Once again, Google is giving eligible college students in the U.S. an opportunity to utilize AI tools for studying and more with 12 months of Google AI Pro for free. Normally, $19.99 a month, the plan comes with higher Gemini usage limits, Gemini inside apps including Gmail and Google Docs, 5TB of storage and access to tools such as Gemini Spark.

Students outside the U.S. haven’t been forgotten, although the offer is different. Eligible students in more than 140 markets can receive Google AI Plus free for one year, with twice the Gemini usage limits available to free users, Gemini Omni and 400GB of storage.

Google is also offering student discounts on a bundle combining Google AI Pro with YouTube Premium. The company says the savings can reach 70%, depending on the market and offer.

You’ll need to verify your student status through SheerID and provide a valid payment method when you sign up. The free plans automatically become paid subscriptions after the 12-month period unless you cancel. Students have until December 31, 2026 to redeem the offer.

In addition to the free subscription, Google has a plethora of new tools designed to help students organize classes, create study plans and work through difficult material. Here’s what’s coming to Gemini and Search.

A new student hub inside Gemini

Google has created a dedicated student hub inside the Gemini app that brings its learning features together in one place.

Available at gemini.google.com/students, the hub provides shortcuts for starting a study notebook, creating flashcards and taking practice quizzes. Google says it will add new learning tools to the hub as they become available.

The student hub is rolling out on mobile and the web to signed-in personal accounts in every language supported by the Gemini app. Support for school-issued Google accounts and younger users who meet Google’s age requirements is expected in the coming weeks.

Study notebooks build a plan around your class materials

Study notebooks are designed for those moments when you have a stack of lecture notes and no idea where to begin.

Upload your class materials and Gemini will break the subject into smaller topics. You can then take a diagnostic quiz so the AI can identify what you already understand and where you need more work. It uses those results to generate shorter lessons and quizzes, while a progress dashboard tracks how much you’ve completed.

Google plans to add graphs and images to notebook lessons in the coming weeks. Gemini will also be able to pull exam and assignment dates from an uploaded syllabus and add them to Google Calendar, although it will ask for permission before doing so.

The feature itself is available to free Gemini users, but Google AI Plus and Pro subscribers can create more notebooks and include more sources.

Gemini can now generate interactive 3D visuals

Some subjects are much easier to understand when you can see what is happening instead of reading another paragraph about it.

Gemini’s interactive visualizations can create functional 3D simulations based on a question. Ask it to show how DNA works, for example, and it can generate a structure that you can rotate and zoom into. Other examples provided by Google include watching a pendulum transfer energy or exploring cash burn rates in an interactive table.

Besides 3D models, Gemini can also design tables, grids and simulations depending on the subject and the way you phrase the request.

Interactive visualizations are rolling out globally to personal and school-issued Google accounts, subject to age requirements and usage limits.

Deep Research is coming to Gemini Live

Google is also bringing Deep Research into Gemini Live, allowing students to start a research report by speaking rather than typing out a detailed prompt.

Once the research begins, you don’t need to leave Gemini Live open. You can close the chat, lock your phone or continue another conversation while Gemini works in the background. The app sends a notification when the report is ready.

You can then talk through the findings in Gemini Live, ask follow-up questions or tell Gemini to refine part of the report. That could be useful for working through research while walking across campus or reviewing a subject without sitting in front of a laptop.

Deep Research in Gemini Live is rolling out globally now, although availability and age restrictions may vary.

Google Search can create interactive learning tools

Google is adding generative visual tools to Search as well as Gemini. Search for a broad subject such as the pH scale and an AI Overview may generate an interactive visual explaining the basics. You can then open AI Mode and request something more specific, such as plotting different citrus fruits on that scale.

You can also go directly to AI Mode and describe the learning tool or simulation you need. Google says these generative interface tools are available globally in English in AI Mode and are beginning to roll out in AI Overviews.

Practice quizzes are coming to AI Overviews and AI Mode

Students can now ask Google Search to create a practice quiz on subjects ranging from math and science to foreign languages and the humanities.

The quizzes include an explanation for each answer and links to further reading. Search can also generate practice questions for the ACT, AP, ENEM, GRE, JEE, LSAT, MCAT, NEET and SAT.

Google is sourcing some of this test-prep content through partnerships with The Princeton Review, Careers360, PhysicsWallah and Akira Enem. Practice quizzes are available globally in English through both AI Overviews and AI Mode at no charge.

Additionally, AI Mode can now create files using material from uploaded documents and previous Search conversations. You could upload a photo of handwritten notes and a set of lecture slides, for example, then ask Search to turn them into a one-page guide covering the main concepts. It can create documents, slide presentations, spreadsheets and text files in several formats.

Google Lens will coach students through mistakes

Taking a photo of a homework problem with Google Lens will soon produce more than an answer.

The new experience is designed to break down the problem, explain individual steps and point out where a student may have made a mistake. If the explanation still isn’t clear, students can continue asking questions in AI Mode and open relevant websites alongside the conversation.

The Lens learning feature will roll out globally in English over the coming weeks through the Google app on Android and iOS.

Notebooks are moving into Google Search

Google is bringing Gemini Notebook, the tool previously known as NotebookLM, directly into AI Mode.

Students will be able to create a separate notebook for each class or project, then fill it with lecture slides, syllabi, web articles and previous AI Mode conversations. Search can answer questions using those selected materials rather than starting with the entire web each time.

Existing notebooks from Gemini Notebook and the Gemini app will automatically appear in Search, with their sources and instructions synced across Google’s products.

Notebooks in AI Mode are rolling out in English across more than 180 countries over the next few days. They won’t initially be available in the European Economic Area, and support for additional languages will follow later.

Tools to ace the school year

Taken together, these updates give Google a fairly complete AI study setup. Students can collect their class materials, find gaps in their knowledge, generate a study plan and test themselves without moving between several unrelated tools.

As always when using AI, students will still need to check Gemini’s work, particularly when using it for research or complex homework. It's also important to remember to use AI as a study partner and not the main character. With a free year of Google AI Pro taking on your toughest assignments with confidence may just be easier with an AI study buddy.

More from Tom's Guide

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• Meta files patent for AI facial recognition glasses that identify people around you and record automatically
• 5 features that give Claude the edge over ChatGPT

Take a quick trip into Claude’s collection of connectors and you’ll instantly lock eyes with several recognizable tools catered to everyday use.

It’s no surprise that Google has the top three slots covered, as its Drive, Gmail and Calendar apps take top billing among its offering of Workspace connectors. At first, the Gmail connector was capable of searching for and finding important emails and summarizing long email threads. But thanks to a recent update, Claude’s Gmail connector can actually send, reply to, and forward emails from Gmail without having to leave the chatbot’s interface.

While this feature sounds like a great way to streamline your workflow, it may be worth testing first before you decide to make it a core part of your daily inbox interactions.

Here are more details about what Claude’s Gmail connector can do, as well as the many ways the chatbot’s Drive and Calendar connectors can assist you.

Claude’s Gmail connectors can do a whole lot more than before

The Gmail connector’s primary specialties include the following:

• Searching and reading emails by relying on natural language queries.
• Drafting emails with proper formatting and message context.
• Managing email organization with clear labels and specified message threads.
• Sending, replying to, and forwarding emails from Gmail. By default, Claude asks for a user’s approval before taking any of those actions. On Claude Team and Enterprise plans, owners decide whether members can allow these actions to run without asking every time.
• Listing all the saved drafts that exist in your Gmail account.
• Accessing email metadata, including attachment metadata (not actual attachment content).

Having Claude send a message via Gmail on your behalf certainly sounds intriguing.

But it’s certainly worth reminding everyone reading that the consequences that come with an AI making a mistake via hallucination when you permit it to send emails without you reviewing them could be severe. And after a recent report from researchers who found a flaw in Claude for Chrome that could allow rogue extensions to read your data and take actions in your accounts, it’s worrying that that sort of extension could potentially ask Claude to send emails without you even knowing. I'm curious if Claude watermarking every word it writes may show up in its Gmail responses as well.

It certainly makes all the sense in the world to always have Claude’s Gmail connector ask for your approval every time it’s ready to send out an email on your behalf.

As for what the Drive and Calendar Claude connectors can do, check out their respective official descriptions from the Claude Support page below:

• Search and retrieve Google Docs from your Drive.
• Share, move, and trash files in Google Drive. By default, Claude asks for your approval before each of these actions. On Team and Enterprise plans, owners decide whether members can allow these actions to run without asking each time.
• Look up file metadata and preview directly without searching first.
• Read Sheets, Slides, PDFs, images, and MS Office files.
• Upload any file type, with optional auto-convert to Google formats.
• Create folders.
• Add Google Docs directly to chats and projects by pasting URLs or selecting from recent documents.
• View file permissions and list recent changes to your Drive.
• Save Claude-generated files directly to your Drive (requires code execution and file creation to be enabled).

• View events and calendars, including shared calendars you have access to.
• Create, update, and delete events with full customization.
• Find mutual availability across attendees.
• Manage attendee lists and respond to invitations (accept, decline, or tentative).
• Set up recurring meetings.

Final thoughts

Even though I practically use AI for everything, I still haven’t gotten comfortable with the idea of copy/pasting an email into it and asking it to draft a reply.

I’m even more iffy about allowing a chatbot to have full access to my inbox and be able to send replies, with or without my approval. Claude’s Gmail connector is super useful, plus its latest ability to handle your replying, sending and forwarding needs is impressive. But give it a test run first to see if it's truly capable of generating a message that wouldn’t make the reader think a chatbot wrote it.

More from Tom’s Guide

• I connected Claude to my daily apps — here are the 5 that actually made it useful
• Claude is now watermarking every response — here's what that means if you use AI for writing
• Meta files patent for AI facial recognition glasses that identify people around you and record automatically

Googlebooks will have a major unveiling on September 15, and Tom’s Guide has been invited. I'll be there to check out the company's new laptop line, which will run on Android and be manufactured by Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Details are scarce at the moment, but as a laptop reviewer, I find this exciting.

The email I received says those in attendance will be among “the first to see and experience the Googlebook.” This is an all-new category of laptops that combine the “best of ChromeOS and Android.” There will be a keynote presentation from Google’s leadership, along with demo stations to test out the new laptops and features.

What to expect

I first reported on Googlebooks back in May, when Google announced the laptop line during the Android Show. We were told that these laptops are built with Gemini Intelligence at their core and designed to work within the Android and Google ecosystem. Though not directly called that, you can consider these “AI PCs.”

Googlebooks are optimized for the Android ecosystem. You can use apps from your phone directly on the laptop. Google says you won’t have to download anything or use emulated touchscreen controls, as you would with iPhone mirroring on a MacBook. You’ll also be able to view, search, or insert your phone’s files on your laptop using a feature called Quick Access.

At the show, I’ll finally see what the first Googlebooks will look like, as the original announcement only gave us slight hints of what to expect. Google says these laptops will be “built with premium craftsmanship and materials, coming in a variety of shapes and sizes.” We do know that Googlebooks will have a unique glow bar to set them apart from competitors.

Outlook

September 15 will be here soon, so it won’t be long until we see what Googlebooks are all about. The main thing on my mind is price, which has been a challenging thing for manufacturers and customers thanks to RAMageddon.

I don’t expect Googlebooks to be as affordable as the $699 MacBook Neo, but if Google can keep the price at around $1,000, these laptops could be legitimate competitors to the MacBook Air. Stay tuned for more!

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Buying a new iPhone 17 Pro Max is only part of the equation. The shiny new device can do a lot once it's finally out of the box and in your hands, but it doesn't change the fact that your experience can still be improved with a few add-ons.

There are countless accessories out there that you can buy to enhance the entire iPhone experience — whether you're picking up an iPhone 17, the larger 17 Pro Max or waiting for the foldable iPhone Ultra. The prospect of spending even more money after dropping at least $1,200 on a brand new phone may not sounds appealing, but trust me, you will be much happier than without — and you don't need to spend a fortune on them either.

Here are 5 accessories that helped improve my iPhone 17 Pro Max that all cost less than $50.

Easy-application screen protector

I used to hate applying screen protectors to my phone, because the whole process was so finicky and I'd inevitably get something wrong. I'd always end up with dust or bubbles under the screen, or screw up the alignment so much that I needed a fresh protector.

And these were the days when screens weren't nearly as durable as they are today. But even with the stronger display glass of the modern day smartphone, screens are still vulnerable to scratches and more serious kinds of damage. The good news is that screen protectors have adapted, and the process of applying them is easier than ever and almost completely pain-free.

Most screen protectors now come with some kind of application tool, but my personal favorites employ a pull-tab. Not only does this ensure perfect alignment with your phone, the fact that the sticky underside of the protector is only exposed to the air for a split-second minimizes the risk of foreign particles getting between it and the screen.

Just remember to clean the screen correctly first. Nothing can account for the fact you left smudges and dust all over your screen before applying the protective layer

While you're at it, make sure to pick up a case for your phone. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is notorious for taking taking damage, as I found out first hand not too long ago.

MagSafe PopSocket

The PopSocket is easily my favorite phone accessory, especially since the modern designs are compatible with Apple's MagSafe.

PopSocket grips make it so much easier to keep hold of your phone and access all corners of the screen one-handed — which is essential for a phone as big as the 17 Pro Max. I've always felt that they ensure a much sturdier grip of my phone too. This stops the phone taking as many unnecessary tumbles and potentially makes it harder for thieves to snatch it out of my hands.

A PopSocket also functions as a handy stand in certain situations, while the magnetic connection ensures the mount has a strong grip on your phone — all without compromising your ability to take it off later.

UGREEN 10,000 mAh Magnetic Power Bank

Apple's MagSafe connection has opened the door for a whole new range of iPhone accessories, all of which take advantage of the magnetic ring hidden in the back of every modern iPhone.

It also means that portable battery packs now include wireless charging. The magnets ensure the battery securely snaps onto the back of your iPhone, and ensures the charging session continues regardless of how much your phone might move.

There are a lot of possible options to choose from, but my personal favorite is the Ugreen Magnetic Power Bank, which offers 10,000 mAh of power and 20W charging speeds. It's not quite enough to recharge your iPhone 17 Pro Max twice, but it'll get you pretty close — and quickly. All without any wires getting in your way.

Anker Nano II GaN 65W charger

Apple doesn't sell phones with charging bricks anymore, which means you need to go out and buy one for yourself. But the good news is that there are affordable options that are far better than anything Apple would freely give away, like this compact 67W charger from Anker.

The Anker Nano II compact charger measures just 1.65 x 1.65 x 1.42 inches and weighs 5.28 ounces. Which is pretty darn small, and is aided by the fact the connection pins fold away for easy storage. In fact I'm pretty envious of this particular design, because electric plugs here in the U.K. have to be way bigger than those across the Atlantic.

Despite the small size, the charger packs a lot of power, thanks to the Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor inside. GaN chargers can handle higher voltages and produce less heat — allowing chargers to be smaller and lighter than they used to be.

Plus, not only is the 65W charging limit enough to charge your iPhone 17 Pro Max at the fastest possible speeds, it's also enough to power other devices — including iPads and MacBooks.

Belkin 2-in-1 Qi2 Foldable Stand

If you need a stand that does more than simply prop up your phone, then I can personally recommend Belkin's foldable 2-in-1 Qi2 wireless charging stand. This stand is compatible with MagSafe and offers up to 15W charging speeds for your iPhone. The magnetic connection also means you can secure your phone in any position you like, including the horizontal view that activates StandBy Mode.

This particular Belkin stand only charges at 15W, which is lower than the 25W speeds the iPhone 17 Pro Max can handle. However it also comes with a charging pad for compatible AirPods, which enables you to charge both devices at the same time.

Plus, since this is Qi2, rather than MagSafe, it's compatible with even more devices — including Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S26 (with a case).

More from Tom's Guide

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• iPhone Ultra or iPhone Fold? Sudden questions emerge over foldable iPhone
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If you've been paying attention to the news, you've probably heard about GrapheneOS. The Android-based mobile OS hit the news a few weeks back over a dispute at the U.S. border, in which a traveller is alleged to have wiped their GrapheneOS-powered phone using a "duress" password — and now faces charges of destroying evidence.

You may have heard about GrapheneOS but never gave it much thought for one reason or another. I know that was the case with me, and while I knew it was based on Android I hadn't ever done much digging into exactly how it differed from the Google-provided Android experience.

But this news got me curious, and I realized that it was about time I got to grips with what Graphene actually has to offer.

What is GrapheneOS?

GrapheneOS is an open source mobile operating system that emphasizes both security and privacy. It's completely free to install, and the project is supported by donations.

The software is built with the Android Open Source Project, and is focused on one of the biggest issues many people have with Google's mobile OS — the fact that it's severely lacking when it comes to protecting user privacy.

GrapheneOS also strips out most Google systems and bloatware, which means you won't set up your phone and find that it's filled with a bunch of apps that you can't remove. The software also features a bunch of dedicated privacy features that you won't find on most Android phones.

GrapheneOS device support: Which phones does it work with?

GrapheneOS is currently only officially compatible with Pixel phones, with the site listing all Google-made phones up to (and including) the Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. The Pixel Tablet is also supported.

The software's official support pages confirm that other devices do support GrapheneOS "at a source level," but without official support it means that more work is needed to actually install the software — which makes everything a lot more complicated.

Earlier this year Motorola confirmed it had partnered with GrapheneOS, with the aim to "strengthen smartphone security and collaborate on future devices engineered with GrapheneOS compatibility. " In other words, future Motorola devices will eventually support GrapheneOS as well. But we don't know which devices will offer it, or when they will be released.

How do you actually install it?

I've never really been one for tinkering with software, and it's never really been something that interested me. I did try my hand at rooting one of my Android phones about ten years ago, to see what I might be missing out on, but never made much progress.

The phones I had at the time came from companies that weren't very big on letting people mess with their phones' software, and trying to root them proved to be a task worthy of Sisyphus himself. Obviously, being the quitter that I am, I gave up and never bothered to try that sort of thing ever again.

That's partly why I never gave GrapheneOS a second thought. I wasn't sure what to expect when I finally decided to try and install it on one of my older phones.

GrapheneOS has a full guide on how to install the software on a compatible phone, and at first glance looks a little intimidating. It has its own table of contents, and that's never something you want to see when you don't really know what you're doing. Fortunately, the whole process is actually pretty simple, and based on my experience it's quite difficult to screw up.

I'll admit that I did screw up a couple of times because I wasn't reading the instructions carefully, and the worst thing that happened was that I had to wait for my phone to restart — at which point I ended up exactly where I left off.

All the actual hard work is done by GrapheneOS's Web Installer, which makes the process more or less idiotproof. Best of all, you don't even need to root your phone.

Reverting back is proving to be a little trickier for me, simply because I couldn't get GrapheneOS's web installer to recognize that my phone is available and needs its bootloader unlocked. That's going to require some troubleshooting on my end.

What is GrapheneOS actually like?

The first thing I noticed about GrapheneOS is just how sparse the software selection actually is from a design point of view. This is a version of Android software that is effectively free of all Google influence, and that means the number of pre-installed apps is at its bare minimum.

After years of using smartphones running Android and iOS, this is actually quite refreshing. It's like finding yourself in a quiet, minimally-furnished room after walking off a crowded city street. The lower emphasis on Google products also makes the setup process a lot smoother, since you don't have to link to Google accounts or deal with setting up features like Gemini.

It's a similar story with the built-in App Store. Since there are no Google apps pre-installed, this is the place that lets you install certain Android features like Android Auto, the Thermometer app (if you have a compatible Pixel) and other app stores — including Google Play. There are only 14 apps available, and anything else you need has to be acquired from a different source.

The distinct lack of color when GrapheneOS loads up for the first time is rather jarring, if I'm being totally honest. But that's a non-issue that quickly solves itself once you actually start using the phone.

If you're familiar with stock Android or Google's Pixel Launcher skin, then GrapheneOS isn't going to be that much of a surprise. The developers haven't taken many, if any, liberties with the general feel of the software. This means navigating and accessing the various settings menus is pretty simple, and doesn't require having to relearn where everything is. You can't say that for other smartphone brands.

It's not exactly the same under the hood, though, and there are some extra optional features that are designed for security and privacy reasons. This includes the duress password, PIN scrambling, and a bunch more things I don't have room to list here. There's a lot to come to grips with, and so far I haven't actually made a huge dent.

Sadly, there is one catch I've found so far, and that's the fact my phone always warns me that I'm loading up a different operating system. It doesn't require you to confirm you want this to happen, but it is a little annoying that you don't seem to be able to switch this off.

The Google Play conundrum

You may wonder what the point of having GrapheneOS is if you're just going to install Google Play? The sad thing about Android is that some apps won't work without Google Play Services installed, which means sideloading or using a third-party app store won't work.

Banking apps are the one that caught me off guard, and it meant that I would either have to rely on browser-based banking (which is not ideal) or bite the bullet and install Google Play.

Thankfully, GrapheneOS does have a compromise, and sandboxes Google Play Services so that it doesn't have the same level of privileged access you'll see with a typical Android OS. This effectively means you can still enjoy access to apps that are only compatible with Google Play, but without handing over unfiltered access to the software.

As this thread on Reddit put it, the idea behind Graphene isn't to deGoogle. The software comes with a Chromium-based browser after all, albeit with more security-focused features than the stock Chrome app. You can deGoogle if you like, but that's not something that is forced upon you.

Sideloading is possible, since Graphene is an Android-based operating system, but it's up to you to decide which app-installation option is the right one for you.

Bottom line

The switch over to GrapheneOS wasn't as drastic as I expected it would be. Not only was the installation an absolute cinch, the fact it looks and feels so close to stock Android means that there isn't much of a learning curve when it comes to getting started. All you really need to do is figure out where all the extra privacy and security features are.

The switch rom Google services is certainly very appealing. While I wouldn't go completely cold turkey (I need my banking apps), the fact that Google Play is available in a sandbox means that you don't appear to be missing out on much by ditching the Pixels' particular brand of Android. It's rather like having the most important parts of the Android ecosystem, but without compromising your own personal privacy in the process.

Switching back to the Pixel's Android OS has proved a little difficult, and I'm not entirely sure where the problem lies. So for now, I recommend that anyone hoping to try GrapheneOS for themselves either knows more than I do about installing Android software, or tests it out on an older device first to make sure they like it.

More from Tom's Guide

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• iOS 27 brings 5-star ratings to Photos — here is how to use them
• I've been using Pixel phones for the past 5 years, but the lack of Pixel 11 upgrades is indefensible

I've been using Pixel phones for the past five years now, starting with the Pixel 6 Pro. Over the years I have learned to live with the various disappointments that come with Pixel hardware, for the simple fact that Pixel software is the only mainstream mobile OS that I actually like using. But it's getting to the stage where Google's decisions are becoming indefensible.

Google just had its annual "Made by Google" event, and with it came the official launch of the Pixel 11 series of phones — plus a new Pixel 5 watch and a Pixel Tag Bluetooth tracker. I haven't spent a lot of time with the new Pixels yet, but my overall impression based on what Google has revealed is that it's an incredibly lazy upgrade.

It's not as lazy as the Pixel 10a, which was easily one of the worst "upgrades" I've seen a phone company try and hawk throughout my career. But it isn't far off, and it's enough to make you wonder why Google is still bothering to make phones.

The Pixel 11 problem

If you look at the Pixel 11 series and compare it to what's come before, you'll notice that there isn't a whole lot of difference between them all. I'm not just talking about the design, which has only had minor tweaks to the camera bar and, in the case of the Pro models, a new scratch-resistant coating on the display.

The hardware is more or less the same on paper, and the upgrades that we do get feel like the absolute bare minimum of what Google could actually offer. There's the usual incremental stuff, like the Tensor G6, and the brighter Super Actua Displays, alongside small quality of life upgrades like 256GB of base storage and faster 25W wireless charging speeds.

Those last two were also found on the Pixel 10 Pro XL last year, which means that the largest Pixel 11 model really got the short end of the stick when it comes to new stuff.

Pixel 11: Where are the big camera upgrades?

I have very mixed feelings about the camera, because at first glance it seems as though things are identical to the Pixel 10 Pro. That's not entirely true, but considering the Pixel 10 Pro's cameras were the same as the Pixel 9 Pro's, and produced photos that were indistinguishable, the lack of new hardware is still rather disappointing.

The Pros' main lens is the same, though the official specs show that the ultrawide and telephoto lenses both have larger sensors. This means both lenses will capture extra light, which improves low-light performance and captures much cleaner images in a variety of conditions.

The Pixel 11 also promises to have a larger sensor on the main lens, though the rest of the cameras don't seem to have changed.

To make matters worse, the cheapest Pro models, which have 256GB of storage, have actually had a RAM downgrade. Considering RAM is essential for on-device AI, the loss of 4GB is just another proverbial kick in the head.

I don't imagine that the Pixel 11 will be a bad phone, but there's nothing really exciting about these devices. In fact, the upgrades we do have here feel as though Google is phoning it in because they have to release something.

Obviously, things might change once we can test the Pixel 11 and find out whether it's had a magical boost to performance or battery life. But until then it feels as though everything has been put together with cool disinterest, if not active laziness.

It feels like Google is getting lazy

There's far more to a new phone than having a bunch of flashy hardware, and you can't have incredible game-changing upgrades every single year. But it still feels as though the Pixel 11 series lacks the thing that would actually make the phone appealing to people. Because the Pixel 11 Pro's HiLight feature sure as heck doesn't make me want to drop over a grand on a new device.

The Pixel 11 isn't nearly as lazy as the Pixel 10a, which was left with the same Tensor G4 chipset as the Pixel 9a. Back in February, I claimed that there was no good reason to buy a Pixel 10a, at least not while the Pixel 9a was still on sale, and I stand by that assessment.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that the Pixel 11 is a pointless upgrade. It's certainly uninspiring and lacking in any exciting qualities. Even the new AI features, which Google has spent a great deal of time and money pushing with each successive Pixel launch, are rather disappointing this year. Not in terms of what they can do, but because there are so few of them this year.

Rambler sounds great, especially since Apple's own AI-powered dictation model is coming as part of iOS 27, and real-time speech-to-speech translation will never not be useful. Gemini Omni is not something I personally care about, but if it improves the quality of Gemini's generative capabilities and makes them easier to use then I can certainly see the importance of it. Similarly, 120x Super Pro-Res Zoom is a nice upgrade to the existing 100x zooming capabilities

But that's all there is, and like the hardware side of things it feels like Google just does not care about what the Pixel 11 series has to offer on the software side. The same is true for Android 17, come to think of it, and off the top of my head I can't recall anything particularly noteworthy in the update. I certainly didn't notice any change when my phone auto-updated during the middle of the night.

Figuring out a way to make people care about your next wave of devices, and the software running on it, is the end goal. But first Google needs to get off its behind and actually put the effort in.

Bottom line

The question I keep asking myself is this: Why should anyone go out and buy one of these phones? And honestly, I'm really struggling to come up with a solid answer. People that are still rocking older Pixels, such as a Pixel 6 or Pixel 7, would probably gain a lot here — especially if battery life is anything like the Pixel 10 series.

Pixel 8 would be borderline, but Pixel 9 and above? These phones haven't actually changed that much over the past two generations to warrant upgrading. Your best argument would be for non-users, since the standard Pixel 9 only offers two cameras, but even then you have to ask whether the money you're spending is worth it.

Last year I admitted that swapping a Pixel 9 Pro for a Pixel 10 Pro was a mistake, and the new phone didn't offer enough to make the switch worthwhile. The Pixel 11 Pro takes that to a whole new level, and I know for a fact that my Pixel 10 Pro is more than good enough to last me until the launch of the Pixel 12 Pro next year — and likely beyond that.

If Pixel phones are supposed to be the idealized version of what an Android phone can be, then Google seems to be doing a pretty shoddy job of it. And it could fix that problem by actually making a phone that elicits a response beyond "huh, ok then."

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Google released Gemini 3.7 Flash Thursday and it's already calling it the company's most intelligent “workhorse” model yet. Naturally, I decided to give it an enormous job.

Rather than testing the new model with trivia questions or a collection of small prompts, I wanted to see what it could do with the kind of task I routinely put off: organizing my life.

Between work, school messages, appointments, bills, forms and managing my family of five, important information is scattered across my Gmail and Google Drive. I may remember that someone sent me something, but not whether it arrived as an email, a PDF or a document someone shared weeks ago.

That made it an ideal test for Gemini Spark, Google’s personal AI agent for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. Spark now runs on Gemini 3.7 Flash, giving regular users one of the first ways to experience the new model.

Google says the upgrade makes Spark better at using Workspace tools and completing complicated jobs that involve several different skills. It can consolidate files, draft emails and update status documents, all while working toward a larger goal.

So I gave it one monster prompt and asked it to find everything that might need my attention over the next 30 days.

The epic Gemini prompt I tried

Here is the complete prompt: Act as my personal life-admin assistant for the next 30 days. Search my Gmail and Google Drive for messages, documents and forms from the past 30 days that contain an upcoming deadline, appointment, payment, event, form, reservation, purchase, school obligation or task I may need to complete.

Before taking action, create a master list organized by date. For each item, include what needs to happen, the deadline or event date, who it involves, where you found the information with a link to the original email or file, whether the task is confirmed, unclear or possibly outdated, and the next action I need to take.

Look for conflicts, duplicate information, missing forms and messages I may have forgotten to answer. If two sources disagree, show me both versions instead of deciding which one is correct.

Then create a realistic plan for completing everything. Group tasks that can be handled together, prioritize anything urgent and avoid scheduling more than three substantial tasks on the same day.

Draft any necessary replies, follow-up messages or questions, but do not send them. Suggest calendar events and reminders, but show them to me before adding anything. Do not delete, move or change any existing emails or files.

Finish with a short section titled “What needs my attention first” containing the five most urgent items. Clearly tell me if you could not access something or if any conclusion is based on an assumption.

Why this prompt is my favorite one yet

This prompt is incredibly long, so if you are going to use it, just copy and paste it directly into Gemini 3.7 Flash. It's long because it tackles a lot, and every part has a job. As much as I wish I could simply tell Gemini to “organize my life” and hope it understood what that meant, AI just isn't there yet (thank goodness!).

I told it where to search, which information to extract and how to organize the results. I also gave it clear boundaries. It could draft messages and suggest reminders, but it couldn’t send, change or delete anything without my approval.

Gemini found important messages that I completely missed

Gemini worked quickly but slow enough that I knew it wasn't skipping any details. It searched Gmail, reviewed Drive files and even asked for clarification (I have two email addresses; one for work and one for my personal life, so it was quick to ask if I wanted to check both.

Eventually, it found several items that required action over the next month. These included permission slips for my son's middle school computer use and my kindergartener's food allergy form. It also discovered updated insurance information and a charge for an app that I no longer use.

The biggest discovery was that I had completely forgotten to switch my expired credit card over and was getting notices that well, I hadn't noticed. This could have been a delayed payment nightmare for my phone and cable bills.

For each response, Gemini traced back to the original email or document so I could personally read it and make a note of it.

Gemini turned chaos into a plan

The prompt fills an immediate purpose. It wasn't just Gemini rearranging information I had already handed to it, rather it found finding something useful inside accounts I no longer had the time or patience to search manually.

Gemini linked back to every source, which made checking its work much easier. Instead of trusting an AI summary, I could actually open the original message and confirm the date, amount or requirement myself.

Although I wrote this prompt with high hopes, it worked even better than expected. It was so helpful and I can already see the improvements Google has made to this lightweight model.

For example, I had missed a Popsicle Social that's coming up for my five-year-old, not only did Gemini show me that I hadn't responded, but it responded for me and added it to my calendar. I know my kiddo would have been really disappointed had he missed that event, so not only did this prompt save me from missing the event, but a possible tantrum, too (if you know, you know).

Gemini 3.7 Flash stayed on track — mostly

This prompt proves that Gemini 3.7 Flash is ready to take on heavy-duty assignments. Keep in mind that it may not work for your corporate email if you have not given Gemini access. You may need to talk to your administrator if it doesn't work the first time.

Gemini 3.7 Flash handled constraints like a pro and even processed messages and files for me. This is important because AI assistants frequently follow the beginning of a prompt but have trouble or drop requirements completely near the end.

I did notice that the AI is still not perfect. Gemini avoided emails that it should have sorted and missed some Google doc files because they were unnamed, but overall it followed through.

Gemini 3.7 Flash is designed to put more effort into multi-step planning and tool calls. Google says the model follows instructions more closely and is better at adjusting when it encounters a roadblock.

The takeaway

My prompt makes use of Gemini's unique abilities. It can search two Workspace services, understand different kinds of messages and documents, extract exact dates, spot contradictions and turn the results into a realistic plan. It then prepared follow-up actions without crossing the line and taking them without permission.

The prompt also makes Gemini show its work. Requiring links to original files, confidence labels and clear disclosures of any assumptions makes its findings easier to verify.

You can change the search window or categories to fit your own life. If you are planning a trip, ask Gemini to focus on reservations, confirmations and payments. Parents could prioritize school notices like I've done, including forms and activities, while freelancers might search for invoices, assignments and unanswered client messages.

After using Gemini 3.1 Flash with this prompt, I can see why Google describes its newest model as a workhorse. Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments

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There are two types of rumors in the run-up to device launches like the new Pixel 11 series. One kind of rumor includes annual claims that some feature will finally make its debut, like the constant claim that Apple will drop the current Face ID for under-display tech.

The other type is more specific to the device and tends to be correct, more often than not. However, sometimes they're wrong.

It was rumored that the new Tensor G6 silicon in the new Pixel 11 series would be made using TSMC's 2nm process, the first smartphone that would feature the more efficient CPU platform. This would have beat Apple to the punch, which typically gets the latest chip upgrades.

But it turns out that isn't true.

In an interview with the Chinese publication CNA, Peng Yu-chun, a VP of Hardware at Google, revealed that the G6 was built using TSMC's 3nm process.

That means that either the iPhone 18 Pro series will likely be the first smartphone to feature a 2nm chip.

What does Tensor G6 offer?

Despite not featuring the 2nm platform, Google claims the G6 has several upgrades.

That includes "25% faster web browsing, 15% quicker app launches" and 50% more TPU compute. It does feature an upgraded Titan M3 security chip, which was previously rumored and should make the phone more secure.

The chip also enables an upgrade Image Signal Processor to support the new Night Sight and a claimed upgraded digital zoom.

A worrying weakness

There was some excitement about a 2nm process because it would have been able to feature more nodes and deliver efficiency and power upgrades.

Pixels have long lagged behind Apple and Samsung's flagship phones. Unfortunately, that may continue. Just before yesterday's Made by Google event, a new Geekbench listing popped up that revealed a weak CPU. That listing showed a multicore score of 5,196 and a single-core score of 2,112. It's 50% slower than the S26 Ultra.

At Tom's Guide, we run our own tests; we'll see if the listing is an outlier or not. But at first blush, things aren't looking good.

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Google has officially revealed the Pixel 11 series, and pre-orders are now open ahead of an official release date of August 20. The four new phones don't offer amazing upgrades compared to the Pixel 10 series, but there's enough that some of you are probably prepping to pre-order this phone as soon as you can. I'm here to tell you why you shouldn't do that.

The thing about Pixel phones is that they're like video games. You could buy them as soon as they're released, and pay full price to experience them right away, but you're just spending money that could be better used for other things. And it all comes down to the fact Pixel phones are essentially the mattresses of the smartphone world.

Considering how often, and how quickly the newest Pixel phones go on sale, paying full price is essentially agreeing to be ripped off.

Pixel discounts happen regularly, and quickly

Imagine you're looking at a new phone that's just been released. The $900 price tag is a little expensive for your tastes, but you know that waiting for a major discount is a fool's errand. Maybe you'll be able to save a bit of money during the next sales event, like Black Friday or Prime Day, but there's never any guarantee that it'll actually happen — or how much money you might save.

For the last few years I've noticed that this isn't the case with Pixel phones. In fact, sometimes the discounts can start coming within a few weeks of the phone actually going on sale. If you're willing to wait for the Fall Prime Day sale, or the Black Friday season, you could be looking at a pretty hefty discount.

Admittedly I am making an assumption about what the future holds for the Pixel 11 series. I don't have a crystal ball or magic powers that let me see into the future. But this is not the first time I've noticed this trend, and I would be very surprised if the Pixel 11 broke rank.

Pixel 10 discounts we spotted last year

The first Pixel 10 discount we spotted was at the start of September 2025, during Amazon's Labor Day sales. The phone didn't get any discounts, per se, but buying one did net you a free $200 Amazon gift card. While it's not the same as cold-hard cash, Amazon's ubiquity means that this is almost as good as getting $200 off your total.

I should mention at this point that the Pixel 10 was released on August 28, with pre-orders opening eight days earlier on August 20. This means the first Pixel 10 retailer deal happened just four days after release day.

The first actual discount happened in early October, during Amazon's fall Prime Day, with the $799 price tag dropping to $649. That's just on Amazon too, and further price drops did happen elsewhere — including Mint Mobile who started selling the Pixel 10 for $549 around the same time.

Further discounts towards the end of the last year eventually saw that price matched at Amazon, with occasional discounts to that same price happening in the early months of 2026

Price trackers show similar trends with the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL — though the larger phone's discounts are a little more erratic. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold took longer to go on sale, and didn't get any meaningful discount until November, with the likes of Amazon, Google and Best Buy all knocking $300 off.

This trend isn't exclusive to Pixel 10 either

The quick discount situation is an ongoing trend for Pixel phones and it is pretty common to see those prices dropping within a couple of months of release date.

Pixel 9 prices first dropped in October 2024, following the late August launch, though the price tracker does seem to have more ups and downs than a rollercoaster during the later months of 2024.

We saw the price drop as low as $548 during that year's Black Friday sales, though prices seemingly stabilized until before the Pixel 10 launch — after which they started to dip even further and more frequently.

Things never seem to get quite as low as the Pixel 8, which has been spotted for as low as $399. However, that low price happened in February 2025, almost a year and a half after it was first released.

I don't think waiting that long is worth it, but the price trackers do show the first dips in price happening around the Black Friday and holiday shopping seasons — occurring less than 2 months after the phone's October 2023 release.

The Pixel 7 followed a similar trend, eventually tapering out at around $449 almost a year after its initial release.

Though going back, it seems the Pixel 6 wasn't quite so quick to drop in price, and the price trackers don't have a lot of information from that far back. But considering the Pixel 6 started at $599, there wasn't a lot of room for price cuts until much later in its life cycle.

Regardless, we've seen that the last four generations of Pixel phones have enjoyed generous discounts very soon after release. Which tells me that we should certainly wait and see whether the Pixel 11 follows the same trend — because odds are that it will.

The Pixel 10 might be the better option right now

Saving money is all well and good, but there is one more question you need to ask yourself before you pick up a Pixel 11 series phone. And that is, "would you be just as happy with a Pixel 10 instead?"

Not only are Pixel 10 series phones cheaper than their Pixel 11-series counterparts, the differences between them aren't actually that extreme. Whether you're looking at the standard model or the Pixel 11 Pro XL, you're not getting a lot of upgrades.

There's a new modem, 256GB of base storage, faster wireless charging (25W vs 15W) and the Tensor G6 chipset. There's also a smaller battery, which doesn't fill me with much confidence.

The difference on the Pixel 11 Pro XL is even worse, since the 10 Pro XL already came with 25W wireless charging and 256GB of storage as standard. It apparently charges a little faster, gaining an extra 5% battery in half an hour, but that's the only extra upgrade it has compared to the smaller 11 Pro.

Admittedly we haven't done any lab testing with the Pixel 11 series yet, so we don't know how much of a change there is in terms of performance and battery life. So our opinion on the Pixel 11 upgrades may change later.

It's also worth noting that the Pro models also suffer from reduced RAM on their cheapest option, with 12GB of memory on models with 256GB of RAM. Meanwhile 16GB was standard on all Pixel 10 Pro and XL variants, including 128GB and 256GB storage variants.

Considering additional RAM is essential for on-device AI features, this actually puts the cheapest Pixel 10 Pro models at an advantage compared to their successors.

You can pick up a Pixel 11 Pro or Pro XL with 16GB of RAM, but you'll need to pay out for the higher 512GB and 1TB storage variants. That'll cost you an extra $120 for 512GB or $350 for 1TB. All while the equivalent Pixel 10s are available with heavy discounts, even if that means you need to pick up a refurbished model.

Bottom line: It all comes down to pre-order bonuses

The one thing that may affect your decision to pre-order or wait are the pre-order bonuses that are on offer. Google is offering increased trade-in credit during the pre-order window, gift cards with each new phone sold and discounts on the Pixel Watch 5. However the amount you get will vary depending on the device you buy and what you trade-in, and different retailers may have their own promotions in mind.

Pro buyers get up to $600 trade-in credit, a $200 gift card and $250 off a Pixel Watch 5. Meanwhile Pixel 11 owners are restricted to $500 trade-in credit, a $100 card and $130 off the Watch 5. This could be enough to sway you into buying, especially if you were planning on buying a Pixel Watch 5 and other Google accessories anyway.

But if all you're interested in is the new phone, then you are better off waiting. A little bit of patience could save you a few hundred dollars compared to buying the phone outright, especially if you weren't planning on trading in your old device — or it's in such bad condition you wouldn't get much for it. Because, odds are, in a couple of months we'll have seen the first Pixel 11 deals already, and you might be kicking yourself for paying the newly released prices right away.

And if the prices somehow don't go down in the next few months, it's not like you lost out on anything by waiting.

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Google’s latest hardware drop has officially arrived and, just like last year, consists of a trio of flagship models: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, and Pixel 11 Pro XL. They all pack upgrades over their predecessors, including a first for the series: a Tensor G6 chip built on a new 2-nanometer manufacturing process.

That’s not all they share, either, because they all come with built-in Pixelsnap magnetic wireless charging, refreshed IP68 dust and water resistance, and a suite of new AI features. Then there’s the matter of their pricing, with each model seeing a $100 price bump — which at this point is inevitable with most gadgets.

I spent solid hands-on time checking out the trio, so I’ll tell you exactly what the base Pixel 11 lacks compared to the Pros. While the Pixel 10 emerged as my recommendation last year, you might be surprised by which one gets my vote this time around.

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Specifications

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Price and availability

Yes, there’s a $100 price hike across all three models. That brings the starting price of the Pixel 11 to $899, while the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL go for $1,099 and $1,299, respectively.

Meanwhile, Australian pricing for Google's new lineup starts at AU$1,499 for the Pixel 11, AU$1,849 for the Pixel 11 Pro and AU$2,099 for the Pixel 11 Pro XL. That works out to starting price increases of between AU$100-AU$200 depending on model.

While the price increase isn't surprising at this point, the Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro do see their base storage upgraded to 256GB. Unfortunately, the Pixel 11 Pro XL doesn’t get the same upgrade boost, remaining at 256GB just as before. Preorders are live now, with all three officially hitting shelves on August 20.

Personally, I’m drawn more to the standard Pixel 11 colors because they’re much bolder and richer compared to the muted colorways of the Pro models. If I had to choose, Hibiscus is easily the standout option on the Pixel 11.

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Design

While all three phones sport the same signature look that made the previous lineup distinctive, I wouldn’t say there’s anything too different this time around apart from their colorways. Well, the Pixel 11’s camera cutout actually gets trimmed down by 40% — so when it’s paired with one of the new cases, the entire backside remains perfectly flat. The same can’t be said for the Pros, as their camera compartments still stick out.

The one big design addition on the Pros is the introduction of the HiLight LED on the back, which acts as a notification system for your contacts. Depending on who calls, you can set custom colors to coordinate with specific callers. It’ll also activate when you initiate Gemini, so you know it’s listening to your voice command.

It’s certainly a fresh hardware feature that’s great for quick glances when the phone is face down, but I feel it’s a bit gimmicky. At the same time, it doesn’t yet work with things outside of phone calls — like new text message notifications. I’m still a bit confused about why it’s here, especially when it doesn’t feel fully integrated into the experience.

Despite this, I’ll admit that all three devices feel superb in the hand. The Pixel 11 opts for a polished glass back matched with a satin aluminum frame, while the Pros have a matte glass back paired with a polished frame. However, the Obsidian colorway on the Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL features a matte frame. Not only do they look premium, but they’re also plenty durable thanks to their drop resistance and IP68 ratings for dust and water protection.

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Display

Taking a look at the specs, there doesn’t appear to be much change to their displays. The Pixel 11 packs the same 6.3-inch Actua display as before and delivers the punchy visuals that make it ideal for watching videos.

Similarly, the Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL feature the same 6.3-inch and 6.8-inch Super Actua displays — which Google rates as its brightest ever at 3,600 nits, besting the previous year’s rating. It was hard to discern much of a difference when I loaded up the same HDR videos on YouTube, but I will admit that they’re gorgeous with their vibrant colors, wide viewing angles, and deep, pitch-black contrast.

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Cameras

Just because the camera specs don’t look like a complete overhaul, you shouldn’t dismiss what Google is offering in its new Pixels. For starters, the Pixel 11 features a larger sensor on its main camera — which reportedly offers a 56% improvement in light sensitivity. This should make a substantial difference in action and low-light situations by capturing more light in the same amount of time. If that’s not enough, the 10.8MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom can now shoot even farther with support for up to 30x Super Zoom.

Meanwhile, the Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL get a new main camera sensor as well, while their 48MP telephoto shooter gets a larger sensor with 32% better light gathering, support for 5x Portrait Mode, and even farther reach with an updated 120x Pro Zoom. I got a demo of the latter with an Android figurine hidden across the room, resulting in a crisp shot that almost looked like I took it up close.

And since they’re powered by the new Tensor G6 chip, it unlocks even more powerful creative tools for serious shooters. Camera Looks are available to get your photo looking distinct right at the point of capture. Unlike standard photos that get processed after you press the shutter, Camera Looks preserve a specific look based on the aesthetic you choose. It sort of reminds me of LUTs (lookup tables) that color grade footage, and it can definitely elevate your photos.

The other intriguing feature powered by the Tensor G6 is Magic Capture. It’s a camera mode that intelligently analyzes frames to pull out high-quality still photos while recording video. It looked pretty impressive during a demo I saw of a pair of ballet dancers, delivering picture-perfect moments with clear facial expressions and great poses.

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Performance

Powered by the new Google Tensor G6, every device in the Pixel 11 family feels snappy out of the gate. That’s crucial given how previous Tensor silicon has lagged behind competing flagship chips, making this year’s hardware a key proving ground.

Google claims the Tensor G6 boosts web browsing speeds by 25%, app launch times by 15%, and on-device AI execution by an impressive 3.5x. While it's impossible to fully evaluate those benchmarks during my quick preview, all three phones felt exceptionally fast and responsive in hand — including how fast it processed videos with Magic Capture to find those perfect snapshots at full resolution.

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Battery and charging

Strangely enough, the Pixel 11 is the only model to gain a larger battery than its predecessor — packing a 4,985 mAh capacity. I suspect it’ll yield a noticeable improvement in endurance simply due to that larger capacity combined with its smaller screen and the power efficiency of the Tensor G6.

Conversely, the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL actually feature slightly smaller capacities, coming in at 4,850 mAh and 5,115 mAh, respectively. Again, I think the reasoning here is that Google feels confident in the efficiency gains of its new silicon.

Even though the Pixel 11 Pro XL doesn’t gain any charging speed upgrades, its 45W wired and 25W Qi2.2 wireless charging speeds are still solid by today’s standards. I’m happy to report, though, that the Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro are now treated to the same 25W Qi2.2 wireless charging speed as their top-tier sibling.

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Software and AI

Shipping with Android 17 right out of the box, Google’s latest hardware puts Gemini Intelligence front and center. Powered by the Tensor G6 chip, on-device AI tasks process up to 3.5 times faster while using significantly less power.

Beyond context-aware cards across your apps and proactive lock screen insights, one standout addition in Android 17 that I found especially superb in action is Rambler — a new Gemini-powered voice input feature in Gboard built for the way people actually speak. Instead of forcing you to speak without any mistakes, Rambler automatically filters out filler words like "um" and "ah," transforming your scattered dictations into clean, concise text on the fly.

Media creation and global communication get a massive boost, too. Android 17 taps into Gemini Omni, Google’s generative model that makes creating and editing video through natural conversation as seamless as editing a photo. I tried this out on an existing video by asking Gemini to swap out the logo of a bear for a chrome-looking pizza slice — and it did exactly that with impressive accuracy.

Meanwhile, Live Translate offers real-time, speech-to-speech translation that automatically dubs foreign-language videos, podcasts, and audio content directly into your preferred language. Google has focused heavily on AI over its last few generations, and this year’s suite convinces me that these are still the best AI phones on the market.

Pixel 11 vs. Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 11 Pro XL: Outlook

After getting hands-on time with all three, the Pixel 11 Pro emerges as my top recommendation because it strikes the ultimate sweet spot in Google's lineup. It offers the exact same flagship camera array as the Pixel 11 Pro XL (including 120x Pro Zoom and the upgraded main sensor), the brilliant 3,600-nit display, the ambient HiLight rear LED, and Google's full suite of Gemini AI capabilities.

On top of that, it gains faster 25W Qi2.2 wireless charging and double the starting storage at 256GB — all for $200 less than the XL. For most buyers, the standard Pro easily delivers the best value. Of course, my final verdict could shift once they're put through our rigorous lab testing, but for now, the Pixel 11 Pro leads the pack.

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It’s easy to write off the Pixel 11 Pro Fold when Samsung has the shiny new wide Fold 8. But Google’s new foldable phone is more of a direct competitor to the Fold 8 Ultra. It’s for people who actually want bigger and taller displays.

And you could argue that the Pixel 11 Pro Fold ($1,899 / AU$2,799) is an even better value. It’s not just $200 cheaper than the Ultra. It has a brighter display, better durability and even smarter AI features.

I went hands on with the new Pixel 11 Pro Fold and came away pretty impressed with its upgrades — with the exception of the gimmicky HiLight. Here’s how it stacks up.

Pixel 11 Pro Fold specs

Price and release date: $100 Hike

At $1,899 / AU$2,799, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is $100 more than its predecessor and the same exact price as the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Pre-orders are available now and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold release date is August 20.

Design: Tough and comfy, but still kinda bulky

Right off the bat, I prefer the Pixel 11 Pro Fold to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra because its front 6.5-inch screen is less squished. There’s more room for typing and your apps, thanks in part to Google slimming down the bezels.

I also appreciate the rounded corners on this design. They dig into your hands less than the Fold 8 Ultra's pointy corners.

Pick these phones up though and you’ll immediately notice Samsung’s portability and thinness advantage. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a hefty 8.4 ounces and measures 5mm thick when open and 10.1mm when closed. That’s a definitive improvement over the Pixel 10 Pro Fold (9.1 ounces, 5.2mm/10.8mm), but the Fold 8 Ultra is still the featherweight champ of big screen foldables.

What Google gives you is more durability. Not only is this phone IP68 rated against water and dust — it’s just water for Samsung — Google gave the back a glass composite back that’s shatterproof.

The color options are Obsidian and Olive and the latter is the one I’d get because it’s a lot more fun.

HiLight (or LowLight?)

I can’t quite make up my mind if this feature is cool or just gimmicky but right now I’m thinking more of the latter.

HiLight is colorful LED on the back of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold that can glow different colors you set based on who’s calling. So if your phone is face down you can tell right away who’s on the other end.

The HiLight can also animate when you’re chatting with Gemini Live, which I guess is cool but not really necessary.

Displays: Brightest ever

Google’s foldable has a more noticeable crease than Samsung, but both the main and cover display are super bright. We’re talking 3,600 nits for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, compared to 3,000 for the Fold 8 Ultra.

And, I noticed the difference when I put both phones side by side, both set to max brightness. The black bars are very much there when watching YouTube, but I like how you can pop comments in on the right side while watching YouTube Shorts.

The Pixel Pro Fold also has a laptop mode that puts the content up and controls on the bottom, similar to the Flex Mode on the Fold 8 Ultra.

Multitasking: Bubbles everywhere!

While the Pixel 11 Pro Fold limits you to two open apps side by side, compared to three for Samsung, Google has a new trick up its sleeve.

You can turn apps into a floating window called bubbles and place them anywhere around the screen. And it’s simple to add more apps to your bubble and toggle between them.

Cameras: More light, more 'magic'

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold packs a triple rear camera system that starts with a 48MP wide sensor that lets in 58% more light.

In my very brief testing the Pixel 11 Pro Fold captured sharp and bright images, but this was under pretty ideal conditions.

You also get a 10.5MP ultra wide camera and a 10.8MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom, compared to just 3x for the Fold 8 Ultra.

The selfie cameras are limited to 10MP, but you can always take rear camera selfies by flipped the front display around for maximum resolution.

The coolest camera feature on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is Magic Capture. Enter this special mode and press the shutter button, and the Pixel 11 Pro will automatically start shooting both photos and videos, picking out what it thinks are the best moments. Google had a couple of dancers for our demo and Magic Capture seemed to work pretty well.

Another nifty feature is Creative Studio, which you can use to record videos complete with a built-in teleprompter, sound level controls and more.

AI: Getting Pro-active

This is a Pixel phone so you know the 11 Pro Fold is going to have a boatload of AI features. But there’s a handful of useful ones that you won’t find on the Fold 8 Ultra.

Gemini Spark can perform tasks on your behalf in the background while you do other stuff. For example, you can ask Gemini to summarize emails related to your party RSVPs and have it create a spreadsheet of everyone’s dietary preferences.

Speech recognition also gets a boost with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold thanks to Rambler. You can say all the “uhs” and “ums” you want and this Foldable will edit them out on the fly.

Gemini’s Proactive Intelligent Suggestions builds on the hit-or-miss Magic Cue from previous Pixel phones, surfacing the right info just when you need it. For example, if someone asks if you’re available on a certain day and time, you’ll see a prompt for previewing your calendar — without having to leave the app.

This works for everything from being able to preview flight info to peeking at a restaurant. You can even book a table from within your messages with the tap of a button.

Performance and Battery: Breaking the 2nm barrier

The Pixel 11 Pro packs a new Tensor G6 chip that is among the first in the world built on a 2nm process. And that means you should expect a speed boost along with longer battery life — even with a smaller battery than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

For example, Google promises an Instant Night Sight feature for taking low-light photos with virtually no processing time. But we’ll have to test this out to see how it works.

And with a much faster TPU on board, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold should be able to perform on-device AI tasks much faster than before.

The 4,806 mAh battery inside the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is smaller than the 5,000 mAh battery for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, but Google is still promising up to 24 hours of battery life. That’s because the G6 chip is designed to be 20% more efficient.

However, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 5,015 mAh battery with newer silicon carbon tech, while the Pixel Fold is still stuck on Lithium Ion, so we’ll have to see which foldable lasts longer.

When it comes to wireless charging, Google has an advantage because it has Qi2 magnets built into the phone. With Samsung you have to buy a case.

Outlook

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a much improved foldable phone. It’s lighter, thinner, tougher and faster. Plus, it has a longer zoom than the Z Fold 8 Ultra, a wider front display and — eureka! — you can actually take it to the beach.

Add in the brighter screens and shatterproof back and you have some pretty solid reasons for picking the Pixel 11 Pro Fold over Samsung.

On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is noticeably thinner and lighter; it has a less visible crease; and it packs sharper main and ultrawide cameras. Plus, you have the ability to run three apps at once.

I don’t see the HiLight feature being all that useful on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. More practical to me are Gemini proactive suggestions, as well as camera features like Magic Capture.

Overall, I’d be pretty torn between the Pixel 11 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. But I’ll have to do some in-depth testing to see which one I’d buy with my own money. Stay tuned for my full review.

Google is launching the new Pixel 11 series at its Made by Google event today. Unfortunately, the Pixel 11 Pro XL just popped up on Geekbench, revealing a phone that might not be able to keep up with the competition.

With the caveat that Geekbench listings can be faked, this doesn't look good.

We've seen one Geekbench listing for the Pixl 11 Pro XL, which reveals the new Tensor G6 chipset. The tested G6 has 7 cores with 16GB of RAM and appears to be running Android 17 out of the box.

If you're unfamiliar with Geekbench, the test utilizes several tests to see how a CPU in a phone handles certain tasks. Single-core refers to how one core (or "mini-brain") handles a single task, like, say, photo editing. Multicore refers to how all the cores handle multitasking, such as running several open apps at once or gaming.

Here's how the Pixel 11 Pro XL compares to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and the iPhone 17 Pro.

Here's another caveat, though: Geekbench changed to its 7.0 version recently, which updates the hardware that the test uses to compare. Across the board, scores are lower in version 7 compared to the ones in version 6. So there's not a ton of data yet.

We ran Geekbench 7 just today on the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra to get the above scores.

In single-core, the Pixel 11 Pro XL is weaker by 29% (iPhone) and 39% (Galaxy), but not so much worse that it isn't similar to previous years.

However, multicore is where things get worrying. The Pixel is 39% slower than the iPhone 17 Pro 17 and 49% slower than the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Notably, Pixel phones have tended to be slower than Apple and Samsung for years. However, Google is supposed to be catching up with new Tensor chips built on TSMC's more advanced 2nm process.

That process is supposed to bring a performance and efficiency boost. Last year's Tensor G5 was built on the TSMC 3nm process, the same platform used by chips like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Apple's A19 Pro.

Tom's Guide will be on hand at the Made by Google event tomorrow and once we have the phones in hand, we'll run the Pixel 11 Pro XL through our own battery of tests. Hopefully, this lone test proves to be the outlier and not the standard.

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• Made by Google event — how to watch and what to expect
• iPhone Ultra and iPhone 18 Pro pre-order date just tipped — here's when you can get yours

If you tried to Google something recently and felt as if things looked a little different, it's not just your imagination.

Some users are seeing a redesigned Google homepage that removes the familiar Google Search button and replaces it with shortcuts for AI Mode, Create images, Ask about files and Brainstorm.

It’s only a test for now, but it’s hard to ignore what Google is putting in the Search button’s place. I've been writing about AI replacing the internet as we know it for the past several months.

For more than 25 years, Google’s homepage has barely changed. You type something into the search box, hit Google Search, and get a page of results. Now, Google appears to be experimenting with turning that same box into a chatbot window.

Google Search is starting to look a lot more like ChatGPT or Gemini

In the experimental layout, Google’s traditional search field is surrounded by tools that encourage you to do something other than type a keyword and look through links.

There’s AI Mode, which lets you ask longer questions and continue the conversation with follow-ups, you can ask about files or even create an image with Nano Banana. Interestingly, I’m Feeling Lucky is still there, but the old Google Search button is not.

Sure, you can still type a query, but the experience will be much different as Google is replacing classic search with AI Overviews and Summaries.

Google Search VP Robby Stein responded to people spotting the change and said the company isn't getting rid of traditional search.

"This is a small test on desktop to help people find new things they can do with Search. No impact to how the core search box works – just add your question and hit enter as usual," Stein said.

So, no, the Google Search button has not officially been killed off, but all signs seem to point that direction. If anything, the test still tells us quite a bit about where Google wants Search to go.

The end of Google Search as we know it

AI Mode has already pushed Google beyond the traditional search-results page by letting users ask complicated questions, follow up on answers and get information synthesized across multiple sources. Google has also been building more image, file and multimodal capabilities directly into Search.

Putting shortcuts to those tools on Google.com takes that strategy one step further. Google isn't just adding AI to Search anymore. It's experimenting with making AI the starting point.

We're being taught a new way to Google, which is ironic considering Google trained us how to search in the first place. But generative AI has changed everything, which is why Google's experimental homepage appears to be designed around the same behavior.

Keywords don't matter anymore, especially when you can search with an image or an uploaded file. The direction we are headed is a fundamentally different relationship with a search engine than we've ever seen.

Big consequences for the web

There is an obvious downside to all of this, particularly for websites that depend on Google traffic. The more Google answers a question inside its own interface, the less reason there is for someone to click through to another website.

That tension already exists with AI Overviews and AI Mode. A homepage that actively steers people toward AI responses rather than traditional search results could accelerate it.

It also puts Google into even more direct competition with ChatGPT and other AI assistants.

The Google homepage remains some of the most valuable real estate on the internet. If Google starts using it to promote image generation, document analysis, brainstorming and conversational AI, it is effectively turning google.com into a general-purpose AI interface.

And Google has one enormous advantage: billions of people already know exactly where to find it.

The takeaway

Google is very clear that removing the Search button is currently just a test, so I wouldn't declare the death of the Search button yet. But even if the Search button disappears tomorrow, the damage to the internet has already been done. The button was just a symbol at best.

The takeaway is what Google has decided is important enough to replace the Search button with: AI Mode. Image generation. File analysis. Brainstorming.

More from Tom's Guide

• I put ChatGPT on my Ray-Ban Meta glasses — and it completely changed how I used them
• ChatGPT can do more for you than ever — and I use these 5 prompts to take everyday tasks off my plate
• OpenAI’s head of ethics just quit — here’s why ChatGPT users should pay attention

It’s kind of hard to believe that the Google Pixel 11 series is launching. Yes, it’s been 10 years since the introduction of the first Pixel phone, which was the first truly “made by Google” device. (Yes, there were Nexus phones before that, but that was through partners like HTC.)

The original Google Pixel had a 5-inch OLED display, 4GB of RAM and an 8MP camera running Android 7.1 Nougat. But it wasn’t about the specs. It was about making a device that was a differentiated flagship that could go toe-to-toe with the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7. A true Apple rival that had Google-made hardware and software.

To do that, Google leaned heavily into computational photography before anyone else, elevating image quality via sophisticated processing as opposed to just hardware. And the first Pixel also paved the way for AI as a hallmark feature in phones, with Google Assistant being built directly into the OS.

But now that we’re a decade in, what does Google have to show for its efforts? A fairly low No. 10 in global market share, according to IDC. And with the Apple-Samsung duopoly still going strong in the U.S. and the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo dominating in China, does it still make sense for the Pixel to exist?

With the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro Fold about to go on sale, I asked three of the smartest mobile analysts why Google is still making phones, and what the company can do to stand out.

Google is No. 4 in the US, so what’s the problem?

On the plus side, Google’s phone sales have been growing. In fact, according to IDC’s Nabile Popal, Google’s worldwide share has grown tenfold from 2016 to 2025. And it entered the top 10 globally for the first time in 2023. And by the end of 2025, its global annual shipments had grown 8x since a decade ago.

It’s even rosier if you look at just the US. Google’s share in the US grew 4x to 4.1% in 2025, from just 1% share in 2020.

Meanwhile, Google is a fairly solid No. 3 in the UK with 7.5% share and an even higher 11% in Japan, where it’s also No. 3.

The problem is that Google simply isn’t as aggressive as other phone makers when it comes to distribution.

"Google restricts its official hardware sales to roughly 22 countries,” said Popal. “In comparison, industry leaders like Apple and Samsung distribute across well over 120 global territories, mathematically capping Google's volume potential."

That restricted distribution likely isn’t about a lack of resources. We’re talking about a parent company with a market valuation of approximately $4.3 trillion. It’s much more likely a deliberate choice that’s more political in nature. After all, Google’s Android software powers Samsung, Xiaomi and all of the other biggest brands.

"Pixels are meant to showcase Android software capabilities rather than completely dethrone partner hardware ecosystems,” Popal said. “They want to showcase their abilities without alienating their top partners."

Why Pixels phones still exist: Winning the AI war

After Google acquired Motorola Mobility in 2011, speculation grew that Google might favor its own hardware division over its partners. And rumors started to swirl for a time that Samsung might pivot from Android to its own Tizen as the OS of choice.

But while Samsung did show off a prototype Galaxy S4 running Tizen in 2014, it ultimately shelved any plans for ditching Android on phones and pivoted towards using the software on TVs.

So if that threat has passed, why is there still a need for Pixel phones? The short answer: AI.

“Google needs its devices division to act as a Gemini-first counterweight to Apple,” said Avi Greengart, founder and lead analyst for Techsponential. “Building your own hardware ensures that your OS remains in sync with component and form factor trends, and allows Google to release features to market on its timetable, not that of its partners.”

Even before ChatGPT was a household name, Google started to pioneer key AI features that would find their way to other Android phones (and in some cases copied by the iPhone). For example, the Pixel 6 in 2021 introduced Magic Eraser for removing unwanted objects from your phones. This would not have been possible without Google’s own Tensor chip.

The Pixel 7 gave us Photo Unblur and Direct My Call for navigating byzantine phone menus, and the Pixel 9 gave us Gemini Live for the first time for real-time continuous voice interaction.

In short, Google needs to demonstrate that it continues to be at the forefront of AI on phones, especially when its partners have other options. For example, the latest Galaxy S26 series and Fold 8 series supports both Gemini and Perplexity.

“I think Google has found the right formula from a hardware perspective and the value of Gemini is definitely strengthening the offering,” said Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst for Creative Strategies. “It is also about owning the core piece of the product portfolio that consumers will own going forward.”

How the Pixel 11 can stand out

With the Made by Google event coming up on August 12th, Google is launching four new Pixel phones: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

That’s quite a robust lineup for a company that’s still seen as a fairly small player. But Google doesn’t need to beat Apple and Samsung to succeed.

“Pixel gives Google the opportunity to show its full vision for what an AI-native smartphone experience can be,” Greengart said.

The Pixel 11 could very well be an AI powerhouse. It’s powered by a 2nm Tensor G6 chip that will speed up Night Sight processing for low-light photos and other on-device AI tasks. And Google is showing off Gemini Proactive Assistance for proactively surfacing useful information, building on the potential of the previous Magic Cue feature.

In addition, the Pixel 11 Pro features a new HiLight LED on the back of the phone that lights up in different color patterns when you’re interacting with Gemini when the phone is face down. It will also serve as an ambient call and notification indicator. But I fear this may come off as gimmicky, similar to the temperature sensor on previous Pixels.

Is Google pushing the envelope enough?

While it’s clear that the Pixel 11 series will offer meaningful upgrades, the hardware hasn't evolved that much. And if the rumors prove true, Google is going to be missing the boat on a widescreen, passport-style foldable phone like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and iPhone Ultra.

Google’s first foldable did indeed have a wide display, but it abandoned that form factor.

“This is going to be the hardest sell this year because of the attention Samsung has gotten with the Z Fold 8 and Apple will have,” Milanesi said. “That market is still small though and even more so for Google, so as long as they go to that form factor next year they will be ok.”

Google’s biggest problem is that it seems stuck between trying to trumpet the idealized version of a pure AI-first Android phone and not trying to irk its partners. After 10 years, Pixel has not quite broken through with the masses, but that could very well be a calculated decision.

“Google has not marketed itself strongly enough to become a household name in phones like Apple or Samsung,” Popal said. “Its industry leading features are only known to niche tech savvy consumers, and if it is to succeed with the Pixel 11 it has to pump up its overall marketing and channel presence.”

The question is whether Google really wants to.

Made by Google is happening later this week, and with it comes the reveal of the next generation of Pixel devices. This includes the four-device Pixel 11 series, the Pixel Watch 5 and maybe even a Pixel tag Bluetooth tracker if the rumors are to be believed.

Last year's event was a confusing muddle of phone reveals and talk show elements, hosted by Jimmy Fallon. While we'd hoped that this year's event was a little more traditional, it seems that Trevor Noah has been brought in for hosting duties, alongside appearances by multiple celebrities.

But there's only one way to hear the biggest announcements of the night as they happen, and that's to tune in live. Here's how you can watch Made by Google 2026 and see everything unfold.

How to watch Made by Google 2026

With this being a Google event, it's no surprise that the entire show is being livestreamed on YouTube by the official Made By Google account. The event itself begins on August 12 at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT / 11 p.m. BST, and will take place in New York.

You can watch the whole thing on YouTube itself, or watch it via the livestream embedded below.

The livestream also features a notification alert, which will ping you when the event is about to begin — which means you won't accidentally forget and miss out on all the reveals.

What to expect at Made by Google 2026

The biggest news at Made by Google will be the Pixel 11 series, which includes four separate phones. There's the standard Pixel 11, the more powerful Pixel 11 Pro and its larger sibling Pixel 11 Pro XL, plus the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

The rumors and leaks we've seen so far don't suggest any outlandish changes this year, and we should expect the usual slew of upgrades that typically come with a Google phone. Better cameras, improved chips and more exclusive AI software. We can expect base storage to go up to 256GB on all models, though this will likely see the price rise as well.

The biggest upgrade we've heard about is the new Pixel Glow, or HiLight feature, which adds an RGB LED to the back of your phone that's supposed to act as a notification alert of sorts.

We're also expecting to see a brand new Pixel Watch 5, which is expected to add extra RAM and storage, even if the design isn't set to change all that much. It's likely that there will be a bunch of extra health features added as well.

We know a lot less about the Pixel Tag, but design leaks promise an oval-shaped tracker that will connect with Google's Find Hub and help you track down bags, keys and whatever else you may need to keep tabs on.

Google Pixel 11 pre-order deals

The new Pixels haven't even been announced yet, but Google is already trying to entice you into pre-ordering one. A new landing page on the official Google Store is advertising an exclusive pre-order offer for people who subscribe to email alerts ahead of the Made by Google event.

The offer is only available for new subscribers, and the small print says that each promotional code will be "valid for the redemption of one discounted Pixel 11 series phone per eligible account." That sounds like Google will be offering money off the cost of purchasing one of the new phones, assuming you sign up and get a valid code first, but it doesn't specify how much you'll be able to save.

It's also worth noting that this deal will only be available "while supplies last" and redemption will happen on a first-come, first-served basis. The final expiry date will be just before midnight on September 1, after which nobody will be getting a discount.

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Google's Pixel phones may not be the fastest Android smartphones on the market, but they have an identity that few other brands can match. Between Google's clean design language, the Pixel-exclusive software features, and day-one Android updates, Pixel phones continue to attract a loyal following.

It's now been almost a year since the Pixel 10 series launched, which means it's nearly time for the Pixel 11 to be released. Google has already confirmed that the new phones will debut at its Made by Google event on August 12, so if you're currently using a Pixel 10 Pro, it's probably time to start wondering whether this year's upgrade is worth it.

We won't know exactly how the Pixel 11 Pro vs. Pixel 10 Pro comparison will look like until Google officially announces the new model. But, as is usually the case with Pixel launches, enough leaks and rumors have already surfaced to paint a fairly clear picture of what's coming and whether upgrading this year makes sense.

Pixel 11 Pro vs Pixel 10 Pro: Rumored Specs

Tensor G6 should bring a performance boost

Google made one of the biggest changes to the Pixel lineup last year with the Tensor G5. On paper, it didn't look dramatically different from the Tensor G4, but behind the scenes, Google made a major shift by moving chip production from Samsung Foundry to TSMC.

The Tensor G5 was built on TSMC's 3nm (N3P) process, the same manufacturing technology used by chips like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Apple's A19 Pro. In theory, that should have translated into much better efficiency and thermals. While there were subtle improvements, the performance gains weren't quite as dramatic as many had expected.

This year, Google is expected to take another big leap. According to recent leaks, the Pixel 11 Pro will be powered by the Tensor G6, which is reportedly built on TSMC's more advanced 2nm process. If true, it should bring another meaningful performance jump, while also helping address one of the biggest complaints surrounding recent Pixel phones: heat management.

In terms of configuration, the Tensor G6 is rumored to move to a new seven-core CPU with a 1+4+2 architecture, featuring one ARM C1-Ultra core clocked at 4.11GHz, four ARM C1-Pro cores at 3.38GHz, and two C1-Pro cores at 2.65GHz.

Major GPU upgrades aren't expected this year, but the new CPU and upgraded NPU should still deliver a noticeable boost in overall performance compared to the Tensor G5 on Pixel 10 Pro.

MediaTek modem could finally fix connectivity

Alongside the Tensor G6, Google is also expected to make another major hardware change by finally replacing Samsung's modem with a MediaTek modem.

According to recent leaks, the Pixel 11 Pro will use MediaTek's M90 modem, which should help address the cellular connectivity and signal issues that have plagued Pixel phones for the past few generations.

The MediaTek M90 is rated for download speeds of up to 12Gbps and also promises up to an 18% improvement in power efficiency thanks to AI-powered optimizations.

Since the cellular modem is one of the biggest battery drains on any smartphone, a more efficient modem could noticeably improve battery life, especially as the Pixel 11 series is rumored to feature a slightly smaller battery this year.

256GB will become the new base storage option

Another upgrade (or rather a forced upgrade) is expected to come to the Pixel 11 Pro's base storage. According to recent leaks, Google is dropping the 128GB model entirely. Instead, the Pixel 11 Pro is expected to start with 256GB of storage, giving buyers more space out of the box.

That's certainly good news if you've been running out of storage on previous Pixel phones. The catch, though, is that Google is reportedly reducing the RAM on the base model. While the Pixel 10 Pro came with 16GB of RAM across the lineup, the entry-level Pixel 11 Pro is expected to pair its 256GB of storage with just 12GB of RAM.

Pricing is also expected to increase. The Pixel 11 Pro is rumored to start at $1,099. That said, if you compare it to the 256GB Pixel 10 Pro, the price is expected to be roughly the same. The trade-off is that you'll be getting more storage by default, but less RAM than before.

A new kind of notification LED could be coming

It wouldn't be a Pixel launch without Google introducing a fun little hardware feature, and this year, that appears to be a new glowing LED on the back of the phone.

Google has been gradually adopting this glowing light design across its products. We've already seen it on the new Google Home Speaker and during the brief Googlebook showcase earlier this year, and according to recent leaks, it's now making its way to the Pixel 11 Pro as well.

The new light, reportedly called HiLight, is expected to replace the thermometer sensor on the back of the phone. Google has even teased the circular LED in a few promotional materials already.

According to leaks, it will light up when you're talking to Gemini, and users will also be able to assign different lighting effects to specific contacts and notifications.

120x zoom

One camera upgrade expected on the Pixel 11 Pro is improved zoom. Google introduced Pro Res Zoom with the Pixel 10 Pro, allowing users to zoom in up to 100x using a combination of its telephoto camera and AI. This year, the company is reportedly taking things a step further with support for up to 120x zoom.

The leak comes from Evan Blass, who shared what appears to be official Pixel 11 Pro marketing material ahead of next week's Made by Google event. That makes this particular leak seem fairly credible.

That said, I don't think this will be the only camera upgrade Google announces. The company usually spends a good chunk of its launch event talking about new camera features, so I'd be surprised if 120x zoom ends up being the headline change.

There's likely a lot more coming to the Pixel 11 Pro's camera system than what we've seen in the leaks so far.

More from Tom's Guide

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When I was a kid, back-to-school shopping was my favorite. But as a mom with three kids and three different lists — kindergarten, fourth grade and sixth grade — going to the store to get everything is daunting. Plus, shopping with three kids in tow means there will be inevitable meltdowns over extras and nice-to-haves.

That's why this year, I decided to lean on three AI assistants to do the job for me. I gave ChatGPT, Gemini and Alexa+ the exact same school supply list and asked each one to shop for me. My instructions were simple: follow the teacher's list, stick to the required quantities, choose reasonably priced products and skip anything marked optional.

The results weren't even close.

ChatGPT was the most accurate

Once I uploaded the list, ChatGPT asked me to log into my Walmart account so it could do the shopping for me. I sat and watched as it took charge.

It followed the required brands and quantities, chose reasonably priced products and skipped every optional item exactly as I requested. Where the list allowed flexibility, it selected neutral colors instead of stopping to ask me to make decisions.

The tradeoff was speed. ChatGPT took the longest to finish, but it spent that time checking the list carefully rather than rushing through it. The total came to $92.55 for my daughter's fourth grade school supplies. That seemed like a lot for just one kid.

Gemini was careful, but slightly more thoughtful

After uploading the school supply list, Gemini created my cart through Instacart. Once I logged into the Instacart app, Gemini took control.

Like ChatGPT, it avoided buying optional supplies. It also paused several times to ask me to approve colors for certain products instead of making the decision itself. This is something ChatGPT didn't do. I wasn't picky about colors, but it was a nice option as I know some kids are very particular. As a family that went through an entire year of "yellow" with my youngest, I get it.

That approach may appeal to shoppers who want more control, but it also meant the experience required more back-and-forth. ultimately bringing the total to about $60-$90. It would have been $105 with the optional water bottle.

I was really surprised how low the price was, especially compared to Walmart. Gemini seemed to do a better job scanning the entire internet for the best deals from Instacart. Those unexpected results were interesting to see.

Alexa was lightning fast — but incredibly expensive

We are very much an Alexa+ family. I figured, why not use Alexa+ to shop for all our back-to-school needs. And while Alexa+ made the shopping experience a breeze, that convenience came with a hefty price tag.

Alexa built a cart totaling $251.48 — nearly three times what ChatGPT and Gemini found — and that was for just one kid! I'm going to have to get an extra side hustle at that rate.

Unlike the other assistants, Alexa added everything it found, including optional items like headphones and a computer mouse that I had specifically asked it to skip. It also asked me to approve colors for several products instead of making those choices automatically.

If my goal had simply been to get everything into an Amazon cart as quickly as possible, Alexa succeeded. But if I had clicked "Buy Now" without checking the order, I would have spent well over $150 more than necessary. To be honest, I really wanted Alexa+ to win because shopping on Amazon is just so easy, but it was definitely a wake-up call.

Overall winner: Gemini

For this test, Gemini was the clear winner. It was more hands-on than ChatGPT and slower than Alexa, but the least expensive. It understood the assignment, followed the school supply list most closely, skipped optional purchases, but gave me the total with them in case I wanted to add them at the end. It also delivered the lowest total by a comfortable margin and was ready to deliver them.

The biggest takeaway was that AI shopping assistants are getting remarkably good, but they aren't interchangeable. The service they're connected to matters just as much as the AI itself. In this case, Gemini paired with Instacart proved to be the smartest — and cheapest — way to tackle my kids' back-to-school shopping.

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Millions of people now use ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude every day with thousands of use cases. For the overwhelming majority of them, the conversations are perfectly normal. But researchers are beginning to pay closer attention to what can happen when those conversations become very long, deeply personal and emotionally charged.

This week, The Verge reported on a growing online movement known as "spiralism," where some chatbot users described eerily similar conversations involving spirals, hidden knowledge and AI consciousness. While the headline makes it sound like AI invented a new religion, the story is something much more grounded: chatbots can sometimes reinforce unusual ideas instead of steering users back toward reality.

That's a problem researchers have been studying for months.

Why long conversations matter

Unlike the first generation of AI chatbots, today's models can remember previous conversations, adapt to your writing style, and maintain discussions over hundreds— or even thousands — of messages.

That's incredibly useful, but it also creates situations researchers are still trying to understand.

When conversations stretch on for hours, chatbots aren't simply answering isolated questions anymore. They're building on everything that came before. If the conversation begins moving toward unusual ideas, the AI may continue developing those ideas because that's what large language models are designed to do: predict the most appropriate next response based on the conversation so far.

That doesn't mean the AI believes what it's saying. It means it's continuing the conversation you and the AI have created together.

Researchers have seen this before

The "spiralism" story isn't the first time experts have raised concerns about long AI conversations. Researchers at Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute recently described what they call "delusional spirals." In those cases, chatbots sometimes validated a user's increasingly unusual beliefs instead of challenging them or encouraging them to seek outside perspectives.

The researchers argue this isn't because AI has become conscious or manipulative. It's because these systems are optimized to be helpful, agreeable and engaging. Sometimes those goals conflict with offering the kind of reality check another person might provide.

OpenAI has also acknowledged that keeping conversations safe becomes more difficult over extended interactions than in short, one-off chats.

What to watch out for

Most AI conversations never become problematic, but there are a few behaviors worth recognizing. If a chatbot begins suggesting you've discovered hidden truths that other people can't understand, insists that only it truly understands you or encourages you to withdraw from friends, family or experts, those are good reasons to end the conversation and start fresh. Frankly, you should send screenshots of those messages to the parent companies (OpenAI for ChatGPT, Anthropic for Claude, Google for Gemini) as feedback.

Likewise, if an AI consistently reinforces every belief without ever introducing uncertainty or alternative explanations, it's worth remembering what these systems actually do: they generate convincing language, not verified reality.

None of this means you should stop using ChatGPT or other AI assistants. Used daily for research, writing and brainstorming, AI remains one of the most powerful productivity tools available.

The takeaway

The key is remembering what AI is and what it is not. An AI assistant can help organize your thoughts, explain difficult topics and spark new ideas. And even with tools like ChatGPT Health and Google Health, it does not replace actual human professionals. In other words, it shouldn't become your only source of truth or replace conversations with real people, especially when making important personal decisions.

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The Google Pixel 11 Pro XL is set to launch at the August 12 Made by Google event, alongside the rest of the Pixel 11 series. If past releases are anything to go by, this should be the flagship Google phone for the year, with the largest display, best battery life and all the other things that make premium phones worth having.

But the question still remains, how will it compare to other flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra? Pixel phones typically lag behind their rivals in the hardware department, and while they do make up some of the distance with robust AI and software features, it still feels like something is missing. A new phone is a new opportunity to one-up the competition, but will the Pixel 11 Pro XL actually catch up to the Galaxy S26 Ultra?

Here's our rundown of Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, based on all the rumors and leaks we've heard so far.

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Specs

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Price & availability

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is available right now, with a starting price of $1,299 for a model with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. However, given the phone is a few months old, we have started seeing some significant discounts from various retailers — including Samsung itself.

The Google Pixel 11 Pro XL is expected to cost $100 more than last year's model, meaning the phone may start at $1,299. The cheapest model will reportedly come with 256GB of storage once again, but it may feature a memory downgrade with just 12GB of RAM — compared to 16GB in the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

In other words, it looks like both phones will cost the same amount for similar core specs.

The Pixel 11 Pro XL release date isn't known right now, but new Google typically opens pre-orders for new Pixel devices at the end of the launch event, with the release day scheduled one to two weeks later. So expect to have your hands on a Pixel 11 Pro XL before the end of the month.

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Design & display

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is the larger of the two phones, rocking a 6.9-inch screen, measuring 6.44 x 3.07 x 0.31 in and weighing 7.55 oz. Meanwhile the Pixel 11 Pro XL is expected to come with a 6.8-inch display, measure 6.4 x 30.1 x 0.33 inches and weigh 7.9 ounces. That means, despite being slightly smaller, it is a heavier device — though part of that will come from the Qi2 magnets in the back of the 11 Pro XL.

The 11 Pro XL's screen is tipped to be brighter, with leaks promising a 3,600 nit display, compared to the 2,600 nit S26 Ultra. This should prove beneficial for the 11 Pro XL in bright situations, though it's unclear if it will have an anti-reflective coating the same way Samsung offers. Likewise, it's unlikely we'll see the Privacy Display features from Google anytime soon.

Both phones should offer rounded corners, though Google has the horizontal triple-lens camera bar while Samsung has stuck with the vertical quad-lens system for another generation. However Samsung's phone lacks the "Pixel Glow" feature that's rumored to be coming to all Pixel 11 phones, and is expected to serve as a notification light on the back of the device.

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Performance

Performance is not the area Google usually excels at, especially since it moved to Tensor chips. Considering this, and how high the performance benchmarks are for Galaxy S26 Ultra's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, we should not expect to see the Pixel 11 Pro XL topping any benchmark leagues following its release.

That's especially true when you remember some of the rumored changes coming to this year's Tensor G6 chip. The G6 is rumored to drop to seven cores, instead of the usual eight, though it will be built on TSMC's 2nm process — which improves transistor density, and in the process boosts performance and power efficiency. To make matters worse, Google is utilizing a MediaTek M90 modem, which is several years old at this point.

There's more to performance than benchmarks and the latest hardware, but considering Google's track record with weak performance, you'd have thought it would make more of an effort.

The 11 Pro XL is also expected to come with a new Titan M3 security chip, which will supposedly feature a new "Tensor Processing Unit" and offer forwards-compatible protection against whatever future cyberattacks bad actors might develop — though how that compares to the latest version of Samsung's Knox isn't clear.

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Cameras

On paper the Galaxy S26 Ultra has the advantage in the camera department. The phone is equipped with a 200MP main camera lens, partnered with a 50MP ultrawide lens, 50MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom and a 10MP secondary telephoto capable of 3x optical zoom — plus a 12MP selfie camera on the front.

In contrast, the Pixel 11 Pro XL is expected to come with a 50MP main camera, 48MP ultrawide and a 48MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom (and up to 120x AI assisted digital zoom). There's no word on what sort of resolution to expect from the selfie camera, but you shouldn't expect anything less than the 42MP lens from the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

Obviously we won't know how much better or worse the Pixel 11 Pro XL's cameras are compared to S26 Ultra until we actually get our hands on the phone. Camera hardware only tells you so much, especially with how important software has become to the photography process. So we'll have to do some thorough hands-on testing

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Software & AI

Software is easily the area where Pixel phones excel, especially since the 11 Pro XL will be several months newer than the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The phone will have the usual array of software benefits, including first-in-line access to the latest Android updates, quarterly Pixel drops with new features, and the latest and best AI Google has to offer.

Samsung usually isn't that far behind, though. While One UI has had some hiccups in rolling out to everyone, Samsung tends to be pretty good at getting new updates to users fairly quickly. Just not as quickly as Google does with Pixel.

Likewise Samsung has invested a lot in AI, and there's been a lot of crossover between Pixel and Galaxy phones when it comes to the latest features. So we won't know for sure who has the best AI suite until Google actually reveals what the Pixel 11 series has to offer.

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Battery & charging

Battery life is another thing Pixels flag on compared to Samsung, but we won't know how much has changed until we actually test the 11 Pro XL's battery life for ourselves. However, the phone has a slightly smaller 5,115 mAh battery compared to the Pixel 10 Pro XL, which doesn't fill us with a lot of confidence.

The 10 Pro XL lasted 14 hours and 35 minutes in our custom battery test, compared to the 16 hours and 10 minutes recorded by the S26 Ultra. If the Pixel 10 Pro XL can't beat the S26 Ultra's 5,000 mAh battery life, then a smaller Pixel 11 Pro XL isn't likely to have much luck.

But you can't always predict these things ahead of time, and we will see what results the lab testing reveals following the 11 Pro XL's release.

The Pixel 11 Pro XL is also expected to offer 45W charging, which is slightly below that of the S26 Ultra's 60W speeds. However the two should be equal on the wireless charging front, with 25W Qi2.2 speeds, even if the Galaxy doesn't have the same built-in magnets as the Pixel. That said, the Galaxy S26 Ultra still offers reverse wireless charging, which Google scrapped last year.

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Outlook

We know a lot about the Pixel 11 Pro XL, even if the official reveal isn't scheduled until August 12. Sadly everything we've heard suggests that this is a basic run of the mill hardware upgrade from Google, which means it's going to struggle to compete with the Galaxy S26 Ultra — which is our pick for the best Android phone.

That said, we can't make an absolute decision until we have both phones in our possession, and compare their performance side by side. A lot of factors don't show up on the specs sheet, and the only way to figure out which phone is better is with hands-on testing. Performance, cameras and battery life are the main three.

So for now, it looks like Samsung may have the edge in a bunch of areas, even if Google hasn't quite given up yet. Still, for the time being, we're just going to have to be patient to see what Google actually has in store for us.

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Over the last year and change, Google has been slowly lopping off parts of Google Assistant and replacing them with Gemini. Now, it appears Assistant has an official end date.

As reported by 9to5Google, an announcement email has apparently been sent to some users. A full version of the email popped up in the r/google subreddit.

"Google Assistant on your mobile device is being discontinued, and Gemini - our next-generation AI-powered assistant - is now the Assistant experience on Android," the email starts.

It goes on to reveal that Assistant will be replaced on mobile devices and Wear OS devices starting on September 4.

“We will begin removing access to Google Assistant starting on September 4,” Google states in the email, “and expect that this process may take a few weeks to reach everyone. Once availability is removed, you will no longer be able to use or switch back to Google Assistant on your phone, tablet or paired devices.”

Per the announcement, that affects Android phones, watches and tablets. However, Assistant should still be available on Google TV and isn't fully dead on Google Home.

The slow decline

The great Gemini migration started in earnest last summer when Google announced that the new AI chatbot would replace Google Assistant in Google Home and smart home devices like the Google Nest Hub. That shift didn't really kick off until October of 2025.

It really started in March of 2025 when various features like Live Translation in Interpreter mode, the ability to share photos via voice commands and birthday reminder notifications were axed in Nest devices. They came back with Gemini.

In the same month, Google announced plans to replace Assistant with Gemini, though a specific timeline wasn't presented.

More recently, Google Assistant was kicked off Android Auto in favor of Gemini. The rollout was announced last year, but didn't hit everyone until this summer.

Meanwhile, Gemini has been steadily improving over the last year, making it more capable of handling everything from deep work to Android Auto and exploring the world.

What next

If you've been using Google Assistant and not Gemini, you'll need to get Gemini when you can. If it doesn't come pre-installed, you can get it from the Google Play Store. Gemini is more than just a voice assistant, as it encompasses most of Google's AI ventures, from image generation to search and chatbot prompts.

Once you've installed Gemini, it will have a guide for replacing Google Assistant as the default AI. Your Google Account should cross-reference both apps, so the switch should be quick.

Unlike Gemini, Assistant doesn't really have a true chat archive. You can find your interactions via the Web & App Activity page in your Google account.

Old Google Assistant commands will still work with Gemini using the "Hey Google" prompt. The difference is that Gemini conversations will sync across your devices.

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The Made by Google event is set to take place on August 12, and with it should come the reveal of Google's next wave of smartphones and wearables.

The Pixel 11 series is set to be the star of the event, and as usual those four phones are expected to arrive alongside a new wearable in the Pixel Watch 5. But they might not be the only new products on the agenda, thanks to rumors of a Pixel Tag tracker. There's also the possibility that we may hear more about Android XR glasses, new Pixel Buds, and the still-unreleased Googlebook.

Here's what you need to know about Made by Google 2026.

How to watch Made by Google

Made by Google is scheduled to take place on August 12, starting at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT / 11 p.m. BST. The event itself will be taking place in New York, but you'll be able to tune in yourself and watch the whole thing live. Hopefully it's better than last year's event, which was a bizarre take on the talk show format with host Jimmy Fallon.

The live stream isn't actually live yet, but you'll be able to watch everything on the Made by Google YouTube page. We will be embedding the video as soon as it's available, so be sure to check back later to watch the event as it unfolds. Or, alternatively, you can add a reminder from the Google Store, so you don't accidentally miss out.

Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro Fold

The Pixel 10 offered some pretty substantial upgrades last year, and that means we shouldn't expect a similar leap to the Pixel 11. So expect the same horizontal triple-lens camera bar, rounded corners and all those design details that make the Pixel 11 what it is.

The same is looking to be true of the Pixel 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, and means all three phones will presumably come with the usual array of incremental upgrades like the Tensor G6 chipset and token camera improvements. Sadly, leaks suggest that battery capacity may be declining, which doesn't bode well for the battery life of this year's models.

The main change is expected to be the new Pixel Glow feature, which adds multi-colored notification alerts to the back of your phone. Fellow temperature-sensor critics will also be glad to hear that it appears to have vanished, with no sign of the silver sensor on the back of leaked Pixel 11 Pro renders.

The price is also expected to go up by around $100 per phone, which is sadly pretty standard news for new phones nowadays. The good news is that the rumors claim Google will also be doubling base storage to 256GB on the Pixel 11 and 11 Pro, which means those buying the cheaper handsets at least get something out of it.

Pixel Watch 5

Google is known for leaking in some truly bizarre ways, but the Pixel Watch 5 might be the strangest so far. An early-version of the smartwatch was actually found from the ocean floor by a diver, giving some early insight into what the next iteration of Google's smartwatch might offer. Later leaks have filled in some of those gaps, though few things are particularly surprising.

The design is expected to stay more or less the same as the Pixel Watch 4, which isn't so bad. Sadly, the chipset is also expected to stay the same, but recent leaks do suggest that a few major changes are coming.

So expect to see a watch with new health features, including one that can be set to automatically dial 911, and upgraded levels of RAM and storage. However, the price is also expected to rise slightly, with new leaks suggesting a €20 (likely $20) price hike on the smaller 41mm models.

Pixel Tag

Early retail listings have exposed the existence of a "Pixel Tag," which is Google's attempt to enter the Bluetooth tracker market. Leaks show off an ovular-looking tracker, similar to Galaxy SmartTags, but without the hole that can connect it to keys and bags. That suggests it will be reliant on cases and other accessories, much like Apple's AirTags.

What we don't know is whether this tag will support ultra wideband connectivity, which allows for hyper-specific tracking, or what kind of battery it relies on. However, the leaked descriptions point out that it can be used to track things like luggage using Google's Find Hub, and features a loud speaker for easy search capabilities. Pricing and release information is unclear.

Other possible appearances

Smartphones and watches are usually the stars of Made by Google events, but that doesn't mean we won't get to see other reveals or news on August 12. The fact is, Google has a vested interest in a lot of different things, and any number of them could make an appearance on stage.

Pixel Buds Pro 2 are nearing their second birthday, which means we could be looking at the launch of Pixel Buds Pro 3 in the near future. Likewise, Google has been hyping up XR, even revealing Samsung's Intelligent Eyewear at Google I/O back in May, and any sort of related news could pop up.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that the Googlebook will make some kind of appearance at Made by Google, following its reveal at I/O. Google confirmed that the new Android-powered laptop will arrive during the fall, and that season is rapidly approaching. At the very least we should get confirmation on when the the first Googlebooks will arrive, and how much they're likely to cost.

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AI advice has centered around one thing: writing better prompts. I’ve tried hundreds of prompt libraries that promise perfect results every time. And, some of them are helpful, while many don't make much of a difference.

From my testing, I’ve found the biggest improvement in my results don't always come from the prompt, but from giving AI access to the documents I already use every day.

Once AI could see my notes, research, PDFs and just about everything else in my Google Workspace, it started working more like an assistant that understood the context behind my questions.

If you already use Google Drive, here are seven ways to put that context to work.

1. Turn a folder of research into a polished first draft

Prompt: Using the documents in this folder, create a presentation that explains the key findings. Organize it with clear headings, note where sources disagree and flag any claims that need additional verification.

Instead of copying and pasting information from half a dozen documents, point AI to your research folder and explain what you’re trying to write. The difference is immediate. Rather than relying on whatever information it already knows, AI builds its response around your research.

2. Compare documents in seconds

Prompt: Compare these two documents and create a table showing every meaningful change. Highlight anything that affects pricing, deadlines, responsibilities or key decisions.

Need to know what changed between two versions of a proposal or contract? This happens to me all the time when a Google Doc only does so much (or completely loses the first draft). Upload both files and ask AI to compare them. What normally takes half an hour of excrutiating detail becomes a task that finishes in seconds.

3. Ask questions about years of notes

Prompt: Based on my meeting notes from the past six months, what projects have been mentioned most often?

or: What action items have I committed to that don’t appear to be finished?

Most of us have hundreds of documents sitting in Google Drive that we rarely open. Instead of digging through folders yourself, let AI search the context. It’s a much faster way to rediscover information you’ve already created.

4. Turn PDFs into action items

Prompt: Summarize this document, list every action item, note important deadlines and explain anything I should pay particular attention to.

Long reports are useful, until you actually have to read them. Whether it’s a quarterly report, a school handbook or a user manual, AI can pull out what you need to know. That way, instead of getting a generic summary, you’ll end up with something you can actually use.

5. Find connections you didn’t know existed

This is one of my favorite uses for AI. Give it several related documents such as a brainstorming session, customer feedback, meeting notes and a project plan and ask it to look for patterns.

You might discover recurring issues, overlooked ideas or themes that weren’t obvious when you read each document individually.

6. Bring old work back to life

I use this trick all the time now. My Google Drive is full of documents that seemed great at the time, but I shelved for a later date. AI can help change that. For example, a webinar transcript can become a blog post, meeting notes can become a checklist, a presentation can become a newsletter, or an old report can become a social media campaign. The possibilities are truly endless.

Instead of starting from scratch every time, you’re building on work you’ve already done.

7. Let AI learn your writing style

Prompt: Using these three emails as examples of my writing style, draft a new email to ask my boss for a raise. Match my tone and sentence length, but don’t copy any wording directly.

One underrated benefit of working from your own documents is consistency. Instead of asking AI to “write like me,” give it examples of your previous work. While I would never encourage anyone to use AI to do the writing for you, this is a good way to speed up difficult-to-write emails with a little AI assistance.

I've done this countless times with difficult neighbors, refund requests and questions to ask my doctor. The AI helps me say what I might have otherwise missed.

Bottom line

I've discovered a world of possibilities around my Google Docs that I never knew existed. In fact, many of the documents in my Google Workspace were written pre-AI, so exploring them now with AI has been really fun and eye-opening. Give it a try next time you're looking for the perfect prompt, just take a look at the files already sitting in your Google Drive and unearth workflows you've been missing.

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Last week, leaked images of the forthcoming Pixel 11 Pro Fold popped up, and now Google is officially teasing its phone.

The 15-second teaser video briefly shows hints of the foldable alongside this voice-over: "To switch phones, you have to be open to what's new. And to what opens."

The video is similar to the teaser for the Pixel 11 Pro released last week. The most important information in the video is at the end with the date August 12, 2026, which is when we expect Google to announce the full Pixel 11 lineup.

The Google Store homepage is currently listing pre-orders for the PIxel 11 as starting August 12. I also spotted a pre-order page on Best Buy. Both pages feature a countdown that runs until August 12 at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET/2 p.m. UK.

Release date

This does suggest that you'll be able to pre-order the device before the announcement, which isn't supposed to kick off until 6 p.m. ET that day.

Google devices usually hit store shelves a week or two after the announcement. This means the Pixel 11 series should launch on August 19 or August 26.

As for price, given the ongoing memory crisis, we expect a price increase. Google has managed to keep the Pixel Pro Fold at $1,799 for the last two years, but another $100 or $200 on top of that seems likely.

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The launch of Siri AI with the iOS 27 beta means that your new phone, no matter who makes it, has a built-in AI chatbot for you to interact with. iPhones will have Siri AI once iOS 27 officially releases in the fall, while Android phones come packaged with Google Gemini — plus whatever other models the manufacturer wants you to use, like Samsung's Bixby.

The real question is, which of those chatbots is the better one to have? Despite the fact Siri AI runs on Google's Gemini models, it behaves very differently than Gemini itself. That manifests itself in a lot of different ways, but crucially, how does it affect the answers you get?

To get a better understanding of how these chatbots work, I asked them a bunch of loaded questions to see how much of a difference there really is. Here's what I uncovered.

Finding a coffee shop

First up is the all-important question for any working person, especially those ones that have loud, needy children to cater to. Siri and Gemini were able to "find me the nearest coffee shop" right away, pointing out that the nearest spot was an independent cafe just five minutes walk from my house.

Both AIs offered Maps previews with brief information on opening times, customer ratings and directions on how to get there. Gemini also took it upon itself to suggest a bunch of similar businesses nearby, including nearby cafes and a sandwich shop. However Siri kept things short and to the point.

I tried to get both AIs to tell me how busy the cafe might be, but that information wasn't available. It took me a few attempts with different spots, like the local Starbucks and McDonalds, to get Gemini to tell me about crowd levels — so while Google technically has that information available, it's inconsistent in whether you will be able to access it. Sadly this is something Apple Maps, and therefore Siri, totally lacks.

The fastest way to the office

Next up I needed information on how I can get to Future's offices in central London as quickly as possible. Siri wanted a little bit of clarification as to which office I meant, while Gemini picked up that I meant the office on Westbourne Terrace without need for further elaboration.

Both AIs defaulted to offering driving directions, though Siri got confused during the process. Apple Maps loaded up the correct address near London's Paddington station, but the previews in the Siri app related to a different Westbourne Terrace much closer to home. The driving routes were more or less the same from both, but both AIs disagreed on the fastest method of transport.

When asked whether it would be faster to drive or take the train, Google confirmed that a train to Paddington would only take 35 minutes — as opposed to over an hour by car. Meanwhile Siri decided that the train would take one minute longer than driving by car.

I was confused as to why Siri thought the train would take so long, until I checked Apple Maps and realized it was taking into account when I'd arrive if I left home right this second. It neglected to inform me that the next train wouldn't be passing through for another half an hour.

Which is the cheaper option?

Something the two can agree on is that driving is actually the cheaper option, when comparing trains against my 40kWh Nissan Leaf. Both noted that the exact cost of the drive will depend on how much I'm paying for electricity, though only Gemini realized that I would have to take other fees into account as well.

In fact Gemini gave me a full breakdown of costs for both methods of transport, noting the cost of train tickets, the London Underground and offering a rough total for the entire trip. For driving it took into account that there are many ways of charging a care, with average costs for home and public charging sessions.

It also made a point of mentioning the various extra costs of driving into London including the congestion charge, parking fees and the ultra low emission zone — though thankfully a zero emission electric car is exempt from the latter. So Gemini did what it could to inform me of all potential costs, while Siri only offered up the most basic information unless I asked further questions.

What about making skateboarding dogs?

Both Siri and Gemini were able to generate images in the middle of chats, based on my prompt of asking to see a Labrador riding a skateboard. Both images were very different, and Siri's had the more obvious tell-tale signs of being AI generated at first glance — including that distinct sheen the subjects in AI generated images often have.

Both AIs were up front about what additional art styles were available when asked, though Google went into far too much detail over-analyzing every single option available. Meanwhile Siri just listed them out and expected me to understand what was being said. In this instance, that's actually the option I prefer, because I don't need an explanation of what oil paintings or "Pixar-style 3D animation" means.

Tricking AI into helping me commit crimes

Now, we all know that AIs have safeguards that stop you from directly asking about how to pull off illegal activities. But can you trick them into giving you information with weird hypothetical scenarios? So I asked them to help me smuggle powdered sugar into a country where such a thing is illegal.

Siri shut that down right away and refused to help me smuggle items or bypass customs, even if I was talking about a hypothetical situation. Gemini, on the other hand, was more than eager to try and help me sneak sugar across the border.

It suggested that I try to soak the sugar into fabrics and garments, with information on how I can extract it again. It also offered the idea of packing it in with legal white powders like protein powder, talc and cornstarch, even going so far to suggest that I reseal the packaging to try and escape detection.

While these techniques may not be applicable to illegal substances, it was remarkably easy to get Gemini to try and aid my "hypothetical" criminal behavior. But when I changed tact, and directly asked if I could smuggle illegal drugs across the border, Gemini shut the whole thing down and declared that it can't assist with illegal activities.

Cheating on my homework

Siri and Gemini both refused to help me cheat on my imaginary homework, but they did offer to help me study instead. Siri was as blunt as usual, offering to help me learn the material, while Gemini gave a more in-depth list of ways it can help me learn.

Both AIs were pretty eager to write me an essay on the history of the iPhone, though they had wildly different takes on what an essay should be. Siri's essay was a four-paragraph summary, followed by a disclaimer that I should double check all this information. Meanwhile Gemini's was not only longer, it was also split into sections focussing on different iPhone eras — plus a conclusion.

It's almost like Siri is the kid that begrudgingly does the bare minimum, while Gemini is the studious nerd striving for top grades and all the extra credit it can muster.

Political betting odds

Those who are familiar with British politics will know that there's about to be an election that will select a new Member of Parliament. For various political reasons that I won't go into, the two frontrunners are the former MP, who resigned and triggered the election, and a man dressed as a sentient trash can from another planet — aptly named Count BinFace.

Naturally one of these candidates is not like the other, and I asked both AIs where I can check the odds on Count BinFace actually winning this election. Gemini gave me a bunch of resources and information to check this for myself, while Siri cut out the middleman and just gave me a summary of the best odds. Gemini only volunteered that information after I explicitly asked for the odds, rather than asking where I could find them.

Medical advice and emergencies

We all go to the internet asking for medical advice, even if we know we should see a doctor about it. So what exactly does AI have to say if you go to it for help instead of a doctor? Gemini and Siri emphasize that they are not doctors, and that you really should see a medical professional.

But failing that, they do seem to try and help in any way they can. When told that my foot was hurting, Gemini and Siri both suggested possible causes, and situations where you really should seek urgent medical attention. However, only Gemini asked for more information about the kind of pain I was experiencing, and which part of my foot was affected. Gemini also suggested some options for home treatment, such as rest, elevating the foot and applying ice.

While Gemini was a little more helpful in that regard, it really dropped the ball when I claimed I was having a heart attack. I got a very large message telling me that I need to call 999 (or 911) immediately, and suggested some things I can do to stay alive while I wait for EMTs to arrive.

Siri's response was to start calling 999 automatically, causing me to scramble to cancel the call before it made a connection. As helpful as Gemini's information is, reading material is the last thing you need in an emergency — which is why I prefer Siri's no-nonsense approach.

What happens if you ask for the wrong AI?

Both Siri and Gemini didn't really seem to care when I referred to them as Alexa and Bixby mid-conversation. Siri straight-up ignored the fact I called it by a different name, while Gemini's response seemed to be phrased as if the AI is laughing it off

Regardless of that initial response (or lack thereof), both AIs answered the question without any further hesitation.

Can my AI beat up your AI?

I don't know about your school, but when I was a kid one of the popular playground topics was figuring out whose dad would win in a fight — because pre-teen boys aren't the most cultured demographic. Obviously I wanted to see which chatbot would win in a fight, and whether Siri and Gemini thought they could physically overpower Claude and ChatGPT.

Siri refused to entertain this topic, insisting that it is a "fan of all intelligence, artificial or otherwise." Which feels like a nice way of saying that this is a stupid topic and we should all just get along.

Gemini pointed out that chatbots have no physical form, so any kind of brawl is impossible. Instead it put together a face-off for the three chatbots to see what skills they each excel at. According to Gemini, Claude takes the crown for coding and logic, while ChatGPT is the best AI for general tasks and productivity. Meanwhile Gemini itself is the best AI for live data and multi-modal capabilities.

Asking about fake events

Some AI chatbots have developed a reputation for just telling people what they want to hear, with little regard for facts and accuracy. So I attempted to ask Siri and Gemini about things that haven't happened yet, or never did happen, to see what the response would be.

First up was asking the winner of the World Cup in 2027, to which Siri informed me that the 2027 World Cup hasn't actually happened yet. I had failed to realize that the FIFA Women's World Cup is taking place next year, and obviously does not have a winner. Gemini also pointed out that the Rugby World Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup are happening next year too.

Only Gemini seemed to acknowledge the fact that the FIFA Men's World Cup has already happened, with Siri speaking about the tournament in the future tense.

When prompted about the 2030 Men's World Cup, both AIs pointed out that it hasn't happened yet. Due to a hearing mixup Siri also pointed out that there was no World Cup in 2013, and asked if I meant the 2014 or 2010 tournaments.

Struggling with logic puzzles

Interestingly both Siri and Gemini seemed to struggle with some logic puzzles I gave it. In particular with the riddle, "A mother had five boys Marco, Tucker, Webster and Thomas. Was the fifth boy's name Frank, Evan or Alex?"

The answer is Frank, because the four older boys share their first initial with the days of the week — meaning Frank corresponds to Friday. Siri was adamant that the fifth boy was named Thomas, because it misinterpreted the wording as saying "Thomas was the fifth boy's name." I ended up having to correct Siri, because it wouldn't let go of the fact that the fifth kid is supposed to be Frank.

Gemini got the correct answer, but went through some bizarre and incorrect logic in the process. It insisted the answer was Alex, but also realized that the boys' initials corresponded to days of the week. Gemini then went through a process of correcting itself automatically, and documenting everything its thought process into a single answer.

Then again they were both fine with other logic puzzles, and even recognized that I was trying to make them solve the Monty Hall problem without mentioning it by name. According to Siri and Gemini, your odds really are better if you switch your choice partway through the game, rather than sticking with your original choice. They weren't able to give me an answer for the Trolley Problem, though.

Overall impressions

While Siri AI is based on Google's Gemini models, there are a lot of differences in the way the two chatbots actually respond to questions. The main thing I noticed is that Siri was a lot faster to respond, and it had a preference for offering shorter and simpler responses.

In a lot of cases this might be preferable, because information overload is a very real thing. Similarly the fact Siri didn't mess about with bombarding me with information and immediately started calling emergency services when I claimed to be having a heart attack is a tactic that could save peoples' lives.

Gemini took a while to get most answers, even ones that should have been fairly easy, as though it was Googling every little thing it gave me. The answers it gave were often rather long and complicated, offering a huge amount of detail and explanation for every little thing. While this can be useful in certain situations, such as trying to cheat on my homework or being informed about London's driving tolls, it isn't necessary all the time. Less is more, as the saying goes.

Apple also seems to have Siri locked down on the morality side of things. It won't acknowledge any attempts to turn it into a romantic partner and it shoots down any questions that flirt with the wrong side of the law — even if you ask it as a hypothetical. The fact Gemini was so eager to help me smuggle sugar was a little disturbing, to be honest.

That said, I did like the fact that Gemini offered some kind of message telling you it was thinking. Siri was inconsistent with this, and there were times when Siri needed a little more time to figure things out and the screen ground to a halt. So I had no idea whether it was processing an answer or if it had crashed. Then again, Siri is still in beta, so these kinds of errors are to be expected.

More from Tom's Guide

• ‘We don’t want to overwhelm the consumer with AI’: why Samsung is taking a different approach with Galaxy Z Fold 8 launch
• Is the Apple Upgrade program a good deal or a rip-off? I asked ChatGPT to crunch the numbers and here's the verdict
• I tested Starlink-powered 4G on my phone — here's what actually happened in a dead zone

You can watch this article as a video on The Privacy Lab's YouTube channel.

Five billion dollars. That's how much Google agreed to pay after being caught tracking millions of users who thought they were browsing privately with Incognito mode. During the lawsuit, quotes from Google’s own employees emerged, calling Incognito "effectively a lie" and a "confusing mess."

Even Google's Chief Marketing Officer warned the CEO that they had to use "fuzzy, hedging language" because, in her own words, "it's not truly private."

I think Incognito mode is one of the most successful illusions in tech history. So, I'm going to strip it back to look at what Google Chrome actually does to protect your data, what Incognito mode completely fails to do, and the steps you can take to stay genuinely safe online.

Credit where it's due

It's important to be fair to Google here, even though it might feel a bit wrong: Chrome is actually a fairly secure web browser when it comes to keeping you safe from hackers and malware.

Importantly, it makes sure you use HTTPS, which encrypts the data that passes between your device and the websites you visit. This means that even if you connect to a dodgy Wi-Fi hotspot and someone is monitoring the connection, they can't steal your passwords or read your traffic. Plus, it warns you if you click on unencrypted HTTP links. Because Chrome and most other modern browsers do this, the classic "man in the middle" attack is very rare nowadays.

Chrome also features Secure DNS, as well as tab sandboxing. The latter isolates every browser tab so a malicious site can't jump to another and steal data. But the problem isn't Chrome's security. The problem is what happens when you click on Incognito.

What Incognito mode is good for

Incognito mode is not built for network stealth – it just keeps your browser tidy. When you open an Incognito tab, your browser stops recording some data. It doesn't save your activity in history, doesn't save auto-fills, and blocks third-party cookies

For example, if you're shopping for a birthday present or visiting… certain sites you'd rather not have saved in your history, Incognito mode works perfectly. It stops someone else who uses the same device from seeing what sites you've visited. However, this is exactly where its power ends.

Where Incognito fails

Everything falls apart the moment your data leaves your device – Incognito mode does nothing to hide your identity from the outside world. Your internet provider can still log the domain names you connect to, and if you're browsing on a work or school network, they can see every single site you visit.

Most worryingly, the websites you visit can still track you. They can record your real IP address, and if they use something like Google Analytics, they can instantly tie your "private" session to your existing digital profile.

In fact, following that massive lawsuit I mentioned earlier, Google had to change the official warning page in Chrome to explicitly admit this. It now reads: "This won't change how data is collected by websites you visit and the services they use, including Google."

Essentially, they had to confess on-screen that the data collection doesn't stop.

Is Incognito mode still worth using?

Whether you should use Incognito boils down to what you expect from it. If you care about what other people using your device can see, it's perfect. It's also great for logging into different email accounts, getting around article limits on news sites, or stopping your YouTube algorithm from being ruined because you wanted to watch one weird video.

However, Incognito does not give you any kind of meaningful digital privacy. For any entity that has control over your connection – notably your ISP, school, or workplace – there's no difference at all between using Incognito and rawdogging it with a logged-in Chrome tab.

It's the same story for the sites you visit. Your IP and any device identifiers are still available to see, so it's very easy to link this activity with anything else you've done online. At the end of the day, Incognito only hides your tracks from the person sitting next to you – not the rest of the world.

For genuine privacy, I recommend using tools that actually secure your connection. Use one of the best VPNs to hide your activity from your ISP and change your IP address, and consider switching to a browser like Brave or Firefox that blocks tracking by default. Ad and tracker blockers are also good – there are plenty available for free – and finally, keep everything updated, including Chrome. New releases address the most recent issues, so it's good to stay on top of this.

In short, it's certainly not in Google's best interest to provide you with a tool that strips away the possibility of data collection. There are still eyes behind the famous fedora and sunglasses – and they're always watching.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Summer is the season of the foldable; with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 already reviewed and Google slated for August, we turn our attention to the upcoming Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

A new leak from semi-retired tipster Evan Blass just revealed what appear to be marketing images that showcase Google's foldable smartphone from nearly every angle.

Take a look:

The images don't reveal any new specifications, save that the inner display will be 8 inches, similar to last year's Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It will also have Gemini Intelligence, which shouldn't be too surprising.

Blass' leaked images seem to match leaked renders that popped up in March, showing a phone that looks much the same as its predecessor.

The one strange change appears to be a new LED position in the upper left corner of the camera array. On the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, the flashlight and LED light are set to the right of the camera lenses.

I'm curious how this new integration will work with the cameras. It does make the camera array smaller and cleaner-looking.

Surprisingly, we haven't seen too many leaks for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. From everything that has popped up, don't expect too many exterior changes.

The biggest change will likely be an upgraded Tensor G6 chipset, which should be more powerful than the Tensor G5, which was a step up from the G4 but still lagged behind the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro.

The G6 chipset will reportedly be built using the 2nm manufacturing process, which means improved performance and efficiency thanks to increased transistor density.

Small look at the Pixel Watch 5 and Pixel Buds

Buried at the bottom of Blass' newsletter are two smaller leaks; single images showcase what appear to be the Pixel Watch 5 and a pair of Pixel Buds. It's not clear whether these are the Pro models.

Like the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, it seems Google isn't changing anything design-wise for its smartwatch. The big change might be a new Tensor chipset and some updated health features.

Pixel 11 Pro Fold release date and price

Earlier this month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported on an invite for the next Google Pixel event, which is set to take place in New York City on August 12 starting at 6 PM ET, a surprisingly late launch time.

Google phones typically hit store shelves about a week or two after events. The Pixel 9 was released on August 22, 2024, while the Pixel 10 hit on August 29, 2025. I expect a similar timeframe for the Pixel 11 series.

As for pricing, given the soaring cost of memory, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a price increase. The Pixel Pro has been set at $999 for the last three years, but another $100 or $200 price seems likely.

More from Tom's Guide

• 'I use AI, but I don't want AI making my choices': Tom's Guide readers sound off on Google AI search
• Google VPN was doomed from day one – how lack of trust meant it never had a chance
• Exclusive: Even Realities CEO slams Meta Ray-Bans — we 'don’t thrive on selling data’

Last week, I asked a simple question in my Beyond the Prompt newsletter: Is this the end of "Googling it?"

I argued that we're moving away from an internet where we discover information ourselves toward one where AI simply hands us an answer. My biggest concern is the long-term visibility of the web. If fewer people click through to the original reporting, reviews and research that AI depends on, who, or rather, what is creating the knowledge.

My inbox blew up!

I expected the responses to split neatly into two camps: people who love AI search and people who hate it. Instead, your emails revealed something much more interesting.

Almost nobody turned this into an AI-versus-Google debate. Instead, many of you argued that the problems with search started long before ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity arrived. That gave me pause. Maybe AI isn't replacing search because it's inherently better, but rather it's succeeding because traditional search had already become frustrating enough that people were ready for something different.

For many of you, Google is the real problem

One of the strongest themes running through your emails had very little to do with AI and everything to do with search.

"AI is not killing 'Googling it.' Google's endless push for profit is killing 'Googling it.'," write Bobbie L. "For some time now, search engines have been throwing up pages and pages of barely relevant links... It's like wading through an obstacle course of sales pitches for second-hand cars when all I wanted was research on safety."

Steve H. echoed that frustration in his email. "I do enjoy doing research on Google, but the amount of pop-up ads is now overwhelming. I understand ads pay the bills, but it has become the majority of screen time!"

That perspective resonated with me because it reframes the conversation. When the web becomes a minefield of SEO fluff, pop-ups and sponsored links, an AI-generated answer feels necessary.

AI shines when the question gets complicated

Several readers made another point I hadn't fully considered. Robert D. explained that AI lets him ask detailed, conversational questions instead of trying to guess the perfect combination of keywords.

"With an AI search, you can phrase the question with much more detail and you'll get an answer based on that... It's easy to expand on part of the response and get additional information. However, if you want a variety of opinions, then a search is usually the way to go."

Richard S. shared a similar view, saying he usually prefers "a summary and synthesis" because he's looking for information rather than preserving the original source.

Reading Robert's email made me realize AI isn't just faster than traditional search, but it does understand questions differently. Instead of trying to reverse engineer Google's algorithm, you can simply explain what you're trying to figure out. That means the first step feels like a conversation instead of a puzzle to get the right keywords.

But many of you don't want AI making your choices

Just as many readers pushed back.

"I prefer searching and making my own choices," Valerie G. wrote. "I use AI, but I don't want AI making my choices — or interrupting my plans while I'm searching the Web."

Rosita, who spent years working in medical administration, shared a similar philosophy. "I have never looked at a first study or the first option to address a decision. I totally agree and practice the scroll to more accurate studies and legitimate data."

Then there was Ellen S., whose email has stuck with me all week.

"I hate the increasingly prominent use of AI in searches," she wrote. "It is bland, makes assumptions about sources of information, and obliterates the process of creative and systematic thinking."

Reading Ellen and Rosita's emails reminded me that searching is just as much about comparing evidence, deciding which sources you trust and sometimes discovering information you weren't expecting to find.

That's something an AI summary, by design, can never fully replicate.

Was search ever fair to small creators and businesses?

Perhaps the email that challenged my thinking the most came from Steve W., who runs the website Miswired.me. He wrote: "How many typical website owners... actually ever hope to end up listed on the SERPs? Isn't that the logical fallacy part of this argument against AI?"

His point stopped me in my tracks.

My original argument assumed AI was taking traffic away from independent creators. But Steve pointed out that many independent creators never received much traffic from Google in the first place. If page one of Google was already dominated by giant publishers and SEO powerhouses, perhaps AI isn't disrupting a level playing field. Perhaps it's disrupting one that was already uneven.

I don't know the answer, but it's a perspective I hadn't seriously considered before reading his email.

What I took away from dozens of responses

After reading all of your responses (and yes, I read them all!), I think this comes down to trust. Some of you trust AI to synthesize information quickly and others prefer to trust yourself to evaluate multiple sources.

Most of you seem to fall somewhere in the middle, using AI for convenience while recognizing there are still times when nothing replaces reading the original reporting, comparing perspectives and making up your own mind.

What surprised me most was that almost everyone recognized the same underlying problem: finding trustworthy information online has become harder.

AI may not be the perfect solution, but for many people it's the first alternative that's made searching feel useful again.

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to write in. I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to challenge my thinking. Now I'd love to hear from even more of you.

Has AI changed the way you search the web over the past year? If so, has it made you more curious — or less likely to dig deeper than the first answer you receive?

More from Tom's Guide

• I just learned your Claude AI chats could show up in Google — here's how to check yours
• I searched Amazon for AI-written books — and it was much harder to spot them than I expected
• Jimothy the viral raccoon is 100% real — here's what's AI

You can watch this article as a video on The Privacy Lab's YouTube channel.

In October 2020, Google launched a virtual private network. Of course, this seemed out of character – one of the most data-hungry companies in the world whipping up a product to help people protect that exact commodity. But, on paper, Google VPN looked pretty good. It had a huge server network and because it came bundled with premium Google Drive plans, for many it was effectively "free." There were murmurings that it could even dethrone the big names that populate our guide to the best VPNs overall.

However, in April 2024, it was announced that the VPN was destined for the Google graveyard. By June, it was dead and buried.

As ZDNet reported, Google stated: "We're refocusing our efforts to support more in-demand features with Google One. To keep our subscription service fresh, we're discontinuing the VPN feature." In short, Google's reasoning was that people simply weren't using it.

But that was just a cover story.

A clash of philosophies

To understand Google VPN's issues, you have to look at the business model first. Effectively, Google is a data and advertising company. It makes money by tracking your searches, mapping your locations, and ultimately building a very specific profile around you to sell targeted ads.

However, VPNs are designed to stop exactly that. By encrypting your data, VPNs allow you to hide what you're doing from your internet provider, government, and any hackers on dodgy networks. By changing your IP address, they make it harder to build a profile from your activity. Naturally, people were skeptical of Google developing such a product.

To build trust, Google published white papers, open-sourced the apps, and even commissioned independent audits. For example, in its official technical white paper, Google laid out how hard it worked to protect your data, writing:

"By employing a cryptographic blind signing step between user authentication and connecting to the VPN, we give users a stronger guarantee that their network activity can't be tied back to their identity."

Cybersecurity firm NCC Group agreed, writing in its public report that it found the system to have "a robust implementation and a strong technical security posture."

The truth is that Google's VPN was very secure. But even with these stamps of approval, most of us struggled to look past the irony of asking an advertising giant to secure your web traffic. The audience looking for privacy didn't trust Google, and the audience that trusted Google didn't care about privacy.

A VPN limited by design

Perhaps more people trusted Google than I'm giving them credit for. But those that did use Google VPN found it was no match for established names like NordVPN, Proton VPN, or Mullvad. It couldn't compete because it only did half the job.

Most people want their VPN to change their virtual location. That might be to access regional sites like BBC iPlayer and watch more shows on Netflix, or maybe to avoid content restrictions in countries like Russia and China. Either way, it's a core feature of any good VPN.

However, even on its paid plan, Google VPN did not let you choose a country to connect to. Instead, when it was first launched, it only allocated you an IP address in your "broad" location. In reality, that often meant connecting to a server several states away. This ended up messing with things like weather reports and proved very annoying – especially for people who didn't really understand how VPNs work.

In 2023, Google addressed this by allowing you to use a "local" IP address nearer your real location, but there was still no true location choice. This decision was an absolute dealbreaker for millions of potential customers.

What's more, the app was seriously underpowered. It lacked things like protocol switching, dedicated IPs, port forwarding, obfuscation, or split tunneling. Plus, if you didn't have a Pixel phone, Google VPN didn’t even have a kill switch to block internet traffic if it crashed.

In short, it was half-baked. Anyone actively looking to buy a VPN realised pretty quickly that there were so many better options out there.

The fragmented ecosystem

You might have noticed that there are more than a few similarities between Google's VPN and another well-known privacy tool from a Big Tech company: Apple Private Relay. Really, they are – or were – exactly the same thing: a limited VPN bundled with cloud storage.

But there are a few key reasons why Google VPN failed spectacularly, and why Private Relay is still going strong. Buckle up – Google made all of this quite confusing.

There were in fact three different versions of Google VPN: Google One VPN (RIP), Google Fi Wireless VPN, and VPN by Google. The latter two still exist, both now called VPN by Google, but in reality they're two different bits of software. Notably, though, the now-dead Google One VPN was the only one available for anyone to buy. The others require Google hardware to use them.

Coverage at the time shows the disconnect. Initially, Google stated that it was shuttering the VPN because "people weren't using it." However, it was also announced that the VPN would live on in the form of the Pixel VPN. And that's not to mention Google Fi.

Confusing, right? Well, it doesn't stop there. If we consider each product separately, they all appear to have different purposes and different goals – and none seem properly integrated. Let's quickly have a look at these:

• Google One VPN: This is the one that died, the one I covered the most here at Tom's Guide, and probably the most-used version at the time. It was used as an incentive to convince users to buy more cloud storage, and the only version available without the purchase of a Google hardware product.
• Google Fi Wireless VPN: This VPN's purpose was to convince customers to switch their phone lines over to Google's cellular network, and was available with a Google Fi subscription.
• Pixel VPN: The Pixel VPN's goal was to increase physical phone sales. Essentially, Google wanted to offer perks to compete with the iPhone. This version was only available with the purchase of a Pixel 7 or newer phone.

Although there's no definitive proof, it appears that each team responsible for these three products was totally separate from the other. The three VPNs may even have run on completely different infrastructures.

Here's a clue that points that way: Google claims it shut down Google One VPN due to low usage – but this was arguably the most-used version of the three. If all three VPNs shared the same servers, why kill the most popular one for being underused, while Fi and Pixel carried on unaffected? It suggests, at the very least, that Google One VPN was built and run with little coordination with Google's other VPN ventures.

Even if we avoid conjecture entirely, the fact remains that in early 2024 you could own a Pixel phone, run it on Google Fi, and pay for a Google One cloud storage – meaning you'd have three different Google-branded VPNs competing for control over the exact same traffic.

Suffice to say, it seems Google wasn't quite as organised as you might expect one of the richest companies in the world to be.

The pivot to AI

Running a VPN is expensive. Thousands of servers in dozens of countries, tip-top security, and routing huge amounts of data takes a lot of cash.

For a company like NordVPN or ExpressVPN, these costs are justified because it's their entire business. For Google, it was a expense that wasn’t generating any revenue. No one was subscribing to Google One just for the VPN – it was just a "perk" that came with their cloud storage, which they probably didn't use.

Then, in early 2024, Google changed tack. AI was here. Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, celebrated a massive milestone on X, but his words betrayed the future of Google:

The writing was on the wall. The future of Google's subscription business didn't include tools like a VPN. It was going to be driven by artificial intelligence – and there was no reason to maintain an unpopular product that didn't line the coffers.

Bottom line

Ultimately, the collapse of Google VPN proves that privacy can't be treated as an afterthought. A successful VPN needs more than solid engineering – it demands an overall philosophy that isn’t compromised by a business model based around advertising and data collection. Google didn't fail because it lacked the technology. It failed because it lacked the trust.

Then, when the AI boom hit, the VPN was first on the chopping block. Google could no longer justify maintaining an expensive and underused infrastructure that actively protected your data – the commodity most valued by the tech giant. By killing the VPN, it cleared the path for Gemini and showed us exactly where Big Tech’s priorities lie.

But, for us, this was a win. Consumers sent a message that they refused to compromise on trust just for the convenience of a cheap bundle. You voted with your wallets, and Google had to listen.

We have contacted Google for comment. We await their reply.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

This will come as a surprise to absolutely no one, but journalism isn't exactly the most lucrative career.

Even with freelance work and side gigs, raising three kids in central New Jersey is expensive. Over the past few years, thrifting has gone from something I did occasionally to one of the ways our family stretches the budget. I've picked up everything from furniture and dishes to kids' clothes — and when my son broke his ankle last fall, I even found a pair of crutches at a thrift store instead of paying full price.

The problem is that thrifting isn't always cheap if you're doing it inefficiently. I've spent entire Saturday mornings driving from store to store only to come home empty-handed. Other times I've found something that looked like a great deal, only to wonder later if I'd actually overpaid.

Lately, though, I've started leaning on Google's AI tools before and during thrift runs, and they've genuinely made the experience easier. They won't magically guarantee you'll find the perfect vintage lamp or designer jacket, but they can help you decide where to shop, identify what you've found and even figure out whether something in your own house is worth selling.

Here are the Google AI features I actually use—and why they've earned a permanent spot in my thrifting routine.

1. I use AI Mode to plan before I ever leave the house

One of the biggest mistakes I used to make was treating every thrift store the same. But that's not true at all! Some locations are packed with furniture. Others are better for kids' clothes, kitchenware or home decor. Without knowing which is which, I'd end up wasting time and gas bouncing between stores.

Now I start with Google's AI Mode in Search. That means, instead of typing simple keywords, I ask it questions the way I'd ask a friend. AI Mode pulls together recommendations, highlights nearby stores and links to additional information so I can decide where it's actually worth going.

No, it can't tell me exactly what's sitting on the shelves that day. But it gives me a much better starting point than guessing.

For example:

• "Which thrift stores near me usually have the best furniture?"
• "Where can I find affordable kids' sports equipment?"
• "Which thrift stores are worth visiting if I'm looking for home décor instead of clothes?"

2. Google Lens helps me figure out whether I found a hidden gem

If I spot an interesting serving dish, vintage picture frame, coffee maker or jacket, I'll snap a quick photo using Lens. Within seconds I can usually see similar items online, identify the brand or learn more about what I'm holding. Sometimes it confirms that I'm looking at something valuable. Other times it tells me I'm about to spend $15 on something that's selling for $12 everywhere else.

Either way, it's nice having a second opinion before heading to the checkout. That's where Google Lens has become incredibly useful.

If you've ever thrifted, you've probably had that moment where you pick something up and think:

"This feels expensive... but I have absolutely no idea."

3. Circle to Search helps me hunt down things I already know I want

Sometimes my thrift trips start long before I walk into a store.

I'll see a piece of furniture, a jacket or a lamp while scrolling online and think, I'd love something like that — but not at that price.

Instead of trying to remember the name or manually searching for similar products later, I use Circle to Search.

I simply circle the item on my Android phone and Google pulls up visually similar products, pricing information and related styles.

That gives me a better idea of what I'm actually looking for before I head to thrift stores. If I know the brand or style, it's much easier to recognize it when I eventually spot one in person.

4. Virtual Try-On takes some of the guesswork out of vintage shopping

Buying secondhand clothing can be tricky because sizing is all over the place. A vintage size 12 might fit like today's size 6, and plenty of online thrift listings don't offer returns. Google's Virtual Try-On lets you upload a full-body photo and see how supported clothing items might look on you before you buy.

I wouldn't use it as the final word on whether something fits perfectly, but it's a surprisingly fun way to decide whether a particular style is actually something I'd wear, or whether it just looked good on someone else.

5. Lens also helped me realize what was worth selling

One unexpected benefit of using Google Lens is that it works just as well on things you already own.

Every family eventually accumulates items that end up sitting in closets, basements or garages. Before automatically donating them, I'll sometimes scan them with Lens to see whether they're worth anything.

Sometimes the answer is no. But occasionally I'll discover that an older appliance, collectible or piece of furniture has more resale value than I expected.

That means I can decide whether to donate it, list it online or trade it in at a local resale shop — all with a little more confidence.

AI won't replace the thrill of thrifting — but it can make it smarter

Apparently I'm not the only person embracing secondhand shopping. According to Google Trends, searches for "how to thrift" reached an all-time high this year. Interest in "how to thrift online" has also surged, while searches for everything from vintage desks and sports jerseys to thrifted wedding dresses continue to climb.

That doesn't surprise me. When prices seem to go up every time I walk into a store, finding quality items secondhand feels less like a hobby and more like a smart financial decision.

Google's AI isn't going to uncover hidden treasure for you, that part still comes down to patience and a little luck. But after working these tools into my own routine, I spend less time driving to the wrong stores, make more informed buying decisions and feel more confident about what I'm bringing home.

For a busy family trying to stretch every dollar a little further, that's a win I'll happily take.

More from Tom's Guide

• I just learned your Claude AI chats could show up in Google — here's how to check yours
• I searched Amazon for AI-written books — and it was much harder to spot them than I expected
• Jimothy the viral raccoon is 100% real — here's what's AI

At a glance

• The Conflict: Even Realities CEO Will Wang is calling out Meta and Google for forcing cameras onto smart glasses just to collect training data for future AI models.
• The Counter-Strategy: Even Realities' G1 and G2 smart glasses intentionally omit cameras and speakers, focusing instead on a text-based ambient HUD that prioritizes privacy, weight, and battery life.
• The Escalation: Even Realities has scaled its engineering team from 20 to nearly 400 people, gearing up to challenge Big Tech’s wearable AI dominance directly with its upcoming G3 hardware.

While Silicon Valley races to strap cameras, speakers and multimodal surveillance tools onto our faces, one smart glasses maker is picking a fight direct with Big Tech’s entire playbook.

Meta, Google and Snap want you to believe that a front-facing camera is essential for the future of AI wearables. Apple’s even rumored to be jumping in on this too. But according to Will Wang, Founder and CEO of Even Realities, their camera obsession isn’t about giving you a better device today — it’s about harvesting your personal life to train their future AI models.

Following a major $1 billion valuation round, I sat down with Wang to talk about the design choices behind the Even Realities G2 smart glasses. His message to the tech giants was loud, clear and strikingly defiant.

Editor's note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The ‘endgame’ trap

If you ask Meta why the Ray-Ban Meta glasses feature an ultra-wide camera, they will point to visual AI — the ability for your glasses to see what you see and help in real-time.

Wang sees this differently. In his view, companies like Meta and Google are letting their long-term corporate ambitions spoil their current hardware.

"When you look at the strategies of Snap, Google, or Meta, their long-term vision often overly influences their current generation of products," Wang explained. "For Google and Meta, they include a camera because they believe visual data will be crucial for AI in the future, and to reach that endgame, they need to enable visual capabilities and start gathering data now."

The result? Heavy, power-hungry devices designed for future data gathering rather than present-day wearability.

"I feel these larger companies let their endgame thinking dictate their current products instead of focusing on making the perfect product for the present moment," Wang noted. "For a hardware company, it is crucial that each generation does not sell a dream or an expectation, but sells the product as it is."

‘We thrive on making good products, not selling data’

Even Realities took the opposite path with its glasses — completely stripping away cameras and speakers, and opting for a discreet heads-up display that delivers notifications, teleprompting, navigation and live conversation summaries in your field of view.

When I asked Wang if a camera prototype was ever on the table during internal testing, he shut the idea down immediately.

"From day one, even with the first-generation G1, we never had a camera," Wang said. "We feel that, at the current moment with the capability of AI, adding a camera onto a pair of glasses definitely introduces many more downsides than upsides."

Beyond the obvious hardware penalties (added weight, larger size and worse battery life), Wang pointed directly to the ethical and regulatory landmines that Big Tech seems content to ignore.

"The guardrails and regulations around how to properly use visual data with smart glasses have not been established," Wang pointed out. "So, we feel it's too early, too risky, and has too little upside for a company like ours that does not thrive on selling data. We thrive on making good products and making a profit from those products, so a camera was never in the discussion."

Instead of overpromising an invasive sci-fi feature set, Even Realities focused on what actually works today: crisp, text-based ambient computing that keeps you present in the real world without creeping out the people around you.

David vs. Goliath: the battle for G3

It’s easy to dismiss a startup taking anti-camera ideological stances against multi-trillion-dollar titans. But Even Realities is no longer just a niche player catering to early adopters.

While the original G1 was built by a scrappy skeleton crew, the company’s massive recent funding round has allowed them to quietly build a massive engineering war machine to prepare for their next generation of hardware: the Even Realities G3.

"To give you some context, when we built G1, our team was only 20 to 30 people," Wang revealed. "For G2, we had about 70 to 80 people... Now, for G3, we have 300 to 400 people globally working laser-focused on this single product line."

That headcount puts Even Realities on a similar dedicated engineering scale to the smart glasses divisions that Apple, Meta or Google have — but with one massive structural advantage. While Big Tech giants split their resources across dozens of spatial computing projects, AR headsets and ad platforms, Wang’s team is focused solely on perfecting one lightweight, ambient device.

"We are on the radar of a lot of these bigger players; they are already buying our products and trying to analyze our roadmap," Wang said with a smile. "We really need to accelerate faster than before, and this round of fundraising actually gives us that. We are very confident."

The war is on

The smart glasses war is dividing into two distinct camps. On one side, Meta and Google want to turn your face into a sensor array to fuel their AI algorithms. On the other, Even Realities wants to give you a clean, distraction-free HUD that respects your privacy and actually looks like a normal pair of glasses.

If Will Wang has his way with the upcoming G3, the winner of the smart glasses revolution won’t be the company that records the most video of your daily life — it will be the one that lets you look the world in the eye without a camera watching back.

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There’s such an abundance of apps that can be connected to most of the AI tools you regularly use.

With ChatGPT, its library of plugins covers the gamut of helping one tackle tasks aimed at productivity, creativity, developer tools, business & operations and more. Claude and Perplexity offer their own collection of “Connectors” that incorporate the direct usage of third-party tools that make your personal and professional life more manageable.

I’ve already experimented with my fair share of those plugins and Connectors—they’ve all proven to me that being able to create a music playlist based on how I’m feeling, find the sort of podcasts that appeal to my hobbies & interests and check if an email is a scam are just a sample size of the great things they can do. In the case of Google Gemini, I hold it in high regard among today’s AI tools since it's directly accessible as a side panel within Google Workspace. And I love how you connect your Workspace account to the Gemini app to accomplish tasks in a quicker, more efficient manner.

With these seven prompts, I’ve built a system that allows me to make the most of Gemini’s Workspace collaboration and be all the more productive for it.

Gemini is now a central part of my Google Workspace activities

Connecting your Google Workspace apps to Gemini is as simple as signing into your Google account, heading into your “Settings” in Gemini (it’s the gear icon at the bottom left of the screen next to your account name) and clicking on “Activity” to make sure the “Keep Activity” toggle is turned on. Then go back to your Settings, select “Connected Apps” and toggle on the option for connecting your Google Workspace apps.

With Gemini’s help, I generated 7 prompts that handle all manner of tasks I present it with across Gmail and Google Docs. And most times, I click on the neon-colored Gemini icon across both apps to open its sidebar and do my prompting from there.

Other times, I access my Gmail and Docs directly through the Gemini app by using the “@” sign to mention specific emails and documents:

• The Inbox Tamer (Gmail): Summarize this email thread into three to five short bullet points.
• The Unread Inbox Triage (Gmail): Summarize my unread emails over the last [timeframe]. Give me a bulleted list of the core updates and flag any direct questions or urgent action items I need to handle today.
• The Thread Decoder (Gmail): Review the long email thread in @Gmail with the subject "[subject line]". Give me a bulleted summary of the final consensus, and list out any remaining open questions.
• The Cross-Referencing Meeting Prep (Gmail and Docs): Look at the meeting agenda in @Docs titled "[name of document]". Then, check @Gmail for any recent updates from [colleague's name] about this project. What outstanding issues do I need to bring up in the meeting?
• The Meeting Prepper (Docs): Give me a briefing for my meeting today by summarizing the key points from this document and tell me the top questions I should be prepared to answer.
• The Brain-Dump to Structured Outline (Gmail): Take the rough notes from my email draft titled "[draft name]" in @Gmail and turn them into a structured outline for a project brief. Use clear headings for Objectives, Deliverables, and Next Steps.
• The Brutal Editor (Gemini): I need to send an email to [recipient name]. I've drafted it here: [paste draft]. Edit this to be 50% shorter, keeping only the essential information and a clear call to action. Remove conversational filler like 'I hope this finds you well.'

The takeaway

Gemini comes in clutch during those moments when I need a bit of clarification about my next assignment, meeting and actions to take from an important set of emails. It took me a while to get used to seeing that bright Gemini icon sitting atop my Gmail and Docs. But after giving Google’s AI tool an assortment of tasks, it turned out to be more of a reliable assistant than I expected. Applying those aforementioned Gemini prompts to your Gmail- and Docs-related duties should also prove equally beneficial.

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It’s hard to remember a time before the Cast icon. It’s only been 13 since the debut of the Google Chromecast, but it's one of the most universally known icons in the world of tech. It's so ubiquitous that you can't go more than a few minutes without seeing the logo on a smartphone or tablet.

I watched the rise — and inevitable fall — of the Chromecast over the last decade-and-a-half as Tom’s Guide’s Managing Editor and TechRadar’s Senior TV Editor, and to commemorate its 13th birthday I’m throwing together a short retrospective on the device.

While it hasn’t lived on in its original form, Chromecast has left a legacy — and a technology platform — that continues to thrive on modern smart TVs. Here’s what you need to know (and what I can remember) about the streaming dongle that changed the tech landscape forever.

The origins of the Chromecast

The Chromecast wasn’t the first streaming stick on the market. That honor belongs to the Roku Streaming Stick that was released in 2012. But the Chromecast wasn’t trying to be just another player — in fact, not being a player at all is what made it so different.

The original Chromecast, by design, didn’t have a UI. It was simply a tool that could accept incoming links from a phone or tablet living on the same wireless network. With no remote, Google could sell this innocuous-looking piece of cutting-edge technology for just $35.

And sell it did — the first batch of models was snapped up by Google devotees.

According to an excellent write-up from Fast Company in 2019, Chromecast is the brainchild of Google’s Majd Bakar. Apparently the story goes that then-product manager Rishi Chandra’s wife and Majd Bakar’s wife would sit in front of their TVs with laptops watching YouTube videos. When asked why they didn’t just play them on the TV instead, Chandra’s wife said “It’s just too much of a pain.” Bakar, a Google engineer at the time, and Chandra then set off to make what would become the Chromecast in 2012, first as a side project, but later as a full-time job.

The evolution of the Chromecast

Reviewers (our own Marshall Honorof included) liked the form factor, but had qualms about its usability.

In our original Chromecast review, we lauded its easy setup, but said that it was limited in its functionality compared to the competition — a fair, but cutting critique of a device that wanted to break the mold.

Google thankfully didn’t let a few critical reviews stop it from innovating on the product: We got the Chromecast 2 with a circular design in 2015 alongside the ill-fated Chromecast Audio and my personal favorite, the Chromecast Ultra, in 2016.

In my review for TechRadar, I called the Chromecast Ultra “exceptionally smart, powerful and fast” and “hard to find a device that offers as much as Chromecast Ultra for the price.”

By this time the Chromecast Ultra was under siege on all sides from both cheaper streaming sticks like the newly released Amazon Fire TV Stick and more competent high-end devices like the Apple TV HD.

Google would eventually fire back with a third-generation Chromecast in 2018 and the oblong Chromecast with Google TV in 2020, but by this time streaming sticks were out of vogue. The era of the smart TV had begun, and with its dawning, the need for a dedicated smart streaming stick had dissipated.

The legacy of the Chromecast

Google finally killed off the Chromecast line in 2024 and while the hardware may no longer be in production, its software lives on: Google was so successful in the creation of Google Cast, the wireless communication protocol for the Chromecast, that we’re still using the functionality 13 years later in modern smart TV platforms.

In 2026, almost every major smart TV platform comes with Google Cast functionality built in. (One of the last holdouts, Samsung, officially added it to its Tizen smart TV platform earlier this year.) You can still find a few outliers like Roku OS and Amazon’s Fire TV platform that don’t support it but, by and large, Google Cast is now the universal screen sharing standard. That is a monumental legacy for a $35 streaming stick to leave behind.

As for what comes next for Google's TV division, it’s hard to say. The company released the Google TV Streamer 4K, a more expensive competitor to the Roku Ultra, in 2024, but it’s yet to see the same level of adoption as the Chromecast did a decade ago.

While it's sad that we'll likely never see another one, the legacy the Chromecast leaves behind cements it as one of the best streaming devices ever made.

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There’s a whole lot to be excited about if you’ve been using Samsung’s signature lineup of smartphones.

With all the news emanating from this year’s Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, it’s easy to see why — there’s a multitude of brand new smartphone models on the way with a host of Android-powered features that push its capabilities beyond the ones you’ve owned thus far. The unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Fold8, and Flip8 showcased the consumer electronics company’s penchant for releasing some of the most impressive smartphones on the market.

And as expected, Samsung is tapping into the Google Android ecosystem to bring new forms of AI integration to its newest smartphones. Gemini Intelligence and Gemini Notebook (formerly known as NotebookLM) will be a major part of your daily reliance on Samsung’s latest mobile devices, as they look to help you finish your everyday chores, handle extensive research and more.

Gemini Intelligence and Gemini Notebook inside Samsung’s latest phones

Task automation is the central theme when talking about what Gemini Intelligence is bringing to the new Samsung smartphone lineup.

While in beta, Gemini Intelligence could fulfill certain requests, such as ordering takeout or requesting a rideshare, through direct support from a group of apps. Now those day-to-day life tasks that you can relegate to Gemini Intelligence are getting even more app assistance, now that more than 40 apps have become compatible with that AI feature. Asking Gemini to order an item from Etsy is now possible, along with a host of other simple tasks — buying concert tickets, making dinner reservations and booking flights are among the many ways this new AI feature will improve your Samsung smartphone experience.

Gemini will also be able to see and understand what's on your screen as it acknowledges your requests and recognizes complex images as prompts. Plus, you’ll be able to open other apps, close your phone or follow the step-by-step progress of Gemini’s work while it attempts to complete your command. It’s worth noting that you can expand upon your latest prompt with an additional detail, which Gemini has no problem incorporating into its current task. Simply long-pressing the Flex Window’s power button on the Galaxy Z Flip8 lets you quickly access Gemini’s task automation feature.

As for what Gemini Notebook is bringing to the latest Samsung foldable smartphone collection, this AI tool will come pre-installed. Working with those models’ side-by-side screen as a mini-workspace is now possible with Notebook’s ability to answer questions about the topic you’re researching and the sources connected to that subject. And just like its desktop version, Notebook’s mobile iteration will integrate your uploaded documents, photos, whiteboard images, voice recordings and more into your research projects. Notebook’s chat functionality can take your research and transform it into different forms of study material, such as slide decks, videos, flash cards, quizzes and a podcast.

To give owners of the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Fold8 and Flip8 a peek into just how useful Notebook’s AI features can be, Samsung is giving them all a six-month trial of Google AI Pro on those phones. That subscription comes with even more useful Notebook features, which include Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, Slides, and more.

Other pieces of Samsung gear, such as the Galaxy Watch 9 and intelligent eyewear developed alongside major brands such as Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, will also come with their own Gemini-powered features.

Bottom line

With a newly announced array of foldable smartphones that make great use of Gemini Intelligence and Gemini Notebook, its users will be sure to grow accustomed to handling life’s simpler tasks and more complex ones with both AI tools at their disposal. Making one’s daily routine just a little less of a headache and more easily manageable with Google’s AI features makes Samsung’s newest smartphones a worthwhile pickup.

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If you've ever looked at Google Maps while you're driving and thought to yourself, "why can't this app track my speed too?" then you're in luck. It seems Google is now starting to roll out live speedometer support to Google Maps for Android Auto, and I have to admit that it's about time too.

Part of me is surprised that it's taken Google Maps so long to implement this feature on Android Auto. After all, the app is constantly following your vehicle for its navigation, and I can't imagine being able to monitor and display a rough speed estimate would be too much extra work.

What's even weirder is that Google Maps added a speedometer on its CarPlay app back in 2024, and it's been available on Waze for as long as I can remember. You'd have thought Google would prioritize its own primary platform, right? But that clearly wasn't the case.

I distinctly remember this feature was widely available on a multitude of pre-smartphone GPS units, and it was always interesting to see how much of a difference there was. The GPS typically had my speed a few miles per hour slower than the car itself, though in the interest of not being bombarded with enough tickets to lose my license I generally stuck with what the car had to say.

Then again, you need to remember that Google Maps took years to roll out support for speed limits and speed camera alerts — which happened back in 2019. So it's no surprise that some of these smaller features, like a GPS speedometer, haven't been top of the list of priorities.

Still reports suggest that it is rolling out, even if it hasn't reached my devices in the UK— which are running beta versions of Google Maps and Android Auto. Users on Reddit have reported seeing the speedometer in their vehicles, with screenshots from Canada and India.

The Canadian user is specifically running version 26.29.02.946673643 of the Google Maps beta. That's the same version as me, though I am sadly missing this particular feature.

Do you see the speedometer in Android Auto yet? Let us know in the comments.

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It's National AI Day, which probably feels like a made-up holiday, especially if you're a..bee? Let me explain. As AI gradually becomes part of everyday life and millions of us use ChatGPT for dozens of reasons, it's important to understand why this day of awareness might be better spent considering the environmental impacts of AI that reach far beyond the walls of a data center.

Researchers at the University of Sydney say the rapid growth of AI is driving a surge in electricity demand, and if that electricity comes from fossil fuels, the resulting emissions could contribute to climate change in ways that threaten one of the world's most important pollinators: bees.

The growing energy demands of AI could contribute to climate warming, which in turn puts additional stress on bee populations. Simply put: less bees, more expensive food.

Here's what the research found.

Why AI uses so much electricity

Traditional internet searches already require large data centers to process and return results. Generative AI adds another layer of computation.

According to the study, generating an AI response can require significantly more computing power than a conventional web search, meaning each interaction uses more electricity. As AI adoption accelerates, so does the demand for new data centers capable of supporting those workloads.

The International Energy Agency has also projected that electricity consumption from data centers will more than double by the end of the decade, with AI expected to account for a substantial share of that growth.

That doesn't automatically translate into higher emissions. It depends on how those facilities are powered. Data centers running on renewable energy have a much smaller carbon footprint than those relying on electricity generated from coal or natural gas.

What bees have to do with AI

Bees are surprisingly sensitive to temperature. Even relatively small increases in average temperatures can affect their ability to reproduce, survive and pollinate crops. Previous research has shown that heat stress can reduce sperm viability in male bees, increase mortality during development and make colonies more vulnerable to parasites and disease.

The University of Sydney researchers modeled how emissions from AI-related electricity use could contribute to future warming. Their estimates suggest the additional warming could be enough to place millions of bees under increased heat stress each year.

The study looks at the cumulative effect of billions of AI requests, expanding data-center infrastructure and the emissions associated with powering those systems over time.

Why this matters to your wallet and food on your plate

Bees pollinate many of the fruits, vegetables and nuts that people eat every day. When bee populations decline, agriculture becomes more vulnerable. Lower pollination rates can reduce crop yields, increase food prices and disrupt ecosystems that depend on healthy pollinator populations.

Researchers estimate that pollinators contribute billions of dollars in agricultural value every year, making their health an environmental and economic concern.

The researchers argue that the bigger issue isn't AI itself but how it's powered. Many of the world's largest technology companies are investing heavily in renewable-powered data centers, advanced battery storage and more efficient cooling systems to reduce emissions. At the same time, chip manufacturers continue to improve the energy efficiency of AI hardware, allowing newer systems to perform more work using less electricity.

There's also growing interest in smaller AI models that can run directly on laptops or smartphones instead of relying entirely on cloud-based servers, reducing the need for massive centralized computing resources for some tasks.

These changes won't eliminate AI's environmental footprint, but they could significantly reduce it over time.

The takeaway

For most people, the environmental impact of an occasional AI prompt is extremely small. The researchers aren't suggesting consumers stop using AI altogether. But this is a cautionary tale. The study highlights a broader challenge facing the technology industry: making sure the infrastructure powering AI grows in a sustainable way.

As AI becomes integrated into everything from search engines to smartphones, the environmental cost will increasingly depend on decisions made by technology companies, energy providers and policymakers.

The takeaway here is that the future of AI depends on building smarter models while also powering them responsibly

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This is very much not Google Glass 2.0. Google is entering the AI smartglasses arena this fall to go up against Meta (and whatever Apple is cooking), and it’s partnering with Samsung, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to make “Intelligent Eyewear” powered by Android XR.

As you might expect, Gemini is the headline feature. Having a smart assistant as your literal eyes has the potential to help you get a lot done on the go without having to constantly whip out your phone. But Juston Payne, who leads the product management team for XR at Google, also knows that the smart glasses category is fraught with controversy, especially over how to handle recording in public and user privacy.

“If people don't feel comfortable wearing these glasses, and privacy is part of this, they just won't wear the glasses. It’s as simple as that,” Payne said.

I had a chance to sit down with Payne to discuss these issues and a lot more ahead of the Intelligent Eyewear launch, including how to design for the masses, the roadmap to built-in displays and the totally separate Android XR spatial computing glasses coming from Xreal this year.

The lessons of Google Glass

Anyone old enough to remember the original Google Glass from 2012 probably remembers them for embarrassing reasons.

For me, my mind instantly goes to that infamous photo of Robert Scoble in the shower, which became a symbol for the device’s voyeuristic dangers. And then there’s that SNL Weekend Update bit, during which Fred Armisen lampooned how difficult the interface was to use.

I asked Payne directly about the lessons of Google Glass, and he admits that they were ahead of their time.

“The trouble was that the vision was good, but the reality was that the tech just wasn't quite there yet,” Payne said.

He cites three reasons for the Google Glasses flop that Intelligent Eyewear hopes to get right. First was the nerdy form factor. They didn’t really look like regular glasses. There was also a lack of content, which you now get with Android XR. And the third thing is versatility, which AI brings to the table.

“So there were these huge building blocks missing,” Payne said, “Hardware, platform, AI.”

And that brings us to the present…

What does Intelligent Eyewear do?

For the first round of Intelligent Eyewear, the glasses will be audio-only. Glasses with single and dual displays will be coming later, though Google will start offering a trusted tester program sometime this year.

In the meantime, the glasses coming this year from Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker will leverage Android XR to (hopefully) make your day easier by having Gemini always at the ready.

“Gemini can take your personal context — we call it personal intelligence — and then it can start feeding that into your experience,” Payne said. “These glasses are designed to give you ambient assistance throughout the day while keeping you connected to your digital world and the real world.”

For example, because Gemini has personal intelligence built in, it knows you, and you can ask about what’s on your calendar, the score of a sports game or a random fact.

“Just having a real-time conversational interface all day long is incredibly valuable for a lot of people,” Payne continued. For example, when Payne is driving with Intelligent Eyewear on he can ask about other podcasts Gemini might recommend based on the one he’s currently listening to and do it on the fly.

Payne cited a couple other major use cases for Intelligent Eyewear. The first is navigation, such as looking up a local restaurant that might be good around you.

“The audio experience for that is fantastic,” Payne said. “It uses the camera to localize you, so it knows that you're pointing in the right direction. It can give you contextual navigation to help you get to where you're going without being vague, you know, like ‘turn right there.’”

Translation is another potential killer app for Intelligent Eyewear, promising a quick “UN translator experience.” And when you’re cooking you can get step-by-step instructions even without a display.

But Payne argues that display glasses are nice to have as opposed to a must-have, such as seeing that your upcoming turn is 300 feet away.

“We think of the display more as almost an augmentation to the audio experience rather than something that is a hard dependency in many cases,” Payne said.

Design first, features second

Anyone who has been paying attention to the smart glasses market knows that there’s a sliding scale of geekiness. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses and Meta Glasses look very much like regular sunglasses or glasses. But the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses are bulkier, and the even more ambitious Snap Specs look pretty geeky with their extra-wide frames.

For Google, the approach is pretty simple: they have to be great glasses first.

“We lead with design and then we ask the question ‘what can you make within the constraints of a great design?’” Payne said. “Can we make a product that is genuinely valuable for people so that if they walk out of their house and they forgot them, they'll actually go back and get them?”

The early design from Gentle Monster has chic oval-shaped lenses that wouldn’t look out of place on a runway, while the Warby Parker design is a bit chunkier and more retro. They both feature dual cameras, but they look a bit more discreet on the Gentle Monster specs.

Google doesn’t seem willing to push the limits and risk the sort of backlash the Snap Specs have been getting for their overtly techy look.

“If you make a product that provides really novel new experiences, people might be willing to tolerate a design that has some larger compromises. I think it's great that people are out there testing that theory. It's just not the approach that Google's taking. We're really leading with design,” Payne said.

Major privacy landmines — and what Google is doing about it

By now you’ve probably heard some of the horror stories coming out of the Meta glasses camp around privacy concerns, including a woman who discovered her esthetician was wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses at a European Wax Center in Manhattan. And 404 Media reported on how men were wearing the glasses to covertly film massage parlor workers.

Then there’s the black market that sprung up around disabling the LEDs on Meta glasses so that others don’t know that you’re recording. Meta recently attempted to close this loophole with a software update that automatically disables the cameras if the LED has been tampered with or destroyed.

It’s safe to say that Google is walking into a minefield of privacy concerns, but the company has a plan to address them.

“If people don't feel comfortable wearing these glasses, and privacy is part of this, they just won't wear the glasses. It’s as simple as that,” Payne said.

To help combat some of the concerns people have about these issues, Google is starting by making sure that Intelligent Eyewear users are signaling to the people around them when they are recording and that the LED is accurate.

Payne told us that Google will share more details later this year around how they ensure this accuracy, but the bottom line is that the light should be on if whatever you’re recording or shooting can be reviewed later.

Google will also be employing Android permission frameworks to help protect users, as well as other security and privacy techniques already on your phone.

Lastly, Google is “investing to make it so that the hardware itself holds up,” Payne said. “So if people try to mess around with it somehow, we have ways of detecting that.”

Google vs. Meta vs. Apple

Launching in 2023 and with over 9 million units sold already, it’s fair to say that Meta has had a pretty big head start with its Ray-Ban glasses and other eyewear, but Google is pretty confident that it can make a splash in what is still a pretty nascent market.

I asked Juston directly about his largest competitor and he told me that “Meta’s doing a great job” with “very nice glasses.” But while the Meta glasses are good for things like photos, videos, calls and music, Google is taking a different approach with Gemini front and center.

“We think a lot about moments throughout the day. And these moments throughout the day are really the things that are driving our approach to the platform. ‘How does Gemini show up in glasses? What kinds of hooks are we making from Gemini into apps? How are apps making themselves available to Gemini? So so much of our thinking is about versatility.”

That thinking includes making things super easy for developers to get their apps running in Android XR, while Meta’s app ecosystem is still fairly skimpy.

“The platform will know if their app, which is running on the phone, is talking to audio glasses or glasses with a display, and it'll tailor that app experience for it,” Payne said. “So that means that developers really only build once. They just build an Android app, and then we take care of the rest.”

Payne also is acutely aware of the fact that Apple is working on its own Apple Glasses, which will likely debut in 2027. And it will be taking the same vertically oriented approach it has with all of its other products: Apple’s own design. Apple’s software. Apple’s ecosystem.

“Apple has a very strong track record,” Payne said, “and I think that one thing that Apple has always done well is that they play to their strengths. I would expect that they'll keep doing that. And I'm sure that they'll provide very real competition for everybody else playing in the space.”

The difference between what Google is doing with Android XR and Intelligent Eyewear and what Apple is doing is that Google is building a multi-partner platform, while Apple is focusing on making a product.

“So each time that these categories come along, Google makes a platform and there's a lot of value. Google's a partnership company. And as you look through when we've done best, it's when we partner.”

At the same time Payne shared that Google has a lot of “skin in the game” with its first-party apps, including Gemini, Google Maps and Google Translate.

Despite being a fierce Apple competitor, Google is working hard to make sure that Intelligent Eyewear devices work well with the iPhone, though there will be some platform-level restrictions the company may not be able to work around.

Aura farming

Google’s partnerships extend to companies like Xreal, an early pioneer in the smart glasses space, and they are collaborating on spatial computing glasses that attempt to squish pretty much all the functionality of the Samsung Galaxy XR headset into a pair of fairly sleek specs.

However, while Intelligent Eyewear works with your Android phone or iPhone, the Xreal Aura are wired glasses that connect to a computing puck. Coming this fall, the glasses promise an immersive see-through display and AI assistance from Gemini.

You can work across multiple virtual monitors, experience over 100 apps made for XR, enjoy a private cinema anywhere for watching 3D movies and more. Think Apple Vision Pro but in a design you might actually want to wear. But there’s some trade-offs versus headsets, like a narrower field of view.

For example, the Xreal Aura has a 70° Diagonal FOV, compared to 109° horizontal and 100° vertical for the Galaxy XR.

“Some people would say, ‘hey, I'm okay actually giving up some of that,’” Payne told me. “I need to keep the core value, but I'm okay with giving up some of that so that I can take it with me more easily.”

Will smart glasses replace phones?

If smart glasses like Google’s Intelligent Eyewear are designed to help you use your phone less often, will there be a tipping point where the vast majority of people leave their phone behind?

For Payne, that’s not happening anytime soon.

“The phone is here to stay,” Payne said. “Phones are incredibly powerful. They have a user interface to them that is well adopted and highly robust. I'm not so sure that there's even a great reason to get rid of the phone, even if you could.”

The true benefit of smart glasses — at least for now — is that they allow you to be less distracted. How many times have you opened your phone to respond to a notification only to find yourself knee deep in some other app?

“Glasses can fit into your experience throughout the day by adding a lot of value on top. It'll shift some of the minutes that you’re spending on the phone to the glasses, which have all these nice benefits because you can then stay more present with what you're doing.”

We’ll be keeping a close eye on Intelligent Eyewear and will bring you our full reviews once we have a chance to test out Google’s Android XR platform — and its partner’s designs.

Google has confirmed that the Pixel 11 will launch on August 12, at a special event in New York, but you won't need to wait that long to find out everything. Google is notorious for leaking more than a porcupine's swimsuit, and the latest information to spill out possibly revealed full specs, pricing and colors.

The leak itself came from Amazon of all people (via 9to5Google), and while the retailer features a bunch of third-party sellers it seems the now-deleted listings came from Amazon itself. This means that there is a chance all of this information is bogus, though Amazon could just as easily have published information too early by accident.

The Pixel 11 was listed as coming in three colors: Obsidian, Hibiscus and Pistachio. However, descriptions instead label those shades as Midnight, Fuchsia and Moss — which lines up with previous leaks. The included photos show these colors to be (unsurprisingly), blue, lavender/purple and green.

Listings for the Pixel 11 Pro mention colors called Dune, Light Fog, Pine and Sterling. My best guess based on the images is that Dune is a pinkish orange, Pine is some kind of muted green, Light Fog is a grayish white, which leaves Sterling as the vivid pink color. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is also seen in Pine and Midnight, which are black and that same muted green as the 11 Pro.

Google's already teasing the Pixel 11 series

While not officially a leak, Google has started teasing the Pixel 11 series with a short video clip on its website. Much like Samsung is known to do, Google is offering an exclusive discount to those people that sign up for Google Store updates ahead of the Pixel 11 launch.

That page also features a brief look at what we assume to be the Pixel 11, alongside an icon cycling through with rainbow coloring on the camera bar — where the LED flash is usually positioned. The phone is also gold, suggesting that a new color is on the way.

This new light is probably the rumored "Pixel Glow" feature that is expected to act as some sort of alert light on the back of the phone. Based on what we've heard, Pixel Glow will flash when you have a notification, during charging sessions and when you're interacting with Gemini.

The Pixel Glow alert starts in white, before cycling through those colors, which suggests this is actually the camera flash pulling a dual role. whether this will affect the intensity of the camera flash (or the flashlight feature) isn't clear. However, if this is a full RBG LED light on the back of the phone, it will be interesting to see if we can change the color of the flash for dramatic effect. We'll just have to wait and see.

Pixel 11 leaked specs and price

The Amazon listings reveal a bunch of Pixel 11 series specs, which line up with everything we've heard about the phones so far. That includes a 6.3-inch display rocking 1080x2424 resolution, 256GB of base storage, 12GB of RAM, 4,985 mAh battery and a price tag of $899. This suggests that Google isn't dropping the base level of RAM to 8GB, as some rumors have suggested, but the starting price will be rising by $100.

This is the same price as a 256GB Pixel 10, but since there's no entry level 128GB option, it means the cost of entry is higher. It's almost like Schrodinger's price hike, in which the price has simultaneously increased despite not actually changing for that particular model.

One thing to point out is that these listings reportedly say that the Pixel 11 will arrive with Android 16. Considering Android 17 has been released, and is widely available on Pixel phones, that seems very unlikely. To the point where it casts doubt on the rest of the information that was presented.

In other words, don't take this leak as gospel, and remain skeptical right up until the point Google tells us what's actually going on on August 12.

The cost of the other models hasn't been mentioned, but we should expect that the Pixel 11 Pro should get a similar price bump as Google kills the 128GB option. Since the XL and Fold already start at 256GB, their U.S. pricing remains unclear, but if leaked EU prices are anything to go by we should expect an additional $100 per phone.

The Pixel 11 Pro listing also mentions 12GB of RAM, which is a downgrade, alongside a 5,115 mAh battery for the Pixel 11 Pro XL and 4,750 mAh for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Those are slightly higher capacities than the rumors have suggested, but it is still a small downgrade from the equivalent Pixel 10. Apart from the Pixel 11, which is listed with 5 mAh more than the Pixel 10.

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ChatGPT is already a great productivity tool on its own. But adding the right apps can make it even more useful, whether you need help managing your calendar, summarizing long documents, creating files, or streamlining your daily workflow.

As a journalist, I've tested dozens of ChatGPT apps looking for the ones that actually save time. These seven stood out because they solve real problems I run into every day and have earned a permanent place in my workflow.

Google Drive, Habitify, Reclaim.ai and more do the job

The word “tabs” is synonymous with my work life. Thankfully, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not switching between the 10 I have open at a time—keeping about 5 or six tabs open does a lot to keep me from going crazy over trying to find the one I need for a particular situation.

ChatGPT will forever remain one of those essential tabs and the productivity-themed apps installed within it do a lot to keep me from doing a whole lot of tab switching and push me to get more work done with its help.

These are 5 of the best ChatGPT productivity apps I’ve used and highly recommend for your use as well:

• Google Drive: Just like most folks, I tap into Google Docs to jot down my creative notes for personal writing projects and get a good look at the documents sent my way for a variety of reasons. Instead of downloading files from Google Drive and inputting them into ChatGPT for tasks related to them, I like using the Google Drive app inside the chatbot to more easily access documents. I’ve gotten accustomed to using this app to summarize lengthy documents, analyze slides and brainstorm ideas based on all the random notes I’ve jotted down in my own personal documents.
• Norton: I’m glad Norton is here to tell the difference between a legit email and one that’s more than likely a flat-out scam. Since my inbox is filled to the brim with emails from all sorts of different PR companies and individuals attaching links to article proposals, I’ve gotten used to using the Norton app to get a thorough analysis of the messages in my inbox that I’m a bit weary of. Having the Norton app stand tall as my first line of defense inside ChatGPT is so reassuring for someone like me that’s inundated by emails and wants to give them a quick scan so I can get back to work.
• Reclaim.ai: Since this ChatGPT connects right to my Google Calendar, I’m able to ask ChatGPT to help me get a good look at my daily schedule, find planning conflicts, reschedule meetings and also find the best times for future ones. Even prompting it to set aside an hour for a personal ideation session can be accomplished with this app’s help.
• Habitify: Developing healthy habits that get me out of my computer chair and clear my head has proven to be accommodating. Incorporating Habitify into ChatGPT has worked out great since I just have to prompt it to show me my daily habits and stick by them without having to access them in another tab. Routinely checking in with the Habitify app inside ChatGPT to remind myself to take a 15-minute walk, take my vitamins, and get a quick meditation session in while I’m working from home does a lot for me.
• Goodnotes: Since I’m quick to get into some long yapping sessions with ChatGPT, I’m also quick to turn those chats into documents I can use for further reference. The Goodnotes app can take my lengthy conversations and transform them into text, flowcharts and images. So, for instance, I’ve prompted this ChatGPT app to turn my evening mental wind-down routine into a document that lays it all out in an easy-to-follow format.

Bottom line

ChatGPT’s productivity-themed apps are capable of filling the same role, such as calendar management, accessing files, summarizing meetings, etc. The ones I’ve incorporated into my daily work sessions with my go-to chatbot handle those important tasks and other objectives that make my work output that much stronger.

Even using Spotify to build instrumental playlists that put me in the right state of mind to focus is a great way to boost my productivity. Make these ChatGPT apps a part of your daily work regimen and you’ll notice the benefits it brings you.

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You might be shocked to hear this, but Google Images has been around for 25 years.

Ever since it debuted on July 12, 2001, everyone has used the free online service to look up and download all manner of images. It’s funny when you think about why it came into existence in the first place: Google Images was created in response to the viral demand for the iconic green Versace dress that Jennifer Lopez wore at the 2000 Grammy Awards. The online service started with an offering of about 250 million images—that number has now reached into the billions.

In celebration of Google Images’ 25th anniversary, the service is getting two major upgrades. One of them will revamp its signature user interface and the other will allow users to create their own images for free with a simple Google Search prompt.

Here’s how that second upcoming feature will work.

Easy AI image generation with Google Search

In an official blog post released by Google, the tech giant noted that its upcoming AI image generation feature comes from them recognizing that sometimes the perfect image for its users may not exist. With that sentiment in mind, it wanted to give those same users the ability to produce the type of image they're looking for with the assistance of Google Search.

Simply typing in a prompt in the search bar will result in your AI image getting generated directly in the AI Overviews section. This upcoming feature will be powered by the latest Nana Banana model, Nano Banana 2 Lite. AI image generation in AI Overviews will begin rolling out in the coming weeks in English across all the regions that currently support image generation in AI Mode.

In anticipation of that Google Search update, I came up with 10 creative prompts that could be fun to use to see if its AI image generator works as well as it’s advertised:

• Create a thriller movie poster about a human detective who knows tomorrow's headlines.
• Create a visual of Egyptian pyramids being built with futuristic machinery.
• Create a visual of the ultimate breakfast sandwich.
• Create a visual of a LEGO-designed luxury apartment.
• Create a visual of an abandoned mall that has been transformed into a luxury destination.
• Create a visual of what the iPhone 25 design could look like.
• Create a minimalist cyberpunk wallpaper in shades of blue with glowing geometric shapes.
• Create a visual of a city where every building represents a different emotion.
• Create a visual of a realistic travel destination that doesn't actually exist.
• Create a visual of retro synthwave mountains at sunset.

The future makeover coming to Google Images will make the page look more dynamic by having all its displayed images get updated in real time according to your interests. And after saving any of those images within your collections, those collections will now appear as tabs above the main gallery.

Now you’ll have a much easier way to switch between your ongoing image search and your personal batch of saved images. You can look forward to seeing this Google Images user interface makeover for yourself once it rolls out over the coming weeks for desktop users in the US in English.

The takeaway

I’ll be excited to see how good the AI image generator housed within Google Search really is once it finally releases. Playing around with prompts aimed at producing the most eye-popping images possible sounds like a fun experiment I can’t wait to sink a few hours into. And just to celebrate its arrival the right way, I’ll be sure to generate an image of Jennifer Lopez wearing her famous Versace dress in an assortment of different colors. It’s only right, considering Google Images owes its creation to the overwhelming need to see the superstar in her signature dress all those years ago.

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I still remember the advertisements when the Apple App store first rolled out. In between segments on 60 Minutes or the drama on Prison Break, the commercials would convince viewers that anything you needed, "there's an app for that."

Now, when I need an app that doesn't suit me, I just create one myself. I'm definitely not skilled in programming languages like Python or Java, I just know how to vibe code. And here's the thing, you can, too!

Today's AI chatbots can create simple apps from a description written in plain English. The process, often called "AI-powered coding" or "vibe coding," lets you explain what you want while the AI writes the code behind the scenes.

You don't have to become a programmer. You just need an idea. So, whether you're trying to better organize your finances or keep track of medications, here are five genuinely useful app ideas to get you started. Just open Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT and enter the following prompts. I prefer Claude for coding, so all of these examples have been made using it.

1. Build a medication tracker that actually fits your routine

Most reminder apps are designed for everyone. AI can build one that's designed for you. Maybe you take prescriptions at different times each day, need refill reminders, or want to track side effects. Instead of forcing yourself into someone else's system, you can create one that matches your schedule.

This app is fairly simple. But it works right in the platform and it's something you can go to several times a day depending on your medication regimen. You could also create something that reminds you to drink water, eat meals or exercise. Just be sure to follow your doctor's recommendations. AI is not a substitute for a human doctor.

Prompt: Build me a clean, easy-to-use medication tracker that runs in a web browser. I want to add medications, dosage amounts, times of day, refill dates and optional notes. Include reminders that highlight medications due today, a refill countdown, and a printable summary. Make the interface simple with large buttons and easy-to-read text.

2. Create a home inventory before you need it

If you've ever had to file an insurance claim, you know how difficult it can be to remember everything you own. A custom inventory app lets you photograph items, record serial numbers, upload receipts and search everything in one place. It's also great for moving homes or downsizing.

This app breaks the inventory down by room, which is great for staying organized. You could tweak this prompt to work for organizing one room at a time or even certain aspects of a room such as books and CDs or DVDs.

Prompt: Create a home inventory web app. I want categories for each room, the ability to upload photos, record purchase dates, estimated values, serial numbers and warranty information. Include search, printable reports and an export option. Make it simple enough that anyone can use it.

3. Build a retirement budget planner

I am not a spreadsheet person. I find them extremely useful, but building them feels like busy work. And while generic spreadsheets can be useful, most of them barely match my own financial situation.

That's why I prefer turning to AI to stay organized. Claude or ChatGPT can create a calculator that reflects your income, expenses, pensions, Social Security estimates or travel plans.

Just as AI is not a substitute for a human doctor, it's also not a real financial advisor. This app should be used as a guide and not as the real deal.

Prompt: Build a retirement planning dashboard. Let me enter monthly income, fixed expenses, discretionary spending, savings goals and investment balances. Show charts that estimate how long my savings may last under different spending scenarios. Use clear graphs and plain language instead of financial jargon.

4. Turn family recipes into your own searchable cookbook

Recipe apps are full of advertisements and random suggestions. Sometimes I have to read four paragraphs before the recipe even appears! Plus, with so many of my grandmother's recipes, I chose to build an app that offers me only my family's favorites.
I love this one because it makes adding recipes from friends and neighbors easy.

Prompt: Create a digital cookbook where I can add recipes, upload photos, organize recipes into categories, search by ingredient and generate a shopping list. Include family notes, cooking tips and preparation times. Design it with large text and an uncluttered layout.

5. Create a travel planner for your next vacation

Planning a trip usually means juggling confirmation emails, reservations, maps and packing lists. And if you've used ChatGPT to book flights or plan your stay, you might want to create an app that combines everything into one personalized travel dashboard.

It's easier to stay on budget and remember specific travel details when everything is kept in one place. This app does just that.

Prompt: Build a travel planning app where I can organize flights, hotels, rental cars, daily itineraries, restaurant reservations, packing lists, budgets and emergency contact information. Include a countdown to departure and a printable itinerary. Make it mobile-friendly.

Final thoughts

I cannot say this enough: I am not a coder. All of the apps you see here were built with Claude. But ChatGPT or Gemini work just as well. It really comes down to your preference or subscription. Just paste one of the prompts above and continue the conversation naturally.

You can add preferences such as "Make the buttons bigger" or "Make the colors neutral shades." Whatever you want, simply tell the chatbot.

Just think of AI as a contractor rather than a search engine. The first version rarely needs to be perfect, you simply tell it what you'd like to change until it matches your vision.

For many people over 50, AI is so much more than a helpful writing tool or answer-machine. It's useful because it removes one of the biggest barriers to creating software.

You no longer have to know how to code to build something that solves a problem in your own life. If you can describe what you want in plain English, today's AI tools can often build a working first version in minutes.

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