Android: Page 3

Samsung raised prices across the Galaxy S26 lineup in the US, UK, Canada, and Europe this week, pushing the base Galaxy S26 from $899 to $999 and the top-tier 1TB Galaxy S26 Ultra to $1,999 (9to5Google, 4 days ago). The Galaxy S26 price increase took effect October 1 and followed earlier increases in India and South Korea (SamMobile, 3 days ago).

No verified Google Pixel 11 Pro deal at $849 turned up in the sources reviewed for this article. The claimed Google Pixel 11 Pro for $849 remains unverified here, treated as an unconfirmed number rather than an active discount until a retailer page or price-tracking source backs it up. This is a deal-verification report, not a list of the best Google Pixel 11 Pro deals.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission fined Google €403 million, about $463 million, over how it processed location data through three features: Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy. The regulator also ordered Google to bring its processing into compliance with GDPR within six months.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 bend test that JerryRigEverything ran this week threw the toughest thing a durability channel can throw at a foldable: reverse-direction flex, the failure mode that has cracked hinges and popped screens loose on lesser phones. The Fold 8 didn't crack, and nothing popped loose (JerryRigEverything, this week).

TechRadar reported recently that Google is rolling out a batch of Google Home updates addressing errors with Nest cameras and doorbells, Matter device status, Find My Phone, and Automations, based on September 30 release notes from Google. The Gemini voice-assistant changes are labeled Early Access. Google does not apply that label to the separate Google Home app fixes.

Galaxy devices running One UI 9 will wipe themselves after 13 failed lock screen attempts, a hard limit confirmed by a Samsung support document and reported by Android Authority today. Not a temporary lockout. Every photo, app, and setting on the device gets erased, accounts are signed out, and the phone returns to factory condition.

Google Find Hub NFC tracker support is rolling out via Play services version 26.39 and later, changing what happens the moment someone finds a lost tag. Tapping an NFC-compatible phone against an NFC-compatible Find Hub tag can surface its details and settings, or help identify a lost tag, according to 9to5Google. The same release lets owners name a tracker, assign it a category, and turn on Left-Behind Reminders during initial setup instead of circling back into the Find Hub app later, per...

On one Android phone, apps, texts, call history, and settings combined added up to less than 132MB, while photos and videos on the same device totaled 76GB (Android Police, 15 months ago). That's a striking example, not a universal rule, but it points toward the real question behind how to reduce Android backup storage in Google Drive: check what's actually filling the account before touching a single setting.

Every Google Wallet vs Samsung Wallet comparison eventually turns into a feature checklist: cards, passes, keys, IDs. That's the wrong place to start.

The Google Pixel 10a price increase is already showing up at checkout. The phone's U.S. price jumped from $499 to $599 at the Google Store, and that new figure has spread to Amazon and Best Buy too.

Google Calendar currently forces every calendar in an account to share one default event length. That might not last. A teardown of the Android app's code points to Google testing a per-calendar default event length setting, one that would let each calendar hold its own typical duration instead of borrowing a single number for the whole account, according to Android Authority.

If the Google Maps speedometer on your Android Auto display is missing and you haven't touched a single setting, you're not alone, and you're not stuck. The most consistently reported fix is to set a destination and start navigating, a workaround several affected drivers say brings the speedometer right back (SlashGear, yesterday). That fix addresses one specific version of the feature, though. It won't help if what's actually missing for you is the newer, always-on display that works without a...

Samsung's next flagship smartphone lineup could introduce a Galaxy S27 Pro, giving buyers another premium option — and potentially another reason to pay attention to which version of a phone they're buying. New reports suggest Samsung is expanding production of its Exynos 2700 processor, which could power several Galaxy S27 models in some markets while other regions receive Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

Google's support page for the Play Store wishlist tells users to "use the filters at the top to sort by Games, Apps, Books, or Play Pass." Android Authority reported that the filters weren't available through normal use on any of its test devices, even when running Play Store version 53.5.48-34.

Google Maps can now take a specific craving, match it to a restaurant, and help you start an order through a partner service, all inside the same conversation. That capability runs through Ask Maps, which uses Gemini to analyze photos, reviews, and menus to work out what you want to eat.

Google's new Android sideloading restrictions took effect on September 30, 2026, bringing developer verification requirements to four countries. But Android users can still install apps outside Google Play, and the first round of enforcement is more limited than the broader policy might suggest.

Google may be preparing a new Phone Unlock feature that lets an already-unlocked Android phone unlock a nearby Googlebook automatically. Strings discovered in Android 17 QPR3 Beta 1 describe the feature, along with setup screens showing a Googlebook laptop. However, Google hasn't announced Phone Unlock or confirmed when it might become available.

Google rolled out a new, Gemini-powered tier of scam protection for Google Messages yesterday, and it isn't landing on every Android phone at once. The list of Google Messages scam detection supported phones for this upgraded tier is much shorter than the list of devices that already run the feature's standard version, according to Google's security blog.

The Google Phone Contacts tab is returning to the bottom navigation bar for beta testers, reversing a change that buried the shortcut inside a sidebar menu last year.

Samsung's intelligent eyewear, widely referred to in reports as the Galaxy Glasses, just got its most detailed leak yet, and the headline number is weight. The glasses reportedly weigh about 41g with standard lenses, making them among the lightest AI glasses expected to hit the market this year.

For months, some Android Auto users have been glancing at their car dashboards only to find that the familiar cellular signal bars have disappeared. Their phones may still have reception, and navigation and music may work normally, but the indicator that once showed their connection strength is nowhere to be found.

Google Wallet automatic pass saving expanded automated boarding-pass check-in configurations to 10 additional airline carriers, according to an announcement dated June 30, 2026. Travelers flying with an eligible airline could see a boarding pass land in Wallet without ever tapping "Add to Google Wallet," though Google hasn't named which carriers qualify or which regions they serve.

Open the Together tab in Samsung Health and spot a string of asterisks where a friend's name should be, and the first thought is usually that something broke. But Samsung Health friends shown as asterisks can be the result of a privacy feature introduced in version 7.1, rather than a glitch or missing contact.

Samsung's familiar One UI interface could be heading for its biggest overhaul in years. A new leak suggests the company is exploring a software project called Galaxy OS, potentially bringing deeper artificial intelligence integration and a different identity to future Galaxy phones. But newer reports have complicated the story, raising questions about when the changes might arrive and whether Samsung intends to retire the One UI name at all.

A new leak claims four Samsung Galaxy S27 price points: $899 for the base model, $1,099 for the Plus, $1,299 for a new Pro tier, and $1,399 or $1,499 for the Ultra, according to PhoneArena's October 9 report.

Android Authority's teardown of Gmail version 2026.10.05.993506826 found code for an in-development Gmail settings page redesign that folds the Android app's separate "General" and per-account settings into labeled categories. The outlet says it only got the screens to render through "a lot of tinkering," and Google has not announced a public test or given any rollout timeline.

Saying "stop" to Gemini for Home used to be a gamble. Sometimes it killed whatever was playing; sometimes it just ended the back-and-forth while an alarm kept blaring in the background. Google's October 14 release notes for the Google Home app describe a fix for that: say "stop" now, and Gemini immediately ends the active listening session without a follow-up response, and it's supposed to correctly halt active music, a timer, or an alarm instead of just wrapping up the conversation. That's the...

Google is rolling out a Review toggle inside Gemini Notebook that lets users see and reshape Gemini's proposed outline before it builds a Slide Deck, or check producer notes before it renders a Video Overview. The feature adds a planning checkpoint that wasn't available in the previous generation flow, according to Google's October 19 announcement.

The first wave of Samsung Galaxy A38 5G leaks shows a phone moving through early certification reports, but the only concrete hardware detail attached to it so far concerns its batteries.

Google started rolling out Personal Intelligence to Android Auto on October 20, giving Gemini permission-based access to Gmail, Calendar, Photos, Maps, YouTube, and Search while a driver is behind the wheel, according to Google's announcement. The Gemini Gmail integration in Android Auto is opt-in from the start: personal app data isn't connected until a driver enables the feature, and it can be switched off anytime in Gemini's settings.

Anyone googling "YouTube testing hidden dislike button on videos" is running into a policy that's been live for almost five years, not a new experiment. YouTube started hiding the public dislike count on November 10, 2021, while leaving the dislike button itself fully visible and clickable. The sources reviewed for this article do not establish that YouTube is conducting a new test to hide the dislike button itself.

Hidden code for a "Focus Peaking" toggle has turned up inside Snapseed's Android app, but the Snapseed focus peaking feature doesn't actually work yet, even when testers force it on.

A missing Wi-Fi icon can make it look as though your Galaxy phone has lost its connection, even when the internet is working perfectly. For some users who updated to Samsung's One UI 9, however, the problem isn't Wi-Fi itself. It's how the phone displays its status bar indicators.

If your Google Home Speaker's data usage looks abnormally high this week, you're not imagining it. Some owners are seeing the new speaker consume gigabytes of data in the background with no voice commands, music streaming, or other obvious activity to explain it.

Twelve South's AirFly Drive wireless CarPlay and Android Auto adapter went on sale Oct. 1 for $39.99 in the US, promising to erase the daily cable plug-in for drivers whose cars already run wired CarPlay or Android Auto.

Every launch Googlebook keyboard turns F1, F2, and F3 into dedicated Android navigation keys, giving the Googlebook physical navigation buttons a permanent spot on the hardware instead of leaving them as onscreen taps.

Open an app on a tablet or foldable and get a stretched, phone-sized window with blank space on either side, and that's the problem Google's Play Store large-screen labels aim to address.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 deal spotted by Tom's Guide puts the foldable at $1,649 on Best Buy's site, a price the outlet described as a discount in its October report. The Tom's Guide article appeared ahead of iPhone Duo preorders, which opened Oct. 16. Apple's foldable is now launching Oct. 23, starting at $1,999 for the 256GB model, according to Apple's announcement.

Google began rolling out its October 2026 Pixel update on Oct. 6, and for anyone still carrying a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro, this is likely the final update those phones will receive, according to Notebookcheck. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro launched in October 2021, and Google's extended five-year support window for the pair closes this month.

Google Messages appears to be preparing to remove its per-contact RCS toggle after an APK teardown uncovered interface strings warning that the setting is going away.