Google is using its biggest advantage as a weapon to totally embarrass Apple

The Google Pixel 2 smartphone.Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

Hardware, as they say, is hard. Building something complex like a smartphone is tough enough as it is; selling enough of them to overcome the lousy profit margins and high costs of manufacturing only makes it harder.

Major companies like Google are not immune to these realities. So when Google launched the first Pixel smartphone last year, it was met with a lot of skepticism: It wasn’t clear how, or if, even Google could compete with the likes of Apple or its partner Samsung, which had essentially squeezed the air out of the high-end market. 

And in terms of sales, we still don’t know how that’s going. At its big Google Pixel 2 launch event on Wednesday morning, Google didn’t disclose any sales number, saying only that the original Pixel was a critical hit. Recently, we had unreliable indicators that the original Pixel sold only about 1 million units, a mere fraction of the tens of millions of iPhone 7 phones believed to have been sold in just the first quarter.

And yet, if you take nothing else away from Google’s big hardware blitz this week, it should be this: Google is taking its big advantage in artificial intelligence, and turning it into a hardware advantage that should completely embarrass Apple with how far ahead some of this stuff is. 

You can see it everywhere — Google Photos, the company’s photo-storage service, is way better than Apple’s iCloud, and it’s built in to every Pixel phone. Google Assistant, the smart voice assistant at the heart of the Pixel and the Google Home smart speakers, is lightyears ahead of Siri.

The best example so far, though, can be found in the Google Pixel Buds, a set of wireless airbuds designed to work with the Google Pixel 2 phone. They’re direct competitors to Apple’s pioneering AirPods. 

Best buds

While Google definitely doesn’t win any points for originality, Pixel Buds definitely win on innovation.

Right out of the proverbial box, the Google Pixel Buds will sport a nifty integration with the Google Translate app so you can use it as something like a universal translator: Your speech gets translated into, say, French, and the other person’s French gets translated to English right in your ears. It’s nifty, and in my own brief test, seems to work decently well. 

Google Pixel Buds, the company’s answer to Apple’s AirPods.Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

This is something that is here, right now, in a device that’s shipping in October. Meanwhile, Apple has a world of possibilities in front of it for the AirPods, with the power to turn them into “hearable computers,” or at least a killer set of hearing aids. So far, however, this is something Apple has shown little to no interest in, almost a year later.

In other words, Google is putting its considerable edge in artificial intelligence to work by showing all the places where Apple is weak. Beyond the Pixel Buds, Google also showed off features in the Pixel 2 phone like a refreshed Google Lens, which can search your photos for relevant information. If your photo has a picture of the Taj Mahal, it’ll tell you.

So, no, Google’s new Pixel 2 phones won’t win any awards for originality. Compared to new phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8, the iPhone X, or even Android cofounder Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone, the specs and the design of the Pixel 2 are decidedly unexceptional (although it packs a pretty great camera). Who knows what Pixel 2 sales will look like. 

And yet, if you view Wednesday’s product announcements as Google showing Apple just how far behind it is in artificial intelligence, well, it all makes perfect sense. Google’s new hardware doesn’t make the iPhone look any worse, by direct comparison, but it sure does make Apple itself look like it’s behind the curve.

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Depression expected to become Tropical Storm Nate, heading toward Nicaragua, Honduras

A tropical depression churning across the southern Caribbean could become Tropical Storm Nate on track to hit the Gulf Coast, and possibly Florida, as a hurricane over the weekend.

In their 11 p.m. Wednesday advisory, National Hurricane Center forecasters said the storm is moving over warm waters and encountering light wind shear that could allow quick intensification. Its possible sustained winds could reach near 85 mph in three days, making it a Category 1 storm as it approaches the Gulf Coast on Saturday. Wednesday evening forecasters upped their intensity forecast from earlier in the day, but said there’s still a chance the storm could weaken as it crosses Central America and the Yucatan.

“Residents along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida should monitor the progress of this system for the next several days and heed any advice given by local officials,” The National Hurricane said in its latest advisory.

At 11 p.m., the depression was located 70 miles west of San Andres Island off the coast of Nicaragua, where it could dump up to 20 inches of rain and trigger dangerous mudslides and flash flooding, National Hurricane Center forecasters said. Sustained winds reached 35 mph.

The storm is expected to move across northeastern Nicaragua early Thursday and eastern Honduras late Thursday into Friday, bringing heavy rain along much of the Central American coast.

Forecasters said it remains too early to say where the storm will impact the Gulf Coast. The storm is being steered by a high pressure ridge over the southwest Atlantic, but a low-pressure trough moving across the Florida Straits could force it to move more quickly toward the north-northwest by Friday and into the Gulf of Mexico Saturday. How much land it crosses could also weaken it, complicating the track forecast.

Reliable U.S. and European models differed on the storm’s future path by as much as 90 miles, forecasters said. Track forecasts so far in advance can also have wide margins of error. So far this year, track forecasts four to five days in advance have been averaging errors of about 170 to 230 miles.

While the timing and magnitude of the storm remain unclear, the Florida Panhandle and Gulf Coast west to Louisiana should remain alert for the next several days, forecasters said. The storm is expected to bring high winds, storm surge and heavy rain.

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Tropical depression expected to become Tropical Storm Nate

Another tropical depression, the 16th cyclone in a record-breaking season, formed in the southern Caribbean Wednesday morning and could be a weak Category 1 hurricane when it reaches the U.S. coast.

NOAA

Tropical storm warnings have been issued for parts of Nicaragua and Honduras, where heavy rainfall is forecast. Costa Rica and Panama could get five to 10 inches of rain, with up to 20 inches possible in some locations. Late Wednesday, a Hurricane Watch was issued for parts of Mexico.

Squally weather blanketing South Florida Wednesday is not related to the storm, but part of another system over west Cuba and the Florida straits. Strong wind shear is expected to keep that system disorganized, which is still expected to generate heavy rain and gusty wind in Florida and the Bahamas.

Wednesday’s depression becomes the 16th cyclone in a record-breaking season that hit feverish intensity over the last two months with five named storms since Aug. 30. Three lethal storms — Harvey, Irma and Maria — formed in less than 30 days.

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In September, the highest amount of hurricane energy on record occurred, along with the most number of days with a major hurricane, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.

Earlier in the season, forecasters upped their prediction for the number of storms to between 14 and 19, with two to five major hurricanes. The season ends Nov. 30.

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Tropical depression forms off the coast of Nicaragua

A tropical depression formed early on Oct. 4, 2017 off the coast of Nicaragua. The system, which is expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Nate, is projected to move into the Gulf of Mexico.

Courtesy: NASA Sport

Follow Jenny Staletovich on Twitter @jenstaletovich

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