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The name Google is synonymous with online searches, but over the years the company has grown beyond search and now builds multiple consumer products, including software like Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Android, and hardware like the Pixel smartphones, Google Home, and Chromebooks. Its name can also be found on internet services such as Google Fi, Flights, Checkout, and Google Fiber. Here is all of the latest news about one of the most influential tech companies in the world.

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The Verge
What are GPTs good for, anyway?

Like Emilia, I’ve really only found GPTs to be useful for a few specific tasks. In my case, generating Google Sheets formulas. Now, most of the formulas I get from Bing and Bard are slightly wrong, but that’s good, actually. I’m learning a lot about spreadsheet formulas by figuring out why they’re wrong. Task failed successfully.


The Verge’s favorite mobile phone gadgets

We talk about the cases, chargers, and other gadgets we use with our phones.

Leaked pictures show a very blue Pixel 9.

OnLeaks shared a leaked picture of the Pixel 9 that’s expected later this year. The rest of this batch of promo shots are published at 91Mobiles, along with a rendered video. The phone has a 6.1-inch display and may have a telephoto lens, according to the article.

This follows up yesterday’s Pixel 9 Pro leak, also from OnLeaks.


5G, but in space.

AST SpaceMobile, which is building the first space-based cellular network, recently secured new investments from some familiar names: AT&T, Google, and Vodafone.

Adding up to $306.5 million, that’s a hefty vote of confidence in the company’s approach, which would harness a fleet of low-orbit satellites to make direct connections to smartphones — no special equipment required. Who knows? Space 5G could be coming to Android phones sooner than later.


A group of people in blue lab coats stand behind a very large satellite array.
Image: AST Mobile via Business Wire
Google Classroom can automatically remind students about upcoming assignments.

New updates coming “soon” to Google Classroom will let teachers notify students about homework due dates right on the home screens of their Chromebooks.

Those Chromebooks should also last longer, as Google announced last year that it will provide 10 years of automatic updates to Chromebooks, but only for laptops bought in 2021 or later. That, unfortunately, doesn’t cover Chromebooks bought in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, which are now breaking down or reaching their end-of-life expiration dates.


Google Classroom new updates shows assignments on Chromebook home screens
Google Classroom assignments on Chromebook home screens
Google
Is this the Pixel 8a?

X user chunvn8888 posted pictures purporting to be the retail packaging for the yet-unannounced Pixel 8a yesterday, as spotted by 9to5Google.

Unsurprisingly, it looks a lot like the Pixel 8. Assuming it follows in the footsteps of past budget Pixels, expect the same Tensor processor as the pricier models, but some skimping on fancier features.


A picture of purported retail packaging for a black Pixel 8a.
The Pixel 8a, according to this box.
Image: chunvn8888
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Youtube
Shall Google compare thee to a Claude Monet?

Google has revived its Art Selfie feature with generative AI, allowing users to create stylized images that reference famous artists and notable periods of history — imagining yourself in Rousseau’s jungles or as a Shakespearean performer, for example.

The new Art Selfie 2 tool is located under the Google Arts & Culture app, where it’ll also provide facts about the art style or period being referenced.


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Twitter
Mint green Pixel 8 is no longer a secret.

Google teased a reveal for January 25th, but what’s a day between friends? The new Pixel 8 and 8 Pro hue will apparently be available exclusively through the Google Store and Google Fi.


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Verge Score

OnePlus 12 review: refreshingly basic

While Samsung and Google were busy shipping AI features as fast as possible, OnePlus doubled down on the essentials.

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External Link
A more seamless way to voice type could be on the way for Android.

9to5Google has spotted references to a new “Seamless voice typing” feature in the code of a beta version of Gboard. When enabled, “voice typing will start automatically when keyboard is shown,” apparently.

It’s currently a two-tap process to start voice typing on Android (once to open the keyboard, once to turn the mic on), but this might speed up the process for frequent voice typists.


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External Link
Inside Google, there’s “a pervasive sense of nihilism that has taken hold.”

This vibe check comes from an engineer named Diane Hirsh Theriault who has been at the company for over 8 years:

Google does not have one single visionary leader. Not a one. From the C-suite to the SVPs to the VPs, they are all profoundly boring and glassy-eyed.

With rolling layoffs continuing to hit different teams, including the X “moonshot” division today, Theriault writes that “executives are cashing out their human capital at the very moment it seems to me like they really need it.”


The predatory loan apps that persist in Google Play.

Apple and Google have defended their app stores as necessary tools to protect users, but Verge alum Russell Brandom highlights this article focusing on loan apps Google Play allows even though its own rules say it shouldn’t. Rest of World found dozens of apps in Mexico and Peru that broke Google’s TOS by requesting access to things like a user’s contact list, information which has been used to harass people over debts.


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The Verge
One of Google’s goals for this year: “deliver durable cost savings.”

I published the full list of Google’s 2024 company goals that were recently shared internally in the last issue of Command Line:

1.⁠ ⁠Deliver the world’s most advanced, safe, and responsible AI.

2.⁠ ⁠Improve knowledge, learning, creativity, and productivity.

3. Build the most helpful personal computing platforms and devices.

4.⁠ ⁠Enable organizations and developers to innovate on Google Cloud.

5. Provide the world’s most trusted products and platforms.

6. Build a Google that’s extraordinary for Googlers and the world.

7.⁠ ⁠Improve company velocity, efficiency, and productivity, and deliver durable cost savings.

That last line, plus CEO Sundar Pichai’s warning to expect more “specific resource allocation decisions” (translation: layoffs), has a lot of employees on edge.


Google is making it easier to unsubscribe from emails.

The unsubscribe option now shows up when hovering over emails in Gmail on the web, rather than after opening them. Meanwhile, you’ll find the option at the top of opened emails in the iOS and Android Gmail app, rather than tucked away behind the three dots menu. Hooray, discoverability!

Also, reporting spam doesn’t offer a “Report spam & unsubscribe” option anymore, and instead invites you to simply “Unsubscribe” to legitimate senders.


A screenshot of the new unsubscribe option in Gmail on the web.
Unsubscribe, right from your inbox. It’s the little things.
Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge
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External Link
Huzzah! The Pixel Watch 3 might come in two sizes.

One of the biggest complaints that reviewers — myself included — had with the Pixel Watch 2 was that it only came in one size: 41mm. That’s fine if you’re petite-wristed like me, but it’s not great if you’ve got a larger frame. Well, 9to5 Google cites an unnamed Google source as saying the company is working on two sizes for the next Pixel Watch. That’s about all we know but if true, it’s a step in the right direction. After all, Apple, Samsung, and Garmin all offer their flagships in multiple sizes.


Today on The Vergecast: Vision Pro photos, S24 photos, and seriously, what is a photo.

Big gadget week! The Vision Pro is up for pre-order (are you getting one?), so we talked about everyone’s experience so far and all the things we still don’t know. Then we dig into Samsung’s new S24 lineup, the latest on the Apple Watch ban, and what it means to make a slow-mo video when there’s no slow-mo video to make it from.


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External Link
Huawei’s in-house HarmonyOS leaves Android apps behind.

HarmonyOS Next can only run apps specifically developed for it, the company announced today as it released a developer preview ahead of its Q4 release, South China Morning Post reports. It’s a big shift for HarmonyOS, which has maintained some level of compatibility with Android software since its launch in 2019 even as US sanctions prevented Huawei from using Google’s full-fat Android. Huawei also appears to have overcome sanctions preventing access to high-end chips.


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External Link
Will you let Bard write a text to friends?

9to5Google found code within the Google Messages app that suggests it’s going to add Bard to “help you write messages, translate languages, identify images, and explore interests.” The feature, codenamed “penpal,” will reportedly put Bard in a standalone chat where you can ask it to generate ideas, identify images, and make suggestions.


Add a fancy background AND a hat to your Meet call.

Google is going to let you combine multiple video effects when you’re on a Meet call, as detailed in a blog post. The company is also introducing AI-powered studio lighting and audio quality, but those two features are only available for people using the Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise add-on.

One more new feature: Google will let you join Meet calls on mobile without having a Google account.


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Youtube
Hey Google, what’s happening with Bard?

Google is adding AI image generation to Bard tomorrow, according to developer Dylan Roussel, who shared a screenshot of a changelog dated for tomorrow.

Roussel says it will use Imagen, Google’s text-to-image model, shown in a video of an earlier iteration.


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Samsung’s Galaxy S23 now starts at $699.99.

With the arrival of the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung’s Galaxy S23 now starts at $699 in the US instead of $799. That makes it $100 cheaper than the standard Galaxy S24. (Note, however, that the new S23 price has yet to show up on Samsung’s site.)

Its software and security update policy isn’t as impressive as the S24’s, but the Galaxy S23 still has hardware specs comparable to the newest gen. It’ll also get all of S24’s AI-powered features later this year.

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A Samsung and Google Cloud deal is powering AI features on Galaxy S24 phones.

The price of running generative AI is high, so it’s not surprising Samsung and Google have teamed up to power the new features in Galaxy S24 phones.

This is the first use deploying Gemini Pro on Vertex AI to customers, for summarization in Notes, Voice Recorder, and Keyboard. It’s also using Imagen 2 for Generative Edit on photos, as well as Gemini Ultra for complex tasks and, like the Pixel 8 Pro, Gemini Nano as an on-device LLM.


Samsung Galaxy and Google Cloud logos
Image: Samsung / Google