Android phones will soon be able to detect spoofed calls and impersonation scams
Google’s June Android feature drop includes more scam detection, more AirDrop, and yes, more AI.
Ryan Whitwam
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Ryan Whitwam
Senior Technology Reporter
ryan.whitwam@meincmagazine.com
Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he's written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards.
Recent stories by
Ryan Whitwam
Apple working to cram massive Gemini model into iPhone to power new Siri
As Apple tries to shrink Gemini for the iPhone, a cloud component is probably inevitable.
Ryan Whitwam
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135
YouTube to begin automatically labeling AI videos
AI videos that are animated, unrealistic, or only have a little AI may still hide their origins, though.
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Motorola’s 2026 Razrs are almost worth buying just for their stunning looks… almost
Pretty little phones with pretty big price tags.
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Buckle up: Google is set to remake search with agentic AI in 2026
Google’s AI search evolution is accelerating at I/O 2026.
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Google’s SynthID AI watermarking tech is being adopted by OpenAI, Nvidia, and more
AI content is getting good, but SynthID might be able to help tell truth from fiction.
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Gemini 3.5 Flash might be fast enough for gen AI to make sense
Google says its more efficient Gemini 3.5 Flash is the key to your agentic AI future.
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Motorola Razr Fold review: Fits neatly in your pocket but not your budget
The Razr Fold has a lot going for it, but like all foldables, it’s wildly expensive.
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Most Read
Google’s Android-powered laptops are called Googlebooks, and they’re coming this year
Google has revealed its vision for the AI laptop of tomorrow.
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Android is getting a big AI overhaul in 2026
Google has big plans for Android in 2026, and most of it is AI.
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Course correction: Google to link more sources in AI Overviews
Google’s AI search will start citing its sources in several new ways.
Ryan Whitwam
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Chrome’s 4GB AI model isn’t new, but you’re not wrong for being confused
You can stop Chrome from taking up 4GB of storage for local AI, but that shouldn’t be your problem.
Ryan Whitwam
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Google unveils screenless Fitbit Air and Google Health app to replace Fitbit
The $100 Fitbit Air is available for preorder today.
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Google’s Gemma 4 AI models get 3x speed boost by predicting future tokens
Up to 3x the speed with no loss of quality—is it too good to be true?
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Google Home gets upgraded Gemini voice assistant and new camera controls
Google’s smart home ecosystem is getting its biggest update since the AI-fueled 2025 revamp.
Ryan Whitwam
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The hidden cost of Google’s AI defaults and the illusion of choice
Google says it respects user privacy in AI, but the reality is not so black and white.
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Motorola reveals 2026 Razr lineup with modest upgrades and higher prices
Motorola’s foldable lineup is bigger and more spendy than ever.
Ryan Whitwam
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EU tells Google to open up AI on Android; Google says that’s “unwarranted intervention”
Gemini gets preferential treatment on Android, but maybe not for long (in Europe).
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Report: Samsung execs worried company could lose money on smartphones for the first time
The AI-driven memory shortage is hitting Samsung’s bottom line.
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Google unveils two new TPUs designed for the “agentic era”
Google’s new generation of Tensor AI chips is actually two chips, one for inference and one for training.
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Deezer says 44% of new music uploads are AI-generated, most streams are fraudulent
AI tracks account for a small fraction of Deezer streams, and most are demonetized for fraud.
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157
Gemini can now create personalized AI images by digging around in Google Photos
Google is making it easier to feed your photos into Nano Banana for more personal image generation.
Ryan Whitwam
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Google releases new apps for Windows and MacOS
Google mostly creates products for the web, but it has some new desktop apps today.
Ryan Whitwam
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Google introduces “Skills” in Chrome to make Gemini prompts instantly reusable
You can save custom prompts you find useful or grab a premade Skill from Google’s library.
Ryan Whitwam
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Google will begin punishing sites for back button hijacking in June
Google says it could penalize back button hijacking by demoting websites in search ranking.
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Google shoehorned Rust into Pixel 10 modem to make legacy code safer
Cellular modems are complex black boxes of legacy code, but Google is making them safer with Rust.
Ryan Whitwam
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68
YouTube increases Premium price again, says 90-second unskippable ads are a bug
An individual plan now cost $15.99 per month, and the free tier comes with buggy ads.
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Motorola suddenly raises budget phone prices up to 50%—you can probably thank AI
Motorola’s budget phones are much less budget-friendly today.
Ryan Whitwam
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96
Testing suggests Google’s AI Overviews tell millions of lies per hour
Is 90 percent accuracy good enough for a search robot?
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124
Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren’t a thing
LG almost released a rollable smartphone in 2021, and this is what it looked like inside.
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75
Google Vids gets AI upgrade with Veo and Lyria models, directable AI avatars
Google Vids brings together Google’s most capable AI creation tools.
Ryan Whitwam
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Google announces Gemma 4 open AI models, switches to Apache 2.0 license
Gemma 4 brings the first major update to Google’s open models in a year.
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You can finally change the goofy Gmail address you chose years ago
All your data remains intact, and you can go back to your original address at any time.
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The debut of Gemini 3.1 Flash Live could make it harder to know if you’re talking to a robot
Google’s new conversational audio AI is rolling out in search, Gemini, and developer tools today.
Ryan Whitwam
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Google’s TurboQuant AI-compression algorithm can reduce LLM memory usage by 6x
TurboQuant makes AI models more efficient but doesn’t reduce output quality like other methods.
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Google’s new version of Android Automotive will move beyond infotainment
Google wants Android in cars to break out of the infotainment box.
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