SiriusXM Media Canada teams up with Footy Prime Podcast

Source: SiriusXM Media Canada, Footy Prime The Podcast

SiriusXM Media Canada finalized an exclusive partnership with Footy Prime The Podcast, Canada's premier soccer podcast. SiriusXM Media will now manage all advertising and sponsorship sales, providing brands with direct access to a "highly engaged soccer audience" at a critical time for the sport.

Hosted by popular figures like James Sharman and Craig Forrest, the podcast promises authentic, in-depth analysis. The deal comes as interest surges leading up to Canada co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

Spotify tests custom prompts for creating personalized playlists

Source: Spotify

Spotify is testing out a new artificial intelligence-backed method to create personalized playlists on the platform. The streaming service's Prompted Playlist beta feature has started rolling out in New Zealand on December 11. It allows you to create a custom prompt to describe the type of music you want in a new playlist. It takes into consideration your individual taste but also "taps into your entire Spotify listening history, all the way back to day one."

The prompts can be as broad or specific as you like, and you can instruct Spotify to automatically update the playlist with new songs. There is an "ideas" tab in the playlist's setup screen, so you can get inspiration for the kinds of things you can prompt. Each song will have a short description to explain why the algorithm picked a particular track, so that you can fine-tune your prompt in the future. It is currently only available in English, but the company plans to introduce more options in the future.

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Disney, OpenAI partner to bring characters to generative AI

Source: Disney, OpenAI

Disney and OpenAI agreed to a three-year licensing and strategic partnership, making Disney the first major content partner for OpenAI's generative video platform, Sora. The deal allows fans to create short, user-prompted videos featuring over 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars (excluding talent likenesses/voices), with a rollout expected in early 2026.

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Google brings pinch, wrist gestures to Pixel Watch 4

Source: Google

Google is making it easier to do one-handed gestures on the Pixel Watch 4. With its December update, the company is bringing a double pinch gesture to the smartwatch. By pinching your index finger and thumb together twice, you can perform actions such as scrolling through notifications, pausing your timer or stopwatch, snoozing an alarm, sending the first Smart Reply, and playing or pausing music. The option to answer and end calls is coming "soon."

The Pixel Watch 4 also gets a wrist turn gesture, where you "quickly turn your wrist away from you and back," to dismiss calls or close other alerting notifications.

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