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Hey Google, Assistant isn’t going away quietly

Good morning. Today I’m reading about just how sophisticated OpenAI’s Hugging Face hack really was, and how we may soon talk telepathically to our AI agents. I’m finishing up Silo season 3 and actively avoiding Ted Lasso season 4. I’m also trying out Ozlo’s new Sleepbuds 2, which apparently improve on the original’s sound quality and battery life.

As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.

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Phones are getting fun (and weird) again

Hey, how’s it going? I hope you had a lovely weekend. I was off last week, relaxing by the water, trying to finish a harrowing Booker Prize-winning novel about Australian POWs during WWII, rekindling my love for Love & Basketball, and playing far too much Lumines Remastered on my Fold 8. I also caught up on the latest drama between OpenAI and Anthropic and briefly considered switching to Deezer just so I could whip the llama’s ass one more time.

As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.

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The Pixel 11 will be a perfect storm of bad timing

It’s all leaked at this point. We know just about everything the Pixel 11 is bringing to the table, and, well, it feels a bit underwhelming, doesn’t it?


This issue of 9to5Google Weekender is a part of our newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and more. Sign up here to get Weekender delivered to your inbox every weekend, and catch our weekday roundups too!


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Gemini in your living room on wheels

Hey there, it’s Thursday and that means we’re one day closer to the weekend. What are you up to? I’m currently deciding what color Fold 8 to buy, listening to the excellent (and weird) new Strokes album, and installing a 26B parameter Gemma 4 model on an 8GB MacBook Air.

As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.

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Is this the start of Android’s efficiency era?

Welcome to Inbox, I hope you had a lovely weekend. I’m on vacation this week, which means when I’m not failing to ignore my own inbox, I’m hoping to read a few books that have been sitting on my to-read shelf since the spring. What are you reading these days? Let me know by replying to this email or leaving a comment on the site.

As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.

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The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is Samsung preparing for battle, but is it enough?

There was a bit of an undertone present in Samsung’s latest Unpacked keynote. Not one of progress or triumph, but what felt a bit like fear. After seven years, the foldable market is about to enter uncharted territory and, frankly, I’m not sure Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 series will be able to hold its ground.


This issue of 9to5Google Weekender is a part of our newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and more. Sign up here to get Weekender delivered to your inbox every weekend, and catch our weekday roundups too!


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Samsung and Google are betting they can avoid Meta’s ‘perv glasses’ problem

Welcome back to Inbox, hope you’re enjoying your Thursday so far. Yesterday was a busy day for all of us and, mea culpa, I accidentally pressed send on a newsletter detailing the new Samsung foldables and wearables before it had been edited. As a pretty uncompromising editor myself, I can only believe this is the universe’s (or my former writers’) way of getting me back. Big L on my part.

As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.

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Google is having an incredibly busy year

Welcome back to Inbox, hope you had a nice weekend, particularly if you were cheering for a certain European football team. Given Argentina’s late-game heroics throughout the World Cup, I’m surprised there were no last-minute goals to tie things up, but I’ll admit that Spain was the better team throughout the match.

Still, if you’re in North America, I think this recent headline from The Onion is spot on: Nation Wakes Up From Strange Dream Where They Were Watching Soccer. For the rest of the world, the countdown to World Cup 2030 starts…now.

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OnePlus died with a whimper, not a bang

OnePlus is dead – actually for real this time. It’s got me looking back on my experiences with the brand’s smartphones, the absolute roller coaster that it was, and how OnePlus briefly sparked joy in a way that no one else way, resulting in two of my favorite Android phones of all time. And dang it, I’m a little sad now.


This issue of 9to5Google Weekender is a part of our newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and more. Sign up here to get Weekender delivered to your inbox every weekend, and catch our weekday roundups too!


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The Gemini theory of everything

Welcome back to Inbox, hope you’re having a great Thursday so far. Yesterday, like many people in the northeast, I woke up to smoky skies and an acrid haze I could practically taste. Things definitely feel a little apocalyptic, but at least we have a World Cup Final match to look forward to this weekend. Go Argentina!

As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.

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Inbox by 9to5Google: One is the loneliest number

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Inbox by 9to5Google, a newsletter that’s also a love letter to the days when email (and email apps) were simpler and more opinionated.

To start, we’ll be sending issues on Tuesday and Thursday, but hopefully with time we’ll be able to add more daily sends. And don’t worry, Ben’s excellent Weekender newsletter will continue to be published every Sunday afternoon.

Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in 95 seconds or less. We’ll cover the most important story from the previous day along with a few highlights from around the web.

Ready? Let’s get started.

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The problems with Google Pixel price hikes

Like everything else in the tech industry, Google’s Pixel 11 series appears to be getting a price hike, but there are a few factors that make this one a bit harder to accept.


This issue of 9to5Google Weekender is a part of our newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and more. Sign up here to get Weekender delivered to your inbox every weekend, and catch our weekday roundups too!


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What should a ‘Google Home Display’ be now that Google Home Speaker has set the stage?

The next generation of Google’s smart home era has arrived, with the Google Home Speaker having set the stage. With an inevitable “Google Home Display” likely in the pipeline, what does that look like?


This issue of 9to5Google Weekender is a part of our newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and more. Sign up here to get Weekender delivered to your inbox every weekend, and catch our weekday roundups too!


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Your favorite tech will keep getting more expensive, and you can blame AI

Perhaps the most visible impact of the AI industry right now is that consumer electronics are getting more expensive. Price hikes are happening left and right and, while smartphones have been mostly spared so far, that no longer feels sustainable, and you can blame AI for it.


This issue of 9to5Google Weekender is a part of our newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and more. Sign up here to get Weekender delivered to your inbox every weekend, and catch our weekday roundups too!


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RIP Nest Mini – The Google Home Speaker isn’t a replacement, but hopefully the start of a new era

Spotify Free cast issues

The Google Home Speaker finally has a release date and, with it, Google has also ended its long-running and mega-hit Nest Mini speaker. It leaves the lineup in a weird place, as Google has a product that doesn’t replace anything it had before, and might not be everyone’s cup of tea either.


This issue of 9to5Google Weekender is a part of our newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and more. Sign up here to get Weekender delivered to your inbox every weekend, and catch our weekday roundups too!


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Seriously, how do we not have more Android phones with Qi2 yet?

Ever since the Pixel 10 was released last year, Qi2 magnets have been a love-hate relationship – I love using them, but I hate that, somehow, the Pixel 10 is the only Android phone that has them. It’s crazy to me that no other Android brand has taken this feature seriously, and that we still have no word of that changing.

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Google Health kills the Fitbit we knew, but maybe that’s not a bad thing

Alongside its new Fitbit Air, Google this week announced that the Fitbit app is dead, to be replaced by “Google Health.” If you’d told me this would happen a few months ago, I’d be worried, but the end result actually seems like an overall win for everyone involved. Let’s take a closer look.

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Why would I want an AI agent to replace my phone?

You can’t go anywhere on the internet today without running into AI. In some cases, that’s useful. AI can do some amazing things. On the other hand, it often feels like we’re watching someone reinvent the wheel. Now, word on the street is that OpenAI wants to build its own phone with an experience built around AI agents. Put simply, I think that sounds horrible.

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Google Pixel ruined voice typing on every other phone for me, but the fix is in sight

There are a lot of reasons I love using a Google Pixel phone, but voice-to-text might just be the most underrated upgrade on these devices. Every time I use a Pixel, without fail, I struggle to switch back to literally any other Android device in part because the voice-to-text experience is just so much worse. But, finally, there’s a brighter future in view.

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