Reporter Daniel Zhang Yi
Edited by Gao Yulei
For Android and Google fans, many software updates and new hardware products related to this are released every year during the Google I/O conference.
But during I/O 2023, due to Google's comprehensive All in AI turn, this developer conference has become a conference where Google's various AI capabilities are fully integrated into the product, and AI is integrated into almost all scenarios, even Android that was originally expected to be far from AI and the three new hardware products released during I/O can find a lot of AI elements.
After the Google I/O conference, we also had the opportunity to get started with the first Google hardware of these "AI era" in person.
Pixel Tablet
Pixel Tablet This form of product Google has also warmed up for more than half a year, for Google, this is more like an upgrade of its own smart speaker product line and Android tablet product line at the same time: a product that integrates all the characteristics of smart speaker display and tablet computer.
The Pixel Tablet is equipped with an 11-inch 2560×1600 resolution screen, fingerprint recognition is integrated in the power button, and it is also equipped with the same Tensor G2 processor as the current generation of Pixel 7 series, priced at $499.
These hardware specifications are not outstanding, but what really makes the Pixel Tablet unique is the included base with speaker/charging function: the tablet is charged/connected to the base speaker components through the four contacts on the back of the tablet, when you place the tablet on the base, it is a smart speaker, and the system will also quickly switch from the UI interface adapted to the tablet mode to an interface that allows you to quickly control various smart homes in your home. At the same time, it also has a built-in Chromecast function, and users can cast the videos or songs they want to watch directly from their mobile phones to the Pixel Tablet.
When it exists as an ordinary Android tablet, the Pixel Tablet can be directly removed and used as a normal tablet.
With the AI camera function, the camera can automatically follow the user when using the Pixel tablet video call without holding the tablet in his hand, keeping the user in the center of the video call, and automatically adjusting the lighting environment and other elements in the background of the video call screen.
Google has also designed a protective case with a metal ring of the bracket for the Pixel Tablet, which does not affect the normal use of the Pixel Tablet's built-in charging base when stored, so that users can quickly place it in the kitchen and other environments when taking it off.
Pixel 7a
In the past Pixel series, because the Pixel A series often collected the most attractive features of the Pixel in the year at a relatively low price: excellent photo experience, Android native system experience, and most importantly, the relatively low price, it was often the best-selling item in the entire series.
This year's Pixel 7a series on the basis of the previous generation of Pixel 6a, to keep up with the pace of the times, upgraded to a 90Hz refresh rate screen, and support wireless charging function, these are unprecedented upgrades for the mid-range Pixel A series, plus the software function update brought by the latecomer advantage, even compared with the Pixel 7 is not much inferior.
This Pixel 7a has four colors, in addition to black, white and blue, there is also a coral color that looks very close to red, and the official protective case of the mobile phone is an additional sea salt color close to cyan, and the phone itself is priced at $499.
From the current experience, in addition to more "big" hardware, the main selling point of Pixel 7a is actually related to AI, and it is the photo post-production AI that Pixel has always been good at: Google has further improved the "Magic Eraser" function that appeared before on Pixel 7a, Pixel 7a users can manually select extra background elements in photos, and the phone will automatically use AI to identify redundant content subjects and perform a "wipe" of actions.
Pixel Fold
Although the folding screen flagship is no longer a new thing for the Android camp, for other Android folding screen users, Google's release of the Pixel Fold is more significant, or Pixel in the Android smartphone brand as a "textbook" general status: Google will use almost all new Android development specifications on its own Pixel phones for the first time: such as native Android Features such as taskbar, app split-screen, and more.
In other words, the folding screen mobile phone released by Pixel is more like a weather vane, in addition to making up for the lack of Pixel in folding screen products, but also strengthening Android's optimization and adaptation in the tablet field.
In terms of design, Pixel Fold basically follows the ID design similar to the Pixel 7 series, but the overall feel will be more compact and weighty (Pixel Fold weighs 283g). The external screen is a 5.8-inch screen, and it is 7.6 inches after unfolding, but the experience presented by Pixel Fold in the hinge experience is still worse than the domestic Android folding screen that has been iteratively matured: the Pixel Fold in the actual experience can clearly see the crease on the inside of the screen in the expanded state, and without the action of additional external force, the screen often cannot be expanded to a horizontal state of 180 degrees.
Compared with the previous two hardware with different degrees of AI function applications, as Google's first folding screen Android phone, the Pixel Fold's special functions in some areas of AI have been weakened a lot: a little commendable may be the "dialogue mode" in it: it can display the translated content in two different languages in real time on the inner and outer screens of the Pixel Fold at the same time, which is convenient for Pixel Fold users to communicate with others using the translation function.
The Pixel Fold is available in black and white and costs $1799.
Google has prepared two colors of protective cases for the Pixel Fold at the same time, both different from the body color, for users to match different styles.
Android 14: The first "AI mobile operating system"
The Android system has entered a relatively stable iterative development stage in the past few years: every year is a regular feature update, although it is still news, but overall such an update iteration rhythm, it is easy to make ordinary digital enthusiasts who do not pay attention to Android uninterested.
But during this Google I/O conference, we finally saw the opportunity for the long-lost Android update - the addition of AI large models, making Android 14 the first "built-in AI large model" operating system in history.
Regarding how mobile AI should develop, according to the introduction of Ali Dharma Academy: the main contradiction of the current cutting-edge AI big model research has become "the efficiency problem of disproportionate performance and energy consumption, limiting the scale of parameters to continue to expand".
In order to solve this problem, the current mainstream view is that artificial intelligence research will move from large model parameter competition to co-evolution of large and small models; The large model outputs the ability to the small model mounted on the device side and can run offline, while the small model is responsible for the actual reasoning and execution, and the small model then feedback the algorithm and execution results to the large model, so that the ability of the large model is continuously strengthened and an organic cycle training system is formed.
In other words, in the future, AI on the device side, mobile phones, computers are pre-installed with a "small model" for users to quickly use AI capabilities on the mobile phone, has become an undoubted development trend, Google released a large model - PaLM2, but also according to the size of the model is divided into four levels, of which the smallest version will undoubtedly become an important AI engine on Pixel phones in the future.
Now the problem is only specific application scenarios: the AI small model existing in the mobile phone system still needs to be adapted in many common functional scenarios: such as pre-installed in the SMS App, further accurate interception of spam SMS, pre-installed in the album, so that the photos that have been taken become clearer. Or directly integrate AI into the system's pre-installed Gboard input method, automatically recognize the context in the chat, and generate several reply suggestions based on the general direction of each possible reply.
If next time you can't figure out how to respond to your friend's question of "where to eat", you may be able to ask about the input method first.
Secondly, Pixel has always had a tradition of carrying Google's first-party wallpapers in the system, and this time it has integrated AI functions to automatically generate wallpaper styles, or automatically calculate the original flat photos into a live wallpaper similar to 3D effects.
In addition to the integration of functions in the system, Google Assistant voice assistant also integrates content similar to the new version of Google search, and the dialogue function integrated in AI answers can not only understand the context context, but also follow up search results in real time, integrate various real-time information to organize and give a variety of illustrated answers, providing you with more intuitive and easy-to-understand results and suggestions.
These are the AI functions integrated in Android 14, although there is no doubt that many of the above functions need to rely on Google's cloud computing power to better achieve, but this is enough to point out the direction for the next development of the domestic mobile operating system - on how AI should be better integrated into the mobile phone, Google and Android have become the first crab players.
It may not be long before mobile operating systems collectively enter the AI era.