New Pixel

Welcome to the tech brew ride home for Wednesday, 02/18/2026. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, new Pixel phone. A bunch of new AI models including Gemini's entry into the music AI space. Everybody is trying to make AI fetch happen in India and Matthew Ball's state of the gaming industry report doesn't paint as gloomy a picture as our own headlines might have suggested this year. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Google this morning unveiled the $499 Pixel 10 a offering the same Tensor g four chip as the nine a, eight gigabytes of RAM, and an 11% brighter display in a 128 gigabyte and two hundred fifty sixty gigabyte offerings shipping March 4, quoting The Verge. Google's mid range pixels have been our top pick for budget Android phones for a while. They offer good cameras and most of what you need at a budget friendly price. But this year's upgrade feels so minimal, I'd liken it more to a Pixel nine a plus or a Pixel nine b. The $499 Pixel 10 a is supposed to be a slightly worse Pixel 10, but it's more like a slightly better Pixel 10 a, and that's a bit of a bummer. Very few of the features that make the Pixel 10 series compelling trickle down to the 10 a this year. You don't get all the good stuff that makes the Pixel 10 series more compelling. There's still last year's Tensor g four chip and eight gigabytes of RAM, which isn't enough to power the more advanced AI features Google launched on the Pixel 10, like Magic Q or Pixel screenshots, the latter of which debuted on the Pixel nine. Do you care? Maybe not. I like MagicQ, though, and my guess is that skyrocketing RAM prices play a role here. It could explain the lack of additional AI features, but I can't blame RAM prices for what otherwise feels like a more meh update. So what do you get for the Pixel 10 a? You also get the ten's SOS satellite communications in case you get lost out in the woods and a bear is chasing you, and you need to point your phone at the sky and tell someone that a bear is chasing you and that you need help. The Pixel 10 a also borrows a couple of new AI tricks like auto best take, not just best take, which automatically selects the best picture from a bunch, like the one where everyone in a group shot is facing the camera. This worked well during a quick test at Google's office. Similarly, it offers Google's camera coach, which walks you through some ideas on how to take the best picture of a subject. I tested this with a fake orchid, and the suggestions on how to frame it were almost certainly better than anything I'd have thought of because I am not a great photographer and usually just pull out my phone for …