Gadget Hacks

Searching "new YouTube app icons" turns up a story that sounds bigger than it is. YouTube hasn't shipped a redesigned icon library. What's actually circulating is narrower: on a limited number of Android phones, YouTube is testing watch-page buttons, including Like and Share, with their text labels stripped off, according to Android Authority, which first reported the sightings about four months ago.

Apple has officially confirmed an event called "Welcome home" for October 13, and its own framing points squarely at the smart home, Macworld reported today. That's roughly where Apple's confirmed involvement in this story ends.

Microsoft is reportedly 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. Only one piece of that Copilot Notebooks October 2026 update actually carries a dated entry in Microsoft's own release tracking, though. Audio Overview is listed in the Microsoft 365 Message Center archive with both a preview...

For apps that show an active Uninstall command, Settings is the supported path to remove them in Windows 11: open the three-dot menu, click Uninstall, done. Try that on certain preinstalled apps, though, and Uninstall is grayed out, replaced by a listing under "System Components" instead. Learning how to remove system apps in Windows 11 starts with understanding that label, because it usually means removal isn't offered through the normal path for that particular app.

The Glowbar, the light strip built into the lid of Glowbar-equipped Googlebook laptops, normally just reports battery level and flashes when Gemini is active (Android Authority, just over two weeks ago). A hidden system app called Glowbar Disco turns that same strip into a customizable, music-reactive light show instead, and figuring out how to find Glowbar Disco on Googlebook means digging past the regular app launcher into the system settings menu (9to5Google, 3 days ago).

Disney's October 2025 price increase reshaped the math on its streaming bundles, and the trade-off still holds nearly a year later: the Disney+ Hulu bundle price hike pushed the ad-supported bundle to $12.99 a month while leaving the $19.99 ad-free Premium bundle untouched. That gap made the ad-supported bundle $6 cheaper than a single ad-free subscription to either app alone, Variety reported last year.

Apple Maps lets you request that your house be obscured in Look Around, its street-level photo feature. The available sources describe this as an imagery request, not an address-listing request: they document what happens to the Look Around photo but don't establish whether approval changes search results, map pins, place cards, or driving directions tied to your home. That distinction is worth settling before walking through how to blur your home on Apple Maps.

A failed WinRE servicing update, a reagentc /enable error, or an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE message after Reset this PC can trace back to several different root causes: an undersized recovery partition, a BitLocker or Device Encryption block, or a storage driver missing from the recovery image. A developer who built a self-healing recovery tool reports these conditions often overlap on the same machine rather than point to one isolated cause (ElevenForum, "Built a self-healing WinRE manager,"...

Microsoft has started testing a Windows 11 Search overhaul that turns the taskbar search box into a command tool. Instead of digging through Settings, typing a phrase like "switch to dark mode" or "dim my screen" now carries out the action directly from the search box, according to the Windows Insider Blog.

Google's new Android sideloading restrictions took effect on September 30, 2026, bringing developer verification requirements to four countries. But Android users can still install apps outside Google Play, and the first round of enforcement is more limited than the broader policy might suggest.

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.

Some Pixel owners have been stuck in a bootloop since installing the March Android 16 QPR3 update, with phones hanging on the Google logo or failing to boot at all, according to a report from XDA Developers earlier this year. The reports span models from the Pixel 6 through the Pixel 10 and have surfaced across several Reddit threads, per the same report.

Google Pixel Connected Camera support is rolling out to 11 new apps, including Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack, through a Play Store update to Pixel Camera Services spotted by Android Authority yesterday. The outlet's count puts the feature's total supported-app list at 16, up from five. Google has not published a support page or changelog confirming this specific list, so the expansion should be treated as reported, not officially confirmed, until Google documents it directly.

TextExpander launched a free-forever plan this week that needs no credit card and syncs the same snippet library across Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, and Chrome, according to 9to5Mac and TextExpander's own site. The TextExpander free plan gives individuals a genuine no-cost entry into cross-device text expansion, not a stripped-down trial that pushes a sale.

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.

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.

Google says the Android Auto squiggly line design in its media player is permanent, closing out months of back-and-forth over whether the wavy progress bar would get scrapped. The confirmation came last week in a Reddit post that also covered four other Android Auto media updates, according to 9to5Google.

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.

Google began pushing its October 2026 Pixel update yesterday, and for anyone still carrying a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro, this is likely the final update those phones will ever receive, according to Notebookcheck. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro launched in October 2021, and Google's extended five-year support window for the pair closes this month.

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)?

Apple Intelligence turns itself on the moment an eligible device updates to version 27.0 across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and visionOS, provided the language and region are supported (Apple Support, three weeks ago). Nobody flips a switch for it. That automatic rollout is exactly why a growing number of Mac owners are now searching for ways to disable Apple Intelligence on Mac and claw back the storage it quietly claimed.

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).

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.

Spotify Lossless has been part of Premium since last year, but there's a good chance it's never touched your ears. The feature launched in September 2025 as an included upgrade for eligible Premium subscribers in supported markets, with no separate HiFi tier required. Spotify expanded it to more than 50 markets by October 2025.

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...

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.

Google confirmed on Monday, the same day its five new Googlebook laptops went on sale, that a small handful of complex apps and games may not perform at their best on three of the five models. That statement is the first official acknowledgment of Intel Googlebook Android app performance issues, with Google telling Android Authority that the vast majority of Android apps still run smoothly on both Intel and Qualcomm Googlebooks right out of the box, according to reports from APH Networks and...

Anyone who delayed a flight purchase waiting for a "magic" weekday can stop checking the calendar. Google's latest breakdown of its own booking data answers the best time to book holiday flights question bluntly: buying on the cheapest day of the week saves about 1.4% compared with the most expensive day, a gap too small to matter next to the two levers that actually move prices, choosing the right travel days, which can save around 14%, and skipping a nonstop for a connection, which saves...

Start with one question: did tap-to-pay ever work right on this phone, or did it work fine for weeks and then suddenly quit? That answer determines whether you're dealing with a setup problem you can fix yourself or a newly reported bug that no amount of settings-tweaking will touch. Working through that distinction first is the fastest way to fix Google Wallet not working on Pixel without wasting time on steps that don't apply to you.

Is Microsoft Copilot becoming an operating system, or is Microsoft just borrowing OS-like language for a new layer of AI tools? The company has started describing its overhauled Copilot as a unified "AI workspace" that routes chat, coding, and autonomous agent work through one system. That framing sounds like Microsoft Copilot as an operating system in the making, but it's not the same as replacing Windows, and the gap between the two matters if you're wondering whether your Windows 11 PC is...

Google Find Hub NFC tracker support is rolling out via Play services version 26.39 and later, changing what happens the moment someone finds a lost tag. Tapping an NFC-compatible phone against an NFC-compatible Find Hub tag can surface its details and settings, or help identify a lost tag, according to 9to5Google. The same release lets owners name a tracker, assign it a category, and turn on Left-Behind Reminders during initial setup instead of circling back into the Find Hub app later, per...

Google Messages has changed where several familiar actions live. Swipe left on a conversation now reveals timestamps and RCS encryption status, and swiping right on an individual message opens a direct reply that quotes the original text above your response. Learning these Google Messages gestures now will save you from hunting around for options that used to sit in plain sight.

TechRadar reported recently that Google is rolling out a batch of Google Home updates addressing errors with Nest cameras and doorbells, Matter device status, Find My Phone, and Automations, based on September 30 release notes from Google. The Gemini voice-assistant changes are labeled Early Access. Google does not apply that label to the separate Google Home app fixes.

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.

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.

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.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission fined Google €403 million, about $463 million, over how it processed location data through three features: Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy. The regulator also ordered Google to bring its processing into compliance with GDPR within six months.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 bend test that JerryRigEverything ran this week threw the toughest thing a durability channel can throw at a foldable: reverse-direction flex, the failure mode that has cracked hinges and popped screens loose on lesser phones. The Fold 8 didn't crack, and nothing popped loose (JerryRigEverything, this week).

If Microsoft Teams won't open on Windows 11, check whether your PC is managed by an organization or fully yours before you touch anything else, since that decides which fixes below actually apply to you. The same troubleshooting applies if Microsoft Teams won't open Windows 10 too, though the sources behind this guide don't compare how the two versions behave side by side.