The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 39

The rumored elimination of efficiency cores in Apple's upcoming M5 Pro and Max chips has sparked considerable debate among tech enthusiasts. But here's what makes this particularly fascinating: despite this dramatic architectural change, early indicators suggest that MacBook Pro battery life will remain impressively consistent with what we've come to expect from Apple's professional laptops.

Apple has introduced what might be one of its most significant tablet updates in recent years, equipping the new iPad Air with the M4 chip alongside substantial connectivity and performance improvements that extend well beyond typical incremental upgrades.

The electric vehicle revolution promised a cleaner future, but what happens when the companies behind these high-tech machines disappear overnight? Across the country, a dedicated community of EV owners refuses to let their vehicles become expensive paperweights, even when official support vanishes. These tech-savvy drivers are taking matters into their own hands, creating an underground network of knowledge, parts, and expertise that challenges everything we thought we knew about vehicle...

The Nintendo Switch is a fantastic portable gaming console, but sometimes you want a bigger screen without being tethered to your TV. What if I told you that your iPad could serve as that perfect middle-ground display? With a simple USB-C setup and the right capture adapter, you can transform your tablet into a portable gaming monitor that's larger than the Switch's built-in screen but more flexible than your living room setup.

When your iPad's screen suddenly goes black, that sinking feeling hits fast. One moment you're scrolling through apps or watching a video, and the next—nothing. Just a dark, unresponsive screen staring back at you. While this scenario can feel alarming (especially if you haven't backed up your data recently), iPad black screen issues are more common than you might think and often have straightforward solutions.

Apple just made some major moves in its product lineup, and if you're invested in the Apple ecosystem, these changes could directly impact your next purchase decision. The company has discontinued several different products to make room for what's expected to be a significant refresh of iPhones and MacBooks.

While Apple has made significant improvements to battery technology over the years, the reality is that our phones work harder than ever, juggling everything from always-on displays to background app refreshes and location tracking.

The Pixel Launcher's search bar has been on quite a rollercoaster ride lately, and what started as an apparent bug has turned into an unexpected lesson about user interface psychology. When Google's Android 16 QPR3 March update removed the Material 3 Expressive design elements from the search bar, many users discovered they actually prefer the cleaner, more minimalist look that emerged.

The iPhone 17e benchmarks have surfaced, and they're painting an intriguing picture of Apple's upcoming mid-range strategy. Early Geekbench results show the A19 chip delivering impressive CPU performance that closely approaches standard A19 performance and may trail Pro models, but there's a fascinating twist in the GPU department that could reshape how we think about Apple's chip binning approach. These leaked scores offer our first concrete look at how Apple plans to position the $599 iPhone...

The tech world is buzzing with reports that Samsung's next-generation Exynos 2700 processor is nearing completion and entering its final testing phases. This development carries significant weight for anyone following the mobile chip landscape, particularly those anticipating what might power the Galaxy S27 series. While Samsung has maintained a complex dance between its own Exynos processors and Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips across different regions, this latest advancement could reshape that...

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.

You know what's fascinating about the tech industry? Sometimes the most telling stories aren't about what companies build, but what they can't—or won't—build. Google's laptop situation is a perfect case study in how even tech giants with virtually unlimited resources can stumble when it comes to hardware consistency and strategic commitment.

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.

The iPhone XS and XR may not be Apple's newest models, but they're still critical devices for millions of users worldwide. When these phones can't reliably connect to emergency services, it becomes more than just a technical glitch—it's a genuine safety concern. Apple's latest iOS 18.7.6 update tackles exactly this issue, specifically targeting emergency call problems that have been affecting users in Australia.

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.

Samsung quietly released a free Android app this week called Hearapy that plays a single low-frequency tone and claims to reduce motion sickness symptoms for up to two hours from a single minute of listening. The pitch sounds almost too simple. The research behind the Samsung Hearapy app motion sickness claim is real and specific enough to take seriously, while also being narrow enough to misread.

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...

A year after launching on phones and browsers, the YouTube TV Ask button with Gemini is coming to the screen where most YouTube viewing actually happens. Google began testing the feature last month on smart TVs, gaming consoles, and streaming devices, Engadget reported, marking the first time the conversational AI tool has been available outside mobile and desktop environments.

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...

Shady cast to TV apps on Google Play Store have a structural advantage over Google's defenses: they look exactly like legitimate apps, because in many cases they work exactly like legitimate apps. Every popular screen mirroring app tested in a peer-reviewed study published last September had at least one identifiable security vulnerability. More than 70% were exposed to man-in-the-middle attacks. These weren't obscure or poorly maintained apps they were popular, functional, and widely...

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...

Most people shopping for a new phone start by comparing cameras and display specs. That's the wrong place to start. By the time you're evaluating whether the iPhone 17 has a better telephoto than the Pixel 10 Pro, you've already skipped the decisions that actually determine whether a phone purchase turns out well.

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...

Starting this month, AT&T customers on certain older unlimited wireless plans will see higher bills: $10 more per month for single-line accounts, $20 more for any multi-line account regardless of how many lines are on it. The AT&T price hike April 2026 applies specifically to retired legacy unlimited plans activated before July 24, 2025, according to AT&T's own support page, updated March 17.

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.

Apple has confirmed one keyboard improvement and is rumored to be planning a second, more ambitious one. The distinction is the story.

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...

Reports circulating across tech publications suggest future iPhones could detect high cholesterol through a built-in breathalyzer. The evidence behind that claim is a single peer-reviewed study with 151 participants, not an Apple product announcement, a confirmed development initiative, or anything resembling a regulatory submission. The distinction has real consequences for how seriously to take the coverage.

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...

For the first time in Gmail's history, personal account holders can change their Gmail address without losing data, emails, or account access. No second account, no migration, no lost history. Google began rolling out this capability in late 2025 and has been expanding access since, 9to5Google reported in January 2026.

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 has updated its Developer Program License Agreement to govern how third-party accessories can access iPhone notifications and Live Activities establishing the Apple privacy rules for third-party notifications and Live Activities before the features ship. For EU iPhone users, the practical outcome is this: you will be able to route notifications to a non-Apple smartwatch, but you'll have to give up Apple Watch notifications to do it, and the rival watch still won't get Apple Watch-level...

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 has brought iOS 26.5 beta RCS end-to-end encryption back for a second consecutive testing cycle. The iOS 26.5 developer beta, released this week, includes an "End-to-End Encryption (Beta)" toggle for RCS in the Messages app, enabled by default, after the same feature appeared in iOS 26.4 testing and was pulled before that release shipped, as reported by 9to5Mac and MacRumors this week.

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.

A PSOne motherboard modified to load games from a microSD card, authorize unsigned code through a memory-card exploit on every boot, and output video over HDMI to any modern display. It works reliably. That last part is what makes this build worth examining.

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.

YouTube's playback controls are now surfacing inside Android Auto's dashboard media widget, letting subscribers play, pause, and skip content from their car's infotainment screen. The rollout appears broad, confirmed across multiple devices, app versions, and both beta and stable tracks, according to 9to5Google this past Sunday. There is no video playback, no browsing interface, and no standalone YouTube app. This is an audio control layer, and it requires a paid subscription to use.

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.

Three numbers from a Weibo tipster are driving this story: an 8,500mAh battery, a 165Hz display, and a MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chip. Those are the OnePlus Ace 6 Ultra leaked specs published March 30 by Notebookcheck, FoneArena, and Gizchina. The Redmi K90 Ultra is expected the same month with near-identical hardware. That convergence is the actual story here not just what OnePlus is building, but the fact that two major Chinese brands appear to be racing toward the same...