This week’s top stories: OnePlus 6T, Pixel 3 event, Google Photos goes Material, potential Pixelbook 2, more

Ben Schoon | Sep 8 2018 - 8:27 am PT

In this week’s top stories: Google updates Photos for Android with Material Theme, we get our first OnePlus 6T leaks, Android 9 Pie arrives on the OnePlus 6, we round up everything we know about “Nocturne,” and so much more.

One of this week’s most important stories arrived with the news that Google has officially picked a date to launch the Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, and the rest of its new hardware lineup. On October 9th, the company will host an event in New York City.

In a departure from the inaugural event in 2016 and last year’s follow up, Google is hosting its next major product launch in New York City and not San Francisco. Additionally, it is being held five days later on October 9th instead of the 4th.

After briefly being tested in the past, Google Photos officially picked up a Material Theme redesign on Android this week. The update fully embraces Google’s new design with a great new look.

Briefly showed off on stage at I/O 2018, Google Photos is now the latest app to gain a Google Material Theme. Today’s Google Photos 4.0 update is focused on implementing the brighter look and various new icons, with primary navigation remaining unchanged.

OnePlus was also a big topic this week, with the OnePlus 6T leaking for the first time. Leaked photos of the phone’s retail packaging (see header image) hit the web revealing a new waterdrop notch design and an in-display fingerprint sensor.

If these new photos are to be believed, OnePlus is making some big changes to the design on its upcoming OnePlus 6T. Apparently, the long-standing rumors of using a fingerprint sensor embedded underneath the display are coming true… Further, and perhaps the more welcome upgrade, these images seemingly confirm a new notch design for the OnePlus 6T.

Along with that, OnePlus officially starting rolling out Android 9 Pie to the OnePlus 6 as part of an open beta release, and we’ve rounded up all of the content on that below:

Google also rolled out September’s monthly security patch to Pixel and Nexus owners this week, and Essential quickly followed up with the same update for its PH-1.

There are 24 issues resolved in the September security patch dated 2018-09-01 and 35 for 2018-09-05. Vulnerabilities range from high to critical, with the most severe relating to the media framework and a remote attacker possibly executing arbitrary code through a crafted file.

Chrome 69 also went official on the 10th anniversary of Google’s popular browser, bringing a Material Redesign to all platforms and more.

Huawei also teased that it’s not done with smartwatches and hopes to eventually deliver an option that packs a full week of battery life.

Huawei CEO Richard Yu says the world’s number two smartphone maker isn’t giving up on smartwatches just yet. The Huawei Watch 2 first launched in early 2017 and saw a refresh earlier this year, but the company has been pretty quiet on further developments. Apparently, Huawei wants to improve its smartwatch offering…

Our own Kyle Bradshaw also stepped up this week to round up everything we’ve learned about “Nocturne,” a potential successor to Google’s Pixelbook. He revealed the potential design, fingerprint sensor, and more in the extensive post.

It’s been less than a year since the release of Google’s Pixelbook, yet all signs point to us seeing the next generation of the Pixelbook line later this year. If this is the case, we believe the most likely candidate to be a Made by Google device (of the many we’ve seen so far) is a Chromebook currently codenamed “Nocturne“. Here’s what we think we know about this upcoming device.