“May the wrinkle be with you” (that the wrinkle accompanies you, in Spanish). With this sentence, Google published a short video on May 4th, the day of Star Wars, in which it showed pictures of its first folding cell phone. The Mountain View company unveiled the Pixel Fold this Wednesday afternoon at its Google I/O developer conference. This annual event also presented the news that will soon arrive at Bard, the intelligent chat that Google plans to deal with ChatGPT and other applications such as Gmail, Google Photos or Google Maps.
According to consulting firm Strategy Analytics, foldable smartphones will be the fastest growing segment of the premium mobile market this decade. Google doesn’t want to stand there and has presented its first folding. At first glance, the Pixel Fold is reminiscent of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. The terminal has a book format and is equipped with the powerful Tensor G2 processor. “It’s a powerful smartphone when it’s convenient and an immersive tablet when you need it,” said a Google employee during the presentation.
One of the biggest drawbacks in the development of these phones into mainstream devices is their cost. Pricing for the Pixel Fold, which will be available initially in the UK, US, Germany and Japan, starts at $1,799 – around €1,640.
The Pixel Fold is Google’s first foldable phone.
Google’s bet against ChatGPT
Google’s competition against ChatGPT is Bard, its own intelligent chatbot. When this tool was unveiled in February 2023, the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, said in a statement that it could be used “to explain to a 9-year-old kid about, or explain, the latest discoveries made by the James Webb Space Telescope.” “Find out the top scorers on the current soccer scene, then create training routines to help you hone your skills.”
Jack Krawczyk, a product manager at Google, in a roundtable discussion with journalists from around the world last week, listed some of the most creative uses some users have given Bard: “From film directors who require spaces in their scripts, to parents who do it want.” Plans with their children”.
At this afternoon’s event, Google announced that Bard will be available in dark mode and will be able to export generated text to Gmail and Google Docs, as well as insert images into replies. In addition, Google Lens will be integrated so that users can upload photos and ask questions about them in the chat.
Google Bard is based on PaLM2, the “next-generation language model” that will be present in more than 20 technology products, and which has theoretically seen significant improvements in its thinking, math, and programming abilities. After a test phase in the US, the tool will be available in English in addition to Korean and Japanese in 180 countries. The tech company plans to launch it in another 40 languages soon. Google’s goal is to integrate Bard into applications such as Docs, Drive or Gmail.
What’s new in Gmail, Google Photos and Maps?
Pichai has stated that “artificial intelligence is having a very busy year”. “We are at an exciting tipping point. We have an opportunity to make AI even more useful for people, businesses and communities – for everyone.”
He then gave an example of how Google plans to take Gmail to the next level. In 2017, the company introduced Smart Responses, “short answers” that were automatically generated. Now, Pichai has unveiled “a much more powerful generative model.” “Imagine receiving an email that your flight has been canceled and you want a full refund,” he said. Gmail will have a new button that will allow the user to provide instructions and automatically generate a much more detailed message. In this case, you would request a full refund and could “conveniently extract the flight details from the previous email”.
Last year, the company introduced immersive view in Google Maps. This feature uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to stitch billions of images together and “create a high-resolution digital model of the world so you can experience places before you visit them.” “Imagine being able to see your entire route ahead of time for even more help getting where you want to go,” says the company, which hopes to roll out the feature in 15 cities by the end of the year .
While the tech company surprised people a few years ago with Google Eraser — a Google Photos tool that lets you magically erase objects from a photo — this Wednesday it introduced Magic Editor. It is a tool for “performing complex edits without professional-level editing skills”.. For example, change the position or size of the person in the picture, make the sky lighter or less cloudy, and even remove a bag strap.
Images generated by artificial intelligence can be used to misinformation. “When you look at a synthetic image, it’s amazing how real it looks,” said a company employee. The tech giant has presented a new tool that provides context to the results a user finds in the search engine. The About This Image tag provides information about when an image was first indexed by Google, where it first appeared online, and where similar images were posted.
Google’s cheapest phone
Google also used the event to present its cheapest cell phone: the Pixel 7a, which starts at 509 euros. The Mountain View company has included some of the features that previously only its high-end phones had in its most affordable range: from face unlock to 8GB of RAM to wireless charging and a screen with a refresh rate of up to 90Hz Refresh The rate indicates how often the screen is refreshed per second. The higher it is, the smoother the scrolling between screens and animations. However, it also consumes more battery. The main high-end phones from the competition have refresh rates of up to 120 Hz.
Google has also made some improvements in the photo section. The phone’s main camera has a sensor that’s 72% larger than that of the Pixel 6a, theoretically letting 44% more light through. The terminal also features a new 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a night vision mode that technology says is twice as fast as the Pixel 6a. Also, for the first time in Google’s most affordable lineup, there’s a long exposure mode that adds texture and energy to moving things, like a waterfall. Like its bigger brothers – the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro – the Pixel 7a features the Tensor G2 processor and Titan M2 security chip.
you can follow THE COUNTRY Technology on Facebook and Twitter or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.