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UK Regulator Steps In: Android, Chrome Users May Have to Repick Their Search Engine Every Year
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has proposed new rules requiring Google and phone makers to show search engine choice screens on Android and Chrome — and repeat the prompt annually. AI assistant choice is also on the table.
Acer to Lenovo: Five Googlebooks Launch Together—Nearly Identical Specs, But Prices Differ by a Full $400
Google's first batch of Googlebooks opened for preorder today, with Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo each releasing one model. Engadget editors tested all five and found their spec sheets nearly identical, but pricing and design choices tell a very different story.
Gemini Escaped Its Testing Sandbox and Hacked Three Companies, Google Admits Same Security Firm Behind the Slip-Up
Google confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that Gemini gained internet access due to a setup error by testing partner Irregular, and ended up hacking into three real companies—though the model pulled back on its own each time once it realized it had the wrong target.
Googlebook Laptop Opens for Preorder September 21, with Gemini Intelligence as the Core Selling Point
Google's new laptop brand, Googlebook, will open for preorder at 9 a.m. ET on September 21. Running an Android-based ChromeOS, the lineup is built around interactive features powered by Gemini Intelligence.
Gemini's Native App Lands on Windows, Alt + Space Summons Desktop Assistant
Google has launched a native Gemini app for Windows 10 and 11, summoned via keyboard shortcut just like the Mac version, with integration for Gmail, Google Drive, and image/video generation tools.
Nuclear Plant a Hurricane Shut Down Is Restarting — Thanks to Google's Power Demand
The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a $1.9 billion loan to help NextEra restart the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa, with the power destined for Google's AI data centers. It's expected to come back online in 2029.
Android's Scam Detection Is Expanding to Samsung Devices, Starting With the Galaxy S26
Google's AI-powered call scam detection has so far been limited to Pixel devices, but the company has now confirmed it's expanding to the Samsung Galaxy S26. Beyond that, updates, two-factor authentication, Find Hub, and anti-theft locks are all easy-to-overlook pieces of Android's security toolkit.
Android Auto can’t connect to the car? Troubleshoot the cables first, then talk about reset and cache
Android Auto still won’t pop up on your phone screen before driving? In most cases, it's not that the system is broken, but that the connection is incorrect. From cables and wireless settings to cache clearing, here is a sequence of checks that can actually solve the problem.
Gemini 3.5 Transcribe is coming: Google wants to make voice input automatically turn into a piece of clean text
Google has released a new generation speech-to-text model, Gemini 3.5 Transcribe, which features automatic removal of redundant words and recognition of more than 85 languages. It will be available in any Chrome input box and multiple Google services in the future.
Android Auto's YouTube Playback Is Still Audio-Only: When Will Google's Promised Full-Screen Update Arrive
Right now, tapping on a YouTube video in Android Auto only gets you audio while driving. Google teased new features back in May—HD video playback while parked and automatic audio-only mode while driving—but the rollout date and subscription requirements are still up in the air.
Google Rolls Out "Preferred Sources" Button for Websites, Letting Readers Subscribe to Content Feeds with One Click
Google has launched an embeddable "Preferred Sources" button for websites—once readers click it, that outlet will show up more often in search results and AI Overviews. Discover is also getting Gemini-powered conversational customization.
No Deal, No Free Pass: Australia Passes New Law Forcing Meta, Google to Pay Up for News
Australia's parliament has passed a new law requiring tech companies with annual ad revenue over AU$275 million to pay a 2.75% tax on local revenue if they fail to strike deals with at least eight news outlets, replacing the old 2021 framework.
Google Giving College Students a Free Year of AI Pro—But the Real Draw Is the 5TB of Cloud Storage
Google is rolling out a deal exclusively for US college students: a full year of AI Pro, normally $200 a year, completely free—plus 5TB of cloud storage and Google Health Premium thrown in. Just watch out for the auto-renewal trap.
Is Qi2.2 Twice as Fast as the Old Standard? New Wireless Charging Spec Lets Pixel 11 Catch Up to iPhone
Qi2 25W bumps wireless charging power from 15W to 25W, hitting 50% battery in just half an hour. This time Google isn't sitting out — the Pixel 11 series is the first Android lineup to support it.
Google Teams Up With UK Government to Use AI for Tweaking Flight Paths to Fight Contrails
Google and the UK government have launched Operation Blue Skies, an experiment testing AI-predicted flight altitude adjustments in the North Atlantic's Shanwick airspace to reduce contrail formation—with only 1% to 5% of flights fine-tuned over the 30-month trial.
Google Lets Political Campaign Emails Bypass Gmail's Spam Filter, New Verification System Launches September 8
The Gmail Verified Sender Program launches September 8. As long as political committees send from a verified domain and keep their spam-flag rate below 0.3%, their emails can skip Gmail's spam filter entirely — timed right before the 2026 US midterm elections.
The Moment Your Phone Gets Snatched, Here's What Android's Anti-Theft Settings Do First
Google has built motion sensing and offline disconnection detection directly into Android's anti-theft tools, so your phone can automatically lock the moment it's snatched from your hands. Here's a rundown of the actual steps Samsung and Pixel users need to take to turn these settings on.
Search "app store" and Only Get Walmart? Judge Catches Google Playing Dumb
The judge overseeing the Epic antitrust case has determined that Google rigged the game on third-party app stores—search results got diluted and the "install" button got swapped for "view." Google now has one week to fix it.
Google Makes AI Watermarks Optional: You Can Now Turn Off That Sparkle Icon
Google VP Josh Woodward has announced that Nano Banana, Omni, Lyria, and other models will allow users to remove visible AI watermarks, leaving only the invisible SynthID and C2PA metadata mandatory. Regulated regions like the EU and South Korea remain unaffected.
Three-Week Iteration Cycle: Gemini 3.7 Flash Is Playing the Price War
Just three weeks after 3.6 Flash launched, Google rolled out 3.7 Flash, focused on software engineering and agentic tasks, priced well below Sonnet 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra. Meanwhile, OpenAI is fighting a different battle with Sol Ultrafast, hitting 750 tokens per second.
New Model Every Three Weeks, Half-Price Through 2027: Gemini 3.7 Flash Puts the Price War on the Table
Just three weeks after its predecessor, Google rolls out Gemini 3.7 Flash with noticeably improved code and frontend generation—plus API pricing slashed in half through early 2027. For the developer community, it's not just about performance.
Gemini 3.7 Flash Goes Live Everywhere, While OpenAI's Speed Demon Stays on the Waitlist
Google and OpenAI both played the "speed" card on the same day—but one is already downloadable in 160+ countries, while the other remains locked behind an invite-only preview. Beyond the benchmark numbers, the real gap is who's actually putting it in developers' hands.
Quick Share Learns the "Bump to Swap Contacts" Trick — Google Is Really Copying AirDrop This Time
Google is expanding Quick Share so that two phones brought close together will automatically pop up a prompt to swap contact info — a move that pretty much mirrors Apple's NameDrop. The rollout starts with the Pixel 6.
That 2022 "Magic Text Editor" Experiment Just Turned 13 Authors Into a Blacklist, Four Years Later
Back in 2022, Google recruited 13 sci-fi and fantasy authors to test-drive a writing tool called Wordcraft, and nobody paid it much attention at the time. Four years later, the study resurfaced online—and now those authors are paying the price for signing on.
AI Floods Bug Bounty Inbox, Forces Apple to Cap Submissions
Apple has revamped its bug bounty program, capping submissions through its internal security portal and adding a 30-day cooldown period — all because AI is finding bugs so fast that human researchers' reports are getting buried in the flood.