In announcing the Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program in January, Google was vague about why it was releasing the update, but an Australian “Project Safety Recall” has now confirmed it’s to “mitigate the risk of overheating.”

Over the past few hours, owners of the Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio haven’t been able to Cast any audio or video content.

Google is officially bringing back lock screen widgets on Android, but it begs the question – what would you want to use?

This was an insanely busy week in consumer-facing Google announcements. Approaching Google I/O levels, which is 72 days away, let’s alphabetically recap everything:

A new update to the Find My Device app has landed, bringing with it a new two-tab UI and support for location sharing, as well as improvements to existing device and tracker functionality such as better location previews.

The US Justice Department today reiterated what steps it wants a judge to take to address Google’s monopoly in online search. 

Welcome to episode 44 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, we talk about MWC 2025 announcements and the March Pixel Feature Drop.

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Earlier this week, Google rebranded “Extensions” in Gemini to just “apps.” Google has now shared that these Gemini apps are now powered by 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental).

Following Android back in July, Google Maps is now rolling out a sheet-based redesign that replaces most fullscreen UIs in the iPhone app.

As of December, Google Maps has rolled out the on-device Timeline location history change. Over the past day, some users have reported that their Google Maps Timeline is missing. 

We are on to Day 5 of the Discover Samsung sale with deep deals on the new S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra at up to $440 off alongside today’s 24-hour sale on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 with a massive $700 price drop and more, but for now it’s time for the Google Play app deals. Today’s highlights are many and include titles like Kingdom Eighties, Kingdom Two Crowns, Townscaper, Fury Unleashed, The Longest Road on Earth, Dandara Trials of Fear Edition, Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom, and more. Hit the jump for a closer look. 

As announced with the March 2025 Feature Drop, the Pixel 9 series can now connect to other cameras when live streaming. 

We have now moved on to the day 5 Discover Samsung deals, headlined by a series of ongoing offers on the S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra at up to $440 off on the 1TB and $300 off on the 256GB. But today’s daily offers have also ushered in a gigantic up to $700 in savings on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 as well as up to $900 off a wide variety of the brand’s wonderful Odyssey OLED monitors. From there we move over to Samsung’s Snapdragon X Plus Galaxy Book 4 Edge Copilot+ PC down to its lowest price of the year alongside a host of accessories, charging gear, and more. All of that and more awaits below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

Samsung’s update approach has been all over the place after what was a period of consistent updates over the last couple of years. Samsung’s internal testing of One UI 8 based on Android 16 mirrors the timeline of One UI 6, which was the last time the company was on track.

Google Calendar is the latest Workspace app to get the Gemini side panel on the web. This is currently being tested in Workspace Labs.

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge is an outlier among the company’s most recent lineup. It wasn’t released with the familiar party of three that users are used to seeing. Instead, The S25 Edge is a standalone release with some mysterious characteristics, like a lighter weight, obviously thinner body, and a price tag that apparently falls right around what the Galaxy S25+ costs.

One UI 7 is finally starting to appear on more devices than the Galaxy S25. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is the next device to receive the beta version, and it’s available to download now.

A new Android Auto update is hinting that, at some point, the platform may feature temperature controls of some sort.

I’ve always thought that Oppo’s foldables have been rather remarkable, but the new Find N5 really ups the game. Without a doubt, this is the best foldable I’ve ever used, and it’s a shame that hardly anyone is going to get the chance to use this device.

To round out the Widgets Spotlight Week, the Android team yesterday hosted a YouTube Q&A session. We learned about the status of stackable widgets and whether they are coming to Android XR.