 "Tech Wrap November 12")
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Google has started rolling out a Pixel Feature Drop for November, a software update that delivers new and upgraded features to Pixel phones, tablets, earbuds, and watches. The November Pixel Drop bundles several changes aimed at communications, photography, and battery life. Key additions include the “Wicked: For Good” theme pack, photo “Remix” editor in Messages, AI summaries for long conversations, personalised edits in Google Photos, and a Power Saving mode for Google Maps while driving.
YouTube has begun rolling out a new “Ask” button powered by Google’s Gemini AI, allowing users to directly interact with video content. The tool enables viewers to ask questions about the video they’re watching to receive concise summaries, explanations of key topics, or even take short quizzes. Similar to the Gemini chat experience, it also offers prompt suggestions inside the chat window for easier engagement.
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Japanese video game developer FromSoftware has announced The Forsaken Hollows, an expansion DLC for its cooperative action-survival title Elden Ring Nightreign, is scheduled for release on December 4, 2025. A trailer of the upcoming Elden Ring Nightreign DLC expansion has also been released. The new trailer showed scenes from Limveld and the Nightfarers’ latest encounters. FromSoftware said the expansion will add new playable characters and new threats.
Realme is gearing up to launch its new flagship smartphone, the GT 8 Pro, in India on November 20. Ahead of the launch, the company has revealed some key specifications of the smartphone. The Realme GT 8 Pro smartphone will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor and will feature an interchangeable camera housing. The company had previously confirmed that the camera system on the smartphone has been co-developed with the Japanese imaging brand Ricoh.
Meta has introduced Omnilingual ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition), a new AI framework designed to transcribe speech into text across more than 1,600 languages. The system, developed by Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team, includes support for around 500 lesser-known or low-resource languages, some of which are being recognised by AI systems for the first time.
Google is expanding its Gemini AI integration in Google Drive with a new feature that generates audio summaries of PDFs. According to the Google blog, the tool converts lengthy documents into short, conversational audio clips with a podcast-like tone. Powered by the same technology as NotebookLM’s Audio Overview, Gemini automatically creates and saves the audio file directly to Drive for easy access.
WhatsApp is reportedly testing a new feature that allows users to manage storage on a per-chat basis. According to WABetaInfo, the latest WhatsApp beta for Android (version 2.25.34.5) introduces an improved chat clearing feature that lets users choose exactly what they want to delete—from messages to specific types of media like photos, videos, or audio files. The update aims to give users more control over their chat storage and help prevent accidental data loss.
Samsung has started rolling out a new AI feature called Vision AI Companion across its 2025 smart TV lineup. The feature adds conversational capabilities to the televisions, letting users ask questions about on-screen content, request information, or get recommendations — all without navigating menus or using external devices.
Google is rolling out a major update to Photos, introducing six new AI-powered tools to make editing, creating, and searching images more intuitive. According to Google’s blog, the new features are powered by Gemini’s imaging tool Nano Banana, and include smarter editing options that can remove sunglasses, fix smiles, and reimagine photos in new styles. Additionally, Google has also added “Ask Photos,” an AI-driven search tool that helps users find specific images or details using voice or text commands. The update aims to turn Photos into an intelligent platform that understands natural language prompts.
Meta’s social app Threads is adding a new feature, making it easier for users to discover and discuss their favourite podcast shows. According to the company, the platform will now highlight podcast links with colourful backgrounds and image previews so that posts about shows are easier to notice and play directly from the feed. Podcasters will also get a new option to add their show link to their profile for better visibility.
Google was accused in a lawsuit of using its Gemini AI assistant to unlawfully track the private communications of users of its Gmail, instant messaging and videoconference programs. In the past, users of Gmail, Chat and Meet were given the option to turn on Google’s artificial intelligence program. But in October, the Alphabet Inc. unit “secretly” turned on Gemini for all those applications, enabling it to collect private data “without the users’ knowledge or consent,” according to the complaint filed late Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California.
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