Gadget Hacks: Page 5

A new open-source Windows app called YTubic launched today with a genuinely different technical approach to a problem Google has ignored for years: there is no official YouTube Music desktop client for Windows. Developer NUber-dev built the free, GPL-3.0-licensed app to bypass the sluggish webview wrappers that define most third-party alternatives, communicating directly with YouTube's internal API instead of loading the full website inside a desktop shell. Whether that architectural bet pays...

The Galaxy S27 Ultra battery rumor that dominated Samsung coverage earlier this year was built on shakier ground than most headlines let on. A credible tipster has pushed back on the claim that the S27 Ultra will ship with a cell larger than 5,000mAh, and the original sourcing was already more conditional than downstream coverage acknowledged. The likeliest outcome: the Ultra ships with the same capacity Samsung has used across every Ultra model from the S20 through the S26, a streak now seven...

The safest way to troubleshoot Gemini Error 1099 is to match the workaround to the specific way the error is appearing, because the same error code has appeared in at least three different patterns reported by users. Reports span multiple Reddit communities, affecting both free and paid users across Android, the web, iOS, macOS, and Chrome. The fix for a single stale conversation is not the same as the fix for an error that fires every time you press the Pixel side button, and neither applies...

At first glance, Android Halo looks like a sensible piece of UX design. Google's description is straightforward: a persistent indicator at the top of your phone screen where an AI agent can update you, ask for input, and surface results from background tasks, all without interrupting whatever you're doing. Google's official announcement previewed this in May as "at-a-glance visibility into what your agent is working on at any given time." That is a real problem, and this is a reasonable...

Anyone who has moved a spreadsheet from Microsoft Excel into Google Sheets and watched a 3D bar chart collapse into a generic 2D version knows exactly what this fix addresses. Google updated Sheets this week to preserve 3D formatting when importing 3D bar charts from external applications, with Excel cited as the primary example, per the Google Workspace Updates blog.The update requires no admin configuration and is available to all Workspace customers and personal Google accounts, with rollout...

Google Maps appears to be preparing a food-ordering feature that would let users request food through Ask Maps while on the go, according to newly discovered app strings and earlier Google statements about agentic commerce. The two signals together point to active development of a Google Maps food ordering capability built on top of the app's existing Gemini integration, and they raise as many questions as they answer.

Google has removed 18 AI Chrome extensions tied to chatbot-jailbreak and overbroad-permission risks after Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 reported them to the company. The removals, which happened with no coordinated public announcement, are one part of a two-part story. The other part is a separate vulnerability, CVE-2026-0628, disclosed by Unit 42 around the same period, showing that Chrome's extension permission framework has a structural gap the company hasn't fully resolved. These are related...

A new report claims OPPO may retire OxygenOS on all future global devices, folding it into ColorOS alongside realme UI, according to the report. That claim comes from a single unnamed source, but it lands against a backdrop of independently confirmed signals: OnePlus' German website now directs customers to OPPO hardware, most of the European team walked out in April, and UK inventory has run dry with no refresh in sight. Taken together, the software consolidation report and the brand retreat...

Google this week began rolling out Android 17 QPR1 Beta 6 to eligible Pixel devices, with the most notable changes landing in desktop windowing: taskbar icons have moved from bottom-center to bottom-left, and picture-in-picture windows now float freely instead of snapping to screen edges. Neither change is dramatic on its own. Taken together, they continue a visible pattern of iteration on a feature that first appeared in Android 16 QPR3, according to heise.

Retailer pricing for Samsung's upcoming foldable lineup surfaced today, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 price leak tells a more interesting story than a routine increase. The base Galaxy Z Fold 8 is reportedly priced at €1,999 for 256GB, a new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra sits at €2,199, and the Galaxy Z Flip 8 starts at €1,299, according to Android Authority and SamMobile, both citing a WinFuture report drawn from retailer sources. All three models are up roughly €100 from their predecessors at base....

A Samsung Galaxy Glasses leak this week surfaced what appears to be a 27-second promotional video showing the device from multiple angles, and the footage tells only part of the story. The more revealing details come from a companion manager app and embedded code strings analyzed by SammyGuru, reported this week by Android Authority and Beebom: Samsung appears to be building a dedicated controller app for Galaxy Watches, while code strings in a Ring gesture plug-in reference starting and...

Android 17 QPR1 Beta 6 adds three features to the built-in Linux Terminal: custom font imports, multi-window support, and per-shortcut keyboard remapping. Two of them, custom fonts and separate windows, were reported this week by Android Authority; the shortcut controls came from a separate Android Authority report published the same day. The additions continue a customization push that started with Alacritty theme imports in Beta 1 earlier this year.

The YouTube Music Library tab has disappeared for some Android Auto users, replaced by a blank screen showing a "No Items" message where saved playlists, albums, and liked songs should be. If you're seeing that message where your YouTube Music Library used to be on Android Auto, you're not alone. Both Android Authority and 9to5Google reported the YouTube Music Android Auto bug earlier today, and a thread in r/AndroidAuto has drawn enough matching complaints to suggest this is wider than...

Google is testing a reCAPTCHA system that asks users to turn on their webcam and perform a hand gesture, such as a wave or an open palm, while its machine learning model maps 21 coordinates of their hand to confirm a live human is present. The new Google reCAPTCHA hand gesture verification feature launched as a limited test in mid-June and has already drawn scrutiny: testers bypassed it using a still image of a waving person fed through virtual camera software, raising immediate questions about...

Android 17 lets the OS automatically steer WhatsApp, Zoom, and other over-the-top calling apps onto a dedicated premium 5G network slice during active calls, without requiring changes to an app's networking stack. The routing kicks in only when a carrier has provisioned a compatible slice, a user's plan includes access to it, and the calling app uses the Telecom Jetpack API. None of those supporting conditions are publicly documented yet, Android Authority reported this week.

Google's official Nest Community account reportedly confirmed it identified the root cause of a YouTube Music playback failure on Nest Hub smart displays and pushed a fix. At least one affected user confirmed playback resumed immediately afterward. If YouTube Music not working on Nest Hub has been your reality for the past few weeks, the short answer is: try it again now.

Android 17 QPR1 Beta 5 dropped last week as a bug-fix release, but the features that make it worth running on a Pixel arrived two months earlier. Earlier QPR1 reporting pointed to three Terminal interface upgrades: a display resolution control, a full-screen mode, and a theme system with Alacritty import support. Beta 5 stabilizes the cycle and brings Pixel 6 and 6 Pro back into the beta program after they were skipped in Beta 4. The Terminal features themselves haven't changed; they've just...

Google confirmed today that a Pixel 4a boot loop fix is arriving in the July Google Play system update. For owners whose phones still function, the fix should land automatically this month. For devices already locked in a loop and unable to complete startup, whether the update can reach them at all remains publicly unanswered.

Peacock enters this next chapter with 46 million subscribers, a genuine sports portfolio, and a growing entertainment slate. None of that is the problem. The problem is structural: for years, Comcast's cable and broadband network connecting more than 65 million U.S. customers gave Peacock bundled distribution, built-in promotional use, and a balance sheet deep enough to absorb streaming losses without triggering a crisis. The Comcast NBCUniversal spin-off doesn't change what Peacock is. It...

New Pixel connectivity complaints surfaced on Reddit today, and the pattern is becoming hard to ignore. Three separate posts from the past 24 hours describe a Pixel 10 toggling unprompted between Wi-Fi and mobile data, another user losing mobile data entirely, and a Pixel 7a owner who recovered by running a connectivity reset. Commenters across each thread report the same experience, with some saying the problems have persisted for months, Android Authority reported today.

Some Pixel owners are missing calls that never ring and never show up as missed. The phone sits there looking normal while the caller hits voicemail. Complaints have accumulated on Reddit and Google's Issue Tracker across multiple Pixel models, with no confirmed cause and no fix, according to Android Police this week.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop for Business 8th Edition is built for enterprise IT departments, government procurement teams, and regulated-industry organizations. That context matters before any price discussion, because the $1,949.99 starting point on the 13.8-inch model makes no sense without it. Windows Central confirmed the $500 jump over last year's 7th Edition, with privacy-screen configurations beginning at $2,549.99. The reviewed unit ran $3,299.

Google pushed the Pixel Camera 10.4 update to the Play Store this week with no new features, no interface changes, and three bug fixes. One of those fixes addresses a camera service crash that affects overall system stability across every supported Pixel from the Pixel 6 through the Pixel 10a. Another can bring down the phone itself, not just the app. For a maintenance release, this one carries some weight.

Google is rolling out Android per-app backup controls to Pixel devices, letting users see exactly which apps are storing data to their Google Account and disable individual ones. 9to5Google spotted the feature two days ago; BGR confirmed it today. The rollout covers Pixel hardware running stable Android 16 and 17 with Google Play services version 26.24. Samsung devices checked at the same time did not show the feature, 9to5Google reported. Google has not published an announcement or confirmed...

Samsung has published teaser imagery showing a book-style foldable device with a visibly wider unfolded profile than its current Fold lineup. No display dimensions, pricing, product name, or launch date have been confirmed. What the imagery establishes is a visual direction. What remains unconfirmed is everything else.

Android 17 dropped on Pixel devices two weeks ago, and the reaction was mostly a shrug. If you think Android 17 updates have lost their magic, you're half right but you're looking at the wrong problem. The visible additions are real and useful. What's actually broken is what happens after Google ships the update: the long, uneven, often indefinite journey it takes to reach the 3 billion Android devices it's supposed to protect.

Samsung may have accidentally surfaced the date for its next Galaxy Unpacked event. The Samsung Members app in Malaysia served up vouchers this week tied to unannounced foldables and wearables, both redeemable starting July 22 a date that an independent report had already named as the probable Unpacked window nearly two months earlier. No official invitation has been issued, but the convergence of a Samsung-operated promotional system and a prior independent report on the same specific date...

Google confirmed in January 2026 that the Pixel Take a Message bug had caused ambient audio from owners' surroundings to be transmitted to incoming callers on some Pixel 4 and 5 devices, with no dedicated Take a Message alert beyond the system microphone indicator. The company responded by remotely disabling Take a Message and next-generation Call Screen on those devices. Based on available reporting reviewed here, that appears to be the only Pixel call failure Google has publicly confirmed.

Some Google Home and Google Nest speakers are refusing to respond or taking unusually long to do so, with multiple users reporting the same failure pattern, and the symptom profile points more toward a possible backend service disruption than widespread broken hardware, Android Police reports. The scope remains unclear, but the reports are specific enough to be diagnostically useful.

Leaked screenshots of a Samsung Galaxy Glasses companion app show a settings interface organized around notifications, lens configuration, and customizable gesture controls, including wink detection. No specs, pricing, or launch date were included. What the leak does offer is a look at how Samsung appears to be framing the product's purpose, and that framing is worth examining closely.

Ice Universe is claiming the wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 will weigh just 201g, undercutting the 215g Fold 7 and the 229g Huawei Pura X Max, Android Authority reported four weeks ago. That Galaxy Z Fold 8 specs leak would make Samsung's wide model dramatically lighter than anything the company has shipped in the foldable category. A second leaker who reportedly handled the hardware called the weight "unbelievable" and said the device "feels like a new beginning," 9to5Google reported last week.

No Cibby App Store listing was available when this article was researched. That's not a caveat buried at the end it shapes everything that follows. This is not a feature review of the Cibby iOS app for video game collectors. It's a sourced account of what the established competitors offer, what that sets as a minimum bar, and the specific questions any collector should answer before committing to a switch.

WhatsApp has started letting users reserve usernames before a wider launch later in 2026, giving people a way to connect without sharing their phone number. The Associated Press reported that WhatsApp began the reservation phase on June 29, 2026, with the full username feature expected later this year.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra still is not official, but the evidence is getting harder to dismiss. FCC filings, WPC case certifications, and leaked case images all point to a two-model Fold 8 lineup in which Samsung's premium "Ultra" label may land on the more familiar, narrow book-style design.

Google has confirmed a new foldable gaming mode for Android 17 that splits a foldable's inner display into gameplay on top and a virtual gamepad on the bottom. The catch: It was not included in the stable Android 17 release that began rolling out to Pixel devices on June 16, 2026.

Google's Gemini note-taker in Meet is now available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, the company announced today, extending a feature that had previously been limited to eligible Workspace business customers. The Google Meet Gemini note-taker goes live immediately on web and mobile, in select languages, for meetings the subscriber hosts.

Amazon has rolled out three AI reading tools to the Kindle app for iOS in the US, giving iPhone users access to features that are not yet available on most Kindle e-readers. The timing matters: owners of most Kindle models released before 2024 are locked out of two of the three tools on their e-readers, and the iOS app is now their only path to them.

Google is rolling out a stable Android 17 OTA to Beta 4 and Beta 4.1 users, designed to move them off the beta program without wiping their data. Some Beta 4.1 devices still haven't received it, and the Android 17 Beta 4.1 stable OTA delay now carries a concrete hazard: Android Authority warned this week that Beta 4.1 users should avoid the latest Google Play System update because it can cause a bootloop, a failure state where the phone cycles through restarts and never fully loads the OS. The...

WhatsApp is testing its Liquid Glass redesign on the iPad for the first time, bringing the translucent, layered interface that iPhone users have had for months to iPadOS 26. The tab bar, navigation bar, and buttons are all updated. The chat screen, the part of the app people spend the most time in, has not yet arrived on iPad, though it has already appeared in iPhone beta builds.

YouTube rolled out four changes to the Shorts player this week, and the most consequential has nothing to do with playback speed. The YouTube Shorts 2x playback update is the feature getting attention, but the structural change sits elsewhere: the dislike button is gone from Shorts, replaced by explicit recommendation controls that route negative feedback directly to YouTube's algorithm rather than surfacing it to creators, per the YouTube Blog announcement.