Will Google really kill its Nexus phones and replace them with Pixel?

Next Tuesday is going to be a very big day for Google. The company is hosting an event in San Francisco to presumably announce its new Pixel and Pixel XL Android phones that could replace the Nexus brand and what is shaping up to be a boatload of gadgets.

On this week's MashTalk, Mashable Tech Editor Pete Pachal and Chief Correspondent Lance Ulanoff join me in running through what to expect at Google's big event, geeking out over DJI's new foldable Mavic Pro drone and trying to figure out if Elon Musk's grand plan to send 100 people to Mars and beyond with a SpaceX ship is insane or really insane.

The hype before the event is that Google will kill the Nexus brand of devices. Sure, Nexus phones and tablets are a hit with tech geeks, but most regular folks have never heard of them. When they think Android, they usually think Samsung.

The new Pixel phones could be the fresh restart Google needs to become a serious hardware player.

We're also expecting to hear about pricing and a release date for Google Home, the biggest threat to Amazon's Echo. Google could also unveil a new 7-inch tablet, Wi-Fi router/extender and maybe this long-rumored "Andromeda" operating system that supposedly fuses Chrome features into Android.

Not to be outdone by GoPro, DJI unveiled its new foldable Mavic Pro drone. It's even smaller and more powerful than the GoPro's Karma drone. In addition to coming with a 4K camera out of the box, the drone also has all the intelligence (obstacle avoidance and subject-tracking) features that the Karma doesn't.

Is the Karma DOA? Hard to tell without testing them both thoroughly, but the Mavic Pro beats the Karma on paper.

And lastly, Lance and I got into a heated debate about whether Elon Musk is or is not crazy. His proposal to send people to Mars and beyond left a lot of unanswered questions. And he says the people who end up going will have to be prepared to die. Fun times.

The goal is to send people to Mars by 2024 on the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). I think we should solve our problems on Earth before trying to go all The Man in the High Castle and colonize another planet. But obviously, Musk is a visionary and we need big dreamers like him.

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