Trending on Gadget Hacks

An unreleased build of Google Calendar for Android shows a new chip that would let Workspace users create Google Calendar focus time on Android directly, without touching a desktop browser. Android Authority spotted the "Focus time" entry point in version 2026.27.0-946652271-release today, sitting above the floating action button used to add calendar entries. The feature is not active, and Google has not announced a rollout date.

For the first time, Roblox is bringing game creation into its mobile app. A new feature called Build, a dedicated creation tab inside the existing iPhone and iPad app, lets anyone type a text prompt and generate a basic playable game without writing a line of code, according to the Roblox newsroom today. The Roblox game creation feature on iPhone and iPad enters public alpha on July 28, initially limited to New Zealand.

Run powercfg /hibernate on in an elevated terminal, then go to Control Panel and check the Hibernate box under power button settings. That's it. Many guides stop after the command or the Control Panel step this one covers both, in order, with the gotchas called out where they matter.

One of the first Steam Machine Windows 11 vs SteamOS benchmarks is out, and the headline result is closer to a draw than a verdict. ETA Prime's testing across three titles shows the two operating systems within a few frames of each other, with SteamOS holding the largest single-game lead. What the benchmarks don't show is where that parity breaks down. Prior Ars Technica testing on comparable 8GB AMD hardware documented a separate, more serious problem: once a game pushes past the GPU's VRAM...

Netflix ended 2025 with 325 million global subscribers, $45 billion in revenue, and a 29.5% operating margin, per its annual filing with the SEC. Those are numbers most traditional media companies would trade their entire legacy for. Yet the idea of Netflix becoming cable is no longer just a metaphor. It is visible in the product roadmap, in the acquisition pipeline, and in the engagement metrics that have been keeping executives up at night.

Six Pixel 11 model numbers have appeared in FCC certification records, confirming MediaTek modem hardware across the lineup and ending the Pixel line's reliance on Samsung modems since the Tensor-powered Pixel 6 generation.

Neowin reported that Microsoft has added a registry-based policy giving IT admins direct Windows 11 SSO prompts and admin control on managed devices. When enabled, the policy automatically accepts single sign-on consent dialogs on users' behalf, turning a manual confirmation step into an automatically approved SSO action. The eligibility window is tight: Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 devices only, Entra ID-managed only, and a supported update containing the policy must already be installed.

Starting July 22, US Android users will be able to download rival app stores directly from Google Play. Not because Google chose to allow it, but because a court ordered it, Google ran out of ways to delay, and the settlement that would have softened the requirement collapsed this week. Google Play handled 95% of US Android app downloads as of 2020, according to the Ninth Circuit. Putting third-party app stores on Google Play's own shelves is not a symbolic gesture. It's the first time any...

Reviewed by: Y. Garcia

Unicode 17.0 is finalized, and the eight new emoji coming in Unicode 17.0 are locked in. Samsung has already shipped all of them to millions of devices. Pixel users are still waiting, and when Google's update does arrive, it won't just add eight new characters it's expected to rebuild how every emoji on the device looks. That second part hasn't been confirmed as a single bundled update, and that distinction matters.

Samsung Health is warning users that withdrawing consent for AI training will cut off cloud sync and trigger deletion of previously synced health data, except data Samsung is legally required to retain. The toggle began reaching users this week, and the core question the Samsung Health AI training opt-out raises is one Samsung has not publicly answered: does "deleted" refer to your entire health history, or only the copy Samsung stores through account sync?

Samsung announced yesterday that Amazon Music will come preinstalled on millions of "select" Galaxy phones and tablets globally. New Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers, whether they have the app preinstalled or download it from the Galaxy Store, get a three-month free trial that auto-renews at $12.99 a month, or $11.99 for Prime members, unless canceled before the renewal date, per Digital Music News. What Samsung has not disclosed is which devices will ship with the app preloaded, what it...

A documented bug in the Google TV Streamer causes the device to pair itself to a different remote than the one it shipped with, leaving the original unresponsive for no obvious reason. Google acknowledged this specific failure and committed to a software fix, per Android Police. That acknowledgment is now more than a year old, and no public confirmation of a shipped fix has appeared.

Samsung has pushed the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 July 2026 security update to devices across Africa, Asia, and Europe, closing 57 vulnerabilities in a patch that carries no new features and no UI changes. Five of those flaws are rated critical. According to Android Headlines, the rollout is staged, so availability varies by model, region, and carrier.

Reviewed by: Y. Garcia

The Android Auto media player redesign that spent months in limited testing is now rolling out to the platform's most popular apps. At the same time, a separate beta feature lets drivers swipe between active media sessions directly from the dashboard. The two changes are distinct, but Google's latest developer documentation points in the same direction: a media layer where the platform controls more of the experience.

A Bigme HiBreak Dual 2 competitor arrived within days of Bigme's Kickstarter launch: a new Hisense e-paper phone with a detachable color LCD. Hisense had recently debuted its own E Ink phone with a fundamentally different design choice: its secondary color LCD detaches magnetically. That single difference defines the central question worth asking right now: should an E Ink display be a permanent part of a phone, or something users can choose when they want it?

Spotify recently launched "Talk to Spotify," a conversational AI feature that lets Premium subscribers find, control, and learn about music, podcasts, and audiobooks through back-and-forth chat. The Spotify Talk to Spotify AI chatbot sets itself apart from generic music assistants by drawing on each user's actual listening history, not just catalog knowledge, when generating responses, according to Spotify's announcement.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G5 (G50SF) has dropped to roughly $340 in the US, a street price that simply didn't exist for QD-OLED gaming monitors until this year. That matters most for PC gamers running DisplayPort, who get the full spec sheet. Console users and anyone locked to HDMI run into a bandwidth ceiling the panel can't clear over that connection. The deal is real; it's just not for everyone.

Samsung posted a Spider-Man teaser this week that strongly suggests the Galaxy Z Fold 8 appears to have a shorter, wider shape than any previous Galaxy Fold. Galaxy Unpacked is set for July 22 in London, and Samsung's own tagline "A new shape unfolds" makes clear this isn't positioned as a spec refresh, The Verge reported this week.

Spotify is rolling out new listening filters for Release Radar, the weekly discovery playlist that reaches nearly 9 million listeners every Friday. The controls let users steer their recommendations by genre or toward unfamiliar artists, giving them a new way to influence a playlist that has largely been algorithm-controlled.

Apple's free iCloud tier has sat at 5GB for years. As Macworld put it, that limit "felt stingy a decade ago and certainly isn't enough now." For most iPhone owners with any real photo library, hitting that ceiling isn't a surprise. It's a subscription prompt dressed up as a warning.

A new leak suggests the cheapest Pixel 11 in Europe will cost €100 more than last year's cheapest Pixel 10, and the Google Pixel 11 price increase story may have less to do with a new MSRP than with the quiet removal of the 128GB model.

Disney is internally discussing making some Disney+ content available without a subscription, according to two people familiar with the matter. Adam Smith, Disney's product and tech chief, raised the idea at a company streaming town hall this week, offering no timeline and no defined scope.

Google this week launched Video Remix, an AI tool powered by Gemini Omni that transforms existing footage into polished clips within seconds, available exclusively to paying subscribers. The launch is the most visible sign yet of where Google Photos is headed.

Strings pulled from Android Canary build 2607 suggest Google is planning a toggle to turn off the Android Halo status bar icon, buried inside a new "Status bar" section in Android Settings, according to a teardown published by Android Authority this week. Neither the section nor the toggle is live. No working UI exists, and Google has not confirmed any of this.

Samsung has raised its Galaxy S26 production target for July from 1 million units to 1.5 million, a 50% mid-cycle increase, Android Authority reported today, citing ET News. The revision covers both domestic and global allocations, suggesting the demand signal is broader than any single market or promotion. Two things appear to be driving the Galaxy S26 sales surge: an aggressive promotional campaign that reportedly tripled sales during its active window, and growing consumer conviction that...

The most reliable signal that Samsung is working on a new SmartTag isn't a leaked spec sheet it's a pattern. Before Samsung announced the SmartTag2, the device appeared first in the Bluetooth SIG database, then in an FCC filing, per The Verge's July 2023 coverage. Neither filing appeared for a successor in the sources reviewed for this article. When one does surface, the hardware specs will be the least interesting thing in it. The field that actually matters is the app requirement buried in...

Google Fi's promotion for the Pixel 10a offers the full $499 device cost back over 24 months in bill credits, stacked with $10 off Unlimited Premium service each month for the same period a total of $739 in credits, per the Google Fi promo terms. The Google Fi Pixel 10a deal is listed as available to "all new lines." That phrase is doing more work than it appears.

Gemini for Home will no longer stop mid-conversation to ask who you are. This week's Google Home Gemini update, reported by Android Authority and Android Police, removes voice verification prompts during Continued Conversation sessions and makes chained commands more consistent. It lands eight days after Google Home devices were reported taking up to a minute to respond, or timing out entirely, with no confirmed fix deployed as of that report.

No July Android Canary build has been confirmed yet, but the program has shipped on a monthly cadence since Google launched it last summer, Android Authority noted. If that rhythm holds, Android Canary 2607 is imminent. The three builds documented in detail since March already tell a coherent story about where Google is taking Pixel's system UI and that story is worth understanding before the next one lands.

Bigme announced the Hibreak Dual 2 in late June 2026, roughly two months after its predecessor failed to reach customers. The original HiBreak Dual was listed for preorder starting at $359, per The Verge, but available reporting shows no retail release followed. Bigme subsequently issued a public "reflection and apology" acknowledging the design's shortcomings, according to Heyup. The Bigme Hibreak Dual 2 is the company's answer to those criticisms and the core hardware change is significant...

The July 2026 Pixel update began rolling out Tuesday, marking Google's first monthly patch since Android 17 launched last month. The headline fix addresses a bug that could leave devices stuck in a restart loop, unable to load Android at all. A separate fix covers apps unexpectedly closing or refusing to launch across every supported device.

Google removed a long-standing exemption from its cloud storage rules this week. Starting July 7, Android backups count toward Google Account storage: SMS messages, call history, and device settings now draw from the same shared quota as Gmail, Drive, Google Photos, and WhatsApp backups.

Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station posted what are described as Xiaomi 18 Pro leaked specs this week, covering what is expected to be Xiaomi's next flagship Pro model. The leak, picked up by Android Authority today, describes a compact flat-display phone with a roughly 7,000mAh battery, 100W wired charging, and wireless charging. It could also carry two 200MP rear cameras and a 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6-series chip. Xiaomi has not confirmed the phone exists, and Android Authority flags that...

BBC director-general Matt Brittin confirmed this week that the corporation has held early talks with Channel 4 about a possible streaming partnership, with the most concrete idea being Channel 4 content distributed through BBC iPlayer while Channel 4 retains its ad-funded business model. The timing was pointed: Brittin's appearance before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee came just two days after Sky announced a £1.6 billion acquisition of ITV, according to Hollywood...

During a pre-briefing the night before Build 2026, a Microsoft developer instructed an AI agent to delete all the files on his desktop. The agent appeared to comply. The desktop looked clean. "That's a lie," the developer said the files were fine because, as he explained, "the container won't allow it," according to VentureBeat's coverage of the briefing. That demonstration captures the promise of Microsoft Execution Containers for AI agents in one clean image. It also raises the question worth...

A Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold FCC listing has surfaced, and if the regulatory milestone is accurate, an August announcement sits roughly four to six weeks out. The hardware picture comes from a single leak published two months ago by Lowyat.NET; the FCC filing itself has been reported but not independently verified with model numbers or filing documents. What follows is the clearest available read on this device before an official reveal, not a confirmed spec sheet.

New Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 renders surfaced today showing the phone in Cream, Graphite, and Pink. The silhouette is nearly identical to last year's model, the camera ring unchanged, and early leaks suggest the Flip 8 may actually measure 0.1mm thicker than its predecessor, SamMobile reported today. The renders are the least important thing that's happened to this phone in the past month.

Code in iOS 27 beta 3 suggests Apple is preparing to add Apple Wallet car key support for Lucid Motors and Xiaomi, with identifiers "LCID" and "XIA1" surfacing in the build. The findings were reported today by MacRumors and 9to5Mac, both drawing on code analysis by Aaron Perris. The discovery comes days after Apple's backend was updated to add Volkswagen to the same list.