Future Wear OS devices will finally let you flip the screen for wearing watches upside-down

Google I/O 2022 is rife with feature announcements promising tighter integration between Android phones and tablets, Chromebooks, and Wear OS watches, to name a few. While it’ll take some time to achieve connectivity as seamless as Apple’s ecosystem, the small improvements do add up. Aside from Matter for the Google Home ecosystem and screencasting for Chromebooks and cars, Google’s supercharging the Phone Hub on Chromebooks for a better messaging experience.

Hot on the heels of a Google executive explaining how Matter will be the next big thing for smart home gadgets, Google has taken it further today and announced on stage at Google I/O how Matter will work in its Home ecosystem and which of its devices will support which features. While Matter will only launch on Google Home sometime "later this year," Google already makes clear how it will work and how developers can take advantage of it.

Android 13 Beta 2 landed during Google I/O this May, and it’s packed with interesting features and subtle design changes. The new release also has a brand-new home screen search experience in store that gracefully combines on-device and web search, complete with smooth and satisfying animation. If that isn’t enough to drool over, the new experience also allows you to pin recent search queries right to your home screen.

Today, at its annual I/O conference, Google briefly teased an upcoming Pixel-branded tablet. There were practically no hard details; all we know for sure is that it'll be powered by a Tensor CPU and that Google intends to launch it next year. But we also got a look at renders of the tablet, and it bears a striking resemblance to existing Nest devices. This has to be the rumored "detachable Nest Hub" we heard about this spring, and I'm excited it'll be a real product — sneaking back into the market with a smart home-focused device might be Google's ticket to actually selling some tablets.

While many complained about the performance of the fingerprint sensor in the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro over the last six months, things might be different for the upcoming Pixel 6a. A change doesn't guarantee that all problems will be solved, but Google has confirmed that the upcoming mid-range phone, expected to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor, won't use the same in-display sensor that the prior phones did.

As part of a lawsuit between shareholders and Elon Musk regarding his “funding secured” tweet, new text messages and emails between Musk and people involved have been released. The communications pretty much confirmed how most people saw the situation: Elon Musk took a meeting with the head of...

Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and soon-to-be owner of Twitter, don't strike me as best buds. The two men have competed over the past few years for the title of the world's richest man, a title Musk holds. They also sort of compete in space, with Bezos' Blue Origin competing against Musk's SpaceX.

Google users will now be flagged for using politically incorrect words while searching as the technology giant launched an "inclusive language" function. The move of Google is to avoid the use of politically incorrect words. In a report by The Sun, if a user uses terms deemed politically incorrect by...

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, who thinks tunnels are immune to natural disasters, is purchasing Twitter. The company confirmed on Monday afternoon that it had accepted the billionaire’s offer. “Twitter, Inc. today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk, for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion,” reads the official press release. “Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company.”

Last month, several Samsung sales reps contracted through staffing agency Ibbu spoke out about unpaid work. Despite 100 percent of their pay based on commission, these workers were tasked with answering customer support questions that didn't result in income. Nearly a month later, these contractors are starting to feel the heat from Ibbu, with the main whistleblower — Jennifer Larson — having been suspended and fired from her job.

In creating Real Tone processing for the Pixel 6, Google sought to give people of color a camera treatment that wasn't based on close to two centuries of White-centered photography. But it's not enough for just one device to have this kind of approach to imaging, so at Google I/O 2022, the company is pushing it out to Google Photos and is open-sourcing the engine behind the magic.

If you were hoping that Google was going to fix the "mistake" of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro by offering a matte finish for the rear glass rather than a glossy one, you're out of luck. According to Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), the Pixel 7 series will have a glossy finish on its rear glass components again.

Android 13 is fast approaching maturity, and now the Android TV team is starting to roll out its additions so developers can make the best use of the largest screens in your home. TV announcements from Google I/O 2022 appear at first glance to be very developer-oriented, but they’ll have some direct implications that give users a better experience with apps in the future.

Among Google's hardware products, the Pixel Buds have flown somewhat under the radar. First released as a pair of headphones-on-a-string back in 2018, the product was upgraded to truly wireless back in 2020, but endemic connectivity issues prevented the $180 buds from being widely adopted. Google rectified the problem to some extent with the solid-and-affordable Pixel Buds A-Series in the summer of 2021, but people wanting the best wireless earbuds from Google now have something to look forward to: the Pixel Buds Pro.

You don't have to pay much for a Chromebook 2-in-1 and, yet, they're good for binging your favorite shows and films, great for compact, portable computing, and the underlying platform itself is constantly undergoing transformation to squeeze more mileage out of the silicon you've got. But we've caught an awesome deal on Lenovo's Chromebook Duet 5 that gets you extra specs for a base model price and it's only here for the weekend.

With the launch of Android 13 Beta 2 today, we're finally getting a better idea as to what this year's major upgrade is shaping up to be. One of the most confusing elements hidden in the code for Beta 1 last month was "predictive back gestures," something subject to much speculation over the last couple of weeks. With Google I/O, we've finally got a better idea as to what these gestures will act like once they're live.

Android 13 Beta 2 is yet another step on the way to an official launch later this year. Google continues to iron out all sorts of bugs while moving towards a final product, starting with some flashy animations to enhance the look and feel of this year's update. Whether you're unlocking your phone or navigating back through menus, everything looks just a little different in Android 13.

Replacing your regular light bulbs with smarter ones is a fun upgrade for any house. You've got tons of options for the best smart lights, and while it may be a little costlier than most, the Philips Hue range is one of the most extensive on the market right now, capable of overhauling your entire lighting system. Most of this is managed through the Philips Hue app, which of late, has been going through plenty of changes. An update last month added a trio of new scenes to the mood options, and as if those weren't enough, there's more joining the party this week.

It might sound crazy to consider, but YouTube Music has only had an app for Wear OS since last fall, launching years after the service replaced Play Music as Google's go-to Spotify competitor. With its latest update, users can access their favorite albums and songs right from their wrist. As...

Credit cards can be fantastic for things like travel or buying stuff from specific retailers given the rewards, rates they sometimes offer. But keeping track of which card is ideal for which purchase can be obnoxious with things like rotating categories and benefits changes. Nothing is set in stone yet, but Google says it wants to change that someday, showing customers which cards are best for a given purchase through Google Pay.