Here's Everything Google Announced Today

Google VP of VR Clay Bavor says this new headset helps make VR simpler, friendlier, and more accessible. Softer, too! Made of flexible, breathable microfiber, Google's googles look more like sweatpants than a VR headset. They're designed to fit comfortably over glasses, and there's no wire required to sync up your phone. Oh, and the simple Daydream Controller stores inside the headset, too. It'll be available for $79 in slate gray in November, with red and white versions coming later.

The Daydream platform will also offer plenty of new VR stuff to get lost in. There will be a Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them VR experience from the Harry Potter universe in which you'll get to use the Daydream Controller as a magic wand. There's a new Starchart VR app for exploring space, and a new Gunjack 2 spaceship game for fighting in it. You'll be able to watch movies in a private virtual theater in the Netflix, HBO, and Hulu apps, and there's even a VR version of Google Street View.

The cute little Amazon Echo competitor goes on sale for $129 today and ships on November 4. Google spent a lot of time talking about all the things the built-in Google Assistant can do, like play music from YouTube or Spotify, queue up streaming Netflix or Hulu videos, and answer your spoken questions. The company also trumpeted the design—it is very nice, with a touch-sensitive panel on top and swappable bases that come in a selection of colors and finishes.

As you'd expect, the new Chromecast Ultra now supports streaming videos in 4K resolution. But there are a few surprises with Google's latest dongle, and they're great: The new streamer supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR video, and there's an Ethernet port to handle the heavier load of data. Google Play Movies will start offering 4K content next month, joining Netflix, Vudu, and YouTube as supported 4K services. Priced at $69, the new Chromecast drops in November.

The main thread running through all of today's announcements is the Google Assistant. The voice-activated helper is the next big push for Google, and the company demonstrated how it's applying all of its machine learning knowledge to make the Assistant smarter and more useful. "It helps find the stuff in your own world," according to CEO Sundar Pichai, via voice searches for your schedule, photos, travel plans, movie listings, and dinner reservations. That's also a new name, Assistant with a capital A. No more OK Google or Google Now; it's just Assistant.

Looks like last year's OnHub router was just the start. Google Wi-Fi is a new home networking product. With several access points to blanket the home, the modular and expandable Wi-Fi hardware system lets you add units to increase coverage. (If it sounds and looks like Eero, that's because it's very similar.) Google's Network Assist manages and optimizes network automatically, and transitions your devices from access point to access point as you wander around. There are new ways to manually manage usage, too, like the ability to pause Wi-Fi during dinner or throttle your kids' usage. It'll cost $129 for a single pack, or $299 for a 3-pack. Preorders start in November, and the units ship in December.