Happy Friday! Tim Cook's one of the many Americans who've recently taken advantage of the strong dollar by going on a wild Eurotrip. After petting dogs and downing beers in Germany, Tim hung out with the Pope and partied with the cast of Ted Lasso. One must assume the trip was paid for by Apple's newfound ad dollars courtesy of ATT. 

Wait... They shipped what!?

Google gets in on the smartwatch action with the launch of its Pixel Watch.

Backstory: Google's been eyeing smartwatches for a while. They agreed to acquire Fitbit in 2019, but the deal only closed last year. They've been hard at work since.

Details: The Pixel Watch costs $350. Size wise at 41mm, it's on the smaller end of Apple & Samsung watches.

Health features include heart rate, ECG, blood oxygen levels, and activity tracking.

A $9.99/month Fitbit subscription paywalls more advanced health features such as readiness scores, sleep score breakdowns, and wellness reports.

Why it matters: The Pixel Watch is the latest manifestation of Google's quantified health ambitions. Judging by Fitbit's website, Google's positioning the Pixel Watch as the pinnacle of the Fitbit ecosystem. 

Separately, the trend of health-tracking hardware products adopting a recurring revenue model continues. Oura introduced a monthly subscription fee for its Gen 3 ring last year, while Apple Watch paywalls certain fitness features behind Apple Fitness+.

Features & products hot off the press

Big tech

• Google launches Imagen Video, a video-generating AI tool

• Doordash lets users order food from one place & drinks from another 

• Twitter makes crowdsourced fact-checks visible to all US users 

• Figma launches a "Find and Replace" feature for copy in Figma & Figjam 

• Google Cloud is launching a Medical Imaging Suite 

• Google's Pixel 7 will have a snoring & coughing detection feature  

• TikTok adds new editing tools for clips, sounds, images, and text  

General and early-stage

• Honda unveils Prologue, its first ever electric SUV

• Beehiiv launches magic links and email recommendations

• GluxKind ships an AI-powered stroller 

• OpenSea lets users bulk buy and sell NFTs

• Cudo Compute launches its decentralized cloud computing marketplace

Getting 1% better at building product

• Strategy - What type of job is this: My first year as CPO, by Casey Winters

• Discovery - Build better product with continuous discovery, by Teresa Torres

Broader tech happenings

• Boozy lunches. Grubhub and Gopuff team up for grocery and alcohol delivery

• To the skies. Volocopter conducted its first crewed public test flight

• Again... Peloton cuts 12% of workforce in fourth round of layoffs this year

• Plan B. Uber and Motional to launch robotaxis across the US 

• Deep pockets. Bytedance saw losses triple to over $7 billion last year

Courtesy of mindless Twitter scrolling

@aakashg0

@adamlyttleapps

And that’s a wrap for today. Stay tuned for more!

-  Amol