Google made a ton of hardware announcements today, including a reveal for the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. The tech company also revealed their wireless earbuds, called Pixel Buds, plus two new smart home solutions: Nest Wifi and the Google Home Max.
The Pixel Buds are Google’s answer to Apple’s AirPods. These earbuds will launch in Spring 2020, and will have five hours of battery life on their own with 24 hours of battery life when using the wireless charging case. They’re designed to seal to the ear for better bass, with a bottom-facing vent to let in exterior sound, so they won’t be totally noise-blocking.
Google is also designing the buds to automatically adjust volume depending on the loudness of the exterior noise with microphones designed to let people hear the wearer easier when on the phone with Pixel Buds in. The earbuds will also have access to the Find My Device service, and will pair with any Bluetooth 4.0 iOS or Android device.
Nest Wifi is a version of Google’s Nest system that also functions as a WiFi router. But Nest Wifi isn’t just a simple router, it’s a scalabe system that you can use to properly cover your whole home with a consistent, strong internet signal. You get one Router, which covers 2200 square ft, while each wifi point gets you an additional 1600 square ft. So you can add as many Nest Wifi points to your home as you need. Additionally, each Wifi point doubles as a smart speaker with access to the Google Assistant AI.
Google Home Max is the tech company’s newest high fidelity speaker, which boasts two 4.5″ woofers, custom tweeters, a rugged housing, and acoustically transparent fabric for the cover. The Google Home Max will utilize the new Smart Sound technology, which uses machine learning to automatically adjust the equalizer settings to match the acoustics of the room. It will also connect to YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio.
However, if you don’t want to stream music from your phone apps, you can play music over bluetooth, or using a record player as the Google Home Max has AUX stereo cable inputs. And naturally, Google Home Max utilizes the Google Assistant software.
