Live from New York, it’s another awkward Pixel keynote

Google's Made by Google 2026 hardware event delivered an awkward keynote, while new AI models from xAI (Grok 4.6) and DeepSeek (DeepSeek V4 Pro) were released, posing competitive pressure on Google. The event coincided with a total solar eclipse and a poorly received AI album from Starface and Tyga.

Good morning. What a day yesterday — we had a huge Google hardware event https://9to5google.com/guides/made-by-google-2026/ , a total solar eclipse https://www.theguardian.com/science/ng-interactive/2026/aug/12/cruise-ships-quiet-towns-and-an-all-day-festival-millions-flock-to-eclipse-viewing-spots-across-europe , a truly terrible AI album https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/starface-tyga-starface/ , and a couple of powerful https://x.ai/news/grok-4-6 , cheap https://openrouter.ai/deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro-0813 AI models released that are sure to make Google sweat. Oh, and we’ve made it to 10 issues As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe https://9to5google.beehiiv.com/subscribe .