The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 13

The smartphone camera wars have reached a fascinating new battleground, and it's all happening in the telephoto space. You know how shaky those long-distance shots can get on your phone? Well, vivo thinks they've cracked the code with their X300 Ultra, and honestly, the specs they're throwing around are pretty impressive.

Apple's latest M5 Max MacBook Pro has achieved something that seemed impossible just a few years ago – a laptop processor decisively outperforming a desktop-class chip with nearly twice as many cores. The first verified Geekbench results reveal the M5 Max achieving a multi-core CPU score of 29,233, which tops the 27,726 score achieved by the Mac Studio's M3 Ultra chip, marking a fundamental shift in the performance hierarchy of consumer computing.

Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Plus has been making waves in the streaming device market with a significant interface overhaul and an attractive price drop that's caught the attention of cord-cutters everywhere. The device now features Amazon's redesigned Fire TV OS interface, promising a smoother and more intuitive user experience than its predecessor. At the same time, the streaming stick is available at a compelling 40% discount, bringing the price down to just $29.99 from its regular $49.99...

The 98th Academy Awards are just around the corner, and for cord-cutters and streaming enthusiasts, there's never been a better time to ditch traditional cable and catch Hollywood's biggest night online. With Conan O'Brien returning as host for the second consecutive year and the ceremony taking place March 15 at the iconic Dolby Theatre, this year's show promises to be unmissable. Here's your complete guide to streaming the Oscars for free, no cable subscription required.

Flagship smartphone prices are going up in 2026, and RAM is the reason. Counterpoint Research's Memory Price Tracker shows mobile DRAM costs have risen 50% quarter-on-quarter while NAND flash storage has surged over 90% QoQ, and the firm's Senior Analyst Shenghao Bai has been direct about what that means for consumers: "higher retail prices are unavoidable in 2026 as rising costs will be passed to consumers," according to GSMArena's summary of Counterpoint's research, published last month....

Google is selling a certified refurbished Pixel 8a for $339 through its official store. Six weeks ago, the same phone was listed on Amazon for $246 in "Excellent" condition, roughly 46% below its $499 new retail price, per Phandroid. That $93 gap is the whole question.

Google pushed out a batch of updates to Gemini for Home in March that move the platform toward more expressive lighting requests, letting users describe what they want in natural, conditional language rather than issuing exact device commands. The timing is deliberate: those updates arrived alongside reliability fixes that addressed foundational problems with how the assistant handles room-level commands. Google's new lighting pitch only makes sense if the assistant can first tell which home...

Apple shipped iOS 26.4 this week, and for the first time the operating system includes formal support for third-party AI assistants inside CarPlay. The restriction that blocked ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude from the in-car platform entirely is gone on Apple's side. The apps themselves haven't arrived. OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic still need to push updates that implement Apple's new entitlement before any of this shows up on a dashboard, 9to5Mac reported this week. None of the three companies...

The Nothing Phone 3 is being promoted as part of Amazon's Spring Sale, but the only verified price data available shows a $120 discount on the black 256GB/12GB RAM model, which brought it below $679 during an early Black Friday event last November, according to PhoneArena. That was the lowest documented Amazon price for the phone at that time. Any Spring Sale headline claiming a larger cut needs to be checked against live listing data and price history before it's taken at face value.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported yesterday that Apple's 50th anniversary finale, an internal employee event at Apple Park tonight, will feature a headliner who is "still going strong," "was part of the British Invasion," and is someone Steve Jobs "would've been ecstatic" about, according to 9to5Mac. Apple has confirmed nothing. But the Paul McCartney Apple 50th anniversary inference sits on a foundation of converging clues, a specific promotional window, and decades of unfinished business...

Apple updated its vintage and obsolete products lists this month, moving the iPhone 5 and the 8GB variant of the iPhone 4 into the obsolete category. For those specific devices, the consequence is straightforward: Apple and authorized service providers generally no longer perform hardware repairs or supply parts for either phone, according to 9to5Mac (March 16). The more relevant story, though, involves devices that are far less ancient.

Apple is building toward a version of Siri that can handle a request like "find the photo from Saturday, crop out the background, and send it to Mom" as a single command, no follow-up prompts, no app-switching, no second guesses. That capability sits at the center of the Siri overhaul set to be unveiled at WWDC on June 8 as part of iOS 27, Bloomberg reported last week. The ability to issue Siri multiple commands in one sentence and have all of them execute is the headline feature. The problem...

The Google Pixel 11 CAD renders leak arrived yesterday, five months before the phone's expected August 2026 launch, and the clearest signal they send is physical. The camera bar appears flatter and differently shaped than on any Pixel before it. On a device defined by its horizontal visor, that change has real implications for how the phone handles day-to-day.

Starting this September, whether an app can be installed on a certified Android device will depend not on a developer's cryptographic signature, the technical standard Android has used since its earliest days, but on whether that developer has registered a verified real-world identity with Google. That's the core of what makes the Google Android developer verification rollout consequential, and it's why the backlash has been sharp enough to force Google into modifying the policy before...

Roku launched a standalone iOS and Android app for Howdy today, its $2.99-per-month ad-free streaming service, marking the second major platform expansion in eight days. The move confirms what the company's been signaling since January: the Roku Howdy standalone app isn't a device perk anymore, it's the centerpiece of a subscription business Roku intends to grow well beyond its own hardware.

Google has introduced Android Bench, a new platform for evaluating how AI coding assistants perform on real-world Android development tasks. According to the company's developer blog, it's designed to compare how different models handle common programming challenges.

The AirPods Max launched in December 2020 with a genuinely strong physical design: premium aluminum ear cups, custom 40mm drivers, and noise cancellation that earned real respect from reviewers. What it lacked was a chip capable of running the software Apple was about to build around its entire AirPods line. The original model shipped with the H1. AirPods Pro moved to the more powerful H2 in September 2022. AirPods Max sat still for three and a half years.

The most interesting thing about the first Pixel 11 Pro renders isn't what's on the back of the phone. It's what may no longer be there. Early CAD renders and third-party case listings suggest Google is restructuring the camera bar and cleaning up the rear panel, and the temperature sensor that debuted with considerable fanfare on the Pixel 8 Pro appears to be absent. These are measurement-based renders from Android Headlines and tipster OnLeaks, not official assets, and the source acknowledges...

The tech world loves a good chip comparison, but Apple's latest move with the A18 Pro has everyone asking the same question: Can a smartphone processor really handle Mac-level workloads? With Apple's recent architectural decisions blurring the lines between iPhone and Mac silicon, we're witnessing a fascinating convergence that challenges everything we thought we knew about mobile versus desktop computing power.

Apple just made a strategic decision that's getting professional computing users talking: The company appears to be shifting focus away from the extreme high-end memory configurations that made headlines when the M3 Ultra Mac Studio launched. While the 512GB unified memory option technically remains available on Apple's specification pages, the combination of limited availability, premium pricing, and Apple's apparent de-emphasis of this configuration signals a notable change in direction for...

The latest Pixel Drop from Google introduces something that feels straight out of a sci-fi movie: Gemini can now handle real-world tasks like ordering your groceries and booking rides. This isn't just another incremental update—it represents a significant leap toward truly agentic AI that can take actions on your behalf, not just provide information or suggestions.

The rumor that Apple will shrink the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 Pro is not new. What shifted this week is more specific: two converging signals, a prototype image and screen protectors designed around a reduced cutout, have pushed this iPhone 18 Pro leak from scattered speculation toward something more technically grounded. Not confirmed. But narrowed in a way worth paying attention to.

Apple is reportedly opening Siri to rival AI assistants in iOS 27, ending OpenAI's exclusive position and replacing it with a platform-wide Extensions system. That's the news, reported by Bloomberg last week based on unnamed sources. But the iOS 27 Siri AI extensions story has a second layer most coverage has left unexplored: Apple already shipped the technical infrastructure to connect those AI services directly to app data and automation logic. It's been sitting inside Shortcuts since last...

Editor's note: Build 29558 referenced in the original announcement could not be confirmed from available sources at publication time. This article covers what is confirmed: the 28020.1797 release on the default track and the 29550.1000 release on the optional 29500 series. The Windows Insider Blog is the authoritative reference for any 29558 changelog.

Apple pulled the vibe coding platform Anything from the App Store on March 26, citing Guideline 2.5.2, the rule barring apps from executing code that modifies their features or behavior after review. The move goes further than the update blocks Apple had already imposed on Replit and Vibecode earlier this month, making Anything the first such removal reported so far in this category, according to Techzine and MacRumors.

Samsung's chip strategy is shifting in a big way, and if you're keeping tabs on Galaxy devices, this matters more than you might think. The company appears increasingly determined to standardize Exynos processors across its entire Galaxy lineup, marking a significant departure from the mixed approach we've seen in recent years.

Families are consolidating around single smartphone brands at a remarkable rate, and the reasons go deeper than simple preference. Some parents reported shifting from standalone parental control apps to integrated family apps like Apple's Family Sharing, according to research published in the Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium.

Samsung's flagship smartphones used to feel like annual leaps forward—brighter displays, sharper cameras, faster chips. Lately, though, the upgrades have started to feel more like gentle nudges. According to a recent reader poll from Android Authority, the community has noticed this shift, and they've got some compelling theories about what's driving Samsung's more conservative approach.

Android desktop mode shipped as a stable feature with the March 2026 Pixel Drop, and the first wave of coverage reflected that. Android Authority reported at launch that after months of beta testing, the feature had arrived ready for real use. Pixel 8 and newer can connect to an external monitor via USB-C, pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and get resizable windows, a taskbar and dock, virtual desktops, and title bar controls. Android Police's hands-on from February 2026 published during the...

There are two completely different taskbar indicator problems in Windows 11, and most troubleshooting guides treat them as one. This guide helps you identify whether the underline or dot beneath a taskbar icon is normal Windows behavior, a preference you can't change, or the documented 24H2 bug that causes the underline to persist after an app has fully closed and tells you exactly what to do in each case. Start with the diagnosis step.

Two new pieces of visual evidence surfaced this week suggesting the iPhone 18 Pro will ship with a dramatically smaller Dynamic Island: a screen protector image from leaker Ice Universe and a prototype photo from an X account called @earlyappleleaks. Neither is conclusive on its own. But they land on top of independent reporting from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and backing from display analyst Ross Young and that combination is harder to explain away than any single source.

Cross-platform RCS end-to-end encryption is active in the iOS 26.5 beta. iPhone users running the beta can exchange encrypted messages with Android users on the latest Google Messages, and the lock icon to confirm it actually works. What Apple hasn't done is set a public release date, and the feature has now moved through multiple beta cycles without shipping. That's not a red flag; it's how Apple handles security features before they reach hundreds of millions of devices.

Google Maps has quietly become the most widely available EV trip planner in the world. Starting today, it automatically calculates and inserts charging stops for drivers of more than 350 electric vehicle models on Android Auto, covering everything from a Rivian R1T to a Nissan Leaf, across a global rollout with more models promised over time, TechBuzz reports.

The most annoying part of sharing a file via Android isn't the transfer itself wait, no em dashes. The most annoying part of sharing a file via Android isn't the transfer. It's the thirty seconds of hunting for the right device name in a list. New evidence suggests Google and Samsung are building a fix for the Android tap to share feature: hold two phones together, and the handshake happens automatically.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the first phone to ship with Samsung's APV codec, a format Samsung says is built for professional post-production workflows and designed to stay visually lossless through repeated edits. That distinction matters more than any sensor spec for creators who take footage off the phone and do serious work with it. But there's a catch, addressed below, that determines whether this changes anything for your pipeline today.

Android 17 Beta 3, released this week for eligible Pixel devices, restores the single-tap Wi-Fi toggle in Quick Settings a behavior Android 12 removed in 2021 and replaced with a pop-up panel that buried the on/off switch users actually wanted. The change has been confirmed by 9to5Google and Android Authority, both reporting earlier this week.

Ask someone what they want most in their next phone and you'll probably guess camera quality or a lower price tag. Both are reasonable. Both are wrong.

Apple's own CarPlay App Programming Guide stated in March 2024 that WhatsApp CarPlay support was "right around the corner." That was more than two years ago. WhatsApp still isn't in CarPlay. No beta. No release notes. No announcement from Meta. Just a line in a developer document that neither company has followed up on in any traceable way.

The phrase has been circulating through headlines and cable segments for months: "The White House has an app, and Trump wants you to report people to ICE on it." The White House ICE reporting app claim is real enough as media shorthand, but the actual infrastructure behind it is more complicated than any single product description suggests. What exists is a cluster of mobile tools and public-facing reporting channels that together form an immigration enforcement system running well ahead of...

Android 17 Beta 3, released this week, introduces two privacy changes that together redefine what Android treats as a location problem. The first is a system-rendered button that gives apps precise location access for the current session only, no permission dialog required. The second makes it mandatory for apps targeting SDK 37 or higher to get explicit runtime permission before exchanging any traffic with devices on the local network. Android 17 Beta 3 location privacy, in other words, now...