Official Google Australia Blog

5 reasons why we love the new Chromecast

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

We launched our first Chromecast in 2013 with the aim to make it easy to get your favorite content right from your phone to your TV. With thousands of compatible apps to cast from, people are tapping the Cast button more than ever. And since Chromecast, the Made by Google family of products has continued to grow, bringing the best of hardware, software, and AI together. So for this 5th year of Chromecast, we wanted to share the top 5 reasons we’re excited about our newest Chromecast:

Fits right in. With a new design, Chromecast blends in with your decor and the rest of the Made by Google family.

Stream hands-free. Chromecast and Google Home work seamlessly together. Just say what you want to watch from compatible services, like YouTube or Netflix, and control your TV just by asking. Try, “Hey Google, play Lost in Space from Netflix.” (You’ll need a Netflix subscription to get started).

Picture perfect at 60fps. Our newest Chromecast supports streaming in 1080p at 60 frames per second, giving you a more lifelike image. So when you’re watching the game, it will feel even more like you’re there.

More than a screen, it’s a canvas. With Ambient Mode, you can personalize your TV with a constantly updating stream of the best and latest photos taken by you, your friends and your family from Google Photos. With new Live Albums from Google Photos, you can enjoy photos of people and pets you care about and skip blurry photos and duplicates- all without lifting a finger. New photos will show up automatically on your TV - no uploading hassles.

And still has an RRP of just $59. So it’s the perfect gift this upcoming holiday season for the streamer in your life.

The new Chromecast is available in Charcoal in Australia from the Google Store, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, The Good Guys, and other major retailers.

Keep on streaming!

PS - if you’re looking for the perfect companion for your 4K TV, check out Chromecast Ultra to stream in up to 4K UHD, HDR, and Dolby Vision.

Posted by Jess Bonner, Chromecast PM

Introducing Google Home Hub, Made by Google’s first display device

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Welcome to Google Home Hub—the newest member of the Google Home family, bringing you help at a glance. With the Google Assistant built in, you can use your voice to get the best of Google—Search, Calendar, Maps, YouTube, Google Photos and more–right on Hub’s display.
Thoughtfully designed for any room
The first thing you’ll notice about Hub is its beautiful design. We made this display to fit right into your home, and we hope you’ll consider it not just functional, but part of your decor. Its 7” screen is like a floating display, just the right size to fit on any surface and big enough to enjoy your photos from across the room. With soft rounded corners, Hub fits naturally on any surface. My favourite places are my kitchen counter and nightstand. Available in Chalk and Charcoal across partner retailers, and also in Aqua and Sand on the Google Store. We consciously decided to not include a camera on Google Home Hub, so you feel comfortable placing it in the private spaces of your home, like the bedroom. On the top of the device you’ll find the powerful Google Home Hub’s Ambient EQ light sensor. It allows the screen to automatically adjust to match the lighting in the room, so photos on Google Home Hub will blend in with the room, too. That means no glowing screen—it fits seamlessly into your home. When it's time for bed, Hub knows to dim the screen for a good night’s sleep.

Jumpstart your morning routine
I think I speak for most parents when I say mornings at home are hectic. From the time we wake up until we’re racing out the door, every minute counts. With Routines, Hub can provide you and your family with useful info about the day ahead. Just say “Hey Google, good morning” for a personalised, visual overview of family activities from Google Calendar, your commute from Google Maps, your latest reminders, the weather forecast, local news updates and more. And with Voice Match, up to six people can get their own personalised Routine. And I can get easy how-to help from YouTube videos: “Hey Google, how do you make cold-brew coffee?”
Simplify your connected home
The Google Assistant works with more than 5,000 devices worldwide, and 100+ home automation devices from more than 50 brands here in Australia—including Nest, TP-Link, Philips Hue and more. With Hub, everyone in the family can see and control your compatible devices from a single dashboard—no more switching between apps. Just swipe down to reveal your home view: dim your lights, turn up the volume on the TV, and see who is outside with your Nest Cam Outdoor. You can also broadcast messages through all connected speakers in your home, just say “Hey Google, broadcast dinner’s ready!” to round up the family. Relive the moment with Google Photos
Google Home Hub is also a photo frame, but not your average one: It's easy to set up, automatically refreshes the photos that are displayed, and features your best shots. With Live Albums, a new feature from Google Photos, I can relive recent memories with family and friends even while Hub is not in use. Google Photos will automatically add new photos of my son and our dog to my album, avoiding duplicates and blurry shots. I can even share our Live Album with my mum, so when she sets up her Google Home Hub, the photos of her grandson will be added to the live album automatically. Plus, you can say goodbye to endless scrolling on your phone to find the photo you’re looking for. Google Home Hub makes it easy: “Hey Google, show my pictures from the Grand Canyon,” and just like that, I'm taken back to my vacation.
Get hands-free help in the kitchen
My family spends a lot of time in our kitchen, and Google Home Hub helps us prepare recipes like top chefs. I can use my voice to browse millions of recipes and start cooking, all hands-free. We’ve teamed up with Woolworths, Genius Kitchen, Food Network and others to bring their fun, family-friendly recipe videos to Google Home Hub. Check out the Woolworths lamington recipe for a fun how-to recipe, it’s delicious! Hub helps you turn the music up, then wind down At my house, Fridays are family night—and sometimes that means a dance-off. Hub’s full-range speaker means a crisp, clear sound every time. With Hub, you can enjoy music from YouTube, Spotify, TuneIn Radio and other popular music services (you may need a subscription). Eligible customers activating Hub before December 31, 2018 can also get a six month trial of YouTube Premium on us, to enjoy not just YouTube Music, but all of YouTube ad-free (restrictions and terms apply).
When you’re ready for bed, just say, “Hey Google, good night” to set an alarm, turn off compatible lights and TVs and fall asleep to soothing music. You can use ready-made or custom Routines to create your own Routine with any of the Google Assistant’s one million actions, starting your routine with a phrase that feels best for you. For busy working parents like me, every day is hectic—so these features are truly game-changing when I have my hands full or I’m strapped for time.
I know you’ll love getting help and enjoying family time with Hub, just like my family. Google Home Hub’s RRP is $219. You can pre-order it today and buy it from October 23 at JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, The Good Guys, Optus, Vodafone and Google Store (colour availability will vary).Once you set up Hub, just say “Hey Google, what can you do” to get started. Posted by Diya Jolly, VP, Product Management, Google Home
1Compatible smart devices required.

Google Pixel 3. Make every day more extraordinary.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Today we’re introducing Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL, the new smartphones from Google. Pixel brings you the best of Google in a phone and is powered by AI to deliver more helpful, thoughtful, and enjoyable experiences. This means you can now enjoy a camera that uses AI to make sure you never miss the shot – and a more helpful visual and audio experience while charging, powered by the Google Assistant.
Here’s how the camera gets even better with Pixel 3:

Brilliant photos every time and super-charged selfies
We’re taking more photos on our phones than ever before, but we still often miss the perfect moment. Pixel 3 helps you get that perfect shot on the first try.

No selfie stick required: Get everyone in the picture with Group Selfie, which gives you up to 184% more room in your photo for friends and scenery.*

Capture smiles, not blinks: A feature we call Top Shot uses AI to help you capture the perfect photo every time. When you take a motion photo, it captures alternate shots in HDR+, then recommends the best one—even if it’s not exactly when you hit the shutter, looking for those where everyone is smiling, with eyes open, and facing the camera.

Get better zoom: When you zoom in on a phone camera, the image looks grainy. Super Res Zoom is a computational photography technique, traditionally used for astronomy and scientific imaging, that produces sharp details when you zoom.

No light; no problem: Pixel 3 lets you take natural-looking photos in dark surroundings, all without a flash. With Night Sight, you can take bright, detailed, colorful shots around the campfire, in a moonlit forest, or a selfie after you close out the bar (coming soon).

Look … no hands! Photobooth mode uses AI to recognise that when you’re smiling or making a funny expression, you’re ready for a selfie. It snaps the photo on its own so that you don’t need to reach for the shutter button—a good option for candids.

Even more stunning portraits, front and back: When you take photos in Portrait Mode, you can change the blurriness of the background, or change the part of the picture in focus, after the fact. Google Photos can also make the subject of your photo pop by leaving them in colour, while changing the background to black and white.

Create and play: In Playground, you can make photos, selfies, and videos come to life by adding your favourite superheroes, animated stickers, and fun captions. In celebration of Marvel Studios’ 10 Year Anniversary, you’ll enjoy seeing the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (exclusively on Pixel) react to each other and to you. New packs for Weather, Pets, Sports and Signs let you have everyday fun, and coming later this year, you'll be able to sharpen your dance skills with moves from Childish Gambino.

Super smooth video: When you want to capture something that won’t stop moving—think an adorable toddler or your new puppy—Motion Auto Focus will make sure your Pixel 3 camera stays in sharp focus automatically, as you record. And if you happen to be taking a selfie video while walking or moving around, Pixel 3 brings you front-facing video stabilisation.

Unlimited online storage for all of your photos and videosWith Pixel 3, you can save all your favourite moments with unlimited online photo and video storage.** It’s hassle-free, you don’t have to think about back-ups. Come back to Google Photos later and search for the beach photos you took on your Pixel 3, and they’ll pop right up. Your AI-powered sidekick The AI in Pixel 3 enables new features that make your day-to-day actions simpler and easier.
If you want to know more about something you’re looking at, use Google Lens, built right into the Pixel 3 camera. You can now long press in the Pixel 3 camera to easily invoke Lens to scan and translate text, find similar styles of clothing, or identify popular plants and animals. When you point your camera at information you want to remember or don’t feel like typing in—like a URL or QR code on a flyer or an email address on a business card—Google Lens suggests what to do next, like calling a number, going to the website, or creating a new contact.
You can count on even more help across other apps too, including Gmail’s Smart Compose, now available for mobile on Pixel 3. Smart Compose suggests phrases in your emails so that you can draft them faster, on the go. Gboard, the keyboard built into your Pixel 3, will recommend GIFs, stickers, and more, to make your conversations fun and engaging. Available first in English.
The Google Assistant is also baked into Pixel 3 to help you find answers and control your phone and compatible smart home devices—all with a simple squeeze or just by using your voice.*** Digital WellbeingOur phones, while probably the most important tech in our lives, shouldn’t control our lives. So Digital Wellbeing, a suite of tools to help you find your own balance with technology, is built into Pixel 3. It includes a dashboard to help you understand how you spend time on your phone, the ability to set time limits on specific apps, and a new Wind Down mode to help you get to sleep at night by gently transitioning your display to a grayscale screen. When you don’t want to be bothered by rings or notifications, just flip to Shhh— an easy gesture that turns on Do Not Disturb and minimises distractions. Fast and wireless chargingPixel 3 comes with an 18 Watt fast charger in the box, which can give you up to 7 hours of use in 15 minutes of charging.**** With our AI-powered Adaptive Battery technique, Pixel 3 prioritises battery power for your most important apps to help make your phone last all day.
Alongside Pixel 3, we’re also introducing Pixel Stand, our new, Qi compliant wireless charger (sold separately). While charging in the Pixel Stand, your phone turns into a smart visual and audio experience powered by the Google Assistant, similar to Google Home Hub. It answers your questions, plays music, helps you control smart home devices, transitions into a photo frame when idle, and much more. If you set an alarm, your screen will gently brighten over 15 minutes before your alarm goes off, mimicking the sunrise and helping you wake up naturally.
Pixel 3 is IP68 water and dust resistant and has a security chip custom-designed by Google called Titan M, making it the most secure phone we've built yet. Titan M enhances mobile security by protecting your unlock credentials, disk encryption, app data, and the integrity of the operating system code itself. Powered by Android 9 Pie, Pixel 3 comes with the latest Android operating system.
You can choose from two sizes - the 5.5” Pixel 3 and the 6.3” Pixel 3 XL - and three colours - Just Black, Clearly White, and Not Pink. Both have the exact same feature set and include a high quality Pixel USB-C earbuds and a USB-C Digital to 3.5 mm headphone adapter in the box. Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL come with dual front-firing speakers tuned by a GRAMMY®-winning music producer to turn your phone into a powerful speaker. Eligible customers who activate a Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL by December 31, 2018 can get a 6-month trial of YouTube Music Premium on us (restrictions and terms apply).
Pixel 3 will be available for pre-order today and on-shelf from November 1 at Optus, Telstra and Vodafone – as well as JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and the Google Store. Pixel 3 RRP starts at $1199, Pixel 3 XL RRP starts at $1349 and Pixel Stand RRP is $119. Posted by Mario Queiroz, GM & VP, Pixel
*Pixel 3 Group Selfie camera captures up to 184% more area of the scene than iPhone XS based on EXIF data from each camera. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc. registered in the US and other countries. Results may vary. **Free unlimited online original-quality storage for all photos and videos uploaded to Google Photos from Pixel 3 through 31/1/2022. Photos and videos uploaded before 31/1/2022 will remain free at original-quality. Requires Google Account. Data rates may apply. g.co/help/photostorage***Google Assistant and Google Lens require internet connection to use certain features.****Approximate battery life based on a mix of talk, data, standby and use of other features with always on display off and mobile hotspot off. An active display or data usage will decrease battery life. Charging rates are based on use of the included charger. Charging time performance statistics are approximate. Actual results may vary.

Ten big ideas to make an impact - vote now for the 2018 Google.org Impact Challenge

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

launchedthird Google.org Impact Challenge Australiafinalistsvote

vote panel of judges

g.co/australiachallengePosted by Anil Sabharwal, Vice President of Product, Google and Engineering Lead Google Australia

A tribute to teachers, who always seem to have the answers

Friday, October 5, 2018

return the favorGiving teachers the support they deserve announcing a new $3.5 million grant to CommonLita dedicated Teacher CenterDynamic Learning Projectdigital-use divideSparking and elevating teacher voices a new Educator Talks YouTube channelget involvedsubscribe to the channelnew YouTube playlistjoin us
Posted by Miriam Schneider, Google for Education team
* Originally posted on The Keyword