At an event last October, Google gave a glimpse of the Pixel Tablet, confirming long-standing rumors that the company will double as the Nest Hub for its upcoming tablet Basically, the goal is to have a portable tablet and a Nest Hub-like smart display in one

Now SnoopyTech, a leaker with a reasonable track record, has provided a product photo of a Pixel Tablet dock that informants are calling the "Google Pixel Tablet Stand" It is not clear if this is the official name, but it is a practical brand name and sounds plausible given that Google already makes a product with the simple name "Pixel Stand"

As can be seen from the photo embedded in the above tweet, it really does look like someone took the Nest Hub and cut out the screen

For comparison, the Nest Hub Max looks like this:

The fabric-covered stand and speaker combination has a flat pill-like surface at an angle, and the tablet clips on with a magnet while charging with four exposed pogo pins With a single port on the back, the accessory is minimalist to the extreme

Notably, it looks a lot like the pre-release Pixel Tablet and dock that appeared on Facebook Marketplace last year

Thanks to the latest APK dive from 9to5Google (opens in new tab), we also have an idea of how the Pixel Tablet will function when attached to a dock; after investigating the Google Home app, the site found that the Pixel Tablet goes into "hub mode" when docked, enabling features such as the ability to cast content

The site also found a string called "people_devices_hubmode_answer," which appears to voice-match voice commands to the tablet owner All others are treated as guests"

The dock itself is treated as a speaker within Google Home, and it appears that it can be assigned to a room just like any other smart home device in the app Hopefully, this means that one will be able to purchase multiple tablets to dock while moving around the house

The only thing we know about the Pixel Tablet's release date is that it is due this year However, with Google I/O 2023 confirmed for May 10, it would not be at all surprising if it appears sooner rather than later

Google is not the first to create a dock that turns a tablet into a smart speaker; Amazon is experimenting with a "Show Mode charging dock" that turns Fire tablets into portable Echo Shows

However, a competitor may be on the horizon Last year, it was revealed that Apple is also experimenting with ways to turn iPads into smart displays for the home

This could be a big problem: Apple currently only has the HomePod and HomePod mini in the smart home arena, but there are so many iPads in the world

If the release of the Pixel Tablet is imminent, Google has quite a head start here, given that the HomePod with screen is reportedly delayed to 2024 (open in new tab) Let's hope that what Google implements in the Pixel Tablet is so powerful that Apple will have to pull out all the stops with its own products