AR, VR and the Pixel 2: Google's Live Launch

The biggest announcements from Google’s Pixel event in San Francisco

• 1 Pixel 2 And Pixel 2 XL Smartphones

  

  The company announced the successors to its popular Pixel mobile devices. Both boast a 12.2-megapixel rear camera in the rear and a fixed-focus forward-facing 8-megapixel camera.

  Like Apple's new phones, you're not given a headphone jack (Google revealed its own wireless Pixel Buds headphones).

  The Pixel 2 XL has a bigger battery, and with a six-inch OLED screen (2880 x 1440 resolution) it has a larger viewing area than last year's. Both are available for pre-order now but become available on 19 October. The Verge reports that the Pixel 2 64GB will cost $649, while the Pixel 2 XL 64GB costs $849. The 128GB options will reportedly cost $749 and 949, respectively.

  
  

• 2 Google AR

  

  An hour into the event, Aparna Chennapragada, Director of Product and Engineering at Google spoke about ARCore.

  She demoed a new feature called AR Stickers that’s built into the Pixel 2’s camera and will be exclusive to the platform. The live demo showed characters from Netflix TV show, Stranger Things, which appeared and reacted to objects around them, including other stickers.

  Chennapragada explained that the Pixel 2’s camera has been calibrated for AR, enabling it to “bridge the physical and digital”.

  You can see the TechCrunch team trying out the Stranger Things AR experience here. Other brands available will include Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

  
  

• 3 New Daydream Choices

  

  When the Google Daydream View was first released, its smart fabric appearance turned a functional HMD device into an attractive piece of wearable tech.

  Although Google had announced a standalone non-smartphone headset earlier in the year, yesterday's update basically brought us three new colours and updated lenses to go with the Pixel 2. The price for the revised headset will be $99 and the three of them will formally be released on 19 October.

  There's more about Google's plan for its Pixel 2 range at the official page.