mobile app Archives - Gizmochina

Stitcher, a popular podcast application to shut down on August 29

Jeet — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 02:17:16 +0000

Stitcher, a popular podcast application and web service, will be shutting down in August this year, as its parent company SiriusXM has announced on its website.

As for the reason behind the shutdown, the company says that it has decided to focus on its own SiriusXM application instead of the dedicated podcast application.

SiriusXM believes that the company can better compete in the market by focusing on its own application, given that the podcasting market has become very crowded and tech giants have entered this space, like Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, among others.

Users of the Stitcher application may get impacted by the shutdown, especially those who have premium subscriptions. The company says that the users will need to cancel their subscription before 29th August, the day app is shutting down. It will be offering refunds to subscribers who have paid for a subscription that extends beyond August 29.

For those who are unaware, Stitcher was one of the first applications for podcasts that gained popularity, thanks to a number of features that made it easier to discover podcasts and get recommendations and curated lists. The app offered a large library of podcasts and some additional features in the premium version, including the ability to listen to podcasts without any advertisements.

Stitcher was launched in 2008 and was acquired by Deezer in 2014, which later sold the platform to Midroll Media. Finally, the app was acquired by SiriusXM in 2020 for $325 million. The company has said that it plans to continue offering Stitcher’s content on its own SiriusXM app.

RELATED:

Source

The post Stitcher, a popular podcast application to shut down on August 29 appeared first on Gizmochina.

TikTok Automatically Sets Screen Time Limit To One-hour for Teens

Jeet — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 03:00:18 +0000

TikTok, one of the most popular short video social media platforms, has announced that users under the age of 18 will have a one-hour screen time limit by default. This is one of the most aggressive moves by the Chinese giant in an effort to reduce criticism about teens’ endlessly scrolling the platform’s feed.

When the 60-minute or one-hour time limit is reached, then the user will be prompted to enter a passcode on the device to continue scrolling through the videos on the platform. This will create a sort of barrier to endless scrolling and bolster the digital wellbeing of young users.

Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s head of trust and safety, said that the company consulted researchers and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital to decide the time limits to set for teen users. He added, “While there’s no collectively-endorsed position on how much screen time is ‘too much’, or even the impact of screen time more broadly, we recognize that teens typically require extra support as they start to explore the online world independently.”

While the one-hour screen time limit feature will be enabled by default in TikTok’s mobile application, the user will be able to disable this new feature from the app’s settings. Nonetheless, it’s a good move from the company to enable the feature by default and have the user take action to disable the feature.

TikTok has also updated the Family Pairing feature, which allows parent or guardian to link their TikTok account to and set controls. They can also filter videos with words or hashtags, set a custom daily screen time limit, and set a custom schedule to mute TikTok notifications.

The development comes at a time when TikTok, as well as other social media platforms, have been facing scrutiny over the impact of prolonged usage of such platforms, especially on young users. Further, TikTok’s parent company is also facing pressure from the US government and others over concerns about security because of the company’s ties in China.

Apple Maps to reportedly start showing ads in search results from next year

Jeet — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 04:43:31 +0000

Apple Maps, when announced, was criticized a lot because of inaccuracies, but the company has made several changes to the application where it is now more reliable compared to earlier and a legitimate competitor to Google Maps.

Now, the company is adding a new feature to Apple Maps which is not available on Google Maps, but users won’t be happy about it. The company is gearing up to start showing advertisements in the mobile application from next year.

As per the latest report coming from Mark Gurman on Bloomberg in his Power On newsletter, Apple’s engineering team has already started working on the software to support search ads. He further adds that users could start seeing advertisements in the app as early as next year.

Previously, it was reported that the Cupertino-based technology giant had tested an internal version of the Maps app with search advertisements. It won’t be the first application from Apple to have ads as the company’s App Store is already serving ads.

As for the ads on the App Store, developers can pay Apple to prioritize their software in search results, ensuring it shows up at the top of the page for specific terms. The search ads on the Maps will work similarly where businesses can pay Apple to have their establishment show up higher in local listings where users search for relevant terms.

The development comes at a time when Apple is planning to expand its advertisement revenue. Currently, the company’s advertising business generates about $4 billion in revenue annually, but Todd Teresi, who is heading the department, is aiming to increase it to at least $10 billion per year.

WhatsApp could soon extend the “delete for everyone” time limit window

Jeet — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 04:43:03 +0000

Lately, WhatsApp has been adding several new features to the platform to ensure that the instant messaging application remains the top player in its category. Now, the company is working on a feature that could prove to be helpful to many users.

The platform already allows users to delete a message sent to another user but there’s a limited time window of around one hour where the user can basically undo sending a message. Now, it is being reported that the company is testing a feature that could extend the window for deleting the message.

As of now, it is not known how long the “delete for everyone” feature will extend the time limit going forward but a report coming from WABetaInfo shows a prompt showing up for a message sent more than two months ago.

There’s a possibility that the company may have completely removed the time limit for deleting the message but that seems unlikely. We’ll have to wait for more information to surface online to know about the time limit.

It is also not known if the extended window for deleting messages will work for messages sent before the new feature gets rolled out or be available only for the messages that are sent after the feature is released.

If the company is actually planning to roll out this extended time limit for the “delete for everyone” feature for WhatsApp, then it will first be available to beta testers and will then be released to everyone in a stable build for Android as well as iOS.

[UPDATED] TikTok reportedly plans to shift headquarters from China to London

Jeet — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 07:28:30 +0000

UPDATE:

According to British media, TikTok has reportedly backed out of this plan due to the increasing tension between the UK and China. Recently, the UK decided to ban Huawei gear from its 5G network infrastructure.

Original story…

TikTok, the world’s most popular short video social media platform, has received a lot of heat in the past months mainly because of two reasons — its data collection practices and its Chinese ownership.

To improve the perspective, a new report coming from Reuters claims that the company is now looking to relocate its headquarters away from China. It is considering several locations, including London, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, is expected to “significantly” increase the size of its workforce in London and other key locations outside of China over the next several years, claims the report.

It’s noteworthy that the company has been aggressively hiring in California, United States. The company even poached former Walt Disney co-executive Kevin Mayer to become the CEO, which is based in the United States.

Earlier, it was reported that TikTok is planning to form a new management board along with establishing headquarters outside of China to distance itself from its origin country. The company has also confirmed that it is weighing changes to its corporate structure.

EDITOR’S PICK: Here’s The List Of Top Mobile App Publishers and Most Downloaded Apps for June 2020

Soon after the Indian government banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese applications, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the administration is “looking at” banning the app in the United States. However, China has claimed that the selective ban of TikTok and other apps by the Indian government is against WTO rules.

A few days ago, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) fined TikTok 186 million won or roughly 155,000 US Dollars for mishandling child data. The fine is equivalent to 3% of the company’s annual sales within the country, which is in line with the designated amount for such violations under local privacy laws.

In April this year, it was reported that TikTok had crossed 2 billion app downloads across iOS and Android. In the first quarter of this year alone, the company reportedly saw 315 million downloads — a new record for any smartphone app.

The post [UPDATED] TikTok reportedly plans to shift headquarters from China to London appeared first on Gizmochina.