TRT Tech Brief: Lenovo's empty promise, Facebook vs WhatsApp vs Apple

Lenovo's notch and chin 

Let's start with Lenovo's fog machine. Lenovo got people, including some of us here, hyped up about their new all-screen smartphone, Lenovo Z5. The company teased its users with a sketch showing the phone without any notches on it. 

The problem is they couldn't pull it off - and people learned about it only when the company unveiled the product in Beijing. And it's not just the notch. There's also a chin at the bottom. Lenovo claims that its phone's notch is thinner than Xiaomi's Mi 8 and the iPhone X - so we guess that counts as no notch.

Users see the notch and can't unsee it.  Is this a big deal? Yes, for some, but almost all the Android phones released this year had the infamous notch. Maybe it's there for a reason? At least Apple did it first.

While we're at it, let's stick with Apple for a bit. Apple had its annual WWDC (World-wide Developers' Conference) this week, and threw shade at Facebook, live. 

Facebook, as we all know now, has a massive tracking operation across the web. Their omnipresent-like button is the perfect tool to track which websites you've visited. This helps them with more targeted ad campaigns. 

Well, Apple wasn't too excited about this and launched a new feature to stop it altogether.

Craig Federighi, Apple's software chief, didn't mince his words. “We’ve all seen these like buttons and share buttons. Well it turns out, these can be used to track you, whether you click on them or not. So this year, we’re shutting that down.”

After his announcement, the demo directly went to an example where the user is alerted by Safari about Facebook's tracking.

After all, Facebook is an easy target, and it only makes sense that these moves will see companies taking a shot at its advertising business.

Facebook and WhatsApp are having a messy breakup

The Wall Street Journal went behind the scenes of the WhatsApp-Facebook internal dispute. The article shows how the different cultures of these two companies clashed - their squabble even got to the point where they had a discussion on the length of a bathroom door. 

The problems revolve around the different perspectives both companies' founders have about privacy. Facebook is an advertising behemoth and needs user data to keep the money flowing. Ads drive 97% of its revenue and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call that targeted business its lifeblood.

On the other hand, the founders of WhatsApp are big fans of user privacy. You can see that at the top of their legal page, as well. Apparently, they simply couldn't take it anymore so WhatsApp's founders left, some to collect rare air-cooled Porsches.

What's the lesson learned here? If you're acquired for $17 billion by a social media giant notorious for (lack of) user privacy, you shouldn't expect them to run your company like a nonprofit organisation.

We're betting we'll see some changes in WhatsApp's terms in the upcoming months.

Lastly, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has printed up some really good-looking posters to warn us all about the Cold War and the dangers of communism.

In February 2016, folks from a website called Government Attic made an FOIA (you know, Freedom of Information Act) request to get the old posters printed by the NSA.

You can get the full document here, but we'll save you the trouble and share the best of them below.