Google CEO Sundar Pichai talks about the Google Assistant, which will power the company's new line of smartphones and a voice-activated speaker. Google CEO Sundar Pichai talks about the Google Assistant, which will power the company's new line of smartphones and a voice-activated speaker. Google's products are everywhere: maps, Gmail, the Chrome browser, the Chromecast video/audio system, the Android mobile operating system, YouTube, Waze. But the company has been far less successful at selling things rather than software. Earlier this year, Google scrapped the project to build a modular phone; its Nexus phones and tablets are laggards of the industry; and we'll never forget the crash-and-burn of Google Glass.

Google has unveiled its hotly-anticipated new Pixel smartphones, which are branded with the Google logo on the back. The new glass and aluminum phones come with Google Assistant included, a made-by-Google artificially-intelligent assistant that can do things like make dinner reservations through OpenTable. The devices come in two sizes, 5 and 5.5 inches, and are available immediately for pre-order, Google said. "While Pixel's beautiful, what really makes it come to life is how the hardware and software work together," Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of Google's hardware division, said at the San Francisco event, during which they heavily emphasized the importance of the Google Assistant. The Pixel phones will come in three colors, which Google calls "quite black," "very silver" and "really blue."

At its event today in San Francisco, Google introduced two brand new phones - the Pixel and Pixel XL, and Android 7.1 Nougat. Read on to find out more information on Google's Pixel and Pixel XL phones, Google Assistant, Google Home, Daydream View, Google Wi-Fi, Chromecast Ultra and more. Rick Osterloh, head of Google's new hardware division, introduced the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. Rick Osterloh, head of Google's new hardware division, introduced the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. "We're building hardware with the Google Assistant at its core," says Osterloh. " This is a natural step, and we're in it for the long run," he says, saying that we'll hear more about his team over the next few months.

OK Google, it's time to take aim at Alexa. Google has announced that consumers can now preorder its Google Home digital assistant for 129, with a ship date of November 4. First revealed at Google I/O in May, Google Home will compete with Amazon's surprisingly popular Echo product line for voice-activated control of the smart home. The price tag is attractive, and it has some features the Echo doesn't, but Google still has a lot of work to do to catch Amazon. Like the Echo, Google Home can recognize natural language and answer simple questions when it detects a "wake" word ("OK Google" for the Google Home, "Alexa" for the Echo). Google has a leg up on Amazon in this regard, as it arguably has the world's best search engine, and the company has been working on speech recognition for many years longer than Amazon.

Google Assistant, the search giant's new personal digital assistant, is barely available to users, but Google isn't wasting any time opening it up to developers. During the company's hardware event on Tuesday, Google announced two new developer programs to build Google Assistant into pretty much anything you can think of. "Going back to Google's earliest days we've always worked hard to create healthy open platforms," said Scott Huffman, who leads the Google Assistant engineering team. "The Google Assistant will be our next thriving open ecosystem." The first new program is called Actions on Google, which will launch in early December and allow app makers to build Google Assistant into their services.

Google had plenty to announce during its event on Tuesday, including the debut of two new smartphones, the introduction of its first virtual reality headset, and more details about its Home smart speaker. Google's new smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, are the first handsets to be designed and engineered in-house by the company. This is evident in the phone's design, which has a slicker, more premium glass and aluminum build than Google's previous Nexus phones. The Pixel devices are available in three colors and are available for preorder immediately. Google is flaunting the phones' improved camera and embedded intelligent assistant as their main draw. Google unveiled its smartphone virtual reality platform, Daydream, in May.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is betting on Google Assistant. SAN FRANCISCO -- The star of Google's splashy launch event in San Francisco was the one with the speaking part: The super-smart digital helper Assistant whose task is to maintain the Internet giant's tight grip on consumers and their wallets as their attention shifts to smartphones and Internet-connected devices. Assistant will create a "two-way conversation between our users and Google," CEO Sundar Pichai said at a splashy launch event in San Francisco. It's a major transition from the days of typing a query into the Google search engine, allowing the Internet giant to show lucrative ads.

Looking to drum up consumer excitement, the tech company hosted an event San Francisco on Tuesday to unveil a series of products, including two new phones, a virtual reality headset and the Chromecast Ultra. The flagship announcement was the introduction of Pixel, the first Google phone to carry exclusively Google branding. The company called it the "first phone made by Google inside and out." The device is poised to take on the iPhone with a built-in artificially intelligent assistant, 4K video and other bells and whistles. Here's a closer look at everything you need to know: Google (GOOG) announced a new Pixel line of phones -- the 5-inch Pixel ( 649) and 5.5-inch Pixel XL ( 769).

Google Home, Amazon Echo's rival, will be available on Nov. 4 for 129, which is less than the Echo, which sells for 179. CEO Sundar Pichai said during its hardware event that "the goal is to build a personal Google for each and every user." Google Home works just like the Echo. It has built-in microphones that can listen to voice commands, can control smart home devices, play your favorite music and answer any questions you have using the "OK, Google" voice command. Compared to Amazon's Echo, Google Home is touch-sensitive and can be used to change the volume or play music that is playing.

At Google's hardware launch event in San Francisco today, the company unveiled a new version of its Chromecast streaming dongle. Called the Chromecast Ultra, the newest variation of the gadget can stream 4K video--a very high resolution video that is becoming increasingly more mainstream. The product will be available in Nov. for U.S. consumers and will retail at almost double the price of the preceding model at 69. For those who do not own a 4K TV, there's a reason to buy the new streaming device: speed. According to Google, the Chromecast Ultra is 1.8 times faster than the company's previous streaming devices due to improved Wi-Fi connectivity.