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Spotify Cancels Plans to Support AirPlay 2

Matt Milano
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Spotify Cancels Plans to Support AirPlay 2

Spotify has cancelled its plans to support AirPlay 2, disappointing Apple fans who use the service.

AirPlay is Apple’s protocol to stream music or video from an Apple device to a compatible speaker, TV or streaming device. AirPlay 2 has a number of advantages over the original version, including Siri integration, lower latency and multi-room support.

Unfortunately, despite being available for more than three years, Spotify has no intentions of supporting it anytime soon. In a message posted to the company’s community boards, one of the moderators said the company was looking to support AirPlay 2, but decided not to at this time.

Hello everyone,

We’ve discussed this Idea internally and while we are working on supporting AirPlay2 in a proper way, we have decided to close it for now.

The reason for this is that due to audio driver compatibility issues, this seems like a bigger project that we won’t be able to complete in the foreseeable future.

Please keep adding your votes and comments here and as soon as we have anything new to share, we’ll check back with an update.

Despite the competition between the two companies, it’s hard to imagine Spotify is hurting anyone but itself. There are many Apple customers that prefer Spotify, but a lack of integration with the rest of the Apple ecosystem is a deal-breaker for some.

Xiaomi Is Now the Number One Smartphone Maker

Matt Milano
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0
Xiaomi Is Now the Number One Smartphone Maker

Just weeks after knocking Apple off as the number two smartphone maker, Xiaomi has now overtaken Samsung for the number one spot.

Xiaomi has been making major moves in the smartphone industry. The company has benefited significantly from Huawei’s recent misfortunes, as the latter’s smartphone business has been sanctioned into near-oblivion.

According to Counterpoint Research, that has created an opening for Xiaomi to become the top smartphone maker worldwide.

“Ever since the decline of Huawei commenced, Xiaomi has been making consistent and aggressive efforts to fill the gap created by this decline,” noted Research Director Tarun Pathak. “The OEM has been expanding in Huawei’s and HONOR’s legacy markets like China, Europe, Middle East and Africa. In June, Xiaomi was further helped by China, Europe and India’s recovery and Samsung’s decline due to supply constraints.”

Samsung will have its work cut out to regain the top spot moving forward.

Fandango Merges Vudu With Its Own Streaming Service

Matt Milano
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Fandango Merges Vudu With Its Own Streaming Service

A little over a year after purchasing Vudu from Walmart, Fandango is merging the service with its own under the Vudu name.

Vudu was Walmart’s foray into the streaming TV market, before selling it to Fandango in April 2020. Fandango, known for selling movie tickets, has operated its own streaming service, but it has failed to gain as much traction as Vudu, let alone their larger rivals.

The company clearly sees combining the two services, under the Vudu name, as the best option moving forward. The company told TechCrunch the Vudu brand has a loyal following that is quite a bit larger than the FandangoNOW user base.

Existing FandangoNOW customers will automatically be transferred to the new service, without losing any of their existing content. Customers will have access to more than 200,000 movies and TV shows, for rent or purchase, in addition to thousands of streaming titles for free.

A stronger Vudu is good news for consumers, and the streaming industry at large.

IMDb TV App Available On More Platforms

Matt Milano
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IMDb TV App Available On More Platforms

IMDb, the free streaming service owned by Amazon, has released apps for iOS and Android.

IMDb currently offers an impressive library of streaming content, but it has traditionally been hampered by a lack of availability. The streaming content was available via Amazon Prime, but the service has been rolling out dedicated apps in recent months, on both smart TVs and streaming devices.

The IMDb TV app is now available for iOS and Android, giving streaming fans even more ways to access free content.

Amazon Pushes Back New World MMO to September 28

Matt Milano
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Amazon Pushes Back New World MMO to September 28

Amazon has, once again, delayed the launch of its much-anticipated New World MMO to September 28.

Massively multiplayer online (MMO) games are some of the biggest, grandest games a company can tackle. Games like World of WarCraft and EVE Online are some of the most successful games, thanks to the freedom they offer users to build and explore virtual worlds.

Amazon’s New World has been under development for some time, with an initial release day set for May 2020. That date has been pushed back several times, with the most recent being announced via Twitter. The development team says the delay, while not easy, is to polish up parts of the game based on feedback from its closed beta.

Google’s Privacy Labels Will Be Required By April 2022

Matt Milano
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Google’s Privacy Labels Will Be Required By April 2022

Android developers will be required to provide a privacy label for their apps by April 2022, bringing a new level of transparency to the platform.

Apple rocked the mobile development world when it required app developers to disclose what information they gathered and tracked from their users. Meanwhile, Android users have had no comparable feature, leaving them in the dark about what and how much of their data is being collected by apps.

Google is taking steps to address that, signaling in May it intended to bring its own version of privacy labels to the Play Store. According to CNET, those labels will be required by April 2022.

The announcement is good news for Android users who are interested in protecting their privacy.

Twitter Introduces First ‘Algorithmic Bias’ Bounty

Matt Milano
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Twitter Introduces First ‘Algorithmic Bias’ Bounty

Bug bounties are a common incentive in the tech industry, but Twitter is introducing the first “algorithmic bias” bounty.

Twitter pulled its auto cropping algorithm in May after the company found it had a number of biases. The company is working to address that, enlisting the community’s help.

“For this challenge, we are re-sharing our saliency model and the code used to generate a crop of an image given a predicted maximally salient point and asking participants to build their own assessment,” writes Jutta Williams, Product Manager, Twitter META. “Successful entries will consider both quantitative and qualitative methods in their approach. For more details on the challenge, including how to enter and the rubric we’ll use to score entries, visit the submission page on HackerOne.”

First place will receive $3,500, second place $1,000 and third place will receive $500. There will be a $1,000 price for Most Innovative and $1,000 for Most Generalizable (applies to the most types of algorithms).

Rashes and Hives: Facebook Recalls Quest 2 Foam Facial Interfaces

Matt Milano
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Rashes and Hives: Facebook Recalls Quest 2 Foam Facial Interfaces

Facebook is recalling 4 million foam facial interfaces for its Oculus Quest 2 headset over skin irritation, including rashes and hives.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) posted the recall notice. There have been 5,716 reported incidents of skin irritation, as well as 45 cases that required medical attention. The reported issues included “rashes, swelling, burning, itching, hives, and bumps.”

The CPSC says the affected units have “serial numbers that start with ‘1WMHH’ and end with a number below ‘1264.’”

Customers should contact Facebook for a free silicon replacement.

Apple Makes Its First NAB Appearance in a Decade

Matt Milano
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0
Apple Makes Its First NAB Appearance in a Decade

Apple is attending the National Association of Broadcasters NAB Show, the first such appearance in a decade.

The NAB is a trade association involving broadcasters from around the country. The NAB Show conference involves not only broadcasters, but many of the supporting and complimentary industries, including tech.

Apple’s last appearance was a decade ago, when it announced the release of Final Cut Pro X at NAB 2011. According to Apple Scoop, Apple is set to make an appearance at NAB 2022.

There are no details as to why Apple is suddenly attending NAB again. Nor is there any indication what, if any, products Apple may unveil. Nonetheless, the company’s return to the conference is certainly an interesting development.

Snap Smashes Q2 Expectations, Stock Takes Off

Matt Milano
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Snap Smashes Q2 Expectations, Stock Takes Off

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, reported its Q2 results, smashing expectations for revenue and subscriber growth.

Snap turned in one of its best quarters, growing more in Q2 that it has in four years. The company’s revenue came in at $982 million, 116% higher than the prior year.

Even more impressive, the platform’s daily active users came in at 293 million, an increase of 23% year-over-year.

“Our second quarter results reflect the broad-based strength of our business, as we grew both revenue and daily active users at the highest rates we have achieved in the past four years,” said Evan Spiegel, CEO. “We are pleased by the progress our team is making with the development of our augmented reality platform, and we are energized by the many opportunities to grow our community and business around the world.”

One potential concern for the company had been Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), allowing users to choose whether companies can track them or not. Many companies that rely on advertising are seeing low opt-in rates, having a significant impact on their bottom line.

Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman said Snap, in contrast, had “higher opt-in rates than we are seeing reported generally across the industry.”

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