Google does a lot of things right, from search and advertising to cloud and apps they are one of the best. But when it comes to creating a sense of brand or digital trust? They fall short. We take a look at Google's overall business model and the Pixel 3, discussing how they can both dominate and come up a bit short. Plus, our Fast Five: Amazon's advertising growth is amazing; Better Batteries for Wearables; Freshworks smart AI bot Freddy is for businesses, not consumers; Realwear brings AR tech and the HMT-1 to the manufacturing floor; and how are Bloomberg's hardware hack claims against China' holding up? Our Tech Bites winner this week: Google, its somewhat squishy data event, and the cancellation of Google+ (shared w/ every company that loves to gather user data but can't possibly secure it). We also answer the question "can Google actually cultivate a unified brand strategy, and can we trust them to do the right thing?" This episode features: Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard) and Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at [email protected] or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.