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mercredi 15 juillet 2026

'HyperTexting' Is a Fresh, AI-Free Take on RSS Feeds of Yore

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There are a dizzying number of ways you can keep up with what's new on the web and try to find articles and posts of interest: Your options include the chaotic algorithms of social media, classic news portals, old-school RSS, traditional web search, AI-powered search, and whatever it is Google is trying to do with Discover these days.

It's a lot, and the latest app I've spotted to try and cut through the noise (via TechCrunch) is HyperTexting (just for iOS for now). It's a sort-of RSS reader, though it isn't marketed that way, and the core idea is that you get updates from the sites and people you want, in chronological order—with no ads, AI, or algorithm-powered interface.

As the HyperTexting app landing page puts it: "HyperTexting is your timeline minus the ads, algorithms, and AI slop. It's like the 'for you' feed, but it actually works... for YOU (not the platforms)." You can even create a HyperTexting profile of your own and contribute posts yourself, which others can then follow in turn. Here's how the app works, and why you might want to switch to its simplified way of keeping up with the web.

What the HyperTexting feed looks like

Hypertexting app
HyperTexting presents stories in a straightforward way. Credit: Lifehacker

When you launch the HyperTexting app for the first time, you don't need to sign up for anything or open an account right away: There's already a selection of news sources included for you to get started with, which you can add to or edit as needed.

The Timeline tab is where news and updates appear, presented in chronological order. You pull down from the top to refresh the feed, just like the old days, and you're able to tap on individual articles to read them. As with any RSS reader, whether or not you get the full article text or just a snippet directing you to the website depends on the publication. Tap the toggle switch button (top right) to change the colors and other settings.

In 2026, it's actually quite strange going back to a feed like this. I felt a twinge of nostalgia slowly browsing through the headlines, without any AI-generated animal videos, adverts for mobile games that don't exist, clippings from podcast interviews, and snippets of stories I've seen a dozen times already but have just gone viral again. You get your choice of story sources, in order, whenever you're ready to browse through them. Each post comes with buttons for sharing with others or viewing it on the web, and I also like the way each source has its own profile with more ways to explore: Posts to see all the stories, for example, and Attachments to see all the visuals.

Profile pages work a lot like profiles on social media accounts, and you can follow and unfollow publications from these pages. Many sites also offer multiple feeds—including ESPN, which has different feeds for different shows and sports—so if this is available you can customize your story list further.

Discovering and customizing the HyperTexting feed

Hypertexting app
Discovering new stories and sources only takes a few taps. Credit: Lifehacker

The Explore tab is where you need to head to find and follow new websites, and there's also a Trending tab here that shows you the 100 most-linked pages from the feeds you're currently following. If you just want the most widely appealing stories from your selected sources, this is a great place to keep returning to.

Head to Discover and you can pick out new sites you want to follow: You can either enter a few keywords to search for something, or type out a full URL, then tap Follow when the right publication appears. This seems to be the part of HyperTexting that's most obviously a 'work in progress,' as I couldn't add all the sources I wanted—including the esteemed outlet you're currently reading.

It's possible that the app is having some early growing pains, or that being able to follow a page depends on how it's hosted (the HyperTexting website says that support for WordPress sites is "coming soon"). In any case, I did find plenty of feeds I was interested in following, even if I couldn't access everything.

You can switch to the Activity tab to get back to articles you've previously looked at, like a rudimentary browsing history, while the Post tab is where you can contribute to the HyperTexting community—this feature isn't widely available yet, but eventually the goal is to have mini-blogs available for users that work a little bit like social media feeds.

There's still work to do here, but I like what HyperTexting is doing already, and it's a reminder of how discovery on the web used to be—I'll be keeping an eye on it as another way of staying updated. It's definitely worth installing if you like your new content presented in a clean, accessible way.



Post-Quantum Encryption Could Be the Must-Have VPN Feature of the Future

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Cybersecurity experts warn that about 10-20 years from now, quantum computers will have enough processing power to decipher common cryptography techniques like RSA and ECC, an event they call "Q-Day." These encryption protocols are the current gold standard in VPN tech, but when Q-Day arrives, they’ll no longer be enough. 

Post-quantum encryption (or PQE), which uses complex mathematical puzzles that even quantum computers struggle with, is your VPN provider’s answer to the Q-Day threat. But while Q-Day is still years away from actualization, PQE is a VPN feature you can enable today, to protect your data against hackers who might hold on to your encrypted data until quantum computers get strong enough to decrypt it. 

NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Mullvad, and others let you enable PQE right away with the click of a button. But is this future-proof encryption protocol necessary or worth the investment today? I’ll explain how it works, what it protects against, and which providers offer it so you can make up your own mind. 

How post-quantum encryption (PQE) works

When you access the internet through a VPN tunnel, it basically scrambles your traffic data into unreadable code that can only be unlocked using a cipher key. That key is then securely transmitted to your device using a VPN handshake. So anyone who doesn’t have access to the encryption key, including your ISP, will not be able to interpret any useful information from your network and data usage. However, this technology only works because hackers don’t have access to hardware that can decrypt the scrambled network data without the encryption key. With quantum computing evolving as quickly as it is, security researchers estimate that it will be powerful enough to fully decipher your encrypted data without access to the actual key.

Q-Day isn’t merely a distant threat. Attackers are already using “harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) attacks to hoard your encrypted network data so that they can decrypt it as soon as Q-Day arrives. That means they’ll suddenly gain access to years of private user data the second that quantum computers gain enough processing power through hardware improvements. That’s why in August 2024, the NIST standardized new encryption algorithms from an open competition that ran for years. Three models were found complex enough to resist attacks from quantum computers: ML-KEM (aka Kyber) for key exchange, along with ML-DSA and SLH-DSA for digital signatures.

If your work involves sensitive data, if you perform a lot of high-value financial transactions, or if you are in a regulated industry with strict compliance requirements, PQE is worth looking into. While its availability is limited to certain VPN providers on specific pricing tiers only, security-conscious businesses and professionals operating in sensitive industries will find it genuinely useful, so it’s not just a gimmick. 

VPNs that support post-quantum encryption

A lot of companies use the phrase "quantum-safe" in their marketing terminology, but not all offer PQE as a standard VPN feature. Right now, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Mullvad are three mainstream providers who offer PQE as an opt-in feature on several plans. 

NordVPN

Nord rolled out PQE in its Linux VPN app in 2024, followed by Windows, Android, and Apple operating systems. It runs on the NordLynx protocol with the ML-KEM algorithm layered on top of the existing Wireguard encryption. But that also means you can’t use PQE with NordVPN if you’re using a dedicated IP, Meshnet, or the OpenVPN protocol. 

Because PQE is available to all NordLynx users, you don’t need a premium subscription tier or add-on to access it. All existing NordVPN customers can enable it, whether you’re on the Basic plan or Prime. Here’s how to do it if you’re already using NordVPN: 

  • On Windows: Open the NordVPN app, go to Settings > Connections. Toggle on Post-quantum encryption.

  • On macOS: Open the app on your Mac device. Go to Settings, then navigate to the General tab and enable the Post-quantum encryption toggle. 

  • On iOS, Android, tvOS, or Android TV: Tap your profile icon. From here, you can easily find the toggle for Post-quantum encryption.

  • On Linux: Navigate to terminal. Run this command: nordvpn set pq on. 

ExpressVPN

Even before its NIST standardization, ExpressVPN was one of the first companies to offer the Kyber algorithm through its Lightway protocol as early as 2023. When the ML-KEM protocol was standardized, ExpressVPN upgraded its platform to adhere to the exact NIST standards with several improvements. 

Interestingly, ExpressVPN has PQE enabled on every user plan by default. However, you need to be using the Lightway protocol and not a legacy alternative like OpenVPN. If you aren't sure if PQE is enabled, here’s how to check: 

  • Open the ExpressVPN app. 

  • Make sure you’re on the latest version of the app.

  • Click on Settings. Navigate to the Protocol tab. 

  • Check if one of the following options is selected: Automatic, Lightway UDP, or Lightway TCP. If not, just choose any one of them to enable PQE. 

Mullvad

Mullvad introduced a pilot version of its post-quantum encryption key exchange protocol way back in 2017, but the experimental implementation was replaced by a new version based on the Classic McEliece algorithm on top of all existing WireGuard servers. With the 2023.3 launch of its desktop app, Mullvad launched a fully stabilized PQE feature while extending support for Android and iOS.

Mullvad doesn’t have a feature-based pricing tier to worry about. Every paying customer has access to this feature with no add-on purchases necessary. It should be enabled by default on desktop unless you specifically opted out of it, but a manual opt-in is necessary on smartphone apps. You can do this by following these steps:

  • On Windows, macOS, and Linux: Go to Settings > VPN settings > WireGuard settings. Make sure that the Quantum-resistant tunnel option is switched to On. When the VPN is connected, you should see a string of green text that reads: “QUANTUM SECURE CONNECTION.” 

  • On Android and iOS: Launch the Mullvad VPN app. Go to Settings > VPN settings. Find the Quantum-resistant tunnel option, then toggle it on. 

Does it make sense to use PQE right now?

There’s no downside to enabling post-quantum encryption if your VPN provider already supports it on your existing plan. I didn’t notice any meaningful latency or speed drops when testing the feature on NordVPN and ExpressVPN. But if you’re wondering if it’s worth switching to a different plan or provider just for PQE, the answer depends on what your typical workflow looks like. 

Quantum computers are still years away from being able to decrypt current security protocols like RSA and ECC, even by the most generous estimates. However, HNDL attacks are a big enough security red flag that companies or people operating in sensitive industries and dealing with confidential information should be paying attention. For regular browsing workflows, PQE may be overkill. But when dealing with financial data, accessing healthcare portals, or sending sensitive information that you can’t afford to have intercepted, quantum protection offers additional peace of mind.



mardi 14 juillet 2026

Microsoft Is Finally Fixing Windows Search

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Microsoft's Windows apology tour continues. After introducing sweeping changes to the Start menu and the taskbar, Microsoft's sights now turn to the infamous Windows Search box. It's no secret Windows Search is bloated with ads and web pages, among other results you likely don't want. Personally, I switched to using the PowerToys Command Palette for all my search needs. But now, Microsoft is slowly testing an updated Search Box that prioritizes local files and apps and doesn't take a century to load. If you're in the Windows Insider program, you can get in line to try the following new changes.

Search Results page in Window Search.
Credit: Microsoft

Windows Search no longer shows a "Recommended" feed of web content and suggestions. Bring up Search, and what you'll see is a clean list of your recent searches. When you start typing, Microsoft will now prioritize local searches first. That means local apps, files, and folders will show up first and faster. Microsoft is also updating Search with broader parameters, so even if you misspell an app name, it should still show up in the list.

The results page also features an updated design. The results on the left have more breathing room now and show additional context, such as file type, when it was modified, and so on. You'll also see a preview of the file and metadata once you select a result, with better buttons for main actions like "Open." Microsoft is also focusing on reliability, promising a drop in crashes and random glitches. We'll only know how well that really works after testing this out for some time.

The broader search integration isn't completely gone here, however. You'll see a web results section below the local results, though this section also gets a redesign. Before, web search showed a promoted post at the top, hiding the actual result or answer until you scrolled down. Microsoft now shows the direct result at the top, and pushes the promos down below.

Disabling web search and Microsoft Store suggestions in Windows Search.
Credit: Microsoft

Finally, there are distinct toggles in Windows Settings to disable the entire web search and Microsoft Store suggestions section, so Windows Search can focus purely on surfacing local files and quickly launching apps. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Show Suggested Search Results and disable the toggles for Web Searches and Microsoft Store.



'Claude Reflect' Is Like Spotify Wrapped for Your AI Chat History

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We're now well used to AI companies pushing out model upgrades and new features, but one of the most recent updates to Claude added something more unusual: a Reflect tool that looks back on how you've been using the AI bot.

Anthropic says Claude Reflect has been introduced to answer questions like, how often should someone use AI? How can it be used most effectively? When is AI suited to a task, and when is it better left to a human? And also, perhaps, are you letting AI do too much of your thinking for you?

In practice it works a little bit like Spotify Wrapped, rounding up your activity in the app over the past month, three months, six months, or year. And it turns out that its summaries are mostly fair and insightful, based on my testing.

Reflect is available now inside the Claude apps for Free, Pro, and Max users, though Anthropic is labeling it as a beta feature for now.

Getting started with Claude Reflect

Claude Reflect
Claude will summarize your recent AI chats. Credit: Lifehacker

Before you can use Claude Reflect you need to have the Memory feature enabled: On the web, click your profile icon (bottom left), then Settings > Capabilities. In the mobile apps, tap the menu button (top left), then your profile icon, then Capabilities. If the Search and reference chats toggle switch is enabled, you're good to go.

When you're ready to do some reflecting, you need to be in the web or desktop apps. Click your profile icon (bottom left), then Settings, then Reflect. A summary will be automatically generated for your last month of usage, by default, but you can change the time period via the drop-down menu in the top right corner (click the circular refresh arrow icon to load a new summary).

I must admit up front that I tend to regularly delete my Claude chats as I go—I don't like leaving a long digital trail behind me for a variety of privacy and security reasons—so I can't tell you what it's like to have Claude dig through months and months of conversations. It may be that digging into bigger datasets get you different results.

What I can tell you is that Claude's review of my last month of AI use was still interesting: It correctly identified that I spend a lot of time working on little web apps and widgets that can help with my work, and of course experimenting with Claude's capabilities (also for work purposes, most of the time).

However, it does ignore your most recent conversations, depending on the calendar: If you're half way through July, your "past month" summary will only run up to the end of June, so only whole months are counted in the summary. It also seems to ignore shorter, one-off chats in favor of bigger trends.

Digging deeper into the data

Claude Reflect
The summary splits your AI usage up into categories. Credit: Lifehacker

Your reflection starts with a summary and a chart showing daily activity, but if you scroll down there's more to explore. Claude will break down your time into categories that you spend time on (like a New Tab extension for Chrome in my case), and assess your AI fluency skills too—basically, how good a prompter you are.

I scored highly in terms of "delegation" to the chatbot and "discernment" in terms of assessing the AI output, but apparently my "description" skills could use some work. Claude pointed out an occasion where I could've been more precise with a prompt, and gave me an example of how I could've refined it.

I'm not sure anything I read in Claude Reflect is going to change how I use the AI, but I think it's worth dipping into every now and again just as a self-audit. In the same way Spotify Wrapped can reveal that you're listening to far too much '90s pop, Reflect can help reassess your AI boundaries—particularly for heavy users.

I did find some of the summarizing to be a bit too polished: It's typical of AI bots like Claude to want to write a flowing narrative that can be tied off neatly, rather than a more awkward report that's more accurate, and this is evident again here. On the whole, though, it seemed to give me fair assessments.

If you do feel your Claude use has got out of hand, the Reflect summary includes a Set quiet hours and breaks link that leads to the Time and focus section of the app settings: From here you can set screen time limits for yourself with the AI, and have it remind you to take a break from prompting every so often.



The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Why Ditto AI Might Be the New Tinder

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Welcome back to your weekly youth culture roundup, where I decode exactly what these crazy kids are getting up to. If you've been feeling out of touch, don't worry. I got you covered with everything from World Cup memes, to Generation Alpha slang, to college students outsourcing romance to artificial intelligence.

Ditto AI replacing Tinder

Younger people are using AI to take online dating to new, weird places. Ditto AI is a college-based dating platform that ditches the swiping and profiles of apps like Tinder. Instead, users fill out a survey and the algorithm gets to work finding a match. When a suitable partner is discovered, the app then sets up a date based on the interest of the couple. The idea is to circumvent the "too many choices" aspect of modern matchmaking. Instead of a flood of matches or rejections, Ditto AI sets up a single date, eliminating hours of scrolling, message app small talk, and having to make decisions about what you'll actually do on your date.

According to the company, Ditto AI does more than just match up people who like the same things. The company claims it "brings your 'profiles' to life as agents," that "interact, learn, and evolve." The company promises it will "simulate interactions with everyone in your school, city—even the entire country," until it finds the right person for you."

Ditto AI doesn't offer this service yet, but the logical extension is a conversational LLM AI agent to help people on a date know what to say to each other to eliminate the awkward conversations of the first date. The future of dating is a couple sitting across from each other feeding one another lines perfectly crafted to appeal to the other person, until eventually we cut out the middlemen and let the AI agents date each other while we all run away screaming to live in a jungle.

What does TSPMO mean?

This slang acronym means "this shit (is) pissing me off." It's mostly used by members of generation alpha, and generally just in comment sections.

(If you'd like more definitions of Gen A and Z slang, check out Lifehacker's slang glossary.)

Viral video of the week: influencer vs. grocery store

This week's viral video depicts influencer Catherine Ebs making a trip to a Sam's Club grocery store. Okay, maybe not the most compelling content in the world, but Ebs' incredulous reaction to the perceived deficiencies of the small town market caught people's attention and inspired hilarious responses. Check it out:

And here's another parody for good measure:

It's hard to see what, exactly, Ebs is even reacting to—it's a normal supermarket—but influencers can be strange. Maybe she was expecting a display of hand-foraged mushrooms or something. In any case, the internet was quick to rally in defense of normal people shopping in normal grocery stores, with comment sections roasting the influencer mercilessly enough that she nuked the original video and doesn't seem to have posted anything since. Too bad, because I'd love to hear her explanation.

Erling Haaland wins World Cup meme war

His team may have been knocked out of the World Cup contest, but Norway's Erling Haaland has become the star of World Cup 2026 anyway. Haaland basically dragged his mediocre national team to its first ever quarter-final spot in the contest, scoring seven goals of Norway's 13 goals in five games, but Haaland's online fame has as much to do with his charisma and personality as it does with his skills on the pitch. Over the last few weeks, Haaland's Instagram follower count has grown from around 50 million to nearly 70 million followers. Fans are in love with his Viking style, both on the pitch and off, and the way he spent the World Cup drinking in American culture by doing things like buying his entire team cowboy hats, and leaving the U.S. with a taxidermied whiskey raccoon:

Lionel Messi loses World Cup meme war

Argentinian soccer superstar Lionel Messi is regarded as one of the best players in history and Argentina is favored to take home the cup, but Messi's losing the 2026 meme war. Yeah, he has over 500 million Instagram followers, but the backlash is real.

Messi's been given the nickname "FIFA's Princess," and nicknames are hard to shake. The perception is that Messi has a special place in the heart of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and that refs are fixing games to make sure that Argentina doesn't get defeated. There's no proof or anything, but when has that ever stopped sports fans, especially when there are funny memes to be made?



lundi 13 juillet 2026

Your iPhone Is Hiding a Powerful Document Scanner

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I regularly use my iPhone to scan physical documents like medical reports, identity cards, forms from my bank, etc. Since 2015 or so, I've used an app called Scanner Pro to get the job done. It works well enough, but the best features require a subscription and it is no longer as fast as I'd like it to be. I've long known about Apple's built-in scanner in the Notes app, but it isn't as convenient as the app I've been using, so I never made the switch.

That changed when I recently discovered another built-in scanner on the iPhone, hidden away in the Preview app, of all places. This one is fast, free, and well integrated with the Files app, which is a big plus. Here's why you should consider using it

Your iPhone's Preview app has a hidden document scanner

Your iPhone ships with an app called Preview, which was added with the release of iOS 26 in 2025. Now, when you open a document in the Files app, your iPhone will automatically switch to Preview and load the it. However, if you open the Preview app directly, you'll see a "Scan Documents" button front and center. I've been using iOS 26 since the developer betas released, but I only noticed this feature after the recent release of the iOS 27 betas.

When you tap Scan Documents in Preview, your iPhone will fire up the viewfinder, and you can point the device at the documents you want to scan. Like Scanner Pro, the Preview app's scanner automatically identifies document borders, takes a picture to scan, and reopens the viewfinder so you can point the camera at the next page; it'll scan that quickly too. Continue this process till you're done scanning, after which you can hit the checkmark button in the top-right corner. The scanned PDF will automatically be saved to your iCloud Drive folder, without the need to export it. I found this process to be really fast and intuitive enough to recommend to my family members, who resist any technology that requires them to install a new app or press more than two buttons.

When the scanner is open, you'll see four buttons near the bottom of the screen. The big shutter button lets you manually click pictures for the scan, and the other three let you toggle flash, set color filters, and toggle on the auto-shutter feature, respectively. Auto shutter is the best feature of this app, as it automatically scans a page the moment it detects borders, but it's not perfect. If you want more precise control over your scans, you can disable it, and control the shutter manually.

Why Preview's scanner is much better than the one in Apple Notes

I don't enjoy dealing with PDFs in Apple Notes, and that's the best argument for using the scanner in Preview, which immediately saves those documents to the Files app. First, Notes makes it much harder to find and use the scanner: You need to open a note, tap the paperclip icon, and select the document scanner from the menu. The output is saved in the same note, and I find it unwieldy to deal with PDFs from within in the Notes app, which is best suited to viewing text-only notes.

I now only use the Notes app to scan documents when I specifically want to store the file in the Notes app. But other than the odd recipe I might scan to keep there, I don't foresee myself using the Notes scanner again. In most cases, Preview's scanner does a much better job.

Another third-party scanning app to consider

If you want more features than Apple's document scanner, there are third-party apps that may suit you better. In addition to Scanner Pro, which I mentioned above, Adobe Scan does a great job with scanning, OCR (optical character recognition) and has a generous free tier. In the free tier, Adobe Scan lets you capture unlimited scans, provides 2GB of space in Adobe Document cloud, and offers OCR for documents up to 25 pages long.

The premium tier costs $10/month, and adds a bunch of PDF editing features such as combining PDFs, extracting specific pages from a scan, and editing text in PDFs. You also get to use OCR on scans up to 100 pages per document, up to 20 GB of cloud storage, and a tool called Magic Eraser, which can automatically remove your thumb or fingers from scanned pages. I think the free tier is good enough for most people, but the most annoying thing about Adobe Scan is that even the free tier requires you to sign up for an account. You can sign in with your Apple, Google, or Facebook accounts to make it quick, but it's still an unnecessary step for those who just want an app that'll let them start scanning the moment it's installed.



This M1 iPad Pro Is Still One of the Best Tablets for Creators on a Budget

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The 2021 iPad Pro may not sound especially exciting in 2026, but this is one of those devices that aged unusually well. On sale for $399.99 refurbished on StackSocial, the 11-inch iPad Pro still makes sense for people who want a fast tablet for work, school, or creative apps without spending flagship iPad prices.

The biggest reason for its longevity is the M1 chip. Apple originally brought the same processor from its MacBooks into this iPad, and even five years later, it still handles multitasking, gaming, video editing, drawing apps, and demanding workflows without feeling slow. For someone upgrading from an older base-model iPad or an aging Android tablet, the jump in responsiveness is noticeable immediately. And since this is a Grade-A refurbished unit, it should arrive with little to no cosmetic wear.

The hardware still holds up surprisingly well today—the 11-inch Liquid Retina display supports ProMotion with a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes scrolling, drawing, and animations feel much smoother than standard iPads. Colors look accurate, brightness reaches up to 600 nits, and the antireflective coating helps when using it outdoors or near windows. The quad-speaker setup is also better than what most tablets in this price range offer, especially for movies and gaming. Apple included a Thunderbolt and USB 4 port here too, which means the tablet works well with external drives, monitors, docks, and accessories in a way that cheaper iPads still don't. The front-facing 12MP camera remains solid for video calls, while the rear wide and ultra-wide cameras, along with the LiDAR scanner, are still useful for scanning documents, augmented reality apps, and creative projects. Battery life also remains dependable at around 10 hours for streaming, browsing, or general work (though your mileage may vary, depending on use).

This isn't the right iPad for everyone, though, as the 128GB of storage can fill up quickly for people editing large video files or storing massive game libraries, especially since there is no microSD expansion. And while Apple Intelligence support is included, newer iPads with M-series chips will likely receive software support longer. But for most people, the M1 iPad Pro is a great buy at this sale price.

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