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Instagram is adding another tool to its arsenal of anti-bullying measures. This time, however, Meta is enlisting school officials directly in an effort to speed up its response to safety issues affecting young teens. The company is introducing a new Schools Partnership Program that aims to give teachers and school administrators a way to intervene when students experience bullying on Instagram. The program offers schools something that many parents have long said they wanted: a way to fast-track in-app reports that directly affect young students. Meta is promising that schools who join the program will have their reports prioritized in its moderation queue, and that it will respond to these reports within 48 hours. Schools that sign up will also get a school partner badge appended to their Instagram account, along with in-app information about how to use its reporting tools and other resources. Notably though, it doesnt sound like Meta is hiring additional content moderators to aid with these new fast-tracked reports. When asked about increasing headcount to support the program, an Instagram spokesperson told Engadget only that reports from schools will be expedited via its existing reporting channels, and that schools will be able to add "additional context" to their reports. Meta says its already tested the program with 60 schools and that early results have been promising. Now, middle schools and high schools in the United States can sign up to join a waitlist for the program. The pilot program is far from the first time Instagram has tried to address bullying. The app introduced comment limiting features in 2021, and added a tougher "restrict" feature last year. But while these features can help teens avoid certain types of negative interactions, they still required teens (or their parents) to tweak their settings. By now giving schools more authority to report specific instances of bullying or other bad behavior, Meta is offering some hope that it will be easier for schools to address the underlying behavior.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-has-a-new-program-for-school-officials-to-report-bullying-160027748.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
When Sony's wireless earbuds come to mind, the flagship-quality WF-1000XM5 is probably the first product that jumps out. However, the company is also adept at building budget models, blending features and tech to give users a solid value for a lot less money. That was the proposition when the WF-C700N arrived in 2023, offering active noise cancellation (ANC), solid battery life and other features for $120. Now, Sony is back with the successor to those earbuds, the WF-C710N, that packs a host of improvements but keeps the price the same. First, Sony says it improved ANC performance by employing dual mics on each earbud on the C710N. The C700N only had one on each side. The company is also using AI Noise Reduction this time around to improve call quality. On the outside, Sony replaced the physical button for the onboard controls with a touch panel, and the company added wear detection for added convenience. You can also expect longer battery life on the C710N. At 8.5 hours with ANC enabled, that's an hour longer than the C700N. With ANC off, you can expect up to two hours more than the previous model. Additionally, total battery life including the case is doubled, with up to 30 hours of noise-canceling use available (up to 40 hours with ANC off). Sony improved the quick charge feature as well, giving you an hour of play time in five minutes instead of the previous 10-minute window. The WF-C710N is available for preorder today in black, white, pink and a transparent Glass Blue for $120. I guess Sony's confusing product names aren't entirely going away after all. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/sony-overhauls-its-budget-earbuds-while-keeping-the-price-the-same-010025194.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Discord has begun rolling out a redesigned desktop app that adds more customization to the client. To start, the new app increases the number of free themes to four. Where previously you could choose between two skins light and dark if you weren't a Nitro subscriber, now your options are light, ash, dark and onyx. In short, everyone gets access to more dark themes. Discord has also added three new UI density options default, spacious and compact. These are separate from the app's existing message layout options, so it's another way to tweak the look and feel of the interface. With this redesign, the company is also finally giving users the option to resize the channel list. Discord has also redesigned the controls that appear when you're on a voice or video call. Now, more of the buttons you may want to press during a call will appear in the center bar along the bottom of the screen. At the same time, the mic and camera buttons feature more color, so you have a better indicator if you're muted or your camera is active. "All of these updates are meant to enhance legibility, reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by visual noise, and maintain consistency across desktop and mobile devices," Discord explains. Discord Separately, the redesigned app ships with a new overlay that Discord says is faster and won't impact game performance. Taking a page Valve's recent redesign of Steam, Discord has reworked the interface around widgets, meaning you can move around each individual element as you wish. The company has also re-engineered the overlay so that it doesn't "hook" itself into games. As a result, it's less likely to trigger anti-cheat systems like BattleEye. In turn, that means the new overlay is compatible with "a larger portion of the most-played games on Discord." It's even possible to watch a friend's stream directly from the new overlay. The redesigned app and overlay arrive after Discord CEO Jason Citron announced last May the company would refocus on building the best possible communications tool for gamers. In 2020, Discord briefly rebranded itself as a general purpose chat app after many young people turned to the platform to stay in touch with their friends during lockdown. "After taking stock of the world now that the pandemic is largely behind us, and learning directly from you about how Discord can be even more useful, we've recognized the need to narrow our focus from broadly being a community-centric chat app to being a place that helps people deepen their friendships around games and shared interests," Citron wrote last year. The update also arrives at what could be a pivotal moment for Discord. According to a recent New York Times report, the company could go public as early as later this year. With 72 percent of Discord users regularly gaming on PC, ensuring those people are taken care of ahead of a potential IPO takes on a sense of urgency.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/discords-redesigned-pc-app-has-multiple-dark-modes-a-new-overlay-and-more-160019822.html?src=rss
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