The Texas Rangers could be the next team to disappear from Bally Sports, as the team’s broadcasting rights payment is due on June 15. The Rangers are reportedly seeking a new deal with Bally Sports, but the two sides have been unable to reach an agreement. If no deal is reached, the Rangers could be forced to find a new broadcasting partner, which could mean their games would no longer be available on Bally Sports.
The Rangers are not the only team that is facing this issue. Several other teams, including the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, and Miami Marlins, are also in the midst of negotiations with Bally Sports over their broadcasting rights. If no deals are reached, these teams could also be forced to find new broadcasting partners.
Bally Sports continues to not pay what they are legally obligated too
The situation with the Rangers and Bally Sports is a sign of the growing tensions between teams and their broadcasting partners. In recent years, the cost of broadcasting rights has skyrocketed, and teams are now demanding more money from their partners. This has led to a number of disputes, and it is possible that more teams could be forced to find new broadcasting partners in the future.
The loss of the Rangers’ games from Bally Sports would be a major blow to the network. The Rangers are one of the most popular teams in the country, and their games are a major draw for viewers. If the Rangers are no longer on Bally Sports, it is likely that the network will lose a significant number of viewers.
The situation with the Rangers and Bally Sports is a developing story, and it is unclear what the outcome will be. However, it is clear that the relationship between teams and their broadcasting partners is under strain, and this could lead to more teams being forced to find new broadcasting partners in the future.
Google announced this week it’s adding a few new features to its Maps app on Android, iOS and desktop. All three improvements are aimed at making Google Maps easier to use when you’re planning a trip or just want to explore with the help of the app.
Immersive View is not really a new feature, as Google launched the feature earlier this year. However, the search giant announced that it’s now rolling out Immersive View in four new cities: Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, and Venice.
In addition, Immersive View is now available for over 500 iconic landmarks around the world. This particular improvement is coming to Android and iOS in the coming days, Google confirmed. Being able to see the landmarks from around the location you plan to visit is a nice feature to have on your phone.
Also, Google Maps will provide you with important information like what the weather will be like at different times of day and how crowded it will. Being able to know these things in advance makes a big difference if you have only a limited time to explore certain locations.
Another new feature coming to Google Maps on Android and iOS is the ability to track your trip progress with glanceable directions. Basically, you can now see the progress of your trip or route on your lock screen without having to open the app.
According to Google, glanceable directions start rolling out globally this month for walking, cycling and driving modes, so everyone should have the new feature ready by June’s end.
Last but not least, those who use Google Maps on desktop are getting new updates to Recents. Improvements to Recents include the ability to save places even after closing the Google Maps window. Also, you’ll be able to remove places viewed, plan multiple trips at once, as well as share a wide range of places, including attractions and hotels, with the person(s) you’re traveling with.
Switching users on Android is set to become more fun than ever, thanks to a new animation. That animation has been added along with Android 14 Beta 3, and it will be making its way to the final build.
New animation in Android 14 Beta 3 makes switching users more fun
With Android 13, Google added new icons for user profiles, and also used a fade animation when switching between them. Android 14 Beta 3 has reworked the UI and introduced a better-looking animation. You can check it out below.
Android 14 Beta 3 has a new animation when switching users.
Once you go to switch a user, the screen will quickly fade and show you a full-screen profile icon. That profile icon will have a circular progress bar around it, and once it goes full circle, a new profile appears.
It’s always nice to see when Google is polishing Android, and this definitely belongs in that category. It’s not a major change, but it’s nice to see nonetheless. You’ll probably appreciate it if you’re changing profiles often.
The smoothness of the animation needs to be improved, though
One thing Google could improve is the smoothness of this animation, but we presume that it will happen once the stable build of Android 14 comes knocking. We’re still a couple of months away from that point.
Profiles on Android work similarly to those on Windows OS. You can basically set up different users for the same phone, so that the other users don’t have access to your documents, or anything you’ve installed, basically. Those users get a fresh new canvas.
You can even set up guest profiles, which you can set up with some apps, so that others can borrow your phone when needed. It’s not a feature that most regular users will be using, but it can be useful. You can access these settings via Settings -> System -> Multiple users.
In a recent update, it became clear to netizens that the Google Bard EU launch will see some delays. This delay is in light of the concerns the region has for the privacy of the citizens, they’d use this service. Over the past few months, the internet has seen some drastic measures that the EU has taken to ensure that its citizens stay safe on the internet.
Some of these measures include requiring big tech firms that access users’ private information to guard it jealously. Most big tech companies are in a tight spot concerning complying with this requirement from the EU, as it calls for a drastic change in how they conduct their business. The EU is asking that these firms store all user data on EU soil, even though most tech firms operate their servers in other regions.
Also, the data protection body in the EU requires detailed information on how big tech firms will protect user data. According to this body, it is still expecting full details on how Bard will treat the user’s data. For this reason, the long-awaited Google Bard EU launch in the EU will be put on hold for the meantime.
Google Bard EU launch faces some challenges concerning privacy
Google Bard is the tech giant’s AI model that is going head-to-head with the Bing chatbot. This AI technology went into its experiment stage a few months ago after gaining some momentum in the industry. After its experiment phase was over, Google began rolling it out to various regions, now this AI chatbot is available in over 180 countries.
Sadly, this AI chatbot is not available in any country that is part of the EU due to some privacy concerns. To a certain extent, it is important to be wary of AI chatbots and other models, hence the need for regulations. So, to allow Google Bard to launch in the EU, the tech firm needed to provide certain information.
This information is to explain in detail how Google Bard will protect user data privacy in the region. But for some reason, Google has not been able to provide enough information on how Bard will protect user data privacy. For now, the body in charge of user data protection in the EU is reviewing Bard in search of possible flaws.
Since this review is ongoing, the Google Bard EU launch will not be taking place this week. Netizens living in the EU will have to wait till the review is over before finding out if they’d get access to use Google Bard’s services. If the EU finds Bard wanting in terms of its ability to protect user data, the chatbot might not launch in the region.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT also came under fire in the EU after its launch due to privacy concerns. Without the current review going on, Google might have also faced a similar fate in the EU as did their rivals. However, more information on this matter will be made available in the coming weeks.
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.
