Google CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off today's keynote event by emphasizing the company's shift in focus from "mobile first" to "AI first", and saying it wants to create a personal Google for each user. The company demonstrated the fruit of its efforts earlier this year by giving us a taste of its Assistant bot in its Allo messaging app. Pichai said for Assistant to be truly helpful, it needs to be available universally, and so the company today showed how it will be bringing the helper to phones and homes. Hardware chief Rick Osterloh detailed how the company is working on hardware built around Google Assistant, starting with the new Pixel phone. Google Assistant starts listening on the new Pixel phones when you hold down on the Home button (similar to how you'd activate Google Now before), or when you say the hotword ("Ok Google"). In a demonstration, Google Assistant brought up (and rattled off) a list of events from the Hearst Greek Theatre in response to a query about happenings there.

During its hardware-announcing extravaganza Google announced that its voice-powered assistant/Bluetooth speaker Google Home will cost 129 and will ship on November 4th. It's the stationary piece of Google's AI plans to make the platform all about you. "The goal is to build a personal Google for each and every user," CEO Sundar Pichai said. Like the Amazon Alexa platform, the voice-activated Google Home assistant will control connected home devices. But it also acts as a Chromecast that can stream and be used to control other Google casting devices with your voice.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai proclaimed Tuesday that we're evolving from a mobile-first world to an "AI-first world" -- and, of course, that Google is going to be at the forefront of that evolution. But to do that, Google is investing heavily in mobile -- specifically, smartphones. The tech giant introduced two new phones, the 5-inch Pixel and the 5.5-inch Pixel XL, at a San Francisco keynote event. The phones boast a camera that Google said earned a top rating for a smartphone camera, an unlimited amount of online photo storage, and a battery that gives you seven hours of battery life from just 15 minutes of charging. The new Pixel phones carry branding that identify them as "Phone by Google," which is a departure from the old Nexus "partner" branding but a crucial turn in what the company is trying to do: owning the phones as its own.

Google has announced its new Pixel and Pixel XL phones, as expected, which will be powered by Google's new Google Assistant. Google launched the Pixel in both a standard as well as a jumbo size, the Pixel XL. But the 5-inch Pixel and 5.5-inch Pixel XL aren't noteworthy because of their hardware, but because of the software and services attached to them: not only will users be able to launch the interactive Google Assistant from their home buttons, but the phones will come with an unlimited amount of cloud storage for photos and videos at original quality --even 4K!--compliments of Google. The Pixel will cost 649 (or 27 per month) exclusively from Verizon. Google didn't provide a price for the Pixel XL.

It's fitting, in a way, that Google's new Pixel phone resembles the iPhone. Apple's world-changing gadget is the very device Google is aiming for with. The 5-inch Pixel and 5.5-inch Pixel XL are meant to be the best, most powerful, most unified Android phones ever. They have best-in-class specs, best-in-class design, best-in-class everything. And for the first time, Google seems to want you to buy one.

First detailed at Google's developer conference in May, Google Home is a capable, sleekly designed voice-controlled speaker that's presents the first real challenge to the Amazon Echo. Now, you can officially order one. Home goes on pre-order today for 129, and will ship November 4. And while Echo has a significant head start, Home makes a pretty compelling case for earning a spot in your kitchen or bedroom come November. It's got a more elegant design, for one. You'll be able to choose between different brightly colored bases, from purple to light blue to gray.

Later this week, Google is expected to unveil a bevy of new products: phones, a smart home hub, a Wi-Fi router and possibly more. It's all stuff you can touch and pick up -- objects made of atoms. But don't let the hype around the new hardware fool you. As is almost everything Google does, this is firmly about code. Think of hardware, whether it's the rumored Pixel phone or the previously unveiled Google Home speaker, as the physical gateway into the company's software, which can't exist on its own.

Last weekend, I saw my first Christmas ad. And what a Smart Christmas it will be, judging by the haul on offer. Over the past year, companies have been teasing the various connected must-haves for the holidays: bots that can respond to kids' questions and movements, and capture audio and video; an imitation smartwatch that chats with other devices over Bluetooth; not to mention the Barbie Hello Dreamhouse, a pink-and-white smart house for the iconic doll. Not everyone is excited about the intelligence creeping into kids' toys. Privacy activists and developmental psychologists have objected on grounds ranging from security and privacy to fundamental worries about the nature of play.

Google, ubiquitous in internet search but trailing in consumer hardware, is expected Tuesday to reveal details of its latest efforts to infuse smarts into more of its product offerings. The Alphabet Inc. GOOGL 0.22 % unit aims to integrate its work in artificial intelligence, which allows software to make inferences and decisions, to make products more useful with voice commands that may represent the next step in search. The Mountain View, Calif., company foreshadowed its strategy in May when it announced a device called Home to rival the Echo speaker, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.43 % 's surprise hit that allows users to ask a virtual assistant named Alexa questions and to perform tasks. Home, a voice-controlled speaker, will be powered by what the company calls Google assistant.

After all, consider that bees' markings are instantly distinctive to each other and across species as a biological imperative. The idea of the brand goes from optimistic (bees were a brand, man!) Will we ever start to see distinct, convincing personalities emerge as brands--or at least a few decent archetypes? Because right now, I don't think that most of us could really distinguish a Siri response from a Cortana response from an Alexa response, beyond the specific voice.