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Facebook Is Launching Its New Gaming App Giving Competition To Twitch And Youtube

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The gaming community is becoming more significant in today’s world with every passing day. It has become a prominent source of income for many big companies. Companies like Twitch and YouTube are very popular for streaming video games for the gaming community. It is also a great opportunity for independent game developers.

But, apart from Twitch and YouTube, Facebook also declared its new gaming application. The company will be launching the application today focusing mainly on the streaming community. Facebook is also thinking about the casual audience and hence will be also adding casual games in the application. It will include games like Words with Friends and similar types that can be played to kill time.

The timing of the launch

It seems like, with the advent of the modern age, the orthodox of not enhancing the idea of gaming is eventually disappearing. Moreover, big companies like Google (Stadia), Twitch, YouTube, and now Facebook are trying hard to promote the gaming culture. But, with the pandemic holding us prisoners in our homes, the hype of gaming has increased overnight. In this outbreak, around $160 billion business in gaming is making success rapidly.

After, Google made the Pro version of Stadia free for two months and Trivia is back on track, this is the perfect timing. So, Facebook also decided to roll out its new gaming application and help people coping in this quarantine phase. Moreover, the gaming community also strengthens social interaction while maintaining social distancing at the same time.

Investing in gaming is one of the top priorities

Facebook has around 2.5 billion active monthly users. And, out of these 700 million users shows an active interest in gaming content. So, Facebook was planning to launch a gaming app around June. But, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Facebook decided to prepone the launch in April.

Fidji Simo, the head of the Facebook app said that it is important to invest in the gaming community. Because it is not just a form of entertainment but also connects and brings people together. She has also declared that many new features will roll out eventually as they are currently focused on gaming. The app will be available only on Android devices for the time being. After the company receives permission from Apple, it will be available on iOS as well. The new app was tested in Southeast Asia and Latin America for the past eighteen months.

Facebook Gaming

Facebook has thrived since forever especially after acquiring Instagram and Whatsapp. And, with the launching of this new app, it will give tough competition to Amazon and Google as well. The company has been investing in the gaming sphere for a very long time now. It has collaborated with many creators and hosted many esports tournaments. Facebook Gaming is growing exponentially.

Facebook Gaming has witnessed an increase of 210% hours watched within a single year (2018-2019). StreamElements, a streaming software company has reported that the company’s streamers have increased by 6%. And, along with that the average number of viewers per hour has also increased by 78%. All these happened within a single year.

Twitch and YouTube are the main competitions in the market for Facebook Gaming. So, the company followed its strategies closely and partnered with Gonzalo “Zero” Barrios (Twitch streamer) and Corinna Kopf (YouTube personality).

New features

Facebook has also launched new tools that will help the users to stream videos. And, more users will be attracted to the platform if the tools are simpler to use. So, the company has added a “Go Live” button which will instantly help the users to go live. Facebook has also launched the Level Up Program to help some creators earn money through it.

This program is of immense advantage to those who are already streaming games on Facebook. They will get access to high-quality premium transcoding which includes 1080p and 60fps. Other features like unlocking Facebook Stars, limited access to beta products and features, and many more will be available. The user needs to create a “Gaming Video Creator” page and keep streaming videos for the next 14 days. These two are the prerequisites along with some other conditions and age bar.

Vivek Sharma, Facebook’s Vice President got gaming said that the craze for becoming a streamer increases every day. So, they are expecting the idea of live streaming to boom within a few days maximum.

Medium

Medium’s Content On COVID-19 Becomes Questionable Because What Can Be Right Today Can Go Wrong Tomorrow

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Every citizen of every nation has become the prisoner of the novel coronavirus. Due to this outbreak, people have started losing their minds and much likely fall prey to misinformation. When every person is suffering due to this pandemic, misinformation is the last thing we wish for. But, how can normal people differentiate between the fact-checked, professionally-curated, verified information and random conspiracy theories? Had it been that simple, the spread of wrong information would have stayed in control. And, the hype for entertaining misleading information accelerates when reputed platforms like Medium publish them. Medium is one of the leading blogging platforms that witnesses both facts verified from experts and welcomes new ideas as well.

What has gone wrong?

Currently, the media is covering the statistics of COVID-19 as well as spreading awareness among people. Many experts have also published articles based on data gathered. But, when it comes to analyzing the seriousness of the coronavirus, a growth hacker and an epidemiologist are not the same. And, it all started getting worse when a Silicon Valley growth hacker, Aaron Ginn analyzed the situation in his way.

Aaron Ginn wrote an article based on his assessment of the coronavirus data. Medium posted the article and it spread like a wildfire. The article had certain hints of treating the deadly pandemic as an overhyped situation until Carl T. Bergstrom debunked it. Carl is an expert on infectious disease and criticized the article by a series of tweets thread.

He tried clarifying most of the misinformation by explaining it point by point. The article tried to dilute the gravity of the situation by explaining that it is following the bell curve. But, Carl said it doesn’t necessarily mean viruses will follow the bell curve unlike most things in nature. The coronavirus outbreak didn’t spread in every nation at the same time. And, speaking of less number of cases, the number of tests conducted varies for every nation and so is the population density. So, Medium removed the article immediately to stop the spread of misinformation.

Spot the correct information

But, amongst the misinformation spreading, Tomas Pueyo, another growth hacker posted a meaningful article on the coronavirus outbreak. The article was posted on Medium. This is one of the most famous articles on coronavirus with over 40 million views. Tomas set that the number of cases is growing exponentially and that it can take bigger shape in the future.

But, Tomas is no medical expert. Whatever he concluded in his article was a result of analyzing data and understanding research papers. A famous psychologist, Steven Pinker also shared his article. But, what is media without critics? Many people raised the question that he isn’t an epidemiologist so why should they support the idea. Tomas was delighted to hear it and said the article needs verification because he isn’t a medical expert. And, this rise in concern about what is right or wrong is what we need at this hour from common people.

Misleading information was taken down

An essayist, A. J. Kay who lives in Arizona started learning about the coronavirus situation. According to her, the experts were calling it highly transmissible which was not the scenario. But, what she failed to understand it testing started lately in the U.S. This means if anybody who was suffering from this disease was reported lately. By then it has already been spread to so many other people.

Without understanding any of this, she dropped an article, “The Curve is Already Flat”. The articles received 275,000 within the first 48 hours. But after a couple of days, she received a mail from Medium that her article was removed from the site. Medium informed her that the contents could have risked the lives of people so the Medium’s Trust and Safety team has reached the decision.

The conclusion

There are two categories of articles that are published on Medium. First, the ones that are fact-checked and written by professional journalists. The experts verify these articles and on the other hand, there are user-generated pieces. Due to the crisis, Medium now marks these user-generated articles is not fact-checked. Because it has the potential to put people’s health at risk. Moreover, the platform has amended “COVID-19 Content Policy”. Any article violating this set of the rule will be taken down without further explanation. Moreover, the figures are jumping exponentially every day. So, what theory might be valid today cannot be valid tomorrow.

Google to Reduce Nest Came Quality to Lessen Load on Internet Networks

Google to Reduce Nest Came Quality to Lessen Load on Internet Networks

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As the COVID-19 continues its rampage across North America and Europe, most people are still confined to their homes. Most of the schools, colleges and offices in America remain shut as people get used to working from their homes. However, with everyone staying at home and relying on video services for communication, bandwidth is getting more challenging to get your hands on. Similarly, thousands of school children now rely on the internet for their education. Therefore, it is safe to say that the COVID-19 has made things difficult for internet service providers, as they scramble to allow all this data transmission. Google has recently come out with their strategies to help such providers by lowering the load on their workstreams. Here’s a look at why Google is downgrading the Nest Cam’s video quality and how it can help.

Helping Ease the Strain

Google will start adjusting the video quality of its Nest security camera stream in a bid to help ease the strain that broadband networks are feeling. Since more people than ever before now rely on the internet for their communication and education, this step will be a welcome one. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic leaving everyone stuck at home, internet usage has skyrocketed as people try to learn, work and keep themselves entertained at home.

Google’s statement said that the company has decided to hear the global call to put learning and working first when it comes to bandwidth. As a result, Google will be making the required changes over the next few days to make it easier to access other forms of content on the web. Furthermore, Google also sent out a mail regarding the same to Nest Cam users around the country.

Nest Cam Video Quality

Therefore, in case you live in the US, and your Nest Cam suddenly starts transmitting mediocre quality video, don’t be frightened. Google has said that it will set camera quality to the default of all the people in the country who had opted for high quality and high bandwidth options. In case your settings are below default, they will continue to run on the same choice.

The company has also made it clear that it will not change any setting other than the video quality and bandwidth one. However, in case a user feels that they need high-quality images, they can reset their settings too high. Google said that this might be required in case the user relies on Nest Cam to survey their home and surroundings. Since a lower video quality will make it difficult to understand precisely what is happening, users have the option to reset it, if they feel the need to do so. Also, in case you leave the settings at default, Google promises to amp them back to high once the traffic recedes.

Other Changes

Google might also make changes to their Ambient Mode slideshows on Nest displays, Chromecast, and other Cast devices. The company is planning to reduce the resolution and rotation interval of the photos in the slideshows. Also, this hasn’t been the only step Google has taken to ease the strain on network bandwidth. The company had on March 24th, reduced YouTube’s video quality to 480p.

Similarly, Netflix, Amazon and Apple have reduced their video quality in Europe to lessen the load on broadband networks. Sony did the same for its PlayStation Network in the US and Europe. So, in case your Nest Ca delivers only mediocre imagery, understand that the step was taken to help in the fight against COVID-19. Once the world regains some normalcy, your feed too will go back to its high-definition quality, but for now, users will have to make do with their default settings.

tracing

Google to update Android phones with COVID-19 contact tracing System using Google Play- Two Tech giants Apple and Google’s initiative to assist in the fight against Coronavirus Pandemic

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Highlights

Apple and Google to work together and will develop a contact tracing tool related to COVID-19 tracking.

This COVID-19 Tracking System then will be available on Android phones by Google play service. But these updates will only available on android phones that use newer android versions starting from Android 6.0, Marshmallow, and other higher versions.

The first phase will be Bluetooth contact tracking which is an outline from next month.

Every industry, every individual is doing their best to fight the situation that arises due to deadly coronavirus. China, South Korea, Italy, and now America became the hotspot of the corona. The world economy is witnessing a downside. As well, the whole world is in lockdown mode. No doubt, the world is under the fear of coronavirus, yet many are working to ease the condition due to this global pandemic. Recently, two tech giants, Google and Apple take the initiative and announced to work together to help the health sector and government against COVID-19 fight.  Both firms announced that they started working on contact tracing technology that claimed to be helpful in the fight against COVID-19. While developing the technology the user privacy will be on top priority and all protections related to this are provided.

Google to update Android Phones For COVID-19 Tracing system

Now, Google gave confirmation regarding updating Android phones with the COVID-19 Tracing system. Google has collaborated with Apple to develop the COVID-19 Tracing System. As per the reports, Google to launch these updates on Android phones directly through Google Play. The company not only rolls out the updates but also will ensure that more android users will use it. However, these updates will be available on Android 6.0 and Marshmallow or above in the initial phase.

Today, after Google announced that Google Play will be used for this purpose. Thus, android users are relieved as Google Play is a feasible system available for getting software updates in a timely manner.

The update system will apply to both phases of Bluetooth Contact Tracing

As per the reports, these update systems will apply to both phases of the Bluetooth Contact Tracing Framework. The initial API rollout framework is due next month and the later stage is related to APIs. However, the second stage will arrive in the upcoming months.

Android Phones in China and Huawei phones could not update their system with COVID-19 Tracing S/M

Most of the android versions can update their systems with COVID-19 Tracing, but nothing is the same in the case of Android phones in China. Also, the Huawei Phone models that sold after the imposition of restriction by the US will boycott from these updates. Because after the US banned Huawei, its phones could not use Google Play, Youtube, and other services of Google.

However, for phones like Xiaomi and other Chinese manufactured phones, or we can say the government of China can decide whether to use this s/m or not that will be the framework by Google. As a matter of fact, this strategy is not new for Google. In 2019, Google used the same kind of strategy for its Project Mainline updates.

It’s a great initiative announced by Google in collaborating with Apple to work on contact tracing technology that claimed to be helpful in the fight against COVID-19. Hopefully, these updates would help to government and health officials in this global Coronavirus pandemic.

IGTV

Instagram Comes Out With New IGTV App Updates

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Instagram had recently launched its IGTV app to draw crowds to its video platform. However, the app really hasn’t caught on, with most of the viewership coming from the IG app itself. Nevertheless, Instagram updated the IGTV app hoping to boost its interface and attract new viewers. Here’s a look at what the update does, and how it might help the company draw larger crowds.

IGTV Kicks Off

Instagram launched the IGTV app in a bid to help promote creators who make long-form videos. The recent update which came out today will see a whole new design, with significant changes having been made to the homepage and interface.  The company’s update sees the inclusion of a creator top which helps users watch what their followers are up to.

This top part also displays all the videos that the app thinks the user will enjoy. Furthermore, the IGTV app will also get a Discover tab that will help users surf new video content and find new forms of long-form videos they enjoy. This tab will work a lot like the Explore tab on the IG app.  Also, the app will now have its very own hands-free recording function which will enable users to take more interesting videos.

Explore and Discover

People everywhere agree that the biggest change brought in by the update is without a doubt the new Discover tab. Before this update, the IGTV app only displayed videos put up by the people the users followed. In addition other popular videos which the app felt were relevant also came on the user’s feed. Also, the app’s interface was very bare, with users having to click on videos to start them and play them. The new Discover tab will help users find new interesting content and explore other users and their profiles. Such an Explore tab will help users find new content, share and promote their own content and even help in forming connections via the app.

IG Stories Update

Another small, yet impactful update will allow users to now add IGTV content as their Stories. Rather than including a frame from the video, they can now play 15 seconds of their content. Such a move will help significantly in attracting new users to the app, as videos are now more likely to get more views. All of these updates will help in making the app more accessible, user-friendly and appealing to the younger generation. No one is sure regarding how many users depend solely on the IGTV app for their daily dose of video content.

Most people still seem to use the Instagram app to find video content, rather than depending on the stand-alone app. Also, Instagram has refused to divulge information regarding the usage of the app. However, when we look at Google Play and App Store, we see that while the IG app has over 10 million reviews, the IGTV app has only around 26,000 reviews with more than 25,000 coming from Google Play. But, it is refreshing to see Instagram focusing on content creators, and helping them popularise their content.

 With sources saying that company executives are encouraging new talent to use the IGTV app from the Los Angeles office, it seems like the company is taking a new found interest in video content. Furthermore, these updates suggest that Instagram is actively working towards weeding out the problems in the IGTV interface.  The company is also trying to find why the app isn’t attracting many viewers and working towards alleviating those problems.  Instagram still believes that IGTV is the “future of video,” and is ensuring rely on it to find video content.

Chat

Google Decided To Rename Hangouts Chat As Google Chat

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We have used the platform Hangouts at least once in our lifetime. While Google’s other products such as Google Map, Google Drive, Google Music, etc has the brand name at the beginning. The company also decided to change the name of Hangouts chat to Google chat. Google declared it yesterday that it is a simple rebranding from Hangouts to Google. The company has officially removed the name, Hangouts Chat from its enterprise G Suite. Google was planning to do it for a while. It has been noticed that an updated G Suite support document has the mention of Google Meets. And, along with the change of this name of Google’s messaging platform, the company rebranded Hangouts Meet as Google Meet.

The misunderstandings

Similar news might tend to confuse customers at times. Is Hangouts vanishing forever? The answer is no. It will remain as the name of the customer chat app of Google+. Google spun it off in 2013 and since then it has become a standalone product. Since then it has been struggling a lot to compete with other messaging apps and improve reputation. So, all that has changed is the name of Google’s own online instant messaging platform.

Some predicted reasons

The sudden change in the name might not be for any reason. It may look very simple. But, a renowned company like Google wouldn’t make some random decisions. Though many products of Google are used by billions of people around the world, Hangouts didn’t catch much attention. A messaging app like Whatsapp is preferred over Hangouts. Many people don’t even know how to use it because of certain complications like Allo and related services.

But, it seems like this chat service has failed to gain popularity even after many attempts. So, the strategy of rebranding it and appending the word “Google” might drive some topic. One more important thing that is the reason behind every news today is the coronavirus outbreak. The pandemic has caused every employee of the tertiary sector to work from home. And, in this situation, millions of video meetings are taking place via Zoom today.

Those people are using other Google products, Hangouts Meet is certainly cornered. It may be because the name itself doesn’t radiate the vibe of professionalism. This can be another prominent reason for the sudden change in name. But, the company didn’t confirm any of these reasons. They are just a few predictions made by experts.

Few Updates on rebranding

Long before the company released the G Suite document, they planned on changing the brand name. As, both the CEO of Google Cloud and CEO of Google referred to the product as “Meet”. They claimed it to be a shorthand reference until now when it got transferred to Google Meet. Google first released the news of rebranding Google Meet. Then after a few minutes, Google Chat was on the radar as well.

Hangouts Meet to Google Meet

It seems like the company wants its name on every single product it launches. This has led to even renaming Google’s videoconferencing app, Hangouts Meet. Google declared yesterday that from now on it will be known as Google Meet.

New features added to Google Meet

After getting trademarked by the company, Google Meet has included some new features. What could be more perfect timing to give competition to Zoom? The company says that almost 120 million students and teachers use the G Suite for education purposes. So, with the lockdown continuing, Google Meet has tried to make it better for the world.

Whoever is using G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education will get premium features for free. And, this offer continues till 30th September 2020. Some of the features include conducting a meeting that can accommodate 250 participants, live streaming for 100,000 viewers (within your domain), and recording meetings followed by saving it in the Google Drive.

Google also claims that all data is encrypted in transit between the customers and the company. This might trigger the audience to use the platform of Google Meet. It is because of the recent compromise in Zoom’s security a few weeks ago. People care about their privacy and they are going to look for the best option.