TechBooky

Spotify users! You can now go on downloading more music and podcasts for offline listening. As Rolling Stone first reported, the music streaming service has raised the song limit for offline downloads, which is good news for anyone who complained about the previous limit of 3,333 songs per device , on up to three devices, for a total of 9,999. Now, Premium subscribers can download up to 10,000 songs per device , on up to five devices, and listen to them without an internet connection. That adds up to 50,000 offline songs across your devices. With this new limit, you should definitely have enough listening material to get through your morning subway commute. That isn’t the only limit that Spotify has raised either. Users can now download songs on up to five devices, up from the previous limit of three. This means that if you were so inclined and had the devices necessary to do so, you could technically download up to 50,000 songs, although you’d need to do a fair amount of d...

As pointed out by a Rolling Stone , Apple Music is rolling out its own “Top 100” music charts showcasing both country-based charts and the top songs globally—Today, the tech giant Apple has added 116 charts to the service today for users on iOS 12 beta and macOS Mojave beta including one global chart and one more for each country where Apple Music is available. The charts display the top-streamed songs on Apple Music and are refreshed on a regular basis. The charts, which are updated daily at 12 a.m. PST, are grouped together under the platform’s “Browse” tab and have a similar visual appearance to that of playlists or albums. The rollout of the new charts arrives days before Apple"s "Gather Round" event on September 12, which is widely expected to be the launch of new iPhone models, among other products. Software updates, including details of the releases of operating systems such as iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 Mojave, are also expected, with other change...

If you"ve ever been in a situation where, for some reason, you couldn"t make use of your streaming service subscription for an extended period of time and you had to pay for another.  Here is the good news— YouTube TV"s announced a new feature which allows customers to pause their subscription at any time and resume it later when they"re ready to use it again. According to the services help page . YouTube TV Help wrote in a post : "You can cancel or pause your YouTube TV membership at any time. When you cancel or pause your membership, you"ll still have access to YouTube TV until the end of your payment period," "When your paused state ends, you will automatically be charged at your normal monthly price for a new month of service, and that date becomes your new billing date," the post added. During the pause period, neither the user nor the shared members would have access to YouTube TV and no new programme would be recorded. However, the pr...

Previously, only muted-GIFs were available to be forwarded but now Snapchat has introduced  a new feature—which allows users to send music GIFs to their followers, or upload them as stories, on the social network, thanks to TuneMoji . Since launching in 2014, TuneMoji has been steadily growing, with around 20 million users already. The app allows people to create and share the GIFs, which all feature licensed music, to enhance their chat—The music GIF network is integrating into Snap from today, allowing the app’s millions of users to add TuneMojis in chats and stories, as first spotted by Business Insider . “Adding music to GIFs is the next logical step in the evolution of visual communication," said TuneMoji’s founder and CEO, James Fabricant. “We initially started by creating TuneMojis ourselves, and quickly realized how much more effective it would be to empower a generation with the tools to produce their own music GIFs. That infinite creati...

Spotify is testing a new feature that lets users skip audio and video ads, even without being on a paid subscription—The feature, known as "Active Media," will allows users of Spotify"s free, ad-supported service to skip particular ads, with advertisers only paying for completed listens or views. Danielle Lee, Spotify’s global head of partner solutions explained to Adage . “Our hypothesis is if we can use this to fuel our streaming intelligence, and deliver a more personalized experience and a more engaging audience to our advertisers, it will improve the outcomes that we can deliver for brands. Just as we create these personalized experiences like Discover Weekly, and the magic that brings to our consumers, we want to inject that concept into the advertising experience,” According to Spotify , Active Media feature is the "first of its kind globally" and will allow the company to "learn from each interaction" and "deliver a more personalised ad e...

Over the years, Google has continually improved how search results are shown with things like cards for important figures and businesses, highlights, sports data, and lot more. Now as announced in a blog post the tech giants Google ,  is updating the way it displays table data in search results, which should make it easier to find the information you"re specifically looking for. The idea is to make it easier to discover the data that a lot of these organisations produce and then surface it in an easy to read format on the company’s search results pages. The company is currently working with a few news organisations, like ProPublica , to produce the structured data in the format it needs for its search index. As long as that data is in a table, adding it to the index should be straightforward. Google News Lab’s Simon Rogers wrote in today’s blog post. “Data journalism takes many forms, and it’s not always clear from the headline that there is potential...

YouTube confirmed back in March this year that it would release a dark mode for its mobile apps. The mode was actually released first for the iOS app even though many would have expected it to arrive for the Android version first. Last night, users on Reddit started reporting that the dark theme was being automatically applied to their mobile apps. Those who saw the change were also served with a pop-up informing them about the switch and the option to revert to the light theme. After 4 months, the company has decided to roll-out out the new feature to all Android devices. Like dark mode for iOS and the web version of YouTube, the Android version allows you to change the white backdrop into a dark colour and select their profile header. The dark UI is especially helpful during the night time as it reduces eye piercing glare, thus helping to prevent strain on your eyes while watching videos. The dark mode comes with a toggle that allows you to switch it off. As such there are no addit...

Good news for Nigerians. Google Station, the web giant’s public Wi-Fi service, has gone live in Nigeria. As it has done in four other countries—India, Indonesia, Mexico and Thailand—where the service has been launched, Google will partner with local service providers for infrastructure and locations while it offers a cloud-based platform and devices to provide and manage hot-spots. The Wi-Fi service is not the Google’s first internet access-focused initiative in Africa. In Ghana and Uganda, it has launched Project Link through which it builds fiber-optic networks to help local internet service providers and mobile operators provide faster broadband. The company is also in talks with telecom operators in Kenya to launch Project Loon, an ambitious plan to beam internet to users using solar-powered high-altitude balloons. Facebook also has a history of internet access projects in Africa, including Express wifi and Free Basics. Google Nigeria Country Director Juliet ...

In an effort to help mobile users find new content to watch: YouTube is about to launch the test of a new “Explore” tab for its iOS app, which YouTube says will show videos, topics and channels users probably wouldn’t ordinarily see. Google-owned popular video streaming platform YouTube on Monday announced that it will start testing a new Explore tab on iPhone that will allow users on the platform to discover related content from channels that they have not yet subscribed to. Explore is different from the Recommendations tab in a way that it is expected to broaden topics instead of showing just videos similar to the ones in browsing history and in the subscription list. According to a Twitter post by the company. The feature is currently being tested on just about 1 percent of the iPhone users with the YouTube app installed, the company announced in a video on its Creators Insider channel. In making the “Explore” tab announcement, YouTube notes it’s...

Over the years, users have been faced with a confusing situation of either clearing their cache and been faced with consequences of clearing the cache alongside clearing all their music downloads. The good news is that Spotify app now lets you clear your cache without affecting your downloaded songs. The new feature will allow Spotify to notify users that downloads aren’t being deleted when you delete your cache, which could provide additional peace of mind. After all, who wants to be stuck without music? The update has already quietly rolled out over the past few weeks to Android users, as spotted by Android Police . How it works If you use Spotify app quite often, you might have noticed that the storage space of your computer or the mobile device is dropping rapidly. That"s simply because whenever you are streaming a song from Spotify, it will save the track onto your device so that if you ever play that song in the future, Spotify will play it from the cache directly, without h...

Uber has introduced a handful of new features aimed at improving the pickup process. Ever tried to call an Uber at night, only to wander around in frustration as both you and the driver keep missing each other? The ride hailing company wants to fix scenarios like that by enabling you to light up your smartphone"s display with a specific colour. By raising it up in the air, it can then direct your driver"s attention towards you - acting like a makeshift flare gun - and give them more of an idea of what to look out for. Drivers will naturally be notified of whatever colour you choose. This feature is called Spotlight. This isn’t the first time Uber has used colours as a means of communication between drivers and riders to help improve the pickup experience. In late 2017, the company unveiled its a gadget: the Beacon , a Bluetooth-enabled piece of plastic shaped like an Uber logo that drivers could stick to the inside of their windshields. Using the Uber app, riders could choos...

If you’re a fan of Apple’s photo printing service, you won’t like this shocking news one bit. According to a new message popping up in the Photos app , and After 16 years, Apple is killing off its Photo Print Products service, a service that has been part of iPhoto and subsequently Photos. Apple Photo Prints Products grew from just supporting simple prints to producing albums, calendars, and photo books. The message, first spotted by 9to5Mac , instructs users of macOS 10.13.6 to make their “final purchases” by September 30 of this year. MacOS Mojave’s Photo app has already scrapped any mention of the service. The message also encourages users to download the Photo Project Extension from the Mac App Store to get access to a range of third-party printing services. These services include Mimeo Photos, Wix, GoodTimes, WhiteWall, and Shutterfly. Following the news, shares of Shutterfly and Wix were up 2 and 3.1 percent, respectively. Here’s the messa...

Snapchat will be teaming up with Amazon in the near future. The photo sharing company is working on turning its camera into a visual search engine that will link users to Amazon listings. The unreleased feature was spotted in the code of Snapchat’s Android app by an app researcher working with TechCrunch , who hinted off the feature that appears to be in the works for the mobile camera app — which was found in the app"s code after a recent Android update. Discovered by Ishan Agarwal , the latest details reveal strings referencing Amazon in context with the project codenamed Eagle helping users get started with the new feature. The feature appears to be able to scan and identify objects that the Snapchat camera is pointed at, and then link users to the Amazon pages for the product. How it works The new feature is simple to use and easy to comprehend. All most same way, you take hold to view all snap filters which pops up, with this you have to “ Press and hold to iden...

Gmail is by far the most popular email service around, but there are plenty of reasons to use other options. Microsoft"s Outlook.com is an alternative that offers tight integration with Redmond"s services. One of the most requested features has been a dark mode for the user interface, and it seems that Microsoft is getting ready to deliver on the demands from users. Microsoft first introduced Outlook nearly six years ago as a replacement for its ageing Hotmail web service, and it has now around 400 million active users. Microsoft has been tweaking its webmail service ever since with updated features, and now a new mode is going to be rolled out in future. Last year, Microsoft rolled out a temporary dark theme for Outlook on Halloween (pictured above), it turns out that dark theme was something more than a one-off gag. Microsoft has apparently been testing a dark theme for Outlook web app internally over the past few months and now the firm is getting ready to roll it out to ...

Getting the balance right between work and the other things in life can be tricky. Juggling work with family and studying, working in the community, or making time to meet up with friends can be considered difficult and time demanding. Google Calendar is getting a couple of additions that will hopefully make it easier to delineate when your work time ends and your personal time begins: soon, G Suite users will be able to set both their normal work hours as well as mark when they"re out of the office. Out of office shows up as a new event type when creating an event in your calendar on desktop. Event invitations for the selected range will automatically be declined, and you have the option to add a custom refusal message ("I"m on vacation," or whatever). The "Out of Office" event type. When you select this, the event will have a different appearance on your calendar so co-workers and supervisors can more easily see when you"ll be unavailable. Google C...

Uber prices get higher as demand increases, but they also decrease as that demand cools off. There are times when you need to get an Uber right away, even if it"s at a peak hour and prices are through the roof. But there are also times when you have the luxury of waiting for your Uber to arrive -- those are the instances Uber had in mind when it cooked up an experimental feature that allows you to wait for a cheaper ride. The ride-hailing company is testing a feature that lets its customers take advantage of the new offer which entails telling them when fares are expected to get lower or higher. It also will help let riders know if they are willing to wait, they will find themselves a cheaper fare. Uber hasn"t publicly announced the feature, but in a tweet first spotted by Quartz , it is revealed that Uber is testing an option to have a longer wait time in exchange for a cheaper ride. An Uber employee in Berkeley, California, tweeted a screenshot of the feature. A screenshot...

Over the past few weeks, Facebook has been faced with lots crisis due to its blunders and data scandal. The list of scandals is very long, but to cut it short, it all started with Cambridge Analytica Scandal , and recently a report by the company which explains deals made with Apple, Samsung & other Tech giants to get access of Personal Data. It was also attacked by a bug that Made Private Posts of 14 million Users Public. Now as a reminder of the good old days after plenty of scandals which shocked users, Facebook wants to make its users happy with Facebook Memories Page. Facebook announced a new page named “Memories” where it will show old content from the days of Facebook past. This feature is similar to “On This Day” feature which we usually see in the news feed. To access the new page, click on the "On this day" tab on the left-hand side of Facebook"s desktop site or on the bottom right of the mobile app. "On this Day" will show "content you know...

R.I.P. Trending Topics: 2014-2018. You"ve likely noticed the Trending box in the upper right-hand corner of your News Feed page before, only to forget about it and never click on a link there again. Facebook has announced the removal of its Trending Topics section this week, the company signalling that the controversial feature was better off dead as Facebook has builds different products for news. Noting that the much-maligned Trending topics section is accounted for just 1.5% of clicks to news publishers in the countries where it was displayed in the News Feed. Introduced in 2014, Trending is available in five countries . According to the company, Trending accounted for only 1.5 percent of click to news publishers on average and thus it is being removed. “From research we found that over time people found the product to be less and less useful. We will remove Trending from Facebook next week and we will also remove products and third-party partner integrations that rely on the T...

One of the most frustrating things about being an iPhone owner is the lack of expandable storage. Once you have gotten the model of your choice, be it 32GB, 64GB or 256GB, you’re stuck with that storage until you buy a new phone. And Of course, you can also compensate the non-expandable storage with iCloud, but Apple only provides 5GB of cloud storage for free. If you want an amount that you can actually use, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee of $0.99 or more in order to access it. Most iPhone users are already familiar with the word “You do not have enough space in iCloud to backup your iPhone” message, which seems to pop up most times as a reminder. And users have long complained about the lack of free iCloud storage but now the company appears to be taking one step in the right direction. However, the recent development is that when users choose to upgrade from the 5GB free tier, they will receive the first month of their new tier for free.  As first noted...

YouTube Music relaunches as fee service to replace Google Play Music . YouTube is the world’s largest video platform that introduced video streaming to the masses. Over the years YouTube has been the cradle of many content creators and has carved a niche. The Google-owned company announced in a blog post is now gearing up to launch the new YouTube Music service and YouTube Premium. YouTube Music is a new music streaming service made for music: official songs, albums, thousands of playlists and artist radio plus YouTube’s tremendous catalogue of remixes, live performances, covers and music videos that you can’t find anywhere else - all simply organised and personalised. For the first time, all the ways music moves you can be found in one place. Read more: YouTube Announces Its Paid Services; YouTube Red And Music YouTube Music has borrowed the Spotify model and offer a free, ad-supported tier as well as a premium version. The paid tier, which will be called YouTub...