Amid continued delays for its One UI 7 update, Samsung is now launching three new phones that come with the update out of the box with the new Galaxy A26, A36, and A56.

Increasing Gemini app usage is said to be Google’s “biggest focus” in 2025, with the company recently buying podcast ads to drive downloads.

In July of 2023, Google stopped offering new subscriptions of 1st gen Nest Aware, but allowed existing customers to continue using it. This May, Google will “no longer support the Nest Aware 1st generation service” in some regions. 

In an unexpected twist, Google has just started rolling out yet another Android Auto update in version 13.9, but don’t expect any major changes.

Welcome to episode 43 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, we talk about the Chromecast going out of stock and the future of Gemini smart displays/speakers.

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The smartphone market would have you believe that tri-fold devices, whether released or in concept, are supposed to be massive. Some new entrants would have you believe the exact opposite. Infinix’s new Zero Series Mini Tri-fold concept unfolds to be the size of a regular phone.

It seems the trend of 2025 is going to be around slimmer smartphones, and Tecno wants to set the record with its new “Spark Slim” which, if it ships, could hold the title of “world’s thinnest phone,” at least for a little while.

Google Chat is getting a pair of updates with real-time Markdown formatting and more Gemini summaries.

Pixel started the concept of “Feature Drops” at Google in December of 2019, with Android later starting something similar every season. Google Workspace is now the latest to get on the “feature drop” bandwagon.

Ahead of its upcoming launch, another set of wallpapers allegedly coming with the Pixel 9a have surfaced, this time with some more colors.

Following document upload and generating images of people, the latest Gemini Advanced to come to free users is “Saved Info.”

Over 20 years after its debut, Microsoft is pulling the plug on Skype, the first big video calling app.

In partnership with Google, the Metro Transit Authority took to tying several Google Pixel phones to subway cars in New York in order to track data. The experiment was part of the MTA’s need to automate and expand track-safety inspections and repair, and tying a few Pixels to a train car seemed the best place to start.

At I/O 2024 last May, Demis Hassabis reiterated that DeepMind’s goal is “building AGI: Artificial general intelligence, a system that has human-level cognitive capabilities.” This week, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that “the final race to A.G.I. is afoot.”

In a new post today, Samsung has shown off some new features coming to the Galaxy Buds 3 series with One UI 7, while completely ignoring the million questions surrounding the rollout of One UI 7.

In an update provided via its Issue Tracker, Google says that problems with the Now Playing feature on Pixel devices is “fixed” with an update forthcoming.

Following the last update two weeks ago, Android 16 Beta 2.1 is rolling out to Pixel devices. It addresses some of the bugs that testers have encountered.

The Google app’s Song Search capability is excellent and finally has a history shortcut to see past lookups. It’s available today in Google for iOS, but Song Search history can be accessed by anyone on the web. 

Waze is rolling out a new update on Android and iOS which brings support for showing your navigation map and other details via the heads-up display (instrument cluster) in some vehicles.

It’s becoming much more common for Samsung to offer these boosted trade-in deals for devices, but the key is waiting until these deals are live, considering they’re actually very good. Right now, Samsung is making it possible to grab the Galaxy Watch Ultra for as little as $250.