Android phones let users check which apps consume the most storage via Settings > Device Care > Storage > Apps, where apps can be uninstalled or archived. Archiving removes an app's core files and temporary data while keeping login credentials and personal settings intact for easy reinstallation. Android also offers an 'auto-archive' feature that automatically archives rarely used apps when storage runs low, which Google says can free up nearly 60 percent of an app's storage space without deleting its data.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-17
Google blurs certain Street View locations at the request of governments, privacy groups, and individuals, covering military sites, secure government buildings, homes of wealthy or famous people, and properties blurred by mistake. In countries like the Netherlands and Germany, residents have a legal right to request their homes be blurred, which explains the high concentration of blurred properties there. Once a location is blurred, Google does not reverse the change.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-17
A tech writer reports choosing the Google Pixel Tablet over Apple's still-unreleased HomeView smart home hub for daily household use. The comparison centers on the Pixel Tablet's versatility as both a tablet and a docked smart display, which the writer says already covers the role Apple's hub is expected to fill.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-10-17
Google's new Fitbit Air fitness tracker, praised for its lightweight design, 7-day battery and subscription-free pricing, carries only a water-resistant rating rather than being fully waterproof. It can withstand sweat and swimming sessions but is not built to be indestructible against water exposure.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-17
A CNET writer detailed switching from Microsoft 365 to LibreOffice, a free and open-source office suite developed by The Document Foundation since 2010. The suite includes six applications—Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math—that mirror Microsoft's Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Access, and it runs on Windows, MacOS and Linux.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-17
Google has broadened its Android Earthquake Alerts system, extending coverage to more than 200 regions worldwide. The feature uses smartphone accelerometers to detect ground shaking and warn users of nearby seismic activity.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-17
Apple's new HomeView platform, designed to power smart displays and shared home screens, reportedly only supports photo integration through Apple's own Photos service. Users who store their images in Google Photos or other third-party services cannot access that photo-display feature, which appears to be one of HomeView's most appealing functions.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-17
Amazon is selling the Valerion StreamMaster Plus 2, a triple-laser 4K projector with built-in Google TV, for $1,199, an $800 cut from its list price. The sale price matches the projector's previous all-time low.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-10-16
Palo Alto startup Elorian released its first model, Glimpse, as a research preview with API access and a waitlisted chat interface. Unlike typical multimodal models that convert an image to text tokens once, Glimpse can re-examine images mid-reasoning—cropping regions, pulling video frames, or running code to measure what it sees. The company says a small team trained it on a few hundred GPUs, and it costs $0.60 per million input tokens and $3 per million output tokens.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-16
Google has begun deploying a revamped version of Google Translate, following design changes first spotted in testing back in July. Some elements of the redesign differ from that earlier preview, though much of the original interface overhaul remains intact.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-10-16
A Reddit user flagged a counterfeit WhatsApp listing appearing in a sponsored slot ahead of the genuine app on Google's Play Store, as first reported by Android Authority. The fake app, from an unknown developer called 'Agment Assets sallu,' has over 500,000 downloads and copies WhatsApp's icon, screenshots and description text. Google has not responded to a request for comment, and the listing remained live at the time of reporting.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-16
Google Research's leadership discussed how the lab is applying AI across fields like quantum computing and neuroscience, including work modeling fruit fly brain activity. The lab's head argued that these scientific applications of AI receive far less public attention than consumer-facing AI products.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-16
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