Latest IDC numbers reiterate Apple’s dominance of tablet market

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Earlier this week during Apple’s earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said that the iPad had experienced its most successful June quarter in nearly a decade. And now IDC is out with its latest worldwide shipment figures that underline Apple’s commanding lead over the tablet competition. After refreshing the iPad Air in 2020 and launching an upgraded iPad Pro earlier this year, Apple is next expected to update the iPad Mini.

IDC estimates that Apple shipped 12.9 million iPads in the second quarter. Its nearest competition is Samsung, which hit 8 million shipments. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 tablets offer fantastic hardware and punchy OLED screens, but they remain hamstrung by Android’s less-than-stellar selection of tablet apps. Lenovo, which...

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The Flight Attendant season 2: Everything we know about the HBO Max series

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Google pairs Stadia Controller and Chromecast as $100 ‘play and watch’ bundle

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Google has recently been selling a combo-package of the Stadia Controller and 2020 Chromecast as a limited-time promotion. But as spotted by 9to5Google, the company has now made the pair a permanent bundle that it’s calling the “play and watch” package.

For $99.99, you get both the controller and streaming dongle. That’s a savings of $19 compared to buying both products separately. Google is also promoting the Chromecast ethernet adapter as a recommended accessory; if you want the absolute best Stadia experience, it’s probably a smart buy — and it’s a mere $9.99 ($10 off) when purchased alongside the bundle.

In an effort to clear out inventory of the old, puck-shaped Chromecast Ultra, Google is discounting its Stadia Premiere Edition...

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Chipolo One review: Free features and flashy colors for everyone

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The best Visible deals: Get a free $200 gift card when you switch

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Thanks to the Rickroll, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ hits 1 billion YouTube plays

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The official video for Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” has surpassed 1 billion plays on YouTube. The song became a lasting part of internet culture thanks to the Rickroll meme and reached the impressive milestone a couple days ago. Astley took to the video’s comments to share his gratitude, saying “amazing, crazy, wonderful!” In a video posted to Instagram, he added “the world is a wonderful and beautiful place, and I am very lucky.”

With some songs having crossed as many as 7 billion views in recent years, the 1 billion club isn’t quite as prestigious as it once was. But the achievement goes to show the staying power of the Rickroll prank. The video hit daily views of 2.3 million on April Fools Day, according to B...

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5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week – Android Apps Weekly

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A starter pack of Nanoleaf’s stunning canvas panels is $50 off at Costco today

Nanoleaf’s canvas light panels are easy to set up and can display more than 16 million colors. | Image: Nanoleaf

If you like your lighting to be on the adventurous side, rest assured that Nanoleaf’s canvas light panels aren’t made to be subtle. The touch-sensitive squares are flashy and versatile, with the ability to display more than 16 million colors and a modular design that lets you place them in a variety of patterns. The bright LED panels also work with all the major smart home platforms, and can cycle through a number of preset colors or respond to sound when in “Rhythm Mode,” a feature that’s just as suited for the ambient noise outside your bedroom as your favorite record. Right now, Costco members can purchase Nanoleaf’s Canvas Light Panel smarter pack with nine panels and everything needed to get started for $50, one of the better prices...

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Spotify and Apple Music need to recruit more indies to corner the market

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Telegram’s group video calls can now have up to 1,000 viewers

Image: Telegram

Telegram has announced the latest new features and improvements making their way to the popular messaging app. Video is the focus this time around. After launching group video calls last month, those sessions are now able to tally up to 1,000 viewers. The maximum number of people able to participate and broadcast to the video call remains at 30, but you can have quite the audience now for “anything from online lectures to live rap battles,” according to the company.

Video messages will also now come through at a higher resolution, and you can tap them for a larger view of the clip. When recording your own video messages, Telegram says that audio from your device will now keep playing as you do so, “so you can now sing along to your...

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Mega shootout: The best camera phones of 2021 so far tested

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K-pop’s fandom platforms are changing what it means to be an idol

Illustration by Ari Liloan for The Verge

Digital fan clubs are turning into single-purpose social networks

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Are iPhone buyers more loyal than Android buyers?

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OnePlus Nord 2 vs older OnePlus phones: Should you upgrade?

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PSA: You might want to avoid the gobs of Halo Infinite spoilers Microsoft just leaked

If you’re invested in the story of Master Chief, Cortana, and the fate of the Halo universe, you might want to keep your head down and start muting some keywords on social media until Halo Infinite arrives later this year — because vast spoilers for the game’s entire story are now floating around on the internet.

Note: we’ll be keeping this post spoiler-free, though.

Halo Infinite creative director Joseph Staten confirmed on Twitter that Microsoft accidentally leaked “a small number of Halo Infinite campaign files” when it launched the game’s first multiplayer beta yesterday on July 29th, saying they “can ruin the campaign experience for everyone.”

Leaks like this are painful for the dev team and can ruin the campaign experience for...

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Here are the latest accusations Activision Blizzard employees have leveled at the company

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More disturbing allegations of Activision Blizzard’s reported culture of sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination have been reported in recent days, following a huge lawsuit filed against the company by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) last week.

Details in these stories may be challenging to read, so we are prefacing them with a content warning for descriptions of sexual harassment.

On Thursday, The New York Times posted a story of extremely distressing accounts of Activision Blizzard’s culture. Here is one from Shay Stein, a former customer service employee:

Ms. Stein, 28, who worked at Activision from 2014 to 2017 in a customer service role, helping gamers with problems and glitches, said she...

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After accusations, Twitter will pay hackers to find biases in its automatic image crops

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Twitter is holding a competition in hopes that hackers and researchers will be able to identify biases in its image cropping algorithm — and it’s going to be handing out cash prizes to winning teams (via Engadget). Twitter is hoping that giving teams access to its code and image cropping model will let them find ways that the algorithm could be harmful (such as it cropping in a way that stereotypes or erases the image’s subject).

Those competing will have to submit a description of their findings, and a dataset that can be run through the algorithm to demonstrate the issue. Twitter will then assign points based on what kind of harms are found, how much it could potentially affect people, and more.

The winning team will be awarded...

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How Facebook became a lifeline for immigrant bike messengers

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‘We are delivery boys who want to raise our voices’

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Vaccine carrots only got us so far — now, it’s time for sticks

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This week, the dam broke. With COVID-19 surging around the United States and vaccination rates stagnating, federal agencies and state governments started announcing vaccine mandates for their workers. The Department of Veterans Affairs was the first federal agency to introduce a mandate, and Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that all federal employees would have to be vaccinated or face testing and other protocols. New York City and Los Angeles will also require city workers to get vaccinated.

Private companies are doing the same. Google said Wednesday that employees would have to be vaccinated to come to the office, and Facebook and Lyft followed with their own announcements hours later. Some New York City restaurants are...

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Poll: What’s your favorite Android skin?

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Daily Authority: Moto’s new Edge 👉

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Here’s why Apple says it hates leaks

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Apple is a notoriously secretive company, and a cease and desist letter recently acquired by Motherboard sheds new light on exactly why, arguing that leaks harm accessory makers, consumers, and Apple itself.

The C&D order reportedly sent to a Chinese citizen by Apple’s lawyers in China, says that leaks about Apple’s iPhone dimensions could mislead case manufacturers, who might make accessories that are incompatible with the final product. As Apple puts it, “third-party accessory manufacturers may develop and sell mobile phone cases and other accessories that are not actually compatible with the unreleased products.” Motherboard notes that the market for Apple accessories is estimated to be worth almost $20 billion worldwide.

“The secret...

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Dark mode might not be a silver bullet for improved battery life

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Sgt. Pepper’s to get new Atmos mix because current version ‘doesn’t sound quite right’

Photo credit should read JULIO CESAR AGUILAR/AFP via Getty Images

The Beatles seminal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is set to receive another Dolby Atmos mix, after producer Giles Martin, son of the album’s original producer George Martin, admitted that the current version “doesn’t sound quite right.” The current mix, produced by the younger Martin in 2017, was made with Dolby Atmos theaters in mind, rather than personal listening via services like Apple Music. “I’m gonna replace it,” the said the two time Grammy winner to Rolling Stone. “It’s good. But it’s not right.”

The current Atmos mix of the album was created to coincide with its 50th anniversary in 2017. At the time, it was designed to be played in Dolby Atmos cinemas at a series of live listening events. But now that it is available...

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We asked, you told us: Here’s what you think of the Galaxy Watch 4’s new UI

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August security patch lands early on Samsung Galaxy S21 series

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Is Snapchat not working for you? Here’s how you can try to fix it

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Xiaomi might be just a hair’s breadth away from Samsung for the top spot

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Fans urge Samsung to launch new Galaxy Note instead of Galaxy S22 next year

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Galaxy S20 FE gains another July update, but expect the August 2021 patch soon

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Snapdragon-branded phones and earbuds exist now (Update: Pre-orders open)

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OnePlus fixes overheating, improves camera performance in latest Nord CE update

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AMD’s new Radeon RX 6600 XT offers 1080p RDNA 2 gaming for $379

An AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT GPU from Asus | Image: AMD

AMD has a new entry-level RX 6000-series GPU: the $379 RX 6600 XT, which is still based on the same RDNA 2 architecture as its beefier cousins, but it offers a more wallet-friendly price point. The new card promises the “ultimate 1080p gaming experience,” for customers who don’t necessarily need a next-gen 4K gaming setup.

At a suggested retail price of $379 (AMD isn’t selling its own version of the card), the RX 6600 XT slots at an even cheaper price point than the $479 RX 6700 XT that the company released earlier this year, which targeted 1440p gaming.

The RX 6600 XT features 32 compute units, 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, a 2359 MHz base clock, 2589 MHz boosted clock, and draws 160W of power. For comparison, the top-of-the-line RX 6900 XT 80...

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Dish adds HBO Max and will now offer HBO and Cinemax

Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Following a prolonged standoff between Dish Network and AT&T over licensing terms to carry HBO channels, Dish has reached an agreement with WarnerMedia to offer HBO, HBO Max, and Cinemax.

Dish TV customers nationwide will be able to access both the HBO and Cinemax networks today, though they’ll need to subscribe to HBO Max to get linear HBO. To promote the deal, Dish will run a free 10-day preview of the premium networks for existing customers right around the time the Olympics Games will be wrapping up, from August 6 to August 15. Customers don’t have to do anything to take advantage of the preview; the networks will appear automatically.

Users interested in subscribing to HBO Max can score a discounted subscription to the service’s...

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Here are the best Amazon Echo deals right now

The Echo Show 5 (left), Echo Show 8 (middle), and the Echo Show (right). | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

When it comes to the Echo smart speakers, Amazon has a slew of devices to choose from, one for practically every occasion. For example, maybe you simply want to add Alexa to a room, or you are looking for an Echo device that will allow you to easily manage your other smart home products. Regardless of the reason, these are the best Echo deals available right now.

The best Echo Dot deals

Late last year, Amazon released the fourth generation of the Echo Dot, which looks more like a sphere than an actual dot. But if you prefer the previous design, don’t worry: Amazon has not discontinued the third-gen Echo Dot, which still retains the familiar dot shape.

During Prime Day, we saw the fourth-gen Echo Dot drop to its lowest price of $25....

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Verizon’s new hotspot plans are built for your #vanlife dreams

Verizon’s hotspot plans offer mobile data that can be shared with other devices in your luxury camper van, er, house. | Image: Verizon

Verizon has introduced new mobile hotspot plans, with four options to choose from starting at 15GB for $20 per month up to 150GB for $80 per month. They offer standalone and unlimited plan add-on mobile hotspot data that’s ready to be taken on the road. Maybe in a Class B Winnebago Solis with a pop-up sleeping compartment, as featured on Wheel of Fortune, south through the redwoods and along the coast and then on through the painted deserts of the Southwest. What? I said that out loud? I mean, hypothetically.

Anyway, the most basic plan, Essential, offers low-band Nationwide 5G and 4G LTE connectivity. The three more expensive plans — creatively named Plus, Pro, and Premium — include Ultra Wideband 5G, which encompasses the very fast,...

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Bungie reveals how Destiny 2 crossplay will and won’t work, and a rough idea when

A screenshot from Destiny 2. | Image: Bungie

Destiny 2 developer Bungie revealed a whole lot of information about the game’s upcoming crossplay support in a blog post on Thursday afternoon. Let’s get this out of the way first: Bungie still doesn’t have an exact date for when you’ll be able to play with your friends on other platforms, but the studio promises the feature will launch “early” in Season 15, which is expected to kick off on August 24th.

Season 15 will also bring an important change to ensure you have a persistent identity across platforms for crossplay: a new Bungie Name system. Your Bungie Name will be generated based on the name associated with the platform you play Season 15 on first, and will look something like PlayerName#1234. You can get a better idea of how it...

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Snapchat is crashing for a lot of people again

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Snapchat is experiencing a massive issue as of Thursday evening, with more than 125,000 users reporting problems on Downdetector. I tried logging into the app on my iPhone 12 Mini, and now the app just crashes every time I try and open the app. Two other Verge staffers aren’t able to open the app, either.

Snap acknowledged that there’s a problem in a tweet at 6:51PM ET. “We’re aware of an issue preventing some Snapchatters from logging in,” the company said from Snapchat’s support account. “Hang tight, we are looking into it and working on a fix!”

The outage follows a nasty bug from June where a version of the iOS Snapchat app would crash at launch. That bug was eventually fixed in an update released soon after.

As always, I highly...

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Forza Motorsport 7 will be driving into the sunset in September

Photo: Turn 10 Studios

Forza Motorsport 7 will no longer be available to purchase from the Microsoft Store or play on Xbox Game Pass after September 15th, 2021, as it’s reaching “end of life” status. The game won’t be completely going away — if you own it you’ll still be able to download and play it, and the multiplayer will still be accessible, but anyone without the game won’t be able to buy the digital version. According to the Forza Twitter account, this is happening because the game’s licenses to use real-world cars and tracks are starting to expire.

If you’re a long-time Forza fan, you may have seen this happen before. Games in the series have historically been delisted around four years after their release. Horizon 3 was delisted in September 2020 after...

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This is Beast Canyon, the evolution of Intel’s modular mini gaming PC

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This 8-liter desktop upgrades in a snap

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Nothing Ear 1 earbuds review: almost something

Standout design, noise cancellation, and wireless charging for $99

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The children of tech’s guest workers are pushing for immigration relief

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‘Documented Dreamers’ have few good options after aging out of dependent visas

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Huawei’s P50 announced with Snapdragon 888 and HarmonyOS

The Huawei P50 Pro. | Image: Huawei

Huawei has announced its latest flagship phones for the Chinese market, the P50 and P50 Pro. They’re the company’s first major phones to launch with HarmonyOS, the company’s own branded mobile operating system, which pairs with Huawei’s typically well-specced cameras and hardware that includes Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 888 processor in some models.

The launch of the P50 series has come a little later in the year than the P40 did in 2020, thanks to US sanctions which have seriously impacted Huawei’s ability to produce new phones and restricted its ability to buy chips and other components from companies using US tech. When he first teased the phones last month, Huawei’s consumer business CEO Richard Yu said that a launch date hadn’t...

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Apple’s M1 MacBook Air is at its lowest price ever at Best Buy today

Apple MacBook Air with the M1 processor | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple’s latest MacBook Air with the M1 processor is an excellent, lightweight productivity laptop for school or work. It has excellent performance, stellar battery life, and runs completely silently, thanks to its fanless design. At Best Buy, you can save up to $250 off the price of the 8GB RAM / 256GB storage model, bringing it down to just $750, the lowest price we’ve seen yet. Read our review.

To get the best deal, you need to be signed into a My Best Buy account (free) and then toggle the option for the limited time student deal, which knocks another $100 off the discounted $850 price. If you need more storage, the 512GB version is getting the same discount, bringing its price down to $1,000.

In 2019, Amazon claimed to have sold...

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We asked, you told us: Our readers’ love for Nokia is a complicated affair

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Daily Authority: PlayStation 5 📈

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Facebook’s next hardware launch will be its Ray-Ban ‘smart glasses’

What exactly the glasses will look like or how they will function is unclear.

Facebook’s next hardware launch will be its long-awaited Ray-Ban ‘smart glasses,’ CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed on an earnings call this week. When exactly the glasses will arrive is unclear. We least heard they were launching some time in 2021, but the pandemic has changed a lot of companies’ plans, and Zuckerberg did not comment on a time frame.

“Looking ahead here, the next product release will be the launch of our first smart glasses from Ray-Ban in partnership with EssilorLuxottica,” said the Facebook CEO. “The glasses have their iconic form factor, and they let you do some pretty neat things.”

We don’t know what those “neat things” are, though Facebook has previously confirmed that the glasses will not have an integrated display...

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The summer Intel fell behind

Looking back a year later at Intel’s worst summer, and how it’s been fighting its way back since

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Sony’s first PS5 software beta arrives with M.2 SSD support

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Sony’s PS5 system software beta program is starting to roll out today, and it include access to the long-awaited M.2 SSD slot. The first PS5 beta is available for select users in the US, Canada, Japan, UK, Germany, and France. The beta includes some new UX enhancements and customizations, but the biggest addition is M.2 SSD expansion support.

Sony notes you’ll need an M.2 SSD that’s PCIe Gen4 and has read speeds of 5,500MB/s or faster. That’s largely what we were expecting, and it means a variety of Gen4 drives will be supported — including Samsung’s 980 Pro, Western Digital’s SN850s, and many other modern M.2 SSDs.

You may need to consider the cooling requirements for using an M.2 SSD in a PS5, though. “Using an M.2 SSD with your PS5...

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Latest Galaxy Z Flip 3 spill showcases Samsung’s funky case designs

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Google is kicking ‘sugar dating’ apps out of the Play Store

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“Sugar dating” apps will not be allowed on the Android Play Store from September 1st, Google has announced as part of a series of policy changes for the platform. The change, which was first reported by Android Police, specifically prohibits apps relating to “compensated sexual relationships.” Other changes coming to the platform include a new crackdown on inactive developer accounts, Google says.

Traditionally, sugar dating relationships involve older, wealthier individuals dating and showering younger partners with gifts. As Android Police notes, there’s no shortage of apps on the Play Store designed around setting up “sugar daddy” relationships. None of them explicitly say that older men are expected to compensate younger women for...

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