New renders of the upcoming Google Pixel 10a have appeared online, giving an early look at the phone in its ‘Obsidian’ color option. There are seven images in total. They show the phone from different angles and give an early look at the design before the official launch. The Pixel 10a is expected to compete with the Galaxy S25 FE.

The renders shared by Android Headlines show the Pixel 10a from the front, back, and right side. The front of the phone has a flat screen with even bezels, but are not very thick. A small camera hole is placed in the center at the top of the screen.

The left side of the phone is empty and has no buttons. The phone has a flat metal frame and rounded corners, which makes it look simple and clean.

On the right side, there are physical buttons. The power button is placed above the volume up and volume down buttons. The design of the phone looks very similar to the Pixel 9a.

On the back, there is a Google logo in the middle. The back of the phone is expected to be made of plastic, but this is not confirmed yet. In the top-left corner, there is a pill-shaped camera area. It holds two rear cameras. An LED flash is placed next to the cameras.

Google Pixel 10a is expected to come in four colors – Obsidian, Fog, Lavender, and Berry. It is rumored that the Pixel 10a will use a Google Tensor G4 processor. The phone is also expected to have 8GB of RAM and a large 5,100mAh battery. The phone may launch in late February or early March.

More information about the Pixel 10a is likely to be shared soon. Stay tuned.

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Google Ads has quietly rolled out multi-party approval, a security feature that requires a second administrator to approve certain high-risk account actions. These include adding or removing users and changing user roles.

Why we care. As ad accounts grow larger — and more valuable — access control has become a bigger risk. A single unauthorized, malicious or accidental account change can disrupt campaigns, access, and billing in minutes. Multi-party approval reduces that risk by requiring a second admin sign-off on high-impact actions, adding protection without changing day-to-day campaign management.

For agencies and large teams especially, it helps prevent costly mistakes and improves overall account security.

How it works. When an admin initiates a sensitive change, Google Ads automatically creates an approval request. Other eligible admins receive an in-product notification, and one of them must approve or deny the request within 20 days. If no action is taken, the request expires and the change is blocked.

Status tracking. Each request is clearly labeled as Complete, Denied, or Expired, making it easier for teams to monitor what’s been approved — and what didn’t make it through.

Where to find it. Admins can view and manage approval requests from the Access and security section within the Admin menu.

The bigger picture. The update reflects growing concern around account security, especially for agencies and large advertisers managing multiple users, partners, and permissions. With advertisers recently reporting costly hacks, this would be a very welcome update.

Bottom line. Multi-party approval adds friction — but the good kind. It gives advertisers more control over who can make critical changes and helps protect Google Ads accounts from unauthorized access.

The U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of states plan to appeal a federal judge’s remedies ruling in the Google search antitrust case.

The appeal challenges a decision that found Google illegally monopolized search but stopped short of imposing major structural changes, such as forcing a divestiture of Chrome or banning default search deals outright.

What’s happening. The DOJ and state attorneys general filed notices of appeal yesterday, challenging U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s September remedies ruling, Bloomberg and Reuters reported.

• Mehta ruled in August 2024 that Google unlawfully maintained its search monopoly through default search agreements with Apple, Samsung, and other device makers. Those deals cost Google more than $20 billion a year and blocked rivals from key distribution channels.
• After a second remedies trial in 2025, Mehta rejected the government’s request to force Google to divest Chrome or prohibit payments for default search status. Instead, he ordered Google to rebid its default search and AI app contracts annually.

Why we care. The appeal means we still don’t know how much Google will keep controlling where search gets placed. And that control basically decides who wins traffic. If stricter fixes happen, it could change default search settings, open the door to rival search engines, and shift how people use search across devices.

Yes, but. The DOJ and states haven’t detailed their legal arguments. Court filings didn’t specify which parts of the ruling they will challenge, though attention is expected to focus on Chrome and Google’s default search deal with Apple.

What to watch. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is expected to hear the case later this year. For now, it’s business as usual for Google — though its most important contracts now face annual review, and the risk of tougher remedies remains firmly on the table.

What they’re saying. David Segal, Yelp’s vice president of public policy, welcomed the appeal. In a statement shared with Search Engine Land, Yelp said the trial court’s remedies do not go far enough to restore real competition in search:

• “Unfortunately, the measures put forth in the trial court’s remedy decision are unlikely to restore competition — for instance, it allows for Google to continue to pay third parties for default placement in browsers and devices, which was the primary mechanism by which Google unlawfully foreclosed competition to begin with.
• “Internet users, online advertisers and others who rely on and seek to compete in the industry deserve a level playing field with more, higher quality, and fairer search options — and the need for a more competitive space is all the more clear as Google seeks to leverage its vast power over the web, especially search indexing and ranking, to come to dominate the GenAI space.”

Google may soon let people make 3D avatars of themselves using Gemini. These avatars could be used in video calls when you don’t want to show your real face. The idea is similar to Apple’s Persona on the Vision Pro or Samsung’s Likeness feature on the Galaxy XR headset.

The feature has been spotted in the newest Google app beta on Android version 17.4.66 by Android Authority. It is called “Characters” and can be found in the Gemini launcher menu. Tapping it opens a screen where you can record a short selfie video to create a digital avatar of yourself.

Once your avatar is made, you can look at it, make changes, or delete it. Right now, recording a new video doesn’t work fully, so the feature is still being developed. These avatars look very similar to the ones on Apple and Samsung devices.

Before, Google had a Likeness feature on Gemini for the web. People thought it was for checking if a video was AI-made. But it seems that it is actually for making avatars.

The interesting part is that Google seems to be making these 3D avatars without using special sensors like Apple or Samsung headsets. Instead, the AI in Gemini might create the avatar using just your phone’s camera.

It’s not fully clear what you will be able to do with these avatars, but the most obvious use is for video calls. They could act as a stand-in for your real face when you don’t want to appear on camera.

Even though the feature isn’t ready yet, it shows that Google wants Gemini to be part of daily life to help people interact and represent themselves in new ways. As development continues, we can expect more details about how Characters will work.

The post Google Gemini may soon let you create 3D avatars appeared first on Sammy Fans.

Last week, Google debuted its latest generative AI experiment, Project Genie. It's a tool capable of generating interactive three-dimensional environments made entirely through generative AI that you can explore for one solid minute. All you need to do (after paying the $250 monthly fee for Google's AI Ultra subscription) is write a prompt to start generating your own game-like worlds, but besides the paywall barrier, there are more than a few limitations to this technology in terms of it becoming the new way to make games. The fact that it runs at a slide-show speed of 24 frames per second, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/googles-project-genie-shows-meaningful-progress-in-content-generation-but-it-cant-replace-creative-vision-says-analyst/

The Tensor G5 was a disappointing release, as Google’s first SoC to utilize TSMC’s cutting-edge lithography was once again behind the competition in raw performance and efficiency. Despite these shortcomings, the Mountain View is expected to witness the highest year-over-year chipset shipments growth for 2026, beating out its rivals, who are estimated to see declines in the tally due to the DRAM shortage. Global smartphone chipset shipments to decline by 7% in 2026, with Chinese OEMs hit the hardest; Apple, Samsung, and Google are better positioned thanks to a strong integrated supply chain and robust focus on in-house silicon development The […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/google-tensor-soc-shipments-2026-facing-least-resistance-due-to-dram-shortage/

Google announced yesterday that it is exploring ways for sites to opt out of Google using their content for its AI-generative search features, such as AI Mode and AI Overviews. I asked the SEO community on X if they would opt out of these Google Search AI-generative features or not.

The results. Of the over 350 responses that took the poll yesterday, most said they would not opt out. However, about 1/3 of respondents said they would block or opt out of these features. Here is the breakdown:

Question: Would you block Google from using your content for AI Overviews and AI Mode?

• 33.2% – Yes, I’d block Google
• 41.9% – No, I wouldn’t block
• 24.9% – I am not sure yet.

Here is the actual poll:

Would you block Google from using your content for AI Overviews and AI Mode – Google may be giving us more controls – take my poll below. https://t.co/60M3Vt0YlN

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) January 28, 2026

How to opt out. We don’t know. Google only said it is “exploring” ways to handle this but has not provided any mechanism for this. So we don’t know how hard or easy it would be to opt out. The easier it is, the more likely sites will opt out; the harder, the less likely.

Why we care. The true number of sites that might opt out of AI Mode or AI Overviews won’t be known until the mechanism is out to handle this. And trust me, there will be many reports on how many sites are opting out.

Like recently, “Some 79% of almost 100 top news websites in the UK and US are blocking at least one crawler used for AI training out of OpenAI’s GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Anthropic-ai, CCBot, Applebot-Extended and Google-Extended,” reported The Press Gazette.

My recommendation; once it is out, it is something you will want to test and see the results of opting out or opting in.