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Google Archive

Archives for August 2026

John Higgins
John Higgins
Google’s two-year-old Pixel earbuds are getting an ANC update.

It’s not a brand-new set of earbuds, but in addition to a new olive color, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will get a firmware update that can improve ANC based on how the buds sit in your ears. Expect the update to roll out sometime in September.

The olive Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 in their open case at the Made by Google 2026 event.
The ANC update will hopefully make the Buds Pro 2 competitive with other current earbuds.
Photo by Andru Marino / The Verge
Google’s Pixel Watch 5 dives deeper into AI and health

We’re talking offline Gemini, proactive AI suggestions, better GPS maps, insulin resistance trends, and a $50 price hike.

Victoria Song
Google is making the Pixel cameras better by making them worse

Google’s new Camera Looks feature will do less computational photography — and that’s a great thing.

David Imel
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Sergey Brin spends over $100 million to fight wealth tax.

The Google co-founder, and world’s fourth-richest person, has spent $102 million so far to put a stop to the one-time, five percent tax on the wealth of California billionaires, according to filings tallied by Bloomberg. California voters can have their say on Proposition 40 for free come November.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Are you seeing a rival Android app store inside the US Google Play Store — or not?

Aptoide is the first third-party app store inside Google Play after Epic’s victory, but Aptoide CEO Paulo Trezentos tells me “I’d say 50% of people with a US account are not yet able to access it.” Most Verge staffers I’ve asked can, but a fully updated Pixel 9 review unit can’t. Google spox Dan Jackson tells me the feature is fully rolled out. Can you see it?

No install button
Does your phone show an install button?
ChatGPT and Gemini both just passed 1 billion usersChatGPT and Gemini both just passed 1 billion users
David Pierce and Hayden Field
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snap will have to face thousands of social media addiction lawsuits.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal filed by the tech companies, allowing more than 3,000 child safety lawsuits to proceed, according to Reuters.

Separately, the court also rejected Meta’s request to push back a trial linked to social media addiction allegations from dozens of state AGs. The trial kicks off on Wednesday.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Here’s Jeff Dean’s Chromebook.

The now-former chief scientist of Google DeepMind has shared a pic of the HP laptop he turned in on the way out the door. While he notes that he also had a MacBook to use at home, his “second (& primary)” machine looks to be a five- or six-year old HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook.

Picture of a Laptop covered in stickers
Image: Jeff Dean (X)