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Code buried inside HomePod Software 27 shows Apple has been quietly laying groundwork for Siri AI on HomePod, according to a leak that surfaced yesterday. Apple has not announced the feature, and it is not active on any HomePod currently in homes. The leak, spotted by code sleuth pdfu and reported by 9to5Mac and MacRumors, gives the clearest hint yet that Apple's smarter assistant is headed for its smart speakers, but it also raises a harder question for anyone with a HomePod already on a...

Some Nest Doorbell owners outside the US are hearing their doorbell announcements delivered in an American accent, even though every other Google Home interaction on the same account still matches their configured language, according to Android Authority, two days ago. 9to5Google, citing Reddit reports it reviewed, describes the same Nest Doorbell American accent bug: Google Home announcing doorbell notifications in a US accent regardless of a user's set language or dialect, according to...

A phone that works fine at home can go dark within minutes of touching down in China. Not because one app breaks, but because three separate systems, internet access, navigation, and mobile payment, all require setup steps that are much easier to handle before you've already landed. Figuring out the best apps for traveling to China matters less than getting that setup order right before you leave.

Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate on Sept. 14, 2026, as a free update for eligible Macs, calling it a stability, performance, and compatibility release recommended for all macOS 27 users. The headline macOS 27 Golden Gate features center on Siri: Siri AI now lives inside Spotlight for conversational search, while a separate Siri AI app handles saved conversations synced through iCloud.

Farwave, an iPhone and iPad app, lets people find world radio stations by spinning a 3D globe to a region and tapping on a station, according to a 9to5Mac report published September 12 as part of the outlet's weekly Indie App Spotlight series. The Farwave app is free to download, with a subscription tier that adds podcasts, imported music, and other features.

Bluetooth speaker problems rarely have one cause. Microsoft's own support documentation splits them into distinct categories: pairing failures, connection failures, and audio-output failures, each requiring a different fix (Microsoft Support, 3 months ago; Microsoft Support, 3 months ago). Treat all three as the same problem and you'll end up applying the wrong fix for hours.

Google Drive's "Organize My Files" tool lets Gemini scan loose files sitting outside your folder structure and suggest where they belong. Nothing actually moves until you review the recommendations, select the files you want moved, and approve the batch.

Mention MapQuest in conversation and Google Maps tends to come up as some kind of corporate cousin. It isn't. The short answer to who owns MapQuest is System1, a digital advertising and customer-acquisition company, not Google. System1 confirms that it owns and operates MapQuest, after acquiring the service from Verizon in 2019. The purchase price was not disclosed publicly.

Apple is reportedly building an entirely new operating system, possibly called homeOS, to run a long-rumored smart home hub. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman describes it as blending tvOS, watchOS, and iOS elements, and it would join iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS as a distinct Apple smart home operating system if it ships (MacRumors, today).

Motorola has become the first phone maker to announce a device built around Qualcomm's new flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. The company unveiled the Motorola Signature 27 at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii this week, according to The Verge and Tech Advisor. XDA Developers describes it as Motorola's "ultra-premium" entry, positioned as one of the first phones anywhere to run this chip.

Google has spent the past several months steadily expanding what the Gemini overlay can do, and the latest round of Gemini overlay new features makes the strategic intent hard to miss. The overlay the assistant panel you pull up from any Android screen is gaining video generation, music creation, Canvas, and Guided Learning directly on its surface. Taken together with a persistent floating bubble still in testing and a Gemini Live redesign that eliminates its own dedicated screen, the changes...

New European pricing figures suggest the S26 FE could cost meaningfully more than its predecessor, while confirmed upgrades still fall short of justifying the gap

Samsung says the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra can charge from empty to 65% in 30 minutes. In preliminary testing, the Fold 8 Ultra actually beat that mark, reaching 67% in the same window, according to Android Authority testing three weeks ago. That's a real jump from what the Fold line could do a year ago, and it raises the obvious question for anyone hunting for the best charger for Galaxy Z Fold 8 devices: which one actually gets you there?

Google's September Pixel Drop scam detection features are live now, alongside a redesigned Pixel VIPs contact widget for calling and texting the people you talk to most. Both started rolling out on September 15, 2026, as part of the September Pixel Drop.

The 78th Emmy Awards aired live on September 14, 2026, but anyone who missed the ceremony can still watch the 2026 Emmy Awards without cable.

A viral claim swept through social media this year: starting in February 2027, EU law will force Apple, Samsung, and every other smartphone maker to bring back pop-off battery covers. It's not true, but the real story is more interesting than the myth (Annie Lab, 2 months ago).

The sources reviewed here trace the phone's reported specifications to one Gagadget article, and the phone hasn't launched yet. Gagadget reported this week that the Magic 9 Pro Max pairs dual 200MP cameras developed with ARRI, a mechanical gimbal, and support for ARRI's LogC3 color format, with a China launch planned for September 28 starting at 6,999 yuan, roughly £855/$875.

The Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 3 leak that surfaced on September 11 centers on one detail that changes how the tracker works in daily use: the built-in loop for a keyring, carabiner, or lanyard appears to be gone.

Sony may be preparing a camera upgrade for the Xperia 1 IX that swaps out the flagship's main sensor for a larger one, which would be the first change to that specific component since the Xperia 1 V launched in 2023. The claim traces to Japanese blog Sumahu Digest and was reported today by PhoneArena.

Xbox confirmed today that Activision is taking over development of the next flagship Halo game, handing the project to a newly formed team inside the Call of Duty publisher. The announcement arrived alongside 268 additional job cuts across Halo Studios and other Xbox teams, detailed in an internal memo from chief content officer Matt Booty titled "Continuing Our Reset" (Game Informer, today; The Verge, today).

WhatsApp is rolling out a new settings panel that lets a subset of Mac beta testers set their own WhatsApp beta for Mac update schedule, picking between two release channels instead of taking whatever build the company pushes automatically, according to WABetaInfo and Hardware Upgrade this week.

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.

Microsoft confirmed yesterday that Activision is taking over Halo, with the Call of Duty publisher developing the next flagship game in the franchise through a team built specifically for that job. Halo Studios, the current caretaker of the series, isn't building that next game and instead shifts into a support role for existing titles. The confirmation came from an internal memo by Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty, shared by The Verge.

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.

Plug into CarPlay for a quick errand run, and you might unplug later to find your phone has shed more charge than the trip seemed to justify. Apple forums and Reddit threads are full of the same complaint: CarPlay eats through battery faster than people expect. That's not a fringe annoyance, either, since CarPlay now works with more than 800 vehicle models.

Samsung set August 7, 2026, as the general availability date for the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, but some customers have seen estimated arrival dates extend well beyond launch day.

Searches for iOS 27 MagSafe Wallet designs are mixing together two different kinds of Wallet news.

Google has confirmed the Made by Google 2026 keynote for Wednesday, August 12, six days from now, kicking off at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT, notably later in the day than usual (9to5Google, last month). This is a practical guide to how to watch the Google Pixel 11 event: exactly when it starts, where the stream is expected to show up, and what Google and outside reporting expect to land on stage.

Apple is reportedly building a new smart home hub: a HomePod-style speaker paired with a roughly 7-inch display, running a new operating system built on tvOS, alongside refreshed Apple TV and HomePod hardware.

iOS 27 lands as a free software update on Monday, September 14, Apple confirmed yesterday, and the biggest of the new iOS 27 features by far is Siri AI: a rebuilt assistant Apple says can read what's on your screen, dig through your messages and photos, and pull live answers from the web.

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...

Google Photos is building a tool that could finally automate the tedious part of making beat-synced Highlight Videos.

Flip phones spent years asking buyers to accept a smaller, weaker phone in exchange for a fun shape to unfold. That compromise mostly doesn't exist anymore. Are modern flip phones worth it in 2026? Based on two current US flagships, Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip8 and Motorola's Razr Ultra 2026, the answer is yes for a specific kind of buyer, and no for another.

If you mostly use Apple Podcasts to press play and nothing else, there's a handful of useful controls sitting untouched: a library that actually surfaces what you want to hear, playback settings you won't have to hunt for every session, chapter and timestamp navigation for long episodes, and syncing that's supposed to carry your spot across every Apple device you own.

This guide walks through how to use Visual Intelligence on macOS Golden Gate: what your Mac needs before turning it on, the keyboard shortcuts that trigger it, the in-app option built into Siri's systemwide context menus, and which questions are actually worth asking it.

This Pixel 10 Pro vs Pixel 11 Pro comparison sticks to the Pro model, not the standard Pixel 11, because the Pro is the 10 Pro's direct successor and the phone most likely to tempt someone weighing a new flagship against a discounted last-gen one.

Snap two windows side by side in Windows 11, drag the shared border to resize one, and in many cases the other window resizes too, whether you wanted it to or not. Microsoft currently documents a checkbox for controlling that behavior under Settings > System > Multitasking > Snap windows. Some users nevertheless report that the checkbox is missing on their installations, so this guide covers both the documented setting and the available workarounds.

Google Meet's web homepage now displays conference room and physical meeting location details directly on upcoming meeting cards, so in-office workers can see where they're headed without opening a Calendar invite first. Google confirmed the change, saying it lets in-office users see where they need to go directly from the Meet landing page.

Motorola posted a short teaser video from its official X account this week, timed to land alongside Apple's iPhone Duo launch. The clip ends with a brief silhouette of an unnamed foldable phone that looks shorter and wider than Motorola's current Razr Fold, according to GSMArena and ChannelNews. The phone appears on screen for about five seconds, near the end of the clip, per Android Police. The Motorola wide Razr Fold teaser confirms one thing: the company is building a new form factor. The...

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).