[MUSIC] Welcome to Alphabet City on your guide is activated by the power of grey skull You are the audience. So here we go. Google released a video showing off the pixel for let's do Take a look. We see a person unlock a phone with her face, then she uses gestures to change which song is playing, eventually a song with the lyric 'look mom no hands' plays. What? Did google just implicitly confirm Projects Soli in a video. No, not at all. Google released a video with a blog post that explicitly confirms the usage of Soli. Soli is Google's radar technology that is capable recognising gestures. We've talked about it on this show before, check out Scott Stein's right up on CNET. For more in Google's blog posts. The company says it has developed a mini version of Soli at the top of the pixel for. For. google says it senses small motions around the phone combining unique software algorithms with the advanced hardware sensor, so it can recognize gestures and detect when you are nearby. Google went on to say Pixel 4 would be the first device with Soli. Use Cases include skipping songs, snoozing alarms and silencing calls. The company said that solely powers its motion sensor features. Motion Sensor seems to be the consumer friendly name for the tech. The post also says that motion sense will be available in select pixel countries. Interesting. Google detailed what is embedded in the top bezel of the Pixel 4. From left to right we've got a face unlock IR camera, we've got a front facing camera, ambient light/proximity center, an audio port, the Soli radar chip, the face unlock dock projector, the face unlock IR camera. And the face unlock flood illuminator. That's a lot of tech crammed into a phone. Kudos to Google for not bothering with a notch because it would have been enormous. Google talked about its face unlock tech. The company says as you reach for Pixel 4, Soli proactively turns on the face unlock sensors, recognizing that you may want to unlock your phone. If the face unlock sensors and algorithms recognize you, the phone will open as you pick it up. All in one motion. Better yet, face unlock works in almost any orientation, even if you're holding upside down, and you can use it for secure payments and app authentication too. On top of that, Google says that images used for face unlock are never saved O shared with other Google services. All facial recognition tech is processed is done on the device itself. So what's the point of solely? Google says this is a step and its vision for ambient computing. That's great. But what is ambient computing? SVP of devices and services for Google Rick Osterlow told The Verge, our vision is that everything around you should be able to help you and so many things are becoming computers that we think the users should be able to seamlessly get help wherever they need it from a variety of different devices. Alright, let's talk about what the heck is going on here. Last year, the Pixel three XL leaked extensively. Google said nothing zip. It stuck to the regular script of just announced everything, during an October event. This year. Nope. Google is giving official detail about it's up coming phone ahead of time. I asked Google directly about this strategy shift. As at the time of this recording the company has not responded. If that changes I'll put it in the comments. What about the timing of this announcement? It comes after Samsung announced the fold is coming in September. And before the note 10 event. Theoretically this is a dead week for major android phone news. But what will this do to note 10 pre orders and sales. Maybe you wanna styles and you don't care about radar, then the note 10 is the way to go. But if you're looking at cutting edge technology the pixel four. Looks a lot more interesting. Also, does this mean Google is actually serious about phones now? If you're thinking is dude, LG had air gestures. Remember how that went? Here's what I have to say about that. LG is technology was using optics to determine hand gestures and weird cloth shapes. Google is radar in the demo videos. Soli is supposed to be able to read tiny gestures with accuracy. Radar means no camera is necessary. Google said that Soli would be able to read gestures through other The materials, so it's not like LG. You don't need to pick the phone and make sure it sees your gestures. In theory you'd be able to keep the pixel for in your pocket with the solar center facing outward, smaller gestures in your pocket. To be registered. It could be a good way to take or decline calls or change music tracks without taking out your phone. Google said the Pixel 4 is the first device with Project Soli. You can bet Soli will hit other Google hardware, like Nest Hubs, Google smart speakers, and Chromebooks. Now, you may be thinking, come on, I can just touch a screen. What's this for? Yes, you can just touch the screen. And my theory, and it's just a theory is that for the pixel, the gestures will control more than just the app that is on screen. I see gestures controlling system wide functions, like brightness, volume, turning on the flashlight, so pretty much everything in the settings tray And google, if you weren't working on that before, feel free to take my ideas and run with them. Let's talk about some concerns and questions. Project silly sounds interesting in theory, but what kind of drain does the radar have on the battery? That could be slightly important. Also, will developers have access to the solar radar Even if they did, would they bother develop anything special for pixel? I seriously doubt that app makers will build solely specific functions. I'm sure Google Apps will have some bells and whistles for solely on top of that, Android from a system level should be able to translate a gesture to a function. And third party apps. What is the physical range of Solely and how does it reject other gestures? Also, how do you learn the gestures in the first place? And my last question, if Google is willing to show off the design, Face unlock and solely now, what isn't holding off as a surprise, Google will probably clarify everything when a hold is pixel event, which usually happens in October, on to comment code. This is the part of the show where we shine a spotlight at the most amazing audience in the world. [UNKNOWN] Last time we talked about all kinds of stadia details here Here's what you had to say about that. Sonny says, You know what? steady it looks kind of neat, but every time they open their mouths, it sounds worse. Sonny. I think Google is trying to manage expectations when details come out. Stadia picture gets more clear. I hope Google is listening to feedback before lunch and makes changes in response. Hunter asks, How can Google afford to run all the servers for people who are using stadia without paying? I will I want to know because I wonder if stadia could have some free to play games. Hey Hunter, I asked Google here's what they said quote, We invested significantly in stadia and look forward to welcoming users onto the platform in November. So Kind of an answer kind of enough, but tune says sorry, I'm not going to get that because it's all about the PS5. I can't trust Google in gaming. Now that opinion was echoed a lot in the comments. People do not trust Google right now. The company kills off lots of products and needs to earn trust before people make the leap to Stadia. Thanks to everyone for writing in if you've enjoyed your state, Alphabet City, Please like and subscribe. I'm is actor and I'll see you online. [MUSIC]