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Daniel Abt will race again after virtual Formula E cheating scandal

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Remember Daniel Abt? The Formula E driver was disgraced after secretly subbing in an 18-year-old esports professional during a virtual ‘Race at Home Challenge.’ Abt was suspended from the competition, ordered to make a 10,000 euro (roughly $11,279) charitable donation and dropped by Audi, the team he had been driving for that season. The racer’s absence from Formula E has been short-lived, though: motorsport rival NIO 333 has picked him up for the six real-world races in Berlin that will cap off the 2019/2020 season. He’ll replace Chinese driver Ma Qinghua, who accepted last week that he cannot compete due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

“I take full responsibility for what happened in the Race at Home Challenge,”Abt said. “It was a mistake.” The 27-year-old will be hoping to replicate his form from May 2018, when he took first place at the temporary Tempelhofring street circuit in Berlin. “I just want to do the best I can for the team and help us have a good finish to the season,” he explained. In a press release, NIO 333 said it had made the decision after “careful consideration” and speaking with key figures in the Formula E industry. “As the saying goes in the Eastern world, a prodigal who returns is more precious than gold,” Vincent Wang, CEO of NIO 333 added.

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Windows 10’s Start menu is getting a visual refresh

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Microsoft has rolled out the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build, giving us a glimpse of a new Start menu that was redesigned to look cleaner and more coherent. Insiders in the Dev Channel will now have access to a refreshed menu that no longer uses solid color backplates behind logos in the app list. Further, the new menu has a partially transparent background, which works with both of Window 10’s light and dark themes. Users can apply their preferred accent color to the redesigned Start frame and tiles, as well, by going to “Start, taskbar, and action center” under Color in Settings.

Windows 10

Microsoft

A subset of Insiders now also have access to a new Microsoft Edge feature that shows all open tabs in one panel simply by pressing Alt + TAB. In addition, Microsoft is changing the default setting for 2-in-1 devices so that users would automatically switch to the new tablet experience with enhanced touch when they detach the keyboard. The current version of the OS shows a prompt first asking non-Insiders whether they want to switch to tablet mode.

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Android users can get Dark Sky weather updates for one more month

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Apple purchased one of the best weather apps in the business this spring, and unfortunately that meant Dark Sky pulled its Android app. If you haven’t already installed it, it’s gone from the Google Play Store, and the company initially informed subscribers they would lose access as of July 1st.

However, there is one last reprieve, as it’s extending service on Android until August 1st. That gives you another month to find a different weather app — we have some suggestions — or, switch platforms. Dark Sky’s hook has been its accurate “hyperlocal” weather data that could inform users just before it rained or snowed, and even if you switch apps, any that rely on its API will lose access at the end of 2021.

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Google discontinues its affordable Pixel 3a and 3a XL phones

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“Google Store has sold through its inventory and completed sales of Pixel 3a. For people who are still interested in buying Pixel 3a, the product is available from some partners while supplies last.”

The Pixel 3a and 3a XL were launched in 2019 as affordable spinoffs of Google’s flagship Pixel 3 and 3 XL phones. They were even better-received than their more expensive counterparts — which suffered from a rough start, with users complaining about sluggish performance, worrying battery life and camera-stability problems — seeing as they offer Pixel’s best features on a budget. To note, they come with Pixel 3’s highly praised camera and an excellent battery life. While Google has yet to officially launch the Pixel 4a, 3a’s exit doesn’t entirely come as a surprise: Google discontinued the Pixel 3 and 3 XL in March.

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Tech’s biggest CEOs agree to appear at House antitrust hearing

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Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai have all reportedly agreed to testify at a House antitrust hearing in late July. According to Kara Swisher (The New York Times, Recode), Rep. David Cicilline told her in an interview that the CEOs of the biggest tech companies in the world will appear in front of the Judiciary Committee. A spokesperson for the committee has also confirmed their attendance to CNBC.

If you’ll recall, the House has launched an investigation into the companies amid concerns that the tech giants are suppressing competition. Based on a previous Politico report, Cook was the last one to confirm his attendance. If Cook had declined to attend, the other executives would’ve probably declined, as well: Google’s parent company Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon only agreed to make their CEOs available to testify if all four chiefs can make it to the hearing, the publication wrote.



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Facebook shared user data with developers it shouldn’t have — again

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Facebook didn’t disclose how long the “issue” had been around before it was fixed, or how many users may have been impacted. The company said it affected “approximately 5,000 developers” from “the last several months.” Facebook also didn’t specify exactly what data may have been improperly shared, but said the users had previously authorized the apps to receive the data in question.

“We haven’t seen evidence that this issue resulted in sharing information that was inconsistent with the permissions people gave when they logged in using Facebook,” the company wrote.

Facebook noted it fixed the issue the day after it was discovered and it plans to “keep investigating.”

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Sling TV responds to streaming price hikes with a one-year ‘guarantee’

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Alongside the price guarantee, new customers can take advantage of two other promotions. Until July 6th, you can sign up for a 14-day trial. Additionally, If you agree to pay for three months of Sling Blue or Sling Orange in advance, the company will give you a complimentary AirTV 2 media box. The AirTV 2 lets you stream local TV channels to your other devices. 

Obviously, Sling is trying to paint itself as the good guy in this situation, but the fact of the matter is that streaming TV platforms don’t have much control over how much their services cost. The cost of streaming TV services has steadily increased over the last couple of years because of how networks bundle their channels. When a company like Google signs a new deal, it often has to carry a network’s entire lineup of channels. That’s something that’s become a significant issue for the industry. When Sony shut down PlayStation Vue last year, it said “expensive content and network deals” played a big part in its decision.

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Apple stops updates for thousands of games in China’s App Store

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Android app stores have largely observed the license rule since 2016. Apple, however, took a looser approach, allowing developers to publish their games while they waited for authorization, which could take months. Estimates show there are roughly 60,000 affected games in the China App Store, but China’s regulators have only issued around 43,000 licenses since 2010, according to the FT.

It’s unclear how Apple was able to skirt this rule for so long, or why it’s cracking down on the rule now, but the company has taken steps recently to prepare developers. In February, Apple “reminded” iOS developers in China that they needed to obtain licenses prior to publishing. In June they began warning developers that they would need to obtain licenses for their games by June 30, or else be banned and removed from the Apple app store. Now that the calendar has flipped to July, Apple is making good on its promise. 

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Worms is coming back as a real-time battle royale game

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By contrast, In the Last Squad Standing mode, your teammates can revive your worm. For those who want a more traditional gameplay experience, they’ll also be a deathmatch mode where you’ll need to score as many eliminations as possible before the match ends.  

There’s another, more significant change in store for the franchise. For the time, battles will play out in real-time instead of on a turn by turn basis. According to producer Danny Martin, series developer Team17 had tweak the pace of the worms to accommodate the change to real-time. In past games, your soldiers would slowly shuffle around the battlefield. In Worms Rumble, they’ll roll around, do wall jumps and dodge incoming projectiles. The catch is that doing so will drain a stamina bar that only recharges when you give your worms a chance to catch their breath. “It took a lot of balancing to get this feeling just right whilst making sure it felt fair for all players,” Martin said. 

Worms Rumble will hit PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 later this year. Team17 said the game will support cross-platform play, but didn’t say what other systems the game will be available on.

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Samsung may have leaked the Note 20 Ultra on its own website

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Samsung may have accidentally unveiled its next flagship ahead of schedule. On the company’s official Russian, Ukrainian and Chinese Note 8 product pages, there’s a photo of a new Note-series phone. According to frequent Samsung leaker Max Weinbach, who was among the first to spot the goof, the unannounced device is the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The phone is pictured in a new color reportedly called “Mystic Bronze.”

Much like the S20 Ultra, it looks like the Note 20 Ultra will feature a periscope telephoto lens. As you can see from the photo, the bottom lens features a significantly different design than the other two cameras on the back of the phone. Unfortunately, we don’t know much else about the device at the moment, but we at least have some information about the other Note 20 phones Samsung plans to release this year. According to a leak from May, the Note 20 and the Note 20+ will reportedly feature 6.7-inch and 6.9-inch displays. They may also include processor and RAM upgrades. As it’s done in the past, we expect Samsung will announce the Note 20 series sometime in August.



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