News and Updates from Gadget Hacks: Page 6

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.

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.

A major Xbox network outage prevented some players from signing in, viewing their libraries, making purchases, and launching games for much of July 27, 2026. Microsoft restored the affected services at approximately 2:30 p.m. PDT that day.

A teardown of the latest Google Translate APK has surfaced a Google Translate live translate widget that starts real-time speech translation with a single tap and, based on code strings found in the build, keeps running after users leave the app. That combination of one-tap start and persistent background operation describes something meaningfully different from a shortcut.

The hard part of working in Google Docs has never been writing the first sentence. It's everything that follows: reformatting a draft to match a template someone else built, fixing the voice after four contributors have left their fingerprints on it, finding an image that doesn't require a trip to another tool. Google has been shipping Gemini in Google Docs updates since March 2026 to handle most of that cleanup automatically, inside Docs, without changing the interface most users already know.

Samsung may be considering one of its most notable Galaxy S camera changes in years. Early Galaxy S27 leaks suggest the standard models are being tested with Sony main sensors, while the rumored Pro and Ultra phones could receive higher-resolution ultrawide, telephoto, and selfie cameras.

An Amazon listing surfaced the Pixel Buds Pro 2 in an unnamed dark green colorway this week before being pulled, and Android Authority reported today that Google also appears to have been showing the same shade on its Play Store rewards page. The Pixel 11 event is confirmed for August 12, two weeks away. The leak points to no hardware changes, only a new colorway.

Google's support page now states plainly that QR code pairing for Messages on the web is "no longer available in the US." On the same day that notice appeared, reporters at Android Authority pulled up the QR option in both the Android app and the browser without any trouble. That gap between what Google's documentation says and what users are actually seeing is where this story starts.

Microsoft is gradually updating some of Windows 11's oldest interface elements with replacements built using WinUI 3, its current native user-interface framework. The latest preview-build discovery suggests that the familiar File Properties window may be next, although the redesign remains hidden and cannot be enabled through normal Windows settings.

Windows maintains a persistent device identifier on many installations that survives OS updates, cuts through VPN obfuscation, and allows Microsoft to reconnect the same machine across different services, sessions, and IP addresses, according to court filings and PCMag's reporting. Most users have never heard of it. The FBI used it to help build a cybercrime case against an alleged Scattered Spider member, and VPN provider Windscribe's attempt to remove it this week showed just how deeply the...

Samsung posted record companywide results for the second quarter of 2026, but its smartphone business struggled to turn strong Galaxy sales into profit. The company reported KRW 171.5 trillion in consolidated revenue and KRW 89.5 trillion in operating profit, while higher component costs weighed on its mobile division.

Satya Nadella told investors on Microsoft's Wednesday earnings call that the company will begin bringing Copilot's chat, coding, task-delegation, and autonomous-agent capabilities together in one Microsoft Copilot super app this quarter. It's the clearest confirmation yet that Microsoft's sprawling Copilot lineup is heading toward a single, unified Copilot app.

A battery unit spotted in India's Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) database was an early piece of evidence pointing toward an unannounced Samsung earbud, according to an April report from Android Authority. Nothing in that listing, or in the app code that surfaced before it, confirms the Samsung ear-hook earbuds theory that has attached itself to the leak.

The Pixel Watch 5 has appeared in a Google Play Console listing under the codename "godric," adding to the evidence that Google's next smartwatch is nearing launch. The entry follows June regulatory filings for four probable Pixel Watch 5 models and reveals 3GB of RAM, up from 2GB in recent generations.

Razer Axon Wallpaper Engine Mobile is scheduled to hit Google Play on July 15, 2026, and Razer has built a two-phase hardware giveaway around the release that runs from July 3 through July 29. Nine prizes total, split across pre-registration and social entry windows, with the first draw already open, PR TIMES reported this week. What the app actually does remains largely undescribed in pre-launch materials but the campaign mechanics are concrete, and that's what most readers need to act on...

A leak posted today on X claims Samsung will open pre-reservations for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as soon as July 8. The tip comes from a single source, Abhishek Yadav, and Samsung has not announced it. But a separate report noted that this year's pre-registration window is reportedly compressed to just a few days before the expected July 22 Unpacked event, 9to5Google reported two weeks ago, so the compressed timing fits. What matters before acting on that is understanding which device the reservation...

Google Wallet appears to be rolling out expanded transaction history for Android that includes payments made on paired Wear OS devices. For watch users, it closes a straightforward problem: the Android app previously showed only the 10 most recent tap-to-pay transactions from that specific phone, with Wear OS payments excluded entirely. Verifying a watch payment meant opening a browser, not the Wallet app.

Google Maps cannot place a restaurant order. That distinction matters, because the conversational discovery experience Google has built over the past eight months makes the question feel closer than it did before. A sequence of Gemini-powered feature launches hands-free navigation, AI-synthesized venue tips, multi-step voice queries has moved Maps from a directions app into something that finds restaurants, answers follow-up questions about them, and routes you there by voice. Whether ordering...

Leaked renders published two weeks ago show more than a Samsung Health facelift. Buried in the imagery is what appears to be a reworked watchface picker, a component that lives inside the Galaxy Wearable app, not Samsung Health, suggesting the Samsung Wearable app redesign may extend beyond the fitness tracking side of Samsung's software stack. Samsung has not confirmed any changes to the Wearable app.

A new leak suggests Samsung is preparing to give the Galaxy S27 Pro near-Ultra camera hardware and an Ultra-exclusive display feature, then power it with a Samsung-made Exynos chip across Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Latin America. The Samsung Galaxy S27 Pro Exynos leak, reported this week by Android Authority and SamMobile, would make "Pro" a materially different product depending on which continent you buy it on. Snapdragon would go to US buyers only, per Android Authority, or to all...