đ Good morning! This is my chance to tell you I finally, finally finished the nearly 900-pages of Don Quixote, from the Edith Grossman translation into English. It took me the entirety of the pandemic lockdown, plus a holiday - months of short reading. Itâs so very long, and so full of side adventures, and so very brilliant! I may have shed a tear for Sancho Panza too.
Yesterdayâs brief news was that a Japanese regulator filing had revealed a new Google Nest (aka the old Google Home) smart speaker, with, oops, product images available in a PDF.
Google, as it has done previously with the Pixel 4a, managed to get on the front foot, with Google PR emailing through a new official photo and video within hours, confirming a big new Nest smart speaker (aka the old Google Home brand).
đž Sony Xperia 1 II review: âSony has made one of my favorite phones of the year in the Xperia 1 II. And thatâs saying somethingâ (Android Authority).
đ§ Check out Samsungâs incoming bean-shaped Galaxy Buds in these ultra-clear renders (Android Authority).
â© Android updates are getting to users faster. Android 10 uptake has been faster than all previous Android releases: âAndroid 10 was running on 100 million devices 5 months post launch â 28% faster than Android Pie.â (android-developers.googleblog.com).
đ Worldwide PC shipments grew again due to work-from-home arrangements (Engadget).
đ Apple makes iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 available for public beta testing. Back up your data if youâre testing it out, or just want your goodies from Apple early. Loads of new features, with big changes in privacy (CNET).
â Nearly 70% of iOS and Android users will deny tracking permissions if they are requested in-app to opt-in (Pollfish).
đ° Sony has poured in $250M to invest in Epic Games, for a ~1.4% stake. The maker of Fortnite is now valued at over $17B. (VentureBeat)
đ„ Valve secrets spill over, including Half-Life 3, in new Steam documentary app (Ars Technica).
đ« Superhot's new standalone expansion, Superhot: Mind Control Delete, will be free if you bought the original: arrives on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on July 16th. Otherwise, $25. (Engadget)
đ€ Linkin Park T-Shirts are all the rage in China. This years-long investigation struggles to pinpoint why, but the journey tells you a lot (Wired).
đ NASA is updating its guidelines on how to prevent contamination of the Solar System, slightly relaxing policies that arenât feasible if we go to Mars. (The Verge).
đŽ Also: Will we recognize life on Mars when we see it? (Wired).
đ This Lunar Rover footage upscaled and given a faster frame-rate is as close as weâll get to the experience of driving on the moon (Gizmodo)
đ€ "Whatâs something thatâs outdated that you still use today?â (r/askreddit).
Hereâs how to see the NEOWISE Comet (Gizmodo) that adorns our skies, and is now visible to the naked eye (just). A pre-sunrise expedition required this weekend, but maybe after sunset later in July?
Good comet hunting!
Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.
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