The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 5

Run powercfg /hibernate on in an elevated terminal, then go to Control Panel and check the Hibernate box under power button settings. That's it. Many guides stop after the command or the Control Panel step this one covers both, in order, with the gotchas called out where they matter.

Netflix ended 2025 with 325 million global subscribers, $45 billion in revenue, and a 29.5% operating margin, per its annual filing with the SEC. Those are numbers most traditional media companies would trade their entire legacy for. Yet the idea of Netflix becoming cable is no longer just a metaphor. It is visible in the product roadmap, in the acquisition pipeline, and in the engagement metrics that have been keeping executives up at night.

You cannot add an external user to a Google Chat group message. That limit is unchanged. According to Google documentation cited for this article, Google has made generally available: guest accounts that bring non-Google users into Chat spaces, shared Drive files, and Meet calls, all inside your organization's security perimeter and without a full Workspace license.

Neowin reported that Microsoft has added a registry-based policy giving IT admins direct Windows 11 SSO prompts and admin control on managed devices. When enabled, the policy automatically accepts single sign-on consent dialogs on users' behalf, turning a manual confirmation step into an automatically approved SSO action. The eligibility window is tight: Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 devices only, Entra ID-managed only, and a supported update containing the policy must already be installed.

Six Pixel 11 model numbers have appeared in FCC certification records, confirming MediaTek modem hardware across the lineup and ending the Pixel line's reliance on Samsung modems since the Tensor-powered Pixel 6 generation.

Leaked renders of what appears to be Samsung's next flagship tablet surfaced this week showing a notch cut into the top edge of the display. No Samsung Galaxy Tab S or Tab A model has previously shipped with a notch, which makes this a genuine departure from the company's established design language. The renders have not been independently verified, and Samsung has not commented.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has already launched. The Pixel 11 Pro XL is still months away, known mostly through leaks, CAD renders, and a Telegram channel. That asymmetry matters before anything else: comparing the Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra isn't a traditional head-to-head so much as a weighing of a known quantity against an ambitious pre-launch signal.

Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy Card on Monday, its first-ever credit card in the United States, issued by Barclays US Consumer Bank on the Visa network. Public applications open July 22. A limited early-access window for select eligible customers began Monday, though Samsung has not specified what criteria determine eligibility.

A Bigme HiBreak Dual 2 competitor arrived within days of Bigme's Kickstarter launch: a new Hisense e-paper phone with a detachable color LCD. Hisense had recently debuted its own E Ink phone with a fundamentally different design choice: its secondary color LCD detaches magnetically. That single difference defines the central question worth asking right now: should an E Ink display be a permanent part of a phone, or something users can choose when they want it?

Spotify recently launched "Talk to Spotify," a conversational AI feature that lets Premium subscribers find, control, and learn about music, podcasts, and audiobooks through back-and-forth chat. The Spotify Talk to Spotify AI chatbot sets itself apart from generic music assistants by drawing on each user's actual listening history, not just catalog knowledge, when generating responses, according to Spotify's announcement.

Google confirmed this week it is pushing a patch for the Android Auto 17.2 crash fix that users have been waiting on since early July. The fix covers both the stable and beta channels, and the company has published exact build numbers so users can confirm whether their device is protected. The update is in staged rollout now, per Android Authority and Android Headlines.

Samsung Health is warning users that withdrawing consent for AI training will cut off cloud sync and trigger deletion of previously synced health data, except data Samsung is legally required to retain. The toggle began reaching users this week, and the core question the Samsung Health AI training opt-out raises is one Samsung has not publicly answered: does "deleted" refer to your entire health history, or only the copy Samsung stores through account sync?

Google released Android 17 QPR2 Beta 1 today, and the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro weren't included. The release notes are direct: "Pixel 6 and 6 Pro 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 today. Android Authority confirmed the exclusion independently.

WhatsApp has started rolling out its Liquid Glass redesign to the Mac app, making Mac the last major Apple platform to receive the update. The translucent visual overhaul is the obvious draw, but the changes with the most practical effect on daily use are structural: a privacy gap that left sensitive chats exposed on shared Macs is being closed, and navigation that required too much guesswork has been rebuilt from scratch.

One day before Galaxy Unpacked, the picture is about as clear as pre-announcement pictures get. Leaked marketing materials distributed by Evan Blass show the Galaxy Z Fold 8 images in full: a visibly shorter, squatter device that matches the 4:3 "wide Fold" form factor corroborated independently across multiple outlets this week. These images aren't notable because they're polished renders. They're notable because they confirm the shape, and taken together with supply-chain data, the shape...

Samsung is set to reveal the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra, and Flip 8 at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22. Reporting from multiple outlets points consistently toward a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 price increase across at least some models, with the clearest jumps in the US Fold Ultra, Korean Flip 8 pricing, and high-capacity European tiers. The more complicated part: even where base MSRP appears flat, the effective launch-day cost could still be worse than last year if Samsung reduces the...

Samsung has confirmed the cause of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra red screen problem that has been troubling owners since the phone launched earlier this year. The display discoloration is a software optimization failure, not a hardware defect, and affected owners can already get a fix at Samsung service centers while a broader over-the-air update is being prepared, Samsung confirmed Thursday, July 16, according to Chosun and subsequent reports.

Samsung introduced the Galaxy Z Flip8, Galaxy Z Fold8, and Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra on July 22, 2026, with larger batteries, thinner designs, and lower weights across parts of the lineup. The company's official Galaxy Z specifications list a 5,000mAh battery for the Fold8 Ultra, 4,800mAh for the Fold8, and 4,300mAh for the Flip8.

This guide covers whether turning off Google Play Protect is the right call for your situation, how to do it if it is, and the specific steps to take immediately after. Skipping that last part is where most people get into trouble.

Code changes found in Apple's Wallet backend suggest that Apple Car Key support for GWM Tank vehicles may be in development, MacRumors reported last week. None of Great Wall Motor's four current Tank models, the 300, 400, 500, or 700, support the feature today, MacObserver reported last week.

Strings pulled from Samsung firmware describe a dedicated settings page called "App screen zoom" that would let Galaxy users assign a different zoom level to individual apps, Android Authority reported today. The key detail in those strings: custom per-app settings would persist independently, so changing the system-wide zoom later wouldn't affect any app a user had already configured.

The Galaxy Z Fold7's preorder window closed July 24, 2025, the day before the phone launched. For buyers without a device to trade in, the Amazon Galaxy Z Fold7 preorder deal stood apart from the competition not because it carried the highest nominal credit value.

Apple Car Key stores a credential in your Wallet app and uses it to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle no separate app, no cellular connection required. Setting up a car key on iPhone takes about five minutes once you know you're eligible. The part that trips people up is figuring out whether they actually are.

An unreleased build of Google Calendar for Android shows a new chip that would let Workspace users create Google Calendar focus time on Android directly, without touching a desktop browser. Android Authority spotted the "Focus time" entry point in version 2026.27.0-946652271-release today, sitting above the floating action button used to add calendar entries. The feature is not active, and Google has not announced a rollout date.

Most people assume they check their phones often. What they almost never do is measure it. When researchers have tracked actual pickup behavior, the numbers consistently exceed self-reported estimates by a significant margin. A 2016 analysis cited by Stanford's Change Lab put average daily phone interactions at roughly 2,617. The methodology behind that figure is imprecise what counts as an "interaction" varies considerably but it points at something real: for most people, phone use is not...

Reviewed by: Y. Garcia

Microsoft released the Windows 11 July preview update this week, pushing builds 26100.8968 and 26200.8968 to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview channel on versions 24H2 and 25H2 respectively. The update spans File Explorer, Search, Voice Access, Windows Hello, touchpads, battery settings, and the Start menu, according to PCWorld.

No research data was available to verify pricing, software commitments, battery results, or cover screen specifications at the time of writing. What follows is a decision framework built around the criteria that actually separate these phones, in the order they matter. Treat it as the architecture for your own research before committing flagship money to either device.

Apple raised the price of Apple Music today, and in doing so, made Apple One a slightly better deal for the people already on the fence about it. That's not how price hikes are supposed to work, but the arithmetic is clear. Whether Apple One is worth it in 2026 depends almost entirely on which services a subscriber would pay for anyway, and today's pricing moves shifted exactly where that break-even line falls.

Samsung's 2026 smartwatch lineup makes the buying decision unusually clear. The Galaxy Watch9 is the better fit for most buyers because it shares the Galaxy Watch Ultra2's processor, software, core sensors, and announced health features but starts at $320 less in the US. The Ultra2 primarily justifies its premium through longer battery life, stronger water protection, a brighter display, additional storage, and tools designed for trail sports and recreational diving.

For the past several Galaxy S generations, the answer to "should I buy the S or S Plus?" has been some version of "only if the Ultra is too big or too expensive." The cameras were fine. The batteries were adequate. Nothing about them was wrong, exactly they just weren't interesting. A batch of Galaxy S27 camera and battery leaks published today suggests Samsung is aware of that problem and may be doing something about it.

A European pricing leak suggests Samsung will introduce two Galaxy Z Fold 8 models, including a new Ultra version that could cost as much as €2,799 with 1TB of storage.

Some users on the current stable App Store release are already seeing WhatsApp's redesigned message bubbles on iOS, not just beta testers. The corners are significantly rounder, shared media drops its traditional border frame, and the overall shape sits noticeably closer to the bubble geometry iPhone users know from iMessage, WaBetaInfo reported yesterday.

Spider-Man is currently fighting ninjas in Long Island City, Queens, and the image sits inside Google Maps exactly the way any other street-level photograph does. Google confirmed it staged five scenes at real New York City locations as part of a promotion for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, describing them as "custom Spider-Man moments staged and captured as the Street View car happened upon Spider-Man in action," per PCMag. The campaign also includes spideytracker.com, a dedicated microsite built...

The latest Android on-device ADB changes under discussion at Google are not official yet, but they could reshape how Shizuku, LADB, and other local ADB tools work. According to a Kitsumed Blog post published last week summarizing an active Google IssueTracker thread, a core ADB maintainer discussed restricting which network interfaces the ADB daemon listens on a conversation triggered by CVE-2026-0073, a vulnerability that allowed wireless ADB's pairing authentication to be bypassed entirely...

Google's revamped Android 17 iOS migration tool for Pixel phones is live, and two Pixel generations that qualify for the OS can't use it. The updated Android Switch utility is limited to Pixel 8 and newer, plus a handful of Samsung foldables, leaving Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 owners with the OS update but none of the upgraded process's additional transfer capabilities. Pixel 8 owners fare only slightly better: they can access the tool exclusively during initial device setup.

Samsung just shipped silicon-carbon batteries in its new foldables for the first time. Now a credible Korean leaker says the same chemistry is being tested in the Galaxy S27 series, the phones that drive Samsung's actual volume. The Galaxy S27 silicon-carbon battery question isn't whether the technology works. It's whether Samsung puts it in the right phones at the right price.

Google says higher memory costs will force it to adjust prices across the Pixel family, including the upcoming Pixel 11 lineup. In a July 24 interview with 9to5Google, Google Vice President of Devices and Services Shakil Barkat said the company could no longer absorb all the increases coming from suppliers.

In early June 2025, Google Home stopped recognizing one of the most basic thermostat commands its users could issue. Say "turn off the thermostat" and the platform returned an error then suggested trying "turn off the thermostat." Google fixed the Google Home Nest Thermostat hands-free control issue within days, posting a resolution via the GoogleNestCommunity Reddit account on June 10, 2025. No public explanation of what caused it was ever offered.

High-quality renders published July 8 offer the clearest look yet at Samsung's expected Galaxy Z Fold 8. The images show a shorter, wider foldable that departs from the tall smartphone shape used by the Galaxy Z Fold 7, potentially making the new model easier to carry and use for games, media, and everyday apps.