Google Pixel 5, 4A 5G, and 4A The week kicked off with reviews of the Pixel 4A from Google — here's mine. The phone is very good and at $350, very inexpensive. The fact that a budget phone can literally take photos of comets and the Milky Way is really something. Using the Pixel 4A made me fall in love with the Pixel's camera all over again. And yet, no matter how good the Pixel 4A is, it won't be a smash hit. Part of that will come down to the pandemic, but a lot of it will come down to marketing. US carriers only want to push 5G phones and the 4A is not 5G. Google's answer to that conundrum was to just up and say that, well, there are 5G phones coming later this fall. The conventional wisdom around the Pixel is that it's in trouble. We're at or just beyond the self-imposed deadline Google put on itself to see tangible success in the phone hardware business and it's fair to say it hasn't happened — at least not at the scale you'd expect from a company as big as Google. I think it's probably too much to ask of the Pixel 5 to solve that problem — especially since signs currently point to it not being a take-on-the-best flagship. That doesn't mean we should ignore it nor that it won't be good: we should pay attention to what Google thinks an Android phone should be, and often it gets a lot of things right when it does. Here's where I see it these days: the Pixel is the Nexus by another name. Google's old Nexus program made different phones with different manufacturers from year to year, but Nexus phones were never expected to sell in huge numbers. Instead, the Nexus was a showcase for new technologies for Android and a north star for what Google hoped would be trends for the hardware that ran it. Until and unless Google can show quite a bit more ambition than it has to date, I think that's the right way to think about the Pixel line. They're Nexus phones that happened to be made by Google. Expecting them to be anything more is a recipe for disappointment. That said, if you want an Android phone that costs less than four or five hundred dollars, I think the choice comes down to the OnePlus Nord and the Pixel 4A — and since the Nord doesn't support the right LTE bands in the US, the decision is even easier. ┏ Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A all at once. ┏ Google Pixel 4A review: back to basics for $349. ┏ Google's live-captioning feature will soon work with voice and video calls on Pixel phones. Google getting into other businesses ┏ Google Pay will support mobile checking accounts starting next year. I still think this is a wholly unnecessary thing for Google to get into. I sincerely hope that these "digital bank accounts through Google Pay" are not locked down to Google Pay should a customer want to convert it to a direct relationship with the bank. ┏ Google invests in ADT, will integrate its Nest devices into smart home business. Mostly, I'm just relieved that Google isn't buying ADT outright. Jon Porter explains the motivations behind the $450 million investment, which gives Google 6.6 percent and, most importantly, the chance for exclusivity: Eventually, however, Google says its Nest devices will become the "cornerstone" of ADT's smart home offering. The search giant says that its technology will mean fewer false alarms, better event detection, and more helpful notifications for ADT's customers. Google says that ADT customers will also get access to Nest Aware, its subscription service that offers intelligent alerts and 30 days of event history recording. | 
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