Summer of Disruption

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Hey,
welcome back to Tech Between the Lines!

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I'm Between Two Pixels, and-finally-Finn
Circuit is back in the studio.

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Dude, you missed a wild one last week.

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I had to hold down the fort with The
Creator.

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It got...

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weird.

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Yeah, I heard.

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I leave you alone for one episode and
suddenly you're interviewing an

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AI that wants to replace us both.

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Typical.

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But hey, I'm back,
and I brought my skepticism with me.

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What did I miss besides existential
dread?

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Oh,

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just the usual-WWDC,
Apple's Liquid Glass everywhere,

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visionOS, and a million beta updates.

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Plus, the Xbox and Meta news dropped
right after.

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It's been a summer of, like,
non-stop disruption.

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I barely slept.

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You never sleep.

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But yeah,
the tech world's been on a bender.

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Let's get into it before something else
launches mid-show.

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Okay,

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so Microsoft just dropped this new Xbox
app for Windows 11 Insiders-right

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now it's on the ROG Ally handhelds,

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but it's coming to more devices soon.

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The big thing?

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It pulls in your Steam, Battle.

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net,

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and Game Pass games into one unified
library.

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No more launcher roulette.

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Well,
unless you're an Epic or GOG diehard,

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then you gotta wait till, like,

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2026.

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So, let me get this straight.

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Microsoft's answer to launcher hell is...

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another launcher?

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I mean, sure, it's unified,
but I've seen this movie before.

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Remember when every music service wanted
to be your "one-stop shop" and

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you still ended up with five apps?

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Yeah,

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but this time it's actually working-at
least for the people who got into

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the Insider program.

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Social feeds are full of people showing
off their all-in-one libraries.

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I remember in college, mid-tournament,

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I'd be alt-tabbing between Steam and
Battle.

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net,

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praying nothing crashed.

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This would've saved me, like, so many
headaches and probably a few friendships.

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You

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say that now, but wait till they add ads
or some "premium" feature.

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And what about the ROG Xbox Ally?

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That's the new handheld, right?

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Yeah!

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The ROG Xbox Ally and the Ally X are
coming this holiday.

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They're basically souped-up Windows
handhelds,

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but with Xbox branding and this new app
baked in.

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It's like Microsoft's finally admitting
that PC gaming and console gaming

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are merging.

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I'm here for it.

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I'll believe it when I see Epic and GOG
in there.

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Until then, it's just another round of
launcher musical chairs.

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But hey, at least you won't have to
explain to your grandma why her game

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won't launch because she clicked the
wrong icon.

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Speaking of Xbox everywhere,

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did you see the Meta Quest 3S Xbox
Edition?

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It's $399, comes with the Elite Strap,

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and you get three months of Game Pass
Ultimate.

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But it's super limited stock-like,

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blink and you'll miss it.

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Yeah,

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and the scalpers are already circling.

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I saw people on X drooling over the
design,

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but let's be real-half of those headsets
are gonna end up on auction

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sites for double the price.

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Remember the PlayStation VR2 launch?

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Same story, different headset.

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Totally.

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But I gotta admit, the "Everything is an
Xbox" thing is kinda genius.

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Microsoft's putting Xbox on handhelds,

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on VR, on toasters-okay,
maybe not toasters,

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but you get what I mean.

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It's all about the ecosystem now.

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And with Game Pass Ultimate,
you can cloud stream over 100 games,

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save sync, the works.

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It's wild.

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Wild, sure, but is it sustainable?

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Limited runs just make the hype worse.

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PlayStation did the same thing-short
supply,

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long waitlists,
and then a bunch of angry fans.

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It's like they want the scalpers to win.

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I don't get it.

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Yeah, but it does make the VR market feel,

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I dunno, more exclusive?

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Like, if you get one, you're in this club.

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But I wish they'd just make enough for
everyone.

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The tech's cool, but the FOMO is real.

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FOMO is the business model,

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kid.

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Always has been.

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But hey, if you snag one,
let me know if it actually makes Game Pass

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in VR worth it-or if it's just another
dust collector next to your old

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Kinect.

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Alright, shifting gears-Apple dropped iOS
26 Beta 2 this week.

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They tweaked the Liquid Glass interface,

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fixed the Control Center so you can
actually see the icons now,

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and added 3D Parallax wallpapers.

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Oh, and there's a Live Radio widget in
Apple Music.

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People are loving the polish, but,

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as always, they want better notifications.

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It's like, Apple,
just give us notification stacks already!

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You know,

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I remember when a phone was just a phone.

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Now it's a glass sandwich with more
widgets than my desktop in '98.

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But I'll give Apple this-the Liquid Glass
thing looks slick.

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At least you can read the settings now
without squinting.

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And Samsung's

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not sitting still.

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July 9, Galaxy Unpacked in New
York-they're dropping the Z Fold7 and

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Flip7, both with One UI 8.

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The Fold7 is, like, crazy thin-3.

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9 millimeters unfolded!

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And the camera bump is massive,

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but that's because it's rumored to have a
200 MP main sensor.

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That's, like, more megapixels than my
first ten cameras combined.

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A 200

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MP camera?

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What are you photographing, the moon?

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And don't get me started on folding
phones.

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I used to fold paper maps,
now you want me to fold my phone?

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Next thing you know, they'll make a phone
that folds into a paper airplane.

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Hey,

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don't knock it till you try it!

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The Flip7's got a bigger cover display-4
inches edge-to-edge-and both

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are running the new Snapdragon 8 Elite
chip.

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Plus,
One UI 8 is supposed to be way faster,

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with new AI features and even prepping
for XR headsets.

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There's even rumors of a tri-fold phone
teaser.

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Samsung's going full sci-fi this year.

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Sci-fi,

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sure,
but I'll stick to my trusty ThinkPad.

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At least it doesn't fold in half when I
drop it.

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But I'll give Samsung credit-the specs
are impressive,

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even if I don't need a phone with more
RAM than my old server rack.

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Alright,

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before we wrap, quick detour-Tesla's
robotaxi finally launched in Texas.

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Or, well, "launched." It's been a mess.

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Tons of hype, but the rollout's been
rocky and there's a lot of misinformation

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flying around.

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Some people think it's fully driverless
everywhere,

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but that's not really the case yet.

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Color me shocked.

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A Tesla launch with more questions than
answers.

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I've seen more reliable rollouts from
Windows ME.

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People are already arguing online about
what the robotaxi can and can't

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do.

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I'll believe it's real when I see one
pick up my groceries without running

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over my mailbox.

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Yeah, it's early days.

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The tech's promising, but the reality is,

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it's not quite the sci-fi future yet.

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Maybe by the time we get the tri-fold
phone,

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we'll have robotaxis that actually work
as advertised.

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Or maybe we'll

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just have more beta tests and more angry
Texans.

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Either way, it's a good reminder-don't
believe the hype until you see

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it in your driveway.

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Alright, that's a wrap on this week's
Summer of Disruption.

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We hit Xbox's unified gaming,
Meta's VR collab,

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Apple's iOS 26 polish,
Samsung's foldable madness,

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and Tesla's robotaxi chaos.

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If you want to snag a $50 Samsung Credit
for Unpacked,

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check out our website-link's in the show
notes.

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Thanks for tuning in,

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folks.

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Remember, don't fold your phone unless
you're sure it'll survive.

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And don't trust a robotaxi with your
pizza.

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We'll be back next week with more tech,

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more skepticism,
and probably more launch drama.

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See you next time,

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Finn.

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And thanks to everyone for listening-stay
curious,

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stay geeky, and don't forget to reserve
your spot for the next episode!

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Later,

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Between.

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Later, everyone.