News and Updates from Gadget Hacks: Page 2

A hidden screen tucked inside a Google Messages beta build caps pinned chats at six, well below the 20 conversations the app currently lets most users pin. The find points to a broader Google Messages pinned chats redesign that would show pinned chats as large contact icons in a row at the top of the inbox, replacing today's smaller pin treatment.

Apple told developers to "start getting ready ... today" for the iPhone Duo, eight days ago. Eight days later, the iPhone Duo app developer update timeline still has a gap right in the middle of it: no Xcode 27.1 beta, the actual tool developers need to act on that instruction.

Samsung is boosting compensation as engineers weigh offers from rival SK hynix, but the gap between its memory and foundry businesses remains wide.

Apple's macOS 27 "Golden Gate" puts Siri AI into Spotlight, the right-click menu, and screen-aware queries, but the first hands-on account of it found Siri itself only "occasionally useful." Gizmodo's Kyle Barr spent time with the macOS 27 beta two months ago and came away more impressed with a different feature: AI-assisted Shortcuts, which he called "the real gold" of the release.

Pay TV has been losing subscribers for years, but analysts at MoffettNathanson now see a possible floor. The firm projects the US pay-TV market could stabilize at more than 50 million subscribers by 2030, down from roughly 62 million today.

macOS 27 "Golden Gate" started rolling out Sept. 14, bringing what Apple calls "an entirely new version of Siri" to the Mac, according to Apple Newsroom.

Microsoft announced Project Zenith this week, a preconfigured Windows 11 setup built for developers who want to run 30B+ parameter AI models locally, according to Microsoft's announcement. Microsoft Project Zenith Windows 11 targets developers trying to cut recurring cloud-token bills, not casual users hoping for a free feature drop.

Buying a TV with the IMAX Enhanced badge doesn't automatically make every movie look bigger or sound better. What you get depends on the title, streaming service and hardware in the playback chain.

iPadOS 27 became available as a free update Sept. 14, and the headline addition is Siri AI, Apple's rebuilt assistant. Installing the update is one decision; getting Siri AI to work is another.

Apple's China support site posted, then quietly pulled, a guide showing Mac users how to connect Alibaba's Qwen model, known in mainland China as Qianwen, to Siri and Writing Tools. The page went live on August 8 and disappeared within a day, according to Particle. It is the most detailed public look yet at how Apple Intelligence Qwen integration is meant to work, even though Apple has not confirmed the feature is actually live.

Google closed its Pixel 11 launch event in New York on August 12 the way it opened: with Trevor Noah on stage. Near the end, Rick Osterloh, Google's hardware chief, joined him, apparently to wrap things up, after a lineup expected to include Alex Cooper, Steph Curry, PinkPantheress and Ayami Nakajo, according to Engadget's live coverage of the show. It made for solid television. It made for a thinner night of proof.

Google Photos has added a floating camera button inside its AI editing tools, letting people snap a fresh photo without leaving the app and feed it straight into an edit. The new Google Photos AI camera button shows up inside Photo Remix and Photo to Video, part of a wider push to add camera access to tools in the app's Create tab.

Android apps that ship with home screen widgets do not always make that feature easy to discover. No signal on the Play Store listing page, no prompt after install. For apps that do not promote widgets elsewhere, the launcher's widget picker may be the only obvious confirmation, and that requires you to already own the app and know to check.

Some Pixel owners are reporting laggy, stuttering gameplay in lightweight titles like Clash Royale and Brawl Stars after installing Android 17, with the slowdowns seemingly tied to restricted GPU performance (9to5Google, last month). It's a small story on its own, and the report doesn't pin the blame on any specific Pixel generation. But it's a useful reminder that Pixel 10 GPU performance issues never fully went away, despite months of driver updates aimed at fixing them.

Reports of a Disney Plus free tier trace back to internal talks inside Disney, not a public announcement. Two people familiar with the matter told Business Insider that the company is discussing making some Disney+ content available without a subscription.

Some Pixel owners are still waiting for the Google Wallet fix that should have landed automatically. If your phone is showing a "Device doesn't meet security requirements" warning every time you open Google Wallet, it hasn't been compromised and your cards are fine. A stalled update rollout left a specific group of beta opt-outs stranded on a software build that Wallet's security checks no longer recognize as certified.

A tipster claims Samsung's first Googlebook has surfaced in a Geekbench database listing, with specs showing a Snapdragon X Elite chip, 16GB of RAM, and Android 17. The post comes from Abhishek Yadav on X, relayed through Android Headlines and reported today by Android Central. Samsung has not announced an Android-powered Galaxy Book or given it a launch date, according to SamMobile. This Samsung Googlebook leak is still only a reported claim, not a confirmed product.

Galaxy devices running One UI 9 will wipe themselves after 13 failed lock screen attempts, a hard limit confirmed by a Samsung support document and reported by Android Authority today. Not a temporary lockout. Every photo, app, and setting on the device gets erased, accounts are signed out, and the phone returns to factory condition.

Google Calendar currently forces every calendar in an account to share one default event length. That might not last. A teardown of the Android app's code points to Google testing a per-calendar default event length setting, one that would let each calendar hold its own typical duration instead of borrowing a single number for the whole account, according to Android Authority.

Some Nest Doorbell owners outside the US are hearing their doorbell announcements delivered in an American accent even though other Google Home interactions on the same account still match their configured language or dialect.

Netflix released just 23 original films in the first quarter of 2026, its lowest quarterly output in eight years, though that total still outpaces what most legacy studios manage in the same stretch. That drop is the clearest sign yet that Netflix is pulling back on film volume, with movies now carrying less weight in the mix.

Open Settings on an iPhone running iOS 27, and you'll find a new iOS 27 Impersonation Risk Detection toggle sitting inside Privacy & Security. It's designed to flag when your behavior during a wire transfer, a high-value payment, or a change to a critical security setting looks like someone is coaching you through a scam in real time.

Samsung raised prices across the Galaxy S26 lineup in the US, UK, Canada, and Europe this week, pushing the base Galaxy S26 from $899 to $999 and the top-tier 1TB Galaxy S26 Ultra to $1,999 (9to5Google, 4 days ago). The Galaxy S26 price increase took effect October 1 and followed earlier increases in India and South Korea (SamMobile, 3 days ago).

Google may be testing location as a new signal for Pixel Launcher app suggestions. Android Authority spotted interface text yesterday that swaps "routines" for "location" in the wording Pixel Launcher uses to describe why certain apps surface on the home screen or in the app drawer. Nothing beyond that text has turned up, so this reads as an early signal, not a confirmed feature.

Every Google Wallet vs Samsung Wallet comparison eventually turns into a feature checklist: cards, passes, keys, IDs. That's the wrong place to start.

Samsung is going bigger again with the Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra, a 14.6-inch Android flagship built around a massive OLED display, an included S Pen, expandable storage, and desktop-style multitasking. Samsung will release the tablet in the US on Oct. 7, 2026, putting it directly against Apple's 13-inch iPad Pro M5 at the top of the premium tablet market.

If you've gone looking for a way to stop Windows from swapping out a GPU or audio driver you'd rather keep, you've probably landed on a Group Policy setting called "Do not include drivers with Windows Updates" and paused on the wording. To block driver delivery, you set this policy to Enabled, not Disabled, which reads backward the first time you see it (How-To Geek, last year).

A single leaker claims Samsung has reworked how the Galaxy S27 Ultra manages power during a charge, producing a reported 2-3% improvement in Galaxy S27 Ultra charging speed over the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The phone is also rumored to pack a notably larger 5,700mAh battery, a pairing that puts the 2-3% figure to a real test: does it keep pace with more battery to fill, or does it just take the edge off a charging-time penalty, according to SamMobile (yesterday) and Android Headlines (yesterday)?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 deal spotted by Tom's Guide puts the foldable at $1,649 on Best Buy's site, a price the outlet called $250 off, in a report published five days ago (Tom's Guide). That listing surfaced roughly two weeks before iPhone Duo preorders open on October 16, with Apple's foldable starting at $1,999 for the 256GB model (Apple Newsroom). If the Best Buy price still holds and both phones are matched on storage, the Fold 8 would land roughly $350 cheaper than Apple's entry-level...

If your texts are going through fine but photos, videos, or links just sit there unsent, you're not alone. Google has confirmed a bug causing disrupted RCS message delivery for a subset of Google Messages users, and says a fix is rolling out now, though it could take a couple of weeks, according to a statement Android Authority obtained and Android Central reported yesterday. That statement confirms a delivery bug exists. It does not confirm the more specific pattern a lot of people are...

In a poll run by Android Authority yesterday, 93% of respondents said they would consider buying the OnePlus 16 if it were available in their market. But US buyers may not get that chance. OnePlus has already said it is pulling out of the US market, putting that apparent demand at odds with the phone's expected availability.

No verified Google Pixel 11 Pro deal at $849 turned up in the sources reviewed for this article. The claimed Google Pixel 11 Pro for $849 remains unverified here, treated as an unconfirmed number rather than an active discount until a retailer page or price-tracking source backs it up. This is a deal-verification report, not a list of the best Google Pixel 11 Pro deals.

Pre-orders for the Surface Laptop Ultra opened yesterday, alongside Microsoft's far pricier Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, as part of a broader Windows and Surface announcement (Microsoft, yesterday). Both machines ship October 16, the same day as companion RTX Spark PCs from Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and MSI, Tom's Hardware reported yesterday.

The Paramount WBD merger officially closed on Oct. 6, combining HBO, HBO Max, CNN, Paramount+, CBS, and dozens of other brands under a single new parent company named Skydance, according to Skydance's closing announcement. Skydance said the deal received unanimous approval from competition authorities in nearly 70 jurisdictions worldwide (Paramount/Skydance press release).

Google Messages removing per-contact RCS toggle control looks more likely after a beta teardown turned up interface strings warning that the setting "is going away." A recent APK teardown surfaced the strings two days ago, and Android Police reported on the finding yesterday, crediting the discovery to a beta analysis from Android Authority. The strings come from a beta build, not a public release, and Google hasn't confirmed, announced, or scheduled any change.

Every launch Googlebook keyboard turns F1, F2, and F3 into dedicated Android navigation keys, giving the Googlebook physical navigation buttons a permanent spot on the hardware instead of leaving them as onscreen taps. The layout is identical across every model currently on sale, according to The Verge's hands-on report from yesterday.

Code for a tool called Google Play Game Finder, built around a profile Google is internally labeling Gamer DNA, has surfaced inside Google Play Store version 53.4.34-34. The interface tied to that code is non-functional in the build where it was found, and Google has not announced the feature publicly, according to a report from We are the Frontier published today.

Google is testing a redesigned Android voice search button that turns the familiar mic icon into a swipeable toolbar with four modes: Search, AI Mode, Search Live, and Song Search, replacing what used to be a single-purpose transcription tool (9to5Google, reported this week; corroborated by Android Headlines).

Google has pushed two September updates to the Pixel 11 series, but neither is the Android 17 QPR1 release that has since reached older Pixels. Build CD1A.260905.001.A1 arrived September 1, followed by CD1A.260905.001.B1 on September 9 for the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Google appears to be rolling out Pixel Live Translate offline mode support for the conversation feature inside the Google Translate app, though the change looks limited to three phone generations so far. According to BGR, Google's updated support documentation lists offline Live Translate on Pixel as available only on Pixel 9, Pixel 10, and Pixel 11 devices.