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Verizon LG Velvet receives Android 12, other carrier versions still waiting
The LG Velvet started receiving Android 12 back in March, and now it has arrived on the Verizon LG Velvet 5G UW.
The LG Velvet was the last mainstream flagship phone from LG before the company gave up on smartphones, excluding the swiveling LG Wing. The company promised to keep its existing phones updated for a little while longer, and now the first U.S. carrier version of the Velvet is receiving its Android 12 upgrade.
YouTube and MLB team up to stream 15 upcoming games for free
Major League Baseball has signed an exclusitivity deal with YouTube for 15 games in the 2022 season, starting on May 5.
Major League Baseball is the largest professional baseball organization in the world, and its 2022 season just started earlier this month. MLB already has some of the most complicated distribution and streaming deals of any sport or television, and now MLB and YouTube are mixing it up further with a new streaming deal.
OnePlus 10 Pro now supports Verizon 5G, including C-Band
The OnePlus 10 Pro has been certified to work on Verizon's C-Band 5G, but not the company's limited mmWave 5G network.
The OnePlus 10 Pro was just released outside of China, and like all recent OnePlus devices, it's certified to work on Verizon's cellular network. However, the phone still couldn't connect to Verizon's 5G services, which has now been fixed – just in time for the OnePlus 10 Pro's release date in the United States.
Samsung released the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and Galaxy S21 Ultra last year, which continued to be the company's flagship devices until the Galaxy S22 series arrived in February. Now that the company has been selling the S21 series for over a year, and likely has many of them on-hand from S22 trade-ins, Samsung has started selling refurbished versions at lower prices.
The Chromecast with Google TV is the latest streaming player from Google, packed with the full Android TV operating system and a custom Google TV interface (which is slowly making its way to other TVs and players). The device normally costs $49.99, which is already a great deal, but it has dropped to $39.99 a few times since launch. Now the Chromecast with Google TV is back to $39.99 at multiple retail stores.
This might be Meta's upcoming premium mixed reality headset
Project Cambria, Meta's new high-end VR/AR headset, has been leaked with both press renders and possible tech specs.
Meta, which used to be called Facebook, has been hard at work on new 'Meta Quest' (which used to be branded as Oculus) virtual and augmented reality headsets. The company isn't expected to release a sequel to the Quest 2 this year, but there is a different headset ton the wait aimed at professional use and high-end gaming.
Chromebooks with AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs reportedly coming soon, but they might be too late
Chrome Unboxed reportedly has a pre-production Chromebook with a Ryzen 7 5800U processor, and was able to run some benchmarks.
Even though there have been a few Chromebooks with AMD Ryzen processors, most are still using Intel or MediaTek chipsets, and CES 2022 came and went without any new Ryzen models. However, not only is a new high-end AMD Chromebook on the way, but it might be using the more recent Ryzen 5000 family of chips.
The Surface Laptop Go was intended as a slightly-cheaper alternative to Microsoft's lineup of Surface Laptop models, while keeping most of the features people want in an ultrabook. Now you can get the high-end option with 256GB model for $699.99 at Amazon, a savings of $200 from the original price. That's not quite as low as the $650 price it was at for a while earlier this year, but still a decent deal.
Tamagotchi meets Pokémon Go in Niantic Labs' upcoming 'Peridots' game
Niantic Labs, developer of Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, is working on an original AR mobile game.
Niantic Labs started out as a division of Google working on the mobile augmented reality (AR) game Ingress, but after becoming an independent company in 2015, the company focused on AR games based on third-party media franchises (like Pokémon Go). Niantic today revealed its first original game since Ingress and Ingress Prime, called Peridot.
Samsung Keyboard's new update might reduce your typos
Samsung Keyboard is rolling out more typo and grammar correction improvements, as well as a laundry list of bug fixes.
Samsung Keyboard has been the default keyboard on Galaxy smartphones and tablets for years, but for most of that time, it hasn't been all that great compared to Gboard and other alternatives. The keyboard has been slowly improving, though, and now Samsung is rolling out another update that might reduce your typos.
IMDb TV has a new (but still terrible) name: Amazon Freevee
Amazon's free streaming service, IMDb TV, has a new name. It's also expanding its library of original content.
Amazon has had its own free (ad-supported) streaming service for a few years now, called IMDb TV. Amazon also owns the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), so tying it in with a streaming service probably sounded like a good idea on paper, but in reality, there wasn't much connecting the two. Now the streaming service has a new name, though it doesn't really seem like an improvement.
Baseus Blade 100W Power Bank Review: Charge all the things
The Baseus Blade 100W power bank promises to be the only portable charger that you need to bring in your bag. Check our review!
Portable batteries have always been helpful, but as more (and larger) devices migrate to the USB Power Delivery charging standard, batteries have become even more invaluable for travel and backup. Power banks with a high enough charge rate can now be used with many modern laptops, in addition to the usual mix of tablets, smartphones, handheld consoles, and accessories. I've been testing the Blade portable battery from Baseus for about two weeks now, with a maximum charging rate of 100W and a total of four USB ports. It has worked pretty well in that time, despite a few limitations, and it's probably worth picking up if you're in the market for a new portable battery.
The Apple AirPods 3, also known as the 3rd Generation AirPods, was released late last year with an updated design inspired by the more-expensive AirPods Pro. Apple has dropped the price to $150 at least twice already at major retailers (give or take a few cents), but if you missed out on those discounts, the third-generation AirPods is once again on sale for $150.
Google started rolling out the latest Android security patch to its Pixel phones last week, as the first system update since the March Pixel Feature Drop (which also included Android 12L/Android 12.1). It seems like every monthly update fixes bugs and introduces new ones, and now an interesting issue has appeared: ringtone and notification sounds were randomly changed on some devices.
Spotify brings live audio shows to main app, renames Greenroom to Spotify Live
Spotify's live audio app is being renamed to Spotify Live, and some of the functionality is coming to the main Spotify app.
The social audio app Clubhouse rose to fame in late 2020 and early 2021, and it didn't take long for nearly every other messaging and social media platform to create their own version. Spotify has been working on its own audio room service for over a year, and now the company is rolling it out as Spotify Live.
Google has a few special software features reserved for its Pixel smartphones, and one of them is the 'At a Glance' widget. Even though a widget with the same name is available on all Android devices (provided by the Google app), the version on Pixel phones has additional integrations and a slightly-different look. If a new report is accurate, it might even show the status of grocery pickups and deliveries.
Google receives FDA clearance for heart rhythm detection on Fitbit devices in U.S.
Google-owned Fitbit has recieved FDA clearance for ECG monitoring in the US, also known as EKG or heart rhythm detection.
Wearable devices are adding more health tracking features all the time, but some advanced functionality requires the same certification and clearances as actual medical equipment. That can mean waiting for governments to approve a feature before it can be (officially) rolled out, and now Google-owned Fitbit has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for heart rhythm detection.
The Microsoft Surface Duo 2 is $500 off today
The Microsoft Surface Duo 2 foldable phone is $500 off right now, in both 128GB and 256GB storage capacities.
The first Microsoft Surface Duo was far from the best foldable phone around, thanks to its plentiful software bugs and older hardware. The company fixed many of those issues with the Surface Duo 2, which arrived near the end of last year, and now it's on sale for the lowest recorded price yet: $999.99 for the 128GB model, or $1,099.99 for the 256GB version.
Plex started off as an easy way to stream your video collection to your other devices, but the service has expanded significantly over the past few years. However, not all that functionality ends up being popular, and now Plex is ditching support for podcasts and web shows.
Amazon Prime raises prices in Canada, following price increase in US
Amazon just raised Prime prices in the United States, and now Canada will start paying more for Prime, too.
Amazon increased prices for its Prime subscription service in the United States earlier this year. The company cited "the continued expansion of Prime member benefits as well as the rise in wages and transportation costs" for the price jump, and now Amazon is also raising the cost of Prime in Canada as well.