AC Information Weekly
Information Weekly is our column, the place we spotlight and summarize a number of the week’s high tales so you’ll be able to compensate for the newest tech information.
That is Android Central’s Information Weekly, your go-to supply for a concise roundup of the week’s most vital tech tales. That is the place we delve into the highest headlines that present the newest developments and improvements contributing to the digital panorama.Â
This week, AT&T suffered a large information leak, Pixel launched its April replace on its gadgets, Spotify was set to extend its subscription, Google made fact-checking dependable, and Galaxy S23 struggled with a singular challenge.Â
AT&T suffers huge information breach
Learn extra right here.
Sadly, this wasn’t an April Idiot’s prank
Over 70 million AT&T prospects wakened to an enormous information breach on Monday, April 1. The corporate reported in a weblog publish that over 7.6 million present prospects and 65.4 million former prospects’ information have been floating round on the darkish internet as a result of leak.
AT&T mentioned that the leaked information included full names, e mail addresses, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, social safety numbers, birthdates, AT&T account numbers, and passcodes. For the energetic prospects impacted, the corporate has reset their safety passcodes.Â
The info was posted on the darkish internet two weeks in the past, and the corporate said that it appears to be from 2019 or earlier.Â
When you’re involved about your private data, Android Central’s Jerry Hildenbrand has some recommendation for coping with information breaches.
Pixel gadgets bought a contemporary patch of updates
Learn extra on the watch and telephone replace.Â
Earlier this week, Google rolled out a slew of updates to its telephones and watches. The brand new TWD9.240405.001 firmware has begun rolling out and can probably attain all Pixel Watch house owners over the subsequent week.Â
This replace “consists of new options, quite a few bug fixes, and efficiency updates for Pixel Watch customers.” One thing new that watch customers can look out for is the vibration characteristic, and because the identify suggests, customers will discover the present time play in haptics each time a person chooses to make use of gestures on the watch face.
Moreover, it additionally bought enhancements in auto brightness performance, permitting “customers to understand the distinction when switching ranges simply.” One other characteristic to look out for is the brand new progress bar for app downloads/ updates achieved by way of Google Play Retailer, which is not formally included, but it surely was noticed by some Pixel watch customers just lately.Â
In the meantime, Pixel telephone customers additionally get their very own set of updates on the identical time. The replace consists of 28 basic safety patches for Android and one other 25 which can be solely for Pixel gadgets.Â
You’ll be able to test in case your Pixel telephone has the April 2024 replace by navigating to Settings > System > Software program replace.Â
Spotify might get costly
Learn extra right here.Â
Spotify subscribers is likely to be in for a pinch of one other couple of {dollars}, in line with a brand new report that was launched this week. The Bloomberg report claims that the music streaming service is likely to be elevating the worth for its ‘fundamental’ plan by a greenback and its duo plan by $2 in sure markets worldwide. Which means subscribers within the UK, Australia, and Pakistan will see these will increase take impact by the tip of April. The U.S. can be anticipated to see this value hike later this 12 months. Spotify can be trying into including extra subscription plans for customers to drive income.Â
Speculations round Spotify engaged on a brand new “fundamental” tier with music and podcasts, and with out audiobooks, have additionally been making the rounds. This plan could price $11, the identical because the premium plan for a solo person.
A brand new “Supremium” plan was briefly talked about within the report that permits customers to stream HiFi audio for a steeper value.
Galaxy S23 customers are having a tricky time with One UI 6.1
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Samsung’s new One UI 6.1 replace for the Galaxy S23 sequence was meant to be a recreation changer, giving older telephones entry to the magic of Galaxy AI. Nevertheless, issues did not go as deliberate for folk with the S23 sequence. Many confronted charging points, fingerprint scanner glitches, touchscreen woes, and biometric sensor points.
Customers took to Reddit to report issues with the biometrics (fingerprint), stating that their “fingerprint sensor randomly would not register my enter” when trying to unlock their machine.
The touchscreen challenge was seen on particular fashions just like the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus, and Galaxy S23 Extremely. For some, the display screen is totally unresponsive, whereas others can solely use it with the S Pen. In line with a publish on Samsung Korea’s assist boards, they mentioned that the Google Uncover characteristic is likely to be chargeable for the touchscreen efficiency points on affected gadgets.
Nevertheless, there is not any want to worry, because the touchscreen points could have a brief repair: delete any information related to the Google app and replace it to the newest model. However for now, it is best if S23 customers would possibly need to keep away from the One UI 6.1 replace if it may be helped.
Google makes reality checking simpler
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With AI-manipulated pictures doing the rounds as of late on social media, it is robust to gauge the reality from, nicely, clickbait. Nevertheless, Google could have made cross-checking this a bit simpler.Â
April 2 is seen as Worldwide Truth-Checking Day, and Google is increasing the attain of a few of its most helpful instruments in Google Seek for verifying details, pictures, and sources. As well as, Google announced that its Truth Verify Explorer is exiting beta and will probably be obtainable to all.
Two acquainted Google search options, About this picture and About this web page, at the moment are obtainable in 40 extra languages globally. In terms of About this picture, once you open a picture’s element menu in Search and faucet the About this picture choice, you’ll study extra about a picture and the place it got here from.
Particularly, Google says that About this picture can listing the next forms of details about a picture in Search: the historical past of a picture, how the picture is used and described by different websites, and the metadata related to a picture. This might reveal whether or not a picture was AI-generated or got here from an untrustworthy supply.
Equally, About this web page and About this outcome will show extra details about a web site earlier than you determine to click on on a Google Search outcome. This might reveal whether or not the location is reliable, whether it is believed to be biased not directly, and who owns it.
These are a number of the greatest tales from this week. In the meantime, listed here are another tales which can be value catching up on:
