ShinyShiny tech roundup: YouTube Wear OS app only works with Samsung


Google’s YouTube Music app for Wear OS is now live, a few months after the tech giant promised to release one for the platform. That certainly sounds like great news for users who’ve been waiting for it after Google retired Play Music for Wear OS in 2020. The bad news is, as noted by 9to5Google, it only currently works on Google’s Wear OS 3 platform. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic wearables, which will be available on August 27th, will be the only devices that will be running the OS in the foreseeable future. Engadget

OnlyFans has scrapped a new policy that would have banned users from posting “sexually explicit” material. The online subscription platform known for adult content announced on Wednesday that it would not be implementing the planned change for 1 October. “We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change,” OnlyFans tweeted. “An official communication to creators will be emailed shortly,” the firm added in a separate tweet. Sky News 

The UK’s new Information Commissioner will be charged with a post-Brexit “shake up” of data rules, including getting rid of cookie pop-ups. John Edwards has been named the next head of data regulator the ICO. The government said Mr Edwards, currently the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, would “go beyond the regulator’s traditional role”. The job would now be “balanced” between protecting rights and promoting “innovation and economic growth”. Mr Edwards has been named as the government’s preferred candidate, and said it is a “great honour”. “I look forward to the challenge of steering the organisation and the British economy into a position of international leadership in the safe and trusted use of data for the benefit of all,” he said. BBC

The financial watchdog has admitted it was “not capable” of regulating Binance after the cryptocurrency firm refused to provide basic information about its operations. The Financial Conduct Authority barred its UK arm from operating in Britain in June and issued a further warning on Wednesday about Binance’s operations. Binance allows consumers to buy and sell hundreds of digital coins as well as making highly leveraged bets. Traders exchanged an estimated $38bn every 24 hours and made derivatives bets of up to $129bn. Telegraph 

Instagram plans to more prominently feature photos and videos in search results in the future, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Wednesday. The change could show the grid of photos and videos a keyword search can pull up alongside results for accounts and hashtags, not dissimilar to how TikTok displays results. The search tweak is part of “a series of improvements designed for inspiration and discovery,” according to Mosseri. The company has used keyword search as a way to offer visual results — certain terms can pull up pages of suggested images — but Instagram’s new plan will give those more prominence. The Verge 

 

Chris Price