The Chrome Cast 224: the Pixel Tablet may have already missed its prime launch window

This week on The Chrome Cast, we spend much of our time discussing Google’s upcoming hardware. Where the latest leaks of the Pixel Fold tell us to expect Google’s first folding phone at Google I/O 2023, the story feels a bit less celebrative for the upcoming Pixel Tablet.

With a fun, innovative feature that largely relies on Google’s smart display efforts and the Google Assistant (it has a speaker dock that turns it into a Nest Hub, effectively), the Pixel Tablet looked to show up with a bit of an ace up its sleeve. But with the current state of the Google Assistant and Google’s smart display initiative at the moment, that fun feature doesn’t look that great these days. With the abrupt rise of Generative AI and Google’s own shift to that technology for both Bard and their own search product, has the Pixel Slate simply missed its window for release?

Links

• Why Google’s Pixel Tablet might be too little, too late
• Third-party smart displays with Assistant built-in may no longer have Google’s support
• Pixel Fold availability date, weight, and price confirmed by credible new source
• The Chrome Cast 223: An open discussion about Generative AI
• After 25 years, Google is building a new search engine, and it’s powered by artificial intelligence
• Google Assistant will finally shut up and do what it’s told instead of excessively narrating itself
• Acer unveils 13th Gen Raptor Lake Chromebook Spin 714
• CTL launches next-gen Chomebox CBX3 with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7
• Unboxing the latest convertible 14-inch HP Chromebook x360 14c with a 16:10 screen