Spotify stops test that asked family plan subscribers to share their GPS location

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We reported yesterday how Spotify has started cracking down on users who abuse the family plan. Their solution was to ask subscribers to confirm their location via GPS. They wanted to catch users who aren’t related but are taking advantage of the discount the plan offers. But as some users have pointed out not all family members live together. However, Spotify does state in its terms that all members need to share a physical address.  

This hasn’t been strictly enforced before but it seems the loss of revenue this plans pose is enough to catch the music streaming service’s attention. As expected, customers aren’t comfortable with sharing their exact GPS location with the company. And the company has received backlash for this method. The company rescinded the small-scale test. It was sent out to only four of Spotify’s markets. But now the company has shut it down. When asked to comment on this, a Spotify spokesperson told Tech Crunch, “Spotify is currently testing improvements to the user experience of Premium for Family with small user groups in select markets. We are always testing new products and experiences at Spotify, but have no further news to share regarding this particular feature test at this time.” 

Facebook data breach hits 50 million users, also affects users who use Facebook to sign into third-party services like Tinder and Spotify

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If you found yourself signed out of your Facebook account, then you might have been “directly affected” by a data breach that Facebook just announced to the public. A bug discovered earlier this week that used the site’s “View As” feature has left at least 50 million users at risk. (View As is a feature that lets users view their profile as someone else.) The bug let hackers get users’ account access tokens, which are used to keep users logged into their accounts even when they close their browsers. These stolen tokens can let hackers break into accounts. At the moment, Facebook can’t tell if accounts were misused or if any information was accessed. Facebook doesn’t know who are behind the attacks either. The company assures users it has reset access tokens for the 50 million users as well as an additional 40 million that might have been affected. Facebook says it’s informing users of the security incident through a notification on their News Feed once they log back in. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg were affected by the hack.

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‘Fallout 76’ beta will come to the Xbox One on October 23

Bethesda has just announced that it’ll be releasing the beta of Fallout 76 pretty soon. It’s coming first to the Xbox One gamers who got the exclusive headset on October 23. A week later PlayStation 4 and PC users can expect to get access to the game. Bethesda says the game will not be running 24/7 during the beta test because they want to stress test the game a bit and have as many players on its server as possible to see if it can handle it. According to the developer, “On any given day the game might be up for anywhere between four to eight hours. Focusing as many players as we can into these windows is our prime objective. Then we’ll fix what we need to fix and do it again and again from the start of B.E.T.A. until a few days before launch. We’ll give you as much heads up as possible because we need you to log in during these times and play the game.” 

The game itself will be launching on November 14 but the beta access will be given to those who pre-ordered the game, which you can do right from Bethesda’s site. 

Source: Ubergizmo 

YouTube enables HDR support for iPhone Xs and Xs Max

The latest update for the YouTube app on iOS now lets iPhone Xs and Xs Max users watch videos in HDR. Last year’s iPhone X had this feature already, but it seems an update was needed for the new iPhones. The downside is videos are still capped at 1080p, which means still no 2K or 4K viewing for you. This restriction isn’t just for the phones, but it also applies to the iPad, Apple TV, and Mac, if you use Safari. But it’s still great experience to watch Full HD videos in HDR and at least now you can enjoy that on those new edge-to-edge Super Retina displays. 

Source: Cult of Mac