We Skipped the Pixel Event

August 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

“We forgot how to do it. We don't have the machining anymore.” That’s Marques Brownlee's reaction to Google’s new “Highlight” feature on the Pixel 11 Pro—an RGB notification light that can only glow in five colors (none of them red), can only be triggered by phone calls from contacts you manually assign, and cannot be used for text messages, emails, or any app notification. It is, in his words, “the most Google thing in the world”: a hardware feature with almost no software support, announced alongside a software feature that uses every frame of a video to build a 3D Gaussian splat model, create a virtual camera track, and then add artificial camera shake back in because the result looked too much like a drone shot.

The hosts recorded this episode from a hotel room in Spain, having skipped Google’s Pixel hardware event to watch a total solar eclipse. They watched the Google keynote at midnight, local time, after their own hands-on reviews had already been published eight hours earlier—an embargo structure they found both unusual and revealing.

The Embargo Inversion

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What you'll learn

1 Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast — We Skipped the Pixel Event
2 (02:07) **Why We're in Spain** - The hosts explain they skipped Google's Pixel event to witness a total solar eclipse, which they also recorded a special episode about
3 (03:14) **Did They Even Test This? Android Auto's Gemini Switch** - Andrew reports that Android Auto's switch to Gemini has been causing failures with simple reminder tasks
4 (07:12) **The Rambler Problem** - The hosts discuss how Google's Rambler speech-to-text removes personality from messages, creating a new tension between convenience and authenticity
5 (12:48) **Google Assistant's Death Notice** - Google sent an email confirming that starting September 4th, Google Assistant will be removed from phones and tablets in favor of Gemini
6 (15:43) **The Eight-Hour Embargo Gap** - Google's unusual embargo strategy where hands-on reviews published eight hours before the event itself, inverting the traditional marketing funnel
7 (24:29) **Highlight: The RGB Notification Light That Can't Do Red** - Google's new "Highlight" feature on Pixel 11 Pro phones is a multi-color LED that only works for Gemini interactions and favorite contacts — and lacks basic notification customization

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Marques Brownlee

Show Notes

This week, it's all about the Google Pixel 11. First, Marques, Andrew, and David talk about the Made by Google event itself before getting into the new HiLight glow feature. Then it's all about the new Pixel 11 phones. They wrap it up talking about the new Pixel Watch 5 earbuds and the Google Pixel Tag. Of course, we wrap it all up with trivia. Enjoy!

Links:

9to5Google - Google Assistant shutting down

MKBHD - Pixel 11 Impressions video

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