Welcome to today’s edition of our daily briefing. Quite a few things happened in the world of Android today including Google and HTC entering into a ‘definitive agreement’, Bose launching a Google Assistant-powered headphones, and more.
Google Buys HTC’s Pixel Team
After working together for years, Google has acquired HTC’s smartphone team for $1.1 billion with which it has been working closely on its Pixel smartphones. HTC will also continue to independently develop its own smartphones, with the company also focusing on Vive and other areas of interest like IoT and AI.
Bose QuietComfort 35 II with Google Assistant Announced
Bose today unveiled the QuietComfort 35 II, successor to its highly popular QuietComfort 35 headphones. The wireless headphones have support for Google Assistant, making it the first of its kind. There is a dedicated Google Assistant button on the headphone which one can press to bring up the voice assistant. All the usual Assistant commands like reading out our unread notifications, playing music etc. work like usual. The same Google Assistant button can also be used to tweak the noise-canceling level of the headphones.
The headphones offer up to 20 hours of battery life, with fast charge support adding 2.5 hours of juice to them in just 15 minutes. Priced at $349.95, the Bose QuietComfort 35 II will be available in silver and black colors.
➤ Bose
Android One Moto X4
The recently unveiled mid-range Moto X4 is coming to Project Fi in the US with an Android One branding. This makes it the first Android One handset to hit the US and the first non-Google handset to be available on Project Fi’s network. While the handset is currently running Android 7.1 Nougat, it will get the Oreo update before the end of this year.
Priced at $399 or $16.63/month, the Moto X4 can be pre-ordered through Project Fi’s website starting from today itself.
What do you think about Google bringing its Android One program to the US? Do you plan on buying the Bose QuietComfort 35 II with Google Assistant integration?
