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Tech News
Google has published a Play Store listing for its Create My Widget app, first teased at I/O 2026, showing how it will work on Android phones and Googlebook laptops. The app lets users generate custom widgets using natural-language prompts processed by Gemini, with preset categories like combo widgets, weather alerts and daily briefs as starting points.
Just days after pre-orders opened on September 21, Google's US online store has run out of stock for its Acer, Dell XPS, and Lenovo Googlebook models, according to reports from Reddit users who checked the store multiple times. The laptops, which start at $899, remain available to pre-order at Best Buy ahead of an October 4 release date.
F-Droid, the open source Android app repository, has released its first major client update in a decade. Version 2.0 was rewritten in Kotlin Compose with a cleaner interface, expanded app categories, and description-based search across its thousands of listed apps.
Research on retail sales interactions finds that customers often appreciate it when a store manager steps in to assist during a purchase decision, even though sales staff may resent close oversight. The findings suggest occasional manager involvement can improve the customer experience rather than undermine it.
A Sony patent published September 17, filed in March 2025, describes a system letting a PlayStation controller accept payments when a user taps it with a credit card, smartphone, or gift card. Diagrams show scenarios like confirming a game purchase or redeeming a gift card directly through the DualSense, using NFC or Bluetooth. The patent illustrations depict existing PS5 hardware rather than any new console or controller.
The developer behind PokerNexus built a custom shortlink service at go.pokernexus.com/app that detects a visitor's device and routes iPhones to the App Store, Android phones to Google Play, and all other devices to the website. The system uses a lightweight Hono-based server and a browser-based QR code generator that boosts error correction to level H so a logo can sit in the code's center without breaking scans.
Starbucks Coffee Company announced it will close about 250 stores across North America this week. The company said the closures target locations where financial performance or the in-store customer experience fell short of expectations.
The U.S. government and several legal and business groups have submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court supporting Apple's bid to overturn a civil contempt ruling stemming from its App Store dispute with Epic Games. The contempt finding arose after Apple began charging a 27% commission on purchases made through external links, which Epic argued violated a prior injunction. Apple maintains the injunction's original wording never explicitly barred such a commission, and that lower courts wrongly invoked the 'spirit' of the order rather than its text.
Apple has reopened a section of its Apple Park Visitor Center after a summer renovation, revealing that the augmented reality exhibit—which let visitors use custom iPads to explore a 3D model of the campus—has been removed. That area has been converted into an extension of the adjoining Apple Store, with new display tables and wall displays for accessories. The cafe and the rest of the Visitor Center remain unchanged.
Teardown of Google Play Store version 53.2.23-34 reveals an in-progress 'Your creations' section under the app's 'Manage apps & device' screen, intended to surface apps users build with Google's AI Studio vibe-coding tool. Currently, tapping the feature's 'Try it now' button opens a browser to the mobile AI Studio site rather than a native experience.
Ahead of the October 4 launch of Google's new Googlebook laptops, Android Authority managed to install and run the platform's first-party Text editor app on an Android phone and tablet. The app supports extensive syntax highlighting for languages including Python, JavaScript, Kotlin, Java, C++, Rust and Go, plus a find-and-replace tool, and adapts its layout to make better use of larger tablet screens.
An amended franchise disclosure document shows TGI Fridays has shuttered nine additional restaurants in the United States this year. The closures continue a downsizing trend that began after the casual dining chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late 2024.