
Google Tools And AI Are The Ultimate Travel Hacks For Summer 2025
Summer is officially here, and Google has all the tools to make your summer travel fun, easy, and efficient!
For many Black travelers, the summer is more than a time for vacations; it's about reconnecting with family and culture. Whether it's a pilgrimage to Accra, Ghana, to ride horses on Labadi Beach, or flying to Brazil to attend a Candomblé ceremony, Black travelers are hungry to explore the diaspora in meaningful and personal ways. According to a 2024 YouGov survey around 38% of travelers rely on word of mouth or family recommendations when planning for travel—down from about 55% previously.
With 40% of global travelers already using AI to plan their trips this summer Google's tech ecosystem powered by Gemini is the perfect addition to take your summer travels to the next level!
For Many Black Millennials and Gen Z travelers, cultural immersion is about "living like the locals". Especially when traveling across the diaspora to places like Cartagena, Dakar, or Lisbon endless TikTok scrolling and sifting through Instagram travel pages for inspiration and recommendations can become draining.
Enter Google Maps + AI-powered Search. The latest AI integration in Google Maps helps travelers bypass the tourist traps and get straight to the local hidden gems. All you need to do is ask, "Where do locals eat near me?" while traveling in Lagos, and you are instantly directed to ticked-away food stalls and kitchens only the local aunties would know about.
Only 7% of Black American travelers travel abroad while 76% vacation within the US. Regardless of where we travel 86% of Black travelers are willing to pay a premium for travel upgrades and experiences. Making the demographic of travelers the ultimate content creators and influencers.
That is where the Google Pixel 9 Pro comes in. It's the ultimate all-in-one device for those who don't just want to experience the world but bring others along for the journey. It captures stunning photos, cinematic portraits, and crisp video without needing a DSLR. Other than mind-blowing photos, the Pixel 9 Pro sports a "Live Translate" feature, making it easy to read menus and street signs and even translate conversations! It's the ultimate travel tool that fits right into your carry-on.
With all of the time zone changes, jetlag and general discomfort your body must adapt to while globetrotting, wellness should always be a top priority. Fitbit Charge 6 has quickly become a must-have for travelers who want to prioritize their health while on the go. It's sleek and equipped with heart rate and sleep tracking to detect jetlag and overtraining. The Fitbit Charge 6 is lightweight and works just as hard in Senegal as it does at home.
Perhaps the most underrated yet most impactful gem in Google's AI-powered travel toolkit is Gemini, especially when used with the Pixel 9 Pro. Want a 4-day travel itinerary for the ABC Islands focused, including food, music, and historical landmarks? Gemini has got you covered. From "What to eat in Johannesburg" to "How to recover after travel". Gemini turns dreams into plans and plans into adventure!
Intentional travel powered by AI is more than a passing trend. Modern Black travelers are more tech-savvy than ever and are willing to invest in new AI tools and technology like the Google ecosystem that allows them to not just explore but connect deeper and make their journeys easier.
Google understands for Black travelers that it's not just about the destination, but the transformation.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNET
41 minutes ago
- CNET
At WWDC, How Will Apple Address Its Lackluster First Year of Apple Intelligence?
At WWDC 2025, how is Apple going to spin what can be objectively seen as a year of AI promises unkept? Leading up to WWDC 2024, AI had broken into the mainstream, capturing the imagination of early adopters and the general public. Services like Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT showcased features that used large language models and generative AI to write, search the internet and create near-photorealistic artwork in a way that only books and movies had imagined before. AI was the future, and all the major tech companies needed to be pointed in that direction. But Apple, being secretive by nature, kept its AI plans closely guarded. By the time Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, took the stage during last year's WWDC keynote presentation, analysts and financial experts thought the company had fallen way behind on AI, especially after Google featured nothing but AI at its Google I/O event. When Cook introduced Apple Intelligence at WWDC, the collection of features was a more modest approach to incorporating AI into the iPhone and Mac. Far from seeming like a straggler, Apple had us praising a measured, practical rollout. Instead of throwing more slop against the wall, Apple Intelligence promised to focus on practical features like notification summaries and removing distractions from photos. Siri was going to be the loom that wove together various threads of your personal information and become a true virtual assistant. But after a slow rollout of Apple Intelligence features, we learned about Siri's internal struggles, and Apple acknowledged that progress was "going to take us longer than we thought." Now it's unclear whether Siri will advance significantly at all this year. So how will Apple deal with this AI-generated elephant in the room? Will the presenters hype what's been accomplished so far? Or maybe ignore the issue altogether and focus on whatever is coming next? That seems like the most likely -- the most Apple -- way for this to go. However, let's not forget that WWDC as a whole is still primarily an event for developers, treating them like members of an exclusive club even as the keynote event serves to showcase technologies that will dominate the rest of the year for everyone else. Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, has consistently delivered news with a light touch. As just one example, the fabulously coiffed exec, sometimes referred to as "Hair Force One," even donned a silver hair-shaped helmet during the introduction to WWDC 2024 in the guise of parachuting over Apple's Cupertino, California, campus. "Hair Force One," Craig Federighi, prepares to skydive into last year's WWDC keynote presentation. Apple/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET And even though tech giants like Apple and Google are laser-focused on competing to own the AI future, they're not always so serious that they don't poke fun at each other, as Rohan Shah, senior product manager, Android platform, did during this year's Google I/O Android Show when he mentioned that Gemini "isn't just an app," and continued out of the side of his mouth, "like on some other phones." I'm guessing Federighi will have a few clever lines acknowledging that Apple's aspirations were higher than the state of the art, give the audience a "we all know what I mean" knowing wink, and then push through to what's new in the next versions. Because honestly, we'll all be wondering how Apple is going to move forward to make up the ground it's lost so far. We'll know for sure during the WWDC 2025 keynote presentation on Monday, June 9, which Apple will stream live starting at 10 a.m. PT. Members of the CNET team are attending the event to report on developments as they drop -- hopefully not from the sky by parachute this year.


Android Authority
42 minutes ago
- Android Authority
8 things you must try with the Linux Terminal app on your Android phone
Andy Walker / Android Authority One of Google's significant innovations that has gone largely unnoticed this year was the rollout of Linux Terminal support baked right into Android. If you own a Pixel and are running the latest stable version of Android, you can enable the app and open up a world of possibilities. Sure, the terminal is daunting, but thanks to its presence in a virtual machine, it remains largely isolated from your phone's critical inner workings. This makes it the perfect playground. If you're asking yourself how a black screen with incoherent lines of text can be a playground, you've come to the right place. In this piece, I'll detail some useful, not-so-useful, and downright fun ways to use the Linux Terminal app on your Android phone. Have you enabled the Linux Terminal app on your Pixel? 953 votes Yes, I have. 24 % No, I haven't yet, but I'm considering it. 51 % No, I don't want to at all. 10 % No, I don't have a phone that supports it. 15 % Get to grips with the basics Andy Walker / Android Authority Getting lost in the terminal is easy, so a little help is always welcome. I've been leaning heavily on this brilliant Linux Terminal companion app called Linux Command Library to help with the essential, must-know commands. However, you needn't ever go beyond the terminal itself for help. There are two parameters you'll need to remember: help and man . Help displays a list of commands that are available to you. Think of it as a phonebook. Man, on the other hand, displays the manual pages for utilities and commands. It's a good idea to use the help command to explore the possibilities broadly, and then man to drill down into those you're interested in. The man parameter is used as such, with ls as an example: man ls There are two other important commands you'll need to know. They are: Update the system: sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade and Install a package: sudo apt install [name of the package] Remove old lines from the terminal: clear Close the currently running program: usually CTRL c unless otherwise specified by the utility Experiment with system information tools Andy Walker / Android Authority Let's look at something simple before we get into the more technical items. Linux has several system information tools that you can access through the terminal. Running them on the Pixel will give you detailed information about how much RAM and CPU power Debian is using, as well as other details related to your virtual machine. There are two options available: neofetch , which displays a less nuanced overview of your system, and htop , which offers real-time updates of system resource usage. sudo apt install neofetch sudo apt install htop Once installed, type neofetch or htop in the terminal and hit the Enter button to run them. Play a game, or two, or three! The command line might seem an impractical way to play games, but terminal games just ooze charm. Playing Bastet, a Tetris-like block stacking game, was one of the first things I learned how to do on Linux, and it's something I still do to this day. Yes, using the Pixel 8's relatively small screen and control buttons is awkward, but it's still a blast. To install it, use the command below: sudo apt install bastet Of course, Bastet isn't your only option. Find some of my favorite terminal games below, including their install commands: Pacman4console sudo apt install pacman4console Moon-Buggy sudo apt install moon-buggy Nsnake sudo apt install nsnake Ninvaders sudo apt install ninvaders Control other devices on your network Perhaps one of the more useful ways to use the terminal on your Android phone is to command other devices on your network through SSH. If you've built your own Pi-hole to block ads or build your own digital assistant, you can easily SSH into it from your phone through the terminal and check up on it occasionally. You will need to install SSH using the command below sudo apt install ssh Alternatively, if you're not a Pi-hole owner, you can still SSH into almost any machine, from your homemade NAS to your desktop. Turn the Terminal into a secret notebook There are several text editors that make full use of the terminal, but nano is my favorite. I've used it for years on the desktop, and now I can try it on the terminal. To install it, enter the following command: sudo apt install nano Once it's installed, run nano . You can now use the terminal to take notes, too. You can save the current note in a text file and recall it once you reopen the app. Brilliant! Step into the Matrix Andy Walker / Android Authority Your Android phone can be a portal to 1999, when leather trench coats were still all the rage. The scrolling matrix screen is still a firm part of popular culture, and you can turn your terminal window into something similar thanks to cmatrix . To install it, type the following into the terminal on your phone, followed by the Enter key: sudo apt install cmatrix To run the utility, type the following, followed by the Enter key: cmatrix Your phone's terminal window should now be covered in vertically cascading text. To stop the command, tap the CTRL button followed by C. Stress test your Pixel Should you stress test phones known for heating problems? Probably not, but it's fun nonetheless. After building a system, it's a good idea to stress test it to check what it's capable of, how hot it'll get, and whether all the components are in working order. You can do this, too, using traditional Android apps. However, it's much more fun to use the terminal. First, install the stress testing tool: sudo apt install stress Once installed, you can stress test the CPU by running the following command: stress –cpu [number of cpus] –timeout [how long you want the test to run, in seconds] As an example, the Pixel 8 has nine CPU cores, so to stress test all of them my command would be: stress –cpu 9 –timeout 60 To monitor the progress of the test, open htop in a second terminal tab, and switch between the two views. You will notice the CPU cores on htop kick up to 100% and remain pretty high for the allotted time. Become a digital cat parent Andy Walker / Android Authority If you're a fan of early 2010s pop culture, you can turn your expensive Google phone into a Nyan Cat display. Run the below command: sudo apt install nyancat Then type nyancat and hit Enter to run the utility. Your terminal will display a flying poptart-encased feline with rainbow trails. This is just the beginning! The Linux Terminal app is an excellent addition to Android phones. While users only have access to a text-based portal to the Debian virtual machine, Google is planning to run full-scale Linux apps on Android's desktop mode eventually. That's pretty exciting, and something we can all look forward to in the future. For now, the terminal is a great learning and experimenting tool for most and a portable development toolkit for others. The items above are merely intended to highlight the terminal's potential. Some have installed full-blown graphical interfaces, turning their Pixels into portable Linux machines. We've even managed to install and run Doom. The possibilities are only really limited by your imagination, so I encourage you to keep reading resources, guides, and how-tos detailing the more intricate ways of using the terminal on Android. Do you have a fun way of using the Linux Terminal on your phone? Perhaps I missed something handy. If so, let the community know in the comments below.


The Verge
44 minutes ago
- The Verge
Apple is on defense at WWDC
It's early June and the vibes are decidedly off in Cupertino. The hype leading up to Apple's last two developer conferences felt much different. There was anticipation in 2023 for a potentially groundbreaking new headset. In 2024, there was a sense of urgency leading up to the company's AI announcements and whispers that Siri might actually, finally be good at something. But 2025? Well, things are different. The Vision Pro was the big announcement at that 2023 show, and it's, uh, still around. Apple has reportedly cut production due to slow sales, and you can get one at a steep discount on eBay. Maybe the price is wrong. And the big AI announcement last year? How's that going? As it stands, Apple Intelligence is stalled out. The features that Apple managed to deploy are underwhelming, and the meaty update to Siri has been delayed — maybe even for years. It sounds like the whole thing was a real fiasco inside Apple, and publicly, the company took down an ad showcasing Siri features that simply don't exist yet. Ouch. And then there's the legal stuff. In 2021, a court in California ordered Apple to let developers add links allowing customers to make purchases outside of their apps. The company was also supposed to come up with a rationale for whatever commission it decided to take on those purchases. Apple's subsequent compliance with this order was so poor that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers got fed up and blocked the company from taking any fees on those purchases and recommended the case for criminal contempt proceedings — all detailed in a seething 80-page decision. Meanwhile, in the EU, regulators have fined Apple for practices that fail to comply with the DMA's antitrust rules, Fortnite is back in the App Store, and oh yeah, President Donald Trump keeps waving tariffs around in Tim Cook's face with a cockamamie plan to convince him to build iPhones in the US. What's a beleaguered tech CEO to do in times like these? Here's what I'd like to see at WWDC: Apple showing a little humility. I do not want to see a two-minute Hollywood production of Craig Federighi jumping out of a helicopter or whatever with his expensive haircut flapping in the wind. I would like to see Tim Cook take the stage and own up to the company's recent missteps. Doesn't he owe this particular audience some kind of apology after a judge put him on blast for choosing the worst option for developers at every turn? Shouldn't he at least acknowledge that the company got out over its skis showing us Apple Intelligence demos on the same stage last year that, by some accounts, were pure vaporware? I do not want to see a two-minute Hollywood production of Craig Federighi jumping out of a helicopter or whatever It would be the right thing to do, but one early indication makes it seem unlikely Apple will choose this path. Daring Fireball 's John Gruber's annual Talk Show episode usually features guest appearances by Apple executives who provide color on the big WWDC announcements. But Gruber says that this year, for the first time since 2015, Apple has declined the invitation to join. Notably, Gruber published a blog earlier this year taking critical aim at Apple's mishandling of AI features. Coincidence, I'm sure! This is a strong indicator that Apple will choose the more familiar option: project confidence and keep smiling. Instead of a sincere acknowledgement of its misjudgments, we'll probably see it paper over the disastrous Apple Intelligence rollout with a sleek new redesign and a new OS naming convention for funsies. They'll keep pretending that the Vision Pro is a beloved innovation and not just collecting dust on the shelves of early adopters. They'll keep insisting that notification summaries and a text prompt image generator constitute a worthwhile AI feature set. The trouble is, I don't think it'll be enough this time. Apple's force of personality has sustained it through past missteps, but I don't think the same playbook will work through the current crisis. The stock price is down from its highs earlier in the year — about flat from last June — a federal judge is breathing fire at Tim Cook, and it's obvious to anyone with an iPhone 16 that Apple Intelligence is half-baked at best. And the vibes? Way, way off. But the thing about a vibe is that you can turn it around. WWDC is Apple's chance to talk directly to arguably its most important audience: developers. Apple executives would do well to remember that it was apps that made the iPhone what it is today. If developers are going to follow Apple into the next era of AI or XR or whatever the shift may be, then now would be a good time to show them a little humility.