Google Quietly Adds Extra Free Year of Satellite SOS Access on Pixel 9 Phones - PCMag

The My Number card, Japan's digital national ID, lands on Android on October 20, 2026 inside Google Wallet (Google's digital wallet). The Digital Agency, the Tokyo government's digital arm, has published today the official list of compatible phones. Every model on the list handles the electronic certificate, while only those marked with a star (★) also support the new attribute attestation feature. The My Number card is the individual-number credential Japan assigns to residents, used for taxes, healthcare and pensions. According to agency data reported by Impress Watch, 104,525,120 cards had been issued by the end of August, or 84.3% of the population. The closest parallel outside Japan is a national eID card such as Italy's CIE (electronic identity card), used with its PIN and covered in our guide to CNS, SPID and CIE.

Most smartphone vendors unveiled several devices this summer, including the Google Pixel 11 series, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 foldables, and the iPhone 18 Pro models. Apple's first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, is set to hit stores in late October. Even without new releases, the Black Friday sale and Christmas shopping season are approaching. Consumers may want to purchase a handset this year. But buyers should be more critical than before when shopping phone deals. That means avoiding certain handsets, despite potential discounts. We've singled out five such devices, ranging from entry-level to premium handsets that you might be better off ignoring. These are the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G and Galaxy S24 FE, the OnePlus 13R, the Motorola Razr Plus, and the Apple iPhone 16. The mobile market has been affected by the chip crisis this year. AI data centers have consumed large amounts of RAM and storage chips that are also used in smartphones, and handset vendors were forced to raise prices. Separately, manufacturers have increasingly offered more AI features on their smartphones, which are able to act as more personal assistants than ever before.

The Google Pixel 11 Pro HiLight presents itself with a sleek design and unique feature — the ability to light up certain colors while face down to indicate a favorite contact is calling you, or to ensure Gemini is listening when you make a verbal request. The HiLight LED later received a cool new feature which tacked on messages as an additional trigger for its light indicator, although this is still only available on the beta channel. However, it seems the feature doesn't entirely live up to the promise of its premise and has left some hopeful owners rather disappointed. A major complaint among HiLight owners is that the device offers a limited color selection for them to assign to their contacts. The device was initially held back by a meager five color choices. Although outlets like Android Authority provided some hope with news of future updates introducing more options, some HiLight users pointed out that, though it has the hardware capabilities to support them now, Google is seemingly rolling out new color options at a sluggish pace, rather than making them available all at once. "Drip feeding new colors as a feature is absolutely insane," another Redditor wrote.

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. If you ever noticed that the suffix "pro" adds a strange gravitas to a product, you're not alone. Slap the word on the front of a box, bump the price up a couple hundred dollars, and a certain kind of buyer will reach for their wallet without thinking much about what extras they're actually getting. The Google Pixel 11 Pro was just released in August 2026, and it's an amazing phone with a fluid design and AI-enabled features.

There are five phones I wouldn't touch for specific reasons.