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3 Spotify Audio Settings That All 188 Million Subscribers Should Probably Change


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3 Spotify Audio Settings That All 188 Million Subscribers Should Probably Change


3 Spotify Audio Settings That All 188 Million Subscribers Should Probably Change

With over 188 million subscribers worldwide as of this month, Spotify is arguably one of the most popular music streaming platforms in the world. CNET also ranks Spotify as one of the best music streaming services on the market. 

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Spotify lets you listen to music wherever you are, recommends new songs based on your activity and provides fun, personalized streaming data at the end of every year. Paid subscribers can also make and share playlists with friends on social media, or with the whole world through the app.

Read moreBest Soundbar Under $300

If you feel like something is missing from your listening experience though, Spotify lets you take control of various settings to make your music sound more superb. That way whether you're in a quiet library, your morning commute or pumping some iron in the gym, your music will always fit the mood. 

Here's how to crank your Spotify listening experience up to 11 no matter what the situation.

Adjust your base volume to match your environment

Volume is pretty easy to figure out, but did you know Spotify lets premium users adjust the base volume of the app depending on their environment? You can select either Quiet, Normal or Loud, and each has its own benefit.

Quiet will make songs a little quieter and sound cleaner, making it a good choice if you're relaxing at home. Normal makes songs play at a medium base volume, and the sound is less crisp than Quiet. This is a good choice for most people and situations. Loud is -- you guessed it -- louder, but you might lose some audio quality because of the loudness. This option is good if you're at the gym or other similarly noisy environments.

Here's how to adjust the base volume on your iPhone:

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of your screen.
3. Tap the Playback option near the top of the menu.
4.
Beneath Volume level there are three options: Loud, Normal and Quiet

If you're using the Spotify app on a Mac, here's how to adjust the base volume:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Click the down arrow in the top-right corner.
3. Scroll down until you see Audio Quality.
4. Under Audio Quality, you should see Volume level
5. Click the drop-down bar to the right of Volume level.
6. From here, you see the same Loud, Normal and Quiet options. Pick whichever one works for you.

Here's how to adjust the base volume if you're using the Spotify app on an Android device:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Scroll down to Playback and you should see Volume Level.
4. Next to Volume Level you should see the LoudNormal and Quiet options. Pick the one you want.

Finally, here's how to adjust the base volume in Spotify while on a Windows computer:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Click your account name in the top-right corner.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Audio Quality, you should see Volume level. Click the drop-down bar to the right.
5. Select either LoudNormal or Quiet.

Spotify playlists on iPhone

Use the equalizer to customize your sound for your favorite genres.

Angela Lang/CNET

Use the Spotify Equalizer for more control 

If you prefer being more hands-on with how your bass and treble come across in each song, you can adjust the in-app equalizer. Adjusting your bass affects lower frequency sounds, making your music sound deeper with increased bass or flat with less bass. Treble affects the higher sound frequencies, making your music sound brighter and more crisp with increased treble or duller and kind of muddied with less treble. 

Here's how to access the equalizer on your iPhone:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear in the top right corner to access Settings.
3. Tap the Playback option. 
4. Scroll down the menu and tap Equalizer.

Here's how to access the equalizer on your Android device:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Under the Audio quality heading -- not under Data Saver -- tap Equalizer.

This opens the equalizer page on both systems. Here you can find the manual equalizer slider and a handful of premade genre-based equalizers. 

You should see the manual equalizer slider that looks like a line graph with six dots. When you first get to this page, the equalizer should be flat. 

Each dot on the graph can be adjusted for more or less sound. The far left bar represents your bass, the far right bar controls your treble and the middle bars control -- you guessed it -- your midrange. You can tweak the bars as you see fit.

There are also genre-based equalizers on this page. You can pick which genre you're listening to and the app automatically adjusts the sliders to optimize for that style of music. After picking one, you can further adjust the sliders for the perfect listening experience.

If you want to reset the equalizer, there's a genre-based equalizer called Flat. This will reset the equalizer to its default.

The Mac and Windows versions of Spotify don't have an in-application equalizer. But you can search for an equalizer application to help you in your journey to find the best sound.

Music on the Spotify app

Adjusting these settings can really make your music pop

James Martin/CNET

Adjust the quality of your music for a clearer sound 

You can also adjust the audio quality of your music. This is handy if you're using mobile data and don't want to bump up your phone bill. Reducing the audio quality will use less data. 

Here's how to change the audio quality on mobile and tablet:

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Scroll down until you see the heading Audio Quality -- not under Data Saver.
4. Under WiFi streaming and Cellular streaming, you can select Low, Normal, High or Automatic. The Automatic option adjusts the audio quality to whatever your signal strength is. There is also a fifth option for paid subscribers called Very high.

How to change the audio quality on your desktop:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Click the down arrow in the top-right corner.
3. Click Settings.
4. Scroll down to Audio Quality.
5. Beneath Audio Quality you should see Streaming quality. Click the drop-down menu to the right.
6. Choose between Low, Normal, High or Automatic options, and the Very high option for paid subscribers.

For more information on Spotify, see which Spotify plan is best for you and how Spotify stacks up against Apple Music.


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Amazon Prime Day 2022: Remaining Deals On Laptops, TVs And More


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Amazon Prime Day 2022: Remaining Deals on Laptops, TVs and More


Amazon Prime Day 2022: Remaining Deals on Laptops, TVs and More

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With Prime Day behind us, the deals have started to dry up. However, they're not quite gone yet. There are still a lot of discounts available to take advantage of right now. If you're looking to save some money, here's your cue. Amazon and many other retailers who were running their own anti-Prime Day deals are still offering plenty of big discounts on TVs, headphones, fitness gear, home goods and more. To help you take full advantage of these deals before they're gone, we've rounded up some of the best bargains still available below. 

There have also been some rumors swirling that Amazon will have another Prime sales event in the fall, but you don't have to wait that long to find big savings with tons of great deals still available. 

Update, 12:02 p.m. E.T.: Notable deals that we've found today that are new or beating Prime Day prices include:

We handpick the products and services we write about. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our reviews ethics statement .

Best remaining Prime Day deals on Amazon devices

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K: $30

If you're wanting to add some smarts to your existing TV, you can do exactly that while saving 40% on Amazon's 4K-capable streaming stick today. Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K is a great pick if you're new to smart TV functionality with its easy-to-use OS and included Alexa-enabled voice remote. 

Best remaining Prime Day deals on TV and streaming

  • Roku Express: $18 (save $12)
  • Roku Express 4K Plus: $25 (save $15)
  • Chromecast with Google TV: $40 (save $10)
  • Nebula projectors : Up to $500 off
  • LG Cinebeam 4K projector: $1,260 (save $540)
  • Hisense 50-inch R6 Series 4K Roku TV: $280 (save $170)
  • Hisense 55-inch R6G 4K smart TV: $310  (save $290)
  • Sony 55-inch Bravia XR OLED A80K Series 4K Smart TV: $1,698 (save $302)
  • Sony 65-inch Bravia XR OLED A80K Series 4K Smart TV: $1,998 (save $302)
  • Sony 77-inch Bravia XR OLED A80K Series 4K Smart TV: $3,298 (save $202)
  • Samsung 55-inch QLED 4K Smart TV: $748 (save $50)
  • Samsung 60-inch QLED 4K Smart TV: $798 (save $100)
  • Samsung 65-inch QLED 4K Smart TV: $898 (save $100)
  • Samsung 75-inch QLED 4K Smart TV: $1,298 (save $100)
  • Samsung 85-inch QLED 4K Smart TV: $1,998 (save $300)
  • Samsung 43-inch Neo QLED 4K Smart TV: $1,098 (save $100)
  • Samsung 50-inch Neo QLED 4K Smart TV: $1,498 (save $100)
  • Samsung 55-inch Neo QLED 4K Smart TV: $1,598 (save $300)
  • Samsung 65-inch Neo QLED 4K Smart TV: $2,298 (save $300)
  • Samsung 75-inch Neo QLED 4K Smart TV: $2,798 (save $700)
  • Samsung 85-inch Neo QLED 4K Smart TV: $3,998 (save $100)
  • LG 48-inch OLED C1 Series 4K Smart TV: $797  (save $703)
  • LG 65-inch OLED C1 Series 4K Smart TV: $1,600  (save $900)
  • LG 83-inch OLED C1 Series 4K Smart TV: $3,997  (save $2,003)
  • LG 48-inch OLED Evo C2 Series 4K Smart TV: $1,497  (save $103)
  • LG 55-inch OLED Evo C2 Series 4K Smart TV: $1,697  (save $103)
  • LG 65-inch OLED Evo C2 Series 4K Smart TV: $2,297  (save $203)
  • Furrion 55-inch Aurora full shade outdoor TV: $1,500 (save $400)
  • Furrion 65-inch Aurora partial sun outdoor TV: $2,300 (save $1,000)
  • Samsung QLED smart TVs with Alexa: Up to $1,500 off
  • TCL 50-inch 4-Series 4K Smart TV: $300  (save $200)
  • TCL 65-inch 6-series 4K smart TV: $1,000  (save $500)

Best remaining Prime Day deals on tech and smart home

Google Pixel 6 Pro: $699

The Google Pixel 6 Pro's unique design, great software additions, superb camera quality and solid all-round performance have already earned the phone an excellent rating in our full review. With performance that's every bit as good as its design, it's the best phone Google has ever made. The main camera is on par with the best iPhones. And at $699 for the base 128GB model in this sale, it trounces its premium phone rivals in price.

Best remaining Prime Day deals on headphones and speakers

AirPods Pro: $170

While they've been out a while and the AirPods Pro 2 should be coming sometime in 2022, the Apple AirPods Pro remain a great pair of true wireless earphones. That's largely due to their winning design and fit, good sound, effective noise canceling and spatial audio, which is a virtual-sound mode for watching movies and TV shows. They're also excellent for making voice calls and have a top-notch transparency mode. Also worth noting: They're IPX4 splashproof, so they're suitable for sporting activities, though for a more secure fit you may want to invest in third-party foam ear tips, which are grippier than the tips Apple includes.

Their lowest price to date was $159 (in late 2021), but $170 is the lowest we've seen them for in 2022. 

Best remaining Prime Day deals on home and garden

Best remaining Prime Day deals on health and fitness

Fitbit Versa 2: $114

The Fitbit Versa 2 is a fitness tracker that works with both Android and iOS to monitor calories burned, steps taken and is touchscreen compatible. Plus, it's water resistant up to 164 feet and has a long battery life with up to 144 hours of use. This fitness watch is just $114, $36 off from its original price.

Best remaining Prime Day deals on beauty and fashion

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The latest update includes new deals on a Cosori air fryer, Philips Hue smart lighting and digital food scales.

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The latest update includes new deals on a pack of GE Cync smart flood lights, a Dash Precision meat thermometer and a four-pack of Amysen smart plugs. 

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The latest update includes a full overhaul of our previous deal selection to remove deals that expired when Prime Day ended. We've also updated prices on deals that are still available, as well as added new deals on Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro, UltraLoq smart locks and Samsung QLED TVs.

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Most recent update includes new deals for MacBook Air, Fire TV Cube and Syrinx weighted blanket. 


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Spotify's Car Thing Is About To Face The Music


Spotify's Car Thing Is About to Face the Music


Spotify's Car Thing Is About to Face the Music

A year has 525,600 minutes. Matt Suda spent 206,989 of them -- more than a third of last year -- listening to Spotify.

Suda was one of the earliest customers to get his hands on an invite-only release of Car Thing, Spotify's first-ever hardware device, which goes on sale Tuesday. Unlike him, you probably didn't spend more time streaming music than sleeping last year. But Spotify is betting that Suda and about 140 million of you have something in common: Your car doesn't have a fancy infotainment system to rival a Tesla's.

"I was just interested in seeing Spotify's take on actually building their own hardware," said Suda, a 26-year-old student in Houston, who drives a 2012 Honda. "I wasn't expecting a whole lot. But getting the device and using it -- you can understand more the problem they're going after."

Spotify's main listening location is the home, but the car is a close second, said Gustav Söderström, Spotify's chief research and development officer. He says Americans spent an "insane" 70 billion hours a year on the road pre-pandemic. But while roughly 50% to 70% of cars on US roads may be able to connect to a phone, they're not so fresh-off-the-line as to have an entertainment display that easily streams tunes and podcasts. 

To Spotify, that meant drivers in roughly 140 million cars might stream Spotify more -- or start paying for it if they don't already -- if a device could replicate Apple's Car Play or Android Auto for them. 

"Why would we do something ourselves here?" Söderström said. "If this already existed, we wouldn't have." 

Enter Car Thing.

Sarah Tew/CNET

It may look like a bit like a sideways Zune, Microsoft's failed music player that launched in 2006. But with a credit-card-size touchscreen, mics to pick up voice commands, five buttons and a dial, the $90 Car Thing is a souped-up Spotify remote control for your ride. It mounts to your dash, with the goal of bringing a better way to safely stream music to drivers missing one of those fancy infotainment systems -- no dashboard teardown or new car required. 

When Spotify first unveiled Car Thing in April, more than 2 million people signed up for its waitlist. The earliest people invited to try it got it free; by fall, people had to start paying $80. On Tuesday, it's finally going on sale in the US, with a $10 price hike to $90.

Currently, Car Thing works only with Spotify's premium tier. That means on top of the $90 you pay for the hardware, you also must pay for a Spotify membership. Its standard subscription is $10 a month, though it comes as cheap as $5 a month for students. 

So Car Thing is only for Spotify -- but only for now. 

Its software is on track for an update in "a few weeks" that will unlock it to control other audio apps, Söderström said. If you love Audible, Car Thing will be able to play, pause, skip and adjust volume for your audio books. The update will even allow Car Thing to work for services that are Spotify's direct competitors. "We want to be an open platform," he said. 

That openness could, eventually, extend to "deeper integrations with potential partners" if Car Thing takes off, he added. While Spotify wouldn't elaborate on future partnerships, a Car Thing that could toggle between Spotify and Google Maps or Waze would give it the one-two punch of both music navigation and, well, literal navigation. 

Broadening Car Thing may be wise, because those 140 million cars may be a more niche market than it seems, according to Tatiana Cirisano, a music industry analyst and consultant at researcher MIDiA. Just 22% of US consumers stream music in the car. 

"Streaming services are battling for market share over this relatively small demographic," Cirisano said. 

With sales opening in the US on Tuesday, Spotify is about to start learning: Is Car Thing tapping into a caravan of unmet need for millions of drivers? Or is it driving headlong toward a dead end? 

But as vehicles steer toward a future of being more autonomous, anything Spotify can do to solidify itself as the must-have music service in the car may pay dividends down the road. 

"Full autonomy is probably the most elusive goal of all, but the dream is: You get into your car and all the windows turn into displays," said Edward Sanchez, a senior automotive analyst at Strategy Analytics. "That's what everyone's salivating at the prospect of."

Sarah Tew/CNET

Getting to mile one

The concept for something like Car Thing had been percolating at Spotify for a while, but the device's date of conception might be marked in 2018, when it got its name. First proposed over dinner among a handful of Spotify hardware designers and brand agents, Car Thing was a semi-serious placeholder that the design team adopted for a code name. The name was funny, very literal and a bit childish, said Andreas Cedborg, Spotify's head of hardware product. 

"People think, 'Hey, you can't name it like that,'" Cedborg said. "But, yeah, you can."

Hints about Spotify making hardware for the car soon trickled out. In 2018, some marketing materials made their way to a smattering of Spotify users, advertising a voice-command device you could mount on your dash and pay for as an add-on to your Spotify subscription. Images showed a round device with a lit-up text display with a green circle border. Spotify declined to comment on images at the time, but the company now says it was just a test; it never produced the device pictured.

By May 2019, Spotify came clean it was experimenting with a device called Car Thing. It was different from the device in the leaked test images, but it was also a long way from what Car Thing would become.

Spotify's first iteration of Car Thing. 

Spotify

The first Car Thing's screen was too small, its dial too big, Cedborg said. Its green accents, a nod to Spotify's flagship color, made it stick out from the rest of the dashboard rather than blending in. It also had its own battery, which the current version eschews in favor of a cable that connects to your car's USB port or 12-volt socket. While a battery would make Car Thing more self-sufficient, freezing temperatures inside a car during winter would ding battery life, and scorching heat with a car baking in the sun risked explosion. A battery also adds weight, making it trickier to mount well. 

The Car Thing team's eureka moment was combining a hat-trick of voice commands, touch screen and physical inputs like buttons and dials. Drivers needed all three, working in concert, they realized. A touchscreen is impossible for typing each letter of a song title while driving, but voice commands handle long titles easily. Yet voice commands are a frustrating way to get to the bottom of a long playlist; a physical dial makes that simple. This three-prong approach was "the user interface that we didn't see anywhere in the car world," Söderström said. 

After three more years of testing, redesign, user research and pandemic delays, Car Thing was ready for its unveiling. In April, Spotify published a blog post that yes, Car Thing was real. Yes, Car Thing was the name. And yes, it had arrived -- sort of. Spotify introduced the waitlist, and people who signed up for it could potentially get it free. 

The current design of Car Thing.

Sarah Tew/CNET

"We just can't make enough of them," CEO Daniel Ek said in October about getting Car Things into the hands of waitlisted customers. Progress was crimped by global chip shortages, a problem that halted carmakers' assembly lines, made Apple's iPhone 12 launch weeks late and turned finding a Sony's PS5 game console into a Christmas miracle. (Ek wasn't available to discuss Car Thing's US launch.)

But this slow seeding of the device allowed Spotify to gather feedback about Car Thing in the wild, figuring out what needed change or improvement. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

Road ahead

The version of Car Thing on sale Tuesday is the same physical device purchased off the waitlist. What's changed is the software. And the price. 

In pricing Car Thing at $90, Spotify is straddling two worlds. On one side, Car Thing isn't meant to be a revenue engine. Hardware "is a means to an end," Söderström said. Spotify hopes you'll pay for its service more so than its hardware. But on the other side, Spotify doesn't want to sell Car Thing at a loss just to make back the money on memberships. It wants to get Car Thing in as many cars as possible, but it will gauge Car Thing's success by the new subscribers and higher listening rates from existing members it attracts.

Despite the price hike, Spotify wants to get the price down. The $10 price increase was the result of the rising cost of chips, the company said. One thing that could help bring down price is selling Car Thing, eventually, outside the US, since scaling production can bring down the unit cost of making them. Spotify isn't committing to international expansion, but there are clear markets where Car Thing could go next, Söderström said, pointing theoretically to parts of Central and South America and Europe.

The company could also pursue bundles and deals that could make Car Thing a stronger value, he said.  

Gustav Söderström is Spotify's chief research and development officer.

Spotify

Söderström likens Car Thing to the Kindle, Amazon's hit e-reader. As Amazon's play to keep Apple from dominating digital books, Kindle was a means to an end, too. When the Kindle first launched in 2007, it was $399. Today, coincidentally, Kindles start at $90, the same price as Car Thing. 

Car Thing also comes at a time when Spotify's public image has been buffeted by drama over its most popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience. The debate pits accusations of dangerous COVID-19 misinformation against advocacy of freedom of speech. Spotify declined to comment on the Rogan debate.

Though 2 million on the Car Thing waitlist is a big number, it may have included flocks of people looking to score a freebie and a gaggle who were enticed by the hype around Spotify's first hardware. Sara Kayden, the marketing lead for Car Thing, says Spotify's conversion rate -- the amount people who actually buy Car Thing when they get off the waitlist -- was "healthy," without specifying further. 

The buyer reaction to Car Thing so far runs the gamut. Social media is dotted with both raves and regrets by people who got one off the waitlist. One Redditor mounted Car Thing to his Harley Davidson motorcycle and paired it to his Bluetooth headphones. Before Car Thing, switching tracks or adjusting volume was "nearly impossible" with his phone in his pocket and leather gloves on. 

But others have complained Car Thing was overpriced even when it was $80. 

Suda, the Spotify power user who scored Car Thing early and free, is still using the gadget every time he drives, nine months later. He's noticed that Car Thing's software has gotten zippier. "To me, it just makes it easier to listen and it's actually safer, if you don't have CarPlay or any of that fancy stuff," he said. 

In 2019, when Spotify revealed its first iteration of Car Thing, it also brought to light the possibility of a "Voice Thing" and "Home Thing." It was hardware that never materialized. Still, "it wasn't vaporware," Söderström said. "I've tried it. But it's not something we're launching right now." Spotify declined to comment on what its next thing in hardware would be. Regardless, they should definitely code-name it Next Thing.

And if Next Thing is ever to become a Real Thing, Spotify must pray Car Thing follows the roadmap of Kindle rather than Zune.

CNET's Katie Collins contributed to this report.  


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YouTube, Snapchat, Gmail Connection Issues In Eastern US Now Fixed


YouTube, Snapchat, Gmail connection issues in eastern US now fixed


YouTube, Snapchat, Gmail connection issues in eastern US now fixed

If you had troubles with YouTube or Gmail on Sunday, those issues should now be fixed.

Google Cloud had been experiencing widespread problems Sunday, which wreaked havoc on YouTube, Snapchat, Gmail, Discord and a host of other popular apps and services across the eastern United States.

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YouTube wasn't completely down for CNET's John Falcone in Brooklyn Sunday, but some videos were inaccessible, at least temporarily.

Screenshot by CNET

Google pointed to "high levels of network congestion in the eastern USA, affecting multiple services in Google Cloud, G Suite and YouTube."

"Users may see slow performance or intermittent errors," the company said in a statement around 2 p.m. PT. "We believe we have identified the root cause of the congestion and expect to return to normal service shortly."

Google's status page for Cloud confirmed the company was having issues with the service as of 1 p.m. PT. The search giant marked Google's Cloud Compute Engine and Cloud Networking services as suffering outages on its status dashboard.

At about 4 p.m. PT, the status page said the network congestion issue "is resolved for the vast majority of users, and we expect a full resolution in the near future."

As of 5 p.m. PT, the Google Cloud Status Dashboard shows all services available.

"The network congestion issue in eastern USA affecting Google Cloud, G Suite and YouTube has been resolved for all affected users as of 4:00pm US/Pacific," a Google spokesperson said late Sunday.

"We will conduct a post mortem and make appropriate improvements to our systems to prevent this from happening again."

YouTube seemed to be working on the West Coast, with CNET reporters able to access the video streaming site just fine. A CNET editor on the East Coast, however, noted that he was encountering issues. One video, for example, was inaccessible for about 15 minutes.

Google Cloud is the company's hosting platform, similar to Amazon's Amazon Web Services and Microsoft's Azure. In addition to powering its own services, other companies such as Snapchat and Uber, rely on Google's infrastructure to provide the backend for their apps and platforms.

News of the outage quickly spread across social media, with #YouTubeDOWN and #snapchatdown rising to the top of Twitter's Trending Topics section as users voiced their frustrations.

Other services that rely on Google Cloud for hosting also seemed to have experienced issues.

Downdetector.com, which monitors network issues, showed widespread issues for the East Coast of the US as well as in parts of Europe for YouTube and Gmail.

Originally published at 1:20 p.m. PT.
Updates, 2:25 p.m.: Adds comment from Google and background on Google Cloud; 4:30 p.m.: Adds that the congestion issue is resolved for most users; 5:50 p.m.: Adds comment from Google spokesperson.


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