Gadgetory

what's happening Brian Tong here and welcome to Google issues for everything Google you could think of the reviews for the pixel 2 & 2 XL are here for its official October 19th release date and it's getting great reviews overall what stands out about it well in our own CNET review by Lin law no surprise its deep integration with the Google ecosystem it's superb camera and Google lens which will continue to only get better now if you love the Google ecosystem come on you're going to love this phone and how good is that camera CNET's Alexi Sebelius AM Nessa Han Orellana took it out in the field and those low-light shots on the pixel 2 are just excellent the portrait mode is great it's not always as good as the iPhone 8 pluses but at other times it's equally as good it can handle faces and even animal faces but it doesn't do as well with objects right now now the fact that it was just as good in many cases with just a single lens is really impressive also its optical image stabilization is great as well and we'll have full breakdown sports photo and video performance this week now the biggest problem with this phone no headphone jack like it's a stupid trend that I'm still completely against personally and telling me to go buy a wireless headphones as a solution that's just isn't fair for everyone now in fact Google themselves realized they wasn't getting out of hand after they decided to slash the price of their own headphone dongle from what was originally $20 to $9 wow thanks Google but you know what you're still getting a boo-boo and no it's not the sexiest phone out on the market but for some of you that's all that matters in a phone and not what the phone can actually do for you alright early hands-on by darren gloucester has revealed a hidden notification light on the pixel 2 XL last year's pixel phones had an RGB notification light placed on the right side on the front near the earpiece and it looks like this year's pixels will have the same with an option to toggle it on or off in the notification settings also the new pixel 2 phones support embedded SIM cards or sims and project by is one of the first carriers to support it on Android it really means you no longer have to have a physical SIM card in your phone a new Isom manager app is now on the Play Store if you want to check that out there's also a brand new power menu and a video showing it off shows the menu now appearing next to the physical power button instead of the center of the screen on the pixel - with a power off and restart as options you know it's just a small change but just some of the new tweaks you'll see on the pixel - ok Google we know that's a hot word for assistance on phones and as they expand it to different devices hey Google became an option for the Google home and now looks like they could be bringing the hey Google hot word to smartphones alongside ok Google and yes I said that slowly - deliberately set off your devices now a breakdown of the google app by xda-developers reveals that both commands could be coming in the future and it makes sense because hey Google is a lot more natural sounding then ok Google and that's the part where I waited for your devices to stop listening again and this could be arguably the most important story of the week for Google nation Google Photos can now recognize your pets I repeat Google Photos can now recognize your pets now face recognition for friends and family has always been important but you will now be able to add naming support for your cats and dogs unfortunately pet turtles goldfish pigs and lemurs appear to have been left out now Google Photos will now be able to recognize specific dogs or cats as long as there's a clear shot of their face and treat them as people when looking for their pictures there's also been no word if it supports the idea that people do look like their pets like this guy or this lady and definitely this guy all right that's gonna do it for this week's show 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 y'all next time for some more of that Google issue you