LOUIS GRAY: Welcome back to Google Developers Live at I/O.
Louis Gray here from the Moscone
Center at San Francisco.
I've got Chris Lyon, hardware engineer on the Chromebook
Pixel here with me, as well as Andrew
Bowers, director of product.
So I'm really excited to have you guys both onstage.
Thanks for joining me again.
CHRIS LYON: Thank you.
ANDREW BOWERS: Thank you.
LOUIS GRAY: Now, the Chromebook Pixel, it's just
been one of the best devices I've ever had.
Just straight out.
Chrome OS has really been something that's really
intriguing to me for a long time.
We've really enjoyed having the ability to have all my
content in one place.
And you can switch from computer to computer, and it
follows you.
But for the first time ever, this is a device that was
completely designed in hardware by Google.
So I wanted to talk to you guys about that.
And talk me through that process, in terms of how did
that happen?
And what were we trying to achieve?
ANDREW BOWERS: Yeah.
So the first thing we were trying to do is really just
create the best Chromebook possible, no holds barred, and
really thinking about someone who's using a Chromebook all
day long as well.
So a lot of focus, attention to detail, on
how the device feels.
We really want the hardware to disappear.
We want to make it feel like an immersive movie, where you
forget that you're in a movie theater and you're just really
focused on what you're doing.
And so part of that's making that hardware disappear so you
don't feel the keyboard, the trackpad, things like that.
LOUIS GRAY: Now, what are the kind of attributes in hardware
that you were trying to get to?
How did you decide whether it had an 11-inch screen or a
15-inch screen?
What were the things where you made a decision on that?
How do you go about deciding?
CHRIS LYON: So for those items, when we were setting
out in the early design process, we did a large number
of user studies on various screen sizes, various
configurations, keyboard placement, et cetera.
And a lot of those various parameters all fit together to
give us the proper shape of the laptop.
One of the early goals was we definitely wanted an
absolutely full metal enclosure.
It feels very nice hold, really solid design.
But that comes with a lot of additional challenges as to
how you fit all of the other components
together inside the system.
LOUIS GRAY: OK.
And so when I look at this, having tried the previous
Chromebook models that were plastic, they'd come out.
They were very light.
This one has a stronger feel.
It's kind of more industrial.
And one of the things that's happened as a result of
making, I guess, the ultimate Chromebook is it's a little
bit more expensive than the original Chromebook.
We've been looking at.
Samsung.
I've got three of those at my house.
Got one for my wife.
Got one for myself.
Got two for my parents.
And they're all $249.
And obviously, the Pixel is a different beast.
It's starting at, I think, $1,249, and you basically got
a little bit more expensive.
So what was the thought behind that?
Was that something where we wanted to set it up kind of as
a reference model?
Or do we expect these to be for the mass market?
CHRIS LYON: So Pixel should be thought of as a halo device,
something where we really want to showcase a large number of
new technologies that aren't necessarily in the other
Chromebooks, but things that we want developers to
experiment with--
things like the high pixel density touchscreen, things
like keyboard backlight.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but there's a
microphone array in here.
There's two up top for beam forming.
There's noise cancellation.
There's the LTE.
This is the first Chromebook with that.
And again, these are a number of features where the hardware
has to lead the software a bit.
We have to get the features out there, build a critical
mass of users, and then encourage the developers to
target those features.
LOUIS GRAY: You mentioned the high screen density.
One thing about the Pixel is that you shouldn't have to
ever see a pixel.
I mean, that's sort of what we've been talking about.
You say Chrome.
You want to get the Chrome out of the way, the browser, and
really have the user be directly interfacing with
their data, with their content.
I'm glad you mentioned LTE.
I'm actually on LTE right now.
The Wi-Fi at the conference has been really exceptional.
It goes up.
It goes down.
There's a lot of people fighting for attention, and
I've really cut through all of that by getting on LTE.
And having it on this type of a device has really been
exceptional.
And so when I look at the Pixel specifically, there's
really those three things that have set it apart--
the inclusion of the LTE, the high density pixel screen, and
the touch aspect of it.
Now, touch is something you traditionally accept with a
tablet or a mobile phone.
What was the thought process behind having a touchscreen?
And how are we seeing users behave with the touchscreen,
or possibly developers coding for it?
ANDREW BOWERS: So I think that you hit on it right there,
which is touchscreens are becoming
pervasive in our lives.
So they're on your phone.
They're on tablets.
They're even on ATMs and the gas station pumps.
And so if you look at children interacting with a laptop,
they've probably used their parents' phone or their
tablet, and so they're touching the screen already.
And so it's just a very intuitive way versus an
indirect on a trackpad or a mouse.
And so we're seeing it become more and more pervasive, and
we think of it as yet another way to
interact with the computer.
It's not the only way you interact with a laptop, but
it's another way.
So to give you an example, on Tuesday I spent five hours on
a plane, a cramped seat.
But I could hold my Pixel like this, and I could scroll and
archive email on the plane much more easily.
LOUIS GRAY: The viewers at home can't see your hands.
ANDREW BOWERS: That's a good point.
So a lot of times, you'll find you'll use something in a
different way.
Like for instance, when you're cramped in on plane, using it
like this rather than having to use the trackpad.
So it opens up new opportunities.
LOUIS GRAY: Right.
Absolutely.
And I've seen that a lot.
There's one really cool thing that you get the right screen
combination, you can rotate the entire screen 90 degrees
or 180 degrees to be fixed.
And literally, you look at the Chromebook right side up, even
if it's on its side, which is kind of entertaining.
And so for a lot of people who have like a vertical monitor,
I can see them possibly extending out and having that
vertical monitor.
And the processor in here is strong enough that they can
push all those pixels even in that new configuration.
So I want to talk a little bit about the speed.
This is obviously faster.
It's faster.
It's brighter.
It's got a lot of attributes to it.
So what about the speed?
How did that come into play?
CHRIS LYON: So we designed the Pixel to be Chrome fast.
The idea here was hardware should not get in the way of
the experience.
We wanted this to be able to show off the browser and the
operating system as well as possible.
This is an Intel i5 CPU in here.
There's four gigabytes of RAM, pretty standard other features
internally aside from that.
But it's more than enough for web
applications, for HTML5 games.
And it should actually enable a significant amount of future
development coming there.
One of the things we're really excited about is HTML5 games
are becoming more and more popular.
And actually, we're seeing developers make use of the
touchscreen, of the high PPI display.
And we're really hoping that as we can build more of a
critical mass of systems out there with those features that
people will be implementing more and more higher end
applications.
So we really wanted to make sure that it had the
horsepower under the hood there to be
able to handle that.
ANDREW BOWERS: And just to add to that real quick.
I think one of the ways we also think about is not we
don't want consumers to have to think about what processor
do they have in the machine.
We just want it to be, is it fast enough for what
I want it to do?
And so we want to get to that world too.
LOUIS GRAY: And one of things that I've experienced having
the touchscreen on the laptop is you can have more of an
immersive experience, be it with Maps or Photos.
There's something really breathtaking about diving into
Google Maps or the Google+ Photos experience and just
being able to pinch to zoom and getting right
into what you want.
And you just swipe to the side and have it go away.
And it's something that's really become natural.
It's one of those funny things about having a glossy screen
that you touch all the time.
I was in the car the other day making a quick web change--
I was on LTE-- and I saw my fingerprints
all over the screen.
How do you guys handle just managing that type of thing,
where you get a little bit dirty and you clean it off?
So what do you think about that kind of stuff?
ANDREW BOWERS: It's called a cloth.
CHRIS LYON: It is actually a big engineering challenge, and
it is something that we put a fair amount of
work into with Pixel.
Obviously, there's still a long ways to go in that
direction, and it's something we're continuing to research.
LOUIS GRAY: Yeah, it's one of those fun things.
And you don't realize how often you touch it until you
get the little bit of glare, and you're like wow, I touch
this thing all the time.
You've got the hands on there.
CHRIS LYON: One of the nice things though-- the screen is
Gorilla Glass coating, just very resilient.
So at least even if you are smudging it, you don't have to
worry about damaging it.
LOUIS GRAY: What I find is I often am reaching to other
people's computers and expecting that I can impact
the touchscreen.
And I'm like, are you kidding me?
Why are you using that product?
CHRIS LYON: Actually, that's been an interesting problem in
the office.
So when we were using these initially internally a lot,
people got in the habit of when they'd written an email
then just pushing the Send or the Compose button on there.
And you'd see people walking around when this was still
secret and we couldn't have them in every meeting.
And they'd have their ThinkPad out, and they'd push the
screen, and they'd get mad.
LOUIS GRAY: Nothing would happen.
CHRIS LYON: Definitely a number of our vendors and
partners probably caught on to that.
LOUIS GRAY: We have like five minutes left, so I want to
talk a little about Chrome OS.
Now, you know Chrome OS is still a little bit new for a
lot of people, and it's really kind of growing in maturity in
terms of the capability.
Every time Chrome gets better, Chrome OS gets better.
And about two years ago-- maybe it was even three at
this point-- with the Cr-48 model coming out, really kind
of the first reference point of having a
Chrome device out there.
It wasn't super fast.
There were some aspects of the hardware which were not
perfect, but it was a fun reference point.
And since then, we've continued to see iterations
from Chrome via devices from Samsung, Lenovo, HP, Acer.
I hope I've mentioned them all.
And you've seen people come up with different price points
and different sizes.
Now, what has been your kind of response to see how Chrome
OS is evolving?
And what is left?
What is kind of the last things that the Chrome OS
should be doing, where people can really safely leave more
traditional operating systems?
ANDREW BOWERS: So the Samsung Chromebook has been the number
one laptop on Amazon for about 190 days since its launch,
consecutively.
And so I think that speaks for itself in terms of what people
are ready for.
With the Pixel, we've taken it a step further as well in
terms of there are a lot of people that wanted high-end
hardware, precision hardware.
They spend 10 hours a day on a Chromebook.
And so when we say for everyone, we don't just mean
people that want a very affordable laptop, but also a
precision experience with a great keyboard and trackpad
and touchscreen.
And so with the Pixel, we're bringing that as well.
So you cover different needs out there
for different people.
LOUIS GRAY: Sure.
And I think you're mentioning that you say for everyone, but
it's also for everything.
As someone who's very Google Drive-centric, with all of my
files and my applications there, going to Gmail, going
to my Google+, I really believe at this point every
computer is my computer.
So long as I can get to my Google
content, it's all there.
But actually, I'd much rather be using a Pixel.
If you handed me a ThinkPad, I'd be fine.
I'd be able to boot up Chrome and do all my work.
But with the Pixel, it just has such kind of a
professional, high quality experience.
You don't want to suffer the screen display of something
else which isn't as strong.
And even just the little bits with like the keys and the
hardware and the trackpad are so professionally designed.
And so I think you can really see that, for those people who
do get an opportunity to get their hands on it
to check that out.
So for the many people who are watching on the livestream,
how do they get their hands on a Pixel?
ANDREW BOWERS: So they can go to the Google Play store
online or bestbuy.com as well.
LOUIS GRAY: And Best Buy has them in display.
I remember that's actually where I bought the three
Samsung Chromebooks that I got.
I almost cleaned them out.
And I think I sold five other ones in the 10 minutes I was
there just playing demo.
And so I think it's great that you have the Pixels out there
getting really big distribution.
Anything else that the viewers should know about the Pixel
before we cut?
ANDREW BOWERS: I think that you really have to experience
it to understand what it is and what it means.
And I think it brings Chromebooks to a whole other
level of user that want to use Chromebooks.
And so we hope that it'll open up a lot of opportunities for
people to experience Chromebooks and how easy they
are to use and how great it is to live with them.
LOUIS GRAY: Well, thank you very much, both for you
joining me on stage and for all the work that you did
putting into this product.
It's obviously something I use every single day, not just at
the conference.
And I constantly run into my kids saying, hey,
Daddy, look at that.
And they'll click on my touchscreen and accidentally
click on an ad or something.
But they understand exactly how to interface with a
touchscreen, because they've been growing up with tablets.
And we're seeing really the next generation of personal
computing happen right in front of us.
So thank you very much for that.
CHRIS LYON: Thank you.
LOUIS GRAY: So for all of you watching on this livestream,
appreciate you joining us.
We're going to kick you back to the sessions.
I believe up next we have an event with Android.
You won't want to miss Reto Meier talking with Hugo Barra
and Hiroshi Lockheimer.