Latest news with #RickOsterloh
Indian Express
17-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Google will showcase new Pixel hardware on August 20 in New York
Google sent out invitations on Thursday to select media for an August 20 event in New York, where the company is expected to debut its new lineup of Pixel devices, including a foldable phone alongside other hardware. The company typically unveils new Pixel phones and other devices each fall. Last year, Google launched the Pixel 9 series and smartwatches in August, ahead of Apple's iPhone debut in September. The new Pixel 10 phones are expected to come in various screen sizes and configurations, likely resembling the Pixel 9 series. However, key upgrades are expected in the processor and camera. All Pixel 10 smartphones will be powered by Google's in-house Tensor G5 processor, which, for the first time, is said to be manufactured by Taiwan's TSMC, marking a shift from Samsung, which had previously handled Tensor chip production. Among the Pixel 10 lineup, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is expected to be the star of the show. However, it is unlikely to be as slim or lightweight as Samsung's recently announced Galaxy Z Fold 7. Like Samsung and other competitors, Google is expected to price its foldable phone at a premium. Google's hardware chief, Rick Osterloh, was recently seen at Samsung's Unpacked event in New York. Google and Samsung have worked closely on several new AI features for the latest Galaxy Fold and Flip devices. The Pixel 9 series was well-received, signaling that Google's hardware is improving. All new Pixel phones will run Android 16 and feature a bold new user interface, which was unveiled at Google's developer conference in May. Gemini AI integration will also be one of the key selling points of the new devices. Google may also unveil new smartwatches and a pair of wireless earbuds at its New York event next month. Google has been in the smartphone business for years but is not widely seen as a direct competitor to Apple, at least in terms of public perception. However, the company holds a dominant position in the smartphone market through its Android operating system, which powers 91 per cent of smartphones worldwide. In recent years, Google has become more aggressive with its own Pixel-branded smartphones, which are designed in-house and follow a model similar to Apple's approach with the iPhone. Despite Pixel phones accounting for just under 1 per cent of global smartphone shipments last year, the lineup remains strategically important to Google. While the Pixel may not bring high volumes for now, it serves as a showcase for Google's AI capabilities and software innovation, highlighting its leadership in artificial intelligence. Lately, Pixel's design and hardware are becoming less of a priority. Instead, Google has shifted its focus toward integrating generative AI deeply into the Android ecosystem. Features like Gemini Live, a voice-powered conversational AI chatbot, demonstrate Google's software strengths. This focus on AI is even more critical now, as Apple is widely seen as trailing behind in the AI race.
Yomiuri Shimbun
10-07-2025
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Samsung Unveils Its New Line of Foldable Devices at Unpacked
NEW YORK (AP) — Samsung introduced several updates to its foldable devices lineup on Wednesday, with the new Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and the new Z Flip 7 FE taking stage at the latest Unpacked event. The Korean electronics company unveiled the upgrades — including new versions of their watch — in New York but also announced an expanded partnership with Google to inject more artificial intelligence into its foldable lineup. Here are the biggest announcements from this summer's Unpacked event: A thinner Galaxy Z Fold 7 The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is much thinner and lighter than its predecessors, coming in at 0.17 inch thick when unfolded and less than half an inch folded. It also weighs slightly less than half a pound, an impressive feat considering the company also increased the total size of the screens from the Fold 6 — now 6.5 inches for the exterior screen and 8 inches for the interior screen. The battery capacity remains the same as the previous generation. But unlike previous generations of fold devices, this one doesn't support the company's digital stylus. A 200 megapixel camera will act as the main capture and a 10 megapixel camera that extends along the frame of the phone gives users the ability to quickly capture wide shots. The Fold 7 will retail starting at $1,999. Pre-orders start today, and the device will hit shelves on July 25. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 goes bigger The flippable cousin of the Fold has an enlarged 4.1-inch top screen and the clamshell folds down to just over half an inch. The inner display grows to 6.9 inches from the Flip 6's 6.7 inches. It gets a slightly bigger 4,300mAh battery and maintains a 50 megapixel main camera and 10 megapixel front camera. A new, cheaper version of the phone, called the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE was also announced today. It's a slightly smaller version — keeping the Fold 6's 6.7 inch screen size — of its premium counterpart. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 will retail for $1,099.99 and the Flip 7 FE starts at $899.99. Pre-orders for both devices began Wednesday and both will be available generally on July 25. The updated Watch 8 series The Galaxy Watch Ultra, Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic have all been refreshed with various updates — memory, thickness, design — but the main takeaway from today's event is that Google's Gemini AI was being preloaded onto the devices. Users can access the AI by speaking to their watch. AI permeates all of the devices Rick Osterloh, Google's senior vice president of devices and services, appeared in a pre-recorded video at Unpacked to announce that the AI Mode of its search engine will be used in Samsung's circle to search function, allowing users to make quick queries by tapping or circling things on their screen. And Gemini will receive further integration with base Samsung device apps, like Calendar and Reminders.
Gizmodo
09-07-2025
- Gizmodo
Samsung's New Foldables Give the Keys to Google AI and Say, ‘Here, You Drive.'
Samsung's newest generation of Fold and Flip folding phones is here, and this year, it has quite a bit to parade around. The Galaxy Fold 7, for example, is hella thin and almost as slim as a Galaxy S25 Ultra when it's folded up, while the Galaxy Z Flip 7 has a bigger front-facing screen that spans 4.1 inches. However much the foldables have going on in the hardware department, there's even more going on inside with AI. The only difference is that Samsung has almost nothing to do with those AI developments. This year, the inside part—in particular AI—is all about Google and its many, many, Gemini features. In fact, during Samsung's keynote for the foldables, Senior Vice President of Devices and Services at Google, Rick Osterloh, even took the stage to announce just how deep its Gemini integration is. First, everyone's favorite AI feature (or at least the most useful), Circle to Search, is getting a dose of Google's AI Mode. This will help Circle to Search's multimodal capabilities, paving the way for more nuanced answers to questions about images and products. I've had a little time with Google's AI Mode, and I think that whether it's actually better at searching is up for debate, but more nuance is certainly what Google is aiming at here, and it's definitely moving the amount of AI in the Z Fold 7 forward. Google also announced that, starting with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7, you'll be able to long-press the power button and have Gemini take a gander at your screen while you're scrolling. With live access to what you're looking at, you can ask Gemini for help on stuff like product comparisons. Per Google: 'Say you're deciding which suitcase to buy for your upcoming trip: Open Gemini Live, share your screen, scroll through the different products you're considering, and ask, 'which one should I choose based on material quality?'' And the applications don't stop there. Google says you can also wield Gemini Live on your camera to do stuff like coach you through cutting your bangs or styling a pair of glasses. Whether you want AI to do that type of thing for you is entirely up to you, but again, it's certainly a much deeper integration of Gemini into Samsung's foldable experience—one that's extending to native Samsung apps. Gemini Live is also being unleashed on Calendar, Reminder, and Notes, according to Google, which feels like a very deep partnership. In fact, partnership may not even be the word, actually. At this point Samsung's foldables feel like they're just as much Google phones as they are Samsung ones. I'm less sure about what that means for Samsung, but for Google, the prospect of being able to put Gemini features in front of that many eyeballs must be very enticing. Google, as you may have noticed this past I/O has been pouring resources into expanding Gemini with several new models and even AI subscriptions that group Google's latest AI tools into one monthly fee. Google is offering Galaxy Z Fold 7 users that subscription for free, by the way—at least for the first six months. After that it'll cost $20 per month, unfortunately. But even if Google's AI features are more advanced than the competition, and even if they are actually useful, Google still needs to find an audience, and that's exactly what Samsung can offer it. The biggest hurdle for AI features in phones is still getting people to actually adopt them, and to do that, you need to get them in front of people, which Pixel phones aren't really doing. To actually take off, those features also have to be useful, and that remains to be seen. We have our Galaxy Fold 7 in hand, so we'll have more to say on that soon, but until then, Samsung's newest foldables feel like a big win for Google.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Something Bad Is Brewing Inside Google
Google might be one of the wealthiest corporations in the world, but that doesn't mean the multi-trillion-dollar company won't resort to downsizing. Over the last year or so, employees in the once-ironclad tech sector have watched in horror as waves of layoffs ravaged their offices and sent wages tumbling. Bracing for cuts after annual performance reviews on Tuesday, over 1,300 Google employees signed a petition organized by the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU)— the labor union covering Google's parent corporation, Alphabet — requesting changes to the company's policy. Those include guaranteed severance for every laid-off employee, an offer of voluntary layoffs backed by those severance packages, and an end to Google's performance review system which has pulled double-duty as a mass layoff machine. "Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs," read the petition. "The company is clearly in a strong financial position, making the loss of so many valuable colleagues without explanation hurt even more." Google's response was to turn around and give the petitioners what they asked for. Yesterday, the tech conglomerate announced a "voluntary exit program" for US employees in its Platforms and Devices group — the workers responsible for products like Pixel, Android, Chrome, Fitbit, and Nest. But the AWU notes a one-time offer does not change the long-term employee outlook. "We are happy to see material progress in response to our concerns," Google software engineer and AWU union organizing chair Alan McAvinney told Futurism, "but we continue to demand that Google commit to practices like offers of voluntary buyouts and fair terms of severance by codifying them in its actual written policies." The offer allegedly spins in a severance package, according to 9to5Google, which viewed the memo. Though layoffs have reportedly slowed as AI-hyped investments in tech skyrocket, correlation does not equal causation. In January of last year, Google switched the organizational models used in its hardware teams, in a shuffle that resulted in a few hundred layoffs. A few months later, Google merged its Android team with its newly sorted hardware teams, revealing the company's quest to reorganize around — you guessed it — AI. "By combining teams," Google SVP Rick Osterloh told The Verge last year, "Google can now move much faster to integrate AI across all of its products." And Google certainly has moved faster, posting a 15 percent revenue gain in the third quarter of 2023 with a profit of $26.3 billion. Despite this, the company has increasingly turned to outsourcing to fine-tune its AI products — dumping off its labor costs while pumping cash into speculative AI projects. Ultimately, it's Google's employees who bear the brunt of friction from that strategy: full-time employees see their responsibilities increase as job security drops, while contract workers who clean up Google's AI products earn a fraction of their peers, often without benefits or the privilege of union representation. As Google ups the ante on shady labor practices despite sky-high profit, employees are demanding lasting and substantive change — not just one-off "voluntary exit" offers. More on labor: Top AI Investor Says Goal Is to Crash Human Wages
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Google issues ‘voluntary exit' program for Android, Chrome, and Pixel employees
Google SVP Rick Osterloh issued an internal memo to the Pixel/Android/Chrome team Thursday, announcing a 'voluntary exit program.' TechCrunch has confirmed the letter's existence with the company, after it was first reported by 9 to 5 Google. In a statement to TechCrunch, a spokesperson notes: The Platforms & Devices team is offering a voluntary exit program that provides US-based Googlers working on this team the ability to voluntarily leave the company with a severance package. This comes after we brought two large organizations together last year. There's tremendous momentum on this team and with so much important work ahead, we want everyone to be deeply committed to our mission and focused on building great products, with speed and efficiency. The voluntary severance program arrives just under a year after Google merged the Android, Pixel hardware, and Chrome teams into a single 'Platform and Devices' division, overseen by Osterloh. The executive noted in April that the re-org was a bid to integrate the company's AI offerings more deeply into its products. In the intervening months, Google's generative AI platform, Gemini, has grown into an outsized presence among its hardware and software offerings. Gemini took center stage earlier this month as Samsung unveiled its flagship Galaxy S25 smartphone. The service has also been central to Google's own hardware devices, effectively replacing the Home Assistant on Pixel products. Google Home, meanwhile, continues to play a role in the company's Nest line of smart home hardware. The exit program applies to a wide range of Google offerings, including Android, Chrome/ChromeOS, Fitbit, Google One, Nest, Photos, and Pixel. Other large Google divisions, including AI and search, are not directly impacted. Word of the memo follows Amazon's confirmation that it laid off dozens of employees across its communications and corporate responsibility divisions on Wednesday. Sign in to access your portfolio
