This week we have
quite a bit to unpack: Twitter is rumored to launch a podcast, TikTok
introduced 10-minute videos to compete against Youtube, Mark Zuckerburg
revealed the plan to build an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered universal
language translator, and much more.
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So, let’s jump right into the news.
Rise of podcasts has Twitter on edge
With the rise of podcasting
globally, it appears that the new
Twitter CEO’s next big move for Twitter will be to enter the podcasting world.
Jane Manchun Wong, a securities researcher,
identified that Twitter is indeed working on a podcast feature for their
platform. This was even further solidified by a screenshot posted on her
account, which showcases a microphone tab in Twitter’s ribbon. The screenshot
has since been deleted.
While this is not confirmed by Twitter yet, the
legitimacy of Wong’s previous leaks surrounding tech giants makes us almost
certain that Twitter is, at the very least, testing the feasibility of this
feature.
With podcasts becoming an essential part of many
people’s lives and Spotify even going as far as to add a video feature to their
podcasts, there is no doubt that Twitter is not the only company on the hunt
for a piece the podcast pie.
TikTok releases
10-minute video feature
Move over Youtube; TikTok is moving up in the world.
TikTok has released, unannounced, a 10-minute video
feature now available to all users on the platform. This came shortly after
their 3-minute video feature was released just a few months ago. This move
indicates that content creators are not just willing to release longer forms of
content but are, in fact, preferential to it.
This can be seen as an attack against YouTube’s push
for their platform’s short video sharing called Shorts. Instead of directly
competing for the same share of viewership on short-form videos, TikTok decided
it would be easier to just nick Youtube’s existing user base over to their
platform.
Over the last few years,
Youtube has faced vocal
frustration from users with their app; from the increase in ads to un-skippable
ads now being as long as 30 seconds, many of their users have been ready to
jump ship, provided there is a platform that would enable growth the way that
YouTube does.
Now that TikTok is officially the most used service
globally, it is clear to both content creators and consumers alike that there
is huge potential on TikTok.
Whether or not TikTok is to release further
increases to their video lengths is up for debate; it’s not unreasonable or
unimaginable to believe that TikTok may as well become a direct, legitimate
competitor to YouTube in the coming years.
Android Go: Android on a budget
Google wants to make the
power of Android available to everyone, so it created Android Go, a lighter
version of Android, with software still primarily operating as an Android
would, but optimized for devices with lower-performing CPUs, lower amounts of
memory, and less accessible mobile connectivity.
Android Go has allowed for more cheap smartphones to
carry Android OS optimized for their usage as this software is intended for
entry-level cellphones with 512MB to 2GB of RAM.
Android Go concentrates on three things: optimizing
the newest Android versions to function well on low-cost devices, slimming the
collection of Google programs — such as Google Chrome and Gboard — to consume
less memory, storage space, and mobile bandwidth; and third, to offer a lite
version of the Google Play Store that has the same appearance as the
traditional play store, but uses significantly less data, storage, and memory.
Overall, what this means to the end consumer is a
significantly more optimized version of Android, provided that they’re running
with one of the many budget Android
smartphones available on the market.
This version is completely free to use for Android
users. Those looking to lower their use of space and battery on their more powerful
phones can also use this optimized version to downgrade the heavy runtime
processes usually running on their phone.
META AI-Powered Translation Tool
It appears that Meta CEO
Mark Zuckerberg is dedicated to putting AI in everything he touches.
During a live-streamed event, Zuckerberg discussed
the Metaverse and Meta’s research division is working on a universal voice
translation technology.
This technology would ideally allow people worldwide
to engage with one another inside Meta’s digital reality. Zuckerberg mentioned
that this would be a crucial component of people from various backgrounds
teleporting across various virtual worlds and experiencing things together.
Meta has two primary ways through which they see
this goal being achieved:
First, Meta is working on No Language Left Behind, a
translation system that can learn any language even if there is not a lot of
material accessible to learn from. Zuckerberg stated that the company could
translate hundreds of languages with cutting-edge technology and feature a wide
variety of language pairings.
Following that, Meta intends to develop AI to
provide instantaneous speech-to-speech translation across all languages,
including the most widely spoken.
A lot of this sounds like it comes straight out of a
science fiction movie, especially focusing on the AI doing real-time
translation for their users. However, with the massive push from Meta to
develop and optimize the Metaverse to create new educational, social, and
functional spaces on the web, this tool may not be too far off the reality
spectrum.
Sadly, however, these are just claims from Zuckerberg
himself. No timelines, dates, or guarantees were given during the press
conference, and thus we are left wondering: When will all of his claims come to
fruition?
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