TECHNOLOGY
Google Play rolls out 'Offers' tab to display deals on games, apps
The rollout is underway and it will be available to more people in the US, India and Indonesia over the coming weeks, and more countries later in 2022. "Sections like 'Offers for apps you might like' help you easily find deals that are relevant to you," David Winer, Product Manager, Google Play, said in a blogpost. "We are partnering with developers of some of the top apps and games on Google Play to add new, fresh deals every day," he added.
Apple Releases watchOS 8.4 with fix for charging bug
According to Apple's release notes, watchOS 8.4 fixes a bug that could cause some Apple Watch chargers not to work as expected with the Apple Watch. A number of Apple Watch Series 7 owners have reported issues with charging after updating to the watchOS 8.3 software. The Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 per cent battery charge, needs to be on a charger, and needs to be in the range of the iPhon
Messenger's end-to-end encrypted chats, calls available to everyone
According to The Verge, Messenger added E2EE chatting in 2016 when it was still called Facebook Messenger, and Meta was still Facebook. Now many things have changed, but the optional feature is fully rolled out to everyone, with toggles to encrypt text messages as well as group chats and calls, the report said. Meta has discussed switching to E2EE as a default, but that may not happen until next year at the earliest, as some regulators claim this would harm public safety.
Amazon told workers that union organizers are 'thugs': Report
The complaint against Amazon alleged that the e-commerce giant illegally threatened, surveilled and interrogated workers who were trying to start a union at its Staten Island, New York, facilities. The company representatives allegedly told employees that it would be "futile" to vote for a union because a union would "never happen here", reports Motherboard, citing the NLRB complaint.
Lamborghini announces its first NFT
Lamborghini is joining Nike, Samsung and other tech companies in embracing NFTs. "This is Lamborghini`s historical first NFT project. In collaboration with the artist Fabian Oefner, Lamborghini developed five art pieces, that will go on auction on February 1," the company said in a statement. The art pieces are made of a physical element and a NFT component: The Space Key, the physical element is a piece of carbon fiber sent to Outer Space by Lamborghini.
Samsung tops global smartphone market in 2021 with 271 mn units
Despite the 4 percent annual growth, annual shipments remained below the pre-pandemic level due to continued Covid-19 impacts as well as component shortages, according to Counterpoint Research. "India, too, had a good year due to higher replacement rates, better availability and more attractive financing options in mid-to high-tier phones," said senior analyst Harmeet Singh Walia.
Amazon paid workers to tweet great things about it: Report
Employees at the retailer's warehouses were paid to share positive impressions about the company and to deny widely-reported workplace failings, the report mentioned. As per internal documents shared by The Intercept in 2021, the scheme was launched in 2018 in response to waves of criticism of the company's safety standards and working conditions.
Apple fixes iCloud bug causing syncing issues for third-party apps
The bug has persisted since November, and app developers were becoming increasingly upset with Apple's lack of effort to address the problem, reports AppleInsider. Users of apps with iCloud issues were seeing 503 error messages such as "Request failed with http status code 503," but multiple developers have confirmed that the error messages appear to have gone away throughout the last couple of days.
Netflix adds HDR, HD support for 2021 Pixel phones
These phones can now access HD and HDR streams on supported content. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro have only been out since late 2021, but the 5a launched in August, and it's just now getting HD Netflix, reports Android Police. HDR is becoming a standard among the top streaming services, and thus, OEMs are fixing up their phones with HDR displays. Despite producing global hits like 'Squid Game' in 2021, streaming giant Netflix saw slow growth in new subscribers in the fourth quarter last year -- its slowest since 2015.
Instagram's new feature to display users' upcoming live streams
Meta-owned photo-sharing Instagram is rolling out a new profile banner that will display a user's upcoming live streams. Instagram head Adam Mosseri noted that users can now display a badge on their profile to let others know that they have a live stream coming up, TechCrunch reported on Thursday.
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