Tag: twitter

X to Boost Its ‘Video-First’ Plans With a New Smart TV App, CEO Linda Yaccarino Reveals

X (formerly Twitter), is bolstering its video-first ambitions with a new TV app. The company announced on Tuesday that X will soon get a new smart TV app that will be compatible with most devices and allow users to watch the videos hosted on the platform on a larger screen. While there is no launch date for the app in sight, some of its features have also been highlighted such as trending algorithm-based content curation, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered topic organisation, and more.

Linda Yaccarino, CEO, X, announced the new development via a post on the platform. She said, “From the small screen to the big screen X is changing everything. Soon we’ll bring real-time, engaging content to your smart TVs with the X TV App. This will be your go-to companion for a high-quality, immersive entertainment experience on a larger screen.” The smart TV app is still under development, but the CEO highlighted that it will be launched soon.

Making the announcement, Yaccarino also revealed a few of the features that users of the app will get. The X TV app will be powered by the same trending video algorithm that runs on the platform. Users are likely to see the most popular videos based on their preferences lined up upon booting up the app. The app will also let users organise videos by topics which are AI-powered. The company says this will create a personalised experience but more details are awaited.

X TV app will also support cross-device viewings. So, a user could pause a video on their mobile app and start at the same place on the smart TV as long as both apps have the same account logged in. Yaccarino also said that the video search functionality will be improved to help viewers easily find what they’re looking for. Casting support will also be provided.

Along with the post, Yaccarino also shared a teaser video of the app, which can be seen above. Based on the video, the interface appears to be quite generic with account settings on the top left, followed by a search and home icon. Several feeds segregated by topics such as Trending and For You were also visible. More such topics may be created by AI and X’s recommendation algorithm curates the content in them.

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Elon Musk’s X Expands Community Notes to India, Allows Users to Become Contributors

Elon Musk-owned social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) expanded its Community Notes’ contributor positions to India on Thursday. With this development, Indian users can apply to become contributors to this open-source moderation tool to rate and review posts that are misleading or are spreading misinformation. Community Notes was officially introduced in November 2022 but at the time of launch, moderators were only selected from a few countries. Now, with the addition of India, the tool has contributors from 69 countries.

The announcement was made via a post by the official account of Community Notes. It said, “Welcome new contributors in India. Our first contributors are joining today, and we’ll be expanding over time. As always, we’ll monitor quality to ensure that notes are found helpful by people from different points of view.” Musk also posted about the development.

Becoming a Community Notes contributor is easy but users will have to fulfill some eligibility criteria. As per X guidelines, the user must have joined the platform at least six months ago, have a verified phone number from a trusted phone carrier, and have no recent platform rules violations. The account should not be associated with other Community Notes accounts.

Once these requirements are met, users can apply to become contributors here. The process just requires highlighting the languages a user is proficient in and agreeing to X’s terms and conditions. However, one thing to note is after joining as a contributor users will not directly be able to review or rate posts. Contributors will only be able to rate Community Notes to denote how helpful they are. Based on the regularity of rating notes and accuracy in assessing the posts, a user can later be contacted by the platform to become a contributor who writes Community Notes for others to rate.

Interestingly, before November 2022, Community Notes was known as Birdwatch. Birdwatch was introduced in 2020 as a moderation tool to identify and debunk misinformation and propaganda. However, after Musk took charge of the social media platform, he rebranded the tool and made it open-source. X states that the feature is not controlled by it and only users rate and review posts. Further, the platform publishes all the Community Notes data daily which can be downloaded for inspection.

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Elon Musk Announces X Premium, X Premium+ Access for Free, but There’s a Catch

Elon Musk has announced that X (formerly known as Twitter) will now offer features from X Premium and X Premium+ — the microblogging platform’s paid subscription — at no additional cost, to specific users on the platform. However, not all X users will be eligible, according to details shared by the company’s CEO on Thursday. Premium subscription plans on X reduce the number of ads on the timeline, while allowing users to access to premium features as well as Grok, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot created by xAI, the startup founded by Musk.

In a post on X, Musk said that all accounts on the platform that have “over 2,500 verified subscriber followers” will have access to features available with an X Premium subscription. In India, an X Premium subscription costs Rs. 650 a month (when subscribing from the website) while an annual subscription is priced at Rs. 6,800.

Meanwhile, the platform’s CEO also said that users who have over 5,000 verified subscriber followers would be granted access to features that are available with an X Premium+ subscription, that is currently priced at Rs. 1,300 a month (if you sign up from the web interface) or Rs. 13,600 for a year. All four subscription prices are considerably higher when signing up from the Android and iOS apps.

Musk didn’t provide a reason for granting access to X Premium and X Premium+ features for select users, but the decision comes on the heels of a report that revealed that fewer people were using the microblogging service, which was struggling to retain users. The platform has refuted these claims. 

This means that you will need to have 2,500 followers who have paid for a Premium or Premium+ subscription to gain access to these features, which also include a blue verification check mark and the ability to monetise their posts. X shows fewer ads to Premium subscribers, while those who have a Premium+ subscription do not see any advertisements. 

Both subscriptions offer features like the ability to edit or undo posts, increased character limit, post longer videos, background video playback, video downloads, and access to the Grok AI chatbot. Premium+ access also gives subscribers the ability to post articles. The subscriptions also allow users to customise the mobile app interface and hide likes and subscriptions.

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Elon Musk Says Grok AI Will Be Available to All Premium Subscribers on X ‘Later This Week’

Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), announced on Wednesday that Grok AI, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot made by xAI, will be made available to all Premium subscribers of the platform. The move comes just days after the billionaire made its large language model (LLM) Grok-1 available in open source. So far, the AI chatbot was only bundled with the most expensive subscription plan Premium+, but now it is being added to the Premium tier as well. The Basic tier will still not be able to access Grok AI.

Musk made the announcement via a post on X where he said, “Later this week, Grok will be enabled for all premium subscribers (not just premium+).” While he did not specify the exact date when this will be rolled out, it is believed to be made available before April. Currently, the chatbot is available in 48 countries including India, and all of the regions are likely to get the expansion of Grok to the Premium tier.

In India, the Premium+ subscription to X comes at the price of Rs. 1,300 a month or Rs. 13,600 a year. In contrast, the Premium tier costs Rs. 650 a month or Rs. 6,800 a year. The extra benefits in the Premium+ tier currently include access to Grok, no ads shown (vs fewer ads in Premium compared to Basic), the largest reply boost in all tiers, and the ability to write and publish articles directly on X.

With this update, Premium users will also be able to use Grok. The chatbot was developed by Musk’s AI firm xAI and was launched in early access to X’s Premium+ users in the US in December 2023. The. chatbot is currently available in 48 countries. It was built on the AI firm’s native large language model (LLM) Grok-1. Like most chatbots, it can respond to questions, generate content, and hold a conversation with the user. The company says that the foundation model was not pre-trained on any data taken from X.

Earlier this month, xAI released the base model weights and network architecture of Grok-1, a 314 billion parameter Mixture-of-Experts model, in open-source under the Apache 2.0 licence, allowing both research use as well as commercial usage.

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Microsoft, Meta and X Join Fortnite Maker Epic Games’ Battle Against Apple

Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Elon Musk’s X and Match Group on Wednesday joined “Fortnite” video game maker Epic Games’ protest that Apple has failed to honor a court-ordered injunction governing payments in its lucrative App Store.

The technology companies, which developed some of the most popular apps in the App Store, said Apple was in “clear violation” of the Sept. 2021 injunction by making it difficult to steer consumers to cheaper means to pay for digital content.

Apple declined to comment specifically on the accusation, which was contained in a filing with the Oakland, California federal court.

It referred to its Jan. 16 statement that it had fully complied with the injunction, which it said would protect consumers and “the integrity of Apple’s ecosystem” while ensuring that developers do not get a free ride.

Epic had sued Apple in 2020, saying it violated antitrust law by requiring consumers to obtain apps through the App Store and charging developers up to 30% commissions on purchases.

The injunction required Apple to let developers provide links and buttons to direct consumers to alternative payment options.

Last week, Epic demanded that Apple be held in contempt, saying new rules and a new 27% fee on developers made the links effectively useless.

In Wednesday’s filing, the technology companies said Apple’s conduct “for all practical purposes” entrenches anti-steering rules that the court found illegal, propping up Apple’s “excessive” commissions and harming consumers and developers.

“Apple’s restrictions on where and how developers can communicate with their users about their options for purchasing in-app content create significant barriers to competition and artificially inflate prices,” the filing said.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear Apple’s appeal from the injunction. It also decided against hearing Epic’s appeal of lower court findings that Apple’s policies did not violate federal antitrust law.

Apple has until April 3 to formally respond to Epic’s filing. The company is based in Cupertino, California, while Epic is based in Cary, North Carolina.

The case is Epic Games Inc v Apple Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-05640.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Jimmy Kimmel mocks Al Pacino’s Best Picture Oscars 2024 flub

Say hello to my different presenting style.

Oscars 2024 host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly slammed Al Pacino’s presentation of the coveted Best Picture award while appearing on “Live with Kelly and Mark.”

“I guess he’s never watched an awards show before,” Kimmel, 56, told Kelly Ripa, 53, and Mark Consuelos, 52, in a clip aired on Monday. “It seems like everyone in America knows the rhythm of how it’s supposed to go, down to ‘And the Oscar goes to…’ but, uh, not Al.”

Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly slammed Al Pacino’s presentation of the coveted Best Picture award during the 2024 Oscars while appearing on “Live! With Kelly and Mark” shortly after the ceremony. Frank Micelotta/Disney via Getty Images
“I guess he’s never watched an awards show before,” Kimmel, 56, joked with Kelly Ripa, 53, and her husband Mark Consuelos, 52, in the pre-recorded clip. “It seems like everyone in America knows the rhythm of how it’s supposed to go, down to ‘And the Oscar goes to…’ but, uh, not Al.” Frank Micelotta/Disney via Getty Images

The “Scarface” actor — who was supposed to reunite with his co-star Michelle Pfeiffer until she dropped out last-minute — appeared during Sunday’s star-studded assembly to present the top honor … with his own twist.

Instead of building the tension and suspense — as other presenters have before — by naming each of the 10 nominated films, the “Godfather” star just blurted out the victor.

“This is the time for the last award of the evening, and it’s my honor to present it. Ten wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for Best Picture,” Pacino stated while fumbling to open the envelope. “And, uh, I have to go to the envelope for that, and I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see ‘Oppenheimer.’ Yes. Yes.”

The “Scarface” actor — who was supposed to reunite with his co-star Michelle Pfeiffer until she dropped out last minute — appeared during last night’s star-studded assembly to present the top honor … with his own twist. Jack Gruber-USA TODAY

Pacino’s abrupt announcement took some by surprise inside LA’s Dolby Theater — and others at home.

The Post reached out to Pacino for comment.

Several critics were quick to react on social media, too.

“This is the time for the last award of the evening, and it’s my honor to present it. Ten wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for Best Picture,” Pacino stated while fumbling to open the envelope. “And, uh, I have to go to the envelope for that, and I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see ‘Oppenheimer.’ Yes. Yes.” Rob Latour/Shutterstock

“Wish Al would have read all of the nominees first. I was looking forward to seeing the sizzle reels, and a bit of tension,” one person posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“The downside of elderly legends giving out the biggest award,” stated a second person. “Pair them with a younger star to make sure they do what they are supposed to do or tape the announcement of the ten nominees. Disrespectful to not give them their due.”

“Didn’t anyone tell him he had to read the names of the nominated films before he opens the envelope,” a third user lambasted. “Was he drinking?”

The “Scent of a Woman” alum’s hesitant delivery of the award caused Oscar-goers to hold their applause for the film until Pacino confirmed the name and the film’s score rang throughout LA’s Dolby Theatre. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Despite several negative reviews, others defended him.

“People think he forgot to say the nominees, but they did the same non-announcement for Best Song,” a user pointed out. “Perhaps they skip saying the nominees in both categories because each song was sung and each movie highlighted during the ceremony.”

“This always happens at the end of these awards shows especially when they have an 80-year-old presenting. You can’t blame them. Get over it,” another angry X user posted.

“Another old Hollywood legend hung out to dry at the end of the show,” a third person lamented.

Although Kimmel teased Pacino, a source claims to E! News that the actor’s abbreviated speech was a creative direction by production.

Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic, which was nominated for 13 awards, took home the top prize, beating out “American Fiction,” “Barbie,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Holdovers,” “Poor Things,” “The Zone of Interest,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Past Lives” and “Maestro.”

The biopic also earned gold statues for Best Director (Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Score.

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Threads App Sees Rise in Downloads, Competitor X Falls in Top Downloaded Apps List: Report

Threads was launched by Meta’s Instagram in July 2023. It is a microblogging platform, similar to X (formerly Twitter). Within the first five days of its launch, the application saw 100 million registered users. However, the platform struggled to retain regular users on the text-based app after the initial rush. Since then the company has introduced several new features on the application aiming to enhance user experience. Threads appears to be gaining its footing back in the game as it saw an increase in the number of new downloads, while competitor X took a tumble.

An app intelligence firm Appfigures claimed in an analysis that Threads had 12 million new downloads on Apple’s App Store and 16 million on Google Play in December 2023. This resulted in the application ranking at number 4 and number 8, respectively on the Most Downloaded Apps list drawn up by the firm. Combined, Threads ranked at number 6 on the list of new downloads.

Threads currently has an estimated 160 million users, according to an online tracker, which notes that it uses “an approximation method based on a sampling of follower counts” since Meta stopped sharing user count numbers on July 11, 2023.

Threads parent Instagram ranked number 1 on the list with a combined new downloads count of 54 million, surpassing TikTok, which was listed with total new downloads of 47 million. Meta-owned Facebook and WhatsApp also made it to the top 10, with combined new downloads of 39 and 38 million, ranking at number 3 and 4, respectively.

A TechCrunch report shared an extensive version of the list, which showed Elon Musk-owned X with an estimated total new downloads of 8.5 million, resulting in the application climbing down to the 36th position. The drop may not be as alarming as it looks as a PCMag report notes that Twitter was launched in 2006 and already has 540 million users.

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Elon Musk’s X Reportedly Brings Back Headlines for Link Previews, but It’s Now Tiny

X, the Elon Musk-owned microblogging site, seems to be reversing a controversial change effected last year that impacted how we see links on the platform. The social media site is reportedly bringing back headlines on link previews for articles. The move comes months after X had stopped displaying headlines on shared links for apparent aesthetic reasons, according to Musk. Links only appeared as a splash image in the post, which when clicked would take you to the corresponding news article or website. The change largely did not go down well, with users complaining about the lack of clarity in posts that contained external links.

According to a report in The Verge, X seems to be bringing back headlines for shared link previews on the site. There is, however, a small change. Headlines and website names now show up on the bottom left of the preview image in a tiny font. This is different from the URL cards that traditionally appear on most social media platforms while sharing external links. Longer headlines might also get cut off with the new way to show headlines on shared links.

While several news outlets have spotted headlines coming back on article links, neither X nor Musk has confirmed the return of the feature. For what it’s worth, the feature does not seem to have come into effect in India. Headlines, for example, cannot yet be seen on article links shared by the Gadgets 360 account on X, with only the website name appearing on the bottom right side of the image in the post.

For now, headlines don’t seem to be appearing on links shared in India

Back in August, Musk had pushed through to make headlines vanish from links shared on the platform. The billionaire owner had said that the decision had come from him directly and would “greatly improve the aesthetics” on the site.

The vanishing of headlines, however, lead to confusion around link sharing, with posts with links not providing any information on what the said links contained. Earlier, news links showed up on the timeline as “cards” along with an image, URL address, and a short headline, which made it easier for users to decipher what they were clicking. After the change, only the lead image from a news article would show up in a link preview on X. This effectively forced news publications to alter the way they post their stories on the site.

X, formerly known as Twitter, has introduced and rolled back several new features since Musk took over the platform in late 2022. Just last month, the site began rolling out Grok, an AI chatbot developed by Musk’s AI firm xAI. Grok is currently only available to X Premium+ Subscribers on Web, iOS, and Android.

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Elon Musk to Upgrade X With Payment Features Soon; No Word on User-Requested Crypto Integration

Elon Musk recently disclosed his plans to add payments feature to the X app (formerly Twitter) by mid-2024. The multi-billionaire tech mogul has been working towards his goal of transforming X into an ‘everything app’ — prior to Musk’s takeover of the platform, Twitter was characterised as a microblogging platform. Interestingly, Musk chose to leave out the mention of cryptocurrencies while speaking about his digital payments feature plan for X. Crypto payments remain a much-requested feature on X, especially among the platform’s avid cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Musk told ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood in an interview on Thursday that several licence approvals are awaited before X could also function as a money transmitter. This means that users might have to wait until mid-2024 before the payments feature is finally rolled out on the platform, according to Musk. While Musk admitted that X was a bit late in sending all these required applications, he did not reveal any plans to integrate crypto with X’s upcoming payment feature. On the contrary, Musk recently revealed that he spends “hardly any” time mulling over digital assets while responding to a question generated by his own GenAI initiative called Grok.

This apparent cold shoulder that the tech mogul is giving the crypto sector has sparked discussions among users on the social media platform.

As of August this year, X had acquired a currency transmitter licence in Rhode Island, Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire.

It is notable that while Musk remains tight-lipped around cryptocurrencies, his EV company Tesla still holds BTC worth $148 million (roughly Rs. 1,232 crore). The company also permits the purchase of select Tesla merchandise via Dogecoin. In 2022, it was reported that Musk’s tunnel construction company called The Boring Company was letting customers pay in DOGE for rides on the Las Vegas transit system.

It was reported in April that Musk had pitched his favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, as a payment option for users seeking to avail Twitter Blue services. That, however, did not happen as the months unfolded. For now, it remains unclear whether X plans to support crypto transactions as part of the upcoming payments feature.

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X Restores Access After Thousands of Users Report App, Website Not Working [Updated]

X — the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter — appears to be working again, after thousands of users reported they were unable to access the service on Thursday. At around 11am, users took to a downtime tracking website to state that the service was not accessible, while other users reported that they couldn’t see posts on the platform. Gadgets 360 staffers were unable to view any posts on X when attempting to visit the microblogging platform’s web interface and mobile apps.

Update: X appears to be functioning normally again, with posts displaying on all feeds at around 12:10pm, nearly an hour after users reported that the service was inaccessible.

Downtime tracking service Downdetector had over 67,000 reports from users who said that X was not accessible on Thursday, while the Indian version of the website had over 4,800 reports with the same complaint. It is worth noting that at the time of publishing, Twitter’s API Status page shows “All Systems Operational”.

X users are seeing empty feeds at the moment

 

Some parts of X appear to be working normally on the site, such as the Trending topics section that shows hashtags that are currently trending in the same region as the user. However, clicking on these trending topics does not show any posts, and the feed appears empty, just like the main timeline that loads when you log in to X.

Visiting the Lists section also displays the names of various lists but clicking on them displays the message ” Waiting for posts. Posts from people in this List will show up here.” — the site is currently unable to display posts from any users, including the platform’s owner, Elon Musk.

Posts on individual profiles on X are also not visible

 

On the other hand, Spaces continue to be working as usual, and a Gadgets 360 staffer was able to join one discussion about the service being unavailable. Spaces hosts can also add and remove speakers and the feature appears to be working as intended.

Direct messages are also visible and appear to be working normally on the platform. Notifications for users’ posts also appear to be working normally, but users are not able to view the tweet when clicking on the notification, at the time of publishing this story.

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