Instagram remains in the news as it temporarily walks back some changes, Samsung comes up with something we all should have thought of years ago, and Bell has an interesting new TV box. That and a couple other stories I’ve found interesting.

Instagram Walks Back Changes After Backlash

Instagram’s extremely bad week has come full circle, with the Meta owned company walking back some of the changes that had been rolling out, at least temporarily.  In an interesting admission, Instagram says that not only was the perception that the new “recommended” posts in people’s feeds and the full screen feed poor, that the actual usage data showed that people did not like the changes.  Usually we see internet backlash against change by a big company, but very rarely do we get an admission that that change was actually received poorly by the user base.

Instagram says it still intends to show more recommended posts (and the advertising that comes with that) and focus more on video content, but that it is pausing the changes to re-evaulate how the company will go about it.

Hopefully it re-evaluates quite a bit.

https://www.platformer.news/p/-instagram-walks-back-its-changes

Samsung’s New Repair Mode is Brilliant

I can’t believe no one thought of this before.  Leaving your phone with a strange to repair, a phone that likely has most of your most important data on it, seems strange, right?  Well, Samsung has an answer to that called repair mode.  This new feature, first hitting the Galaxy S21 series via a software update and coming to other phones at a later date, allows the owner of the phone to put it into repair mode with disables access to everything except basic applications.  Photos, downloaded apps, and other personal data are not accessible.  Repair mode can only be disabled with the device passcode.

This is a great idea, and it is actually shocking that it hadn’t been thought of before.  This obviously won’t work for every situation.  A full phone replacement obviously makes the point moot, for example.  But for something like a battery or screen replacement, this makes a ton of sense.

https://www.androidpolice.com/samsung-repair-mode/

Google Delays 3rd Party Cookie Phase Out To 2024

The saga continues.  Google has been trying to come up with an alternative to 3rd party tracking cookies in web browsers for a couple of years now.  3rd party cookies are commonly used by advertisers to track a user’s behaviour in order to better target ads.  Cookies have many other uses, like saving website logins and settings, but that advertising implications are what get the headlines.  Google has tried showing off alternative advertising systems that would allow for targeted ads without 3rd party tracking cookies, but those faced their own backlash.  Faced with no good alternatives, Google says it will continue to support 3rd party cookies in Chrome until at least 2024.

Cookies remain a necessary evil on the internet and getting rid of them is proving to be much harder than Google anticipated. 

https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/07/27/google-chrome-third-party-cookies-privacy-sandbox/

New Anker Chargers Provide More Power In A Smaller Package

Anker is out with a bunch of new USB-C chargers.  Anker products are expensive, but usually high quality.  The flagship model is the 747 charger that has 3 USB-C ports and 1 USB-A port, and can output up to 150W.  Previous USB-C chargers topped out at 100W.  The 747 charger is also smaller than Apple’s 140W MacBook charger and has more ports.  The 747 charger will cost approximately $140 in Canada.  Expensive, but for someone who may have a need for a single charger to charge multiple high wattage devices, there is value there.

The interesting thing about these chargers is that they also don’t operate on fixed wattages.  On most chargers with multiple ports, the wattage on each port is fixed if more than one device is connected.  The 747 (and the rest of the 7xx series) will auto negotiate how much power to deliver to each device, and it will check that every 3 minutes to ensure the most efficient charging for every device.

There are other models in the 7xx line, including a 65W charger, a 120W charger, and a model that has 65W of USB charging and two AC power plugs.

Anker says that the products are becoming available now, but not all models are currently available on the Candian website.  I expect we’ll see them become available as more stock enters the channel.

https://www.engadget.com/anker-third-generation-gan-chargers-ganprime-163056106.html

Bell’s New Fibe TV Update Runs on Android TV

Bell is revamping its TV service with a new set top box that runs on Android TV.  The new TV box will let Bell customers watch TV, but being based on Android TV means that the box will also have access to every streaming service supported on the android platform.  This is a very interesting play.  For those who still subscribe to TV, this could allow the Bell Fibe TV box to be a single device that can run all content, from TV to Netflix to Disney+.  The box should also support future streaming services, as all they need to do is support Android TV.  This is a great idea.

https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/07/26/bell-unveils-new-fibe-tv-update/