AI·
Google moved Demis Hassabis out of the DeepMind CEO seat. Koray Kavukcuoglu now runs Gemini.
Sundar Pichai made Hassabis chair of Google DeepMind and Alphabet chief scientist. Koray Kavukcuoglu takes the Gemini org, and Jeff Dean is leaving.
Policy·
Around 3% of people want tracking. EU governments dropped the plan to end cookie banners.
A civil-society coalition wants EU browsers to send a machine-readable privacy signal instead of showing consent pop-ups. The Council deleted the provision on June 18.
Android·
Android may stop letting a phone debug itself, and Shizuku would break with it
A comment on a Google issue tracker floated binding ADB to the Wi-Fi interface only. That one change would kill loopback debugging, Shizuku, and every debloater built on it.
Hardware·
Google blamed the Pixel 11 price hike on RAM. A gigabyte now costs $12, up from $2.80.
HBM stacks for AI accelerators outbid the DRAM in phones and laptops. Qualcomm, Roku and Google have all repriced, and IDC sees PC prices up 18.3% this year.
Policy·
$1 billion. The EU fined Google for favoring its own results and blocking cheaper app deals.
Brussels fined Google 890 million euros, its first Digital Markets Act penalty, for self-preferencing in Search and blocking app developers from steering users to cheaper deals.
AI·
Google shipped three Gemini Flash models but held back its flagship Pro
Google released Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and a cyber specialist, and teased Gemini 4. The 3.5 Pro tier it promised in May still isn't out.
Android·
Android 17 ships with floating app bubbles and on-screen reaction recording
Android 17 is rolling out to Pixel first. Here's what actually shipped, from Bubbles and Screen Reactions to tighter location privacy, and which features are still coming.
AI·
Google reportedly delays Gemini 3.5 Pro to July to keep tuning the model
Google has pushed its frontier Gemini 3.5 Pro to July while Flash already ships, according to Business Insider. Here's what slipped and why it matters.
Android·
Google's $99 Home Speaker arrives June 25, and the $35 Nest Mini is gone
Google's Gemini-powered Home Speaker opens for pre-order at $99.99 and ships June 25, with 360-degree audio and a new voice assistant replacing the Nest Mini.
Security·
Volkswagen blocked GrapheneOS from its app. Privacy-focused Android keeps getting locked out
Volkswagen's app stopped working on GrapheneOS, the hardened Android fork. The leading explanation is a Play Integrity attestation check that flags non-Google builds.
Android·
Gemini Intelligence turns Android 17 into an agent that drives your apps
Google's Android Show pitched Gemini Intelligence and AppFunctions, an MCP-style way for the assistant to call inside your apps. Here's how it works and what to watch.
Apple·
Apple rebuilt Siri on Google's Gemini and is paying $1 billion a year for it
At WWDC 2026 Apple shipped Siri AI, rebuilt on a custom Google Gemini model running on its own servers. Here are the catches behind the demo.
Android·
Google is patching an Android flaw that attackers are already exploiting in the wild
Google's June 2026 Android bulletin patches an actively exploited Framework privilege-escalation zero-day plus 123 other flaws. Here's who's at risk and what to do.
Web·
Google said people love AI search. DuckDuckGo's installs jumped 30% the next week.
DuckDuckGo's US downloads climbed about 30% and its no-AI search page saw 28% more visits the week after Google's I/O push. The backlash is now measurable.
Security·
Google's bug tracker auto-published exploit code for an unpatched Chromium flaw. The bug is still live.
Chromium Issue 1396278 went public on May 20 because Google's tracker auto-clears restrictions on stale closed bugs. The flaw, reported in 2022, was never fixed.
Web·
First-gen Chromecasts are vanishing from streaming apps. Google won't say if it's a fix or a quiet EOL.
YouTube, HBO Max, and others stopped listing the 2013 Chromecast as a cast target. Google EOL'd the hardware in 2023 and isn't commenting.
Hardware·
Google and Samsung set Fall 2026 for Android XR glasses. Gentle Monster and Warby Parker are doing the frames.
The Android Show confirmed Fall 2026 for Google and Samsung's first AR glasses, plus three new features for the Galaxy XR headset that launched in October.
Apple·
iOS 26.5 brings encrypted texting between iPhone and Android. Group chats and metadata still leak.
Apple and Google began rolling out end-to-end encrypted RCS on May 11. The MLS-based encryption rides on GSMA Universal Profile 3.0, but EFF says the rollout leaves real gaps.