OnePlus 7 and 7T Widevine DRM fix comes with a caveat

There has been a lot of griping about the quality and pace of OnePlus’ recent software updates, especially when OxygenOS 11 brought about major UI changes and, with it, some nasty bugs. OnePlus 7 and 7T owners, however, seem to have had it worse and have experienced the worst that the release has to offer. After two months since the … Continue reading

Spotify's CEO doesn't believe the platform has editorial responsibility over podcasts

Joe Rogan’s podcast has become one of the most listened-to shows on Spotify since the platform added it to its lineup last year. It’s also become one of the most controversial due to Rogan’s choice of guests and his own views. Spotify doesn’t have any plans to do anything about it, though, because the company’s CEO doesn’t believe the platform should have any say on podcasters’ content. When Axios asked Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in an interview whether the company should have editorial responsibility over podcasts like Rogan’s, Ek responded that Rogan is just one of its many content creators.

Axios pointed out that Rogan may be just one of them, but he’s also one of the most well-paid. Ek responded, however, that rappers earns tens of millions of dollars from the platform, but Spotify doesn’t dictate what they can put in their songs either. Rogan signed a $100 million deal with the audio streaming service in May 2020 to make The Joe Rogan Experience available to Spotify listeners. Before the year ended, the podcast became a Spotify exclusive.

According to a Wall Street Journal report from last year, Spotify employees expressed concerns over the materials in his podcast that they felt was anti-transgender. Rogan has guested several polarizing figures on the show since its debut on the platform. They include Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, and InfoWars owner Alex Jones who spread coronavirus misinformation on the podcast. More recently, Rogan said he doesn’t think people should get the COVID-19 vaccine, though he did backtrack and told listeners not to take his advice seriously. 

In Spotify’s most recent earnings report, it said Rogan’s podcast performed “above expectations.” Clearly, whatever he’s doing is getting people to tune in, so the company probably doesn’t see any reason to step in.

Simone Biles Reveals What She ‘Never Truly Believed’ About Herself Until Now

The star gymnast said it was sparked by the outpouring of love and support in response to her Olympics withdrawal.

Miami-Dade County Latest To Re-Up Mask Requirements Amid Delta Variant Surge

“We have come too far and sacrificed too much to turn back now,” Mayor Levine Cava said as coronavirus cases rise.

Kindle e-readers will lose 3G connectivity in December

Amazon’s Kindles have long been the device of choice by voracious readers, especially those that want to take their books with them anywhere. Of course, the books they hold inside don’t come from thin air and have to be downloaded directly to the device or transferred from a computer. The former naturally requires an Internet connection, which almost all Kindles … Continue reading

Google Maps Is Now Available As An iOS Home Screen Widget

One of the biggest changes that Apple introduced in iOS 14 was the ability to finally add widgets to the Home screen. This changed how people used iOS and also led to the creation of a lot of widget apps, giving iOS users a similar level of flexibility and customization as Android users have been enjoying for years.

If you’re an avid Google Maps user, then you might be interested to learn that Google has updated its Maps app where it will now come with support for Home screen widgets. As you can see in the screenshots above, this widget will give users several options when it comes to using the app.

For example, users can quickly search for a location from the widget itself instead of having to launch the app first. They will also be able to quickly navigate to Home or Work, or they can use the widget to pull up information like nearby restaurants. Alternatively, Google is also giving users another option where the widget can be used to check for traffic conditions ahead of time or check for things like a store’s opening hours.

If you want to make use of the Google Maps widget, make sure that you have the latest version of the app installed, and of course, make sure that your device is running iOS 14 or later.

Google Maps Is Now Available As An iOS Home Screen Widget

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

AirTag battery safety puts Apple in a quandary

Apple’s privacy-respecting item tracker is like a ping-pong of good news, bad news revelations. Apple has made its AirTags so easy to use that there have been concerns about the security of the Find My network. The small discs are small enough to place anywhere but require a separate accessor to hook into objects unless you take the ill-advised route … Continue reading

Twitter Launches Twitter Shopping Pilot Project In The US

Twitter, like most social media platforms, is free to use and makes money through ads. However, it probably isn’t the best idea to put all their eggs into one basket which is why it’s not surprising that Twitter is now looking into other ways to monetize its platform, and that is through a new pilot project called Twitter Shopping.

If you’ve been following Twitter’s ambitions for a while, you might recall that the company actually planned to get into shopping way back in 2015, but as the company states, they stepped back from their plans to focus on other aspects. However, it looks like their shopping ambitions are now back.

According to Twitter, “The Shop Module is a dedicated space at the top of a profile where businesses can showcase their products. When people visit a profile with the Shop Module enabled, they can scroll through the carousel of products and tap through on a single product to learn more and purchase — seamlessly in an in-app browser, without having to leave Twitter.”

The concept of being able to shop for products directly within an app isn’t new. We’ve seen companies like Instagram implement something similar in the past, so this feature doesn’t really come as a surprise. At the moment this is a pilot project only available to those in the US who use the platform in English and on iOS devices, but presumably it should eventually open up to more users in the future.

Twitter Launches Twitter Shopping Pilot Project In The US

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

WhatsApp’s Archived Messages Will Finally Stay Archived

In WhatsApp, you can archive messages that you no longer participate in. This is a way for you to hide old messages but not fully deleting them in case you need to refer to them again in the future. However, one annoying feature is that whenever the other party in the archived chat sends a message, it will automatically unarchive itself.

However, there is some good news on that front because WhatsApp has announced that they will be introducing a new setting that will give users the option of how archived messages are handled. With this change, users can now choose if they want to keep archived messages hidden and muted, or if they want to keep the current behavior of the app.

If users opt for the former, this means that even if a thread from the archive becomes active again, it will remain archived and muted so you don’t need to bother with it. However, if they wish to participate in the chat, they can do so by unarchiving it manually. We’re not sure what took WhatsApp this long to introduce this feature as there have been many people who have expressed frustration at the dredging up of unwanted archived messages.

These changes should already be live so make sure that you have the latest version of WhatsApp if you’d like to take advantage of it.

WhatsApp’s Archived Messages Will Finally Stay Archived

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Xiaomi Mi Band X with 360-degree screen tipped to be in development

Although there has been an increase in shipments of wearables, particularly smartwatches, some might argue that there hasn’t been any huge innovation in that market for years. A core focus has been to integrate more and more health sensors inside their small bodies, but other than that, the technology inside has only seen incremental upgrades. There was a time when … Continue reading