Gadget Hacks: Page 5

MapQuest, a mapping service some people had assumed was defunct, according to PCMag, is now the No. 1 free app on Apple's US App Store and the top free navigation app on Google Play in the US, per BGR and PCMag. The surge traces back to a dispute over a lake's name: after President Trump signed an August 27 executive order directing federal agencies to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America" amid a breakdown in trade talks with Canada, MapQuest publicly refused to make the change, according to BGR.

Since the October 29, 2025 closing, Disney has controlled a subsidiary that used to be a scrappy sports-streaming challenger: FuboTV. The Fubo Hulu Live TV deal folded Disney's Hulu + Live TV service into Fubo's corporate structure, creating a combined company with nearly 6 million subscribers overnight and, by UBS estimates cited in Disney's own announcement, the sixth-largest pay-TV provider in the country (Disney investor relations). It also handed Disney 70% of the combined entity's...

Oukitel is heading into IFA 2026 with three rugged phones that don't just carry bigger batteries. They build in a night-vision camera, a fire starter, and a gaming cooling rig, treating the phone itself as a chassis for gear you'd normally pack separately. The headline device, the Oukitel WP70 Ultra rugged phone, packs a 16,000mAh silicon-carbon battery that Oukitel calls the slimmest in its class, Gadgets 360 reports.

Apple's Mail app in iOS 27 gets a rebuilt search engine, and this time it ranks results by relevance and intent rather than keywords and recency, according to MacRumors. It's the most direct fix yet for a complaint that, per Cult of Mac, has "been broken for years, and everyone knows it." The iOS 27 Mail app new features go beyond search, too, adding Siri tools that summarize and draft emails, plus one-tap links that push inbox information into Calendar, Maps, and Wallet.

Google began rolling out Gemini 3.5 Live Translate in Google Translate three months ago, a new audio model built to translate speech continuously as someone talks rather than waiting for them to pause, according to Google. The company frames the goal as a phone-and-headphones setup that functions like a personal interpreter riding along in a conversation.

Xbox Insiders testing the platform's new disc-to-digital feature have reported that it also issues digital licences for games long removed from the Xbox Store. Testers cite successful claims for Deadpool, delisted in 2017, and Minecraft: Story Mode, delisted in 2019, within days of the feature going live. The supplied reporting does not identify an official Microsoft compatibility list, so the Xbox disc-to-digital compatible games list circulating among fans right now is built entirely from...

A Samsung Galaxy S27 charging speed leak suggests Samsung's next standard flagships won't charge any faster than the ones sold today. Two unannounced Samsung model numbers have appeared in China's 3C certification database with charging profiles that top out at approximately 25W and 45W.

A newly reported One UI 9 Call Brief time zone feature shows the other person's local time before an international call even connects, according to Android Authority's hands-on report published yesterday. The outlet tested the feature directly on a Galaxy Z Fold 8, watching the recipient's local time appear while dialing an international number, before the call went through.

Microsoft has turned passwordless sign-in from a security-conference talking point into a configurable admin setting. Anyone searching for how to use passkeys with a Microsoft account is usually dealing with one of two different systems: a personal account for Outlook.com, Xbox, or consumer OneDrive, or a work or school account tied to Microsoft Entra ID.

To stop CarPlay from automatically connecting, turn off the per-car toggle if the iPhone shows one for that vehicle. Use the Screen Time restriction when the goal is blocking CarPlay everywhere, across every paired car at once. Reach for Forget This Car only when a full re-pairing is acceptable, since that's the method Apple's own support page walks through for CarPlay.

By the end of this guide, the regular Gmail Inbox does the sorting itself. Priority senders stay visible, receipts and newsletters get labeled and archived automatically, and subscriptions that just add clutter get canceled at the source. None of it runs through Gemini, Smart Reply, or Gmail's own tab classification, since this is a guide to Gmail inbox automation built entirely from rules typed in by hand.

Windows 11 offers several built-in ways to capture a screen, and each one saves the result somewhere different. Pick the wrong shortcut, and you can end up with an image stuck on the clipboard with no file to show for it, or a PNG saved somewhere you weren't expecting.

Drivers searching for "Google Maps Android Auto speedometer disappearing" are running into a confusing pattern: the feature isn't gone, it's arriving unevenly. Google Maps has started showing a live speedometer on some Android Auto dashboards, but the rollout is server-side, unannounced, and inconsistent enough that two drivers on the same app version can get different results. The available reporting points to an uneven rollout, not a confirmed removal.

If you're weighing Waze vs Google Maps on Android Auto, one detailed month-long comparison offers a useful starting point: a reviewer who ran both apps side by side on a Galaxy S25 Ultra and an 8-inch Android Auto head unit found Waze more proactive about rerouting and easier to read on a dashboard display, but still reached for Google Maps on longer or unfamiliar trips. The comparison is really about how these two apps behave once you're actually driving with them, not whether either one works...

Google rolled out three football-focused Search features today: a Live Game Feed, an expanded stats and matchup carousel, and Google Search fantasy football AI Mode advice that draws on a linked Yahoo Fantasy or Sleeper roster (Google Blog, today; Android Authority, today).

Apple's first foldable iPhone now has a price and a calendar. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, opens for preorder on October 16, and ships October 23 (MacRumors). Before that money changes hands, the real question for iPhone owners is whether the redesigned iOS 27 layout Apple built specifically for a folding display makes up for the hardware compromises that come with any first-generation foldable. The iPhone Duo software features shown off this week look more thought-out than the...

Hideo Kojima's Physint has moved to Xbox after Sony ended its involvement in the project, according to statements reported today by VGC and Variety. Xbox will now work with Kojima Productions on the game, replacing PlayStation Studios as its publishing partner.

The Apple CarPlay settings to change after that first pairing aren't hidden exactly, but they do live in two different places: the iPhone's Settings app and CarPlay's own on-screen Settings, reached from the car's display. CarPlay ships with a handful of options that adjust how it looks and behaves, and most are worth checking once the initial setup is done (Engadget, yesterday).

Apple's iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, and pricing is expected to climb to roughly $3,000 at the top storage tier, according to Gurman's reporting (Apple, this week; MacRumors, this week). Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 sits close behind at a reported $1,900 (9to5Google, 6 weeks ago). At that price, "it's a foldable" stops being an excuse for missing features on either side, which raises the obvious question: which iPhone Duo features Android foldables should copy, and which Apple claims...

Google TV Freeplay now has 10,000 free movies and shows available to stream on demand, the first time the service has offered on-demand video since it launched. Google made the announcement on its blog yesterday, describing the addition as giving users "instant access to free entertainment." No subscription is required to watch.