Weekly digest - 2018.41
This week Google held a special event, where they presented new Pixel 3 phones and bunch of others devices. Let's start with the phones. Google as always presented two versions, the base one - Pixel, and one with bigger screen- Pixel XL. Here is the specification:
- Full-HD+ OLED, Gorilla Glass 5,
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor,
- Adreno 630 GPU,
- 4GB RAM and 6GB for Pixel XL
- 64GB/128GB storage,
- 12Mp f/1.8 rear camera with dual autofocus,
- 8Mp + 8Mp, f/1.8/2.2 dual-selfie camera,
- Rear fingerprint sensor,
- IPX8 waterproofing,
- 2915mAh battery for Pixel, and 3430mAh with Quick Charge for Pixel XL
- Wireless charging and USB-C 3.1,
- Android 9.0 Pie.
The specification for both version is almost identical. The only difference comes to amount of RAM, 4GB vs 6GB, and battery size. Of course there is also screen size difference, Pixel has 5.5 inch screen and Pixel XL has 6.3 inch with a notch. Speaking of the notch, it has not been received well. Based on images and videos I've seen, I have to agree with those accusations. I'm not a big fan of the notch, but I got use to it on the iPhone. Keeping that in mind, the Pixel's 3 notch still feels gigantic. I would love to see the phone in real life and do the comparison.
Speaking of real life, both phones are the most expensive Google phones ever :/ The Pixel starts at $799 for 64GB version. The XL starts at $899 for the same storage. It looks like the trend of producing very expensive phones continues.
Google also announced new tablet with a detachable keyboard powered by ChromeOS. It's called Google Pixel Slate, and it's very similar to the Surface Pro. It has 12.3 inch screen with front facing camera and two speakers. On the back there is rear camera. On the side, we will find fingerprint reader.
Device is powered by family of Intel CPUs, from Celeron up to i7 in the most powerful configuration. The CPU version affects the amount of memory we can get, 4GB in Celeron configuration, up to 16GB with i7. In terms of storage, devices will have from 32GB up to 256GB.
The Pixel Slate will go on sale in November starting at $599, while the dedicated keyboard will cost additional $199.
Also during the event, Google presented the Home Hub. This is basically the Google speaker with a screen, like Amazon's Echo Show or Facebook Portal but without a camera. Lack of the camera on a device like this is a bit surprising, but at leas we don't have to worry about device spying on us. Home hub comes in 4 colors and will be released on 22nd of October for $149.
The last news from the event is that Google Plus is going to be shut down. The official reason are security breaches, but to be honest, no one was using this platform anyway, so I'm glad that i will be officially gone.
That all folks from the news, here is the list of interesting things.
Hire by Google: applicant tracking system & recruiting software
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How to launch a site on AWS for free in 15 minutes
Why building your own Deep Learning Computer is 10x cheaper than AWS