Corning announces Gorilla Glass 6 to be stronger than ever

Corning makes the touchscreen glass for most smartphones around the world. Will cracked screens be a thing of the past?

Corning just unveiled its next-generation Gorilla Glass, developed specifically to be more resistant to drops and scratches. Corning says Gorilla Glass 6 is two times better than it’s predecessor at surviving drops from 1 meter. It also performed better from higher distances than Gorilla Glass 5.

In a press event, the company announced the upgrade and explained the testing and performance process. Not only was the glass designed to better resist drops, but it was also put through the paces to resist scratches from rough surfaces.

Gorilla Glass 6 has higher compression, which makes it more resistant to cracks when dropped on stress points from 1-meter heights. It’s getting better scratch resistance, too.

Gorilla Glass 6 is an entirely new glass composition that can be chemically strengthened to give it significantly higher levels of compression than is possible with Gorilla Glass 5. This enables Gorilla Glass 6 to be more resistant to damage,” said Dr. Jaymin Amin, vice president of technology and product development, Corning Gorilla Glass and Corning Specialty Materials. “Moreover, with breaks during drops being a probabilistic event, the added compression helps increase, on average, the likelihood of survival through multiple drop events.

Corning’s Gorilla Glass is what’s used on just about every smartphone nowadays, and as such, we can fully expect this sixth-generation version of it to be present on all of next year’s flagships — including the Galaxy S10, LG G8, etc.

Who’s hyped for stronger glass?

Moto Z3 Play review: Buy it on sale

Here are the best surviving deals from Prime Day

Prime Day is over. Saving is not.

Update: We have updated this post with plenty of deals that are still live as of July 18.

Amazon’s Prime Day 2018 is over, and the Thrifter team has sorted through thousands of products to find a few hundred of the best deals during the event. As expected, some deals sold out within minutes, but others lasted much longer than anticipated. Instead of trying to sort through all of the deals that have been posted to see what is or isn’t still available, we decided to make things easy for you.

Luckily, some of our favorite deals are still going strong even after two days of coverage. From memory cards to streaming media players to Xbox controllers, these deals continue to thrive. Many of them aren’t from Amazon, but all of them are low prices worth considering.

On Amazon

• $20 off $60 Home Essentials Purchase
• Audible subscription – $4.95 a month for 3 months
• BlackBerry KEYone unlocked smartphone – $399.99 (from $500)
• Lego Batman Movie The Batmobile building kit – $38.97 (from $48)
• Logitech MX Sound stereo speakers – $69.99 (from $100)
• Philips Hue candle bulbs – $24.99 (from $30)
• Philips Hue 4-pack white bulbs – $41.99 (from $50)
• Roku Streaming Stick – $34.99 (from $48)
• Samsung HMD Odyssey Windows mixed reality headset – $399 (from $500)
• Skullcandy Hesh 2 Bluetooth headphones – $49.99 (from $73)
• TCL 32-inch Roku 720p Smart TV – $129.99 (Was $200)
• Tekton 15-piece combination wrench set – $29.15 (from $42)
• WD Elements 4TB desktop hard drive – $79.99 (from $95)
• Xbox One Lego Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles video game – $29.99 (from $60)

Everywhere Else

• TP-Link HS100 Wi-Fi two smart plugs – $26.99 at B&H (from $43)
• Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum gaming mouse – $49.99 at eBay (from $65)
• Apple iTunes $100 gift card – $85 at eBay
• Vizio 70-inch 4K Ultra HD TV – $1,099.99 with $300 gift card at Dell (from $1,200)
• Xbox One Minecraft wireless controller – $39.99 at Walmart (from $65)

Remember, just because Prime Day is over doesn’t mean deals are. Our team at Thrifter is still working even now to find the best possible savings for you. Follow us on Twitter or visit our site for new deals all day, every day.

Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars – what’s changed

Head to the red planet to stop an alien invasion.

The latest Far Cry 5 expansion is out for those who want to extend their time in its murderous world. It’s called Lost on Mars, and it’s not quite what we expected to see.

What’s new in Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars?

As the name implies, this DLC takes you to the planet Mars. As pilot Nick Ryes, you find yourself flying so close to the stratosphere that you’re teleported to the red planet by a character named Hur Drubman Jr. Hurk was seemingly on a mission in space when he was dismembered by martian arachnids.

That’s right — Lost on Mars is all about finding someone’s reproductive organ, and other weird body parts, too. (The term “space junk” suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.) Hurk himself is somehow still alive despite being little more than a floating head inside a space helmet at this point.

Alongside finding his fond parts, Hurk’s ultimate goal is to reactivate an alien AI he’s fallen in love with. To do so, you’ll be tasked with collecting power cores to reactivate the alien structures found on the planet.

Alien enemies

Your task won’t be a walk in the park. You’ll find resistance in the form of an arachnid army. Some of these guys have sniper rifles and hardened armor. And there are queens in the background controlling them.

You eventually learn about their true goal: a plot to take over the earth. Your job, of course, is to stop them.

Zero gravity

You’ll traverse the planes of Mars with your gravity belt and a wingsuit. The belt allows you to make some incredible leaps, and it’s not just for dodging incoming enemy fire.

Your first need is to keep your boots off the sand. Enemies can detect your presence if you’re walking, so you’ll want to be jumping around as much as you can. But more than that, you’ll need to use the belt to scale the various puzzle towers in the game to activate those power cores. It makes for some fun new gameplay possibilities that wouldn’t have made sense in the base game.

Space weapons

A trip to Mars wouldn’t be a trip to Mars without being able to use some alien weaponry. You’ll have your usual range of laser-equipped rifles, pistols, and the like, as well as some unique things like the Blaster of Disaster, Hellfire, and the Morphinator.

That last one is a grenade that summons chickens meant to distract the aliens. There’s also a power glove that basically turns you into Luke Cage.

Back on earth, you’ll get to play around with weapons named Obliteratorrrr, Taser Phazer Annihilazer, Nerve Reaper, and Grape Popper. Those cults haven’t seen crazy until they’ve seen you use some of this stuff.

Far Cry Arcade

Those who enjoy making custom maps using Far Cry Arcade will appreciate the addition of the Mars assets. You’ll be able to make cool sci-fi maps as a result.

When can you play it?

Lost on Mars is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can buy the DLC for $10, but those who purchased the season pass for $30 will have access to it with no additional charge.

See at PlayStation Store

PlayStation 4

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Amazon

How to Use Screen Time in iOS 12

Apple in iOS 12 introduced Screen Time, which is designed to provide you with information on how you’re using your time on your iPhone and iPad.

With Screen Time, you can see how often you pick up your iOS device, which apps you’re using, which apps are sending the most notifications, and other details.

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Accessing Screen Time

There’s no dedicated app for Screen Time, so it might not be immediately obvious how it’s accessed when you first install iOS 12. All Screen Time features are actually available in the Settings app.

Open up the Settings app.
Scroll down to the “Screen Time” section that’s grouped with Notifications, Sounds, and Do Not Disturb.
Tap on “Screen Time” to see your usage statistics.

Screen Time Syncing

Screen Time statistics are collected from all iOS devices running iOS 12 where you’re logged in with your iCloud account. That means it will aggregate data from all iPhones and iPads that you use during the course of a day.

You can view your data across all devices or on a per device basis. To view other devices, tap on the “All Devices” label on the main Screen Time screen and then choose “Devices” from the upper right hand corner.

Info Available in Screen Time

When you open up Screen Time, a chart is displayed with information on your last 24 hours of iPhone usage, organized by each individual app or which app category you’ve used the most, such as Productivity, Games, Creativity, or Messages.

If you tap on that chart, you can see even more information from either the last 24 hours or the last 7 days, including your longest usage setting, the number of times you picked up your device during the day, and how many notifications you got, along with details on which apps are sending you the most notifications.

Other Screen Time Features

In the Screen Time section, you can set scheduled Downtime for yourself to restrict yourself (or a child) from using apps outside of those that have been allowed with App Limits, you can set specific time limits on app categories like social networking or games, and you can access Content & Privacy Restrictions, useful if you’re managing a child’s device.

If you use Family Sharing with a spouse, friend, or child, and you’re the family manager, you’ll also see family members’ names listed under “Family” and will be able to see and control their app usage.

These features are relatively simple to use, but we’ll be looking into them in more depth in future how tos.

Disabling Screen Time

If you don’t want to use Screen Time, you can turn it off in the Settings app.

Open the Settings app.
Tap “Screen Time.”
Scroll down to “Turn Off Screen Time” and tap it.
Turning off Screen Time on your device will delete all app, website, and notification history. You can re-enable Screen Time at any time, but it does not save data nor does it begin collecting data until enabled.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
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With a public API, Venmo’s default privacy settings expose private user data

Those who use Venmo as their primary money-transfer app, may want to consider changing their privacy settings. After a security researcher analyzed over 200 million Venmo transactions back in 2017, it became clear the app exposes a large amount of private details about its users, The Guardian reports.

The project was created by Berlin-based researcher Hang Do Thi Duc, who highlighted all of her findings via a website called “Public by Default.” On the site, she explains how she was able to learn an ‘alarming amount’ about Venmo’s users by pulling a total of 207,984, 218 transactions all via the app’s public application programming interface (API) — which can be accessed by anyone.

Even though Venmo does allow you to choose what is or isn’t public, all transactions are public by default — which some users may not realize. To protect your information, you can choose to make any future transactions visible by only the sender and recipient — that way, they won’t show up on the public feed. There’s also the option to make all past transactions private as well.

Using the logged data via the API, Do Thi Duc was able to piece together the lives of five different Venmo users identified as: ‘The Cannabis Retailer,’ ‘The Corn Dealer,’ ‘The Lovers,’ ‘The YOLOist,’ and ‘The All Americans.’ Each one includes stories of who they are with specific details she was able to find simply by sifting through their transactions — including exactly how many transactions were carried out by each person in 2017. While she was also able to see full names, she did not publish that identifying information.

“This Venmo user — a young woman with a Greek last name — had 2,033 transactions in eight months’ time. And through her Venmo transactions emerges an unhealthy portrait. She loves Coca Cola (280 transactions) and pizza (209 transactions), and often goes for coffee with the same three friends. She also likes to eat a lot of sweets, especially donuts,” she writes about ‘The YOLOist.’

On the site, Do Thi Duc explains the project will hopefully shed light on the fact that companies should be putting user data protection first. While Venmo’s public feed seems harmless — and even a source of entertainment for some — we don’t truly realize how much information we’re sharing. This includes your first and last name, transaction history, and blatantly revealing where and with whom you’re spending your time by listing who it is the money is going to.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Venmo will no longer let you pay or charge your friends on its website
• Don’t wait for a money transfer in Venmo — just use its Mastercard debit card
• Flipboard’s latest update makes it easier to stay on top of all things tech
• Facebook fuels fake-news fight with fleet of fact checkers
• Twitter sold tweets to the guy who made the Cambridge Analytica app

Benchmark test shows Core i9 severely throttled in 15-inch MacBook Pro

YouTuber Dave Lee is reporting what we already expected would happen with Apple’s latest 15-inch MacBook Pro refresh with the Core i9-8950HK six-core processor crammed inside: Performance throttling. There is just simply not enough space in the 0.61-inch-tall chassis to sufficiently cool the chip, thus to prevent damage from overheating, the MacBook Pro throttles down its speed.

The Core i9-8950HK is Intel’s first “Core i9” chip for mobile, and one of the company’s first six-core chips for laptops. Launched in April, it has a base speed of 2.9GHz, a maximum speed of 4.8GHz, 12MB of cache, and an integrated UHD Graphics 630 component. It’s a powerhouse of a mobile chip, but because of the MacBook Pro’s thin environment, the chip reportedly isn’t reaching its potential.

According to Lee, you can see the throttling begin after a few seconds of rendering in Adobe Premiere. It can’t even maintain its base speed of 2.9GHz, he says, and forget about hitting that maximum turbo speed. To give a taste of the throttling problem, he provides a rendering test.

In a normal office environment, the Core i9 rendered a 4K clip (H.264) in 39 minutes and 37 seconds. That is a few minutes faster than the Core i7-7820HQ four-core chip in 2017’s 15-inch MacBook Pro, which rendered the same clip in 35 minutes and 22 seconds. But when he ran the same rendering test in an open freezer, the Core i9’s time dropped down to 27 minutes and 18 seconds. That’s a 12-minute 19-second difference.

“This degree of thermal throttling is not acceptable,” he says. “This is isn’t something Apple should put out on the market and just blindly sell to people because people that purchase this device will never know their laptop is throttling to this degree. This type of thermal throttling affects the end user.”

This is a significant problem. Professionals looking for high-performance laptops will see these six-core chips — Intel’s Core i7-8750H is the cheaper option of the two — as a selling point for their investment. The base configuration with the Core i7, 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage is $2,799. Bump that configuration up to the Core i9 and you’re paying $3,099. For that price, you should get every ounce of performance the six-core chip provides.

That said, if you’re only using the MacBook Pro with Intel’s Core i9 to troll Facebook or shop on Amazon, you will never see the throttling. But the MacBook Pro really doesn’t target the mainstream user: It’s a MacOS laptop built for professionals that likely use Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, and/or develop software. It’s the “extended computational work” where the MacBook Pro throttles the Core i9’s performance.

Unfortunately, he didn’t go into details about the Core i7’s performance, but the report is good food for thought if you were eyeing the Core i9 version and its hefty ball-and-chain price tag. We expect to see more benchmarks pop up over the coming weeks as testers get their hands on the new MacBook Pros released last week.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The MacBook Pro may finally get updated with faster processors
• Intel Core i5 vs i7
• Intel’s Core i9 for laptops is great, but it’s not a true Core i9
• Intel throws down a gauntlet with its 28-core extreme CPU
• Rumored six-core MacBook Pro could be the fastest Apple ever made

Best Cheap Bluetooth Speakers Under $50 in 2018

Want to fill your house with lovely music? Check out these wireless speakers!

Nothing makes a party better than some music. And nothing makes playing music easier than a Bluetooth speaker, especially as more and more phone manufacturers omit the 3.5mm headphone jack. Fortunately, you don’t need to spend a fortune just to make your tunes louder.

These are the best cheap Bluetooth speakers under $50!

• Anker Soundcore 2
• Anker Soundcore mini
• Anker Classic Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker
• AUKEY Bluetooth Stereo Speaker
• AUKEY Outdoor Speaker Wireless Bluetooth

• ELEGIANT Bluetooth Computer Speakers

Anker Soundcore 2

Anker leads the pack when it comes to inexpensive accessories, and they have four great cheap speakers to choose from. “Cheap” doesn’t mean “junk”; these are well-built products that can withstand your day to day use. The best speaker for most people will be the standard Soundcore 2: this is a compact speaker that offers 24 hours of battery, 12 watts of sound, and surprisingly good bass for the size. The speaker is rated IPX5 water-resistant: don’t expect it to survive a raging river, but it’s fine to take in the shower. This speaker charges with Micro-USB, and features a 3.5mm input in addition to Bluetooth 4.2.

Anker’s Soundcore 2 speaker is available in black for $40, and in blue or red for $42.

See at Amazon

Anker Soundcore mini

If you need something even more compact, Anker still has you covered. Its Soundcore mini has a shorter battery life, doesn’t get as loud or as bassy, but is more compact in return. The cylindrical speaker fires your music up, with play/pause and volume buttons on the front. Around back you’ll find the Micro-USB charging port, 3.5mm input and microSD slot, and you can, of course, connect to your phone with Bluetooth 4.0. The battery allows for 15 hours of playtime, more than enough for most parties. There’s no official IP rating, so exercise caution if you want to use this while you shower.

The Anker Soundcore mini is available in black, gold, grey and pink for $30.

See at Amazon

Anker Classic Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

If you want a bit of a different design, Anker’s Classic Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker is for you. This speaker is shaped like a cube instead of a cylinder, but the speaker still fires up to fill out your space. The play/pause and volume buttons are still accessible on the front, and the Micro-USB port, 3.5mm jack and power switch are still located on the back. The battery is good for between 15 and 20 hours of playback, depending on your volume. Once again there’s no IP rating, so don’t try to take this near the pool.

Anker’s Classic Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker is available in black for $28.

See at Amazon

AUKEY Bluetooth Stereo Speaker

AUKEY is another big name in the accessory space, and it offers great Bluetooth speakers as well. Its Bluetooth Stereo Speaker sounds great and looks classy, the two most important things for speakers to do. Playback controls are located on top, with the speakers facing outward to blast through your rooms. The Micro-USB charging port and 3.5mm input jack are located on the back, and you can, of course, connect to your phone with Bluetooth 4.0. Battery life is weak at only ten hours, so you’ll be making frequent use of that charging port. There’s no IP rating, so be cautious of where you use this speaker.

AUKEY’s Bluetooth Stereo Speaker is available in silver for $44.

See at Amazon

AUKEY Outdoor Speaker Wireless Bluetooth

If you need something with super long battery life, something that can take a beating — or both — AUKEY has another speaker just for you. Its Outdoor speaker offers 30 hours of playback and a rugged design that’ll gladly accompany you on a trip to the lake or up in the mountains. The Micro-USB charging port and 3.5mm audio jack are hidden behind a rubber door, and playback controls are on top. The speaker even features a threaded hole for mounting it to a tripod, bicycle, or another compatible accessory. There’s no official IP rating, but AUKEY says the speaker is “water-resistant.”

AUKEY’s Outdoor speaker is available for $47.

See at Amazon

ELEGIANT Bluetooth Computer Speaker

If you’re looking for something a bit more permanent — or need a speaker to pull double duty at your computer desk — ELEGIANT has the speaker for you. This speaker can be permanently placed to output music from your desktop, or it can come with you for parties. Battery life isn’t great at between five and ten hours, but if you keep this plugged in at your computer station a majority of the time that won’t be an issue. This can connect to devices with either Bluetooth 4.0 or a 3.5mm jack. Playback controls are on the back, but volume is controlled with a lovely knob on the right side. ELEGIANT doesn’t mention any sort of water resistance, so keep this away from the river.

ELEGIANT’s Bluetooth Computer Speaker is available for $40.

See at Amazon

What’s your pick?

Which cheap speaker do you like the most? Let us know down below!

Treat yourself to a refurbished Acer Chromebook 15 for just $225

A refurb worthy of your purchase!

Amazon currently has the Acer Chromebook 15 on sale for $224.99 in certified refurbished condition. It’s being sold directly from Acer’s recertified store and comes with a minimum of 90-days of warranty coverage in case you run into any issues, but each one is tested to work and look like new before as part of the refurbishment process. It has a 15-inch display, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and obviously runs Google’s ChromeOS.

There may not be a ton of local storage, but keep in mind that Google offers 100GB of Google Drive space to help keep your files backed up in the cloud. This price is good for today only, so be sure to grab one now!

See at Amazon

Best Verizon Wireless Deals & Promotions

No matter what T-Mobile says, you can actually find some pretty great deals on Verizon.

Verizon Wireless has some of the largest coverage for customers in the United States, and although T-Mobile likes to continually poke fun at the carrier for having high monthly rates, there are actually some really solid deals to be found if you know where to look.

You can typically find quite a few deals being run by Verizon at any given time, but if you only want to look at the best of the best and don’t have time to sift through the garbage, that’s where we come in.

These are best deals on Verizon Wireless right now.

Buy one top Android phone, get another for free!

As awesome as flagship smartphones are, their high prices are a pain in the butt — especially when buying more than one at the same time. Thankfully, Verizon’s got you covered no matter what you’ve got your eye on.

Right now, you can buy one flagship phone and get another one for free or with a heavy discount — no trade-in required. This promotion is available for the Google Pixel 2/2 XL, Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+, LG G7 ThinQ, Galaxy Note 8, and more.

The one caveat to this deal is that you’ll need to add one new line of service in order to be eligible, but assuming you need to add another line to your account or are looking to switch to Verizon, this is a great offer.

See at Verizon

Score $50 off the JBL Link 10, Link 20, and Link 300

Bluetooth speakers are essential for making the most out of your summer, and to help you do just that, Verizon’s offering $50 off the JBL Link 10, Link 20, and Link 300. As such, prices work out to $99, $149, and $199, respectively.

This offer is good through the rest of July, so be sure to act quickly if you want to take advantage of it.

Also, since none of the speakers require a data connection of any sort, you can purchase them and still get the discount even if you’re not a Verizon Wireless subscriber!

See at Verizon

Take $150 off the Galaxy Tab S3 w/ purchase of an Android phone

Android tablets may not be all that popular these days, but if you’re in the market for one, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S3 is one of the best you can buy.

The Tab S3 is still pretty expensive on Verizon with a price of $599 on a two-year contract, but you can take $150 off when purchased with any Android phone.

That brings the tablet down to just $449, and while still not cheap, is a heck of a lot more affordable.

See at Verizon

Save $50 – $150 on the Asus ZenPad Z10

If the Galaxy Tab S3 is still more expensive than what you’re looking to spend on a new tablet, you may be interested in Asus’s ZenPad Z10.

The Z10 isn’t quite as flashy as the Tab S3, but it’s still worth a look thanks to its 10-inch IPS 2K display, DTS-HD premium audio, and up to 20 hours of battery life with regular use.

When you make 24 monthly payments on the ZenPad Z10, you can get it for just $11.66/month for a total savings of $50. If you don’t mind signing a two-year contract, you can pick it up for only $179.99 ($150 off the regular $329.99 retail price).

See at Verizon

Updated July 2018: Added new deals for July!

Carriers

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• Join the Discussion

Get the training required to pass the CompTIA Security+ exam for just $59!

When it comes to data security, CompTIA is the golden standard of certification. If you’re interested in a career in data security, you’ll need to pass the Security+ (SY0-501) exam

The problem here is that the training covers a broad range of topics and the courses required are usually not cheap. Right now, however, Android Central Digital Offers has a deal on the 2018 CompTIA Security Certification Training Bundle, you’ll pay just $59. That’s 98 percent off the regular price!

This training bundle contains 14 courses with over 140 hours of content included, which covers everything from everything you need to know to pass the various IT certification exams.

If you’re interested in becoming a certified data security specialist, this is the course you need. Don’t wait too long — this price is only here for a limited time.

See at Android Central Digital Offers