The name Google is synonymous with online searches, but over the years the company has grown beyond search and now builds multiple consumer products, including software like Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Android, and hardware like the Pixel smartphones, Google Home, and Chromebooks. Its name can also be found on internet services such as Google Fi, Flights, Checkout, and Google Fiber. Here is all of the latest news about one of the most influential tech companies in the world.
Google now automatically expands its AI search summaries for some queries.
Gemini Notebook’s new ‘Expert Intelligence’ feature pulls information from the books you’ve purchased.
The version 5.07 update will allow you to “add and adjust more metrics” to workouts you manually log, as well as view these changes more quickly in workout summaries. Google also says the Health app’s built-in map now has faster load times and smoother rendering.
[Google Health Community]
The themes menu for RCS chats now has options for different bubble colors and wallpapers, including an option to upload your own background image. Google says chat customizations are only visible to you, though, not anyone else in the chat.
An open letter signed by over 100 companies and organizations calls for a “global surge in cyber defense,” saying “AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated:”
Put cyber-capable AI in the hands of defenders, starting with the teams protecting essential services. Fix the most dangerous weaknesses, verify the fixes, and share what works so others can build on it. Together, we can turn today’s AI advances into lasting improvements in security that benefit everyone.
The feature is rolling out in the US in the coming weeks and will support bookings at Expedia, Booking.com, Hilton, Hotels.com, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, Priceline, and others.
Google also announced that you can now set up flight tracking alerts through AI Mode, as well as view the cost of flights in points or miles by linking your airline rewards account.
Starting on August 31st, you’ll be able to start, stop, and pause Gemini’s “take notes for me” feature directly from Google’s meeting room touch controllers. Currently, you have to join the Google Meet from another device in Companion Mode to control the AI notetaking feature.
Along with a financial research agent, Google says its new AI legal tool can help law firms draft legal briefs, manage upcoming regulations, and verify citations — something that’s become a big problem as more lawyers adopt AI.
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[Google Cloud Press Corner]
It would have been the next bellwether in the group of cases tried in a Los Angeles state court. In the first, Meta and YouTube were ordered to pay $6 million total. After settling with TikTok, the teen’s lawyer told The New York Times, she wanted to “resume her life.”
[The New York Times]
It’s rolling out an interactive button that publishers can add to their websites, allowing readers to quickly add the site to their preferred sources without navigating away from the webpage. Preferred Sources launched last year as a way to customize the outlets you see at the top of Search, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.
(PS: You can add The Verge as a preferred source here!)
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For better or worse, Amazon Alexa and Google Home’s smart voice assistants have been imbued with new generative AI powers.
The promise is you can use natural language with your smart speaker to adjust your thermostat, lock the doors, and find out what your pets have been up to. The reality is smart home voice assistants are going through an identity crisis. I invited Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel onto his own podcast to compare notes on life with Alexa Plus versus Gemini for Home.
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The company’s lawyers are telling the judge in Epic Games v. Google that developers need around 10 more days to make the fixes he ordered. Judge Donato was not happy with the original way it looked, calling out Google for adding unnecessary “anticompetitive friction”.
Senior reviewer Victoria Song leads a Vergecast roundtable with editors Dominic Preston and Cameron Faulkner to talk about the Pixel 11/Pro/Fold and the Pixel Watch 5. We discuss if HiLight is a LowLight, whether we miss the temperature sensor, and if the Watch 5’s GPS truly beats Garmin and Apple. And stay tuned for more camera discussion on Friday’s Vergecast.
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Subscribers, head to our AMA page and leave any question that’s on your mind about Google’s new Pixel 11 phones, be it the plain 11, the 11 Pro, or the 11 Pro Fold. Oh yeah, the Pixel Watch 5, too. We’ll be answering them at 3PM ET.
The company calls it the world’s first state-backed trial aimed at mitigating warming contrails across an entire flight corridor — specifically the eastern half of the North Atlantic corridor, which accounts for around 5 percent of global contrail warming.
Contrails (not to be confused with conspiracy theories about “chemtrails”) are a big problem for the planet because they trap heat, accounting for about 35 percent of aviation’s global warming impact. Google has been working with American Airlines to help pilots find more sustainable flight paths.
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Verge Score
Sandwiched between the 10A and the Pro 11, the regular Pixel 11 is a good value, thanks mostly to compelling features.
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Verge Score
Think of this as part one of the Pixel Watch 5 review as most of the new features aren’t out yet. That said, GPS rocks.
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Verge Score
A great foldable with IP68 and a reliable triple camera, trapped in a shape everyone else seems to be moving on from.
Forget HiLight and Proactive Assistance. The Pixel 11 Pro is at its best with focused new tools that actually work.
It’s been a few months since Google revealed its Chromebook successor / sibling, and all’s been quiet since — at least officially, with leaks of laptops from Lenovo and Asus. We’ll know more soon: Google invited outlets including The Verge to a media event in September where we’ll get to “test out the laptops and new features.”
[Chrome Unboxed - The Latest Chrome OS News]
A pair of announcements from Anthropic today include the word that access to Claude Cowork on mobile and web interfaces has rolled out to all paid accounts, so you can keep an eye on what it’s doing for you in more places.
Separately, the Google Workspace connectors for Claude now support sending emails in Gmail and managing files in Google Drive — more details here.
Google’s Mishaal Rahman took to r/Android to announce the process, which will eventually be the only way to install apps from unverified Android developers. Verification enforcement kicks in globally in 2027, though in some countries begins next month. Enabling the one-time advanced flow now gets the mandatory 24-hour cooldown out of the way.
After starting to roll out to “select devices” in June, Google’s AI Chrome assistant is now available to all Android users in the US. It adds a Gemini icon to the top-right of your toolbar that opens the familiar chatbot window, allowing Gemini to summarize web pages, answer questions, generate images, and more.
Google won a $10 million bankruptcy auction to acquire a hefty collection of business data from the now defunct Spirit Airlines, which it plans to use for AI training. The data, which includes calendar info, documents, spreadsheets, emails, and employee chats will be “deidentified,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to Axios:
“We will not receive any personal information from this dataset. Any data we receive will be rigorously scrubbed of any personally identifiable information by a third party before receipt.”
Gemini for Home promises its Nest cameras can recognize my cats by name — but it can’t tell Boone from Smokey.
Most of Google’s products are still manufactured in the country, but Nikkei Asia reports that all production of Pixel phones, watches and earbuds will leave China starting in 2027. Google started this exodus in 2019, shifting to building production capacity in Vietnam and India instead, as have Apple and Microsoft in recent years.
Find Hub on Google-powered smartwatches now includes a separate Find People app. As 9to5Google notes, it’s barebones: it shows a list of everyone you’re sharing location with, but to actually change any settings or see their location on a map, you have to open your phone. Perhaps there’s more to come.
The new AI Ads tracking data set for ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews pulls insights from anonymized web usage data provided by a panel of Similarweb users, instead of relying on synthetic prompts. Similarweb reports that 26 percent of ChatGPT responses and nearly 30 percent of ad-eligible Google AI Mode queries include a sponsored ad.
The newly-announced Gemini 3.7 Flash is rolling out today as an option for AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers. The updated model is better at following instructions and “understanding your intent, so you get even more helpful responses,” says Search VP of product Robby Stein.
