Google and Alphabet Watch: Insights on Google's ecosystem, including Android, Gmail, Chrome, plus other bets and innovations coming from Mountain View.
In context: YouTube's controversial experiment in which it restricted 4K content to its $12-per-month Premium service has come to an end. What conclusion Google drew from the test is unknown---it appears to be still gathering feedback-so there's no guarantee the resolution will remain accessible on the platform indefinitely.
Highly anticipated: The Made by Google launch event starts on October 6 at 10 am ET. The company should announce a slew of new products, including the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro phones, the Pixel Watch, and some new additions to its Nest smart home portfolio.
Would you subscribe to its Premium service for 4K?
WTF?! It might sound like a terrible idea, but YouTube could start charging users who want to watch videos on the platform in 4K, making the resolution exclusive to its $12-per-month Premium service. There's no confirmation that owner Google will go down this route as it could only be a test to gauge reaction, though such a move would obviously cause a lot of anger from creators and viewers alike.
Recap: Alphabet food delivery company Wing has a spotless safety record. Well, it did until yesterday when one of its autonomous drones landed on some power lines. Nobody was hurt in the incident, but the drone was incinerated, and about 2,000 customers lost power briefly.
In a nutshell: Google just released AV1 3.5, the newest version of the video-encoding technology, which threatens to be a major player in the content and media industry. The codec now has much more efficient CPU encoding, and hardware support is growing too.