Google Technology Expert, Molly VandenBerg breaks down the latest product and tool announcements at Google I/O, 2022.
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Mason Paine: Google’s annual developer conference is a place to see the future of Google Android and all its products. And this year’s IO conference looks to be no different Google technology expert. Molly Vandenberg speaks about some of the latest features and products from Google. Thanks for joining me, Molly.
Molly Vandenberg: Thank you so much for having me. So tell
Mason Paine: me what are some of the new things Google came out with?
Molly Vandenberg: I always, always an opportunity for us to showcase our latest innovation. And this year we announced some new devices, new privacy features and updates across the board, on our products to make them even more.
Mason Paine: One of the things I was kind of looking forward to was the pixel buds pro earbuds. Tell me about that one them.
Molly Vandenberg: I’m really looking forward to these two. So these are our new wireless earbuds that have active noise cancellation. So they’re great. Whether you want to use them pay work meetings from home or get a workout in. And we’re really looking forward to them hitting shelves in July. There’ll be available for pre-order on the 21st, and you’ll be able to get your hands on them on the 28th.
Molly Vandenberg: I really love the design of these. They fit nice and flush in your ear and therefore are really comfortable. And they also come in four different colors, which is pretty fun. So you can pick the one that best matches your style.
Mason Paine: Now, when it comes to earbuds, I know a lot of, doctors will tell you, Hey, don’t have this kind of stuff in your ear. Cause it kind of ruins your, your hearing, which is true. Once your hearing goes, it never comes back. I’m just curious. Did Google put any features in to protect your ears.
Molly Vandenberg: It’s really important that people protect their hearing. And I think you’re right to say that people should have that top of mind. Of course, a lot of that is to come down into volume control and making sure that you’re listening to things at a good level sound and that we’re retuning it to fit that volume level, which I think is helpful to a lot of people who, if they do, you know, keep it down a little bit. They’re still getting really good quality sound.
Mason Paine: Yeah, that’s true. one of the things I noticed about it, which I was one of the features that I thought was pretty cool was that as you lower the volume, the high, mid, and low tempo volume, Adjust.
Mason Paine: So I’m like that, that, that’s actually pretty cool because as you lower it, sometimes you can’t hear certain things, which is why you end up raising the volume again. And it’s like counterproductive to why you lowered it.
Molly Vandenberg: Exactly. And we call that volume ETQ and like you said, I think that that’s going to help a lot of folks because it’s going to ensure that they’re still hearing what they want to hear without having to artificially crank up the ball.
Mason Paine: Now another, a product that Google has is the Google pixel watch. I’m a little confused about that because didn’t Google buy Fitbit. Wouldn’t it have been smarter to just continue with that model.
Molly Vandenberg: And so Fitbit is a part of the Google family now, which we’re really excited about and why that’s great news for the pixel watch, which is coming in 2023.
Molly Vandenberg: Is that, that walked, that we are building is deeply integrated with all of fitbit industry-leading features and the things that people love about it. So it definitely has that partnership element to it. And we’re really excited to bring that one market.
Mason Paine: So you said partnership, does that mean that the Fitbit won’t be phased out?
Molly Vandenberg: And so with the FItbit they continue to have their own range of trackers that people can purchase today. We’re looking forward to the watch as a way to extend our pixel family. And so we think of it as being a really good part. To our pixel devices and people who use and love our phones. So we can’t wait to see what’s in store for it. But of course that has trackers and other options available as well.
Mason Paine: Yeah. I see the thing is, is I kind of like using Google products because you know, everything is siphoning my data and even my biometrics, but so far Google hasn’t had any real big security risks where I’m like, okay, I need to pull all my data from this, service.
Molly Vandenberg: Well, we are very glad to hear that you love using Google products. And as you mentioned for security is top of mind for us and critical to everything that we do, especially within our devices. Of course, when we think about our Pixel phones, they all use the Titan M two security chip. And so we think about that really from the ground up.
Mason Paine: Yeah. And I think that’s amazing that, people at Google, all you guys are really in tune to the security, because again, you know, you’re, you are taking a data from people, the biometrics from people, and, you know, it needs to have some certain level of security for it. And I’m sure some people are like, oh, I don’t like it. Everything does it. You can’t have technology without it taking some kind of data from you. And to be honest, if somebody is going to take my data, I want it to be secure.
Molly Vandenberg: Security is such a big priority. And so is privacy as well. And we remain committed to giving people a lot of controls in that area.
Molly Vandenberg: And that was some other news that we had at the IO conference this year, or a couple of additional new tools that people can use. One that I really liked is the virtual part. So online shopping has become. So much of a part of our lives, and this is designed to make it even safer. So if you go to check out your card number will actually be replaced with a distinct virtual number, which means your actual card number remains hidden at checkout, and that can help protect you from potential fraud. So something we think about across the board, in our hardware products and our software products and our features, and we want to make sure we’re continuing to give people those options and control.
Mason Paine: Now another thing that I saw that was really interesting was the glasses, the language translating glasses, like where did that come from?
Molly Vandenberg: I’m so glad you bring that one up because it is a really exciting early stage demo and prototype of something that we think could be possible when it comes to breaking down those communication barriers, using augmented reality. And the way that we’ve thought about it is what if we. The best of transcription and translation technology and put it in your line of sight.
Molly Vandenberg: And so it kind of functions as being subtitles for the world. And so while that one is not necessarily close to something that you’d be able to get your hands on any time soon, I do think it’s really representative of the kinds of problems that we hope technology evolved.
Mason Paine: that would help so much. those things are amazing. And I know they’re in, you know, like a prototype phase, but I’m just curious, have you guys ever thought about putting prescriptions for those? Because I wear glasses, so I couldn’t use them unless I had my glasses.
Molly Vandenberg: Oh, you know, that’s such an interesting idea. I hadn’t thought about it, but I’ll make sure to pass that one a lot.
Mason Paine: Yeah. It’s really uncomfortable when you have two glasses on top of each other. It gets a little bit too much.
Molly Vandenberg: Yeah. I’ve tried that before with sunglasses and you’re right. It’s not easy now, before I
Mason Paine: let you go, I have to ask you about the phones because I’m still working on the pixel 4XL and I’m kind of like, should I even upgrade?
Molly Vandenberg: I’m really excited to talk to you about the Pixel because it is our latest one in the, a line for the Pixel 6a and what I love about the a line is that it delivers a lot of the same qualities of our premium phones, meaning that they have the same 5g connectivity. They have the same underlying security architecture and the Google tensor chip.
Molly Vandenberg: That really powers a lot of the smarts of the phone, but we’re able to deliver that for a much more affordable price point. And so this one’s going to come out at $449, and I think it’s going to be one of our best affordable phones yet. So I’m really excited for a lot of people to get their hands on them. Of course, the things that people love about pixel oftentimes have the photography features like night sites to help with low light, as well as magic eraser, to be able to get photo bombers out of your pictures, all of those are going to be available on the phone. And so I think it’s a really good one to look at.
Mason Paine: Wow. 449. That’s not a bad price. I’m so used to spending a thousand dollars.
Molly Vandenberg: Yeah. And that’s something that we really take to heart. And we want to show people that you don’t necessarily need to spend a thousand dollars on a phone to have a really good experience.
Molly Vandenberg: And so we really care about packing. A lot of those fan favorite features into something that’s a little bit more accessible
Mason Paine: Well, Molly, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you being here and for those listening, where can they find more information about all these products we talked about?
Molly Vandenberg: You can head to g.co/io for more information about what we announced in the conference itself.
Molly Vandenberg: And of course you can go into a lot more detail on our keyword blog.
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