Setting Up Your Home Office

Google just announced some notable upgrades to the Google Play gaming experience on Windows PCs, with improvements that cover game discovery and purchases, and the news that a broader number of paid titles are now becoming available for the desktop. While an official Windows client for Google Play apps and games has been available for several years, these latest updates mean the experience is more polished than ever before. There are four main changes for gamers wanting to play Android games on Windows. First, Google is "actively expanding" the number of paid, premium games that are fully optimized for PCs. Android games don't get this optimization by default, an…

Google's first Pixel Drop of 2025 happened this week with a long list of upgrades for the company's flagship phones, tablets, and watches. Google followed the update closely with the March 2025 Android Security Bulletin, with fixes for 43 malicious bugs—including two zero-day vulnerabilities that may actively be under "limited, targeted exploitation" on devices running Android OS. The patches cover concerns ranging from flaws that allow attackers to gain remote code execution on vulnerable devices to issues with Qualcomm and MediaTek components. The two zero-day (highest severity) exploits are labeled CVE-2024-43093 and CVE-2024-50302, both of which are "privilege escalat…

There are numerous ways that your internet activity is tracked as you navigate from website to website, many of which you can mitigate with your choice of browser (and browser settings), as well as the use of tools like VPNs. Google Chrome remains the absolute worst browser for privacy for many reasons, but that doesn't mean the browser is free of privacy progress. In fact, the upcoming version of Chrome will finally patch a 20-year-old bug that allowed users to be tracked and profiled through their previously visited links. A privacy fix is coming to Chrome 136The issue, which Google is addressing with Chrome 136, has to do with how a user's previously clicked links ar…

A week after OpenAI admitted it will soon start testing ads in ChatGPT, Google has promised that it's not planning to inject ads into Gemini anytime soon. The statement was given to journalist Alex Heath during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said the company doesn't have "any plans" for ads in Gemini. While the statement was fairly brief, it also jibes with a similar quote Hassabis gave to Axios, where he said he was "a little bit surprised" that OpenAI was already introducing ads to ChatGPT. That surprise is understandable, especially because OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in 2024 that he considered ads a "last resort for …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Google started rolling out Android 15 back in October, adding a number of interesting and useful new features to compatible devices. Six months later, the company has decided to increase the minimum spec requirements manufacturers must meet in order for their devices to be eligible for the latest Google software. The good news? It's not that strict. This week, Android Authority reported that to update to Android 15, Google is now requiring devices to have at least 32GB of storage. That isn't 32GB of free space; rather, the storage unit itself needs to be 32GB or larger. With Android 14 (and Android 13 before it) that req…

Google has unveiled a major update to its Material 3 design language, which guides the visual appearance of apps across Android and the web. Called Material 3 Expressive, the new look is intended to make software "more engaging and easier to use," and is quite a departure from what's gone before. It's not easy to sum up what Material 3 Expressive is, but you can see a few of Google's example screenshots included in this article. Google says that expressive design is design that "makes you feel something" when you use it. "Expressive interfaces have an emotional impact, fostering connection by evoking a feeling or mood through visual design and interaction," as per the off…

Phones are valuable targets. If someone can steal your device, especially if they know how to break into it, they have access to a huge amount of your sensitive data. As such, good security features can mean the difference between losing that data, or protecting it entirely—even if your phone is long gone. Google has a number of anti-theft features baked in Android, appropriately called "Theft Protection Features." While the company isn't announcing a slate of new features today, it did announced new updates to its existing Android Theft Protection features in a post on the company's Security Blog Tuesday. Here's what's new: Google's updated Theft Protection Features for …

Google acquired the excellent photo editor Snapseed back in 2012—not long after Apple had crowned it one of its apps of the year—and despite having plenty to offer and being completely free to use, it remains one of Google's lesser-known apps. That might be about to change. Snapseed's latest update for iOS, version 3.15.0, comes with a full camera app inside—and there's a case to be made that it's better than Apple's default Camera app. It certainly offers more in the way of manual shooting controls, with the added benefit of an entire integrated suite of editing features. Using Snapseed's built-in camera on iPhoneOnce you've installed or updated Snapseed to the latest ve…

I use Google Maps to get from point A to point B, but I also use it for research. It's an essential tool for finding new restaurants to try, or for identifying well-reviewed hotels in a new area. While many use it with their Google account, others might like to keep some of their data out of Google's hands. Using Google Maps while signed out is a good way to do that: You can find new locations of interest without having Google know you're interested in those spots. However, if you like using Google Maps without an account, be warned: The experience is now much more limited. As reported by 9to5Google, Google is now limiting the amount of data visible when accessing Google…

Forgetting where you parked your car isn't just a sitcom trope—though it does make for classic TV. Even in the age of the smartphone, it's all too easy to walk away from your car and retain zero memory of where you left it. As it happens, Google Maps has a solution—provided you have an iPhone. So long as you're running the app on an Apple device, Google Maps can automatically remember where you parked and display that information on the map. There's no need to mark the location yourself, tell the app to save your spot, or take a picture of the cross streets in case you forget: You can simply glance at the screen to find a "You parked here" label. The thing is, while som…

Google isn't new to adding AI to its products, and that includes Google Maps. The company already has AI tools that let you ask Gemini for directions to your destination, or get more info about it, and today, it's rolling out new features to help turn the chatbot into a (to borrow a term from Microsoft) copilot. With Gemini in Google Maps, you'll be able to ask open-ended questions and even have the AI take action for you, based on its responses. The idea is to make the app easier to work with while driving, which, yes, means you can also wake the bot with a simple "Hey Google." Let's say you get peckish while driving. You'll be able to wake the bot with your voice, ask …

If you have a Pixel phone, there's good news, and bad news. The good news? Google is releasing a handful of new features for your device, via its November Pixel Drop. And among the new changes, like Google Photos' Nano Banana upgrade, is something genuinely useful: a new power saving mode for Google Maps. The bad news? Your Pixel probably doesn't support it. According to Google, the new Power Saving Mode is simple to use. Whenever you want to spare your battery some excess power consumption while using driving directions in Google Maps, you can tap a new power button in the app. Once you do, Google Maps will shift into a "simplified layout": From Google's press release i…

Google Maps' Timeline feature is a great way to look back on your past travels—if you have the data to look back on. Timeline users over the past couple of weeks have noticed that their data is missing, with no warning or explanation. Redditor srj737 posted on the r/GooglePixel subreddit earlier this month, reporting they lost over a decade of Timeline data, seemingly out of nowhere. Before, they could browse each location they visited with Google Maps over the past ten years; now, they had to start from scratch. What makes the situation especially confusing is the fact that Google had previously warned users they might lose Timeline data. The company announced late las…

Google Meet's "Take Notes for me" feature is one particularly useful implementation of AI. When you're on a video call, Gemini can dictate what's being said, offering summaries and highlights of the conversation. That way, your attention doesn't need to be split between the conversation at hand and writing down notes to remember key points later: You can just check the notes that are automatically generated as a Google Doc once the meeting is over. It's the kind of feature that sells me more on the whole "AI assistant" thing, rather than something trying to order me a coffee. Of course, video conferencing isn't the only time dictation can be useful. An in-person meet…

Taking a call from the road has been a thing since the dawn of the car phone, but tech companies are still finding new and innovative ways to make escaping meetings impossible. While CarPlay and Android Auto have traditional phone calls baked into their functionality and support certain other calling apps, Google Meet has never been supported. If you have a work call you need to join while in the car, you either need to go through the potentially cumbersome steps of disconnecting your phone from the car and playing the call through the phone itself, or, if it's an option, have someone else take the wheel while you dial in. That's now changing—at least for those of us wit…

Android users are now able to share their live, real-time location in Google Messages, so you can easily see where your friends and family members are and are moving to over a period of time. This makes it easier to coordinate meeting up or share your whereabouts for safety reasons. Real-time location sharing was previously available in Find Hub but is now being integrated directly into Messages. Until this change, location sharing in Messages was limited to a static Google Maps link. Similar functionality exists in other messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messages on iPhone. When using real-time location sharing, Google allows you to set a custom duration (up to 24 hours…

If you've been dealing with Google Messages issues—particular with regards to sending photos and videos—you aren't alone. Messages users are complaining about images that are slow to load when sent via RCS. Media shows up blurry for minutes at a time before users can actually open them. Photos and videos are also arriving compressed, which is something to be expected on SMS, not RCS. Luckily for those affected, Google has taken notice. In a Tuesday post on the company's support website, a community manager acknowledged the "frustrating issues" with sending media in Google Messages, and shared some good news: The Google team has been "actively working on this," and has iss…

Not that long ago, sending a message was final. It didn't matter if you had an embarrassing typo, or you sent a message to the wrong person: Once you tapped that "send" button, you were locked in, and whoever that message was sent to would have it as long as they wanted. These days, however, we have the technology to save ourselves from such embarrassment. Many chat apps now have options to retrieve a message after it was sent, whether by editing the message to fix a mistake, or the ability to delete a message from everyone in the chat. It doesn't guarantee that the people who received the message didn't see it, but it does remove that message from view. If they didn't c…

"I'm Feeling Lucky" has been a core feature of Google Search since the company launched in 1998. Most of us, of course, choose the typical Search experience, scrolling through the various links until we find the URL we're looking for. But when you're feeling confident that your search query has a clear destination, I'm Feeling Lucky can direct you straight there. I admit, I haven't used the button much through all my years of googling. Truth be told, I hardly ever go to google.com—once browsers integrated Google Search with the address bar, I began searching directly from there. But whenever I do find myself on Google's homepage, it's nice to see I always have the option…

If you have a smartphone running Android 12 that can't upgrade past that version, I have some bad news: Google is dropping support for your phone. RIP Android 12As spotted by Android Authority, Google is no longer seeding security updates for devices running Android 12 and Android 12L. The company omitted the Android version from its April 2025 Android Security Bulletin, which notes security vulnerabilities Google has identified and patched, and as well as which versions of Android receive those patches. The company highlights Android 13, 14, and 15 across a number of different vulnerabilities, but not Android 12. The outlet isn't basing this news off these omissions alo…

Ultra HDR is a cool image format. Like traditional HDR, this format packs more image data into each media file, which translates into brighter highlights, darker shadows, and more vibrant colors. However, Ultra HDR files also contain the standard dynamic range (SDR) version of the image as well. That way, you can share Ultra HDR files with friends who don't have HDR-compatible displays, and the image will show up just fine. But there's a difference between being able to display an Ultra HDR image on a non-HDR display and converting an SDR image to HDR (or Ultra HDR, for that matter). Traditionally, the latter has been a more complicated endeavor, and not something offe…

For the past few years, Google's Pixel phones have had recurring problems with calling 911, and the issue has once again reared its ugly head. Over the past 24 hours, multiple users on Reddit have complained about being unable to call 911, while the Bell carrier in Canada issued a warning that the Pixel 6 and up was also having problems contacting emergency services on its network. According to user Fabulous_Disaster730, who posted yesterday about difficulties contacting emergency services during a gas leak, her Pixel 9 Pro repeatedly prompted her to turn on wifi calling or turn off airplane mode before she could call 911, despite her having full signal on both 5G and wif…

When Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, it announced that all users would eventually need to link their devices to a Google account to continue using Fitbit's features and services. Google initially set a deadline sometime in 2025 for the mandatory migration, then pushed it to February 2, 2026—a date that seemed final at the time. Now, Google has granted yet another extension. Now, if you're still using a legacy Fitbit account (an account from before 2021), Google has extended the deadline for migrating Fitbit accounts to Google accounts for the second time, giving users until May 19, 2026, to make the switch. How to switch over to a Google accountFor those who've been proc…

It wouldn't be a Google I/O keynote without a new frontier AI model. At I/O 2026, Google finally revealed the Gemini 3.5 family to the world, starting with Gemini 3.5 Flash. As you'd expect, it's the latest and greatest model from Google, designed to work across a slew of Google products like the Gemini app, Android, and Google's Antigravity coding platform. Google says that the latest frontier model is designed especially for complex agentic workflows. Google isn't the only company we're thinking about today, either. Lifehacker is launching a Big Guessing Game, featuring questions about what Apple might announce at its various events this year. The entire CNET Group is p…

If you're getting more scam texts than your friends and family, it turns out it might be your mobile platform, at least going by a recent poll from Google and YouGov. According to Google, users on Android report receiving 58% fewer scam texts than those on iOS, and that number is even better on Pixel devices. Credit: Google That data comes from a survey Google and YouGov conducted of over 5,000 Android and iOS users across the U.S., India, and Brazil. The data says that Android users as a whole were "58% more likely than iOS u…