Gadget Hacks

Search for "Zelda" or "Ocarina of Time" on Google, and you may spot a tiny Master Sword hovering at the edge of the results page. Tap it, and a Triforce flashes across the tab before the retro results page appears, styled to resemble Google's look from 1998. That's the Google Ocarina of Time Easter egg, and it's timed precisely to land the same week as Nintendo's remake of the game.

The new YouTube Premium–Peacock bundle isn't available to sign up for yet, and the companies haven't announced its pricing or eligible plans. Peacock is already available separately through YouTube Primetime Channels, but that's a different subscription arrangement.

A $699 Google Pixel 11 figure can be produced by combining a reported $899 starting price with a $200 trade-in value, not by finding a markdown on Google's price tag. Engadget reported that the base Pixel 11 starts at $899, and in the same report, a base-storage iPhone 11 traded in toward a new Pixel was valued at $200, a combination that lands close to $699 (Engadget).

tvOS 27.2 landed on October 26, 2026, as a free update for Apple TV 4K (2nd generation, 2021) and later, and most of what's inside it works the moment you install it. The tvOS 27.2 features for Apple TV 4K include Find My support for the Siri Remote, a new screensaver Shuffle mode with private photo controls, FaceTime Links, and sign-language support.

OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT multiple accounts on mobile, letting iPhone and Android users stay signed in to two accounts at once and jump between them without logging out. The feature lives in Settings > Switch account.

Samsung News is shutting down worldwide on December 21, 2026, bringing an end to the built-in news service that many Galaxy owners use for headlines, sports scores, stock updates, and personalized recommendations. Samsung News will stop providing content through its app, home-screen feed, and widget, leaving regular users with a deadline to preserve their preferences.

Google is rolling out a Google Home and Nest speaker update that the company says fixes disappearing speaker groups and stereo pairs, the exact symptom Nest owners have been describing for months. The release notes name the bug directly: stereo pairs and speaker groups that "unexpectedly disappear or become undiscoverable" in the Google Home app, according to Google's October 29 release notes, also reproduced by 9to5Google. The same update bundles in faster local device discovery and a separate...

Nothing's official changelog for the Phone (3a) Series, posted three days ago, confirms a new camera feature called Tuning: seven adjustable effects plus a single reset button built into the Camera app. That makes Nothing Phone (3a) camera tuning controls a documented part of the OS 5.0 release rather than something pulled from a leak or forum rumor, according to the changelog.

Some Galaxy S26 Ultra owners are getting stuck during setup after a factory reset, unable to get past a "webpage is unavailable" error and reach the home screen. Samsung has acknowledged the problem on its South Korean support forums, attributing it to unstable system WebView behavior on certain networks while the phone tries to load a Samsung Account page.

Apple's iOS 27.2 software update arrived October 26, according to Apple's own release log (Apple Developer). The release adds a Messages feature called Suggestions that can surface a Calendar action based on a plan mentioned in a text conversation, the clearest example yet of iOS 27.2 Messages calendar event suggestions in practice. Apple's release notes put it plainly: the system can act on conversation context to help with "adding a Calendar invite for a dinner," among other quick actions...

Apple just gave iPhone owners a direct way to control Siri AI's access to apps, and it's a fix years in the making. iOS 27.2 adds a new Settings > Siri > Excluded Apps menu that lets users block Siri's AI engine from reading specific apps, replacing a multi-toggle setup that previously required disabling several settings per app or turning off Siri AI entirely.

If your edited Google Photos pictures stopped showing up in WhatsApp's attachment picker, Google has an actual fix. The bug sent edited images into hiding across WhatsApp, Telegram, and a handful of other Android apps, even though the photos never left Google Photos itself. APKMirror founder Artem Russakovskii identified version 7.97 as the fix, while 9to5Google independently confirmed the problem no longer occurs in version 7.98.

Apple has redesigned the removable AC plug on its 70W and 140W USB-C power adapters, and the new pill-shaped fitting does not accept older C7-style duckheads or the previous extension cable. That creates a compatibility problem for travelers who want to reuse Apple's older plugs or extension cables with the newly revised chargers.

Netflix and Krafton confirmed today that a live-action series based on PUBG is in development, with Donald Glover attached as star, writer, director, and executive producer, according to Polygon. That four-role combination on a single video-game adaptation is the actual news here, not the game itself.

A new leak claims the Samsung Galaxy A58's rear camera setup will carry the same megapixel counts as the Galaxy A57: a 50MP main camera, 12MP ultrawide, 5MP macro, plus a 12MP front camera. The claim comes from Dutch outlet GalaxyClub and has since been relayed by outlets including GSMArena and Tech Advisor.

Search "Google Messages Gemini AI feature poll" and most results point to one specific survey ranking Gemini's reach into Messages as readers' least-favorite feature. The original source behind that specific poll is no longer reachable, so this piece won't repeat a vote count, a named "winner," or any figure that can't currently be verified. What's confirmed through other reporting is the feature that kind of poll is trying to capture: Google's decision to let Gemini tap into Phone, Messages,...

If the Up Next section vanished from Apple Podcasts after updating to iOS 27.2, it may be because Apple split it into two sections rather than removing the functionality. The update shipped yesterday and reorganizes the Podcasts Home tab into New Episodes and Continue Playing.

Apple's iOS 27.2 release notes confirm that Shared Albums in Photos now support editing captions and comments, according to the full notes reproduced by iClarified. The update is available now through Settings > General > Software Update.

Googlebook OS may soon stop making owners rebuild their workspace from scratch every time the laptop restarts. Code strings discovered by Android Authority in Android 17 QPR3 Beta 2 point to an unreleased "App restore on reboot" setting for Googlebook OS.

Apple's new Made for iPhone Duo badge is appearing on App Store product pages, giving owners of the company's first foldable iPhone a way to spot apps designed for its larger screen. But the label doesn't necessarily mean Apple has tested every foldable-specific feature or verified that an app works flawlessly.

Score a last-second win in a mobile game with no recorder running, and a Google headline from 2024 suggests the moment might not be lost. The Google sources reviewed here do not establish whether a 30-second retroactive recording feature is currently available on Android.

The Audiophile.fm free lossless radio app, a FLAC radio aggregator that requires no account and runs with no in-app ads, is now available as a native app on iPhone and Android, after launching first as a web player.

Google began rolling out the Android 17 QPR3 Beta 3 Pixel update on October 29, with a changelog listing 26 fixes, according to 9to5Google (yesterday). The report names three of those fixes directly: a foldable's inner display staying black after unfolding, intermittent crashes clustered around the lock screen or shortly after startup, and a Recents overview that flickers when a home gesture follows quick app-switching (9to5Google, yesterday).

A notification pings when someone tags you in a group chat, but after you open WhatsApp, finding that message can mean scrolling through dozens of other texts. WhatsApp is testing a fix: a mentions and replies filter spotted in Android beta version 2.26.42.12, according to WABetaInfo's Oct. 24 report.

DIRECTV Genre Packs are eight themed streaming bundles built around specific types of programming instead of one do-everything lineup. Base prices start at $20.99 a month, with no satellite dish, no annual contract, and no Signature TV plan required. Five are base packs (MyEntertainment, MySports, MyKids, MyNews, and MiEspañol), while three are Mini Packs that work as paid add-ons to eligible base plans.

Most Apple TV owners use three remote gestures on repeat: swipe, click, and "Hey Siri, open Netflix." Plenty of other built-in interactions sit untouched on the same remote, and several of them are shortcuts most people never try. Learning even a few of these Apple TV remote shortcuts can save you from restarting the whole box when an app freezes, or from digging through settings just to switch where sound plays.

Samsung's One UI 9 update is bringing an unwelcome surprise for some Galaxy S24 and S25 owners: battery life that suddenly falls short of what they're used to. Complaints range from faster overnight drain to phones needing several charges throughout the day.

A developer named Ismail Shah announced on LinkedIn three weeks ago that he built the Knit Easy Android app to fix a problem he says plagues knitters and crocheters working from printed or PDF patterns: losing track of the row mid-stitch. The post describes a row highlighter, linked counters, and fully offline operation, and includes a Google Play link. However, the app's current listing details, including its price, permissions, and user ratings, have not been independently verified.

A Rust-based open-source project called OpenLogi is drawing attention as a telemetry-free alternative to Logitech Options+, the configuration app most Logitech mouse owners already have installed. OpenLogi runs on macOS 13 or later, Windows, and Linux, and the project's own documentation confirms support for button remapping, DPI adjustment, and SmartShift configuration, all without requiring a Logitech account.

A Samsung Galaxy phone can meet every obvious requirement, Bluetooth enabled, signed into the same Google Account, and fully updated, and still refuse to show up as an option under ChromeOS's Connected devices setup.

Calling a contact with more than one saved number through Android Auto has always meant one extra step: picking home, work, or mobile before the call actually connects. A teardown of a daily Android Auto build suggests that step might finally disappear, surfacing what's being described as an Android Auto preferred phone number feature buried in a set of unfinished code strings (Android Police, yesterday).

Apple released iOS 18.7.11 and iPadOS 18.7.11 earlier this week, delivering a fix for a CoreGraphics flaw the company says "may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals" on iOS versions before iOS 27. This is the iPhone XR and iPhone XS security update that matters most right now, since it's the only version that brings the fix to iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, hardware that can't run iOS 26, along with the seventh-generation iPad.

Apple released watchOS 27.2 on Oct. 26, adding conversation memory to Siri AI on Apple Watch for the first time. Apple's release notes confirm Siri AI can retain useful context from previous interactions, including the ability to recall recommendations made days earlier. For example, users can ask Siri about restaurants it suggested last week without repeating the original conversation.

Google revised its privacy policy on Oct. 16 to say that data shared between Gmail, Google Photos, or Drive and certain other Google services may now be used to personalize content, including ads. The update adds an exception to language that previously ruled out using content from those apps for ad personalization, according to The Verge and Ars Technica.

A no-logs policy sounds straightforward. A VPN provider says it does not log your activity, so your browsing should remain private.

The iPhone Duo can finally double as a digital notepad, but owning an Apple Pencil doesn't necessarily mean you're ready to start writing. Apple's foldable iPhone now supports stylus input through iOS 27.2, released October 26, 2026, but only the Apple Pencil (USB-C) works. Even the more expensive Apple Pencil Pro is incompatible.

Apple shipped tvOS 27.2 for Apple TV 4K this week, and tucked inside that release is the first expansion of Apple TV profiles to iPhone and iPad. The mobile side rides on a separate iOS and iPadOS 27.2 update rather than tvOS itself, and it matters most for anyone who shares a phone or tablet with family, kids, or roommates and wants a Continue Watching list that doesn't fill up with someone else's shows.

A fork of an open-source project called nxnative has reportedly got Mario Kart World, a Switch 2 exclusive, running on a Mac, with developer Will Faust posting video footage of the game on Oct. 27.

Samsung's unreleased Exynos 2700 reportedly scored around 13,000 in a Geekbench 6.5 multi-core benchmark test against roughly 11,000 for Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, a lead of nearly 20%, according to industry sources cited by The Korea Herald on Oct. 25.

A working fork of the open-source Aves gallery app, posted to GitHub about a month ago, demonstrates something readers trying to search Android photos without cloud upload have been asking for: typed description search and visual similarity matching that run entirely on the phone, with photo indexing and search described by the developer as running locally, without uploading photos, videos, or search queries.