So today, in one big swoop, Google\u2019s rolling out their iPhone, their Eero, their Amazon Echo and their Samsung Gear VR. This is one big catch-up with everyone else in \u201clook now we do our own hardware too,\u201d which is a HUGE pivot for them. Time was, the Nexus phones were meant to be a reference design that just happened to be unlocked and assured of getting updates. Buying a Nexus gave you the feature set that the rest of the Android ecosystem would get next year – and you\u2019d be getting software updates next year too. But those Nexus phones rotated between different makers – HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola – and this time, even though HTC is doing the manufacturing, Google wants you to know the Pixel is THE Google Phone, moreso than any of its predecessors.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the thing with that: with Google now doing this themselves, there is absolutely no<\/em> reason to buy an Android phone from another maker unless you simply can\u2019t afford it – because with the demise of Google-Motorola, any promise of future upgrades is gone (hell, Lenovorola won\u2019t even commit to ship the security updates in a timely fashion). And with the demise of Nexus, that $300-400-range Android that will get routine updates is also<\/em> gone. For the first time, Google is nailing its colors to playing on the exact same field as the iPhone – if not more so, because they don\u2019t have a Pixel SE. They\u2019re starting at the same $649 price point which is the entry point for flagship premium phones in 2016. Not for nothing, too, the Pixel (the 5\u201d model) is a hair larger than the iPhone 7, which is not surprising under the circumstances\u2026but the iPhone 7 (and its 6\/S forebears) were already just a hair too big for me. Be that as it may.<\/p>\n Too, the Google Pixel is a Verizon exclusive, because CDMA-based phones still require some amount of carrier involvement. If you like, you can just buy the unlocked model for the same price for your AT&T or T-Mobile SIM and get going yourself. (There\u2019s no call for setting it up on Sprint because Sprint is shite.) But again – $650. This isn\u2019t like a couple years ago when the Nexus 5 was as good a phone as you could buy for $350 unlocked, or even last year when the 3rd-gen Moto G would get you 80% of the way there for $200. This is iPhone pricing, and will have to deliver an iPhone-caliber premium experience. And significantly, the user-facing UI is now the Pixel Launcher, which is for all intents and purposes Google\u2019s answer to TouchWiz or the old Android skins: they now have a custom UI of their own to lay on top of the AOSP pieces just like anyone else. Say farewell to \u201cpure Android;\u201d the best you can do now is \u201cGoogle\u2019s Android.”<\/p>\n And make no mistake, this is an All Google Everything setup.\u00a0Huge huge HUGE chunks of this depend on machine learning and distributed processing and cloud storage, and it\u2019s keyed to your Google account. Music streaming from YouTube (??), all your photos and videos stored for you at full resoultion in the cloud (where they can be visually identified as bears or trains or whatever).That\u2019s<\/em> where the privacy scare comes from – not that someone will necessarily hack Google and get it, but that at some point Google will make their own use of this data either to advertise against or possibly sell outright. For a company whose non-physical products are all \u201cfree at point of service\u201d and whose revenue is explicitly based on advertising, this is not a comforting prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n Google really wants Google Assistant to be your JARVIS. And as always, this comes down to how much you want to trade off – all you have to do is put your entire life into their grid. The phone, the voice device, everything is just another interface for The Google.\u00a0Significant that they started with the phone and then went on through all the Google Assistant stuff in Google Home, which got just as much run. \u00a0Proof that the phone itself is just another UI, and the Assistant is the keystone product. \u00a0Everything is \u201c______ by Google\u201d now, whether it\u2019s Phone or Home or Help or what. The trigger phrase is \u201cOK Google.\u201d Google is the whole big mysterious thing. Google is how you get to the Internet.<\/p>\n The problem, though, is the same as ever: for this to work as advertised, you have to go all-in<\/em>. It needs your mail and your calendar. It needs to know where you live and work, what music apps you prefer, and to be honest in some places it\u2019s going to need you on Google Fiber to have a data connection fast enough to make it worthwhile.\u00a0Google really is the new Microsoft – only worse, because Microsoft only had you by the balls on your PCs. Between the services and the gadgets. Google\u2019s kind of got you everywhere, whether you use it or not (this is where I point out that I don\u2019t use Gmail but 80% of the people I correspond with in email do). This is really starting to get a sell-your-soul feel to it. Just give in and look how much easier your life will be. Only problem is waiting to see what the other shoe dropping consists of.\u00a0<\/p>\n Which is why launching with a Silicon Valley<\/em> segment with Gilfoyle and Dinesh was a bit on-the-nose…because this is Google basically going full Hooli.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So today, in one big swoop, Google\u2019s rolling out their iPhone, their Eero, their Amazon Echo and their Samsung Gear VR. This is one big catch-up with everyone else in \u201clook now we do our own hardware too,\u201d which is a HUGE pivot for them. Time was, the Nexus phones were meant to be a … <\/p>\n