At its hardware launch event in San Francisco yesterday, Alphabet showed the sweeping breadth of its ambition to own consumers' personal data, as computing continues to accelerate away from static desktops and screens, coalescing into a cloud of connected devices with the potential to generate far more data -- and data of a far more intimate nature -- than ever before. Along with two new'Google designed' flagship Android smartphones (called Pixel), the first Androids to be preloaded with the company's AI assistant (the Google Assistant), and also including fully unlimited cloud storage to suck users' photos and videos into Google's cloud; there were Google Wifi routers, designed to be bought in bundles to plug all those pesky in-home Internet blackspots; the Google Home always listening connected speaker, which is voice controlled via the Google Assistant and has limited support for third party IoT devices (such as Philips Hue lightbulbs); an updated Chromecast (the Ultra) to ensure any legacy TV panels are Internet-enabled; and Google's less disposable mobile VR play, aka the soft-touch Daydream View headset -- just in case consumer eyeballs seek to stray outside the data-mined smart home by escaping into virtual reality. The scope of Alphabet's ambition for the Google brand is clear: it wants Google's information organizing brain to be embedded right at the domestic center -- i.e. In other words, your daily business is Google's business. "We're moving from a mobile-first world to an AI-first world," said CEO Sundar Pichai kicking off yesterday's event.

Wall Street was impressed by Tuesday's big Google event, which unveiled new hardware like the Pixel phone and the Google Home device, and launched the company's new artificial intelligence-powered Assistant onto several new devices. The company's stock has remained stable since then -- it's up slightly, about 0.46% as of 10 a.m. Wednesday -- but analysts say the new products are a good sign for Google, despite the fact that Google appears to be following in the footsteps of other more accomplished hardware companies like Apple and Amazon. Macquarie remains bullish on Google, affirming its "outperform" rating and setting a price target of 975. It describes Google's new products as "me too" -- meaning it's showing up to the game a bit late, after Apple has already mastered the smartphone and Amazon has dominated the AI-powered device market with Alexa and the Echo.

It was a bit surprising, on Tuesday morning, to see Google's C.E.O., Sundar Pichai, stride onstage in San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square and start talking about the quality of Google's software and the information it brings to people. The event had been billed as a presentation of new hardware devices; some were even describing it as the most significant event of its kind that Google had ever held. And yet, there was Pichai, going on about how Google's software allows people to connect with "over seventy billion facts about people, places, and things." Only at the end of this speech did he get to a hardware-related point: all this impressive software would be embedded in Google's new devices. Google is in the middle of an awkward transition.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Google has long been the king of search, building its empire by answering questions, giving directions and helping people settle arguments with its vast database of facts. But as more people search using their voice -- verbally asking questions to Apple's Siri or Amazon Echo's Alexa -- instead of typing queries into their phones or laptops, the tech giant risks ceding some of that dominance. To future-proof itself from competitors, the Mountain View, Calif., tech firm announced Tuesday a new slate of electronic devices that support voice search and come pre-installed with Google Assistant, the company's artificial intelligence bot that can do a wide variety of things, including answering queries and making restaurant reservations. "[Google Assistant] will be a two-way conversation, a natural dialogue between our users and Google," said Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive. "It will be universal, available when users need it to help them. Our goal is to build a personal Google for each and every user."

Today, Google announced a plethora of new hardware. Just now, at the event, I got to spend a little bit of hands-on time with the Pixel Phones, Google Home, and the Daydream VR viewer. The first thing I noticed when I started playing with the Pixel Phone is that it's fast. I didn't experience anything resembling lag, no matter how many apps I opened. Google is claiming that the Pixel has the best smartphone camera ever.

In an effort to reflect consumers growing dependency on customized mobile interactions, Google s new branded smartphone, Pixel, contains a fully integrated artificial intelligence assistant alongside complete virtual reality compatibility. During the live stream of yesterday s product unveiling event, Google lifted the curtain on its newest machine learning and AI capabilities, revealing its answer to Apple s virtual assistant, Siri, as well as its latest offering into the smart home device space. The search giant s executives highlighted the world s ongoing shift from being mobile-first to AI-first, signaling that other heavyweights in the consumer technology sector including Apple and Amazon could face stark competition from Google in this respect. We re at a seminal moment in computing, said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, during yesterday s live stream. Our goal is to build a personal Google for each and every user.

Humans have so far failed to keep up with the scale and sophistication of cyber attacks -- so security companies are now starting to put their faith in artificial intelligence to protect networks from hackers. From Apple to Twitter, tech companies are snapping up artificial intelligence start-ups and using the technology to do everything from predicting customer behaviour to interacting with users via virtual personal assistants. For security companies, the growth of more sophisticated artificial intelligence promises the opportunity to catch up with hackers, who experts say have the upper hand. For example, as the industry struggles to find qualified engineers, many companies are turning to artificial intelligence to supplement their workforces. Tomer Weingarten, chief executive at security software provider SentinelOne, says cyber security is one of artificial intelligence's most promising applications. "It can look at all the behaviours and interactions that happen on a given machine, the malware [cyber attack software], what happens when someone is attacking you, to learn what'badness' looks like, how an attacker behaves and what they will do once they try to compromise the device," he says.

"Amy" saves entrepreneur Gillian Morris about 43 productive hours a year. Morris, the founder of Hitlist, a travel app that alerts users to cheap flights, has been using Amy, a virtual assistant from x.ai for about two years, to schedule meetings. To ask for Amy's help, Morris sends an email to the person or people she wants to meet with and copies Amy. From there, Amy takes Morris out of the email chain and handles the back and forth about dates and times. Morris estimates Amy schedules about 10 meetings for her a week, and spares her from having to read or respond to any related emails herself.

Google ratcheted up its rivalry with Apple and Amazon by unveiling new smartphones, an internet-connected speaker that channels a digital assistant, and other gadgets the company hopes to make indispensable. The devices announced Tuesday are part of Google's bold move to design and sell its own hardware, instead of just supplying Android and other software for other companies to make products. Google's previous attempts at hardware have had limited distribution and included such high-profile flops as its internet-connected Glass headgear. This time around, Google is betting that it can design software and hardware to work seamlessly with each other. That's an art Apple mastered over the past 15 years as it turned out finely crafted iPods, iPhones, iPads and Macs.