Gadget Hacks

Apple is preparing to make its next move in the smart home market. The company has confirmed a "Welcome home" event for October 13, 2026, in New York, where it is widely expected to introduce its first dedicated smart home display, reportedly called HomeView.

Samsung's Galaxy S27 lineup is reportedly expanding from three phones to four, and that expansion is tangled up with a chip decision Samsung hasn't made yet. Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra rumors have picked up through industry reporting out of Korea rather than leaked spec sheets this time, covering a new display material, a camera shake-up, and an unresolved fight over which processor powers the phone. Samsung's next top-tier device is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2027.

One Android Authority reviewer switched from an Apple TV 4K to Google's $100 TV Streamer and got a full-screen Taco Bell ad, complete with a QR code, planted on the home screen. Scroll further and a Target-sponsored March Madness section sat in the "For You" feed, next to promos for shows on Prime Video, Peacock, and Disney Plus. That screenshot keeps resurfacing whenever the Apple TV 4K vs Google TV privacy debate flares up online, and it's worth figuring out what it actually proves.

The first wave of Samsung Galaxy A38 5G leaks shows a phone moving steadily through certification, but the only concrete hardware detail attached to it so far is a letdown. Two battery cell model numbers tied to the device turned up in India's BIS database this week, SammyGuru reported, confirming Samsung is actively developing the phone even as separate reporting suggests it could ship with a noticeably dimmer screen than its predecessor.

A lower phone bill is welcome; a discount that lasts beyond the first year is worth a closer look. Visible's five-year offer gives eligible new customers $5 off monthly service, bringing its advertised Visible+ price to $30 and Visible+ Pro to $40.

Chrome is building a Save Video Frame feature for its desktop Global Media Controls panel, a button meant to grab the active video frame as a clean image rather than a standard screenshot. Digital Citizen first reported the feature in April 2026. Chromium subsequently implemented it in July and enabled it by default in September. The feature has also been observed working in Chrome 155 builds, although availability across the stable channel remains unconfirmed.

A new rumor claims the Galaxy S27 Pro and Galaxy S27 Ultra could introduce DC dimming, a technology no Samsung flagship has used before, according to Android Central. If the claim holds up, Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra DC dimming would make the phone the first Samsung smartphone to ship with the technology, according to GSMArena, which reported on the same rumor two days ago.

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.

Microsoft built a version of Windows 11 it calls Project Zenith, and the company says it "represents Windows at its best": tips switched off, account notifications silenced, a quieter File Explorer and Start menu (PCMag, 2 days ago). Right now, the only confirmed way to get Project Zenith factory-installed is to buy a PC built around AMD's Ryzen AI Halo chips.

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).

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,"...

Samsung's next flagship smartphone lineup could introduce a Galaxy S27 Pro, giving buyers another premium option — and potentially another reason to pay attention to which version of a phone they're buying. New reports suggest Samsung is expanding production of its Exynos 2700 processor, which could power several Galaxy S27 models in some markets while other regions receive Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

Apple's smart home plans could include someone to help install the equipment. A rumored arrangement with ADT raises that possibility ahead of Apple's Oct. 13 "Welcome home" event, but neither company has announced a deal.

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.

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.

The Google Pixel 10a price increase is already showing up at checkout. The phone's U.S. price jumped from $499 to $599 at the Google Store, and that new figure has spread to Amazon and Best Buy too.

Tax season turns up the pressure on paperwork, and the fastest fix is already sitting on the home screen. Here's how to scan documents on iPhone without downloading a single app: Apple built a scanner directly into Notes and Files, and it works on any iPhone running iOS 13 or later. Point the camera at a W-2, a receipt, or a lease agreement, and the scanner finds the page edges, straightens the angle, and saves a flattened PDF in a few taps (TechnoWifi, two months ago).

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.

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra pairs Nvidia's RTX Spark SoC with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 1 petaflop of AI compute. Microsoft documents those specs directly in an October 7 technical post, not through marketing shorthand (Microsoft Command Line). This Surface Laptop Ultra review sorts through what Microsoft has actually confirmed, what's still a modeled estimate, and who has a real reason to care before pricing and ship dates are locked in.

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.

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)?

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

This guide walks through how to import passwords into Apple Passwords, built around the Mac-based CSV import that third-party guides have documented in detail, plus a separate iPhone-only method that hasn't been shown to produce the same result. If switching password managers has been sitting on the to-do list, this covers what to check before starting, how the transfer actually works, and why it's worth verifying everything before deleting the old vault.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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).

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).

Firefox 153 shipped last week with a security advisory that warrants immediate attention. MFSA 2026-68 rates the release's overall security impact as high, citing memory-corruption bugs in Firefox 152 that Mozilla says could, with sufficient effort, have been exploited to run arbitrary code. The update also delivers native HDR video playback on Windows 10 and 11 for qualifying hardware, QR code tab sharing, expanded PDF editing, and tighter extension permissions.

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...

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 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.