Google takes on Apple with new Pixel phone, Home assistant

By Julia Love SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google on Tuesday announced a new "Pixel" smartphone and a virtual reality headset, the company's latest effort to sell consumers on Google-branded devices and to challenge Apple Inc's iPhone at the high end of the more than $400 billion global market. The new phone starts at a price of $649, and Google is working with exclusively with Verizon Communications in the United States, Google executives said at a launch event in San Francisco. The