Spotify says its monthly limit for lyrics on its free subscription tier is “unreachable.” 

Swedish audio streaming service Spotify has announced that it is bringing back a highly requested feature, months after it was made paid and removed from its free plan. The lyrics feature will be rolled out to users who don’t have a Spotify subscription following widespread backlash, but monthly limits will still apply. The rollout comes weeks after the company detailed plans for a new “Deluxe” subscription plan that will offer users higher quality audio streaming.

Spotify Lyrics Return to Free Subscription Level

Spotify first announced it would limit the display of lyrics for free users in September 2023, following widespread complaints about the unavailability of lyrics on the service’s community forums and on social media in May of this year. The change means that free users will need a Spotify Premium subscription to see lyrics once they exceed the three-song limit.

Spotify spokesperson told TechCrunch that the music streaming platform will bring back lyrics for users who don’t have a premium subscription : ” In the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding the availability of lyrics to free Spotify users, making more lyrics available to more people around the world,” the spokesperson said.

However, Spotify has no plans to offer unlimited access to lyrics without a premium subscription. While it didn’t disclose the exact limit, a company representative told 9to5Google that the number is “high enough that no one can reach it.” The change is expected to be rolled out to the platform in the coming weeks.

According to the music streaming service’s second-quarter 2024 earnings report, the company has a total of 626 million monthly active listeners, of which only 246 million are paying subscribers, meaning that more than half of Spotify’s user base is still on the free tier.

The company has also implemented price hikes in recent months: In June, the price of all Spotify Premium subscriptions in the US increased for the second time in 12 months, increasing the monthly fee for the individual plan from $10.99 (roughly Rs. 920) to $11.99 (roughly Rs. 1,003).

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The action-adventure title, Creatures of Ava, will be released on Game Pass on August 7th, the day it is available.

Microsoft has announced the first wave of games joining Xbox Game Pass in August. Titles joining the game subscription service include Creatures of Ava, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and Mafia: Definitive Edition. The action-adventure title Creatures of Ava will be available on day one, coming to Game Pass on August 7, while Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy will join the service the following day. As previously confirmed by Microsoft, Mafia: Definitive Edition will be added to Game Pass on August 13.

August’s Xbox Game Pass Titles

Developed by Inverge Studios , Creatures of Ava puts you in the shoes of explorer Vic on an expedition to Ava, a planet with four distinct biomes, each with its own unique flora and fauna. Players can tame over 20 species of wildlife , discover the secrets of Ava, and save the planet from a spreading infection.

Creatures of Ava was announced for PC and Xbox consoles earlier this year, and will be added to Game Pass at launch on August 7th.

Last month, reliable sources claimed that Xbox Game Pass would be adding Crash Bandicoot Non-Sane Trilogy in August, and it’s now been confirmed that the game will be added to the service on August 8. The trilogy includes remasters of the first three Crash Bandicoot games: Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped .

Finally, Mafia: Definitive Edition is coming to Game Pass on August 13. Microsoft confirmed late last month that the third-person shooter would soon be added to the service. Hangar 13’s remake of the 2002 classic is being built from the ground up with new assets, an expanded story, new vehicles, score, and more.

from Game Pass on August 15, including Airborne Kingdoms, Offworld Trading Company, Shadow Warrior 3, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre .

Last month, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 became Game Pass’s first COD title when it joined the service on July 24. Modern Warfare 3 is currently available to play on Game Pass for Console, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Ultimate at no extra cost.

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X Payments, a subsidiary of the microblogging platform , recently received money transmission licenses in 33 US states.

According to claims by independent social media app researchers, X (formerly Twitter) may soon introduce its own payment service. Since its acquisition by Elon Musk, the microblogging platform has undergone a myriad of changes, from changing its logo, name and domain to dropping traditional authentication methods and introducing artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots . Musk has emphasized his ambition to turn the platform into a “jack-of-all-trades” app that offers payments, shopping, job-hunting and other services in addition to its existing microblogging functions.

This latest leak suggests the platform is taking another step towards realizing Musk’s vision.

Paying X

was discovered by independent app researcher Nima. Owji (@nima_owji ) is someone who has a track record of unearthing unannounced features for X. In a post on the microblogging platform, Owji revealed that X may allow users to access payment services via a Payments feature. According to screenshots shared by the user, the feature could appear in the left navigation panel below the Bookmarks option.

Speaking with TechCrunch , the researcher said this included references to options such as “transactions, balances and transfers.”

This development builds on previous plans for X, outlined by Musk himself during a conversation with Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood in December last year. At the time, the X chief suggested the payment service would be launched “mid-2024.” In a blog post on January 9, X announced that the launch of peer-to-peer (P2P) payments will be one of the platform’s goals for 2024. According to the company, the payment service will open up new opportunities for commerce and increase convenience for users.

The microblogging platform ‘s subsidiary, X Payments, has received money transmission licenses in 33 US states, including recent ones granted in Alabama, the District of Columbia and California. If the move goes ahead, it could make X a potential competitor to PayPal, the US-based payment services company formed in 2000 when Musk ‘s X.com and Confinity merged.

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Warner Bros.’ Hogwarts Legacy is based on the company’s Wizarding World IP and was the best-selling game of 2023.

Warner Bros. Discovery plans to leverage its intellectual property to launch more video games based on its biggest franchises, the company said in its second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. In addition to developing games in-house, Warner Bros. is also looking to license its IP to other studios. Warner Bros.’ Hogwarts Legacy, based on the company’s Wizarding World IP, was the best-selling game of 2023, but few Warner Bros. assets have been fully utilized in the gaming medium .

During a Q&A on Warner Bros. Discovery’s second-quarter 2024 earnings call (first reported by IGN), CEO David Zaslav said there’s “a lot of interest” among outside parties in turning Warner Bros. IP into video games. “We have 11 studios, we have a lot of IP,” Zaslav said on the call. “And there’s a lot of people who are interested in leveraging some of that IP into games, and we’re looking at that,” he added.

JB Perret also noted that Warner Bros. franchises are “high in demand,” which could help with new game launches. The exec also cited the free-to-play segment of games as an area of focus for the company, which has seen mixed results with its AAA first-party titles.

Last year, Hogwarts Legacy, based on the popular Harry Potter series, sold more than 22 million copies, making it the biggest game of 2023. However, in 2024, Warner Bros. Games released Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which was a critical and commercial failure, causing Warner Bros. games revenue to fall 41% in the second quarter of 2024.

“We need great games, but the reality is … in the space of just 12 months, we went from having a record year in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy to, unfortunately, the opposite with Suicide Squad,” Perrette said on the earnings call.

Zaslav and Perret were responding to questions about the “uneven performance” of WB’s games over the past few years, the “strategic value” of video games to the conglomerate and whether the company sees games as a core part of its vast portfolio.

Warner Bros. Games, a division of Warner Bros. Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment, has released games based on popular Warner Bros. franchises such as Batman and Harry Potter, but many of the company’s biggest titles, such as Game of Thrones and Superman, remain underutilized when it comes to interactive media.

According to Zaslav , the company needs to change that and realize the full potential of its IP as video games : “… we have to get bigger. The IP that we own and the value it has in the gaming industry is something that we want to leverage,” he said in response to a question.

Warner Bros. said during its third-quarter earnings call in November 2023 that it would focus on turning its biggest franchises into live-service games and extending the lifecycle of its releases. “Ultimately, we want to drive engagement and monetization at higher levels over longer cycles,” Zaslav said at the time. “We currently lack scale and see a significant opportunity to drive additional post-purchase revenue.”

Warner Bros. made its biggest bet on the live service model earlier this year with the release of Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, with plans to add content post-launch. However, the game faced criticism over its live service model and poor sales led Warner Bros. to take a $200 million loss on the title. In our own review, we felt the game was handicapped by Rocksteady’s decision to move away from its expertise in single-player story – driven titles .

However, in March of this year, Warner Bros. reiterated its commitment to a live service model for gaming, despite Suicide Squad’s subpar critical and commercial performance.

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Microsoft said its employees offered Delta multiple times to help after the outage, but the airline declined.

Criticized Delta Air Lines, which struggled for days to recover from a global cyber outage that caused the cancellation of more than 6,000 flights .

A software update last month by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused outages for Microsoft customers, including many airlines, but while the issues were resolved at other major U.S. airlines the next day, Delta Air Lines continued to experience problems.

He noted that the company did not appear to have modernized its IT infrastructure .

But Delta said it has invested billions of dollars in IT capital expenditures since 2016, in addition to the billions it spends each year o  n IT operational costs.

“Delta has a long track record of investing in safe, reliable and quality service for our custoers and employees,” a company spokesman said.

The flight disruptions have stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers and cost the Atlanta-based airline an estimated $500 million. Delta Air Lines is also under investigation by the US Department of Transportation over the disruptions.

has hired David Boies , a prominent litigator at Boies Schiller Flexner, known for specializing in high-value business lawsuits , and is seeking damages from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC last week that the airline relies heavily on two technology companies that have failed to provide “great service.” He also said in the interview that Microsoft’s platform is “the most vulnerable.”

In his letter, Shehuo said the airlines’ comments were “incomplete, false and misleading and are damaging to Microsoft and its reputation.”

Ceffo said Microsoft’s software did not cause the CrowdStrike incident , the tech giant immediately offered Delta free help. Nadella added that he had emailed Bastian but had not received a response.

Microsoft said its employees repeatedly offered Delta assistance after the outage, but the airline declined. The company accused Delta of using another technology provider for its crew tracking and scheduling system, which it said was likely the reason for the refusal to help.

CrowdStrike also denied that Delta was to blame for the flight disruptions. The cybersecurity company said its CEO had contacted Bastian directly to offer on-site assistance but did not receive a response.

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Apple has announced that it has launched a global program to send domestic service experts overseas .

Apple has announced a new program that will focus on knowledge sharing of advanced smartphone repair techniques at its service centers around the world . As part of the program , the South Korean tech giant is sending its experts to different countries to teach new techniques on device repair. Last month, the tech giant sent an instructor specializing in Galaxy smartphones to India to help employees master these techniques . In the future, it plans to extend this expertise to smart TVs as well.

New Program Announced To Improve Repairability

Announcing the new initiative in a press release on its Korea newsroom site, the company said (translated from Korean), “Samsung Electronics Service is spreading its world-class service capabilities overseas. Starting this year, Samsung Electronics Service has begun operating the ‘Domestic Service Expert Overseas Dispatch’ program as a regular program.”

The program addresses the gap in repair service quality between South Korea and the rest of the world. The company says these global service capabilities will focus on customer consultations as well as repairs to improve users’ experience.

As part of the program , the tech giant deployed a ‘Galaxy Service Expert Instructor’ to Samsung Electronics India, who visited eight major service centres across the country and shared his expertise with the teams working there.

The main focus of the instructors was to impart knowledge of single component repair to India Mobile Screen Repair Centre (MSRC), the largest smartphone display single component repair hub in India.

Samsung emphasized that “display unit repair is an advanced repair method that involves disassembling the display unit, frame, battery, etc. and replacing only the necessary parts. Display unit repair requires advanced technical skills and specialized equipment.” Similar advances are being made in many other countries.

the focus of the program beyond smartphones to other devices, and next month the company will send a home appliance and TV service expert to the Philippines to teach local employees the know-how of AI home appliances.

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Russian Signal users report that the service works fine when accessed through a VPN or when using the built-in censorship-circumvention mode.

Russia’s state communications regulator Roskomnadzor said the encrypted messaging app Signal has been blocked in the country for violating laws related to counterterrorism operations, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday.

“Access to the Signal messaging app has been blocked due to violations of the requirements of Russian law that must be observed to prevent the use of messaging apps for terrorist and extremist purposes,” Interfax news agency quoted the news agency as saying.

Before the Federal Communications Regulatory Service announced the measures , hundreds of Signal users had reported glitches in the messenger app, a secure communication tool used by up to one million Russians to encrypt messages and conversations.

An internet service monitoring site has received more than 1,500 complaints about Signal, mostly from users in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but users have reported that it works fine when accessed through a VPN or when used in its built-in censorship-circumvention mode.

“This clearly indicates that Messenger is blocked in Russia and not a technical problem on the Signal side,” Mikhail Klimarev , creator of the Telegram channel “For Telecom,” told Reuters.

Signal did not respond to a request for comment.

Three people in Moscow and Krasnodar Krai told Reuters that without a VPN it was even impossible to register a new account on Signal: After entering their mobile phone number, the service displayed the message “server error.”

Klimarev said this was the first attempt to block the signal in Russia.

Russian authorities began blocking access to the widely used messaging app Telegram in 2018. The move disrupted many third-party services but had little impact on Telegram’s availability in Russia.

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Take-Two has no plans to bring new games to Game Pass.

Microsoft announced in May that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 would be available on Xbox Game Pass from launch day on October 25th. The Xbox parent company seems to be hoping that the popular first-person shooter’s release on the service will boost Game Pass subscriber numbers. Microsoft took a big gamble by bringing Call of Duty to Game Pass, but don’t expect major third-party studios to follow suit . Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said that bringing Call of Duty to Game Pass could attract new subscribers to the service “for a period of time,” but the company has no plans to do the same with new AAA titles.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Zelnick said that including major titles like Call of Duty at launch could boost Game Pass sales for a while. “If you offer flagship titles at a premium price in a subscription service, I think that will drive consumers to that subscription service, at least for a period of time,” he said.

But the Take-Two president has no plans to put any of the company’s upcoming titles on Game Pass. “No, that doesn’t influence our decisions, because our decisions are rational,” Zelnick said .

Zelnick’s comments came after Take-Two reported first-quarter earnings, reporting net orders of $1.22 billion (Rs. 1,024.2 crore ), slightly below analyst expectations of $1.25 billion (Rs. 1,049.4 crore ) . However, the company expects net orders to rise in fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027, with the release of the highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 scheduled for next year.

the game’s release date to fall 2025 .

The company is preparing to launch its upcoming sequel, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, on October 25th. Microsoft confirmed in May that the new game would be the first Call of Duty title available on Game Pass at launch.

Days after the announcement, Xbox’s parent company increased the price of Game Pass across all tiers and regions, and introduced a new “Standard” tier that doesn’t include launch-day titles.

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