Google

I saw someone on Threads the other day say, basically, “I know GChat is technically still a thing, but does anyone actually use it?” Google sure hopes you do — and it’s turning it into something much more like Slack. The new thing is that you can pipe RSS feeds into Chat, where they can appear in real time in whatever group you want. It’s a good idea! We have a bunch of RSS feeds funneling into our Slack. But I’d rather just have Google Reader back.

The Mous Pixel Watch Charger, available through Google’s online store for $50, is the first third-party charger that works with the Pixel Watch 4’s side-mounted charging pins. It’s larger and potentially more stable than Google’s $30 Pixel Watch Quick Charge Dock, and can connect to other Mous charging pads.

Google’s high-end wireless earbuds are among the best you can buy if you value having great active noise cancellation, a clear transparency mode, and detailed sound quality. Even better: they’re now cheaper than they were on Black Friday, with prices starting at $164.79 (about $64 off) at multiple retailers.

The tool, which lets you have voice conversations in AI Mode in the Google app, now uses Google’s newest Gemini model for native audio, which means that responses are “more fluid and expressive than ever before,” the company says. You can hear an example in this video.

As reported by the Washington Post, an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project found apps on both platforms that were owned by sanctioned organizations, including Russian banks and a Chinese paramilitary group.

The new feature was recently announced by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps’ senior product manager, as spotted by 9to5Google. You’ll need to first connect your iPhone to your car through USB, Bluetooth, or CarPlay, but when you’re done driving Google Maps will automatically save your vehicle’s location for 48 hours, or until you start driving again.

Most Brits are used to using Google Maps for restaurant recommendations, but its opaque algorithm can reward chains and existing hits, making it hard for new independent spots to get traction. This map tries to fix that, highlighting restaurants underrated by the algorithm because they don’t get the footfall.

Here’s AdWeek’s headline:

The enhanced reasoning mode is only available to Google AI Ultra subscribers through the Gemini app. It’s currently the highest-performing model on the ARC-AGI-2 reasoning benchmark, with Google saying it’s “designed to tackle complex math, science and logic problems that challenge even the most advanced state-of-the-art models.”