🐫 Happy hump day! Today we’ve got some great stuff for Google Pixel fans, with both the Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro emerging for the first time with detailed render leaks. It’s still early, but I’m already considering picking up a Pixel 8 for one very unique feature… more on that in a minute.

The Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro bare all

Coming hot on the heels of the Pixel 7a leaks yesterday, we’ve now got fresh renders of both of Google’s 2023 flagships courtesy of serial leaker OnLeaks. The phones aren’t expected to be revealed until Google I/O in a few months’ time and a proper launch usually takes place in October, but this little preview does show some promise for the Pixel 8 series.

• Starting with the standard Pixel 8, the design is very similar to the Pixel 7. Check out the rest of the renders and 360 video here.
• It has two camera lenses, which likely means the telephoto lens will once again be exclusive to the Pro version.
• For me, the most exciting thing about this phone is its screen size — 5.8 inches.
• That’s much smaller than the Pixel 7 (6.3-inches), the Pixel 6a (6.1-inches), and it’s even smaller than our current top pick for the best small phone, the Asus Zenfone 9 (5.9-inches).
• Meanwhile, the Asus Zenfone 10 is looking to jump up to 6.3-inches. Yeesh.
• The Pro model should also look familiar to anyone with a Pixel 7 Pro. Check out all of the Pixel 8 Pro renders here.
• Perhaps the biggest change is to the camera bar. The three camera lenses are now grouped into a single oval-shaped cutout.
• There’s also a mysterious sensor beneath the flash, which could be a depth sensor like a 3D ToF camera or something different altogether.
• It also appears that Google will drop the curved display, instead opting for a flat panel that’s slightly smaller (6.52-inches).
• Both phones now feature curved corners, which partially accounts for the reduction in screen size.
• The pinhole selfie camera is in the same position in the top middle of the screen.
• Things are looking good so far, but Google’s phones have always been more about software smarts than hardware or design.
• Time will tell whether the cameras are top performers and if the latest Tensor chip can build on the strengths of the Tensor G2.

Roundup

📅 Speaking of Google, the Pixel Fold and Pixel 7a launch date may have just been revealed by a rogue retailer listing (Android Authority).

📱 Need a new budget hero? Samsung debuts the Galaxy A54 5G and A34 5G (Android Authority).

🔋 The test results are in: You really don’t need that Google Pixel 7 30W fast charger (Android Authority).

🤔 Fitbit is giving non-Premium users some Premium features, including access to your own data (…?) (Android Authority).

🌖 Do Galaxy phones take fake Moon photos? Here’s what Samsung says (Android Authority).

🎥 Watch this short action film shot on a Galaxy S23 Ultra (plus thousands of dollars of accessories) (Android Authority).

🤖 OpenAI announces GPT-4 — the next generation of its AI language model. However, it’s still prone to just making things up (The Verge).

📄 Similarly, Google announced AI features in Gmail, Docs, and more (The Verge).

💰 It’s not all good news though, as Google Workspace will now cost 20% more on the monthly plan (Ars Technica).

😵 Reddit was down for hours yesterday, no matter how many times you tried to refresh (TechCrunch).

🪪 Worried about online security? You should be: “It took a TikToker barely 30 minutes to doxx me” (Engadget).

Wednesday Weird

The Chernobyl nuclear meltdown was one of the most devastating disasters in modern history, prompting locals to abandon the area, leaving their belongings (and in many cases, their pets) behind. Surprisingly, those animals have survived and even thrived in the harsh conditions, as revealed by a new DNA study of more than 500 dogs in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Without getting into the weeds, researchers found that these feral pets showed “outlier genetic shifts, especially involving genes that aid in DNA repair, immune response, and other processes that might be associated with exposures from the meltdown fallout.” Scientists are still studying these unique dogs to better understand how the exposure has affected the local population, but as far as I understand none of them have developed super powers (…yet).

Woof,
Nick Fernandez, Editor.