Some Samsung users can’t edit app permission alerts for Facebook apps

Affected apps include Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

In Android Oreo on Samsung’s Galaxy phones, one of the new features included with the update is something called “App Permission Monitor.” With this, you can choose to get a notification when applications in the background are using certain permissions (like your microphone, camera, etc.) that you may not be aware of otherwise.

It’s a great tool and can be genuinely useful at times, but for whatever reason, some users have been reporting that Facebook-developed apps aren’t showing up here at all.

I checked my Galaxy S9 running Oreo, and sure enough, Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram don’t show up in the App Permission Monitor list despite being installed on the phone. Daniel here at AC also isn’t seeing Facebook in his list but can control settings for Messenger Lite and Instagram. In addition to those, we’ve also been told that WhatsApp (another Facebook-owned app) doesn’t show up in some instances either.

That may not seem like a huge deal at first, but it essentially means that you have no way of knowing if any of these apps are using things like your camera, location, and microphone at any time in the background. If you’re at all concerned about your privacy, that’s far from ideal.

Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger are clearly installed but don’t show up anywhere on the list.

It’s unclear what exactly is causing this anomaly, but one suspicion is that it has something to do with Facebook being a pre-installed app on select Samsung phones and therefore being treated in a different manner.

We’ve reached out to Samsung for an official explanation, and if/when we receive one, we’ll update this article accordingly.

If you want to check this out for yourself to see if Facebook’s apps are showing up for you, grab a Galaxy phone running Oreo and go to Settings -> Lock screen and security -> App permission monitor.

Thanks, Sean!

5 changes that would make the Galaxy S9’s software dramatically better

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
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• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Apex Launcher’s latest update is your wake-up call to switch to something better

If you use Apex Launcher and are wondering “what the heck happened to my home screen?”, you’re not alone.

Apex Launcher restarted development last May, and since then, there hasn’t been much to say about the old, but well-liked launcher as it tried to update its interface, improve its feature set, and start competing again. Well, the 4.0 update Apex Launcher pushed out this week has undone all of that progress and then some, and what users Apex Launcher had left are not happy.

Hey, where’d my widgets go?

Apex Launcher pushed out its 4.0 update on July 17th, and between the flood of users reviews and the redditors rioting, it’s pretty clear that something went horribly awry. A number of Apex’s settings have been dramatically changed or removed altogether with no warning: users had widgets deleted, home screen pages altered, app icons resized and their search providers switched to Yahoo overnight when the app auto-updated.

If I went to bed with my home screen laid out just the way I like it, then woke up to it being completely different, I’d be seeing red no matter what theme color I set before bed.

Apex Launcher’s update has forced a lot of users to make the following choice: set up everything the way you like it on Apex Launcher again or get a new launcher and start fresh. If any Apex Launcher users needed any help making that decision, a recent addition to the Apex Launcher site is helping push them towards the latter. Apex Launcher’s site is advertising an app recommendation partnership platform, asking developers to “Partner With Us” to promote their app through Apex Launcher.

Android launchers have access to an incredible amount of information like what apps we open the most, what times of day do we open apps the most, what times we’re most active with our phones, and how often we use their included search functions. Like a third-party keyboard, a third-party launcher needs to be trusted, and launchers with app promotion programs traditionally haven’t always been as transparent with their intentions as we’d like.

Apex Launcher is like any business; it needs to make money to survive, and app promotion programs can be done in a way that doesn’t betray the user or impede upon the user experience. But Apex Launcher’s last update just wiped out a ton of users’ settings and not only has there been no public communication from Apex Launcher since the update, there hasn’t been any public communication from Apex Launcher in the several months. So if you’re a longtime Apex Launcher wondering if now is the time to switch, my answer to you is going to be “You bet your Android it is”.

Nova Launcher with our July 4th theme and Smart Launcher 5 with our Heart Canada theme

So, what should you use instead? Well, if you liked the granular customization of Apex, try Nova Launcher or Action Launcher. If you want a launcher that’s easy to use but still just customizable enough to keep things beautiful, try Smart Launcher 5 or the completely free Evie Launcher.

Read more: Our favorite launchers for Android

VLC for iOS Gains Chromecast Support

Popular media player VLC for iOS was today updated to version 3.1, introducing long-awaited support for Chromecast. Chromecast functionality has been a highly requested feature from VLC users.

With the update, the VLC app for iOS can stream content to Chromecast-enabled devices.

Today’s update also brings support for viewing 360-degree videos in VLC by moving the iPhone around, and it offers a number of bug fixes. Full release notes are below:

– We added a feature many of you waited for: Chromecast support
– We fixed a bug where files on your phone were not displayed in VLC
– 360 videos can be viewed by moving your phone now
– Stability and performance improvements when decoding H.264/H.265 in hardware
– Improved audio playback quality
– Fixed a regression preventing the download of certain media files via http
– Fixed a regression where downloaded files might disappear
– Fixed a regression where users couldn’t log into Google Drive

VLC for the iPhone and the iPad can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

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Rolls-Royce is creating a fleet of robotic snakes and beetles to repair planes

Rolls-Royce, one of the world’s most famous engineering firms, has an unusual, but awesome idea for carrying out engine maintenance on future aircraft: using a pair of innovative robots inspired by the natural world. As part of its so-called IntelligentEngine project, researchers from Rolls-Royce have laid out their plans for snake and insect-swarm-inspired robots that will crawl inside engines to carry out inspections and perform maintenance.

“We are in the process of developing a number of miniature devices that enable us to get inside the jet engine to perform inspections or repairs,” Dr. James Kell, on wing technology specialist at Rolls-Royce, told Digital Trends. “Repairs can be in the form of removing damaged material or putting material back on. To allow us to perform these repairs, we are working with an extensive network of partners to develop mechatronic probes — similar in nature to keyhole surgery techniques.”

The project is a collaboration between Rolls-Royce, Harvard University, and the University of Nottingham. The idea is that the snake-inspired robot could gain access to an engine in the manner of an endoscope, the long, thin flexible tube inserted by doctors into a patient’s body to view it from the inside. It could then deliver a swarm of tiny, miniature robots, of around 10mm in diameter, which can crawl around inside the engine.

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“All of these developments — and others that we have not presented yet — are exciting achievements in their own right,” Kell continued. “For example, imagine a damaged compressor blade in an engine in Dubai, a deployed remote boreblending robot would allow a person in Derby [in the U.K.] to repair it to get the engine back in service days quicker than the current approach.”

Don’t go thinking that similar technology will be finding its way into Rolls-Royce luxury cars, though. The British company Rolls-Royce Plc. is a totally separate entity to the BMW-owned Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. It’s nice to dream, though!

“I imagine there could be some specific applications for these technologies in the auto industry if people were so inclined,” Kell said. “But the industry model is not quite as driven by long-term service agreements as yet. A lot of our technologies have their roots in the medical industry, and perhaps they may be able to be reapplied to healthcare [at some point in the future].”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Harvard’s latest robot can walk on water. Your move, Jesus
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• This robot eel glides through saltwater without making a sound

The results are in, these might be the best photos shot with an iPhone in 2018

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‘Displaced’ Jashim Salam

‘Baiana in yellow and blue’ Alexandre Weber

‘Eye to Eye’ Huapeng Zhao

‘I want to play’ Zarni Myo Win

On Wednesday, July 18, iPhone Photography Awards (IPPAWARDS) announced its official winners of its 11th annual global competition. Each one was selected from thousands of entries spanning over 140 countries around the world.

Launched a little while after the first iPhone was released, the IPPAWARDS is the first and longest-running iPhone competition in the world. All submissions are taken using either an iPhone or iPad, but can’t be published anywhere other than personal social media accounts. While the photos can’t be altered using software like Photoshop, photographers are allow to use any iOS apps.

This year’s winner of the grand prize for the iPhone photographer of the year was Jashim Salam of Bangladesh. The photo, titled ‘Displaced,’ was taken on an iPhone 7 and shows a group of children watching a film on health and sanitation near a refugee camp in Ukhiya.

First place goes to Alexandre Weber of Switzerland, who snapped a shot of a woman in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Taken on an iPhone 6S,Weber explains the bright and colorful shot was taken ‘spontaneously after a truck drove by.’ The woman in the photo wears the traditional clothes of a “baiana,” as she leans against a wall while on her work break.

Photographer Huapeng Zhao took second place for his photo titled ‘Eye to Eye,’ taken on an iPhone 6 in YanTai ShanDong province, China. The black and white photo shows a young boy in open water who, as Zhao explain, put a fish he caught in front of his eye right before the photo was taken.

Snagging the third place spot is Zarni Myo Win for his photo titled ‘I Want to Play’ — showcasing a young boy who lost his leg was watching his friends play soccer. The powerful shot was captured on an iPhone 7 in Yangon, Myanmar.

In addition to the winners of the iPhone photographer of the year, the contest also awarded top three photographers in 18 different categories. The winners represented a variety of countries around the world including Australia, Ecuador, Russia, the United States, and more.

“iPhone users have become very fluent in visual storytelling,” said Kenan Aktulun, founder of IPPAWARDS. “This year’s photos were technically impressive and many of them were very personal.”

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World’s first VR-augmented waterslide is totally unnecessary, but also amazing

Let’s face it: We live in a pretty jaded society. In such a “been there, seen that” environment, the promise of a regular ole’ waterpark wouldn’t be enough to prompt even an eye-roll emoji in response from many people. Thank goodness, then, for an amusement park in Germany whose new, world-first waterslide adds in a dose of scintillating virtual reality in an effort to make us feel something again.

“Ballast originally started by making an experimental headset that can be used underwater,” Stephen Greenwood, the CEO of Ballast VR, the company behind VRSlide, told Digital Trends. “Last summer, we were approached by German waterslide manufacturer Wiegand-Maelzer to see if we could build a system that worked on waterslides. The biggest challenge with VR on waterslides, compared to roller coasters or other track-based rides, is that every rider moves at a unique speed — meaning that in order for everything to be perfectly synchronized, we had to invent a tracking system that knows precisely where each rider is and display the VR content at a variable speed.”

A bit like the opening credits to the Naked Gun movies, in which a cop car is transported to everywhere from the inside of a pinball machine to the Death Star trench, once VRSlide riders put on their goggles, their perspective changes to give the illusion of them flying through a variety of settings. Sure, the virtual reality looks a bit more like a PlayStation 2 game than cutting-edge graphics, but Greenwood said that the results are surprisingly effective.

“We were skeptical when considering to take on the project,” he explained. “But when we did some very early tests, even without the tracking system it became clear that it’s a bizarre combination that produces a really thrilling experience. I think it’s more fun than roller coaster VR, because there are multiple senses being stimulated — you have water splashing against the rider, unexpected twists and turns when the rider thinks they are going one way in VR, but then actually take a sharp turn in the other direction. Riders can also experience a new world every time they go down, so the same slide can be refreshed as much as the park operators would like.”

At present, the slide at Therme Erding, 30 minutes outside Munich, is the only place you can try the experience. However, Greenwood said the company is interested in taking the technology global. “We are currently in discussions with parks outside of Germany to expand,” he noted.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Intel’s 9th-generation processor could launch next month with 8 cores

Although Apple just adopted Intel’s eighth-generation processors on its refreshed MacBook Pro lineup recently, Intel is moving full speed ahead, and the company’s ninth-generation processors could launch as early as fall. Code-named Coffee Lake, Intel’s ninth-generation CPU could reportedly arrive on August 1, delivering up to eight cores of processing power. The launch of the ninth-generation chips will help Intel stay competitive with rival AMD’s second-generation Ryzen processors.

“A source from the German trade has leaked information that is likely to launch soon,” an English translation of German publication PC Builders Club reads. “So there is currently an Intel NDA, which falls on 1 August. The contact says, however, that no products can be ordered from Intel and probably will not be longer. The company could introduce the new generation or even a part of it on 1 August, but the start in retail would take much longer.” This means that even if Intel does hold a press event to launch the new processors, PCs with the chips may take a few weeks or months to arrive at retail stores.

The big news is that Coffee Lake will be Intel’s first eight-core processor designed for mainstream consumers. Intel’s Core i9 9900K processor is reported to be the flagship model in the new processor family, shipping with eight cores and 16 threads. Intel is rumored to bring it’s six-core processors down to the Core i7 and Core i5 family, leaving the quad-core architecture for the Core i3 chips. The Core i7-9700K is rumored to arrive with six cores and 12 threads, while the Core i5 products will ship with six cores and six threads. The base Core i3 processor will come with four cores and four threads.

An early sample of the six-core processor was able to reach 5.5GHz clock speeds when overclocked, PC Builders Club reported. The publication’s source was not able to obtain an eight-core sample at the time. It’s also reported that Intel may switch away from the thermal interface material (TIM) used on current processors to a new soldered heat spreader design. “Intel would have finally heard the prayers of the last six years and is at least in the high-end processors on an indium solder instead of the well-known thermal interface material,” the report said.

If you’re in the market for a new processor, you can check out our Ryzen versus Intel head-to-head as well as our processor comparison for gamers.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Intel’s 10nm CPU finally makes it to retail in a refreshed Lenovo IdeaPad laptop

Corning’s Gorilla Glass 6 helps your phone survive up to 15 drops before it breaks

Corning has long been the go-to for smartphone manufacturers who want a nice, tough piece of glass to keep their devices safe in the event of a drop or scratch. Now, the company is stepping things up with the launch of Gorilla Glass 6, which Corning says is up to two times better than the previous version, Gorilla Glass 5.

Phone designs have changed a lot over the years, making the strength of the glass used on phones more important than ever. When smartphones were first released, for example, they often had thick metal or plastic frames, which was the first part of the phone to often make contact when a phone was dropped. Now, smartphones have curved edges and glass backs, resulting in an almost completely glass exterior.

Often, your phone won’t break the first time you drop it, and that’s because up until that point there weren’t any flaws in the glass. With a drop, however, small flaws can be introduced into the glass — meaning that the next time you drop your phone, the weakened glass can more easily break. That’s an issue that Corning has been trying to fix with Gorilla Glass 6. According to Corning, Gorilla Glass 6 can survive 15 drops from 1 meter before it breaks — which is a pretty serious improvement over the 11 drops Gorilla Glass 5 could get through. Corning says that people, on average, drop their phones 7 times per year, so being able to survive 15 drops means that the glass should get a phone through a standard two-year upgrade cycle.

Of course, Corning’s lab tests are one thing — real-world uses are a different beast. In the real world, drops aren’t controlled, and if you drop your phone while standing, it’s usually from more than 1 meter. Still, any improvement on glass strength is good, whether or not the glass actually survives 15 drops or not.

Corning is in a pretty good position right now. The world is finally moving to wireless charging, meaning that phone manufacturers may start doing away with metal backs on their phones and more widely adopt glass backs. In other words, strong glass is more important than ever in phone design — putting the maker of the strongest phone glass in a pretty great position.

Gorilla Glass 6 will likely pop up on a range of phones over the next year or so. Apple has long used Gorilla Glass on the iPhone — so we wouldn’t be surprised to see Gorilla Glass 6 on Apple’s next iPhone refresh.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Relive 1998 as live chat rooms roll out across Reddit in a limited beta

Reddit is slowly rolling out real-time chat rooms across a limited number of subreddits. Currently in beta, Reddit Chat went live in the summer of 2017 for about 7,000 Reddit users. Now, Reddit is expanding this service, keeping users locked to the website instead of conducting real-time chats on external clients like Slack, Discord, and even IRC.

“Mods need to chat in real time to not just moderate their communities, but also to collaborate and build their communities. Reddit Live contributors use chat to coordinate and surface the most important information,” Reddit states. “There are also a bunch of subreddits that are more organically social in nature, and right now they need to leave Reddit to create the experience they desire.”

Over the last year, Reddit used the feedback from its 7,000 test subjects to shape Reddit Chat to the product currently rolling out across the site. But given the service is still in beta, there is room for improvement and growth based on a wider range of feedback. To provide your input, you will see a user called u/reddit_chat_feedback at the top of your contacts list that is actually manned by a human.

Reddit members with access to the chat beta will see a Rooms tab in their Chat inbox. This section will list all room invitations, joined rooms, and a Recommended section based on subreddit subscriptions. You can also find a list of rooms here although it’s not complete given many communities may not want the traffic.

That said, you can find chat rooms for the Nintendo 64 console, Comcast’s Infinity service, Jurassic Park, and more. There are public and private rooms, the latter of which are invite-only and invisible to everyone not on the invitation list. Public rooms are accessible by all Reddit members.

Moderators can create as many chat rooms as they want. They also have the ability to kick and ban users, lock a room to prevent a flood of messages, mute specific users, remove messages, run bots, and more. Each chat room can play host to 20,000 participants and will store posted messages for 14 days. After that, all messages are deleted and unrecoverable.

Of course, there are a few community-focused rules. Keep the posts PG-13, be friendly and polite, don’t circumvent the word filter and stay on the topic at hand. Even more, don’t use posts for feedback and never take screenshots or share private chats.

Over the last year, Reddit member Ityoclys, the individual manning the feedback position, says he learned a few things about conversing with other humans in a real-time chat. Interacting with people isn’t quite so scary, he says, and if you listen and talk to people, conversations will stay relatively calm. People will also provide excellent, actionable feedback if you’re willing to listen.

“Using u/reddit_chat_feedback as a way to get to know and learn from Redditors has been fun and incredibly insightful,” Ityoclys says. “We can’t thank everyone who has talked with us and given feedback enough.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Switch up your Reddit routine with these interesting, inspiring, and zany subs
• New Steam chat system adds group chats, video, and GIF support
• Everything you need to know about Discord, the chat app for gamers
• The best chat clients
• Instagram now lets you video chat with up to three buddies

Relive 1998 as live chat rooms roll out across Reddit in a limited beta

Reddit is slowly rolling out real-time chat rooms across a limited number of subreddits. Currently in beta, Reddit Chat went live in the summer of 2017 for about 7,000 Reddit users. Now, Reddit is expanding this service, keeping users locked to the website instead of conducting real-time chats on external clients like Slack, Discord, and even IRC.

“Mods need to chat in real time to not just moderate their communities, but also to collaborate and build their communities. Reddit Live contributors use chat to coordinate and surface the most important information,” Reddit states. “There are also a bunch of subreddits that are more organically social in nature, and right now they need to leave Reddit to create the experience they desire.”

Over the last year, Reddit used the feedback from its 7,000 test subjects to shape Reddit Chat to the product currently rolling out across the site. But given the service is still in beta, there is room for improvement and growth based on a wider range of feedback. To provide your input, you will see a user called u/reddit_chat_feedback at the top of your contacts list that is actually manned by a human.

Reddit members with access to the chat beta will see a Rooms tab in their Chat inbox. This section will list all room invitations, joined rooms, and a Recommended section based on subreddit subscriptions. You can also find a list of rooms here although it’s not complete given many communities may not want the traffic.

That said, you can find chat rooms for the Nintendo 64 console, Comcast’s Infinity service, Jurassic Park, and more. There are public and private rooms, the latter of which are invite-only and invisible to everyone not on the invitation list. Public rooms are accessible by all Reddit members.

Moderators can create as many chat rooms as they want. They also have the ability to kick and ban users, lock a room to prevent a flood of messages, mute specific users, remove messages, run bots, and more. Each chat room can play host to 20,000 participants and will store posted messages for 14 days. After that, all messages are deleted and unrecoverable.

Of course, there are a few community-focused rules. Keep the posts PG-13, be friendly and polite, don’t circumvent the word filter and stay on the topic at hand. Even more, don’t use posts for feedback and never take screenshots or share private chats.

Over the last year, Reddit member Ityoclys, the individual manning the feedback position, says he learned a few things about conversing with other humans in a real-time chat. Interacting with people isn’t quite so scary, he says, and if you listen and talk to people, conversations will stay relatively calm. People will also provide excellent, actionable feedback if you’re willing to listen.

“Using u/reddit_chat_feedback as a way to get to know and learn from Redditors has been fun and incredibly insightful,” Ityoclys says. “We can’t thank everyone who has talked with us and given feedback enough.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Switch up your Reddit routine with these interesting, inspiring, and zany subs
• New Steam chat system adds group chats, video, and GIF support
• Everything you need to know about Discord, the chat app for gamers
• The best chat clients
• Instagram now lets you video chat with up to three buddies