Live from New York, it's another awkward Pixel keynote

Good morning. What a day yesterday — we had a huge Google hardware event, a total solar eclipse, a truly terrible AI album, and a couple of powerful, cheap AI models released that are sure to make Google sweat. Oh, and we’ve made it to 10 issues!

As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.

Inbox is written by Daniel Bader. Read previous issues here, and then catch up with Ben Schoon’s excellent Weekender column.

For the second year in a row, Google opted to announce its new Pixel products publicly at a star-studded New York event hosted by a comedian. But this year’s version, like the product lineup itself, was a modest year-over-year upgrade, replacing the interminable Jimmy Fallon with the much more down to earth and likable Trevor Noah.

What didn’t change was the overt attempt to convert the Pixel brand into something it’s struggled to become over its 10-year history: a mainstream success. Rick Osterloh once again sat on a couch talking to the host and once again spoke effusively of “asking[ing] more from your phone,” with Gemini at the center of the experience.

In a lot of ways, though, the spectacle was also a very typical tech keynote. Product managers from Google’s various hardware and software teams took turns reading from a teleprompter, mostly relying on features and specs to carry the messages that celebrities and professional athletes tried, with varying degrees of success, to augment. Google mainstays like Alex Cooper and Steph Curry were joined by newcomers Chari Hawkins, JuJu Watkins, Peggy Gou, PinkPantheress, and others.

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To Google’s credit, while there were a few moments of cringe, it was a far smoother, funnier, and more entertaining show than last year’s near-disaster. Trevor Noah knew when to stick to the script and when to toss an improvised quip that, thanks to his decades as a stand-up comic, mostly landed with the audience.

But while the event’s ambitions were as lofty as Rick’s promises to “push the state-of-the-art forward in software and AI and hardware,” it remains to be seen whether the products themselves can possibly live up to those high expectations and, more importantly, whether an evening New York event will make regular people finally sit up and take notice.

Yesterday was busy: we published over 25 articles in the Made by Google 2026 canon, but in case you missed them I want to highlight some of the most important:

Incredibly (and selfishly, to be honest), the news didn’t stop with Pixel, so here are a few other things that have happened recently:

In honor of Pixel announcement day, I’d like to recommend a few products that make my life better as a Pixel owner.

First, my bedside charger is the Nomad Stand One ($129) which, while technically designed for iPhones, works great with the Pixel 10 and now 11 thanks to 25W Qi2 support on the phone magnet and basic Qi behind it on the earbuds holder, which works with everything from the Pixel Buds Pro 2 to my beloved Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. This is a low-profile setup that’s ideal for seeing your phone in either portrait or landscape, and it’s been next to my bed for over a year now with no plans to replace it anytime soon.

I’ve got a number of decent USB-C chargers around the house and in my travel bag, but my go-to has been a variation of this Anker 70W 3-port ($36 on sale), which offers two USB-C ports and a single USB-A for legacy devices.

For a case, I’ll be sticking with my tried-and-tested Peak Design Everyday Case when it’s available for the Pixel 11 lineup, but until then I’ll be treating myself to a dbrand Grip case ($60) and one of its leather skins. I’ll also be attaching my Bellroy Mag Wallet ($45), which carries three cards, attaches magnetically to the back of the Pixel (or any MagSafe-compatible case), and doubles as a kickstand.

This section has some of our favorite stuff from around the internet. Great videos, weird memes, fun reads, recommended apps, whatever. Send us your recommendations!

If you were, like me, too busy to watch the many feeds of yesterday’s total solar eclipse, NASA has a wonderful real-time overview of it for you, replete with insightful and enthusiastic commentary.

While North America wasn’t in the path of this year’s phenomenon, I vividly remember April 2024’s partial solar eclipse, and still reflect on the awesome magnitude of daylight almost entirely disappearing in the middle of the afternoon.

I adore how eclipses also bring people together as a shared event, particularly young astronomy buffs like this one who make me a bit more hopeful for the future.

I was riveted by this incredibly sourced investigation by the WSJ into North Korea’s infiltration of the remote American IT job market.

Increasingly, these fraudsters are relying on AIto bolster their chances of winning over prospective employers, along with credulous Americans who are eager to make a bit of money in a side hustle. Incredible journalism.

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Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend.