Latest Tech News

Stay updated with the latest in technology, AI, cybersecurity, and more

Filtered by: goo Clear Filter

Google reportedly plans to cut ties with Scale AI

In Brief Meta’s big investment in Scale AI may be giving some of the startup’s customers pause. Reuters reports that Google had planned to pay Scale $200 million this year but is now having conversations with its competitors and planning to cut ties. Microsoft is also reportedly looking to pull back, and OpenAI supposedly made a similar decision months ago, although its CFO said the company will continue working with Scale as one of many vendors. Scale’s customers include self-driving car com

I’ve been using Google Photos for 10 years and this is what I want to see in the next 10 years

Joe Maring / Android Authority I’m as cynical as the next tech writer about Big Tech’s trajectory, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Google Photos. The app recently turned ten years old, and I’ve been there every step of the way, although it certainly took me a while to discover its full potential. Many retrospectives have been written about how the app has evolved from its launch in 2015, but I’ve been thinking more about what the next decade holds. As good as the app is, here’s what I’d lik

These are the niche features I wish Samsung Good Lock also let me customize

Ryan Haines / Android Authority I think it’s safe to say that Samsung’s Good Lock is the most powerful customization toolkit in the Android ecosystem for those who want even more control over their One UI devices. Good Lock modules unlock the lock screen, tweak themes, and extend Routines far beyond their initial capabilities. It’s grown so much since its early days that I couldn’t imagine using a Samsung phone without it. However, there are still several areas where Good Lock falls short. Exi

Google Search uses AI-generated podcast hosts to answer your questions

Instead of digging through all the top search results, you can now ask Google Search to give you a comprehensive AI-generated summary with its Audio Overviews feature. The AI feature uses Google Gemini models to create a short audio clip that sounds like a conversational podcast with two hosts. It's not ideal for your basic search queries like finding out when Father's Day is, but it's helpful if you want an in-depth and hands-free response to the history and significance of Flag Day. The Audio

Got a new password manager? How to clean up the password mess you left in the cloud

koyu/Getty Images Every modern web browser has tools for tracking the passwords you use with secure online services. Those features are often turned on by default, which means you probably have a random collection of passwords saved in the cloud along with your bookmarks and settings for your default browser. Also: The best VPN services (and how to choose the right one for you) Those built-in utilities might have been good enough for an earlier era, but they aren't good enough for our complex

Best Internet Providers in Raleigh, North Carolina

What is the best internet provider in Raleigh? AT&T Fiber is CNET’s top pick for internet in Raleigh thanks to its widespread fiber coverage, fast upload and download speeds, and competitive pricing. It’s the best all-around option in a city that’s already ahead of the curve when it comes to internet performance. If you’re looking for even faster speeds, Google Fiber is the fastest provider in Raleigh, though its premium pricing may not fit every budget. For those outside fiber coverage areas

Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s AI hiring spree

is a deputy editor and author of thenewsletter. He has been reporting on the tech industry for more than a decade. AI researchers have recently been asking themselves a version of the question, “Is that really Zuck?” As first reported by Bloomberg, the Meta CEO has been personally asking top AI talent to join his new “superintelligence” AI lab and reboot Llama. His recruiting process typically goes like this: a cold outreach via email or WhatsApp that cites the recruit’s work history and reque

Google Meet’s Companion mode is finally ready for Android’s biggest screens

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google created Companion mode for Meet to offer a second screen for people in hybrid calls. Originally available for computers, last year Google expanded access to Android and iOS. Today Companion mode is getting an update to optimize it for tablets and foldables. Finding yourself stuck in a meeting can be a real slog, and it’s a situation that’s made all the worse when you feel like you’re not particularly seen, or able to interact with other partic

Google Clock starts drip-feeding its big Material 3 Expressive makeover

Hadlee Simons / Android Authority TL;DR Google Clock v7.14 brings small but noticeable visual updates to the alarm and settings toggles. The refreshed toggle design is part of Google’s shift toward Material 3 Expressive. A full redesign is expected with version 8 of the Clock app. Google’s Clock app is still waiting on its big Material 3 Expressive makeover, but a more minor update is already starting to move the visuals in that direction. Version 7.14 of the app introduces some subtle UI tw

It’s raining swag! You can redeem your Play Points for a new Android plushie and more

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority Pixel 8 Pro in front of an Android plushie TL;DR New Google, YouTube, and Android-themed merch is available for Play Points members to spend their points on. The collection includes plushies, shirts, hats, and more. If you’re a Google Play Points member, then you can earn points for purchases of digital content, in-app items, and downloads from the Play Store. These points can be used in various ways, like discounts for in-app items, Play credit, and so on.

Why ads are coming to your favorite AI bots and you've only got yourself to blame

Bloomberg Intelligence Most consumers don't want to pay to chat with a chatbot, according to a recent poll by Bloomberg Intelligence. That means advertising -- rather than subscription-based services -- will be the route to monetizing large language models. "The propensity to pay for generative-AI tools remains low," writes the author, Mandeep Singh, Bloomberg Intelligence senior industry analyst, with the help of Damian Reimertz, contributing analyst, in the report, "Generative AI's trillion-

Google’s latest experiment brings NotebookLM’s best features to Search

TL;DR Audio Overviews emerged as one of Google’s breakout AI hits, synthesizing virtual podcasts with a pair of hosts. After debuting with NotebookLM and spreading to other Google services, the company is experimenting with Audio Overviews in Search. For this initial test, access is limited to the US and only supports English. Forgive us for sounding like a broken record by this point, but Google’s Audio Overviews have easily emerged as one of the company’s most genuinely impressive and usefu

Google can now generate a fake AI podcast of your search results

NotebookLM is undoubtedly one of Google's best implementations of generative AI technology, giving you the ability to explore documents and notes with a Gemini AI model. Last year, Google added the ability to generate so-called "audio overviews" of your source material in NotebookLM. Now, Google has brought those fake AI podcasts to search results as a test. Instead of clicking links or reading the AI Overview, you can have two nonexistent people tell you what the results say. This feature is n

Gemini in Google Drive gets right to the point with automatic PDF summaries

Andy Walker / Android Authority TL;DR Gemini can now read PDFs in Google Drive and create a summary card for quick viewing. The feature comes with buttons users can click to make Gemini take action on the PDF, such as creating a draft proposal. The update is rolling out now to all Workspace users. Google Drive has been getting a lot of Gemini love recently. Google added the ability for Gemini to browse your files and even watch videos for you. Now, Google is rolling out a new feature that gi

Google tests Audio Overviews for Search queries

Google Search is experimenting with Audio Overviews for certain Search queries, the company announced on Friday. The feature was first introduced to NotebookLM, Google’s AI-based note-taking and research assistant. The tech giant says Audio Overviews will use its latest Gemini models to give users another way to absorb and understand information. “An audio overview can help you get a lay of the land, offering a convenient, hands-free way to absorb information whether you’re multitasking or sim

Magic Cue on the Pixel 10 sounds like Pixel Screenshots on steroids

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Google has reportedly been working on a new AI-powered assistance tool for Pixel devices since 2023. The system would monitor your screen and actions in apps, and offer “personal predictive suggestions.” First known as Pixie, and then Pixel Sense, a new leak suggests Google has renamed the tool to Magic Cue. Who doesn’t love a good mystery? In the smartphone world, upcoming high-profile devices sometimes leak so much that it feels like there’s nothing lef

How to turn off Google’s AI Overviews in web searches

Save some time (and energy and water) and Google without the “help” of AI. Google’s AI Overviews do not save me time. For one, I work for a tech blog and am therefore professionally curious as to whether or not the generated answers are correct, so I spend a few ticks figuring that out. (Answer: Sometimes, but not always!) Then things get existential as I contemplate how long a self-cannibalizing system can sustain itself — if the AI gives answers pulled from websites that survive on visits fr

Google links massive cloud outage to API management issue

Google says an API management issue is behind Thursday's massive Google Cloud outage, which disrupted or brought down its services and many other online platforms. Google says the cloud outage started around 10:49 ET and ended at 3:49 ET, after causing issues for millions of users worldwide for over three hours. Besides Google Cloud, the incident also impacted Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Cloud Search, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Tasks, Google Voice, Google Le

Inside the firm turning eerie blank streaming ads into useful nonprofit messages

StreamTV Insider provided flights from New York City to Denver and two nights of accommodation so Ars could attend its StreamTV Show. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. DENVER—Ads shown while you're streaming shows or movies are disruptive enough. But there's something uniquely eerie about what you see when a connected TV (CTV) platform fails to sell ad inventory. You may get a black screen accompanied by ethereal music or a confusing thumping beat, alongside a graphic that says someth

Topics: ad adgood ctv johns space

Google’s test turns search results into an AI-generated podcast

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 rolling out a test that puts its AI-powered Audio Overviews on the first page of search results on mobile. The experiment, which you can enable in Labs, will let you generate an AI podcast-style discussion for certain queries. If you search for something like, “How do noise cancellation headphones work?”, Google will display a button bene

The cloud broke Thursday and it'll happen again - how to protect your business before then

Akaradech Pramoonsin/Getty Images After a rocky Thursday afternoon on the internet, both Google and Cloudflare services appear to be operating normally as of Friday morning. When trouble started, the question wasn't what's wrong with what cloud service; it was, what service isn't down? Also: The best cloud storage services of 2025: Expert tested What happened on Thursday? First, this was not just an American problem. Google Cloud reported that it was a global problem. Google stated that mult

Another one for the graveyard: Google to kill Instant Apps in December

Apps used to be the measure of a mobile platform's worth, with Apple and Google dueling over who could list the most items in their respective stores. Today, the numbers don't matter as much—there are enough apps, and Google's attempt to replace parts of the web with apps is going away. Instant Apps, a feature that debuted in 2017, will reportedly be scrapped in December 2025. In its place, you'll just have to use the Internet. Developer Leon Omelan spotted this news buried in the latest Canary

Your Android phone just got a major feature upgrade for free - including these Pixel models

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Android 16 is officially here, and Google has some big upgrades on the way. Instead of releasing a new OS and a new phone lineup at the same time, Google is making the same move it did with Android 15 and giving both software and hardware their time to shine. Also: Why Denmark is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux This is the earliest Google has launched a major Android release in a while (for comparison, Android 15 was released on Oct

Zombie AI Siri May Shuffle Onto iPhones Two Years After It Was First Announced

At this week’s WWDC 2025 keynote, Apple’s senior vice president of software, Craig Federighi, strutted up on stage to the sound of Ratt’s “Round and Round” playing in the background. “Love’ll will find a way, just give it time… What goes around, comes around,” Stephen Pearcy belted out as Federighi, in his brilliant white mane, stood tall under the spotlight. He immediately went into all the updates that came to Apple Intelligence in 2024 and 2025. But one thing was missing, and Apple knew we we

This iOS 26 Feature Might Keep Me From Switching Back to Pixel

I switched from a Google Pixel 3 XL in 2021 to Apple's iPhone 12 Pro Max, and in the years since, I've dearly missed Google's Hold For Me. This feature is so useful in saving me from the misery of listening to awful hold music whenever I needed to call up a business, my health insurance provider, my cellphone carrier or any of the other myriad adulting tasks that still require speaking with a representative. Instead, the Google feature would helpfully silence my phone while keeping the call acti

Google’s Gemini AI will summarize PDFs for you when you open them

Google is rolling out new Gemini AI features for Workspace users that make it easier to find information in PDFs and form responses. The Gemini-powered file summarization capabilities in Google Drive have now expanded to PDFs and Google Forms, allowing key details and insights to be condensed into a more convenient format that saves users from manually digging through the files. Gemini will proactively create summary cards when users open a PDF in their drive and present clickable actions based

HP Dimension offers sci-fi-style 3D video calls, built on Google Beam

Recap: The dream of a truly sci-fi-style communication device is finally here. Two years after Google revealed its Project Starline video booth, the company announced its rebranding as Google Beam last month. Now, HP has announced the technology will form the basis of the HP Dimension. Before anyone gets excited about the prospect of taking these 3D video calls at home, note that the HP Dimension is an enterprise product with a price to match: $24,999. The device, which HP says is designed to

Apple's Workout Buddy Is Friendly, but What if It Could Adopt Other Personalities?

We all have different ways of motivating ourselves to exercise, so when Apple announced Workout Buddy for the Apple Watch at WWDC 2025, it made us think about what sorts of verbal encouragement would spur us to complete our workouts. We couldn't help but imagine the different types of future Workout Buddies -- and how they might help, cajole or even bargain with us to hit our fitness goals. Workout Buddy in WatchOS 26 will be available at the outset in eight workouts (such as running and cyclin

Google just released the first major Snapseed update in years

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 has completely revamped its Snapseed image editing app on iPhone and iPad. The change, spotted earlier by 9to5Google, is Snapseed’s first big update on iOS since adding dark mode in 2021. Snapseed was originally only available on iOS before Google acquired it in 2012 as part of a bid to compete with Instagram. Google later launched Snapseed

I live between Android, Windows, iPhone, and Mac, and it’s pure chaos

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Sending a file to a laptop should be simple in 2025, right? Apparently not for me, because my tech setup is split between Apple, Google, and Microsoft. It’s a frustrating multi-step process to do most things. Message my kids? Nope. Drop a file from my phone to my computer? Ya right. These are the kinds of things that happen when you live in a fragmented tech world. I come from an Android and Windows background. I’m a huge fan of Android and bought every singl