Technology - Google News

Samsung's older smart TVs are losing remote control app support - Engadget
WhatsApp limits forwarding as coronavirus misinformation spikes - CNN
Lego’s interactive Super Mario sets will be out on August 1st, preorders start today - The Verge

Samsung's older smart TVs are losing remote control app support - Engadget

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 07:06 AM PDT

Samsung is killing its Smart View app for Android and iOS, which serves as a remote control for its older smart TVs. The company has updated the application's descriptions to announce that it will no longer be supported starting on October 5th. Android Police first spotted the changes and noted that, in addition to its capability as a remote control, Smart View can also beam music and media to the company's TVs.

That said, recent reviews on the Play Store and the App Store show that Smart View has been broken for a while now, with a lot of people complaining that it doesn't work right anymore. Those who can still use it just fine can keep accessing it after October 5th so long as they don't delete it —- it will no longer be available for download after that. For everyone else, Samsung recommends installing the SmartThings app to replace the older application, though it doesn't seem compatible with all its older smart TVs.

In this article: Smart TV, thebuyersguide, Samsung, smart view app, news, gear

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WhatsApp limits forwarding as coronavirus misinformation spikes - CNN

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 08:04 AM PDT

A message received by a person on the Facebook (FB)-owned platform that has already been forwarded five times can now only be passed on to one chat at a time.

The new limits are WhatsApp's strictest yet.

The chat app has been gradually tightening the restrictions on its forwarding function, where a user can easily choose multiple groups or people to receive the message. Two years ago, a user could pass on a forwarded message to 250 groups at once, with each group capable of hosting hundreds of users.

By last year, the company had reduced that limit to five groups at a time. Now it's one, although a user could theoretically still forward the same message to individuals or groups one by one.

Facebook has a coronavirus problem. It's WhatsApp.

"We've seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation," WhatsApp said in a blog post. "We believe it's important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation."

WhatsApp has long been plagued by misinformation, but the ease with which its group chats and forwarding capabilities can be used to spread such content has been magnified by the coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike Facebook or Instagram, WhatsApp fully encrypts its messages, meaning the company has no idea what's being said or shared. And unlike Facebook, it does not have the capability to attach a warning and explanation to posts deemed false by fact checkers.

WhatsApp, like other text messaging platforms, has been used in recent months to spread messages that often contain a mixture of claims about the virus, some accurate and some that have been debunked by medical experts. The problem is now so acute that world leaders are urging people to stop sharing unverified information using the app.

YouTube tries to limit spread of false 5G coronavirus claims after cellphone towers attacked

The five-time fowarding limit was introduced after viral hoax messages in India contributed to more than a dozen lynchings in 2018. WhatsApp says forwarding was reduced by 25% as a result.

Experts welcomed the tighter limit announced on Tuesday but said it still doesn't go far enough.

London School of Economics professors Shakuntala Banaji and Ram Bhat, who have studied the spread of misinformation via WhatsApp in India, said stricter forwarding limits should have already been in place.

Banaji and Bhat told CNN Business that without other measures, like being able to report, ban and prosecute users who pass on hateful misinformation, "this new measure for much forwarded content will perforce prove to be ineffective."

"Our work in India suggested the urgent need for forward limits as one of a bundle of measures in order to curb the rapid spread of hate speech and misinformation," they added.

Here's how to debunk coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories from friends and family

A study conducted last year by the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil found that while limiting forwarding to five groups could delay the spread of misinformation "depending on the virality of the content, those limits are not effective in preventing a message to reach the entire network quickly."

WhatsApp has taken other steps in the light of the coronavirus pandemic to fight misinformation, such as donating money to fact checking organizations, some of which run accounts people can send messages to. They've also teamed up with international and national health organizations to create chat bots that can answer people's coronavirus questions.

The platform is also working on a new feature that would allow users to take a message they've received and quickly search the web to check its content. In screenshots shared with TechCrunch last month, a magnifying glass appears next to a message, which would take the user to a related Google search.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told CNN Business that feature is still being tested.

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Lego’s interactive Super Mario sets will be out on August 1st, preorders start today - The Verge

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 04:18 AM PDT

After Lego and Nintendo's surprise announcement in March that the two companies were working on interactive Super Mario Lego play sets, we're finally getting details on the actual sets and how the interactive video-game-in-real-life elements will work. Lego and Nintendo also announced the prices and release dates for the sets, which will be out on August 1st.

The cornerstone of the Super Mario Lego sets is the Adventures with Mario Starter Course, which is set to cost $59.99 and include the interactive, Bluetooth-enabled Mario figure. In addition to the smartphone connectivity, the figure also features LCD displays on Mario's eyes, mouth, and stomach to display reactions and gameplay elements, and a speaker for music and sound effects. There are also sensors to detect color, movement, and special "action bricks" that can interact with the figure in different ways. (Mario himself is battery-powered, though, for anyone hoping for a USB-C-powered plumber.)

The base set lets players contract their own modular course as they collect digital coins and progress through their own Mario level (going from a starting pipe to a goal flag at the end), fighting Goomba and Bowser Jr. figures along the way. As part of the experience, there's also a Lego Super Mario app that will track scores and help players design new courses.

Building on the Starter Course set are the first two Expansion Sets, which add new challenges and characters for players to add to their courses (think of it as IRL DLC for your IRL Mario game). The first is a $29.99 Piranha Plant Power Slide Expansion Set, which (as the name implies) adds a pair of Piranha Plants, a Koopa Troopa, and new gameplay elements to the mix. The second is the largest of the three initial sets: the $99.99 Bowser's Castle Boss Battle Expansion Set, which lets players face off against Bowser himself.

The two expansion sets are fully modular, too, meaning that players will be able to build out and integrate the sets into their courses however they'd like. And it's entirely possible that Lego and Nintendo will be offering more expansion sets in the future.

Preorders for the Super Mario Lego Starter Course set starts today, with all three sets planned to launch on August 1st.

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