The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal has long been home to the Canadian Grand Prix. The artificial island was originally built for Expo 67 but was later remodeled for the 1976 Olympics; a race track was then constructed out of the roads on the island in 1978. F1 has come and gone in the US and Mexico in that time, but Canada has been a near-constant, missing just 2009.

Many of those races have been classics. 2007 saw Lewis Hamilton’s first win, when he was a rookie with McLaren. (Takuma Sato’s sixth place in the Super Aguri made that day even better.) 2010 had such extreme tire degradation that then-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone had Pirelli build that into its tires from 2011 as a feature, one that at times had a highly deleterious effect on racing.

Yesterday’s race in Montreal will not be remembered as one of the all-time great Canadian F1 races. Well, perhaps it will by the Mercedes team, which scored its first win of the year with George Russell, and rookie Kimi Antonelli finished third, claiming his first podium. Montreal lacks the long-duration corners that overheat the Mercedes’ tires past their best. Instead, it rewards good traction and good braking, both attributes that the silver arrows’ car possesses.

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The Trump Organization on Monday unveiled a mobile phone plan and a $499 smartphone that is set to launch in September. CNBC: The new service, Trump Mobile, will offer a $47.45-per-month plan that includes “unlimited” talk, text and data, as well as roadside assistance and a “Telehealth and Pharmacy Benefit,” according to its website. The company, owned by President Donald Trump, also announced it will sell a “T1” smartphone, which appears to feature a gold-colored metal case etched with an American flag.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you’re having trouble swiping around your Pixel, or using the on-screen navigation buttons, you’re not alone. It seems with last week’s Android 16 update, Google inadvertently introduced a bug for some Pixel users, which now makes it difficult to get around their brand-new version of Android—no matter which navigation method they’re using.

As Android Headlines reports, the complaints have been rolling onto social media sites and forums, like X and Reddit. Some claim navigation buttons on their Pixels have become totally unresponsive, while others experience delays around 30 seconds (if not longer) any time they try to hit a button. Still others have issues with navigation gestures—Android Police founder Artem Russakovskii highlights how swiping back, which should take the user back to the previous page or app, will just randomly do nothing.

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To be clear, it doesn’t appear that this is a bug affecting most Pixel users running Android 16. In fact, some users in these Reddit threads confirm their Pixels running Android 16 are working as expected. One user even says they’ve had the opposite experience, that their Pixel 9 Pro XL feels “super smooth,” in response to a Pixel 6 owner who says their device is now unusable.

Still, this is a huge pain for anyone who owns a phone with the glitch. Don’t get me wrong: There was a time when we were primed to wait 30 seconds or more after asking our computers to perform a function. But those days have long passed. Modern smartphones especially are designed to be fast, fluid, and responsive. Even a short delay between an input and its corresponding action feels like a bad user experience, so painfully slow delays, not to mention a totally unresponsive UI, is unacceptable in 2025.

Troubleshooting navigation issues on Pixel

There’s no official fix for this issue at this time. However, after scrolling through forum posts, I see some workarounds to troubleshoot the issue and get your Pixel working again.

The original poster of this Reddit thread, for example, later commented to share that switching their Android launcher fixed the glitches. The OP moved back to the Pixel launcher from Nova, which surprised them, since they had been using Nova for the past decade without issue. One reply says they have a similar problem when using Nova.

While this could be a compatibility issue with Nova and Android 16, it does seem to go beyond Nova itself. Another Pixel owner using Pixel Launcher has the same problems, and shared their workaround: First, pull down on the navigation bar twice to access the settings button in the bottom right. Then, head to Apps > All apps > Pixel Launcher, then choose “Force stop.”

Could this be a general issue with launchers on Android 16? Possibly, but we won’t know for sure until Google officially addresses the issue. The official PixelCommunity Reddit account did reach out to one OP about the problem, so hopefully the company pushes a patch out quickly.

Donald Trump is launching a cellular brand called Trump Mobile. The newly formed company, which was announced today by Donald Trump Jr., will sell a single wireless plan called “The 47 Plan,” which offers unlimited talk and texting, as well as unlimited data that throttles speeds after the first 20GB each month. The Trump Mobile plan is a white-label plan built on an existing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) called Liberty Mobile. The company also plans to sell “The T1 Phone,” a gold-accented smartphone that it says will be manufactured in the United States.

During the announcement event for Trump Mobile held at Trump Tower in New York City, Donald Trump Jr. said they were building something for “people who have been underserved,” and to “make sure that real Americans could get true value from their mobile carriers.” Trump Mobile’s only plan will cost $47.45 per month, which is roughly double that of equivalent offerings at other low-cost carriers like Mint Mobile and Boost Mobile. Liberty Mobile, the MVNO behind Trump Mobile, offers plans starting at $20 per month. Customers will be able to use their own devices with a Trump Mobile SIM card.

The plan will supposedly include a telemedicine service powered by Doctegrity, which will allow subscribers to access medical and behavioral health services through the third-party provider. The plan is also said to include roadside assistance provided by Drive America and mobile device protection by Omega Mobile Care.

Details on The T1 Phone are sparse, though some specs are listed on the website. The phone is said to sport a 6.8” AMOLED screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate, a rear three-camera setup with a 50MP main camera, and 2MP “depth sensor” and macro cameras, a fingerprint sensor and “AI Face Unlock,” and a “5000mAh long life camera,” which we presume was intended to describe the battery. The phone is said to run on Android 15. Oh, and it costs $499, which is both more than what it’s likely worth, and casts doubt on its manufacturing claims. Recall that estimates for American-made iPhone were in the ballpark of $1,500. Who knows if it will ever see the light of day, but if it does, maybe this piece of Trump-branded merch will be free of obvious spelling errors.

Donald Trump’s various licensing ventures have proved lucrative for the sitting president. In his latest financial disclosure, Trump disclosed over $50 million in income from token sales related to his crypto venture with World Liberty Financial. The disclosure also listed incomes of $2.8 million from Trump Watches, $2.5 million from Trump Sneakers and Fragrances, $1.3 million from the Greenwood Bible and $1.16 million from his NFTs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/god-help-us-donald-trump-plans-to-sell-a-phone-155830965.html?src=rss

The Switch 2 is officially out in the wild, but the launch lineup is a bit thin. Mario Kart World is great, of course, but I’m missing a legitimate 3D platformer. That’s where Donkey Kong Bananza comes in. Nintendo has announced a Direct livestream for its next first-party game, scheduled for June 18 at 9AM ET.

It’ll stream live via Nintendo’s official YouTube account. We’ve put an embed below, so feel free to keep this page bookmarked for Wednesday morning. We’ll be watching and will pull out all of the juicy banana-shaped nuggets.

Nintendo promises “roughly 15 minutes of information about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game.” That matches the length of the recent Direct that was dedicated to Mario Kart World.

We still don’t know too much about this game, other than the basics. It stars Donkey Kong and he wants to collect gigantic gold bananas because of course he does. The game worlds are destructible, so the goofball gorilla can get his Minecraft on and dig through just about anything.

It has been suggested that any ape-related destruction remains as a permanent part of the map, thanks to the increased power of the Switch 2. The initial trailer also shows some sidescrolling sections inspired by Donkey Kong Country.

This seems like the perfect video game to tide us over until Mario gets his lazy butt away from the racing tracks and back into saving kingdoms. Donkey Kong Bananza will be available on July 17 for Switch 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/theres-a-nintendo-direct-for-donkey-kong-bananza-on-june-18-153503678.html?src=rss

Because there’s nothing aliens love more than flat-footed dancing to bluegrass (don’t quote me on that, I’ve only met a few and there was a language barrier), this is a bluegrass cover of the Star Trek:The Next Generation theme by musicians Gordon Lustig (banjo, mandolin, guitar), Kevin Axt (bass) and Evan Price (fiddle). It’s a tasty jam, although they should have called it Star Trek: Peepaw’s Generation. Now, pass me a banjo and that rocket fuel and let’s party. “You mean actual rocket fuel, or the moonshine?” Doesn’t matter, we’re going blind either way.

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 preview builds contain a bug that replaces the operating system’s startup sound with Windows Vista’s iconic boot chime from 2006. Microsoft acknowledged the bug in its release notes — describing it as a “delightful blast from the past” — and said it was working on a fix.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

iOS 26 has introduced a few changes to the browser your iPhone ships with—Safari. There’s a bold new design, called Compact, that reduces the address bar to the size of a small pill when you’re scrolling. Plus, you can also now use a few new shortcuts and gestures for browsing the web. Here’s how you can make the most of Safari’s new layout in iOS 26, or switch back to the old layout if you just can’t stand the redesign.

The fastest way to bookmark a webpage

Credit: Pranay Parab

In Safari’s new Compact layout, when you open a website, you’ll see a three-dots button in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Double tap this icon to quickly bookmark the page. This will not work with other layouts.

Quickly copy URLs

Credit: Pranay Parab

Safari now lets you quickly copy page URLs. Just tap and hold the address bar and swipe upwards to the Copy button. This will copy a link to the page you’re on. Alternatively, you can long press the address bar and tap the Copy button in the pop-over menu that shows up.

Hidden address bar features 

Credit: Pranay Parab

Holding down the address bar now reveals multiple useful new options. The most prominent is Close Tab, which will close the active tab, and Close Other Tabs, which closes all tabs except the active tab. My favorite feature here is the Paste and Go button, which is revealed only when you’ve copied text to the clipboard. The button shows up as Paste and Go when you’ve copied a URL, but it changes to Paste and Search when you’ve only copied normal text.

Disable website tinting

Credit: Pranay Parab

Website tinting is another one of Apple’s radical design choices for iOS 26. It changes the color of the address bar to match the site you’re browsing. Some people may love the new look, but others might have difficulty finding the address bar with it active. Fortunately, you can easily disable website tinting. Once your iPhone is updated to iOS 26, go to Settings > Apps > Safari, navigate to the Tabs section, and disable Allow website tinting.

Find the forward button

Credit: Pranay Parab

In Safari’s new Compact layout, the forward button has been hidden by default. Find it by holding the back button in the bottom-left corner. You’ll see the forward button in a pop-over menu. This menu also reveals your browsing history.

Switch back to the old layout

Credit: Pranay Parab

If you’d rather return to a less radical design, iOS 26 has a couple of options for you. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Safari, scroll down to the Tabs section, and choose either Bottom or Top. The Bottom option will take you to a design that’s reminiscent of the old one, just with the controls in a floating bubble. The Top option moves the address bar to the top of the screen and leaves navigation buttons near the bottom of the screen, for a somewhat hybrid approach. Note that, by swapping away from the Compact layout, you’ll lose access to the new bookmarks shortcut, although the forward button will be immediately available again.

It has been a long time coming — seven years since Meta first announced its plan to do so, in fact — but ads are starting to appear in WhatsApp as of Monday. They’ll only be visible on the Updates tab and the company says those who use the app only to chat with family and friends really won’t see any change to their WhatsApp experience. The same goes for two other new features: channel subscriptions and promoted channels. “We’ve been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years and we believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work,” a company blog post reads.

WhatsApp users will be able to chat to a business that’s using the Status tab to advertise a product or service, according to Meta. The company says it will use some user data for ad targeting, including your device’s language, country or city, channels you follow and how you interact with ads. If you’ve added WhatsApp to Meta’s Accounts Center, the company will use your ad preferences and info from across your Meta accounts. Meta says it won’t sell or share your phone number with marketers. Nor will it tap into your chats, calls and status for ad targeting — those will all still have end-to-end encryption.

The Status tab is valuable screen real estate. Meta says more than 1.5 billion people use it every day. Advertising is still by far the company’s largest stream of revenue so the only really surprising thing about Meta starting to show ads in WhatsApp is that it took so long. After all, the company could probably do with more ways of making enough money to underwrite parts of the business that may take a long time to turn a profit, if they even get to that point.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/whatsapp-has-ads-now-but-only-in-the-updates-tab-144829657.html?src=rss

Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk forfeited patent protection for semaglutide — the active ingredient in blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy — in Canada after failing to pay a $450 maintenance fee in 2019. The company had paid maintenance fees through 2018 but requested a refund for the 2017 fee, apparently seeking more time to decide whether to continue protecting the patent.

When the 2019 fee came due at $450 with late penalties, Novo never paid despite having a one-year grace period. Canadian patent authorities confirmed the patent “cannot be revived” once lapsed. The oversight is particularly costly given Canada represents the world’s second-largest semaglutide market, worth billions annually. Generic drugmaker Sandoz plans to launch a competing version in early 2026, while Novo’s U.S. patent protection extends until at least 2032.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OnePlus just announced the Nord 5 smartphone, a refresh of its popular mid-range handset line. This one includes a flagship Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chipset by Qualcomm, which should provide plenty of raw power for gaming, multitasking and general use.

There’s an upgraded cooling system here, along with support for LPDDR5X RAM. It features a dual rear camera system and will be available in a pale blue finish that’s officially called “Dry Ice.”

The company says the upgraded specs allow the Nord 5 to really shine when gaming, touting “unparalleled performance in its class” with “robust support for leading mobile games.” It mentioned that the device can run Call of Duty: Mobile natively at 144FPS, with real-time ray tracing.

OnePlus is also releasing a companion phone called the Nord CE5. We don’t know much about this one, other than it’s likely to be a slightly cheaper version of the standard headset.

OnePlus

Both of these phones will feature the company’s newly-announced Plus Key, which replaced the Alert Slider. Users can customize this button to perform a number of tasks, but it’s better known as an instantaneous way to pull up AI tools. The cute lil AI button first appeared with the OnePlus 13s, which launched in Asia earlier this month.

In addition to the Nord 5, the company also announced the OnePlus Buds 4. These high-end earbuds offer ultra-low latency audio for gamers, with dual drivers, support for Hi-Res audio and other bells and whistles. They will be available in both green and dark gray. It also revealed a new smartwatch and a tablet. 

OnePlus

We don’t have pricing or availability information for any of this stuff just yet. The company has a launch event planned for July 8, which should provide us with all of those relevant details.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-oneplus-nord-5-features-a-powerful-snapdragon-8-chip-143206053.html?src=rss

There’s no denying that getting a high-quality computer is going to set your finances back a bit. So, when one of them gets discounted we want to scream it from the rooftops. Such is the case today with a solid sale on Apple’s 2024 Mac mini (M4). 

Right now, the newest Mac mini is available for $499, down from $599 — a 17 percent discount. The deal, which is only $10 more than it’s all-time low price, gets you 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage, but no AppleCare+. You can also opt for the 16GB version with 512GB SSD storage for $719, down from $799. Then there’s the top storage option, which has a 10 percent discount. The Mac mini with 24GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage has dropped to $849 from $999. 

We gave the newest Apple Mac mini a 90 in our review thanks to perks like the impressive speed of its chip (though we did test the M4 Pro). It also offers front USB-C and headphone ports for easy use, along with an overall smaller design. Plus, it’s great that even the base version starts at 16GB of RAM. 

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-mac-mini-m4-is-back-on-sale-for-499-141523040.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, the messaging app had a clear focus. No ads, no games and no gimmicks. For years, that is what WhatsApp’s two billion users — many of them in Brazil, India and other countries around the world — got. They chatted with friends and family unencumbered by advertising and other features found on social media. Now that is set to change.

On Monday, WhatsApp said it would start showing ads inside its app for the first time. The promotions will appear only in an area of the app called Updates, which is used by around 1.5 billion people a day. WhatsApp will collect some data on users to target the ads, such as location and the device’s default language, but it will not touch the contents of messages or whom users speak with. The company added that it had no plans to place ads in chats and personal messages.

[…] In-app ads are a significant change from WhatsApp’s original philosophy. Jan Koum and Brian Acton, who founded WhatsApp in 2009, were committed to building a simple and quick way for friends and family to communicate with end-to-end encryption, a method of keeping texts, photos, videos and phone calls inaccessible by third parties. Both left the company seven years ago. Since then, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, now Meta, has focused on WhatsApp’s growth and user privacy while also melding the app into the company’s other products, including Instagram and Messenger.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Anne Wojcicki has been declared the winner of a bankruptcy auction for 23andMe, the genetics testing start-up she founded, prevailing over a rival bid from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

TTAM Research Institute, a non-profit public benefit company also founded by Wojcicki, won the auction with a $305 million bid for the 23andMe assets, which will not come with any company liabilities attached.

23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March after rejecting several go-private offers from Wojcicki in recent years. Regeneron was declared the winning bidder in May after the company accepted a $256 million bid in a previous auction.

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