The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 2

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.

Samsung Community goes offline on Oct. 30 for about 72 hours, and the platform migration behind the shutdown could leave users without direct messages, drafts, bookmarks, or subscriptions they haven't backed up, according to Samsung's official notice.

Before installing anything billed as the latest AMD chipset drivers for Windows 11, check two things first: the exact chipset on your motherboard and the version already installed. AMD currently lists chipset driver revision 8.09.28.1124, released Oct. 21, 2026, as its Windows 11 64-bit package for both the X870 and WRX80 platforms.

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.

A blue indicator has started showing up in the status bar on Samsung Galaxy phones running One UI 9, and it has one job: flagging when an app is actively accessing your location.

The Samsung Galaxy A37 has worn three different price tags in about six months, and that's the central question of this Galaxy A37 review. The hardware hasn't changed.

There's still no confirmed Samsung Galaxy T1 earbuds release date, price, or official product name. But the unannounced SM-R545 has now cleared wireless certification in two countries within about a month, evidence that the product is moving through Samsung's regulatory pipeline rather than sitting idle, according to SammyGuru.

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...

Google calls the $179.99 Fitbit Edge its "smartest fitness tracker ever" (Google, two weeks ago). But according to Android Authority's reporting, which draws on direct correspondence with Google, anyone chasing the fullest set of AI health features should skip the Edge and "buy a Pixel Watch 5 and a Pixel phone" instead. That's the core tension behind any Fitbit Edge vs Google Pixel Watch comparison right now: two products from the same company, running the same health platform, with...

A Gartic Phone Halloween party game only works if the host plans around one detail: most guests will be drawing monsters with their thumbs on a six-inch screen, not a tablet or laptop. Gartic Phone works in iOS Safari and Android Chrome with touchscreen drawing built in, but a guide covering the game's mechanics says detailed drawing is harder on a phone than on a larger screen.

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.

Google confirms that blood-pressure and insulin-resistance trend tracking are included free with Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, while the same two tools require a Google Health Premium subscription on Fitbit Air and the newly released Fitbit Edge.

Ask Play, Google Play's AI-powered search feature, can now generate side-by-side comparisons between apps alongside its existing conversational recommendations.

OnePlus confirmed the Ace 7 and Ace 7 Pro in China today, two sub-flagship phones built around a 9,000mAh battery, a 185Hz gaming display, and a built-in cooling fan, according to Android Authority. Those numbers are the closest thing to a OnePlus 16R specs preview available right now, even though OnePlus has not named, priced, or scheduled a 16R in any market, per the same report.

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.

A leaker claims OPPO is testing its unannounced Find X10 Ultra with MediaTek's Dimensity 9600 Pro, then says a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 version is now more likely (Android Central, today). The OPPO Find X10 Ultra MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro rumor is still just that: a leak, not a product announcement. OPPO hasn't confirmed the phone exists at all, so there's no official chipset, camera hardware, price, or release date to weigh against anything.

The Pixel 11 Pro HiLight notification feature just picked up its most requested upgrade: message alerts. Owners running Android 17 QPR2 Beta 6.1 on the Pixel 11 Pro, Pro XL, or Pro Fold can now flip on a toggle that makes the camera-ring LED blink for texts from favorite contacts, confirmed working with Google Messages according to 9to5Google. That's a real expansion for a feature Android Police called a "dud" at launch over its narrow scope, per Android Police.

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).

Samsung launched the W27 in China this week, a China-exclusive, dressed-up version of the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra priced from CNY 18,999 (roughly $2,852) to CNY 21,999 (roughly $3,303), according to SamMobile and Android Headlines. That pricing already lands above what's been reported for Apple's iPhone Duo in China, according to Android Headlines.

A claim of a Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold $250 off Amazon discount is not verifiable from the reporting reviewed for this article. No live listing, seller name, SKU, or timestamp backing that price cut turned up anywhere in that reporting. That gap doesn't prove the deal is fake, it just means there's nothing yet to check the claim against.

Microsoft says Windows 11 is now "up to 20% more responsive," with measured improvements across Search, Start, right-click, Settings, Snipping Tool, and File Explorer. The company also says its broader performance work extends from boot and logon through Microsoft 365 and Edge, according to an Oct. 15 Windows Experience Blog post. Microsoft singles out PCs with 8GB of RAM as seeing an "especially meaningful difference" from new memory-management work.

Spotify Family plan address verification can block people who genuinely live with the plan manager, and missing a follow-up verification request can cost them their spot on the plan entirely.

Full Android Auto work profile support doesn't exist yet, and this new discovery doesn't change that. It does suggest Google is quietly building toward it.

Microsoft is reshaping Copilot Notebooks from a source-grounded question-and-answer tool into something that can act on notebook content: delegating tasks, running recurring automations, and editing Office files directly inside a notebook, according to Neowin.

Nothing's $399 Headphone (1) Pro launched Sept. 29, immediately setting up a direct comparison with Sony's WH-1000XM6, which carries a $449.99 list price.

Microsoft has resolved a known issue that caused black screens, desktop loading failures, and Explorer crashes right after sign-in on some Windows 11 systems.

Foldable phones survive drops and folds better than many people expect. In lab testing last year, Which? tested 59 foldable phones through 30,000 open-close cycles on a folding machine, and 58 came through without a fault.

Samsung has started rolling out the stable, Android 17-based One UI 9 update to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. The rollout began in South Korea and has since expanded to parts of Europe, although availability still varies by country, carrier, and device variant.

A one-time passcode arrives on your Android phone as a text, but it never shows up in Phone Link on your PC, and no desktop notification appears either. That's the specific symptom this guide fixes: an MFA code not showing in Phone Link on Windows 11, specifically SMS-based codes that already reached the phone.

The documented discount on a Roku Pro Series OLED TV sale belongs to the standard 120Hz model, not the faster 144Hz Pro Series LX OLED. During a past sale event, Amazon had the 55-inch Pro Series OLED at $699.99 and the 65-inch at $799.99, well under the set's $999.99 and $1,199.99 list prices (Tom's Guide, two weeks ago). The standard model is confirmed available nationwide on Amazon right now; the pricier LX was only announced for an October 2026 launch, and no sale price has been documented...

A Plex stream that stutters doesn't always mean the server needs more muscle. These Plex tips and tricks are built around one diagnostic habit: checking whether buffering comes from your network, a forced transcode, or an undersized server before you spend a dollar fixing a problem that isn't there.

Apple has closed so much of the feature gap between its standard and Pro earbuds that the AirPods 5 vs AirPods Pro 3 decision isn't really a spec-sheet question anymore. It comes down largely to whether an open-ear bud resting against your ear beats a sealed tip sitting inside your ear canal.

Xbox has pushed back on a report claiming it secured exclusive GTA 6 Xbox streaming rights, with the company's chief strategy officer saying the game "will not be streaming exclusively or to PC."

Samsung's internal testing reportedly found the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 overheating and throttling in Galaxy S27 Ultra prototypes, fueling talk of a switch to Samsung's Exynos 2700 chip.

Spotify flipped the switch today on its first fully native in-car app, and for the first time the software runs directly on a car's own infotainment hardware instead of mirroring a connected phone. The Spotify native in-car app for Audi is live now in five 2026-model-year vehicles, distributed through the Audi Application Store rather than the Google Play Store (Audi, today).

Google started rolling out the Pixel VIPs widget redesign last month, and if you already use the Contacts app widget daily, it's worth checking for the update now.

Microsoft started rolling out a rebuilt Photos app for Windows 11 to Windows Insiders on October 15, combining a new Gallery, Editor, and Viewer into a single interface that pulls in photos from a PC, OneDrive, and iCloud.

Google began rolling out Gemini Personal Intelligence on Android Auto on October 20, letting the assistant use information from connected Google services, including Gmail and Photos, to personalize responses and assist with tasks such as navigation. The feature is rolling out to eligible personal Google accounts, though Google has built in enough restrictions on region and account type that not everyone with Android Auto will see it right away.

Google's 120x Pro Res Zoom on the Pixel 11 Pro sounds like a spec-sheet gimmick, and at its most extreme setting, much of what you see can come from generative AI reconstruction rather than detail resolved by the lens.

Amazon introduced two new Bee AI devices on October 15, 2026: the $74.99 Bee Frontier wearable, available now, and the $99.99 Bee Eclipse magnetic phone attachment, which Amazon says will arrive soon with no confirmed release date.