Material

Andy is finally living the dream of stereo Google Home Mini nightstands, and Flo would appreciate it if you held back on the fire puns for a while. We'll talk about last week's Google employee town hall, WearOS's eventual resuscitation, and Google's neat Digital Wellbeing experiments.

• Pingdom: Start monitoring your website performance and availability today, and get instant alerts when an outage occurs or a site transaction fails. Use offer code MATERIAL to get 30% off.
• Linode: High-performance SSD Linux servers for all of your infrastructure needs. Get a $20 credit.
• Kensington: The Professionals Choice. Find the right docking solutions for your organization today.

• ~ 21:15: Google CEO, in a leaked video, says the company is ‘genuinely struggling’ with employee trust
• Buzzfeed News also received leaks about last week’s meeting
• ~ 45:50: Trump immigration shakeup lowers DHS morale (The episode goes deep this week!)
• ~ 54:35: The Moto 360 smartwatch is back... well, sort of
• Qualcomm is FINALLY working on a REAL update to the ancient CPU powering almost all previous WearOS watches
• Google owner Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit
• How Google buying Fitbit could be a win-win, even for Fitbit device owners (Correction: Kevin C. Tofel wrote this article for Stacey Higginbotham's website!)
• ~ 1:12:11: New Google “Digital Wellbeing” experiments include a paper phone

Next week will be a flurry of tech announcements, including the long-awaited and much-revealed Pixel 6 event. Will Google announce something else alongside the sixth-generation smartphone?

We'll also discuss why Google has decided to stop making its iOS apps look so much like Android. And then, why are so many Waymo self-driving cars in San Francisco getting stuck at the same dead-end street? (Spoiler: We still haven't figured it out.)

• Pingdom: Start monitoring your website performance and availability today, and get instant alerts when an outage occurs or a site transaction fails. Use offer code MATERIAL to get 30% off. Offer expires on January 31, 2022, and can be used only once.

• Galaxy Unpacked Part 2 – Samsung Global Newsroom
• Qualcomm throws all the shade at Google for the Pixel 6 Tensor chip
• Google says it’s dropping Material Design components on iOS in favor of Apple’s UIKit
• Dead-End SF Street Plagued With Confused Waymo Cars Trying To Turn Around 'Every 5 Minutes'

Flo's hosting this week, so there is lots of talk of reality television in the first half hour of this show (IT'S RELATED!). We're also hereby declaring the regressive holiday this podcast posts on as "Palentine's Day." It's a day to celebrate your friends and your podcast co-hosts.

After the break, we'll discuss whether companies like Google are responsible for government apps that violate human rights (it's the world we're living in folks), and why the company's augmented reality tricks are probably the future of marketing.

• Linode: High-performance SSD Linux servers for all of your infrastructure needs. Get a $20 credit.

• Critics call on Apple and Google to shut down Saudi government app that can restrict women's travel and intensify control and abuse
• Playmoji are way more fun than Apple's Animoji
• Would you use the Google Maps AR feature to find your way around town?
• Don't forget to check your password with Google's Password Checkup to make sure you're safe!

What's in store for Google and Android users in 2025? Plus, our in memorium for what Google killed in 2024.

• Everything Google Killed in 2024

We apologize for talking about the iPhone 16e this week, but is Apple trying to pass off a $600 device as "affordable?" Google would like a word.

• iPhone 16e
• Fingerprinting: Critics say Google rules put profits over privacy
• Google’s AI Efforts Marred by Turf Disputes