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Thursday, 8 August 2019

Toilet Explosions: More Common Than You Might Think

During a recent thunderstorm, a Florida woman was relaxing at home when a deafening boom roared through her house. Few could have guessed the source of the noise. According to WBBH, lightning struck near her septic tank, igniting methane gas and blowing her toilet to pieces.

Humans Have Transformed 70 Percent of Land on Earth. We Have a Choice for What We Do Next

In what feels like it’s becoming a regular ritual in self-flagellation, scientists have released a new special report documenting the perilous state of our planet. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report focuses on how humans have transformed the very land we depend on for our survival.

Samsung Galaxy Note10 to get 'Multi Sound' feature with latest Good Lock update [APK Download]

A new round of Good Lock updates have been rolling out to Samsung phones over the past few days, but they mostly just contain bug fixes and performance improvements. There is one interesting new feature to speak of though, and it involves the newly announced Galaxy Note10.

The MultiStar app handles multi-window capabilities, offering additional options such as allowing both apps to be active at once. In the changelog for the v2.3.1 update, two new functions are mentioned: "Multi-Window Screen zoom" and "Multi Sound (Available on restricted models (like upcoming Note10) with certain frameworks and later.)"

Screen zoom is self-explanatory, but it's the Note10-exclusive feature that's potentially more exciting.

Samsung Galaxy Note10 to get 'Multi Sound' feature with latest Good Lock update [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apple 'Locking' iPhone Batteries to Discourage Third-Party Replacements

Apple has activated a "dormant software lock" on its latest iPhones to discourage battery replacements that aren't undertaken by Apple, reports iFixit.

The teardown group has discovered that an iPhone XS, iPhone XR, or iPhone XS Max that has had its battery swapped by anyone other than Apple or an Apple authorized service provider will now display a message saying their battery needs servicing.

The message appears in both iOS 12 and iOS 13 beta, and prevents the user from accessing the Battery Health features in Settings. The "Service" message reads as follows:

Important Battery Message

Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple battery. Health information not available for this battery.

iFixit says the message doesn't appear to affect the functionality of the battery, but it does make it harder to know when a replacement battery needs to be replaced.

YouTube channel The Art of Repair has discovered the source of the message to be a Texas Instruments microcontroller installed on the battery itself, which authenticates the battery as an Apple one and provides the iPhone with information about battery capacity and temperature.

The message appears designed to deter battery replacements using third-party repair kits like the one sold by iFixit, and to discourage customers from getting a third-party repair shop to swap out their iPhone battery.

Apple would probably argue it is doing it out of safety concerns surrounding the replacement of swollen or damaged batteries. Nonetheless, it places further restrictions on the options available to iPhone users looking to get their battery replaced.

The practice also harks back to a similar third-party iPhone repair controversy: Error 53, widely publicized in 2016, caused some iPhone 6 users who had the Home buttons on their iPhones fixed by a non-Apple technician using non-original parts to see their iPhones bricked following a software update.

When the error code first surfaced, Apple said that error 53 was a protective security feature meant to prevent "malicious" third-party components from potentially compromising a user's iPhone.

However, after public outcry, Apple released a software update restoring functionality to bricked iPhones. Following the software update to unbrick iPhones, Apple claimed that the error 53 issue was meant to be a factory test and never should have impacted consumer devices.

Tag: iFixit

This article, "Apple 'Locking' iPhone Batteries to Discourage Third-Party Replacements" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Google Maps details upcoming navigation turns in refreshed UI [APK Download]

The latest Google Maps update to version 10.22.1 brings a new navigation interface. Although at first glance it only seems like a visual update, there's also a functional improvement: you can now tap to see upcoming steps and turns in your drive.

Instead of the edge-to-edge green banner on top that shows the next step, there's now a darker green floating green rectangle with rounded corners. The font is also changed, though I'm not a huge fan.

Google Maps details upcoming navigation turns in refreshed UI [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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