Meta is rolling out new updates to Facebook to attract more creators and generate more video content for the platform. While nearly 3 billion people worldwide currently use Facebook, Meta still has to compete with social media giants like TikTok, especially considering its continuous growth among younger generations.The latest Facebook updates are designed to simplify the process of creating reels on the platform, provide new features in ProMode to assist creators in expanding their following, offer valuable insights for content creation, and broaden monetization options across the platform.
Image Credit–Facebook
Facebook has introduced an Inspiration Hub within the Professional Dashboard to make creating reels easier. This hub brings together popular reels, hashtags, topics, and music to inspire creators in their content production. Additionally, a mobile app update combines audio, music, and text into a unified editing screen, streamlining reel editing process.
Image Credit–Facebook
Another aspect Facebook has improved is audience growth. Any Facebook user can switch to Professional Mode and become a creator. ProMode creators can appear in the ‘Creators to Follow’ unit on the feed, increasing their chances of being discovered by more people. Moreover, when ProMode creators comment on public posts, a follow button may appear alongside their name, allowing them to attract new followers through conversations.
And, of course, if you want to be a creator, you are probably interested in how to monetize your content. The new update lowered some of the monetization eligibility requirements, and creators now need to have garnered 500 followers over the past 30 days to qualify for monetization, compared to the previous requirement of 1,000 followers in 60 days. This trend of expanding income opportunities aligns with YouTube’s recent adjustments.
Image Credit–Facebook
Additionally, creators can now cross-post Instagram-branded content reels and stories to Facebook, enabling them to amplify the reach and impact of their campaigns. Alongside this, Facebook plans to initiate a limited test where select creators can monetize reels that incorporate licensed music from the Facebook Audio Library.
Facebook’s objective is clear: to entice more creators to the platform by simplifying content production, enabling monetization, and fostering the growth of followers. Most new updates are available only for users in ProMode, but the company is saying that they hope to bring them more broadly over time.
Google has started rolling out the June Pixel drop update to its phones recently, but not all users received all features, despite installing this update, they’re still missing. We’re specifically talking about Google’s new customization options, the so-called ‘Emoji Workshop’ and ‘Cinematic wallpapers’.
The fanciest June Pixel drop features are missing for some users
Many users received the new features, but quite a few of them did not. If you check the android_beta subreddit, you’ll see quite a few complaints. Those two features are missing for some people, and those are basically the biggest new features Google added.
Users cannot find the ‘Emoji Workshop’ for wallpapers in the Settings -> Wallpaper & style menu. That option should be visible under the ‘Emoji Workshop’ submenu, and it allows you to bake in your favorite emoji into a wallpaper, creating something rather interesting.
The ‘Cinematic Wallpapers’ feature should also be available in the Wallpaper & style section. There should be a sparkle icon in the top-right corner. That option allows you to transform 2D wallpapers into somewhat dynamic 3D ones.
We’re not sure what’s going on here, but Google will hopefully sort it out soon
So, what’s going on here? Well, we quite frankly don’t know. The first thing that comes to mind is… staged rollout. This is not supposed to be a staged rollout, though. It’s supposed to be baked into the update itself, and available to everyone.
Google will probably sort things out soon, though we may not get an explanation for this. It could turn out to be a staged rollout after all, despite the fact it shouldn’t be.
As a side note, Android 14 is coming. The stable build is expected to arrive at some point in August, so we’re still over a month away from that point.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently announced generative AI is coming to every single one of the company’s products. Following the announcement, Meta launched MusicGen for music lovers and those interested in composing music.
MusicGen is an open-source deep-learning language model from Meta’s Audiocraft research team that can create songs using texts. The tool lets users create a song by describing the style and tone.
MusicGen is now live on Facebook’s Hugging Face AI website. You first need to describe the type of music you want, like “A cheerful country song with acoustic guitars.” Then, you can condition the music on a given melody. Finlay, click the Generate button and wait a few minutes for the outcome.
Meta introduces MusicGen, which can turn texts into music
The tool is now able to craft up to 12 seconds of music based on the input you provide to it. You can also use your own GPU or a Google Colab. Thanks to its open-source nature, MusicGen is a new playground for developers. Additionally, it can be used for generating commercial music. By facilitating more efficient and accessible music production, this ground-breaking technology is poised to transform the music business.
Meta’s Audiocraft research team uses 20,000 hours of licensed music, 10,000 high-quality music tracks from an internal dataset, and Shutterstock and Pond5 tracks to train the MusicGen. The tool employs Meta’s 32Khz EnCodec audio tokenizer for generating faster results.
MusicGen is the second AI music composer after Google’s MusicLM, which was launched last month. Hugging Face ML Engineer Ahsen Khaliq said in a tweet, “Unlike existing methods like MusicLM, MusicGen doesn’t require a self-supervised semantic representation [and has] only 50 auto-regressive steps per second of audio.”
With MusicGen, the Meta AI team hopes to increase everyone’s accessibility to music production. The art of music composition and instrument playing traditionally needs a high level of talent and knowledge. With MusicGen, people can create music using only simple text inputs.
Google‘s new “Help me write” tool is now available in Gmail mobile apps for Workspace Labs testers. Both Android and iOS versions of the app are widely getting the new writing assistance tool, which debuted during the Google I/O conference last month. It has been available in Gmail and Google Docs on the web since its launch. Docs mobile apps haven’t picked up the feature yet.
Gmail mobile apps get the Help me write tool through Workspace Labs
Help me write is an AI-powered writing assistant for Google apps such as Gmail and Docs. The feature is currently experimental and only available to users who have signed up for early access through Workspace Labs. It rolled out the new tool to the web version of Gmail and Docs immediately after the announcement last month. The feature is now coming to mobile apps, starting with Gmail.
Like on the web, the Gmail mobile app greets you with an introductory message that explains the new feature and also notes that it’s experimental. Once you’re in, you’ll find a “Help me write” button in the bottom-right corner of the compose field (it appears in the bottom toolbar on the web). Tapping it brings up a new text field that lets you enter a prompt for the generative AI tool, with Google providing some suggestions of its own. When your prompt is ready, the “Create” button makes the AI work its magic.
A few seconds later, you’re presented with an AI-generated email based on your prompt. If you like it, you can proceed to enter it in the email compose field. If not, Gmail lets you regenerate a new draft. You can also leave feedback by selecting the thumbs-up/down buttons. Once you have selected a draft, you get options to further refine it in one or more ways. You can Formalize the draft (make it more formal), Elaborate it (add more related details), shorten it, or update the draft with creative details using the I’m Feeling Lucky option.
Gmail also lets you write a new draft from here. This will replace the previous version. You can do this as many times as you want until you get the desired result. Note that the AI-generated email has bracketed area that you should delete and enter specified details, such as your name, company name, and other specified information. The “Help me write” tool works similarly in Google Docs on the web. Docs mobile apps should soon get it. If you want to try this feature, you can sign up for Google Workspace Labs here.
Google, the company that dominates the global search market, is testing a major change to its search interface that could have serious implications on the open web. The so-called Search Generative Experience (SGE), which uses AI to “generate” answers for your queries, pushes organic search results down the order. Meanwhile, the AI-powered SGE grabs information provided by human experts across various sites (often a direct copy of the text), clubs it all together, and passes it off to you as its own.
The new search experience shows fewer organic results
The current Google Search experience gives you a list of related web articles for anything you search. It highlights snippets from some articles that it determines as the most-related answer to your query. If you scroll down, you’ll find many more results organically derived from the web depending on the keywords you used for your search. But with the SGE, Google’s AI covers most of your screen, at least the first page of your search results. As pointed out by Tom’s Hardware, the SGE covered the first 1,360 vertical pixels of the display even for a simple search for “best bicycle”.
This section contained shopping links and advice about things you should consider when shopping for a bicycle. Google pushed all organic results below it. For its part, the company does show a few (three) related links next to its “AI-generated” response, at least sometimes. However, as the publication notes, they aren’t always accurate or highly related links. Certainly not as accurate as organic search results. They aren’t even the top organic results. Instead, these are links to the articles from which Google’s AI is copying information to generate its response.
For example, a search for “best CPU” gave Tom’s Hardware links to articles from Maketecheasier.com, Nanoreview.com, and MacPaw.com next to the SGE text. But none of those are the top results in the current search experience. Worst yet, two of those articles don’t even provide lists of the best CPUs. One is a comparison of two CPUs while the other provides a guide on “how to choose the best processor for your MacBook”. That probably won’t be the intent of most people searching for the “best CPU.”
Plagiarism without proper linking to web articles
There’s an even bigger problem with the SGE. The text that Google is passing off as an AI-generated response is usually copied from the linked articles. Sometimes it’s rephrased while some other times, it’s a word-to-word copy. The problem here is that most users won’t click those links because they have already got the information they were looking for. The information was originally provided by a human expert after careful research of a product. But the SGE blocks readers from going into the original source.
Google defended this behavior by saying that “generative responses are corroborated by sources from the web”. It added that “when a portion of a snapshot briefly includes content from a specific source, we will prominently highlight that source in the snapshot”. However, the SGE doesn’t tell users it’s a snippet from a web article, something the current search experience does. Instead, it makes the response look like generated by AI. There’s a button in the top right corner to see the source of the information provided in the SGE text, but it’s too much of a hassle.
All of this is a massive problem. For publishers, Google is driving less traffic to websites by relaying information from articles directly as part of the search result. For readers, it’s a bot telling you which is the best CPU with full authority, even though it can never evaluate a CPU on its own. It’s passing off the results of research from human experts as its own. This is blatant plagiarism and also a contradiction to Google’s E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust) standard used to “decide which websites and authors should rank highly in organic search.”
Google is still experimenting with the AI-powered search experience
Google says that it is currently experimenting with this new search experience where AI-generated responses surface ahead of organic results. Things may change by the time it’s ready for a public launch. But as it stands, the SGE doesn’t appear to prioritize driving traffic offsite to web articles, something the company claims is a priority. If this approach becomes the default search experience, it could severely affect the web information ecosystem. With no traffic coming their way, top publishers may leave the open web while, effectively degrading the quality of information on the web.
Spotify is one of the top-choice apps when it comes to music streaming. The company has had a ton of experience and it has just begun to expand its feature-set. Podcasts and ebook support are just two of the new reasons the platform gives you to install it on some of the best phones out there.
But then it mishandled user data, so the EU had to fine it for $5.4 million, as AndroidHeadlines reports. Oops?
The European Union spent a long time arranging the specifics of how companies of all shapes and sizes are to handle user data. We won’t bore you with the specifics, but the requirements are hefty and ranging from where the data should be handled to how it should be stored.
This, of course, is regarding the type of data that can be associated with an individual in order to recognise them as a person. When not handled correctly, this GDPR data may be used for nasty things like mass marketing or scams, so it is actually an important topic.
That’s right, kids, Spotify was around way back when most of us were using over-ear headphones too!
The fine in question comes from the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection and is based on a complaint from way back in 2019. Talk about a blast from the past! It turns out that at one point, Spotify failed to provide customer data upon request, which is part of a user’s rights as per EU regulations.
But then it gets even better worse: Spotify failed to explain how they were using the data in question, which raised tons of concerns. And for context: this isn’t anything weird for the EU. When a company fails to give a good reason why it needs a certain type of data, a lot of EU citizens will be eager to pursue their rights.
In addition to the fine, Spotify is expected to present the complete set of requested data to the individual who submitted the complaint — even though at this point years have passed — along with the written process for data handling.
The Swedish PDA’s investigation concluded on the bright side, as it found that Spotify is doing things properly. That, however, won’t save the company from the aforementioned fine, so Spotify responded with intent to appeal this decision in the future.
Based on the recent reports by IOActive, Drones, also called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are vulnerable to code injection, which would result in gaining complete access to the firmware and core functionality of the drone.
Drones have been used in many industries like aviation, agriculture, and law enforcement. They are often operated remotely, which offers an attack surface for threat actors to gain control over them.
Stealing a drone can offer much more sensitive information for an attacker and can also pave the way for implanting malware on the system.
According to the report, it is possible to exploit a drone by injecting a specific Electromagnetic glitch during a firmware update that could result in complete control over the drone.
EMFI Attack Against Drones
DJI drones are considered for testing purposes as they offer many security features in their products like Encrypted firmware, Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), Secure Boot, etc.
Furthermore, the whitepaper published by IOActive also covered Attack Surface, Technical Background, First and Second Approaches, and their Mitigations.
Attack Surface
Source: IOActive
Backend
There are multiple attack surfaces for a drone in a wireless network. Like any other system with a backend, drones are also made up of servers vulnerable to SQL injections, SSRF, and many other backend-based attacks.
Mobile Apps
Today’s drones are controlled by mobile applications mostly, which can be a great attack surface for threat actors.
The vulnerabilities include operating system and application-based vulnerabilities.
Radio-Frequency
RF-based attacks like interference, jamming, spoofing, and other attacks are also possible on these UAVs.
DJI drones also have OcuSync, a protocol for low latency between the controller and the drone.
OcuSync protocol can automatically switch between multiple communication channels to have stable and strong connectivity.
It can also be used in environments where large radio interference is present.
Physical Device
Physical access to a drone can give a wide range of information to threat actors like firmware and other sensitive information.
The whitepaper mentioned that the technical information for this attack vector relied on three main types of side-channel attacks,
Timing Attacks
This attack relies on targeting the time taken for the completion of an operation which can be used for other attacks like breaking cryptographic implementation and guessing PIN numbers.
Power analysis
The voltage path for the chip is tracked and monitored for Simple Power Analysis for a targeted operation. Later, this can be used to recover secrets like cryptographic keys.
EM Analysis
An EM probe can retrieve power-based information, which can be less invasive. However, it must be kept very near to the drone chip.
EMFI (ElectroMagnetic Fault Injection)
The drones are susceptible to an EMFI, which can disrupt the hardware while processing some operations due to the EM probe attack.
This can change a lot of behavior of the CPU of the drones resulting in a gain complete takeover of the drone. IOActive has published a complete attack report and mitigation steps.
The Nothing Phone (2) is coming next month, and according to the company’s CEO, it could deliver a notably different design. Carl Pei did not flat-out say this, but he did hint at it, in a way.
The Nothing Phone (2) could offer a notably different design, according to Nothing’s CEO
What exactly happened? Well, Twitter users have been sending him one specific meme, intensively, it seems. It’s a meme in which a guy is unpacking the same shirt he already has on him, one is representing the Phone (1) and the other the Phone (2).
Carl Pei reshared that image on Twitter, while adding: “To everyone sending me this: just you wait and see!”. If that’s not an obvious hint of a different design, then we don’t know what is.
Things do get a bit complicated here, though. The Nothing Phone (2) design did surface in CAD-based renders earlier this month. Soon after that, Carl Pei called that info ‘fake’. The tipster who shared it, @OnLeaks, is usually spot on when it comes to such info, so he was a bit confused at first.
Tipsters are convinced it will look very similar to the Nothing Phone (1)
He went in to confirm the info, and he’s still convinced that his leak is accurate to a high degree. There may be some changes to it, but not anything major, let alone something that would justify the use of the word ‘fake’.
He said that such a term is “greatly exaggerated”. Max Weinbach also said that the leaked renders are “97% of the way there”, suggesting that the design is close to the final one.
If the two tipsters are accurate, then Carl Pei is simply trying to hype up the phone. On the other hand, perhaps he missed the mark entirely. We’ll have to wait and see.
The Nothing Phone (2) will become official on July 11. This will become the company’s second smartphone. The first-gen model arrived in July last year, and it really did manage to attract attention with its design.
Apple’s iPhones are not exactly cheap, so every news regarding a price hike is concerning. The latest one, however, is borderline shocking. Why? Well, it claims that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will get a major price hike.
The iPhone 15 Pro models could get a major price hike
How much are we talking about here? Based on the information from a Wall Street analyst, Dan Ives (via CNBC), both phones could cost up to $200 more than current-gen models. Needless to say, that’s a major difference.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are already very expensive. The iPhone 14 Pro starts at $999, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at $1,099. If we add $200 to each price tag, that means the iPhone 15 Pro could cost $1,199, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max could set you back $1,299.
Do note we’re talking about starting price tags here. Models with more storage will be even more expensive than that. Do note that it’s possible the price hike won’t be as high, it’s possible we’re talking about $100-200.
Dan Ives does not have the exact price tags, but he’s usually great at predicting them. He did, however, say up to $200, not exactly $200, so… we’ll have to wait and see.
The reasons behind it were not shared
What’s the reason behind this? Mr. Ives did not share any details regarding that, but the new iPhones will get some notable improvements, so that could be the reason behind the change.
They’re rumored to come with new frames, made out of titanium. On top of that, both phones are expected to offer improved cameras, especially the iPhone 15 Pro Max, as it’s expected to include a periscope telephoto camera for the first time ever in an iPhone.
All iPhone 15 units will ditch a Lightning port for a Type-C port as well, and so on. This is just a rumor at this point, we won’t know anything for sure until Apple confirms it. The iPhone 15 series is expected to launch in September.
Apple makes some of the best smartwatches on the market, and its most bang-for-your-buck model, the Apple Watch SE (2020), just became even more affordable at Walmart. A massive discount of $130 brings this wearable health and fitness companion at nearly half of its usual price!
Get it right here!
The Apple Watch SE (2020) in a nutshell
The first generation of the Apple Watch SE comes with Apple’s S5 chipset, which is the same chipset that the Apple Watch 5 came with. It also comes with 32GB of internal storage an 1GB of RAM.
Design-wise, the OG Apple Watch SE is made out of an Ion-X strengthened glass front and ceramic/sapphire crystal back, with an aluminum frame combining the two. The front glass is protecting a Retina LTPO OLED display with a peak brightness of 1000 nits, measuring at 1.78 inches.
You can opt for the version that supports mobile coverage and eSIM if you want to be able to go out without your phone and still have service for contactless payments and calls.
The battery of the Apple Watch SE (2020) holds out about a day (or a little more depending on how you use it), and it charges wirelessly.
As for software, even though it is now three years old, Apple still supports its first SE wearable, and users will continue to enjoy major watchOS updates for at least two more years, so you are safe in terms of new features and optimizations for the near future.
Is it worth buying the Apple Watch SE in 2023?
Absolutely! To put it simply, the Apple Watch SE offers you almost everything that the more expensive and newer models do, and for much less money at that. It might be a little slower at times, but it is definitely not often enough to ruin the user experience. The almost 50% discount we have listed here makes it an even easier option to recommend!
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