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Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: The ultimate Google phone

android, Features, Foldables, Google, Reviews, smartphones, Tech / Rejus Almole / October 8, 2025

Google delivers another phone that is slightly better than its predecessor—is that enough?

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is a sleek piece of hardware. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

When the first foldable phones came along, they seemed like a cool evolution of the traditional smartphone form factor and, if they got smaller and cheaper, like something people might actually want. After more than five years of foldable phones, we can probably give up on the latter. Google’s new Pixel 10 Pro Fold retains the $1,800 price tag of last year’s model, and while it’s improved in several key ways, spending almost two grand on any phone remains hard to justify.

For those whose phones are a primary computing device or who simply love gadgets, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is still appealing. It offers the same refined Android experience as the rest of the Pixel 10 lineup, with much more screen real estate on which to enjoy it. Google also improved the hinge for better durability, shaved off some bezel, and boosted both charging speed and battery capacity. However, the form factor hasn’t taken the same quantum leap as Samsung’s latest foldable.

An iterative (but good) design

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold doesn’t reinvent the wheel—it looks and feels almost exactly like last year’s foldable, with a few minor tweaks centered around a new “gearless” hinge. Dropping the internal gears allegedly helps make the mechanism twice as durable. Google claims the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s hinge will last for more than 10 years of folding and unfolding.

Specs at a glance: Google Pixel 10 series
	Pixel 10 ($799)	Pixel 10 Pro ($999)	Pixel 10 Pro XL ($1,199)	Pixel 10 Pro Fold ($1,799)
SoC	Google Tensor G5	Google Tensor G5	Google Tensor G5	Google Tensor G5
Memory	12GB	16GB	16GB	16GB
Storage	128GB / 256GB	128GB / 256GB / 512GB	128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB	256GB / 512GB / 1TB
Display	6.3-inch 1080×2424 OLED, 60-120 Hz, 3,000 nits	6.3-inch 1280×2856 LTPO OLED, 1-120 Hz, 3,300 nits	6.8-inch 1344×2992 LTPO OLED, 1-120 Hz, 3,300 nits	External: 6.4-inch 1080×2364 OLED, 60-120 Hz, 3,000 nits; Internal: 8-inch 2076×2152 LTPO OLED, 1-120 Hz, 3,000 nits
Cameras	48 MP wide with Macro Focus, F/1.7, 1/2-inch sensor; 13 MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 1/3.1-inch sensor; 10.8 MP 5x telephoto, f/3.1, 1/3.2-inch sensor; 10.5 MP selfie, f/2.2	50 MP wide with Macro Focus, F/1.68, 1/1.3-inch sensor; 48 MP ultrawide, f/1.7, 1/2.55-inch sensor; 48 MP 5x telephoto, f/2.8, 1/2.55-inch sensor; 42 MP selfie, f/2.2	50 MP wide with Macro Focus, F/1.68, 1/1.3-inch sensor; 48 MP ultrawide, f/1.7, 1/2.55-inch sensor; 48 MP 5x telephoto, f/2.8, 1/2.55-inch sensor; 42 MP selfie, f/2.2	48 MP wide, F/1.7, 1/2-inch sensor; 10.5 MP ultrawide with Macro Focus, f/2.2, 1/3.4-inch sensor; 10.8 MP 5x telephoto, f/3.1, 1/3.2-inch sensor; 10.5 MP selfie, f/2.2 (outer and inner)
Software	Android 16	Android 16	Android 16	Android 16
Battery	4,970 mAh, up to 30 W wired charging, 15 W wireless charging (Pixelsnap)	4,870 mAh, up to 30 W wired charging, 15 W wireless charging (Pixelsnap)	5,200 mAh, up to 45 W wired charging, 25 W wireless charging (Pixelsnap)	5,015 mAh, up to 30 W wired charging, 15 W wireless charging (Pixelsnap)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6e, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, USB-C 3.2	Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, UWB, USB-C 3.2	Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, UWB, USB-C 3.2	Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, UWB, USB-C 3.2
Measurements	152.8 height×72.0 width×8.6 depth (mm), 204 g	152.8 height×72.0 width×8.6 depth (mm), 207 g	162.8 height×76.6 width×8.5 depth (mm), 232 g	Folded: 154.9 height×76.2 width×10.1 depth (mm); Unfolded: 154.9 height×149.8 width×5.1 depth (mm); 258 g
Colors	Indigo Frost Lemongrass Obsidian	Moonstone Jade Porcelain Obsidian	Moonstone Jade Porcelain Obsidian	Moonstone Jade

While the new phone is technically a fraction of a millimeter thicker, it’s narrowed by a similar amount. You likely won’t notice this, nor will the 1g in additional mass register. You may, however, spot the slimmer bezels and hinge. And that means cases for the 2024 foldable are just a fraction of a millimeter from fitting on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It does fit better in your hand, though.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold side — The Pixel is on the thick side for 2025, but this was record-setting thinness last year.

Thanks to the gearless hinge, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold the first foldable with full IP68 certification for water and dust resistance. The hinge feels extremely smooth and sturdy, but it’s a bit stiffer than we’ve seen on most foldables. This might change over time, but it’s a little harder to open and close out of the box. Samsung’s Z Fold 7 is thinner and easier to fold, but the hinge doesn’t open to a full 180 degrees like the Pixel does.

The new foldable also retains the camera module design of last year’s phone—it’s off-center on the back panel, a break from Google’s camera bar on other Pixels. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold, therefore, doesn’t lie flat on tables and will rock back and forth like most other phones. However, it does have the Qi2 magnets like in the cheaper phones. There are various Maglock kickstands and mounting rings that will attach to the back of the phone if you want to prop it up on a surface.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Z Fold 7 — The Pixel 10 Pro Fold (left) and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 (right) both have 8-inch displays, but the Pixel is curvier. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

The power and volume buttons are on the right edge in the same location as last year. The buttons are stable and tactile when pressed, and there’s a fingerprint sensor in the power button. It’s as fast and accurate as any capacitive sensor on a phone today. The aluminum frame and the buttons have the same matte finish, which differs from the glossy look of the other Pro Pixels. The more grippy matte texture is preferable for a phone you need to fold and unfold throughout the day.

Thanks to the modestly slimmer bezels, Google equipped the phone with a 6.4-inch external screen, slightly larger than the 6.3-inch panel on last year’s Fold. The 120 Hz OLED has a respectable 1080p resolution, and the brightness peaks around 3,000 nits, making it readable in bright outdoor light.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Pixel 9 Pro Fold — The Pixel 10 Pro Fold (left) has a more compact hinge and slimmer bezels compared to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold (right).

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a big 8-inch flexible OLED inside, clocking in at 2076×2152 pixels and 120Hz. It gets similarly bright, but the plastic layer is more reflective than the Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the cover screen. While the foldable screen is legible, it’s not as pleasant to use outside as high-brightness glass screens.

Like all foldable screens, it’s possible to damage the internal OLED if you’re not careful. On the other hand, the flexible OLED is well-protected when the phone is closed—there’s no gap between the halves, and the magnets hold them together securely. There’s a crease visible in the middle of the screen, but it’s slightly improved from last year’s phone. You can see it well from some angles, but you get used to it.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold keyboard glamor — The Jade colorway looks great. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

While the flat Pixel 10 phones have dropped the physical SIM card slot, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold still has one. It has moved to the top this year, but it seems like only a matter of time before Google removes the slot in foldables, too. For the time being, you can move a physical SIM card to the Fold, transfer to eSIM, or use a combination of physical and electronic SIMs.

Google’s take on big Androids

Google’s version of Android is pretty refined these days. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold uses the same AI-heavy build of Android 16 as the flat Pixels. That means you can expect old favorites like Pixel Screenshots, Call Screen, and Magic Compose, along with new arrivals like Magic Cue and Pixel Journal. One thing you won’t see right now is the largely useless Daily Brief, which was pulled after its launch on the Pixel 10 so it could be improved.

Google’s expanded use of Material 3 Expressive theming is also a delight. The Pixel OS has a consistent, clean look you don’t often see on Android phones. Google bundles almost every app it makes on this phone, but you won’t see any sponsored apps, junk games, or other third-party software cluttering up the experience. In short, if you like the vibe of the Pixel OS on other Pixel 10 phones, you’ll like it on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. We’ve noted a few minor UI glitches in the launch software, but there are no show-stopping bugs.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold split-screen — Multitasking on foldables is a snap. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

The software on this phone goes beyond the standard Pixel features to take advantage of the folding screen. There’s a floating taskbar that can make swapping apps and multitasking easier, and you can pin it on the screen for even more efficiency. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold also supports saving app pairs to launch both at once in split-screen.

Google’s multi-window system on the Fold isn’t as robust as what you get with Samsung, though. For example, split-screen apps open in portrait mode on the Pixel, and if you want them in landscape, you have to physically rotate the phone. On Samsung foldables, you can move app windows around and change the orientation however you like—there’s even support for floating app windows and up to three windowed apps. Google reserves floating windows for tablets, none of which it has released since the Pixel Tablet in 2023. It would be nice to see a bit more multitasking power to make the most of the Fold’s big internal display.

As with all of Google’s Pixels, the new foldable gets seven years of update support, all the way through 2032. You’ll probably need at least one battery swap to make it that long, but you might be more inclined to hold onto an $1,800 phone for seven years. Samsung also offers seven years of support, but its updates are slower and don’t usually include new features after the first year. Google rolls out new updates promptly every month, and updated features are delivered in regular Pixel Drops.

Almost the best cameras

Google may have fixed some of the drawbacks of foldables, but you’ll get better photos with flat Pixels. That said, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is no slouch—it has a camera setup very similar to the base model Pixel 10 (and last year’s foldable), which is still quite good in the grand scheme of mobile photography.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold cameras — The cameras are unchanged from last year. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold sports a 48 MP primary sensor, a 10.5 MP ultrawide, and a 10.8 MP 5x telephoto. There are 10 MP selfie cameras peeking through the front and internal displays as well.

Like the other Pixels, this phone is great for quick snapshots. Google’s image processing does an admirable job of sharpening details and has extraordinary dynamic range. The phone also manages to keep exposure times short to help capture movement. You don’t have to agonize over exactly how to frame a shot or wait for the right moment to hit the shutter. The Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL do all of this slightly better, but provided you don’t zoom too much, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold photos are similarly excellent.

Medium indoor light. Ryan Whitwam

The primary sensor does better than most in dim conditions, but this is where you’ll notice limitations compared to the flat Pro phones. The Fold’s smaller image sensor can’t collect as much light, resulting in longer exposures. You’ll notice this most in Night Sight shots.

The telephoto sensor is only 10.8 MP compared to 48 MP on the other Pro Pixels. So images won’t be as sharp if you zoom in, but the normal framing looks fine and gets you much closer to your subject. The phone does support up to 20x zoom, but going much beyond 5x begins to reveal the camera’s weakness, and even Google’s image processing can’t hide that. The ultrawide camera is good enough for landscapes and wide group shots, but don’t bother zooming in. It also has autofocus for macro shots.

The selfie cameras are acceptable, but you don’t have to use them. As a foldable, this phone allows you to use the main cameras to snap selfies with the external display as a viewfinder. The results are much better, but the phone is a bit awkward to hold in that orientation. Google also added a few more camera features that complement the form factor, including a split-screen camera roll similar to Samsung’s app and a new version of the Made You Look cover screen widgets.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold can leverage generative AI in several imaging features, so it has the same C2PA labeling as the other Pixels. We’ve seen this “AI edited” tag appear most often on images from the flat Pixels that are zoomed beyond 20x, so you likely won’t end up with any of those on the Fold. However, features like Add Me and Best Take will get the AI labeling.

The Tensor tension

This probably won’t come as a surprise, but the Tensor G5 in the Pixel 10 Pro Fold performs identically to the Tensor in other Pixel 10 phones. It is marginally faster across the board than the Tensor G4, but this isn’t the huge leap people hoped for with Google’s first TSMC chip. While it’s fast enough to keep the phone chugging, benchmarks are not its forte.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold in hand — Pixel 10 Pro Fold hinge has been redesigned. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

Across all our usual benchmarks, the Tensor G5 shows small gains over last year’s Google chip, but it’s running far behind the latest from Qualcomm. We expect that gap to widen even further when Qualcomm updates its flagship Snapdragon line in a few months.

The Tensor G5 does remain a bit cooler under load than the Snapdragon 8 Elite, losing only about 20 percent to thermal throttling. So real-world gaming performance on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is closer to Qualcomm-based devices than the benchmark numbers would lead you to believe. Some game engines behave strangely on the Tensor’s PowerVR GPU, though. If mobile gaming is a big part of your usage, a Samsung or OnePlus flagship might be more your speed.

Day-to-day performance with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is solid. Google’s new foldable is quick to register taps and open apps, even though the Tensor G5 chip doesn’t offer the most raw speed. Even on Snapdragon-based phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the UI occasionally hiccups or an animation gets jerky. That’s a rarer occurrence on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

One of the biggest spec bumps is the battery—it’s 365 mAh larger, at 5,015 mAh. This finally puts Google’s foldables in the same range as flat phones. Granted, you will use more power when the main display is unfurled, and you should not expect a substantial increase in battery life generally. The power-hungry Tensor and increased background AI processing appear to soak up most of the added capacity. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold should last all day, but there won’t be much leeway.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold does bring a nice charging upgrade, boosting wired speeds from 21 W to 30 W with a USB-PD charger that supports PPS (as most now do). That’s enough for a 50 percent charge in about half an hour. Wireless charging is now twice as fast, thanks to the addition of Qi2 support. Any Qi2-certified charger can hit those speeds, including the Google Pixelsnap charger. But the Fold is limited to 15 W, whereas the Pixel 10 Pro XL gets 25 W over Qi2. It’s nice to see an upgrade here, but all of Google’s phones should charge faster than they do.

Big phone, big questions

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is better than last year’s Google foldable, and that means there’s a lot to like. The new hinge and slimmer bezels make the third-gen foldable a bit easier to hold, and the displays are fantastic. The camera setup, while a step down from the other Pro Pixels, is still one of the best you can get on a phone. The addition of Qi2 charging is much appreciated, too. And while Google has overloaded the Pixels with AI features, more of them are useful compared to those on the likes of Samsung, Motorola, or OnePlus.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Pixel 10 Pro — Left: Pixel 10 Pro Fold, Right: Pixel 10 Pro. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

That’s all great, but these are relatively minor improvements for an $1,800 phone, and the competition is making great strides. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold isn’t as fast or slim as the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and Samsung’s multitasking system is much more powerful. The Z Fold 7 retails for $200 more, but that distinction hardly matters as you close in on two grand for a smartphone. If you’re willing to pay $1,800, going to $2,000 isn’t much of a leap.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold back in hand — It’s the size of a normal phone when closed. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the ultimate Google phone with some useful AI features, but the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a better piece of hardware. Ultimately, the choice depends on what’s more important to you, but Google will have to move beyond iterative upgrades if it wants foldables to look like a worthwhile upgrade.

The good

Redesigned hinge and slimmer bezels
Huge, gorgeous foldable OLED screen
Colorful, attractive Material 3 UI
IP68 certification
Includes Qi2 with magnetic attachment
Seven years of update support
Most AI features run on-device for better privacy

The bad

Cameras are a step down from other Pro Pixels
Tons of AI features you probably won’t use
Could use more robust multitasking
Tensor G5 still not benchmark king
High $1,800 price

Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he’s written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards.

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Synology caves, walks back some drive restrictions on upcoming NAS models

Biz & IT, dsm, Enterprise Storage, hard disk drive, hard drive, hdd, NAS, network attached storage, Storage, synology, synology dsm, Tech / Tim Belzer / October 8, 2025

Policy change affects at least 2025 model Plus, Value, and J-series DiskStations.

Credit: SOPA Images / Getty

If you were considering the purchase of a Synology NAS but were leery of the unreasonably high cost of populating it with special Synology-branded hard disk drives, you can breathe a little easier today. In a press release dated October 8, Synology noted that with the release of its latest Disk Station Manager (DSM) update, some of its 2025 model-year products—specifically, the Plus, Value, and J-series DiskStation NAS devices—would “support the installation and storage pool creation of non-validated third-party drives.”

This unexpected move comes just a few months after Synology aggressively expanded its “verified drive” policy down-market to the entire Plus line of DiskStations. Prior to today, the network-attached storage vendor had shown no signs of swerving from the decision, painting it as a pro-consumer move intended to enhance reliability. “Extensive internal testing has shown that drives that follow a rigorous validation process when paired with Synology systems are at less risk of drive failure and ongoing compatibility issues,” Synology previously claimed in an email to Ars.

What is a “verified” or “validated” drive?

Synology first released its own brand of hard disk drives back in 2021 and began requiring their use in a small but soon-to-increase number of its higher-end NAS products. Although the drives were rebadged offerings from other manufacturers—there are very few hard disk drive OEMs, and Synology isn’t one of them—the company claimed that its branded disks underwent significant additional validation and testing that, when coupled with customized firmware, yielded reliability and performance improvements over off-the-shelf components.

However, those drives came with what was in some cases a substantial price increase over commodity hardware. Although I couldn’t find an actual published MSRP list, some spot checking on several web stores shows that the Synology HAT5310 enterprise SATA drive (a drive with the same warranty and expected service life as a Seagate Exos or Western Digital Gold) is available in 8TB at $299, 12TB at $493, and 20TB at an eye-watering $605. (For comparison, identically sized Seagate Exos disks are $220 at 8TB, $345 at 12TB, and $399 at 20TB.) Other Synology drive models tell similar pricing stories.

A Synology DS1525+ NAS, which up until today would scream at you unless you filled it with special Synology-branded disks.

Credit: Synology

A Synology DS1525+ NAS, which up until today would scream at you unless you filled it with special Synology-branded disks. Credit: Synology

If you put non-verified drives in a Synology NAS that required verified drives, certain functionality would be reduced or potentially removed, depending on the specific model disks you were introducing. Additionally, the Synology DSM interface would spam you with large “DANGER” warnings that your data might not be safe. Synology also at first refused to display S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic information from unverified drives, though this particular restriction was eventually lifted.

Savvy sysadmins could disable the verified drive requirements altogether by using one of several different workarounds, though that kind of thing opens one up to a different kind of danger—the danger of depending on an unsupported configuration tweak to keep a production system fully online and functional. It’s not a big deal for home users, but for business users relying on a Synology system at work with people’s livelihoods involved, the should-I-or-shouldn’t-I calculus of using such a workaround gets murkier. Synology is likely banking on the fact that if your business is of a certain size and you’re spending someone else’s money, a few hundred bucks more on each disk drive for peace of mind and a smoothly functioning NAS might seem like less of a speed bump than it would to a homelab admin spending money out of their own pocket.

While Synology’s claims about its validated drives having undergone extensive testing and yielding some performance benefit do hold water (at least under the specific benchmark circumstances called out on Synology drive page), it’s very difficult for me to see Synology’s actions here as anything other than an attempt to squeeze additional revenue out of what the company thought to be an exploitable market segment.

Enterprise storage companies like Dell-EMC enjoy vast margins on high-end storage gear—margins that don’t exist down in the consumer and SMB space where Synology is usually found. So the company decided to be the change it wanted to see in the world and created a way to extract those margins by making expensive custom hard disk drives mandatory (at least in a “nice data you got there, it’d be a shame if something happened to it—better use our disks” kind of way) for more and more products.

Unfortunately for Synology, today is not 2021, and the prosumer/SMB NAS market is getting downright crowded. In addition to long-time players like QNAP that continue to pump out new products, up-and-comer UGREEN is taking market share from Synology in the consumer areas where Synology has traditionally been most successful, and even Ubiquiti is making a run at the mid-market with its own line of Unifi-integrated NAS devices. Synology’s verified drive rent-seeking has made the brand practically impossible to recommend over competitors’ offerings for any use case without significant caveats. At least, up until today’s backpedaling.

When asked about the reasoning behind the change, a Synology representative gave the following statement via email: “First and foremost, our goal is to create reliable and secure solutions for user’s data, which is what drives our decisions as a company, including this original one. We are continuing with our validation program, working with third-party vendors to test their drives under the same rigorous testing we put our branded drives through, so we will still uphold those standards that we have set for ourselves. However, based on user feedback and to provide more flexibility in drive choices since testing third party drives has taken a while, we’re opening up the drive policy to include non-verified drives.”

As part of the same exchange, I asked Synology if they’re aware that—at least anecdotally, from what I see among the IT-savvy Ars audience—that this change has caused reputational damage among a significant number of existing and potential Synology customers. “While our original goal was to improve system reliability by focusing on a smaller set of validated configurations,” the company representative replied, “our valued community has shared feedback that flexibility is equally important. We are committed to our user’s experience and we understand that this decision didn’t align with their expectations of us. We value their input and will utilize it as we move forward.”

The about-face

As of the October 8 release of DSM 7.3, the input has been utilized. Here’s the full section from the company’s DSM 7.3 announcement:

As a part of its mission statement, Synology is committed to delivering reliable, high-performance storage systems. This commitment has led to a standardized process of rigorous testing and validation for both hardware and software components, and has been an integral part of Synology’s development approach for many years. Both Synology storage drives and components validated through the third-party program undergo uniform testing processes to ensure they are able to provide the highest levels of reliability with DSM.

Synology is currently collaborating closely with third-party drive manufacturers to accelerate the testing and verification of additional storage drives, and will announce more updates as soon as possible. In the meantime, 25 model year DiskStation Plus, Value, and J series running DSM 7.3 will support the installation and storage pool creation of non-validated third-party drives. This provides users greater flexibility while Synology continues to expand the lineup of officially verified drives that meet long-term reliability standards.

The upshot is that the validated drive requirements are being removed from 2025 model-year Plus, Value, and J-series NAS devices. (Well, mostly removed—the press release indicates that pool and cache creation on M.2 disks “still requires drives on the HCL [hardware compatibility list].”)

We asked Synology whether the requirements will also be lifted from previous-generation Synology products—and the answer to that question appears to be a “no.”

“This change only affects the ’25 series models: DS725+, DS225+, DS425+, DS925+, DS1525+, DS1825+. Models in the xs+ line, like the DS3622xs+, are considered a business/enterprise model and will remain under the current HCL policy for our business lines,” Synology explained.

Updated with comments from Synology.

Lee is the Senior Technology Editor, and oversees story development for the gadget, culture, IT, and video sections of Ars Technica. A long-time member of the Ars OpenForum with an extensive background in enterprise storage and security, he lives in Houston.

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Microsoft removes even more Microsoft account workarounds from Windows 11 build

Tech, Windows 11, windows 11 25h2 / Mike M. / October 7, 2025

Of the many minor to medium-size annoyances that come with a modern Windows 11 installation, the requirement that you sign in with a Microsoft account is one of the most irritating. Sure, all operating systems (including Apple’s and Google’s) encourage account sign-in as part of their setup process and prevent you from using multiple operating system features until and unless you sign in.

Various sanctioned and unsanctioned tools and workarounds existed to allow users to set their PCs up with old-fashioned local accounts, and those workarounds haven’t changed much in the last three years. But Microsoft is working on tightening the screws in preview builds of Windows, foreshadowing some future version of Windows where getting around the account requirement is even harder than it already is.

In a new update released to the Dev channel of the Windows Insider Preview program yesterday (build number 26220.6772), Microsoft announced it was “removing known mechanisms for creating a local account in the Windows Setup experience (OOBE).” Microsoft says that these workarounds “inadvertently skip critical setup screens, potentially causing users to exit OOBE with a device that is not fully configured for use.”

The removed commands include the “OOBEBYPASSNRO” workaround that Microsoft announced it was removing earlier this year, plus a “start ms-cxh:localonly” workaround that had been documented more recently. In current Windows releases, users can open a command prompt window during setup with Shift+F10 and input either of those commands to remove both the Microsoft account requirement and Internet connection requirement.

Windows 11 Pro currently includes another workaround, where you can indicate that you plan to join your computer to a corporate domain and use that to create a local account. We don’t know whether this mechanism has also been removed from the new Windows build.

It’s unclear what “critical setup screens” Microsoft is referring to; when using the workarounds to create a local account, the Windows setup assistant still shows you all the screens you need for creating an account and a password, plus toggling a few basic privacy settings. Signing in with a Microsoft account does add multiple screens to this process though—these screens will attempt to sell you Microsoft 365 and Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, and to opt you into features like the data-scraping Windows Recall on PCs that support it. I would not describe any of these as “critical” from a user’s perspective, but my priorities are not Microsoft’s priorities.

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Qualcomm is buying Arduino, releases new Raspberry Pi-esque Arduino board

Arduino, qualcomm, Tech / Tim Belzer / October 7, 2025

Smartphone processor and modem maker Qualcomm is acquiring Arduino, the Italian company known mainly for its open source ecosystem of microcontrollers and the software that makes them function. In its announcement, Qualcomm said that Arduino would “[retain] its brand and mission,” including its “open source ethos” and “support for multiple silicon vendors.”

“Arduino will retain its independent brand, tools, and mission, while continuing to support a wide range of microcontrollers and microprocessors from multiple semiconductor providers as it enters this next chapter within the Qualcomm family,” Qualcomm said in its press release. “Following this acquisition, the 33M+ active users in the Arduino community will gain access to Qualcomm Technologies’ powerful technology stack and global reach. Entrepreneurs, businesses, tech professionals, students, educators, and hobbyists will be empowered to rapidly prototype and test new solutions, with a clear path to commercialization supported by Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced technologies and extensive partner ecosystem.”

Qualcomm didn’t disclose what it would pay to acquire Arduino. The acquisition also needs to be approved by regulators “and other customary closing conditions.”

The first fruit of this pending acquisition will be the Arduino Uno Q, a Qualcomm-based single-board computer with a Qualcomm Dragonwing QRB2210 processor installed. The QRB2210 includes a quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 CPU and a Qualcomm Adreno 702 GPU, plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and combines that with a real-time microcontroller “to bridge high-performance computing with real-time control.”

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Play Store changes coming this month as SCOTUS declines to freeze antitrust remedies

antitrust, Apps, Google, play store, Tech / Kris Guyer / October 7, 2025

Changes are coming to the Play Store in spite of a concerted effort from Google to maintain the status quo. The company asked the US Supreme Court to freeze parts of the Play Store antitrust ruling while it pursued an appeal, but the high court has rejected that petition. That means the first elements of the antitrust remedies won by Epic Games will have to be implemented in mere weeks.

The app store case is one of three ongoing antitrust actions against Google, but it’s the furthest along of them. Google lost the case in 2023, and in 2024, US District Judge James Donato ordered a raft of sweeping changes aimed at breaking Google’s illegal monopoly on Android app distribution. In July, Google lost its initial appeal, leaving it with little time before the mandated changes must begin.

Its petition to the Supreme Court was Google’s final Hail Mary to avoid opening the Play Store even a crack. Google asked the justices to pause remedies pending its appeal, but the court has declined to do so, Reuters reports. Hopefully, Google planned for this eventuality because it must implement the first phase of the remedies by October 22.

The more dramatic changes are not due until July 2026, but this month will still bring major changes to Android apps. Google will have to allow developers to link to alternative methods of payment and download outside the Play Store, and it cannot force developers to use Google Play Billing within the Play Store. Google is also prohibited from setting prices for developers.

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Newest developer beta backtracks on one iPadOS 26 multitasking decision

Apple, iPadOS, ipados 26, Tech / Kris Guyer / October 7, 2025

We’re generally fans of the new windowed multitasking features in iPadOS 26—for people who want to use their iPads more like traditional laptops, the new system is more powerful, flexible, and predictable than the old Stage Manager, and it works on a wider range of iPads.

But some users on Reddit and elsewhere objected to Apple’s wholesale removal of the old multitasking mode, Split View (which allowed two apps onscreen at a time with a handle for adjusting the amount of screen they took up) and Slide Over (which allowed a small window to be swiped over top of your screen and then quickly dismissed when you were done with it).

Split View was reasonably easy to recreate with the new system, but users who had relied on Slide Over bemoaned the lack of an equivalent feature in iPadOS 26. Apple apparently agrees because the second developer beta of the upcoming iPadOS 26.1 adds Slide Over support back into the operating system (as reported by MacRumors). Like the old Slide Over window, the new one sits on top of all your other apps and can be invoked and dismissed whenever you want.

The new version of Slide Over isn’t quite the same as the old one; only one app can be in Slide Over mode at a time, whereas the old version would let you switch between apps in the Slide Over interface. But the new Slide Over window can be repositioned and resized, just like other windows in iPadOS 26.

Apple hasn’t said when it will release the final version of iPadOS 26.1, iOS 26.1, macOS 26.1, or the equivalent updates for its other platforms. But based on its past practice, we can probably expect to see it released to the general public at some point in October or November, after another beta build or two.

Newest developer beta backtracks on one iPadOS 26 multitasking decision Read More »

Why iRobot’s founder won’t go within 10 feet of today’s walking robots

Agility Robotics, AI, AI development tools, AI research, Biz & IT, boston dynamics, dexterity, elon musk, Figure, humanoid robots, iRobot, machine learning, manipulation, MIT, openai, optimus, Rethink Robotics, robot AI, robotics, Robots, rodney brooks, safety, Tech, Tesla, walking robots / Kris Guyer / October 4, 2025

In his post, Brooks recounts being “way too close” to an Agility Robotics Digit humanoid when it fell several years ago. He has not dared approach a walking one since. Even in promotional videos from humanoid companies, Brooks notes, humans are never shown close to moving humanoid robots unless separated by furniture, and even then, the robots only shuffle minimally.

This safety problem extends beyond accidental falls. For humanoids to fulfill their promised role in health care and factory settings, they need certification to operate in zones shared with humans. Current walking mechanisms make such certification virtually impossible under existing safety standards in most parts of the world.

The humanoid Apollo robot. Credit: Google

Brooks predicts that within 15 years, there will indeed be many robots called “humanoids” performing various tasks. But ironically, they will look nothing like today’s bipedal machines. They will have wheels instead of feet, varying numbers of arms, and specialized sensors that bear no resemblance to human eyes. Some will have cameras in their hands or looking down from their midsections. The definition of “humanoid” will shift, just as “flying cars” now means electric helicopters rather than road-capable aircraft, and “self-driving cars” means vehicles with remote human monitors rather than truly autonomous systems.

The billions currently being invested in forcing today’s rigid, vision-only humanoids to learn dexterity will largely disappear, Brooks argues. Academic researchers are making more progress with systems that incorporate touch feedback, like MIT’s approach using a glove that transmits sensations between human operators and robot hands. But even these advances remain far from the comprehensive touch sensing that enables human dexterity.

Today, few people spend their days near humanoid robots, but Brooks’ 3-meter rule stands as a practical warning of challenges ahead from someone who has spent decades building these machines. The gap between promotional videos and deployable reality remains large, measured not just in years but in fundamental unsolved problems of physics, sensing, and safety.

Why iRobot’s founder won’t go within 10 feet of today’s walking robots Read More »

Google confirms Android dev verification will have free and paid tiers, no public list of devs

Apps, Google, play store, privacy, Security, Tech / Paul Patrick / October 3, 2025

A lack of trust

Google has an answer for the most problematic elements of its verification plan, but anywhere there’s a gap, it’s easy to see a conspiracy. Why? Well, let’s look at the situation in which Google finds itself.

The courts have ruled that Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in the Play Store—it worked against the interests of developers and users for years to make Google Play the only viable source of Android apps, and for what? The Play Store is an almost unusable mess of sponsored search results and suggested apps, most of which are little more than in-app purchase factories that deliver Google billions of dollars every year.

Google has every reason to protect the status quo (it may take the case all the way to the Supreme Court), and now it has suddenly decided the security risk of sideloaded apps must be addressed. The way it’s being addressed puts Google in the driver’s seat at a time when alternative app stores may finally have a chance to thrive. It’s all very convenient for Google.

Developers across the Internet are expressing wariness about giving Google their personal information. Google, however, has decided anonymity is too risky. We now know a little more about how Google will manage the information it collects on developers, though. While Play Store developer information is listed publicly, the video confirms there will be no public list of sideload developers. However, Google will have the information, and that means it could be demanded by law enforcement or governments.

The current US administration has had harsh words for apps like ICEBlock, which it successfully pulled from the Apple App Store. Google’s new centralized control of app distribution would allow similar censorship on Android, and the real identities of those who developed such an app would also be sitting in a Google database, ready to be subpoenaed. A few years ago, developers might have trusted Google with this data, but now? The goodwill is gone.

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HBO Max subscribers lose access to CNN livestream on November 17

HBO Max, streaming, Tech, warner bros. discovery / Mike M. / October 3, 2025

HBO Max subscribers will no longer be able to watch CNN from the streaming platform as of November 17, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) informed customers today.

After this date, HBO Max subscribers will still be able to watch some CNN content, including shows and documentaries, on demand.

The CNN Max livestream for HBO Max launched as an open beta in September 2023. Since then, it has featured live programming from CNN’s US arm and CNN International, as well as content made specifically for HBO Max.

WBD is pulling HBO Max’s CNN channel as it prepares to launch a standalone CNN streaming service, inevitably introducing more fragmentation to the burgeoning streaming industry. The streaming service is supposed to launch this fall and provide access to original CNN programing and journalism, including “a selection of live channels, catch-up features, and video-on-demand programming,” a May announcement said.

In a statement today, Alex MacCallum, EVP of digital products and services for CNN, said:

CNN has benefitted tremendously from its two years of offering a live 24/7 feed of news to HBO Max customers. We learned from HBO Max’s large base of subscribers what people want and enjoy the most from CNN, and with the launch of our own new streaming subscription offering coming later this fall, we look forward to building off that and growing our audience with this unique, new offering.

WBD will sell subscriptions to CNN’s new streaming service as part of an “All Access” subscription that will include the ability to read paywalled articles on CNN’s website.

HBO Max subscribers lose access to CNN livestream on November 17 Read More »

Apple iPhone 17 Pro review: Come for the camera, stay for the battery

Apple, Features, IPhone, iphone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iphone 17 pro, Tech / Kris Guyer / October 3, 2025

a weird-looking phone for taking pretty pictures

If your iPhone is your main or only camera, the iPhone 17 Pro is for you.

The iPhone 17 Pro’s excellent camera is the best reason to buy it instead of the regular iPhone 17. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Apple’s “Pro” iPhones usually look and feel a lot like the regular ones, just with some added features stacked on top. They’ve historically had better screens and more flexible cameras, and there has always been a Max option for people who really wanted to blur the lines between a big phone and a small tablet (Apple’s commitment to the cheaper “iPhone Plus” idea has been less steadfast). But the qualitative experience of holding and using one wasn’t all that different compared to the basic aluminum iPhone.

This year’s iPhone 17 Pro looks and feels like more of a departure from the basic iPhone, thanks to a new design that prioritizes function over form. It’s as though Apple anticipated the main complaints about the iPhone Air—why would I want a phone with worse battery and fewer cameras, why don’t they just make the phone thicker so they can fit in more things—and made a version of the iPhone that they could point to and say, “We already make that phone—it’s that one over there.”

Because the regular iPhone 17 is so good, and because it uses the same 6.3-inch OLED ProMotion screen, I think the iPhone 17 Pro is playing to a narrower audience than usual this year. But Apple’s changes and additions are also tailor-made to serve that audience. In other words, fewer people even need to consider the iPhone Pro this time around, but there’s a lot to like here for actual “pros” and people who demand a lot from their phones.

Design

The iPhone 17 drops the titanium frame of the iPhone 15 and 16 Pro in favor of a return to aluminum. But it’s no longer the aluminum-framed glass-sandwich design that the iPhone 17 still uses; it’s a reformulated “aluminum unibody” design that also protects a substantial portion of the phone’s back. It’s the most metal we’ve seen on the back of the iPhone since 2016’s iPhone 7.

But remember that part of the reason the 2017 iPhone 8 and iPhone X switched to the glass sandwich design was wireless charging. The aluminum iPhones always featured some kind of cutouts or gaps in the aluminum to allow Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular signals through. But the addition of wireless charging to the iPhone meant that a substantial portion of the phone’s back now needed to be permeable by wireless signals, and the solution to that problem was simply to embrace it with a full sheet of glass.

The iPhone 17 Pro returns to the cutout approach, and while it might be functional, it leaves me pretty cold, aesthetically. Small stripes on the sides of the phone and running all the way around the “camera plateau” provide gaps between the metal parts so that you can’t mess with your cellular reception by holding the phone wrong; on US versions of the phone with support for mmWave 5G, there’s another long ovular cutout on the top of the phone to allow those signals to pass through.

But the largest and most obvious is the sheet of glass on the back that Apple needed to add to make wireless charging work. The aluminum, the cell signal cutouts, and this sheet of glass are all different shades of the phone’s base color (it’s least noticeable on the Deep Blue phone and most noticeable on the orange one).

The result is something that looks sort of unfinished and prototype-y. There are definitely people who will like or even prefer this aesthetic, which makes it clearer that this piece of technology is a piece of technology rather than trying to hide it—the enduring popularity of clear plastic electronics is a testament to this. But it does feel like a collection of design decisions that Apple was forced into by physics rather than choices it wanted to make.

That also extends to the camera plateau area, a reimagining of the old iPhone camera bump that extends all the way across the top of the phone. It’s a bit less slick-looking than the one on the iPhone Air because of the multiple lenses. And because the camera bumps are still additional protrusions on top of the plateau, the phone wobbles when it’s resting flat on a table instead of resting on the plateau in a way that stabilizes the phone.

Finally, there’s the weight of the phone, which isn’t breaking records but is a step back from a substantial weight reduction that Apple was using as a first-sentence-of-the-press-release selling point just two years ago. The iPhone 17 Pro weighs the same amount as the iPhone 14 Pro, and it has a noticeable heft to it that the iPhone Air (say) does not have. You’ll definitely notice if (like me) your current phone is an iPhone 15 Pro.

Apple sent me one of its $59 “TechWoven” cases with the iPhone 17 Pro, and it solved a lot of what I didn’t like about the design—the inconsistent materials and colors everywhere, and the bump-on-a-bump camera. There’s still a bump on the top, but at least the aperture of a case evens it out so that your phone isn’t tilted by the plateau and wobbling because of the bump.

I liked Apple’s TechWoven case for the iPhone Pro, partly because it papered over some of the things I don’t love about the design. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

The original FineWoven cases were (rightly) panned for how quickly and easily they scratched, but the TechWoven case might be my favorite Apple-designed phone case of the ones I’ve used. It doesn’t have the weird soft lint-magnet feel of some of the silicone cases, FineWoven’s worst problems seem solved, and the texture on the sides of the case provides a reassuring grippiness. My main issue is that the opening for the USB-C port on the bottom is relatively narrow. Apple’s cables will fit fine, but I had a few older or thicker USB-C connectors that didn’t.

This isn’t a case review, but I bring it up mainly to say that I stand by my initial assessment of the Pro’s function-over-form design: I am happy I put it in a case, and I think you will be, too, whichever case you choose (when buying for myself or family members, I have defaulted to Smartish cases for years, but your mileage may vary).

On “Scratchgate”

Early reports from Apple’s retail stores indicated that the iPhone 17 Pro’s design was more susceptible to scratches than past iPhones and that some seemed to be showing marks from as simple and routine an activity as connecting and disconnecting a MagSafe charging pad.

Apple says the marks left by its in-store MagSafe chargers weren’t permanent scratches and could be cleaned off. But independent testing from the likes of iFixit has found that the anodization process Apple uses to add color to the iPhone’s aluminum frame is more susceptible to scratching and flaking on non-flat surfaces like the edges of the camera bump.

Like “antennagate” and “bendgate” before it, many factors will determine whether “scratchgate” is actually something you’ll notice. Independent testing shows there is something to the complaints, but it doesn’t show how often this kind of damage will appear in actual day-to-day use over the course of months or years. Do keep it in mind when deciding which iPhone and accessories you want—it’s just one more reason to keep the iPhone 17 Pro in a case, if you ask me—but I wouldn’t say it should keep you from buying this phone if you like everything else about it.

Camera

I have front-loaded my complaints about the iPhone 17 Pro to get them out of the way, but the fun thing about an iPhone in which function follows form is that you get a lot of function.

When I made the jump from the regular iPhone to the Pro (I went from an 11 to a 13 Pro and then to a 15 Pro), I did it mainly for the telephoto lens in the camera. For both kid photos and casual product photography, it was game-changing to be able to access the functional equivalent of optical zoom on my phone.

The iPhone 17 Pro’s telephoto lens in 4x mode. Andrew Cunningham

The iPhone 16 Pro changed the telephoto lens’ zoom level from 3x to 5x, which was useful if you want maximum zoom but which did leave a gap between it and the Fusion Camera-enabled 2x mode. The 17 Pro switches to a 4x zoom by default, closing that gap, and it further maximizes the zooming capabilities by switching to a 48 MP sensor.

Like the main and ultrawide cameras, which had already switched to 48 MP sensors in previous models, the telephoto camera saves 24 MP images when shooting in 4x mode. But it can also crop a 12 MP image out of the center of that sensor to provide a native-resolution 12 MP image at an 8x zoom level, albeit without the image quality improvements from the “pixel binning” process that 4x images get.

You can debate how accurate it is to market this as “optical-quality zoom” as Apple does, but it’s hard to argue with the results. The level of detail you can capture from a distance in 8x mode is consistently impressive, and Apple’s hardware and software image stabilization help keep these details reasonably free of the shake and blur you might see if you were shooting at this zoom level with an actual hardware lens.

It’s my favorite feature of the iPhone 17 Pro, and it’s the thing about the phone that comes closest to being worth the $300 premium over the regular iPhone 17.

The iPhone 17 Pro, main lens, 1x mode. Andrew Cunningham

Apple continues to gate several other camera-related features to the Pro iPhones. All phones can shoot RAW photos in third-party camera apps that support it, but only the Pro iPhones can shoot Apple’s ProRAW format in the first-party camera app (ProRAW performs Apple’s typical image processing for RAW images but retains all the extra information needed for more flexible post-processing).

I don’t spend as much time shooting video on my phone as I do photos, but for the content creator and influencer set (and the “we used phones and also professional lighting and sound equipment to shoot this movie” set) Apple still reserves several video features for the Pro iPhones. That list includes 120 fps 4K Dolby Vision video recording and a four-mic array (both also supported by the iPhone 16 Pro), plus ProRes RAW recording and Genlock support for synchronizing video from multiple sources (both new to the 17 Pro).

The iPhone Pro also remains the only iPhone to support 10 Gbps USB transfer speeds over the USB-C port, making it faster to transfer large video files from the phone to an external drive or a PC or Mac for additional processing and editing. It’s likely that Apple built this capability into the A19 Pro’s USB controller, but both the iPhone Air and the regular iPhone 17 are restricted to the same old 25-year-old 480 Mbps USB 2.0 data transfer speeds.

The iPhone 17 Pro gets the same front camera treatment as the iPhone 17 and the Air: a new square “Center Stage” sensor that crops a 24 MP square image into an 18 MP image, allowing users to capture approximately the same aspect ratios and fields-of-view with the front camera regardless of whether they’re holding the phone in portrait or landscape mode. It’s definitely an image-quality improvement, but it’s the same as what you get with the other new iPhones.

Specs, speeds, and battery

You still need to buy a Pro phone to get a USB-C port with 10 Gbps USB 3 transfer speeds instead of 480 Mbps USB 2.0 speeds. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

The iPhone 17 Pro uses, by a slim margin, the fastest and most capable version of the A19 Pro chip, partly because it has all of the A19 Pro’s features fully enabled and partly because its thermal management is better than the iPhone Air’s.

The A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro uses two high-performance CPU cores and four smaller high-efficiency CPU cores, plus a fully enabled six-core GPU. Like the iPhone Air, the iPhone Pro also includes 12GB of RAM, up from 8GB in the iPhone 16 Pro and the regular iPhone 17. Apple has added a vapor chamber to the iPhone 17 Pro to help keep it cool rather than relying on metal to conduct heat away from the chips—an infinitesimal amount of water inside a small metal pocket continually boils, evaporates, and condenses inside the closed copper-lined chamber. This spreads the heat evenly over a large area, compared to just using metal to conduct the heat; having the heat spread out over a larger area then allows that heat to be dissipated more quickly.

All phones were tested with Adaptive Power turned off.

We saw in our iPhone 17 review how that phone’s superior thermals helped it outrun the iPhone Air’s version of the A19 Pro in many of our graphics tests; the iPhone Pro’s A19 Pro beats both by a decent margin, thanks to both thermals and the extra hardware.

The performance line graph that 3DMark generates when you run its benchmarks actually gives us a pretty clear look at the difference between how the iPhones act. The graphs for the iPhone 15 Pro, the iPhone 17, and the iPhone 17 Pro all look pretty similar, suggesting that they’re cooled well enough to let the benchmark run for a couple of minutes without significant throttling. The iPhone Air follows a similar performance curve for the first half of the test or so but then drops noticeably lower for the second half—the ups and downs of the line actually look pretty similar to the other phones, but the performance is just a bit lower because the A19 Pro in the iPhone Air is already slowing down to keep itself cool.

The CPU performance of the iPhone 17 Pro is also marginally better than this year’s other phones, but not by enough that it will be user-noticeable.

As for battery, Apple’s own product pages say it lasts for about 10 percent longer than the regular iPhone 17 and between 22 and 36 percent longer than the iPhone Air, depending on what you’re doing.

I found the iPhone Air’s battery life to be tolerable with a little bit of babying and well-timed use of the Low Power Mode feature, and the iPhone 17’s battery was good enough that I didn’t worry about making it through an 18-hour day. But the iPhone 17 Pro’s battery really is a noticeable step up.

One day, I forgot to plug it in overnight and awoke to a phone that still had a 30 percent charge, enough that I could make it through the morning school drop-off routine and plug it in when I got back home. Not only did I not have to think about the iPhone 17 Pro’s battery, but it’s good enough that even a battery with 85-ish percent capacity (where most of my iPhone batteries end up after two years of regular use) should still feel pretty comfortable. After the telephoto camera lens, it’s definitely the second-best thing about the iPhone 17 Pro, and the Pro Max should last for even longer.

Pros only

Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

I’m taken with a lot of things about the iPhone 17 Pro, but the conclusion of our iPhone 17 review still holds: If you’re not tempted by the lightness of the iPhone Air, then the iPhone 17 is the one most people should get.

Even more than most Pro iPhones, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will make the most sense for people who actually use their phones professionally, whether that’s for product or event photography, content creation, or some other camera-centric field where extra flexibility and added shooting modes can make a real difference. The same goes for people who want a bigger screen, since there’s no iPhone 17 Plus.

Sure, the 17 Pro also performs a little better than the regular 17, and the battery lasts longer. But the screen was always the most immediately noticeable upgrade for regular people, and the exact same display panel is now available in a phone that costs $300 less.

The benefit of the iPhone Pro becoming a bit more niche is that it’s easier to describe who each of these iPhones is for. The Air is the most pleasant to hold and use, and it’s the one you’ll probably buy if you want people to ask you, “Oh, is that one of the new iPhones?” The Pro is for people whose phones are their most important camera (or for people who want the biggest phone they can get). And the iPhone 17 is for people who just want a good phone but don’t want to think about it all that much.

The good

Excellent performance and great battery life
It has the most flexible camera in any iPhone, and the telephoto lens in particular is a noticeable step up from a 2-year-old iPhone 15 Pro
12GB of RAM provides extra future-proofing compared to the standard iPhone
Not counting the old iPhone 16, it’s Apple’s only iPhone to be available in two screen sizes
Extra photography and video features for people who use those features in their everyday lives or even professionally

The bad

Clunky, unfinished-looking design
More limited color options compared to the regular iPhone
Expensive
Landscape layouts for apps only work on the Max model

The ugly

Increased weight compared to previous models, which actually used their lighter weight as a selling point

Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue.

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Cable nostalgia persists as streaming gets more expensive, fragmented

cable, streaming, Tech / Mike M. / October 1, 2025

Streaming is overtaking broadcast, cable, and satellite. But amid all the cord cutting lies a much smaller, yet intriguing, practice: going back to cable.

Cord reviving is when cord cutters, or people who previously abandoned traditional TV services in favor of streaming, decide to go back to traditional pay-TV services, like cable.

There’s no doubt that this happens far less frequently than cord cutting. But TiVo’s Q2 2025 Video Trends Report: North America released today points to growth in cord reviving. It reads:

The share of respondents who cut the cord but later decided to resubscribe to a traditional TV service has increased about 10 percent, to 31.9 percent in Q2 2025.

TiVo’s report is based on a survey conducted by an unspecified third-party survey service in Q2 2025. The respondents are 4,510 people who are at least 18 years old and living in the US or Canada, and the survey defines traditional TV services as pay-TV platforms offering linear television via cable, satellite, or managed IPTV platforms.

It’s important to note that TiVo is far from an impartial observer. In addition to selling an IPTV platform, its parent company, Xperi, works with cable, broadband, and pay-TV providers and would directly benefit from the existence or perception of a cord reviving “trend.”

Although, this isn’t the first we’ve heard of streaming customers returning to cable. Surveys of 3,055 US adults in 2013 and 2025 by CouponCabin found that, “among those who have made the switch from cable to streaming, 22 percent have returned to cable, while another 6 percent are considering making the switch back.”

When reached for comment, a TiVo spokesperson said via email that cord reviving is driven by a “mixture of reasons, with internet bundle costs, familiarity of use, and local content (sports, news, etc.) being the primary drivers.” The rep noted that it’s “likely” that those re-subscribing to traditional TV services are using them alongside some streaming subscriptions.

“It’s possible that users are churning off some [streaming] services where there is overlap with traditional TV services,” TiVo’s spokesperson said.

Cable nostalgia

According to Nielsen, streaming service viewership on TVs surpassed that of cable and broadcast combined for the first time in May (44.8 percent for streaming versus 24.1 percent for cable and 20.1 percent for broadcast).

Cable nostalgia persists as streaming gets more expensive, fragmented Read More »

Google’s Gemini-powered smart home revamp is here with a new app and cameras

AI, Artificial Intelligence, generative ai, Google, Google Home, Smart Home, Tech / Paul Patrick / October 1, 2025

Google promises a better smart home experience thanks to Gemini.

Google’s new Nest cameras keep the same look. Credit: Google

Google’s products and services have been flooded with AI features over the past couple of years, but smart home has been largely spared until now. The company’s plans to replace Assistant are moving forward with a big Google Home reset. We’ve been told over and over that generative AI will do incredible things when given enough data, and here’s the test.

There’s a new Home app with Gemini intelligence throughout the experience, updated subscriptions, and even some new hardware. The revamped Home app will allegedly gain deeper insights into what happens in your home, unlocking advanced video features and conversational commands. It demos well, but will it make smart home tech less or more frustrating?

A new Home

You may have already seen some elements of the revamped Home experience percolating to the surface, but that process begins in earnest today. The new app apparently boosts speed and reliability considerably, with camera feeds loading 70 percent faster and with 80 percent fewer app crashes. The app will also bring new Gemini features, some of which are free. Google’s new Home subscription retains the same price as the old Nest subs, but naturally, there’s a lot more AI.

Google claims that Gemini will make your smart home easier to monitor and manage. All that video streaming from your cameras churns through the AI, which interprets the goings on. As a result, you get features like AI-enhanced notifications that give you more context about what your cameras saw. For instance, your notifications will include descriptions of activity, and Home Brief will summarize everything that happens each day.

Conversational interaction is also a big part of this update. In the home app, subscribers will see a new Ask Home bar where you can input natural language queries. For example, you could ask if a certain person has left or returned home, or whether or not your package showed up. At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen—generative AI can get things wrong.

The new app comes with new subscriptions based around AI, but the tiers don’t cost any more than the old Nest plans, and they include all the same video features. The base $10 subscription, now known as Standard, includes 30 days of video event history, along with Gemini automation features and the “intelligent alerts” Home has used for a while that can alert you to packages, familiar faces, and so on. The $20 subscription is becoming Home Advanced, which adds the conversational Ask Home feature in the app, AI notifications, AI event descriptions, and a new “Home Brief.” It also still offers 60 days of events and 10 days of 24/7 video history.

Home app and notification — Gemini is supposed to help you keep tabs on what’s happening at home. Credit: Google

Free users still get saved event video history, and it’s been boosted from three hours to six. If you are not subscribing to Gemini Home or using the $10 plan, the Ask Home bar that is persistent across the app will become a quick search, which surfaces devices and settings.

If you’re already subscribing to Google’s AI services, this change could actually save you some cash. Anyone with Google AI Pro (a $20 sub) will get Home Standard for free. If you’re paying for the lavish $250 per month AI Ultra plan, you get Home Advanced at no additional cost.

A proving ground for AI

You may have gotten used to Assistant over the past decade in spite of its frequent feature gaps, but you’ll have to leave it behind. Gemini for Home will be taking over beginning this month in early access. The full release will come later, but Google intends to deliver the Gemini-powered smart home experience to as many users as possible.

Gemini will replace Assistant on every first-party Google Home device, going all the way back to the original 2016 Google Home. You’ll be able to have live chats with Gemini via your smart speakers and make more complex smart home queries. Google is making some big claims about contextual understanding here.

If you’ve used Gemini Live, the new Home interactions will seem familiar. You can ask Gemini anything you want via your smart speakers, perhaps getting help with a recipe or an appliance issue. However, the robot will sometimes just keep talking long past the point it’s helpful. Like Gemini Live, you just have to interrupt the robot sometimes. Google also promises a selection of improved voices to interrupt.

If you want to get early access to the new Gemini Home features, you can sign up in the Home app settings. Just look for the “Early access” option. Google doesn’t guarantee access on a specific timeline, but the first people will be allowed to try the new Gemini Home this month.

New AI-first hardware

It has been four years since Google released new smart home devices, but the era of Gemini brings some new hardware. There are three new cameras, all with 2K image sensors. The new Nest Indoor camera will retail for $100, and the Nest Outdoor Camera will cost $150 (or $250 in a two-pack). There’s also a new Nest Doorbell, which requires a wired connection, for $180.

Google says these cameras were designed with generative AI in mind. The sensor choice allows for good detail even if you need to digitally zoom in, but the video feed is still small enough to be ingested by Google’s AI models as it’s created. This is what gives the new Home app the ability to provide rich updates on your smart home.

Nest Doorbell 3 — The new Nest Doorbell looks familiar. Credit: Google

You may also notice there are no battery-powered models in the new batch. Again, that’s because of AI. A battery-powered camera wakes up only momentarily when the system logs an event, but this approach isn’t as useful for generative AI. Providing the model with an ongoing video stream gives it better insights into the scene and, theoretically, produces better insights for the user.

All the new cameras are available for order today, but Google has one more device queued up for a later release. The “Google Home Speaker” is Google’s first smart speaker release since 2020’s Nest Audio. This device is smaller than the Nest Audio but larger than the Nest Mini speakers. It supports 260-degree audio with custom on-device processing that reportedly makes conversing with Gemini smoother. It can also be paired with the Google TV Streamer for home theater audio. It will be available this coming spring for $99.

Google Home will continue to support a wide range of devices, but most of them won’t connect to all the advanced Gemini AI features. However, that could change. Google has also announced a new program for partners to build devices that work with Gemini alongside the Nest cameras. Devices built with the new Google Camera embedded SDK will begin appearing in the coming months, but Walmart’s Onn brand has two ready to go. The Onn Indoor camera retails for $22.96 and the Onn Video Doorbell is $49.86. Both cameras are 1080p resolution and will talk to Gemini just like Google’s cameras. So you may have more options to experience Google’s vision for the AI home of the future.

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