Robby Payne

In just a couple of weeks, we’ll be on the ground in New York City for Google’s official Googlebook preview event. We know we’re going to see an unprecedented day-one fleet of six to eight brand-new flagship devices from HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, and Lenovo spanning traditional clamshells and 2-in-1 convertibles. I’m genuinely excited to...

When Google rebranded NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook earlier this summer, it signaled a much bigger vision for the AI-powered research platform. While users have loved uploading PDFs, web links, YouTube videos, and Google Docs to ground their research, one massive source of human knowledge was always missing: full, published books. And now, Google is taking...

When a major tech company introduces a brand-new operating system or platform architecture, the hardware playbook is usually pretty predictable: launch with one or two reference devices, test the waters, and spend the next three to five years working with OEM partners to build out the ecosystem. I vividly remember that exact story with the...

For years, Walmart has stood as the single biggest holdout against NFC-based tap-to-pay in the United States. While nearly every other major retailer adopted contactless payments, Walmart insisted on funneling customers through its proprietary, QR-code-based Walmart Pay app. Thank goodness, that era is officially coming to an end. According to a new post over at...

With the fall semester kicking off, Google is rolling out one of the most generous student promotions we’ve seen to date, offering eligible college students in the U.S. a full year of Google AI Pro completely free of charge. That is a $240 annual value ($19.99/month) packed with high-end cloud storage, expanded Gemini model limits,...

Finding a flagship-caliber 2-in-1 convertible under $600 is no easy task, but Best Buy has brought back a fantastic discount on one of our absolute favorite Chromebooks of the year. Right now, you can grab the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 for $599.00, a solid $150 price cut off its standard $749 MSRP. In our...

For the past few years in August, those of us that follow tech updates tune in to the Made By Google showcase hoping for solid upgrades in Tensor processing power, GPU, and NPU and hopefully some interesting outer hardware updates to go along with them. But for this year's event, initial hands-on reports from publications...

We tend to talk a lot about the top end of the market around here. Between the looming arrival of Googlebook and the likely sunset of high-end Chromebook Plus hardware in the consumer space, it is easy to wonder just what the future of Chromebooks will be outside of the EDU and enterprise sectors moving...

Whenever Google announces a major new software pivot or new hardware launch, a healthy dose of skepticism usually follows. Over the years, we have all watched Google launch ambitious projects, pivot direction, or sunset services that didn't hit critical mass quickly enough. It is completely fair for anyone tracking the upcoming Googlebook launch to ask...

Google is continuing to expand its desktop AI features across platform ecosystems, and Mac users are getting a major workflow upgrade today. According to a new post on News from Google (formerly The Keyword), the Gemini app for macOS is introducing new natural language voice capabilities designed to let users transcribe, edit, summarize, and generate...