2 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Google

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.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
The Pixel 11 could come with a higher price tag.

9to5Google points to a report from Dealabs claiming that all configurations of the Pixel 11 will cost around €100 more than the Pixel 10. While the base Pixel 11 might be a bit pricier, it could also include 256GB of storage, rather than the current 128GB. According to Dealabs, the Pixel 11 could arrive as soon as August.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Smartwatch purchases should now appear in your Google Wallet transaction history.

Instead of only showing purchases made with your phone, 9to5Google reports that the Wallet app’s transaction history can now also show money spent using the NFC chip in a Wear OS watch in one combined view.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Google’s $4.7 billion Android fine has been upheld.

The search giant has lost its final appeal to overturn a record-breaking €4.1 billion (about $4.68 billion) penalty imposed by the European Commission over practices that abused Android’s mobile dominance. The charges date back to 2018, so it’s taken almost a decade to close the antitrust case.

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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Google AI Mode is making original recipe links more prominent.

The AI search tool will start linking directly to source recipes at the top of cooking queries, with images, ratings, and ingredient numbers. Not every food writer is happy though, since there’s still a full AI-generated recipe below the links, sometimes with opaque sourcing and errors in the instructions.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Spark on Mac.

Google is rolling out its frighteningly good AI agent to the Gemini macOS app, meaning Spark can access and work with files on your computer.

The company is adding a few other new features to Spark, too, including the ability to connect Tasks and Keep to the agent, use integrations with apps like Canva and Instacart, and track topics in real time.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Gemini now lets more people generate personalized AI images.

In April, Google announced that AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers in the US would be able to connect Google Photos with Personal Intelligence to let Gemini generate AI images based on their personal context. Beginning today, however, the feature won’t be behind a subscription: all eligible users in the US will have access.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Discord is testing age verification with Incode and Google Wallet.

An update to Discord’s support page says it’s trying out a way to scan your ID through Incode, adding that “only your date of birth is reviewed for age confirmation purposes,” while your ID and selfie will be “permanently deleted.” Discord’s also testing age verification via a credit card or ID pass in Google Wallet.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Google says EU Search and Android proposals may increase cybercrime.

Mirroring similar concerns raised by Apple, Google is now warning that “scammers and fraudsters could exploit greater access to apps’ permissions” if the EU pushes ahead with draft measures that would force the company to open its Search data and Android operating system to competitors. In a statement to Wired, Google security engineering head, Heather Adkins, said:

”Past implementation [date], I would give it maybe weeks before we began to see an increase in fraud in
Europe.”

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Google is putting a cap on Meta’s Gemini usage.

Google has struggled to keep up with demand for its cloud computing power, and Meta has grown increasingly reliant on Gemini for many of its needs. Now, Meta, along with a number of other clients, is being told that Google simply can’t provide the capacity they want. According to the Financial Times:

The decision by Google to cap a large customer’s access to its models offers a rare glimpse into the infrastructure pressures and bottlenecks building across the AI industry. Despite spending tens of billions of dollars on chips, data centres and power, even the largest tech companies are struggling to secure enough computing power to support surging demand for advanced models and AI services.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Google Finance has its own app now.

The new Google Finance app is launching on Android first, with iOS coming later this year. Google is also launching its redesigned Finance dashboard out of beta, as well as adding new features like the ability to track portfolios and receive updates about topics related to your investments.

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The Google Finance app.
The Google Finance app.
Image: Google
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Google Wallet now supports TSA PreCheck Touchless ID.

You can now use Google Wallet to create an ID pass with your passport, check in for your flight, and then enroll in TSA PreCheck Touchless ID at participating airports. That means instead of showing physical or digital ID at airport security, you can walk through with the TSA’s “facial comparison” technology.

Screenshot of Google Wallet with a prompt for TSA PreCheck Touchless ID
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Jorts, Fibermaxxing, and other summer trends.

Google has published a new “Summergeist” report that highlights some of the more notable search trends that have spiked in the US this summer. At a glance, 90’s/2000’s fashion has made another comeback, and everyone is trying to figure out how to make high fiber recipes and Spritz drinks.

A illustrated graph from Google showing Jorts vs Capris searches across the USA.
This graph shows which US states are searching for Jorts or Capris the most. Personally, I’m team Jorts.
Image: Google
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Autofill is being upgraded in Chrome.

We’re still waiting on Google’s upcoming Gemini-powered autofill for Android, but for now Chrome can automatically fill forms across mobile and desktop using your Google Wallet data, including your Known Traveler Number, driver’s license, and passport. Autofill for flight details and vehicle information has also expanded to iOS and Android.

Chrome’s upgraded autofill feature, pulling in information from Google Wallet.
If you haven’t already saved your driver’s licence number or passport information to Google Wallet, you can now save them when you enter the information into Chrome for the first time.
Image: Google
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Gemini AI can fix your broken formulas in Google Sheets now.

A new “Fix” button gives Workspace users an option to have Gemini to diagnose and automatically resolve formula errors in Sheets.

As Android Police highlights it will pop up any time you click on a cell with an error in it, and show Gemini’s fix in the chatbot’s sidebar.

A screenshot of the Gemini “Fix” button in Google Sheets
Image: Google
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Google’s Nobel Prize-winning AI researcher is joining Anthropic.

John Jumper, who has worked as a researcher at Google DeepMind since 2017, announced his departure from the company on X. In 2024, Jumper and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing an open-source AI model that predicts protein structures.

Hayden Field
Hayden Field
Google DeepMind announced an “AI Control Roadmap” for improving AI agent security.

“Think of it like a driving instructor with dual controls,” Google’s blog post stated. “The instructor trusts the student but stays ready to take the wheel or hit the brakes if a mistake occurs.” Google DeepMind’s plan itself lays out “internal guardrails designed to catch potential adversarial behaviour by AI agents, even as they become increasingly harder to oversee and contain,” naming methods like chain-of-thought monitoring, asynchronous alerts, real-time access control, and shutdown infrastructure.

GDM AI Control Roadmap

[Google DeepMind]

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Now Google Meet works in Android Auto.

When the Google Meet UI for Apple CarPlay launched in April, Google said Android Auto would follow soon, and now it’s here, with the rollout set to finish by June 26th. If you want to take a work call while in the car, you can see your schedule, dial colleagues, or join calls (audio only, both ways) without picking up your phone.

Google Meet screenshot showing previous calls
Screenshot of Google Meet’s Android Auto UI showing scheduled calls
1/2Image: Google
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Co-lead of Gemini joins OpenAI.

Noam Shazeer spent twenty years at Google before returning in 2024 after the Big G reportedly paid Character.AI — a company co-founded by Shazeer in 2021 — $2.7 billion to bring him and a team of researchers back home.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Here’s a preview of Google’s next arguments in Epic v. Google.

As we discussed, Epic and Google will be back in court July 16th to answer six specific questions from the court — as it decides whether to force Google to carry rival stores inside its own app store, or let it adopt “Registered App Stores” in the US instead. What do you think of the embedded arguments?

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Android foldables are getting new gamepad controls.

Pixel foldables get the new feature first, which is being added to Android 17 alongside native controller remapping, but only rolls out “in the coming months.” We’ve seen control options like this in other foldables before, but it’s welcome to see Google bake it into the OS.

Google hasn’t said how customizable the bottom-screen controls will be.
Google hasn’t said how customizable the bottom-screen controls will be.
Image: Google