As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter that goes beyond the news cycle. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.
Inbox is written by Daniel Bader. Read previous issues here, and then catch up with Ben Schoon’s excellent Weekender column published every Sunday.
⭐️ Starred
October 4th marks 10 years since Google debuted the Pixel, and over the next few days we plan to dive into the brand’s storied legacy. What started with a couple of HTC-built devices has expanded into an ecosystem that includes budget and flagship smartphones, smartwatches, earbuds, tablets, and more.
The Pixel has served several purposes for Google throughout its lifespan, beginning as an extension of Nexus’s “Android best practices” before morphing into something a bit more complicated and abstract. When it debuted, Google emphasized the Pixel’s camera advantages, of which there were many, along with timely annual platform updates that arrived months before other Android devices.
As time went on, the Pixel brand came to encompass more than just smartphones; the company debuted its Tensor SoC inside the Pixel 6, and expanded the line to include the Pixel Watch, Pixel Buds, and a couple of failed Pixel-branded tablets.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Pixel lineup is its longevity; under Rick Osterloh, the brand has become synonymous with deep integration into Google’s services — of late, particularly Gemini — and a steward of thoughtful software and hardware design. The company’s products have made inroads in many markets, but still represent a single-digit share in most, including the US (despite solid year-over-year growth in 2026).
It’s perhaps also worth pointing out that the Pixel lineup has persevered in spite of many challenges, from major hardware issues with the Pixel 2 and 3 series to Covid-related supply constraints in the Pixel 5 to reputation-harming modem performance in the Pixel 6. It really wasn’t until 2023’s Pixel 8 series that Google shook its image as a mediocre hardware vendor and married superlative hardware with delightful software.
Today, the Pixel lineup is both the best and most predictable it’s ever been. The Pixel 11 series is yet another iteration on a design that debuted in 2021 with the Pixel 6. The Pixel Watch has looked identical since its 2022 debut. The Pixel Buds are fine but not competitive. The Pixel Tablet appears to be dead, and there’s no sign of a Pixelbook successor on the horizon.
Ten years in, is the Pixel brand where Google wanted it to be, with its cultural influence outpacing its financial viability? Perhaps not, but it’s also not likely to disappear anytime soon, which speaks volumes about its importance, both to the company and the community that keeps it in the conversation.
✉️ Inbox
- Google Pixel can use Tensor as long as it wants; it’s all the other specs I’m jealous of. Ben’s latest Weekender goes long on what the Pixel is still missing all these years later.
- Googlebooks will get full GeForce Now support ‘later this year’. So much for being a launch feature.
- Google says Gemini 4 release is coming ‘as soon as possible’. Almost a year after Google’s latest flagship model release, Gemini 4 has a lot of catching up to do.
- Samsung starts rolling out Android 17, One UI 9 to Galaxy S26 in the US following delay.
- Samsung open-ear Galaxy Buds On images show what they look like when worn. Who wants these? Just bring back the Beans.
- Honor Magic 9 Pro Max goes official with 8,800 mAh battery, ARRI cameras, Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. Another insane 2027 flagship that goes big on everything, including price.
- Chrome now saves scroll position, filled forms when sending tabs between devices. Where was this feature when I was renewing my endless insurance survey last week?
- Motorola Signature 27 confirmed to support GrapheneOS. 🆒
- Motorola’s wide Galaxy Z Fold 8 competitor might be very tiny and called ‘Razr Flex’. “Tiny” is obviously relative here — it’s still a foldable — but I’m intrigued at the idea of a Fold Mini.
- Android’s Create My Widget ‘app’ detailed on phones, Googlebooks. I’m usually skeptical of these AI-powered features, but this one legitimately seems like it will be useful.
- Google rolling out Android 17 QPR2 Beta 6 for Pixel.
- Microsoft quietly ending ‘Copilot+ PC’ branding for Windows laptops. “Stop, stop! He’s already dead!“
- Bose launched wired, yes, wired, earbuds with ANC for $99. Bose is going back to basics with a pair of wired headphones that screams, “How do you do, fellow kids?”
- Google brings back Android Dev Summit with Android 18 ‘powerful new graphics features’ tease. The last Dev Summit was in 2022, and this new one is already teasing some big upgrades for the next Android version.
- Google combines Material 3 Expressive & Liquid Glass on the iPhone [Gallery]. I actually think this looks really nice.
- Gemini app replacing Gems with skills in November. Remember Gems? Me neither.
- Pixel Buds app update lets Gemini control audio and settings. “Hey Google, turn it up to 11”
- OpenAI cancels GPT-6.1 Astra release over misbehavior & safety concerns. OpenAI says it saw two major regressions in GPT-6.1 that caused it to stop its training and cancel the project.
- TCL’s new ‘Designer’ Google TVs are just like Samsung’s The Frame, starting at $899. If you can’t beat ’em, put some Georges Seurat on it.
- Nothing Headphone (1) Pro are $399 with better hardware, ANC, and audio upgrades. Lots to like about these headphones — except for the case. The case is bad.
- Even Google Search agrees that ‘Googlebook’ wasn’t a very good name choice. The one guy on the Google Books team is furious right now.
This week in other Google software updates:
🤝 Cc: Max Weinbach
Welcome to Cc:, where I ask interesting people in the community about what’s making them happy both inside and outside the world of tech. This week, I’m speaking with Max Weinbach, who used to contribute to 9to5Google and is now a tech analyst with Creative Strategies.
Who are you?
I’m Max Weinbach, an analyst at Creative Strategies. You might also know me from writing about phones at XDA and 9to5Google, or from spending way too much time talking about technology on Twitter.
What do you do for work?
I research and write about consumer technology, especially phones, PCs, chips, and AI. A lot of my work now is figuring out what AI can actually do when you give it a real task, real data, and the tools to finish the job. I also consider my job to be just knowing a lot about many different technology topics.
That has turned into building things, too. We’ve been working on Diligence Stack and practical agent benchmarks, testing how the model, the tools, and the surrounding software affect the result. I want to know whether something can produce useful work and how much fixing it needs afterward. That tells me a lot more than a score by itself.
What do you do for fun?
I build things and play games. There’s quite a bit of overlap between my hobbies and my work. I’ll get interested in some software problem and end up with another side project. I’ve been spending a lot of time on native apps and experimenting with AI agents.
Reviewing gaming hardware is also a very convenient excuse to play something I’ve been putting off. That’s how I finally got around to Alan Wake 2 and picked Spider-Man 2 back up.
On top of that, the classics of harassing playing with my dog and going to the gym. I’ve spent a lot of time learning about health and wellness. It’s just interesting to learn about and put into practice for me!
What is your relationship like with technology these days?
I’m still excited about it, but I care a lot about the experience of actually using something. A great spec sheet only gets you so far if the laptop is annoying, the software gets in your way, or the AI needs more supervision than the task was worth.
Some of my favorite products are the ones that are almost boring because they get the basics right. A comfortable laptop that runs the things I need, lasts a long time, and doesn’t have some weird deal-breaking issue is genuinely exciting to me. I’m also interested in how much easier it’s becoming to build the software I want to use.
What are three apps you can’t live without and why?
ChatGPT. I love ChatGPT as a product. It’s one of those apps that just let me kinda delegate whatever I want, and it will simply do it. It’s good for research, good for building one-off apps here and there, and just a great platform to help with anything I can think of. It doesn’t replace any actual work for me, but makes that work much easier and quicker.
Whoop. Technically, an app and a product, but the product powers the app so I’m going with it. It’s one of my favorite ways to track health and wellness because it’s the first that has basically nailed the feeling of recovery and strain on a daily basis. In the morning I actually try to guess what the number will be based on what I feel, and I get it pretty close every morning.
X/Twitter. X is one of my favorite ways to actually consume media and news, share my thoughts, keep up with friends. Yes, I know this is such a normal choice and nothing unique here, but I don’t know, I really like the app. My life would be very different without it.
What is a gadget that you love right now?
Plaud’s Note Pro MagSafe thing. It’s fantastic, and makes my life significantly easier all around when it comes to notes. I tend to have a good memory when it comes to meetings, so I tend to not take notes. That only gets you so far when it comes to specific details, and I find actually writing notes distracting. This thing solves it for me: take a recording, transcribe, and generate key notes while I can listen. Yes, voice memos exist on every phone and watch but I like this a lot more.
How does AI fit into your life right now?
It’s a big part of how I build and research things. I use agents for coding, testing ideas, and working through problems, then look at what they actually produce. The useful question for me is how close they get to a result I can use.
One recent example is having agents write and optimize Metal kernels for a local model, testing changes on the hardware as they go. I still choose between cloud and local models based on the job. Having the option to use both is valuable.
I also have a ton of little ideas of how things should work, apps I want, little fun animations or widgets or whatever I can think of for my different products or phones or connecting to Siri and I can just make it by dictating into a magic box and an hour later it’s installed on my products.
What is a recent TV show you loved?
Lanterns, I think it’s just a fun good show that, while it’s not done yet, is just fun. It’s a superhero show that’s not a superhero show entirely. It’s simply a great story told extremely well with characters I like.
What is a recent game you loved?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. I bought a PS5 to play it and then never finished it, so reviewing the MSI Claw gave me a good excuse to start again. It looks fantastic, and the movement and combat work really well on a controller. I ended up getting into the game rather than constantly thinking about the hardware. When the testing was done, I kept playing.
What is something offline you do every day that brings you joy?
Spending time with Malibu, my Goldendoodle. It’s a good reason to put the computer down for a bit. Otherwise, I enjoy being online. It’s a good way to connect with the world and what interests me. I know a lot of people want to disconnect because the world is stressful, but that’s reality and I like it. I’d rather absorb it all and just make using technology, or being online, a normal thing rather than seeing it as this overarching bad thing that is ruining lives.
➡️ FWD:
This section has some of our favorite stuff from around the internet. Great videos, weird memes, fun reads, recommended apps, whatever. Send us your recommendations!
This year’s MTV Music Awards were pretty bad, but there was one standout performance that deserves mention. GENER8ION’s intense and beautifully choreographed song features Yung Lean standing in a sea of synchronized waving young men, and it’s a sight to behold.
Google’s updated Arts & Culture app is out — remember the one that went viral in 2018 for its selfie-matching feature? — and while it’s got some great stuff, it also got me to explore the little-known Labs section. In it I found this very cool AI-powered collaboration with SFMOMA on Henri Matisse, whose work is explained in dynamic richness through narration and augmented imagery.
It’s hard to believe that the hype around OpenClaw happened this year given all the changes and improvements to agentic AI since. Developer and AI enthusiast Simon Willison, who popularized the “pelican riding a bicycle” benchmark, has a thorough roundup on his blog of all the major announcements of 2026 so far.
🗑️ Trash
Samsung sells a lot of refrigerators. But as reported by Ars Technica (via Star News Korea), a failed firmware update caused some Korean owners’ fridges to “suddenly [lose] power and stop functioning.”
The unfortunate situation occurred right before the Korean holiday of Chuseok, so fridges were likely stocked full of perishables. Samsung said that it immediately halted the firmware update and was “taking emergency measures” on behalf of affected customers.
This is why we can’t have nice things… like dumb fridges that don’t require software updates.
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Thanks for reading, and have a great day. Talk to you on Thursday.
-Daniel
