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AT&T Advised to Discontinue Misleading ‘5Ge’ Moniker

Andrew Orr ·

A panel of the National Advertising Review Board is recommending that AT&T stop its “5G Evolution” label for its network. If you’re at AT&T customer and notice a “5G E” label on your iPhone, that is what this is referring to. (Hint: It’s not actually 5G).

The NARB Panel agreed with NAD’s analysis and concluded that the term “Evolution” is not likely to alert consumers to the fact that the service is not 5G […] AT&T stated that it “respectfully disagrees with the reasoning and result reached by the Panel majority,” […] As a supporter of the self-regulatory process, it will comply with the NARB’s decision.

No comment from me is needed, other than surprise that AT&T is capable of self-regulating

TMO Deals

Big Think Edge Expert-Taught Lectures Lifetime Subscription: $159.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on a liftetime subscription to Big Think Edge, a library of video lessons created by educators and taught by experts like Malcolm Gladwell, Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington, and more. There are already more than 200 lessons available, and the company adds three more every week. A lifetime subscription is $159.99 through our deal, but there are also options for shorter subscriptions in the deal listing.

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Hulu Gets New Interface For TV Applications

Charlotte Henry ·

Hulu unveiled a new interface for its tv applications, including Apple TV. It includes updated navigation and improved recommendation features. 9to5 Mac took a look.

With this new design, Hulu users can navigate vertically through collections and within a specific collection by scrolling horizontally: “Viewers can now navigate through collections vertically and explore within a collection by moving horizontally. This navigation pattern is something our viewers are accustomed to and matches the navigation pattern across Disney+ and ESPN+, making it easier for viewers who subscribe to the Disney bundle to switch between services and navigate with ease. When testing, viewers found it easy and intuitive to adjust to this updated navigation pattern.” There are also changes to the organizational system within the Hulu app. The company says that broad categories of content like TV, Movies, and Sports will be moved to the “master navigation” while narrower categories will move down the hierarchy.

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The Joe Rogan Experience to Air Exclusively on Spotify

Charlotte Henry ·

Joe Rogan has signed a $100 million deal for his podcast to air exclusively on Spotify, BBC News reported. It is the latest move as the music streaming service aims to cement its place in the podcasting market.

The multi-year deal is believed to be worth $100m (£82 million), according to the Wall Street Journal. Rogan’s podcast, which is one of the most popular in the world, will arrive on the streaming giant on 1 September. It will then be housed there exclusively by the end of the year, and removed from all other platforms. “It will remain free, and it will be the exact same show,” said Rogan. “It’s just a licensing deal, so Spotify won’t have any creative control over the show.

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Apple TV+: Why Purchasing Old Movies And Shows Might Not be The Answer

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple is reportedly looking to purchase a catalog of older movies and series to bolster its Apple TV+ offering. As we discussed on the Daily Observations podcast on Tuesday, this is going to be difficult and might not even work. Luke Filopwicz expressed a similar view on iMore.

The great thing about Apple TV+ having only original content (especially brand-new content) is that it allowed Apple to launch its programming in every country that could access Apple TV+. Licensed content doesn’t let you do that without some headaches…. The best thing that could happen for Apple is if they somehow produce a mega-hit show — think Game of Thrones level of fandom — that becomes part of popular culture. Of course, doing that is pretty damn hard and every other network and streaming service is trying to do the exact same thing.

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In Update to Privacy Policy, Twitter Gives More Data to Advertisers

Andrew Orr ·

Twitter updated its privacy policy on Monday to reflect that more of your data will be shared with advertisers.

To help us understand if these ads are effective, we share device-level data, like IP address, with our advertising partners. We don’t share things like your name, email, phone number, or Twitter username.

To help mobile app advertisers understand if the ads they run on Twitter are effective, Twitter shares some device-level data, like which ads your device may have seen or clicked on, with them. We don’t share your name, email, phone number, or Twitter username.

It doesn’t matter if they don’t share details like your phone number if it gets leaked anyway.

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Please Don’t Disable FileVault Encryption Like Logitech Wants

Andrew Orr ·

Logitech has a support article that mentions problems customers may have with Bluetooth mice and keyboards not reconnecting under certain conditions (Brought to my attention from Reddit).

If your Bluetooth mouse or keyboard does not reconnect after a reboot at the login screen and only reconnects after the login, this might be related to FileVault encryption. When FileVault is enabled, Bluetooth mice and keyboards will only re-connect after login.

One of the potential solutions is to disable FileVault. I personally think this is a terrible idea. FileVault encryption is an important security and privacy feature. I don’t know if the bug lies with macOS or Logitech, but my potential solution is to ditch the product instead of disabling your hard disk encryption.

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Google Fi Introduces eSIM Support for New iPhone Customers

Andrew Orr ·

First introduced last month, Google Fi is rolling out eSIM support for new iPhone customers.

This capability is tied to version 2.5 of the Google Fi companion app, which rolled out yesterday. The release notes mention how “You can now activate Fi via eSIM on select iPhone devices.”

The official help document still notes how “iOS eSIM activation only works for new users who sign up for Google Fi.”

Find the Google Fi app here.

Samsung T7 SSD Drive Out Today Starting at $109
Cool Stuff Found

Samsung T7 SSD Drive Out Today Starting at $109

Andrew Orr ·

Samsung announced the release of its T7 SSD drive. It gives you read speeds up to 1,050 MB/s and write speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s. This is almost twice as fast as the older T5 model. It comes in 500 GB, 1TB, and 2TB sizes in red, blue, and gray. “Roughly the size of a few stacked credit cards, the T7 is equipped with 256-bit AES encryption and password protection, so users can rest assured knowing their data is safe. Moreover, with PCIe NVMe technology, the T7 offers users quick performance and little downtime with read and write speeds of up to 1050 MB/s and 1000 MB/s respectively. With a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, it’s also backward compatible with USB 3.0 and Type-A devices with an appropriate cable.”

One retailer offering it for preorder is B&H Photo Video.

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How Sundar Pichai is Managing Google Through a Pandemic

Charlotte Henry ·

Top tech CEOs are not exactly renowned for giving long, insightful, interviews. But hey, we live in strange times, so Google boss Sundar Pichai has sat down with The Verge‘s Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn and discussed guiding his company through a pandemic.

I think the irony of the Google Meet team working remotely to make and iterate the product to get it to where they wanted it to be was very interesting to see. Javier has a very, very long commute, and one of his biggest concerns was the commute when he was joining. He’s doing it all virtually now. But it is an important moment. Many schools, many organizations already use Google Meet. So we are doubling down. Obviously, COVID has blurred the lines between consumer and enterprise, and people are using products in all kinds of contexts. And so definitely, we are using it as an opportunity to make Google Meet and Google Chat, scale it up and make it more available.