After starting in late June, Gemini Live on Android and iOS is now widely rolling out the ability to access Google apps like Keep and Tasks in real-time conversations.

At I/O 2025 in May, Google announced how Gemini Live would be able to create Calendar events, Tasks reminders, and add notes to Keep, as well as access information stored in those first-party apps. Google Maps integration also lets you ask for place details.

On Samsung devices, there’s access to Calendar, Notes, and Reminders. As such, Gemini Live goes from just having access to general information about the world to being able to tap into your information, just like the regular text chat experience.

Some users started getting the integration in late June, but this has been a slow rollout. When Google announced the first Gemini Drop in mid July, it was still not widely available.

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Over the past few days or so, Gemini Live’s app access has been widely rolling out. When invoked, you will see a chip just above the fullscreen controls that note the app name with a circular loading indicator around the icon. Some actions, like “List created,” offer an “Undo” button.

You can directly namecheck the four Google apps to invoke access, while something more general like “do I have any reminders today” also works.

Meanwhile, apps access works alongside video and screen sharing. For example, you can create a new Calendar event if you see day/date details in the world or on your screen.

We’re seeing Gemini Live’s apps access rolled out on Android (Google app stable and beta) and iOS.

More on Gemini:

Knowing the big internal changes coming to our phones with iOS 26, we’re getting excited to see how Apple has revamped its newest smartphones: the iPhone 17 lineup. We still have to wait over a month to find out — assuming Apple sticks to its usual release schedule — but for now, we can speculate what the new phones will look like. As with most unreleased iPhone models, rumors and leaks have trickled in about the hardware side ahead of the official introduction. Here’s what we’re expecting and what we can reasonably assume we’ll get from Cupertino in September.

What are the latest iPhone 17 rumors and reports?

Surprisingly, the latest rumor isn’t about the actual iPhone 17 details themselves, but rather when they’ll finally be showcased. MacRumors highlighted a story originally reported by iphone-ticker.de that the Apple iPhone 17 event could be Tuesday, September 9, according to information gleaned from German mobile phone providers.

While the iPhone events typically take place around the second week of September, we won’t know the actual date until Apple makes the official announcement.

How much will the iPhone 17 cost?

Apple’s announced plan to expand US-based manufacturing partners seems to give it at least some shielding from the steepest Trump administration tariffs that have already triggered price increases on everything from Switch consoles to high-end cameras to Sonos speakers. But given that President Trump’s trade policies can change from week to week, and Apple’s continuing reliance on Asia-based supply chains, price shocks remain an ongoing possibility. The bigger question is: Will Apple absorb any higher costs, or pass them on to consumers?

If prices do creep up, Apple may choose to pair it it with an “upgrade.” Consider this recent rumor posted by MacRumors from a leaker known as “Instant Digital,” suggesting that the default storage of the iPhone 17 line may start at 256GB, doubling the current 128GB baseline. While that could be accompanied by a price increase of $50, Apple could at least pitch it as a “better value.” That said, the company doubled the default RAM of its Mac computers from 8GB to 16GB at no extra cost in 2024 — but that was before the current Trump tariff cycle started.

When will the iPhone 17 series be announced?

Most years, the flagship smartphones are introduced in September. It’s a little early to have the specific dates; some years, Apple only gives a week or two of lead time between sending invites and hosting the event. But years of past precedent show that sometime in September should be when the 17 models make their debut. This family of smartphones may be the last to follow that trend, however. There have been hints that the introduction of the iPhone 18 collection in 2026 will be split into a pro-tier announcement in the fall and a standard model announcement the following spring.

What will the new iPhone 17 lineup include?

Design leaks suggest that Apple is building an ultra-thin smartphone, likely to be named the iPhone 17 Air to match Apple’s ultralight laptop designation. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, often a solid source of advanced intel about Apple, reported in January that the iPhone 17 Air will be equipped with a basic A19 chip and will only have a single camera lens. It may also use Apple’s new in-house modem, which was introduced in February on the iPhone 16e. More details about this development may leak ahead of September, but that’s what we know for now.

An investor note from Apple analyst Jeff Pu indicated that the Air will have a titanium frame. If his reports are accurate, the lightweight smartphone will be the only entry in the iPhone 17 lineup to use that metal; the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max are expected to be made of aluminum, which is oddly a lighter material than titanium. Other speculation had suggested that the Air would use a blend of aluminum and titanium, so the exact materials may not be known until the official announcement.

Additionally, an August 4 MacRumors report says the internal battery pack of the iPhone Air is just 2.49mm thick — half the thickness of the iPhone 17 Pro battery. The leak was posted on the Korean-langauge Naver blog, where they show the alleged batteries of the iPhone 17 Air and 17 Pro side by side. The same account claimed the 17 Air’s battery capacity was a mere 2,800 mAh, MacRumors notes. (That’s below the battery capacity of current iPhone 16 models.)

Each new roster includes a base model, but over the years, Apple has shaken up the variety of phones it offers. Most likely there will be an iPhone 17 and an iPhone 17 Pro. Apple has also committed to the size matters philosophy, and has been building an iPhone Pro Max option with an even bigger screen and better battery life; the 17 roster will almost certainly have one as well.

The new Pro iPhones are said to have a full-width “camera island” on the rear, which would mark the first time an Apple model opted for that design. This feature can be seen in the purported iPhone 17 “spotted in the wild.” The pics, highlighted on MacRumors, show a black cased iPhone (17 Pro?) with the distinct back panel. Is it the real deal? The dual angles lend a degree of credibility in a social media landscape increasingly polluted with AI-enhanced fakes, but your guess is as good as ours.

The iPhone 17 Air seems primed to take the place of a potential iPhone 17 Plus. Since the iPhone 16e was only just introduced in February at a surprisingly high price point, it seems unlikely that there will be a new addition to that lower end of the spectrum, the models that were previously called SE.

At the very least, it sounds like the iPhone 17 Air won’t take away the charging port and rely only on wireless connectivity. Bloomberg said that while Apple had investigated making the iPhone 17 Air without a single port, the company (fortunately) changed plans. He also says that the rumored phone will have a 6.6-inch screen and include the Dynamic Island and Camera Control button. Finally, the price is rumored at $900 — likely more than the standard iPhone 17 but less than the Pro.

We’ve also gotten what seems to be a reliable look at what the color lineup will be for the new smartphones. Macworld reported that the iPhone 17 will be available in black, white, steel gray, green, purple and light blue. The iPhone 17 Air will reportedly have four color options: black, white, light blue and light gold. While the Air colors will be less saturated, the visuals for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will go bold. The options for the Pro models are expected to be black, white, gray, dark blue and orange.

On July 30, Tom’s Guide highlighted an X post from Sonny Dickson — a longtime and generally reliable leaker of unreleased iPhone information — showing “dummy” iPhone 17 models in the new colors that were the source of the aforementioned Macworld story. While these are literally just mock-ups — not real, leaked iPhones — it’s interesting to see how the design and color rumors translate into a real-world look and feel.

What will iOS 26 be like?

Apple upended its numbering conventions with WWDC 2025, and will match the name of each new operating system to the year it’s released. So when the next wave of iPhones hits, they’ll be running on iOS 26.

On the design side, the smartphone OS introduced during the big developer showcase took a contentious approach dubbed Liquid Glass. Apple has been scaling down the amount of transparency effects in the subsequent beta tests of iOS 26, but it will still have a glass-like visual.

The feature list includes big and small updates. On the more impactful side, the Phone and Photos apps have been redesigned. There will be several features leveraging artificial intelligence, such as live translation capabilities coming to Phone, FaceTime and Messages. Apple is also currently testing a sensitive content warning for child accounts that will freeze FaceTime video if nudity is detected by on-device machine learning tools. And the company is also launching Visual Intelligence, which will use AI to search for elements in an image.

iOS 26 also has a litany of minor, quality of life improvements. Group texts are getting support for polls. And for the slow risers out there, iOS 26 will finally let you escape the tyranny of the nine minute snooze alarm.

The next iOS is now available as a public beta. Here are our initial impressions of the Liquid Glass design and other new features. iOS 26 is compatible with all models back through iPhone 11.

Update, August 8, 2025, 4:43PM ET: Added new speculations and reports about iPhone 17 pricing.

Update, August 6, 2025, 4:05PM ET: Added latest details about the potential iPhone 17 event date.

Update, August 4, 2025, 5:23PM ET: Added latest battery leaks about the iPhone 17 models.

Update, August 1, 2025, 8:15AM ET: Added new photos showing potential iPhone 17 colors.

Update, July 30, 2025, 11:08AM ET: Added latest leaks and rumors about the iPhone 17, and updated information on the iOS 26 public beta.

Update, July 17, 2025, 4:40PM ET: Added latest information about iOS 26, possible materials for the Air, and the color options for the different models.

Update, March 17, 2025, 2PM ET: Added details about the rumored price and features of the iPhone 17 Air.

Update, April 11, 2025, 3:45PM ET: Added details from Front Page Tech’s new video that claims to reveal details from a leaked iOS 19 build.

Katie Teague contributed to this story.

While every leaked render and marketing tease for Google upcoming smartphone launch might make the Pixel 10 feel like a year-old rerun, the devil’s seemingly in the details. Even setting aside the usual round of software enhancements — only some of which have just begun to leak — it’s clear Google does have some hardware tricks up its sleeve Chief among them is native Qi2 support, which should bring support for magnetic chargers, wallets, stands, and much more to every device in the Pixel 10 lineup.

If you’ve used anything newer than the iPhone 12 — or you’ve splurged for a MagSafe-compatible case for all sorts of Android devices — you already know how great magnetic-based accessories are. We’ve seen a handful of brands, including Samsung and OnePlus, dip their respective toes into the world of Qi2 support, but that sense of excitement is seriously dulled when you realize you need those cases for any of these tools to work. Aside from an outlier or two, the Pixel 10 lineup will be the first major Android device to include Qi2’s magnet array within the smartphone itself, with the only sacrifice being a minor (and in my eyes, worthwhile) increase in thickness.

But I want more. See, Google’s decision to reuse the design language from last year’s Pixel 9 lineup comes with some added potential now that all four phones have embedded magnets hidden right below the surface: the chance to bring back an idea Motorola abandoned at the tail end of last decade. That’s right, Pixel fans — it’s time for Google to revive Moto Mods.

Moto Mods felt way ahead of its time, which is probably why they didn’t work out

Moto Mods, for those who don’t remember, arrived with the Moto Z in 2016. Motorola’s one-time flagship series had some pretty slick tricks up its sleeve, combining a shockingly slim chassis — even by today’s standards — with a magnetic accessory lineup. Unlike previous attempts to design a modular smartphone, Moto Mods were hot-swappable; while LG’s “Friends” required cracking open the battery compartment on the G5, Moto Mods were, in many ways, more like the MagSafe and Qi2 accessories we’ve come to know and love today.

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Really, the downfall of Moto Mods had nothing to do with how well they worked, but rather, the limitation of such a product lineup. Motorola only offered Mods on the Z-series, which saw several mainline and spin-off entries released from 2016 to 2019. Early excitement from the company — including the promise of a million dollar offer to the best third-party Mod developer — had fizzled out by 2018, resulting in layoffs from its Chicago-based team and the eventual death of the Z-series after its fourth-gen model.

Frankly, Motorola was the wrong company to go about this. At the time, the company’s biggest success — both critically and commercially — was its budget-friendly G-series. Even after its split from Google, Motorola was making solid entry-level and midrange smartphones well before the Galaxy A-series and Pixel A-series stole its thunder. The Moto Z and its various follow-ups weren’t bad, but the focus on expensive accessories and the compromises from the magnetic modular system were apparent from the jump.

But there were a lot of good ideas, especially with the Mods themselves. Hasselblad developed a point-and-shoot-esque camera system long before it would partner with OnePlus and Oppo on their respective phones, providing 10x zoom and a real flash. JBL made add-on speakers that ran circles around any built-in offerings at the time. Battery packs, game controllers, photo printers, and even a projector — Moto Mods produced a lot of cool concepts, even if the entire ecosystem never quite managed to go mainstream.

And that’s to say nothing of Motorola’s “Style Shells,” which transformed the joys of Moto Maker into something you could do in your home. The Moto Z’s 5.2mm chassis could easily support additional material padded onto the back without feeling too bulky, eliminating the need for a case for plenty of users while delivering an early sense of those fashion-forward vibes the company would later adopt with the Moto Razr.

If anything, I think Moto Mods’ inability to score any mainstream success really boils down to timing. The original Moto Z shipped a year before the iPhone X, Galaxy S8, and Pixel 2 XL all started to move towards taller, edge-to-edge panels, while Motorola found itself boxed into a design it promised to support for at least two additional generations. By the end of the Z-series, the company’s devices looked wildly dated next to practically any other smartphone on the market, to say nothing of the (fairly ugly) pogo pins that stuck out like a sore thumb whenever a Mod wasn’t in active use.

A good idea poorly executed, in other words — and that’s exactly where Google can swoop in to pick up the pieces.

Google can make good on the Moto Mods promise — even if it’s not a perfect recreation

The Pixel 10 lineup seems tailor-made for a Moto Mods-style reboot. Obviously it’s got built-in magnets, just like the original Moto Z had. It’s got a splashy, memorable name in “Pixelsnap,” one that should include various optional first-party accessories in addition to every third-party MagSafe/Qi2 accessory already on the market. And rather than starting with an entirely fresh smartphone series, Google appears to be building this support directly into its entire 2025 flagship lineup, practically guaranteeing far more attention than Moto Mods ever got.

But for me, the biggest factor is the Pixel 10’s design. Leaks and teases alike show Google reusing last year’s design, complete with the same squared-off, protruding camera bump that is, when paired with magnets, surprisingly reminiscent of the Moto Z. That phone series used its large, circular camera bump to help hold accessories in place, something that could be easily recreated on the Pixel 10, 10 Pro, and 10 Pro XL. Google’s got plenty of new colors , but I’d love to see a series of first-party Style Shell-type add-ons to deliver just a bit more personalization.

It seems, to me, like a match made in heaven. Still, I’m not going to pretend there aren’t some obvious shortcomings here, both compared to Moto Mods themselves and with how something similar would play with the Pixel 10.

First, the design. The entire Pixel 10 series, like the Pixel 9 lineup before it, is pretty chunky. While adding on a magnetic backplate might not be that much bulkier than any random case off Amazon, it’s going to pale in comparison to a chassis so sleek, OEMs today are manufacturing “ultra-slim” phones that still can’t compete. A magnetic shell flush with the camera bar would make the entire device over 12mm thick, and that might be a touch too far for those of us who live a caseless lifestyle.

Second, we don’t totally know how Pixelsnap works at the moment when pairing Pixel hardware with a magnetic accessory. MagSafe supports some communication between various accessories through NFC, but it’s a far cry from the pogo pin implementation on the Moto Z. Say what you will about its appearance, but there’s a reason pogo pins are still relied on for accessories like tablet keyboards to this very day. I think we can safely say some of the coolest Moto Mod accessories — projectors, game controllers, etc. — simply could not work just through a magnetic connection on its own.

But that still leaves plenty of room for Google and third-party partners to really innovate on some excited accessories. Build a hybrid power bank-meets-Bluetooth speaker that aligns perfectly with the shape of either the Pixel 10 and 10 Pro or the Pixel 10 Pro XL. Design a wallet add-on that feels as though it’s part of the device’s design rather than awkwardly protruding from the back. Make a crazy slider QWERTY keyboard just because you can. Hell, even just Style Shell-like back covers would be a worthy endeavor in making the Pixel feel a little more customizable than in years past.

I’m struggling to see a reason here for Google to skip out on embracing some of Motorola’s best concepts from a decade ago in a more modern fashion. Not every accessories needs to be perfectly flush with the phone — we’ve seen that for years with MagSafe and Qi2-compliant battery banks. The opportunity is there, though, for both Google and other casemakers to lean heavily into some half-forgotten ideas from 2016. While I doubt we’ll ever see Moto Mods come roaring back to life with the same sort of surprising capability, the Pixel 10 certainly feels like the right time to try.

Nintendo has eyed adding a Playdate-style crank to the Switch 2, according to a recently spotted patent from Nintendo Patents Watch. The hypothetical accessory would add tracking rotational movement to an existing bag of Joy-Con 2 controller tricks that includes motion and mouse controls.

Based on the patent application, the crank accessory attaches to the side of a Joy-Con 2 magnetically, not unlike the controllers’ wrist straps. Whichever game supports the accessory can use the Joy-Con 2’s mouse sensor to track the rotations of the crank as an input. Fishing games or games with dedicated fishing mini-games, like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, seem like the obvious contenders for an accessory like this, but knowing Nintendo there are weirder possibilities, too.

Another patent imagines a similar setup being used for a clickable wheel. The patent illustrations looks like a lighter, but the accessory could just as easily be used while dragging a Joy-Con 2 along a surface. It might even add extra resistance or friction to the Switch 2’s mouse controls.

Given that these are patent applications, there’s no guarantee Nintendo plans on turning either of them into real products. Still, they’re a glimpse at the Switch 2’s untapped potential for supporting goofy accessories, something that defined a good portion of the Wii’s lifespan.

The wildest Nintendo got with the original Switch was Nintendo Labo, cardboard accessories that turned the console into everything from a VR headset to a simple fishing rod. A crank might be the first of several adventurous accessories for Nintendo’s new console.

Welcome to episode 65 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will take a break from talking about the endless onslaught of Pixel 10 renders to take in a more zoomed-out look at Google’s current ecosystem. As the company starts advertising the Pixel 10 series, new reports suggest we might be waiting a few months for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 4, and the Pixel Buds 2a. Meanwhile, the company’s decision to stop selling refurbished Pixel 6a models has us thinking about hardware longevity compared to software longevity, and how the two sometimes collide in unexpected ways.

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Timecodes

• 00:00 – Pixel 10 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 4, and Pixel Buds 2a delayed launch rumors
• 15:01 – Pixel 6a battery issues
• 25:50 – Pixel 10 ad campaign begins

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