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Motorola is broadening its Android 17 beta program to encompass several additional older models. This latest update includes invitations for previous-generation flagships and foldable devices.

According to Android Authority, Motorola is granting Android 17 beta access to three additional devices: the Motorola Razr Plus 2025, Motorola Razr Plus 2024, and the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra. In certain regions, the Razr Plus 2024 and 2025 models are marketed as the Razr 50 Ultra and Razr 60 Ultra. These are all high-end devices, which are now finally receiving access to the latest beta release.

Motorola

Expanding Beta Access to More Devices

Motorola is no longer restricting the beta to a small initial group. The program is now being broadened to include two foldable phones and one flagship slab device. Initially, the company launched the Android 17 beta in February, making it available for the Moto Edge (2025), Moto G57, and Moto G57 Power.

This update comes shortly after Google began its rollout, and the company now appears more open to distributing access widely than in the past. For a brand that has not always been known for rapid Android updates, this change is significant. Although this is still beta software, Motorola seems more motivated than usual to demonstrate progress in this release cycle.

Beta Access Eligibility and Availability

Motorola Razr 2024 Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Motorola is currently accepting applications from users in the US, India, Europe, Latin America, and Brazil. This wide geographic coverage makes the program feel less like a restricted regional preview and more like a substantial expansion for users eager to test the software early.

The application process follows a standard procedure. Users must register an account on Motorola’s official community site, add their device’s IMEI or serial number to their profile, join the Motorola Feedback Network, and submit an application via the Beta Testing Opportunities page. Upon approval, the company will deliver the beta update over-the-air.

Keep in mind that this is still beta software. Users should anticipate potential issues such as malfunctioning features, increased battery consumption, crashes, or other instabilities.

OnePlus’s latest accessory for the Ace 6 Ultra appears to be another effort to transform a smartphone into a portable gaming device, but its most compelling feature is the central opening. OnePlus explains that this area is specifically designed for heat dissipation, and promotional visuals confirm it’s more than just a grip with added triggers. The design intentionally leaves space for thermal management and convenient power access simultaneously.

While promoting its gaming capabilities, including four tactile buttons, hybrid touch/button inputs, micro-switch triggers, a 1 kHz polling rate, and a reported 1.8 ms latency, the controller’s true strength lies in sustained comfort. This is particularly valuable for fast-paced shooters where awkward hand positions and overheating can quickly ruin gameplay.

Why the Central Cutout Is Key

The middle section is where the design logic truly shines. OnePlus’ promotional materials suggest compatibility with an attachable magnetic cooling system, while the lower USB-C port allows players to charge their device during gameplay without cables interfering with their hands. The contoured grips further reinforce the idea that this is meant to function more like a dedicated handheld console than a simple phone mount.

OnePlus

Mobile gaming peripherals often force compromises: protruding chargers, obstructive coolers, or awkward ergonomics after extended use. OnePlus seems to be addressing these issues, though confirmation regarding compatibility with OnePlus or Oppo wireless charging pads remains pending based on available information.

Prioritizing Ergonomics Over Raw Specs

OnePlus is positioning this as a premium accessory for competitive shooters. Promotional visuals emphasize customizable button layouts, integrated touch-and-button functionality, and an embedded gaming antenna for improved connectivity.

This thoughtful layout matters more than impressive specifications. While high-speed response times look good on marketing materials, factors like thermal buildup, battery depletion, and cable management typically degrade long gaming sessions first.

OnePlus

Key Considerations Ahead of Release

The controller was exclusively announced for the Chinese market on April 28, 2026, with no confirmed international launch date. OnePlus also clarified that the accessory will be sold independently, with final specifications to be detailed in official communications.

If OnePlus validates compatibility with its or Oppo’s magnetic cooling accessories, this could become a standout addition to mobile gaming. Without that confirmation, it remains a well-designed controller, albeit without a unique selling point.

China is intensifying its regulatory framework for the rapidly expanding “digital human” sector, as emotionally engaging AI avatars—some designed to resemble deceased relatives—become increasingly common nationwide. This regulatory push highlights the growing visibility of both the commercial opportunities and ethical dilemmas associated with the technology.

The Intersection of Loss, Tech, and a Thriving Sector

After her father passed away from cancer, Zhang Xinyu, a 47-year-old resident of Liaoning province, utilized artificial intelligence to create a digital replica. Partnering with the firm Super Brain, she developed an avatar that mimics his appearance and voice, enabling her to maintain online interactions with him. She shared with AFP that this process provided significant emotional support and aided her in processing her loss.

AI Chatbots Unsplash

This personal narrative illustrates a wider phenomenon in China, where AI-created “digital humans” are seeing explosive growth. These highly realistic avatars are increasingly utilized on social platforms, particularly within digital retail and media production. Xinhua News Agency reports that the industry reached a valuation of approximately 4.1 billion yuan ($600 million) in 2024, marking an 85% increase from the previous year.

Despite the enthusiasm, the technology faces skepticism. Detractors caution that these digital replicas might foster unhealthy emotional attachments or provide what Zhang characterized as “illusory solace,” even when the user’s grief is authentic.

Policy Implementation Accelerates

Addressing these apprehensions, China’s Cyberspace Administration has released preliminary guidelines designed to enhance control over the sector. The draft legislation mandates explicit identification of AI-generated material and forbids the creation of digital copies without explicit permission from the subject.

Furthermore, the regulations aim to curb potential abuses, such as fraudulent activities, the spread of false information, and material that could endanger social harmony or national safety. Businesses found in breach of these standards may be subject to penalties between 10,000 yuan ($1,460) and 200,000 yuan ($29,300).

The need for oversight was highlighted by a widely circulated video of an elderly woman engaging with a hyper-realistic AI version of her late son without realizing it. The footage, which spread rapidly across Chinese social networks, ignited discussions about whether such AI applications offer genuine comfort or constitute a form of trickery.

Navigating Progress and Potential Dangers

Analysts note that China’s strategy follows a well-established trajectory: swift technological advancement followed by prompt regulatory action. Regulators are especially focused on safeguarding young users, with proposed measures that would outlaw AI platforms designed to foster emotional reliance or mimic romantic interactions for minors.

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Concurrently, market participants recognize that oversight is unavoidable. The founder of Super Brain has characterized the proposed rules as a crucial measure to harmonize technological progress with ethical accountability.

Future Implications

The draft regulations remain open for public feedback through early May, with more rigorous enforcement anticipated afterward. The state’s overarching objective is to promote AI integration while exerting firm control over its social consequences.

As “digital humans” transition from a curiosity to a standard utility, China’s regulatory framework may serve as a template for other nations facing comparable ethical challenges—particularly concerning consent, identity, and the emotional influence of artificial intelligence.

Scientists at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have engineered a groundbreaking wearable gadget capable of transforming silent speech into audible speech by tracking minute muscle activity in the neck. Under the guidance of Professor Sung-Min Park and Dr. Sunguk Hong, this research was featured in Cyborg and Bionic Systems, highlighting a major advancement in how humans and machines interact.

Turning Physical Cues Into Vocal Output

The core concept behind this development is straightforward yet impactful: speaking involves more than just producing noise. Whether someone is talking aloud or merely attempting to do so in silence, the muscles and skin around the neck undergo slight shifts. These shifts create an “unseen blueprint” of what the person intends to say.

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To record these subtle shifts, the team engineered a wearable tool known as a multiaxial strain mapping sensor. This device merges a tiny camera with pliable silicone containing reference points, enabling it to spot even the faintest skin changes. Built for everyday wear, the sensor fits comfortably around the neck and adjusts itself automatically when moved.

Once gathered, the data undergoes artificial intelligence processing to decode the strain patterns and rebuild the desired words or phrases. By syncing this with voice synthesis tailored to the user’s unique vocal characteristics, the device produces speech that mirrors the individual’s natural tone—despite the absence of any actual sound.

A Functional Advance Beyond Current Solutions

Conventional methods for restoring voice often depend on tools like Electromyography (EMG) or Electroencephalography (EEG), which typically demand heavy, cumbersome gear and can cause discomfort during prolonged wear.

The POSTECH team’s solution sidesteps these issues by providing a slim, wearable option. During trials, the system showed impressive precision in recreating speech, even in loud settings like factories where standard microphones fail.

Broad Applications And Upcoming Developments

This technology holds significant promise across multiple fields. It may offer a fresh communication route for individuals who have lost their voice from throat injuries or surgical procedures, allowing them to “speak” using their original vocal signature.

AI Unsplash

Outside of medical applications, the system could facilitate quiet communication in places where talking is inconvenient—like libraries, corporate meetings, or loud workspaces. It also paves the way for smoother human-AI interactions, where thoughts can be turned into speech without requiring vocal effort.

What Comes Next

The research group plans to enhance the technology for widespread use, boosting its precision and adding support for more languages. Upcoming versions might integrate more smoothly with everyday gadgets, possibly revolutionizing communication in both casual and work-related contexts.

As AI becomes increasingly intertwined with wearable technology, breakthroughs like this point toward a future of more seamless, unobtrusive interaction—where even unvoiced thoughts can finally be understood.

Gaming laptops typically market themselves using standard features like increased power output, larger graphics cards, quicker refresh rates, and more. However, Honor’s upcoming Win H9 is taking a different approach, and it’s quite intriguing.

In a recent teaser, Honor revealed details about its new flagship Win H9 gaming laptop, set to be officially announced on April 23. While it boasts typical high-performance internals and an advanced cooling setup, the standout feature is the innovative “3D Game Anti-Dizziness” display technology.

Honor

The Display Takes Center Stage

The Honor Win H9 will launch with a 16-inch LCD screen featuring a rapid 300Hz refresh rate, a 3ms response time, and 500 nits of peak brightness. The main focus, however, is on eye comfort. As the name implies, this feature aims to lessen motion discomfort during fast-paced 3D games, particularly in first-person shooters and racing titles.

Honor explains that this is a combined hardware and software approach designed to make intense gaming sessions less taxing on both the eyes and the stomach. If successful, this could be a significant benefit for gamers who typically avoid certain titles due to display-induced motion sickness.

Honor

Thus, motion-comfort tuning might elevate the Win H9 beyond just another spec-heavy gaming machine.

Powerful Hardware and Cooling

The WIN H9 doesn’t rely solely on this unique display feature. The top-tier configuration offers a true flagship experience, equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus paired with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, delivering a combined 270W of power. Additionally, Honor has introduced what it claims is the world’s first six-fan cooling system, which is about as understated as bringing a leaf blower to a LAN party.

Blue Origin has reached a significant milestone in its spaceflight goals by successfully reusing a booster from its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket for the first time. The historic launch, conducted on April 19, marks a major advancement for Jeff Bezos’ space company as it aims to compete with rivals like SpaceX in the rapidly evolving commercial launch market.

A Milestone With Mixed Results

The mission marked the third flight of the New Glenn rocket and included a previously flown first-stage booster, highlighting Blue Origin’s commitment to reusable rocket technology. The booster successfully landed after launch, proving that the company can recover and reuse critical hardware—a capability that has been essential for reducing launch costs in the space industry.

The first stage of Blue Origin’s New Glenn booster. Blue Origin

However, the mission was only a partial success. While the rocket launched and deployed its payload – a BlueBird 7 communications satellite for AST SpaceMobile – the satellite was placed into a lower-than-intended orbit. Due to limited onboard propulsion, the satellite is unlikely to function as planned and may eventually be deorbited.

Why This Matters

Despite the payload setback, the successful reuse of the New Glenn booster is a crucial breakthrough. Reusability is considered the key to making space launches more cost-effective and sustainable. SpaceX has long leveraged reusable rockets to dominate the market, and Blue Origin’s achievement signals its intent to challenge that leadership.

New Glenn itself is designed as a partially reusable heavy-lift rocket capable of carrying large payloads into orbit, with its first stage built to fly multiple times. Demonstrating reuse in real-world missions validates years of engineering and brings the company closer to routine, lower-cost launches.

Why You Should Care

For consumers and businesses, advancements in reusable rockets can translate into cheaper satellite launches, improved global connectivity, and faster deployment of space-based services. This includes everything from broadband internet to Earth observation and navigation systems.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn on its first launch, in January 2025. Blue Origin

The success of reusable systems also accelerates competition, which historically drives innovation and lowers costs across industries.

What Comes Next

Blue Origin is expected to continue refining the New Glenn system, particularly its upper-stage performance, which caused the mission’s primary failure. The company has multiple launches planned as it works to scale operations and increase launch frequency.

Future missions will likely focus on achieving full mission success – combining reliable payload delivery with consistent booster reuse – as Blue Origin aims to establish itself as a serious contender in the global space race.

It appears the Pixel lineup is about to expand with a new device, joining its revitalized smartphone series. Recent analysis of an Android beta version hints at a forthcoming Pixel laptop that Google could be preparing to release soon. The company’s last entry into the laptop market was the Pixelbook Go in 2019, which served as a more budget-friendly alternative to the original Pixelbook released in 2017.

Neither the Pixelbook nor the Pixelbook Go, nor the earlier Chromebook Pixel models, were particularly popular with consumers or commercially successful. This ultimately led Google to exit the laptop market and redirect its efforts toward Pixel smartphones.

The landscape is changing, and ChromeOS seems to be heading toward its end.

The tides are shifting, and it seems ChromeOS is on its sunset ride.

Code snippets found within Google’s software indicate that we may finally witness a new laptop attempt from the company, but this time without the traditional Chromebook base. It might instead serve as a demonstration for a new category of devices running Aluminium OS. However, a Google Pixel laptop doesn’t seem particularly logical at this moment due to several opposing factors. Let’s dive into this!

Google’s Past Laptop Launches: A Record of Struggles

To be historically accurate, Google hasn’t had a great track record with laptops. Over the past decade, the company has tried multiple times, beginning with the Chromebook Pixel in 2013, an updated version in 2015, the Pixelbook in 2017, and the Pixelbook Go in 2019.

Digital Trends

None of these devices revolutionized the computing world or set lasting trends, primarily due to two issues: their high cost and the operating system they used.

A History of High Prices at Google

Device modelPrice starting atChromebook Pixel (2013)$1,299Chromebook Pixel (2015)$999Pixelbook$999Pixelbook Go$649

As the table shows, Google laptops were consistently priced at a premium, typically starting around $1,000. At that price, consumers could easily purchase a powerful Windows laptop or a MacBook Air. Why would anyone spend that much on a ChromeOS device?

Device modelPrice starting atChromebook Pixel (2013)$1,299Chromebook Pixel (2015)$999Pixelbook$999Pixelbook Go$649

Only the Pixelbook Go launched at a lower price of about $649. Our review highlighted its portable design, hardware, and great battery life. However, the software limitations remained a significant drawback, as full-featured Windows PCs were available at that price.

I spent $1,649 on the top-tier model with the Core i7 processor, and it now sits unused in my drawer. It’s not that I don’t want to use it; the laptop is incredibly slow. Despite multiple hard resets, it struggles to run Chrome smoothly, overheats, and has lost touch sensitivity.

ChromeOS in 2026: Still Lagging Behind

That was nearly a decade ago. Is ChromeOS competitive today? Unfortunately, no. Google seems to have neglected the OS, with few significant updates.

Google

While there have been minor updates, nothing substantial has made it a strong competitor. It remains a browser-centric OS with limited support for creative and productivity apps. With the end of Google Stadia, gaming is also largely unavailable on ChromeOS.

In contrast, Linux has made massive strides, runs on similar low-power hardware, and supports gaming and popular apps. In fact, Linux is experiencing record usage among Steam gamers. ChromeOS offers simplicity, but that’s its main advantage.

What About Aluminium OS?

There is a potential silver lining. Google is developing a new OS called Aluminium OS, expected to launch in 2026. This OS aims to combine Android and ChromeOS into a unified platform.

Built from the ground up on Android, it promises native support for all Play Store apps, proper keyboard and mouse support, and desktop-grade window management, including multiple desktops.

The standout feature will be Gemini AI, deeply integrated into the OS, which is a major improvement over ChromeOS. However, Aluminium OS may face challenges similar to those of ChromeOS.

Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends

First, AI features require powerful hardware, specifically an NPU for on-device tasks like translation, generative photo editing, and scam detection without internet.

Second, being Android-based means full desktop app support is still lacking. While a translation layer might help, similar to Apple’s Rosetta during its ARM transition, success is uncertain. Windows on ARM has struggled but is improving.

I doubt Aluminium OS will succeed in its first attempt at serious computing.

I can’t imagine Aluminium OS will fare any better in its first swing at serious computing.

Apple

Integrated Gemini AI could give Aluminium OS an edge over Apple’s AI features in macOS and Windows Copilot. However, the lack of desktop app support remains a critical hurdle Google must overcome, or the OS will face the same fate as ChromeOS.

Rising RAM and SSD Prices

For a new Google laptop to succeed, it must be affordable. However, the current market, affected by the “RAMmageddon” impacting PCs, smartphones, and gaming, makes this difficult.

Sergei Starostin / Pexels

With rising RAM and SSD costs due to AI infrastructure demands, electronics prices are climbing. Microsoft has increased Surface laptop prices, Sony and Nintendo have raised PS5 and Switch 2 prices, and Samsung has increased phone and tablet prices.

These are just examples. All laptop manufacturers are raising prices, causing consumer frustration and panic buying, according to Counterpoint Research. Industry trends suggest prices will worsen before improving.

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It’s unprecedented for a gaming console, phone, or laptop to cost more in 2026 than at launch. In this market, Google cannot lower prices for a new laptop with Aluminium OS’s high hardware requirements without compromising quality, which was a key strength of older Google laptops.

The MacBook Neo Exists at $599

Google’s Aluminium OS sounds promising but faces a reality check from Apple’s MacBook Neo. If the Google laptop existed in isolation, it might have a chance.

Last month, Apple launched an affordable MacBook starting at $599. Despite some compromises, the MacBook Neo received excellent reviews and sold rapidly.

Nadeem Sarwar / DigitalTrends

Consider this: if you had to choose between a Pixelbook and a MacBook Neo at $599, which would you pick?

I believe most would choose the MacBook Neo. The Pixelbook’s only advantage over Windows laptops was its design, which it won’t have against the MacBook Neo.

The MacBook Neo offers a full metal body, good display, quality keyboard, and excellent touchpad. Google will struggle to match this quality and performance at $599.

Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

Additionally, the MacBook Neo runs macOS, offering a full desktop experience. Even with Aluminium OS, the Google laptop will lack desktop app support. While the experience may improve over ChromeOS, it cannot compete with a mature OS like macOS.

Chromebooks sell well in education due to sub-$300 pricing. However, as the MacBook Neo sells for $350–$400 used in a few years, who will buy a Chromebook then?

Does a Chromebook, or Pixelbook, Make Sense Now?

ChromeOS’s market share relies on education programs. If Apple partners with schools to offer the MacBook Neo, ChromeOS’s days are numbered.

Even without Apple’s success in schools, the MacBook Neo ends the era of premium ChromeOS laptops. While Aluminium OS might be Google’s hope, I am skeptical. This is why I believe a new Google laptop does not make sense now, or ever.