These laptops feature deep Android phone integration, allowing app casting and cross-device functionality, while supporting Android games through Google Play Store. Despite Google partnering with major manufacturers like HP and Dell, success remains uncertain given past mixed results with similar initiatives. We've been hearing about Google's push to unite Android and ChromeOS into a new laptop operating system rumored to be called "Aluminum" for a while now. A week before this year's Google I/O conference, the company is ready to talk about it. And to the surprise of absolutely friggin' no one, these seem more interested in Gemini "AI" than the actual product.

Googlebook Is Google's New AI-Powered Laptop Platform Built on Android They won't replace Chromebooks, but Googlebooks have an Android-centered operating system, AI-first features like the Magic Pointer, and a promise of desktop-grade apps. Almost exactly 15 years since Google introduced Chromebooks and ChromeOS --which ushered a wave of cheap, functional, web-based laptops that would come to dominate the US education market--the company has announced a new laptop platform called Googlebook. It's built around artificial intelligence and Android, and while it isn't replacing Chromebooks, it could give the company a more meaningful foothold in the premium computer market. Google announced the platform on The Android Show on YouTube, where it also detailed new features coming in Android 17 and Gemini Intelligence (you can read more about that here). Google is purposefully not sharing the operating system's name yet (it was codenamed Aluminium OS internally); Googlebook is the platform, and Dell, Acer, Asus, HP, and Lenovo have all signed up to produce Googlebooks coming later this fall.

You'll soon be able to generate your own widgets or ask Gemini to finish a booking in Chrome on Android. The Google I/O annual developer conference is around the corner--May 19--but in what is quickly becoming a tradition, Google announced new features for Android and Gemini a week early. The news came on Tuesday via the second-ever Android Show on YouTube . This livestreamed presentation helps Google spread out the cavalcade of updates from the often jam-packed I/O keynote. The Android Show focused on new features in Android 17, the next version of Android coming later this summer, as well as several updates to the Gemini assistant experience. It continues the theme set last year by Sameer Samat, president of the Android ecosystem, of turning Android into an "intelligent operating system."

Google is bringing Gemini in Chrome to Android devices. During the Android Show: I/O Edition livestream on Tuesday, the company announced that it would release the chatbot integration in June. Once it arrives, Android users will see a new Gemini icon at the top right of the toolbar. Tapping it will bring up a chat interface from the bottom of the screen. Despite the switch to a smaller form factor, the majority of Gemini in Chrome features Google offers on PCs are accounted for in this new release.

Google has updated Gemini for Home so that it no longer acts like a strict parent when you ask it for cocktail recipes. In the past, you may have encountered a message that says I cannot provide recipes for alcoholic beverages when you ask the AI assistant for a margarita recipe on Google smart home devices, such as the Nest Hub . Now, Google has updated its safeguards to prevent adult users from encountering filters meant for younger ones. Adults will now experience improved availability for general queries, including recipes for age-gated beverages, the company said in the Google Home support page . If Gemini still isn't responding when you ask it for instructions on how to make a cocktail, you may have to check you Parental Control settings and your Gemini for Home response filter settings in the Google Home app.

Powered by Gemini and designed around simplicity, the new Fitbit Air could be a compelling fitness tracker alternative to Whoop. Five years after acquiring Fitbit, and three years since it released the Charge 6, Google is finally expanding into a new phase of fitness tracking . With its screen-free design, the new Fitbit Air could be the first device to threaten Whoop's grip on this category, thanks in large part to Google's intuitive, user-friendly software. The Fitbit Air is Google's most minimalist wearable yet. There's no AMOLED display, no haptic side button, and none of the visual feedback loops that have defined Fitbit devices (and most fitness trackers) for years.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. I asked AI to book dinner. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini may be aces at coding, but they're less than magical when it comes to booking a table for three. I can clearly see the day when we'll be able to summon ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini on our phones, say something like "Hey ChatGPT, book a table for two at Outback Steakhouse tonight at 8," and ChatGPT will simply take care of it. All of the big AI providers are busy unveiling integrations for everyday services ranging from Spotify and DoorDash to AllTrails and the dinner reservation app Resy, with varying degrees of success.

What Will It Take to Get A.I. Out of Schools? The tech world assumes that A.I.-aided education is necessary and inevitable. A growing number of parents, educators, and cognitive scientists say the opposite. I don't like A.I., and I am raising my children not to like it. I've been telling them for years now that chatbots are manipulative and dangerous, that A.I.-image generators are loosening our collective grip on reality, that large language models are built atop industrial-scale intellectual-property theft. At times, I find myself speaking with my kids about A.I. in the same terms that we might discuss a creepy neighbor who lives down the block: avoid eye contact, cross the street when you walk past his house, and, when in doubt, call on a trusted adult. Yes, I, too, have suspected that the creepy neighbor walks on cloven hooves inside his Yeezy Boosts, but he probably isn't going anywhere--in fact, he keeps buying up properties around town--so just try your best not to engage. Somehow, I was not prepared for the creepy neighbor to start hanging around my kids' schools; somehow, I thought we had until high school.

The feature is rolling out for all the smart home program's supported languages and regions. Google announced today that it is upgrading the Gemini for Home service with a continued conversations feature. Continued conversation allows a user to have a natural discussion with the Gemini platform without prefacing every follow-up request with the Hey Google prompt. The microphone will remain active on a smart device for a few seconds after the Gemini AI assistant provides its reply. During that window, the lights on the hardware will pulse or glow, indicating that you can keep chatting normally with the chatbot without needing a wake word.

This Scammer Used an AI-Generated MAGA Girl to Grift'Super Dumb' Men A med student says he's made thousands of dollars selling photos and videos of a young conservative woman he created using generative tools. Like many medical school students, Sam was broke. The 22-year-old aspiring orthopedic surgeon from northern India got some money from his parents, but he says he spent most of it subsidizing his licensing exams, and he's still saving up to hopefully emigrate to the US after graduation. So he started searching for ways to make additional money online. Sam, who requested a pseudonym to avoid jeopardizing his medical career and immigration status, tried a few things, with varying degrees of legitimacy and success.