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Save $40 on CalDigit’s excellent Thunderbolt 3 docking station

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If you have a laptop with only a few Thunderbolt 3 ports, you’ve probably needed some kind of adapter in the past. The TS3 Plus is essentially the adapter to end all adapters, acting as a dock for your laptop and any other accessories and peripherals you need to use with it. It has a whopping 15 ports, including 5 USB-A ports, a DisplayPort, an Ethernet port, an SD card slot, extra USB-C ports and more. It also provides up to 87W of power to charge your laptop while it’s connected.

We appreciate the dual-bandwidth DisplayPort 1.2 that lets you connect up to two 4K, 60Hz displays at the same time or one 5K Thunderbolt 3 display, and the two bi-directional Thunderbolt 3 ports. We also like its fairly compact metal design — you can sit it horizontally or vertically on your desk as well, so it’ll fit neatly into most spaces.

Those who have a lot of accessories they use every day with their laptop will get the most use out of the TS3 Plus. And even though Thunderbolt 4 is on the way, we still think the TS3 Plus is a good dock to get because most Thunderbolt 3 accessories will be compatible with Thunderbolt 4 laptops.

But even if you’re not connecting dual monitors or daisy-chaining multiple devices, the TS3 Plus can be useful as your main connector. It’s not as portable as a standard dongle, but it’s a better long-term investment than buying multiple, single-use connectors only when you find out you need them.

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Microsoft wants to operate with ‘zero waste’ by 2030

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As The Verge notes, though, this measure will only address the waste coming out of Microsoft’s offices — the waste its products generate is a much bigger problem. Critics have been urging Microsoft and other tech giants to design their products for longer use and to collect the devices they sell for reuse and recycling. Microsoft also received flak for opposing “right to repair” laws that would compel tech companies to make their products easier and cheaper to repair.

“We are committed to increasing the repairability of our products and providing consumers with access to convenient, effective and safe repair services. Proposed legislation will undermine innovation, competition and consumer protections, including exposure to safety, security and privacy risks,” a Microsoft spokesperson explained to GeekWire in an email.

Aside from building Circular Centers, Microsoft has pledged to stop using single-use plastics for the packaging of all its primary products and IT assets by 2025. By doing so, it hopes to stop contributing to our growing plastic waste problem. “Approximately 300 million metric tons of plastic are produced ever year, 50 percent of which is used one time. And, half of this plastic waste comes from packaging,” it wrote in it announcement.

The company has promised to improve its efforts to digitize waste data, as well, so it can better understand the impact of its operational decisions and more accurately assess its progress. Finally, it’s making a $30 million investment with Closed Loop Partners, a venture capital firm known for investing in sustainable consumer goods and advanced recycling technologies.

Microsoft ended its post with an admission that zero waste is a lofty goal, but it’s also a necessary one to have:

“Zero waste is an ambitious goal, but minimizing our own waste footprint is essential to preserving the natural resources and reducing the waste-associated carbon emissions to ensure our economies and societies around the world thrive for generations to come.”

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China won’t accept ‘theft’ of TikTok, according to state newspaper

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China will by no means accept the “theft” of a Chinese technology company, and it has plenty of ways to respond if the administration carries out its planned smash and grab.

Meanwhile, TikTok parent ByteDance told the BBC it was “committed to being a global company,” and that it has been “evaluating the possibility of establishing TikTok’s headquarters outside of the US, to better serve our global users.” The social media app is one of the few originating in China to gain success in the US market.

Hu Xijin, the editor of another state-backed Chinese paper, the Global Times, called the potential sale “open robbery” and tweeted that “President Trump is turning the once great America into an rogue country.” Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that TikTok was “feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Where the US government has a clearer case against Huawei over potential IP theft and other issues, justification for banning TikTok is less so. Further, the White House has yet to explain why the treasury should take a cut of any deal. “I hate to say this but it is kind of almost Mafia-like behavior,” said Charlotte Jee from MIT Technology Review told the BBC. “Threatening a ban which pushes down the price then saying ‘oh we should get a cut of that deal afterwards to say thank you for what we’ve done there.’”

Microsoft has given itself a deadline of September 15th to either complete a sale or abandon the deal.



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Samsung’s rose gold Galaxy Fold2 leaks out in full detail

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New high-resolution images of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Z Fold2 have leaked (again), this time in rose gold, showing even more clearly how much more attractive and refined the design is than the last model. They come courtesy of smartphone leak-meister Evan Blass, who recently tweeted images and colors of the Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+, as well.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 smartphone in rose gold

The latest leak shows how much bigger and better the front display is than before. It also reveals a bit more detail on the hinge, letting us see improvements in the fit and finish. The rose gold color also gives it a bit more of a premium look befitting a phone that’s likely to cost around $2,000.



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White House withdraws FCC commissioner renomination

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The Trump administration has changed its tune about backing what was supposed to be Mike O’Rielly’s third term as an FCC Commissioner. According to Reuters and Bloomberg, the White House has withdrawn O’Rielly’s renomination and has notified the Senate on Monday. While the administration didn’t say why it’s no longer nominating O’Rielly for another term, the Commissioner recently expressed doubts about the White House’s plans to limit the protections social media platforms enjoy under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

If you’ll recall, the Trump administration recently filed a petition asking the FCC to conjure up rules clarifying Section 230, which states that ISPs and social media platforms can’t be held legally responsible for what their users say or post. The petition argued that “[t]he FCC should determine how section 230 can best serve its goals of promoting internet diversity and a free flow of ideas, as well as holding dominant platforms accountable for their editorial decisions, in new market conditions and technologies that have emerged since the 1990s.”

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PS4 game sales almost doubled during the pandemic

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Unsurprisingly, people have spent a lot of money on video games during the coronavirus pandemic. In its latest financial earnings, Sony reported that 91 million PS4 games were sold during the three-month period leading up to June 30th, 2020. That’s an 83 percent increase on the 49.8 million sales it reported for the same quarter last year. First-party exclusives sold impressively well — 18.5 million copies, to be exact — buoyed by Naughty Dog’s long-awaited sequel to The Last of Us. Again, that’s a massive increase on the 11.7 million first-party titles sold during the same quarter last year.

Many PS4 owners were stuck indoors, so it’s no surprise to hear that a whopping 74 percent of games were bought digitally last quarter. In addition, PlayStation Plus — a subscription service that’s required to play PS4 games online — now stands at 44.9 million members, up from 41.5 million at the end of the last quarter. While software is thriving, hardware continues to dwindle. The company sold 1.9 million PS4 consoles during the three-month period, which is up from the previous quarter (1.4 million) but down 41 percent on the same quarter last year (3.2 million). The ageing console will soon be replaced by the PS5, which is slated to come out sometime this holiday season.

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Olympus’ E-M10 IV gains more resolution and a flip-down selfie screen

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The other big change is the addition of a flip-down screen, rather than an articulating display as before. That should make it better for selfie shooters and vloggers, though not quite as good as the E-M5 III, which has a fully articulating flip-out display.

Otherwise, the E-M10 IV is much the same as the last model, which isn’t a bad thing in many ways. It’s still a great-looking camera, and one of the cheapest models with five-axis in-body stabilization. It also lets you shoot 4K video at up to 30 fps and 1080p at 60 fps, but unfortunately, there’s no microphone or headphone socket for video. It has a 2.36 million-dot OLED EVF, a single UHS-II card slots and a decent 360 shot battery life. And, while it still lacks a USB-C port, it finally lets you charge the battery through the micro-USB port.

With all that, the E-M10 IV is barely keeping up with the competition, including Sony’s A6100 and the Canon EOS M50. However, much like with the flagship E-M1 III, it’s not a huge jump over the last model, and the competition is improving at a faster speed — all while the camera market continues to nosedive. The Olympus O-MD E-M10 goes on pre-order today for $700 (body only, silver or black), or $800 with an M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 EZ lens. Shipping starts on September 25th, 2020.

Olympus O-MD E-M10 Mark IV Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera

Olympus

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Twitter expects a fine of up to $250 million over privacy violations

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Twitter said it received a draft complaint from the FTC, accusing it of violating a 2011 agreement it signed with the Commission, on July 28th, 2020. As Financial Times notes, that agreement prohibits the company from misleading “consumers about the extent to which it protects the security, privacy, and confidentiality” of their data and compels it to “establish and maintain a comprehensive information security program.”

The company has already set aside $150 million to cover the minimum amount it may have to pay. If it’s preparing for an unfavorable outcome, that’s probably because it’s not the first tech company that’s had to face the same allegations from the FTC. Facebook previously had to pay $5 billion for several privacy missteps, including the use of people’s phone numbers, provided for security purposes, for its ad business.

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What’s on TV this week: ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’

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Sports are back in action and even baseball hasn’t given up its season yet, but this week we’ll also see a new Star Trek series. CBS All Access is ready to releaseStar Trek: Lower Decks, an offbeat animated series that focuses on some of the least important members of Starfleet.

For movie fans, Inception and The Town are available on Ultra HD Blu-ray in Best Buy-exclusive Steelbook versions, and PS4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn is making its debut on the PC, where it will be available via Steam or the Epic Games Store. Look below to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

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Twitter ‘rate limit’ messages are due to an error, not your bad tweets

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If you’re one of the many people seeing some weirdness with Twitter.com, the apps or Tweetdeck right now, it’s not just you. We’ve seen those “rate limit exceeded” messages too, and contacted Twitter to find out what’s going on. A spokesperson tells Engadget that “We’re aware of this issue and are working to fix it. The issue was caused by an internal backend system problem.”

At least from what we can see here, error messages have logged people out of Tweetdeck and third-party apps like Tweeten, as well as caused error messages when tweeting or retweeting posts. The good news, of course, is that it’s not something much worse.



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