Google October 4 Launch Event Update, Latest News: Pixel, Pixel XL, Andromeda, Google Home, Chromecast Ultra And More

Meg K.

First Posted: Sep 27, 2016 06:31 AM EDT

What's making tech headlines these days is the highly anticipated Google October 4 launch event. Tech enthusiasts are expecting that the launch event, which is scheduled to happen in San Francisco, will be a massive one with a lot of exciting tech stuff coming out. In fact, Google's media invitation for the October 4 launch event has the tagline "Made by Google" which suggest that everything which will be unveiled on the day will be Google-branded and maybe even made by the search giant itself.

Google October 4 Launch Event- What To Expect?

Google Pixel, Pixel XL Smartphones - Reports are that this time the tech giant has decided to ditch the very popular Nexus brand in favor of a new Pixel brand. Google is expected to unveil two Pixel branded smartphones at the launch event, possibly dubbed Pixel and Pixel XL. The handsets will reportedly be manufactured by HTC.

Leaks so far suggest that the Pixel XL, codenamed Marlin, will feature a 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, Adreno 530 GPU, new Pixel launcher, a 13-megapixel rear camera, an 8-megapixel front camera and a 3450mAh battery. The smaller sibling Google Pixel is rumored to get a 5-inch full HD display, a Snapdragon 821 chipset, 4 GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera, an 8-megapixel front camera and 2,770 mAh battery. Android Police has even obtained an alleged leaked picture of the HTC-made Pixel and Pixel XL.

Non-blurry photos of the Google Pixel and Pixel XL leak https://t.co/h58NNSFNar pic.twitter.com/sBA1xVDjKQ

— Android Police (@AndroidPolice) September 19, 2016

Andromeda - Rumors about the possible integration of Google's Chrome and Android operating systems have been popping up for quite some time now. It is expected that the Android-Chrome OS merge, dubbed Andromeda, may get announced at the October 4 launch event. In fact, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome OS, also recently posted a Tweet which teased something very big coming up.

We announced the 1st version of Android 8 years ago today. I have a feeling 8 years from now we'll be talking about Oct 4, 2016. — Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) September 24, 2016

Google Home - The search giant is expected to unveil the much-rumored Google Home device which will perform basic functions like playing music, setting Nest thermostat or telling the weather forecast. Google took the wraps off Google Home at the Google I/O Conference held in May.

Google Wi-Fi and Chromecast Ultra - Google is rumored to unveil a new Wi-Fi router called "Google Wi-Fi". Android Authority reported that the gadget could be a Wi-Fi mesh device same like Eero or Luma. Additionally, the search giant is also tipped to launch a $69 4K Chromecast device dubbed Chromecast Ultra with firmware version 1.21.