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A developer's Open Headunit app, priced under $4 on Google Play or free via GitHub, lets an aging Android tablet impersonate an Android Auto head unit, giving cars without built-in support a large touchscreen for navigation, calls and media. Testing found the setup imperfect but functional as a way to repurpose tablets that can no longer run modern apps well.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission has imposed a €403 million ($463M) fine on Google following a probe into three features—Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy—that operated during the GDPR's early enforcement window from May 2018 to February 2020. The regulator concluded Google failed to properly justify its processing of location data and kept that data longer than necessary, while also falling short on transparency requirements across all three tools.
An Android Authority writer tested the new Apple Health app included in the iOS 27.2 developer beta, which adds an AI-powered 'Insights' tab and reworks how the app surfaces raw health data. The rebuilt app will only run on iPhones capable of Apple Intelligence, meaning iPhone 15 Pro or newer, while Google's competing Health app supports a much wider range of older devices. The writer, who previously switched from Apple to Google's Fitbit-based Health platform, says the new design has him reconsidering that move ahead of its planned public release later this year.
A columnist reviewing to-do list apps in 2026 says Google Tasks remains missing fundamental features like sharing tasks or lists with other people, despite competing apps such as TickTick, Todoist and Notion offering far more functionality. Despite these gaps, the writer says a single standout feature keeps them from switching away from Google's stripped-down app.
Google and five PC makers have unveiled the first Googlebook laptops, priced from $899 to $1,299 and available for preorder now ahead of an October 4th store launch. Each model bundles a year of Google AI Pro with 5TB of cloud storage plus trial subscriptions to YouTube Premium, Photoshop and CapCut, and Google says the machines will receive up to a decade of software updates. The Acer Googlebook 14, a convertible with an OLED touchscreen, starts as the cheapest option but Acer has warned its $899 price is a limited-time launch offer that could rise later.
Android Authority tested Google Photos' new AI-powered digital wardrobe, which scans users' photo libraries to catalog their clothing and lets them virtually mix and match outfits using generative AI. The feature is rolling out gradually to paid Google One and AI subscribers in the US, Brazil, and India, but the reviewer found it plagued by inconsistent behavior, including problems tied to Google Workspace accounts. While the clothing-recognition AI performed impressively, the overall experience was described as unreliable and unfinished.
Google is launching Googlebook OS, a new operating system built on Android that will run on five debut laptops, including a Dell-made XPS Googlebook with high-end specs like 16GB of RAM and a Qualcomm chip. Hardware chief Rick Osterloh describes the move as a consolidation effort, ending years of Google maintaining separate ChromeOS and Android platforms for laptops versus phones and other devices.
Four paying subscribers of ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Gemini have filed a proposed class action in California federal court, alleging that the four AI companies illegally coordinated to slow product development. The suit cites Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's September 12 essay calling for an industry-wide pace slowdown, which was publicly endorsed by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis, along with an earlier July statement acknowledging pressure not to unilaterally slow progress. Plaintiffs say this coordinated restraint, not individual safety decisions, amounts to an antitrust violation that shortchanges paying customers.
Google is rolling out a new 'Copy code' shortcut in Gmail that appears beneath the subject line of verification emails, letting users copy a 2FA code straight to their clipboard without opening the message. The feature is live on Gmail for Android version 2026.09.07.x and iOS version 6.0.260907, though it hasn't reached the web version yet.
Google is trialing a new Discover feature called 'Dive Deeper' that generates an AI summary of a topic instead of directing users to a publisher's article or video. The tool, similar to Search's AI Overviews, is currently being tested with video content, with more formats expected in coming weeks. It also surfaces links to related stories, community reactions, and original sources for users who want to dig further.
A lawsuit alleges that Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI and Google entered into an unlawful agreement to coordinate the pace of AI development rather than compete independently. The claim frames this coordination as an antitrust violation rather than a safety measure, arguing it restrained competitive behavior among rival AI labs.
Google has unveiled AX, a declarative orchestration system designed specifically for agentic AI workloads rather than conventional stateless or batch computing. The project grew out of agentic runtime research from Google DeepMind combined with Google's experience in isolation, resumption, and scheduling at scale, and builds on the existing Agent Substrate framework. AX treats tasks, workspaces, network policies, and models as core primitives so developers can operate large fleets of AI agents without building custom infrastructure.