Google's Oct. 4 Event News: Products Google Unveiled Other Than the Pixel 2

By Jessica Ferrera, Christian Post Contributor Friday, October 06, 2017

On Wednesday, Oct. 4, exactly a year after Google introduced the first Pixel smartphone, the company held another unveiling event to announce new products other than the Pixel 2 series.

Home Mini and Home Max

Google is certainly making an effort to lead the race in the smart home speaker competition. As proof, they recently expanded their Google Home lineup by introducing two new additions – the Home Mini and Home Max.

Both speakers offer the basic features found on the standard Google Home. They are variants of hands-free helpers in the house powered by the company's own AI Google Assistant, thus users of these speakers can ask any question searchable on the internet.

With the help of its partners and third-party app developers, these speakers can also be connected to other home appliances to play a slideshow of photos, play videos, and stream music.

The Home Mini is 3.86 inches in diameter, 1.65 inches in height and will be sold for $49. Meanwhile, the Home Max, as its name suggests, features bigger technical specifications as it is 13.2 inches in width, 7.4 inches in height and equipped with two 4.5-inch woofers plus two more tweeters for $399.

The Home Mini will be released on Oct. 19 while the Home Max is set for a later retail launch in December.

Pixelbook

Google also introduced their all-new laptop under the Pixel brand, called the Pixelbook, which is dubbed as their "thinnest laptop ever."

One of the interesting features of the laptop is its native Google Assistant support with voice-activation features. It is also equipped with a 12.3-inch LCD screen that responds to the Pixelbook Pen stylus. The Pixelbook also sports a backlit soft touch keyboard.

The laptop runs with the Chrome operating system and is powered by either a Core i5 or Core i7 Kaby Lake chip with price starting from $999.

Pre-orders are now accepted for the Pixelbook and its stylus but it will not be released until Oct. 31.

Pixel Buds

In an apparent move to challenge Apple's hit AirPods, Google introduced its own wireless headphones that it called the Pixel Buds.

Unlike the AirPods, the Pixel Buds' earpieces are connected with an adjustable, fabric-covered loop and also offered three variants of colorways - Just Black, Clearly White, and Kinda Blue - matching Pixel 2's options.

However, its biggest advantage over other wireless earphones is its native Google Assistant support. It is equipped with a microphone that can take orders from the users and is programmed to instantly translate up to 40 languages.

It will cost $159 and will be released next month.

New Daydream VR Headset

For virtual reality lovers, Google has announced a refresh to their affordable Daydream View VR headset. One of the changes is in the array of color options. It can now be purchased in fog, charcoal, and coral. However, it is still covered in a nice fabric like last year's product.

Google has also added compatibility to more smartphones other than Pixel handsets. This $99 VR headset can now be used with Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, Galaxy Note 8, Asus ZenFone AR, ZTE Axon 7, Huawei Mate 9 Pro, and Motorola Moto Z & Z2.

It is expected to hit the shelves within a month.