October 22, 2018 • 9 mins
Google's upcoming Pixel Slate device combines aspects of the iPad, Microsoft Surface and a Chromebook into one device. An interview with Google's Matt Vokoun about the new device, which is perfect for road warriors who also don't want to carry around multiple devices for work and entertainment.Watch my KTLA TV segment on Pixel Slate:https://ktla.com/2018/10/22/google-pixel-slate-combines-best-of-a-tablet-and-laptop/Watch my extended hands on the Pixel Slate:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLSnfOjurAAFollow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontech Easy ways to listen on your phone or smart speaker:"Hey Google, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Hey Siri, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Alexa, Enable the Rich on Tech Flash Briefing"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Google's pixel Slate combines the best of a tablet and
a laptop.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
What's going on, I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Google recently unveiled a new device called the pixel Slate.
It's a tablet that becomes a laptop once you snap
it into a specially designed keyboard cover, and it also
has a stylus sound familiar while pixel Slate combines aspects
of the iPad Pro, Microsoft Surface, and a Chromebook all
into one. I went hands on with the device at
Google's Made by Google launch event earlier this month in
(00:33):
New York City, and although I personally dream of having
an all in one device like this that would let
me go from productivity on the plane to Netflix before bed,
I'm a rare use case scenario since I edit a
lot of video on the go and I rely on
a MacBook Pro for that. But the pixel Slate is
a good contender if you're doing mostly business stuff like
email and spreadsheets, then want to unwind a bit with
(00:54):
a tablet to read or watch video. I talked to
Matt vacone product management director at Google, about why a
two in one.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
We see a lot of people very interested in you
as your life blends together more between work and play.
More and more hybrid type of devices are coming out,
and people want the flexibility both in the operating system
as well as in the hardware itself for getting work
done sometimes or just kicking back and watching a movie
at times. So really focused on two main things is
(01:22):
the brilliant display in front, firing speakers so that entertainment experience,
but then bringing Chrome OS into a full tablet experience
so you can actually use it to get work done
as well as using all your favorite apps.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Pixel Slate is thin and sleek.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
It has a substantial feel though when you pick it
up it's seven millimeters thick and one point six pounds heavy.
The display is just over twelve inches and it does
take up most of the front of the device.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's also a really clear screen.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The pixel Slate runs a more touch optimized version of
Chrome OS, and you can run Android apps too.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's actually the same operaing system as what's on all
chromebooks is what's on pixel book, but we now have
it we've really enhanced if we use on a touch screen.
There's actually a long journey we've been on to bring
great touch support into their all the great applications as well.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So it's actually the same experience when it's really cool.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
When you try out the device, when you're holding it
as a tablet, you know, it looks like a traditional
tablet experience, and then we pop it into the keyboard,
it looks just like a typical Chromebook experience.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Important to know, pixel Slate also runs a full version
of the Chrome web browser.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
This is key.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
You're not limited to mobile versions of sites, and you
can install all of your favorite extensions just like you
would on the desktop. Now, you're still going to be
making some compromises with the device like this, but as
technology and software gets more advanced in this form factor,
we're making less of them.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
But we don't think it's true anymore in what we've
done with pixel Slay, and that was a key thing.
We want to have no compromise, that you can actually
get down to one device that you really need to use,
and so that's why it was important to have a
great keyboard option, full proactivity operating system, you know, not
something that's kind of a phone operating system. Really trying
to stretch up and also for your personal time, having
(03:00):
all the great application supports.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
The keyboard doubles as a folio case. That's a two
hundred dollars add on. It has rounded keys and in
my limited hands on time, felt very comfortable and easy
to type on. Very unlike my MacBook Pro, which I
don't like what Apple did to the keyboard this time around.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
The keys don't move very much.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I'm always making mistakes and it is super duper loud.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
We're really really proud of the pixel Slate keyboard that
folio and how awesome the keyboard is. Our team takes
a lot of pride in being geeks about keyboards. We
made an awesome keyboard and pixel book we brought that
into a folio, so it just feels great. It's super quiet.
We call them hush keys. Yes, so we think being
(03:42):
very very quiet and a good feel. So we're really
really proud of the work that we did there.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Pixel Slate has a camera on both the front and
the back, as well as front firing speakers.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
There's also a USB sport on each.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Side of the tablet and the power button is also
a fingerprint scanner to unlock the device.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So the two cameras we put on a really so
the front one is when we really focus on for
a very very wide field of view because everyone's using
these devices, like me and my family to do a
video chat, and it's annoying, like at least my my
son's need to cram in around me, what my wife
needs to cram in. So we really went for having
a very very wide field of view. And then Duo
is launching on Chrome West at the same time as
(04:18):
we're launching, as we're renouncing pixel Slate, and they really
took advantage of this for a great video chat experience.
And then in back camera, a lot of the actually
similar things we've learned from the pixel phone.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Camera we've implemented into our camera as well.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
So that's why on the tablet you can actually now
take photos when you take a photo on a tablet
in portrait mode.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Okay, but what about battery life.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Battery life, we're really excited we're at twelve hours of
battery life, and you know, that was the main goal
of ours, to get full all day, because if you're
gonna carry on one device and with a versatility life,
we really really wanted great long battery life. So we're
really proud that we've we've hit we've hit twelve hours.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Safety and security always a big benefit of Chromebooks, and
that extends to the pixel Slate. It's going to boot
up fast, the soft is always up to date automatically,
and there's no worry about viruses. One funny thing, there
was a lot of talk about this secure enclave chip
Google calls Titan m has a fancy name, but Matt
says they actually had it in last year's devices too.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Security has always been a core tenet of promos. You know,
antivirus is built in the operating system automatically updates in
the background. That's why it's really getting a lot of
great traction across a lot of user segments.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Is a security and so we have a titaned security chip.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
We actually had it in pixel Book last year as well,
and it's the same chip we're actually using in pixel
Slate this year to really lock down once of your
core data and keep it on device in a very
very protected way.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And when I asked Matt about the biggest challenges in
creating a device like the pixel Slate, I got a
little insight into Google and how it works. Keep in mind,
this is a software company first and foremost, and not
even apps really and things like that, but really search
technology coding, So doing hardware is a bit different from
what Google is typically used to versus say, Apple, which
(05:58):
is a leader in marrying hardware and software to work together.
Google is definitely getting better at it. You can see
that evidenced in their hardware like the Pixel, but you
can tell they are learning from past experiences where things
might not have lined up. Keep in mind, Google designs
its software to run on devices from a wide variety
of manufacturers, whereas Apple is only concerned about how something
(06:18):
runs on their devices, So that definitely presents a challenge
for a company like Google.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Biggest challenge is always what's great about we're working at Harvard.
Part of Google is, you know, we get a chance
to represent all of Google in our product and kind
of ship all of Google. But that's you know, big
ambitious goals that we had. We had a hardware efforts.
Chromos have this very very large effort to really bring
out a great touch oriented experience. The assistant team did
(06:43):
a lot of work, The duo team did a lot
of work to really optimize the great wide field of
view of camera that we have on the front.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
So it's a.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Coordination of all these awesome teams at Google aiming for
a day like today to announce all of our work.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
So it's probably, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
It's what's it's so cool about getting to do this
work at Google. But it's also a big challenge just
to orchestrate all these teams of land everything at the
exact same time.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Like I said earlier, I would love to have a
two in one device. I find myself not wanting to
take both a laptop and a phone and a tablet
on business travel.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Then when I'm on personal travel, I want a tablet.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
For the entertainment value, but it's nice to have a
laptop in case I want to get some real work done.
And device like the pixel Slate definitely solves this dilemma.
But with me, I am editing video, which is getting
easier on tablets and devices like this thanks to apps
like Adobe Premiere Rush.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
But I don't think we're there just yet.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
But if you're a business person that doesn't require highly
specialized apps for your line of work and you do
mostly web based stuff, this is sort of perfect.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
A lot of people who want just a great, awesome
Google experience. You know, we haven't really focused on the
tablet space the last few years, so now there's a
lot of users out there who really want you know,
the full g suite, Google Google Play Store experience. You
know types of users you see, you know a lot
of who have grown up going you know, on their chromebooks,
are now getting older and buying their own devices. So
(08:05):
that's a great grace of users we think about there.
And then you know, a busy on the goal professional
that needs to have something thin light that they're carrying around,
but also if they're on the road, want to be
able to watch you know, content and on things like that.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
So those are two users i'd highlight.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Finally, one more fun feature for the road Warrior.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
The Peloton app is going to launch on Android with
the pixel Slate later this year. If you're not familiar
with Peloton, this is sort of a live and on
demand spinning class. The bike is several thousand dollars, so
the fact that you can just fire up the pixel
Slate and take a class on there is pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
They'll launch this later this year.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
They've been outside is coming soon and so yeah, when
you're on the road, just going to the hotel gym,
put pixel Slate right in front of the bike and
then get your workout in there.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
You have it.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Google's pixel Slate going on sale later this year, and yes,
you can adjust the folio cover to any angle you want.
The device starts at six hundred dollars, then add another
two hundred dollars for the keyboard and another one hundred
dollars for the pen. You're looking at close to one
thousand dollars for a device that functions as a tablet
and a laptop. You can see more of the pixel
Slate on my website, Rich on tech dot tv. I've
(09:11):
got the hands on demo there, or just look for
the link in the show notes. Thanks so much for
listening to the show. I'm Rich Demiro.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I'll talk to you real soon.
Google's pixel Slate combines the best of a tablet and
a laptop.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
What's going on, I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Google recently unveiled a new device called the pixel Slate.
It's a tablet that becomes a laptop once you snap
it into a specially designed keyboard cover, and it also
has a stylus sound familiar while pixel Slate combines aspects
of the iPad Pro, Microsoft Surface, and a Chromebook all
into one. I went hands on with the device at
Google's Made by Google launch event earlier this month in
(00:33):
New York City, and although I personally dream of having
an all in one device like this that would let
me go from productivity on the plane to Netflix before bed,
I'm a rare use case scenario since I edit a
lot of video on the go and I rely on
a MacBook Pro for that. But the pixel Slate is
a good contender if you're doing mostly business stuff like
email and spreadsheets, then want to unwind a bit with
(00:54):
a tablet to read or watch video. I talked to
Matt vacone product management director at Google, about why a
two in one.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
We see a lot of people very interested in you
as your life blends together more between work and play.
More and more hybrid type of devices are coming out,
and people want the flexibility both in the operating system
as well as in the hardware itself for getting work
done sometimes or just kicking back and watching a movie
at times. So really focused on two main things is
(01:22):
the brilliant display in front, firing speakers so that entertainment experience,
but then bringing Chrome OS into a full tablet experience
so you can actually use it to get work done
as well as using all your favorite apps.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Pixel Slate is thin and sleek.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
It has a substantial feel though when you pick it
up it's seven millimeters thick and one point six pounds heavy.
The display is just over twelve inches and it does
take up most of the front of the device.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's also a really clear screen.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The pixel Slate runs a more touch optimized version of
Chrome OS, and you can run Android apps too.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's actually the same operaing system as what's on all
chromebooks is what's on pixel book, but we now have
it we've really enhanced if we use on a touch screen.
There's actually a long journey we've been on to bring
great touch support into their all the great applications as well.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So it's actually the same experience when it's really cool.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
When you try out the device, when you're holding it
as a tablet, you know, it looks like a traditional
tablet experience, and then we pop it into the keyboard,
it looks just like a typical Chromebook experience.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Important to know, pixel Slate also runs a full version
of the Chrome web browser.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
This is key.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
You're not limited to mobile versions of sites, and you
can install all of your favorite extensions just like you
would on the desktop. Now, you're still going to be
making some compromises with the device like this, but as
technology and software gets more advanced in this form factor,
we're making less of them.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
But we don't think it's true anymore in what we've
done with pixel Slay, and that was a key thing.
We want to have no compromise, that you can actually
get down to one device that you really need to use,
and so that's why it was important to have a
great keyboard option, full proactivity operating system, you know, not
something that's kind of a phone operating system. Really trying
to stretch up and also for your personal time, having
(03:00):
all the great application supports.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
The keyboard doubles as a folio case. That's a two
hundred dollars add on. It has rounded keys and in
my limited hands on time, felt very comfortable and easy
to type on. Very unlike my MacBook Pro, which I
don't like what Apple did to the keyboard this time around.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
The keys don't move very much.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I'm always making mistakes and it is super duper loud.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
We're really really proud of the pixel Slate keyboard that
folio and how awesome the keyboard is. Our team takes
a lot of pride in being geeks about keyboards. We
made an awesome keyboard and pixel book we brought that
into a folio, so it just feels great. It's super quiet.
We call them hush keys. Yes, so we think being
(03:42):
very very quiet and a good feel. So we're really
really proud of the work that we did there.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Pixel Slate has a camera on both the front and
the back, as well as front firing speakers.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
There's also a USB sport on each.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Side of the tablet and the power button is also
a fingerprint scanner to unlock the device.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So the two cameras we put on a really so
the front one is when we really focus on for
a very very wide field of view because everyone's using
these devices, like me and my family to do a
video chat, and it's annoying, like at least my my
son's need to cram in around me, what my wife
needs to cram in. So we really went for having
a very very wide field of view. And then Duo
is launching on Chrome West at the same time as
(04:18):
we're launching, as we're renouncing pixel Slate, and they really
took advantage of this for a great video chat experience.
And then in back camera, a lot of the actually
similar things we've learned from the pixel phone.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Camera we've implemented into our camera as well.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
So that's why on the tablet you can actually now
take photos when you take a photo on a tablet
in portrait mode.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Okay, but what about battery life.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Battery life, we're really excited we're at twelve hours of
battery life, and you know, that was the main goal
of ours, to get full all day, because if you're
gonna carry on one device and with a versatility life,
we really really wanted great long battery life. So we're
really proud that we've we've hit we've hit twelve hours.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Safety and security always a big benefit of Chromebooks, and
that extends to the pixel Slate. It's going to boot
up fast, the soft is always up to date automatically,
and there's no worry about viruses. One funny thing, there
was a lot of talk about this secure enclave chip
Google calls Titan m has a fancy name, but Matt
says they actually had it in last year's devices too.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Security has always been a core tenet of promos. You know,
antivirus is built in the operating system automatically updates in
the background. That's why it's really getting a lot of
great traction across a lot of user segments.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Is a security and so we have a titaned security chip.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
We actually had it in pixel Book last year as well,
and it's the same chip we're actually using in pixel
Slate this year to really lock down once of your
core data and keep it on device in a very
very protected way.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And when I asked Matt about the biggest challenges in
creating a device like the pixel Slate, I got a
little insight into Google and how it works. Keep in mind,
this is a software company first and foremost, and not
even apps really and things like that, but really search
technology coding, So doing hardware is a bit different from
what Google is typically used to versus say, Apple, which
(05:58):
is a leader in marrying hardware and software to work together.
Google is definitely getting better at it. You can see
that evidenced in their hardware like the Pixel, but you
can tell they are learning from past experiences where things
might not have lined up. Keep in mind, Google designs
its software to run on devices from a wide variety
of manufacturers, whereas Apple is only concerned about how something
(06:18):
runs on their devices, So that definitely presents a challenge
for a company like Google.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Biggest challenge is always what's great about we're working at Harvard.
Part of Google is, you know, we get a chance
to represent all of Google in our product and kind
of ship all of Google. But that's you know, big
ambitious goals that we had. We had a hardware efforts.
Chromos have this very very large effort to really bring
out a great touch oriented experience. The assistant team did
(06:43):
a lot of work, The duo team did a lot
of work to really optimize the great wide field of
view of camera that we have on the front.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
So it's a.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Coordination of all these awesome teams at Google aiming for
a day like today to announce all of our work.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
So it's probably, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
It's what's it's so cool about getting to do this
work at Google. But it's also a big challenge just
to orchestrate all these teams of land everything at the
exact same time.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Like I said earlier, I would love to have a
two in one device. I find myself not wanting to
take both a laptop and a phone and a tablet
on business travel.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Then when I'm on personal travel, I want a tablet.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
For the entertainment value, but it's nice to have a
laptop in case I want to get some real work done.
And device like the pixel Slate definitely solves this dilemma.
But with me, I am editing video, which is getting
easier on tablets and devices like this thanks to apps
like Adobe Premiere Rush.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
But I don't think we're there just yet.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
But if you're a business person that doesn't require highly
specialized apps for your line of work and you do
mostly web based stuff, this is sort of perfect.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
A lot of people who want just a great, awesome
Google experience. You know, we haven't really focused on the
tablet space the last few years, so now there's a
lot of users out there who really want you know,
the full g suite, Google Google Play Store experience. You
know types of users you see, you know a lot
of who have grown up going you know, on their chromebooks,
are now getting older and buying their own devices. So
(08:05):
that's a great grace of users we think about there.
And then you know, a busy on the goal professional
that needs to have something thin light that they're carrying around,
but also if they're on the road, want to be
able to watch you know, content and on things like that.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
So those are two users i'd highlight.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Finally, one more fun feature for the road Warrior.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
The Peloton app is going to launch on Android with
the pixel Slate later this year. If you're not familiar
with Peloton, this is sort of a live and on
demand spinning class. The bike is several thousand dollars, so
the fact that you can just fire up the pixel
Slate and take a class on there is pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
They'll launch this later this year.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
They've been outside is coming soon and so yeah, when
you're on the road, just going to the hotel gym,
put pixel Slate right in front of the bike and
then get your workout in there.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
You have it.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Google's pixel Slate going on sale later this year, and yes,
you can adjust the folio cover to any angle you want.
The device starts at six hundred dollars, then add another
two hundred dollars for the keyboard and another one hundred
dollars for the pen. You're looking at close to one
thousand dollars for a device that functions as a tablet
and a laptop. You can see more of the pixel
Slate on my website, Rich on tech dot tv. I've
(09:11):
got the hands on demo there, or just look for
the link in the show notes. Thanks so much for
listening to the show. I'm Rich Demiro.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I'll talk to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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