Chrome OS Flex Extends the Life of K–12 Districts’ Hardware

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
USB Promoter Group says USB 4 version 2 will enable speeds up to 80Gbps, using existing 40Gbps USB Type-C passive cables and new 80Gbps USB Type-C active cables  —  USB 4 version 2 promises 80 Gbps speeds  —  The next version of USB could be one of the fastest connectors we’ve seen yet.

Barry Collins / Forbes:
Lansweeper study of 27M Windows PCs: Windows 11 was installed on over 3% of consumer PCs and 2.5% of business computers at the end of September, below Windows 7  —  Windows 11 has been installed on only 3% of consumer PCs in the year since its launch, according to figures from Lansweeper.

Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Intel announces Unison, letting users send texts, take calls, and transfer files to iOS and Android devices, starting with select 12th Gen PCs in the fall  —  New Intel PCs will soon have a feature that Macs have offered for years: the ability to text, take calls and send files to their iPhones.

Adam Blacker / Apptopia Blog:
The average July in-app purchase price rose 40% YoY on iOS and 9% YoY on Google Play; Adjust data: iOS IAP prices correlate with the rising cost per install  —  The average price of an in-app purchase (IAP) in the U.S. on the iOS App Store has increased 40% year-over-year (YoY) in the month of July.

Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:
The European Parliament votes 602 to 13 to enforce USB-C as the common charging port for devices by the end of 2024; some small devices are exempt  —  The European Parliament today voted overwhelmingly in favor of enforcing USB-C as a common charging port across a wide range of consumer electronic devices …

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
The Pentagon awards Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle a cloud-computing contract of up to $9B each through 2028 under the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability  —  – Of the four companies receiving cloud-computing contracts from the Pentagon, all of them had received requests for bids from the U.S. federal agency last year.