Facebook limits Messenger and Instagram functionality in Europe

Facebook has temporarily removed some functionality from its Messenger and Instagram offerings, for European users. The move is to give the company time to make changes in order to comply with changes to EU privacy regulations, which are currently being enforced by member nations.

Users firing up their apps in the region are being greeted with a pop-up warning “Some features not available – This is to respect new rules for messaging services in Europe. We’re working to bring them back”. The ‘new rules’ it refers to actually date back to 2002 – the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive, or ePrivacy Directive, for short. From 21st December (Monday), over-the-top messaging services will fall under this legislation, not just those offered directly by telcos and broadband providers.

Both apps still function as basic messengers, but a lot of the ‘nice-to-have’ interactive stuff is on hold, such as creating polls and giving nicknames to your contact list. Some will continue to function in one-to-one conversations, but not in group chats. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but Facebook has declined to give a definitive list, saying that there’s no need, as many will be turned back on imminently, once they’ve been soak tested for compliance. In a statement to the BBC, it adds: “We’re still determining the best way to bring these features back. It takes time to rebuild products in a way that work seamlessly for people and also comply with new regulations”.

Given that the type of functionality that has been suspended should have no direct correlation with the new rules, it seems that, for once, Facebook is erring on the side of caution. The ePrivacy Directive simply bans the collection of message content and associated metadata, without the permission of the sender. In other words – for example, scanning your messages in order to tailor advertisements to you. Given that, unless Facebook knows something that we don’t, an oversized smiley sticker shouldn’t break the rules, this looks like a case of Facebook using an abundance of caution against a notoriously litigious European Union.

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Amazon’s Deal of the Day will make sure you never lose your data again

It doesn’t matter what you do or how you do it, you need a way to keep your data safe. There is nothing worse than losing something important because a hard drive or flash drive died. Cloud services exist now, but what if something happens to your account, or the data is too sensitive to put on the cloud? It also doesn’t help that companies like Google are making more data count towards storage limits too! So today, Amazon is having a sale on all sorts of data storage devices, so you can make sure everything stays safe.

Really, today’s sale has practically every sort of backup storage device you might need at a great discount. Take the multiple microSDs on sale, for example. Whether you need a data storage device for your Nintendo Switch, smartphone, camera, or anything else, these microSDs will get the backup storage you need. Both the Sandisk Ultra and Sandisk Extreme microSD cards are on a deep discount, with the 512GB models being 67% and 60% off, respectively. Yes, the Amazon store page says up to 30% off, but apparently, they meant up to double that off.

If you need a flash drive, there’s a deal for it as well! The HP 128GB flash drive is just $14, down from $17. No, it wasn’t expensive in the first place, but who can argue against savings either way? 21% off, this USB 3.0 flash drive will save your important data in a format that’s easy to carry around. Perfect for data you need to get somewhere else, but is too sensitive for something like Google Drive.

MicroSDs and flash drives not enough data storage space? Don’t worry, as extra SSDs are also on sale! The Crucial X8 500GB SSD is on sale, to be exact. Down to $80, this is the perfect device for backing up all the data on your desktop (which is definitely something you should do regularly). It can also work with any device that accepts external storage devices, like say… the PlayStation 4? Those never shipping with enough storage space…

Since this is Amazon’s Deal of the Day, you only have today to grab these data storage deals. If there’s something you need, don’t wait!

Amazon Data Storage Sale

No matter what kind of storage device you need, you can save today with Amazon's Deal of the Day! Whether you're looking for a MicroSD or an external SSD, you can find something to suit your needs here.

View the Deals at Amazon

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OPPO Reno 4 5G is getting the ColorOS 11 stable update with Android 11

OPPO ships their smartphones with ColorOS, a custom Android skin that emphasizes on minimal UI and flat icons. The latest iteration of ColorOS, ColorOS 11, is based on Android 11 and it packs in features such as dark mode customizability, three-finger translation with Google Lens, Super Power Saving Mode, and a revamped Quick Settings design. The update is already available on a number of OPPO phones via stable channel, and the company had promised to add more devices to the roster in December. Making good on its promise, the Chinese OEM has now begun rolling out the much-awaited update to the OPPO Reno 4 5G.

OPPO Reno 4 and Reno 4 Pro 5G XDA Forums

The initial stable Android 11 build for the OPPO Reno 4 5G is tagged as CPH2091_11_C.01, and it is currently available for download in Australia. Those running ColorOS 7 based CPH2091_11_A.31 or a higher build should be able to download the update by visiting Settings > Software Updates and clicking on Trial Version from the gear menu. Despite saying “Trial Version”, the option now leads to the stable build, thus existing beta users can seamlessly perform the transition.

As with the previous ColorOS 11 releases for other devices, this will be a phased rollout with only a small batch of devices initially receiving the OTA. If no critical issues crop up in the first phase and everything looks smooth, the rollout will gradually be expanded to more devices over the coming days.

If you own the “Pro” variant of the OPPO Reno 4 5G and are wondering if you’ll get the update, here’s a list of countries where the official version of ColorOS 11 is available at this moment. Note that the company has yet to start a full-fledged OTA rollout for the Pro model, hence you need to manually submit a request to download the build.

---

Source: ColorOS Community

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Facebook and Apple spar over upcoming App Tracking Transparency feature in iOS 14

Back in June 2020, Apple announced that the iOS 14 update to its mobile operating system would bring in a mechanism to allow users to opt-out of in-app ad tracking by refusing to share the IDFA identifier with app developers. This feature, called App Tracking Transparency, drew ire from advertising giants for how it would impact their business. Apple delayed enforcing the feature until 2021 to allow developers to adapt their apps. But with 2021 approaching, advertising giants such as Facebook have hit back again at Apple for the feature.

App Tracking Transparency framework essentially requests user authorization to access app-related data for tracking the user or the device. And in a separate policy update, Apple has required apps in the Apple App Store to give users more details about the personal data. Each app’s listing will highlight key information about the data collected, and a summary of its privacy policy.

This policy update, coupled with the upcoming App Tracking Transparency feature, prompted Facebook to lash out at Apple with a series of full-page ads in leading newspapers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post (via Bloomberg).

Facebook’s argues that these changes in iOS will extend onto small businesses, limiting their ability to run personalized ads and reach their customers effectively. According to Facebook, small business advertisers could see a cut of over 60% in their sales for every dollar they spent on ads as these ads would no longer be targeting the right customers.

Facebook also published a blog post on the issue, further arguing that the changes will force businesses to turn to subscriptions and other in-app payments for revenue, a piece of which will then go to Apple (though smaller developers have had their “Apple tax” slashed to 15%). Further, Apple’s own personalized ad platform is said to be exempt from the new iOS 14 policy changes. Facebook is also left with no choice but to show the necessary prompts for opt-out, even though they strongly disagree with the changes in light of the impact it would have on the businesses that the company wants to support.

Facebook continues the lash out against Apple by saying that it is behaving anti-competitively by using its iron-grip control of the App Store to benefit its own bottom line at the expense of app developers and small businesses. And for this reason, Facebook is also providing relevant information in the Apple vs Epic Games litigation regarding how Apple’s policies have adversely impact Facebook and those that make use of the social media giant’s services.

Apple has responded to Facebook’s critiques, saying in a statement (via TheVerge) that it is “standing up for our users“.

We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not. App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.

Apple’s statement comes as Facebook is rolled out a second ad (via TheVerge) titled “Apple vs the free internet“.

This new ad claims Apple’s iOS 14 privacy changes “will change the internet as we know it”, and force websites and blogs “to start charging you subscription fees” or add in-app purchases due to a lack of personalized ads.

To add some more context to Facebook’s PR campaign, here’s what the new privacy section on the App Store looks like for the official Facebook app:

Apple exposing all the ways Facebook tracks you with it iOS app is really quite something pic.twitter.com/hDhB85qk1L

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) December 16, 2020

It remains to be seen how this war of words ends. Needless to say, there’s big money at stake at either side of the fence. Both companies would have you believe that their cause is the most rightful and just one. But the truth is likely to be somewhere in the middle, closer to the corporate ideals of profits.

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ASUS ROG Phone II latest update enables 90fps on PUBG Mobile, VoLTE for T-Mobile and BSNL

A new update for the ASUS ROG Phone II has been spotted which brings a bunch of new features including support for VoLTE for T-Mobile network in the US and BSNL in India. The update is also said to finally bring support for 90fps gameplay on PUBG Mobile, which has been available on the ROG Phone 3 for a while now.

If you remember, high refresh rate mode for PUBG Mobile was announced back in August for the OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus 7T, OnePlus 7T Pro, and the OnePlus 7 Pro as a timed exclusive. Starting September 6, this feature was open to all OEMs, however, only a handful of devices including the ROG Phone 3, introduced the feature. Surprisingly, the ROG Phone II did not get the ability to run PUBG Mobile at 90fps, which was weird considering it comes with a 120Hz refresh rate display.

As per the official ASUS ZenTalk forums, the new firmware update comes with version number 17.0240.2012.65 and has begun rolling out today.

Here are the full release notes for this update:

• Android security patch update to 2020-12
• Added support for the Kunai 3 Gamepad Controller
• Add “Auto activation of lock touch function” in Game Genie, where the lock touch function will be turned on after a few minutes when idle in-game.
• Support India BSNL VOLTE
• Support US T-Mobile VOLTE
• Support for 90 FPS in PUBG Mobile
• Fixed issue where WhatsApp call could crash the application
• Fixed issue where notifications would not pop up when using Teams

As of now, the update is only available via OTA, which means that you might have to wait for the update to hit your device in the coming days since “the server pushes update notice to different serial numbers by batches.” As per the release notes, the new update also brings the latest Android security patch update for the month of December as well as support for the new Kunai 3 Gamepad Controller.

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Skype adds Android 11 bubble support as Slack begins testing it

With Android 11, Google finally added support for the long-overdue Bubble notification API, allowing developers to display messages and notifications in a free-floating window on top of other apps. The API was first introduced with Android 10 Beta 2 as an opt-in feature but didn’t make it to the final release. But with the Android 11 Developer preview, the API gained a user-facing setting and was formally incorporated into the OS with the final Andriod 11 release.

However, Android 11 supporting the Bubble API is only half part of the story. To take advantage of the feature, it needs to be implemented by app developers as well. That’s the reason a majority of popular apps don’t support displaying notifications in a bubble yet. So far, we have seen Google Messages and Facebook Messenger adding chat head bubbles support. Telegram is also working on adding the bubbles for a while now. Now, Skype for Android has become the latest app to join the list to support displaying notifications in chat head bubbles.

As first spotted by Twitter user @tonypalus, the latest version of Skype, version 8.67.0.95 to be precise, now supports bubbles for notifications. Our Editor-in-chief, Mishaal Rahman, was able to confirm the same on his smartphone running Android 11.

After updating to the latest version, you should see a new option called Bubbles in Skype’s app settings. Here’s a screenshot showing the feature in action.

Skype – free IM & video calls (Free, Google Play) →

Apart from Skype, it looks like Slack is also testing adding support for bubble notifications in Android 11. Android app developer/reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzz has discovered evidence that the popular team communication app might soon bring the floating notifications to its Android app.

#Slack is working to support the #Android Bubble API pic.twitter.com/ZUGEpss8iH

— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) December 15, 2020

The feature isn’t live in the latest stable version of the Slack app yet. However, we’ll be sure to let you known when it finally goes live for Android 11 users.

Slack (Free, Google Play) →

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Here’s our first look at Samsung’s Galaxy A72, an upcoming mid-range 5G phone

In September, we learned about the Samsung Galaxy A72, an upper mid-range smartphone with five rear cameras that the South Korean smartphone giant was planning to launch in 2021. But apart from the camera, we didn’t know much about the smartphone, including its probable specs and the design. That changes now as a new leak has given us our first look at the Galaxy A72 5G, revealing its design and some of the specifications.

The latest leak comes to us courtesy of prolific smartphone leakster Steve Hemmerstoffer. One of the key revelations from the new leak is that the Galaxy A72 5G will sport four rear cameras and not five as previously reported earlier. The smartphone’s overall design closely resembles that of the Galaxy A52 5G, which is yet another smartphone in the Galaxy A series scheduled for 2021. The only visual difference between the two is the display size: the Galaxy A72 5G sports a 6.7-inch panel, whereas the Galaxy A52 5G has a smaller 6.5-inch display. The phone will feature a Glasstic (a plastic material that looks and feels like glass) back panel and an aluminum frame.

On the back, we can see a rectangular camera module housing the quad cameras and a flash module with Samsung branding visible towards the bottom. Details about the camera sensors are unknown as of yet.

The Galaxy A72 5G is said to measure 165 x 77.4 x 8.1mm (9.9mm with the rear camera bump) and is expected to retain the 3.5mm audio jack. It will also offer an in-display fingerprint scanner similar to the Galaxy A52 5G. The leak didn’t reveal exact details about the processor, memory, battery, and other hardware components, but we expect to hear more on that in months leading up to the official launch.

Apart from the Galaxy A72 5G and Galaxy A52 5G, Samsung is also working on one more 5G-enabled smartphone called Galaxy A32 5G, which is said to be the company’s cheapest 5G smartphone yet.

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