Over the course of the last few weeks, an Apple representative and a lobbyist for ComTIA, a trade organization representing major tech companies, have been meeting with legislators in California with the aim of killing right to repair legislation that would make it easier for customers to repair their own electronics.

The lobbyists brought an iPhone to the meetings and showed lawmakers and their legislative aides the internal components of the phone. The lobbyists said that if improperly disassembled, consumers who are trying to fix their own iPhone could hurt themselves by puncturing the lithium-ion battery, the sources, who Motherboard is not naming because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said.

Apple has continually lobbied against right to repair legislation across multiple states. Such legislation would require companies like Apple to provide repair parts, tools, and make repair information available to the public.

Apple devices are notoriously hard to repair given the small, proprietary components and large amounts of adhesive, with repair site iFixit giving Apple products almost universally low repair scores.

Still, the difficult repairability has not stopped thousands of small independent repair shops from making iPhone repairs. Nathan Proctor, director of consumer rights group US PIRG’s right to repair campaign, told Motherboard that suggesting there are safety concerns related to spare parts and manuals is “patently absurd.”

“We know that all across the country, millions of people are doing this for themselves. Millions more are taking devices to independent repair technicians,” he said.

We’ve known for a while now that Apple was going to be putting more of an emphasis on services. As the technical leaps from one iPhone/iPad/Mac generation to the next become less dramatic, product revenue has started to shrink; in response, the company is focusing on driving forward on things like the App Store, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple Music and its soon-to-launch games and video offerings.

This shift is already playing out in the company’s financials. While product sales dipped a bit year-over-year — down from $51.3 billion in the quarter that ran from January to March 2018 to $46.6 billion in the same quarter of 2019 — revenue from the services business climbed from $9.9 billion to $11.5 billion.

In this fiscal Q2 quarter of 2018, Apple’s total revenue came in at roughly $61.1 billion; in the same quarter of 2019, it dipped to $58 billion. This works out to services accounting for 16.1% of Apple’s revenue in fiscal Q2 2018, but nearly 20% in fiscal Q2 2019. Apple CFO Luca Maestri says services now account for “one-third” of the company’s gross profits.

A big part of Apple’s services business is monthly subscriptions — the things like iCloud, Apple Music and Apple News that make money each month from the hardware that’s already out there. Tim Cook says Apple now has 390 million paid subscriptions across its services. Cook didn’t dive into how that breaks down service-by-service, but that’s up roughly 30 million subscribers over last quarter. The company says it expects paid subscribers to surpass half a billion by 2020 (presumably fueled by the launch of its gaming/video services).

Facebook is set to gain a refreshed design, that’s meant to be “simpler, faster, and more immersive,” situating Facebook Groups more prominently. The new design will “make it easy” for people to transition from public spaces to more private ones.

There’s a redesigned Groups tab to make it easier to find content from your groups, along with a new discovery tool for recommendations for new groups. Content from groups may show up more prominently in the News Feed, and content from the News Feed will be able to be shared directly with groups.

New features for specific types of groups are coming, such as an option to post without a name in a health support group and an option for employers to post job openings in job groups. Gaming groups will get a chat feature, and Buy and Sell groups are getting an option that will let people ask questions and place orders during live broadcasts.

A “Meet New Friends” feature is coming to help people start friendships with new people from shared communities like a school, workplace, or city, and this summer, a new Events tab is coming to allow users to see what’s happening around them.

Facebook’s redesign is rolling out on mobile devices starting today and will be available on the desktop site “in the next few months.”

As was announced earlier today, Facebook also plans to introduce a Messenger app for macOS, a re-engineered mobile Messenger app, a feature for watching videos with friends, and a dedicated space for messaging close friends and family.

During today’s event, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said that privacy will be more of a focus going forward. Facebook will focus on six principles as it makes site and app changes in the future: private interactions, encryption, reduced permanence for content, safety, interoperability, and secure data storage.

“Over the next few years we are going to build more of our services around these ideas,” Zuckerberg said. “This isn’t just about building features. We need to change a lot of the different ways that we run this company today.”

Facebook’s social graph is aging, full of long-lost acquaintances and hometown friends you don’t care much about seeing in the News Feed any more. But Facebook is now testing a pivot away from its core identity of connecting you with existing friends so it can revitalize the social graph and keep people coming back. Facebook’s “Meet New Friends” lets you browse people from shared communities such as your school, workplace or city who’ve also opted in to the feature. Announced today at Facebook’s F8 conference, Meet New Friends now in testing in a few markets before it’s rolled out more widely soon.

Meet New Friends could give people fresh pals to follow in their News Feed, or help recently registered users grow their network until they have access to enough content to keep them busy. And eventually, Facebook could layer on monetization features similar to dating apps where users pay to be shown more prominently to potential connections.

Fidji Simo, the head of Facebook’s main app, tells me Meet New Friends was based on emerging behaviors the company had spotted. “Developing relationships with people they didn’t already know is very different from the core use case of Facebook,” but she notes, “We’ve already seen that naturally happen in Groups, and Meet New Friends will make that a bit easier.”

When users open Meet New Friends, they pick the communities through which they’re open to meeting new friends. For now they choose between schools, employers and locations, but Facebook will eventually add Groups too. In that sense it works a bit like Facebook Dating, which rolls out to 14 new countries today and opens to dating friends with its new Secret Crush feature.

Algorithms will sort potential connections by who is most relevant, such as those with mutual friends or shared interests, but you won’t get “matched” where both users have to state their interest in the other. Instead, users can just browse profiles, and then either send people a friend request (which might feel a bit out of the blue), or send them a single text-only message to a recipient’s dedicated Meet New Friends chat inbox. They can’t message that same person again until they respond (to prevent spamming), and the text-only limitation ensures no unsavory photos get blasted around. If they do reply, the thread moves to Facebook Messenger.

Meet New Friends will pit Facebook against a range of other apps, from local-focused Meetup and Nextdoor to verticalized apps like Hey Vina for women only to dating-affiliated apps like Bumble BFF. But Facebook benefits from its ubiquity, so users can try Meet New Friends without feeling embarrassed by downloading an app just to make them less lonely.

For years, the mildly creepy People You May Know feature has been a cornerstone of Facebook’s growth strategy. But it’s still just about recreating your offline social graph online. As Facebook strives to become more meaningful to people’s lives, fostering new friendships could give people a fuzzy feeling about the giant corporation.

Click below to check out all of TechCrunch’s Facebook conference coverage from today:

Hundreds of Venezuelans rallied on Tuesday after opposition leader Juan Guaido called for a “military uprising” in his strongest move to oust President Nicolas Maduro since declaring himself interim president earlier this year. 

Guaido, in a video posted on Twitter earlier on Tuesday, said he had started the “final phase” of his campaign to remove Maduro from power, calling on Venezuelans and the military to back him.

He was surrounded by individuals in military uniforms and opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez, who has been under house arrest since being found guilty of inciting violence during anti-government protests in 2014.

Guaido said he was at the Caracas airbase La Carlota and called for people to come out in support as well. 

“The time is now,” Guaido said. “We are going to achieve freedom and democracy in Venezuela,” he added, urging supporters to take to the streets.

Shortly after, a small group of armed troops, who had appeared to pledge their support to Guaido, briefly clashed with solders supporting Maduro. Protesters and security forces also clashed. Video from Reuters showed a National Guard vehicle running over some protesters. And residents in different areas of Caracas also reported hearing the gunshots in the streets. There were reports of dozens of injuries. 

But by Tuesday afternoon, most of the clashes had ended, with Maduro’s government saying they were in full control and had the support of the military. 

“What took place today is an act of hostility” Yuseppe Yoffreda, Venezuela’s Ambassador in Qatar said.

“They are trying to execute a coup as a desperate attempt that seeks to [distract] and hide a lack of leadership,” he added. 

Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino also called the move a “coup attempt”. 

Maduro made no public appearance but he tweeted that he spoke to military commanders who had shown him “total loyalty”.

Rallies

In Caracas, Maduro’s supporters rallied, chanting slogans of support while some people were giving out posters of Maduro with the Venezuelan flag behind him. 

“Here we are in support of our President Nicolas Maduro, and in support of our beloved homeland … this is a glorious town and our inheritance is freedom,” Areli Rodriguez, 63, a Venezuelan lawyer said from outside the  Miraflores Presidential Palace. 

Areli Rodriguez said she went out to defend her homeland [Alicia Hernandez/Al Jazeera]

Other supporters said they went out to support the revolutionary process.

“The opposition in Venezuela is fascist, they do not have the streets, they do not have support and that’s why their only alternative is violence, coups,” Gabriel Rodriguez, a singer and  government supporter in Miraflores said.

Hundreds of opposition supporters also responded to Guaido’s call and went out to La Carlota, and other neighbourhoods in Caracas.

“I went out because we need to support the opposition to stop the usurpation of power,” Tony Pompa, an opposition supporter told Al Jazeera. 

“I believe that by going out to the streets we will show to the world that we are here, and we want an end to this dictatorship,” he said.

Meanwhile, Guaido also reiterated his calls for “the largest march in Venezuela’s history” on Wednesday. 

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, walks with supporters in Caracas [Carlos Garcia Rawlins /Reuters]

Venezuela is immersed in a deep economic crisis. Hyperinflation, unemployment and food and medicine shortages have prompted more than three million Venezuelans to leave the country in recent years.

Guaido in January invoked the constitution to declare himself interim president, arguing that Maduro’s re-election in 2018 was illegitimate.

The US and 50 other mostly Western countries have recognised Guaido while Maduro maintains the backing of Russia, China, Turkey and Cuba. 

On Tuesday, US Vice President Mike Pence reiterated the Trump Administration’s support for Guaido in a tweet, saying “We are with you!”

Senior US officials also declared their full support, with Senator Marco Rubio urging Venezuelans to take to the streets.

After years of suffering freedom is waiting for people of #Venezuela. Do not let them take this opportunity from you.

Now is the moment to take to the streets in support of your legitimate constitutional government.

Do not allow this moment to slip away. It may not come again

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) April 30, 2019

US National Security John Bolton called on the three senior aides to Maduro, who Bolton said had been working with the opposition, to make good on their commitment.

“It’s still very important for three figures in the Maduro regime who have been talking to the opposition over these last three months to make good on their commitment to achieve the peaceful transition of power from the Maduro clique to interim president Juan Guaido,” Bolton told reporters.

Meanwhile, Russia accused the opposition of using violence in what it said was a clear attempt to draw the country’s armed forces into clashes. 

“Instead of peacefully settling political differences, they have taken a course designed to whip up conflict, and provoke breaches of public order and clashes involving the armed forces,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the move and called for respect of Venezuela’s democracy. 

What’s next?

Although Tuesday’s move by Guaido took many by surprise, some analysts believe the results could change the course of action. 

“This could lead to a different kind of dialogue,” Carlos Pina, a Venezuelan political analyst told Al Jazeera.

“It will be hard for [Maduro’s government] to sit at a negotiating table, but perhaps a larger part of the other political actors involved might be more interested in a negotiated solution, rather than a civil confrontation.” 

“Something is clear, and that is that even if the government survives this attempt, it will not be able to maintain the same strategy that it has carried out so far towards Guaido and his followers. This will definitely change,” he added. 

But others believe Guaido may have acted too soon without the needed public support.

“Even though the opposition went out and did everything possible, it doesn’t have enough popular support,” said Javier Buenrostro, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

“The support it has doesn’t match the size of the action. The reaction does not make the government shake,” he told Al Jazeera.

Buenrostro said Guaido and Lopez failed the United States. 

“Guaido has been telling the US he will manage to gather the needed military support, and five months later he has not achieved this yet, and despite the unconformities within the forces, the majority remains loyal,” Buenrostro said.  

 Additional reporting by Alicia Hernandez in Caracas

Today’s big story for Apple revenue was once again focused on services. That’s likely to be the tale for the foreseeable future, as the company continues to pump billions into product offerings like Apple TV+.

As predicted, hardware was more of a mixed bag for the company. The iPad, a bright spot in an otherwise stagnant tablet market, also marked a key highlight for the quarter, as revenue jumped 22% year over year. Notably, the company now offers its largest range of slates, with recent quiet refreshes to the Air and Mini following last year’s big Pro update.

Revenue for Mac dipped slightly, in spite of recent refreshes to the MacBook Pro and iMac and last year’s milestone of 100 million Macs in use. Late last month, the company apologized for ongoing woes involving its MacBook keyboards.

iPhones, meanwhile, missed expectations slightly, maintaining the recent downturn in handset sales.

Last quarter was a rough one for Apple devices, as iPhone revenue dropped 15% year over year. Tim Cook attempted to soften that blow with lowered guidance, pointing specifically to a less than spectacular showing in China. That, in turn, was the result of several factors, including a slowing Chinese economy and plateauing global smartphone numbers. This quarter notably saw an iPhone price drop in China.

Yesterday’s Alphabet earnings took a similar line, as CEO Sundar Pichai noted “headwinds” in year on year sales of its Pixel device. Google is expected to follow in Apple’s footsteps with its own budget smartphone, the Pixel 3a, next week at I/O.

Many analysts have pointed to 5G as the next major factor in kickstarting phone sales for both Apple and the rest of the industry. However, all signs currently point to a 2020 arrival for a 5G iPhone — putting the device more than a year out, and well behind releases from chief competition like Samsung and Huawei.

That said, a recent deal with Qualcomm that finally ended the longtime feud between the two hardware powerhouses could hasten the arrival of the technology on the iPhone. Though it seems equally likely the company will focus on other features and will simply wait until next year, when 5G has had an opportunity for a much wider rollout.

In a statement, Cook lauded iPads sales, while attempting to set the stage for future announcements. “Our March quarter results show the continued strength of our installed base of over 1.4 billion active devices, as we set an all-time record for Services, and the strong momentum of our Wearables, Home and Accessories category, which set a new March quarter record,” Cook said. “We delivered our strongest iPad growth in six years, and we are as excited as ever about our pipeline of innovative hardware, software and services. We’re looking forward to sharing more with developers and customers at Apple’s 30th annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June.”

Last year’s WWDC was notably devoid of any sort of hardware announcements, with most coming toward the end of the year. This year’s could be different, as the company looks to shake loose some of the hardware cobwebs. Apple TV, HomePod and other home devices seem primed for an upgrade as it continues to pump money into the services that fuel those products, along with increased competition to HomeKit from the likes of Amazon and Google.

The exact breakdown of device sales is difficult to parse, given how the company currently reports earnings. Late last year, the company announced that it would no longer be reporting iPhone sales figures. Revenue for the home and accessories categories, meanwhile, are mixed in with wearables — namely the best-selling Apple Watch.

Facebook built Dating to be privacy-safe, hoping to avoid the awkwardness of friends or family checking out your romance profile. But now Facebook has found a way to let you silently express your affection for a friend without them knowing unless they reciprocate.

Facebook announced today at its F8 conference that Dating is opening in 14 more countries, bringing the total to 19. It will launch in the U.S. before the end of the year. Dating brings with it a new feature called Secret Crush that expands it beyond strangers and friends-of-friends. Choose up to 9 friends you like-like. If they’ve opted into Facebook Dating, they’ll get a notification that some friend has a crush on them. If they add you as a Secret Crush too, you’re both notified and can chat on Messenger.

Facebook Dating product manager Charmaine Hung tells me that “I have 2,000 Facebook friends. I’m not best friends with all 2,000 people, and there’s a good chance that one of that could be a really good match with me. I trust them, I appreciate them and I know we’re compatible. The only thing missing is knowing if we’re both interested in being more than just friends without the fear of rejection if you were to do this in real life.”

Facebook announced Dating at F8 a year ago and launched it in Colombia in September. Users opt-in, and then browse Events and Groups they’re part of for potential matches. They send them a text-only message based on something in their profile, which goes to a special Dating inbox. And if that person reciprocates, they can chat and maybe meet up. Now it’s opening in the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana and Suriname.

One concern with Secret Crush is that users might spam the feature by constantly adding and removing people from their list until they discover a match. That’s why Facebook will only let you sub out one person per day after you reach your initial limit of 9.

Currently there’s still no plan to monetize Dating, but that’s not the point. After years of scandals, Facebook needs to prove it deserves to be your social network. Mindlessly browsing the News Feed has proven to be exhausting and at times detrimental to health. But if the app can introduce you to your future spouse, or even just a summer fling, you might keep a place in your heart for Facebook too.

Click below to check out all of TechCrunch’s Facebook conference coverage from today:

Aperture was a great application for editing photos back in the day, but it hasn’t been supported by Apple for years. You can, however, still run it on the latest Macs, should you need to. But that won’t be the case for long, the company has announced.

In a support page pointed out by MacRumors, Apple explains that “for technical reasons, Aperture will not run in future versions of macOS after macOS Mojave.”

What exactly those technical reasons are only Apple knows, but it isn’t hard to imagine the various file structures, architectures, libraries and so on that Aperture relied on are simply no longer compatible with the changes the company has made to the OS. macOS has come quite a distance since Aperture was abandoned in 2014, and it’s actually kind of impressive that the app still runs.

You can of course keep a machine running Mojave around if you really need to use Aperture for some reason or another, but honestly, there’s not much reason any more. The photo editor has long been outpaced by its competition, the likes of Lightroom, Capture One, and of course mobile photography software. Apple’s own Photos app is nothing like Aperture but fills some of the same roles.

To that end Apple suggests you migrate your Aperture photo library into either Lightroom Classic, which has an import tool specifically for this, or Photos, which should automatically import your old library when you launch it for the first time. If it hasn’t already, you can hold option while opening it and it will let you manually add a library to it.

Be aware however that adjustments and other settings you’ve made in Aperture may not carry over or might be set in stone once they arrive in their new home. So if you’ve been putting off editing that one shoot from all those years ago… better do that first.

It’s sad to see a good product finally fade away completely, but I’ve already shed those tears, moved on to Lightroom, and never looked back. I wish Apple prioritized its pro and pro-ish users more too, but what can I say? They don’t.

Facebook today released a new SDK that allows mobile app developers to integrate WhatsApp verification into Account Kit for iOS and Android. This will allow developers to build apps where users can opt to receive their verification codes through the WhatsApp app installed on their phone instead of through SMS.

Today, many apps give users the ability to sign up using only a phone number — a now popular alternative to Facebook Login, thanks to the social network’s numerous privacy scandals that led to fewer people choosing to use Facebook with third-party apps.

Plus, using phone numbers to sign up is common with a younger generation of users who don’t have Facebook accounts — and sometimes barely use email, except for joining apps and services.

When using a phone number to sign in, it’s common for the app to confirm the user by sending a verification code over SMS to the number provided. The user then enters that code to create their account. This process can also be used when logging in, as part of a multi-factor verification system where a user’s account information is combined with this extra step for added security.

While this process is straightforward and easy enough to follow, SMS is not everyone’s preferred messaging platform. That’s particularly true in emerging markets like India, where 200 million people are on WhatsApp, for example. In addition, those without an unlimited messaging plan are careful not to overuse texting when it can be avoided.

That’s where the WhatsApp SDK comes in. Once integrated into an iOS or Android app, developers can offer to send users their verification code over WhatsApp instead of text messaging. They can even choose to disable SMS verification, notes Facebook.

This is all a part of WhatsApp’s Account Kit, which is a larger set of developer tools designed to allow people to quickly register and log in to apps or websites using only a phone number and email, no password required.

This WhatsApp verification codes option has been available on WhatsApp’s web SDK since late 2018, but hadn’t been available with mobile apps until today.

A team of security researchers has discovered several vulnerabilities in various implementations of OpenPGP and S/MIME email signature verification that could allow attackers to spoof signatures on over a dozen of popular email clients.

The affected email clients include Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail with GPGTools, iOS Mail, GpgOL, KMail, Evolution, MailMate, Airmail, K-9 Mail, Roundcube and Mailpile.

When you send a digitally signed email, it offers end-to-end authenticity and integrity of messages, ensuring recipients that the email has actually come from you.

However, researchers tested 25 widely-used email clients for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android and Web and found that at least 14 of them were vulnerable to multiple types of practical attacks under five below-mentioned categories, making spoofed signatures indistinguishable from a valid one even by an attentive user.

The research was conducted by a team of researchers from Ruhr University Bochum and Münster University of Applied Sciences, which includes Jens Müller , Marcus Brinkmann , Damian Poddebniak , Hanno Böck, Sebastian Schinzel , Juraj Somorovsky, and Jörg Schwenk.

“In our scenario, we assume two trustworthy communication partners, Alice and Bob, who have securely exchanged their public PGP keys or S/MIME certificates,” the team explains in a research paper [PDF] published today.

“The goal of our attacker Eve is to create and send an email with arbitrary content to Bob whose email client falsely indicates that the email has been digitally signed by Alice.”

1) CMS Attacks (C1, C2, C3, C4) — Flaws due to mishandling of Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS), the container format of S/MIME, lead to contradicting or unusual data structures, such as multiple signers or no signers.

2) GPG API Attacks (G1, G2) — Implementation flaws in many email clients fail to properly parse a wide range of different inputs that could allow attackers to inject arbitrary strings into GnuPG status line API and logging messages, tricking clients into displaying successful signature validation for arbitrary public keys.

3) MIME Attacks (M1, M2, M3, M4) — MIME wrapping attacks abuse how email clients handle partially signed messages. These attacks allow attackers to trick email clients into showing an unsigned text while verifying an unrelated signature in another part (which remains invisible).

4) ID attacks (I1, I2, I3) — These attacks rely on the weaknesses in the binding of signed messages to the sender identity by mail clients, allowing attackers to display a valid signature from the identity (ID) of a trusted communication partner located in the mail header.

5) UI Attacks (U1) — User Interface (UI) redressing attacks are successful if attackers found a way to mimic, using HTML, CSS, or inline images, some important UI elements of an email client that could allow them to display an indicator of a valid signature.

Below are the results of all of the above-mentioned signature spoofing attacks tested against various email clients for OpenPGP, where full blacked circle indicator represents “Perfect forgery,” half blacked circle represents “Partial forgery,” and the white one represents “Weak forgery.”

The next table shows results for S/MIME signature verification:

Interestingly, researchers also found that some email signature spoofing attacks can also be used to spoof decryption results, “causing the email client to indicate an encrypted message where in fact the plaintext was transmitted in the clear.”

“Our attacker model does not include any form of social engineering. The user opens and reads received emails as always, so awareness training does not help to mitigate the attacks,” the researchers say.

Though most of these partial and weak forgery attacks can potentially be detected by carefully inspecting the GUI or manually clicking to receive more signature details, it still concerns when a large number of sensitive users and communities relies on email encryption and verification for authentication.

The vulnerabilities in email clients have been given the following CVEs: CVE-2018-18509, CVE-2018-12019, CVE-2018-12020, CVE-2017-17848, CVE-2018-15586, CVE-2018-15587, CVE-2018-15588, CVE-2019-8338, CVE-2018-12356, CVE-2018-12556, and CVE-2019-728.

Researchers reported these vulnerabilities to affected vendors and developers, as well as suggested appropriate countermeasures, which have now been implemented in the latest versions of most of the affected software.

Would we feel less envious, shameful and competitive if Instagram didn’t tell us how many Likes a post received? That’s the idea behind Instagram now hiding Like counts from both a post’s viewers and its author as part of an experiment in Canada. A post’s creator can still open the Likers window to see the names of everyone who hearted their post, but they’d have to count them manually. Instagram has also recently redesigned the profile to make follower count much less prominent, the app’s head Adam Mosseri says.

Even though Like totals would still impact how the algorithm ranks a post in the feed, if rolled out, the change would refocus Instagram on self-expression instead of being a popularity contest. Users might be less likely to delete a photo or video because it didn’t get enough Likes, or resort to their Finsta account to post something authentic but less “perfect.” It could make us less likely to envy-spiral because we wouldn’t see friends or influencers getting more Likes than us. And people might be more willing to post what truly represents their complicated identities because they’re not battling for the biggest Like count.

“Later this week, we’re running a test in Canada that removes the total number of likes on photos and video views in Feed, Permalink pages and Profile,” an Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch. “We are testing this because we want your followers to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.” The small percentage of Canadian users in the test will see a notice atop their feed warning them of  “a change to how you see Likes.” The announcement came alongside a slew of new product debuts at Facebook’s F8 conference.

One big concern, though, is that influencers often get discovered for paid promotions or have their sponsored content measured by public Like counts or a screenshot of their Liker list. “We understand that this is important for many creators, and while this test is in exploratory stages, we are thinking through ways for them to communicate value to their brand partners,” an Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch.

TechCrunch first reported two weeks ago that Instagram had prototyped hiding public Like counts, as spotted by Jane Manchun Wong. The company confirmed the feature had been built but not tested in the wild. The news immediately set off a wave of commentary from users. Many, while initially shocked, thought it would make Instagram usage healthier and cutback on some of the toxic anxiety produced by staring at the little numbers.

So why test in Canada? “Canadians are highly social and tech savvy, with over 24 million people connecting across our family of apps each month. We wanted to test this with a digitally savvy audience that has a thriving community on Instagram,” a company spokesperson told us.

Leading The Fight Against Bullying

On stage at F8, Mosseri announced that Instagram doesn’t just want to stop bullying, but lead the Internet’s battle against it. To that end, he announced several new tests of features Instagram hopes will make the app less toxic and hateful.

• A new “nudge” feature will warn users if they’re about to comment something hurtful. The test stops short of censorship while still addressing bullying before it happens.
• “Away Mode” will encourage users to take a break from Instagram at intense times in their life, like moving to a new school. They don’t have to delete their account, but can still get a break from constant notifications and concerns about how they look.
• “Manage Interactions” will allow users to set limits on how certain people interact with them without having to block them completely. Maybe you don’t want someone to be able to comment on your posts, but still Like them. Or you’re cool with them seeing your photos but don’t want to get DMs from them.

If these features succeed at promoting digital well-being, Instagram will likely roll them out to everyone.

It’s reassuring to see Instagram adding new well-being features after the departure of founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Systrom in particular had been a big proponent of reducing envy and inauthenticity on social media, which was part of the impetus for launching Instagram Stories, where users could share unpolished looks at their lives. Before he left in September, Instagram rolled out its Your Activity dashboard showing the average time you spent per day on the app, plus a “You’re All Caught Up” warning that tells users they’ve seen all recent feed posts and can stop scrolling.

A 2013 study by Krasnova et al. discovered that 20 percent of envy-causing situations that experiment participants experienced happened on Facebook. They also determined that Facebook causes toxic envy, noting that “intensity of passive following is likely to reduce users’ life satisfaction in the long-run, as it triggers upward social comparison and invidious emotions.” Instagram, with its focus on imagery and manicured looks at our lives, might cause even more envy. Hiding Likes would be a strong step toward us judging ourselves less.

Click below to check out all of TechCrunch’s Facebook conference coverage from today:

The updated camera design features a wheel with selectable camera modes and effects, along with dedicated sections for live broadcasting and the new Create Mode. Instagram says the new camera update is designed to make adding effects and interactive stickers to content simpler. Instagram plans to roll out the new camera and Create Mode around the world “soon.”

Instagram is also debuting a new shopping feature for finding items creators are using, and it’s adding a new donation sticker that will let users raise money for nonprofit organizations.

To use this new feature, open the camera, take or upload a photo, tap the sticker icon and select the donation sticker from the tray. Choose a nonprofit to support and customize your fundraiser using creative tools. Once it’s live, swipe up on your story to view the total amount raised. 100% of the money you raise on Instagram goes to the nonprofit you are supporting.

Separately, Instagram told TechCrunch that starting later this week, it will be running a test in Canada that removes the total number of likes on photos and video views in the Feed, Permalink pages, and Profile.

Instagram says this feature is being tested because it wants followers to “focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.” Only a small percentage of Canadian users will be added to the test.

The person who created the post can still open the Likers window to see the names of people who hearted their posts, but no total count is provided. It’s not clear how long the test will last and if Instagram will roll this out to other regions in the future.

To win chat, Facebook Messenger must be as accessible as SMS, yet more entertaining than Snapchat. Today, Messenger pushes on both fronts with a series of announcements at Facebook’s F8 conference, including that it will launch Mac and PC desktop apps, a faster and smaller mobile app, simultaneous video co-watching and a revamped Friends tab, where friends can use an emoji to tell you what they’re up to or down for.

Facebook is also beefing up its tools for the 40 million active businesses and 300,000 businesses on Messenger, up from 200,000 businesses a year ago. Merchants will be able to let users book appointments at salons and masseuses, collect information with new lead generation chatbot templates and provide customer service to verified customers through authenticated m.me links. Facebook hopes this will boost the app beyond the 20 billion messages sent between people and businesses each month, which is up 10X from December 2017.

“We believe you can build practically any utility on top of messaging,” says Facebook’s head of Messenger Stan Chudnovsky. But he stresses that “All of the engineering behind it is has been redone” to make it more reliable, and to comply with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s directive to unite the backends of Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram Direct. “Of course, if we didn’t have to do all that, we’d be able to invest more in utilities. But we feel that utilities will be less functional if we don’t do that work. They need to go hand-in-hand together. Utilities will be more powerful, more functional and more desired if built on top of a system that’s interoperable and end-to-end encrypted.”

Here’s a look at the major Messenger announcements and why they’re important:

Messenger Desktop – A stripped-down version of Messenger focused on chat, audio and video calls will debut later this year. Chudnovsky says it will remove the need to juggle and resize browser tabs by giving you an always-accessible version of Messenger that can replace some of the unofficial knock-offs. Especially as Messenger focuses more on businesses, giving them a dedicated desktop interface could convince them to invest more in lead generation and customer service through Messenger.

Facebook Messenger’s upcoming desktop app

Project Lightspeed – Messenger is reengineering its app to cut 70 mb off its download size so people with low-storage phones don’t have to delete as many photos to install it. In testing, the app can cold start in merely 1.3 seconds, which Chudnovsky says is just 25 percent of where Messenger and many other apps are today. While Facebook already offers Messenger Light for the developing world, making the main app faster for everyone else could help Messenger swoop in and steal users from the status quo of SMS. The Lightspeed update will roll out later this year.

Video Co-Watching – TechCrunch reported in November that Messenger was building a Facebook Watch Party-style experience that would let users pick videos to watch at the same time as a friend, with reaction cams of their faces shown below the video. Now in testing before rolling out later this year, users can pick any Facebook video, invite one or multiple friends and laugh together. Unique capabilities like this could make Messenger more entertaining between utilitarian chat threads and appeal to a younger audience Facebook is at risk of losing.

Watch Videos Together on Messenger

Business Tools – After a rough start to its chatbot program a few years ago, where bots couldn’t figure out users’ open-ended responses, Chudnovsky says the platform is now picking up steam with 300,000 developers on board. One option that’s worked especially well is lead-generation templates, which teach bots to ask people standardized questions to collect contact info or business intent, so Messenger is adding more of those templates with completion reminders and seamless hand-off to a live agent.

To let users interact with appointment-based businesses through a platform they’re already familiar with, Messenger launched a beta program for barbers, dentists and more that will soon open to let any business handle appointment booking through the app. And with new authenticated m.me links, a business can take a logged-in user on their website and pass them to Messenger while still knowing their order history and other info. Getting more businesses hooked on Messenger customer service could be very lucrative down the line.

Appointment booking on Messenger

Close Friends and Emoji Status – Perhaps the most interesting update to Messenger, though, is its upcoming effort to help you make offline plans. Messenger is in the early stages of rebuilding its Friends tab into “Close Friends,” which will host big previews of friends’ Stories, photos shared in your chats, and let people overlay an emoji on their profile pic to show friends what they’re doing. We first reported this “Your Emoji” status update feature was being built a year ago, but it quietly cropped up in the video for Messenger Close Friends. This iteration lets you add an emoji like a home, barbell, low battery or beer mug, plus a short text description, to let friends know you’re back from work, at the gym, might not respond or are interested in getting a drink. These will show up atop the Close Friends tab as well as on location-sharing maps and more once this eventually rolls out.

Messenger’s upcoming Close Friends tab with Your Emoji status

Facebook Messenger is the best poised app to solve the loneliness problem. We often end up by ourselves because we’re not sure which of our friends are free to hang out, and we’re embarrassed to look desperate by constantly reaching out. But with emoji status, Messenger users could quietly signal their intentions without seeming needy. This “what are you doing offline” feature could be a whole social network of its own, as apps like Down To Lunch have tried. But with 1.3 billion users and built-in chat, Messenger has the ubiquity and utility to turn a hope into a hangout.

Oof. This isn’t the sort of thing you want to see when you’re rounding the corner of your crowdfunding campaign:

There are long shots and then there’s coming up with $15,000 of your $1.2 million goal. The Indiegogo page for the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop understandably focused on the viral sensation the ridiculously beefy phone with the 18,000mAh battery spurred at Mobile World Congress this year. There are even photos of the scrum of journalists elbowing to take a shot of the thing at the event.

Understandable that its creators took that approach. Heck, the thing may have outshined all of the foldable and 5G phones that were set to take center stage at the event. We wrote about it. Lucas rightfully called it “basically a giant battery with a smartphone built into it.”

The takeaway seems clear, though. Just because everyone’s talking about a product doesn’t mean that anyone intends to buy it. If anything, the devices seemed more a comment on the state of smartphone battery life than actual enticing product.

And honestly, there’s been a shift in recent years among many smartphone manufacturers to provide power saving options and larger capacity batteries, so this has become less of a problem (though 5G’s approach could aversely impact that). Also, there are eight million power banks, and you can get them pretty cheap these days, making the P18K Pop any even sillier proposition. Not to mention all the things that can go wrong when you buy a phone based on a single feature.

Even so, the product’s creators closed the campaign out on a hopeful note, writing, “Although it didn’t reach its goal, we will work on further improvement on the P18K (design, thickness, etc.) as we do believe there is a rising interest for smartphones with incredible battery life, which can also be used as power banks.”

Certainly features from companies like Samsung and Huawei have proven that power sharing is a compelling feature. It just probably won’t come with Energizer’s name attached.

Apple was right to abandon it. The photo editing / digital asset management space is very crowded. It has over a dozen major competitors and probably several dozen if you start considering stand alone editor tools without asset management built in. Some of those alternatives are extremely good.

I loved Aperture and I hung onto it for too long myself. When I finally moved on, my only regret was that I didn’t do it soon. Aperture was easy to use and didn’t make me think very much, but it was underpowered in its color editing tools and my extended reliance on it stunted my development as a photographer.

Capture One Pro is my photo editor these days and it can be configured to work similarly to the way Aperture worked. If the thought of giving up Aperture makes you want to make Mojave the last MacOS you’ll ever use, do yourself a favor and give Capture One Pro a serious look. It takes a little exporing to figure out how to configure it, but my setup really does mimic Aperture.

Just be sure to avoid Corel After Shot Pro 2. That one bears an even closer resemblance to Aperture, but its RAW processing engine has to have been designed by a 8 year old. It’s beyond awful.

The Trump administration is reportedly seeking to issue an order that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, the New York Times has reported.

According to the paper, which cited officials familiar with the matter, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi urged US President Donald Trump to take the step during a April 9 visit to the White House.

The Muslim Brotherhood, or Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, is a revivalist Islamic movement, formed in Egypt in 1928.

One of the oldest and most influential Islamic movements in the world, the Brotherhood was declared a terror group by Egypt in 2013 after Sisi led a military coup against Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood member and the country’s first democratically-elected president.

The coup set in motion a violent crackdown against the organisation, with thousands of the groups members arrested, and hundreds sentenced to death in what human rights groups have described as sham trials.

Two of Egypt’s closest allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, also blacklisted the group but several western powers, including the US, did not, for both legal and policy reasons.

However since Trump’s election, the Sisi government has repeatedly urged the US to prescribe the group, and in March 2017, Cairo sent dozens of parliamentarians, former diplomats and international law experts to Washington to convince the US of a ban.

Designation is happening

The Times said that US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and National security adviser, John Bolton, supported the idea. However, the Pentagon, career national security staff, government lawyers and diplomatic officials have voiced legal and policy objections, and have been scrambling to find a more limited step that would satisfy the White House.

In a recent statement, Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, acknowledged that the administration was working on designating the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists.

“The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process,” the Times quoted Sanders as saying.

The US State Department had previously advised against banning the movement because of its “loose-knit structure and far-flung political ties across the Middle East”.

Several political parties in Turkey, Tunisia and Jordan consider themselves as the Muslim Brotherhood or have ties to it.

The Times said it was also unclear what the consequences would be for Americans and American humanitarian organisations linked to the Brotherhood.

According to a 2004 article by The Washington Post, supporters of the Brotherhood “make up the US Islamic community’s most organised force” by running hundreds of mosques and business ventures, promoting civic activities, and setting up American Islamic organisations to defend and promote Islam”.

Human rights groups have also voiced concerns that Sisi might use it to justify an even harsher crackdown against his opponents.

Based on the acclaimed series originally published by Kalypso Media, Tropico for iPhone and iPad features intuitive touch controls and a user interface designed to make it smooth and simple for players to lead their small but proud island nation into a glorious future, one tap at a time.

Tropico for iPhone supports the following models: iPhone SE, iPhone 6S/6S Plus, iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 8/8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS/XS Max, and iPhone XR.

New features for the iPad version include El Presidente’s Watchlist, allowing all citizens to be tracked; a minimizable UI that enables a clearer view of the island; a screenshot mode that hides the UI; and critical intel messages, including assassination attempts, that feature new illustrations.

Samsung’s Q1 earnings are in and, as the company itself predicted, they don’t make for pretty reading.

The Korean giant saw revenue for the three-month period fall by 13 percent year-on-year to 52.4 trillion KRW, around $45 billion. Meanwhile, operating profit for Q1 2019 came in at 6.2 trillion KRW, that’s a whopping $5.33 billion but it represents a decline of huge 60 percent drop from the same period last year. Ouch.

Samsung’s Q1 last year was admittedly a blockbuster quarter, but these are massive declines.

What’s going on?

Samsung said that sales of its new Galaxy S10 smartphone were “solid” but it admitted that its memory chip and display businesses, so often the most lucrative units for the company, didn’t perform well and “weighed down” the company’s results overall. Despite those apparent S10 sales, the mobile division saw income drop “as competition intensified.” Meanwhile, the display business posted a loss “due to decreased demand for flexible displays and increasing market supplies for large displays.”

That’s all about on par with what analysts were expecting following that overly-optimistic Q1 earnings forecast made earlier this month.

The immediate future doesn’t look terribly rosy, too.

Samsung said the overall memory market will likely remain slow in Q2 although DRAM demand is expected to recover somewhat. It isn’t expecting too much to change for its display business, either, although “demand for flexible smartphone OLED panels is expected to rebound” which is where the company plans to place particular focus.

On the consumer side, where most readers know Samsung’s business better, Samsung expects to see improved sales in Q2, where buying is higher. It also teased a new Note, 5G devices — which will likely limited to Korea, we suspect — and that foldable phone.

The Galaxy Fold has been delayed after some journalists found issues with their review units — TechCrunch’s own Brian Heater was fine; he even enjoyed using it. There’s no specific mention in the quarterly report of a new launch date but it looks like the release will be mid-June, that’s assuming what AT&T is telling customers is accurate. But we’ll need to wait a few weeks for that to be confirmed, it seems.

According to CNET, 2018 Toyota Sienna minivans and Camry sedans will soon be able to visit a dealership to add CarPlay support to their vehicles. Amazon Alexa compatibility is also included.

Visiting a Toyota dealership will be required to install the CarPlay update, which will be made available through new software. Toyota has not yet confirmed if the CarPlay update will be free or if there will be a fee.

Toyota has introduced CarPlay in quite a few of its 2019 and 2020 models, but to date, CarPlay has been limited to newer vehicles, so this is the first time Toyota is making it available in a 2018 vehicle.

Other Toyota vehicles equipped with CarPlay include the 2019 Avalon, 2019 Corolla Hatchback, 2019 Sienna, 2019 Camry, 2020 Tacoma, 2020 Tundra, 2020 Sequoia, 2020 Corolla, 2020 Yaris Hatchback, and 2020 Highlander.

It’s not known if Toyota will, in the future, provide similar CarPlay retrofitting options for other Toyota vehicles.

Caballero’s departure comes just after Apple settled its lawsuit with Qualcomm and inked a deal that will see Qualcomm supplying chips for future Apple devices, including the 5G chips Apple will need for its 2020 iPhones.

Caballero joined Apple back in 2005, and his name has been included on hundreds of Apple patents related to wireless technologies. Caballero is a well-known part of Apple’s antenna engineering group, gaining public recognition following the “Antennagate” situation that impacted the iPhone 4.

A person familiar with Caballero’s work at Apple told The Information that he had been responsible for “leading Apple’s charge into 5G.” Caballero’s email address is no longer valid, his phone number is no longer active, and he does not appear in Apple’s internal directory.

There is no word on why Caballero left the company, but Apple has been restructuring some of its chip teams. Apple’s modem engineering efforts were put under chipmaking chief Johny Srouji back in February. Caballero and Apple both declined to comment on his departure.

Apple is planning to release its first 5G iPhone in 2020 and while the launch of the device is still more than a year away, Apple is already working on the future iPhone and ironing out technical details.

Apple will use Qualcomm chips for its first 5G iPhones, and may also be planning to source some chips from Samsung. In the future, Apple is planning to use its own custom-designed modem chips, but Apple-designed modems won’t be ready for “another few years.”

Amazon announced today it has begun to ask customers to participate in a preview program that will help the company build a Spanish-language Alexa experience for U.S. users. The program, which is currently invite-only, will allow Amazon to incorporate into the U.S. Spanish-language experience a better understanding of things like word choice and local humor, as it has done with prior language launches in other regions. In addition, developers have been invited to begin building Spanish-language skills, also starting today, using the Alexa Skills Kit.

The latter was announced on the Alexa blog, noting that any skills created now will be made available to the customers in the preview program for the time being. They’ll then roll out to all customers when Alexa launches in the U.S. with Spanish-language support later this year.

Manufacturers who want to build “Alexa Built-in” products for Spanish-speaking customers can also now request early access to a related Alexa Voice Services (AVS) developer preview. Amazon says that Bose, Facebook and Sony are preparing to do so, while smart home device makers, including Philips, TP Link and Honeywell Home, will bring to U.S. users “Works with Alexa” devices that support Spanish.

Ahead of today, Alexa had supported Spanish language skills, but only in Spain and Mexico — not in the U.S. Those developers can opt to extend their existing skills to U.S. customers, Amazon says.

In addition to Spanish, developers have also been able to create skills in English in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and India; as well as in German, Japanese, French (in France and in Canada), and Portuguese (in Brazil). But on the language front, Google has had a decided advantage thanks to its work with Google Voice Search and Google Translate over the years.

Last summer, Google Home rolled out support for Spanish, in addition to launching the device in Spain and Mexico.

Amazon also trails Apple in terms of support for Spanish in the U.S., as Apple added support for Spanish to the HomePod in the U.S., Spain and Mexico in September 2018.

Spanish is a widely spoken language in the U.S. According to a 2015 report by Instituto Cervantes, the United States has the second highest concentration of Spanish speakers in the world, following Mexico. At the time of the report, there were 53 million people who spoke Spanish in the U.S. — a figure that included 41 million native Spanish speakers, and approximately 11.6 million bilingual Spanish speakers.