Android

Samsung's Q2 2026 earnings show a company setting records in chips while its phone-and-networks business lands in the red. Companywide operating profit hit KRW 89.5 trillion on revenue of KRW 171.5 trillion, beating analyst forecasts of KRW 88.13 trillion, according to CNBC. Inside that same report, the combined Mobile eXperience and Networks businesses, which house the Galaxy phone lineup, posted an operating loss of KRW 0.7 trillion on KRW 33.2 trillion in revenue, Samsung's own disclosure...

Tipster Ice Universe demonstrated Galaxy Z Fold 8 app-level display customization this week on a Chinese Fold 8 unit, showing YouTube's recommendation feed shift from two rows of videos to three after adjusting that single app's display size. Nothing else on the device changed. Samsung appears to be shipping this per-app zoom feature in One UI 9 ahead of the August 7 retail launch, according to Android Headlines, with the caveat that review units are not yet on final firmware and all...

Google's support page now states plainly that QR code pairing for Messages on the web is "no longer available in the US." On the same day that notice appeared, reporters at Android Authority pulled up the QR option in both the Android app and the browser without any trouble. That gap between what Google's documentation says and what users are actually seeing is where this story starts.

The Pixel Watch 5 has turned up in Google's own developer infrastructure. A Play Console entry under the codename "godric" appeared this week, per 9to5Google, and it's the kind of registration that shows up near the end of a product cycle, not at the beginning. Combined with FCC clearance for four model numbers in late June, the Pixel Watch 5 is now visible in Google's official systems well ahead of any announcement.

The Galaxy S26 FE has turned up in the UL Demko certification database with confirmed support for 45W wired charging, a spec that would put Samsung's budget-oriented handset ahead of the base Galaxy S26, which is still expected to top out at 25W. The Galaxy S26 FE 45W charging leak covers six regional model numbers and aligns with Samsung's Super Fast Charging 2.0 standard, SamMobile and Android Headlines both reported this week. The same 45W ceiling appeared on the Galaxy S25 FE, meaning the...

Google says higher memory costs will force it to adjust prices across the Pixel family, including the upcoming Pixel 11 lineup. In a July 24 interview with 9to5Google, Google Vice President of Devices and Services Shakil Barkat said the company could no longer absorb all the increases coming from suppliers.

Samsung could introduce two book-style foldables at different prices this year. A new report puts the wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 at $1,899 in the U.S., while the taller Fold 8 Ultra could start at $2,099.

Until last week, the Pixel 11 price increase was a rumor. It isn't anymore. Google's VP of Devices and Services, Shakil Barkat, told 9to5Google that the entire Pixel family will see pricing "adjustments" rolled out "dynamically to match supply realities" and that phones already on sale could be affected too, with no timeline given. Google is announcing the next Pixel generation on August 12, per The Verge. Specific numbers come then. The policy behind them is already set.

In early June 2025, Google Home stopped recognizing one of the most basic thermostat commands its users could issue. Say "turn off the thermostat" and the platform returned an error then suggested trying "turn off the thermostat." Google fixed the Google Home Nest Thermostat hands-free control issue within days, posting a resolution via the GoogleNestCommunity Reddit account on June 10, 2025. No public explanation of what caused it was ever offered.

The latest Android on-device ADB changes under discussion at Google are not official yet, but they could reshape how Shizuku, LADB, and other local ADB tools work. According to a Kitsumed Blog post published last week summarizing an active Google IssueTracker thread, a core ADB maintainer discussed restricting which network interfaces the ADB daemon listens on a conversation triggered by CVE-2026-0073, a vulnerability that allowed wireless ADB's pairing authentication to be bypassed entirely...

Chrome on Android scrolls nearly half as janky as it did three years ago. Google today published its most detailed account of how that happened, and the headline figure is specific: janky scroll frequency dropped 48% between 2023 and 2026, according to the Google Chromium blog. That metric measures how often Chrome fails to update the display before the screen refreshes a narrow, concrete definition, not a general claim about the browser feeling faster.

Spider-Man is currently fighting ninjas in Long Island City, Queens, and the image sits inside Google Maps exactly the way any other street-level photograph does. Google confirmed it staged five scenes at real New York City locations as part of a promotion for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, describing them as "custom Spider-Man moments staged and captured as the Street View car happened upon Spider-Man in action," per PCMag. The campaign also includes spideytracker.com, a dedicated microsite built...

Strings pulled from Samsung firmware describe a dedicated settings page called "App screen zoom" that would let Galaxy users assign a different zoom level to individual apps, Android Authority reported today. The key detail in those strings: custom per-app settings would persist independently, so changing the system-wide zoom later wouldn't affect any app a user had already configured.

The confirmation is official: eligible existing OnePlus phones will be offered an optional upgrade from OxygenOS to ColorOS 17, with Android Authority reporting that the transition is expected after the official release of ColorOS 17, though OnePlus has not announced a rollout date. Whether that lands as a minor footnote or something more significant depends entirely on why you bought a OnePlus phone in the first place.

An unreleased build of Google Calendar for Android shows a new chip that would let Workspace users create Google Calendar focus time on Android directly, without touching a desktop browser. Android Authority spotted the "Focus time" entry point in version 2026.27.0-946652271-release today, sitting above the floating action button used to add calendar entries. The feature is not active, and Google has not announced a rollout date.

One day before Galaxy Unpacked, the picture is about as clear as pre-announcement pictures get. Leaked marketing materials distributed by Evan Blass show the Galaxy Z Fold 8 images in full: a visibly shorter, squatter device that matches the 4:3 "wide Fold" form factor corroborated independently across multiple outlets this week. These images aren't notable because they're polished renders. They're notable because they confirm the shape, and taken together with supply-chain data, the shape...

Samsung confirmed its Intelligent Eyewear will last up to nine hours on a single charge, with a charging case that provides up to seven additional full charges, Samsung Newsroom announced.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has already launched. The Pixel 11 Pro XL is still months away, known mostly through leaks, CAD renders, and a Telegram channel. That asymmetry matters before anything else: comparing the Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra isn't a traditional head-to-head so much as a weighing of a known quantity against an ambitious pre-launch signal.

Samsung Health is warning users that withdrawing consent for AI training will cut off cloud sync and trigger deletion of previously synced health data, except data Samsung is legally required to retain. The toggle began reaching users this week, and the core question the Samsung Health AI training opt-out raises is one Samsung has not publicly answered: does "deleted" refer to your entire health history, or only the copy Samsung stores through account sync?

You cannot add an external user to a Google Chat group message. That limit is unchanged. According to Google documentation cited for this article, Google has made generally available: guest accounts that bring non-Google users into Chat spaces, shared Drive files, and Meet calls, all inside your organization's security perimeter and without a full Workspace license.