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Arrestee leaves Yelp

Christian Willoughby had a bad day last week when he was taken in to the Grimsby Police Station in England on an unspecified misdemeanor charge. The one bright spot for him was that he reportedly managed to sneak a mobile device into the cell with him. He later posted a Facebook selfie, a series of photos and a review that …

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Sony’s PlayStation Vue cord

Ditching your cable TV subscription just got easier, no matter where you live in the United States. PlayStation Vue, a service that streams live and on-demand TV over the Internet, is now available everywhere in the country, and for a lower price than ever. Starting today in 203 US TV markets, you can subscribe to the service for as little …

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Case maker ‘outs’ iPhone SE, confirms arrival next week

Next week, on March 21, Apple will take the wraps off some new products. As always, the rumor mill is cranking away, with much of the speculation focusing on a smaller iPhone. Speculate no more. This morning, case-maker Patchworks sent an email with the subject line “iPhone SE products.” Slip of the subject-line tongue? No, because the body of the …

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YouTube started as an online dating site

Long before Tinder made swiping a thing for matchmaking apps, there was a little-known video site trying to play cupid to the Internet generation: YouTube. That’s not exactly what comes to mind when you think of the world’s largest video site, which welcomes a billion visitors a month. But that’s how the YouTube, which Google bought in 2006 for $1.6 …

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Screening Room wants to take ‘going to the movies’ out of going to the movies

Would you pay $50 to stream a movie at home? What if it meant skipping the queues and seeing the movie on the same day it opens in theaters? That’s the proposition behind Screening Room, the new streaming service from Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker and entertainment mogul Prem Akkaraju. And with Variety reporting that Streaming Room …

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Samsung Galaxy S7’s one flaw: It still runs Android

For the last several years, I’ve created a wish list of features I’d like to see in the next iPhone. Inevitably, when that new iPhone is unveiled it’s missing about half the “most-wanted” items on the list, leaving them to be carried over to the following year’s iPhone. It’s hard then not to look at the new Samsung Galaxy S7 …

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Avoid a phone bill shocker when going country

Spring break is almost upon us, which means it’s time to dust off your passport and get traveling. I’ve got a few tips to make traveling overseas with your cell phone a little less scary. In this edition of Ask Maggie, I offer advice about using your carrier’s international service plan versus an international SIM card. Dear Maggie, My family …

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Extreme performance: The Pass Labs HPA

As the selection of cost-no-object headphones grows, I keep looking for the very best headphone amplifiers. This all-new amp from Pass Labs, the HPA-1, should satisfy all but the most devout audiophiles. The power transformer was custom designed specifically for this amplifier; the circuits are low-feedback, wide-bandwidth designs employing JFET transistor input stages and Class A direct-coupled MOSFET output stages. …

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