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Just in time for their winter break, students can enjoy YouTube Music and YouTube Premium at affordable prices. The special plans come for US$4.99 a month for YouTube Music Premium and US$6.99 for YouTube Premium, but those who sign up by the end of January 2019 can get YouTube Premium for the special rate of US$5.99.

Canadians are friendlier than Americans. You hear this stereotype again and again all over the USA. But at least on Twitter, there seems to be something true about it.

The new 860 QVO SSD drive uses a Samsung MJX controller and will be available next month in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB versions. This 2.5-inch SATA drive provides sequential read/write speeds of up to 550/520 MB/s and random read/write performance of up to 97/89K IOPS. The prices will start at US$149.99.

Apple has reportedly reduced orders from iPhone component suppliers again. According to DigiTimes, a "second wave" of order cuts is beginning to bring pain to some Taiwanese manufacturers. Apple is continuing to blame poor sales of the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR for the order reductions.

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo is proving to be one of the more innovative smartphone makers on the market – or at least one that is happy to experiment with new technology. Leaked photos of the sequel to its clever all-screen Vivo NEX with pop up camera show that the company is radically changing course once again for its flagship smartphone.

Engaging in conversations over media such as SMS with corporations is an increasingly popular and effective method of driving brand engagement and sales in the US. This behavior increased by over 400% in some instances on 2018's Black Friday compared to this time last year. It is thought to have a generally positive effect on consumer spending.

The FCC just posted every piece of information you could want to know about the Moto G7 Play. There's some good (like the Snapdragon 632 processor), some bad (like the smaller 2820 mAh battery), and some confusing (like the large notch in the display).

Earlier today, the first benchmark of the upcoming Exynos 9820-driven Samsung Galaxy S10 surfaced on AnTuTu. The handset in question is internally referred to as "beyond2" and might hit the market as the Galaxy S10+ (SM-G975F). In this test, the Exynos chip was clocked at up to 2.7 GHz and the final score was 325,076.

Antlion Audio claims that its ModMic Wireless attachment adds mic capabilities to any kind of headphone. It has the aptX low-energy Bluetooth codec, 16-bit 48khz audio and a USB type A receiver. The ModMic Wireless also has a patented clasp to stay attached to its headphone cup.

Renders based on leaked information of the Sony Xperia XZ4 have surfaced, courtesy of Steve Hemmerstoffer (@OnLeaks) and MySmartPrice. The renders show some notable design shifts, such as a flat front display, a triple-camera setup on the back, and a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button on the side. Note that these renders are based on rumors and leaks and should be taken as such.

As revealed by Geekbench, the Exynos 7870-driven Samsung Galaxy M10 (SM-M105F) might just be the lowest-end model of the upcoming Galaxy M family. Its specs also include 3 GB of memory and 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage space (two distinct models). The unit tested on Geekbench runs Android 8.1 Oreo.

More images of the Pixel 3 Lite "Sargo" have surfaced, showing the mid-range Google phone sitting right next to popular devices like the iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and Google Pixel 3 XL.

Samsung is determined to make its 2019 S10 flagships some of the most impressive Android devices in recent times, and that determination shows in the camera hardware the phones are said to sport, with the S10+, for example, touted to feature five cameras in total.

The Nokia 9 Pureview could be the most interesting device to come out of the stables of the Finnish OEM but its launch has apparently been delayed once again. That isn't a bad thing by itself but circumstances effectively make the Nokia flagship DOA, just like the Nokia 8 Sirocco was at the start of the year.

The new Redmi Note 6 Pro went on sale in India across the weekend. Xiaomi sells its phones in the region using flash sales, and the first of such sales saw over 600,000 units of the mid-range phone sold.

Huawei's Honor 8X mid-range phone is currently receiving the Android Pie-based EMUI 9 beta update in China. The Honor 8X has been confirmed for a US launch, and we expect a late December event.

In a blog post released earlier today, Sony revealed that it would be using the PAL version of nine titles on the PlayStation Classic. The PAL versions will be included in the North American PlayStation Classic as well. Considering that North America televisions operate on the NTSC standard, the format difference could cause these games playing at different speeds or glitch out, rendering them unplayable.

A recent entry in SiSoftware's SANDRA database lists AMD's upcoming "Rome" EPYC CPU with double the L3 cache as prior Zen CPUs. Detailed as "16 x 16 MB L3," this would put total L3 cache for Rome at 256 MB across its 64 cores, utterly trouncing Intel's forthcoming Cascade Lake CPUs. However, this is still a rumor and should be treated as such.

A group known for Nintendo Switch piracy has obtained and distributed a full file dump of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, set to release in two weeks on December 7th. While early game leaks are not uncommon, a leak this far in advance is quite unusual, especially a leak of a game as hotly anticipated as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Microsoft has come very close to matching Apple’s market capitalization value today. At the time of writing, Microsoft’s market cap was US$817.28 billion compared to Apple’s US$828.64 billion. Earlier in the day, the two tech giants had been within around US$3 billion of each other. A comment from President Donald Trump about potential trade tariffs caused Apple’s stock price to fall.

If you somehow missed all the Black Friday deals, not all is lost. Cyber Monday is here with similar bargains and Newegg has some of the best laptop deals around. This time we are taking a look at what Asus, Dell and Lenovo have to offer. Most of the models come with Intel CPUs but there is one AMD Ryzen model that might catch your eye.

The upcoming refresh — which will bring Microsoft's Android launcher to version 5.1 — already looks impressive. The Beta build shows To-Do integration, Sticky Notes, as well as a set of features that are Microsoft's answer to Google's Digital Wellbeing. This update should arrive in a few days.

Initially meant to get a US$500 MSRP, AMD's Radeon RX Vega 64 GPU had to go through serious supply problems that jacked the retail prices to almost US$800. Fast forward one year later, the card supply is almost too high now, and thanks to AMD's price slashes plus the Cyber Monday deals from Newegg, the RX Vega 64 can be ordered for US$400 along with three free games.

Asus has announced a new addition to its VivoBook line-up: The VivoBook 14 (X420). The laptop has a reported 87% screen-to-body ratio, measures 322.4 x 210 x 17.77 mm and it weighs just 1.4 kg. The device can be supplied with up to an eighth-generation Intel Core i7 CPU and a SATA III SSD offering 128 GB to 512 GB of storage.

Get the Spectre x360 13t for just $850 USD while it lasts. The convertible has apparently become HP's "#1 selling Spectre" while the "top seller" is the last generation budget AMD-powered HP 15z for only $320 USD.

The leaker IceUniverse has shared an image that appears to portray a Huawei phone with an Infinity-O-like display via Twitter. This tweet also suggests that the phone in question will be a competitor to the Samsung Galaxy A8s, and that this device will be released in December. However, the unnamed Huawei counterpart may beat the mid-range Galaxy to launch.

Although there have been a couple of leaks on Rome's performance, AMD's newest server CPU has never been put head to head against Intel's immediate competition, the new Cascade Lake based Xeon server CPU. However, Wang Dang of HKEPC has apparently gotten access to a Cascade Lake based system and reported the Cinebench score is achieved.

Samsung devices with the model numbers SM-G975F, DS SM-G975F and SM-G975X have been spotted in a certification on the website of the Russian body ROSTEST. These numbers could well pertain to the Galaxy S10, and suggest that at least 2 variants of the upcoming flagship are undergoing official approval already.

The US carrier T-Mobile is offering US$580 in bill credits when a OnePlus 6T is bought on a monthly plan today (November 26, 2018). However, this deal requires an eligible device to trade in and for the customer to add a new line to their T-Mobile account. It also applies to the 8/128GB variant of the 6T only.

Apple will appear before the U.S. Supreme Court today to argue that a lawsuit brought against it is invalid. Apple claims that the lawsuit, which alleges that the iOS App Store creates a monopoly for the company, could only be brought by app developers, not the end users. If Apple is successful, then the case will be dismissed. Otherwise, Apple could be taken to court for potentially monopolistic practices.

Apparently called First Snow White to commemorate the first snowfall of the year in Taiwan, the white Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is now official. Obviously, this color option for Samsung's latest Galaxy Note also comes with a white S Pen. Those interested will be able to buy it starting next month for the equivalent of almost US$1,000.

This franchise that has been around since 2011 — when the first Kingdom Rush title was introduced as a free flash browser game — is back to Android and iOS as Kingdom Rush Vengeance. This new fantasy tower defense title involves fights against trolls, orcs, wizards, in various environments such as forests, wastelands, and mountains.

Dell has denied that there are any BIOS related GPU issues with XPS 15 9570 laptops, the company has informed us. Despite providing the company with data and numerous online posts demonstrating otherwise, it has not been able to determine what is causing some NVIDIA GPUs to throttle until reaching 48 °C/118 °F.

Samsung is offering US$200 discount on all unlocked 2018 Galaxy flagship devices including the Galaxy S9, S9 Plus, and Note 9 across all memory and storage variants. These discounts are instant without any bill credits and are available through Cyber Monday. They can be availed by purchasing these phones via Amazon, Samsung, and B&H Photo.

A Twitter user going by the handle @momomo_us, who has some credit as a prolific leaker, has found a Lenovo datasheet of a laptop that features new Intel 9000 series mobile CPUs. While the document does not specify core count, clock speed, or other specifications, it does confirm that these CPUs are based on the Whiskey Lake architecture that launched in early October and implies that these new CPUs are refreshes of previous 8000 series Whiskey Lake CPUs.

According to a Taiwanese forum thread that claims to have information from an inside partner meeting, Intel may be developing a 10-core consumer-grade CPU in the Comet Lake-S family. The CPU would be built on the 14 nm process and may use a dual-ring bus design, implying that the CPU will split cores between two dies.

ASRock has released its Phantom Gaming 6 motherboard. It supports X399 Threadripper CPUs, up to 128GB of 3400MHz OC DDR4 RAM, Phantom Gaming 2.5G and Intel Gigabit LAN. It also has 7.1 channel audio, 3 PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots, 3 M.2 slots and, of course, RGB.

The UK Parliament has seized important internal Facebook documents from an executive of the software start-up Six4Three. The unprecedented move is believed to be partly in response for Mark Zuckerberg’s failure to stand before British politicians and answer questions in regard to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook is also facing accusations that employees knew about privacy policy loopholes and assisted in exploiting them.

It's a bit larger and heavier, but the HP convertible is the more versatile option especially in regard to its integrated 4G LTE Cat. 16 connectivity. The leather casing and brown colors fit perfectly in a coffee shop setting.

LG have filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a camera module that could have as many as 16 lenses, as well as the means of controlling the same via a phone's UI. This development could revolutionize 3D photography and similar functions.

Details of the core clusters on the upcoming Snapdragon 8150 have surfaced, throwing more light on what we should expect from the next-gen Qualcomm SoC, performance-wise. We also take a look at how the flagship SoC stacks up against its rival Kirin 980.

Google's newly launched Pixel 3 phones are mostly incremental upgrades over their predecessors. Google could very well make a comeback with some exciting devices next year, as word of two more devices surface in the wild.

Huawei is set to release the successor to last year's Huawei P Smart. Details of the Huawei P Smart (2019) have surfaced, showing a mid-ranger with a teardrop notch, dual rear cameras, and a Kirin 710.

HTC's mobile division has been on a downward path for the past few years but the company has soldiered on till now. According to reports, the Taiwanese company is set to keep fighting till its very last breath, and still plans to release smartphones next year.

In a report published by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), it was revealed that LinkedIn has been using 18 million non-user emails to generate targeted ads on Facebook. It was also shown that LinkedIn has been using the personal data of its users to automatically build professional networks.

Some innovative gamers have gotten Pokémon: Let's Go to boot and run on the Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu. Despite the game only being a week old, it is somewhat playable, although there are numerous glitches and oddities. The framerate is highly inconsistent and the audio is a mess, but the fact that a week old game is playable via emulation is impressive.

AMD posted a response to a common complaint from Ryzen-based laptop users on Reddit earlier this week, stating that the company would better support graphics drivers for Ryzen laptops starting in 2019. However, AMD plans to work with laptop OEMs and depend on them to release device-specific graphics drivers twice a year. The response garnered further criticisms of what many see as a lazy blame-shifting solution.

Stardew Valley is a bonafide hit, and the success keeps rolling in. In its first three weeks on iOS, the game brought in over $1 million in revenue. In total, Stardew Valley has sold over 4.6 million copies, although it's likely sold many, many more.

[Update: Cyber Monday deals now live.] If you're comfortable with spending $200 on a lesser-known smartphone instead of $500 or more on a name brand, then these Chinese smartphone deals may be of interest. The UMIDIGI UMI Z2 and Leagoo S9 can be had for just $210 and $160, respectively, for this weekend only.

Three years after it began, crowdfunding for the highly-anticipated Shenmue 3 has finally closed. After the initial Kickstarter raised $6.3 million in 2015, Yu Suzuki (the mind behind Shenmue) opted to re-open the Kickstarter and accept payments via Paypal. This garnered an additional $850,000, bringing the crowdfunding total to about $7.17 million.