Two years ago, Google launched its first set of products under its new hardware arm Made by Google. The suite of digital tools arrived with game-changing software and AI that offered us a Google lifestyle that challenged competitors like Apple and Amazon. This year, the tech giant is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and with it, its third wave of life enhancing launches – Pixel 3, Google Pixel Slate and Google Home Hub.
Google shook things up this year, swapping its global conference location from the Mountain View HQ to New York City, but they still served up its ethos across multiple screens that this technology will ultimately help your life. The new collection follows on from the brand’s inaugural Salone del Mobile project earlier this year at Rossana Orlandi that firmed its place in the design world with a show on how hardware can seamlessly integrate with our lives. Spearheading the design department for the past four years, Head of Design Ivy Ross and her team were given appraisal early in this year’s hardware keynote in a video where Ross explains that Google’s design aesthetic has soft circles and curves for the user to get close to the technology that, she says, ‘will eventually be invisible.’
Google showcased the ambient colours of its new Digital Wellbeing software inside an equally dimly lit room
As the presentation continued, it became clear that Google isn’t ignoring the social climate and the need for a digital detox, shown in the launch of new wellness software for Pixel phones, dubbed Digital Wellbeing. Offering a smoother journey to the ‘do not disturb’ button, the software knows to mute notifications when the screen is facing the table, and allows us to monitor app usage time. Meanwhile the new wireless charging system, Pixel Stand, offers an ambient visual alarm system to appear on your phone slowly displaying gradient tones of the sunrise moments before the sound hits.
These wellness features join new hardware that includes the company’s first tablet, Google Pixel Slate, and Pixel 3, the latest smartphone that contains an impressive new wide angle camera among other nifty new functions, and Google Home Hub that is a compact smart home, but with a floating visual display. All the designs are imbued with soft edges, bespoke textures and muted palettes, plus playful extras like brightly hued buttons on the Pixel 3, keeping in line with Google’s well known vibrant design style that Ross describes as ‘bold and optimistic.’
Google is a relative newcomer to the hardware game, and it was sure to communicate that while the new technology could improve our lives, it was not here to take control; ‘we love working on really hard problems that make life easier for people, in big and small ways,’ mused Rick Osterloh, vice president of Hardware at Google.
The new Google Home Hub that includes floating visual display
The latest generation of Google Chromecast that boasts a faster performance in its discreet design
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Google store website
-
A revamped Edinburgh apartment combines Californian-style modernism with modern craftArcher + Braun have transformed an apartment in a historic house with finely tuned contemporary additions and sympathetic attention to detail
-
Formafantasma’s biodiversity-boosting installation in a Perrier Jouët vineyard is cross-pollination at its bestFormafantasma and Perrier Jouët unveil the first project in their ‘Cohabitare’ initiative, ‘not only a work of art but also a contribution to the ecosystem’
-
Gingerbread City: architects sculpt London out of the season's favourite treatUntil December 29 in Chelsea, see London brought to life in a seasonal-appropriate medium by leading architects and designers
-
Year in review: top 10 audio acquisitions of 2024, as chosen by Wallpaper’s Jonathan BellThe best audio technology of 2024, from pocketable earbuds to room-filling speakers
-
Is the new Google Pixel 9 Fold Pro the ultimate do-it-all device?Google's Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Fold Pro go head to head in our hands-on test of the latest generation of AI-infused smartphones
-
New earbuds for audio and AI interaction, courtesy of Google, Denon, and moreThe age of AI comes to your earbuds with the arrival of the new Google Pixel Buds Pro 2. We explore these and seven more of the newest and best-designed wireless earbuds as alternative choices
-
We meet Google’s head of phone design Claude Zellweger to explore the new Pixel 9 seriesGoogle’s annual drop of new mobile devices is here. We get hands on with the Pixel 9 family and discuss design, AI and smartphone longevity with Google’s Claude Zellweger
-
Folding Motorola razr 50 and 50 ultra enter the smartphone arena – plus the latest competitionMotorola and Samsung unveil cutting-edge new folding phones, while Honor’s photography-focused device proposes portraiture as the new hotness
-
Is Google’s Gemini AI the best way of getting the most out of our machines?From summaries to lists of suntan lotion and swimsuits, Google reckons Gemini can save us all time and effort. We dig into new uses for AI
-
Torment Nexus or social revolution? Google’s I/O 2024 was all about AI integrationWe sift through the revelations and revolutions from Google’s I/O conference, where its Gemini AI model was pushed to the fore for searching and making. The future is how you find stuff, and Google thinks it has the answer to everything
-
The Google Pixel 8a is an AI-driven ‘beginner’s smartphone’ that eclipses its pricier rivalsWe get our hands on Google’s latest device, the mid-range Pixel 8a, a stripped-down smartphone that still packs an excellent camera, solid hardware and an AI-powered software punch
