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Dell’s top-of-the-line XPS 13 from 2019 is $400 off at Amazon

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We’ve been fans of the XPS 13 since 2015. Last year, however, we called it the perfect ultraportable, awarding it a 93. In particular, we liked the computer’s updated design, especially the fact Dell moved the webcam to sit above the screen. The Dolby Vision display, which its excellent black levels, was another highlight for us. However, gaming performance could be better, and it would be nice if it had a full-sized SD card slot, instead of a microSD one.

At first glance, there are a lot of XPS 13 options, which can make picking one computer over another confusing. Late last year, Dell updated the XPS 13 lineup to add a 2-in-1 model. In January, the company updated the non-convertible model for 2020. Despite its more appealing design and a couple of internal tweaks, the new model doesn’t completely replace the 2019 one included in this sale; you can’t spec out the newest addition to the XPS 13 family with a six-core processor.

Buy Dell XPS 13 on Amazon – $1,400

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Traeger’s Ironwood smart grills now ship with a handy pellet supply sensor

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When Traeger announced its 2019 lineup, it included its so-called WiFire wireless connectivity on every model. However, the sensor that monitored your pellet supply so you didn’t have to worry about running out was reserved for the priciest grills: the Timberline 850 and Timberline 1300. As I’d discover in November, the more affordable Ironwood and Pro Series grills were designed to accommodate the sensor, it just wasn’t included on those models.

It’s unclear if Traeger is simply including the sensor in the box or if it’s installed on the Ironwood grills already. Even if it’s not, the installation process is quick and easy, and should take you 10 minutes or less to attach and connect.

And yes, a pellet sensor is a handy addition to these grills. Without it, you have to walk out to the grill, lift the pellet hopper lid and manually inspect things. With this sensor, the grill automatically monitors how much is left in that container and displays a percentage inside the Traeger app. That info is shown alongside things like grill temperature, probe temperature, cook timers and more. When you’re running low, the app will send you a notification so you know its time to add more or make a quick run to the store.

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Marshall’s latest Monitor over-ear headphones are equipped with ANC

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First, these don’t look much different than the previous versions in the Monitor line. They’re all black with a single gold multi-function control knob. The script Marshall logo still sits on the outside of the earcups and the headphones retain the mix of leather and metal. The company clearly thinks it nailed the design already, so now it’s just tweaking the details on the Monitor II ANC.

Marshall Monitor II ANC

That multi-function control knob allows you to play/pause, skip tracks and adjust volume. It also serves as the power button, and will let you answer or reject calls. The Monitor II ANC also gives you easy access to Google Assistant with a press-and-hold on the M-button. You can also use that button to access EQ presets. Marshall included a dedicated ANC control that will let you switch between active noise cancellation and ambient sound or “monitoring mode.”

Marshall says you can expect up to 30 hours of listening time with ANC enabled, and up to 45 hours with it turned off. What’s more, the company has included a quick-charge feature that will give you five hours of play time in 15 minutes.

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The Morning After: The rotary cellphone DIY kit you’ve been waiting for

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The Bezos Earth Fund will start giving out grants this summer.Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to combat climate change

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has announced he plans to contribute $10 billion toward fighting climate change through the creation of a new philanthropic project called the Bezos Earth Fund. “Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” Bezos wrote in an Instagram post. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share.”

He says the Bezos Earth Fund will support scientists, activists and NGOs, with the first grants slated to go out sometime this summer. Besides that information, Bezos didn’t provide many details on the fund. It’s good news, but he hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to climate change. The Amazon boss only announced the company’s recent climate pledge after its employees put pressure on to take action.

It expects the shortfall to hurt its bottom line.Apple warns of iPhone ‘supply shortages’ due to coronavirus outbreak

The consequences of the coronavirus outbreak isn’t just canceled trips to Barcelona for MWC. Apple has warned that global iPhone supply will be “temporarily constrained” while it resumes production. Although its factory partners have reopened, those facilities are restoring their output “more slowly than [Apple] had anticipated.” If it’s hard to find an iPhone 11 in the near future, you’ll know why.

On top of this, retail demand is a problem. In China, many official and third-party stores have closed, and those that are open have fewer customers. The company said it was also more than doubling its donation toward fighting the coronavirus strain. As a consequence of all of this, though, it no longer expects to meet its revenue targets for the quarter ending in March.

It was still called a soft landing.SpaceX lost another Falcon booster to the sea

Yesterday at 10:05AM ET, SpaceX successfully launched its fifth batch of Starlink internet satellites via a Falcon 9 rocket. Unfortunately, it did not manage to land the rocket’s booster as planned. The booster was expected to land on a drone ship, called Of Course I Still Love You, approximately eight minutes and 24 seconds after launch. Instead, the booster made a “soft landing” in the ocean next to the ship.

SpaceX has improved at landing and reusing its boosters, but this isn’t the first time it’s lost one to the sea. In 2018, a core booster plummeted straight into the ocean, while last April, a core booster that landed on Of Course I Still Love You fell off the drone ship on its way back to land.

Just don’t try to run it on tablets or Chromebooks.Microsoft’s all-in-one Office app is available on Android

Following months of beta testing, the company has released the all-in-one productivity app for Android phone users. Like before, this lets you edit Excel, PowerPoint and Word documents without having to switch apps. You can also sift through your OneDrive files, scan real-world documents with Office Lens and read QR codes.

Not pink.Nintendo unveils a coral-colored Switch Lite

Nintendo has unveiled a new color for the Switch Lite, and it’s just fine. You’d be mistaken for calling it pink, but it’s actually considered coral — Living Coral was Pantone’s color of 2019, so that may well be the inspiration behind it. It’s scheduled for release in Japan on March 20th.

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TCL’s leaked prototype phone features a slide-out display

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While TCL has yet to confirm the phone’s existence, it’s reportedly not just a concept that hasn’t reached development stage yet. CNET says a working prototype was supposed to debut at Mobile World Congress, which was scheduled for late February until the event was canceled due to concerns regarding the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

TCL

As you can see from the images, the device’s display will have curved sides, and the part with the rear camera slides out when you extend the screen. We’ll probably have to wait for its debut to see if the screen truly looks smooth and seamless in extended mode, though, or if the break in the display will prove too distracting.

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Nintendo unveils a coral-colored Switch Lite

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Nintendo has unveiled a new color for the Switch Lite, and it’s just fine. You’d be mistaken for calling it pink, but it’s actually considered coral — “Living Coral” was Pantone’s color of 2019, so that may well be the inspiration behind it. Like the rose gold craze a while back, this hue is proving pretty popular on electronics at the moment — we’ve already seen this shade on the Pixel 4, for example. In any case, it’s the first new color for the Switch Lite since it was released in September last year, and joins a line-up of turquoise, gray and yellow models. The pink coral version is slated for release in Japan on March 20th.

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Extortionists threaten sites with bad traffic to make Google ban ads

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The emails have the kind of bad grammar and threatening tone that you’d expect. “Very soon the warning notice from above will appear at the dashboard of your AdSense account undoubtedly,” it states. “This will happen due to the fact that we’re about to flood your site with huge amount of direct bot generated web traffic with 100 percent bounce ratio and thousands of IP’s in rotation — a nightmare for every AdSense publisher.”

Next an ad serving limit will be placed on your publisher account and all the revenue will be refunded to advertisers. This means that the main source of profit for your site will be temporarily suspended. It will take some time, usually a month, for the AdSense to lift your ad ban, but if this happens we will have all the resources needed to flood your site again with bad quality web traffic which will lead to second AdSense ban that could be permanent!

The message clinically states that Google will likely place an ad serving limit on your account and refund advertiser revenue. Once the ad ban is lifted, they’ll “flood your site again with bad quality web traffic which will lead to second AdSense ban that could be permanent!” according to the email. The bad guys are no doubt hoping that publishers will just pay up rather than seeing their ad revenue go up in smoke.

The unnamed recipient of this email thought it could be a bluff, but it’s easy to see how a scheme like this could work. Google is very touchy about fraudulent clicks designed to increase ad revenue, particularly coming from “automated clicking tools or traffic sources,” aka clickbots. As such, it recently announced a crackdown on such fraud.

Google is aware of issues around ad extortion, though. “We hear a lot about the potential for sabotage, it’s extremely rare in practice, and we have built some safeguards in place to prevent sabotage from succeeding,” Google told Krebs in a statement. It advised websites to not engage fraudsters and to communicate “any concerns about invalid traffic.”

However, as many publishers know, it’s notoriously difficult to contact a human inside Google about AdSense issues. If there’s a problem, they often only hear about it after Google has already taken action — and the appeals process can be difficult, long and frustratingly opaque.

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LG brings a 48-megapixel camera to its budget K-series smartphone

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The K61 also comes with a 6.5-inch FHD+ display, whereas the LG K51S has a slightly narrower 6.5-inch HD+ screen. Both have hole-punch cameras on the corner, with the K61 housing a 16-megapixel front lens and the K51S housing a 13-megapixel lens. They’re also both powered by a 2.3 GHz octa-core processor. The K61 comes with 4GB of RAM and 64 or 128GB of storage, while the K51S has 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Meanwhile, the K41S comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ display, a 13-megapixel rear and an 8-megapixel front camera, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

LG’s announcement didn’t mention the models’ prices, but previous K-series phones were priced between $60 and $130 or so. The phones will be available in the Americas starting in the second quarter, followed by select Asian and European markets.

LGLG K41S

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Cadillac will unveil its first all-electric vehicle in April

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When the model was first announced, Carlisle said the platform will have a architectural design that “will allow the battery packs to fit into the vehicle like ice cubes in an ice cube tray,” and “you can put in as much water as you want to make as many cubes as you need — the tray still takes up the same space in the freezer.” In other words, it can be used as basis for various types of vehicles without sacrificing range.

The upcoming crossover will be but the first of many electric vehicles from Cadillac if its plans come to fruition. In late 2019, the company made a pledge that by 2030, majority of all Cadillacs will be electric vehicles. While we now have a date range for the electric crossover’s unveiling, it’s not entirely clear if it will have its own event or if it will be launched at the New York Auto Show that will also (as Autoblog notes) take place in early April.

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Now ‘League of Legends’ star Faker is a part-owner of his esports team

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Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has been an esports superstar and key member of the T1 League of Legends team since 2013, and a new three-year contract with the squad adds “part owner” to his title. As first reported by ESPN, while the talented mid laner has said he received “blank check” offers from teams outside of South Korea, the 23-year-old will remain with the only pro team he’s ever known.

The three year deal is the longest contract allowed under League maker Riot’s rules, and according to T1, “Faker will assume a leadership role within the organization after his playing career and will help facilitate global operations.” CEO Joe Marsh said in the accompanying statement that “Since T1’s inception, Faker has been the cornerstone of our team’s success and his undying passion for this organization will continue to drive us forward now that he is a part owner of T1 Entertainment & Sports. Even after Faker’s retirement – whenever that may be – he will begin the next chapter of his legacy in a leadership role with T1, helping to mold the next generation of elite esports athletes.”

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