Instagram Reels nowhere near TikTok in short-form video game

San Francisco, Sep 13 (IANS) Meta-owned Instagram is struggling to woo creators as its short-video making Reels engagement falls against a formidable competition that is coming from its Chinese rival TikTok.

An internal Meta document accessed by The Wall Street Journal shows that Instagram users are spending 17.6 million hours watching Reels daily -- less than a tenth when compared to 197.8 million hours users spend on TikTok a day

The report, published in August, claimed that Reels engagement had fallen 13.6 percent over the last four weeks, and "most Reels users have no engagement whatsoever".

Among the key reasons is that Instagram has struggled to recruit people to make the right kind of content and the lack of original content on Reels.

"Roughly 11 million creators are on the platform in the US, but only about 2.3 million of them, or 20.7 per cent, post on that platform each month," according to the document.

A Meta spokesperson, however, said that Reels engagement currently is up on a month-to-month basis.

"We still have work to do. But creators and businesses are seeing promising results, and our monetisation growth is faster than we expected as more people are watching, creating and connecting through Reels than ever before," the company spokesperson added.

To attract people to make content for Instagram and Facebook, Meta has earmarked $1 billion for creator payouts through the end of the year.

Instagram Reels creators have received a total of $120 million to date.

Reports surfaced last month that threatened by the meteoric rise of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have introduced new features to discourage their short-video app users from cross-platform sharing.

When creators now make a video on YouTube Shorts, they will not be able to download the video and cross-post it to other apps without a "YouTube watermark".

"If you're a creator who downloads your Shorts from YouTube Studio to share across other platforms, you'll now find a watermark added to your downloaded content," YouTube said in an update.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

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3 Netflix games made in partnership with Ubisoft to arrive from 2023: Here are the details

Popular video streaming platform Netflix and Ubisoft on Monday announced they have partnered to create three mobile games from some of the game franchises for Netflix, starting in 2023.

The three games will expand on the Valiant Hearts, Mighty Quest and Assassin's Creed universes and will be available exclusively on mobile to Netflix members worldwide with no ads or in-app purchases.

"We are thrilled to work with Ubisoft, whose track record creating memorable worlds for fans is unmatched," Mike Verdu, Vice President of Games, Netflix, said in a statement.

"This partnership will provide our members with exclusive access to some of the most exciting game franchises as we continue to build a catalogue of great mobile games for our members around the world," Verdu added.

A new Valiant Hearts game, a sequel to Ubisoft's multi-award-winning game Valiant Hearts: The Great War, is directed by the original core team and will retain the same DNA while featuring a new story. It will be available to Netflix members in January 2023.

After the critically acclaimed The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot mobile game, The Mighty Quest will come to Netflix in 2023 with a new game. This time, the game will draw inspiration from the rogue-like genre to deliver an experience that celebrates the series' premiere hack-and-slash combat in a fresh and highly replayable format.

And for Assassin's Creed fans, they will be able to immerse themselves in the Assassin's Creed universe on Netflix in more than one way: in addition to the previously announced live-action series, an all-new mobile game is being developed exclusively for Netflix.

"As we continue to create great experiences on all platforms, we are glad to be partnering with such an innovative and creative partner as Netflix," said Jean-Michel Detoc, Chief Mobile Officer, Ubisoft.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

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Apple iPhone subscription is said to be in active testing: Heres how it is expected to work

Tech giant Apple is likely to bring out a monthly iPhone subscription bundle, with a package combining hardware and services like Apple One this year.

The hardware subscription, which would allow customers to acquire iPhones and other items from Apple for a monthly fee, has floated around in rumours for a while, but has yet to become a reality, reports AppleInsider.

While the tech giant had an opportunity to introduce such a service during its iPhone 14 event, it may still make an appearance in the coming weeks, the report said.

Apple is supposedly thought to be "actively testing" the service, according to Mark Gurman's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg. While being tested, Gurman said he still expects it "to launch either later this year or next year."

The proposed subscription was not announced or mentioned during the iPhone event to "reduce launch day complexity," since it would be an "entirely new way to buy an iPhone".

Given the expectation of an October event for iPad and Mac launches, there could be a high chance Apple could use that presentation as a venue for a subscription launch, as per the report.

Apple already offers several direct ways customers can get the latest flagships, including the iPhone Upgrade Program and installment programs, like Apple Card.

However, the subscription would differ as customers would not just pay a portion of the hardware cost, but also for a suite of services on top, the report noted.

(Except for the headline and cover image, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

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Blaupunkt launches three 4K QLED TVs with Google TV on Flipkart: Know price and specs

German audio-visual brand Blaupunkt on Monday introduced three premium yet affordable QLED TV models with in-built Google TV in India.

The TVs will be available in 50-inch (Rs 36,999), 55-inch (Rs 44,999), and 65-inch (Rs 62,999) during the upcoming Flipkart Big Billion Days (BBD) festive sale, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), an exclusive brand licensee of Blaupunkt TV in the country, said in a statement.

Featuring 60W speakers with Dolby Atmos support, the Blaupunkt Google TV housing Far Field Voice Control with Google Assistant provides 360-degree surround sound for a theatre-like experience at home.

Blaupunkt TVs were re-launched in India in July 2021 and saw good response over the past year, according to the company.

"We are India's first manufacturing brand to launch QLED with Google TV, even before the Chinese smartphone brands. We are expecting a GMV growth of 100 per cent in Blaupunkt TVs this year and the major contribution will be QLED TV," Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of SPPL, told IANS.

"Blaupunkt is ranked amongst best rated and reviews tvs in india with 4.6 out of 5 on Flipkart. We are launching QLED at the same price point of 4K TVs to capture maximum market share," Marwah added.

Each TV unit has a QLED 4K display with 1.1 billion colours, HDR 10+, a 60-watt Dolby stereo box speaker with four installed speakers, and DTS 'TruSurround' sound technology with Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and Dolby Digital Plus.

All the models come with bezelless and Airslim design, Bluetooth 5.0 and Dual Band Wifi.

These models also come with 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, digital noise filter, QLED Panel, dedicated shortcut remote keys of Netflix, Prime, Youtube, Google Play and have an access to more than 10,000 apps and games, with more than 500,000 TV shows.

(Except for the headline and cover image, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

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Future Assassin’s Creed Games Might Not Be 150-Hour RPGs, Prices Reflect the Scale of the Project: Report

Assassin’s Creed games in the future might be shorter in length. In an interview with IGN, Marc-Alexis Côté, VP, Assassin’s Creed stated that the studio has plans to move away from the open-world RPG format, which recent entries are notorious for. Assassin’s Creed Hexe, which releases as part of the Infinity hub, will not be a 150-hour RPG. Furthermore, future...

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IIT Madras opens Indias quantum research doors, joins IBMs quantum computing network

One of the most exciting topics of discussion of late in the world of tech has been of quantum computing. Adding to that was the recent announcement made by IIT Madras that the premier engineering and research institute of India is joining hands with IBM to gain access to their quantum computing tech and take research and development to the next level.

This announcement was made on Monday when the top brass of both institutions got together to make this announcement, much to everyone’s excitement. The collaboration between IBM and IIT Madras is aimed at “accelerating the research, adoption, skilling and application of quantum computing to address business and societal challenges in India.”

Opening new doors to new possibilities

It would help jumpstart the quantum computing ecosystem. Quantum computing is a fundamentally new technology that is seeing a rise in popularity in a world where tech is maturing at a rapid pace. So, this collaboration would open the doors to the professors, students, and researchers at the university to lay their hands on this era-defining technology and make important developments by harnessing the computational prowess of quantum computers.  

The question that might come to everyone’s mind at this time would be, why not set up a system at the institute itself? Answering this question was Amith Singhee, Senior Technical Staff Member and Manager, Cognitive Operations and Environmental Analytics

India Research Laboratory, Bangalore, who remarked, “…it allows an instant start to the work.” The deployment of a quantum computing system requires a lot of time and resources. So, it makes sense for the institute to collaborate rather than spend time and resources setting up a system on such a large scale.

IBM’s Qiskit Runtime overview

The collaboration aims to accelerate the discovery of problems and solutions in different areas of our daily lives. Things like drug discovery and research relating to the discovery of new materials for electric vehicles are currently hindered due to the limited capabilities of the computers that we have right now. The solution to this problem lies in quantum computing. 

According to the experts who were a part of the panel discussing the possibilities that quantum computing would open in India, the country is right at the top of the charts when it comes to countries using quantum tech. The stakeholders, both at the industry level and the academic level are self-educating, providing a vital push to the quantum computing ecosystem in the country. In the long run, this would lead to the convergence of academia and the industry, fostering an environment where research would see significant boost and improvements.

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Elon Musks Twitter was bombarded by crypto spam from bots and hacked verified accounts: Heres what happened

Elon Musk on Monday was spammed by hacked verified accounts along with non-verified accounts sharing links to crypto scams, as he shared an update about Tesla's latest version of full self-driving (FSD) Beta.

Several of these accounts were bots but some were also hacked verified Twitter accounts.

A Twitter user shared screenshots about Musk being bombarded with fake accounts on his latest tweet.

"FSD Beta 10.69.2 rolling out now. Please note that top priority is safety, so expect it to be overly cautious, especially around pedestrians," Musk posted.

Within no time, spammed crypto accounts hit Musk, who tweeted "Sigh".

Musk recently went after the Parag Agrawal-led platform after a top cybersecurity expert claimed that as high as eight in 10 Twitter accounts are fake.

Dan Woods, Global Head of Intelligence at cybersecurity company F5, told The Australian that more than 80 per cent of Twitter accounts are probably bots -- a massive claim as Twitter says only 5 per cent of its users are bots/spams.

Musk last week claimed 90 per cent of the comments on his tweets are actually bots or spam replies.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has terminated the $44 billion Twitter takeover deal, and the matter is now in a US court, over the presence of bots on the platform, and seeks answers from Agrawal via an open debate.

The Musk-Twitter trial is slated to begin from October 17.

According to Woods, a former CIA and FBI cybersecurity specialist, both Musk and Twitter have underestimated the bot problem on the micro-blogging platform.

(Except for the headline and cover image, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

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