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Twitch.tv just got leaked in its entirety, here’s what you should do
Source code, payouts, upcoming features, and potentially even passwords can be found in the 125GB dump
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It looks like popular gaming-focused streaming platform Twitch.tv has some troubling days, months, or maybe even years ahead of it. According to Video Games Chronicle, the entirety of the website’s code and internal documents have been leaked online on 4chan as part of a 125GB torrent dump on Wednesday. It’s still unclear if user data is also affected, but given the extent of the leak, we wouldn’t be surprised.
Google Reader is returning from the dead and haunting Google Chrome
Currently available behind a flag in Chrome 92
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Google Reader used to be the pinnacle of RSS news consumption before it was discontinued in 2013, and many people are still bitter about its demise. While Google probably won't ever properly resurrect the service, it's currently working on the next best thing: An option to follow websites in Chrome, tapping into RSS. You can try it right now in Chrome 92.
I finally found the perfect travel planning app
After 4 years of trial and error, Wanderlog is a breath of fresh, beautiful air
Planning for a vacation is the next best thing to actually going on said vacation. I love opening hundreds of tabs, reading dozens of "must-do" listicles, bookmarking fun and odd things to do, and readying a half-rigid itinerary made of scheduled activities with room for on-the-spot whims. What I don't love is that there's no way to really tie all of this research together. Chrome bookmarks, Keep notes, Gmail, and Maps lists only go so far — I always end up going back and forth between them, fighting against this fragmented approach. Then a few weeks ago, I ran across Wanderlog and let me tell you one thing: If I was to build my ideal travel planning app from scratch, it would be pretty darn close to Wanderlog. Actually no, scratch that, I'd build something similar, but I'd fail to think of at least a dozen awesome extra features that the service already offers.
Signal wants to replace your Venmo and Cash apps with private crypto payments
Privacy and security first thanks to crypto, but it's not a well-known coin
Signal was being really secretive about its open-source server code over the last year, and now we know why: the nonprofit has been working on a payments feature and didn't want to spill the beans ahead of the announcement. Starting now, people living in the United Kingdom can send and receive a cryptocurrency using Signal beta builds.
Xiaomi's first foldable could be the Galaxy Fold competitor we've been waiting for
The company also unveiled a retouched brand identity
Following Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, and Co., Xiaomi has finally joined the foldable club. During the second part of its annual mega event, the company introduced the Mi Mix Fold, its very first folding phone. The manufacturer went with a more traditional design (if you can call it that already) first established by the Galaxy Fold, with a big 4:3 screen on the inside and a smaller 27:9 display on the outside for use like a regular smartphone.
Chrome 88 disables space bar shortcut for custom search engines, but there's a fix
Rolling out more widely
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Chrome 88 brought some quality of life improvements like better password protection and tab search, but more and more people are noticing an unfortunate regression on the desktop version. For ages, it's been possible to add custom search engines (under chrome://settings/searchEngines), which you can invoke with custom keywords followed by hitting the space bar or tab. You could set up "acom" or "tw" for searching Amazon or Twitter right from your address bar, for example. But now, reports are popping up left and right that the space bar shortcut isn't working anymore. People are forced to use tab, making them relearn a years-old habit. Luckily, there's a way to get back to using space, at least for now.
OnePlus Buds are failing left and right
Well, mainly left since that earbud appears to be the problem
The OnePlus Buds might be great cheap Apple AirPods alternatives, but of course, that's only true when they actually work. It seems that many people who have purchased the $80 earbuds are experiencing a strange defect leaving the left earpiece completely silent, with no way to recover it. Affected customers are encouraged to exchange their Buds under warranty, though it looks like new units aren't immune to the issue, either.
Unlimited Google Drive storage is getting more expensive with Workspace
You'll also lose a few more features when you switch from G Suite to Workspace
Google Workspace is replacing G Suite, and anyone interested in the new features can sign up or switch over to the service right now (unless they're managing an Education or Non-profit organization). But if you're one of the many people relying on G Suite's /month unlimited storage "hack," you might be better off sticking to your current G Suite plan — if you want unlimited storage on the new Workspace tiers, it will cost you at least $20 a month.
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Android 11 has been stable for a bit, and while it brought many improvements to the table, there are also a few regressions. One of these is a small but significant change to the quick settings tiles. Compared to earlier versions of the OS, Android 11 only displays two rows instead of three, even when the new media player isn't in use.
Hold on to your seats, as this story is about to blow up your mind — and possibly the seat too. Motorola, yes the same Motorola we know, the one who was bought by Lenovo and gets mentioned here because of its phones, is getting pumped up because of its latest announcement: an inflatable chair with a name that rolls off the tongue, the MINNIDIP x RAZR CH(AIR).
Download the Asus ROG Phone 3's live wallpapers for your phone right now
Pressing the 'X-Mode' button here is nothing but a placebo
Developer and XDA forums member linuxct, who just last month ported Xiaomi's "super" wallpapers for use on other Android phones, has done it again — this time, they've exported live wallpapers from the Asus ROG Phone 3. And with a few downloads plus a little know-how, you can have them on your phone, too.
Galaxy Note20 Ultra hands-on video gives us our best look at this behemoth
Here, we see the three-eyed glass yeti in its natural habitat
The same source that brought us photos of the Galaxy Note20 Ultra this week has gone ahead and made a video about it. There really isn't too much more to the video from @jimmyispromo than the pictures he's already posted to Twitter, but it does show a pretty realistic Samsung smartphone with an S Pen existing in human timespace.
Facebook rolling out helpful tool for archiving or deleting old posts
...so that your past won't haunt you
If you're like me, you've probably grown up with social media. You've also probably grown up enough to recognize some of your posts don't show the best side of you. With an easily traceable digital paper trail, you might not want those out in the public square. Facebook has made some attempt at letting users manage the visibility of their past posts — if only in very wide strokes — but is now rolling out a comprehensive tool called Manage Activity.
In business, communications can be an exhaustive rote practice. You exchange greetings, suss out what the other side wants, and then things might get interesting from there. But in most cases, you could probably do well for yourself by setting up a bunch of templates in your email. More email apps are bringing them on board and the relatively popular Edison Mail is one of them.
Ah, WhatsApp. It's a Facebook-owned chat client with more than 5 billion installs on Android and has been quite stubbornly behind the curve on bringing on a dark mode of some sort. The first hint of it came in 2018, then came a couple more signals last year, but it's now 2020 and we've still had no reason to pull out our Simon & Garfunkel jokes. Well, good news at last: the latest beta will finally let you give dark mode a spin.
Smartphones, as a concept, have been reduced down to glowing rectangles that have grown boring. Why not have it take on a different shape? Well, the people behind the Cyrcle Phone have decided to take up the challenge, showcasing a circular phone at CES 2020. And from the looks of it, let's just say Android will be a tight fit on the thing.
Screenshot editing made it into stock Android relatively late as it only recently arrived with Android 9. To make up for this oversight, Google seems to be determined to add isolated solutions to as many of its apps as possible and has already equipped Google Photos and Search with their own markup tools. It looks like Chrome is poised to follow as evidence points to yet another screenshot editor, this time meant for the Android version of the browser.
YouTube Music finally gets gapless playback through server-side rollout (Update: Wider availability)
If you regularly use YouTube Music to experience songs, either through just the audio or with the accompanying music video, you might have lamented on its inability to properly playback songs with seamless transitions. That sucks if you're trying to sink into a full, continuous LP like Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon." But some users are now reporting that the app is starting to do so in what appears to be a server-side feature rollout.
We've already learned that the Pixel 4 is just as quick to receive discounts as the Pixel 3 back in the day as it's $200 off in the Google Store this week. If you're interested in using the device on the Fi network, Google will give you an even crazier price: When you activate the phone through the carrier, it'll give you 50% of the full price back in Google Fi credit. That means you can get the smaller Pixel 4 64GB version for the unbelievable bargain price of $400, while the most expensive Pixel 4 XL 128GB will go for $500.
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- A Googler has rectified the status of this issue, saying "Fixed" was an incorrect status. The right one is "Won't fix (Obsolete)," as we had all presumed, and that's what the issue tracker now says.
Even though the Nexus 6P was considered to be one of the best Android phones back when it was released, a few issues soon became apparent. The processor easily overheated, a bootloop bug made quite a few units die prematurely, and lastly, a battery problem surfaced that led to early shutdowns anywhere between 50 and 0 percent. At least the remaining owners of this Nexus device don't have to worry about the latter issue anymore — according to Google, that is. An engineer just marked the early shutdown entry in the company's issue tracker as "fixed."