MotoGP Silverstone : Rossi Wins Dramatic wet British GP

Valentino Rossi has regained the lead in the MotoGP championship with victory in a dramatic wet race at Silverstone, while Jorge Lorenzo lost vital ground in the title fight after being pushed out by Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso. The Movistar Yamaha rider mastered the treacherous conditions in driving rain after taking the lead from Lorenzo in the opening stages while his closest rival Marc Marquez crashed out on lap 13 to all put end his revival in the championship battle.

Octo Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci had the ride of his life to take a maiden MotoGP rostrum in second and even had a shot at Rossi after reeling in the leader in the closing stages. Andrea Dovizioso made it a near-perfect day for the Italian manufacturer by taking the final podium place ahead of Lorenzo. In another Rossi win full of high drama it was a nightmare day for Honda, who had three riders in the top six in the opening stages but after multiple crashes Dani Pedrosa represented the top Honda in fifth place.

Marquez suffered a slip coming around Copse corner at the start of lap 13 while chasing Rossi in second and his Repsol Honda bike flicked him off, which promoted Petrucci and Dovizioso on to the podium. Cal Crutchlow had his dreams of a first MotoGP podium at his home event destroyed by his LCR Honda team-mate Jack Miller. The rookie got an electric start off the line from 16th to battle into the top five but attempted an extravagant move down the inside of Crutchlow from a long distance back and failed to control his entry into Vale to low-side and collect his team-mate who was a passenger.

The wet conditions caused havoc for many of the riders who showed promising race pace earlier in the weekend in the dry. Scott Redding, who announced a new deal to move to Pramac Ducati for 2016 on the morning of the race, grabbed his best result of 2015 in sixth to finish top British rider ahead of his fellow countryman Bradley Smith in seventh. Andrea Iannone took a low-key eighth place ahead of Aleix Espargaro, while Alvaro Bautista rounded out the top ten. The original race start had to be red flagged as the weather took a dramatic turn moments before the start. After initially being declared a dry race the rain fell much heavier during the warm-up lap and every rider returned to the pits to change to the wet set-up and race direction aborted the start.

Maverick Vinales ended the British MotoGP as top rookie in 11th while Nicky Hayden grabbed the top open class honours in 12th. Avintia Racing duo Hector Barbera and Mike Di Meglio finished a distant 13th and 14th with Alex De Angelis rounding out the points paying positions. While Petrucci enjoyed a fantastic day for Pramac Ducati his team-mate Yonny Hernandez had one to forget after crashing on the exit of turn one on the opening lap after being bunched out [Source : Crash]

Barcelona lose Spanish Super Cup to Athletic Bilbao

Athletic Bilbao won a first trophy in 31 years as a 1-1 draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp secured the Spanish Super Cup with a 5-1 aggregate victory. Bilbao won the first leg 4-0 but Barcelona threatened a comeback with Lionel Messi's close-range finish. Barca defender Gerard Pique was sent-off after the break and Aritz Aduriz struck late on to seal it for Bilbao.

The visitors had Kike Sola sent-off late on, but the celebrations for Bilbao had already begun. It was ultimately a disappointing display for Barcelona who, despite plenty of possession, failed to threaten often enough. After Barcelona's humiliating defeat in the first leg, Athletic Bilbao knew Luis Enrique's side would be determined to make amends.

The reigning European champions lined up with Messi, Luis Suarez and Pedro in attack but the visitors had done their homework and the trio were well marshalled throughout. Whenever Messi had the ball, at least two players crowded round the Argentina international and his inability to get into the game left Suarez isolated.

Enrique heads into the new season with some concerns at the back. Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was named on the bench after conceding eight goals in his last two games, with Chile international Claudio Bravo starting in his place.

Barcelona's attacking intent often left them exposed at the back, and any hopes of getting the goals they needed ended when Pique was needlessly sent-off midway through the second half. The defender angrily remonstrated with the linesman and the referee produced a straight red.

After a brief spell of Barca dominance, Jeremy Mathieu gifted possession to Aduriz, leaving the forward one-on-one with Bravo and, after his initial effort was saved, Aduriz side-footed home the rebound to put the game beyond Barcelona [BBC Sport].

Upgrading Your iPhone Just Got Easier on Another Carrier

With the new iPhone to be announced next month, Sprint has introduced a new iPhone Forever plan that will let its customers upgrade your old iPhone whenever there is a new iPhone out at no additional cost. Of course, while there are no upgrade fees, the plan will start at $22 per month for the handset itself on top of your normal plan costs when you trade in your old iPhone for a new one.

While the offer will let you currently upgrade to a 16GB iPhone 6 for that monthly price, Sprint also has a special promotion right now as well that will drop the monthly handset cost to $15 per month if you upgrade before 31 December 2015.

"We decided how awesome would it be if anytime customers don't have the latest iPhone, they are eligible to upgrade, and have it be as simple as handing us your existing iPhone and picking up a new one – all included in your monthly rate," Sprint's CEO Marcelo Claure said.

While it looks like Sprint is taking big steps to lure in new customers and take on other carriers, a month ago, it seems as though it is taking its cues from T-Mobile. The Uncarrier had also announced a special iPhone plan that would allow customers to upgrade their iPhone for free with $15 monthly handset repayments [Source : Techradar]

Google Hangouts Gets Its Own Site, Just Like Facebook Messenger

Everyone wants to be free and standalone. Remember when Facebook Messenger got its own site that maybe people use but we’re not sure because they don’t talk about it? Google Hangouts wanted some of that action, too. Starting today you can go to Google Hangouts to make a phone call or ping a friend.

Interestingly enough, the product hasn’t broken away from the Google domain yet. It doesn’t even own Hangouts.com. Domain names aren’t a strong suit of Google.

Yes, this is also part of the breaking away that Google+ services are going through, joining the Photos product in all of its “standalone” glory. I use Hangouts in Gmail on the desktop, but I might switch over. Having a big old call button is actually kind of handy.

This is also, of course, a massive branding exercise for Google. It wants to build powerful brands to compete with other micro-products coming out of Facebook, Microsoft and Snapchat. Google has Photos and Hangouts, Facebook has Instagram and Messenger and Snapchat is coming on strong with Stories [Source : TechCrunch].

Google Delays its Modular Smartphone Until 2016

Google's modular smartphone project has been delayed. In a series of tweets Monday, the company confirmed the initial market pilot for Project Ara, which was slated to begin in Puerto Rico later this year, will instead be delayed until 2016.

Project Ara began in Google's secretive Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group. The aim is to create an Android-based smartphone platform where nearly every piece of hardware, including the battery, processor and camera, is a separate piece of the handset that can be replaced or customized without upgrading to a completely new device.

Google said the latest plan is to bring its modular smartphones to a "few locations" in the mainland United States for the initial rollout, but did not elaborate on the cause of the delay or the change of location. a spokesperson for Project Ara confirmed the delay to Mashable, but declined to provide additional details around the updated timeline.

The news comes less than a week after the company confirmed it would "re-route" the planned Puerto Rico pilot to a new location, though the company promised the modular smartphones would eventually make its way to the U.S. territory. Google previously said it chose Puerto Rico as a test ground for the experimental phones due to the island's "incredibly diverse" population, which is divided almost equally between smartphone users and more basic feature phone users.

The company had planned to make handsets available through the territory's two largest carriers, with a variety of devices sold via food truck-like storefronts. It's not yet clear how or where Google plans to distribute Project Ara devices during the mainland U.S rollout, but the company says more details about the changes will be coming soon [Source : Mashables].

BlackBerry Deleted A Tweet That it Accidentally Sent From an iPhone

Someone on BlackBerry's social media team just made an embarrassing mistake. A tweet from the company's Twitter account on Tuesday included a small detail at the bottom of the screenshot, revealing it was sent via iPhone. Clearly, even some BlackBerry employees use Apple products.

The tweet, which was first spotted and screenshotted by The Verge, has since been deleted.

This isn't the first time that a BlackBerry representative accidentally gave the iPhone an inadvertent stamp of approval. Alicia Keys, who was once BlackBerry's "Global Creative Director," ignited a mild social media scandal in 2013 when she tweeted from an iPhone instead of a BlackBerry.

Hours later, Keys dubiously blamed the situation on being hacked. She is no longer working with the company. The smartphone manufacturer, which has floundered in recent years amid stiff competition (mostly notably, Apple), is in the throes of an attempted comeback. It recently launched a throwback device called the BlackBerry Classic, tried to catch eyes with "unconventional" devices and even has a hand in the development of a self-destructing phone [Mashable].