Trending on Gadget Hacks

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 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.

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.

Getting locked out of Windows 11 because a PIN won't work is a different problem than losing an account password, and it calls for a different fix. This guide walks through how to reset a forgotten Windows 11 PIN, starting with the safest built-in option and working toward backup routes for when the standard reset screen won't cooperate. Which method applies depends on one thing first: whether the device signs in with a Microsoft account or a local account, since the two paths split almost...

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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)?

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

On one Android phone, apps, texts, call history, and settings combined added up to less than 132MB, while photos and videos on the same device totaled 76GB (Android Police, 15 months ago). That's a striking example, not a universal rule, but it points toward the real question behind how to reduce Android backup storage in Google Drive: check what's actually filling the account before touching a single setting.

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.

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.

Audible announced three new AI-powered listening features on October 1, but only one of them, Character Guide, was confirmed live when the beta opened. The other two features announced that day, Interactive Stories and Visual Explorer, are still marked "coming soon" or "rolling out this fall," not live.

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.

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.

Continuity isn't one setting tucked into a menu. iOS, iPadOS, and macOS bundle nearly a dozen distinct tools under that name, everything from AirDrop and Handoff to lesser-known features like Continuity Sketch and Instant Hotspot (Apple Support, earlier this year). Knowing how to use Apple Continuity well means matching the right feature to the right task, not switching everything on and hoping it sorts itself out.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.