Oscar winner Taika Waititi takes a jab at Apple MacBook keyboards

Photo: Nick Agro/A.M.P.A.S.

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether writer/director Taika Waititi is being serious or not, but there are some important points he raised during his backstage Q&A at the 2020 Oscars. The director of Thor: Ragnarok took home his first Academy Award for the Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on Jojo Rabbit. When a reporter asked him about what writers should ask for when in talks with producers, Waititi went into a rant about Apple keyboards.

He said, "Apple needs to fix those keyboards. They are impossible to write on—they've gotten worse. It makes me want to go back to PCs. Because PC keyboards, the bounce-back for your fingers is way better. Hands up who still uses a PC? You know what I'm talking about. It's a way better keyboard. And those Apple keyboards are horrendous."

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Facebook Messenger desktop app gets new beta features

The latest update for Facebook Messenger on the desktop brings a couple of features that are being tested in the beta version of the mobile app. Version 350.5.122.0 will now let you ignore a conversation if it comes from a Facebook friend you choose to ignore messages from. That means you won't get notifications when said friend messages you. Instead, their messages will be moved to the message requests section. The second feature is you can now send voice clips from the desktop app. So, if either feature seems useful to you, now might be the best time to download the app.

Source: MSPowerUser

Huawei might pre-install 70 popular Android apps on future phones

With the ongoing ban inflicted against Huawei by the US government, the company doesn't have access to things like Google services. One way the company is reportedly working around that is by pre-installing popular Android apps on its future devices; at least, this is the rumour being circulated. A publication cites a Telegram channel as a source of this information, so you need to approach the piece of information with some skepticism.

The company will reportedly include 70 apps, but these apps will vary depending on the region. This approach seems to make sense since users won't have access to the Google Play Store, and they would need to sideload Android APKs by themselves. But if common apps are pre-installed, then the users don't have to install things themselves. Of course, we don't know how these apps will run without having access to Google Play Services. But that's another conversation. Huawei has been working to create alternatives to Google apps, in hopes of giving its users an approximate experience. We don't know if that would help keep its userbase, but for now, that's all Huawei can do.

Source: Android Authority 

Studio behind 'Candy Crush' is reportedly working on new 'Crash Bandicoot' mobile game

There are rumours that a new mobile version of Crash Bandicoot is in the works. Twitter users Jump Button and Motwera posted screenshots of the rumoured game. It's supposedly from King, Activision's mobile studio who created the popular Candy Crush games. From what we've seen so far, the untitled Crash Bandicoot game seems to be an endless runner similar to Temple Run. But according to Storemaven, the game will also have some sort of base-building feature, which will be a first for a Crash Bandicoot mobile game. We don't know much else about the game beyond this point, but if these screenshots are legitimate, we should hear more about it soon.

Source: Kotaku Australia