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Google on Tuesday unveiled Googlebooks, its new line of laptops built around Gemini, Google’s flagship family of AI models. The tech giant is working with partners like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to make the first Googlebooks in a variety of shapes and sizes.
The company says Googlebooks, set to launch this fall, are the first laptops designed from the ground up around Gemini to offer personal and proactive help.
Googlebooks will ship with “Magic Pointer,” a new AI-powered cursor with Gemini built-in. Rather than just pointing and clicking, wiggling the cursor will surface quick, contextual suggestions based on what’s on your screen. For example, if you point at a date in an email, you can quickly set up a meeting. Or, if you select two images, like your living room and a new couch, you can visualize them together.
“We thought, we can take Gemini Intelligence and make the pointer truly smart and intelligent,” said Alexander Kuscher, Google’s Senior Director of Android Tablets and Laptops, in a briefing with reporters. “As you wiggle and you move over the screen, it will tell you what it can interact with, and contextually offer you the actions that you can do . . . It really exemplifies how we think about AI features throughout Googlebooks. It’s built-in, but not in your face.”
The new laptops will also be compatible with Android phones, allowing people to use apps from their phone directly from their Googlebook. For example, if you’re using your laptop and remember you need to complete your daily Duolingo lesson but don’t want to reach for your phone, you can access the app directly on your laptop instead.
Additionally, users will be able to easily access files from their phone directly through Googlebook’s file browser, allowing them to view, search, or insert them directly on their laptop.
Users will also be able to use Google’s new “Create your Widget” feature on Googlebooks to build custom widgets by prompting Gemini. Gemini can also pull information from the web and connect with Google apps like Gmail and Calendar to build a single, personalized dashboard. For example, if you’re planning a family reunion in Berlin, it can gather your flight and hotel details, surface restaurant reservations, and even add a countdown.
The bigger story here may be what Googlebooks replaces. The unveiling of Google Books comes 15 years after Google introduced the Chromebook — the affordable, browser-based laptops that became a fixture in schools and workplaces worldwide. The new Googlebooks will essentially succeed the Chromebook, although the company won’t outright say so. A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email that the company plans to continue supporting current Chromebook users, with devices receiving updates through their existing support commitments. The company added that many Chromebooks will also be eligible to transition to the new experience, but didn’t share specifics on what this would look like.
Google isn’t just refreshing its laptop lineup — it’s beginning a long transition away from ChromeOS, the platform it built its laptop presence on, and toward a new Android-based operating system with AI built in at the foundation. And with the biggest names in PC hardware already signed on, this is a platform play as much as a hardware one — and a direct answer to Microsoft, which has been pushing its own AI-native Copilot+ PCs since 2024.
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