Google introduced a ton of stuff this week. The primary theme was new AI initiatives all through its complete software program and {hardware} lineup, together with the just-announced Pixel 7a, Pixel Fold and Pixel Pill.
Additionally: How one can purchase and pre-order all the brand new Pixel merchandise
That final product, the Pill, is Google’s try at making an Android pill for the reason that Pixel C was launched in 2015 and is one thing I’ve thought lots about over the past week.
In 2019, Google declared it was carried out experimenting with tablets and would as a substitute give attention to enhancing the contact expertise of Chrome OS units. And but, right here we’re, 4 brief years later, with the corporate asserting the $500 Pixel Pill that you would be able to pre-order proper now, with deliveries beginning June 20.
In the course of the {hardware} portion of I/O’s opening keynote, Rose Yao, a vice chairman of product administration at Google, took the stage to stroll viewers via the Pixel Pill. She demonstrated how typing along with your voice was quicker than typing on the Pill’s software program keyboard (no shock there), talked up the truth that the Speaker Charging Dock will hold the Pill charged and prepared to be used, and likewise confirmed off the Pill’s sensible hub options when it is docked.
All of that was fascinating, but in addition… complicated. Why did Google launch a $500 sensible show? Or is it a $500 pill? It is onerous to inform by how a lot the announcement and all the advertising and marketing supplies are leaning into the sensible show side of the Pill.
Lots of people, myself included, use tablets as makeshift laptops for productiveness. A devoted keyboard case (bonus factors if it has a trackpad) is desk stakes for a pill in 2023. Folks wish to reply to emails, or perhaps even get some work carried out in Google Docs, Sheets or Slides.
Additionally: Google declares the Pixel Pill, and it isn’t the iPad killer we hoped for
And but, Google is firmly positioning the Pixel Pill as an leisure and residential hub gadget; nothing extra. I can purchase a Nest Hub Max for $229. Heck, I might purchase two of them, and nonetheless avoid wasting cash in comparison with one Pill, if all I actually needed was a sensible show.
However I digress.
Hey Apple, you may wish to pay shut consideration to this subsequent half.
Close to the tip of Yao’s time on stage, she briefly talked about a characteristic that made me sit up in my chair. She had my full consideration. That characteristic? Multi-user assist on a pill.
The demonstration solely took 17 seconds (sure, I counted) out of the 2-hour and 5-minute keynote. This is precisely what she mentioned concerning the characteristic: “We all know that tablets are sometimes shared. So a pill for dwelling must assist a number of customers. Pixel Pill makes switching between customers tremendous straightforward. So that you get your personal apps and your personal content material whereas sustaining your privateness.”
And here is the way it’ll work:
She’s proper. Google’s proper. Tablets are shared at dwelling. And due to that, pill customers deserve multiuser assist, a characteristic Apple’s iPad nonetheless does not have, until it is utilized in an training or enterprise setting. The characteristic’s referred to as Shared iPad, and it permits college students and colleagues to share tablets in a non-public method.
So multiuser assist on the iPad is technically attainable, however Apple has simply purposely made the choice to maintain it from the typical shopper. And that is a disgrace.
Additionally: Google Pixel Pill vs. Apple iPad (2022)
I will, after all, have to make use of the Pixel Pill’s multi-user assist characteristic myself earlier than declaring full victory for Google, however at the least it is making an attempt. And it appears considerably promising. Discover how within the GIF above, the wallpaper adjustments when the consumer adjustments? It is a small element however one that offers us a glimpse on the full customization of a pill for every consumer. I am right here for it.
It is loopy how a single characteristic instantly made the Pixel Pill extra interesting to me. Sharing a pill with my spouse and children is one thing I might like to do. And proper now, it appears the one method to do this is to place my iPad down and decide up a Pixel Pill.
