WATCH: Left-Wing Audience's Hilarious Reaction to Stephen Colbert Interviewing CNN's Kaitlan Collins

Gemini gets a new voice chat mode. | Image: Google Google is rolling out a new voice chat mode for Gemini, called Gemini Live, the company announced at its Pixel 9 event today. Available for Gemini Advanced subscribers, it works a lot like ChatGPT’s voice chat feature, with multiple voices to choose from and the ability to speak conversationally, even to the point of interrupting it without tapping a button. Google says that conversations with Gemini Live can be “free-flowing,” so you can do things like interrupt an answer mid-sentence or pause the conversation and come back to it later. Gemini Live will also work in the background or when your phone is locked. Google first announced that Gemini Live was coming during its I/O developer conference earlier this year, where it also said... Continue reading…

The Pixel 9 Pro XL, or the newest face of “What is a photo?” | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge I played a new kind of AR Pac-Man game yesterday, guiding a circle on a phone screen toward a series of little dots that seemed to hover around a conference room. In this version, you don’t level up when you finish; instead, you get a panoramic photo. I got to spend a couple of hours using the Pixel 9 Pro XL on the eve of Google’s annual hardware event. Becca got to play with the new phones, too, and you can check out her impressions in the video below. And while my time was focused on the 9 Pro XL, it shares all of its camera features and hardware with the smaller Pixel 9 Pro. The standard Pixel 9 comes with a lot of the same capabilities — including the new panorama mode — though not all of them. The updated panorama interface I played... Continue reading…

The plural is actually “Pixels Pro,” like attorneys general. Google’s Pixel phone lineup is getting a little bigger this year. The Pixel 9 series now counts one standard model — the Pixel 9 — and three Pro models: the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. They all offer updated designs, new Tensor G4 processors, and AI features up the wazoo. The Pixel 9’s updated design language is giving iPhone from the front — the curved edges are out and flat sides are in. The back panel, however, is all Pixel. The camera bar is now an elongated, free-floating camera oval protruding from the back of the phone. The Pixel 9 Pro now comes in two sizes. The standard Pixel 9 keeps the same basic size and shape with a bigger 6.3-inch screen, and the 9 Pro XL is roughly the size of... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Alongside a fleet of new phones and two sizes of its Pixel Watch 3, Google has just announced its latest flagship earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro 2. They’re priced slightly higher at $229, but Google has included enough improvements that I don’t think most people will be dissuaded by that. The overall design is quite similar to the original Pixel Buds Pro, but these are lighter and 27 percent smaller. Google has also brought back the wing fins, which should produce a more stable fit when you twist them into your ears during exercise. The wing fins are back for a more stable fit during vigorous activity. The company claims that the Pixel Buds Pro 2 deliver noise cancellation that’s twice as powerful as the first-gen... Continue reading…

There’s now a 45mm (left) Pixel Watch 3 along with the original 41mm size. The Pixel Watch 3 isn’t the new smartwatch on the block anymore — which is an interesting place for Google to be in. It’s easier to forgive flaws when you’re a newbie, launching a first-gen device in an already crowded market. It’s understandable if a second-gen device is still working out the kinks. But there are expectations when it’s your third time around the block. So I was pleasantly surprised to walk away from my hands-on impressed by the sheer number of features Google’s packed into the Pixel Watch 3. “We are deeply committed in this space,” says Sandeep Waraich, senior director of product management for Pixel wearables. “It is by far our biggest leap, probably bigger than even introducing the first generation [Pixel Watch].” Y... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Okay, sure, Google basically spent the last few months spoiling its annual hardware event by repeatedly leaking — and, in some cases, just flat-out announcing — all of its upcoming phones, wearables, headphones, and TV gadgets. But the annual Pixel event is still a big day in the gadget world and also a chance to find out exactly what Google thinks the future looks like. In this episode of The Vergecast, we talk through all the new devices, from the Pixel 9 lineup to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 to the Pixel Watch 3. We also discuss last week’s launches, particularly the new TV Streamer. Google is now nearly a decade into this phase of its hardware journey and appears to still be serious about being a big player in gadgets. So, the question is:... Continue reading…

The new Pixel 9 generation starts at $799 for a 6.3-inch model. | Image: Google Google announced its full lineup of Pixel 9 phones at its latest Made by Google event, and boy, how full that lineup is. There are four — count ‘em — four new Pixel phones (in three different sizes) all coming within about a month of one another: the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Each of them features new processors, improved specs over last-gen models, seven years of OS updates, and at least somewhat new camera setups — all with a bunch of Google’s Gemini AI stuff mixed in. Confused already? No worries. Let’s break down what you actually need to know about Google’s new quartet of phones, including where you can preorder them ahead of launch. Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9 The new Pixel 9 is Google’s... Continue reading…

Google’s new smartwatches are bigger, brighter, and more capable than ever. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Google announced not only its forthcoming Pixel 9 lineup during its Made by Google event on Tuesday but also a slew of other devices, including the Pixel Watch 3. The smartwatch will be available on September 10th starting at $349.99, with preorders opening today. For the first time, Google’s smartwatch will be available in two sizes — 41mm and 45mm — both of which use the same processor as the Pixel Watch 2 but sport larger, brighter displays. Google claims the wearable can last up to 36 hours, while thinner bezels offer more space to display information, read messages, and perform other tasks. On the software front, Google’s forthcoming wearable offers several advanced running features, including one that lets you send custom workouts... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is officially here, and the company can’t stop talking about the AI features it’s got coming. On the hardware front, Google boosted the RAM for all of its new phones to accommodate memory-hungry on-device AI. The Pixel 9 received 12GB of RAM, while the rest will have 16GB of memory. But the bigger side of the story is software — the phones all get a handful of new Pixel-exclusive AI features. And the Pro phones are also getting a year of Google One AI Premium, which comes with access to Gemini Advanced, Google’s most capable AI system. Here’s a rundown of the biggest Pixel 9 AI features Google announced today. Remember things with Pixel Screenshots Google’s new Pixel Screenshots feature is a little... Continue reading…