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Instagram insights for Reels, Live
Instagram has launched insights for Reels and Live to help creators and businesses better understand how their content is performing on the platform. They will be able to access new metrics such as Plays, Accounts Reached, Likes, Comments, Saves, and Shares for Reels. While for Live, they will be able to see Accounts Reached, Peak Concurrent Viewers, Comments, and Shares. These metrics will be available in Account Insights in addition to new detailed information about Reach, the Facebook-owned platform said in a blog post. “Understanding more about how content is being distributed is important, so we’ve built new breakdowns that provide transparency into which types of accounts you’re reaching and which content formats are the most effective at driving Reach,” it explained. This week, the Facebook-owned platform also announced that everyone on Instagram and Facebook will now have the option to hide their public like counts .
$100 million OpenAI Startup Fund
OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) research firm that has built one of the most advanced language models – GPT-3 , announced a $100 million OpenAI Startup Fund to help AI companies. The Fund is looking to partner with a small number of early-stage startups in fields where AI can have a transformative effect—like health care, climate change, and education. “We want to help push the boundaries of what powerful AI models can do and support really ambitious projects aimed at solving complex problems of the highest order,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, said in a video. The fund is managed by OpenAI, with investment from Microsoft and other OpenAI partners. “They [the startups in the fund] will get early access to future OpenAI systems, discounts on Azure and support from our team,” Altman noted. In a separate development, Nandan Nilekani said India is well-placed on the government and businesses fronts to leverage AI in unique ways to solve challenges and tap into opportunities .
Twitter Spaces available on the web
Twitter said on Thursday its audio-chatting feature ‘Spaces’ will now be available on the mobile and desktop web (via Twitter.com). The micro-blogging platform noted that its focus areas for this rollout include UI that adapts to a user’s screen size, reminders for scheduled spaces, and accessibility and transcriptions. Based on the screenshots shared by Twitter, it appears that Spaces will feature live transcriptions, enabling people with hearing disabilities to follow the conversations. Twitter’s Clubhouse-like feature is already available on iOS and Android. Meanwhile, other companies like Facebook , Telegram , ByteDance , LinkedIn , and Reddit are working on their own Clubhouse-like audio feature. Clubhouse, an invite-only audio chat app, which recently entered the Android ecosystem, gained popularity after Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s chat . This week, Twitter also said it planned to advocate changes in core elements of India’s new IT Rules that inhibit free and open public conversation .
AWS to open data centres in UAE
Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Wednesday announced that it plans to open a new cloud infrastructure region in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the first half of 2022, allowing customers to run workloads and store data locally while serving end-users with even lower latency. Organisations using this region will also be able to access advanced technologies from a suite of cloud services to drive innovation including compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile services. The UAE Region will consist of three Availability Zones and become AWS’s second region in the Middle East with the existing AWS Region in Bahrain. AWS plans to launch 18 more Availability Zones and six more AWS Regions in Australia, India, Indonesia, Spain, Switzerland, and the UAE, it said. In another development, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said on Wednesday thatAmazon executive Andy Jassy will take over the CEO roleon July 5 .
Far Cry 6 release on October 7
Ubisoft’s much-anticipated game ‘Far Cry 6’ will be released on October 7, 2021, after an eight-month delay. The sixth instalment of the famous Far Cry series will be available on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Stadia, Amazon Luna, Windows PC, and as part of Ubisoft+, Ubisoft’s subscription service. The game is now open for pre-order. For all the passionate gamers around the world, eagerly waiting to play the game, Ubisoft offered a look at the gameplay of Far Cry 6 . The game was originally scheduled to release in February this year, however, it was delayed due to COVID-19. The games from the franchise have garnered a lot of popularity over the years and have been made available for PC as well as consoles. In another gaming-related update, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 is now available in Early Access, offering developers and designers the opportunity to start testing features and prototyping their upcoming games .
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 in India
Microsoft has launched its Surface Laptop 4 in India. The device retains the design, details, and materials as the previous models and features the signature 3:2 PixelSense high-contrast touchscreen display in both 13.5- and 15-inch models. Surface Laptop 4 is available with either the 11th Gen Intel Core processors, or AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors with Radeon Graphics Microsoft Surface Edition (8 cores). The device comes in Alcantara or metal finishes in platinum and black colours. The price of the consumer variants starts at ₹1,02,999, while the commercial variants begin at ₹1,05,499. Surface Laptop 4 will be available to commercial and education customers via authorised retailers and for consumers via Amazon.in, the software giant said. In another development, Microsoft Build 2021, the company’s annual developer conference commenced on Tuesday with thekeynote from CEO Satya Nadella .
You can read more at thehindu.com/technology
