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Apple removed the headphone jack from iPhones almost two years ago with the release of iPhone 7. Whether it was at the time a brave move, as they spun it, or just a silly design choice it up to you.

However, $1 trillion Cupertino giant is not backing away from the strategy, rumors suggest. They plan to move further away from wired headphones towards a truly wireless future.

Barclays research team has been suggesting since early this year that Apple will be getting rid of the headphone jack dongle from the next iPhone. Now Cirrus Logic, a supplier for the headphone adapter, has all but confirmed to Barclays that this indeed is the case, MacRumors reports.

Apple is expected to release three new iPhone models next month, all of which are likely to not have headphone jack. Now users with traditional wired headphones might have to shell out some extra cash to use their preferred audio equipment.

The adapter isn't fortunately too expensive, currently at $9, and many of the current or previous generation iPhone users already have one adapter, but it is surely going to stir up some controvery if indeed Apple decides to exclude it from the retail box.

A couple years ago Nintendo released what seemed like a silly promotional product, a mini version of the good old Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES.

After NES Classic other companies followed suit, including Atari (although their approach is way different), but it was the NES Classic with the strong lineup of classic retro games that caught all the attention. So much so that it was sold out almost immediately.

Huge demand meant that the prices rose to ridiculous amounts in the second-hand market. Now, two years later, the NES Classic is back and the supply has been far better.

The demand is still there which is proven by the fact that according to market research firm NPD it has outsold all other consoles, including the current generation favorites Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.

This even though NES Classic was only sold for a few days during the analyzed period (June 2018). Of course one has to remember that NES Classic costs $59 while the others go for several hundreds.

So as the tweet by NPD analyst Mat Piscatella below shows, NES Classic outsold PS4 by unit numbers but not in dollar sales. If you want to know more about the numbers of both software and hardware sales head to Twitter and read the thread.

Apple has reached new heights that no company before it has reached. Cupertino-based tech giant closed the day yesterday with a share price of $207.39 which means it surpassed the magical and revolutionary (add other Apple-like superlatives) $1 trillion market cap.

Who would've guessed that making iPhones is such a good business model? Or as someone put it, buying low and selling high seems to pay off. Joking aside, Apple has done something no company has managed and to celebrate Tim Cook sent a memo to Apple employees reiterating what is important.

According to the note Apple's number one priority is customer. While people should be excited and happy about the milestone, they should remember that it is just a measurement of success in one, albeit super tangible, respect.

Obviously Cook knew the memo would be read by many outside the company and promoting a view that customer always comes first is good for the business in the long run. Not surprisingly Steve Jobs gets a mention as the visionary founder who instilled Apple with the values it holds.

And here's the letter Apple CEO Tim Cook sent to company's employees after hitting the historic milestone:

Team,

Today Apple passed a significant milestone. At our closing share price of $207.39, the stock market now values Apple at more than $1 trillion. While we have much to be proud of in this achievement, it's not the most important measure of our success. Financial returns are simply the result of Apple's innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values.

A recent update to the mega-popular CCleaner tool prompted backlash from long-term users as privacy options disappeared and other problems arose.

Recently acquired by Avast, CCleaner was updated to v5.45.6611 with some noticeable changes. In the free version of the app, Privacy settings were removed from the options meaning users could no longer opt-out of sending usage information. Another noted issue is that it seems impossible to close the application through normal means.

When you click the X in the top right hand corner of the app, CCleaner minimizes to the system tray on the taskbar, which is not unusual behavior. What is unusual is that right-clicking on the CCleaner icon in the system tray no longer provided the option to exit CCleaner.

This could be because of a shift in the way the developers want CCleaner to be used. In the new version, it seems much more difficult to disable Active Monitoring. Many CCleaner users may only use it to clear out browser history and temporary files every now and then. Active Monitoring will keep an eye on the accumulation of junk and other data and prompt users to run the cleaner routinely.

In order to disable it in the latest version, users apparently need to toggle off "Enable system monitoring," and then turn off Active Monitoring later. The problem users are having is that it toggles itself back on after restarting the app or rebooting.

According to a report by The Intercept, Google has been working on a version of its search engine that would comply with Chinese censorship laws.

It cited internal Google documents and inside sources in reporting on Dragonfly, a project that would omit results from websites including terms like "human rights" and "religion." The Reuters News Agency and Agence France-Presse both confirmed the initial report from their own separate sources.

A Google spokesperson provided a brief statement on the report without confirmation of denial.

"We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com," the statement said. "But we don't comment on speculation about future plans."

The report cites Android apps called Maotai and Longfei that have been developed and could be launched within months if approved by the Chinese government.

Securities Daily, with is a state-owned outlet, dismissed the report citing "relevant departments" in reporting that Google is not preparing a return to the Chinese market.

Plex has taken Podcasts out of beta with the addition of several new requested features to improve the podcast experience.

You can now easily download your favorite podcasts so you will be able to listen to them when you don't have connectivity, such as during a long commute. You can download single episodes with a single tap or set up a smart rule to make sure you have enough episodes of podcasts that you'll need. You can with a couple of taps download the latest 5 episodes, or you could just opt to download all.

If you are migrating to Plex for your podcast needs, you can also now import your podcast subscriptions using an OPML import feature. The OPML format is supported by most podcast apps (e.g. Apple Podcasts), so this makes it much easier to migrate all of your subscriptions at once with a few steps on iOS, Android or on the web.

Additionally, Plex lets you listen to your podcasts on Sonos speakers, through Android Auto or on Chromecast-connected devices.

More info: www.plex.tv

A Seattle judge has halted the planned release of designs for 3D printed guns that were due to go on sale to consumers on Wednesday.

Defense Distributed was to start selling 3D gun designs to customers based on a prior settlement reached with the federal government. However, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik has granted a temporary restraining order at he request of eight state attorneys general and D.C.

President Donald Trump had addressed the issue in a tweet on Tuesday, writing: "I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn't seem to make much sense!"

At the center of the controversy is uncertainty over the implications of the First and Second Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said that the President "will continue to look at all options available to us to do what is necessary to protect Americans while also supporting the First and Second amendments."

In response to statements made by Democrats about the settlement between the federal government and Defense Distributed, Gidley noted that it is illegal to own or to produce a wholly plastic gun under the law, and that the President supports the law as it stands.

Samsung has today released their second quarter results, and the fallout is fairly pessimistic for their smartphone division. The Korean electronics giant's Galaxy phones kept them at the top of the sales figures for years, but this year's flagship's sales figures might spell an unforeseen dive.

While the overall results of Samsung Electronics were good as expected, racking a 58.48 trillion won or around $53 billion in revenue, albeit being slightly less than in Q1 or last years Q2, and increasing the operating profit by 6% to around $13 billion, the top-of-the-line Galaxy smartphone has been suffering from disappointing sales numbers.

Samsung acknowledges that the sales of Galaxy S9 have been slow, and the iterative upgrade has obviously not been exciting enough. Apple and especially competing Android manufacturers are having a field day, but we'll see if that changes once Samsung releases the upcoming Galaxy Note9 smartphone expected in early August.

Fortunately for Samsung the smartphone slump has been filled by extraordinarily good memory sales. Both DRAM and NAND memory chips have been chipping in in record numbers.

WhatsApp has updated their mobile messaging platform with a major new feature. Facebook-owned, world's largest, instant messaging app first unveiled group calling in May, now it's finally available.

Group calls were introduced at Facebook's F8 conference in May and now the company has managed to finish the feature and released it in their mobile app. Both iOS and Android versions of WhatsApp got the feature.

Group calls offer both video and audio only calls between multiple people. There are limitations, though, and most importantly the group calls are limited to four concurrent connections.

Other platforms offer even up to 32 people chatting all at once. However, four people calls is a good start for WhatsApp, and it wouldn't be a complete surprise if the company will expand the support.

What is nice about the WhatsApp calls is that they are entirely end-to-end encrypted, a feature that has made WhatsApp's text messaging a huge success.

To make a group call you'll just make a regular call between two people and add the other recipients from the button on the top right.

This year's Google phone is soon just around the corner and we've been hearing a lot about the phones. Rumors have suggested that we get once again two phones in two distinct sizes.

Now we have also a new leak which offers a fresh look at the devices. A user of XDA Developers has released a few photos that are said to be depicting the upcoming Google Pixel 3 XL, the larger of the two phones.

While the backside hasn't changed an awful lot, although there is no dual tone colors, it is definitely clear from the display, and perhaps even more importantly the parts that lack a display (*ahem* notch *ahem*), that this is indeed not Pixel 2 XL.

The phone is an all white version that has a single camera in the back, as expected, and the front panel is dominated by a large display with a distinct notch. Google has not, however, gone as far as Apple and removed the tiny chin.

The notch seems to be even larger than on Apple's device or many competing Android phones, and it is likely because of the dual cameras that can be seen in one of the pictures below.

OnePlus, a Chinese smartphone company that became known by their Flagship Killer branding used in their early models, has now shared some amazing news to their users. The company has been among the best when it comes to updating their phones to new Android versions, and seemingly the company only is getting better at it.

Android's newest versio, dubbed Android P, is coming to not only the latest OnePlus models, namely the OnePlus 6, but even last years models (both OnePlus 5 and 5T) as well as two year. Those phones are of course the OnePlus 3 released in the summer of 2018 and OnePlus 3T released later that year.

Google is planning the final release of Android P later this fall alongside new Pixel smartphones. Currently the beta version is available for a few Android phones, one of which happens to be OnePlus 6.

The company has previously informed that it will support future devices at least two years regarding Android version updates after the phones release, but seems like it has been more generous to users of past devices, which is admirable. OnePlus also includes a third year of support in which it promises Android security updates.

Reliable and quick updates is one of the better ways smaller manufacturers can challenge big boys like Samsung, especially since most Android manufacturers have been utterly disappointing when it comes to software updates, and new versions of Android. Currently OnePlus stands as one of the better manufacturers in this respect alongside HMD Global, a Finnish company that creates the new Nokia Android phones.

Google has banned apps from the Play Store that are used to mine cryptocurrencies.

Having previously banned Chrome extensions that mine cryptocurrency, Google has banned apps from the Play Store that mine cryptocurrency using devices they are installed on. "We don't allow apps that mine crypto-currency on devices," an updated developer policy reads.

Apps that manage mining on remote systems like cloud computing platforms will still be allowed on the Play Store, however.

Mining cryptocurrency is a process-intensive task that can max out computing hardware. On portable devices like smartphones, this can cause overheating and drain the battery very quickly.

Cryptocurrency mining has also been adopted by malware distributors, using computing resources of infected devices to carry out mining operations out of sight. This tends to have a debilitating effect on overall system performance.

Source: BBC News

There are now 83 million Spotify customers paying for premium service as the Swedish streaming firm holds its lead in face of competition.

Spotify had previously reported crossing 70 million paid subscribers globally in January. Having jumped now to over 83 million paid subscribers, Spotify is continuing its impressive growth even though it faces increasing competition in the streaming marketplace.

In April, Apple announced that its own Apple Music streaming service had crossed over 40 million paying subscribers. Some analysts have predicted that Apple will catch up to and surpass its Swedish rival, having reportedly passed Spotify's U.S.-based subscriber tally by July of this year. At the end of this year, Apple may have around 3 million more U.S. subscribers than Spotify.

A lot of eyes are on Spotify's revenue as the streaming giant filed to go public in January of this year. The service has yet to make a profit.

via: The Verge

In several European countries, Google has recently raised its minimum age limit to 16 years. This means that minors under 16 cannot create new Google accounts at all, if their country of residence is one of those in Google's list.

The change is happening because of the European Union privacy legislation called GDPR that came into force in May, 2018. Legislation sets 16 as the minimum age when a child is capable to sign a contract that allows companies to handle their personal details.

GDPR gives EU member countries freedom to set lower age limit, but most EU countries are currently just in process of adjusting their own country-specific laws, thus, the universal age limit of 16 applies to such countries.

The list of countries that now require the age of 16 or more in order to create a new Google account include Finland, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, have already amended their own country-specific legislation and have different age limit than the GDPR standard is.

According to the Washington Post, Twitter purged more than 70 million accounts from the service since May.

The purge is part of Twitter's effort to fight against bots operating on its network, and also against "trolls" who abuse the company's terms of service. According to the report, many of the suspicious and fake accounts are remotely controlled bots that present all kinds of problems and threats.

A Twitter spokesperson told the Post that the purge was nothing new and was part of work to improve the health of the public conservation on Twitter.

He added that Twitter also took action against 142,000 applications responsible for spammy tweets on the social network.

As services like Twitter and Facebook take action against fake accounts, those responsible for them tend to change their ways to avoid detection. As new technologies including conversational AI become more widespread, it will be a much more difficult task to determine if an account represents a real individual or not.