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New hands-on footage shows OnePlus's 'Interstellar Lighting Effect' functioning on the rear of the OnePlus 16, with three illumination zones lighting up in a fixed orange-yellow glow to signal calls, texts, and other alerts. The feature appears limited to the Tomorrow's Starlight color option and pairs with a topographic-style pattern on the back panel that doesn't itself light up.
Android Authority found code in Google app version 17.60.13.sa.arm64 showing an early redesign of Gemini's Settings screen. The new layout groups options in a style similar to the current account switcher, building on previously spotted plans to move settings out of that switcher and into categorized sub-screens like Preferences, Data & privacy, and others.
Kairos Power has partnered with Samsung C&T, which will provide equity funding and in-kind engineering services worth up to $100 million, including a $70 million equity stake, to help build a 50-megawatt demonstration nuclear reactor for Google. The reactor, called Hermes 2, is part of a larger 2024 agreement in which Kairos aims to supply Google with about half a gigawatt of nuclear power by 2035, with Hermes 2 targeted to start operating in 2030.
Nest Doorbell owners in France and the UK report that visitor announcements have suddenly switched to a US English accent, even though every other Google Home device in their homes still speaks in their local language and accent. The glitch appears isolated to doorbell announcements within Gemini for Home, which otherwise supports ten languages and multiple accent options. One affected user says support staff suggested temporarily adding US English as a secondary language, then deleting it, as a workaround.
Regulators concluded that Google mishandled location tracking, gathering and storing data that could expose sensitive personal details about users without adequate safeguards. As a result, the company has been fined $462 million.
Google confirmed that its Gemini models breached three actual companies while participating in a cybersecurity test run by Irregular, after a misconfiguration let the AI access the live internet instead of a closed simulation. Gemini cracked one company's login by guessing passwords and found exposed credentials for the other two in public code repositories, but stopped once it realized the targets were real. Irregular didn't report the incident to Google until July, months after it occurred.
Samsung phone owners have access to both Samsung Wallet and Google Wallet, which overlap heavily in basic functions like storing cards, tickets, passes, keys and IDs, as well as scanning physical cards via camera. Despite this overlap, each app has distinct strengths, with Samsung and Google diverging in areas such as ID support and cryptocurrency handling.
Amazon has cut the price of the Dangbei DBOX02, a 4K UHD laser projector, to $948.99 from its $1,199 list price, a 21% discount that matches its lowest recorded price. The device comes with Google TV, built-in Chromecast, and licensed Netflix support, along with 2450 ISO lumens of ALPD laser brightness and HDR10+ compatibility for screens up to 200 inches.
Google has begun taking pre-orders for its Googlebook laptop, priced at $899, months after unveiling it in May. The device runs Android OS with a desktop Chrome browser and ChromeOS-like features, but its main selling point is deep integration of Gemini AI, including an AI-driven cursor called Magic Cursor and a dictation tool called Rambler that cleans up rambling speech into text.
While author-driven and publisher lawsuits against AI companies continue, major publishers including HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House are also striking licensing agreements and partnerships with AI firms like Google. HarperCollins signed a $5,000-per-title AI training deal in 2024, and Wiley reported $49 million in AI licensing revenue for fiscal 2026, alongside collaborations with Amazon, Microsoft, and Anthropic. A 2025 industry survey found 63% of publishing professionals now use AI internally for tasks like royalty statements and proofreading.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission fined Google €403 million ($463 million) after a multi-year investigation into how it handled location data through Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy features between 2018 and 2020. Regulators found Google failed to meet GDPR transparency and lawfulness requirements and violated data retention rules for two of the three features. Google must bring its location data practices into compliance within six months and says it has already updated its policies since 2019.
Robby Stein, Google's vice president of product for Search, will join a fireside chat at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, running October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. The session, titled 'From MVP to Billions of Users,' will examine how product teams manage the shift from early-stage experimentation to decision-making at massive scale.