Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 6 & Fold 6 Leak Again

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Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 6 & Fold 6 Leak Again
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We’re a little more than a week away from Galaxy Unpacked, so we’re seeing loads of leaks of the new foldables that Samsung is planning to announce, including the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and the Galaxy Z Fold 6. We’ve already seen these foldables in every color, and now, thanks to Evleaks, we’re seeing them once again with even more angles.

Below, you’ll see the Galaxy Z Flip 6 in four colors. This includes yellow, mint, light blue, and gray color. It’s interesting that Samsung is not providing a true black color this time around – not even on the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Judging by these renders, there doesn’t appear to be many differences from the previous models. Aside from the colored ring around the cameras, they match each color of the Flip 6. Samsung is sticking with that big screen on the front that looks like a folder. This means it will be smaller than what the new Motorola Razr+ is launching.

Rumors are pointing to the Galaxy Z Flip 6 having a price increase this year, starting at $1,199. That’s $100 more than the previous model. It’s expected to sport the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 finally comes in pink!

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is going to be available in three colors this year – midnight blue, gray and a light pink. Though, it is likely that we will see a few more colors available that will be exclusive to Samsung.com. This does mark the first foldable that is actually being made available in a pink color, likely to appeal to women. Though women are more likely to get the Flip 6, since they have smaller pockets.

With the Galaxy Z Fold 6, we’re still expecting this to be largely the same as the previous model. Though the displays are going to be a tad larger thanks to smaller bezels, with the corners being more sharp, versus rounded. Inside, it’ll sport the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, 12GB of RAM and likely starting at 256GB of storage.

Samsung is set to unveil both of these products, and many more, at Unpacked on July 10.


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Slack starts removing features from free customers

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Slack starts removing features from free customers
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Slack has been growing a lot lately, so the company has decided to start removing features it offered to free customers. If you’re not paying for Slack, you’ll soon be unable to use some features as the company puts them behind a paywall.

The first one that will no longer be available to free customers come August is free lifetime message history. Slack announced over the weekend that starting August 26, it will begin deleting messages and files more than one year old from free workspaces on a rolling basis.

Slack says that it has changed subscriptions and features to maintain the quality of the app for its customers, but since its customers base grew so much over the years, it’s now unable to provide non-paying customers with some features that require a lot of resources.

That said, Slack will no longer keep messages and files from the lifetime of your free workspace. If you’re keeping your files stored on Slack’s database and you’re a non-paying customer, everything that’s older than a year will be deleted.

According to Slack, customers who choose to not pay for a subscription will have full access to the past 90 days of message and file history, and the remaining 275 days will become available if they decide to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Customers who eventually upgrade will have their messages and files based on their chosen retention period stored, with an option to keep all history.

It’s worth noting that in order to avoid losing your message and file history, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid subscription before August 26. If you’d rather remain freemium, then your only other option would be to export your stored files, which can be done with the free version of Slack.

Currently, Slack offers three subscription tiers: Pro ($8.75), Business+ ($15), and Enterprise Grid (price varies). All three subscription tiers offer customers unlimited message history.


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Take a look at official Galaxy Z Fold 6 & Flip 6 cases

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Take a look at official Galaxy Z Fold 6 & Flip 6 cases
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The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 will become official next month. The two phones will launch on July 10 in Paris, the company has confirmed. With that being said, official Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 cases have just surfaced.

Following leaks of the devices themselves, we get to check out their cases. As a reminder, some cases did leak recently, but this leak delivers more options and more images in general. It comes from Evan Blass aka evleaks.

The official Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 & Galaxy Z Flip 6 cases have just surfaced

Those of you who are familiar with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 cases will be right at home here. In the gallery below you’ll see the well-known ‘Slim S Pen Case’, ‘Eco-Leather Case, and ‘Standing Case with Strap’ (and kickstand) for the Galaxy Z Fold 6. All three of those options are shown in several color variants.

In regards to the Galaxy Z Flip 6, there are two options shown here. The ‘Silicone Case with Ring’ is shown, and the other one seems to be a regular silicone case with interesting designs on the back. It’s possible this belongs to the ‘Clear Gadget Case’ lineup without the grip ring, or the ‘Flipsuit Case’ lineup. Both of those case variants are shown in several colors/options below.

The two phones are not launching alone

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be wider this time around. It will be close to the competition in that regard. It won’t be a huge change (in general) compared to its predecessor, however. The cameras will likely stay the same, the display crease won’t be much improved, and so on… well, at least according to rumors.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 won’t be that much different either. Samsung will keep a similar design language, with some changes and a spec bump, of course. Those two Android devices will launch alongside a handful of other products on July 10. The Galaxy Ring is coming, Samsung’s first smart ring. Some smartwatches and earbuds will also be announced.


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Google TV adds 10 more free channels, expanding the total to over 130

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Google TV adds 10 more free channels, expanding the total to over 130
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Google TV has been expanding its free channel catalog since last year. And, recently the platform has quietly boosted its FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television) channel offering by adding ten more channels. This also means that Google TV now has over 130 of its free channels. It is worth noting that the new channels are rolling out as part of Google TV’s June 2024 update.

Google TV once again expands its built-in free channel offering, boosting the total to over 130

The news comes via StreamingBetter which recently discovered the list of ten free channels that were added to Google TV. It includes channels like FilmRise Western, ION+, Johnny Carson TV, Noticias Telemundo Ahora, Property & Reno, Real Disaster Channel, Supermarket Sweep, The FBI Files, World’s Wildest Police Videos, and Yahoo Finance. You can access all these channels under “Google TV” in the Live tab. The best part is that you don’t even need to install any third-party apps to watch them.

Let’s not forget that these new channels join the vast lineup of over 800 FAST channels which already are one of the highlights of Google TV. Though most of these channels were sourced by its content partners like Tubi, Plex, Pluto TV, and Haystack, only a small portion are from Google itself. For instance, only 80 of its channels were available at the launch. However, the list has been growing ever since. In March this year, Google TV added eight new channels from CBC, FilmRise, and Scripps Networks.

The company has been focusing on free ad-supported channels for some time now

More recently, Google has been increasing its focus on free ad-supported channels since it could be a revenue generator. And, to make it happen, the tech giant even announced a new ‘Google TV network’ earlier this month. Notably, Google wants advertisers’ involvement with its FAST platform with this move.

Time will tell how profitable this decision will turn out for Google. But one thing is certain there’ll be more free channels coming your way in the near future. Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Google TV will have something for everyone to enjoy.


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The EU monitoring Microsoft & Google AI deals to prevent oligopoly

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The EU monitoring Microsoft & Google AI deals to prevent oligopoly
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The EU is monitoring the latest moves by Microsoft and Google in the field of AI. The organization wants to make sure that antitrust rules are followed. For some time now, the EU has been legislating in favor of free competition in member countries, which has especially affected companies like Apple.

AI-based products and services are taking over the tech industry at an incredible rate. Currently, many companies are implementing AI, including non-tech ones. In the mobile sector, Google was the main pioneer in the implementation of complex AI models.

Google and Microsoft under EU scrutiny over AI deals

The portable and compact nature of smartphones prevents the integration of big LLMs. However, with this in mind, Google developed Gemini Nano, the “lite” version of its Gemini AI models. Currently, the model is integrated into the Pixel 8 series and the Galaxy S24 series. Its integration into Samsung mobile devices is one of the aspects that is being studied by the EU.

The organization fears that these types of agreements between industry giants will affect smaller players. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, said that “big tech companies could make it difficult for smaller foundation model developers to reach end users.” Part of the concern is the amount of resources required to develop AI models.

Regarding Microsoft, Vestager said the EU wants to “understand whether certain exclusivity clauses could have a negative effect on competitors.” In this case, she is referring to the huge investment Microsoft is making in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. So far, the Redmond giant has invested a whopping $13 billion. Additionally, the EU is monitoring situations where large companies buy smaller ones to get talent. Such is the case with Microsoft’s acquisition of Inflection.

A full legislation for AI is still pending

Having taken the tech industry by storm, legislation around AI-based products and developments is still pending. The pace at which the AI industry develops makes the task even more difficult. Regarding this, the EU executive said that “a number of other preliminary antitrust investigations are ongoing into various practices in AI-related markets.” Vestager also noted that “now is the time to act. Strong competition enforcement is always needed at times of big industrial and technological changes.”

The EU’s goal is to prevent a few big companies from monopolizing the AI segment. “We remain vigilant,” Vestager added.


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Google Keep now supports using two accounts side by side on Android tablets and foldables

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Google Keep now supports using two accounts side by side on Android tablets and foldables
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Google Keep logo | Image credit — Google

Google Keep, the popular note-taking app by Google, is rolling out a new feature for Android users with large-screen devices like tablets and foldables. You can now use multiple Google accounts simultaneously within the app.

This means you can have two Keep windows open side-by-side, each logged into a different Google account. This is particularly handy for users who manage both personal and work accounts, or for those who simply have multiple Google accounts.

This new multi-account support builds upon the existing multi-instance support that was introduced last year. This previous feature allowed users to open two separate instances of the Keep app in split-screen mode, which was useful for viewing two different notes at the same time.

Now, with multi-account support, each of these split-screen instances can be logged into a different Google account. This opens up a whole new level of productivity and flexibility for Google Keep users on large-screen Android devices.

Having side by side Google Keep instance with different accounts will now be possible | Images credit — Google

The rollout of this new feature is happening now for both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. This means that if your Google Workspace domain is set to Rapid Release, you should be seeing this feature soon, if you haven’t already. If your domain is set to Scheduled Release, the feature will be rolled out a bit later.

This feature is available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as Workspace Individual Subscribers and users with personal Google accounts. So, no matter what type of Google account you have, if you’re using Google Keep on a large-screen Android device, you’ll be able to take advantage of this new multi-account support.

This update is just the latest in a series of improvements that Google has been making to its Workspace apps. It’s clear that Google wants to make its productivity tools as useful as possible for users of large screen devices.


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FCC concerned about political AI robocalls still being a thing

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FCC concerned about political AI robocalls still being a thing
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The FCC is concerned about the social dangers of political AI robocalls. Jessica Rosenworcel, president of the agency, sent letters to nine big telecommunications companies. The agency wants to know if companies have a plan to attack these types of calls.

A political AI robocall is a method of deception that seeks to influence the actions of some sectors of the population for political reasons. The bad actors behind these calls turn to AI services to imitate the voices of political figures. Then, they implement them in automated phone calls with prerecorded audio to deliver a fake message. This method can influence current and future electoral processes.

Political AI robocalls have already influenced electoral processes, and the FCC is concerned

In fact, there has already been at least one case of this style. Several voters skipped the New Hampshire Democratic primary due to a hoax related to political AI robocalls. Therefore, it is a worrying situation that requires immediate action. However, it seems that the FCC is not convinced that telecommunications companies are doing enough.

A Rosenworcel’s letter says the following: “We know that AI technologies will make it cheap and easy to flood our networks with deepfakes used to mislead and betray trust. It is especially chilling to see AI voice cloning used to impersonate candidates during elections. As AI tools become more accessible to bad actors and scammers, we need to do everything we can to keep this junk off our networks.”

Up to nine major telecommunications companies, including AT&T and Comcast, received the letter. The agency wants to know what they are doing to stop political AI robocalls. It’s noteworthy that the US government banned all AI robocalls in February. This includes AI robocalls of all kinds, whether political or not. There is even authorization to pursue those involved in these types of calls. So, the FCC wants a breakdown of the strategies that telecoms are carrying out.

Rosenworcel also wants to force companies to warn about the use of AI in TV or radio ads. However, Sean Cooksey, chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), opposes this initiative. Cooksey believes that such a decision would override the authority of the FEC over electoral processes.


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Meta tests user-created AI chatbots on Instagram

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Meta tests user-created AI chatbots on Instagram
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Image credit — Meta

Meta is introducing AI chatbots on Instagram, starting with a test run in the U.S. These chatbots, developed by creators through Meta AI Studio, will be integrated into Instagram’s messaging feature. They are designed to engage with users in a fun and interactive way, offering personalized responses and recommendations.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions these AI avatars as an evolving “art form” that will improve over time. While the initial focus is on entertainment and engagement, he believes that these chatbots will eventually become sophisticated tools for creators and businesses to interact with their audiences.

To ensure transparency, Meta will clearly label these chatbots as AI so users are aware they are interacting with a machine. The company is collaborating with creators like Wasted and Don Allen Stevenson III to develop and refine the early versions of these chatbots.

The initial test will involve around 50 creators and a small percentage of users. Meta plans to gradually expand access over the next few months, aiming for a full launch by August.

Zuckerberg highlighted the potential of AI avatars to cater to diverse interests and provide personalized experiences. He mentioned the need for a wide range of APIs to reflect different preferences and enable creators and businesses to develop their own AI chatbots.

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These chatbots could help creators manage their massive influx of messages from fans by offering automated yet engaging responses. This would allow creators to connect with their audience on a larger scale while saving time and effort.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the challenges in creating truly engaging and trustworthy AI avatars. He sees this as an ongoing experiment and encourages creators to explore different approaches to discover what works best.

Meta’s foray into AI chatbots on Instagram aligns with the growing trend of integrating artificial intelligence into social media platforms. As this technology continues to advance, we can definitely expect more AI-centric experiences for users in the future.

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Spotify has 250,000 video podcast shows; big annual growth

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Spotify has 250,000 video podcast shows; big annual growth
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In a recent blog post, Spotify highlighted the huge growth of video podcasts available on its platform. The format is becoming increasingly popular and helping to improve audience retention.

When thinking about podcasts, the first thing that probably comes to mind is audio-based shows. Many people tend to listen to podcasts during their daily activities. Classic podcasts are especially useful when you’re busy with tasks that require your visual attention. However, there are times of the day when users can give their full attention to the show. In those cases, a video podcast may be more attractive.

Spotify boasts the growth of available video podcast shows

Video podcasts are especially popular on YouTube due to the nature of the platform. Spotify began allowing video podcasts in 2020, first in a limited number of shows. Now, Spotify is boasting about the growth of the catalog of video podcasts they offer, reaching 250,000 in 2024. In comparison, the platform offered 100,000 in 2023, so the numbers more than doubled.

Apparently, video podcasts boast higher retention rates compared to the traditional format. This means that people listen to them for longer, probably because they offer a visual-enriched experience. Good production, set design, or being able to see the facial expressions and body gestures of the podcast participants can make a difference.

The blog post also includes statistics that further explain the growth of the video podcast format on Spotify. For example, since its availability, it has experienced 39% annual growth in views. Additionally, the number of creators using this format is growing by 70% annually. The company even claims that almost two-thirds of the American public prefers video podcasts over the traditional format.

So, now Spotify seems to be placing a lot of importance on video podcasts. It will be interesting to see if, in the future, they are able to surpass YouTube in this section. In the end, users will benefit from the fierce competition between both companies.


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