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A WIRED software reporter ran a day-long comparison of six always-on AI agents installed on an iPhone: Meta's Muse, OpenAI's Dots, Instinct, Anthropic's Claude Duet, Google's Gemini Spark and xAI's Grok Bot. The agents vary widely in price and access, from Meta's free Muse app to OpenAI's $100-a-month Dots, with Claude Duet only released as a wait-listed preview the night before testing.
A teardown of Android Auto version 18.1.164344-release.daily by Android Authority uncovered new strings indicating a 'Remember this choice' feature for contacts with multiple saved numbers. The strings also show a message confirming when a default number has been set, which users could reportedly change by selecting the contact again. Google has not confirmed the feature publicly, and it is not yet available to users.
In a Reddit r/GooglePixel discussion, longtime Pixel owners explained their reasons for sticking with the phones, citing clean Android software, timely updates, and exclusive features like Call Screen and spam filtering. A poll in the thread found 38% cited clean Android and updates as the top reason, while others pointed to camera quality, ecosystem integration, or simply not finding a better alternative. Some users also voiced complaints about Gemini replacing familiar Assistant features, camera processing, battery life, and hardware value.
Google has removed the Gemini Pro model from its $5-per-month AI Plus subscription, limiting those users to the Flash and Flash-Lite models instead. A longtime subscriber says Google notified them by email last week, offering a choice to keep AI Plus, upgrade to the pricier AI Pro tier to regain Pro access, or cancel outright. The subscriber opted to cancel AI Plus but continues using Gemini's free tier.
Google has made Gemini Notebook, formerly known as NotebookLM, available as a Connected App within the Gemini chatbot. Users can type @Gemini Notebook or use natural prompts to create, edit, and manage notebooks, add or remove sources, and pull answers from notebook content without leaving the chat. The feature is rolling out to Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and personal Google account users.
An Android Authority writer prompted ChatGPT's voice mode and Gemini Live to debate which smartphone deserves the title of best overall, without specifying a year, price range or operating system. The experiment followed a similar earlier test comparing iOS and Android, and the piece also included a reader poll where 44% picked the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and 30% picked a Pixel model.
Google revised its privacy policy on October 16, softening language that previously guaranteed Gmail, Drive, and Photos content would never personalize ads. The new wording leaves room for that data to influence ads once it's shared with other Google services through the opt-in Personal Intelligence feature, which feeds personal data into Gemini, AI Overviews, and AI Mode search.
Colorfigures is a skill for AI assistants like Gemini, Codex and Claude that converts a plain-text description of an everyday object into a hand-inked, isometric HTML drawing. The generated figure can be rotated, includes working buttons, and offers a see-through view showing internal mechanisms with labels that light up during operation. It is installed by placing a folder in the relevant skills directory or uploading a zip file through each platform's skills settings, and works across Gemini, Codex and Claude interfaces.
Google's revised privacy policy states that services like Search and Gemini can access data from other Google products, including Gmail, Drive, and Google Photos, to personalize experiences, which may include ads. The policy gives an example where a Search query could lead to related ads appearing on YouTube, depending on user settings.
Google Home Speaker owners reported their devices consuming unusually large amounts of Wi-Fi data, with one user citing three terabytes over two weeks and a WIRED writer finding her own speaker had used 487 GB in ten days. Google told WIRED a server misconfiguration caused some speakers to repeatedly re-download a software update, and said the issue has now been fixed.
A test of 12 AI models from ten different labs asked each for its most controversial opinion of humans, three times per model, producing 35 answers. Researchers found 29 of those answers independently converged on a single idea—that people prioritize social belonging and group loyalty over objective truth—with phrasing varying but the core claim repeating across models like GPT-6.1 Sol, Grok 4.7, DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K3 and Gemini 4 Argon.
A CNET reporter tested Google's newly released Gemini 3 Pro model by asking it to build an application for designing 3D-printable objects. Within about 18 hours of conversation-based iteration, the AI produced a working app that let him generate and refine cosplay armor pieces like greaves, pauldrons and vambraces, which he then printed himself.