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Google's Pixel 11 Pro XL nearly hits its advertised 45W wired charging speed, peaking at 40.7W, but only when paired with a specific USB-C charger supporting 21V at 2A under the USB PD PPS protocol. Common PPS chargers limited to 11V, including some rated up to 67W, only delivered around 25W in testing, and even with the ideal charger the phone still takes about 21 minutes to reach 50% charge.
Samsung has pushed One UI 9 Beta 7 to the Galaxy S26 lineup, quietly adding AI features first seen on the Galaxy Z8 foldables and Galaxy S26 FE. These include My FanCam video reframing, a Call Brief overlay that surfaces calendar and email info during calls, Custom Cards for Now Brief, and combined Finder plus Google Search widgets on the home screen.
Virtual power plants let utilities remotely adjust smart thermostats, EV chargers, batteries and solar panels in homes to reduce strain during peak demand, in exchange for bill discounts or signup bonuses. More than 500 such programs already run across the US, with about 4 million smart-thermostat households enrolled as of last year, and interest is growing as companies like Google invest in the technology to support data centers.
Luanti's Android app was removed from the Google Play Store following a DMCA takedown notice filed by Tracer.AI on behalf of Microsoft, accusing the open-source voxel game platform of infringing Minecraft's copyright. Luanti's developers say the app contains no proprietary Minecraft code or assets, noting that Tracer.AI filed a nearly identical notice against them in 2023, which was successfully appealed, and has separately targeted another voxel-style indie game called Allumeria this year.
Google is letting Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) users import select owned ebooks from Google Play Books directly into notebooks for analysis. The feature, called Expert Intelligence, covers over 100,000 titles from publishers like Penguin Random House and O'Reilly Media, and includes partnerships with 15 bestselling authors. Users can then apply Gemini Notebook tools like Audio Overviews and Infographics to the imported book content, and combine multiple titles in one notebook.
A developer released IndexFlow, an open-source infrastructure project built in Rust that provides libraries for parsing XML sitemaps and analyzing technical SEO issues like canonical tags, robots directives, and metadata. The project is structured as modular components, including indexflow-sitemap and indexflow-seo, meant to serve as building blocks for a future commercial platform.
TechCrunch has announced that Anthropic's Head of Applied AI, Cat de Jong, and a senior OpenAI productivity executive will speak on the AI Stage at Disrupt 2026, running October 13-15 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The sessions, sponsored by Google for Startups, will address enterprise AI deployment lessons, pricing strategy amid model commoditization, and rebuilding security for autonomous agents.
Despite ranking among the world's top five smartphone makers by shipments, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have essentially no official retail presence in the United States. US buyers largely see only Apple, Samsung, Google and Motorola on carrier shelves, even as these Chinese brands dominate sales across Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Fairphone has begun selling its Gen 6 Plus directly in the US for the first time, rather than through Murena, running standard Google Android. Priced at $649, the phone lets owners replace up to 12 parts—including the battery, display, cameras, and USB-C port—using just a screwdriver. In a reader poll of over 1,500 responses, 91.5% called the device appealing despite its modest spec upgrades over the base Gen 6.
Google, OpenAI and more than 100 other companies signed a joint letter warning that AI-powered cyberattacks are set to grow more common in the near future. The letter calls on governments and industry to take stronger action to prepare for and counter this rising threat.
Google Pixel 11 owners are reporting that Immersive Navigation, Google Maps' 3D route-view feature, disappears after upgrading from older Pixel or Android devices, both on the phone and through Android Auto. Because the feature was rolled out server-side rather than through an app update, affected users cannot restore it themselves through settings or reinstalling the app.
More than 100 companies spanning AI, cloud, finance and cybersecurity—including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, AWS and CrowdStrike—signed an open letter urging coordinated action against AI-powered cyberattacks. The letter warns that AI-enabled attacks will grow more widespread and sophisticated as models improve, and calls on governments, industry and AI developers to build stronger defensive tools and monitoring systems.