This week, Google took to the cavernous stages at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn and put on a real show for its Pixel lineup. I’ve been to countless product launch events, and they’re always a firehose of information that are usually pretty light on entertainment. Google, though, took a different tack, putting a late-night TV host in charge (Jimmy Fallon) and breezing through specs and specifics to highlight eye-popping updates like live voice translation (using your voice), an in-phone camera coach, ‘MagSafe for Android’, and basketballer Stephen Curry as a new… er… fitness something. At least the hour-plus presentation kept us awake.
AI was, of course, a big part of the Pixel presentation, and it was a rare occasion on which Google’s Gemini overtook OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the attention sphere for a day or two. It was temporary, though, as we marveled at GPT-5’s startling ability to admit that it… does… not… know… something. So maybe that means no more hallucinating (or at least less), and more human-like fallibility.
As summer comes to an end we’re already turning our attention to September, and Apple’s next big product event. The iPhone 17 lineup reveal will answer all our questions (and end all the rumors). Will the iPhone 17 Air really be that thin? Is the Camera Control Button already on its way out? My biggest question now is whether Apple will try to match Google on the entertainment front during the event.
Speaking of entertainment, this has been a huge week for gaming, with Gamescom 2025 delivering some incredible reveals. We finally have a Hollow Knight: Silksong release date, and we got our first good look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and lots of more. Major hardware brands like Sony also took the chance to roll out new hardware for PC and console gamers alike.
In the lean-back entertainment space, Peacemaker season 2 is finally here. It’s one of our favorite unhinged superhero series, and I’ll be watching specifically for the return of Eagly.
Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large
