Gadget Hacks

Anyone googling "YouTube testing hidden dislike button on videos" is running into a policy that's been live for almost five years, not a new experiment. YouTube started hiding the public dislike count on November 10, 2021, while leaving the dislike button itself fully visible and clickable. The sources reviewed for this article do not establish that YouTube is conducting a new test to hide the dislike button itself.

President Donald Trump has canceled plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, convicted for the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, following bipartisan criticism of the proposed broadcast. Hasan remains scheduled to die by firing squad on December 3, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously said he wanted the execution made public, and Pentagon officials told reporters it would be livestreamed.

Apple's next iPhone update is approaching public release, and Siri AI is about to become useful to a much wider audience. After launching in English in September, Apple's redesigned assistant is expanding to French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, bringing its conversational features to users who prefer those languages.

Apple Maps lets you request that your house be obscured in Look Around, its street-level photo feature. This is an imagery request, not an address-removal request: blurring your home doesn't remove its address from search results, map pins, or driving directions. That distinction is worth knowing before walking through how to blur your home on Apple Maps.

A new rumor claims the Galaxy S27 Pro and Galaxy S27 Ultra could introduce DC dimming, a technology Samsung hasn't traditionally offered on its Galaxy S flagships, according to Android Central.

If your One UI 9 missing Wi-Fi icon has you wondering whether your Galaxy phone is actually losing its connection, Samsung says the real explanation splits into two unrelated problems, and only one of them is a genuine software bug. A confirmed Good Lock QuickStar defect mismaps which icon a status bar toggle controls, and Samsung hasn't given it a fix date, Trusted Reviews reported today. The second cause, longer date formats crowding the status bar, isn't a bug at all by Samsung's own...

Google is rolling out a Review toggle inside Gemini Notebook that lets users see and reshape Gemini's proposed outline before it builds a Slide Deck, or check producer notes before it renders a Video Overview. The feature adds a planning checkpoint that wasn't available in the previous generation flow, according to Google's October 19 announcement.

Saying "stop" to Gemini for Home used to be a gamble. Sometimes it killed whatever was playing; sometimes it just ended the back-and-forth while an alarm kept blaring in the background. Google's October 14 release notes for the Google Home app describe a fix for that: say "stop" now, and Gemini immediately ends the active listening session without a follow-up response, and it's supposed to correctly halt active music, a timer, or an alarm instead of just wrapping up the conversation. That's the...

Tax season turns up the pressure on paperwork, and the fastest fix is already sitting on the home screen. Here's how to scan documents on iPhone without downloading a single app: Apple built a scanner directly into Notes and Files. Point the camera at a W-2, a receipt, or a lease agreement, and the scanner finds the page edges, straightens the angle, and saves the document as a PDF in a few taps.

For months, some Android Auto users have been glancing at their car dashboards only to find that the familiar cellular signal bars have disappeared. Their phones may still have reception, and navigation and music may work normally, but the indicator that once showed their connection strength is nowhere to be found.

Straight Talk raised the hotspot data included with its three unlimited plans without touching the monthly base prices, according to a Verizon announcement published yesterday. Silver, Gold, and Platinum Unlimited still run $45, $55, and $65 a month, but each now comes with a bigger hotspot allowance, faster claimed network access, and a cheaper home internet bundle.

Open the Together tab in Samsung Health and spot a string of asterisks where a friend's name should be, and the first thought is usually that something broke. But Samsung Health friends shown as asterisks can be the result of a privacy feature introduced in version 7.1, rather than a glitch or missing contact.

Twelve South's AirFly Drive wireless CarPlay and Android Auto adapter went on sale October 1 for $39.99 ($39.99 in the US, £39.99 in the UK), promising to erase the daily cable plug-in for drivers whose cars already run wired CarPlay or Android Auto. It's a small USB dongle, not a software update, and it does not work in cars with AUX-only stereos or charge-only USB ports, according to TrekSavvy's review.

Google Play's Gamer DNA feature is now official. Google announced the AI-powered Game Finder on Oct. 13, turning an earlier code discovery into a personalized game recommendation tool that's rolling out to US users. The feature analyzes gaming activity and stated preferences to suggest titles that match how people actually like to play.

Google may be preparing a new Phone Unlock feature that lets an already-unlocked Android phone unlock a nearby Googlebook automatically. Strings discovered in Android 17 QPR3 Beta 1 describe the feature, along with setup screens showing a Googlebook laptop. However, Google hasn't announced Phone Unlock or confirmed when it might become available.

Samsung's Galaxy S26 FE and Google's Pixel 11 offer two different routes to a flagship Android experience, with roughly $100 separating their 256GB models in the United States. The Galaxy S26 FE costs $799.99 at its regular retail price, while the Pixel 11 starts at $899. Choosing between them comes down to more than the price difference.

Nvidia RTX Spark Windows laptops become available from OEM partners starting tomorrow, October 16, 2026, and preorders are already open (Nvidia). Nvidia and Microsoft are marketing this hardware heavily around local AI agents and large language models that run without a cloud connection. That pitch is the least interesting part of the story.

Microsoft is turning Windows Search into a more capable control center, allowing users to type commands like "turn on Bluetooth" or "dim my screen" and execute them directly from search results. The redesigned experience began rolling out to Windows 11 Insiders on Oct. 7, with the goal of completing everyday tasks without opening another app or navigating through Settings.

A Samsung Galaxy phone can meet every obvious requirement, Bluetooth enabled, signed into the same Google Account, Wi-Fi connected, and still refuse to show up as an option under ChromeOS's Connected devices setup. If a Samsung Galaxy phone won't connect to Chromebook despite checking those boxes, a sensible first check is to update both devices before assuming it's a deeper Bluetooth or account problem.