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Weekly Rewind: #whereIdrone, Cardboard for Patriots, Minecraft, and more

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In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on, in fact, that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories you may have missed. Everything from Prince’s rendition of Creep to the power of #Love on Instagram– it’s all here.

Watch Prince’s storied performance of Radiohead’s Creep from Coachella ’08

"Creep" - Prince at Coachella 2008 (Uploaded via Permission from Radiohead)

R&B legend Prince, whose hostility towards the Internet is quite public, has finally allowed his storied Coachella 2008 rendition of Radiohead’s Creep to hit the Web. As for the actual video, it’s a soulful, moving eight-minute take on the legendary alternative rock song. From his heartfelt singing of the lyrics to his masterful guitar work, it’s a shame that the Artist has been keeping this one under wraps from the public for so long. However, few musicians have been more adamant about controlling music rights online than Prince, so it’s not too surprising.

Read the full story here.

10,000 Google Cardboard headsets handed out to fans during the Patriots’ practice

Visa and Bank of America present: New England Patriots 360° Video Experience

Google is teaming up with the New England Patriots to give fans a virtual spot on the playing field. Bank of America and Visa announced that they’re giving away 10,000 Google Cardboard virtual reality headsets at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, ahead of the Patriots-Eagles game. Fans are taken, virtually, from the training facility to the gridiron, where they get a look at what goes on during training day, giving them a chance to “Travel Inside the Game.” The headsets were first made available during the Patriots’ FanZone pregame activities.

Read the full story here.

Verizon rolling out Wi-Fi calling this week, but kicks off with Samsung devices only

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It’s been a while coming, but Verizon this week finally flips the switch on Wi-Fi calling, kicking off on Tuesday with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge handsets. The feature enables a handset to automatically switch to an available Wi-Fi connection when it detects that the cell signal is too weak to maintain a decent connection, or if no signal is available. Verizon says other devices won’t have to wait too long to join the party, and promised a wider rollout for Android smartphones as well as iOS handsets “early next year.”

Read the full story here.

Spotify’s Your Year in Music recaps your 2015 listening habits

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International music streaming powerhouse Spotify has released a personal year-end list for each user, which it calls Your Year In Music. The company’s private, user-specific numbers come as a follow-up to last week’s announcement, in which the company made public the top streamed artists on the site, both by country and worldwide. Users can log into the company’s Year In Music website to get their numbers, scrolling through the various categories to get a picture of themselves as Spotify’s numbers paint them.

Read the full story here.

Beneath every presidential candidate’s Wikipedia page lies a vicious tug-of-war

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In a relatively short space of time, Wikipedia has gone from being a novel idea to the de facto font of online knowledge. It’s readily available, constantly updated and staggeringly far-reaching — but can it be trusted? The United States is currently in the grip of a presidential primary, meaning people are looking for impartial information on the parties and politicians involved. Wikipedia will be the go-to source for a great swathe of this knowledge. But who’s writing these entries, and for what purpose? It turns out, both ends of the political spectrum are making their voices heard — a process that can distort the truth.

Read the full story here.

Next page: 5 more tech stories you might have missed this week

The period is dead. Punctuation is over. Run-on sentences and incomplete thoughts are the new standard. Do I sound insincere? Maybe it’s because proper grammar is now being associated with insincerity, at least when it comes to texting. As it turns out, science has now confirmed that your passive-aggressive habit of ending one-word texts with periods to quietly express your anger isn’t as passive as you think. The Journal of Computers in Human Behavior found texts that end with a period are rated as less sincere than those that do not.

Read the full story here.

#Love dominates Instagram for the third year in a row

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Just when it seems like all social media can offer is bad news and cat photos, Instagram unveils its top hashtag for 2015, and it isn’t either of those. For the third year in a row, the most used hashtag of the year, according to the Instagram blog, was #Love. It makes sense that “love” would be one of the most popular hashtags, especially when Kendall Jenner’s photo of her heart-shaped hair attracted over 3.2 million likes. The #Love is in more than 800 million posts, many of which include other equally warm and fuzzy hashtags.

Read the full story here.

Brilliant new condom fights HIV infection with an antioxidant-embedded hydrogel

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Condoms are one of the most effective tools we have to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS, and now, thanks to the work of Texas A&M professor, the world might soon get a new condom that sexually active people actually want to use. The brand new condom proposal ditches latex for a hydrogel polymer, which doubles up on sexual safety by actively going after the contaminant virus. It is enmeshed with an antioxidant ingredient that has anti-HIV properties, and can even enhance the sexual experience.

Read the full story here.

Minecraft is finally coming to the Wii U

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Minecraft is available on almost every conceivable platform, from the PS4 to Windows Phone to Linux, with Nintendo consoles being the major exception. Thankfully, Nintendo has worked with Mojang to bring the sandbox experience to the Wii U by Christmas. It will start selling the game on December 17 for $30, with all of the features available in the other console versions.

Read the full story here.

Viral #whereidrone hashtag is home to the most epic photos shot with drones

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An Instagram hashtag first started by a drone enthusiast to mark awesome images taken from his eye in the sky has since started trending, creating an impromptu exhibition in aerial photography on the app. Unbeknownst to Dirk Dallas, the man behind #fromwhereidrone, the hashtag was steadily gaining traction on Instagram. Dallas now curates and features the best photos tagged using the hashtag on his “From Where I Drone” Instagram page, which itself has over 20,000 followers.

Read the full story here.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Visible just made its unlimited 5G plan better than ever
Visible wireless phones and plans featured

Digital wireless service provider Visible has announced upgrades to its premium Visible+ phone plan. The highlight is a new Global Pass feature that allows Visible customers to use their phones in 140 countries worldwide.

The Visible Global Pass offers unlimited talk and text services, along with 2GB of high-speed data, for a flat rate of $10 per day. Visible+ members can also enjoy a free Global Pass usage day every month. The activation process can be done through the Visible app.

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The OnePlus Watch 2 is the Wear OS smartwatch I’ve been waiting for
Person wearing OnePlus Watch 2 with a green strap on their left wrist.

The OnePlus Watch 2 -- the company's first Wear OS watch -- has entered a market that Samsung dominates. However, OnePlus' popularity as a smartphone brand can be expected to bring small, yet meaningful changes that benefit not only OnePlus users, but all of the Wear OS segment in general.

For almost a decade, Samsung and Apple have predominantly been the default options if you want a smartwatch that is actually useful and goes beyond flashy features. With Samsung shifting gears and migrating from its own Tizen OS to the (relatively) more universal Wear OS platform and Google releasing its own Pixel Watch after struggling with an identity crisis in the smartwatch world, the platform has much more traction than it did a few years ago. As OnePlus carves its way into the segment, it has the opportunity to entice people who don't wish to live within Samsung's limitations when using a Galaxy Watch with another brand's phone.

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Buying an iPad Mini today? You need to know about this deal
The Apple Pencil attaches to the iPad mini magnetically.

If you've had an eye on iPad deals for the latest model of the Apple iPad Mini for a while now, this may be the offer that you've been waiting for -- a $100 discount from Best Buy on the tablet's Wi-Fi, 64GB model, slashing its price to $400 from $500. It's still pretty popular years after its release, so we don't expect stocks of the device for this sale to last long. If you're thinking about taking advantage of this bargain, you better push through with your purchase as soon as possible to make sure that you don't miss out on the savings.

Why you should buy the Apple iPad Mini 2021
The latest generation of the Apple iPad Mini was released in 2021, but it's still featured in our roundup of the best iPads because it's the model that you should buy if you want a smaller and more compact version of Apple's tablets. Its 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display is smaller than the screens of its peers, but it's still big enough to enjoy watching streaming shows and browsing websites, while allowing you to use the device with one hand. Unlike its predecessor, there's no Home button, so the Touch ID sensor is instead built into the power button at the side of the Apple iPad Mini 2021.

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