D kaart.com

Spotify Technology is considering adding full-length music videos to its app, which could help the streaming service better compete with Alphabet 's YouTube and ByteDance 's TikTok. The service has already begun talking to partners about the product, according to people familiar with the plan who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak about it publicly.  Spotify declined to comment.  The feature would add to Spotify's growing efforts to establish video — which in the streaming media era has tended to be more lucrative than audio — as a core part of its app. Spotify already allows musicians to upload “canvases,” or looping GIFs under 10 seconds long, that populate the screen while music plays. Earlier this year, it debuted a feature called “clips,” which are videos shorter than 30 seconds designed to give artists a storytelling tool to communicate about their music, similar to how they might use TikTok . The company also launched a new,

Three reformed offenders give peers the inside story on the best way to steer people away from crime. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/XfANMDi via DHARMA

Vietnam has told cross-border social platforms to use artificial intelligence (AI) models that can detect and remove "toxic" content automatically, the latest requirement in its stringent regime for social media firms, state media reported on Friday. Vietnam has repeatedly asked companies like Meta 's Facebook , Google 's YouTube and TikTok to coordinate with authorities to stamp out content deemed "toxic", such as offensive, false and anti-state content. "This is the first time Vietnam has announced such an order," state-run broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) reported from the information ministry's mid-year review event, which was opened to selected newspaper. The report did not give details on when and how cross-border platforms had to abide by the new requirement. During the first half of this year, in accordance with government requests, Facebook removed 2,549 posts, the ministry said in a statement. YouTube removed 6,101 videos

A South Korean chip executive imprisoned over industrial espionage charges rejected allegations he had sought to build a copycat chip factory in China with sensitive information developed by Samsung Electronics . In a handwritten letter to Reuters, his first comments to the media since he was detained on May 25, Choi Jinseog elaborated on his defense plan and said the allegations against him regarding the Xian plant were not substantiated. Prosecutors earlier this month indicted the former Samsung executive for illegally obtaining secret information to build a semiconductor plant only 1.5 km (1 mile) from a Samsung factory in Xian, China. Choi is in custody at a detention center in Suwon, a city south of Seoul where Samsung has its headquarters. He previously denied all the charges through his lawyer. In the letter, Choi said the factory was planned for Taiwan's Foxconn , for early test production of DRAM memory chips, while Samsung's plant in Xian was designed to manufactu

Google said on Thursday it plans to block Canadian news on its platform in Canada, joining Facebook in escalating a campaign against a new law requiring payments to local news publishers. Alphabet -owned Google will remove links to Canadian news from search results and other products in Canada when the law takes effect in about six months. Facebook -owner Meta Platforms made a similar announcement last week after the passage of Bill C-18, or the Online News Act. Canada's media industry has called for tighter regulation of Internet giants to allow news businesses to recoup financial losses suffered in the years that Facebook and Google gained a greater share of the online advertising market. The independent budgetary watchdog in Canada estimated last year that news businesses could receive about CAD 330 million (roughly Rs. 20,436 crore) per year from deals mandated under the legislation. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who introduced the bill last year, has said the pla

Canada's Department of Justice has concluded that Microsoft's deal to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard "is likely to" lead to less competition in some aspects of gaming, according to a court filing on Thursday. In a letter dated Wednesday to Microsoft's US lawyers, the department said it had communicated to Microsoft's and Activision's lawyers in Canada that the deal would likely lead to less competition in "gaming consoles and multigame subscription services (as well as cloud gaming)." On Thursday, the letter was put on the docket of a US federal court proceeding in which the US Federal Trade Commission is asking a judge to temporarily stop the proposed transaction so that an FTC judge will have time to assess it. Closing arguments in the proceeding are set for later on Thursday. Microsoft has pressed for a decision in the court fight before the July 18 termination date for the deal. A ruling could come as early as next week. I

There will be a big expansion in student places and apprenticeships - but critics say action is needed now. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/EPySYqw via DHARMA

Edtech major Byju's  is growing slowly but sustainably and is close to achieving profitability at the group level, the company's CEO Byju Raveendran said on Thursday. The company organised a town hall with Raveendran to allay apprehensions about the uncertainty around the company's growth and its future. According to sources, who attended the town hall, Raveendran said that issues with $1.2 billion (nearly Rs. 9,852 crore) Term Loan B lenders are being resolved through discussion and hopeful of a positive outcome in the next few weeks without the court's intervention. "Byju shared that Byju's is close to achieving profitability at the group level, demonstrating the company's commitment to financial management and optimization of operations," a source said. He said that despite the challenges faced by tech companies globally, Byju's has made substantial progress towards this significant milestone. Byju's had set a timeline to achieve profit

The University of East Anglia (UEA) aims to lose more than 30 academic posts. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/z9hdqvN via DHARMA

Several supporters of the former PM took aim at the Commons committee that investigated him. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/A1Pdinu via DHARMA

Activision Blizzard said its studio that developed Call of Duty  would set up shop in Barcelona, putting into action its pledge to invest in Europe after Brussels approved Microsoft 's $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,66,000 crore) acquisition of the company in May. The US company said on Wednesday its game developer Infinity Ward, which created the blockbuster first-person shooter game, would join its Digital Legends mobile games unit in the Spanish city. The decision comes after Britain blocked the Microsoft takeover, prompting Activision, which has studios in Guildford and Warrington in England, to say it would "reassess" its growth plans in the country. In contrast, it said it would "meaningfully expand" its investment and workforce in the European Union after the deal received the green light there. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are battling antitrust regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to clinch the deal, the biggest ever in video gaming. Activisio

Shares of US chipmakers fell on Wednesday following a report that the Biden administration was planning new curbs on export of computing chips for artificial intelligence to China as early as July. Companies such as Nvidia , Advanced Micro Devices and Intel , which rely on the world's second largest economy for at least a fifth of their revenue, fell between 0.8 percent and 1.8 percent, caught in the US-China crossfire. The Philadelphia chip index dropped 0.9 percent. Last year, US officials had ordered Nvidia to stop exporting its top two AI chips to China to limit the country's technological capability. Months later, Nvidia launched a new advanced chip called A800 in China to meet export control rules. The new restrictions being considered by the Commerce Department would also include a ban on the sale of Nvidia's A800 chip without a special US export license, the Wall Street Journal report said. Curbs on sales of datacenter graphics processing units to China wou

Independent commissions across the UK have reshaped the electoral map to reflect population changes. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/WVfmDcY via DHARMA

Apple on Wednesday released the visionOS SDK, a set of tools that will enable developers to build apps for the Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset. The Cupertino company's first spatial computer will go on sale in the US next year and Apple is providing app developers with the tools required to build apps for the device. Unlike other Apple products, the company's upcoming mixed reality headset will use a combination of three different modes of interaction using a person's eyes, hands, and voice. The visionOS SDK will allow developers to tailor their apps around this functionality while making use of the specialised hardware on the device.   The company announced  on the Apple Developer website that the visionOS SDK is now available to developers. In order to create spatial computing apps for the Apple Vision Pro, developers will have to download Xcode 15 Beta 2 that includes the latest visionOS SDK along with a tool to visualise and preview 3D content for the headset

The Indian government is preparing a new multibillion-dollar subsidy scheme for companies making electricity grid batteries as part of its transition to clean energy, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing a power ministry proposal. The draft proposal for a production-linked incentive subsidy scheme would offer Rs. 216 billion ($2.63 billion) from this year through to 2030 for companies to set up manufacturing capacity for battery cells in India, the FT reported . The draft plan seen by the FT acknowledged there was a limit to how much more coal power India could build. "International opinion" and "environmental concerns . . . make expansion of coal-based thermal generation beyond a limit, an infeasible option," according to the draft plan. India's power ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apart from energy transition, domestic battery cell manufacturing is also essential to reducing the country's dependence on riva

East Yorkshire MP Sir Greg Knight has represented the area since 2001. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/Z3AwbBW via DHARMA

MP Douglas Chapman resigned as party treasurer in May 2021 ahead of the SNP finances inquiry. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/Rfqj79O via DHARMA

Daisy Goodwin says Daniel Korski put his hand on her breast during a meeting. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/4iWxvte via DHARMA

Meta Platforms plans to cut off access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada once a new law requiring internet giants to pay news publishers takes effect, arguing news has no economic value to the company and that its users do not use the platform for news. Canada drafted new rules after legacy media companies complained about internet companies elbowing news businesses out of the online advertising market. Why are technology companies against the law?  The Canadian parliament passed "Bill C-18" into law, requiring internet giants to pay news publishers. The Online News Act forces platforms like Facebook and Alphabet 's Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content. Both Meta and Google had warned they would withdraw access to news articles on their platforms in Canada if the legislation is passed into law without amendments. Facebook says links to news articles make up less than 3 percent of the content on it

Ben Houchen says the process of selecting and vetting peers was "not just down to Boris". from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/Iws1PL5 via DHARMA

Google has urged India's Supreme Court to quash antitrust directives against it for abuse of the Android market, two sources said, as its presses its legal battle against the competition watchdog in one of its most important markets. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in October that Google, whose Android mobile operating system powers 97 percent of the 600 million smartphones in India, had exploited its dominant position. It ordered Google to remove restrictions imposed on device makers, including those related to the pre-installation of apps , and fined the US firm $163 million (nearly Rs. 1,300 crore), which it paid. In March, an Indian tribunal gave partial relief to the Alphabet  unit by setting aside four of the 10 directives in the case. The tribunal said CCI's findings of Google's anti-competitive conduct were correct, but gave Google some relief by quashing some of the directives that forced it to alter its business model. Google is now asking

Xiaomi Pad 6  was recently  launched in India as the successor to the Xiaomi Pad 5 that made its debut in 2022. Just like last year's model, Xiaomi has attempted to equip its latest tablet with a range of features and a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, while keeping the price of the device under Rs. 30,000. The Xiaomi Pad 6 sports a 11-inch LCD display, runs on Android 13 out-of-the-box, and Xiaomi claims it can offer up to two days of battery backup. It is equipped with a 13-megapixel primary camera and an 8-megapixel selfie camera. This week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, resident device expert  Pranav Hegde , who has spent some time with Xiaomi's latest tablet, talks to guest host Sheldon Pinto  about the device. Pinto reviewed the Xiaomi Pad 5 last year, and the duo discuss some of the changes and upgrades that have made their way to this year's model and how it fares against the competition. The Xiaomi Pad 6 isn't exactly a new device — it was launched in Ch

Motorola Razr 40 and Motorola Razr 40 Ultra India launch date was announced by the company on Thursday. As per a teaser on Amazon India, the foldable flip phones will launch on next month. Both handsets were launched in China on June 1 and sport 6.9-inch pOLED displays. The Razr 40 Ultra is equipped with a large 3.6-inch outer display with a 144Hz refresh rate, while the Razr 40 has a smaller 1.5-inch cover screen. The Motorola Razr 40 and Motorola Razr 40 Ultra are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chips, respectively. Unveiled in China earlier this month, the Motorola Razr 40 and Razr 40 Ultra are set to debut in India on July 3, a Motorola spokesperson confirmed to Gadgets 360. The listings for the handsets do not reveal details such as pricing or availability, which are expected to be announced on the launch date. Pricing for the handsets in China starts at CNY 3,999 (roughly Rs. 46,000) for the Motorola Razr 40 and CNY 5,699 (roughly Rs. 66,00

Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 smartwatch has been launched in India. The smartwatch comes with a 1.43-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 466x466 pixels, Bluetooth calling, and smart health sensors like a heart rate monitor, sleep tracker, and SpO2 monitor. It also supports over 110 sports modes. The wearable has multiple cloud-based watch faces to choose from. The smartwatch has been claimed to offer up to seven days of battery life with normal usage and up to 20 days in standby mode. Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 price, availability in India The Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 smartwatch is priced at Rs. 2,499 in India and will be available for sale via the official Fire-Boltt website and Flipkart . It comes in four different colour variants — Black, Dark Grey, Grey and Pink. Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 specifications Fire-Boltt's Apollo 2 smartwatch sports a 1.43-inch (466x466 pixels) AMOLED display. It gets a circular dial that has a metallic body and silicon straps. The watch supports Bluetooth calling, al

European Union industry chief Thierry Breton on Thursday defended draft rules aimed at preventing non-EU governments from gaining illegal access to EU data, saying they were not protectionist. The draft Data Act, which Breton proposed early last year, is in the final stage of negotiations between the European Commission, EU countries, and EU lawmakers. The parties are expected to reach a deal next week on the final details before the legislation is adopted. It lays out rights and obligations on the use of EU consumer and corporate data generated in smart gadgets and machinery as well as consumer goods and is the latest in a series of regulations designed to curb the power of US tech giants. "Our European data strategy is to unlock a wealth of big data and set out how that data should be shared, stored, and processed. This will benefit all businesses – European, American, and others alike," Breton said in the text of a speech to be delivered at the opening of an EU Office i

Amazon.com will invest an additional $15 billion (roughly Rs. 12,297 crore) in India, the company's Chief Executive Andy Jassy told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his meeting on Friday. The investment will take the e-commerce giant's total India investment across all businesses to $26 billion (roughly Rs. 21,314 crore) by 2030, he said. Modi and Jassy spoke about supporting Indian startups, creating jobs, enabling exports, digitization, and empowering individuals and small businesses to compete globally, an Amazon blog post said. This announcement follows Amazon's cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) saying last month it will invest 1.06 trillion rupees ($12.9 billion) in the country by the end of 2030. Separately, Google will open a global fintech operation center in GIFT City in India's western state of Gujarat, CEO Sundar Pichai told reporters in a video shared on Twitter by Reuters partner ANI company. "We shared Google is investing $10 bill

As the auto industry scrambles to produce more affordable electric vehicles , whose most expensive components are the batteries, lithium iron phosphate is gaining traction as the EV battery material of choice. The popularity of the chemical compound known as LFP is due partly to environmental and geopolitical concerns. But technological advances have also reduced the performance gap with more widely used materials such as nickel and cobalt. LFP, embraced by EV industry leader Tesla two years ago, has sparked new interest especially in the US, where a clutch of domestic and overseas manufacturers has pledged more than $11 billion (nearly Rs. 90,200 crore) in new production facilities. Overseas, two of the world's largest automakers, Toyota Motor and Hyundai Motor , have both announced plans in the past week to equip their future vehicles with LFP batteries, but have not disclosed plans for the US. “LFP is less expensive than cobalt and nickel, and all the minerals can be obtai

The next Fast & Furious spin-off film centred around Luke Hobbs will feature the main villain, Dante Reyes, from Fast X. As per a new listing from ProductionWeekly , the movie is titled ‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Reyes,' marking Jason Momoa's brief return to the role before the eventual Fast X: Part 2, releasing in 2025. The spin-off film will seal the gap between the two movies and build upon the mid-credits scene from Fast X , wherein Reyes informs Hobbs ( Dwayne Johnson ) that he is his next target, due to the latter's involvement in the death of Hernan Reyes. To refresh your memory, Hernan was a ruthless druglord, acting as the prime antagonist in Fast Five (2011), who in the end was shot and killed by Hobbs. Turns out, his son Dante witnessed the entire ordeal and spent the next 12 years planning his revenge, hoping to make Dominic Torreto ( Vin Diesel ) pay, whose crew was responsible for Hernan's takedown. Very little is known about Fast &a

Realme Narzo 60 series is confirmed to launch in India soon, the Chinese smartphone company has confirmed via Amazon. The e-commerce website is teasing the design of the smartphones without confirming the exact launch date. The Realme Narzo 60 series is shown to have a curved display with narrow bezels. The upcoming lineup is expected to include the Realme Narzo 60 and Realme Narzo 60 Pro models. The former was recently spotted on Geekbench with a MediaTek Dimensity 6020 SoC and 8GB RAM. Amazon India 's dedicated landing page for the upcoming Realme Narzo 60 series is now teasing the phone's design. The page has three slides so far. They give us a glimpse of the device's shape and features. The lineup is teased to come with a 61-degree curved display with narrow bezels. Further, the upcoming models are confirmed to have a memory capacity to store over 250,000 photos on the phone, suggesting 1TB of storage support via microSD card. Realme has also created a microsite f

Meta Platforms ' Oversight Board has asked the social media firm to evaluate efforts to prevent promotion of political violence on its platforms, after it allowed a video calling for violence post the 2022 Brazilian election to stay online. The board said on Thursday that Meta's original decision to leave up the Facebook video, which featured a Brazilian general calling people to "hit the streets," raised concerns about the effectiveness of the company's election integrity efforts. "In this case, the speaker's intent, the content of the speech and its reach, as well as the likelihood of imminent harm ... all justified removing the post," said the Oversight Board , whose recommendations are not binding on Meta. After initially letting the video stay up, Meta took it down on January 20, after the board selected the case. The company's election preparedness efforts are in focus as the United States prepares for the presidential elections next

The big lenders, from NatWest to Nationwide, meet the chancellor over upheaval in the mortgage market. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/blZT92u via DHARMA

Amazon's $1.7 billion (roughly Rs. 13,500 crore) acquisition of robot vacuum cleaner maker iRobot faces a full-scale EU antitrust investigation, people familiar with the matter said, weeks after the US online retail giant won UK approval for the deal. Amazon announced the takeover in August last year to expand its portfolio of smart devices, which include the Alexa voice assistant, smart thermostats, security devices and wall-mounted smart displays. IRobot made its first Roomba robot vacuum in 2002. IRobot shares fell about 10 percent, their largest percentage drop since February last year, while Amazon shares trimmed gains after the Reuters story was published. The European Commission is scheduled to launch a four-month investigation following the end of its preliminary review of the deal on July 6, the people said. Amazon is unlikely to offer remedies during this initial phase, one of the people said. It has a final shot in the next few days at convincing the EU competitio

Meta Platforms plans to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada once a parliament-approved legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers comes into effect, the company said on Thursday. The legislation, known as the Online News Act, was approved by the Senate upper chamber earlier on Thursday and will become law after receiving royal assent from the governor general, a formality. The legislation was proposed after complaints from Canada's media industry, which wants tighter regulation of tech companies to prevent them from elbowing news businesses out of the online advertising market. "Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act taking effect," Meta said in a statement. Facebook had telegraphed such a move for weeks, saying news has no economic value to the company and that its users do not use the platform for news. The act

Councils say app payments save money but charities warn people without a smartphone could be excluded. from BBC News - UK Politics https://ift.tt/SR62kxX via DHARMA

The US Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday accused Amazon.com of enrolling millions of consumers into its paid subscription Amazon Prime service without their consent and making it hard for them to cancel, the agency's latest action against the ecommerce giant in recent weeks. The FTC sued Amazon in federal court in Seattle, alleging that the company has "knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in Amazon Prime." In a statement, Amazon called the FTC's claims "false on the facts and the law." Amazon has used "manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs known as 'dark patterns' to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions," the FTC said as it seeks civil penalties and a permanent injunction to prevent future violations. The lawsuit is one of several actions taken by President Joe Biden's administration intended to rein in the outsized market power of Big Te