News and Updates from Gadget Hacks: Page 2

A new leak claims the Samsung Galaxy A58's rear camera setup will carry the same megapixel counts as the Galaxy A57: a 50MP main camera, 12MP ultrawide, 5MP macro, plus a 12MP front camera. The claim comes from Dutch outlet GalaxyClub and has since been relayed by outlets including GSMArena and Tech Advisor.

Googlebook OS may soon stop making owners rebuild their workspace from scratch every time the laptop restarts. Code strings discovered by Android Authority in Android 17 QPR3 Beta 2 point to an unreleased "App restore on reboot" setting for Googlebook OS.

Google began rolling out the Android 17 QPR3 Beta 3 Pixel update on October 29, with a changelog listing 26 fixes, according to 9to5Google (yesterday). The report names three of those fixes directly: a foldable's inner display staying black after unfolding, intermittent crashes clustered around the lock screen or shortly after startup, and a Recents overview that flickers when a home gesture follows quick app-switching (9to5Google, yesterday).

Search "Google Messages Gemini AI feature poll" and most results point to one specific survey ranking Gemini's reach into Messages as readers' least-favorite feature. The original source behind that specific poll is no longer reachable, so this piece won't repeat a vote count, a named "winner," or any figure that can't currently be verified. What's confirmed through other reporting is the feature that kind of poll is trying to capture: Google's decision to let Gemini tap into Phone, Messages,...

An in-app notice on Galaxy devices confirms the Samsung News shutdown: Samsung says the built-in app will stop delivering content and updating its widget on December 21, 2026, at 00:00 UTC. SamMobile reported yesterday that the notice has so far turned up only inside the app in India and South Korea, with no published country list confirming wider reach. Opening Samsung News and checking for the banner yourself is currently the only reliable way to know if your device is affected.

Google is rolling out a Google Home and Nest speaker update that the company says fixes disappearing speaker groups and stereo pairs, the exact symptom Nest owners have been describing for months. The release notes name the bug directly: stereo pairs and speaker groups that "unexpectedly disappear or become undiscoverable" in the Google Home app, according to Google's October 29 release notes, also reproduced by 9to5Google. The same update bundles in faster local device discovery and a separate...

Apple's Apple Pencil compatibility page, published two days ago, lists only two styluses for the iPad mini (A17 Pro): Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C) (Apple Support, published two days ago). Apple Pencil (2nd generation) still appears on that same page, but only under the outgoing iPad mini (6th generation), not the new model.

Some Galaxy S26 Ultra owners are getting stuck during setup after a factory reset, unable to get past a "webpage is unavailable" error and reach the home screen. Samsung has acknowledged the problem on its South Korean support forums, attributing it to unstable system WebView behavior on certain networks while the phone tries to load a Samsung Account page.

Apple's iOS 27.2 software update arrived October 26, according to Apple's own release log (Apple Developer). The release adds a Messages feature called Suggestions that can surface a Calendar action based on a plan mentioned in a text conversation, the clearest example yet of iOS 27.2 Messages calendar event suggestions in practice. Apple's release notes put it plainly: the system can act on conversation context to help with "adding a Calendar invite for a dinner," among other quick actions...

Google Photos has replaced its old shortcut grid with a layout users can actually control, giving people a real way to rearrange the Collections tab instead of relying on shortcuts the app picked for them, according to Android Authority and Android Police, both reporting last week. The redesign splits into two separate tools: a Pinned row at the top for individual destinations, and a Reorder control below it for entire sections like Albums, Places, and Device folders. Anyone who wants to...

Microsoft says Windows 11 is now "up to 20% more responsive," with measured improvements across Search, Start, right-click, Settings, Snipping Tool, and File Explorer. The company also says its broader performance work extends from boot and logon through Microsoft 365 and Edge, according to an Oct. 15 Windows Experience Blog post. Microsoft singles out PCs with 8GB of RAM as seeing an "especially meaningful difference" from new memory-management work.

Microsoft is reshaping Copilot Notebooks from a source-grounded question-and-answer tool into something that can act on notebook content: delegating tasks, running recurring automations, and editing Office files directly inside a notebook, according to Neowin.

Nvidia RTX Spark Windows laptops became available from OEM partners on Oct. 16, 2026, after preorders opened ahead of launch. Nvidia and Microsoft are marketing this hardware heavily around local AI agents and large language models that run without a cloud connection. That pitch is only part of the story.

The documented discount on a Roku Pro Series OLED TV sale belongs to the standard 120Hz model, not the faster 144Hz Pro Series LX OLED. During a past sale event, Amazon had the 55-inch Pro Series OLED at $699.99 and the 65-inch at $799.99, well under the set's $999.99 and $1,199.99 list prices (Tom's Guide, two weeks ago). The standard model is confirmed available nationwide on Amazon right now; the pricier LX was only announced for an October 2026 launch, and no sale price has been documented...

Apple's first foldable iPhone goes on sale this Friday, Oct. 23, after preorders opened Oct. 16. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999, and Apple says the device has an IP68 dust-and-water rating and a stiffer polymer cover layer to protect the folding display.

Microsoft says Windows 11 is now "up to 20% more responsive," with gains the company describes as noticeable from the moment a PC boots and extending through Start, File Explorer, Search, Snipping Tool, Microsoft 365, and Edge, according to the Windows Experience Blog.

Apple posted iOS 27.2 release candidate build 24B115 to its Developer releases page on Monday. An RC follows several rounds of beta testing, and 9to5Mac reports Apple is now putting the final touches on the update. If testing doesn't turn up anything that requires another build, this exact build could become the version everyone gets once iOS 27.2 goes public, though the available Apple release listing doesn't give an exact public-release date.

More than 2,700 Android Authority readers answered a blunt question this week: handed $2,000 of their own money, would they spend it on Apple's iPhone Duo or Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8?

Apple added the 2017 Retina 12-inch MacBook to its obsolete products list this week, a designation that now covers every 12-inch MacBook the company ever sold.

Google AI Plus is losing Pro model selection. Google has begun emailing subscribers to say the option will disappear from the $4.99-a-month plan starting November 13, 2026, according to 9to5Google.