Instagram Live is getting support for up to four people in a single broadcast, doubling the number of participants as services like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces gain traction. Though not necessarily being pitched as an explicit rival to recent audio-focused hit Clubhouse, Instagram Live Rooms will make shared broadcasts much more straightforward.
Almost all the Big Tech companies have smart assistants these days except for Facebook. There have been rumors and signs that the social media giant would be coming out with its own but nothing has materialized so far. It might, however, be taking another step in that direction by pushing its own trigger phrase to activate voice commands not only on its Portal smart display but even on the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset.
Twitter is preparing to launch paid tweets, with a new Super Follow system which will work a little like Patreon or OnlyFans. Announced during the company's investors presentation, Super Follow will offer a new way for those with followings on Twitter to monetize that audience, with everything from exclusive content to special badging.
WhatsApp's Facebook-friendly privacy changes have caused many users to flock to other secure messaging services. Those services, in turn, have rapidly pushed out changes to improve their features as well as prepare their servers for the sudden influx of new users. For its latest set of updates, Telegram is adding a touch of transience to some of its features, such as public chats as well as invite links, while also making sure that refugees from other messaging platforms will feel at home as well.
Twenty-eight years after forming in Paris, France, Daft Punk broke up. They announced this end-of-days with a video posted on their YouTube channel. The video was titled Epilogue, featuring a clip from Electroma in which the two robots meet, and one commits self-destruct. Daft Punk publicist Kathryn Frazier confirmed the breakup.
CD Projekt Red is a video game developer that's behind one of the most infamous video games of 2020, Cyberpunk 2077. That game was very highly anticipated but launched with such massive problems that it turned into a liability for its developer and angered gamers worldwide who had waited years to play the game. The company announced not long ago that hackers had accessed its servers and stolen game data that was leaked online.
The internet space down under was expected to split up in an uncanny manner. When the day of reckoning arrived, the two tech giants – Google and Facebook – took a drastically different approach to tackle the situation presented by the News Media Bargaining code in Australia. While Google chose to befriend the terms, Facebook walked off the bargaining deal to block all content from news sources in Australia – resulting in pages of news agencies like news.com.au and theage.com.au, among others, being completely wiped off their content on the social network.
Facebook isn't one to back down from a fight or making controversial changes, at least until its hands are forced by laws. Even as it faces inquiries and lawsuits about its alleged monopolistic business practices, it is still pushing through with unpopular actions that practically put its mark on everything it owns. The Oculus Quest's new multi-user support, for example, is still tied to Facebook accounts, and WhatsApp is now resuming the journey to revamp its privacy policy to favor Facebook.
For the longest time, Twitter has stuck to its core identity of a social network that revolves around bursts of short text posts, sometimes accompanied by photos or videos. Recently, however, it has been striking off in other directions, from Instagram Stories-like Fleets to Clubhouse-like Spaces. It seems to have a fascination with the power of the human voice given the new features it has been experimenting with, the latest of which allows users to send voice messages in at least three countries.
The app EarBuds is all about listening to music and the audio bits of live events with your friends. You could also listen along with basically anyone, as the EarBuds app is made to allow anyone to share moments in real-time with audio only. It's the simplicity of the setup that makes the concept run.
Facebook will block users and publishers from sharing news content in Australia, a stark reaction to the proposed new Media Bargaining code in the country. The decision means that Facebook users in the country will not be able to see local or international content through the social network.
Former US President Donald Trump tried to finish as many pending tasks before his term ended but there were still many that were left unresolved. In the tech industry, one of the biggest was the fate of TikTok and its forced sale to a US company. Although the parties involved, including Oracle and Walmart, have already come into an agreement, they're still waiting for the US government approval that won't be coming anytime soon because the matter is now being reviewed again by the Biden administration.