Google Tuesday unveiled the Google bookits 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 create the first Googlebooks in a variety of shapes and sizes.
The company says the Googlebook, scheduled to launch this fall, is the first laptop designed from the ground up around Gemini to offer personal, proactive help.
Google Books will come with “Magic Pointer,” a new AI-powered cursor with Gemini built-in. Rather than just point and click, moving the cursor will bring up quick contextual suggestions based on what’s on your screen. For example, if you specify a date in an email, you can quickly set up a meeting. Or, if you select two images, such as your living room and a new sofa, you can view them together.
“We thought we could take Gemini Intelligence and make the pointer really smart and smart,” Alexander Kuscher, Google’s senior director of Android tablets and laptops, said during a briefing with reporters. “As you move and move around the screen, it will tell you what it can interact with and contextually offer you actions you can take… This really exemplifies how we think about AI features in Google Books. It’s built-in, but not in your face.”
The new laptops will also be compatible with Android phones, allowing users to use their phone’s apps directly from their Googlebook. For example, if you’re using your laptop and remember that you need to finish your daily Duolingo class but don’t want to use your phone, you can access the app directly on your laptop.
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 to their laptop.
Users will also be able to use Google’s new ‘Create Your Widget’ feature on Googlebook to create custom widgets by inviting Gemini. Gemini can also pull information from the web and connect to Google apps like Gmail and Calendar to create a unique, personalized dashboard. For example, if you’re planning a family reunion in Berlin, it can collect your flight and hotel details, make restaurant reservations, and even add a countdown timer.
Perhaps the biggest story here is what Googlebook replaces. The Googlebook unveiling comes 15 years after Google introduced the Chromebook, the affordable browser-based laptop that has become a staple in schools and workplaces around the world. The new Googlebooks will essentially succeed the Chromebook, although the company won’t say that directly. A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email that the company plans to continue supporting current Chromebook users, with the devices receiving updates as part of their existing support commitments. The company added that many Chromebooks would also be eligible to transition to the new experience, but did not specify what that would look like.
Google isn’t just refreshing its laptop lineup: It’s beginning a long transition from ChromeOS, the platform on which it built its laptop presence, to a new Android-based operating system with AI integrated into the base. And with the biggest names in PC hardware already signed up, it’s a play on platform as much as hardware – and a direct response to Microsoft, which has been pushing its own efforts. PC Copilot+ native AI since 2024.
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Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Before joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecoms journalist at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honors degree from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University.
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