Facebook delays release of Clear History privacy tool to later this year

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Facebook is still refining its Clear History tool and has announced it'll be coming out later this year. David Wehner, Facebook's chief financial officer, made the announcement at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. This tool is designed to let you clear information the social network collects about you from third-party apps and websites. The clamor for this feature to exist was heightened during the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. It was supposed to be an answer to that problem, but it looks like the company is still working out its kinks.

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MWC 2019: Google Assistant is coming to Android Messages

Google is rolling out "over the coming months" an easier way to pull up information when you're on Android Messages. The messaging app is getting Google Assistant support. This means you'll be able to see a Google Assistant button appear in the smart replies section of the app. When you tap it, it'll ask Assistant a question and give you options of what you can answer in your thread. Like if you want to find out about restaurants in the area where you're meeting up with a friend. For starters, the feature is limited to English.

Google claims it isn't reading your messages. The only information that gets sent to Google is the text of the Google Assistant button you tap. The "suggestions chips" are based on a local analysis of what's in your conversation thread. When you tap on a chip it'll send you a card with information and options. From there you can send the results of your search to the chat. This feature basically helps you do your search right from within the thread.

Source: The Verge

MWC 2019: Nokia 9 PureView brings 5 rear camera setup to the masses

In terms of novelty, HMD Global has the upper hand now in the smartphone space. It has this new five-camera setup at the back that reminds us of spider eyes. It looks like there are seven lenses but the one spot is for the flash, while the other is for a time-of-flight sensor for depth mapping. The five cameras we do get include three 12-megapixel monochrome cameras and two 12-megapixel RGB sensors, all f/1.8, 28mm lenses. 

These extra sensors aren't meant to be used for extra zoom levels. Instead, these are designed to capture a big amount of data for HDR and depth-based photography. It'll allow you to edit depth after the fact, even when using Google Photos' depth editing feature.

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MWC 2019: LG launches G8 ThinQ phones

Aside from its 5G phone, LG has two new variants of its new flagship, the G8 ThinQ. It doesn't stray from the design language of the G7, but has a few features up its sleeve that might be interesting. Its notch houses a new Z Camera time of flight camera tech to implement gesture-based navigation as well as Hand ID authentication. Yes, you can unlock the phone with your palm, specifically the veins on them, by having your palm hover over the camera. LG promises this is a secure way to unlock the device. But there's still Face Unlock as well as a fingerprint sensor in the back.

LG gets rid of the speaker in the notch but turns the display into a speaker itself with LG tech it calls Crystal Sound OLED, which we believe is present in some of the company's TVs.

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