The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 2

OnePlus launched the Turbo 6X and Turbo 6X Pro in China this week, and the pricing structure between them is hard to ignore. At the entry tier, the OnePlus Turbo 6X and 6X Pro are separated by just CNY 100, roughly $15, with the Pro adding a larger battery, an AMOLED display, faster charging, and stronger water resistance for that gap, according to TechCabal. Both phones stay under CNY 2,400 ($354) across all configurations, with the base Turbo 6X starting at CNY 1,899 ($280).

Apple gave EU iPhone and iPad users a concrete reason to notice the Digital Markets Act earlier this month: Siri AI will not be available on iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 in any of the 27 EU member states when those releases ship later this year, with no timeline for when that changes, according to Apple's newsroom. Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak escalated that framing this week, calling the Siri AI EU launch delay the "most serious negative outcome yet" of the Digital Markets Act, Euractiv...

By the end of this guide, you'll know how to create a shortcut using the iPadOS 27 shortcut builder's new plain-English prompt tool, how to inspect what Apple Intelligence generates, and how to decide whether the result is safe to run unsupervised. That last part is where most coverage stops.

Samsung Wallet can now store a passport-backed digital ID accepted at more than 250 TSA checkpoints across the U.S. For frequent domestic travelers on Galaxy devices, that's a genuine convenience upgrade. It is not, in any practical sense, a passport replacement. The gap between those two things is exactly what's worth understanding before you set it up.

When iOS 27 ships this fall, most drivers won't be watching video on their CarPlay screen. Apple formally introduced video apps as a supported CarPlay category at WWDC 2026 this week, completing a gradual platform shift that began when Apple first signaled parked-only video support at WWDC 2025.

The OnePlus 15 can now transfer files directly to an iPhone, iPad, or Mac using Quick Share, with no cable, no third-party app, and no cloud upload required. Android Authority reported that AirDrop support via Quick Share has reached the OnePlus 15, extending the direct transfer capability that Google first launched for Pixel 10 devices last November.

A UK refurbisher has been quietly tracking something the laptop industry rarely quantifies with precision: how often machines come back broken, controlled for how long they've been in use. The results, published this week, are stark. Age-matched Intel MacBooks return for hardware faults at roughly twice the rate of Apple Silicon models, with Apple Silicon units sold throughout 2025 logging a 0.9% fault return rate against approximately double that figure for Intel machines sold under equivalent...

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 have cleared China's 3C database, with both devices appearing in an official regulatory filing issued June 3. The Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 3C certification confirms the first concrete hardware spec for either device: 10W charging at 5V/2A, matching their predecessors exactly. Android Police and Android Authority both covered the filings this week under model numbers SM-L3550 and SM-L7150.

Apple announced a new iPhone feature this week that can automatically pull confirmation numbers and reservation codes from a user's inbox and display them inside the Phone app during a live support call, no app-switching required. Called Call Context, the feature is part of the new Siri AI unveiled at WWDC26, according to 9to5Mac. It works without ever analyzing call audio.

Samsung's stable One UI 8.5 rollout began last week in South Korea, covering the S24 and S25 families, 2024-era foldables, and the Tab S10 and S11 series. The S23 generation and anything older are not on the confirmed stable release list. If headlines describing this as a rollout for "older Galaxy phones" left you checking your S22's software update screen, that's the correction this article exists to make.

Before WWDC 2026, the consensus on watchOS 27 was polite and unexciting. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman told readers to expect AI features, stability work, and "not much, really" beyond that, and 9to5Mac summarized those expectations in March. What Apple announced today is still narrower than a typical platform release. It's also more targeted than the preview implied.

Copilot in Microsoft Edge can turn a web page, or a stack of open tabs, into a generated audio podcast. This guide walks through exactly how to do that: what you need before starting, how to write a prompt that produces useful output, and where the feature's limits are.

Samsung Messages is being discontinued in the US market in July 2026 for devices running Android 12 or later. Samsung has not confirmed whether the phase-out will apply outside the United States.

Apple is reportedly building a photo reframing tool for iOS 27 that would let users shift the apparent viewpoint of a spatial image after capture, not by filling in synthetic pixels around the edges, but by working with actual stereo depth data recorded at the moment of shooting. That's a materially different operation from anything Google Photos offers today, and it points to a category Google has not yet publicly addressed. If Apple confirms it at WWDC this month, Google's answer to the...

Apple's Beta Software Program website went offline this morning displaying a "We'll Be Back Soon" message, with the WWDC 2026 keynote less than an hour away, MacRumors reported today. The Apple beta website down before WWDC is a familiar pattern: the portal handles device enrollment and pre-release software distribution, and it would need to be updated before it can serve a new platform generation. Developer betas of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, tvOS 27, and visionOS 27 are expected...

Adam Lisagor of Sandwich has released the Hovercraft Mac app, a virtual camera utility that keeps presenters visible on screen while they share content during video calls. The app composites the presenter's webcam feed and a floating, movable window into a single outgoing video stream, so the audience never sees a screen takeover. Hovercraft is available now, free to try, and priced from $19 for a single Mac.

Both the Nest Mini and Nest Audio have gone out of stock simultaneously across the US Google Store and Best Buy, with international stores showing the same pattern, 9to5Google reported this week. A Best Buy Canada listing, first spotted by 9to5Google last week, shows a June 25 release date for the replacement Google Home Speaker. Google has issued no formal end-of-sale notice for either device, but the retail evidence points toward a product handoff already in motion.

On May 20, 2026, Amazon cut off Kindle Store access for Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 or earlier. Amazon told The Verge that affected devices would no longer be able to "purchase, borrow, or download new content" from the Kindle Store, though owners can still read books already downloaded to the device.

Right-click a file in Windows 11, click "Compress to ZIP file," and instead of an archive appearing, you get an "open with" prompt asking you to pick an app. That's the problem this guide fixes and if compress to ZIP file not working on Windows 11 is your situation, you'll find the fix here whether the command is misbehaving, disappeared after a recent update, or never worked on your current installation.

Apple today named the 2026 Apple Design Awards winners, honoring 12 apps and games chosen from 36 global finalists across six categories. The list spans eight countries, from small indie teams to major studios, according to Apple's announcement.