The Discover feed of Google is a big part of how most of us keep up with different things, almost spending few minutes scrolling through each day. There are loads of content with not just the articles that match your interests but also YouTube video in the mix. But if Google has been getting a bit broad with its curation and you have seen seeing videos from specific YouTube channels with few taps.
Blocking the articles that you don’t like from your feed is very easy and all you have to do is to just tap the overflow menu beside card title and select most appropriate option expressing your disinterest, be it with publication, specific article or the topic. However, you have only had one option if you disliked a YouTube video recommendation in your Discover feed. Google has updated its Search app, so you have a new option for blocking specific YouTube creator’s videos from messing up the Discover feed. Other options for expressing your disinterest in YouTube video on Discover include hiding content about that topic or hiding a video.

WhatsApp has been improving its functionality and coming up with loads of features especially in group chats, giving the group administrators more control and making the chat more interactive. The CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced three specific privacy-centric WhatsApp features last month, blocking screenshots of view -once media, quiet exits from group chats and hiding your online status.

In the latest version, the settings provide you the granular control over who can see when you are online and when you last checked WhatsApp. Under WhatsApp Settings > Account > Privacy > Last seen and online, you can pick from four options for who can see your Last seen status which are everyone, my contacts, my contacts (except selected ones), and nobody. For the online status visibility on the app, you can mirror setting for your Last seen status above or just use Everyone option, so anyone in chat will see when you are online.

Repost feature was always there in Instagram but till this date there was no official way of reposting something. Earlier you can take a screenshot of someone else’s post, crop it and then post it on your timeline or you need to use a 3rd party application for reposting. But now Instagram is going to change it and come up with its own official repost feature.
Instagram has confirmed that the reposting feature will be tested very soon. A Meta spokesperson said that they are exploring the ability to reshare posts in Feed which is similar to how you can reshare in Stories so that people can share what they like plus original creators also get credit for their work. Initially it will be tested with small number of people. With the official repost feature the need for the third party apps will be eliminated. The third party apps have been there for many years and they are full of ads. TikTok has recently come up with a repost feature that lets you re-share the videos with your followers but they don’t show up in your profile. Instagram is also likely to come up with similar sort of feature.

Apple has recently launched a total of four new iPhones but there is no iPhone 14 Max among them. Instead, it is now being called iPhone 14 Plus and it is larger than iPhone 14 with a much bigger battery. It is the largest battery on an iPhone which is bigger than Pro models.

When it comes to design, iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are not very much different from iPhone 13. The pill punch-hole is limited to Pro models and base variants get similar notch as previous ones. iPhone 14 is compact phone with 6.1” OLED display while iPhone 14 Plus is pretty much larger phone with 6.7” screen. The base models still do not have a high refresh rate. It still has IP68 water resistance and so is scratch-resistant ‘ceramic’ glass with oleophobic coating. The peak brightness is 1200 nits as well as contrast ratio is 2 million to 1. iPhone 14 Plus has extra size which lets Apple to enhance the cooling system for improved performance. All the US customers of iPhone 14 will have eSIM-only iPhones which means there will be no physical SIM slots but the people in other regions will get to keep regular SIM cards. When it comes to camera, iPhone 14 and 14 Plus still use dual 12MP cameras but these are based on larger sensors with brighter aperture. This lets the camera to capture about 49% more light than before.

Google has recently confirmed the launch date for its next flagship phone series and Pixel Watch as well as Buds Pro. Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro were teased already in May during I/O conference of Google but now actual launch date has been unleashed. Google is coming up with new phones on October 6. The series engine giant has been confirmed the name for next-generation SoC that will power the Pixel 7 devices. Some of the reports were expecting it to be Tensor 2 but it will be called Tensor G2 instead. The G here could be either Google or a short version or ‘gen 2’ or may be both.

Pixel phones are sticking with familiar camera visor design but now they are separate cutouts for all the lenses. Rest of the phone is almost similar but with a bit smaller display bezels than before. Color options for Pixel 7 phones have also been confirmed and it will be available in Lemongrass, Obsidian and Snow color options while Pixel 7 Pro will be available in Hazel color instead of Lemongrass. Apart from second-generation Tensor chipset we don’t know much about Pixel 7’s specifications. There are rumors that vanilla Pixel 7 will get 50MP main camera and 12MP ultrawide lens and Pixel 7 Pro will have additional 48MP telephoto lens.

Have you been equipped with an Android device with material You theming and are all your playlists a priority? Maybe you have seen something a bit off with your home screen this past week. You may not have been able to pin it down at first sight but if you are using YouTube Music for your listening desires.

YouTube Music home logo is actually a circle with cut-outs for an inner ring and the signature YouTube play button. The new design has expanded the logo plate and has shrunk the stroke size of the inner ring while keeping the radius intact. The larger size provides the icon an improved weight compared to most of the other icons that you see completing the row. With Material You, it is all Google design but with custom coloring.

As creator your social media accounts are your lifeblood. The best two-factor authentication apps as well as password managers are critical for keeping the accounts safe but they can only do so much when the apps you are using themselves are vulnerable. Now imagine by clicking on the link that provides you random person unrestricted access to your TikTok account, access your messages, complete with permission to make private videos public, change your bio and also upload your new content. By tapping on the targeted link you could have ended your account as you knew but thanks to Microsoft which has identified this vulnerability before any widespread disaster.

Android apps like TikTok has declared in the app manifest how they need to handle these kind of links to content within them. Deeplinks are necessarily very specific hyperlinks which provide you access to individual components as well as functions of an app. The manifest ensures that clicking on an m.tiktok.com link in your browser takes you to TikTok app. TikTok is supposed to only load the content on WebView component after URL validation like Instagram Reels does not accidentally open in TikTok app. Microsoft discovered that the culprits could bypass deeplink verification and load whatever URLs they please with WebVIew component of TikTok.