YouTube Music launches ‘Listening Room’ on Discord to get users’ feedback

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 20, 2023 | Technology

Google-owned music streaming platform YouTube Music will bev launching a “Listening Room” programme on Discord (an online voice, video, and text communication platform) in which the company’s product team will collaborate with a group of users to get regular feedback on specific features.

Under the programme, users will get a free year of YouTube Music Premium, reports 9to5Google.

The requirements to be selected for the programme include — user needs to be a music lover, use YouTube Music as their primary music streaming service for a year, give regular feedback through conversations and polls on Discord, and agree to NOT share any information, i.e., taking screenshots, pictures, or recordings of conversations or early features with anyone outside of the Discord group.

Meanwhile, YouTube Music might soon allow users the ability to create a custom radio.

Currently, it already lets users customise their current queue by familiarity, genre, mood, energy level, and more directly from the Now Playing screen.

According to 9to5Google, some YouTube Music users are seeing “Create a radio” in the main feed as a part of a limited rollout.

An experience similar to YouTube Music’s initial setup process will appear next to allow users to “tune your music”.

–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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Netflix announces to roll out paid password sharing service in 2023

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 20, 2023 | Technology

Streaming giant Netflix has announced that it will roll out its paid password sharing “more broadly” “later in” the first quarter (Q1) of this year.

“While our terms of use limit use of Netflix to a household, we recognise this is a change for members who share their account more broadly,” the company said in its earnings reports on Thursday.

“As we roll out paid sharing, members in many countries will also have the option to pay extra if they want to share Netflix with people they don’t live with,” it added.

After launching the paid password sharing, the streaming giant expects some “cancel reaction in each market” but it will eventually result in “improved overall revenue.”

The company also announced that Reed Hastings has stepped down as Netflix’s co-CEO and will now serve as an executive chairman, and Greg Peters has stepped up from COO to become Ted Sarandos’s co-CEO.

Meanwhile, last month, it was reported that Netflix was planning to put an end to its password sharing feature in early 2023.

The company had long been aware that password sharing is a problem that negatively affects its earnings, but the rise in subscriptions in 2020 led the streaming giant to avoid addressing the issue. Because of the revenue downfall last year and the platform’s first subscriber loss in 10 years, Hastings decided that it was time to take action on the issue.

In October last year, the streaming giant had announced the ‘Profile Transfer’ feature to prevent password sharing that had been rolled out to all members globally.

–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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Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, Galaxy A23 5G go on sale with introductory offers

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 20, 2023 | Technology

South Korean electronics maker Samsung recently added two new 5G smartphones to its Galaxy A-series with the launch of the Galaxy A14 5G and Galaxy A23 5G. Both smartphones are now available for purchase on Samsung exclusive and partner stores, Samsung online, and other online platforms.

The Galaxy A23 5G is available in 6GB RAM and 8GB RAM variants, both with 128GB on-board storage, at Rs 22,999 and Rs 24,999. The Galaxy A14 5G with 4GB RAM + 64GB storage, 6GB RAM + 128GB storage, and 8GB RAM + 128GB storage is available at Rs 16,499, Rs 18,999, and Rs 20,999.

As part of the introductory offers, customers can avail of a cashback of up to Rs 2,000 on purchases done through SBI, IDFC and ZestMoney.

Samsung Galaxy A14 5G and Galaxy A23 5G smartphones: Specifications

The Galaxy A14 5G and A23 5G are powered by Exynos 1330 octa-core and Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processors, respectively. Both smartphones are offered with up to 8GB (with an additional 8GB available as RAM Plus) and 128GB on-board storage. The smartphones are powered by 5000 mAh batteries, which are said to deliver up to two days of power. Besides, the Galaxy A23 5G supports 25W fast charging technology and is equipped with an adaptive power-saving mode that tracks activity to optimise battery levels.

The Galaxy A14 5G and Galaxy A23 5G sport 6.6-inch screens of HD+ (90Hz) and fullHD+ (120Hz) resolutions, respectively. As for the imaging, the Galaxy A23 5G sports a quad-camera set-up on the back – a 50-megapixel OIS sensor paired with ultra-wide-angle, depth, and a macro sensor. The Galaxy A14 5G, on the other hand, has a 50MP primary sensor based triple-camera set-up on the back. On the front, both smartphones have a 13MP camera sensor.

The laser pattern back design of both smartphones is complimented by a range of available colour variants. The Galaxy A14 5G has been launched in three shades – dark red, light green, and black. The Galaxy A23 5G has made its appearance in silver, orange, and light blue shades.

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Microsoft begins to roll out ‘tabs’ feature in Notepad for Windows 11

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 20, 2023 | Technology

Microsoft has announced that it is beginning to roll out the tabs feature in Notepad for Windows 11.

In December, 2022, a Microsoft employee had accidentally announced the tabs feature for ‘Windows 11 Notepad’ app by sharing a screenshot of Notepad’s internal version online, showing the app’s new tabs interface.

The company said this update will introduce support for multiple tabs — where users will be able to create, manage, and organise multiple files in a single Notepad window.

Moreover, users can also continue to work with files across multiple windows by dragging a tab out into its own window, and a new app setting lets you customise whether files open in new tabs or a new window by default.

With the update, users will also get new keyboard shortcut keys to support managing tabs as well as some improvements to managing unsaved files, like automatically generating the file name/tab title based on content and a refreshed unsaved changes indicator.

The tech giant further mentioned that the company is aware of a couple of issues that may impact users’ experience with this preview.

“Some users might encounter issues with certain keyboard shortcuts, and we will also continue to optimise performance to ensure Notepad continues to meet our high standards of performance, reliability, and compatibility,” Microsoft said in a blogpost.

–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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Instagram users can now pause notifications by enabling ‘Quiet mode’

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 20, 2023 | Technology

Meta has introduced a new ‘Quiet mode’ on Instagram, which will allow users to pause notifications whenever they want to take a break from the social networking platform.

Once the new mode is enabled, users will not receive any notifications and their profile’s activity status will change to let people know, the company said in a blogpost on Thursday.

Moreover, the platform will automatically send an auto-reply when someone sends users a direct message (DM).

Users can easily customise their Quiet mode hours to fit their schedule and once the feature is turned off, the platform will show them a quick summary of notifications so they can catch up on what they missed.

“Anyone can use Quiet mode, but we’ll prompt teens to do so when they spend a specific amount of time on Instagram late at night,” the company said.

The new mode is available to users in the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and will roll out to more countries soon.

The company also introduced new features that will allow users to tell the platform what content they don’t want to be recommended to them.

Users can now choose to hide multiple pieces of content in the Explore page that they are not interested in and the platform will try to avoid showing them that type of content.

Moreover, the platform has also expanded its feature that allowed users to hide comments and DMs containing specific words.

Users can now add a word or list of words, emojis or hashtags that they want to avoid, like “fitness” or “recipes”.

“In addition to providing teens with more ways to manage their time and experiences on Instagram, we want to help parents be more aware of the choices their teens make,” Meta said.

“Parents can now also view accounts their teen has blocked,” it added.

–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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Apple continues working on classical music app after a year’s delay: Report

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 20, 2023 | Technology

Tech giant Apple is reportedly working on a standalone classical music application, according to hidden code found in iOS 16.3, which it planned to release last year.

The hidden code change was discovered by Twitter account @iSWUpdate, reports MacRumors.

The iOS 16.3 software update is in the final stage of beta testing and is expected to be released to the public next week.

However, it is still unclear if or when the standalone application will launch.

According to the code, the tech giant has changed a line of text that will appear in the iPhone’s standard Music application from “A Shortcut to Apple Classical” to “Open in Apple Music Classical”, which indicates that the iPhone maker might have changed the name of the application.

Another line of code mentioned, “Explore this artist in the app designed for classical music.”

In August 2021, the company announced that it had acquired the classical music service Primephonic and planned to release a dedicated classical music app in 2022.

However, the application has not been launched yet and the tech giant has remained silent on the plans.

The company had promised that it would incorporate the best features of Primephonic, including “better browsing and search capabilities by composer and by repertoire” and “detailed displays of classical music metadata.”

Primephonic had shut down in September 2021 and its subscribers received a free six-month Apple Music subscription, the report said.

–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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