Final 12 months, Google introduced that it was getting again into the enterprise of constructing its personal tablets, and through its I/O occasion right this moment, it took the wraps off the Pixel Pill — the corporate’s first new Android-powered pill for the reason that 2015 Pixel C.
Whereas the brand new Pixel Pill is a robust system, it doesn’t seem like it is going to supply any significant competitors for Apple’s iPad lineup, particularly on the increased finish. Google’s entry is an 11-inch $499 pill powered by Android 13 that’s nonetheless geared extra towards content material consumption, which places it roughly on par with Apple’s $449 tenth-generation iPad, however even with Google’s Tensor G2 chip inside, it doesn’t even maintain a candle to the iPad Air, a lot much less the iPad Professional.
Nonetheless, Google has achieved one cool factor with its Pixel Pill that Apple ought to have arguably achieved years in the past: It’s empowered it for use as a House Hub.
It’s not revelatory information that Apple hasn’t fairly discovered its lounge technique. The HomePod and Apple TV each act as “dwelling hubs” within the sense that they supply the required back-ends for dwelling automation, however neither supply the type of person interface that you simply’ll discover on a Nest Hub or Amazon Echo Present.
There’s little doubt that Apple is manner behind the curve in relation to this side of dwelling automation. The House app on the iPhone and iPad is significantly extra full-featured and highly effective than its rivals, however the perfect you are able to do for a HomeKit management hub proper now’s to slap your iPad onto a stand and depart that app working. It really works, but it surely’s additionally clunky and inelegant — decidedly not the type of strategy that Apple is understood for.
Rumors have been circulating for a minimum of two years that Apple is engaged on “one thing” on this space, however no one can fairly agree whether or not that might be an enormous iPad for the house or a HomePod with a seven-inch show. We’re not even positive that Apple has determined which strategy to go on this one but.
The Pixel Pill’s ‘Hub Mode’
At present’s debut of the Pixel Pill demonstrates how Apple might have created a workable resolution by taking its already highly effective and feature-rich iPad to the subsequent stage.
With its acquisition of Nest, it’s no secret that Google is attempting to be a giant participant within the dwelling automation area. Its software program know-how has some catching as much as do, but it surely already provides a lineup of first-party {hardware} equipment. Most of all, it’s an space the place Google appears way more centered than Apple, which is type of ironic when you think about how a lot the corporate sometimes flounders about with its different merchandise.
The Pixel Pill extends Google’s dwelling automation ambitions from Nest units proper into the guts of its Pixel ecosystem, and it’s clear Google desires to make the Pixel Pill the middle of your own home.
The pill features a Charging and Speaker Dock, which is just about what it appears like — a magnetic dock for the Pixel Pill that additionally allows you to play room-filling sound. That’s type of the other of the HomePod-with-a-screen we’ve been listening to about, but it surely’s a extra versatile strategy to go, as you possibly can take the pill with you anyplace and even purchase further docks for different rooms.
Nonetheless, the magic of Google’s new dock goes past charging and audio. Whenever you place the Pixel Pill onto the dock, it switches into “Hub Mode,” the place it turns into a sensible show when “locked and docked.” At that time, it’s a mixture of a digital photograph body and a house management panel for all of your thermostats, lights, locks, and even seeing what’s happening along with your cameras. Naturally, there’s help for Google Assistant right here, too.
The emphasis Google is placing on this characteristic makes the Pixel Pill appear to be one thing of a one-trick pony — a house hub with a removable display screen — but it surely’s nonetheless a full-featured pill in its personal proper, even whether it is more likely to spend most of its time residing on the dock in your kitchen or lounge.
Nonetheless, that’s higher than what your iPad probably does whenever you’re not utilizing it. Nonetheless, maybe Apple’s greatest blind spot is its lack of ability to embrace the iPad as a household system. People have been clamoring for a shared household mode on the iPad for years, but these requests appear to have fallen on deaf ears; regardless of Apple including multi-user help for iPads in schooling, these bought to on a regular basis shoppers are nonetheless designed for use by one particular person as a private system.
A cynical tackle this strategy is that Apple desires to promote extra iPads by encouraging you to purchase one for every of your loved ones members, but it surely’s extra probably that it simply has this sense of rugged individualism constructed into its DNA. The iPad grew out of the iPhone, which developed principally from the iPod. These are clearly very private units. It wasn’t till 2019 that Apple lastly forked iOS for the iPad into its personal iPadOS, however in some ways, the iPad nonetheless displays its iPhone heritage.
There’s no indication that Google plans to make use of the Pixel Pill to exchange the Nest Hub; as a substitute, it’s a pleasant different for individuals who would slightly spend extra to spend money on a extra highly effective and versatile system that may carry out the duties of a pill when wanted. Equally, simply because Apple is probably going nonetheless engaged on a standalone hub doesn’t imply it wouldn’t be good to see the iPad achieve some related capabilities.