Category: 4. Technology

Google is bringing improved translation to Circle to Search, its feature that allows users to quickly search for any information on their screen by using gestures like circling, highlighting, scribbling, or tapping. The company announced on Thursday that users can now see translations as they scroll.

“Translation is one of the most-used features in Circle to Search — you can get more context for social posts from creators who speak a different language, or browse menus when you’re booking restaurant reservations while traveling abroad,” Google wrote in a blog post. “But until now, you had to restart the translation process every time you scrolled or the content on the screen changed.”

Now, users can get continuous translation as they scroll down a page or even switch apps. For example, if you’re scrolling through Instagram and come across a post that includes images featuring text in a different language, you can use the new feature to see continuous translations as you swipe through the photos.

To access the new functionality, users need to long-press the home button or navigation bar to start Circle to Search, tap the “Translate” icon, and press “scroll and translate.” 

Google says the new update will begin rolling out this week on Android, starting with select Samsung Galaxy devices.

Since its launch last year, Google has been updating Circle to Search with more functionality.

At Samsung Unpacked 2025 earlier this year, Google announced that it was updating Circle to Search to make it easier for users to find information and get things done. These changes included expanded AI Overviews for visual searches and one-tap actions for phone numbers, URLs, and email addresses shown on screen.

A few months ago, the tech giant made it possible to use AI Mode, its feature that lets users dig into complex topics and ask follow-up questions, when starting a search with Circle to Search.

Google is bringing improved translation to Circle to Search, its feature that allows users to quickly search for any information on their screen by using gestures like circling, highlighting, scribbling, or tapping. The company announced on Thursday that users can now see translations as they scroll.

“Translation is one of the most-used features in Circle to Search — you can get more context for social posts from creators who speak a different language, or browse menus when you’re booking restaurant reservations while traveling abroad,” Google wrote in a blog post. “But until now, you had to restart the translation process every time you scrolled or the content on the screen changed.”

Now, users can get continuous translation as they scroll down a page or even switch apps. For example, if you’re scrolling through Instagram and come across a post that includes images featuring text in a different language, you can use the new feature to see continuous translations as you swipe through the photos.

To access the new functionality, users need to long-press the home button or navigation bar to start Circle to Search, tap the “Translate” icon, and press “scroll and translate.”

Google says the new update will begin rolling out this week on Android, starting with select Samsung Galaxy devices.

Since its launch last year, Google has been updating Circle to Search with more functionality.

At Samsung Unpacked 2025 earlier this year, Google announced that it was updating Circle to Search to make it easier for users to find information and get things done. These changes included expanded AI Overviews for visual searches and one-tap actions for phone numbers, URLs, and email addresses shown on screen.

A few months ago, the tech giant made it possible to use AI Mode, its feature that lets users dig into complex topics and ask follow-up questions, when starting a search with Circle to Search.

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TCL’s latest smartphone entry comes with some ambitious claims. The NxtPaper 60 Ultra is built around a 7.2” IPS LCD with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. But as the name suggests, this is no ordinary display, it brings TCL’s NxtPaper 4.0 screen technology, which offers updated blue light filtering and a new nano-matrix lithography technology for the screen etching process.

TCL is also proud to claim that NxtPaper 4.0 completely eliminates screen reflection and minimizes glare for a paper-like reading experience. It offers wider viewing angles compared to conventional IPS LCDs and completely eliminates screen flickering.

The display on the NxtPaper 60 also supports stylus input. TCL’s T-Pen Magic offers pressure sensitivity and low latency, but since there’s no built-in slot, you’ll need a special case (€70) sold by TCL.

Around the back, NxtPaper 60 Ultra features a 50MP main camera with OIS and a 50MP periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom. The third module is an 8MP ultrawide lens.

You also get a Dimensity 7400 chipset paired with 12GB RAM, up to 512GB storage and a 5,200mAh battery. The device boots Android 15 and brings NFC and eSIM support. It’s also IP68 rated and packs a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

TCL NxtPaper 60 Ultra will be available across Europe, LATAM and APAC regions. The 12/256GB version will go for €449, while the 12/512GB model will retail for €499.

Global Earth Day published studies that found pets and babies are especially at risk for microplastic exposure from household dust. Both household members stay low to the ground—closer to dust, microplastics, and particulates that are invisible to the naked eye on carpets and floors—and put everything in their mouths, making it easier for them to ingest microplastic dust that could be on those objects.

While that household dust could be anywhere in your home, carpet turns out to have its own issues. My fellow WIRED reviewer Lisa Wood Shapiro discovered her carpet was harboring PM 2.5 while testing air quality monitors. Never heard of PM 2.5? It’s particulate matter small enough to enter the lungs and bloodstream, contributing to health problems like heart attacks, hypertension, and respiratory issues. Shapiro found that simply walking across her carpet caused spikes in PM 2.5 readings on her air quality monitors, as the matter stored in the carpet was released back into the air—and potentially into her lungs —by her footfalls.

The Simple Solution

Photograph: Nena Farrell

The same thing can solve both of these issues: more frequent vacuuming.

Aidan Charron, an associate director at EarthDay.org, recommends vacuuming daily, along with avoiding polyester rugs and carpets in your home. Polyester is a plastic-based textile, so having that fabric in your living spaces could introduce more microplastics into your home and dust. You might want to consider a wool rug, like one of our favorites, below, or even a washable rug like this one from Revival, recommended by WIRED’s air quality expert, Lisa Wood Shapiro.

Courtesy of Rejuvenation

Rejuvenation

Sumaru Hand-Knotted Rug

When it comes to mitigating indoor PM 2.5, Shapiro specifically recommends vacuuming with a HEPA-filter-equipped vacuum (like our favorite stick vacuum, below) to prevent those particles from escaping into the air as even smaller particles.

Whether or not you’re worried about general dirt or these particles, you should be vacuuming carpet daily or close to daily. That’s especially true in high-traffic areas that are both getting the most dirt exposure from people walking on them, and which are exposing your family to whatever is stored in that carpet. If you’re on that carpet every day, try to vacuum it a few times a week at least. It’s also good for the carpet’s longevity to vacuum frequently.

Hard floors can be vacuumed closer to once a week; I’m partial to at least a weekly vacuum-and-mopping session. Hard floors won’t store particulate matter like carpet can, but they can still accumulate plenty of dust. Steam mops (like our favorite, above) are another great way to really clean a hard floor. If you find yourself dreading how often you might need to vacuum, grab a robot vacuum that can do some of the work for you.

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Govee has launched a new TV backlight kit for folks who like to add immersive lighting that syncs with whatever is playing on the display. The Govee TV Backlight 3 Pro features an “industry-first HDR triple-camera wide-area color matching system,” according to Govee, which is designed to capture the colors on your TV screen with greater accuracy than other cameras in the smart-lighting company’s older kits.

“For the first time, this innovative system integrates a groundbreaking image sensor that features HDR capture capability, delivering high-fidelity 105dB dynamic range imaging for superior signal-to-noise performance,” Govee said in its press release. The TV Backlight 3 Pro light strip that attaches to the back of displays has also been upgraded to be 30 percent brighter than its predecessors, and it uses an “AI intelligent color mixing system” that automatically adjusts the backlight’s white balance and saturation settings.

The Govee TV Backlight 3 Pro will be available sometime in September, with the price and size models to be announced later. Pricing for the Lite version of the Govee TV Backlight 3 started at $90 when it launched in 2024, so we’ll have to see how the Pro model stacks up in comparison.

Govee has some colorful new ideas for how a light strip can decorate your home. Its latest, the Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism, puts three lights in every bulb along the strip, with a prism lens above them that’s designed to create three distinct or blended beams of light.

The strip supports full color, and Govee imagines the three beams being used to create vibrant effects that a more traditional light strip — emitting a single color per bulb — wouldn’t be capable of. That includes either a more natural gradient transitioning from one fan of light to the next or stark multicolored blades that look far different than traditional Christmas lights.

Govee’s new strip supports Matter, Alexa, and Google Assistant, and it comes with an IP68 water- and dust-resistance rating so it can stay permanently mounted outside your house. The strips start shipping on September 22nd in the US. Pricing wasn’t shared before publication, but you can bet they’ll be expensive. Govee’s Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 run $330 for 100 feet, and its Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro run $440 for 100 feet.

Ecovacs’ latest mopping robovac may not need to take charging breaks while cleaning your home. The company says its new Deebot X11 Omnicyclone uses GaN-enabled fast charging to power up every time it returns to its base station for mop rinses, allowing it to keep cleaning without stopping to charge.

The X11 Omnicyclone robovac comes with 19,500Pa of suction power and an upgraded roller mop that extends up to 15mm to reach corners. It’s capable of traversing thresholds, rugs, doorframes, and uneven surfaces using a 4WD system with “mechanical climbing levers” that automatically engage when it detects flooring changes. Ecovacs says the robovac can “reliably” handle up to 4cm shifts, while its mop lifts up to 10mm.

The robovac’s base station ditches disposable dust bags for an auto-empty technology that “delivers consistent suction and multi-stage filtration,” according to Ecovacs. It’s also capable of cleaning the nylon mop roller with hot water, as well as drying it.

The Deebot X11 Omnicyclone robovac costs $1,499 and is available for purchase on Ecovacs’ website and Amazon in the US and Canada.

Baseus has announced a new accessory that can wirelessly charge a Qi2-compatible smartphone directly on an outlet, making it useful as a hands-free wall mount. It’s reminiscent of a similar wireless charger that Zens released last year, but Baseus’ new EnerGeek GT01 has additional functionality, including a 10,000mAh battery that can be separated from the adapter’s AC plug for use as a portable power bank and wireless charger, leaving behind a simple 27W USB-C charger still stuck in the wall.

Wireless charging is limited to Qi2 rates so your phone will only charge at 15W instead of the faster 25W that you’ll get from new Qi2.2 chargers. If you’re in a hurry to revive a dying phone, or want to charge a device that’s not Qi-compatible, the EnerGeek GT01 also has a USB-C port that outputs 45W on the device’s power bank half. The Qi2 pad and both USB-C ports can all be used simultaneously when the two halves are connected, but while wireless charging will maintain a steady 15W rate, the two USB ports will dynamically share the remaining available power.

Rounding out the novelties is a small LCD display on one side that shows the battery’s remaining charge level and an estimate of how many hours and minutes are left before it’s fully depleted based on what’s currently drawing power.

It’s expected to launch later this year for $89.99, which is a bit pricey for a 10,000mAh power bank — even with wireless charging capabilities (Anker has one for $60). You’re paying a premium for the convenience of fewer cables and adapters.

TCL has been making its E Ink-inspired Nxtpaper phones for years, but it’s taken the company until now to realize that parents are a likely demographic for it. That’s finally been remedied with the Nxtpaper 5G Junior, a kids phone launching in Europe with a focus on eye health and screentime, which arrives alongside the more mainstream Nxtpaper 60 Ultra.

The Nxtpaper 5G Junior has been announced at the IFA trade show, but it won’t go on sale in Europe until December and will cost £159 / €249 (around $250). It will also include a protective case. So far, there are no plans for a US launch.

Like other recent Nxtpaper phones, the key selling point is a dedicated button that activates Max Ink Mode, which switches the matte display to a monochromatic mode that looks a lot like E Ink and is easier on the eyes for reading. The appeal to parents will be an extra way to manage screentime: not just a binary on / off, but an in-between option that’s better for kids’ eyes and not particularly well-suited to playing Fortnite. It extends the device’s battery life, too.

The phone includes a variety of parental controls powered by Google’s Family Link, along with a “Digital Detox” mode to encourage healthy phone use. TCL has also created a range of cutesy characters called the AI Genius Squad, which look like they’ve been lifted from a slightly subpar Pixar movie.

One immediate downside is that this is a pretty big phone. With a 6.7-inch screen and the included case, this will be a bulky, heavy device that might be a little tricky for smaller hands. It comes with 256GB of storage — enough for plenty of apps and games — and dual rear cameras.

TCL is also launching the Nxtpaper 60 Ultra, the first phone to ship with the latest Nxtpaper 4.0 tech, with reduced glare and display flicker. It’s even bigger, with a 7.2-inch display and has a triple rear camera, including a 50-megapixel telephoto lens, plus optional stylus support. It’s launching today in Europe from €449 (around $525), as well as Asia and Latin America.