For months, Netflix has been adamant that Verizon is the root cause of streaming slowdowns on its service, but Verizon countered last week with an accusation of its own: Netflix itself is responsible for the nosedive in streaming quality. Verizon Regulatory Affairs VP David Young shared the evidence on the Verizon Policy Blog, concluding that Netflix could solve the issue by making a few simple adjustments, but Netflix network operator Level 3 has now joined in the fight to try to catch Verizon in a lie.

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What a week it has been for iPhone and iPad apps. We’ve shared more than $60 worth of paid iPhone apps this week that all went on sale for free for a limited time, and now we’re finishing out the week on a high note. BGR has dug through all of the various apps that have gone on sale over the past few hours and hand-picked the six best iPhone and iPad apps. Want them for free? You’d better move fast because as always, these sales could end at any time.

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Google Maps for Android is getting a new update, Android Police reports, which will bring users some interesting features for their favorite maps applications. Google Maps v8.2 for Android will support conversational voice actions in navigation mode – users will be able to ask things like “how long until destination,” “what’s my next turn” or tell Google to “show traffic,” – although they’ll have to make sure they hit the proper phrasing precisely, in order to actually be able to trigger an appropriate response from Google Maps.

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A recent report shed light on a major bug in Google’s Chrome web browser that causes the batteries in Windows laptops to drain much faster than normal. In fact, the issue could cause laptop batteries to die 25% quicker. The bug causes laptops’ processors to wake up and look for tasks 1,000 times each second instead of 64 times per second, as they should, and users have been advised to avoid using Chrome on Windows machines if they value battery life.

But help is on the way: A new report states that Google has acknowledged the issue and is currently working to fix it.

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Many smartphone buyers are waiting for Apple’s iPhone 6 models to come out, the company’s first devices that will finally offer bigger displays. Well, the wait is almost over. Rumored to launch in September, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 models will soon enter mass production, Reuters reports.

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Samsung recently pre-announced second-quarter earnings that badly missed analysts’ consensus. More importantly, of course, Samsung’s profit plummeted to its lowest point in two years. The tech giant’s poor performance was attributed to weakening smartphone sales that have slowed as competition increased at the low end, and we also learned recently that Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy S5 couldn’t even top sales of Apple’s iPhone 5s during its first full month of sales.

According to a new report, Samsung’s weakening phone sales have prompted hundreds of managers in the company’s devices division to give back part of their first-half bonuses.

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Smartphone makers choose to advertise their devices in different ways. Some focus on a phone’s main features, others take hits at competitors, and some choose a different path. Amazon is such an example, with the company’s first Fire Phone ad being more about one of Amazon’s core products rather than the device itself.

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Many reports have detailed an unfriendly relationship between Google and Samsung in the past, even though the two companies denied such reports every chance they got. In a surprising move in early 2014, the two parties signed a deal which should have further cemented their business partnership. In a recent extended profile piece on Sundar Pichai, one of Google’s current top execs, Bloomberg Bussinessweek detailed the tensions that existed between the two giants, over various aspects of their joint business efforts, with Pichai playing a key role in “fixing” the problem. However, The Information revealed on Thursday that Google and Samsung are still far from being as happy together as they claim to be.

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There’s no question that Google Glass is the ultimate geek toy right now, but are you really ready to spend $1,500 and fully embrace the “glasshole” lifestyle? Google this week said in an email to people who had previously expressed interest in Glass that the company is now letting prospective buyers try its connected eyewear for free before they commit to buying it.

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Is there any company that so regularly releases great products while also regularly being in the midst of turmoil as HTC? Engadget’s Brad Molen has written a comprehensive timeline of major executive departures at HTC over the past two years and they show how HTC has faced constant turnover at key positions without showing any signs of stabilizing anytime soon.

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