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You can search Google with a new voice experience - and it's pretty cool

Google / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET The Google Search experience remained relatively unchanged for decades, but the way you browse the web has been reimagined with AI updates such as AI Overviews, AI Mode, Circle to Search, and more. Now, Google is introducing a new way to search -- with your voice. Search Live On Wednesday, Google launched the Search Live with voice input experience in the Google app for both Android and iOS. With this experience, you can have a free-flowing conversation a

Google tests real-time AI voice chats in Search

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Google is building Search Live into AI Mode, allowing you to have a back-and-forth voice conversation with the company’s AI chatbot right from its search engine. The test, which is rolling out now to Labs users in the US, currently doesn’t support camera-sharing, but Google plans to add the capability in the “coming months.” Search Live lets you in

Futureproof

AI tools are flooding the culture ecosystem — and no corner of the arts space is immune. In this series, we’re looking at the ways artists are embracing AI, pushing back on it, or trying their best to find an equilibrium with a new technology that’s both sweeping and destabilizing. We talk to perfumers questioning the looming automation of scent creation, fanfic writers pushing back on archive scrapers, and illustrators replacing the AI that once replaced them. The tech isn’t going away. Here’s

Google’s AI Mode can now have back-and-forth voice conversations

Google is rolling out the ability for users to have a back-and-forth voice conversation with AI Mode, its experimental Search feature that lets users ask complex, multi-part questions. With the new Search Live integration, users can have a free-flowing voice conversation with Search and explore links from across the web. Users will be able to access the feature by opening the Google app and tapping the new “Live” icon to ask their question aloud. They will then hear an AI-generated audio respon

Companies That Replaced With Humans With AI Are Realizing Their Mistake

According to tech billionaire and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, 2025 was supposed to be the year "when AI agents will work." Despite widespread hype, so-called "AI agents" — a software product that's supposed to complete human-level tasks autonomously — have yet to live up to their name. As of April, even the best AI agent could only finish 24 percent of the jobs assigned to it. Still, that didn't stop business executives from swarming to the software like flies to roadside carrion, gutting entire dep

Sensor Tower acquires Playliner to expand mobile games data

Digital analysis and app data company Sensor Tower announced today that it has acquired Playliner, a mobile games Live Ops data provider, for an undisclosed sum. According to Sensor Tower, this will expand its analytical capabilities within the mobile gaming space, as Playliner can provide details on how such games maintain audiences and evolve over time. This is Sensor Tower’s second such acquisition, the first being Video Game Insights earlier this year. Playliner tracks and analyzes Live Ope

What happens when you feed AI nothing

If you stumbled across Terence Broad’s AI-generated artwork (un)stable equilibrium on YouTube, you might assume he’d trained a model on the works of the painter Mark Rothko — the earlier, lighter pieces, before his vision became darker and suffused with doom. Like early-period Rothko, Broad’s AI-generated images consist of simple fields of pure color, but they’re morphing, continuously changing form and hue. But Broad didn’t train his AI on Rothko; he didn’t train it on any data at all. By hack

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tells workers: AI will replace some of you

A hot potato: CEOs love to sing the praises of generative AI while tiptoeing around the fact it's going to cost people their jobs. But Amazon boss Andy Jassy has just said the quiet part out loud, admitting that the technology will reduce the company's corporate workforce over the next few years. In a message sent to employees this week, Jassy said generative AI was a "once-in-a-lifetime" technology that completely changes what's possible for customers and businesses. Jassy went on to highligh

The best SSDs in 2025

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . If your computer is starting to feel a little sluggish, or you’re tired of waiting for games and apps to load, upgrading to one of the best SSD options out there can be a game-changer. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are much faster than traditional hard drives, helping your system boot up i

Google’s compact look for Gemini Live isn’t even out, and it’s already getting better (APK teardown)

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority TL;DR Google’s got quite a few in-development changes in its latest Android app update, including screen-top layout tweaks. The new Gemini Live overlay we looked at last week is already showing signs of refinement. Google’s working on a way to explicitly suggest AI Mode search topics. Over the past few days, we’ve been spotting a lot of changes that have popped up in Google’s most recent update to its Android app. Those finds included stuff like work toward

Gemini Live on your phone may soon be just a swipe away

Robert Triggs / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing a new swipe gesture within the Gemini app that allows for a faster and more direct way to launch the Gemini Live experience. The gesture lets you swipe left or right to switch between the standard text-based chat and the live, conversational interface. This feature is appearing for a limited number of users as part of a broader UI update that also adds a navigation drawer to the app. Google’s Gemini chatbot can hold much more in-depth

Paddle settles for $5 million over facilitating tech support scams

Paddle.com and its U.S. subsidiary will pay $5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allegations that the company facilitated deceptive tech-support schemes that harmed many U.S. consumers, including older adults. Paddle, a UK-based payment processor, offers payments, tax handling, compliance, and checkout infrastructure for software and digital product sellers by acting as a "merchant of record." According to the FTC, Paddle failed to perform adequate screening and fraud prevention

Show HN: Lstr – A modern, interactive tree command written in Rust

lstr A blazingly fast, minimalist directory tree viewer, written in Rust. Inspired by the command line program tree, with a powerful interactive mode. An interactive overview of lstr 's project structure... using lstr . Philosophy Fast: Runs directory scans in parallel by default to maximize speed on modern hardware. Runs directory scans in parallel by default to maximize speed on modern hardware. Minimalist: Provides essential features without the bloat. The core experience is clean and un

A Rural Public Transit Odyssey

If, in all my miles and years of traveling, I could soundly say that I have learned anything at all, it is this: the easiest way is usually the most boring way. This is true of most things — but it is especially true of travel. Because in all my miles on the American road, I’ve found that the most interesting routes, roads, trails, and methods are basically all tedious, unorthodox, obscure, and time-consuming. There are times when ‘boring’ is quite good, of course. As ‘interesting’ as it could

Gmail starts testing Material 3 Expressive redesign on Wear OS

Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority TL;DR Google has started testing the Material 3 Expressive redesign for its Wear OS apps. The updated Gmail app for Wear OS has started rolling out to some users, bringing a few interface changes. After giving us an early look at the Material 3 Expressive design changes coming to Wear OS last month, Google has started updating its Wear OS apps with expressive design elements. We recently gave you an early look at the revamped Google Keep app for Wear OS. Now

Threads adds dedicated fediverse feed and profile search

After a year of slow, sometimes confusing steps toward fediverse support, Threads is now making it easier for users to actually see and discover content from other platforms. Here’s how it works, and how to enable it. Starting today, if you’ve enabled fediverse sharing in Threads, you’ll get access to a new reverse-chronological feed showing posts from federated accounts you follow on Mastodon, WordPress, Flipboard, or other ActivityPub-based services. What’s more, Threads is also rolling out

Threads is adding Fediverse content to social feeds

The Threads team at Meta has spent the past year working on supporting the broader fediverse and social web, and is launching its biggest integrations yet: a new dedicated feed for fediverse posts, and a way to search for fediverse users inside of Threads. Starting today, if you’ve turned on fediverse sharing in Threads, there will be a new section at the top of your Following feed that takes you to a list of posts from folks you follow on Mastodon, Flipboard, or wherever else you’ve connected

Threads adds new dedicated feed for fediverse content

Meta’s Threads is deepening its integration with the fediverse , a collection of decentralized social media platforms that includes Mastodon . Starting today, users who have enabled sharing to the fediverse in Threads will be able to see posts from federated accounts that they follow. These posts will now appear in a dedicated feed. From this feed, users can now search for federated users from within Threads. These posts will populate in reverse chronological order, ensuring the newest posts fr

'A Minecraft Movie' Streaming on Max: Release Date and Time

If you caught some morsels from A Minecraft Movie on social media -- videos of Jack Black passionately singing about cooking chicken with lava or theater audiences going wild over a chicken jockey -- this week you can stream the flick that started it all. The Max streaming service, which will soon take on the title of HBO Max again, previously announced that the video game movie would premiere in June. Now it's shared the exact release date for the PG-rated comedy. A Minecraft Movie stars Black

AI copyright anxiety will hold back creativity

During a later visit to a Picasso exhibit in Milan, I came across a famous informational diagram by the art historian Alfred Barr, mapping how modernist movements like Cubism evolved from earlier artistic traditions. Picasso is often held up as one of modern art’s most original and influential figures, but Barr’s chart made plain the many artists he drew from—Goya, El Greco, Cézanne, African sculptors. This made me wonder: If a generative AI model had been fed all those inputs, might it have pro

The first Corvette hypercar? Chevrolet’s 1,250 hp ZR1X hybrid breaks cover.

Chevrolet provided flights from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, and accommodation so Ars could be briefed on the new ZR1X and drive the ZR1. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. At the recent media launch of the ZR1, the most powerful Corvette ever, Chevrolet also teased an even more potent variant set to debut later this year. Dubbed the ZR1X, the latest model arrives after serious anticipation that began swirling when the eighth-gen ‘Vette switched to a mid-engine layout—and especially a

Topics: drive kph mph zr1 zr1x

6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties

In just a few months, Donald Trump’s second presidential term has drastically reshaped the United States federal government and moved to consolidate the power of the executive branch. At the behest of the president, numerous federal agencies have undertaken aggressive, invasive initiatives to crack down on immigration, police speech, investigate political opponents, curtail US public health efforts and emergency preparedness, and more. With so much happening at once, numerous organizations and

Threads is adding fediverse content to your social feeds

The Threads team at Meta has spent the past year working on supporting the broader fediverse and social web, and is launching its biggest integrations yet: a new dedicated feed for fediverse posts, and a way to search for fediverse users inside of Threads. Starting today, if you’ve turned on fediverse sharing in Threads, there will be a new section at the top of your Following feed that takes you to a list of posts from folks you follow on Mastodon, Flipboard, or wherever else you’ve connected

Threads expands open social web integrations with fediverse feed, user profile search

Instagram Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, on Tuesday launched two new features as part of its plan to further integrate with the open social web, known as the fediverse. Now, Threads users will be able to see posts from other users on the fediverse within a dedicated feed if they’ve opted in to fediverse sharing on Threads. Plus, people will be able to search for fediverse users directly in Threads. Posts from federated users will be found on the Following tab of the Threads app. They don’t ap

What I Wish Someone Told Me When I Was Getting into ARIA

What I Wish Someone Told Me When I Was Getting Into ARIA 34 min read Share on Twitter, LinkedIn is an inevitability when working on web accessibility. That said, it’s everyone’s first time learning about ARIA at some point. Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) is an inevitability when working on web accessibility. That said, it’s everyone’s first time learning about ARIA at some point. If you haven’t encountered ARIA before, great! It’s a chance to learn something new and exciting. I

BMW ConnectedDrive lets me control my returned rental car (Sixt)

Last week I rented a BMW from Sixt (Italy). The default rental driver profile had Bluetooth disabled, so I created my own BMW ID, paired it with the car, removed the existing profile, and even triggered software updates. When returning the car, I told the Sixt representative that I had linked my BMW ID — they assured me that the vehicle would be reset. Today — just before deleting the “My BMW” app — I checked out of curiosity. Surprise: I still had full remote access: - live location tracki

Here’s an early look at Google Keep’s Material 3 Expressive design on Wear OS

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Google is prepping Material 3 Expressive design changes for the Wear OS version of Google Keep. We’ve spotted the changes in the latest build on the OnePlus Watch 2R running Wear OS 4. It includes redesigned buttons and note cards, a new animation, and an updated checklist interface. Like Android, Wear OS will receive several visual changes based on Google’s new Material 3 Expressive design language. We’ve already seen some of the system-level interface i

My favorite $150 smartwatch just got a style upgrade - and looks double the price

ZDNET's key takeaways The Amazfit Active 2 Square is available in a premium package for $149.99 that includes leather and silicone bands The watch is small, lasts up to 10 days, incorporates high end sapphire glass and stainless steel materials, and has a brilliant large 1.75-inch AMOLED display There is limited onboard storage for maps and music while the software may also be overwhelming. View now at Amazon I recently reviewed Amazfit's Active 2 Smartwatch, and it was one of my favorite wea

Android Automotive now lets apps show your food order status and more on your car’s home screen

Polestar TL;DR Android Automotive OS is getting a new feature called AppCard, which allows apps to display their most relevant data and functions on the home screen. AppCards can display information like the status of a food order, but the visual styling of these cards is controlled by carmakers, not app developers. It’s unclear whether the feature will require the latest version of Android Automotive, though. When you’re driving, your focus should be on the road, but sometimes you need to g

The best cloud storage services of 2025: Expert tested

Who hasn't heard of Google Drive? It's a well-known option for online storage and remains one of my favorites, as well as something I use daily for work. Why we like it: Google Drive used to be just storage before Google combined its online office suite, Google Docs, into Google One. If you're a little confused because Google Workplace is also available, you're in good company. To clarify, Google Workspace Individual is meant for small business owners. At the same time, Google One is a consume