Ive had enough – Apple and legendary designer officially part ways

Sir Jony Ive and Apple have parted ways…again. This time it looks to be more official, as Apple and Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, have decided not to renew their contract. If all this sounds confusing and silly, here’s some background.

Ive used to be Steve Jobs’s buddy back in the late 90s and served as chief design officer for most of Apple’s product line. Ive then left Apple in 2019, but only a little bit. At the time of his departure, the rumor mill suggested that Ive was frustrated with Apple and Tim Cook saying that Apple was becoming more of an operations company than a design company.

Ive formed his own design company, the aforementioned LoveFrom, and signed a contract for Apple to be LoveFrom’s chief client. LoveFrom (read: Ive) was free to work with other clients as long as Apple didn’t deem them to be in competition with Apple, neatly answering the question of why no one else has put a charging port on the bottom of a mouse.

What have you done for me lately?

Since then, LoveFrom consulted with Apple on the design of the 24-inch iMac, and other Apple products including the mythical Apple Car project. Now, both companies have decided to part ways. On Apple’s part, evidence suggests that the company may have been losing designers to Ive’s company, and it may have questioned the size of the contract signed (rumored to be in the $100 million range.) Meanwhile on LoveFrom’s side, Ive may have been chomping at the bit to expand his client list without having to check in with Cook first.

Ive and Jobs were seemingly cut from the same cloth and there was some concern when Ive left that Apple might be shedding its design aesthetic. There was some hope that LoveFrom might keep the ship on course. We’ll have to see where Apple takes its design language in the future, but there’s a fairly high amount of confidence that Apple will be just fine. Meanwhile, we will certainly bid a fond farewell to Mr. Jony “Al-you-mini-yum” Ive.

Source: MacRumors.com

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You can grab the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro with a Core i7 for $300 off this Prime Day

Samsung is making its flagship Windows 11 laptop more accessible than ever for Amazon Prime Day. The top-tier Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 15-inch model is $300 off today for Prime Day, making it just $1,049.99 instead of $1,349.99. While the laptop has been discounted before, this is the lowest price we’ve seen, and for what you get, it’s a great price. Some other models are also discounted, but they’re smaller discounts.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro is powered by an Intel Core i7-1260P, which is a 28W processor with 12 cores and 16 threads, and one of the most powerful laptop CPUs you can find in an ultrabook like this. Plus, this configuration includes 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, everything you need for a premium laptop experience. This all fits in one of lightest laptops around, weighing a mere 2.45lbs – an impressive claim for a 15.6-inch laptop.

You also get a 15.6-inch Full HD AMOLED display with up to 500 nits of brightness, so you can easily see it outdoors. AMOLED also means you get true blacks, vivid colors, and higher contrast ratios. Above that display, there’s a wide-angle 1080p webcam which is great for video calls and meetings.

For how thin and light this laptop is, you still get a great supply of ports, too. There’s one Thunderbolt 4 port, one standard USB Type-C port, a USB Type-A port, HDMI, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. That’s a great setup that covers all the basics, so you can’t ask for much more.

Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro ($300 off)

The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro is an extremely thin and light laptop that still packs a lot of power for all your tasks. It also has a beautiful AMOLED display and a great webcam.

See at Amazon

While we haven’t reviewed this model specifically, we did test the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360, which has a lot in common. We found it to be a fantastic device, especially if you have a Samsung phone. It has a lot of Samsung software bundled in, which makes syncing your data across devices very easy. You can also use a Samsung tablet as a second screen for the laptop, too. This Prime Day deal makes the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro an easy recommendation.

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Sony’s fantastic WH-1000XM4 and WF-1000XM4 get big discounts for Prime Day

If you’ve been looking to upgrade your wireless audio experience, this Amazon Prime Day deal on Sony’s high-end audio products is for you. Sony is knocking $121 off the WH-1000XM4 headphone and $80 off the WF-1000XM4 earbuds for Prime Day. Confusing names aside, these are some of the best Bluetooth audio products you can buy right now, especially at this price.

The Sony WH-1000XM4 are premium wireless over-ear headphones, featuring fantastic audio quality and active noise cancellation thanks to the Dual Noise Sensor technology. The headphones use multiple microphones to detect and filter out background noise so you can focus on listening to music, with Sony’s in-house QN1 chip aiding in canceling out said noise.

You get 30 hours of battery life, enough to get you through long flights and trips where you don’t want to be bothered by background noise. Plus, with fast charging support, you can get 5 hours of use with a 10-minute charge. The headset also has touch controls built into the earcups so you don’t have to reach for your phone every time. Wearing detection also plays or pauses music automatically when you put the headphones on or take them off.

Right now, you can save $121 on these headphones, which brings them to a much more palatable $228 price, instead of the usual $349.99. That’s a huge reduction – even bigger than we saw for Black Friday last year – and it makes these an easier recommendation than ever. And yes, Sony has the newer WH-1000XM5 model that’s a bit better, but with this deal, you can almost buy two pairs of these for what a single pair of those would cost you. And you’re still getting fantastic audio.

Sony WH-1000XM4 ($121 off)

The Sony WH-1000XM4 are high-end Bluetooth headphones with a premium look and fantastic audio quality and ANC. At $228, they're a fantastic deal.

See at Amazon

If you’re not as big of a fan of over-ear headphones and you prefer earbuds, there are also the WF-1000XM4. These are Sony’s latest flagship earbuds, and they bring the company’s audio expertise to a much smaller package. You still get great active noise cancellation with the Sony Integrated Processor V1 – an enhanced version of the QN1 mentioned above – and multiple microphones for audio pickup. They also have great audio quality driven by 6mm drivers and LDAC codec support.

The Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds last up to 8 hours on a charge, and the charging case stores another 16 hours, plus the case also supports fast charging so you can get one hour of listening time from a 5-minute charge. Wireless charging is also supported (though it won’t be as fast). Just like the headset, touch controls are also built into the earbuds so you can easily play and pause music.

The earbuds are $80 off, and that brings them under $200 ($198, specifically), which makes them much more tempting. For reference, they were $248 for Black Friday, so this is a big reduction even compared to that.

Sony WF-1000XM4 ($80 off)

For fans of true wireless earbuds, the Sony WF-1000XM4 are one of the very best options out there, with great audio quality and ANC, plus a unique design that looks great. They're down to $198, a fantastic price for what you get.

See at Amazon

Whether you’re a fan of over-ear headphones or earbuds, the Sony WH-1000XM4 and WF-1000XM4 are fantastic, and these Prime Day deals make high-quality audio much more accessible.

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The Obsbot Tiny 4K webcam is down to $199 for Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day is in full swing, and it’s the best time to save some money on all kinds of tech products. That includes the Obsbot Tiny 4K – an AI-powered webcam we reviewed a couple of weeks ago.Usually, this webcam goes for $269, but for Prime Day, you can grab it for just $199, a significant 26% discount.

In my Obsbot Tiny 4K review, I absolutely loved it, and I still use it in all my meetings. The AI features include the ability to track you in real time, and the camera can physically rotate and tilt to follow you around, even if you move all around the room. It works really well and it moves fast, so you don’t really have to worry about being out of the frame. If you want to stand up during a meeting, walk around, or show something off on a whiteboard, it’s perfect for that.

Of course, you can turn tracking on or off easily, too. The camera uses gesture recognition, which you can use to enable or disable tracking, and there’s also a gesture for zooming in and out depending on your needs.

On top of all of this, you can use the Obsbot TinyCam software for Windows or macOS to enable even more features. This app lets you manually pan, tilt, and zoom with the camera, plus you can save the camera’s position as a preset, so if you don’t want tracking enabled but you want the perfect angle for a specific situation, you can always go back to it easily. The app also lets you set up features like HDR, color adjustments, tracking modes, and so on. There are plenty of options, and they make this already great webcam an even better one.

Obsbot Tiny 4K ($70 off)

The Obsbot Tiny 4K is a fantastic 4K webcam with AI-powered tracking features and configuration options using the TinyCam software. it usually costs $269, but it's down to just $199 now.

See at Amazon

This Amazon Prime Day deal knocks $70 off of the usual price of the Obsbot Tiny 4K, making it just $199 instead of $269. Granted, that’s still a good chunk of money, but this is a phenomenal webcam and this is the best price we’ve seen for it yet.

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Google Play System Update for July 2022 brings several Play Store updates, Google Wallet rebrand, and more

After rolling out the July 2022 Android security patches to Pixel devices last week, Google has now started rolling out the latest Google Play System update. The new release brings several Google Play Store improvements, the Google Wallet rebrand, new APIs to help developers build seamless multi-device experiences, and more.

According to the updated support page, the Google Play System update for July 2022 brings improvements for the Play-as-you-download feature for the Play Store, new features to help users discover apps and games, app download and installation optimizations, and new features for the Play Pass and Play Points programs. In addition, the update includes the Google Wallet rebrand, which Google introduced at I/O this year. Check out the full changelog below for a list of all the changes and improvements.

• Account Management
  • [Phone] The section headers in the Data & Privacy tab of the Google account settings have a new appearance.
• Device Connectivity
  • [Phone] APIs for developers to build seamless multi-device experiences.
• Google Play Store
  • Improvements to Play-as-you-download feature to let gamers start playing mobile games while the app download continues to reduce waiting times.
  • New Features to help you discover the Apps & Games you love.
  • Optimizations allowing faster and more reliable download and installation.
  • New features to the Play Pass and Play Points programs.
  • Enhancements to Google Play Billing.
  • Continuous improvements to Play Protect to keep your device safe.
  • Various performance optimizations, bug fixes and improvements to security, stability and accessibility.
• Support
  • [Phone] Provide an ability to filter the data plans available to purchase by various categories received from the Carrier.
• Wallet
  • [Phone] Updates user experience to latest Google Material design, rebrands as “Google Wallet”.
• Developer Services
  • New developer features for Google and third party app developers to support Maps related developer services in their apps.

The Data & Privacy tab design changes, Wallet rebrand, and data plan filters will roll out to users with Google Play services v22.22, while the Play Store improvements and changes will roll out with Google Play Store v31.1. Lastly, the new developer features that bring Maps-related developer services to third-party apps will roll out with Google Play services v22.26.

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Source: Google System Updates support page

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Amazon Prime Gaming joins Prime Day by giving away a ton of free PC games

What used to be Twitch Prime goes by Prime Gaming these days and like the rest of Amazon’s products it’s gearing up for Prime Day. If you aren’t familiar, Prime Gaming has hooks into Twitch, Amazon’s live streaming platform, by providing Prime members a free channel subscription every month. But it’s also much more than that.

Prime Gaming partners with some of the biggest titles, such as Destiny 2, for exclusive in-game content. Members can also get free PC games every month, too. While it’s more of a perk still than a top reason to get Prime if you’re a member and a gamer there’s some great stuff here.

Prime Day 2022 is on July 12-13 and the Prime Gaming goodies are flowing. And there are some pretty big titles included from EA as well as some classic Star Wars releases.

Prime Gaming

Amazon Prime members can get free games and exclusive content from Prime Gaming across some of today's top titles, as well as a free subscription to their favorite Twitch channels.

See at Amazon

In the run-up to Prime Day Amazon promised that it will be giving away 30+ games. And all of those are live now. The promotional graphic hinted at some big hitters joining the mix, too, and that has come true. Titles from EA including Grid Legends, Need for Speed Heat, and Mass Effect Legendary Edition are all now part of the Prime Day promotion. Other free games live for Prime Day include The Darkside Detective series, Hue, and Death Squared.

Star Wars Republic Commando and the Jedi Knight games are also available as part of the promotion.

To get your free games, simply login to the Prime Gaming page with your Amazon Prime account and click the purple claim game button. You’ll see a pop-up telling you a little more about the game and another claim button to click, this time blue. You will then need to download the Amazon Games application for Windows to install them on your PC. Sadly, Mac and Linux users need not apply, it’s a Windows-only affair. To claim the EA games you will need to link your Amazon and EA Origin accounts.

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The Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G arrives on AT&T on July 15

Motorola announced the Moto G Stylus 5G a few months back in April. AT&T will finally make it available on its network, with the smartphone making its retail debut on July 15. So how is the U.S. wireless carrier making the smartphone enticing? Its pitch is simply that it costs $2 a month and doesn’t require any trade-in. Exciting right?

The Moto G Stylus 5G has a large 6.8-inch FHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC paired with 8GB RAM. Furthermore, the handset also has a 50MP camera with OIS and support for 5G. As for its internal storage, you’ll get 256GB on the base model with room for expansion via its microSD slot. Additionally, the phone will pack a 5,000mAh which should offer excellent battery life when paired with the handset’s chipset. Perhaps the most crucial feature of this phone is its stylus, which isn’t all that common in today’s smartphone market. The stylus on the device can be used to draw and take notes, and because of its 120Hz display, the experience should be pretty enjoyable.

The Moto G Stylus 5G is one of only a handful of Android devices with a stylus right now.

The Moto G Stylus 5G will be available starting on July 15. It can be purchased online or in-store at participating retail locations. As mentioned, it will cost $2 a month with any qualifying unlimited wireless plans and won’t require any hardware trade-in. Although AT&T doesn’t mention the phone’s price, it should cost $499 without a contract. The handset can be purchased unlocked from Best Buy. If you aren’t sure what kind of smartphone you’re looking for, you can always check out our guides, where we talk about some of the best phone options overall and some of the cheapest Android options available. Plus, some great Amazon Prime Day deals are coming up, so you’ll want to check back soon.

Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G

The Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G

Purchase it unlocked for $499

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Source: AT&T

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