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This week’s top stories: Google Camera 7.1, Pixelbook Go hands-on, and more

Kyle Bradshaw | Oct 12 2019 - 8:30 am PT

In this week’s top stories: Google Camera 7.1 leaks out revealing some more Pixel 4 features, our Stephen Hall gets some hands-on time with a Google Pixelbook Go prototype, Android 10 receives its first security patch, and more.

The biggest news this week is the appearance of Google Camera 7.1, which includes a variety of new features and adjustments for all Pixel phones, not just the Google Pixel 4. The most interesting of these is Social Share, a handy way to quickly share your most recently taken photo to your favorite social media apps.

“Photobooth” is no longer a dedicated mode under the “More” tab. Instead, using the front-facing camera and sliding down for timer reveals a new “Auto” option alongside Off, 3, and 10 seconds. The shutter button changes to the same star icon used by the Google Clips-inspired feature before.

A deeper teardown of Google Camera 7.1 and its Wear OS companion app also revealed that the Pixel 4 can save depth information when taking photos and may have the ability to recognize and put special focus on people you take more pictures of.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on Google Camera 7.1, you won’t have to wait, as we’ve made it available for download.

On the Chrome OS side of Made by Google news, our Stephen Hall briefly obtained a prototype Google Pixelbook Go from a source. This allowed us to offer an extensive look at the Pixelbook Go’s hardware design, revealing far more of the device than past leaks had provided. The standout trait of the Pixelbook Go is its ribbed underside, which features a bold shade of coral.

How does this bottom actually feel? Well, it’s really weird for a laptop. But it’s also good. You can probably get a sense of it by looking at the images below, but it’s a ribbed texture that feels somewhat similar to a washboard or the roof of a dog’s mouth. The coral-esque color fits in perfectly with the “Not Pink” aesthetic of the Pixel 3, and I have a feeling it will look right at home next to the Oh So Orange Pixel 4 as well.

Be sure to check out the full gallery!

Google released Android 10 into the wild last month for Pixel phones, and now almost exactly one month later, the October 2019 security patch has released. With it, Google has included the first software patch for Pixel phones on Android 10. Our Abner Li walked through all of the various changes, but the one you should be most excited about is “Gesture navigation stability improvements.”

Categorized under UI, this should improve the new way to navigate around Android 10 by just swiping on the bottom white strip. Despite the beta period, it’s easy to come across bugs in the stable release, even when using older navigation methods like 2-button.

Finally, the Pixel 4 has gotten its specs and features leaked yet again, this time by Best Buy Canada. The retailer has put up a new landing and pre-order page, with significantly more detail than their US counterpart offered. The page shows the phone’s full spec sheet, though with no reference to the Pixel Neural Core, along with new marketing images.

This Pixel 4 specs leak by Best Buy will likely be removed, but customers this evening are able to place a CAD$50 deposit to reserve a unit at a local store from six different carriers. The Canadian retailer offers Just Black and Clearly White, but not Oh So Orange. While the full price is not listed here, details have previously leaked.