Google cranked its innovation rig to eleven this week, spraying AI upgrades across everything from search queries to storm warnings. Gemini 3 unfurled a million-token context window inside Google Search, Nano Banana Pro finally taught image generators to spell (even at 4K), and SynthID took on the new role of watermark snitch.
Not content with visual and verbal wizardry, Mountain View also unleashed an agentic shopping concierge to stalk Black Friday bargains and WeatherNext 2, a TPU-powered model that spots Category 5 temper tantrums before the barometer flinches.
If your inbox feels like a keynote firehose and your wallet suddenly vibrates with discount alerts, blame the bots. The forecast? Heavy AI with scattered impulse buys.
ICYMI, read all of this week’s Daily Tech Insider news:
Gemini 3 turns Search into a super assistant
Google’s Gemini 3 skipped beta and beamed straight into Search, the Gemini app, Android Studio, and a new “Antigravity” IDE. The Pro model chews one-million-token prompts, designs UI widgets on the fly, and tops public leaderboards. Enterprises get it via Vertex AI at preview prices of $2 per million input tokens and $12 per million output (standard context).
Deep Think mode crushes PhD-level exams, while Gmail triage and multistep workflow skills turn the chatbot into a project manager. If the rollout sticks, Google could claw back mindshare from OpenAI and recast search as a copilot console.
Basically, Google just stuffed an agent into the internet’s front door; expect rivals to chase context windows and reasoning scores like GPU stocks.
Nano Banana Pro nails text, hits 4K
Meet Nano Banana Pro, a Gemini 3–powered image engine that renders crisp text, blends 14 reference shots, and outputs 2K or 4K graphics in any aspect ratio. It even taps real-time Search so your infographic on today’s stock trends matches reality.
The upgrade lands in the Gemini app and ripples into NotebookLM, Ads, Slides, and Vertex AI. Canva, Figma, Adobe Firefly, and Photoshop have already integrated it.
Free users get a sample; developers pay $0.24 per 4K render. Early testers rave about smoother follow-up edits but still spot hiccups like tiny fonts that blur and analog clock hands that lie.
If keynote-ready slides pop out in seconds, design and marketing teams just found a sleepless intern who charges by the pixel.
Gemini spot-checks its own deepfakes
Gemini can now tell if an image you upload was generated by Google’s models, thanks to its invisible SynthID watermark.
The tool, live in the Gemini app, flags Google-made images but remains blind to third-party deepfakes. Support for video and external C2PA tags is promised next, though Pro images already carry the credentials.
It’s a transparency win, but only partially. Until every platform adopts cross-vendor watermarks, spotting fakes will feel like CAPTCHA whack-a-mole.
Gemini-powered agentic AI shops while you chill
Holiday shopping tools now chat up AI Mode Search results and the Gemini app with price tables backed by 50 billion items, while an AI voice can call local stores for you to check stock. Track an item’s price and Google will offer to buy it for you when it dips… pending your final okay, of course.
The pilot covers Wayfair, Chewy, Quince, and select Shopify shops in the US.
If AI nails bargain hunting, expect your inbox to fill with receipts you barely remember authorizing.
WeatherNext 2 forecasts storms 8 times faster
DeepMind’s WeatherNext 2 generates global forecasts eight times faster than before, upping accuracy on 99.9% of key variables. Driving this speed is a Functional Generative Network that spins out hundreds of scenarios in under a minute on a single TPU—efficiency that has already brought the model to Search, the Gemini app, and Pixel Weather.
In tests, it predicted Hurricane Melissa’s Category 5 jump a full day before legacy physics simulations, buying Jamaica precious prep time. Grid operators and insurers are next in line for the data feed.
Real-time, hour-level forecasts could shift disaster response from scrambling to strategizing. And yes, that means you can finally plan your picnic with confidence.
