gemini ai

The Pixel 9 phones are big cameras and screens soldered onto Gemini AI ambitions

Gemini Advanced, gemini ai, gemini live, Google, Google Pixel, pixel 9, pixel 9 pro, pixel 9 pro fold, pixel 9 pro xl, Tech / Mike M. / August 13, 2024

A Google Pixel 9 Fold and Pixel 9 Pro XL, side by side on white background, with Fold open and 9 Pro XL front and back shown on separate models. — Google / Aurich Lawson

Google announced its fall lineup of Pixel phones today: three standard phones and a second tablet-esque folding model. There are new chips, new cameras, Satellite SOS, and some notable promises, like the 9 phones being “twice as durable” as their Pixel 8 equivalents and getting seven years of updates. But as you might expect this year, they’re primarily showcases for all the things Google’s Gemini AI promises to do for you.

Here’s what’s new, what’s coming, and when you can ask your phone to make a shopping list for taco night for a family of six.

Gemini is in the power button, the screenshots, and a free premium subscription

It’s not just you—Google really is “infusing AI into everything we do,” as noted on its Keyword blog today. Here’s a short list of what Google says Android phone owners can do with Gemini:

Speak to Gemini “naturally the way you would with another person”
Bring up an overlay (holding power button) over other apps to ask about things on-screen
Generate images from that overlay and drop them into apps, like Gmail or Messages
Use “Gemini Live,” a “mobile conversational experience” in which you could, for example, “brainstorm potential jobs well-suited for your skillset or degree”

Gemini Live is launching today for Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android, with iOS coming soon. New extensions to Gemini, and contextual overlay for non-Pixel devices, should arrive “in the coming weeks.”

You might think you won’t use Google’s Gemini as much as Google thinks you will, but Google aims to change your mind with one free year of the Google One AI Premium Plan (i.e., “Gemini Advanced“), which is bundled into a Pixel 9 Pro or Pro XL purchase. That also grants you access to what Google is doing with Gemini in Gmail, Docs, and maybe search, along with a 2TB storage plan.

Holding the power button on an AI-enabled Pixel 9 Pro will bring up a dashboard that allows for writing, asking, or searching through interconnected Google apps for information. Like Google Lens, you can ask Gemini about what’s on your screen or ask it about something in a photo you snap. It’s a little unclear which features may eventually get backported to the Pixel 9 or other Android phones generally. That’s probably the idea: if you’re excited about this stuff, Google strongly suggests paying $200 more.

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Google, its cat fully escaped from bag, shows off the Pixel 9 Pro weeks early

Google Pixel 9 Series —

Upcoming phone is teased with an AI breakup letter to “the same old thing.”

Kevin Purdy – Jul 18, 2024 6: 36 pm UTC

Top part of rear of Pixel 9 Pro, with — Enlarge / You can have confirmation of one of our upcoming four phones, but you have to hear us talk about AI again. Deal?

Google

After every one of its house-brand phones, and even its new wall charger, have been meticulously photographed, sized, and rated for battery capacity, what should Google do to keep the anticipation up for the Pixel 9 series’ August 13 debut?

Lean into it, it seems, and Google is doing so with an eye toward further promoting its Gemini-based AI aims. In a video post on X (formerly Twitter), Google describes a “phone built for the Gemini era,” one that can, through the power of Gemini, “even let your old phone down easy” with a breakup letter. The camera pans out, and the shape of the Pixel 9 Pro appears and turns around to show off the now-standard Pixel camera bar across the upper back.

There’s also a disclaimer to this tongue-in-cheek request for a send-off to a phone that is “just the same old thing”: “Screen simulated. Limitations apply. Check responses for accuracy.”

Over at the Google Store, you can see a static image of the Pixel 9 Pro and sign up for alerts about its availability. The image confirms that the photos taken by Taiwanese regulatory authority NCC were legitimate, right down to the coloring on the back of the Pixel 9 Pro and the camera and flash placement.

Those NCC photos confirmed that Google intends to launch four different phone-ish devices at its August 13 “Made by Google” event. The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro are both roughly 6.1-inch devices, but the Pro will likely offer more robust Gemini AI integration due to increased RAM and other spec bumps. The Pixel 9 Pro XL should have similarly AI-ready specs, just in a larger size. And the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is an iteration on Google’s first Pixel Fold model, with seemingly taller dimensions and a daringly smaller battery.