<p>Google is bringing its new Fitbit Air fitness tracker to India in October 2026, giving users a different take on wearable health tracking. Unlike a smartwatch or traditional fitness band, Fitbit Air has no screen. Instead, it quietly collects health and activity data while users view their information through the Google Health app. Google has not yet announced the exact Indian price or launch date. In the US, Fitbit Air starts at $99.99, while Indian retail listings have appeared at considerably higher prices, so the final official price will be important for buyers.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Fitbit Air has no screen and that is the point</h2><p>Fitbit Air is designed to be worn continuously without the distractions of a display. It weighs about 5.2 grams without the band and uses a textile band with a stainless-steel buckle. The tracker itself is made partly from recycled polycarbonate and PBT plastics. The device packs an optical heart-rate monitor, a three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, red and infrared sensors for SpO2 tracking, a temperature sensor and a vibration motor. It can store seven days of detailed motion data, with heart-rate readings recorded at two-second intervals.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>What can Fitbit Air track?</strong></h2><p>The tracker supports 24/7 heart-rate monitoring, resting heart rate, heart-rate variability, SpO2, sleep stages and sleep duration. It can also track steps, distance, calories and Active Zone Minutes. Google says Fitbit Air can monitor heart rhythm while users are resting or sleeping and look for signs associated with atrial fibrillation. The wearable also works with Google's Health Coach, which uses Gemini to provide personalised fitness and sleep guidance. Some coaching features require a Google Health Premium membership.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>Seven-day battery and Android, iPhone support</strong></h2><p>Battery life is rated at up to seven days, with a full charge taking about 90 minutes. Google also says five minutes of charging can provide up to a day's battery life. Fitbit Air supports Android 11 or newer and iOS 16.4 or newer, with Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity and a syncing range of up to 30 feet. For Indian buyers, the biggest question now is price. Google has confirmed the October launch, but until the company announces the official Indian price, the figures seen on online listings should not be treated as final.</p>

Google will launch Fitbit Air in India in October 2026. The screenless fitness tracker offers 24/7 heart-rate tracking, SpO2, sleep monitoring and up to seven days of battery life. Google has not yet announced the official Indian price or exact launch date.

Google is bringing its new Fitbit Air fitness tracker to India in October 2026, giving users a different take on wearable health tracking. Unlike a smartwatch or traditional fitness band, Fitbit Air has no screen. Instead, it quietly collects health and activity data while users view their information through the Google Health app. Google has not yet announced the exact Indian price or launch date. In the US, Fitbit Air starts at $99.99, while Indian retail listings have appeared at considerably higher prices, so the final official price will be important for buyers. Fitbit Air has no screen and that is the point Fitbit Air is designed to be worn continuously without the distractions of a display. It weighs about 5.2 grams without the band and uses a textile band with a stainless-steel buckle. The tracker itself is made partly from recycled polycarbonate and PBT plastics. The device packs an optical heart-rate monitor, a three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, red and infrared sensors for SpO2 tracking, a temperature sensor and a vibration motor. It can store seven days of detailed motion data, with heart-rate readings recorded at two-second intervals. What can Fitbit Air track? The tracker supports 24/7 heart-rate monitoring, resting heart rate, heart-rate variability, SpO2, sleep stages and sleep duration. It can also track steps, distance, calories and Active Zone Minutes. Google says Fitbit Air can monitor heart rhythm while users are resting or sleeping and look for signs associated with atrial fibrillation. The wearable also works with Google's Health Coach, which uses Gemini to provide personalised fitness and sleep guidance. Some coaching features require a Google Health Premium membership. Seven-day battery and Android, iPhone support Battery life is rated at up to seven days, with a full charge taking about 90 minutes. Google also says five minutes of charging can provide up to a day's battery life. Fitbit Air supports Android 11 or newer and iOS 16.4 or newer, with Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity and a syncing range of up to 30 feet. For Indian buyers, the biggest question now is price. Google has confirmed the October launch, but until the company announces the official Indian price, the figures seen on online listings should not be treated as final.

<p>Google will launch Fitbit Air in India in October 2026. The screenless fitness tracker offers 24/7 heart-rate tracking, SpO2, sleep monitoring and up to seven days of battery life. Google has not yet announced the official Indian price or exact launch date.</p>

Google Fitbit Air coming to India in October: Check features, battery and sensors

<p>Google has unveiled Gemma 4 12B, the latest version of its open AI model family, bringing advanced reasoning, vision and audio capabilities to devices that can run locally without depending entirely on cloud infrastructure.</p><p>According to Google, the new model delivers performance close to much larger AI systems while requiring significantly less memory. The company says Gemma 4 12B can run locally on devices equipped with just 16GB of VRAM, making advanced AI more accessible to developers, researchers and businesses. The launch highlights a growing trend across the AI industry: bringing powerful AI models directly to personal computers instead of relying solely on remote data centres.</p>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today we’re introducing Gemma 4 12B — our latest open model that brings advanced agentic reasoning, vision and audio directly to your laptop.<br><br>It delivers performance nearing our larger Gemma models with a much smaller total memory footprint, while being small enough to run… <a href="https://t.co/M5xw74tEAW">pic.twitter.com/M5xw74tEAW</a></p>&mdash; Google (@Google) <a href="https://x.com/Google/status/2062203526588088452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<h2><strong>What is Gemma 4 12B?</strong></h2><p>Gemma is Google's family of open AI models built using technology and research from its Gemini programme. The new Gemma 4 12B model contains 12 billion parameters and has been designed to handle multiple types of information, including text, images and audio. Unlike traditional AI systems that focus only on text, Gemma 4 12B can understand visual content, process audio inputs and perform advanced reasoning tasks. This makes it suitable for a wider range of applications, from software development and content creation to research and automation. Google says the model is available under the Apache 2.0 licence, allowing developers and organisations to use, modify and deploy it with relatively few restrictions.</p><h2><strong>Why is this launch important?</strong></h2><p>One of the biggest challenges in artificial intelligence today is the cost of running powerful models. Many advanced AI systems require expensive cloud infrastructure and high-performance servers. That can create barriers for smaller companies, independent developers and researchers. Google says Gemma 4 12B addresses this challenge by offering strong performance while remaining compact enough to run on consumer hardware. The company claims users can access advanced AI capabilities on their own machines without constantly sending requests to cloud servers.</p><p>This approach can provide several advantages:</p><p>Lower operating costs<br>Better privacy<br>Faster response times<br>Reduced internet dependence<br>Greater control over data</p><p>Industry experts increasingly see local AI as one of the next major shifts in computing. A new architecture removes traditional limitations</p><p>One of the most significant technical changes in Gemma 4 12B is its new unified architecture. Traditionally, multimodal AI systems use separate components known as encoders to process images, audio and text before combining the information. Google says Gemma 4 12B removes the need for separate multimodal encoders. Instead, the model processes different types of information through a unified architecture. According to the company, this helps improve efficiency while reducing memory requirements and computational overhead.</p><p>The result is a model that can deliver advanced multimodal capabilities while remaining small enough to run locally on modern hardware.</p><h2><strong>The growing race for local AI</strong></h2><p>Google's announcement comes as technology companies increasingly compete to bring AI closer to users. Microsoft recently introduced AI-focused hardware such as the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box and Surface Laptop Ultra. Apple has expanded on-device AI through Apple Intelligence, while companies including Perplexity and Nvidia are investing heavily in local AI computing.</p><p>The industry's focus is shifting because running every AI request through the cloud is becoming increasingly expensive. Local AI offers a way to reduce infrastructure costs while improving privacy and responsiveness. Gemma 4 12B positions Google as an important player in this emerging market.</p><h2><strong>Who could use Gemma 4 12B?</strong></h2><p>The model is expected to appeal to several groups.<br><br>Developers<br>Software developers can use the model to build AI-powered applications without relying entirely on external APIs.</p><p>Researchers&nbsp;<br>Researchers can experiment with advanced AI systems locally while maintaining greater control over their data.</p><p>Businesses<br>Companies working with sensitive information may prefer local AI processing for privacy and compliance reasons.</p><p>AI enthusiasts<br>Because the model is openly available, hobbyists and independent developers can also explore its capabilities without significant infrastructure investments.</p><h2><strong>What does this mean for the future of AI?</strong></h2><p>The release of Gemma 4 12B reflects a broader shift taking place across the industry. For years, AI development focused primarily on building larger and larger models in massive data centres. Increasingly, however, companies are trying to make powerful AI systems smaller, more efficient and easier to run on everyday devices. Google's latest model suggests that future AI progress may not only be about scale. Efficiency, accessibility and local deployment are becoming equally important.</p><p>If models like Gemma 4 12B continue to improve, users may soon be able to run advanced AI assistants, coding tools and productivity systems directly on their laptops without relying heavily on cloud services. For developers and businesses, that could open the door to a new generation of AI applications that are faster, more private and less expensive to operate.</p>

Google has unveiled Gemma 4 12B, the latest version of its open AI model family, bringing advanced reasoning, vision and audio capabilities to devices that can run locally without depending entirely on cloud infrastructure.


Google has unveiled Gemma 4 12B, the latest version of its open AI model family, bringing advanced reasoning, vision and audio capabilities to devices that can run locally without depending entirely on cloud infrastructure. According to Google, the new model delivers performance close to much larger AI systems while requiring significantly less memory. The company says Gemma 4 12B can run locally on devices equipped with just 16GB of VRAM, making advanced AI more accessible to developers, researchers and businesses. The launch highlights a growing trend across the AI industry: bringing powerful AI models directly to personal computers instead of relying solely on remote data centres.

<p>Google has unveiled Gemma 4 12B, the latest version of its open AI model family, bringing advanced reasoning, vision and audio capabilities to devices that can run locally without depending entirely on cloud infrastructure.</p>

Google launches Gemma 4 12B: This powerful AI model from Google can run on your laptop

<p>DuckDuckGo is seeing a rise in downloads and user activity as some internet users look for alternatives to Google's increasingly AI-powered search experience.</p><p>The privacy-focused search engine reported a sharp increase in app installs following Google's latest Search updates, which introduced expanded AI-generated summaries, conversational search tools and AI Mode. While Google says these features are designed to make searching faster and more useful, some users have expressed concerns about accuracy, website visibility and the growing role of artificial intelligence in search results. The trend highlights a wider debate about the future of online search and how much control users should have over AI-generated content.</p><h2><strong>Why are some users moving away from Google Search?</strong></h2><p>At its annual Google I/O developer conference, Google announced major upgrades to Search, placing artificial intelligence at the centre of the experience. The company expanded AI-generated overviews and introduced AI Mode, a feature that allows users to ask follow-up questions and hold conversations directly within Search.</p><p>Google argues that these tools help users find information more quickly without having to visit multiple websites. However, critics say AI-generated answers can sometimes contain inaccuracies and reduce traffic to publishers and content creators by keeping users within Google's ecosystem. Another concern raised by some users is the lack of a simple option to completely disable AI-generated results and return to a traditional search experience.</p><h2><strong>What do the latest numbers show?</strong></h2><p>According to DuckDuckGo, app installs in the United States increased significantly in the days following Google's latest announcements. The company said downloads rose by an average of 18.1 per cent week-on-week between May 20 and May 25. On May 25, installs reportedly peaked at 30.5 per cent above normal levels. DuckDuckGo also said iPhone downloads increased by an average of 33 per cent during the same period. Independent analytics firm Apptopia reported similar findings, estimating that DuckDuckGo's average daily downloads in the US rose by approximately 29 per cent after Google's AI Search updates gained wider attention.</p><p>While Google remains by far the dominant search engine globally, the figures suggest that a segment of users is actively exploring alternatives.</p><h2><strong>DuckDuckGo's AI-free approach</strong></h2><p>DuckDuckGo has positioned itself as an option for users who prefer more control over how artificial intelligence appears in search results. The company offers an AI-free search experience that removes AI-generated summaries and AI-created images from results pages. According to DuckDuckGo, traffic to this version of its search engine has increased in recent weeks. At the same time, the company is not completely opposed to AI technology. Through its Duck.ai platform, users can access AI-powered tools and chatbots. The key difference, according to DuckDuckGo, is that users can choose when and how they interact with artificial intelligence rather than having it automatically integrated into every search.</p><h2><strong>Privacy remains a major selling point</strong></h2><p>Privacy continues to be one of DuckDuckGo's biggest advantages in a competitive search market. The company says it does not collect users' search histories and does not use personal search data or AI conversations to train its systems. As concerns around data collection and AI training practices continue to grow, privacy-focused services have increasingly become attractive to users looking for alternatives to larger technology platforms. Industry analysts note that privacy, transparency and user choice are becoming more important factors in how people evaluate digital services.</p><h2><strong>The wider battle over AI-powered search</strong></h2><p>The latest developments reflect a broader shift taking place across the technology industry. Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other companies are investing heavily in generative AI tools designed to transform how people find and consume information online. Supporters argue that AI search can save time by summarising information and providing direct answers. Critics, however, worry that AI-generated content could reduce traffic to publishers, spread inaccurate information and limit exposure to diverse sources.</p><p>The debate has become increasingly important as search engines evolve from simple directories of web pages into AI-powered assistants capable of generating their own responses.</p><p>Google is unlikely to slow its AI ambitions. The company continues to invest heavily in Gemini and AI-powered Search features, viewing artificial intelligence as the future of online information discovery. At the same time, DuckDuckGo's recent growth suggests there remains strong demand for traditional search experiences that prioritise web links, privacy and user choice. The coming months will reveal whether the recent increase in downloads represents a temporary reaction to Google's AI changes or a longer-term shift in how some users choose to search the web.</p>

The privacy-focused search engine reported a sharp increase in app installs following Google's latest Search updates, which introduced expanded AI-generated summaries, conversational search tools and AI Mode. 

DuckDuckGo is seeing a rise in downloads and user activity as some internet users look for alternatives to Google's increasingly AI-powered search experience. The privacy-focused search engine reported a sharp increase in app installs following Google's latest Search updates, which introduced expanded AI-generated summaries, conversational search tools and AI Mode. While Google says these features are designed to make searching faster and more useful, some users have expressed concerns about accuracy, website visibility and the growing role of artificial intelligence in search results. The trend highlights a wider debate about the future of online search and how much control users should have over AI-generated content. Why are some users moving away from Google Search? At its annual Google I/O developer conference, Google announced major upgrades to Search, placing artificial intelligence at the centre of the experience. The company expanded AI-generated overviews and introduced AI Mode, a feature that allows users to ask follow-up questions and hold conversations directly within Search. Google argues that these tools help users find information more quickly without having to visit multiple websites. However, critics say AI-generated answers can sometimes contain inaccuracies and reduce traffic to publishers and content creators by keeping users within Google's ecosystem. Another concern raised by some users is the lack of a simple option to completely disable AI-generated results and return to a traditional search experience. What do the latest numbers show? According to DuckDuckGo, app installs in the United States increased significantly in the days following Google's latest announcements. The company said downloads rose by an average of 18.1 per cent week-on-week between May 20 and May 25. On May 25, installs reportedly peaked at 30.5 per cent above normal levels. DuckDuckGo also said iPhone downloads increased by an average of 33 per cent during the same period. Independent analytics firm Apptopia reported similar findings, estimating that DuckDuckGo's average daily downloads in the US rose by approximately 29 per cent after Google's AI Search updates gained wider attention. While Google remains by far the dominant search engine globally, the figures suggest that a segment of users is actively exploring alternatives. DuckDuckGo's AI-free approach DuckDuckGo has positioned itself as an option for users who prefer more control over how artificial intelligence appears in search results. The company offers an AI-free search experience that removes AI-generated summaries and AI-created images from results pages. According to DuckDuckGo, traffic to this version of its search engine has increased in recent weeks. At the same time, the company is not completely opposed to AI technology. Through its Duck.ai platform, users can access AI-powered tools and chatbots. The key difference, according to DuckDuckGo, is that users can choose when and how they interact with artificial intelligence rather than having it automatically integrated into every search. Privacy remains a major selling point Privacy continues to be one of DuckDuckGo's biggest advantages in a competitive search market. The company says it does not collect users' search histories and does not use personal search data or AI conversations to train its systems. As concerns around data collection and AI training practices continue to grow, privacy-focused services have increasingly become attractive to users looking for alternatives to larger technology platforms. Industry analysts note that privacy, transparency and user choice are becoming more important factors in how people evaluate digital services. The wider battle over AI-powered search The latest developments reflect a broader shift taking place across the technology industry. Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other companies are investing heavily in generative AI tools designed to transform how people find and consume information online. Supporters argue that AI search can save time by summarising information and providing direct answers. Critics, however, worry that AI-generated content could reduce traffic to publishers, spread inaccurate information and limit exposure to diverse sources. The debate has become increasingly important as search engines evolve from simple directories of web pages into AI-powered assistants capable of generating their own responses. Google is unlikely to slow its AI ambitions. The company continues to invest heavily in Gemini and AI-powered Search features, viewing artificial intelligence as the future of online information discovery. At the same time, DuckDuckGo's recent growth suggests there remains strong demand for traditional search experiences that prioritise web links, privacy and user choice. The coming months will reveal whether the recent increase in downloads represents a temporary reaction to Google's AI changes or a longer-term shift in how some users choose to search the web.

<p>The privacy-focused search engine reported a sharp increase in app installs following Google's latest Search updates, which introduced expanded AI-generated summaries, conversational search tools and AI Mode.&nbsp;</p>

Google AI Search backlash? DuckDuckGo installs jump as users seek alternatives to Google's latest Search updates

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Google Fitbit Air coming to India in October: Check features, battery and sensors

Google launches Gemma 4 12B: A powerful AI model that can run on your laptop

DuckDuckGo installs jump 30% as users push back against Google's AI Search