I’ve been hanging out for the new Pixel. The launch event was last night, so I woke up to a bunch of news.
I have the Pixel 6 and I am so disappointed in the video quality. I’ve basically stopped vlogging in part because it looks like hyper-saturated glitchy slop, and even though I’ve got other physical cameras it’s way easier seeing something cool and going from pocket to recording within a couple of seconds.
The new Pixel can record 8k, which you’d have to assume would scale down to stellar 4k. But I don’t trust Google’s video team one bit, so I wouldn’t bet on it.
The one big thing that caught my eye was the satellite SOS functionality. I’ve been doing a bit more solo camping out of range, and it would be a comforting thing to know I could get myself out of weird situations even outside of phone range.
But after launching we found out that it’s a US-only feature.
The feature launches first in the US “regardless of your carrier plan,” Rakowski said, though it won’t be available in Hawaii and Alaska, per a support page
The Verge
I’m having trouble finding what the exact deal is. What kind of footprint does the satellite provider Skylo have? Apparently only continental United States. Will this feature ever arrive to other markets? Probably not. There’s not even satellite hardware listed on the Australian store page as far as I can tell, so it’s very clearly not a priority.
Either way, this was a killer feature for me that just disappeared on launch day so I’m bummed.
@ash I don't think any phone can beat iphone for video quality. That's one thing I know they're really good at.
@ash@press.ash.ms @chandlerpeachy I was pretty underwhelmed with iPhone video a few years back when I switched, but it's still a lot more natural-feeling than the Pixel.