Facial recognition on our smartphones aren't new. We've seen it introduced many years ago, although it was not as robust compared to what is available now. In fact, with the new Pixel 8 Pro smartphones, Google introduced an upgraded facial recognition system (Face Unlock) that they claim meets Android's Class 3 requirements.

This means that it is secure enough where it can be used for payment authentications and logging into apps, something that wasn't available on the Pixel 7. But it turns out that maybe it still isn't quite as secure as we would have liked.

This is because according to a post on Reddit, they are claiming that their Pixel 8 Pro was unlocked using Face Unlock by their brother. In Google's defense, facial recognition systems aren't 100% foolproof. Even Apple's Face ID which uses infrared scanning technology was found to be vulnerable in some rare instances.

The poster does note that they share similar facial features as their brother, but even then as long as they aren't identical twins, it shouldn't have been unlocked anyway. That being said, this is the first we're hearing about the Face Unlock feature being bypassed this way. We're not sure if this is an isolated issue or if others have experienced something similar.

Either way, if you're concerned about this, then maybe you could stick to fingerprint unlocking or using a PIN code on your phone instead.

In some parts of the world, eSIMs are a bit bothersome because of the way some carriers have chosen to set it up, where users will need to visit a carrier's store in-person and request a QR code to get an eSIM or to install the eSIM on a new device.

The good news for Pixel 8 owners is that the process will be a lot simpler as Google has finally rolled out its brand new eSIM transfer tool. With this new feature, whenever you're setting up your Pixel 8 smartphone, you will have the option of transferring the eSIM profile from your previous Pixel phone onto the new Pixel 8.

This is according to a post on X by Mishaal Rahman who revealed that the tool is now live. The tool will also give users the ability to convert a physical SIM into an eSIM profile, meaning that if your old phone still uses a physical SIM but you want to make the switch to an eSIM, this tool will make your life a lot easier.

Granted, most of us only change our smartphones every couple of years, if not longer, so this isn't something we need to do every few months. At the same time, making the setup process a lot faster isn't necessarily a bad thing either. Google isn't the first to introduce this feature to their phones as Samsung had previously introduced a similar tool in the past, but it's good to see more handset makers are jumping on board.

One of the issues Pixel owners have been facing and experiencing over the years is overheating. This seems to be an issue with pretty much every Pixel device that Google has released, but yet for some reason has never been rectified.

The good news is that Google appears to have fixed that problem. Android 14's release was announced last week and it has been rolling out to Pixel owners as we speak, and according to posts on Reddit, it looks like the update might have fixed overheating issues experienced by Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 owners.

It is unclear what Google might have done to address the problems, but it is speculated that perhaps Google might have made some optimization improvements so that the phones won't draw as much power, which in turn reduces the chance of it getting too hot. That's just speculation because there is nothing in the changelog that suggests that this might have been a fix.

That being said, as Android Police notes, Google's Tensor chipsets are still pretty power-hungry so there might be times it will run too hot so maybe this isn't a complete fix, but hopefully it will address some of the overheating issues for now.

The Pixel 8 smartphones will be officially launched tomorrow and one of the main hardware upgrades we can look forward to is the new Tensor G3 chipset. This will be an upgrade over the Tensor G2 which was found in phones like the Pixel 7, but what kind of upgrades are we looking at?

According to a post on X by M. Brandon Lee from This Is Tech Today, he revealed the hardware information about the upcoming Tensor G3 chipset, which if accurate, could represent a huge upgrade over the Tensor G2.

For starters, one of the more obvious differences is in the number of cores. The G3 appears to have 9-cores versus the G2 which has 8-cores. The G3 will also feature one Cortex-X3 as its big core and it clocks in at 2.91GHz, and it will be accompanied by four Crotex-A715 medium cores clocking in at 2.37GHz, and four Cortex-A510 little cores clocking in at 1.7GHz.

The information revealed also shows that the G3 will come with a Mali-G715 GPU, which once again is an upgrade over its predecessor that used the Mali-G710. On paper this means we should be able to expect better graphics performance, but we'll have to wait for real-life testing to see how it fares.

Overall it's quite a huge upgrade over the Tensor G2 which means that if you're looking to buy an Android phone under $1000, then the Pixel 8 could be the phone for you.

Google's Pixel 8 smartphones are expected to be announced next month. If the rumors are accurate, we could be looking at a price increase over its predecessors, but Google could try to make it a bit more enticing.

According to a post on X by Roland Quandt of WinFuture.de, it seems that Google could be creating bundles for their Pixel 8 phones. One of those bundles will come with a pair of Pixel Buds, while the other bundle will come with the Pixel Watch 2 (which is also rumored to be announced at Google's October Pixel event).

Based on Quandt's post, the bundle with the Pixel Buds will only be for the Pixel 8 base model, while the Pixel Watch 2 bundle will be for the Pixel 8 Pro, the more expensive model out of the two options. It is unclear if these accessories will be thrown in for free or if customers will have to pay a bit more (but it will still be cheaper than buying them separately).

Also, it appears that these bundles might only be available in the US and it is unclear if other regions will have their own bundles, if at all. Either way, we'll have more details on the 4th of October, so check back with us then for the updates!