It was supposed to be everything a player at one of the nation’s top college rugby programs dreams of — a shot at the national championship. 

But the dream ended in tragedy for University of California sophomore Robert Paylor. He was paralyzed after a hit in the first minutes of a game that Cal went on to win. 

Now an online crowdfunding campaign seeks to raise money for Paylor’s medical treatment, while his teammates and coaches say they won’t leave his side. 

Details about Paylor’s injury and the hit that caused it have not yet been revealed. But his family released a statement offering some information on Tuesday, three days after Saturday’s national title game.  Read more…

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Apple is once again the king of the global smartphone market, even after a dip in iPhone sales.

When Apple released its Q2 2017 earnings report, one of the few points of concern — other than what exactly the company might do with its massive wealth — was the noticeable drop in sales for its signature product.  

Tim Cook & Co. are clearly focused on competing with their own records, because Apple appears to face little challenge from anyone else in the popularity department. A Strategy Analytics research report on global smartphone sales crowned the iPhone the undisputed leader in the market, as Apple absolutely dominated all comers.   Read more…

More about Apple, Iphone 7, Market, Iphone 7 Plus, and Iphone 8

Snapchat found more friends and made some money — but far far fewer and far less than analysts had hoped. It’s not good.

How bad? Really bad. Snapchat shares dropped 25 percent after the earnings were first released.

The biggest concern is with user growth. Snapchat needs to get bigger in hopes of one day becoming a platform big enough to command major ad buys. It’s now at 166 million daily active users, but that’s only 5 million more than it had when it filed to go public. Expectations were for more. 

What’s the explanation? Well, Snapchat gave none in writing. Earnings releases usually come with some text explaining what happened and where the company is going. Snap decided to skip that part, as analyst Jan Dawson noted.  Read more…

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Celebrated lifestyle blogger Martha Stewart knows a thing or two about being consistently delightful, and she was kind enough to offer a few tips to someone who does not — the president.

 “[Twitter]’s used by the president so strangely,” she told Buzzfeed. “I don’t think it’s a tool for that kind of information. It was so good for news breaking and for, again, taking the temperature of a conundrum or a challenge or something. I still use it for that.”

Trump’s version of “taking the temperature” is recapping Fox News and broadcasting his own temper tantrums, which Stewart finds incredibly unbecoming. She previously made her feelings towards Trump known on her Instagram account, which has gotten a lot better since her days of posting poorly lit food photos.  Read more…

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Watch out Kanye West—you might be facing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in 2010. 

The former wrestler opened up about being the world’s highest paid actor in the latest issue of GQ, and when asked about any political ambitions, he managed to offer up a glimmer of hope for his fans across the country. 

Everyone from Michael Moore to Washington Post has brought up The Rock running for president of the United States, and in conversation with Caity Weaver for the magazine, he discussed how those conversations have impacted his thoughts about a future campaign.  Read more…

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The Slow Mo Guys threw themselves into potential bodily harm with their newest video, where they explored what 1,000 mousetraps going off would look like in slow motion.

To do this, Gavin and Daniel first had to set up the mousetraps, a task much harder than it sounds (it took four hours). Once that was done, Daniel then dove right into the middle of the mousetrap-covered trampoline.

The slow mo results look epic and very painful. Read more…

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Microsoft is finally ready to open its assistant up to developers. 

The Cortana Skills Kit, which allows developers to integrate their services with the assistant, is now in public preview, Microsoft announced. The news comes just days after Harman Kardon unveiled the Invoke, its Cortana-powered speaker.

Microsoft first teased the Cortana Skills Kit when it announced the speaker late last year, but hadn’t made it widely available to developers. 

Just like Alexa Skills for Amazon’s Echo, the Cortana Skills Kit lets developers build integrations so users can interact with their services via Cortana commands. Cortana Skills will be available on Cortana across all its platforms — desktop, mobile apps, Xbox — as well as the upcoming Invoke speaker. Read more…

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Facebook users may see more posts nudging them to contact lawmakers.

A recent update to the social network lets Page owners create individual posts that include a button for Facebook users to contact their local representatives. 

The feature is available as an icon on the post to Page owners within certain categories, including non-profits and media organizations. Props to Ziad Ramley for noticing this:

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Rob & Big star Rob Dyrdek was absolutely crushed upon learning his former body guard, friend and co-star, Rob Christopher “Big Black” Boykin had died.

On Tuesday, Dyrdek addressed his loss on his Twitter account by sharing some touching personal memories of Boykin, 45, who People confirmed died earlier this morning after suffering a heart attack.

The skateboarder and TV star began by declaring, “My heart is broken,” and shared a photograph of he and Boykin enjoying some quality time on a large swing.

More about Entertainment, Twitter, Conversations, Celebrities, and Death