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Google Meet expands live captions support
Google has expanded the support for live captions on Meet by including additional languages like French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. When enabling captions during a call, individual participant can select the meeting’s spoken language. The new captions are currently available on the web to Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa countries only. It will be rolled out to North America, Latin America, as well as iOS and Android apps in early 2021, Google said in a blog post. This week, a group of 38 U.S states and territories filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google , a day after 10 other states had accused Google of abusing its dominance in advertising and overcharging publishers.
WhatsApp beta-testing calls on its macOS desktop client
WhatsApp has started beta-testing voice and video calls on its desktop client for macOS, WABetaInfo reported. WhatsApp has enabled the calls feature for some macOS users, who have been randomly chosen to participate and beta-test it. People will be able to make end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls using WhatsApp’s desktop client as long as their phone is nearby and connected. The Facebook-owned company said the voice and video calls feature will be available on desktop next year. In another development, WhatsApp said it will help users in India buy ‘sachet-sized’ health insurance by the year-end.
Apple’s app privacy labels are now available
Apple announced that its app privacy labels are now available on the App Store. It is designed to help “users better understand an app’s privacy practices before they download the app on any Apple platform.” Users will be able to get more information about some of the data types an app may collect on its product page, and if that data is linked to them or used to track them, Apple noted in a blog post. In another update, Facebook slammed Apple's new App Tracking Transparency policy for being more about the iPhone maker's own profit, and not privacy.
Microsoft, Warner Bros. team up to inspire next-gen developers
Microsoft said it has partnered with Warner Bros. to create new education opportunities to help bridge the digital skills gap and inspire the next generation of developers, around the upcoming animated/live-action movie, “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” featuring LeBron James, and Bugs Bunny. People can learn to code through the movie-themed virtual workshops; develop the job skills of tomorrow via two new lessons for Microsoft Learn; and participate in the Xbox ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ arcade-style video game contest. In another development, Microsoft said it found malicious software in its systems related to a massive hacking campaign disclosed by U.S. officials this week.
PUBG Mobile tops mobile games revenue list in 2020
PUBG Mobile, along with Game For Peace, China’s version of the game, has generated the most revenue worldwide across the App Store, and Google in 2020, according to a report by research firm Sensor Tower. The popular battle royale game, has earned nearly $2.6 billion in player spending this year, up 64.3% compared with 2019. Honor of Kings from Tencent, took the second spot with about $2.5 billion, followed by Pokemon GO, and Coin Master, both earning over $1 billion in mobile revenue, this year. Last month, PUBG Corp. had said it is making a comeback to India with a game specially created for the Indian market. In another game update, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony’s shared guidelines for safer online gaming.
Google to shut down Android Things
Google announced that its Android-based operating system (OS) for building smart, connected device applications will be shut down. The search giant said the Android Things console, which is used with the Internet of things (IoT) devices, will stop supporting ne projects on January 5, 2021, and will be turned down for all existing projects on January 5, 2022. All project data will be permanently deleted, including build configurations and factory images, it added. This week, Google also said it is strengthening language capabilities to drive internet adoption in India.
You can read more at thehindu.com/technology
