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CNET's latest People's Picks survey asked readers to rate phone brands on customer satisfaction, battery longevity, and price-to-value. Google came out on top with a 4.52 out of 5 average score, narrowly edging out Motorola at 4.45, while Samsung and Apple trailed with 4.19 and 3.87 respectively.
Google is bringing back Now Playing notifications in the shade on Pixel devices, months after removing them during a March update that split the feature into a standalone app. The restored alerts show the song title and artist, plus a shortcut to favorite tracks or view listening history, without needing to unlock the phone. The rollout appears limited so far, based on scattered Reddit reports rather than an official announcement.
Google Research, working with HHMI Janelia Research Campus, published the first complete map of an adult male fruit fly's brain and central nervous system, called MaleCNS v1.0. The AI-assisted project stitched together millions of 2D images into a 3D model reconstructing more than 166,000 neurons. Within days, software engineers used the connectome data to train a simulated version of the fly's neural circuitry to play Doom and Super Mario 64.
Ivo Stivoric, who holds the title 'Lt. Trouble + Maker' at Alphabet's X, the Moonshot Factory, has been named 2026 Innovative Leader of the Year. Over more than a dozen years at X, he has led varied projects including Taara's light-based wireless communication, Tapestry's electric grid mapping, Chorus's AI supply chain tracking, and Materra's AI-driven waste sorting, and holds over 90 patents.
Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026 list recognized 20 companies for excellence in AI, automation, and machine learning. Honorees range from large firms like Google, Lenovo, Match Group, and Williams-Sonoma to smaller companies such as Kiss My Apps, all cited for using emerging technologies to boost employee productivity and workplace innovation.
Danijar Hafner is developing 'world models' — AI systems that simulate physical reality — and training reinforcement-learning agents inside them so robots can anticipate outcomes before acting in the real world. This model-based approach lets agents rehearse complex tasks virtually, avoiding the costly trial-and-error training typical of conventional robotics. Hafner, a former Google Brain and DeepMind researcher who worked alongside figures like Geoffrey Hinton, is now recognized as a rising talent in AI research.
Arm has announced its new C2-Ultra CPU architecture, the successor to last year's C1-Ultra, which is expected to appear in Samsung Exynos and MediaTek Dimensity chips around 2027, and possibly Google's Tensor G7. Arm claims up to 15% peak performance gains over its predecessor, though most of that comes from a higher 4.45GHz clock speed rather than architectural changes, while power efficiency improves by 38% at equivalent performance thanks to a 2nm process and larger L2 cache.
Google DeepMind has launched AlphaGenome Atlas, a database that predicts the molecular effects of every one of the roughly nine billion possible single-letter changes across the human genome. The tool is accessible via a web portal, the Antigravity development platform, and the AlphaGenome interface, and comes bundled with a new Variant Impact Score to help researchers prioritize which mutations are most likely to matter.
Android Authority argues that Samsung's new Galaxy S26 FE, now priced at $700 after a $50 increase, faces stiff competition despite carrying flagship-level performance with some cost-cutting on materials. The outlet points to alternatives including the Google Pixel 11, Pixel 10a, Samsung's own Galaxy S26, the Motorola Edge (2026), and the Nothing Phone 4a Pro as options worth weighing first. A reader poll cited in the piece shows the Galaxy S26 and Motorola Edge drawing the most votes as preferred alternatives.
Android Authority surveyed nearly 2,200 readers about Google's tougher sideloading measures, which add security checks, a 24-hour delay, and a forced restart before installing apps from outside the Play Store. Roughly 47.5% said the extra friction is always worth it, while another 36.6% said it's worth it for certain apps only, meaning over 80% of respondents remain willing to sideload despite the added steps.
Google's seven-year software commitment for Pixel phones guarantees OS version updates and security patches, but the company now ships its flashiest features through quarterly Pixel Drops and Android Drops rather than the annual Android release. As a result, older Pixels that technically remain 'supported' are increasingly missing out on the features that actually matter to users, while major Android version updates like Android 17 have grown noticeably thin on new capabilities.
Google has rolled out Play Services version 26.35, which lets Android users tap their physical transit cards against an NFC-enabled phone to import the card and its balance into Google Wallet. The update also adds a redesigned 'Add a card' success screen and various account management and location-sharing improvements. Separately, Google Play Store version 53.1 introduces a new navigation bar and short feature descriptions in the 'Similar Apps' section.