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.

Google's latest phone is feature-rich, with new AI built-in, more storage and a better HD camera. It can be difficult to tell when you're standing in the midst of a landmark moment in history. Few guessed, for instance, that in 2008 when Google debuted the G1, the first phone to run Android, the mobile software would end up transforming the wireless world. It didn't help that when Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin went up on stage, they did so wearing roller blades. Page and Brin are probably laughing their inline skates off these days.

With an aim to lead the world of smartphones with its artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology, Google on Tuesday launched much-awaited Pixel -- a new premium device completely designed by the tech giant with Google Assistant built right-in -- at a special event here. Don't Miss: Black Friday 2016: Everything You Need to Know Now The launch also ended the Nexus branding under which the company has always released phones in partnership with other original equipment manufacturers like LG (for Google Nexus 5) and Huawei (for Google Nexus 6P). Although HTC has manufactured the smartphones, the new device bears Google branding. With curved sculpted edges and a unibody made up of combination of aerospace grade aluminum and glass, the device comes in two sizes -- 5 and 5.5-inch with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protected super AMOLED display. Pixel is available in two -- quite black and very silver colors in India.

Okay Google, how much does the Google Home smart speaker cost? Available for preorder on today and shipping on November 4, Google Home is an internet-connected speaker with a built-in virtual assistant. It can query the internet and make online purchases for you, in addition to talking interfacing with other smarthome devices like the Nest connected thermostat. Google announced the smart speaker and the virtual assistant that dwells inside in May at its annual developer event, I/O, but kept the key details under wraps until today. Google Home represents a direct competitor to Amazon's Alexa, which also serves as a voice-activated conduit to the internet.

Salesforce.com Inc. CRM 0.61 % said it would embed artificial intelligence technology into its software for salespeople, making it the latest in a gaggle of companies racing to enhance workplace tools with human-like abilities. The company will demonstrate the new software at its annual user conference next month in San Francisco. Called Einstein, the new offering is a set of online AI services designed to automate tasks, predict behavior and spotlight relevant information. Einstein is the latest in a long line of AI products branded with human-sounding names including Alexa from Amazon.com Inc., Cortana from Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.57 IBM -1.06 % IBM and Microsoft, in particular, have spearheaded a push to offer AI services aimed at corporate users.

Google Home, the company's answer to Amazon's Echo, made its official debut at the Google I/O developer conference earlier this year. Since then, we've heard very little about Google's voice-activated personal assistant. Today, at Google's annual hardware event, the company finally provided us with more details. Google Home will cost 129 (with a free six-month trial of YouTube red) and go on sale on Google's online store today. It will ship on November 4. Google's Mario Queiroz today argued that our homes are different from other environments.