The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 3

Google closed its Pixel 11 launch event in New York on August 12 the way it opened: with Trevor Noah on stage. Near the end, Rick Osterloh, Google's hardware chief, joined him, apparently to wrap things up, after a lineup expected to include Alex Cooper, Steph Curry, PinkPantheress and Ayami Nakajo, according to Engadget's live coverage of the show. It made for solid television. It made for a thinner night of proof.

For years, every iMessage conversation looked the same: the standard plain Messages backdrop, no matter who you were talking to. That changed when Apple shipped iOS 26, which lets you swap that plain canvas for a photo, a solid color, an animated preset, or an AI-generated image. Learning how to change the background on iPhone Messages takes about thirty seconds once you know where to look, but the feature works differently than most people expect. It isn't a personal theme sitting quietly on...

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.

If Smart App Control just blocked an install and you're wondering whether you have to disable it to get past the warning, the short answer is: probably not.

Xiaomi has now launched the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max in China, locking in the camera hardware that was being teased before their Sept. 23 debut. Samsung, meanwhile, hasn't officially revealed the Galaxy S27 Ultra camera system yet, and leakers are still disagreeing over parts of its telephoto setup.

Google Photos has added a floating camera button inside its AI editing tools, letting people snap a fresh photo without leaving the app and feed it straight into an edit. The new Google Photos AI camera button shows up inside Photo Remix and Photo to Video, part of a wider push to add camera access to tools in the app's Create tab.

Paramount Skydance is the name of the corporate entity acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. It is not an announced streaming brand, and there is no confirmed HBO Max and Paramount Plus merger into a single app, according to a Paramount SEC filing from earlier this year. That distinction matters because online chatter has treated "Paramount Skydance" as a future consumer app name, when the filing uses it only to identify the company buying Warner Bros. Discovery.

Some Nest Doorbell owners outside the US are hearing their doorbell announcements delivered in an American accent even though other Google Home interactions on the same account still match their configured language or dialect.

Apple's iOS 27 bill-splitting feature is now live, letting Apple Cash users photograph or select a receipt, assign individual items to different people, and calculate each person's share before sending payment requests.

TikTok videos on Disney Plus are becoming real, and Disney+ subscribers will start seeing that content inside the app within the next few months. The rollout stems from a global Disney Plus TikTok partnership the two companies announced yesterday, according to The Walt Disney Company's announcement and USA Today. Opt-in creators will have their short-form videos appear on both TikTok and Verts, the vertical-video feed built into the Disney+ mobile app.

Amazon recently unveiled the new Fire TV Stick 4K, priced at $59.99 and replacing both the outgoing Fire TV Stick 4K Select and the 4K Plus in one move. It's now shipping in the US, Canada, and several other markets, and Amazon is running a launch promotion that drops the price to $30 for the upcoming Prime Big Deal Days.

Apple's macOS 27 "Golden Gate" puts Siri AI into Spotlight, the right-click menu, and screen-aware queries, but the first hands-on account of it found Siri itself only "occasionally useful." Gizmodo's Kyle Barr spent time with the macOS 27 beta two months ago and came away more impressed with a different feature: AI-assisted Shortcuts, which he called "the real gold" of the release.

Samsung is boosting compensation as engineers weigh offers from rival SK hynix, but the gap between its memory and foundry businesses remains wide.

Apple's iOS 27 update, released Sept. 14, adds a new layer of parental controls that lets parents approve or deny specific requests as they happen instead of relying only on restrictions configured in advance.

Samsung recently unveiled the Galaxy SmartTag3, and for the first time in the SmartTag lineup, the tracker supports iPhone finding and sharing alongside Galaxy devices. T

Apple Watch GPS vs GPS + Cellular comes down to one question: do you need the watch to stay connected when your iPhone isn't nearby? Within the same Apple Watch model and case material, the two versions share the same core health, fitness, display, and GPS features.

A Tom's Guide reporter spent about four hours trying to book a family trip to Disneyland Paris, phone parked in an online queue the whole time. The reporter said the checks on that booking page came about every 20 minutes in that case, part of a range the same person observed elsewhere running anywhere from 10 minutes to a full hour (Tom's Guide, last week). That inconsistency is the whole problem with an otherwise clever tool.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple plans to unveil a new smart home hub alongside a refreshed HomePod mini and an updated Apple TV 4K on Tuesday, October 13, an event already being tagged online as the Apple HomeHub October 13 launch.

Open a tablet or foldable app and get a stretched phone-sized window with blank space on either side, and that's the problem a reported Play Store badge is intended to address. Android Police and Digital Trends both reported in late April 2026 that an upcoming Google Play Store update, which Digital Trends identified as version 51.2, would add Google Play Store large screen app labels marking apps "built to utilise large screens."

Google Photos' Wardrobe feature may be getting fixes for two of its biggest gaps: a way to add new clothes without wiping the digital closet, and a way to redo item images that come out looking wrong. Android Authority found both controls in an unreleased Google Photos build, version 7.95, enabled through manual tinkering rather than any Google announcement, according to its regeneration report and refresh report. Neither control is public, and the cited reports don't describe either as a live...