After a Chrome clone was spotted on the Play Store earlier this week, a user on Reddit says they're seeing a fake version of WhatsApp in a "sponsored" slot above the real version. As reported earlier by Android Authority, the WhatsApp dupe has racked up over 500,000 downloads and, at the time of writing, its Play Store listing is still live.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The WhatsApp clone is from a developer going by "Agment Assets sallu" who doesn't currently have anything else listed on the Play Store. Their listing for the WhatsApp impostor has the same icon, screenshots, and text as the real version, but …

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OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas browser is gone, but now ChatGPT's Google Chrome extension is getting some upgrades that allow it to use the browser tabs you already have open. With the extension installed, OpenAI says ChatGPT can now view your browser tabs when you tag Chrome in ChatGPT's web or desktop app, posting a demo video showing someone asking ChatGPT to compare the three tabs they have open with sofas they're considering.

A few big upgrades for Chrome users today! We're bringing the power of computer use to anyone who uses Chrome.

First up: ChatGPT can now use your tabs in Chrome to make answers more useful and get things done for you.

If …

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Google is updating its AI search results to make inline links appear "higher up in responses more frequently," according to a blog post. The company's search results from AI Overviews and AI Mode give you answers in a customized view instead of the traditional list of links, but there are concerns that the format reduces traffic to publishers. Google says it's been making "continued and substantial increases to the presence of inline links in our AI experiences," and this new change will help ensure "ensure key sources are easily clickable right when you need them."

The company is announcing several other changes to highlight links an …

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We knew that a number of big tech firms were helping to fund the construction of Trump's ballroom, but we didn't know just how much they were giving to the cause. Now the Washington Post published a list of all the major donors to the White House ballroom project, along with how much each contributed. In total, Silicon Valley and the crypto industry have reportedly delivered over $150 million for the effort.

Some of that money has come from individuals, some from charitable organizations tied to major firms or industry players, and some directly from the companies themselves. In Google's case, the $22 million was part of a controversial se …

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The new shopping tool is available in the U.S. across Google Search and the Gemini app.

Ledger has announced its latest crypto-centric hardware effort, the Android-based Atom, a device that resembles a phone but is instead designed to be used alongside one. It arrives at a tricky time for Ledger, which has been forced to cease sales of some of its hardware across southeast Asia following hardware tampering in its supply chain, which has reportedly seen over $86 million worth of crypto stolen from across some users' accounts.

While Ledger's previous hardware wallet signers have been compact devices, running custom software and often with E Ink displays, the Atom is the spitting image of a regular Android smartphone. In fact it …

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Google is making it easier to build and use personal Android apps created with AI, without having to make them available to everyone on the Play Store.

After months sitting on the sidelines of the frontier AI race, Google has finally launched its long-awaited Gemini 4 Argon model, claiming it can compete with the best the industry has to offer.

Google says Argon delivers "frontier reasoning and improved performance across complex workflows," while cutting down on hedging, repetition, and the cliches that continue to plague AI chatbots. The company claims Argon outperforms rival models like GPT-6 Astra, Claude Fable 5.1, and Claude Opus 5.5 across a range of benchmarks, including coding, cybersecurity, science, finance, and law.

Google says it's already putting Argon to use internally, s …

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Google’s newest wearable costs $179.99 and has a sleek feel like the Fitbit Air but with an OLED display.

My first week with the new Android-powered laptops has been about as rocky as anyone's, but I've slowly learned to like them, even if love still feels a ways off. Every moment that's impressed me has been thanks to Android, whether I've been accessing a native version of a useful app or quickly checking my phone notifications from the laptop user interface.

But man, sometimes it just sucks.

Phone connectivity is flaky, app casting is awkward, and file-sharing seems to be flat-out broken. And that's just the interaction between a Googlebook and a phone - I have a whole other set of gripes about the limitations of native Android apps on a $ …

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It looks like Google is getting ready to take the wraps off its rumored Fitbit Edge next Monday. In a post on X, Google posted a picture of what appears to be the side of the fitness tracker, with the caption: "Get an Edge on your health. 10.12.26."

A trove of Fitbit Edge leaks has surfaced over the past couple of weeks. So far, details shared by Dealabs and Android Headlines suggest that the upcoming device could feature a 1.34-inch always-on OLED touchscreen, built-in GPS, and several other sensors, including an accelerometer, barometer, altimeter, and gyroscope. It may also come with optical sensors for measuring heart rate and blood oxy …

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Google's new operating system is off to a rocky start. The five newly launched Googlebook laptops have hardware that ranges from great to excellent, but the software in its current state is the weak point. There are four of us on staff at The Verge actively testing Googlebooks and, frankly, our internal Slack discussions have been mostly filled with collective venting of frustrations, disappointments, and bewilderment.

The promise of Googlebooks as a fresh and smartly designed alternative to Windows or Mac for Android phone owners sounds great, but there's more than just a few kinks and quirks to work out. Some of its issues and challenges …

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Google is turning Gemini into an AI agent that can plan, execute tasks, and work across business apps and systems. The agent can delegate work to subagents, use multiple AI models, and even gets its own workplace identity, complete with an email address.

Google has released an experimental note-taking app that can transcribe meetings and audio files entirely offline, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. The app, called Google AI Edge Foresight, is free to use and runs on macOS using the company's on-device EmbeddingGemma 2 model.

Similar to AI note-taking apps like Granola and Wispr Flow, Foresight summarizes your meetings while providing a space where you can take your own notes. Google says you can jot down shorthand bullet points during your meeting, and the app will transform them into "polished notes" based on the information in the transcript.

Along with transcribing your meetings, For …

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Google’s new AI Edge Foresight app takes on Granola with an offline meeting note-taker that can transcribe conversations, generate notes, and answer questions using on-device AI.

A common misconception I've seen with Googlebooks is that the Quick Insert and Google logo keys are new. They're not, as they first debuted a couple of years ago on some Chromebooks. But there is something new for Googlebooks that's ripped straight from Android phones circa 2014.

On every Googlebook keyboard, the F1, F2, and F3 keys are the old triangle, circle, and square navigation icons that first debuted on Android 5.0 Lollipop. These were the back, home, and app switcher buttons long before everything went to gesture-based navigation, and they're still built into phones on Android 17 as an alternative. On Googlebook OS, these keys do w …

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Google DeepMind, Meta, and AI drug discovery startup Isomorphic Labs are jointly investing $300 million into Biohub, the nonprofit biomedical research organization founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, as reported by Reuters. The funding is part of a $1.8 billion initiative to build AI datasets that could allow researchers to "ask, predict, and answer biological questions digitally," helping find new ways to prevent and manage diseases.

Founded in 2016, Biohub aims to combat diseases through the creation of a "virtual cell" that researchers can use to carry out simulations. To support this effort, the US Department of Ene …

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Google Labs is working on a new AI-powered game-creation platform called Playground for users to build browser-based games using simple text prompts.

Google on Tuesday launched a new site that lets anyone verify whether a piece of media, be it an image, a video, or an audio clip, is generated using AI.

Google has detailed an update bringing a slew of new features to its Pixel Buds 2A and Pro 2, which the company says are rolling out now. The new features were first teased in August.

The biggest update is Pixel Watch-powered sleep detection, rolling out to both pairs of earbuds. If you're wearing a Pixel Watch, the buds will now react when you fall asleep, by pausing music, silencing notifications, and turning off touch controls.

Several other updates are also coming to both the Buds 2A and Pro. Tap-to-mute allows you to mute or unmute your microphone with a quick tap during calls, though only when also using a Pixel phone, and you can n …

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