[0:00] So, Google just had a keynote and
[0:02] they've announced possibly the single
[0:04] biggest shakeup to the smartphone in the
[0:06] last 5 years. In one go, they've
[0:07] unveiled Gemini Intelligence, so you can
[0:10] ask AI to start taking over your phone
[0:13] and doing things for you. That's cool.
[0:15] Android 17, which has ended up far more
[0:18] eventful than the previous few versions.
[0:20] There's a new Android Auto that somehow
[0:22] out of nowhere is the actual highlight
[0:24] of the show. All finished off with an
[0:25] entirely new category of laptop that
[0:27] lets you wiggle your cursor and do magic
[0:30] AI things. Put it this way, it is making
[0:32] Apple software look very depressing by
[0:35] comparison. So, first things first,
[0:36] Gemini Intelligence lets you do five
[0:39] things that you haven't been able to
[0:41] properly do before, like Rumbler. So,
[0:43] you know when you're dictating a
[0:45] message, which I do all the time, and
[0:47] then you ramble while dictating that
[0:49] message, which I also do all the time.
[0:52] Rambler is a new feature that fixes you.
[0:54] So, let's say that your wife asks you
[0:56] how much you enjoyed her dinner, and you
[0:58] say it's a bit dry.
[1:00] Actually, no way. I love it. I've never
[1:03] had canned beans like this in my life.
[1:06] This will no longer type out your entire
[1:08] inner monologue. It'll smartly realize
[1:11] what you're trying to say. Or at least
[1:13] that's what Google claims. I'll be the
[1:15] test of that. And it also means if you
[1:17] do accidentally tell your wife her food
[1:18] was dry, you can then say, "One, buy
[1:21] flowers, two, buy chocolates, three, eat
[1:25] the beans and nod." And your phone will
[1:27] realize by itself that you're describing
[1:29] a list and format that into one. And
[1:32] then you can say, "Swap the numbers for
[1:34] emoji." It'll get there. Or even, I
[1:36] guess, turn this whole message into
[1:38] Hindi so she can't read it. This is
[1:43] really useful and it actually makes me
[1:45] feel like one of the Flintstones when I
[1:48] look at this and then I look at my
[1:50] iPhone's current dictation quality or
[1:52] another struggle that we can all relate
[1:54] to, autofill. I mean, don't get me
[1:56] wrong, the feature itself is one of
[1:57] humanity's top five inventions. But
[2:00] every now and again, you will come
[2:01] across a site or an app where the rigid
[2:04] way that autofill has been programmed
[2:06] means it just doesn't activate. and the
[2:09] pain that you feel then having to
[2:11] manually type out each letter of that
[2:14] ridiculous email address you made when
[2:15] you were 14 years old knowing how easy
[2:18] this could have been. Point being,
[2:19] Gemini intelligence should be the cure
[2:22] forever. It taps into your personal
[2:24] intelligence pocket, basically
[2:26] everything the AI knows about you,
[2:28] including those random bits you're never
[2:30] going to remember like your passport
[2:31] details. And then it smartly fills out
[2:34] every form. And it should have a higher
[2:36] success rate doing so because unlike
[2:38] traditional autofill which is just
[2:40] interpreting code. So if a site is not
[2:43] coded well it might not realize what
[2:45] data it's meant to fill in where. Gemini
[2:47] like you can read and understand what's
[2:50] being asked of it. Seriously fantastic.
[2:54] That sounds like I'm being sarcastic.
[2:55] I'm actually gassed.
[2:57] >> I've never been happier.
[3:00] So, it feels like part of Gemini
[3:01] intelligence is very much focused on
[3:03] giving people what they want, fixing
[3:05] common pain points, but ones that have
[3:08] actually required this new level of
[3:09] intelligence to solve. But part of this
[3:11] update is also improving things that you
[3:14] didn't even know needed improving. Like,
[3:16] for example, you can now build widgets
[3:18] by literally asking for them. They've
[3:20] made it look so easy that this is
[3:23] possibly the first time ever I can
[3:25] safely say my granddad could be a
[3:27] programmer. The example they give is a
[3:29] custom countdown to a marathon that
[3:31] you're running. But I think it would be
[3:32] so cool to make one that can pop up with
[3:34] activities happening around you, but
[3:36] based on the time right now and your
[3:38] specific GPS location. Another example
[3:41] of something that I'm not sure people
[3:42] were specifically asking for is app
[3:44] automations. They showed an example of
[3:46] you taking a photo of this flyer about a
[3:49] tour that you wanted to go on, but then
[3:50] asking Gemini, find me a tour like this,
[3:53] but make sure it can accommodate six
[3:55] people. And now Gemini is able to first
[3:57] figure out what you mean, then take that
[4:00] information to another app like Expedia.
[4:02] It looks like it at this point kind of
[4:04] thinks in the background till it's
[4:05] finished, and then finally pings you a
[4:07] notification to see the result. You
[4:09] click that, that's your booking page. I
[4:12] do like that it doesn't try and book for
[4:14] you. That would scare me. Do I think I
[4:16] would use this?
[4:18] Probably not for a while, to be honest.
[4:20] Call me old-fashioned, but I still think
[4:22] there's a lot of benefit to you looking
[4:24] at things like this yourself. You know,
[4:26] you might find a tour that's better
[4:27] rated or closer to your hotel or just
[4:30] something that you'd actually rather do
[4:32] instead. Like the way I see it, you and
[4:34] these five other people are going to
[4:36] spend maybe a full day doing this tour.
[4:38] Do you trust the AI enough that you
[4:41] don't want to even spend five minutes
[4:43] checking yourself for other options?
[4:45] I'll pass. I will say this kind of task
[4:47] doing can become more useful when you
[4:49] add in that Gemini can now also pick up
[4:51] the full context of what's on your
[4:54] screen. So let's say you're kind of
[4:55] interested in going to this standup
[4:57] comedy night, but you just cannot be
[4:59] bothered to plan the logistics around
[5:00] it. Here you can say to Gemini, "Sort my
[5:03] parking space and rest somewhat easy
[5:06] knowing that it can read all of the
[5:07] context that it needs by itself from
[5:10] your screen without you needing to spell
[5:12] it out." And this is probably the most
[5:14] visual example of how Gemini is evolving
[5:16] into more of an agent with this update.
[5:19] Like you're actually seeing it tap and
[5:21] type things one step at a time
[5:22] completely without your intervention. I
[5:24] could so imagine just watching Gemini
[5:27] jaw clenched as it confidently books me
[5:29] an eighth floor spot when I can see that
[5:31] there's three free on the first. But in
[5:33] principle, this is a level up cuz like
[5:35] last week I made a schedule of which
[5:37] supplements I wanted to take at which
[5:39] points in the day. Yeah, I get it. I'm
[5:41] 30 now. Magnesium is exciting. Gemini
[5:44] intelligence in theory means that I
[5:47] could hold the power button while
[5:48] looking at the schedule and ask Gemini
[5:50] to turn it into a set of reminders to
[5:52] make sure that I follow this routine.
[5:54] That's seriously helpful. Or let's say
[5:56] you have your shopping list loaded up.
[5:58] In theory, you could just bring up
[5:59] Gemini and say, "Buy all of this." And
[6:02] before you know it, you'll be sitting
[6:04] there with a basket full of these
[6:05] products ready for you to hit check out.
[6:08] They did also show how you could be
[6:09] browsing an article and then ask Gemini
[6:12] to make an infographic summarizing it.
[6:14] Obviously, it worked, but I wasn't super
[6:16] impressed with the result. It kind of
[6:18] screams AI from 2 years ago. Overall,
[6:21] though, Gemini Intelligence feels pretty
[6:23] bang on. The main caveat is just
[6:25] availability. Like, a lot of this isn't
[6:27] coming now. It's starting to roll out
[6:30] this summer. It's not coming all at
[6:31] once. Each feature is going to be
[6:33] released when it's ready, they're
[6:34] saying. And to be honest, even when it
[6:36] does come, it's coming to Samsung and
[6:38] Google phones first, seemingly also only
[6:41] to the flagship versions of them,
[6:42] potentially because it relies on a more
[6:44] powerful version of the Gemini Nano
[6:46] model, which needs to run on the device
[6:49] itself. Point being, it could be a year
[6:51] before your phone gets this, if at all.
[6:53] But at least Google is being clear about
[6:55] that. I think they're specifically
[6:57] trying not to overpromise and fall into
[6:59] the same trap that Apple did with Apple
[7:01] intelligence. Thankfully, the next
[7:03] Android update, Android 17, is for all.
[7:06] And even if you took Gemini Intelligence
[7:08] aside, I actually think what they've
[7:10] done with it is incredibly clever. For
[7:13] example, you must have seen by this
[7:14] point people posting this screen
[7:16] reaction type of content. Well, now
[7:19] Google is adding the ability to create
[7:21] this screen reaction content instantly.
[7:23] It'll record your screen. It'll use your
[7:25] front camera to record you. It'll keep
[7:27] you in the right position and cut away
[7:29] your background. Having all of that
[7:30] happening at once in real time is a very
[7:34] efficient way to produce videos. And on
[7:36] the pro end of the spectrum, they're
[7:37] also bringing Adobe Premiere to Android
[7:39] in summer with templates specifically
[7:42] designed for you to make YouTube shorts
[7:43] easily. You can see why this works out
[7:46] for Google. But it makes sense why
[7:47] they're focusing on this because the
[7:49] iPhone basically owns the creator market
[7:51] currently and the creator market has a
[7:54] lot of influence over the mainstream
[7:56] market. So Google's trying to basically
[7:58] get the influencers on board and this
[8:01] thinly veiled full frontal assault on
[8:03] Apple continues over to Instagram. You
[8:06] know how for years shooting content on
[8:08] Instagram for Android has just been less
[8:10] reliable and lower quality than iPhone.
[8:13] It's one of the reasons I first switched
[8:14] away to Apple like 6 years ago. Now,
[8:17] Google is boldly claiming if you use a
[8:20] premium Android device, you're about to
[8:23] get at least as good, if not better
[8:25] looking shots than on an iPhone. They're
[8:27] saying that they've optimized the
[8:28] capture to upload pipeline so that your
[8:30] photos and videos lose as little quality
[8:32] as possible when posting them. And that
[8:34] even if you shoot directly within the
[8:36] Insta app, you'll actually get ultra
[8:38] high dynamic range processing, full
[8:40] working night mode, and built-in video
[8:42] stabilization. How it's taken them till
[8:44] 2026 to do this, I have no idea. But
[8:48] this could be great. I say could because
[8:50] we've heard this whole we fixed
[8:52] Instagram sentiment quite a lot,
[8:54] especially from Samsung over the years.
[8:56] But I do feel a little more confident
[8:57] because this is Google themselves saying
[8:59] that they're fixing this on a base
[9:01] Android level as opposed to other
[9:03] companies whose software sits on top and
[9:05] who probably have more limited control.
[9:08] And you might know that Instagram also
[9:09] has their own edits app too. Well, it's
[9:12] pretty cool that with Android 17, you'll
[9:14] now be able to use your phone's native
[9:16] AI to power features within that app.
[9:19] So, like one tap to straight up enhance
[9:21] photos and videos. I'm hoping this can
[9:23] actually upgrade the resolution as
[9:25] opposed to just making things look
[9:27] artificially bright and sharp, though.
[9:29] Or do you know how phones now have this
[9:30] audio eraser feature to understand the
[9:33] different sound sources in a video
[9:35] you've taken so that you can turn down,
[9:37] let's say, the wind noise specifically?
[9:39] Well, you can now use that capability,
[9:41] but within Instagram's editor, so
[9:43] automatically splitting up each audio
[9:45] track into the individual stems that
[9:47] made up that track. Whoever's making
[9:49] these decisions at Google, I think they
[9:51] got their head in the right place. And
[9:52] while they were doing all this, they've
[9:54] also decided to remake all the emoji on
[9:56] Android, literally all 4,000 of them,
[9:59] into 3D. But, okay, my favorite part of
[10:02] this new Android, though, is pause
[10:04] point. You can tell that this year
[10:06] specifically, Google's really looked at
[10:08] what else is out there and thought, how
[10:10] do we bring this into Android itself,
[10:12] like the new Rambler feature is very
[10:14] similar to a lot of the new AI dictation
[10:16] apps that have been popping up. Create
[10:18] my widget very inspired by nothing's
[10:21] essential apps feature. And pauseoint is
[10:24] functionally identical to an app called
[10:26] One sec that I've been paying like $20 a
[10:29] year for. The idea is you just set up a
[10:31] few apps that you find distracting and
[10:33] the next time you try and open those
[10:34] apps, it will ask you to stop and
[10:36] breathe for 10 seconds. Sounds silly,
[10:38] but it's incredible. That 10 seconds
[10:40] gives you a chance to decide either you
[10:42] didn't really need to use the app and
[10:44] you close it, that you actually should
[10:46] instead be doing something more useful,
[10:48] in which case you can get it to redirect
[10:50] you to say your meditation app or three
[10:53] that you really did need to use the app
[10:54] in question and you proceed. I found by
[10:57] using one sec that even just triggering
[10:59] that thought means you're probably going
[11:01] to be a bit more purposeful about your
[11:03] use of this app instead of just
[11:05] mindlessly doom scrolling before your
[11:06] brains even realize what's happening. I
[11:08] do feel bad for the one set company.
[11:10] They specifically say on their site
[11:12] we're a small independent team. We're
[11:14] not affiliated with big corporations
[11:16] which makes me think that Google didn't
[11:18] exactly buy them or ask permission to
[11:20] take their feature. But ultimately this
[11:22] is still probably good for users. like
[11:24] everyone's going to get the feature. You
[11:25] get it for free and because it's now
[11:27] baked into Android, it's going to feel a
[11:30] little slicker to use, too. Now, here's
[11:32] what was really not on my bingo card
[11:34] today. Android Auto actually being the
[11:37] star of the entire show. Because I mean,
[11:39] for starters, all the new Android and
[11:41] Gemini intelligence features, if you
[11:43] have them on your phone, you get them on
[11:45] your car, too. And if you think about
[11:47] it, the car while you're completely
[11:49] occupied is where it's most important to
[11:52] have an assistant that can do things for
[11:54] you. Like if you're on your way home,
[11:56] being able to just say, "Order me my
[11:58] usual food from Door Dash." And within 5
[12:00] seconds, your car is on the checkout
[12:02] page waiting on you to confirm. That
[12:04] feels very much like the future. And if
[12:07] Apple doesn't very quickly pull Siri out
[12:09] of whatever Certino basement she's been
[12:12] chained up in since like 2014, I think
[12:14] it's going to make the gap between these
[12:16] assistants too wide to ignore. And
[12:18] that's just the start. Google Maps is
[12:20] now about to have immersive 3D
[12:22] navigation. The idea is that your view
[12:24] looking at the map will more closely
[12:26] match your view looking out the actual
[12:28] window. You'll be able to see the same
[12:30] buildings, the overpasses, and it should
[12:32] be able to better highlight which lane
[12:34] you need to be in. This is a million
[12:36] miles more intuitive to me than trying
[12:38] to squint at these things and then
[12:40] translate them to the road in front of
[12:41] you in the split second before you
[12:43] approach a motorway roundabout. And then
[12:45] they're saying that this new lane
[12:46] tracking will be particularly accurate
[12:49] on cars that support Gemini builtin. So
[12:52] again, this is one of those unsupported
[12:54] models business, but if you have a car
[12:56] that gets this support, then you're
[12:58] going to get the extra benefits of
[13:00] Gemini actually being trained on your
[13:02] car's hardware, which means that Google
[13:05] can use the live feed from your car's
[13:07] front-facing camera to know for sure
[13:09] what lane you're currently in. Plus,
[13:11] also, you can then ask Gemini, if I go
[13:13] and buy this TV from Samsung, will it
[13:15] fit in my trunk? and it will be able to
[13:18] answer with an awareness of the car's
[13:20] exact dimensions. Or I'm imagining this
[13:22] also means you could ask things like,
[13:24] "Remind me, how do I turn on my cruise
[13:26] control?" And it would be able to
[13:28] reference the manual and tell you
[13:30] specifically what the button looks like.
[13:31] The software should also look a little
[13:33] jazzier. Google saying the new Android
[13:35] Auto will adapt to all the weird and
[13:38] wonderful shapes of infotainment systems
[13:39] we've been seeing lately. that they've
[13:41] updated the way that individual apps
[13:43] look, and that your car will now get the
[13:45] same fonts, the same wallpapers, and the
[13:47] same smoother animations that the phones
[13:49] are now getting. Plus, widgets on the
[13:51] side, like a quick dialer for your most
[13:54] frequent contact, or a button to open
[13:56] your garage door as you're pulling up.
[13:57] kind of feels like my birthday because
[13:59] then for the first time ever, Google is
[14:01] officially supporting watching videos in
[14:04] your car at 1080p 60 frames pers,
[14:07] assuming your infotainment system
[14:08] supports that with Dolby Atmos audio.
[14:11] So, if you did tell your wife her food
[14:13] was dry, at least now you can get a high
[14:16] quality movie night for one out of it.
[14:18] And then to stop you trying to watch
[14:20] Fast and Furious while you become Fast
[14:23] and Furious, the videos will minimize
[14:25] and play just audio as soon as you start
[14:27] driving. What a clever little feature.
[14:30] It does also need you to have YouTube
[14:31] Premium cuz that's what enables
[14:33] background play. So again, you can see
[14:36] what Google gets out of all of this. But
[14:38] then they surprised us all by revealing
[14:40] an entirely new type of laptop, too. Not
[14:43] a Chromebook, not a Windows, a Google
[14:46] book. It's not actually super clear
[14:48] right now what operating system this is
[14:50] running, but they've got the tagline
[14:52] intelligence is the new spec, which um
[14:54] I've actually got a great video all
[14:56] about invented specs like intelligence,
[14:59] but basically this is them saying we
[15:02] won't be competing on actual measurable
[15:04] specs. The impression I get is that
[15:06] these Google books are not about to be a
[15:09] competitor to a top-end MacBook Pro for
[15:11] someone who wants to edit and render
[15:13] iMac movies on their couch. I mean, come
[15:15] to think of it, ultra high-end
[15:17] performance is just not what Google does
[15:19] with any of their products, really, is
[15:20] it? But I still think it will be a
[15:22] somewhat premium set of machines that
[15:24] leans heavily on AI, which is why they
[15:27] have re-imagined the cursor. Now, you
[15:29] can wiggle it, which will put it into AI
[15:31] mode and let you do smart things like
[15:34] you select a bunch of images and AI will
[15:36] fuse them together in front of you.
[15:38] They're saying that every Google book,
[15:39] doesn't matter which company
[15:41] manufactures it, is going to have this
[15:42] multicolored light strip, which I assume
[15:45] is its way of indicating that it's doing
[15:48] intelligence. Plus, some of the new
[15:50] features from Android are also getting
[15:52] carried over, like you can generate your
[15:54] own widgets on Google Book. And this
[15:56] looks like by far the most seamless way
[15:59] I've seen to access your phone and open
[16:01] apps from it directly without needing to
[16:03] pick the thing up. with probably the
[16:05] coolest thing being that your Android
[16:07] phone storage can become accessible on
[16:09] your Google book as if it were part of
[16:12] the Google book storage. So transferring
[16:14] something from your phone to your Google
[16:16] book would just be go into one folder
[16:19] and pull that file into another. Past
[16:21] experience tells us that there is a
[16:23] broad range for how terrible or great
[16:26] this could end up being. But as far as
[16:28] I'm concerned, if Google can make sure
[16:30] that Google Books get close to the build
[16:32] quality and the trackpad quality of the
[16:34] MacBook, then I would genuinely consider
[16:37] a full-on jump from the Apple ecosystem.
[16:40] I mean, I spend 98% of my time on it on
[16:44] Google Docs anyways. And so looking at
[16:46] all of this Google stuff together, while
[16:48] not everything is coming soon and not
[16:50] everything is coming to everyone, I am
[16:52] really happy that they seem laser
[16:54] focused on this mission of reducing
[16:57] boring admin. And I want that more than
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