 |
|
|
|||||
Remember in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when live audio was suddenly everywhere? The trend was made popular by the briefly viral phenomenon Clubhouse before seemingly every other online platform copied the feature for themselves. Since then, live audio has become mostly a footnote to a weird time when we were all stuck at home at the same time with nothing to do and listening to hours-long streams of strangers talking to each other passed as entertainment. Now LinkedIn, which was somewhat late to the live audio party in 2022, has opted to get rid of its standalone live audio events. In an update, the company says it will no longer support native audio events beginning next month. Users will stop being able to create new events as of December 2, and previously scheduled events will no longer work after December 31. Instead, the company is bringing together audio events with its live-streaming feature, LinkedIn Live. LinkedIn Live, however, requires creators to use third-party tools to set up streams. So while audio-only streams will still be able to exist on LinkedIn, they will take a few extra steps. LinkedIn isnt the only company to change course on live audio. Reddit, Facebook, Spotify and Amazon have all shuttered their pandemic-era live audio products.Even Clubhouse (which, yes, still exists) pivoted away from the format last year. The feature is, however going strong on X despite a few high-profile technical issues.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/linkedin-is-killing-the-standalone-live-audio-feature-you-probably-forgot-about-232705727.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Amazon is doubling its investment in Anthropic. The e-commerce giant will provide Anthropic with an additional $4 billion in funding on top of the $4 billion it committed last year. Although Amazon remains a minority investor, Anthropic has agreed to make Amazon Web Services (AWS) its primary cloud and training partner. Before todays announcement, The Information had reported that Amazon wanted to make any additional funding contingent on a commitment from Anthropic to use the companys in-house AI chips instead of silicon from NVIDIA. It appears Amazon got its way, with both companies noting in separate press releases that Anthropic will use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to train future foundation models. Additionally, Anthropic says it will collaborate with Amazons Annapurna Labs to develop future Trainium accelerators. Through deep technical collaboration, were writing low-level kernels that allow us to directly interface with the Trainium silicon, and contributing to the AWS Neuron software stack to strengthen Trainium, the company said. Our engineers work closely with Annapurnas chip design team to extract maximum computational efficiency from the hardware, which we plan to leverage to train our most advanced foundation models. According to another recent report, Anthropic expects to burn through more than $2.7 billion before the end. Before today, the company had raised $9.7 billion. Either way, its bought itself some much-needed runway as it looks to compete against OpenAI and other companies in the AI space.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-will-use-aws-ai-chips-after-4-billion-amazon-investment-222053145.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
The UKs Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally concluded that Apples restrictive mobile browser policies limit innovation. After an independent inquiry group shared its findings on browser competition on iOS and Android, the governing bodys board plans to conduct an in-depth assessment of how Apple and Google constrict third-party browsers on their platforms. However, Apple with its more closed ecosystem appears to have borne the brunt of the CMAs concern. The CMAs investigation is based on the premise that Apple and Google have an effective duopoly on mobile platforms, allowing them to set the rules of how mobile browsers work. The board says third-party browser developers have complained that theyre constricted by rules like Apples requirement to use the companys WebKit browser engine. The group has provisionally found that Apples rules restrict other competitors from being able to deliver new, innovative features that could benefit consumers, the CMA wrote. Other browser providers have highlighted concerns that they have been unable to offer a full range of browser features, such as faster webpage loading on iPhone. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC), which passed earlier this year, will give the UK body extra ammunition to carry out its next steps. The UKs equivalent of the EUs Digital Markets Act (DMA) can designate big tech companies as having Strategic Market Status with substantial and entrenched market power and a position of strategic significance. Much like the EUs version, the law gives the UK some teeth to negotiate and force concessions from Big Tech behemoths that, at least in the US, often seem untouchable: The DMCC will empower the UK board to fine infringing companies up to 10 percent of their global revenue. The CMAs summary of Apples hearing reveals the iPhone maker argued that it restricts browser engines to ensure users get the best security, privacy, and performance on iOS devices a familiar argument to those whove followed Apples previous competition trials. Apple claimed healthy competition exists, due to the presence of third-party browsers with features like ad-blocking, VPNs and AI. The company also said it routinely considers developer feedback and hadnt heard any fuss over its current browser rules. Contradicting that, the CMA said other browser providers have highlighted features they cant implement on iOS, like faster webpage loading. Many smaller UK app developers also told us that they would like to use progressive web apps an alternative way for businesses to provide apps to mobile users without downloading apps through an app store but this technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices, the board wrote. The CMA also said that how browser choices are presented to users lets Apple and Google manipulate these choices to make their own browsers the clearest or easiest option. In addition, it pointed out a revenue-sharing agreement between the two companies that significantly reduces their financial incentives to compete in mobile browsers on iOS. The boards next step is a period of open comments on its findings, which will end on December 13. After its investigation, the CMA expects to make its final ruling in March 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uk-watchdog-says-apples-rules-restrict-ios-browser-competition-201106359.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||