Gadget Hacks

Microsoft is spinning off four Xbox game studios today and cutting roughly 3,200 jobs across its gaming division. Buried inside that restructuring is something worth separating out: Double Fine and Compulsion Games are leaving with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games, according to the Xbox Wire memo. That deal structure is unusual enough in games industry M&A to warrant a closer look at what it actually means and what the reporting hasn't confirmed yet.

At Google I/O in May, Google's director of product management for the Home Platform published a blog post describing the company's ambitions with a phrase you'd expect from a B2B sales deck: enabling partners to build "monetizable, proactive services" for customers' homes. That's not consumer language. It's licensing language. And it's the clearest signal yet about where the Google Home future is heading designed around carriers, ISPs, and security companies, with consumers as the end market...

The UK government is drawing up legislation that would require YouTube and other video platforms to make public service broadcaster content prominently discoverable, Deadline reported two weeks ago. Under the proposed Media Bill, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Paramount-owned 5 would be named beneficiaries. In practical terms, that could mean boosting official clips from shows like Question Time in user feeds and search results, though exactly which surfaces would be covered remains publicly...

Samsung's cardiovascular health story for Galaxy Watch has quietly changed direction. Samsung's June 4 Samsung Health preview emphasized new AI health tools, while a later Samsung Health notice positioned Blood Pressure Trends as the U.S. replacement for Vascular Load. It has not issued a broad public announcement, but Samsung Health is reportedly notifying U.S. users that Vascular Load will disappear with Samsung Health v7.0 and One UI 9 Watch.

Samsung is expected to report Q2 2026 operating profit of around 86 trillion won (approximately $56 billion), roughly 18 times what it earned in the same quarter a year ago, according to an LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 30 analysts weighted by track record, The Star reported yesterday. That would mark a third consecutive record quarter, driven by what analysts describe as a prolonged shortage across the entire memory market, not just premium AI chips.

Microsoft has pushed a Windows 11 Start menu redesign to Insider testers, adding section-level visibility controls, explicit sizing options, a consolidated settings page, and taskbar repositioning. The updates are live only in the Experimental Channel, tied to Insider Preview Build 26300.8553, with no stable release date announced.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold presents a specific kind of buying dilemma. Closed, it's a 6.3-inch smartphone. Open, it's an 8-inch tablet. The Galaxy S25 is a 6.2-inch phone that fits in a back pocket and does exactly what it promises. The question this comparison actually answers isn't which device is better in the abstract it's whether a bigger screen justifies everything you give up to get it, especially when a discounted foldable starts closing the price gap with a compact conventional...

A new open-source Windows app called YTubic launched today with a genuinely different technical approach to a problem Google has ignored for years: there is no official YouTube Music desktop client for Windows. Developer NUber-dev built the free, GPL-3.0-licensed app to bypass the sluggish webview wrappers that define most third-party alternatives, communicating directly with YouTube's internal API instead of loading the full website inside a desktop shell. Whether that architectural bet pays...

A Pixel imported into a country where Google doesn't officially sell it runs the same chip, takes the same photos, and largely runs the same software as any other Pixel right up until the local carrier shuts down its 3G network. At that point, the phone may stop making calls entirely because Google doesn't enable Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in unsupported markets, per Android Authority. That's not a SIM-tray curiosity. That's a phone that stops working as a phone.

The safest way to troubleshoot Gemini Error 1099 is to match the workaround to the specific way the error is appearing, because the same error code has appeared in at least three different patterns reported by users. Reports span multiple Reddit communities, affecting both free and paid users across Android, the web, iOS, macOS, and Chrome. The fix for a single stale conversation is not the same as the fix for an error that fires every time you press the Pixel side button, and neither applies...

A leak reported by PhoneArena claims Google's next major Linux kernel upgrade will cover the Pixel 7 through Pixel 10 but skip the Pixel 6. The source, Mystic Leaks, carries explicit reliability caveats, and Google hasn't confirmed anything. But the underlying situation is real regardless of whether this specific leak is right: the Pixel 6 Android kernel upgrade story has a clear structural endpoint, and software support for the device ends in October 2026.

Anyone who has moved a spreadsheet from Microsoft Excel into Google Sheets and watched a 3D bar chart collapse into a generic 2D version knows exactly what this fix addresses. Google updated Sheets this week to preserve 3D formatting when importing 3D bar charts from external applications, with Excel cited as the primary example, per the Google Workspace Updates blog.The update requires no admin configuration and is available to all Workspace customers and personal Google accounts, with rollout...

Android users who enabled the "Start Android Auto while locked" toggle and watched it silently fail finally have an answer. Code spotted by Android Authority inside Android Auto v17.2.662614 suggests

Google has removed 18 AI Chrome extensions tied to chatbot-jailbreak and overbroad-permission risks after Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 reported them to the company. The removals, which happened with no coordinated public announcement, are one part of a two-part story. The other part is a separate vulnerability, CVE-2026-0628, disclosed by Unit 42 around the same period, showing that Chrome's extension permission framework has a structural gap the company hasn't fully resolved. These are related...

Google Play is adding three widget discovery tools to Android phones, tablets, and foldables: a dedicated curated page featuring Google Play Store widget Collections, a widget-specific search filter, and widget badges on app detail pages. Google framed the changes as a direct response to developer feedback, with Play Store product manager Yinka Taiwo-Peters acknowledging that widget discoverability has long been a barrier to developer investment.

Google this week began rolling out Android 17 QPR1 Beta 6 to eligible Pixel devices, with the most notable changes landing in desktop windowing: taskbar icons have moved from bottom-center to bottom-left, and picture-in-picture windows now float freely instead of snapping to screen edges. Neither change is dramatic on its own. Taken together, they continue a visible pattern of iteration on a feature that first appeared in Android 16 QPR3, according to heise.

In 2022, Apple signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Major League Soccer and immediately built a wall around it. Fans who wanted to watch games had to pay $100 per year for MLS Season Pass, a subscription layered on top of their existing Apple TV subscription, Awful Announcing reported. The Apple TV sports strategy was, in theory, ambitious. In practice, it was a friction machine. In the first three years of the deal, MLS struggled to meaningfully grow its Season Pass subscriber base, even...

A Samsung Galaxy Glasses leak this week surfaced what appears to be a 27-second promotional video showing the device from multiple angles, and the footage tells only part of the story. The more revealing details come from a companion manager app and embedded code strings analyzed by SammyGuru, reported this week by Android Authority and Beebom: Samsung appears to be building a dedicated controller app for Galaxy Watches, while code strings in a Ring gesture plug-in reference starting and...

The Nest x Yale Lock has sold its last unit on the Google Store. As of this week, the old product URL redirects to a listing for the Yale Matter Smart Lock, but Google isn't processing that sale either the listing pushes buyers directly to Yale's website to complete the purchase, 9to5Google reported today. It marks the first time the Google Store has not sold a smart lock directly, according to the same report.

The YouTube Music Library tab has disappeared for some Android Auto users, replaced by a blank screen showing a "No Items" message where saved playlists, albums, and liked songs should be. If you're seeing that message where your YouTube Music Library used to be on Android Auto, you're not alone. Both Android Authority and 9to5Google reported the YouTube Music Android Auto bug earlier today, and a thread in r/AndroidAuto has drawn enough matching complaints to suggest this is wider than...

Most guides skip straight to the download link. That's the problem. Unofficial mirrors and repackaged Tiny11 images circulate widely, and there's no reliable way to audit what's been added to them. This guide is about getting a verifiable ISO either by confirming the source before downloading, or by building the image yourself from a clean Microsoft-distributed file.

Android 17 lets the OS automatically steer WhatsApp, Zoom, and other over-the-top calling apps onto a dedicated premium 5G network slice during active calls, without requiring changes to an app's networking stack. The routing kicks in only when a carrier has provisioned a compatible slice, a user's plan includes access to it, and the calling app uses the Telecom Jetpack API. None of those supporting conditions are publicly documented yet, Android Authority reported this week.

Samsung Messages goes dark for US Galaxy users this month. Secondary coverage places the Samsung Messages shutdown date as July 6, per PhoneArena, but Samsung's official notice confirmed only "July 2026" and directed users to open the app for the exact date. July 6 is the working figure in coverage, not a Samsung-confirmed hard deadline. Open the app now to verify your specific cutoff.

Android 17 QPR1 Beta 5 dropped last week as a bug-fix release, but the features that make it worth running on a Pixel arrived two months earlier. Earlier QPR1 reporting pointed to three Terminal interface upgrades: a display resolution control, a full-screen mode, and a theme system with Alacritty import support. Beta 5 stabilizes the cycle and brings Pixel 6 and 6 Pro back into the beta program after they were skipped in Beta 4. The Terminal features themselves haven't changed; they've just...

Reports suggest the MLB app may be adding a real-time scores widget for iPhone and iPad, which would put live scores on the Home Screen without requiring an open app or active tracking session. No official MLB announcement has confirmed the feature, its full behavior, or when it might roll out. What the app's existing infrastructure makes clear is that such a widget would serve most fans well, and create a specific problem for one group that MLB has already gone out of its way to protect.

Peacock enters this next chapter with 46 million subscribers, a genuine sports portfolio, and a growing entertainment slate. None of that is the problem. The problem is structural: for years, Comcast's cable and broadband network connecting more than 65 million U.S. customers gave Peacock bundled distribution, built-in promotional use, and a balance sheet deep enough to absorb streaming losses without triggering a crisis. The Comcast NBCUniversal spin-off doesn't change what Peacock is. It...

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8 may ship with a crease-less inner display and a fundamentally wider screen ratio, according to leak reporting from the past two months. If both changes land as rumored, they would address the two most persistent complaints about foldable inner screens: the ridge that runs down the center, and proportions too tall and narrow to feel like a real tablet. Samsung is expected to announce the lineup at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22.

Some Pixel owners are missing calls that never ring and never show up as missed. The phone sits there looking normal while the caller hits voicemail. Complaints have accumulated on Reddit and Google's Issue Tracker across multiple Pixel models, with no confirmed cause and no fix, according to Android Police this week.

That small green leaf next to an alternate route in Google Maps is not a decoration or a generic eco-branding gesture. It signals one specific thing: this is the most fuel- or energy-efficient route available, calculated for your engine type. If you've ever wondered what does the leaf symbol mean on Google Maps, the short answer is that it's a comparison tool, not a command. It shows up alongside the fastest route so you can weigh both options and choose.

Google pushed the Pixel Camera 10.4 update to the Play Store this week with no new features, no interface changes, and three bug fixes. One of those fixes addresses a camera service crash that affects overall system stability across every supported Pixel from the Pixel 6 through the Pixel 10a. Another can bring down the phone itself, not just the app. For a maintenance release, this one carries some weight.

A tipster with a decent track record has told SamMobile today that Samsung plans to announce the Galaxy Tab S12 Plus and Tab S12 Ultra in September 2026, placing the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Plus and Ultra launch date roughly two months out. That claim lands on top of independent projections from Trusted Reviews and Notebookcheck, both of which flagged late summer 2026 five months ago based on Samsung's previous release patterns. Three outlets arriving at the same window by different routes is...

Samsung has published teaser imagery showing a book-style foldable device with a visibly wider unfolded profile than its current Fold lineup. No display dimensions, pricing, product name, or launch date have been confirmed. What the imagery establishes is a visual direction. What remains unconfirmed is everything else.

Samsung Messages stops working this month for most US Galaxy phone users on Android 12 or higher. Samsung's US support page cited July 6 as the shutdown date, according to PhoneArena, though Samsung's own end-of-service announcement directs users to check the app itself for their exact device-specific cutoff. Either way, the deadline is here.

Samsung may have accidentally surfaced the date for its next Galaxy Unpacked event. The Samsung Members app in Malaysia served up vouchers this week tied to unannounced foldables and wearables, both redeemable starting July 22 a date that an independent report had already named as the probable Unpacked window nearly two months earlier. No official invitation has been issued, but the convergence of a Samsung-operated promotional system and a prior independent report on the same specific date...

When an Android user selects a photo through Google's Photo Picker and shares it with an app, any GPS coordinates embedded in that image are removed. No prompt, no toggle, no acknowledgment that anything was stripped. For most use cases, that's a reasonable default. For apps where geotags are the core functionality — a hiking tracker, a travel journal, a location-aware social platform — it's a capability failure that neither the user nor the developer can fix.

Some Google Home and Google Nest speakers are refusing to respond or taking unusually long to do so, with multiple users reporting the same failure pattern, and the symptom profile points more toward a possible backend service disruption than widespread broken hardware, Android Police reports. The scope remains unclear, but the reports are specific enough to be diagnostically useful.

American Express launched Pay with Points through Apple Pay today, giving eligible cardholders a way to use Membership Rewards points directly at checkout without navigating to a separate portal or leaving the Apple Pay flow. The mechanics are clean. The redemption rate is another matter.

Ice Universe is claiming the wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 will weigh just 201g, undercutting the 215g Fold 7 and the 229g Huawei Pura X Max, Android Authority reported four weeks ago. That Galaxy Z Fold 8 specs leak would make Samsung's wide model dramatically lighter than anything the company has shipped in the foldable category. A second leaker who reportedly handled the hardware called the weight "unbelievable" and said the device "feels like a new beginning," 9to5Google reported last week.

Google has shut down the Tenor API today, and platforms including X, Discord, WhatsApp, and Bluesky that built GIF search into their products using it are now scrambling for replacements. The Google Tenor API shutdown doesn't touch Tenor's website or its integrations inside Google's own apps. What ends today is third-party access, full stop.

WhatsApp has started letting users reserve usernames before a wider launch later in 2026, giving people a way to connect without sharing their phone number. The Associated Press reported that WhatsApp began the reservation phase on June 29, 2026, with the full username feature expected later this year.