The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 7

Backing out of an app, opening Settings, and scrolling through the full app list just to flip one permission toggle is a small tax most iPhone owners pay eventually. This guide walks through how to add an Open App Settings shortcut to Control Center, a one-step Shortcuts action that, according to reporting, jumps you from whatever app you're using straight to that app's own settings page, skipping the manual hunt through the list (Digital Today reported earlier this year).

RugOne unveiled the Xsnap 7 Pro at IFA 2026 in Berlin this week, a rugged Android phone with a rear camera module that physically detaches and works as a standalone action camera. The RugOne Xsnap 7 Pro detachable action camera phone isn't shipping yet. Its Kickstarter campaign opens September 7 with a €799 super early-bird tier, roughly $930.

Is Microsoft 365 down right now? Mostly recovered, not fully closed. As of Wednesday morning, Microsoft's own telemetry shows service availability holding stable above 99%, though the company has kept the incident open while it finishes remediation work (NHSmail Support, today).

The word "reset" gets stretched to cover three unrelated jobs when an Apple TV remote acts up, and that stretching is where most of the confusion starts. Learning how to reset an Apple TV remote really means figuring out which of three things applies: restarting a frozen remote, re-pairing one that's lost its Bluetooth connection, or wiping the entire Apple TV back to factory settings. Only the last of those erases the Apple TV's data.

Google released Android 17 QPR2 Beta 1 on July 20, and the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro weren't included. The release notes were direct: "Pixel 6 and 6Pro users will not be getting this OTA since the device will reach End of Life and Android 17 QPR1 beta series will be the last for these devices," Android Police reported at the time.

Firefox for iOS now has a built-in ad blocker. Mozilla shipped it off by default, though, and you can now enable the feature from the app's main settings or the Site menu on a webpage. If you're trying to figure out how to enable ad blocker in Firefox on iPhone, the process itself is short. What takes longer to explain is what the feature actually filters once it's on, and where it stops.

Searching for how to watch 2026 US Open Round 2 live for free won't turn up a current live option because Round 2 is already over.

A supply-chain report claims Google is working with Samsung Display on a Pixel 12 Pro Fold crease-less display upgrade: a dual-UTG (ultra-thin glass) panel structure reportedly aimed at making the inner-screen crease far less visible than it is on the current Pixel 11 Pro Fold, according to 9to5Google, citing The Elec on September 2.

Samsung showed off two separate Bespoke AI Washer models at IFA 2026 in Berlin this week: a 10kg machine carrying Samsung's A-70% efficiency claim and a 13kg washer designed to fit within a standard 600mm European depth. These are two distinct products built for different priorities, not two trims of the same machine.

Microsoft is turning predictive text off by default in Word and Outlook, changing the default for a feature it began rolling out across its productivity apps in 2020.

The rumored Galaxy S27 Pro features read like a wishlist built by someone tired of hauling around an Ultra-sized phone: a smaller body, a 200MP main camera, a bigger battery, and flagship silicon.

Microsoft formally introduced Project Zenith today, building on the developer-optimized Windows 11 experience it previewed at Build 2026. Zenith is a preconfigured "ready-to-code" setup that ships with coding tools and developer-tuned settings built in. It launches first on AMD's Ryzen AI Halo platform, and AMD showed the first Project Zenith device, a mini PC, on stage at IFA earlier today.

Motorola's Swarovski Razr goes on sale September 10 for $899.99, a $100 premium over the standard Razr 2026, The Verge reported. The phone isn't shipping yet.

Apple is testing a new iOS 27 feature called iPhone Handoff that would let one phone number switch between two iPhones through a "companion eSIM" setup, rather than forcing users to manually transfer an eSIM every time they change devices. Apple briefly previewed the capability at WWDC 2026 with the description "Switch between two iPhone devices with the same phone number," but didn't explain how it would work.

Huawei's Pura X View now has official China pricing and a full spec sheet, and it's a non-folding phone that borrows the wide-screen proportions foldables made popular, minus the hinge, according to Gagadget. The phone packs a 6.39-inch, 16:9.5 OLED display into a conventional slab body, noticeably wider than the 19.5:9 ratio most phones use. China retail sales begin September 9, with pricing starting around $845 for the base configuration, and Huawei has not announced a US or UK launch.

Apple is reportedly weighing App Store revenue changes, and the one detail with a name attached to it is a possible increase to the $99 annual developer membership fee. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, relayed by 9to5Mac this week, reports that Apple leadership, described as new CEO John Ternus and services SVP Eddy Cue, wants to "raise margins and squeeze additional recurring revenue from the platform." That's the only specific change identified in the reporting. Apple hasn't announced it.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is getting a cap for the first time since it launched. Starting in November, Game Pass Essential, Premium, and Ultimate subscribers will each get a fixed number of cloud streaming hours per month, ending unlimited access across all three Game Pass tiers. Ultimate has offered uncapped cloud gaming since 2020, while Premium and Essential gained it less than a year ago.

The downsides of switching from MacBook to Windows are narrower than the horror stories suggest, but they're real enough to plan around before you buy. The hardest part usually isn't the new hardware. It's relearning shortcuts, losing part of the iPhone integration Mac owners take for granted, and discovering that "Windows laptop" describes machines with substantially different battery life, build quality, and app compatibility depending on which one you pick, according to Engadget.

Google's own product page for the Pixel 11 shows a short video of a color-shifting orb glowing on the side of the camera bar, The Verge reported last month. That single detail is confirmed, straight from Google's store, not a leak. The rest of the Google Pixel 11 Pro teaser story, including the feature's name, whether it's limited to the Pro model, and whether it replaces an existing sensor, comes from one outlet's reading of leaked information rather than any spec sheet Google has published,...

No iOS 27 developer beta 5 or iPadOS 27 beta 5 turns up in the reporting compiled for this piece. The newest confirmed build documented is developer beta 4, released July 20, which iClarified describes as continuing to refine both operating systems ahead of their fall launch.

Google unveiled the Pixel 11 Pro today, and the detail that stands out first has nothing to do with cameras or chips. It costs exactly $1,099 in the U.S., the same starting price as Apple's iPhone 17 Pro. Comparing iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 11 Pro means comparing two phones that match dollar for dollar, which pushes the real argument toward what each company actually means by "pro" (Trusted Reviews, today).

Galaxy Watch owners are flooding Reddit with the same complaint for the third time this year: their watches are hemorrhaging battery life for no obvious reason. The latest wave of Galaxy Watch battery drain reports surfaced today, according to Android Authority, hitting Galaxy Watch 6, 7, and 8 owners just as Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. Samsung has not publicly acknowledged the problem at any point during this cycle.

Global foldable smartphone shipments are projected to rise 20% year-over-year in 2026, and industry sources point to Apple's expected entry into the category as one factor behind that growth, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes this week. Counterpoint Research puts the figure slightly higher, forecasting 21% growth and tying the increase to Apple intensifying competition in the premium book-style foldable segment, the category of phones that open outward like a book to reveal a...

A large photo library stops being something anyone scrolls through to find one shot. OneDrive Photos has a Favorites feature built for exactly that problem: mark the images worth keeping close, then pull every favorited photo into one filtered view inside Gallery. This guide covers how to add or remove favorites in the OneDrive Photos app on Windows 11, using Microsoft's documentation, with one clearly labeled comparison to the separate Windows Photos app.

Samsung has stopped delivering Google Play System updates to devices running beta versions of One UI, including the Galaxy S26's One UI 9.0 (Android 17) beta. The company says the move happened "in coordination with Google."

A microphone icon just showed up next to the system tray, and nothing obviously running should need one. This guide walks through how to see which apps are using your microphone in Windows 11 right now, which ones used it over the past week, and how to shut off access once something looks off.

Google's Made by Google 2026 event lands this Wednesday, August 12, in New York, where the company is expected to unveil a new Pixel lineup that ZDNET describes as four phones: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and a Pixel 11 Pro Fold. CNET's coverage of the same Google Pixel 11 launch event corroborates three of those four models and adds a Pixel Watch 5 to the guest list, though its reporting doesn't specifically name the Pro XL.

TSA counted 15 states with a mobile driver's license that worked at its airport checkpoints as of February 2025, a list that ran from California and Puerto Rico all the way to Louisiana and New York (TSA). More states have added the option since then, and checking TSA's Digital ID page is the only reliable way to know if yours is one of them today. This guide walks through how to add your driver's license to your phone: confirming your state and device qualify, completing enrollment, and...

Ask ten people how the iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 matchup plays out this fall, and most will predict a rout: Apple's foldable debut does to this category what the original iPhone did to BlackBerry. That prediction needs a clearer definition of "win" before it holds up. Total foldable-market share is a different question than launch-week hype, and once you separate the two, the case for an Apple rout looks a lot thinner.

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday August 2026 release landed yesterday with a Windows kernel-level zero-day already being exploited in the wild. The Microsoft Patch Tuesday August 2026 zero-day drawing the most attention is CVE-2026-68820, a use-after-free flaw in the WinSock driver, confirmed under active attack and the clear must-patch item in a release that touches Azure, Exchange, SharePoint, and GitHub Copilot alongside the usual Windows and Office components (Security Affairs).

Apple has held preliminary discussions with the R&A about Apple TV Open Championship streaming rights, according to a Guardian report cited by 9to5Mac. Netflix and Amazon are also expected to be interested in the rights, per the same report.

Ask a phone maker what costs the most to build a handset in 2026, and the answer isn't the chip anymore. DRAM, the memory that runs a phone's software in real time, has overtaken the system-on-chip as the single most expensive component in a smartphone, according to Counterpoint Research, 2 weeks ago. That single fact reshapes how brands think about every other line item in the bill of materials, and it's the starting point for understanding how the RAM shortage affects smartphone audio...

Google added four phones to its lineup yesterday: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and the foldable Pixel 11 Pro Fold (The Verge). The Google Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro new features fall into five main groups: a faster chip paired with more proactive Gemini, a camera mode that shoots on its own timing, an overhauled voice and writing toolkit, camera-based search and translation, and a set of Pro-only imaging and video upgrades, according to Google's own announcement (Google Blog).

Google holds its Made by Google 2026 event today, expected to unveil the Pixel 11 series, Pixel Watch 5 and possibly a first-ever tracking tag. For anyone searching "Made by Google 2026 what to expect" this week, the honest answer is mostly leaks, with one confirmed detail from Google itself: pricing across the Pixel 11 lineup is going up (GSMArena, 4 days ago). Nearly everything else, from chip specs to camera zoom figures, traces back to a single detailed preview published four days before...

Google's Gemini for Home rollout is easier to understand once you separate what is free from what requires a subscription. The basic Gemini for Home voice assistant costs nothing extra on compatible speakers and displays, while Google Home Premium adds more advanced conversation, automation, and camera features.

Not every Galaxy Watch 9 health feature behaves the same way out of the box, which is exactly why deciding which Galaxy Watch 9 settings to enable on day one matters. Hard fall detection is a genuine toggle, and it ships off by default, doing nothing until someone switches it on (Samsung Support). Vitals and Sleep Coach aren't toggles in that sense. Vitals needs seven nights of overnight wear to build a baseline before it can flag anything unusual, and Sleep Coach needs at least seven days of...

A guide posted on XDA Forums last year describes a way to run Samsung DeX on a Galaxy Z Fold's internal screen, with no monitor, dock, or book cover attached.

Google's newest flagship costs more and, in one important respect, gives you less. The Pixel 11 Pro launches at $1,099, a full $100 above the Pixel 10 Pro's launch price last year, while its base configuration trims RAM from 16GB down to 12GB (The Verge, this week; Engadget, this week). That combination, pay more and get a smaller memory ceiling, is the tension anyone comparing the Pixel 11 Pro vs Pixel 10 Pro needs to understand before hitting pre-order.

Google introduced the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL on Wednesday, and the camera specs are doing most of the talking. The base Pixel 11 now carries a 30x Super Zoom, while the Pro models jump to a claimed 120x Pro Zoom, Google says. All three phones run on the company's new Tensor G6 chip, which Google links to several of the camera upgrades. The Pixel 11 camera vs iPhone camera comparison isn't a single matchup, though: the base and Pro tiers need to be judged on their own terms.

In late January 2026, Banjo: Recompiled launched for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a standalone native app. Not an emulated N64 game running inside a simulated console, but its own application, built with remappable controls, a second-stick camera option, and mod support. It's one entry in a growing scene that lets players play classic console games natively on Mac without touching an emulator.