Android: Page 5

Code strings buried inside Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app reference a device called the Galaxy H1, pointing to Samsung's first over-ear headphones in more than a decade (The Verge, this week).

Samsung has already confirmed that its next flagship tablet generation is coming in 2026. What it has not confirmed is the date now appearing across Galaxy Tab S12 leaks: October 7.

Google's Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL launched Wednesday at $1,099 and $1,299, prices Android Authority describes as higher than last year's models (Android Authority, this week). Pre-launch reporting had pegged that increase at $100 over the Pixel 10 Pro line (The Verge, nearly two weeks ago), and the confirmed launch prices match that figure exactly. The base RAM also dropped: 12GB on the entry Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL, down from 16GB across every Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL configuration last...

Googlebook preorders opened September 21, and the first laptops now start at $899.

Samsung has reportedly started development on two wide-format foldables targeting the Galaxy Z9 generation, reportedly planned for 2027, a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 successor story that's already getting oversimplified in the retelling. The claim traces to South Korean outlet ETNews, relayed by Android Central and Android Authority. "Fold8" is Samsung's own shorthand for the phone most reviewers call the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Of the two devices described, only one carries a specific defining trait: an...

A claim about a Samsung One UI 9.5 connectivity hub built with Google appears to stem from something narrower: a settings screen that lists which installed apps work with a satellite connection. Android Authority reported on the menu five months ago, describing a compatibility list rather than a confirmed platform feature tied to a specific software version or built by Google.

Google officially announced custom chat themes for Messages on August 27, closing out months of beta testing with a feature that lets you assign a distinct color palette and wallpaper to any individual conversation. If you've been wondering how to use chat themes in Google Messages since spotting the option on a friend's phone, the mechanics are simple. One detail about how the feature actually works, though, is worth understanding before you touch a single setting.

Press a thumb against the back of a Galaxy Watch 8 for five seconds, and the watch hands back a number between 0 and 100. Samsung calls it the Antioxidant Index, and knowing how Galaxy Watch 8 measures antioxidant levels changes how you should read that score (Engadget reported this week).

A teardown of the second Android 17 QPR2 beta has surfaced a hidden feature called Voicecast, according to Android Authority. The Google Pixel Voicecast feature would let Pixel phones broadcast a user's live voice over Bluetooth, a capability their phones currently lack: existing Pixel audio-sharing tools handle music and video, but not a microphone feed.

Samsung has completed multiyear supply agreements with five major data-center customers, including Amazon and Meta, and is nearing deals with five more, according to the Seoul Economic Daily and the Korea Herald.

Most of the coverage around Google's new flagship is fixated on the Tensor G6 chip. That's fair; it's a real chip with real upgrades.

Galaxy S26 owners testing One UI 9 finally have a new build to install after nearly a month without a major beta release. Reports of One UI 9 Beta 5 began appearing on August 12, with the update reaching Galaxy S26-series testers in India.

Samsung's latest foldable lineup has broken a Galaxy preorder record in South Korea that had stood since 2019. The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8, and Galaxy Z Flip8 drew more than 1.44 million preorders during a seven-day reservation period, surpassing the roughly 1.38 million recorded by the Galaxy Note10 series seven years earlier.

Every Android owner who opens the Google One app this year runs into the same fork in the road: keep paying a few dollars for extra storage, or step up to one of Google's One AI subscription plans that fold in Gemini, smart-home perks, and a health app for $20 a month or more. That jump isn't accidental. It's the result of eight years of Google quietly turning a storage-rental service into the billing system for its entire AI push.

Coverage of the Google Pixel 11 launch event will follow the usual script: chip codenames, camera megapixels, a livestream countdown. The more revealing story about how Google actually treats Pixel owners already happened two months ago, when a routine software update quietly did more to define the brand than any keynote slide will.

Google has officially launched Motion Assist, an Android 17 feature that displays motion-synced dots onscreen to help reduce nausea from using a phone in a moving vehicle. In its own materials, Google calls it Motion Assist and describes it as a way to bridge the gap between what a passenger's eyes see and the movement of the ride.

Google calls Call Screen "a fan favorite" and says people have "loved" using Call Notes to keep track of what happened on a call (Google, 10 months ago). Ask which are the best Google Pixel features, though, and no independent survey or retention data actually answers that question; the sources reviewed here contain no ranking of what people stick with. What exists instead is a paper trail: a string of releases showing which features Google has kept expanding, and which ones it introduced once...

Google spent this week's Pixel 11 launch talking up zoom range and sensor size, but the most interesting camera news wasn't a spec at all. It was Google Pixel Camera Looks, a system that lets photographers choose "the exact aesthetic" they want before pressing the shutter, rather than accepting whatever the phone's processing pipeline decides afterward (Google).

Apple's EU-mandated energy label has settled a question that used to require teardown videos and guesswork: the iPhone 18 Pro battery capacity comes in at 4,056mAh, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max jumps to 5,391mAh. That Pro Max figure now edges past the Galaxy S26 Ultra's official 5,000mAh typical capacity, with a 4,855mAh rated capacity listed in Samsung's specifications and EU energy-label records.

Lenovo has set a $1,099.99 starting price for its Googlebook 15, the company's entry in Google's new Android-based laptop category, ahead of an October 4 U.S. launch. That's $200 less than the $1,299 figure Google listed for the same model at last week's Googlebook launch event, Android Authority reports. Anyone who wrote off the Lenovo model after seeing Google's original number should take another look, though the corrected price hasn't shown up on a live product page yet.

A small cluster of Pixel owners is dealing with a specific, disruptive glitch: the status bar stops showing new notifications, and the notification shade and Quick Settings tiles go completely unresponsive to touch. The pattern matches several recent reports of Pixel notifications not working, and Google's official PixelCommunity Reddit account has replied to multiple posts describing similar combinations of these symptoms.

Passports, birth certificates, and Social Security cards don't fit inside a Bluetooth tracker, but Google just gave them a place in Find Hub anyway. A new "Remembered Items" tab lets you tell Gemini where you stashed a document, then ask for that location back weeks or months later, whether you're digging through a closet or standing in a TSA line wondering if you actually grabbed your passport this time.

Google confirmed Tuesday that actor Henry Cavill is building a video game on a Googlebook, the company's new AI-focused laptop line, as part of a promotional partnership. Google says the collaboration will take place in November, according to Google's announcement.

Google is testing a way to bring Gemini's Daily Brief to the Pixel lock screen, according to a teardown of the latest Android System Intelligence app.

Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra was the best-selling Android phone of Q2 2026, finishing fourth among all smartphones sold worldwide, according to Counterpoint Research. It marks the first time an ultra-premium Android device has led Android sales in a June quarter.

Google Photos still has a setting that restores date headers in the grid. On Android, the redesigned Photos view switched those headers off by default and replaced them with a floating date indicator that appears while scrolling.

Samsung and Corning are reportedly developing a new self-healing surface coating for the next generation of Gorilla Armor, and industry watchers have connected it to the Galaxy S27 Ultra.

The Google Pixel 11 price increase lands the phone at $899 to start, essentially the same as Samsung's $899.99 Galaxy S26 and $100 above the iPhone 17's $799 starting price, according to Android Authority. For a phone line that built its reputation on undercutting Apple and Samsung, that's not a minor pricing update. It's the end of an era.

Galaxy owners across Reddit and Samsung's Community forums are hitting the same wall when they try to sign in: "Can't sign in. Account deactivated for security reasons." That message is behind a fresh wave of Samsung account randomly deactivated complaints, and neither the users posting about it nor Samsung itself has explained why it's happening.

Chrome for Android is testing a redesign that finally puts core browsing controls within thumb's reach on today's tall phones, and in the same stroke adds a second persistent toolbar that crowds the screen with more interface than the browser has carried in years. That's the tension at the center of the Chrome Android bottom navigation bar redesign: a legitimate ergonomic fix wrapped around a feature nobody asked to have permanently on screen.

Archival note: this article reflects reporting available through August 10, 2026, two days before Google's Made by Google keynote. It does not cover what was announced at that event. Readers looking for the outcome should consult post-event coverage.

Google released Android 17 QPR2 Beta 1 on July 20, and the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro weren't included. The release notes were direct: "Pixel 6 and 6Pro users will not be getting this OTA since the device will reach End of Life and Android 17 QPR1 beta series will be the last for these devices," Android Police reported at the time.

A supply-chain report claims Google is working with Samsung Display on a Pixel 12 Pro Fold crease-less display upgrade: a dual-UTG (ultra-thin glass) panel structure reportedly aimed at making the inner-screen crease far less visible than it is on the current Pixel 11 Pro Fold, according to 9to5Google, citing The Elec on September 2.

Samsung showed off two separate Bespoke AI Washer models at IFA 2026 in Berlin this week: a 10kg machine carrying Samsung's A-70% efficiency claim and a 13kg washer designed to fit within a standard 600mm European depth. These are two distinct products built for different priorities, not two trims of the same machine.

The rumored Galaxy S27 Pro features read like a wishlist built by someone tired of hauling around an Ultra-sized phone: a smaller body, a 200MP main camera, a bigger battery, and flagship silicon.

Google's own product page for the Pixel 11 shows a short video of a color-shifting orb glowing on the side of the camera bar, The Verge reported last month. That single detail is confirmed, straight from Google's store, not a leak. The rest of the Google Pixel 11 Pro teaser story, including the feature's name, whether it's limited to the Pro model, and whether it replaces an existing sensor, comes from one outlet's reading of leaked information rather than any spec sheet Google has published,...

Samsung has stopped delivering Google Play System updates to devices running beta versions of One UI, including the Galaxy S26's One UI 9.0 (Android 17) beta. The company says the move happened "in coordination with Google."

Google's Made by Google 2026 event lands this Wednesday, August 12, in New York, where the company is expected to unveil a new Pixel lineup that ZDNET describes as four phones: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and a Pixel 11 Pro Fold. CNET's coverage of the same Google Pixel 11 launch event corroborates three of those four models and adds a Pixel Watch 5 to the guest list, though its reporting doesn't specifically name the Pro XL.

Google's Pixel 11 Pro Fold hands-on landed this week, and Engadget's headline doesn't leave much room for interpretation: "Stagnating Instead of Innovating," delivered in a year when Samsung made two new flagship foldables of its own (Engadget). That contrast is the starting point for this Pixel 11 Pro Fold vs Galaxy Z Fold 8 comparison, and it's worth being precise about which Samsung phone actually belongs in it.

Apple popularized the idea of bringing two phones together to share content. Google is now introducing a similar workflow for some Android devices. The Android Quick Share tap to share feature started rolling out this week, adding a new way for Pixel owners to start sharing files and contact info.