Google launches gaggle of phones, gadgets aimed at Apple, Samsung

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 yesterday 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 is betting that it can design software and hardware to work seamlessly with each other. That's an art Apple has mastered over the past 15 years as it turned out finely crafted iPods, iPhones, iPads and Macs. Google executives showed off a series of gadgets in rapid succession yesterday.