PIXEL WATCH

itself is being spruced up to be a bit more tablet-friendly, with lots of the in-house apps being optimised for the larger display.

ANDROID 13

The next version of Android doesn’t make major leaps like last year – for 2022 we’re in a refinement stage.

There will be more customisation across the board, with the Material You design system finding its way into new areas of the OS.

There’s little on the new feature front, just a polish here and there to make everything run better. It’s expected to launch alongside the Pixel 7 later in the year, but is now in developers’ hands to make sure apps are ready for the launch.

PIXEL BUDS PRO

The new wireless earbuds in the Google ecosystem add active noise-cancelling with transparency mode, and a promise that spatial audio will be coming soon. In other words, these are Google Airpods Pro, pictured left. They look pretty cool in their four colour-ways, and will offer by far the best experience when using a Pixel phone. They’ll cost £179, but Google has not yet said when they will hit the market in the UK. You can register an interest at store.google.com

Google’s commitment to making actual things that exist in the real world has fluctuated over the years, but it now seems solidly into hardware.

Its strategy is now to make great devices and brand them all with the Pixel name that was once reserved only for its phones.

The next new Pixel device to make its way blinking into the sunlight will be a smartwatch.

Google has made software for smartwatches – called Wear OS – for a while now. Indeed, the version of the software that will power the Pixel Watch will be the third iteration of the platform.

Google, of course, doesn’t do what the others do and just copy Apple’s designs, which is probably why the Pixel Watch will be round.

It looks lovely – stainless steel and glass, with a refined look.

The Watch will not be on your wrist until the autumn, though, and in terms of details we got very little.

No idea what processor will power it, or even how

much it will cost. Software-wise we saw a little, and aside from the usual stuff, the biggest deal Google pushed was deep integration with the Fitbit ecosystem Fitbit is, of course, a maker of fitness trackers backed by well-established software that analyses your performance. Fitbit is also, of course, owned by Google.