The name Google is synonymous with online searches, but over the years the company has grown beyond search and now builds multiple consumer products, including software like Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Android, and hardware like the Pixel smartphones, Google Home, and Chromebooks. Its name can also be found on internet services such as Google Fi, Flights, Checkout, and Google Fiber. Here is all of the latest news about one of the most influential tech companies in the world.
Live speech translations were once only on the Pixel Buds.
iOS and iPadOS users can now try out Chrome’s basic AI browser tools
The tool, which lets you have voice conversations in AI Mode in the Google app, now uses Google’s newest Gemini model for native audio, which means that responses are “more fluid and expressive than ever before,” the company says. You can hear an example in this video.
For decades, engineers have chased the dream of turning ordinary eyewear into intelligent companions: glasses that could layer digital information seamlessly onto the world around us. Yet even as microchips shrank and designs improved, augmented reality (AR) remained caught between promise and practicality. Now, after years of prototypes and false starts, new lenses manufactured by SCHOTT called geometric reflective waveguides are offering the breakthrough that could finally make smart glasses feel natural.
Learn how it works.
As reported by the Washington Post, an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project found apps on both platforms that were owned by sanctioned organizations, including Russian banks and a Chinese paramilitary group.
Most of the apps have been taken down now, including at least 17 out of 18 on the Google Play Store and 35 out of 52 on the App Store.
[The Washington Post]
For decades, engineers have chased the dream of turning ordinary eyewear into intelligent companions: glasses that could layer digital information seamlessly onto the world around us. Yet even as microchips shrank and designs improved, augmented reality (AR) remained caught between promise and practicality. Now, after years of prototypes and false starts, new lenses manufactured by SCHOTT called geometric reflective waveguides are offering the breakthrough that could finally make smart glasses feel natural.
Learn how it works.
MCP has already taken the industry by storm, and now Anthropic is giving it away.
The new feature was recently announced by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps’ senior product manager, as spotted by 9to5Google. You’ll need to first connect your iPhone to your car through USB, Bluetooth, or CarPlay, but when you’re done driving Google Maps will automatically save your vehicle’s location for 48 hours, or until you start driving again.
Most Brits are used to using Google Maps for restaurant recommendations, but its opaque algorithm can reward chains and existing hits, making it hard for new independent spots to get traction. This map tries to fix that, highlighting restaurants underrated by the algorithm because they don’t get the footfall.
Here’s AdWeek’s headline:
EXCLUSIVE: Google Tells Advertisers It’ll Bring Ads to Gemini in 2026
But according to Google VP of Global Ads Dan Taylor:
This story is based on uninformed, anonymous sources who are making inaccurate claims. There are no ads in the Gemini app and there are no current plans to change that.
They’re available “starting today,” Google says. And system-level “autospatialization,” which turns 2D content into 3D, is coming next year, Google announced during its Android Show presentation.
It’s kinda like a pair of chunky sunglasses that runs Android apps.
The enhanced reasoning mode is only available to Google AI Ultra subscribers through the Gemini app. It’s currently the highest-performing model on the ARC-AGI-2 reasoning benchmark, with Google saying it’s “designed to tackle complex math, science and logic problems that challenge even the most advanced state-of-the-art models.”
After the whole “BG3 players exploit children” thing, it seems Google got the message. Its bot is still spitting nonsense like “Prebuilts beat DIY builds” and it’s linking to unrelated stories instead of my scoop, but small victories, right?
As usual, Google is back with another set of the year’s top trending searches, as well as archived lists for previous years. Just don’t be too surprised when you see 2025 top spots taken up by Charlie Kirk, KPop Demon Hunters, or Arc Raiders.
These lists don’t present the most-searched terms; instead, Google is highlighting terms with the “highest spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2025 as compared to 2024.”
The list is heavy on extensions that use AI like Monica and Sider that can summarize web pages and videos, Quillbot for proofing or generating text, and eJOY that can expand your vocabulary while surfing the web. But Google also gives a shoutout to the simple but powerful image editing tools in Adobe’s Photoshop extension.
The name Lepton appeared on Steam and SteamDB just a few weeks after Valve unveiled the Steam Frame headset, which will be able to run Android apps.
In our new interview with Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais, he mentioned the Frame uses “a similar compatibility layer as Proton, just targeted at Android.”
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The feature was first piloted in the UK earlier this year, and works by automatically warning users when they launch eligible financial apps while screen sharing during calls with numbers that aren’t in the device’s contact list. The warning forces a 30-second pause period that aims to “break the spell of the scammers’ social engineering,” according to Google.
One of Google’s new Android updates is the beta for Call Reason, which allows callers to flag that it’s urgent. Sounds smart, but if you’re below the age of 40, “urgent” might be the only type of call you ever make.
mekalos:
Sorry but if literally anyone I know is calling me instead of texting, it’s already urgent.
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In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that launching solar-powered satellites like Project Suncatcher into space in a bid to alleviate power consumption concerns will be viewed as “a more normal way” to build AI data centers within the next decade or so.
For everything from the Pixel 6 on up, there are a lot of bug fixes and improvements on the list for this month’s update, as well as two “Critical” severity security bugs patched.
In addition to the wider list of Android updates confirmed today, the list covers a bunch of freezes and screen glitches on newer devices, including screen brightness that could dim unexpectedly on Pixel 10 phones.
[ Google Pixel Community]
