Are you craving the refreshing boost of a dedicated workout area in your home? This article will guide you on the path to transforming your living space into a fitness haven. We’ll discuss actionable strategies for crafting a personalized fitness space within the comfort of your own home.
First, you’ll need to assess your existing space, declutter and organize it, set the mood with color and lighting, and consider a workout zone design. We’ll also share some tips for your equipment, personalizing your workout space, and maintaining your workout area. So, let’s begin!
Assessing Your Space
The first step to transforming your home into a fitness haven is assessing your space. You need to evaluate your existing space to see what can be used for your purposes.
Doing Inventory
The first step in assessing your space is doing inventory. Use a measuring tape to look carefully at all the spaces in your home. Which area can you transform into your workout area? Carefully assess the pathways of natural light, the flow of ventilation, and measure the available dimensions. All this is necessary for building your personalized fitness haven.
Multifunctionality
As you assess your home’s dimensions, also analyze the objects in your home. Think about how each of them could be used as gym equipment. Consider using a solid dresser as a weight bench, an unused chair as a dip station, or an ottoman as a plyometric platform. Envision your furniture as dynamic gym equipment. Every object has the potential to be repurposed to help you with your goal of fitness.
Light and Air
Natural light and air are both beneficial for you in many ways:
- Improve mood
- Enhance focus
- Access to Vitamin D
- Eliminate foul odors
- Better sleep regulation
- Natural temperature control
- Reduce environmental impact
- Improve motivation and consistency
- Boost immune system
Declutter and Organize
The next step to transforming your home into a fitness haven is decluttering and organizing.
Clearing the Clutter
Begin with clearing your clutter. Find non-workout items in your workout space and remove them from there. Donate old or unused clothes, change places of your decorations and books, and remove gym equipment that you don’t use regularly.
Next, put all your workout gear in one place. Use storage bins, under-bed containers, or hanging racks to keep everything organized and accessible.
Other than physical decluttering, you need to declutter digitally as well. Delete unnecessary fitness apps, unsubscribe from fitness spam, and organize workout playlists. A cleaner digital environment will relax your mind and body.
Storage Solutions
You should invest in storage solutions for a clean sanctuary. Use wall space with hanging shelves, pegboards, or hooks to store and display equipment. Use every inch available without sacrificing valuable floor space.
Use collapsible exercise mats, stackable weights, and folding benches to maximize available space. This will ensure that you can keep a variety of equipment in your fitness haven. It will also keep your area clutter-free when you aren’t using it.
Multipurpose furniture is also beneficial when trying to keep your home clutter-free. You can use storage benches or ottomans with hidden compartments.
Visualization Tools
Visualization tools play an essential role in your fitness journey. They enhance motivation and improve focus. Display a collage of fitness goals or inspiring quotes in a place where you can see it every day. It will help you keep your goals in mind.
Apart from that, create a workout calendar. It will enable you to plan and schedule workouts in advance. You’ll be able to track your progress, too. It will increase accountability and allow you to celebrate your achievements.
Setting the Mood
Transforming your space into a fitness haven requires more than just layout and decluttering. You can set the mood using colors, lighting, and aromas effectively.
Color Therapy
Colors have the power to influence emotions and energy levels. You must choose your workout space’s color scheme wisely to optimize your workout environment.
Red, yellow, and orange are energizing colors, igniting passion, boosting motivation, and increasing stamina. You can use brightly colored gym equipment to create an intense training area.
Green and blue, on the other hand, promote concentration and balance. Use these colors for yoga mats, soft lighting, or wall decorations to enjoy mindful movement sessions.
Soft purple and lavender hues are ideal for cool-down stretches and promote relaxation.
Lighting Strategies
Lights play a vital role in regulating energy levels and mood. You should experiment with different types of lights to discover what suits you best. Some different types include bright overhead lights, dimmable warm lights, and targeted spotlights.
Bright overhead lights are great for high-intensity workouts. They provide you with clarity and maximum visibility for complex exercises.
Dimmable warm lights, however, create a calming and cozy environment for pilates, yoga, or stretching. These lights promote relaxation and focus.
Targeted spotlights enhance concentration and motivation. You can aim that at specific workout areas for focused training.
Aromatherapy
Finally, aromatherapy also assists in setting the mood. You can use scented candles or essential oils for this.
Peppermint, rosemary, and grapefruit promote alertness, energize, and invigorate your senses. For increased focus, you should use lavender, lemon balm, and clary sage. These scents are perfect for mindful movement practices, yoga, or meditation.
Relaxation requires some relaxing scents. These include chamomile, sandalwood, and bergamot. They’re ideal for post-workout relaxation.
Plants and Greenery
Plants are also beneficial for your workout space. Create a designated space for yoga decorated with beautiful ferns, snake plants, or peace lilies. They will induce calmness and improve your mindfulness.
Workout Zone Design
The final thing to discuss about your workout zone is its design. It needs to be a space that inspires action and movement and supports your goals. Some key elements to consider are flooring, mirrors, and technology.
Flooring Options
Your workout floor needs to be something that you like and supports your goals. You should choose between different flooring options based on your exercise types. If you do more weight lifting or plyometrics, you will prefer cushioned rubber mats or foam tiles. They are helpful for joint protection and shock absorption.
Suppose you’re more of a yoga person. In that case, you should buy a comfortable yoga mat or exercise mat that gives you grip and stability. These mats are also sufficient for other bodyweight exercises.
You should also put Gym Mats under your heavier exercise equipment. They will protect the floor from damage.
Utilizing Mirrors
Mirrors in gyms are often considered to be simple vanity aids. However, they serve a deeper purpose and have many benefits. Mirrors can be utilized to check your technique and alignment, enabling safer exercises.
Furthermore, they let you see yourself move gracefully. It will enhance motivation, confidence, and self-esteem. Mirrors also serve to make your space feel brighter and larger. It creates an open and inviting atmosphere, encouraging you to exercise. With such a fitness haven, you’ll look forward to exercising.
Tech Integration
Another critical step for your workout zone is integrating technology like smart devices and fitness apps. It will add inspiration and variety to your routine.
You’ll benefit from the social connection as well when you join virtual communities. It will enable you to connect to other people interested in fitness. This connection creates a sense of belonging and support.
Using smart devices while exercising will allow you to track your performance. It will help you stay motivated. You can also monitor your heart rate and calorie burn.
Moreover, you can access customized exercise plans, guided routines, and on-demand classes. You can do all this from the comfort of your fitness haven.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve created a workout space within your home, don’t forget to maintain it continuously. It’s not just about tidying up but about creating a sanctuary that reflects your motivation and keeps you inspired.
As you organize and refine your workout space, remember the journey that brought you here: your commitment, resourcefulness, and creativity. Embrace the DIY spirit and keep nurturing the workout haven that enables you to accomplish your fitness goals.
The post Home Workout Hacks: Transform Your Space into a Fitness Haven appeared first on VVDesigns.]]>You may also like: Urinary tract infections
This traditional model of the leader-hero who saves the day, knows it all, is the smartest person in the room, and is too often driven by power, fame, glory, or money is not appropriate in today’s environment. This is true for several reasons:
- Today’s fast-changing, complex, and unpredictable environment necessitates a different kind of leadership. Nobody can claim to have all the answers to solve the complex crises we’re facing, and the most adaptable organizations are those in which decisions are being decentralized.
- With the idea that a company’s purpose is about far more than making money gaining ground, the hard-charging, profit-optimizing hero-leader model has lost much of its appeal.
- An increasing number of employees now value authenticity and connection over a facade of strength and infallibility.
- The nature of work has changed from the more mechanical, repetitive type to jobs that require ingenuity and creativity.
- Successful hero-leaders can easily start believing that they’re untouchable and, ultimately, indispensable. It’s easy to be seduced by power, fame, glory, and money. It’s easy to become disconnected from reality and from colleagues, surrounded by sycophants and yay-sayers.
Unsurprisingly, people today expect a different kind of leader. While each company needs to define its own leadership point of view, here’s the philosophy we deployed at Best Buy as part of our surprising turnaround and resurgence. It’s based on five attributes — five “Be’s” — of what I believe characterizes leaders who are able to unleash the kind of human magic you see at work at some of the most high-performing companies. This philosophy underpins the leadership principles that I believe are at The Heart of Business today.
Be clear about your purpose.
That is, your purpose, the purpose of those around you, and how that connects to your company’s purpose.
The staggering number of employees leaving their jobs or seriously thinking about it over the last several months has shed renewed light on the pre-Covid realization that purpose, both individual and collective, is at the heart of business. I’ve written about several aspects of corporate purpose, from how to define it and make it come to life to why it’s an essential element of motivation. For corporate purpose to be successful, leaders themselves must first be clear about what drives them and the people around them.
Corie Barry, my successor as CEO of Best Buy, once shared with me that her personal purpose is to leave something a little better than when she found it, which she connects to the company’s mission to enrich lives through technology. Every day, she maintains her connection with that purpose by asking herself how things at Best Buy were a little better that day because she was there.
Just as crucial for leaders is understanding what drives people around them. Recently, a CEO I coach felt members of his team worked primarily to advance their own functional areas rather than the organization as a whole. Together, we realized that, although he was clear on his own purpose and his organization’s, he didn’t know much about what drove the people around him. Without that knowledge, he was unable to help connect their purposes with the organization’s and to provide a common, overarching pull for all team members.
Be clear about your role.
A leader’s key role is to create energy and momentum — especially when circumstances are dire. It’s to help others see possibilities and potential, creating energy, inspiration, and hope. I would have dismissed this idea 30 years ago, but it’s essential to the role of a purposeful leader. As Dolly Parton is thought to have said: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”
The late Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson’s video message to employees during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic powerfully illustrates this “Be.” He first offered support to employees directly affected by the virus. He then explained that the pandemic was severely battering Marriott’s hospitality business and what the company was doing to mitigate the crisis. There was no sugarcoating, but no panic either. Finally, he focused on signs of recovery in China before concluding on a hopeful note, projecting to the day when people would start traveling again. His message was honest, heartfelt, and moving, while at the same time uplifting and inspiring.
You cannot choose circumstances, but you can control your mindset. Your mindset determines whether you generate hope, inspiration, and energy around you — or bring everyone down. So, choose well. I was reminded of this every morning when I worked at Carlson. A statue of Curt Carlson, the company founder, stood in the lobby of the company’s headquarters, engraved with the words Illegitimi non carborundum — mock Latin best translated as “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
More generally, your role as a leader is to create the right environment for others to flourish in support of the company’s purpose. For example, under Reed Hastings, Netflix, a company whose purpose is to “entertain the world,” has created a culture of “freedom with responsibility” that values people over process and innovation over efficiency, resulting in growth and reinvention that have defied all expectations.
Be clear about whom you serve.
Hint: It’s not yourself.
A fundamental element of purposeful leadership is to be clear about who you serve in your position, both during good and challenging times. As a leader, you must serve the people on the front lines, driving the business. You serve your colleagues. You serve your board of directors. You serve the people around you, by first understanding what they need to give their best so you can do your best to support them.
In fact, view everyone as a customer. The way you treat airline employees or waitstaff, for example, will greatly influence the service you receive. This is a lesson that a top executive in one of the companies where I used to work learned the hard way. He was once stuck in an airport after his flight had been canceled. While standing in line at the service desk, waiting to get rerouted, he lost his patience and marched to the front of the queue. “Do you know who I am?” he hissed to the person behind the desk. “Ladies and gentlemen, I need your help,” said the airline employee, addressing travelers in the queue. “We have a case of forgotten identity. This man here does not know who he is!”
It takes vigilance and a healthy dose of self-awareness to avoid sliding into the trap set by power, fame, glory, and money. Before speaking or acting, be clear about your motivation and whom you’re trying to serve. “If you believe you’re serving yourself, your boss, or me as the CEO of the company, it’s okay — it’s your choice,” I once said to the officers of Best Buy. “But then you should not work here. You should be promoted to customer.” I meant that there was no room at Best Buy for people whose main purpose was to advance their own interests. Some leaders think that having sharp elbows and listening to their ego will serve their career. But as my friend Jim Citrin, who leads Spencer Stuart’s CEO practice, wisely remarked: “The best leaders don’t climb their way to the top over the backs of others, they are carried to the top.” And serving others is how it happens.
Be driven by values.
When I worked for McKinsey early in my career, I sought some leadership advice from one of my partners. “Tell the truth and do what’s right,” he said.
For the most part, we all agree on what is right: honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness, and compassion. On paper, every company has great values. But values are no good if they remain on paper. Being driven by values is doing right, not just knowing or saying what’s right. A leader’s role is to live by these values, explicitly promote them, and make sure they’re part of the fabric of the business.
Johnson & Johnson, for example, is famous for its credo, first written in 1943 by the company founder’s son. Its opening sentence reads: “We believe our first responsibility is to the patients, doctors and nurses, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.”
The company’s decision in 1982 to quickly stop its production of Tylenol, one of its bestselling products, and voluntarily recall all 31 million bottles that had already been distributed throughout the country, illustrates how the company leaders lived by its credo. The decision was made after several people in the Chicago area had died after ingesting tablets that were found to have been contaminated with cyanide. While the recall was costly in the short term, it is widely remembered as a model of good leadership and crisis management.
Doing what is right is not always simple, of course, particularly during crises, when overwhelming stress and pressure can obscure our sense of values. Harry Kraemer, professor of leadership at Kellogg and an executive partner with the private equity firm Madison Dearborn, points out that one of the main principles for leaders to embrace is to firmly believe that they are going to do the right thing and do the best they can. If you surround yourself with people you trust and whose values align with yours and the organization’s, you don’t have to figure out on your own what’s right in these situations. You will determine the right thing together, and then act on it the best you can.
Being driven by values also means knowing when to leave when you’re not aligned with your environment, be it your colleagues, your boss, your board, or your company’s values and purpose. Have the wisdom to know the difference between what you can and cannot change, as the saying goes.
Be authentic.
When I stepped down from Best Buy in 2020, I sent an email to our senior leaders and board members and a farewell video to all company employees. “I love you!” was the title of the email. I concluded the video to employees with similar feelings. Laying bare my heart and my soul in this way would have been unthinkable a few years before. Like many leaders of my generation, I long believed that emotions were not meant to be shared in a business context. I have been told that the longest journey you’ll ever take is the 18 inches between your head and your heart.
It’s a long and arduous journey indeed, and it took me a lifetime to embrace the fifth (and for me by far the hardest) “Be”: Be yourself, your true self, your whole self, the best version of yourself. Be vulnerable. Be authentic. Being vulnerable and authentic does not mean offloading everything to your colleagues. For leaders, it means sharing emotions and struggles when appropriate and helpful to others.
As many of us were forced to work from home over video over the past two years, we revealed more of our whole selves — children, dogs, cats, wifi problems, etc. This was not always comfortable or easy. But we all had to see each other in a new light, as full human beings. Employees expect leaders too to be human. This starts with making ourselves vulnerable, including by acknowledging what we do not know. Brené Brown points out that vulnerability is at the heart of social connection. And social connection, in turn, is at the heart of business.
. . .
The way we lead has profound implications on people around us and how we do business. We cannot transform companies, and more generally capitalism, unless we reflect on who we are as leaders, and particularly on the following questions:
- Have you decided what kind of leader you want to be?
- How would you describe your purpose?
- How would you describe your role?
- What are you doing to create an environment in which others can thrive and flourish?
- Who are you serving?
- What values define you?
- Are you doing your best to be authentic, approachable, and vulnerable?
So, start with yourself. Be the leader you’re meant to be. Be the change you want to see.
The post 5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership appeared first on VVDesigns.]]>According to the survey, 80% of the U.S. population said they are likely to visit a restaurant’s website before they dine-in, order takeout or delivery. The most attention-grabbing result is 65% of those surveyed indicated that they have been disappointed because of a hardly navigated and outdated restaurant site.
As you can see, websites are commonplace for people who are looking for a place to dine out. A well-designed website will leave a good impression on your customers-to-be. In other words, this will lead them into your door with little effort. If you feel stuck in the designing step, get some inspiration from these web design examples for restaurants.
The importance of having a proper website has increased even more during the pandemic period. So, restaurant owners started to look around to find the best website builder for restaurants. What we mean by saying “the best” is the solution that meets all your business needs.
Before we move on to analyzing the best builders for restaurants in a detailed way, we would like to mention a few evaluation points.
Key Criteria While Evaluating the Best Website Builder for Restaurants
In this article, we take a closer look at each website builder in many aspects. Such as:
- Pricing,
- Key features,
- Industry-specific features and
- Customer support.
No doubt that industry-specific features are the top-of-mind criteria for choosing the best platform for a restaurant website. A website builder should offer extensive restaurant specific templates, customizable menus, prebuilt menu pages, reservation booking systems and online ordering and payments methods.
Long story short, every restaurant owner desires a solution that offers effective features with affordable pricing plans. Some may come with handy features but are a bit pricey or vice versa. Also, it would be better not to rely on a free plan too much if you would like to create professional-looking websites.
Still can hear your inner voice asking “How can I choose the best website builder for my restaurant?”. So, it is better to ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I need a website that provides online ordering and payments?
- Does branding come at the top of my business needs?
- How much time do I need to spend to just learn using the website builder?
- How much money do I want to invest?
If something has started to form in your mind thanks to these questions, let’s take a closer look at the best solutions for your business.
4 Best Restaurant Website Builder with Online Ordering
If you ended up here, you may be overflowing with a dozen of options. The good news is that we have made a selection only of the best website builder for restaurants to ease the process for you! Here are the top solutions to get help from while building a website:
- Wix
- Duda
- Webflow
- Ecwid
Wix
Anyone who looks for a website builder for restaurants must have come across Wix at least once. Wix is known as the best eCommerce restaurant builder that comes with fantastic features. The all in one platform provides built-in payment systems, 800+ restaurant specific templates and great social media integrations.
While offering a free domain and hosting, Wix also adds great value to the restaurants that need extensive marketing tools. Not only limited to this but it also optimizes restaurant websites to rank better on search engines with SEO tools.
Moreover, if you face any type of issue Wix’s super friendly customer service put their hands on it at lightning speed. Not-so-well working customer service will cost you a lot. So, it is better to invest in a solution that provides 24/7 customer support to avoid discredit.
The pricing plans at Wix are divided into three parts:
- At the Website Plans, prices vary between $14/month to $39/month. This plan is great if you want to showcase a professional site.
- The Business and eCommerce Plans are essential if you want to accept online payments. The prices are starting from $23/month.
- Lastly, the Enterprise Plans offer custom solutions tailored to your business needs. The prices start at $500/month.
Additional Note: Wix offers a 14-day free trial option.
Duda
When seeking for an easy to use website builder for restaurants, Duda shines out. It provides stylish restaurant specific templates and easily customizable site structures that suit your web design needs. What actually makes Duda shine is to provide a myriad of widgets. These widgets help make your website more customized easily.
With getting help from Duda’s beneficial world, you can power up your eCommerce restaurant website. As Duda offers several integrations with other platforms, it gives your sales operations and digital advertising campaigns a boost.
The customer support Duda provides is great for the ones who need to get a quick response. You can schedule a call or get in touch via email. If you encounter any technical or billing issues, there is dedicated customer support for you.
The prices at Duda are starting from $19 per month and it offers four different pricing options:
- The Basic Plan offers a limited template library at $19/month.
- For slightly more features, The Team Plan allows you to create a website once at a time. The prices start at $29/month.
- The Agency Plan comes with managing up to four different websites. Starting at $59/month.
- You can get in touch with them to learn more about the Custom Plan.
Additional Note: Duda offers a 14-day free plan with all of the features available in the Team plan.
Webflow
Webflow makes it easier to create a restaurant website as it is a responsive website builder, CMS and hosting platform. The robust website builder offers a great number of responsive HTML5 website templates which can be customized easily. No matter what type of business you are running, Webflow helps create menus, customized order and booking forms, blogs and many other useful components.
Like Duda, Webflow also provides widgets. Can you see that the code-free solution makes customization easy as anything?
If you are planning to create an eCommerce restaurant website, Webflow can answer that need as well. The eCommerce related templates allow you to both provide information about your restaurant and sell your products online. Just like each solution in this best website builder for restaurants list, Webflow does not only help the technical side but also supports marketing, advertising and SEO related things.
At Webflow, you can start building your restaurant website for free. To make your website go live, you need to sign up for the additional plans:
- The Site Plans are great for informational restaurant websites and blogs. The prices are starting from $15 per month.
- For more advanced and unlimited features, there are the eCommerce Plans starting at $42 per month.
Ecwid
Ecwid provides extensive industry specific solutions to create a restaurant website in minutes. Whether you create a new website or optimize your existing website, Ecwid will support you in every step of your journey.
Everything you need while launching your website is provided by the all-in-one platform of Ecwid. Creating custom food orders forms, designing informative sections, building booking forms, managing advertising campaigns and much more. Ecwid can handle everything.
Moreover, once you create your restaurant website, you can connect it with all your social media accounts from one place. This ease of use makes managing your sales channels and advertising campaigns easier. Not only limited to this but it also helps keep your marketing & sales related customer data in one place. When you would like to conduct an email marketing campaign, things get just simpler!
It is possible to start selling with the free forever plan at Ecwid and you can upgrade it whenever you want:
- The Venture Plan is good enough for people who need a proper starter solution. The prices are starting from $15/month.
- It would be better to go for the Business Plan if you are concerned with abandoned carts, integrations and quick customer support. Starting at $35/month.
- For priority support and POS system integration, the Unlimited Plan is just for you.
Final Words: Which is the best website builder for restaurants in 2022?
“The best” is a relative concept as it totally shapes according to your needs. That’s why we don’t want to point out one solid option here. The questions above might help to decide on what you really expect from the best platform for a restaurant website.
We have tried to streamline your decision-making process by striping down the best options. Whether you are a small or large business, these best website builders for restaurants can suit your requirements in different aspects. The key consideration here is what features exactly you need.
The post 4 Best Website Builder Tools for Food & Beverage Industry appeared first on VVDesigns.]]>
Temporarily Available is curated by Lopez and Wert to provide a momentary glimpse of eleven independent makers who are blurring the line between art, design and craft. In the exhibition you’ll find works from Alexis Moran, DE.COLORS, Jack Morningstar, Kate Greenberg, Meryl Pataky, OTHRSPACE INTERIORS, PROWL Studio, Sahra Jajarmikhayat, Studio Ahead, The Long Confidence, Yvonne Mouser, What to Drink and Modular Furniture Solutions Inc.
With a mission to unite their community and inspire the exploration of the Bay Area, Aditions’ conceptual approach centers on narrative, interactive exploration and sourcing locally. The studio also helps form connections to brands, companies, causes and communities.
The specs: A return to flagship phones
Unlike with past phone launches, Google has been happy to share basic details of the Pixel 6 family months in advance. Both the base Pixel 6 and the larger, brawnier Pixel 6 Pro will mark Google’s return to high-end phones after the Pixel 5 ‘break,’ with premium glass designs. They’ll offer upgraded cameras with improved low-light performance (150 percent more light than in the past), and they should tout “all day” battery life despite support for battery-hungry 5G.
The centerpiece, however, will be the Tensor chip inside both Pixel 6 models. Google hasn’t officially divulged full specs for Tensor as of this writing, but it’s the company’s first custom system-on-chip. The design uses its namesake AI processing to achieve things that were “previously impossible” on typical SoCs, such as juggling multiple AI tasks or processing live video.
However, Google hasn’t said much about the exact specs of the Pixel 6 line or the range of Tensor-assisted features. Expect the company to share many more gritty technical details for the Pixel 6 at the event, although we wouldn’t count on enough info to make easy comparisons between Tensor and rival mobile chips.
You might not have to wait long to get the full scoop. Well-known leaker Evan Blass spotted Carphone Warehouse promo pages that appear to spoil much of what Google intends to announce. The standard Pixel 6 will likely compete against ‘entry’ flagships like the Galaxy S21 and iPhone 13 with a 6.4-inch flat 90Hz screen, a 50-megapixel main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide shooter. The Pixel 6 Pro, meanwhile, should be the definitive top-of-the-range model with a 6.7-inch curved 120Hz display and a third 48MP telephoto lens. You may also see 30W wired charging, 23W wireless charging and reverse charging to top up your earbuds or other phones.
As for Tensor? That retail listing claimed up to 80 percent better performance than the Pixel 5 (not difficult given the 5’s middling Snapdragon 765G chip), but the real star may be Tensor’s photographic prowess. Google reportedly plans multiple AI-driven camera tricks that include a Magic Eraser to get rid of photobombers, Face Unblur to keep people in focus and a Motion Mode for action photography. These aren’t completely novel concepts (anti-photobombing has been present in Huawei and Samsung phones for a while), but they’re new to Pixels and might perform better with Tensor involved.
A focus on services and support
Google might also break new ground in how it sells the Pixel 6. This is Tech Today‘s M. Brandon Lee obtained what he says is evidence Google will make the Pixel 6 available as a part of a “Pixel Pass” that combines monthly phone payments with an extended warranty, Google One cloud storage, Play Pass, optional Google Fi service and either YouTube Music or YouTube Premium. Effectively, Google would counter Apple One by including virtually everything you need in a single subscription, not just internet services.
You could also enjoy better software support regardless of what you pay. Those Carphone Warehouse pages echoed longstanding rumors that Google would offer “at least” five years of security updates to Pixel 6 owners. That’s more than the three to four years you often find in the Android world, and roughly on par with Apple. It’s not clear if you’ll get full operating system updates for those five years, but you might not have to worry about patchable vulnerabilities for the practical life of your Pixel.
Price and release date
There’s little doubt the Pixel 6 will cost more than its predecessor. Where the Pixel 5 was an upper-mid-range phone, its sequel is an upscale device. Google has even made clear the Pixel 6 Pro will be a “premium-priced product.” But how much more will you have to pay?
That’s a difficult call. One Reddit user spotted a German listing that mentioned a €649 (about $750) price for the base Pixel 6. A source for This is Tech Today, meanwhile, quoted a price of €899 (roughly $1,050) for the 6 Pro. We’d be cautious about these prices, as they could change and might not convert neatly even if they’re accurate. Still, Google is apparently returning to top-tier pricing.
Like it or not, Google will also borrow a cost- and waste-cutting measure from its rivals: it’s leaving the charger out of the box. That’s not too dire an omission when there’s a real chance you’ll have a USB-C charger hanging around, but it could be frustrating if you’re either new to USB-C devices or saddled with a slow power brick. Factor that into the price before you rush to check out.
The German listing and other leaks have pointed to a Pixel 6 release sometime the week of October 25th. We’d expect a broad international launch, for that matter. Where the Pixel 5a was limited to the US and Japan due to supply constraints, the leaks so far already hint that Google wants to make the Pixel 6 as ubiquitous as possible.
Don’t expect many surprises
We wouldn’t bet on Google announcing much else besides the Pixel 6 and its accompanying software. Google’s marketing for the event has revolved exclusively around its new phones. It’s unlikely that you’ll see any other gadgets, and they’ll definitely be secondary if they do appear.
That’s not to completely rule out new hardware. It has been more than a year since Google debuted its higher-end Pixel Buds, and other devices like Nest WiFi haven’t been updated in a while. There’s just not much need for Google to revamp products beyond the Pixel line — what’s there is still relevant and functional.
There’s also the possibility of new or upgraded services. If Google really does introduce a Pixel Pass, it might want to sweeten the deal by offering more for the money, whether it’s a brand new service or perks like more cloud storage. We haven’t seen rumors to this effect so far, but Google also kept unlimited photo uploads for Pixel owners when it capped everyone else in June. The company knows that services sell hardware, and that may be crucial for the Pixel 6.
The post What to expect at Google’s Pixel 6 launch event appeared first on VVDesigns.]]>