The European Commission designated Apple as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act for its iOS and iPadOS platforms, as well as its App Store and its Safari browser. VisionOS is nowhere in that list, but Apple is getting ahead of the commission this time and has announced that apps for the headset distributed on the App Store in the EU can offer alternative payment options. As 9to5Mac notes, Apple made the announcement just before the Vision Pro is released in the region — the headset will be available in France and Germany starting on July 12.
For developers to be able to offer alternative payment methods outside of the App Store, visionOS version 1.2 is required. Developers can already offer alternative payment solutions on Apple's other platforms in the EU, and in those cases, users are redirected to a third-party provider or a website to pay for their purchase or subscription. Chances are, that's also how it's going to work for the headset.
A few days ago, European Union officials said Apple breached DMA rules because there was nothing in its updated terms that allows developers to tell users how much less they could pay if they choose to use the alternative payment options they offer. Authorities started investigating Apple over its potential violation of the DMA's anti-steering rules back in March. The results they released were merely preliminary findings, but if Apple is found guilty, the company may have to pay a fine worth up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue, or tens of billions of dollars.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-says-vision-pro-will-allow-alternate-payment-methods-in-the-eu-143038469.html?src=rss
There's good news for anyone shopping early Prime Day deals. The 13-inch iPad Air with the M2 chip is available for a record-low price ahead of Amazon Prime Day. Our choice for 2024's best overall iPad is down to $749 from $799 for the 128GB model. The sale is running on the Blue, Purple and Starlight models, but the Space Gray option is only $769.
Apple released its 13-inch iPad Air with the M2 chip earlier this year and we're big fans. We gave it a 91 in our review thanks to its great mix of features for the money. For starters, it's the first 13-inch iPad that you don't have to shell out Pro money to get. It offers a 60Hz LCD display, a USB-C port and that M2 chip. The chip means it will likely be compatible with upcoming Apple updates and features for quite some time. Other changes include the front camera existing in landscape and compatibility with a new Apple Pencil Pro.
If you're in the market for something a bit cheaper then check out the 11-inch iPad Air with an M2 chip. It has almost the same features as its larger counterpart (the brightness rating is slightly lower) but is available for $559, down from $599 — a seven percent discount.
Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-early-prime-day-deal-on-the-13-inch-ipad-air-m2-is-down-to-a-record-low-price-133619864.html?src=rss
Capcom's announcement trailer for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster will give you a glimpse of the game's improved graphics for the PS5, the Xbox Series X/S and Windows computers. It also reveals that the digital version of the remastered game will be released on September 19 for all platforms.
The company first gave Dead Rising an HD remaster back in 2016 for the PS4 and the Xbox One as part of the game's 10th anniversary, but this version gives the world and its characters more textures and more realistic looking features. Frank West definitely looks more human with more natural-looking expressions in the Deluxe Remaster, while Madonna the poodle looks a lot more fluffy and dog-like. Capcom says this version is a "full graphical overhaul of the first game." It used its own video game engine called RE Engine to rework the title's graphics, including its environments and backgrounds.
The remaster is fully voiced, but West sounds noticeably different in the trailer compared to the older versions. In a text conversation with @FrankByDaylight on X/Twitter, original voice actor TJ Rotolo said he's not reprising his role in the remake because Capcom didn't invite him back for the project. If that's not a deal breaker, then you can enjoy the game's other quality-of-life improvements, including the addition of auto-save, revamped controls and a better UI.
While the digital release is scheduled for September 19, Capcom will also start selling a physical version sometime in November.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dead-risings-deluxe-remaster-boasts-fluffier-poodles-130035391.html?src=rss
I went to a museum recently that had a range of iPods and early generation iPhones on display — it was horrifying. Now, Apple is responsible for my shock, thanks to the new items added its vintage and obsolete products list on July 1. The tech giant has put the first generation HomePod on its list of vintage products. Apple typically labels a product as "vintage" if its been out of distribution for at least five years — however, Apple only discontinued the HomePod three years ago. These products can still get repaired, as long as parts are available.
Apple first announced the HomePod in June 2017 and released it the following February for $349. The device offered an A8 chip, high-quality audio and compatibility with Apple's ecosystem, such as AirPlay.
The first-gen HomePod isn't the only notable item added to the vintage list. Apple has declared its original AirPods as a vintage commodity. AirPods first came on the scene in December 2016 for $159 and has since evolved into multiple generations and a Pro model. After seven years, Apple will label both the first-gen HomePod and AirPods as obsolete, meaning the company discontinues all hardware service for them.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-now-considers-its-first-homepod-to-be-vintage-133039168.html?src=rss
Ever since Apple’s MacBooks switched to the company’s homegrown M-series chips, Windows users have wondered when a similar revolution would happen to their machines. To Microsoft’s credit, it hasn’t been for a lack of trying. Way back in 2012, the company released the Surface RT with an Arm-based processor, which is the same architecture used in Apple’s silicon. Unfortunately, a tiny app library, sluggish performance and limited software compatibility made using one full-time kind of frustrating. Then in 2017, Microsoft renewed its efforts with Windows on Snapdragon. This led to systems like the Surface Pro X, which sported gorgeous hardware that was once again marred by lackluster processing power and spotty software support.
But as the old adage goes: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And after more than a decade of starts and stumbles, Microsoft has done it. By combining the powerful Oryon cores in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips with its new Prism emulator, Microsoft has turned the Surface Laptop 7 (and its sibling, the Surface Pro 11) into a nearly ideal productivity machine.
Design and display: Premium from top to bottom
While the Surface Laptop 7 (or 7th Edition as Microsoft likes to call it) features fancy new silicon inside, not much has changed on the outside. But I’m not complaining. It has a sleek all-aluminum chassis with clean, minimalist lines, but doesn’t look like a MacBook. Microsoft has also made a few small tweaks like the addition of rounded corners on its display, a new haptic touchpad (similar to what’s on the Surface Laptop Studio 2) and a dedicated key for Copilot (more on that later).
Like before, the Surface Laptop 7 is available in two sizes. The smaller one features a slightly larger 13.8-inch display than before (up from 13.5) while the bigger model has stayed pat at 15 inches. There are also two USB 4 Type-C slots, one USB-A 3.1 jack, a microSD card reader and Microsoft’s magnetic Surface Connect port. So nothing unusual, but more than enough connectivity to handle most situations. And with the 13-inch model weighing just under three pounds (2.96 lb) and the 15-inch option coming in at 3.6 pounds, both versions won’t add much extra heft to your bag.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
As for the display itself, the 15-inch PixelSense LCD display on our Surface Laptop 7 review unit is top-notch. On top of its 120Hz refresh rate, it’s been color-calibrated to deliver accurate hues while also offering great brightness (over 600 nits on a full white screen) and 10-point touch support. It’s even covered by Gorilla Glass 5 to prevent scratches and abrasion. I just wish there was the option to upgrade to an OLED panel like you can on the Surface Pro 11.
Performance and compatibility: New heights for Windows on Arm
The most impressive thing about the Surface Laptop 7 is just how normal it feels. It’s super responsive, has instant wake times and just generally feels extremely speedy. But the best part is that you often can’t even tell the difference between running native Arm software or when the laptop is using Microsoft’s Prism emulator in the background to seamlessly translate apps originally designed for x86 chips. It’s really that smooth.
In benchmarks, the Snapdragon X Elite chip delivers on Qualcomm’s lofty performance claims. For example, in Geekbench 6, the Surface Laptop 7 posted multicore scores of 14,400, which is higher than a similarly equipped Dell XPS 14 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip (11,920). In fact, the X Elite in the Surface even managed to top the Core Ultra 9 CPU inside an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16, which maxed out at 12,798.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
However, it's important to note that the performance of the X Elite chip is based on how much juice it gets. On the 15-inch Surface Laptop 7, Microsoft allocates up to 30 watts to the processor. But on the smaller 13-inch model, it caps out at 20 watts, so while it should still be pretty fast, you will get better performance on the larger option. And though the Surface Laptop 7 isn’t fanless like a MacBook Air, even under load the notebook rarely got above a whisper quiet.
Finally, while most tools and apps just kind of work regardless of what architecture they were designed for, with Windows PCs still relatively early in the transition (at least this go around) to Arm-based systems, there are a handful of major apps that need a bit more time. Some of the big ones are Adobe products like Illustrator and InDesign, which won’t be available on Copilot+ PCs until sometime in July, while updated versions of After Effects and Premier Pro might not arrive until closer to the end of 2024.
A quick word on gaming
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Microsoft has never said that the Surface Laptop 7 is a gaming machine. But given numbers from the ESA (Electronics Software Association) showing that 65 percent of Americans play some form of video game on a weekly basis, the laptop’s fragging abilities are probably worth a mention. Unfortunately, while the Snapdragon X Elite chip boasts decent benchmarks, a lot of titles that might otherwise be good fits for the Laptop 7 simply don’t run. A number of these are competitive games like Fortnite and League of Legends, which feature anti-cheat protocols that haven’t been updated to work on Arm-based chips. It’s doubly frustrating because in the case of LoL, the game installs normally and doesn’t display any warnings aside from Riot’s Vanguard system asking you to reboot your system before launching the game. But no matter how many times you do, the game never boots up.
That said, it’s not a completely lost cause. I’ve found that casual 2D titles like Into the Breach and Vampire Survivor run smoothly, so you still have some options. And if you want to play more demanding titles, there’s always streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now, which by nature aren’t affected by architecture or OS limitations.
Copilot+ AI features: More of a bonus than true essentials
One of the big selling points for this new breed of Copilot+ PCs was supposed to be Microsoft’s built-in AI features. But in reality, they're more like occasionally useful bonuses. The tool with the most potential is Recall, which takes screenshots of your desktop so that AI can help you find things later. Unfortunately, due to concerns about its security, the feature will initially only be available to Windows Insiders before it’s officially released sometime in the future.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Meanwhile, other Copilot+ AI tools feel rather limited in scope. The Image Creator button in the Photos app lets you generate pictures based on word prompts and it largely delivers. But results still aren’t as detailed or realistic as what you get from more powerful cloud-based services like Midjourney. But hey, it’s free. To make things more confusing, in Paint, there’s another button also labeled Image Creator, but it’s actually an entirely different feature with a limited number of uses and results that aren’t quite as good as the similarly named option in Photos.
Ultimately, the most useful AI features are Live Captions and the Restyle Image tool in Photos. The former uses AI to creatively edit or transform existing shots, allowing you to change the style of a picture into something that looks like anime or an impressionistic painting, while the letter provides real-time translation for videos, podcasts and more. And even though Microsoft’s captions could be a touch more accurate, it’s generally good enough for you to get the gist of whatever you’re watching or listening to.
Battery life: More than all-day longevity
In case you don't feel like using's Microsoft's included power adapter, the Surface Laptop 7's USB4 ports also support charging.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Even though emulating apps meant for x86 processors might use a little more juice, the Surface Laptop 7 has more than enough battery life to go around. Though our usual rundown test hasn’t been updated for Arm-based chips yet, when I streamed a 1080p video over Wi-Fi, the device lasted 17 hours and 38 minutes, which is several hours more than I typically get from some similarly equipped Intel and AMD-powered rivals. And in general use, it often felt like the Laptop 7 fared even better, frequently finishing a day with around 50 percent charge.
Another advantage of the Snapdragon X chips is that there’s almost zero battery drain when the system is asleep, which I attribute to Qualcomm’s experience in making efficient smartphone processors. I noticed that the Surface Laptop 7 would lose just one or two percent of battery overnight, which gives you the confidence to leave it unplugged for days at a time.
For charging, you can either use the magnetic Surface Connect port with the included power brick. But another bonus is that the Surface Laptop 7 also supports charging via USB-C, so if you want to travel light and use a universal adapter to keep this and a bunch of other gadgets topped up, you totally can.
Wrap-up
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
While the road here was beset with bumps and potholes, the Surface Laptop 7 has arrived ready to compete. And it isn’t just a great rival to the MacBook Air, it’s paving a new road ahead for Windows PCs. It’s fast, quiet, has excellent battery life and plays nicely with most of your apps. Sure, a few major programs still need additional support and you may run into issues when trying to play games or installing niche software. And when you spec it up, it can get a bit pricey too. The 15-inch model starts at $1,300, but our review unit with a Snapdragon X Elite chip, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD goes for $2,100. Still, for general productivity, the Surface Laptop 7 and its Snapdragon X Elite chip are a revelation and a revolutionary step forward for Windows as we know it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-surface-laptop-7-review-success-at-last-120056125.html?src=rss
My relationship with my iPhone’s Photos app is complicated. It’s both my trove of memories and my secret pile of shame. I have thousands of pictures from trips, outings and gatherings with loved ones, but thousands more of myself, food and random internet stuff (tweets, Reddit posts and crossword puzzle hints). Throw in private pictures of things like my tax documents or IDs and the Photos app probably holds all the most important and sensitive things in my life. I spend hours on it each day. I’d be lost without the 73,600 photos and 2,607 videos I’ve stored in it (and the 600GB in my Google Photos of course, I only switched to iOS two years ago).
So when Apple announced a redesign was coming in iOS 18 (and iPadOS 18), I was skeptical and worried. Change? I hate it. My fingers already know exactly where the buttons are; having to relearn everything would suck. How else would I quickly find the screenshots I need?
The good news is, the iOS 18 redesign for the Photos app might make things easier to pull up. Better yet, it could allow people to use their albums in ways that best meet their needs — perhaps those of you who are more utilitarian and less vain about it could benefit too.
I got a closer look at the upcoming changes at WWDC last month. But last week I got a deeper dive when I spoke with Della Huff, Billy Sorrentino and Jon McCormack from Apple’s Photos, design and software teams to learn more about why and how the app was redesigned.
How will the redesigned Photos app look in iOS 18?
At first glance, your Photos might not look too different. As shown off at WWDC 2024, all your pictures will still be the first thing you see. Peer just slightly beyond the surface, though, and the changes are obvious. Gone are the tabs below your images that say “Library,” “For You,” “Albums” and “Search.” And instead of your grid taking up basically the entire page, it now ends about two thirds of the way, with rows of albums showing up below.
I have to say that I was initially annoyed with this change, but once I heard my entire library is just a swipe down away, I was massively relieved. Well, mostly, anyway. The bar at the bottom that lets you jump between annual, monthly, daily and all views will now show years, months and all. That’s fine by me, since I rarely use the daily option.
A new filter button at the bottom left lets you choose what to focus on or cut out of the grid, like screenshots, favorites, portraits, videos and edited images. Swiping sideways will show various collections, either generated by your phone or created by yourself.
Apple
The idea is to reduce “doomscrolling through the grid,” Huff said, referencing an idea McCormack had mentioned before. With over three trillion photos and videos taken each year, Apple users probably don’t want to sit around weeding through blurry shots or screenshots. Helping them get to what they want more quickly is one of the main focuses of the redesign.
But like I said, too much change sucks. Sorrentino said, “It was critical from the very beginning of this design process that we didn't lose any key features that people love today.” So far, it does look like the stuff I use most frequently is either still there or even easier to reach. And though I find it unnecessary that each collection will autoplay as a memory in the redesign, at least it will look nice and won’t take up extra space.
When you swipe to the right of the grid, you’ll see the new Photos Carousel, highlighting what Apple thinks is your best content. This uses “on-device intelligence” that has been in the app and evolving for 15 years and considers data like the people in the shots and the location they were taken in to create mini movies of your outings and activities.
Don’t confuse this with Apple Intelligence, though. This is simply algorithms. In fact, McCormack called it an “intuition.” For example, he said “iPhone knew who my partner was long before I told iPhone who my partner was.” The team is building on the same system that’s been identifying faces and generating Memories here, and in iOS 18 it will start surfacing photo sets featuring groups of people and pets like you and your parents, your partner and your pet or you and your partner. There will also be new collections like "recently edited" and "a smart receipts album that you can put right at the top with pinned collections," Huff said.
She pointed out that in the redesigned Photos app "there's a number of new dimensions and types of content that we're surfacing, like receipts and documents, handwriting, QR codes and more." These can lead to more efficient and relevant search results to help drill down into your library.
How do Apple Intelligence features in the new Photos app work?
Apple Intelligence will bring a few new tools to the Photos app, like Cleanup to erase distractions in the background and text prompts to create narrative Memories with storylines. It’ll also enable a “natural language search” that’ll let you find a picture by describing what’s in them so you won’t have to try to remember where or when the event happened, or worse, doomscroll. It should be as easy as typing “flaming praying mantis with a group of people in shock” instead of searching through the hundreds of pictures you took in Las Vegas. These will require you to have at least an iPhone 15 Pro, though.
During my time with Huff, Sorrentino and McCormack, I learned that Cleanup works on all images in your Photos app, so you could use it in screenshots or downloaded pictures, too. McCormack explained that when you use Cleanup on an image taken in Portrait mode, "we will clean up the original image and then reapply the depth of field effect."
Apple uses "three different AI models" to remove background distractions, McCormack said. The first will "understand the clutter so that when you click on something, we know what to make go away." The other two are an "in-filling model" to replace the hole, as well as one that will understand "the segmentation boundaries of the subject." The latter will prevent Cleanup from leaving divots in your subject's head or accidentally giving them an unflattering haircut.
What can you customize and why does it matter?
Because the new Photos app features collections so heavily, the fact that you can create and pin them where you want makes your favorite images easy to get to. Basically, the entire area below the grid is your playground. “You can organize the structure of the app itself,” Sorrentino said. You can “turn on or off any section of the app,” or reorganize it.
My favorite person is myself, so I’m probably going to put my best selfies in a collection and have it be the one I see first after swiping on the grid. But as part of the collections below the grid, I’m going to have the crochet patterns I’ve taken screenshots of as one I pin high up, as well as important information i frequently refer to like my airline loyalty account numbers.
The beauty of customization in general is how each person can tailor an interface to their individual needs. Maybe you prefer to use Photos a bit more like Pinterest, where you screenshot the car models you're considering buying and put them in an album. Or perhaps you're tracking your meals by taking pictures of your food daily to help plan a menu. Or you're cataloging your outfit, your garden, your stamp collection, or your growing child. You'll be able to create a collection of the photos you want and pin them.
I haven't spent time with the new Photos app yet, so though I'm excited at the promise of what customizability can bring, I'm also reserving judgment. I also enjoy doomscrolling my gallery while I look back at my weekend, since it visually represents my train of thought through the days. Sometimes, I use screenshots to remind myself to do something later in the evening when I'm inevitably staring at pictures of my friend's cute baby again. So the idea of letting Apple filter out what it thinks might be insignificant isn't something that appeals to my control-freak self. Luckily, it seems I can still view all images in my library.
I'd also like to see how the Cleanup tool performs, as well as whether the "natural language search" will perform well compared to Google's recently announced Ask Photos tool. And though I don't create or watch many Memories, I'd be curious about what a video derived from a prompt like "all my outfits from athleisure to formal" would look like.
iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 are currently available to developers as a closed beta, and a public beta is expected later this summer. The full release of the new software is likely to drop in the fall, which is when most people will probably receive the redesigned Photos app when they update their iPhones. Still a few months to go before your fingers have to relearn where everything is, then.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-apple-redesigned-its-photos-app-around-customization-120038901.html?src=rss
Skullcandy has revealed a trio of earbud models it says were designed with the "most active and adventurous consumers" in mind. The Active Collection lineup ranges from $60 to $100 and were engineered to deliver reliable performance in any conditions, according to Skullcandy.
The Push Play Active, Push ANC Active and Sesh ANC Active all have a few common features. They all support multipoint pairing and rapid charging — a 10-minute charge will allow two hours of playback time. A Sidetone feature is said to counteract occlusion and make it easier to hear our own voice. Meanwhile, the adjustable stay-aware mode lets you tweak things so that it's easier for you to remain alert and hear what's going on around you.
Skullcandy
The $60 Push Play Active buds have over-the-ear hooks and an IP55 rating for sweat and water resistance. Skullcandy claims that a smart mic will reduce background noise for "crystal clear" calls. The Push Play Active earbuds have several equalizer presets and you'll be able to set up your own custom five-band EQ as well. They offer up to 34 hours of battery life, according to Skullcandy, with the earbuds running for up to 10 hours on a single charge and the charging case adding an extra 24 hours of use.
The other two models have some shared features as well. Push ANC Active and Sesh ANC Active are IP67 rated, meaning they're sweatproof and waterproof. Both models use a four-mic array for adjustable active noise cancellation (ANC). The earbuds are compatible with the Skullcandy app, which will allow you to customize the onboard controls and equalizer levels. There's a personal sound feature too — you'll be able to take a real-time audio test to create a profile for optimized sound levels.
Skullcandy
The Push ANC Active earbuds are the most expensive option of the three at $100. Skullcandy claims you'll get up to 37 hours of use with ANC on (seven hours from the earbuds and 30 extra from the charging case) and as much as 58 hours of use with ANC off. The brand says you'll be able to use the earbuds for up to 12 hours before having to return them to the charging case. In addition, the case supports wireless charging.
It's worth noting that while the Push ANC Active option has an over-the-ear hook, there's a more traditional true wireless design for the Sesh ANC Active. Skullcandy says these earbuds have a "fit grip" to keep them in your ears. They have a promised battery life of up to 28 hours with ANC on (seven hours in the earbuds, 21 in the charging case) and up to 48 hours with ANC off (12 hours and 36 hours, respectively). The Sech ANC Active earbuds will run you $90.
Skullcandy
Skullcandy has earned a reputation for offering solid products at relatively budget-friendly prices, so these are options worth considering if you're on the lookout for a set of earbuds to use while you're working out. All three models will be available on Skullcandy's website starting on June 25.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/skullcandy-expands-its-earbud-lineup-with-three-sport-models-all-under-100-120021846.html?src=rss
Two state laws from Texas and Florida, that could upend the way social media companies handle content moderation are still up in the air. The Supreme Court sent the challenges back to lower courts, which vacates previous rulings. In a 9 - 0 decision in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the Supreme Court said that earlier rulings in lower courts had not properly evaluated the laws’ impact on the First Amendment. Never heard of NetChoice? It’s an industry group representing Meta, Google, X and other large tech companies. So it’s incredibly well-funded. NetChoice argued that the laws were unconstitutional.
The Texas law, passed in 2021, allows users to sue large social media companies over alleged “censorship” of their political views. The Supreme Court suspended the law in 2022 following a legal challenge. The Florida measure, also passed in 2021, attempted to impose fines on social media companies for banning politicians – that’s also on hold.
Justice Elena Kagan said that lower court rulings in both cases “concentrated” on the issue of “whether a state law can regulate the content-moderation practices used in Facebook’s News Feed (or near equivalents).” However, she writes, “they did not address the full range of activities the laws cover, and measure the constitutional against the unconstitutional applications.” It seems the lower courts need to do their homework.
Midjourney, a popular AI-powered image generator, is creating images of Donald Trump and Joe Biden despite saying that it would block users from doing so ahead of the upcoming US presidential election. Engadget managed to get the tool to create images of Trump multiple times. The only time Midjourney refused to create an image of Trump or Biden was when it was asked to do so explicitly. “The Midjourney community voted to prevent using ‘Donald Trump’ and ‘Joe Biden’ during election season,” the service said in that instance. Midjourney did not respond to a request for comment from Engadget.
Talking of AI-generated fakes, YouTube quietly added a new policy last month that lets you request the removal of AI-generated content that features your likeness. YouTube says several factors will determine whether it considers a removal, including whether the content is altered or synthetic (and whether it’s disclosed as such), easily identifiable as the person in question or realistic.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-supreme-court-rejects-rulings-on-social-media-moderation-111527524.html?src=rss
While many streamers have a global subscriber base, some have stuck to North America. Tubi, the Fox Corporation's free ad-supported streaming service, is no longer in that second camp with the streamer announcing it will launch in the United Kingdom.
Tubi will arrive with over 20,000 TV episodes and movies on-demand, from the likes of Disney and Sony Pictures Entertainment, along with Tubi Originals. "We are launching with one of the largest and most diverse content libraries in the UK, designed to indulge viewers in everything from blockbusters to original stories to hidden gems," Anjali Sud, CEO of Tubi, stated in the company's announcement. "Most importantly, we’re committed to listening to what resonates with UK fans, and bringing them more and more of what they love." Tubi will offer UK users Hollywood films, British classics, Bollywoods, Nollywoods and Arthouse Cinema — to name a few.
The streamer claims to have nearly 80 million monthly active users and clearly hopes to grow that number significantly with a UK audience. It will be available on iOS and Android smartphones, major connected TV platforms and the web.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tubi-is-coming-to-the-uk-103019398.html?src=rss
The NFC Forum, the non-profit org made up of big tech companies promoting the NFC standard, envisions a future wherein one tap is all you need for multiple actions at once. With a single tap, for instance, you could pay for your purchase, get points on your rewards account and receive a digital receipt on your phone. The organization released a document that can give you an overview of what the NFC multi-purpose tap capability is and how it can potentially be used.
It explains that the multi-purpose tap "leverages the capability of NFC devices to allow both reading and writing of data across a connection." That enables several actions, which typically requires multiple stages, to be accomplished at one time. If you're buying alcohol, tapping to pay for it would also verify your identity and your age. You could also get a product's sustainability information, including ways its packaging can be recycled, on your phone the moment you pay for it.
For public transit, the technology could ensure you're getting charged the correct fare, taxes and concessions every time. If the ride you're taking requires a ticket that you'll need to show a conductor, operators will be able to automatically issue you an e-ticket when you pay with the new multi-purpose tap experience.
As The Verge notes, the capability does raise some privacy concerns, seeing as it automates everything, including identity verification. In addition, it will allow companies to trigger targeted marketing communications that you'll then get straight on your smartphone. Multi-purpose tap is still in its very early stages at the moment, though, and the NFC Forum is seeking contributions as it looks at market use cases for the technolog. The organization — which includes Apple, Google and Huawei, among other tech companies and manufacturers — still has to conduct tests to make sure the NFC technology is working as intended, as well, and to define standards to "enable mass market delivery."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nfc-forum-wants-to-bundle-age-verification-and-payment-receipts-in-tap-to-pay-043046883.html?src=rss