Apple WWDC 2021: the 15 biggest announcements

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Catch up on the news from Apple’s big developer conference

Apple just wrapped up its WWDC 2021 keynote, and it was jam-packed with news and announcements, including our first looks at iOS 15, the new macOS Monterey, big improvements to FaceTime, and more. 

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How to use a Bitcoin mining calculator

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How to use a Bitcoin mining calculator

If you’re considering mining Bitcoin, it’s important to figure out how to mine in the most profitable way. This is where a Bitcoin mining calculator comes into play. By inputting various parameters, the calculator will show you how long it will take to pay back your investment. This will help you to decide whether Bitcoin mining is right for you. Why should I use a Bitcoin mining calculator? Mining Bitcoin used to be a fairly simple process. You could set up a computer to solve complex maths problems and, in return, receive Bitcoin. It was possible to earn Bitcoin quickly just by using the computing power in your home. Now, however, the process has become more complicated. Some people are

If you’re considering mining Bitcoin, it’s important to figure out how to mine in the most profitable way.

This is where a Bitcoin mining calculator comes into play. By inputting various parameters, the calculator will show you how long it will take to pay back your investment. This will help you to decide whether Bitcoin mining is right for you.

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Nokia 8 revealed in leaked images with dual-camera Zeiss optics

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Nokia 8
 Venture Beat

HMD Global, the Finnish company that licensed the rights to produce Nokia phones, revealed its Zeiss partnership earlier this month. HMD is now bringing back the Zeiss branding on Nokia-branded phones, and it appears the first one will emerge later this month. Venture Beatand WinFuture both report that HMD will launch a Nokia 8 handset on July 31st, with dual-cameras. Both cameras are said to be 13 megapixels and include Carl Zeiss optics.

The Nokia 8 is also expected to feature a 5.3-inch display (2560 x 1440), a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB or 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and dual-SIM models. Venture Beat has supplied a leaked photo of the Nokia 8 in a blue variant, but the phone is also expected to debut in silver and gold versions.

Windows Phone dies today

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An end of an era

Microsoft is killing off Windows Phone 8.1 support today, more than three years after the company first introduced the update. The end of support marks an end to the Windows Phone era, and the millions of devices still running the operating system. While most have accepted that the death of Windows Phone occurred more than a year ago, AdDuplex estimates that nearly 80 percent of all Windows-powered phones are still running Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8, or Windows Phone 8.1. All of these handsets are now officially unsupported, and only 20 percent of all Windows phones are running the latest Windows 10 Mobile OS.

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Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again is now the most-viewed YouTube video of all time

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No more Gangnam Style

The music video for Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” featuring Charlie Puth just became the most-viewed YouTube video of all time. As first pointed out by BBC News, the video currently has more than 2,895,915,000 views, pushing it ahead of Psy’s 2012 song “Gangnam Style,” which held the record previously.

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RIP to Bradley Lowery. An amazing child who fought for such a long time. He’s now in a better place. Warrior ❤️

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Sunderland football mascot Bradley Lowery dies

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Six-year-old cancer sufferer Bradley Lowery, the Sunderland mascot who developed a friendship with Jermain Defoe, has died.

“My brave boy has went with the angels today… in mammy and daddies arms surrounded by his family,” a Facebook post said.

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Bradley suffered from the rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma

“He was our little superhero and put the biggest fight up but he was needed elsewhere.

“There are no words to describe how heartbroken we are. Thank you everyone for all your support and kind words.

“Sleep tight baby boy and fly high with them angels.”

Sunderland Football Club, for whom Bradley had been a mascot, praised the six-year-old’s “indomitable spirit, tremendous courage and beautiful smile, which could light up even the darkest of rooms.”

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On Thursday, England forward Jermain Defoe who had formed a close bond with the youngster, broke down during a news conference at his new club Bournemouth when asked about Bradley’s health.

The superstar striker, said: “There is not a day that goes past where I do not wake up in the morning and check my phone or think about little Bradley because his love is genuine and I can see it in his eyes. It is special.”

The six-year-old had been battling a rare form of childhood cancer – neuroblastoma – since he was just 18-months old.

However, after beating the disease once, it had returned again in July 2016. His condition has deteriorated quickly over the last few weeks.

It was when appearing as a mascot for Sunderland’s Premier League match against Chelsea in December 2016, that Bradley had struck up a friendship with his “best friend” Defoe.

The football star had often visited him in hospital, and last week attended a party Bradley’s family had held for him.

A minute’s applause will be held for Bradley ahead of Friday’s match between Sunderland and Bury Football club, with the players and fans paying their respects to the mascot and his family.

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Spider-Man’s Vulture Is the Best Marvel Movie Villain in Years

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Michael Keaton in Spider-Man: Homecoming. 

Spoilers for Spider-Man: Homecoming below.

It’s no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a villain problem. Over the course of 16 films and 200-odd hours of television, the wildly lucrative fictional mythos has offered up an array of baddies to antagonize our do-gooder saviors, but precious few of them really stick in one’s mind. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is delectably slimy in The Avengers and David Tennant’s genteel rapist Kilgrave is blood-freezing in Jessica Jones, but beyond that, it’s hard to get too excited about many of them. Do you have nightmares about Ronan the Accuser? Do you see a lot of Yellowjacket costumes at Halloween? Can you remember any lines spoken by Obadiah Stane?

Part of the problem is that Disney’s Marvel Studios operation is legally barred from making movies featuring Marvel Comics’ richest and most durable antagonists. Thanks to film-rights deals made decades ago, Fox has exclusive access to the rogues galleries of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. That means no Doctor Doom for the MCU. Ixnay on Magneto. No dice on Mystique. Galactus? Fuhgeddaboudit. The few A-listers that Marvel Studios did have access to have mostly been used up by now. We’ve largely resigned ourselves to enjoyable bits of scenery-chewing from famous actors who pop up for a Marvel picture, give us a little frisson of delight at their presence, and then fade from our memories like a half-remembered stress dream.

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China is investigating that weird, traffic-straddling bus, which in retrospect was totally a scam

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Last year, the internet briefly caught fire when pictures of a weird, elevated bus that glides above traffic began circulating around. The so-called “straddling bus” was held up as a solution to China’s notorious traffic problems, but all anyone wanted to talk about was how it looked like the bus was eating cars, or how insane anyone would have to be to actually drive underneath.

But as the months ticked by, the Transit Elevated Bus (as it was known) failed to stand up to much scrutiny. Jalopnik noticed how shabby the thing looked on closer inspection. And when CNN sent its reporters to investigate further, all they discovered was a “hulking eyesore” that was causing traffic rather than shuttling passengers above it.

Now it seems like the local authorities have finally caught on. According to Quartz, police in Beijing are investigating whether the company behind TEB was illegally raising money through an online portal. This news comes a week after the government announced that it planned to remove the 300-meter track the bus was supposed to run on by the end of the month.

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#July4th “Americans are in no celebratory mood this 4th of July. But they should be”

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Barbeque
As the United States commemorates 241 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Americans are not in a celebratory mood. By most polls, 60% of the country believes that America is on the wrong track; that number is slightly higher among Republicans. 

That sour mood is not a product of the Trump administration; the last time a majority believed the country was headed in the right direction was right after the US invasion of Iraq in 2004. And this is not solely an American phenomenon.

According to global polls conducted by Pew, in France, Spain, Great Britain, Poland. Mexico, you name it, less than 40% of the public feel that their polities are headed in a positive direction. Notable exceptions are China, Vietnam and Germany, each of which have been doing rather well economically, though so have many other nations whose citizens are far less sanguine.

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Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube launch anti-terrorism partnership

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Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube have launched a partnership aimed at combating terrorists online. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism builds on several existing initiatives, which are designed to scrub terrorist recruitment material from the internet and promote counter-narratives to potential recruits. The forum is supposed to make it easier for its members to cooperate with each other, as well as with governments, smaller companies, and non-governmental organizations.