It’s the end of an era for one of the App Store’s earliest success stories. Foursquare is shutting down its signature city guide app in order to “focus our efforts on building an even better experience in Swarm,” the company said in an update. The app will shut down December 15, while the web version will stay online until “early 2025.”
The shutdown is a notable reversal of a strategy the company announced a decade ago when it, controversially, opted to split its famed “check-in” service into a separate app. That app became known as Swarm while the Foursquare-branded app became a “city guide” full of user-generated reviews and local recommendations.
Now, Foursquare says its future is, once again, the check-in. “We’re also introducing exciting new features and capabilities into Swarm throughout the year (👀 some of which may look familiar to you) in order to unlock new use cases that may better support your needs,” the company said, adding that additional updates are expected “early next year.”
It’s not clear why the company is changing its strategy to elevate Swarm over its namesake app. The company laid off more than 100 employees earlier this year in an effort to “streamline” operations. Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, who is currently co-chair of the company’s board of directors, said in a post on Threads that the company is “doing fine,” though he expressed disappointment with the news. “I would be lying if I didn't admit that I have been in a real funk these last few days over this news,” he wrote.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/foursquare-is-killing-its-city-guide-app-to-focus-on-the-check-in-app-swarm-191054153.html?src=rss
As industries evolve at breakneck speed, so too must the tools that power them. With increasing pressure to innovate quickly, deliver immersive experiences, and streamline processes, companies need solutions that can keep pace. Long known for its powerful 3D rendering capabilities, KeyShot is stepping into an expanded role with a vision that goes beyond just visuals. The brand is now introducing a comprehensive solution for the entire product design journey, or what they call their new ‘Product Design-to-Market’ framework. This shift promises to change how companies of all sizes design, collaborate, and deliver products to market, going well beyond simple 3D visualization (which KeyShot’s already proven to be a market leader in).
KeyShot’s 3D rendering software has been a staple for designers worldwide, offering photorealistic renderings and an intuitive workflow. But as industries change, so too must the tools that power them. Today, the product development process is a complex web of teams, assets, and software—often siloed and inefficient. Design, engineering, and marketing teams are tasked with bringing ideas to life while navigating scattered workflows and disconnected feedback loops.
Recognizing these challenges, KeyShot has expanded its scope to introduce a Product Design-to-Market Suite. This new approach aligns all stages of a product’s journey—from the first sketch to the moment it hits the market. The goal? A more unified, streamlined, and collaborative process that minimizes waste and maximizes creativity.
What is Product Design-to-Market?
The concept of Product Design-to-Market is simple but transformative. It’s a holistic strategy that bridges the gaps between the many departments involved in product creation. Instead of working in isolated silos, KeyShot’s vision encourages a fluid exchange of information and assets across design, development, and marketing teams. The result is faster iteration, better alignment, and a smoother transition from concept to market delivery.
For many companies, the current state of product design is far from optimal. Data is often scattered across platforms, teams work with outdated versions of assets, and crucial feedback gets lost in the shuffle. These inefficiencies cost time, money, and—perhaps most importantly—creativity. KeyShot’s Product Design-to-Market Suite seeks to eliminate these pain points by centralizing the entire process within one ecosystem.
KeyShot’s Expanded Offering
With this new vision, KeyShot has unveiled three key tools designed to revolutionize product design and delivery:
KeyShot Studio: The rendering tool we’ve previously known as KeyShot, KeyShot Studio remains a top choice for rendering photorealistic 3D visuals. Now with enhanced features, like improved texture baking and animation support, it integrates more deeply into the product development process, allowing teams to do much more than just rendering.
KeyShot Hub: A brand-new addition to the KeyShot family, Hub is all about collaboration. It’s a centralized platform where teams can manage scenes, assets, and versions, ensuring everyone stays in sync during the design journey. This tool aims to solve one of the biggest pain points in product development: the lack of a unified space for feedback and iteration.
KeyShot Dock: Formerly Digizuite’s DAM (Digital Asset Management), Dock takes the guesswork out of managing 3D assets across departments. It ensures that teams can access the right assets at the right time, helping to streamline the transition from design to marketing and beyond.
Together, these tools form a complete Product Design-to-Market Suite, designed to break down the barriers that have traditionally slowed product development.
Why This Matters for Designers and Businesses
In a landscape where time to market is critical and customer experience reigns supreme, KeyShot’s new direction offers a much-needed solution. For design teams, it means less time lost in tedious back-and-forths, fewer revisions, and more focus on creativity. For businesses, it translates to faster product launches, reduced costs, and a better alignment between design and marketing teams.
Whether you’re part of a small design studio or a large corporation, the ability to quickly adapt and deliver products to market can be a game-changer. KeyShot’s Product Design-to-Market Suite approach ensures that teams can iterate faster, collaborate more efficiently, and ultimately bring better products to life.
A New Era of Product Design
By expanding its role from rendering software to an all-encompassing design-to-market platform, KeyShot is positioning itself at the forefront of modern product development. This isn’t just a rebrand—it’s a reimagining of what’s possible when design, engineering, and marketing work in harmony. And as industries increasingly shift towards immersive experiences and rapid innovation, KeyShot’s vision offers a clear path forward.
For designers, it’s a chance to focus less on the logistics of development and more on pushing creative boundaries. For businesses, it’s an opportunity to streamline processes and deliver products that truly resonate with their audience.
Learn more about KeyShot’s Product Design-to-Market Suite and download the whitepaper for an in-depth look at how this new framework can transform your business.
Google’s NotebookLM software just got some cool new features that primarily impact audio overviews. For the uninitiated, the platform’s Audio Overview tool uses AI to whip up an audio summary of a piece of content. It started with written content, but has since expanded to YouTube videos.
So what’s new? Users can now input specific instructions before generating a “Deep Dive” overview. Google gives examples of tasking the software to focus on a single topic or adjusting the expertise level to suit a particular audience. The company says it’s like “slipping the AI hosts a quick note right before they go on the air.”
There’s also a new background listening feature, which is just what it sounds like. People can listen to audio overviews as they do other stuff within NotebookLM. Google says users can query sources, get citations and explore relevant quotes “without interrupting the audio.”
It’s also worth noting that the company has removed NotebookLM’s “experimental” label, so I guess the experiment has been a resounding success. In any event, the software became available to the general public back in December.
The company even announced a forthcoming expansion that’s primarily intended for commercial use, called NotebookLM Business. This will include “enhanced features for businesses, universities and organizations.” Businesses can apply today to get early access to the pilot program.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-notebooklm-adds-improved-audio-overviews-and-background-listening-feature-174804128.html?src=rss
With short-form videos becoming extremely common these days, it's not unusual to discover new songs and artists from apps like TikTok and Instagram. Now, Instagram has started rolling out a Spotify integration that will let you add songs you hear from posts and Reels straight to the audio streaming app, 9to5Mac has reported. If an Instagram post uses a song, and it's linked at the bottom of the screen, tap on the song name to go to its audio preview page. There, you'll find a new button that says "Add" with the Spotify logo right next to the audio scrubber.
When you tap that Add button, the song will get added to the "Liked Songs" in your Spotify library. You'll have to link your Spotify account with your Instagram the first time you do it, but it becomes a one-tap process after that. The feature is now making its way to all users around the world. Back in August, mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi found another type of integration between the two apps in development. That feature would allow Instagram users to continuously share what they're listening to on Spotify, which would appear as notes on top of your profile picture.
TikTok has had the ability to add songs heard from videos to your music streaming library since last year. Its version of the feature works not just with Spotify, but also with Apple Music and Amazon Music.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/you-can-now-add-songs-to-spotify-straight-from-instagram-posts-120046609.html?src=rss
Unity has released the latest version of its engine for developing games and interactive experiences. Unity 6 has new workflows for creating online multiplayer games and more tools for projects intended for mobile platforms, including mobile web support for Android and iOS browsers. The engine promises improved performance, particularly in graphics rendering, and adds several features for creating more realistic environments via global lighting and other VFX. And it wouldn't be a tech announcement without some AI component; the company has also released the latest version of its Sentis neural network inference library for using AI models within the Unity engine.
The company took a real hit to its public perception when it attempted to revise its pricing structure last September. The proposed payment model would charge devs a fee whenever a player downloaded their creation. The move led to outcry among game developers, particularly the indie scene. After a leadership shakeup and a massive workforce reduction, the company walked back most of the changes it had announced. This September, the controversial fee was dropped entirely.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/unity-mounts-a-comeback-with-launch-of-unity-6-game-engine-205332034.html?src=rss
Be My Eyes, the accessibility app for mobile devices that puts blind and low-vision people on a live video call with a sighted guide, will help Microsoft train its AI. Be My Eyes will provide anonymized video data to improve scene understanding in Microsoft’s accessibility-focused AI models.
The data sets Be My Eyes gives Microsoft will include “unique objects, lighting and framing that realistically represents the lived experience of the blind and low vision community.” The goal is to make Microsoft’s AI more inclusive for people with vision disabilities.
The companies say all personal info has been scrubbed from the metadata. The provided data won’t be used for advertising or any purpose other than training Microsoft’s AI models.
Although this is Be My Eyes’ first such data partnership, it’s worked with Microsoft before by incorporating its Be My AI tool into Microsoft’s Disability Answer Desk. As its name suggests, Be My AI is the company’s GPT-4-powered spin on an assistance product. In that case, it helps people with vision disabilities navigate Office, Windows and Xbox.
Be My Eyes also struck a deal with Hilton earlier this month. In that case, dedicated hotel staff help blind and low-vision lodgers do things like adjust their thermostats, make coffee and raise or lower their blinds. A previous 2023 partnership between the two companies helped train the Be My AI model.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/microsoft-recruits-accessibility-app-to-make-its-ai-more-useful-to-blind-and-low-vision-users-130006439.html?src=rss
Meta is continuing its flurry of teen safety features for Instagram as the company faces mounting questions about its handling of younger users’ privacy and safety in its apps. The latest batch of updates are meant to tighten its protections against sextortion.
With the changes, Meta says it will make it harder for “potentially scammy” accounts to target teens on Instagram. The company will start to send follow requests from such accounts to users’ spam folders or block them entirely. The app will also start testing an alert that notifies teens when they receive a message from such an account, warning them that the message appears to be coming from a different country.
Additionally, when the company detects that a potential scammer is already following a teen, it will prevent them from being able to view teens’ follower lists and accounts that have tagged them in photos. The company isn’t saying exactly how it’s determining which accounts are deemed “potentially scammy,” but a spokesperson said they’re using signals such as the age of the account and whether it has mutual followers with the teen it’s attempting to interact with.
Meta
Meta is also making changes to prevent the spread of intimate images. Instagram will no longer allow users to screenshot or screen record images shared over DMs via the app’s ephemeral messaging feature and will no longer allow these images to be opened from the web version of Instagram. The app will also expanding the nudity protection feature it began testing earlier this year to all teens on the app. The tool automatically blurs images when nudity is detected in an image shared over DMs, and provides warnings and resources when such an image is detected.
The changes are meant to address the realities of how sextortion scams, in which scammers coerce teens into sending intimate images that are then used to threaten and blackmail them, are often carried out over Instagram. A report from Thorn and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) earlier this year found that Instagram, along with Snapchat, were the “most common” platforms used by scammers “as initial contact points.”
These scams are carried out by individuals and groups that sometimes organize on Meta’s own platforms. Alongside the updates, Meta said that it removed 800 groups on Facebook and 820 accounts, linked to a group known as the Yahoo Boys, that “were attempting to organize, recruit and train new sextortion scammers.”
Meta’s updates come as it faces increasing pressure to strengthen safety features for its youngest users. The company is currently facing a lawsuit from more than 30 states over the issue. (Earlier this week, a federal judge rejected Meta’s attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed.) New Mexico is also suing the company and has alleged that Meta didn’t do enough to stop adults from sexually harassing teens on its apps, particularly Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-is-adding-new-features-to-prevent-teen-sextortion-scams-111047916.html?src=rss
Update, October 18, 5PM ET: District Judge James Donato has granted an administrative stay. This effectively puts Donato's prior order, which was due to come into effect shortly, on pause until the 9th Circuit's resolves Google's stay motion. In a statement given to Engadget, a Google spokesperson said:
"We’re pleased with the District Court’s decision to temporarily pause the implementation of dangerous remedies demanded by Epic, as the Court of Appeal considers our request to further pause the remedies while we appeal. These remedies threaten Google Play’s ability to provide a safe and secure experience and we look forward to continuing to make our case to protect 100 million U.S. Android users, over 500,000 U.S. developers and thousands of partners who have benefited from our platforms.”
The original story follows.
Google has formally filed a motion [PDF] asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to put a pause on the order that forces the company to open the Play store to competitors. If you'll recall, Google lost an antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games after a federal jury found that the company held an illegal monopoly on app distribution and in-app billing services for Android devices. Earlier this month, US District Judge James Donato ordered Google to allow third-party app stores access to the Google Play app catalog and to make those stores downloadable from its storefront. Now, Google is asking the court for a stay on that order while it's appealing the Epic antitrust lawsuit decision, saying that it will expose 100 million Android users in the US to "substantial new security risks."
The company called the order "harmful and unwarranted" and said that if it's allowed to stand, it will threaten Google's ability to "provide a safe and trusted used experience." It argued that if it makes third-party app stores available for download from Google Play, people might think that the company is vouching for them, which could raise "real risks for [its] users." Those app stores could have "less rigorous protections," Google explained, that could expose users to harmful and malicious apps.
It also said that giving third-party stores access to the Play catalog could harm businesses that don't want their products available alongside inappropriate or malicious content. Giving third-party stores access to its entire library could give "bad-intentioned" stores a "veneer of legitimacy." Moreover, it argued that allowing developers to link out from their apps "creates significant risk of deceptive links," since bad actors could use the feature for phishing attacks to compromise users' devices and steal their data.
One of court's main proposed changes is to allow developers to remove Google Play billing as an option, allowing them to offer their apps to Android users without having to pay the company a commission. However, Google said that by allowing developers to remove its billing system, it could "force an option that may not have the safeguards and features that users expect."
In its filing, Google emphasized that the three weeks the court gave it to make these sweeping changes is too short for a "Herculean task." It creates an "unacceptable risk of safety" that could lead to major issues affecting the functionality of users' Android devices, it said. The company also questioned why the court sided with Epic in its antitrust lawsuit, whereas it sided with Apple in a similar case also filed by the video game company. "It is pause-inducing that Apple, which requires all apps go through its proprietary App Store, is not a monopolist, but Google — which built choice into the Android operating system so device makers can preinstall and users can download competing app stores — was condemned for monopolization."
Epic Games provided Engadget with the following statement: "The jury’s verdict and the court’s injunction were clear: Google’s anticompetitive Play Store practices are illegal. Google is merely fear mongering and falsely using security as a pretext to delay the changes mandated by the court. This is Google’s last ditch effort to protect their control over Android and continue extracting exorbitant fees. The court’s injunction must go into effect swiftly so developers and consumers can benefit from competition in the mobile ecosystem."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-wants-to-put-the-consequences-of-its-epic-antitrust-ruling-on-pause-during-appeal-020354621.html?src=rss
Threads is sometimes criticized for not prioritizing real-time content in its recommendations. Now, Meta is adding status indicators that can show when a particular user is online in an apparent effort to address that need.
The optional feature, called “activity status,” will display a green bubble alongside someone’s profile photo when they’re online. The indicator is meant to help users find “others to engage with in real-time,” according to an update from Instagram boss Adam Mosseri. “We hope that knowing when your people are online makes it easier to have conversations.”
It’s an interesting choice for a platform that still doesn’t have direct messaging capabilities. Such indicators are more common in chat apps like Discord (Instagram, which does have robust DM capabilities, also has a similar feature). But Meta has said repeatedly it doesn’t want to bring in-app messaging to Threads, with the app’s head of product recently tellingBusiness Insider there are no plans to add DMs to the app.
The feature also doesn’t exactly address many users’ desire for a feed that’s more oriented to real-time information and conversations. Instead, Meta is offering the status indicators as a way to seek out users who are currently active on the service as a way of encouraging conversations that are more likely to get timely replies. But without a clear way of finding people who have that green bubble alongside their profile photo, it’s unclear how easy this will actually be.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-can-now-show-when-people-are-online-and-using-the-app-194041928.html?src=rss
It’s been a bit of a wait for those who snapped up a new Pixel phone immediately, but Google is now starting to roll out Android 15 across eligible devices. While Google released the source code for the open source variant last month, the retail iteration of the mobile operating system is starting to hit phones and tablets.
As ever, Pixel devices are the first to get access to Android 15. The Pixel 9 lineup debuted in August and although Google typically deploys a major OS update alongside its latest flagship phones, that wasn’t the case this time. Android 15 will be available on eligible devices from other manufacturers in the coming months, but some phone and tablet makers will be using forked versions of the source code.
Security and privacy are major focus points for Android 15. Google says Theft Detection Lock employs AI to help protect your data. Extra layers of authentication for the likes of SIM removal and switching off Find My Device should help secure your device too. You'll be able to set up a private space in Android 15 where sensitive apps (and any others you want to chuck in there) are all but invisible to others.
Other new features include an easy way to pin and unpin the taskbar on foldables and tablets for more customizable layouts and app access. An app pairing option is said to benefit multitasking. You'll be able to save combinations of apps as app icons on the home screen and open them with a tap, which should make moving files between, say, Google Drive and Gmail a cinch.
Google is opening up more camera options to third-party apps, such as more granular control over the flash. You'll be able to log into apps that use passkeys with a single tap. And, perhaps most significantly of all for some folks, carrier messaging apps will be able to support messaging via satellite when you're out of range of cell and Wi-Fi networks.
In addition, Google is releasing a Pixel drop today, which includes support for Theft Detection Lock on devices running Android 10 and later.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/android-15-is-starting-to-roll-out-on-pixel-devices-160039591.html?src=rss
