The Latest from Gadget Hacks

Google has pushed two September updates to the Pixel 11 series, but neither is the Android 17 QPR1 release that has since reached older Pixels. Build CD1A.260905.001.A1 arrived September 1, followed by CD1A.260905.001.B1 on September 9 for the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

At roughly $1,300 apiece, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra make price almost irrelevant at the starting line. The real choice comes down to how differently the two phones approach cameras, battery life, software, design, and the features you'll use long after the novelty wears off.

A phone that works fine at home can go dark within minutes of touching down in China. Not because one app breaks, but because three separate systems, internet access, navigation, and mobile payment, all require setup steps that range from difficult to impossible once you've already landed. Figuring out the best apps for traveling to China matters less than getting that setup order right before you leave.

iPadOS 27 became available as a free update yesterday, and the headline entry on the iPadOS 27 features list is Siri AI, Apple's rebuilt assistant. Installing the update is one decision; getting Siri AI to actually work is another, according to Apple Newsroom. The assistant only works on select iPad models, only in English at launch, and its status in China remains unclear.

iOS 27 rolled out today, September 14, and buried inside it is something AirPods owners have asked for through several software cycles: a working iOS 27 AirPods customizable EQ that lets owners push lows, mids, and highs up or down instead of trusting Apple's automatic tuning alone. Apple Intelligence and a beta version of Siri AI ship the same day.

Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate on Sept. 14, 2026, as a free update for eligible Macs, calling it a stability and performance release recommended for all macOS 27 users (Apple Support, yesterday). The headline macOS 27 Golden Gate new features center on Siri: Siri AI now lives inside Spotlight for conversational search, while a separate Siri AI app handles saved conversations synced through iCloud. Apple says Siri AI is rolling out gradually and that users should turn it on in Settings...

Outlook throwing "Your message can't be displayed right now" sends most people straight to a search bar looking for a one-click fix. There isn't one published yet. The Microsoft material reviewed for this guide does not document a fix for this exact wording. What follows is a troubleshooting heuristic for narrowing down whether the problem is a local app glitch, a single damaged message, an account-level issue, or something happening on Microsoft's end. It's not a Microsoft-confirmed diagnostic...

Farwave, an iPhone and iPad app, lets people find world radio stations by spinning a 3D globe to a region and tapping on a station, according to a 9to5Mac report published last Saturday as part of the outlet's weekly Indie App Spotlight series. The Farwave app is free to download, with a subscription tier that adds podcasts and imported music.

Cultured Code released the Things 3.24 update today, adding Siri AI task creation, full Spotlight search integration, a new XL Portrait widget, and expanded notification snoozing across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. The update is already live on the App Store (9to5Mac; MacRumors).

Apple now markets the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max as an intelligent personal hub, pairing AI capability with personal context and calling privacy and security core to the design. That's a confirmed claim from Apple's own announcement. It doesn't tell you which parts of that hub are working today, or whether they apply to the phone you already own.

If your Apple Watch is a Series 6, 7, or 8, an Ultra 1, or an SE 2, there's a compatibility issue to check before anything else about watchOS 27 features. Apple's official compatibility list shows those models won't run it. MacStories, testing the public beta two months ago, found watchOS 27 limited to Series 9 and later, Ultra 2 and later, and the newly added SE 3. That leaves Series 6, 7, 8, Ultra 1, and SE 2 without the update, even though all of those models currently run watchOS 26.

Pixel owners describing connectivity trouble often lump three different problems into one complaint. Wi-Fi that won't hold a connection, mobile data that switches on without being asked, and weak cellular reception in marginal spots are separate issues with separate causes, and treating them as one blurs what's actually going on with Google Pixel Wi-Fi connectivity issues this year.

Apple TV boxes don't ship with automatic content recognition, and the Apple TV 4K can't inspect video coming through a television's other inputs, giving it a privacy edge over most other streaming devices and smart TVs, according to Ars Technica's reporting from last year. That's a real advantage, but it doesn't touch app tracking, diagnostics, Siri's data handling, or how the Apple TV app personalizes recommendations. That's where the Apple TV privacy settings below come in.

Drivers searching for "Google Maps Android Auto speedometer disappearing" are running into a confusing pattern: the feature isn't gone, it's arriving unevenly. Google Maps has started showing a live speedometer on some Android Auto dashboards, but the rollout is server-side, unannounced, and inconsistent enough that two drivers on the same app version can get different results. The available reporting points to an uneven rollout, not a confirmed removal.

If you're weighing Waze vs Google Maps on Android Auto, one detailed month-long comparison offers a useful starting point: a reviewer who ran both apps side by side on a Galaxy S25 Ultra and an 8-inch Android Auto head unit found Waze more proactive about rerouting and easier to read on a dashboard display, but still reached for Google Maps on longer or unfamiliar trips. The comparison is really about how these two apps behave once you're actually driving with them, not whether either one works...

Trading in an old phone with Google Store can turn a drawer relic into real money toward a new Pixel. At the Pixel 11 launch, Google's trade-in program offered $150 for a Pixel 4a and $200 for a 2019 iPhone 11, numbers that catch owners off guard who figured those phones weren't worth listing anywhere. The U.S. trade-in ceiling also climbed from about $800 at the Pixel 10 launch to $1,000 this year, with top-tier phones like a Galaxy Z Fold 7 or iPhone 17 Pro Max eligible for $900 to $1,000.

Windows 11 offers several built-in ways to capture a screen, and each one saves the result somewhere different. Pick the wrong shortcut, and you can end up with an image stuck on the clipboard with no file to show for it, or a PNG saved somewhere you weren't expecting.

A Samsung Galaxy S27 charging speed leak suggests Samsung's next standard flagships won't charge any faster than the ones sold today. Two unannounced Samsung model numbers have appeared in China's 3C certification database with charging profiles that top out at approximately 25W and 45W.

Apple Watch owners testing the watchOS 27 beta have found two features missing outright: a Digital Crown double-click shortcut and the Walkie-Talkie app. A third change reshuffles rather than removes, merging three separate Find My apps into one. These are the watchOS 27 changes reported so far in beta testing, and each one comes with a different level of certainty depending on which build was checked and when.

Microsoft announced Project Zenith this week, a preconfigured Windows 11 setup built for developers who want to run 30B+ parameter AI models locally, according to Microsoft's announcement. Microsoft Project Zenith Windows 11 targets developers trying to cut recurring cloud-token bills, not casual users hoping for a free feature drop.