Google has confirmed that Googlebooks with removable keyboards are on the way. During its Android Dev Summit 2026 keynote last week, the company said its Chromebook successor "spans across large screen form factors from clamshells, convertibles, and soon detachables." That's all Google said, so there's no date, price, or specific device attached to it yet. The current lineup is mostly made up of clamshells, and the Acer Googlebook 14, with its 360-degree hinge, is the only convertible in it.

Reports claim that the first detachable will most likely come from Lenovo, which already sells the Googlebook 15. Its Googlebook Duet m, codenamed "Sapphire," showed up in the Bluetooth SIG database back in August, and a matching keyboard and Lenovo Pen Pro stylus have now cleared the FCC under the IDs O57DUET13BTKB and O57AP501U1. The keyboard schematics carry Googlebook branding on the left palm rest, and it seems to work both through pogo pins when attached and over Bluetooth LE on its own battery. Leaks point to a 13-inch OLED panel and a MediaTek chip, though reports disagree on which one, and Lenovo hasn't confirmed any of it.

XREAL, the global leader in lightweight XR hardware development, today officially launched XREAL AURA, the world's first wired XR glasses powered by Android XR, and the world's first wired XR glasses to launch with the Snapdragon Reality Elite Platform. Announced on stage at Google's Android Developer Summit, XREAL AURA brings the full spatial power of Android XR into a lightweight optical see-through glasses form factor designed for work, entertainment, gaming, AI-powered assistance, and everyday spatial computing.

Starting today, customers in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea can order XREAL AURA. The company is offering a surprise limited time offer, making the 12 GB + 256 GB configuration $1,099; and the 16 GB + 512 GB configuration $1,299. Devices are expected to begin shipping in mid-November.

Valve disabled HDR during Remote Play game streaming on the Steam Deck OLED in early October alongside its Big Art Mode update. Although it was never specified why the feature was disabled, there were reports of bugs and issues with HDR support on the Steam Deck OLED, and it seems as though Valve had been working on revamping HDR support on the Steam Deck OLED altogether, according to a recent Steam Client beta update.

The update notes for the latest Steam Client preview/beta update cite an overhaul for Remote Play, adding a host of features and options as well as re-enabling HDR support on the Steam Deck OLED. In addition to HDR being re-enabled, there are now options to switch between automatic mode, which only enables HDR when HDR content is detected, and an always-on mode that allows for higher brightness when viewing SDR content.

An open-source app called DroidDeck is letting Snapdragon-powered Android devices run Valve's Steam client and Windows PC games on the device itself, with no streaming from a PC or the cloud involved. As VideoCardz reports, YouTuber ETA Prime tested it on a RedMagic 11 Pro with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and 16 GB of memory, where Cyberpunk 2077 ran at around 60 FPS on medium settings. Skyrim Special Edition hit a similar figure at 720p, while Hogwarts Legacy was tougher on the phone and sat around 40 FPS even with lower settings and FSR.

Other solutions like Steam Link stream games from another PC, whereas DroidDeck runs them on the device itself. It loads Valve's ARM64 Linux Steam client in Big Picture mode as a regular Android app, and Windows games go through Valve's ARM64 Proton with x86 translation. Projects like Armada instead replace Android with SteamOS entirely, and DroidDeck needs neither that nor root access. It also handles GPU driver switching, AMD FSR and Snapdragon GSR upscaling, and frame generation through Lossless Scaling.

Nex Computer is the company behind the NexPhone, an upcoming smartphone that doubles as a pocketable computer running Android, Linux, and Windows 11. While the project was first announced a whole 14 years ago, Nex Computer recently published a development blog update revealing a Q1 2027 launch, indicating that the NexPhone will launch around March 2027.

Our estimated shipping window is now the end of Q1 2027 (March 2027). New preorders are priced at $599, and the device price remains protected for customers who reserved at either $549 or $599. NexPhone is now running Android 17 on development devices, with continued Linux and Windows development.

We're excited to introduce Amazon Alexa Tablets—an all-new lineup of tablets that combine powerful hardware, the intelligence of Alexa+, and built-in access to all your favorite apps with Google Play Store. The all-new lineup includes three models: Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, Amazon Alexa Tablet 11, and Amazon Alexa Tablet 8.

Each new tablet features premium aluminium unibody construction, vivid high-resolution displays, and powerful processors. They seamlessly connect your Amazon experiences right out of the box, run Android, and come with access to the full Google Play Store—millions of apps including YouTube, Netflix, Gmail, and Google Docs, alongside built-in Amazon apps including Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, Amazon Music, Amazon Quick and Amazon Luna.

OnlyOffice presents the major autumn update 10.0 with context-aware AI tools directly in the editors, new modular Apps, and a significant security upgrade. Around 50 new features and more than 1,000 fixes for the online, desktop, and mobile editors.

AI that understands your documents, in every editor
OnlyOffice 10.0 puts context-aware AI inside the document, spreadsheet, presentation, and PDF editors. A dedicated AI tab with built-in chat lets teams draft, summarize, translate, clean and format without leaving the file or copying content into a separate tool.

Valve has confirmed that its Steam Client for Linux-based operating systems on Arm chips is not officially supported. This follows a user's report on GitHub claiming issues with Steam for Linux on ARM64 systems. Despite detailing the problem, a Valve developer responded that "Steam for Linux is not currently supported on Arm-based hardware," a stance that has been consistent for years. While Steam has expanded on Linux-based machines, official support is currently limited to systems running x86-64 processors from AMD and Intel. On Arm-based devices, Valve would likely need to make significant optimizations to get Steam for Linux working properly, but the potential user base is so small that the effort may not be justified.

This is surprising given that Valve's VR headset, the Steam Frame, runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform. Valve specifically optimized its SteamOS for this chipset and ported its compatibility layer, Proton 11.0, to Arm. This version of Proton allows a full range of games designed for x86 to run on Arm hardware, but the Steam Client itself, which is crucial for game delivery, is not officially supported.

Developer Mitchell Hynes has released a free, unofficial browser port of the original Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved, and it looks like the full campaign is playable. Hynes announced it on X, listing working split-screen co-op and multiplayer for up to 128 players, though he flagged the latter as untested. His post also promises "no Gearbox Master Chief," which seems to reference the Gearbox-made 2003 PC port. Hynes also warned that the port doesn't run well on iOS or Android, so PC is the recommended platform. The game reportedly saw nearly 20,000 plays in its first five hours across 115 countries, averaging 94 FPS.

Early reports say the campaign works well, although one tester had less luck with the 128-player mode. The original Xbox release topped out at 16 players in competitive multiplayer, so 128 is a big jump. The port builds on the recent decompilation of the original Xbox game. If you want to go the official route, Halo: Campaign Evolved launched on July 28 for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PS5, but it is a campaign-only remake without the original's competitive multiplayer. I would wait for more testing before getting excited about 128-player matches, but it looks like a great time to jump into the campaign while it's still up.

Google has announced that actor Henry Cavill will build a video game on a Googlebook this November, as part of a marketing partnership for its new Android-based laptops. In its blog post, Google describes Cavill as an actor, producer, and tech enthusiast with his own production company and a passion for gaming and fantasy lore, and says he is already using the laptop for personal passion projects. Google hasn't shared the genre, the game engine, who else is involved, or what form the end result will take. Updates are apparently coming through a landing page and an Instagram account. Here's what Cavill had to say about the project.

"When Google reached out to me and explained what they are doing with Googlebook, and all of its new, integrated tools, it had me intrigued. So, I asked for the opportunity to have a play with it ahead of release. After being hands on and spending some time with their team, I believe this has the potential to be the start of something rather special. Time and technology are marching forward at a breakneck pace, this, and all that Google are trying to do with it, has the whispers of the next generation."

Paralympics Productions, the modding group that got GTA 5 running natively on the original Nintendo Switch, is shutting down on October 3. Project lead M0jso announced on X that Take-Two Interactive sent him a cease-and-desist letter, after which he was left with no choice but to shut down his projects. The Android port he was working on after the Switch build is canceled as well, and he says nobody will take over the project or continue it under a new name. M0jso also says the source code won't be released, since that could bring more legal trouble. Apparently, he thinks Take-Two has solid grounds and that he probably wouldn't win in court.

Both ports reportedly relied on GTA 5 source code that leaked in 2023. However, he hasn't publicly detailed the legal claims, so it's not clear exactly what the letter targets. The timing seems to line up with Rockstar's move to tighten its mod guidelines this month. The new rules tell fans not to modify Rockstar games to run on consoles or other platforms where the company hasn't officially released them. Moreover, M0jso also took a jab at Rockstar over those rules about a week before the shutdown. Of course, we can't say for sure that's what triggered the letter, but it probably didn't help. For now, Android users are back to Winlator-style compatibility tools or streaming, and I doubt anyone will try a native port again any time soon.

Ayaneo has opened orders for the Konkr Pocket Block, the vertical Android handheld its budget Konkr sub-brand first showed off in May. The 2 GB RAM and 32 GB storage model costs $89, while the 3 GB and 64 GB version costs $109. Early bird pricing knocks $10 off both for a limited time, bringing them to $79 and $99. Ayaneo says shipping starts at the end of October. The handheld packs a 3.33-inch 4:3 LCD with a 960 x 720 resolution, a MediaTek Helio G85 chip, a microSD slot, and a 3,500 mAh battery. It runs Android 12 and has no fan, so Ayaneo is using a heat spreader instead.

It looks like the 2 GB model only comes in gray, while the 3 GB version also gets Cube Purple and a translucent Atoms White. The Helio G85 is a budget chip, so it might be best suited to emulating older systems up to around the PS1 and PSP era, while PS2 and GameCube games will probably be a struggle. Ayaneo billed the Pocket Block as the world's first AI handheld back in May, but it still hasn't said what the AI features are. In the meantime, the company also unveiled and launched the Game Boy Advance-inspired Konkr Pocket Advance. Pricing here looks to be reasonable enough that it may be worth a look, though readers are advised to wait for reviews first.

Valve's SteamOS port for the Arm (ARM64) architecture has inspired creativity in the modding community, as they are now actively transforming their Android-based gaming handhelds into miniature versions of the Steam Deck console. As mobile SoCs like Qualcomm's Snapdragon and MediaTek's Dimensity become increasingly competitive in terms of integrated GPU and CPU capabilities, running a true desktop OS on these SoCs is unlocking new gaming experiences, as demonstrated by the modding community. For devices from makers like Ayaneo, Ayn, Retroid, and Konkr, community projects like Armada enable Arm-based devices that previously ran Android to utilize SteamOS.

This development is made possible by earlier changes Valve introduced specifically for its Steam Frame VR headset. Since the Steam Frame runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform, Valve ported its compatibility layer, Proton 11.0, to Arm. This version of Proton unlocked a full range of games designed for x86 on Arm hardware. While it was initially intended to be exclusive to the Steam Frame, it now also enables compatibility with other Arm devices, such as powerful Android gaming handhelds, even though the Frame itself runs a modified version of the Linux-based SteamOS. Nonetheless, this change is a significant stepping stone for anyone wanting to play games beyond traditional Android-only titles, as mobile hardware has been capable of running powerful configurations for some time now.

Lenovo today introduced the Lenovo Googlebook 15, its first Googlebook, expanding the company's laptop portfolio by combining Google's computing experiences with Lenovo's signature design, engineering, and user-focused innovation. Powered by Intel Core Ultra 5 processors with built-in Gemini Intelligence, up to 32 GB of memory and up to 512 GB of storage, the Lenovo Googlebook 15 helps users stay productive and connected - no matter where the day takes them.

Designed for professionals, creators and business owners, the Lenovo Googlebook 15 delivers up to 47 TOPS of performance while weighing under 3 lbs., making it the lightest 15-inch device in Lenovo's portfolio.

Infinix, a leading global technology brand, today officially unveiled its flagship gaming peripheral of the year—the GT NX Series Peripherals. While the mobile gaming market continues to expand, players are increasingly seeking a more professional and immersive experience. High-frame-rate, high-fidelity mobile games impose stringent demands on smartphones in terms of thermal management, network stability, and display output. To fully unlock this potential, the GT NX Series introduces dedicated physical controls and industry-leading haptic feedback, providing gamers with tactile precision, ergonomic comfort, and a true console-grade feel right in the palm of their hands.

Most mobile gaming peripherals available today are fragmented and single-purpose: docking stations only handle video mirroring, cooling fans merely address overheating, and game controllers often come with high latency. Gamers have to purchase multiple separate accessories and spend time on complicated setup. To tackle these industry pain points, Infinix officially unveiled the GT NX Controller and GT NX Station multi-functional esports docking station. This integrated hardware connects control, cooling, display output and port expansion in one complete workflow, transforming a smartphone into a portable gaming console for versatile scenarios.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. unveiled today its newest premium mobile lineup - the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 Mobile Platform and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Mobile Platform. Designed to meet the evolving needs of consumers and OEM partners, both platforms power a new generation of mobile experiences.

Chris Patrick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc"Today marks a milestone as we introduce not one, but two new flagship mobile platforms, delivering agentic AI experiences that are immediate, personal, and adaptive," "As the agentic AI age evolves, our multi-flagship strategy allows us to push the boundaries of what's possible for mobile while bringing our latest AI innovations to a broader range of premium devices. By designing two innovative platforms, we're giving OEMs greater choice as we collectively shape the capabilities of the next generation of intelligent, personalized, mobile experiences."

Acer today debuted the Acer Googlebook 14, designed for Gemini Intelligence and the first from the company in a brand-new category of flagship laptops bringing together premium materials, powerful performance, intelligence features, and seamless syncing with Android phones.

Designed for the new Googlebook OS, the device works seamlessly with Android-based workflows and supports touch, keyboard, stylus, voice, and traditional laptop interaction methods within a unified user experience and help from Gemini at every step. The Acer Googlebook 14 is the industry's first convertible Googlebook and provides users with groundbreaking new features designed to boost productivity and creativity by enabling context-aware actions for personalized, proactive help and a more intuitive, streamlined workflow.

MediaTek, a global leader in computing and mobile technologies, today introduced the MediaTek Dimensity CX C10 Max, the inaugural SoC for the company's new Dimensity Compute Experiences (CX) family. As the flagship of the lineup, Dimensity CX C10 Max combines exceptional performance, advanced functionality, and impressive power efficiency to enable an upcoming premium, ultra-portable Googlebook device.

Built on TSMC's advanced 3 nm process, Dimensity CX C10 Max utilizes an All Big Core design with octa-core CPU, 11-core GPU, and MediaTek's 8th-generation NPU in a highly efficient platform engineered to deliver stellar performance across multitasking, productivity, entertainment, intelligent assistance, and more. Its power-efficient architecture enables manufacturers to design thinner, lighter, and fanless devices with all-day battery life.

Google's collective effort to introduce a new generation of Gemini-powered laptops, called "Googlebook," has officially launched today. Now available on the Google storefront, Googlebooks are being produced by some of the biggest laptop OEMs, including ASUS, Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Starting with ASUS, the company has prepared a 14-inch Googlebook 14, powered by the Intel "Panther Lake" Core Ultra Series 3, with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. Acer offers a similarly named Googlebook 14 with comparable specifications, while Lenovo uses the same base but delivers a 15-inch screen. Dell and HP provide Googlebooks in a 14-inch body, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processors, with 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage. Pricing ranges from $899 to $1,299, depending on the manufacturer and specifications.

Generally, Googlebooks follow a consistent philosophy across all models, featuring premium materials like aluminium, magnesium, and carbon fiber instead of traditional plastic. The screens on these models are also higher resolution. A key feature of these laptops is the integration of Android applications and Glowbar, along with Gemini intelligence throughout the operating system experience. Powered by Googlebook OS, the operating system is essentially a desktop version of Android that runs Android applications through the Google Play Store. The OS can run a Linux terminal, and since Android is a heavily modified version of Linux, Linux applications are also supported.

Following the official launch of the Steam Frame, Valve has finally made Lepton, its compatibility layer that enables the Steam Frame to run Android games, open-source. Lepton was formally announced in March 2026, when Valve also revealed the Steam Frame Verified program requirements. The project is now hosted on Valve's GitLab repository, where Valve details the tool's basis and how it differs from Android itself.

Lepton being open-source has a number of implications for gaming on the Steam Frame and on SteamOS in general. As Valve notes, "Lepton is intended to help game developers bring their VR Android games to the Steam Frame. Other use cases are possible, but were not the focus of development and may lack polish." The project itself uses components from Waydroid, Anbox, Halium, and Hybris, combines Valve's own code with parts of the AOSP, mounts host system libraries—graphics drivers, Steam libraries, and Vulkan layers—and strips away some of the fat on Android in the name of efficiency.

Ubisoft has officially announced an alternative to Ubisoft Connect, its third-party launcher that has been known to cause stickiness with SteamOS, Linux, and other systems that require translation layers to function. Ubisoft Connect will not be going away completely, but, starting with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Ubisoft is testing Ubisoft Connect Services—a new Steam tool that enables cross-progression, cross-play, challenges and rewards, and player safety, independently of the Connect launcher.

The decision to move away from Ubisoft Connect as a hard requirement for game launching was likely spurred on by the increasing reliance on tools like Proton and Steam's new Arm and Android compatibility tools, FEX and Lepton. Ubisoft says that the testing version of Ubisoft Connect Services is "an initial step toward a smoother and more streamlined launch experience on Steam," and it promises to build on it and improve Ubisoft Connect Services as more players use it, eventually also rolling it out for more games.

An unofficial, native Android port of Grand Theft Auto 5 is reportedly in development, though it looks like only a small portion of phones will actually be able to run it at launch. The project comes from M0jso of Paralympics Productions, the same developer behind the unofficial GTA 5 port for the original Nintendo Switch that we recently covered. Unlike solutions that run the Windows version through compatibility layers like Winlator, this port is being built to run GTA 5 natively on Arm. It reportedly uses the same base as the Switch port, which itself was built on GTA 5 Legacy 1.0.2699 and the leaked 2023 source code.

Minimum requirements are said to be a Snapdragon 865, 8 GB of RAM, and 65 GB of storage, with support extending up through recent Snapdragon 7 and 8 series chips. The first public build is Snapdragon-only, so Exynos chips (including the 1480, 1580, 2200, 2400, and 2600), Pixel Tensor with PowerVR graphics, and MediaTek Helio chips are apparently left out for now, at least until Mali GPU support gets added later. There's no word on an actual release date yet, and it's still worth treating this as an early and unofficial project until we see it running. However, it is confirmation that GTA 5 will be coming to Android phones pretty soon, if the Nintendo Switch port timeline is anything to go by.

Today, Huion officially announced its new Android tablet, the Kamvas Pad 12, one year following the launch of its Kamvas Slate tablet series. As an industry-leading manufacturer and innovator, Huion has expanded its product lineup to adapt to today's competitive market landscape.

Unlike Kamvas Slate series, Kamvas Pad 12 features the battery-free EMR pen PW600C, powered by the latest PenTech 4.0. The pen can magnetically attach to the tablet for superior portability and convenience. This tablet is also equipped with other eye-catching technologies and handy creative features. Let's quickly walk through its standout highlights.

Today at Lenovo Innovation World at IFA 2026, Lenovo announced the newest additions to the Lenovo Yoga portfolio, including two premium laptops powered by NVIDIA RTX Spark, two pen-first tablets, Lenovo Smart Canvas Concept, and newly released Lenovo Qira features. The additions span high-performance local computing for demanding creative and development workloads, natural interaction across multiple input modes, and connected experiences designed to help ideas move more easily between devices.

Creative work often moves across applications, devices, and ways of interacting. A project might begin as a sketch or a spoken idea, continue through editing, coding, or model development, and involve both individual and collaborative work. The latest Yoga portfolio brings together specialized devices and software experiences designed to support different stages of that process.

A modding group called Paralympics Productions has gotten Grand Theft Auto 5 running natively on the original Nintendo Switch, using a homebrew port built from the game's 2023 leaked source code. Rockstar never released GTA 5 on Switch hardware, despite the game shipping all the way back in 2013 on PS3 and Xbox 360, so this fills a gap the studio didn't choose to fill. Reverse-engineering the leaked "Legacy" source let the team recompile the game's logic for Arm and run it directly on the Switch's Tegra X1 chip, with no Android layer or emulation involved. You do need a jailbroken and overclocked Switch to get anything resembling a playable framerate, though.

At stock clocks, the game reportedly limps along at 10-25 FPS, and only settles into a steadier 30 FPS once the CPU, GPU, and memory are pushed past their limits through tools like sys-clk. Given the Tegra X1 is over a decade old and thermally constrained even in its own console, that's a fairly reasonable outcome for a 2013 game running its actual PC-tier logic on hardware never meant to touch it. The full install reportedly weighs in around 49GB, and Paralympics Productions has already shipped a few patches, with an Android port apparently in the works too. Of course, this doesn't automatically mean GTA 6 is coming to Switch 2 anytime soon, since this only works because of the leaked source code.