Dominic Preston

Microsoft loves renaming products as much as Google loves killing them. Now you can relive those reinventions with The Rebrand Registry, a collection of decades of Microsoft branding history for cloud products, including analysis of which product categories get rebranded most often, and a risk index for future renames.

It’s been a few months since Google revealed its Chromebook successor / sibling, and all’s been quiet since — at least officially, with leaks of laptops from Lenovo and Asus. We’ll know more soon: Google invited outlets including The Verge to a media event in September where we’ll get to “test out the laptops and new features.”

Google’s Mishaal Rahman took to r/Android to announce the process, which will eventually be the only way to install apps from unverified Android developers. Verification enforcement kicks in globally in 2027, though in some countries begins next month. Enabling the one-time advanced flow now gets the mandatory 24-hour cooldown out of the way.

Find Hub on Google-powered smartwatches now includes a separate Find People app. As 9to5Google notes, it’s barebones: it shows a list of everyone you’re sharing location with, but to actually change any settings or see their location on a map, you have to open your phone. Perhaps there’s more to come.

We’ve had a couple trailers for Lanterns already, but now you can watch the opening scenes in full on YouTube, including a look at John Stewart’s (Aaron Pierre) unorthodox upbringing. The grounded, True Detective-inspired series premieres on HBO Max this Sunday.

Sales dropped 64% year-on-year in Q2, according to research from Counterpoint, as manufacturers raised prices or simply stopped shipping cheaper models. Samsung and Motorola have been the only brands to benefit, as smaller companies became unable to undercut them on price. That helped both grow their market share in prepaid phones.