Final 12 months, Google introduced that it was getting again into the enterprise of constructing its personal tablets, and through its I/O occasion at this time, 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 strong machine, it doesn’t appear like it can 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.
Nevertheless, Google has completed one cool factor with its Pixel Pill that Apple ought to have arguably completed years in the past: It’s empowered it for use as a Residence Hub.
It’s not revelatory information that Apple hasn’t fairly found out its front room technique. The HomePod and Apple TV each act as “house hubs” within the sense that they supply the mandatory back-ends for house automation, however neither supply the sort of consumer interface that you just’ll discover on a Nest Hub or Amazon Echo Present.
There’s little doubt that Apple is approach behind the curve in relation to this facet of house automation. The Residence app on the iPhone and iPad is significantly extra full-featured and highly effective than its rivals, however the very best you are able to do for a HomeKit management hub proper now could be to slap your iPad onto a stand and go away that app operating. It really works, nevertheless it’s additionally clunky and inelegant — decidedly not the sort 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 person can fairly agree whether or not that can be a large iPad for the house or a HomePod with a seven-inch show. We’re not even certain that Apple has determined which method to go on this one but.
The Pixel Pill’s ‘Hub Mode’
Right now’s debut of the Pixel Pill demonstrates how Apple might have created a workable answer 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 making an attempt to be an enormous participant within the house automation house. Its software program know-how has some catching as much as do, nevertheless it already presents a lineup of first-party {hardware} equipment. Most of all, it’s an space the place Google appears rather more centered than Apple, which is sort of ironic when you think about how a lot the corporate usually flounders about with its different merchandise.
The Pixel Pill extends Google’s house automation ambitions from Nest units proper into the center of its Pixel ecosystem, and it’s clear Google needs to make the Pixel Pill the middle of your private home.
The pill features a Charging and Speaker Dock, which is just about what it feels like — a magnetic dock for the Pixel Pill that additionally allows you to play room-filling sound. That’s sort of the other of the HomePod-with-a-screen we’ve been listening to about, nevertheless it’s a extra versatile method to go, as you may take the pill with you anyplace and even purchase further docks for different rooms.
Nevertheless, the magic of Google’s new dock goes past charging and audio. Once you place the Pixel Pill onto the dock, it switches into “Hub Mode,” the place it turns into a wise show when “locked and docked.” At that time, it’s a mix 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 look like one thing of a one-trick pony — a house hub with a removable display screen — nevertheless it’s nonetheless a full-featured pill in its personal proper, even whether it is more likely to spend most of its time dwelling on the dock in your kitchen or front room.
Nonetheless, that’s higher than what your iPad doubtless does once you’re not utilizing it. Nevertheless, maybe Apple’s largest blind spot is its incapability to embrace the iPad as a household machine. Of us 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 training, these offered to on a regular basis shoppers are nonetheless designed for use by one particular person as a private machine.
A cynical tackle this strategy is that Apple needs to promote extra iPads by encouraging you to purchase one for every of your loved ones members, nevertheless it’s extra doubtless that it simply has this sense of rugged individualism constructed into its DNA. The iPad grew out of the iPhone, which developed largely 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 switch the Nest Hub; as a substitute, it’s a pleasant various for individuals who would fairly spend extra to put money into a extra highly effective and versatile machine 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 acquire some related capabilities.