Month: June 2023
Google admits Reddit Blackout made search results worse: Report
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Saturn’s rings steal the show in new image from Webb telescope
Webb turned its gold-coated mirror toward Saturn this week.
Enlarge / Saturn stars in this near-infrared image taken June 25 by the James Webb Space Telescope. (credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSci)
The James Webb Space Telescope has observed Saturn for the first time, completing a family portrait of the Solar System’s ringed planets nearly a year after the mission’s first jaw-dropping image release.
Webb’s near-infrared camera took the picture of Saturn on June 25. Scientists added orange color to the monochrome picture to produce the image released Friday.
The picture shows Saturn’s iconic icy rings shining around the disk of the gas giant, which appears much darker in near-infrared due to the absorption of sunlight by methane particles suspended high in the planet’s atmosphere.
Snapchat+ Surges Past 4 Million Paid Subscribers
Snapchat, the popular social media platform, has recently announced a significant milestone for its subscription service, Snapchat+. In just one
The post Snapchat+ Surges Past 4 Million Paid Subscribers appeared first on ReadWrite.
Snapchat, the popular social media platform, has recently announced a significant milestone for its subscription service, Snapchat+. In just one year since its launch, Snapchat+ has reached an impressive 4 million paid subscribers. This achievement highlights the growing popularity and appeal of the platform’s premium features. In addition to this exciting news, Snapchat has also unveiled two upcoming features that will be exclusively available to subscribers. Let’s take a closer look at these new features and the overall growth of Snapchat+.
One of the upcoming features that Snapchat+ subscribers can look forward to is called “Expressive Chat Messages.” This feature allows users to send messages in larger font sizes, adding an element of emphasis and expressiveness to their conversations. With this new capability, users can ensure that their messages stand out and make a lasting impact on the recipient.
Another exciting addition to the Snapchat+ subscription service is “Custom Chat Colors.” By default, Snapchat displays user names in red during chats. However, subscribers will soon have the ability to select their preferred color for their name, allowing for a personalized and visually appealing chat experience. This feature enables users to express their individuality and make their mark in the Snapchat community.
Snapchat’s achievement of reaching 4 million paid subscribers in just one year is a testament to the platform’s growing popularity. The journey to this milestone began with the launch of Snapchat+ in June 2022. Within a few months, the subscription service gained its first million subscribers in August of the same year. By February 2023, Snapchat+ had crossed the 2 million subscriber mark, showcasing its rapid growth and appeal among users.
While this milestone is undoubtedly significant, it’s important to note that the 4 million paid subscribers represent only a fraction of Snapchat’s massive user base. With 375 million daily active users, the subscription service still has room to grow and attract more users to its premium features.
Snapchat+ offers a host of exclusive features that enhance the user experience and provide added value to subscribers. One notable feature is “My AI,” an AI-powered chatbot initially only available to subscribers. However, Snapchat later made this feature accessible to all users, albeit with exclusive perks for Snapchat+ subscribers. These perks include a new generative AI feature that allows subscribers to send Snaps of their activities and receive a generative Snap in return from the in-app chatbot.
In addition to exclusive chatbot features, Snapchat+ subscribers enjoy a range of benefits. These include access to experimental and pre-release features, customization options such as custom app themes and icons, the ability to pin their No. 1 BFF, and more. These unique offerings provide subscribers with a premium Snapchat experience and set them apart from non-subscribers.
To access the exclusive features and benefits of Snapchat+, users can subscribe for $3.99 per month. This affordable price point makes the subscription service accessible to a wide range of users, further contributing to its growing subscriber base. Snapchat+ is currently available in several countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The availability of Snapchat+ in these regions ensures that users worldwide can enjoy the premium features and benefits offered by the subscription service.
First reported on TechCrunch
The post Snapchat+ Surges Past 4 Million Paid Subscribers appeared first on ReadWrite.
VMware, AMD, Samsung and RISC-V Push For Confidential Computing Standards
VMware has joined AMD, Samsung, and members of the RISC-V community to work on an open and cross-platform framework for the development and operation of applications using confidential computing hardware. The Register reports: Revealing the effort at the Confidential Computing Summit 2023 in San Francisco, the companies say they aim to bring about an industry transition to practical confidential computing by developing the open source Certifier Framework for Confidential Computing project. Among other goals, the project aims to standardize on a set of platform-independent developer APIs that can be used to develop or adapt application code to run in a confidential computing environment, with a Certifier Service overseeing them in operation. VMware claims to have researched, developed and open sourced the Certifier Framework, but with AMD on board, plus Samsung (which develops its own smartphone chips), the group has the x86 and Arm worlds covered. Also on board is the Keystone project, which is developing an enclave framework to support confidential computing on RISC-V processors.
Confidential computing is designed to protect applications and their data from theft or tampering by protecting them inside a secure enclave, or trusted execution environment (TEE). This uses hardware-based security mechanisms to prevent access from everything outside the enclave, including the host operating system and any other application code. Such security protections are likely to be increasingly important in the context of applications running in multi-cloud environments, VMware reckons.
Another scenario for confidential computing put forward by Microsoft, which believes confidential computing will become the norm — is multi-party computation and analytics. This sees several users each contribute their own private data to an enclave, where it can be analyzed securely to produce results much richer than each would have got purely from their own data set. This is described as an emerging class of machine learning and “data economy” workloads that are based on sensitive data and models aggregated from multiple sources, which will be enabled by confidential computing. However, VMware points out that like many useful hardware features, it will not be widely adopted until it becomes easier to develop applications in the new paradigm.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
VMware has joined AMD, Samsung, and members of the RISC-V community to work on an open and cross-platform framework for the development and operation of applications using confidential computing hardware. The Register reports: Revealing the effort at the Confidential Computing Summit 2023 in San Francisco, the companies say they aim to bring about an industry transition to practical confidential computing by developing the open source Certifier Framework for Confidential Computing project. Among other goals, the project aims to standardize on a set of platform-independent developer APIs that can be used to develop or adapt application code to run in a confidential computing environment, with a Certifier Service overseeing them in operation. VMware claims to have researched, developed and open sourced the Certifier Framework, but with AMD on board, plus Samsung (which develops its own smartphone chips), the group has the x86 and Arm worlds covered. Also on board is the Keystone project, which is developing an enclave framework to support confidential computing on RISC-V processors.
Confidential computing is designed to protect applications and their data from theft or tampering by protecting them inside a secure enclave, or trusted execution environment (TEE). This uses hardware-based security mechanisms to prevent access from everything outside the enclave, including the host operating system and any other application code. Such security protections are likely to be increasingly important in the context of applications running in multi-cloud environments, VMware reckons.
Another scenario for confidential computing put forward by Microsoft, which believes confidential computing will become the norm — is multi-party computation and analytics. This sees several users each contribute their own private data to an enclave, where it can be analyzed securely to produce results much richer than each would have got purely from their own data set. This is described as an emerging class of machine learning and “data economy” workloads that are based on sensitive data and models aggregated from multiple sources, which will be enabled by confidential computing. However, VMware points out that like many useful hardware features, it will not be widely adopted until it becomes easier to develop applications in the new paradigm.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Blocking News Stories: Google’s Response to New Canadian Law
Google has announced that it will block Canadian news articles from its search engine and other services in response to
The post Blocking News Stories: Google’s Response to New Canadian Law appeared first on ReadWrite.
Google has announced that it will block Canadian news articles from its search engine and other services in response to a new law that would require tech companies to pay publishers for content. This move comes after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also vowed to blackout Canadian publishers on its platforms, stating that the law is “fundamentally flawed”.
The Canadian government passed the Online News Act last week, which aims to compel tech companies to negotiate compensation deals with news organizations for distributing links to news stories. Google and Meta have been engaged in a battle with the Canadian government over this law, arguing that they already drive web traffic to news sites and should not be forced to pay.
Supporters of the legislation argue that it could provide much-needed support to the struggling news industry, which has seen the closure of over 450 news outlets in Canada since 2008. They claim that digital platforms and social media have gained control over advertising revenues, diverting them away from local news organizations.
According to government estimates, the new law could inject around $329 million into the Canadian news industry, which has been grappling with layoffs and downsizing in recent years.
Canada’s Online News Act was modeled after a similar effort in Australia, where Meta and Google initially blocked news articles before eventually striking deals with news publishers after tense negotiations. This approach has sparked a bill in California, where tech companies have also threatened to pull out all news content if forced to pay publishers.
While major publishers in Canada support the new law, some media observers and tech writers have expressed concerns. Casey Newton, a tech writer, argues that a tax on displaying links could “effectively break the internet” if applied to the entire web. Critics have also questioned the lack of transparency regarding who will receive compensation from tech companies and raised concerns about potential system manipulation by disinformation sites.
Press advocates warn that blocking news articles in response to the new law could have a detrimental effect on civil society and the public’s access to credible journalism. Liz Woolery, who leads digital policy at PEN America, an organization that supports freedom of expression, expressed disappointment at Google and Meta’s decision. She emphasizes the importance of ensuring public access to news, especially in the face of increasing disinformation.
In conclusion, Google’s decision to block Canadian news articles in response to the new law reflects the ongoing battle between tech companies and the Canadian government. While supporters believe the law will provide much-needed support to the news industry, critics raise concerns about potential implications for the internet and lack of transparency. The impact on civil society and the public’s access to credible journalism remains a significant concern.
First reported on NPR
The post Blocking News Stories: Google’s Response to New Canadian Law appeared first on ReadWrite.
FTC cracks down on fake review and influencers
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