Netflix launches first games on smartphones

  • Netflix is launching its first games worldwide as it seeks to break into the game subscription market.
  • The Netflix app on Android smartphones will be updated and display the games available for download.
  • There are five games available initially, but Netflix has announced that more will come.
  • The games include: ‘Stranger Things: 1984’, ‘Stranger Things 3: The Game’, ‘Card Blast’, ’Teeter Up’ and ‘Shooting Hoops’.
  • Two games relate to the popular Stranger Things series.
  • iOS are due to receive the update in the coming months, but no specific date has been announced.
  • The games are available for current subscribers and feature no in-app payments or advertisements.
  • Full story, here.

 

Facebook is shutting down its Face Recognition tagging program

  • Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is discontinuing Facebook’s Face Recognition feature in the next coming weeks following a lengthy privacy battle.
  • The facial recognition algorithm ‘DeepFace’ won’t be used to tag people in photographs and videos anymore.
  • Meta announced that they will delete over a billion ‘FacePrints’ that they use for facial recognition for users who had opted into the feature.
  • The change will impact Automatic Alt Text (AAT), which creates image descriptions for blind and visually impaired people.
  • AAT descriptions will no longer state the name of the person identified in the photo but will function normally otherwise.
  • Meta hasn’t ruled out using ‘DeepFace’ for other projects, future virtual reality hardware could also collect biometric data.
  • Full story, here.

 

YouTube tests launching ‘YouTube Shorts’ home screen for some users

  • YouTube is testing opening the ‘YouTube Shorts’ player directly for users who regularly engage with the app.
  • If a user exits the YouTube app while watching Shorts, users will be ‘dropped’ into the Shorts player when they reopen the app.
  • YouTube shorts are Youtube’s version of verticle style videos like TikTok or Instagram
  • The testing is being made available to a small percentage of viewers using mobile devices.
  • For more information on Shorts, check out our blog post.
  • Full story, here.