Google's September 29 event has finally come. Everyone has been excited to know what Google prepared for us this year, and as expected, the two Nexus phones were revealed. Leaks and rumors flooded the web in the recent weeks and finally, these rumors were confirmed - the "Nexus 5X" and the "Nexus 6P" were named and announced at last. Although we have already heard so much about these phones, it's great to finally hear it from the Google people themselves.
Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P orders
Based on the announcements from the Google event, the pre orders for the 5X and 6P is already open in UK, US, Ireland,and Japan. The shipping will then start around late October. It was also said that they will partner with local retailers outside the country for the Nexus phones' release. As for the prices, the "Nexus 5X" is priced $379 and the "Nexus 6P" is priced at $499. What's included in the new Nexus phones if you get one would be a 90 day free Google Play subscription, $50 Play credit, and one year US warranty.
Nexus Protect
Google Team also introduced the Nexus Protect. This will be an additional consumer protection that gives you one more year of warranty (which means you'll have 2 years all in all). Plus, if something does happen to your phone like accidents and malfunctions, you can request for a new one, and Google claims that you can get it by the next business day. The prices for Nexus Protect is $65 for the Nexus 5X and $89 for the Nexus 6P.
Smartwatches
Google also introduced a set of smartwatches, that surprisingly look really good. These watches look like actual watches, plus they can tell you the time all the time. Google also said that these watches can last all day, which means it is somewhat energy efficient. They also claimed that these smartwatches can work for Android and iPhones.
Google Play Music family plan
During the event, the team also announced the Google Play family plan. In summary, a Google Play Music family plan will allow a family of up to 6 members to use a combined subscription of only $14.99. This means that each member gets to listen to music using their own device without getting interrupted by the other members who are also currently listening on their own devices using the same subscription. The team said that this service will be available later this year.
Google Photos Shared Album
When Google Photos was introduced before, it got fairly appreciated by the consumers. In fact, it was said that fifty billion videos and photos has been uploaded to the app. Now, an improvement has been added to the well loved concept. The Google Team demonstrated the Google Photos shared album. Initially, it would appear that this may only mean shared folders like the usual sharing apps. But it got better. You can easily share photos across all operating systems without the need to setup anything. If one person uploads an album of photos in their Google Photos, they just have to send the album link to their pal who also has their own photos to share in the album. When that pal opens the link, they get to easily choose an option to upload photos from their own album (doesn't matter if they're on iOS). You can also just join the album if you don't have any photos to share. Every member of the album then gets a notification every time a photo gets added in the album.
Google Photos Power Searching
There are times when you have to search for one specific photo and it is usually a difficult task to do, especially if you have 400 plus photos in your library. This is why Google introduced the labeling action that you can do to your photos. You can put in descriptions or tags to your photos so you can later on do a powerful search. For example, you can put in photo labels like Anna, Sam, Las Vegas in one photo. So when you try to look for Anna's photos, all photos with Anna in them will be shown to you. But if you want pictures of Anna when you were all in Las Vegas, you can also do a search for 'Anna and Las Vegas' altogether and get a more refined search.
More Google Announcements
Google announced a few more improvements that they have prepared for everyone such as the Chromecast and the Google Maps. The Chromecast has been made a little more fun physically with a hockey puck look and it was also made better with its improved setup and redesigned WiFi hardware. As for the Google Maps, they announced that the mapping interface of Google will already be available on the Apple Watch through the App store.
