Here are today’s 9 verified tech & science stories, covering Tech & Apps, AI Tools and Science & Space.

Every item below links to its original source.

The TLDR

• Tech & Apps: How to Sideload Apps Onto Android Auto (and the Risks Involved)
• AI Tools: Hikers Rescued From Mount Shasta After Google’s Gemini Under-Packed Their Trip
• Science & Space: Rare ‘Rapunzel Syndrome’ Case Required Surgery to Remove a Massive Hairball

Tech & Apps

How to Sideload Apps Onto Android Auto (and the Risks Involved)

Engadget detailed a way to load almost any app onto an Android Auto screen — not just the ones Google approves — by turning on developer mode on your phone and inside Android Auto’s own settings, then installing a free tool called Android Auto Apps Downloader. The catch: Google says internet-sideloaded apps carry far more malware than ones from the Play Store, and it plans to require verification for sideloaded apps starting later in 2026. The outlet’s advice is to stick with approved apps while driving and only use extras like video players when the car is parked, per Engadget.

A New Web App Turns Field Recordings From Around the World Into a Playable Globe

Earth Garden is a browser tool that puts a spinnable globe in front of you and lets you click around the world to hear ambient field recordings — from remote shorelines to crickets in Tanzania — all pulled from the sound-sharing site Freesound. It’s built in the spirit of the radio-station map Radio Garden, but for real-world ambient sound instead of live radio, according to The Verge. Coverage leans heavily toward the US and Europe, so don’t expect even coverage everywhere on the map.

iOS 27’s New ‘iPhone Handoff’ Feature Lets Two iPhones Share One Phone Number

Apple’s iOS 27 update, expected later this month, will include a feature called iPhone Handoff that lets a phone number move between a main iPhone and a secondary ‘companion’ iPhone without swapping a SIM card. The companion device gets its own eSIM tied to the same number and carrier account, and calls follow whichever iPhone you’re actively using rather than ringing on both at once, according to The Verge. The feature reportedly needs carrier support, with T-Mobile in the US and Deutsche Telekom in Germany named as early partners.

Safari’s New ‘Notify Me’ Tool Can Track Price Drops and Restocks For You

Apple’s Safari browser is getting a built-in feature called Notify Me that watches a webpage for a change you describe — like a price dropping below a certain number or an item coming back in stock — and alerts you when it happens. It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, checking pages locally on your device at an interval you set, from hourly to monthly, according to Engadget. It also works for non-shopping alerts, like watching for updates to a news story or ticket sale.

Rumor: The Redesigned MacBook Pro, aka ‘MacBook Ultra,’ May Cost More Than Expected

A new report claims the redesigned, OLED-screened MacBook Pro — widely rumored to be rebranded MacBook Ultra — could start around $2,999, higher than the roughly $2,499 predicted for a standard OLED MacBook Pro. The claim isn’t confirmed by Apple; it’s built on display-supply-chain reporting from analyst firm Omdia combined with prior reporting from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, according to 9to5Mac. The same report claims Apple will keep selling a cheaper miniLED MacBook Pro alongside the pricier OLED model through 2028.

AI Tools

Hikers Rescued From Mount Shasta After Google’s Gemini Under-Packed Their Trip

Three hikers had to be rescued from Mount Shasta in California after using Google’s Gemini AI chatbot to help plan their route and supplies, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office said Gemini advised the group to bring far less food and water than they actually needed; the hikers also got stuck descending in the dark and spent a night stranded before rangers and volunteers reached them the next morning, per TechCrunch. If you use a chatbot for trip logistics, our guide to using ChatGPT to plan a budget weekend road trip is a good reminder to double-check any AI’s packing and route advice against official sources.

Science & Space

Rare ‘Rapunzel Syndrome’ Case Required Surgery to Remove a Massive Hairball

Doctors detailed the case of a 16-year-old girl who needed surgery after a CT scan revealed a trichobezoar — a mass of swallowed hair — spanning her stomach and small intestine, a condition called Rapunzel syndrome when it extends that far into the digestive tract. She had been pulling out and eating a few strands of her own hair roughly once a week for about two years but showed no visible hair loss or signs of a mood disorder, according to ScienceAlert.

Type 1 Diabetes May Actually Be Two Different Diseases, Study Finds

A genome-wide study of more than 9,000 people with type 1 diabetes and over 14,000 without it found that patients split into two genetic groups — linked to gene variants called HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 — that appear to develop the disease through different immune pathways. One group showed stronger involvement from mast cells tied to allergic-type inflammation, while the other showed T cells more directly attacking insulin-producing cells, according to ScienceAlert. Researchers say the split could eventually help doctors tailor treatment to a patient’s specific subtype.

Malaysia Declares Haze Emergency in Borneo as Smoke From Indonesian Fires Worsens

Malaysia declared an emergency in the Serian district of Sarawak state on Borneo this week after transboundary haze from wildfires in Indonesia’s Kalimantan and Sumatra provinces pushed the local Air Pollutant Index to a peak of 512, well past the hazardous threshold of 300. The declaration closed roughly 647 schools in the district, home to about 154,000 people, through at least the end of the week; cloud-seeding operations helped bring the index back down to 219 after rain fell, according to Phys.org.

Explore more: using ChatGPT to plan a budget weekend road trip, best free AI tools for summarizing long articles and PDFs.

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Photo: Ewen Denney (talk · contribs) / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The post 9 Tech & Science News Stories for Sunday, September 6, 2026: How to Sideload Apps Onto Android Auto (and the Risks Involved) appeared first on GTWebs.