News and Updates from Gadget Hacks: Page 8

MLB's iPhone app has dropped a longstanding limit on its Live Activity feature: fans can now track any scheduled game, not just a favorite team. The change is part of a broader MLB app CarPlay and Live Activities update that also reworks how the app works behind the wheel. Open Gameday for any matchup, tap the new Track button in the header, and the score follows along on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, 9to5Mac reported today.

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."

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.

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.

Google's Pixel 11 Pro Fold hands-on landed this week, and Engadget's headline doesn't leave much room for interpretation: "Stagnating Instead of Innovating," delivered in a year when Samsung made two new flagship foldables of its own (Engadget). That contrast is the starting point for this Pixel 11 Pro Fold vs Galaxy Z Fold 8 comparison, and it's worth being precise about which Samsung phone actually belongs in it.

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.

Apple popularized the idea of bringing two phones together to share content. Google is now introducing a similar workflow for some Android devices. The Android Quick Share tap to share feature started rolling out this week, adding a new way for Pixel owners to start sharing files and contact info.

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).

A rubberized, soccer-ball-shaped tracker that costs as little as $14.99 now taps into the same crowdsourced Find My network that powers Apple's $29 AirTag. That's the pitch behind Ugreen's FineTrack 2, and on paper it reads like an easy win for anyone tired of paying Apple prices for a plastic disc with a chip inside. But "half the price" only holds true on sale days, and the real question buried under that marketing line is what a buyer actually gives up at either price point.

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.

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's support documentation appears to extend Pixel 11 FeliCa support, the contactless standard behind Japan's transit gates, e-money terminals, and digital door keys, to some Pixel 11 models sold outside Japan. That's the claim in Android Headlines' reading of that documentation, published yesterday. No other outlet has independently confirmed it, and Google hasn't issued a statement.

The clearest evidence yet for Samsung Galaxy H1 headphones comes from code strings and icons buried inside the Galaxy Wearable app, which indicate Samsung is developing full-size, Bluetooth over-ear headphones under that codename, according to SamMobile.

Anyone searching for Google Pixel football club wallpapers this month will find one club with a named feature and two with vaguer promises. Within eight days in early August, Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain each signed sponsorship deals making Google Gemini their AI partner and Google Pixel their smartphone partner. Only one of the three announcements names an actual device feature: personalized wallpapers.

In a San Francisco courtroom last week, Judge James Donato watched a live demo of the Google Play installation flow and interrupted with a single question: "Wait, why did Walmart come up?" Days later he handed down a ruling that amounts to Google ordered to remove Android app store warnings, a mislabeled install button, and an unnecessary confirmation screen, though the order itself is narrower and more specific than that shorthand suggests. Donato targeted three concrete obstacles standing...

OnePlus has already answered the question everyone keeps asking. The company confirmed it will "conclude new product rollouts" in North America and Europe, according to an AndroidPure report from last month, corporate phrasing for a decision that's already made, not a rumor waiting to be denied.

Put a 4K stream and an Ultra HD Blu-ray of the same movie on the same television, and both will paint the screen with an identical 3,840 x 2,160 grid of pixels. Yet anyone who has watched both back to back knows they rarely look the same, a gap Engadget laid out today in its breakdown of 4K Blu-ray vs 4K streaming picture quality. The resolution numbers match. The amount of picture data sitting behind them does not, and that mismatch explains almost everything else in this comparison.

Google's August 2026 System Release Notes list updates for Play services, the Play Store, and several Android components, covering categories the company labels Phone, Tablet, Wear, Auto, and PC, according to 9to5Google, which published the changelog on August 10. They do not identify a Samsung Galaxy model, a One UI build, or a Samsung rollout date.

Two weeks after unboxing a Pixel 10 Pro, one reviewer opened Settings and found only 96GB usable out of a base 128GB. System files, background processes, and preinstalled apps that can't be disabled had already claimed roughly a quarter of the phone's advertised capacity, according to an Android Police account from nine months ago.

Gboard Rambler, the keyboard's newest speech-to-text tool, changes what happens the moment you dictate a message on the Pixel 11. By default, it cleans up spoken words into polished text, stripping out the "umms" and false starts. On request, it goes further, adjusting tone, expanding a thought, or tacking on emoji, according to 9to5Google and Android Authority reports published last week.

Between the start of August and today, Android Authority ran three separate reader polls about the Pixel 11. Together, they paint a picture of weak upgrade enthusiasm, and two of the three raise concerns about Pixel 11 overheating and battery life specifically, rather than cameras or design. Google's own pitch for the phone, at least as covered by outside reporting, points somewhere else entirely: toward computational photography tools and creative software, not the hardware fundamentals its...

Samsung opened public applications for the Samsung Galaxy Card on July 22, timed to coincide with Galaxy Unpacked, where the company unveiled new foldables and watches. The card is issued by Barclays U.S. Consumer Bank on the Visa network, carries no annual fee, and comes in both virtual and physical form. New cardholders who spend $2,000 within the first 90 days earn a $200 cash bonus.

Google has shipped two Snapseed updates for Android this month, and the Snapseed next update new features are already rolling out no waiting required. Version 4.1 adds support for RAW files from major camera manufacturers alongside in-tool undo and redo. A follow-up release, version 4.1.1.x, brings geotagging, original-image preservation, and custom save folders to Snapseed Camera. iOS users are confirmed to be getting these changes eventually, but no date has been set, per Android Authority.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the world's lightest book-style foldable, at 201g, and among the thinnest, measuring 4.5mm unfolded, which Android Authority confirmed is slimmer than the Galaxy S25 Edge at 5.8mm. Those numbers reflect genuine engineering progress. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 thinner and wider design trade-offs, though, deserve closer examination than the spec sheet provides: the redesign that produced a lighter, more pocketable phone also created an opening for Samsung to move key features up...

Apple added one of CarPlay's most significant upgrades to iOS 27: users with supported vehicles will be able to browse and play videos directly from the infotainment screen, without selecting the video on their iPhone, once compatible cars and apps become available. The feature, called "video in car," got no keynote time at WWDC 2026. Apple discussed it in a developer session and has said little publicly since.

When Samsung brought back the flip phone in 2020, the product practically marketed itself. The clamshell form factor carried decades of cultural memory, and Samsung packaged that nostalgia into a premium device that felt genuinely different. For a few years, the Flip was the clear winner in Samsung's foldable lineup, according to SamMobile, a remarkable result for what was, structurally speaking, a phone that folded the wrong way for productivity.

Samsung smart glasses arrived last week at Galaxy Unpacked in London with a notably smaller promise than most of this category has tried to make. No liberation from your phone. No ambient computing revolution. The phone stays essential; the glasses reduce the friction of reaching for it.

Leaked specifications circulating this week indicate Samsung is splitting its Galaxy Z Fold 8 lineup into two distinct display tiers. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra screen size is reported at 8 inches for the main panel and 6.5 inches for the cover screen, matching the current Fold 7's dimensions. The standard Fold 8, by contrast, drops to a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch cover screen. Android Authority, Notebookcheck, SamMobile, The Verge, and Trusted Reviews have all reported on the...

Samsung Austria has dropped the free storage upgrade from its Galaxy Z8 preorder promotion, requiring buyers to cover part of the cost of moving to a higher-capacity model.

Samsung launched the Samsung Health Assistant beta Tuesday, opening its first fully integrated AI-powered health tool inside Samsung Health to eligible U.S. users. Rather than presenting biometric data as graphs to decode, the assistant lets users ask questions about their health, check their daily Energy Score, and receive personalized health guidance across five wellness pillars: sleep, activity, nutrition, mindfulness, and vitals. The shift Samsung is positioning here is from a dashboard you...

If you're trying to find out whether the Google Health app is down, the short answer is: not broadly. What's actually happening is narrower and, for affected users, more frustrating. A Fitbit-branded permissions screen is looping on Pixel Watch devices, blocking access to health apps and, in some cases, stopping data from syncing entirely. Google has not issued a public statement, and no user-side fix has been confirmed.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8 last Samsung foldable rumor is unconfirmed. Samsung hasn't said a word about ending the line. What it has done is allocate 2.8 million display panels to its new Wide Fold, 2 million to the Fold 8 Ultra, and 1.5 million to the Flip 8, dead last in its own lineup, according to industry sources cited by TrendForce this week. Reports from Android Police and SamMobile from earlier this month suggest the Flip 8 could be Samsung's final clamshell. Neither has confirmed it.

Amazon has added Luna game streaming directly to the Prime Video app, giving Prime members access to a rotating catalog of streamable games through a new Games tab on Fire TV devices. No console required, no separate download. On geography, the two outlets that confirmed today's rollout don't agree: Engadget says the launch covers the US and UK, while VGC specifies the UK only. Both confirm Fire TV as the starting point, with additional devices and countries to follow in the coming months....

A detailed specs leak ahead of tomorrow's Unpacked event reveals a deliberate first-gen tradeoff: no display, a phone-dependent Gemini assistant, and battery life that varies wildly depending on how you actually use them.

A new Google Pixel 11a leak claims the budget Pixel will run Tensor G6, the same chip debuting in the flagship Pixel 11 on August 12. That's a meaningful claim: the Pixel 10a shipped with a recycled Tensor G4 because the G5 was reportedly too expensive for the A-series price point. Leaker Mystic Leaks now says the Pixel 11a, codenamed "Formosan," would run that same G6 platform from launch.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Motorola Razr Fold matchup is the most competitive the book-style foldable category has seen. For seven years, Samsung refined this segment largely without a serious large-format rival. The Motorola Razr Fold is Motorola's first attempt at that space, and it comes in swinging on hardware: a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery against the Z Fold line's 4,400mAh, and charging speeds of 80W wired and 50W wireless against Samsung's 25W and 15W (PCMag UK reported in...

Samsung confirmed that the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8 all ship with silicon-carbon batteries, making them the first Galaxy phones to use the chemistry, per Android Authority. The disclosure didn't come from a keynote slide or a press release. It came out in Q&A at a media briefing.

Connecting certain LG UltraGear monitors to a Windows 11 PC can trigger the automatic installation of adware-like software that displays McAfee subscription ads on every boot, according to reporting from heise, Hardware Busters, and TechSpot. The software arrives through Windows's device-metadata system, which matches peripheral hardware IDs against a catalog and fetches associated software automatically. No prompt. No consent dialog. No click required.

Netflix spent a decade competing on 4K resolution and frame-rate clarity. This week, to mark Stranger Things' 10th anniversary, the platform released the Stranger Things VHS Special Edition: all eight episodes of season 1 engineered to look like a tape pulled off a shelf at a video rental store in 1983. The release dropped July 15, the exact date season 1 originally debuted on Netflix, Polygon confirmed this week.

Code strings buried inside the latest Google Maps beta suggest Google is preparing to connect the app directly to Gmail, Google Photos, Calendar, and other Google services so Maps could show reservation or flight details drawn from connected Google apps.