Standalone app of TikTok’s BeReal clone is now available outside US

by Hansraj Agrawal | Sep 20, 2022 | Technology

Short video platform TikTok’s recently launched BeReal clone — TikTok Now — is now available as a standalone mobile app across global markets outside the US.

According to TechCrunch, the app offers a similar feature set to the TikTok Now experience being introduced into the US TikTok app, announced last week.

But as an independent mobile app, it allows users to opt-in to receive the push notifications just for these social check-ins, even if they have their TikTok notifications silenced, the report said.

Like BeReal, TikTok Now sends a random push notification every day encouraging users to take a photo or video with their phone’s front-facing and outward-facing cameras at the same time.

Users have a three-minute window to snap their photos or up to 10-minute long videos to participate. Friends can then view each others’ photos in the app’s Friends feed or they can view posts from others in an Explore feed.

Despite being a new major offering from one of the world’s most popular apps, the TikTok Now app has yet to rank in the Top Overall iPhone apps chart in any market as of the time of writing.

However, it has managed to inch into the top 100 iPhone Social Networking apps in five markets — Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Malta and Singapore — and is ranked in the Top 500 iPhone Social Networking apps in 38 countries.

These include Myanmar, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, Qatar, Poland, Belgium, New Zealand, Guatemala, Austria, Bahrain, Bermuda, etc.

There is also an Android version of the app live in Bermuda, but it’s not ranking in any other markets.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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YouTube bringing new video page to unify the design on mobile, web

by Hansraj Agrawal | Sep 20, 2022 | Technology

Google-owned streaming platform YouTube is rolling out a new video page that tweaks several elements and, most notably, unifies the design across Android, iOS, and the web.

According to 9To5Google, the highlight of this redesign is the use of pill-shaped buttons for key elements. For example, instead of being two distinct buttons, thumbs up/down and the like count are housed in one container.

Share, Create (Shorts), Download, and other things users frequently interact with get the same treatment, the report said.

Meanwhile, that carousel (on mobile) is now underneath channel details, with that information coming after the video title, view count, publish date, and hashtags.

This new design might also coincide with “Ambient Mode” that allows the bottom of a video to bleed into the description section and system status bar for a more immersive experience.

However, this can be optionally enabled/disabled from the overflow menu.

Another key change with this revamps places the top comment in a more prominent container that stands out on the screen. This technique might ultimately prove successful in getting people to engage more.

Things are slightly different on the desktop, with the video description getting the visual call out, something that Creators should benefit from, as per the report.

This revamp has been slowly appearing for more users in recent weeks but is not yet widely rolled out.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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WinZO sues Google for Play Store’s new policy allowing only fantasy sports

by Hansraj Agrawal | Sep 20, 2022 | Technology

Homegrown vernacular social gaming platform WinZO Games on Tuesday said it has challenged Google’s recent policy in the Delhi High Court for the selective inclusion of only daily fantasy sports (DFS) and Rummy games on its Play Store that leaves out several skill gaming platforms and local developers.

WinZO has sought restraint from the court against Google from implementing the “arbitrary classification which will impact the reputation of its business.”

WinZO is among industry players, such as Mobile Premier League (MPL) and Zupee, who have called the policy arbitrary, unfair and restrictive.

Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-founder, WinZO Games told IANS that there is no evaluation of the impact that is likely to result from such a clearly discriminatory and arbitrary classification by Google Play.

“We fail to understand how Google is being permitted to select that within a set of legal/legitimate businesses, only DFS and Rummy will be onboarded and the other Skill Games, excluded,” he stressed.

Google was yet to reach on the WinZO lawsuit.

Google is set to run a pilot test for the local developers to distribute their daily fantasy sports (DFS) and rummy games apps on Play Store in India, as e-sports become big in the country.

Starting September 28, Play Store will begin a limited-time pilot allowing for the distribution of DFS and Rummy apps to users in India by developers incorporated in India.

The pilot programme will run from September 28, 2022 until September 28, 2023.

According to WinZO lawsuit, the Google policy will not only reduce the marketing cost for players in monopoly to one-fourth of their cost but also create a false perception of legitimation of DFS and Rummy over all other games such as Carrom, Chess, Quiz, etc.

“Google’s policy can lead to distortions in the competitive Indian gaming ecosystem by resulting in unparalleled access to the 2.5 billion monthly active users across 190 countries where the Google Play Store is available,” said the lawsuit.

Google Play Store is the largest app distribution platform owning 97 per cent market share in India.

Sameer Barde, CEO of E-Gaming Federation had said that the Google move “helps legitimate skill gaming operators grow while eliminating unscrupulous fly-by-night operators,” almost implying that companies excluded in the pilot are not legitimised.

The Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) Director General, Joy Bhattacharya, had said that Google Play Store is allowing games “recognised by the Supreme Court of India as regular business activities”.

In the K.R. Lakshmanan vs State of Tamil Nadu (which most of the Rummy Companies cite for legality) case, the Supreme Court inferred Rummy as being a game of skill, and explicitly drew an analogy to other games of skill, like chess and golf.

“The year-long pilot is detrimental to thousands of companies and can lead to irreversible market distortion of a fast-moving gaming tech industry, leading to the death of many players as the strong get stronger,” Rathore told IANS.

WinZO is seeking an injunction restraining Google from implementing its revised Playstore policy, along with a ruling that Google must change its policy to allow all apps offering games of skill on its Play Store and not just a select few.

WinZO is available in 12 languages, with over 85 million registered users.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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YouTube ‘dislike’ and ‘not interested’ buttons fail to protect users: Study

by Hansraj Agrawal | Sep 20, 2022 | Technology

YouTube buttons like ‘not interested’, ‘dislike’, ‘stop recommending channel’, and ‘remove from watch history’ are ineffective at preventing similar content from being recommended and its user controls do not work for many people, researchers from Mozilla have discovered.

The team from the developer of Firefox open-source web browser heard from several people who expressed frustration with the user controls, and who said they wanted better tools that simply work the way they’d expect them to.

“People feel that using YouTube’s user controls does not change their recommendations at all. We learned that many people take a trial-and-error approach to controlling their recommendations, with limited success,” said the report.

It added that Google-owned YouTube’s user control mechanisms are inadequate for preventing unwanted recommendations.

“We determined that YouTube’s user controls influence what is recommended, but this effect is negligible and most unwanted videos still slip through,” the researchers noted.

YouTube is the second most visited website in the world, and its algorithm drives most of the video views on the platform.

Previous Mozilla research determined that people are routinely recommended videos they don’t want to see, including violent content, hate speech, and political misinformation.

In new research, the team evaluated the effectiveness of these controls for real users of the platform.

Powered by Mozilla’s research tool RegretsReporter, 22,722 people allowed data about their interactions with YouTube, representing the largest experimental audit of YouTube by independent researchers, powered by crowdsourced data.

They looked at what happened over time to people’s recommended videos after they had used one of YouTube’s feedback tools — buttons like ‘Dislike’ and ‘Don’t Recommend Channel’.

The researchers said that YouTube’s user controls should be easy to understand and access.

“People should be provided with clear information about the steps they can take to influence their recommendations, and should be empowered to use those tools,” they noted.

YouTube should design its feedback tools in a way that puts people in the driver’s seat. Feedback tools should enable people to proactively shape their experience, with user feedback given more weight in determining what videos are recommended.

“YouTube should enhance its data access tools. It should provide researchers with access to better tools that allow them to assess the signals that impact YouTube’s algorithm,” said the Mozilla report.

YouTube says that people can control their recommendations and search results through the feedback tools the platform offers.

However, people continue to see unwanted videos despite having followed the steps prescribed by YouTube to avoid them.

The researchers said that YouTube should respect the feedback users share about their experience, treating them as meaningful signals about how people want to spend their time on the platform.

“YouTube should overhaul its ineffective user controls and replace them with a system in which people’s satisfaction and well-being are treated as the most important signals,” they stressed.

–IANS

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SJM calls for cap on entry fees for online games amid regulatory push

by Hansraj Agrawal | Sep 20, 2022 | Technology

By Aditya Kalra and Abhirup Roy

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An influential Indian nationalist group will push for limits on entry fees for players of paid online games, potentially turning up the heat on a multi-billion-dollar industry that is preparing to lobby against tougher rules.

The growing popularity of real-money games, driven by backing from top figures in cricket, a subcontinental craze, has prompted regulatory efforts to combat the risk of addiction, and reports of financial losses and suicides among young people.

Such games could make up as much as 53% of a gaming market that is set to reach $7 billion by 2026, or three times its size last year, says research firm Redseer.

“Ticket size should be regulated. It should not be more than 50 rupees. This is an addiction,” said Ashwani Mahajan, an official of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, which is seen as having significant influence on Indian policy making.

“We will talk to all concerned ministries about this,” he told Reuters.

Although equivalent to just 62 U.S. cents, the proposed cap represents a significant proportion of the 25 rupees, or 31 cents typically spent by 97% of the users on an app such as Mobile Premier League, for example.

The tiny remaining share of 3% users contribute 30% of the platform’s revenue by playing higher ticket-sized games, one industry source estimated.

Tuesday’s comments by the group, the economic wing of the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), come after a government panel called for a new regulatory body and recommended deposit and withdrawal limits.

The measures, in a confidential draft reported last week by Reuters, have alarmed an industry in which Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital have invested in providers of fantasy sport games such as Dream11, MPL and Games24X7 that offer cricket and other paid contests.

Dream11 commands a valuation of $8 billion, while MPL and Games24X7 are valued at about $2.5 billion each, PitchBook data shows.

Although the panel report did not fix any fee ceiling, four senior gaming industry sources who spoke on condition of anonymity have said such a move would affect revenues and the growth potential of platforms.

They vowed to raise their concerns with the government.

India’s information technology ministry, which set up the government panel, and some top officials of ministries such as revenue and sports who figure on it, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MPL declined to comment. The other two firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sameer Barde, chief executive of the E-Gaming Federation, a grouping that represents MPL and Games 24X7, said companies “can’t really function” with a uniform restriction on deposits and called such limits “unfair” to players.

The new federal rules aim to resolve industry complaints on “inconsistent” regulations by India’s states, differing court rulings on which games are governed by skill or chance, and addiction concerns, the panel’s draft showed.

Another worry for the industry is a government plan for a regulator to assess if a game is based on skill or chance.

Such federal scrutiny, two sources said, stands to have greater impact on the Sequoia Capital-backed MPL, since it offers about 70 real-money games, while Dream11 has just seven fantasy sport games, including cricket and soccer.

“Most of the matured industry is quite clear that regulation will only help,” said Barde.

“But the concern is that if it takes an inordinately long time for approvals to come through, you might become irrelevant in the market by then.”

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi and Abhirup Roy in Mumbai; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Honor Pad 8 coming to India as a Flipkart exclusive on Sep 23: Price, specs

by Hansraj Agrawal | Sep 20, 2022 | Technology

Chinese electronics maker Honor on Tuesday announced the India launch of the Honor Pad 8. The Flipkart-exclusive tablet will be available in blue hour colour starting September 23 at an introductory price of Rs 19,999 for 4GB + 128GB model and Rs 21,999 for 6GB+128GB model. The Honor Pad 8 features 12-inch IPS 2K screen, eight speakers with DTS: X ULTRA, and metallic unibody design. Here are the detailed specifications and features of the tablets:

The Honor Pad 8 sports a 12-inch IPS 2K screen, which by TUV Rheinland certified for low blue light and screen flickering to alleviate eye strain and visual fatigue. The 10-bit screen supports more than a billion colours. The tablet boasts eight speakers with DTS: X ULTRA for audio. The speakers are symmetrically placed on the sides for balanced sound output irrespective of screen orientation.

Made of aluminium alloy, the Honor Pad 8 weighs 520g. In terms of thickness, it measures 6.9mm.

The Honor Pad 8 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 system-on-chip. It boots Android 12 operating system-based Honor Magic UI 6.1. The tablet has a 7,250 mAh battery for up to 14 hours of offline local video playback, according to Honor.

Based on the specifications, the Honor Pad 8 seems to be competing against recently launched OPPO Pad Air. Powered by the same Qualcomm processor, the OPPO Pad Air sports a 10.36-inch IPS 2K screen. It comes in 4GB RAM and up to 128GB on-board storage options. The tablet has quad-speakers supported by Dolby Atmos. The OPPO Pad Air supports third party stylus pen besides OPPO’s own Smart Stylus Pen.

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