Tech Gist Spot

WhatsApp is testing the idea of letting its users share posts from their WhatsApp status with other apps. Starting today, users in WhatsApp’s beta program will start to see a new sharing option beneath their status, which can be used to post a status directly to their Facebook story or send it to another app like Instagram, Gmail, or Google Photos. WhatsApp Status is the service’s Instagram Stories-style feature that lets you post images, text, and videos on your profile that disappear after 24 hours.

Although there’s a direct link to share your status to Facebook, WhatsApp tells me that it’s not doing anything to link your accounts on the two services. Instead, it’s making use of the same iOS and Android data-sharing APIs as every other app, meaning data is transferred between the apps on-device. Even if you share data to another Facebook-owned service like Instagram, WhatsApp says the two posts will be separate events in Facebook’s systems, and they will not be linked. There is also no option to have your WhatsApp status automatically shared to another service; WhatsApp tells me it wants the feature to be an active decision on the part of the user.

WhatsApp has to be careful about creating the impression of data sharing with Facebook. When Facebook acquired the messaging service back in 2014, WhatsApp promised that it wouldn’t share user data with Facebook and said that it would function “independently and autonomously.” That changed in 2016 when the company said it would start sharing user data with Facebook. Since then, Facebook has been told by the French and Germanregulators to stop the practice. In 2017, the company was fined $122 million by the European Commission for misleading regulators about the extent to which it could link accounts prior to the acquisition.

To be clear, WhatsApp’s new status sharing feature doesn’t do any of the data sharing that’s gotten Facebook into trouble in the past. But as Facebook moves toward allowing users from all three of its major services to message each other across a single technical backend, even seemingly innocuous features like this can risk intense scrutiny.

Launched back in 2017, WhatsApp Status has since grown to be used by 500 million users daily, and in 2020, it will become the first place in the WhatsApp app to show ads.

According to a newly leaked report by financial titan Barclays, MacRumors has revealed that Apple will be bringing back the Touch ID for its 2020 iPhone flagships. Within the report, Barclays notes that the new Touch ID sensor will effectively fill the entire screen, meaning that you will be able to unlock the new models by placing your fingerprint anywhere on the display. While competitors such as Samsung and fast-rising up and comer OnePlus have meticulously implemented in-display readers, much of these products rely on small areas for detection.

Since December, Apple has filed for approximately five in-display Touch ID patents, with accompanying information revealing that the new system will most likely 3D model it, rather than simply scanning it. This falls in line with Apple’s plans to turn the iPhone into a biometrically secured e-Passport.

On top of the new Touch ID system, the report notes that next year’s iPhones will also come with 5G as well as a 3D sensing rear camera system originally expected in this year’s flagships. On top of these various new additions, Apple will supposedly be upgrading its new range of iPhones with OLED displays.

What do you think of the newly revealed tech upgrades? Will you be waiting an extra year to jump the gun on a new iPhone?

modern browsers require a ton of system resources, and webpages can demand more than 2 GB of RAM. Even the most productive tab-junkies will run into lag, stuttering, and crashes while running 100 tabs on an underpowered PC.

So, if you’re a tab lover, then it’s time to take things into your own hands. You can easily optimize your 100-tab productivity by using browser extensions, and you can make the most of your PC (even if it’s a crappy PC) by upgrading a few pieces of hardware.

Or, if those tabs get in your way and slow down your computer, there are some good ways to close tabs and save them for later.

Whether you’re blessed with a 100-tab-capable computer or you’ve just ordered some new PC parts, you’re going to run into a fundamental 100-tab problem. The horizontal tab list on the top of your browser just isn’t made to handle a ton of tabbage.

Sure, you can right-click a tab to pin it to your browser, dump your tabs into bookmarks, or open multiple browser windows to organize disparate clusters of tabs. But these primitive forms of tab organization are far from convenient or effective. If you want to wrangle 100 different tabs in one window, then you’re going to need some browser extensions.

Vertical style tab extensions are essential for tab-junkies. Tabs are easier to read and organize while they’re vertical, and most vertical tab extensions have built-in grouping or “tree” features. Firefox popularized vertical tabs with its Tree Styled Tabs extension, but users of Chrome, Opera, and the Chromium-based Edge browser can use the Tabs Outliner extension.

If you want an extension that automatically organizes tabs into groups, then you should check out OneTab. It’s available for both Chromium browsers like Chrome and Firefox, and it turns a mess of tabs into an organized tree-style list with a single click.

Without good hardware, these extensions are basically worthless. Browsers are extremely resource-heavy, and a ton of tabs can turn a weak computer into a stuttering mess. Thankfully, it’s easy to pinpoint hardware problems on a computer, and some extensions can reduce your need to perform expensive (or impossible) hardware upgrades.

In preparation for its new releases later this year, Apple has just registered 11 new iPhone models with the Eurasian Economic Commission, due to a legal obligation for encrypted devices sold in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. Registered on April 30, 2019, the 11 devices — numbered A2111, A2160, A2161, A2215, A2216, A2217, A2218, A2219, A2220, A2221, and A2223 — are all listed as Apple smartphones running on iOS 12.

The same pattern can be observed last year, when Apple also registered 11 smartphone devices with the Commission on April 10, which at the time ran iOS 11. The batch of models were subsequently divided into three categories: iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and the iPhone XS Max. The large amount of devices registered account for regional differences, such as separate models for the US, Canada, Europe, various regions of Asia, Japan and China.

So far, for the upcoming releases, rumors suggest that the iPhone XS and XS Max may evolve to feature a triple-lens camera, which will see the XR move up to a dual-lens configuration. Aesthetically, the XS models are rumored to have frosted glass backs for the casing, while the XR model will come with two new colors: lavender and green.

There’s no official word yet on Apple regarding its next-gen iPhone releases, so fans of the tech giant should stay tuned for more updates.

About to buy the latest Samsung phone or save a bit of money on a Google PIxel 3A? Whether you plan to trade in your old Android phone for a discount on your new phone, sell it on eBay, give it away to a friend, or drop it off for recycling, you’re going to want to wipe it of all your data first by resetting it to factory conditions. Luckily, that’s pretty easy to do.

Before you start, be aware that these instructions are for a Pixel 3 XL running Android 9, but the process for most current Android phones should be pretty much the same. Needless to say, first make sure that all of your data is transferred to your new phone, backed up, or both. Once your old phone has reset, there’s no going back.

• You’ll get a warning screen reminding you that your data that will be erased, along with all the accounts you’re currently signed into. Select “Reset phone.”
• If you have a PIN or some other security setup, you’ll be asked to enter it
• You’ll get another screen asking if you’re sure this is what you want to do. Are you sure? Then hit the “Erase everything” button.

• Go to Settings > Security & location > Advanced > Encryption & credentials and select “Encrypt phone”
• Go back to Settings and start the reset process

To find this setting in Chrome for desktop, click on Chrome’s menu > Settings. At the bottom of the Settings page, click the “Show advanced settings” link. Under Passwords and forms, uncheck “Offer to save passwords with Google Smart Lock for Passwords“.

You can click the “Manage passwords” button here to see what passwords Chrome remembers and delete them, if you like.

In Chrome for Android, iPhone, or iPad, click menu > Settings. Tap the “Save Passwords” option under Basics and set it to “Off”.

You’ll also see a list of saved passwords you can manage on this screen, if you have any passwords saved. Tap “Edit” to edit your list of saved passwords.

In Firefox, click menu > Options. Click the “Security” tab at the left side of the options page and uncheck “Remember logins for sites”.

You can click the “Saved Logins” button here to see what passwords Firefox has already saved and remove them from Firefox, if you like.

In Safari on a Mac, click Safari > Preferences. Click the “AutoFill” tab at the top of the window and uncheck “User names and passwords”.

You can see which user names and passwords Safari already remembers by clicking the “Edit” button to the right of User names and passwords or clicking the “Passwords” icon at the top of Safari’s preferences window. You can remove saved passwords from this list, if you like.

On an iPhone or iPad, you’ll find this option in the main Settings app. Head to Settings > Safari > AutoFill. Disable the “Names and Passwords” option.

You can see what names and passwords Safari already remembers by heading to Settings > Safari > Passwords. You can also remove them from here, if you like.

In Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, click menu > Settings. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings pane and click the “View advanced settings” button. Scroll down to the “Privacy and services” section and set “Offer to save passwords” to “Off”.

You can click the “Manage my saved passwords” link here to see which passwords Edge already knows and remove them, if you like.

If you’re using anther web browser, you’ll find the option in a similar place. Head to your web browser’s options and look for an option named something like “save passwords”, “remember passwords”, or “autofill user names and passwords”.