The Pixel 9 is great — and a problem

Google got a lot of things right with the Pixel 9 lineup. The hardware is lovely, the chip is fast, even the huge camera bump kind of has a way about it, you know? It’s a worthy Android flagship in every way. It also — and not to be dramatic here — feels a bit like a harbinger of doom.

The Pixel 9’s AI photography features, particularly the “Reimagine” tool that allows you to change your photos with just a prompt, appears to be a big and worrisome step toward a world in which we won’t be able to trust photos of practically any sort. These aren’t the AI-generated photos with too many fingers and plenty of other tells; these just look like photos. They are photos! But they’re not real. And we’re not ready for what that means.

Finally, it’s time for the lightning round, in which we talk about JBL’s new headphone case and its even larger screen, the never-ending disaster that is the new Sonos app, and Amazon’s deeply weird decision to cancel the main feature on its digital photo frame.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with the Pixel 9:

And on all things streaming:

And in the lightning round: