Technology

After a surge of Internet backlash from users, Instagram has now announced that it’ll be dialing back on some of the recent changes it has made to the social media platform, including full-screen feeds and recommended posts. Full-screen feeds were originally being tested last month for select users, but Instagram head Adam Mosseri now says that “people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great,” so the app will be removing that layout for now. As for recommended posts, Mosseri admits that currently the algorithms aren’t ideal and so the number of posts you see in that category will be reduced, at least temporarily. “When you discover something in your field that you didn’t follow before, there should be a high bar — it should just be great,” he remarked. “You should be delighted to see...

After a surge of Internet backlash from users, Instagram has now announced that it’ll be dialing back on some of the recent changes it has made to the social media platform, including full-screen feeds and recommended posts. Full-screen feeds were originally being tested last month for select users, but Instagram head Adam Mosseri now says that “people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great,” so the app will be removing that layout for now. As for recommended posts, Mosseri admits that currently the algorithms aren’t ideal and so the number of posts you see in that category will be reduced, at least temporarily. “When you discover something in your field that you didn’t follow before, there should be a high bar — it should just be great,” he remarked. “You should be delighted to see...

Sony has cut its annual profit outlook, warning of weaker PlayStation game sales. The forecast comes as Sony revealed it shipped 2.4 million PlayStation 5 consoles in its recent quarter, up only 4 percent from the 2.3 million shipped during the same period last year. PS5 lifetime shipments have now reached 21.7 million. While hardware sales are slightly up year over year, software sales have plummeted 26 percent. In an investor call, Sony blamed the game slump on a lack of big PlayStation titles this year compared to 2021 and less time spent playing games in general — backed up by monthly active PlayStation Network users dropping 3 percent to 102 million. Sony released its exclusive Gran Turismo 7 and Horizon Forbidden West titles earlier this year, but Elden Ring arrived at the same time ...

We’re still over a week away from the official launch of Samsung’s latest foldables — the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 — so naturally it’s time for the devices’ designs to leak in full online. Leaker Evan Blass has published a bevy of apparently official images over at 91Mobiles, showing the two phones from almost every angle, including in both their folded and unfolded orientations. There appears to be three color options for the Z Fold 4 (black, beige, and gray) and four for the Z Flip 4 (black, gold, blue, and purple). If you were hoping for radically different designs for either device compared to last year’s models, though, you’re likely to be disappointed. Both appear to have inherited fundamentally similar looks, right down to camera bumps and black strip across the top of the Z Flip’s bac...

Ben Affleck is reprising his role as Batman in the forthcoming Aquaman sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. His return was announced by the film’s star Jason Momoa in an Instagram post, featuring a selfie of the two actors. “Reunited,” Momoa wrote. “bruce and arthur. love u and miss u Ben WB studio tours just explored the backlot alright. busted on set all great things coming AQUAMAN 2 all my aloha j.” Alongside the two images, Momoa posted a short video of a Warner Bros. backlot tour apparently discovering Affleck’s involvement in the film. “Well it’s not a fucking secret anymore!” Momoa jokes, before showing the Batman actor in his trailer. Affleck previously played the caped crusader in a series of films set in the DC Extended Universe including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Just...

After two straight days of afternoon public restocks for the PlayStation 5, Sony is going for the three-peat. The console maker has opened up another public queue to buy PS5 consoles, and you can join in right now. Pending availability after you get through the queue, you may have the chance to buy a standard PS5 for $499.99, a Digital Edition for $399.99, or a bundle of either with a digital voucher for a download of Horizon Forbidden West for an additional $50 (which is a discount, by the way). I’d wager on the bundles having the most availability. We have seen the last two restocks from Sony remain open for a few hours, with many people having easy success buying consoles. You’ll just need to sign in with your PlayStation Network account (one console per account), and if you subscribe t...

Valve is making a big change to the way developers can market their games on Steam. Beginning September 1st, graphical assets developers use in their store listings will only be able to include game artwork, the game’s name, and any official subtitle. Images won’t be able to include review scores, award names or logos, text that markets discounts, or text promoting a different product. The new rules could prove to be a drastic shift for some developers, as they may rely on reviews or awards on their images in an effort to stand out from the humongous number of games available on Steam. Even some developers of well-known games will have to make changes — while writing this article, I saw promotional images of Hades and It Takes Two on Steam that featured awards. Here’s Valve’s reasoning for...

As you’ve probably heard, Facebook and Instagram will lean heavily into AI-curated creator content going forward, and the News Tab project Facebook launched a few years ago doesn’t seem to be a big part of that. As reported by Axios and confirming earlier rumors, Facebook’s parent company Meta is telling publishers it no longer plans to pay for the content it has been aggregating in the news tab. According to the report, Meta spent about $105 million in three-year content deals for news (plus another $90 million for news videos), including $10 million for the Wall Street Journal, $20 million for the New York Times, and $3 million for CNN in arrangements that sometimes included unlocked access to paywalled content. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the rise of regulation forc...

People frequently express their amazement that Twitter is free, but for some people, it isn’t — Twitter Blue launched last year in several countries, tacking on a few extra features for anyone willing to pay $2.99 per month. Today the service told subscribers it’s increasing the price (via Matt Navara), and in the US, it’s jumping up to $4.99 per month. That probably won’t break the pockets of information addicts who are choosing to pay for a service that still includes advertisements in their feed, but it might be enough to make people ask themselves if it’s worthwhile. The add-ons in the Twitter Blue package range from extremely useful (an undo tweet window to fix typos, a customizable navigation bar, a list of Top Articles shared by people you follow, and ad-free access to articles on s...