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Android Authority's Stephen Radochia tested Google's new AI-generated battery summary feature on a Pixel 11 Pro XL for a week. The tool, found under Settings > Battery and charging > Battery usage, uses Gemini to translate battery drain data into plain-language explanations instead of raw percentages, flagging apps like TikTok and X as major power consumers.
Google has added a new Map tool to the Gemini app, currently available only on Android and iOS mobile versions. The tool shows users' location on a live map with zoom and search functions, and an 'Explore this area' button that adds map data to prompts. Separately, a beta version of the Google app is replacing the forward-slash shortcut with an @ symbol for accessing skills and connectors.
A blog post observes a recurring pattern of people announcing departures from platforms like Reddit, WordPress, Discord, GitHub, Codeberg, and Photoshop, often moving toward smaller, self-hosted sites or alternative networks such as Gopher and Gemini. Cited reasons include pricing changes, AI training on user content, ownership changes, and a general sense that platforms no longer serve individual users. The author notes these moves trend toward reduced reach but greater control rather than toward bigger replacement platforms.
A CNET writer connected Google's Gemini chatbot directly to a Gmail account containing more than 192,000 unread messages, including over 93,000 in the Promotions folder. Gemini generated targeted Gmail search queries, such as filtering Nextdoor alerts about lost or dead animals, which the writer then ran manually in Gmail's search bar to locate and bulk-delete unwanted threads.
Android Auto users are reporting that Gemini stalls for about 10 seconds when asked a question or search, then gives up without answering. The issue has been seen across Google, Samsung, and Motorola phones, and affected users say common fixes like resetting Android Auto settings or updating their phone don't resolve it. Android Authority says it has contacted Google for comment.
Google has released its new flagship AI model, Gemini 4 Argon, which the company says ranks just behind Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. Analysts cited by CNBC say the model shows strong performance in legal and financial reasoning, enterprise tasks, and cybersecurity. Google is rolling the model out in phases, first to trusted cybersecurity partners, while working with the U.S. government on pre-release safety evaluations.
Android Authority's Stephen Radochia initially criticized Google's higher Pixel 11 series pricing and the base model's reduced RAM, but after a month using the Pixel 11 Pro XL he reports the phone's display, cameras, battery life, and Gemini Intelligence features justify the cost. A reader poll cited in his piece showed 59% of respondents still plan to stick with their older Pixel rather than upgrade.
Meta's Muse is a new autonomous AI assistant designed to perform tasks in the background with 24/7 execution capabilities, rather than functioning as a conversational chatbot like ChatGPT or Gemini. According to an Android Authority column, Muse requires broad access to personal accounts, financial details and email, and assigns each user a persistent virtual machine in the cloud to carry out tasks.
Samsung has released the Galaxy Buds On, its first open-ear clip-on earbuds, exclusively in South Korea on October 27 in black for 299,000 won (about $220). The earbuds use a TwinBoost speaker system to boost bass and reduce sound leakage, plus automatic volume adjustment, touch controls, and voice isolation for calls. Samsung says a wider global rollout will follow but has not shared dates, regions, or pricing.
Google announced its new frontier AI model, Gemini 4 Argon, on Wednesday, ten months after Gemini 3's release. The model is initially being made available only to cybersecurity defenders in Google's Fairwind program, with wider subscriber and free-user access to follow later. Google says Gemini 4 Argon handles coding, multimodal tasks and reasoning, and performs especially well on business tasks like software engineering, cybersecurity and legal/finance work.
Google released Gemini 4 Argon, which the company says improves coding, cybersecurity and complex-task performance, matching OpenAI's cybersecurity benchmark scores and leading on software engineering tests. Its launch pricing of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens mirrors OpenAI's discounted GPT-6.1 Sol model. The release comes as Meta's Muse app and OpenAI's new Dots personal agent draw heavy consumer attention, while Anthropic's CEO has called for slower AI development pace.
Google has rolled out Guided Vision, a new Gemini Live capability that lets blind and low-vision users share their phone camera and receive real-time spoken descriptions of their surroundings. The feature can also verbally direct users to reposition the camera, such as panning or stepping back, to get a clearer view. It works on Android 9 and newer in regions where Gemini Live is supported, and was developed with input from accessibility group Aira's Trusted Tester network.