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Apple has redesigned the removable AC plug on its 70W and 140W USB-C power adapters, and the new pill-shaped fitting does not accept older C7-style duckheads or the previous extension cable. That creates a compatibility problem for travelers who want to reuse Apple's older plugs or extension cables with the newly revised chargers.

YouTube added six new educational Playables games built with Khan Academy, Veritasium, TED-Ed, Math with Mr. J, Black Girls Code, and The Jed Foundation, turning STEM, music, and mindfulness concepts into short interactive games, according to YouTube's announcement published today.

DIRECTV Genre Packs are eight themed streaming bundles built around specific types of programming instead of one do-everything lineup. Base prices start at $20.99 a month, with no satellite dish, no annual contract, and no Signature TV plan required. Five are base packs (MyEntertainment, MySports, MyKids, MyNews, and MiEspañol), while three are Mini Packs that work as paid add-ons to eligible base plans.

A notification pings when someone tags you in a group chat, but after you open WhatsApp, finding that message can mean scrolling through dozens of other texts. WhatsApp is testing a fix: a mentions and replies filter spotted in Android beta version 2.26.42.12, according to WABetaInfo's Oct. 24 report.

Some Galaxy S26 Ultra owners are getting stuck during setup after a factory reset, unable to get past a "webpage is unavailable" error and reach the home screen. Samsung has acknowledged the problem on its South Korean support forums, attributing it to unstable system WebView behavior on certain networks while the phone tries to load a Samsung Account page.

Night mode can turn a dark porch into a glowing Halloween scene, but depending on how dark the scene is, the capture can stretch to several seconds, Apple says. That's exactly what trips people up once trick-or-treaters start moving.

Apple just gave iPhone owners a direct way to control Siri AI's access to apps, and it's a fix years in the making. iOS 27.2 adds a new Settings > Siri > Excluded Apps menu that lets users block Siri's AI engine from reading specific apps, replacing a multi-toggle setup that previously required disabling several settings per app or turning off Siri AI entirely.

Google Meet's real-time voice translation jumped from six languages to 63 this week, powered by a new Gemini 3.5 Live Translate model that automatically detects which language someone is speaking instead of locking a call into one fixed pair. This expansion brings Google's Gemini 3.5 Live Translate model to Meet's web and mobile apps, and it removes the old meeting-wide language-pair limit so each participant can pick their own translation language. Most people will still need an eligible paid...

Samsung's latest Galaxy Watch 7 update isn't packed with new features, but it targets parts of the smartwatch experience that owners use throughout the day. Watch faces, the always-on display, and Quick Settings are among the areas receiving attention in the fifth One UI 9 Watch beta.

Apple released iOS 18.7.11 and iPadOS 18.7.11 earlier this week, delivering a fix for a CoreGraphics flaw the company says "may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals" on iOS versions before iOS 27. This is the iPhone XR and iPhone XS security update that matters most right now, since it's the only version that brings the fix to iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, hardware that can't run iOS 26, along with the seventh-generation iPad.

Apple's iOS 27.2 release notes confirm that Shared Albums in Photos now support editing captions and comments, according to the full notes reproduced by iClarified. The update is available now through Settings > General > Software Update.

Samsung's One UI 9 update is bringing an unwelcome surprise for some Galaxy S24 and S25 owners: battery life that suddenly falls short of what they're used to. Complaints range from faster overnight drain to phones needing several charges throughout the day.

Google revised its privacy policy on Oct. 16 to say that data shared between Gmail, Google Photos, or Drive and certain other Google services may now be used to personalize content, including ads. The update adds an exception to language that previously ruled out using content from those apps for ad personalization, according to The Verge and Ars Technica.

Google began rolling out the Android 17 QPR3 Beta 3 Pixel update on October 29, with a changelog listing 26 fixes, according to 9to5Google (yesterday). The report names three of those fixes directly: a foldable's inner display staying black after unfolding, intermittent crashes clustered around the lock screen or shortly after startup, and a Recents overview that flickers when a home gesture follows quick app-switching (9to5Google, yesterday).

Google is rolling out a Google Home and Nest speaker update that the company says fixes disappearing speaker groups and stereo pairs, the exact symptom Nest owners have been describing for months. The release notes name the bug directly: stereo pairs and speaker groups that "unexpectedly disappear or become undiscoverable" in the Google Home app, according to Google's October 29 release notes, also reproduced by 9to5Google. The same update bundles in faster local device discovery and a separate...

The new Shortcuts features in iOS 27.2 arrived this week, covering automation triggers, actions, and editor tools documented in Apple's release notes. Several of these Shortcuts improvements also extend to iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, which received their matching 27.2 updates on October 26.

Passports, birth certificates, and Social Security cards don't fit inside a Bluetooth tracker, but Google's Find Hub now gives them a place anyway. Its new Remembered tab lets you tell Gemini where you stored a document, then ask for that location later, whether you're digging through a closet or preparing for a trip.

A no-logs policy sounds straightforward. A VPN provider says it does not log your activity, so your browsing should remain private.

Samsung has begun releasing a second October 2026 update for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Flip 8, following the earlier security patch that expanded from South Korea to Europe and India.

The iPhone Duo can finally double as a digital notepad, but owning an Apple Pencil doesn't necessarily mean you're ready to start writing. Apple's foldable iPhone now supports stylus input through iOS 27.2, released October 26, 2026, but only the Apple Pencil (USB-C) works. Even the more expensive Apple Pencil Pro is incompatible.

Samsung has started rolling out the Galaxy M54 One UI 9.0 update, based on Android 17, according to SamMobile and Zoomit, which reported the release on Oct. 27. Zoomit cites SamMobile for the global rollout, rather than independently confirming a separate release. Samsung's model-specific update documentation has not yet established which Galaxy AI features are included.

Apple shipped tvOS 27.2 for Apple TV 4K this week, and tucked inside that release is the first expansion of Apple TV profiles to iPhone and iPad. The mobile side rides on a separate iOS and iPadOS 27.2 update rather than tvOS itself, and it matters most for anyone who shares a phone or tablet with family, kids, or roommates and wants a Continue Watching list that doesn't fill up with someone else's shows.

A working fork of the open-source Aves gallery app, posted to GitHub about a month ago, demonstrates something readers trying to search Android photos without cloud upload have been asking for: typed description search and visual similarity matching that run entirely on the phone, with photo indexing and search described by the developer as running locally, without uploading photos, videos, or search queries.

If Microsoft Teams won't open on Windows 11, first check whether your PC is managed by an organization or fully yours. That determines which fixes you can safely try. Most of the troubleshooting also applies to Windows 10, although some Settings menus differ.

Samsung's unreleased Exynos 2700 reportedly scored around 13,000 in a Geekbench 6.5 multi-core benchmark test against roughly 11,000 for Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, a lead of nearly 20%, according to industry sources cited by The Korea Herald on Oct. 25.

iOS 27 introduces a change to how iPhone handles sound: alarms, ringtones, and notification alerts no longer have to share one volume slider. Owners can now turn down a ringtone or text alert without quietly lowering the alarm that's supposed to wake them up. That's the practical answer to a question a lot of iPhone owners have been asking for years: how to set separate alarm and ringer volumes on iPhone without one setting dragging down the other.

Calling a contact with more than one saved number through Android Auto has always meant one extra step: picking home, work, or mobile before the call actually connects. A teardown of a daily Android Auto build suggests that step might finally disappear, surfacing what's being described as an Android Auto preferred phone number feature buried in a set of unfinished code strings (Android Police, yesterday).

Creating a password-protected ZIP on Android starts with choosing a file manager that supports encrypted archives. Files by Google can create ordinary ZIP files, but its documented compression workflow doesn't include a password option. That's a limitation of Files by Google, not Android as a whole.

Choosing a VPN in 2026 is not as simple as finding the provider with the largest server network or the fastest advertised speeds.

Yes, a laser pointer can damage a phone camera sensor, but the outcome isn't a single fixed result. Research on camera sensors shows effects ranging from temporary overexposure that clears on its own to permanent dead pixels or a sensor that stops producing usable images altogether. None of the studies cited here support the blanket claim that any laser pointer aimed at any phone will wreck the camera. The risk depends on the laser's power, wavelength, exposure duration, and how much energy...

Motorola has started rolling out stable Android 17 to the Razr Ultra 2025, but only a narrow group of owners has confirmed receiving it so far. The update has been reported on an unlocked unit in the United States, according to Android Authority and TuttoAndroid.

Apple's current support page lists up to 25W MagSafe charging for iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro Max, while iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are rated for up to 22.5W. An independent Techtest report also found faster charging with a third-party Qi2.2 pad after updating an iPhone 16 Pro Max to iOS 26.

A fork of an open-source project called nxnative has reportedly got Mario Kart World, a Switch 2 exclusive, running on a Mac, with developer Will Faust posting video footage of the game on Oct. 27.

OnePlus has already started rolling out Android 17-based ColorOS 17 ahead of its original Oct. 29, 2026, schedule.

Got an Apple TV Siri Remote and a Mac nearby? Here's how to use a Siri Remote with a Mac: pair it over Bluetooth, and macOS immediately recognizes a small set of built-in commands with no extra software required. The clickpad won't move your cursor or navigate apps on its own, though. Apple built this remote for tvOS, not macOS, so getting more out of it means installing something extra (AppleInsider, today).

So, how much are old Samsung phones worth? In an Oct. 23 snapshot, a like-new 256GB Galaxy S23 Ultra could bring a top cash buyback offer of $291, compared with a reported average completed sale price of $404 on Swappa, before fees. That's a $113 difference for handling the sale yourself instead of accepting a buyback offer, according to Engadget.

A Galaxy tablet owner asked Samsung Community how to reorder "the first 6 buttons" on their Quick Panel, and the reply pointed to a setting called Edit top quick settings. Samsung now documents that option in its official support materials for newer Galaxy devices, although the exact menu layout can vary by software version and model. For One UI 7 users, the key distinction is between editing the full Quick Panel and customizing the shortcuts shown in the combined notifications view.

Start with one question: did tap-to-pay ever work on this phone, or did it work fine for weeks and then suddenly stop? That answer helps determine whether you're dealing with a setup problem you can fix yourself or an intermittent issue that ordinary troubleshooting may not resolve.

Google's program is scheduled to become available on December 1, 2026, on devices running Android 17 QPR2 or later in the countries listed in Google's official eligibility FAQ, provided a third-party store has completed registration and received approval.

At $899, Apple's M6 Mac mini looks like a bargain beside the new $1,499 iMac. That's $600 saved before you've even turned either computer on. But there's a catch: the Mac mini doesn't come with a screen, keyboard, or mouse, and buying those separately can eat into the savings.