Gadget Hacks

Apple highlighted Spatial Reframing at WWDC26, while multiple outlets also reported new or upgraded Photos tools, including Extend and Clean Up. Apple's announcement confirms Apple Intelligence now powers image editing in Photos; the specific tool lineup beyond Spatial Reframing comes from third-party reporting.

Apple recently announced AI video descriptions for the Home app, giving HomeKit Secure Video camera users a way to search recorded footage by event type rather than scrubbing through clips. The update also collapses bursts of accessory alerts into a single, updating notification. Both features were revealed as part of Apple's WWDC26 Apple Intelligence announcements, though Apple has not confirmed a specific release date for either, beyond positioning them as iOS 27-era Home updates.

Google cut the price of its AI Plus subscription from $7.99 to $4.99 per month this week and simultaneously doubled storage from 200 GB to 400 GB, 9to5Google reported. That's a 38% Google AI Plus price cut and a storage doubling landing together. The lower price takes effect at each subscriber's next billing renewal; the storage increase is already rolling out over the coming days.

Apple yesterday confirmed a complete overhaul of Genmoji at WWDC, replacing the feature's one-shot generation model with an iterative editing system that lets users refine results step by step. The iOS 27 Genmoji redesign is the biggest structural change to the feature since it launched. Separately, pre-release reporting from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggests Apple is also developing a proactive suggestion engine that would generate custom emoji based on typing habits and Photos library content,...

Some Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 owners are reporting eSIM failures ranging from activation problems to severe lockouts, and Google is reportedly aware of the issue, but has not confirmed a fix timeline.

Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 8a owners are finding the Quick Share Extension installed on their devices after recent system updates — the component required for Quick Share–AirDrop interoperability between Android and Apple devices. The feature itself isn't active yet. Google still needs to flip the switch on its end.

Apple has not announced a foldable iPhone. What it did this week is more instructive: at WWDC 2026's Platforms State of the Union, the company told its own developers, on the record with a hard deadline, to stop building apps that assume fixed screen sizes and orientations. Apps compiled with the iOS 26 SDK will no longer be letterboxed or scaled when new hardware ships with a different screen geometry, Apple stated in its WWDC developer session. That is a concrete platform change with an...

Apple raised the memory bar for its most capable on-device AI today at WWDC. iOS 27 introduces a new on-device model requiring at least 12GB of unified memory, which means the standard iPhone 17, shipping with 8GB, is excluded from the top tier of Apple Intelligence at launch. Not because the phone is underpowered in any other sense, but because of where Apple drew a single spec line, MacRumors reported today.

Apple confirmed today that its redesigned Siri AI will reach EU users on Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro when it launches but not on iPhone or iPad. The word Apple used was "initially," according to its newsroom, which signals the exclusion is not permanent without committing to any timeline for changing it. For EU iPhone users, that single adverb is doing a lot of work.

If Gemini has taken over your Google Home or Nest speakers and you want the old Google Assistant experience back, the answer is frustrating: there is no simple "remove Gemini" button for every setup.

Samsung is working on a "Gesture Wake-up" feature for Bixby that would let users trigger the assistant by lifting their phone close to their mouth and speaking directly into the mic, no wake phrase or button press required. The feature is taking shape in One UI 9 builds, Android Authority reported today. It isn't in the second One UI 9 public beta for the Galaxy S26 series yet, which means Samsung has not confirmed it for the stable release.

A Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra battery leak suggests Samsung may be reusing the identical 11,600mAh pack from its predecessor not just matching the capacity figure, but reportedly carrying over the same physical component. Reports from Android Authority and SamMobile, both citing GalaxyClub, landed today. Samsung has not confirmed any of these figures.

WWDC 2026 opened June 8, marking Tim Cook's final Worldwide Developers Conference as Apple CEO before John Ternus takes over on September 1. The timing gives this year's developer conference a bigger role than usual: It is both a software showcase and the clearest preview yet of the company Ternus will inherit.

Three separate data trails now point to the same unreleased Samsung product: a clip-style open-ear earbud that, if the Samsung Galaxy Buds Able leak holds up, would be the company's first entry into a form factor where Bose, Sony, and Anker already have established products. It could also be a mechanical answer to a fit problem that has followed the current Buds lineup since launch.

Google is marketing Gemini as "a next step toward a true generalist agent" — a tool that orchestrates complex tasks across Gmail, Calendar, and connected apps on your behalf. Months after that pitch, the Gemini multiple Google accounts problem remains unsolved. Gemini works within a single active account. That's it. Your work life and personal life stay invisible to each other, and Gemini acts as though the other half of your day simply doesn't exist.

At London Tech Week on June 8, 2026, Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave Apple and Google three months to introduce device-level controls that prevent children from taking, sending, receiving, or viewing nude images, or face legislation.

If you're seeing unusual Audible background data usage on Android, the first thing to do is confirm the app is actually the source before changing any settings. This guide walks through how to check whether the Audible mobile data bug is affecting your device, how to limit the damage with the least disruption to features you actually use, and what to send support if you need to escalate.

Many apps trigger the same pop-up the moment you open them: "Allow [App] to track your activity across other companies' apps and websites?" You tap "Ask App Not to Track." Next app, same prompt. It's friction without end, and most iPhone users don't know there's a single toggle that makes it stop.

Duolingo is running a Duolingo streak revival event throughout June that lets eligible users recover a broken streak at no cost by completing three lessons. The offer targets lapsed learners who previously held a streak of at least 30 days, and it addresses what the company calls one of the most consistent requests it hears from learners, The Verge reported this week.

Nintendo pushed a significant update to its Nintendo Music app this week, adding CarPlay support, Android Auto support, Siri voice search, and a native iPad app in a single release. The Nintendo Music CarPlay update adds the game soundtrack app to car dashboards and tablet hardware for the first time, making it more usable across devices subscribers already own.

Microsoft announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box at Build this week, positioning it as a dedicated machine for developers running sustained AI workloads locally. Three numbers define the device: a 100W sustained thermal envelope, up to 128GB of unified memory, and approximately 1 petaflop of AI compute from Nvidia's RTX Spark chip, per The Verge and Engadget. Microsoft describes it as built for "long-running training jobs, agentic AI pipelines, and local model fine-tuning," according to...

Audible launched Audible Rewards in the U.S. today, a free loyalty program combining gamified listening goals with perks that carry real monetary value, including referral payouts, anniversary credits, and listening-based discounts, according to Good e-Reader. The catch: Audible has not published full program terms, and confirmed dollar values exist for only a handful of those perks.

Microsoft's most revealing Microsoft Android hardware decision of the past decade had nothing to do with Windows. By choosing Android as the operating system for its dual-screen productivity device, Microsoft was making an explicit admission about what had killed Windows Phone and betting it could do something different this time. The bet worked technically. It failed commercially. And the gap between those two outcomes traces almost entirely to a single unresolved question: what, exactly, was...

Amazon began notifying Prime subscribers in India and Australia this week that Amazon Music Prime ads will start appearing in their included music streaming tier, with offline downloads being removed at the same time. The notification email directs users who want what the tier used to offer to pay for Amazon Music Unlimited on top of their existing Prime membership fee.

Pre-WWDC reporting describes two features potentially coming to Apple Wallet: a peer-to-peer money transfer tool built directly into the app, and expanded acceptance for digital government IDs. Apple has not confirmed either feature. No second outlet has independently corroborated the technical specifics, and no developer beta containing either feature has surfaced publicly.

The European Parliament has replaced Google with French search engine Qwant as the default on its staff computers, citing digital sovereignty and privacy. The switch is unlikely to register as a competitive event for Google, which holds roughly 90% of European search market share. What makes it notable is the timing: Parliament made the change a day after the European Commission unveiled its first thorough tech sovereignty strategy, a package that could eventually tie billions in public IT...

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has a name, a model number, and a place in the regulatory record. A Bluetooth SIG certification filed this week lists the device explicitly as the "Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra," model number SM-F976, with five regional variants, according to Android Authority and Android Headlines, both reporting the filing today. That is what the certification confirms: the retail name Samsung submitted to a regulatory body, and nothing else. The specs, the two-device strategy, and...

A One UI 8.5 roadmap reportedly posted on Samsung's Hong Kong site suggests the Galaxy S22, Galaxy Z Fold 4, and Galaxy Z Flip 4 will not receive the update. The three 2022 flagship families are absent from the schedule entirely, and since Samsung's update strategy has historically been consistent across regions, Android Police concluded that the exclusion is likely global. Security patches are still scheduled for approximately one more year, Android Authority reported, but the reporting...

Code buried inside a Google Play Services beta hints at something Android has never offered: the ability to choose which categories of data get backed up to the cloud. Call logs, messages, device settings, and app data could each get their own toggle, according to Android Authority, which spotted the interface this week in Play Services v26.22.30. No public rollout details exist, and Android Authority says it does not know if or when the feature will ship.

Does updating to Windows 11 25H2 remove scripts? Based on available evidence, no. That answer is grounded in how the update is engineered, not just an absence of complaints. What the upgrade doesn't guarantee is that those scripts will behave identically afterward.

Weibo leaker Ice Universe revised the expected iPhone 18 Pro Max thickness today, dropping the figure from 8.8mm to 8.75mm and matching it exactly to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The change, reported by AppleInsider today, came with no explanation. Separate claims about a battery in the 5,100–5,200 mAh range, from Digital Chat Station, and a weight exceeding 240 grams, from Instant Digital, were not revised and remain open questions, per Trusted Reviews.

Google announced today that Google Wallet ID passes will come to select EU member states this summer, with a privacy-preserving age verification feature built alongside German savings bank Sparkasse as the first confirmed use case. Which countries are included, and what credential types will be supported, has not been specified.

Satya Nadella opened Microsoft's annual Build developer conference this week by leading with Windows. Not Azure. Not Copilot. Not Teams. The Verge noted it couldn't remember the last time Build kicked off that way. The Microsoft Build 2026 Windows AI strategy, as the keynote framed it, rests on a specific claim: Windows is no longer the legacy platform Microsoft tends while building elsewhere. It's the on-device layer of Microsoft's AI stack, the place where local agents run, where developer...

A third-party AI service called Poke appears to have been admitted into the iPhone's native Messages app through Apple's existing business messaging channel, making it what Poke claims is the first outside AI agent permitted to interact with users there, 9to5Mac reported this week. The mechanism matters as much as the headline.

A teardown of the latest Google Drive release shows Google preparing a compact account switcher redesign that strips back most of the visual language it spent the past year rolling out across first-party Android apps including Maps, Translate, Wallet, Tasks, Calendar, Keep, and the Play Store. The greeting is gone, the profile photo is smaller, and the explicit "Switch account" label has disappeared. Every function stays put; the panel just takes up considerably less room.

Google announced last month that Gboard is getting a Gemini-powered feature called Rambler, which the company says will filter out filler words, self-corrections, pauses, and repetition as you speak, so only cleaned-up text lands in the input field. That's a specific claim, and it matters because Gboard already has tools that correct dictated text after it appears. If Rambler genuinely processes speech before transcription is committed, it addresses a real gap in how voice input works today. If...

There's a build on Hackaday that stops people mid-scroll. A fully functional Linux computer fitted inside a vintage Halina 35X film camera body. The rangefinder shell is intact. The original shutter mechanism is gone. In its place: a Raspberry Pi, a small display visible through the viewfinder aperture, a thumb keyboard accessible from below. The builder didn't choose the camera because it was a convenient enclosure. They chose it because it meant something to them, and they wanted to carry...

Mina the Hollower has no official Android port, but you can run it locally on your phone through GameNative no streaming required. Whether it actually works comes down to one thing: your GPU.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8 has appeared in the SGS certification database drawing power at 9V and 2.77A, or 25W wired charging the same ceiling every Z Flip has carried since the Flip 4, Android Authority reported today. If confirmed at launch, Samsung will have shipped five consecutive clamshells without touching the Galaxy Z Flip 8 charging speed.

GameSir has shipped what it calls "one of the biggest updates in GameHub's history." Version 6.0.6 adds Steam Friends and Achievements integration, EA game support, gamepad remapping tools, and a claimed 50% reduction in app size. The GameHub 6.0.6 update details come from GameSir's own Discord announcement, relayed by Android Authority on Friday not an independently verified changelog. Every feature claim here traces back to the developer.