Tech News – Page 49 – by Arlin Schaffel

Google Announces Play Store Tweaks to Entice More of Your Attention and Money

Android developers will get a few more ways to seek your attention and then virtually tug at your sleeve as you browse Google’s Play Store for new Android apps. The most eye-catching change among those Google announced today will be full-screen playback of app portrait videos. In a blog post, Paul Feng, Google Play VP of product management, notes the non-trivial upsides among app developers who tested this format: “+7% increase in total watch time, a +9% increase in video completion count, and a +5% increase in conversions."
https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-announces-play-store-tweaks-to-entice-more-of-your-attention-and

Nintendo made a music streaming app for Switch Online subscribers

While we all wait for the reveal of Nintendo’s next console, the company has once again announced something very different. This time, it’s a mobile app called Nintendo Music, which lets users listen to classic gaming tunes from Nintendo games spanning the last few decades, including Splatoon, Animal Crossing, and The Legend of Zelda. It’s only available to Switch Online subscribers, and it’s launching today on both iOS and Android.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/30/24284073/nintendo-music-streaming-app-switch-online-subscribers

New vs. Old Siri: How Much of an Upgrade Is Apple Intelligence?

Apple Intelligence debuted this week with iOS 18.1, adding a slew of generative AI smarts to long-standing features, like Siri. Apple's digital assistant is no longer a pulsing ball at the base of the screen. Instead, it's a multi-colored, neon glow around the edges, which you can interact with in two new ways: Pressing the lock button or a new text-to-Siri option.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/new-vs-old-siri-how-much-of-an-upgrade-is-apple-intelligence

Sony closes Concord studio and permanently shuts down the game

Sony is closing Firewalk Studios, the studio behind its PlayStation Concord game that it took offline last month after a disastrous launch. In a message to PlayStation staff, Hermen Hulst, CEO of the PlayStation studio business group, says Firewalk Studios will close alongside Neon Koi, a mobile game studio. The shutdowns will affect about 210 jobs, Bloomberg reports. “We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options,” says Hulst. “After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/29/24282900/sony-shutting-down-concord-firewalk-studios

Instagram is lowering video quality for unpopular videos

image via techcrunch.com

The popularity of an Instagram video can affect its actual video quality: According to Adam Mosseri (the Meta executive who leads Instagram and Threads), videos that are more popular get shown in higher quality, while less popular videos get shown in lower quality. In a video (via The Verge), Mosseri said Instagram tries to show “the highest-quality video that we can,” but he said, “if something isn’t watched for a long time — because the vast majority of views are in the beginning — we will move to a lower quality video.”
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/27/instagram-is-lowering-video-quality-for-unpopular-videos/

LinkedIn says it has verified 55 million users in effort to combat AI’s spread of scams, misinformation

“You now see things like deep-fake videos, photos that are increasingly harder with the naked eye to understand if they’re real or fake,” Oscar Rodriguez, LinkedIn’s vice president of trust and safety, told CNBC in an interview. “That line-blurring is what we believe poses a significant challenge in combating things like misinformation, faking expertise and so forth.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/25/linkedin-has-verified-55-million-users-to-combat-ai-misinformation.html