The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 22

Google is rolling out Android per-app backup controls to Pixel devices, letting users see exactly which apps are storing data to their Google Account and disable individual ones. 9to5Google spotted the feature two days ago; BGR confirmed it today. The rollout covers Pixel hardware running stable Android 16 and 17 with Google Play services version 26.24. Samsung devices checked at the same time did not show the feature, 9to5Google reported. Google has not published an announcement or confirmed...

Android 17 dropped on Pixel devices two weeks ago, and the reaction was mostly a shrug. If you think Android 17 updates have lost their magic, you're half right but you're looking at the wrong problem. The visible additions are real and useful. What's actually broken is what happens after Google ships the update: the long, uneven, often indefinite journey it takes to reach the 3 billion Android devices it's supposed to protect.

Google confirmed in January 2026 that the Pixel Take a Message bug had caused ambient audio from owners' surroundings to be transmitted to incoming callers on some Pixel 4 and 5 devices, with no dedicated Take a Message alert beyond the system microphone indicator. The company responded by remotely disabling Take a Message and next-generation Call Screen on those devices. Based on available reporting reviewed here, that appears to be the only Pixel call failure Google has publicly confirmed.

Leaked screenshots of a Samsung Galaxy Glasses companion app show a settings interface organized around notifications, lens configuration, and customizable gesture controls, including wink detection. No specs, pricing, or launch date were included. What the leak does offer is a look at how Samsung appears to be framing the product's purpose, and that framing is worth examining closely.

No Cibby App Store listing was available when this article was researched. That's not a caveat buried at the end it shapes everything that follows. This is not a feature review of the Cibby iOS app for video game collectors. It's a sourced account of what the established competitors offer, what that sets as a minimum bar, and the specific questions any collector should answer before committing to a switch.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra still is not official, but the evidence is getting harder to dismiss. FCC filings, WPC case certifications, and leaked case images all point to a two-model Fold 8 lineup in which Samsung's premium "Ultra" label may land on the more familiar, narrow book-style design.

Google's Gemini note-taker in Meet is now available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, the company announced today, extending a feature that had previously been limited to eligible Workspace business customers. The Google Meet Gemini note-taker goes live immediately on web and mobile, in select languages, for meetings the subscriber hosts.

Google is rolling out a stable Android 17 OTA to Beta 4 and Beta 4.1 users, designed to move them off the beta program without wiping their data. Some Beta 4.1 devices still haven't received it, and the Android 17 Beta 4.1 stable OTA delay now carries a concrete hazard: Android Authority warned this week that Beta 4.1 users should avoid the latest Google Play System update because it can cause a bootloop, a failure state where the phone cycles through restarts and never fully loads the OS. The...

YouTube rolled out four changes to the Shorts player this week, and the most consequential has nothing to do with playback speed. The YouTube Shorts 2x playback update is the feature getting attention, but the structural change sits elsewhere: the dislike button is gone from Shorts, replaced by explicit recommendation controls that route negative feedback directly to YouTube's algorithm rather than surfacing it to creators, per the YouTube Blog announcement.

No verified global rollout for the Vivo X Fold 8 exists in current sourcing. No confirmed carrier partnerships, no regional pricing, no GMS certification status for international builds. That is the actual situation, and it matters because the foldable market is forecast to grow around 20% in 2026, with competitive pressure identified as a primary driver, according to Counterpoint Research. There is genuine demand for a Galaxy Z Fold 8 rival global launch from a manufacturer with real...

After months of Pixel bootloop complaints tied to Google's March, April, and May 2026 software updates, Google has not issued a universal over-the-air fix for affected phones.

Samsung is ending free access to its SmartThings API in October, and the users who will feel it are not the millions running the standard SmartThings app. They're the technically engaged users who built custom setups on top of the free API, and some of them have no practical way around the new Samsung SmartThings API fees. Android Authority confirmed this week that paid tiers take effect in October, including a $4.99-per-month personal plan for non-commercial individual developers, with free...

Microsoft has extended its Windows 10 Extended Security Updates program for personal devices through October 12, 2027, pushing the deadline one year past the program's original October 2026 end date. The change affects home PCs only. Business devices managed through Active Directory, Microsoft Entra, or a mobile device management system are excluded and fall under a separate commercial track. For the millions of personal computers still running Windows 10, the Windows 10 extended security...

Best Uses for an Old Chromebook: Server, Desktop, or Sandbox

SwitchBot launched its Weather Station earlier this month, a $109.99 E-Ink display that pulls together climate data, iCloud Calendar events, and household information into a single glanceable screen, available now on Amazon. For anyone considering it as a SwitchBot Weather Station Apple Home accessory, the short answer is this: the device can expose two programmable buttons to Apple Home via Matter, but its climate sensors, calendar data, and weather readings stay inside the SwitchBot ecosystem...

A Google Play System update currently available to Pixel devices can render phones running Android 17 beta 4.1 completely unusable, trapping them in a reboot loop with no clean way out. The Android 17 beta 4.1 Play System update bootloop issue was flagged today by Android Authority, after multiple Pixel owners reported their devices never recovered after the update completed.

Google's new Home Speaker is finally here, and the first reviews point to a clear trade-off: this is a Gemini-first smart home device, not a straightforward Nest Audio replacement.

Some Netflix users are seeing prompts asking them to add a unique email address before using a profile, according to Android Authority. Netflix has not publicly detailed whether the prompt is mandatory for all users, how widely it is rolling out, or how Kids profiles will be handled.

Samsung pushed One UI 7 theft-protection features to the Galaxy S23 series last year, a move that signals the company is still treating older flagships as active hardware worth securing. For S23 owners, the more immediate question is whether the most consequential security feature already on their phone, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Auto Blocker update, is actually switched on. It probably is. But "probably" is worth verifying.

Budget smartphones involve a series of small surrenders. Most of them fade. The plastic chassis stops registering after a few days. The middling processor becomes invisible when the phone handles what you actually ask it to do. But a weak screen never stops being a weak screen. Every scroll, every video, every glance at a notification is a reminder of the trade-off you made.