Gadget Hacks

OPPO is reportedly developing a 16:9 wide-format flagship smartphone with a body wider than any mainstream Android phone currently sold, according to a Weibo post from tipster Digital Chat Station, cited by Android Authority this week. The leak describes LIPO display technology capable of symmetrical 1mm bezels on all four sides, with the chassis measuring roughly 81mm wide.

Reports that Samsung is exiting the Exynos Auto chip business surfaced yesterday in Korean industry media, and they're detailed enough to take seriously even though Samsung itself hasn't confirmed them. The Today and IT Home both reported that Samsung's System LSI division plans to wind down its Exynos Auto application processor line, the chips built for infotainment systems, displays, and camera-related features in vehicles from Hyundai and Volkswagen. If you own one of those vehicles, or the...

Microsoft's support documentation confirms that disabling Copilot's personalization and memory settings makes the assistant "forget its memories of your conversations," which stops future responses from being shaped by anything you've said before (Microsoft Support). That's the short answer for anyone searching how to turn off Copilot chat history personalization: flip the setting, and Copilot stops drawing on past chats to personalize what it tells you next.

Apple Wallet can store a state-issued driver’s license or ID, but that doesn’t mean every state qualifies as one of the states that accept a driver’s license in Apple Wallet at TSA checkpoints. According to TSA’s own list of participating states and eligible digital IDs, 16 states plus Puerto Rico currently route a mobile ID through Apple Wallet specifically for checkpoint use. Other states may use a state-built app instead, or may not appear on TSA’s current eligible-ID list at all.

Apple hasn't announced any smart home hardware made with LG, and neither company has confirmed a partnership. But a new Apple LG smart home accessories leak lays out two iPhone-based features that could define how Apple Home users eventually set up and control a trio of LG-built devices: a proximity-triggered control shortcut and a way to begin pairing before an accessory ever has power. Code and firmware details shared by leaker pdfu describe both features, according to MacRumors.

Nidal Hasan, convicted for the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, is scheduled to die by firing squad on December 3, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he wants that execution made public, and an unnamed Pentagon official told reporters it will be livestreamed, according to The Verge.

Android Authority's teardown of Gmail version 2026.10.05.993506826 found code for an in-development Gmail settings page redesign that folds the Android app's separate "General" and per-account menus into labeled categories, Android Authority reported today. The outlet says it only got the screens to render through "a lot of tinkering," and Google has not started testing the redesign with users or given any rollout timeline.

Strings buried in Android 17 QPR3 Beta 1 describe a Googlebook Phone Unlock feature that could let a nearby, already-unlocked Android phone unlock a laptop-like device automatically. A teardown Android Authority published today found setup screens using a laptop-like render with a "G" logo, which the outlet says strongly suggests the target hardware is a Googlebook. None of this is announced. The reporting doesn't identify a confirmed device, release window, or public Settings path for the...

Preorders for the Surface Laptop Ultra went live yesterday, confirming a $2,599 starting price for Microsoft's laptop built on Nvidia's RTX Spark platform, with units shipping October 16 (Tom's Hardware, yesterday).

The Windows Search AI-powered control center Microsoft is building is still mostly locked to testers, even though the plumbing just went live for a slice of Windows 11 users. Microsoft started rolling out a rebuilt Search experience yesterday that executes typed commands like "turn on Bluetooth" or "dim my screen" directly, instead of only returning a list of files, according to the Windows Insider Blog. The idea is a single box that handles common settings without opening another screen, not a...

Samsung's stable One UI 9 update, built on Android 17, started reaching US Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 units on Oct. 2 following an earlier stable release in South Korea. The rollout began with select carrier models and has since expanded to unlocked phones and additional US carriers.

Google Wallet is rolling out a vertically stacked card redesign on Android, and it has quietly created the Google Wallet card stack design problem: a layout that makes similar cards nearly impossible to tell apart. The server-side update, spotted since mid-September and now reaching more phones, swaps the old horizontal carousel for a scrollable vertical stack, according to 9to5Google. Along the way, Google hid the card numbers and nicknames that used to make picking the right card a glance...

Open the Together tab in Samsung Health and spot a string of asterisks sitting where a friend's name should be, and the first thought is usually that something broke. Samsung Health friends shown as asterisks is a real, documented behavior, but it only applies in one specific spot: the Global Challenge ranking. A Samsung Community post describes it as intentional, not a glitch, stating that other participants' names and profile details there get masked on purpose (Samsung Community, two days...

Google is reportedly building a way to tell personal texts from business pitches at a glance inside Google Messages, pairing rounded-square icons and verification checkmarks with bulk-delete tools for promotional RCS chats. That sounds like progress against Google Messages ads clutter, until you notice what the change actually does: it helps you clean up a mess after it lands, not stop the mess from arriving. The redesign surfaced through an app teardown credited to Android Authority, not a...

A Plex stream that stutters doesn't always mean the server needs more muscle. These Plex tips and tricks are built around one diagnostic habit: checking whether buffering comes from your network, a forced transcode, or an undersized server before you spend a dollar fixing a problem that isn't there. Someone who adds RAM or jumps to 2.5-gigabit Ethernet the moment buffering starts may be solving the wrong problem entirely, because the right fix depends on whether the bottleneck is CPU-bound...

Is the Xiaomi 18 Ultra cancelled? That's the claim circulating this week after leaker Digital Chat Station posted on Weibo, relayed via Abhishek Yadav, saying Xiaomi scrapped the phone because the planned price made sales unsustainable, according to Tech Advisor. Xiaomi has issued no public comment on the device, its specs, or any cancellation.

Hidden code for a "Focus Peaking" toggle has turned up inside Snapseed's Android app, but the Snapseed focus peaking feature doesn't actually work yet, even when testers force it on. Android Authority found the code while tearing down Snapseed version 4.1.10.992428248 in a report published yesterday, and only got the toggle to appear after modifying the app directly, not through any setting Google has shipped or announced.

Two enterprise AI reports published earlier this year could be misread as evidence against buying Macs for a managed fleet. The logic looks tidy on paper: pair a documented AI governance gap with a survey of Apple-first organizations, and it reads like a case against the hardware itself. That reading doesn't hold up once you look at what either report actually measured, and that's the gap this article checks, not whether Apple Intelligence enterprise Mac security is settled, but whether these...

The Windows 11 24H2 end of support date is October 13, 2026, for Home and Pro editions, six days from today. After that, Microsoft stops shipping fixes for known issues, time zone corrections, technical support, and the monthly security and preview updates that close newly found vulnerabilities, according to PCWorld, citing Microsoft's own support page.

Apple rewrote the compatibility lists for the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad around August 25, dropping every Intel-based Mac from the official pages. This week, it reportedly extended the same edits to related tech-specs pages. The pages now read as if the accessories support Apple silicon Macs only, a shift worth knowing about if you're checking Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad Intel Mac compatibility before buying or troubleshooting one.

Foldable phones survive drops and folds better than most people expect. In lab testing last year, Which? ran 59 foldable models through 30,000 open-close cycles on a folding machine, and 58 of them came through without a single fault. Every foldable Which? tested also survived 100 drops onto a hard surface. That's a strong result for folding and drop mechanics under one standardized test, though it doesn't measure years of hinge wear, debris exposure, or accidental misuse.

Microsoft and NVIDIA are both talking about local AI on Windows right now, but they're describing two products at very different stages of readiness. One is Microsoft Copilot+ PC local AI processing, a hardware certification already sitting on store shelves. The other is NVIDIA's RTX Spark, a GPU/CPU "superchip" that exists mostly as company specifications and a fall ship date. If you're shopping based on either company's local-AI claims, it matters which one you're actually comparing.

Microsoft holds a rare live hardware event today, Oct. 7, starting at 1 p.m. ET, where it's expected to detail the Surface Laptop Ultra built on Nvidia's RTX Spark platform alongside new AI features for Windows 11. The Microsoft Surface event 2026 stands out partly because of its format: Tom's Guide notes that "Microsoft doesn't really run live events like this anymore, so you know it's got to be something big," a framing from the outlet rather than anything Microsoft itself has said.

Samsung announced a new SmartThings platform update on October 5, 2026, built around a feature called SmartThings Now that moves automation suggestions to the top of the Home tab instead of leaving them buried in menus and submenus. The Samsung SmartThings Now update also redesigns the Home tab layout, adds a Floating Bar for one-handed use, and expands local hub-to-phone control.

Xbox has pushed back on a report claiming it secured exclusive GTA 6 Xbox streaming rights, with the company's chief strategy officer stating that the game "will not be streaming exclusively or to PC." Matthew Ball posted that statement on X today, a day after The Verge reported that Microsoft had secured a deal letting Grand Theft Auto VI stream through Xbox Cloud Gaming, including to PC, when the game launches.

A new Wear OS app called Now On Wrist takes Pixel's ambient song-recognition feature and puts the result on your wrist instead of your lock screen. The Now On Wrist Wear OS app is live now on Google Play and works with any Wear OS 3.0 or newer smartwatch, not just the Pixel Watch.

If you're trying to pin down LG Smart TV software update support years, the sources reviewed do not identify one support period covering every LG TV. The most concrete, sourced commitment comes from a specific 2024 initiative called the webOS Re:New program, and it names particular models rather than LG's whole lineup.

Office 2021 support ends on October 13, and after that date, Microsoft stops shipping security updates and technical support for the suite. There's no extension and no paid Extended Security Updates program at any price to push that date back. Office 2021 is expected to keep launching past that date, but it won't get another security fix, bug fix, or ESU patch of any kind. Weighing the real Office 2021 end of support options now beats scrambling later, after a vulnerability goes unpatched.

Amazon's October Prime Day sale is underway, and some of the strongest Google Pixel discounts of the fall have already arrived. Prime Big Deal Days runs Oct. 6 through Oct. 7, with Amazon releasing additional limited-time deals three times daily during the 48-hour event.

AppleInsider deleted Apple Intelligence's model folder on a test Mac last week and watched the Storage pane's AI figure drop from 27.59GB to 3.07GB, a 24.52GB swing. Available disk space only grew by about 14GB (AppleInsider). That gap matters before anyone touches anything: a Storage-pane number, a folder's measured size, and actual free space are three different things, and no method in this guide can promise an exact number back.

Google's Pixel lineup has accumulated plenty of labels over the years: standard models, Pros, Folds, XLs, and the more affordable phones whose names end in a lowercase "a." The last one looks simple enough, but Google has never publicly given the letter an official meaning.

Apple started accepting iPhone Duo app submissions through App Store Connect on October 5, 2026, about two and a half weeks before the foldable reaches customers on October 23 (Apple Developer, this week; MacRumors, this week). The window matters most for developers deciding whether to prioritize a recompile before the device ships. Apple's announcement does not describe an expedited review path, so there's no official guarantee that a submission today clears review before launch.

If you're still emailing yourself a screenshot or dragging a photo into Drive just to get it onto a laptop, you're doing more work than the phone requires. This guide covers how to use Quick Share to transfer files on Android, whether the destination is your own Chromebook, a Windows PC, or someone else's phone standing next to you. Quick Share comes built into Android and ChromeOS already. Windows needs a separate app installed before it can take part in a transfer.

Ever tapped Cancel on iCloud+, and nothing happens right away, and the paid plan keeps working through the end of the current billing cycle? That's what happens when you cancel iCloud storage: Apple doesn't cut off access the moment the change gets confirmed. What happens after that date depends on two separate things: how much data the account holds compared to the free 5 GB tier it's about to land on, and a set of iCloud+ features that disappear regardless of how much storage is actually in...

Apple's macOS Full Disk Access changes are arriving because AI agents are gaining enough autonomy to turn a convenience permission into a serious privacy risk, and the company says it needs to act before that risk grows further. A notice posted on Apple's developer site states that going forward, anyone who wants to grant Full Disk Access (FDA), the macOS permission that lets an app slip past most of the system's privacy protections, will have to take "very explicit user action," as reported by...

Samsung raised official US prices on every Galaxy A phone it currently sells: the A17 5G, A27 5G, A37 5G, and A57 5G. Notebookcheck reported yesterday that Samsung's US site now lists higher prices across the full lineup, putting the Samsung Galaxy A series price increase into effect for anyone shopping Samsung.com right now.

Search for "Google Antigravity" from a Pixel or Galaxy phone, and nothing shows up in the Play Store. That's because Google Play marks ordinary Android phones as incompatible with the app, a restriction Android Authority confirmed last week by testing the listing directly. If the search result is confusing, that will probably explain why Google Antigravity isn't available on Android the way most Play Store apps are.

On the same day Google's new Googlebook laptops went on sale, the company admitted that Intel-based models may stumble on certain Android apps (The Verge). In a statement to Android Authority, Google described the affected group as a "small handful of complex apps or games" that need developer tuning to run their best on Intel platforms (Engadget).

A fresh APK teardown suggests the Pixel Search app coming to older Pixels might finally go official, though Google still hasn't said a word about it. Code inside Pixel Search version 1.0.983036833 points to support for Pixel 6 and newer, a Gemini-powered suggestions feature, and new privacy controls, Android Authority found. Only one of those three things is actually live right now: the privacy toggles. The rest is still buried in code.

A new leak claims the standard Xiaomi 18, not the Pro or Pro Max, could ship with a 200MP main and 200MP telephoto Leica camera system, a 7,200mAh battery, and a 6.4-inch display, according to Trusted Reviews. That would give the base model a notably high-end spec sheet, well ahead of anything Xiaomi has confirmed about the standard phone directly.