Google might be serious about different kinds of devices, but the man focus of the Pixel 2 is event obviously the Pixel 2, the sequel to last year's flagship smartphone from the search giant.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the Pixel 2 is less an revolution and more a revolution of the previous model. It comes in 2 versions, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, with display size marking the only difference between the two-- the regular Pixel 2 has a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 OLED display, while the 6-inch Pixel 2 XL has a 2880 x 1440 OLED screen.

On the specs side, both the Pixel 2 models carry a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB RAM, 64/128GB storage, dual front-facing speakers, 12.2MP rear-facing camera with an autofocus using a laser and dual-pixel phase detection, 8MP fixed-focus front-facing camera, Bluetooth 5.0 wireless and USB-C connectivity.

Google and HTC announce a $1.1 billion "cooperation agreement"-- one where the search giant buys "certain HTC employees," many of whom with experience working on the Pixel smartphone line.

The search giant also gets a non-exclusive license for a good chunk HTC IP in order to support the Pixel smartphone family.

“Our unmatched smartphone value chain, including our IP portfolio, and world-class talent and system integration capabilities, have supported Google in bolstering the Android market,” HTC CEO Cher Wang says. “This agreement is a brilliant next step in our longstanding partnership, enabling Google to supercharge their hardware business while ensuring continued innovation within our HTC smartphone and VIVE virtual reality businesses."

Were you impressed by the iPhone X's Neural Engine-powered face-recognition? Huawei insists it isn't, as it posts a video on its Facebook page stating "facial recognition isn't for everyone."

Following that, the video also claims it will unveil a "real AI phone" on 16 October 2017-- meaning its latest flagship, the Mate 10.

Marketing bombast aside, Huawei might have something actually interesting to show off with the Mate 10. After all, it will be the first phone powered with the Chinese company's latest system-on-a-chip, the Kirin 970. Presented at IFA 2017, the Kirin 970 carries a "Neural Processing Unit" (NPU), a set of processing cores dedicated to AI tasks.

"Freedom-respecting computer manufacturer" Purism announces what it calls the "world's first encrypted, open platform smartphone"-- the Librem 5, a phone able to make encrypted calls hiding the user's number.

The device is also able to send encrypted texts and emails, as well as set up a VPN for web browsing. It is compatible with 2G, 3G and 4G connections with any GSM, UMTS or LTE network, and even carry hardware kill switches for the microphone, camera, wifi/Bluetooth and baseband.

The OS of choice is PureOS, the Purism-developed Debian GNU/Linux derivative. It should also be able to run most GNU+Linux distributions. And in case the user wants even more control, Librem will release the device source code, making it open for editing.