want all this tech in your ears you’ll have to wait until spring 2020 and pay US$179.

The Pixelbook Go

Designed with “Finely painted magnesium” the

Pixelbook Go runs Chrome OS and on the surface, bears a striking resemblance to

the MacBook Pro design. That is until you turn it upside-down and see the

rippled texture that sets it apart. The device comes in two colours, “Just

Black” and “Not Pink.”

At approximately 2 pounds and 13mm thin,

Google still managed to fit a battery that they claim lasts up to 12 hours. And

if the battery runs low, you can plug it in for 20 minutes and get up to 2

hours of use.

The display is a 13.3-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The display can be had in FHD 1080p up to 4K UHD resolution.

The device comes with either an 8th

Gen, Intel Core m3, Core i5 or Core i7 processor and has either 8 or 16 GB of

RAM with 64 to 256 GB of storage.

The Pixelbook Go is equipped with 2 USB-C ports along with a headphone jack.

Prices start at US$649. Pre-orders started on October 15 for the “Just Black” colour variant. The “Not Pink” colour will be available later.

— Written by Renor C.