Last year, Google announced its new LLM called Gemini. There are several versions of Gemini, including Gemini Nano that is designed to run directly on mobile devices. It is basically an on-device AI versus the Pro and Ultra models that are run in the cloud. Unfortunately, it will not be making its way onto the Pixel 8.

Google announced towards the end of 2023 that Gemini Nano would be finding its way onto the Pixel 8 Pro. During The Android Show, a Google engineer from the Android generative AI team confirmed that Gemini Nano will not be coming to the Pixel 8 due to "hardware limitations". The company did reassure that they are working to bring Nano to more devices in the future, specifically "high-end" devices.

Based on that statement, this is bad news for Pixel 8 owners and owners of lower-end Android devices. In terms of specs, the Pixel 8 only differs from the Pixel 8 Pro in the RAM department. The Pixel 8 comes with 8GB of RAM while the Pro model comes with 12GB of RAM. Otherwise, both are powered by the same Tensor G3 chipset.

So, what are Pixel 8 owners missing out on? In this instance, they would be missing out on features like the Recorder's Summarize feature and Gboard Smart Reply. Hopefully Google will come up with a cloud-based alternative in the future, but for now, this is the situation we are in.

Google Maps is a great navigation tool. It's perfect for finding your way around a new city, navigating roads you're unfamiliar with, and so on. But generally speaking, it's only good in terms of "bigger picture". That could change soon as Google seems to be testing out a new Google Maps feature that shows building entrances.

We know that many of you have probably used Google Maps to find the location of a building. But when you get to the area, finding the entrance could become tricky. As spotted by Android Police, Google is testing a new feature that will show the entrances of a building on the map.

This means that when you get to a location and want to find out how to get in, all you need to do is zoom into Google Maps and you will see entrances and exits marked on the building. Google already has a similar feature for the public transit navigation that shows station exits and entrances, so it makes sense that they would apply this to other locations as well.

At the moment the feature isn't live yet for all users. It also isn't available for all locations yet. We imagine that Google might have to add these entrances and exits manually, so it could take a while. Either way, it's actually a pretty useful feature and we can't wait for it to roll out to the public.

As Mobile World Congress 2024 closes its doors for this year, we got to see GSMA once again give out its "Global Mobile Awards" for software and hardware products that have made significant strides and impacts in the industry - and yes, this includes smartphones.

As such, GSMA recently presented its "best smartphone" award of 2023 to the Google Pixel 8 series - this is on basis of "outstanding performance, innovation and leadership as determined through assessment of smartphones on the market during the period January 2023 to December 2023, by world leading independent analysts, journalists and influencers."

Other devices mentioned on the shortlist include the Apple iPhone 15 Pro series, OnePlus Open/OPPO Find N3, Samsung Galaxy S23 Devices, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. Google's Rick Osterloh likewise posted about the award on his official social media page.

Launched in October last year, the Pixel 8 features major upgrades especially within Google's base-model flagship phones, including a Google's Tensor G3 chipset, a smoother and brighter screen, new camera features, as well as new AI software features.

Just recently, Google and its Gemini software came under fire following complaints from users that the company's AI model was deliberately refusing to generate historically-accurate depictions of people based on ethnicity. Following the controversy, Gemini's ability to depict images of people was put on hold, followed by an official message from Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President at Google. Part of his post reads:

"Three weeks ago, we launched a new image generation feature for the Gemini conversational app (formerly known as Bard), which included the ability to create images of people."

"It's clear that this feature missed the mark. Some of the images generated are inaccurate or even offensive. We're grateful for users' feedback and are sorry the feature didn't work well."

"We've acknowledged the mistake and temporarily paused image generation of people in Gemini while we work on an improved version."

Raghavan adds that the Gemini team's tuning failed caused the model to become exceedingly cautious than expected, refusing to answer certain prompts and wrongly interpreting some as sensitive. These then resulted in the model to overcompensate in some cases, and be over-conservative in others, leading to erroneous results at times.

With all that said, Raghavan states that the situation was not what the folks over at Google intended, resulting in Gemini's human image generation feature being turned off, with the goal of improving it significantly before turning it back on with extensive testing.

The Google Pixel 7a has a pretty modest 4,385mAh battery. It's not the biggest but it's enough. Could it be bigger? Sure. If you're looking for a Pixel smartphone with a larger battery, then perhaps the Google Pixel 8a could be the phone for you.

According to a report from MySmartPrice, they recently discovered a mysterious Google phone on the UL Demko certification website. A sighting this early has led to speculation that this could be the Google Pixel 8a, and according to the listing, the phone could come with a 4,942mAh battery.

This will most likely end up being marketed as 5,000mAh or 5,040mAh. Regardless of how Google wants to spin this, it is a significant upgrade over the Pixel 7a's battery. It is also bigger than the Pixel 8's 4,575mAh battery and roughly the same size as the Pixel 8 Pro. This could be good news for those who are looking for a more affordable Pixel handset that offers longer battery life.

That being said, MySmartPrice does note that the listing on the website could also potentially be for the Google Pixel Fold 2. Recent rumors have suggested that the Pixel Fold 2 could launch later than expected. It also might skip the use of the Tensor G3 in favor of the G4. Either way, if it is the Pixel 8a, we should have more details in the coming months.