Gadgetory

what's going on Brian Tong here and welcome to Google issues for all the Google you can think of and the big story this week is the Google pixel XL dead now a while back we talked about how there were potentially three new pixel phones in the works with walleye and muskie code names representing the second gen pixel phones but there was a third one codenamed Timon that was believed to be an even larger phone than the pixel XL now according to Android police the second next-gen pixel XL phone codenamed muskie has been cancelled and it will be replaced by the rumored Timon device that is expected to have an even larger screen but will still most likely be marketed as the second gen pixel XL now Android police is confident there will be only 2 pixel phones this year and having only two models keeps their lineup simpler so it's not necessarily dead but it will be a different pixel XL after doing some digging in androids issue tracker logs 9 to 5 Google believes the larger taemin phone will be manufactured by LG and not HTC now HTC built the original pixel phones and we're believed to do the same for this year but it looks like LG will be taking over duties for this next pixel XL all right Google continues to get even more serious about their phones variety reports they have now hired a lead systems on chip architect Manu Gulati most recently led apple's chip development for the past eight years this is a big move for Google and his role will be specifically focused on building chips for the pixel phone line he was an instrumental part in development of Apple's a line processors and is credited as an inventor in 15 paths for Apple relating to Apple pay storing fingerprints and fundamental chip architecture we were also excited about the prospects of Andy Rubens essential phone there was a lot of buzz around it but that buzz might have been killed after a USA Today report says that the essential phone will be sold through Sprint as the exclusive US carrier then spread confirmed the exclusive launch for later this summer and it will also be available in the u.s. Best Buy stores and Best Buy online essentials website is offering an unlocked version of the phone for $6.99 directly but starting on Sprint could be a part of the big picture you know to get the phone out there and then work on a wider release for nextgen but no doubt its killed some of the mojo since a majority of users are either on a tee or verizon here in the US and LG fans the investor reports LG is planning an august launch for its large screen LG v 30 phone a month earlier than the v20 from last year now it's expected to be their first flagship device with an OLED display the V 30 is also rumored to offer a second display that slides out from under the main one to offer functions like a keyboard the report also says LG is planning to launch the next g7 phone a couple months earlier as well targeting January and will launch with a snapdragon 845 chip now the earlier timetable is to try and give it an advantage over Samsung which tends to release our products around the same time as LG alright that's going to do it for this week you can email me at Google issues at cnet.com or tweet me at brian tong thanks so much for watching and we'll catch you next time for some more of that google ishes