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The best apps download superpowers to your smartphone. The Verge covers the new and noteworthy Android apps, iPhone apps, and games, highlighting great design, impressive utility, and novel features. If it belongs on your phone, you’ll find it on The Verge.

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Richard Lawler
Google explains Thursday’s massive Cloud outage.

For Cloudflare’s part, its report says the Google failure took out a central data store for one of its services.

From our initial analysis, the issue occurred due to an invalid automated quota update to our API management system which was distributed globally, causing external API requests to be rejected. To recover we bypassed the offending quota check, which allowed recovery in most regions within 2 hours. However, the quota policy database in us-central1 became overloaded, resulting in much longer recovery in that region.

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Emma Roth
The Nook app has started linking to outside purchases on iOS, too.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook app has joined Kindle and Spotify in making it easier to buy e-books and audiobooks on the iPhone. A recent update has added a new “buy on BN.com” option to the iOS app, as spotted earlier by Good e-Reader.

The change comes after a judge ordered Apple to lift restrictions on web links and outside payment options, a decision that a higher court upheld earlier this month.

The most fun camera app I’ve used in forever

Plus, in this week’s Installer: The Switch 2 is here, a Broadway show coming to TV, the next John Wick, and much more.

Five apps that can help you arrange your new homeFive apps that can help you arrange your new home0
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Jess Weatherbed
Adobe brings Photoshop to Android.

After launching Photoshop for iPhone in February, a beta Android app is now available to download via Google Play. Much like its iOS counterpart, Photoshop for Android includes many features from the desktop version, including layers, masks, brushes, and Firefly generative AI tools, but with a UI optimized for mobile devices.

Adobe says all features are free to use while the app is in beta, and that more are “coming soon.”

Three examples of features available in Photoshop for Android.
Photoshop features, now on more mobile devices.
Image: Adobe
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Jess Weatherbed
iPhone users can finally copy chunks of WhatsApp messages.

The WhatsApp for iOS 25.16.81 update that’s rolling out over the coming weeks allows users to hold down on a message to select and copy specific sections, instead of being forced to copy the entire message text. Android users are still stuck with this limitation for now, but WABetaInfo reports that a similar update is in the works.

A screenshot showing the new copy paste update on WhatsApp for iPhone.
Sharing small snippets of WhatsApp messages just got a little easier on iOS.
Image: WABetaInfo
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Andrew Liszewski
The Nintendo Music app has added a sleep timer.

Following updates to the Nintendo Switch App and the Nintendo Today app, the Nintendo Music app has also been updated and now features a new sleep timer for those wanting to drift off to their favorite soundtrack.

A small crescent moon icon appearing in the lower right corner of the app’s interface while playing a track or playlist can be tapped to open a menu with timer options ranging from 5 minutes to 60 minutes.

Two screenshots of the new sleep timer features in the Nintendo Music mobile app.
The new sleep timer feature can be set for as long as 60 minutes.
Screenshot: Nintendo Music
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Emma Roth
Digg is getting a mobile app.

In addition to launching a reboot on the web, Digg told users that it’s working on an Android and iOS app with “full feature parity,” offering access to profiles, communities, and leaderboards with the top daily posts, comments, and gem-finders.

Image: Digg
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Richard Lawler
Anthropic’s voice mode for Claude launches in beta.

The conversational mode for Anthropic’s AI chatbot is now becoming available for users of its mobile apps, “gradually.”

TechCrunch notes that chief product officer Mike Krieger confirmed the rumored feature was on the way in a recent interview, while Anthropic says that it can integrate with Google Workspace, and that free users can expect “20-30 voice messages” before session limits cut them off, while paid users have higher limits.

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Emma Roth
Google Drive will now let you see how many times people opened your video.

You can see the new metric by selecting a video in your Drive, clicking the three-dot menu, and then hitting “Details.” From there, you’ll find a new “Analytics” section that shows how many times the video has been opened.

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Dominic Preston
The Browser Company won’t open-source Arc (yet).

After announcing its second browser, Dia, last year, the company stopped developing new features for original breakout Arc. Now CEO Josh Miller explains why, and admits he considered either selling or open-sourcing the software. Neither is on the table right now (because it would require giving up their custom development kit, or “secret sauce”), but “that doesn’t mean it’ll never happen.”

Dia is still in alpha testing, but will open up to Arc members next.

Letter to Arc members 2025

[browsercompany.substack.com]

Summer blockbuster season is here

Plus, in this week’s Installer: a cheap set-top box worth a try, a clever twist on the Stream Deck, where to go post-Pocket, and more.

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Dominic Preston
Strava doubles down on training plans.

After last month’s acquisition of Runna, mostly to get at its running plans, Strava is repeating the trick in cycling. It just acquired The Breakaway, an iOS biking app with a focus on... AI training plans.

It comes as Strava closes a round of funding that valued the business at $2.2 billion. Yesterday it announced new AI route planning and improvements to its cheat detection.