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AppWizard

August 10, 2025

Semi-open World Puzzler ‘Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times’ Hits PC & Consoles Early 2026

Developer SlugGlove and publisher Yogscast Games announced their upcoming semi-open world puzzle adventure game, Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times, set to launch on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation in early 2026. Players will craft spells by combining magical runes to solve environmental puzzles across 14 main areas, with over 102 million possible spell combinations. The game features a narrative-driven experience where players guide Rhell, a mage, and her companion Beesle, as they uncover clues and interact with various characters. Rhell will be showcased at the Tiny Teams festival from August 7-14, and a demo is available on Steam.

AppWizard

August 9, 2025

Messenger, Pinterest, Lyft, Duolingo, Google Maps, Expedia Become Most Invasive Apps of 2025, Here is a New Update

The 2025 App Privacy Index reveals that Messenger is the most invasive app with a privacy risk score of 100/100, followed by Pinterest (72/100), Lyft (69/100), and Amazon Shopping (68/100). DoorDash ranks 5th (66/100) with its consumer app and 9th (58/100) with its driver app. Duolingo, Google Maps, WhatsApp, and Expedia complete the top ten most invasive apps. Instagram has a privacy score of 57/100 and recently faced criticism over its new Maps feature, which raises concerns about real-time location tracking. Meta's data collection practices are widespread across its platforms, including Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Some apps, like TeaOnHer (0/100) and ParentSquare (4/100), prioritize user privacy, contrasting with the other invasive apps. Users are advised to review app permissions and consider privacy-friendly alternatives. The public backlash against Instagram's Maps feature indicates a growing demand for transparency regarding data collection practices. As data protection regulations tighten, there is potential for companies in the travel sector to adopt better privacy practices.

Winsage

August 6, 2025

OpenAI’s New Open Models Accelerated Locally on NVIDIA GeForce RTX and RTX PRO GPUs

NVIDIA has partnered with OpenAI to enhance the gpt-oss models for NVIDIA GPUs, enabling rapid inference and supporting millions of users on NVIDIA RTX AI PCs. The gpt-oss-20b and gpt-oss-120b models, trained on NVIDIA H100 GPUs, feature open-weight reasoning and can handle context lengths of up to 131,072 tokens. Users can utilize these models through frameworks like Ollama, which provides a user-friendly interface for experimentation. The models are optimized for RTX GPUs and support applications such as web search and coding assistance. Developers can also access the models via Microsoft AI Foundry Local and other frameworks, with NVIDIA contributing to open-source projects to enhance performance.

AppWizard

August 5, 2025

Instagram and Facebook Messenger down as hundreds of users suffer Meta outage

Users of Instagram and Facebook Messenger reported significant outages, with Downdetector logging over 200 complaints for Instagram and at least 50 for Facebook Messenger. The issues affected multiple regions, with around 500 reports from the UK and over 1,500 from India. Approximately 70% of the problems involved users unable to log into Instagram. By 7:43 AM, complaints about Instagram outages had decreased to 44, indicating an improvement in the situation.

AppWizard

August 4, 2025

This YouTube app alternative just added Android Auto support

NewPipe, an open-source YouTube application for Android, has introduced Android Auto support in version 0.28.0, allowing users to stream audio from their car's display. This feature enables access to playlists, listening history, and control over the player. The development of this feature began in 2022, and NewPipe must be sideloaded as it is not available on the Play Store. Currently, the Android Auto version supports only audio playback, with potential for future video support.

AppWizard

August 4, 2025

National Lottery website is down for ‘once-in-a-generation’ updates

Users are experiencing difficulties accessing the National Lottery website and app due to a planned closure for significant upgrades, not an outage. As of 11 PM on Saturday, all draw game sales and prize claims in shops across the UK have been paused and are expected to resume late Monday morning. This closure is part of the largest technological upgrade in the National Lottery's 31-year history, anticipated to last approximately 36 hours. Customers will be unable to log into their online accounts, purchase draw tickets, or claim prizes until later today, Monday, August 4. Allwyn is upgrading the National Lottery’s gaming and retail systems to modernize the infrastructure, as the current systems have been in place since 2009. Some in-store terminals may experience delays in coming back online due to the upgrade processes.

BetaBeacon

August 2, 2025

Google has 3 weeks to make these major Android and Play Store changes in Epic loss

Google has been ordered to make major changes to the Play Store and Android as a whole following a lawsuit with Epic Games. The changes include not sharing revenue with partners, allowing third-party payment methods, and resolving disputes with Epic Games. The changes must be implemented by August 8, 2025.

Winsage

August 1, 2025

Microsoft is killing its ChromeOS competitor

Microsoft has decided to discontinue Windows 11 SE, a lightweight operating system introduced in 2021, aimed at low-cost laptops for educational environments. The company will cease all software updates for Windows 11 SE, with support officially ending in October 2026. The final update, version 24H2, will be the last released for this platform. Microsoft stated that it will not release a feature update after version 24H2 and recommends transitioning to a device that supports another edition of Windows 11 for continued support and security.

AppWizard

August 1, 2025

Replace Google Assistant with a smarter app on Android

The Meta AI app is an alternative digital assistant for Android users, requiring version 230.0.0.36.164 or later to function. To set it as the default assistant, users must navigate to Settings > Apps > Default apps > Digital assistant and select Meta AI from the list. The app does not provide a dedicated interface for voice or text queries but allows for voice input via the keyboard. Users can generate photos, videos, and Reels for Instagram and Facebook through its integration with Meta's ecosystem. Accessing Meta AI can be done by long-pressing the power button or using gesture navigation. For tasks like setting timers or alarms, users must open the Clock app directly. Gemini is noted as a strong competitor, capable of handling such tasks and providing a versatile digital assistant experience.

AppWizard

July 31, 2025

Lloyds bank app ‘not working and ‘keeps crashing’ as users can’t open it

Users expressed frustration on social media about outages affecting banking applications, particularly on payday. Lloyds Bank acknowledged the issues and asked customers to be patient while they worked on a fix. Outages were also reported by HSBC, Halifax, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. A Treasury Committee report revealed that nine of the UK's largest banks had experienced over a month of unplanned technical outages in the past two years, with 158 incidents of IT failures reported between January 2023 and February 2025. Common causes of these outages included problems with third-party suppliers, system changes, and internal software issues. Downdetector is a platform that tracks service disruptions across various services, allowing users to report issues.