Google in 2024
Google began slowly eliminating third-party tracking cookies three years ago, and this year they will finally be removed from Chrome browser.
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The Pixel 9 and 9 Pro
Google’s Pixel 9 and 9 Pro phones appear set to become its next flagship phones and are expected to debut sometime around October.
No word yet on exactly what upgrades will be coming to these phones, though past rumors have hinted at a possible new triple camera setup and faster Snapdragon processor. There is also speculation that this year’s Pixel phones might feature built-in temperature sensors – something long rumored and highly anticipated by fans of Google products.
Improvements could also occur within cameras’ sensors, with upgrades likely being made to improve low-light performance and enhance image stabilization capabilities. 2023 saw major advances from Google in this arena.
Google plans to increase its Smart Home platform’s presence by 2024, hoping it can serve as an umbrella platform for other companies’ smart speaker and light bulb products. To do this, the company plans on making sure devices can communicate seamlessly; its Matter project already provides this linkage between various smart home platforms.
Pichai’s memo highlighted an array of goals related to efficiency and “durable cost savings.” It’s unsurprising that this would be one of Google’s main areas of focus given their recent string of layoffs, which began January 1 and affected nearly 12,000 workers or approximately 6% of full-time staffers.
A key aim of the memo was improving personal computing experiences for users around the world, with Chrome becoming faster, more secure, and containing fewer unnecessary features like cookies that won’t benefit any particular person or group of people. A related project involves depreciating cookies starting this week on desktop computers for all users by mid-2024 – another impressive undertaking with widespread potential benefits to be had by everyone involved.
The Pixel 7a
The Google Pixel 7a is its budget entry into the Pixel family, offering many of the same features as its flagship siblings – from Google’s Tensor G processor for fast, fluid use, to its bright 6.1-inch full-screen display that refreshes at up to 90Hz for smooth scrolling and graphics, 8GB RAM storage space, wireless charging capabilities, face unlock features and built-in VPN – as well as some of the best cameras currently available on the market.
As in previous Pixel smartphones, the Pixel 7a captures images with natural tones rather than over-sharpening or over-saturation. Both it’s main sensor and ultra-wide camera produce gorgeous pictures in both bright and dim lighting conditions without much distortion, and its main camera can crop into its native sensor resolution to provide a two zoom without needing additional lenses for closer shots.
At such an affordable price point, the Pixel 7a stands out as one of the few smartphones capable of matching its performance when running apps and games, not to mention being IP67 dust and waterproof rated so you can confidently take it to the beach or pool without fearing damage to its display or hardware.
The Pixel 7a looks and feels great to hold in one hand, featuring an elegant matte finish with an ergonomic camera bar and comfortable grip. Google’s Material You color theming makes customization simple for creating a uniform appearance across Google software applications and its services. Furthermore, unlike some competitors it comes equipped with an impressive USB-C port capable of up to 3.2Gbps to connect external GPUs for mobile gaming – an advantage over some rival devices that only support slower Wi-Fi 6 standards instead of gigabit connections; nevertheless it deserves consideration due its superior cameras and incredible processing power capabilities.
The Pixel Watch 3
The Pixel Watch 2 is an outstanding smartwatch, but it is not perfect. Due to its small size and lack of upgrades like Apple Watch Series 9 or Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, many wrists do not find comfort with it and it does not boast water resistance as competitive products or heart rate sensors like other wearable devices do. In order for Google to maintain dominance in 2024’s wearable market, a larger Pixel Watch should be introduced which will satisfy more users.
Bloomberg is reporting that Google Pixel Watch 3 will come equipped with a larger case, to address these concerns. According to unnamed sources at the site, customers would find this much more palatable than 35mm or 40mm cases currently found on existing models. Furthermore, hopefully, battery life and heart rate sensors can be added for enhanced usability of this new Pixel Watch model.
Pixel Watch 3 may offer another major advance: button-free design. A newly published patent shows one method to remove the crown on smartwatches by adding sensors that recognize gestures such as swiping or squeezing; for instance, this could make music apps volume changes easier, open notifications more efficiently or turn down or up the volume for music apps with one squeeze; this offers a much better experience than pushing hard buttons that may break your device!
Sundar Pichai recently sent out a memo to all employees at Google detailing seven goals for 2024. These goals include providing world-leading AI; increasing knowledge, learning, creativity, and productivity; designing the most helpful personal computing devices and platforms; as well as offering excellent cloud services from Google Cloud platform and services. Pichai has already taken steps this year to streamline business operations in order to reduce costs, by trimming roles within hardware shopping core engineering policy divisions among others.
The Google Home Hub
Google’s Home Hub integrates a screen and voice command system, enabling users to call up recipes, utilize smart home controls, or watch YouTube videos with just their voice. Unlike other smart displays, this one does not feature sharp corners or bezels – instead, it features a rounded back panel and base that wraps snugly around the device like a sock; our tests showed music played from Spotify playlists or podcasts sounded crisp and clear through this device.
When connected with smart devices like the Nest Hello doorbell camera, the Hub can display live video feeds. Furthermore, it works seamlessly with products from brands like Philips Hue and LE LampUX bulbs to allow you to customize brightness and color settings; and works together with devices like the Nest thermostat so you can monitor temperature remotely from any room in your house.
To maximize your Hub experience, it is vitally important that the newly revamped Google Assistant app stays current. Without it, features like Digital Wellbeing or Schedule Downtime cannot be utilized; furthermore, filters allow for control over explicit YouTube content, apps, or search results; this can be set for everyone or just supervised accounts (i.e. kids).
The Hub boasts an ambient light and color sensor to automatically adjust display brightness and hue so they blend in with room lighting, so as not to disrupt sleep at bedtime. This feature makes its debut on smart displays for the first time ever – something we anticipate seeing more of in 2024.
Other Google 2024 news includes a major shift in its privacy policies that will limit tracking cookies. Chrome users will start seeing this new “Tracking Protection” begin rolling out this week, with worldwide coverage arriving by the second half of 2019. For more information, check out this Google blog post.
While some might consider this a setback, Google users stand to benefit. By blocking cookies from third-party trackers and third-party advertisers, they’re prevented from gathering web browsing history that third parties use to target advertisements at you and also help protect you against exposure of personal information to malicious sites.
