The Kindle Accessories I Never Want to Read Without (2026)
The Android status bar has been largely unchanged since the very beginning. Consistency is great, but so is adapting to modern needs. Some of the icons in the status bar have never been useful to me. Let's clean things up.

Getting to my destination using Google Maps is only half the job. I still need to find parking, track fuel expenses, and decide which stops are worth making on a road trip.

Wireless earbuds are meant to make life easier. You pop them in, connect them to your phone, and get on with your day. The last thing you expect is for a tiny pair of earbuds to become uncomfortably hot while you're wearing them. Yet overheating Galaxy Buds have become a pretty big concern, with many users experiencing the problem, and Samsung even offering some official advice on what you should do.

I use Android Auto almost every day, and a few things about it drive me absolutely nuts. My wireless connection drops out, message notifications interrupt my music, Gemini struggles with commands, and some apps I want arenβt even on the launcher.

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Iβve always been a Samsung fangirl, so itβs not like I needed convincing to love its phones. But One UI 9 has given me a few more reasons to appreciate them. I love exploring my Galaxyβs settings, and One UI 9 has a few new features that could save me an extra 10 minutes a day to enjoy my evening walk instead of fiddling with my phone. Here are five One UI 9 features that got me excited about Samsung phones all over again.

Remember when gaming meant blowing into cartridges, mastering tricky platforming levels, and staying up late to finish just one more stage? Some of the greatest games ever made came from the golden age of consoles like the Sega Genesis, original PlayStation, and Xbox.

Pixel phones built their reputation on photos that looked better than their hardware should allow. Five years after the Pixel 6 Pro, that edge feels thinner, so itβs worth asking whether Pixel cameras are actually slipping or the competition simply sprinted ahead.

Apple unveils a new iPad mini with OLED, A20 Pro and IP67 protection. See the $699 starting price, key specifications, release details and buyer advice.
The post Apple Unveils New iPad mini: What You Get for $699 appeared first on TechRepublic.
Apple unveils a new iPad mini with OLED, A20 Pro and IP67 protection. See the $699 starting price, key specifications, release details and buyer advice.
The post Apple Unveils New iPad mini: What You Get for $699 appeared first on TechRepublic.
My smart home has a lot of complicated automations, many of which have their own quirks. When guests visit, they just want to be able to do simple things like turning on the lights, watching TV, or turning up the heating. I decided to turn an old Android phone into a dedicated guest remote that's simple enough for anyone to use.



The iPhone Duo may be a bit of a risk right now, but there's a new mid-size Apple touchscreen device that might do the job. Starting at $699, the 8th-gen iPad mini price has gone up, but there are some big changes. Apple says the refreshed 8th-gen iPad mini marks the most significant update ever for its petite tablet, featuring an OLED screen and the A20 Pro chip that we first saw in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo.
The new iPad mini has roughly the same footprint as the 2024 release, but the display is slightly larger thanks to a 24 percent reduction in bezel thickness. The device is almost a full millimeter thinner than the last iPad, coming in at just 5.4 mm. The chassis is also IP67 rated for water and dust protection. The 7th-Gen iPad mini didn't have any official IP rating.
The 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR display (up from 8.3 inches) moves on from the IPS technology of the last-gen device to adopt OLED. That means dapper blacks and a much higher peak brightnessβ1,200 nits versus just 500 nits for the previous mini. It can also manage 1-nit minimum brightness so as not to sear your retinas in a dark room. There will also be a nano-textured matte display option. The display experience on the new mini should be much more in line with what we've come to expect from Apple's Pro-level devices.


Β© Apple
Google Keep is where I dump everything I need to remember. Grocery items, article ideas, errands, and random thoughts all end up in different notes. Finding anything later is a whole other problem.

Driving is my stress-relief activity. Iβm the kind of nerd who actually enjoys checking stats and reports, so naturally, I wanted to see what my driving looks like on paper.
