Google revamps News app, taps AI to improve personalization

Google is going to be replacing its Play Newsstand and News & Weather apps to bring to Android and iOS users the new News app. It’s going to rely on artificial intelligence to scour the web for articles, videos, podcasts, and comments and bring you items based on your interests. According to Trystan Upstill, an engineer working on News, you won’t need to give your preferences for the app to provide you news items you might be interested in. Instead, it’s going to rely on what it learns from you as you use it. “Our AI constantly reads the firehose of the web for you,” Upstill said.

The app now offers a Full Coverage section, which will show you deeper insight into a specific event. You’ll see top stories from different publications, timeline, videos, and opinion pieces. On top of this, there is also a Headlines section for the biggest stories available, and Newsstand for finding reliable and credible sources to follow. This is also where you can subscribe to your favorite publications. For the paid subscriptions, you won’t need fill out a form or provide payment information, you can simply pay using your Google sign-in information. The new app has begun rolling to both mobile platforms and the web and is expected to come to 127 countries by next week.

Source: CNET

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Thanos invades ‘Fortnite’

You can’t escape the Mad Titan. Starting today, he’ll be dropping into one of the most popular games out there. Epic Games and Marvel have partnered for a crossover event Fortnite and Avengers: Infinity War fans are going to love. Thanos will drop into Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode for a limited, unspecified time starting today, May 8. This “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” mode will look and feel like a standard slugfest in the game where 100 players will descend on the map and fight to be the last one standing. This time, though, the Infinity Gaunlet will be in play with all six Infinity Stones attached. If you find it and equip yourself with it, you turn into Thanos himself and can use all the power that comes with the Infinity Gauntlet. This mode is free across all Battle Royale-friendly platforms, which include the Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox, PC, iOS, and Mac.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Amazon Alexa can now be your default voice assistant on Android

Google has always been okay with its users turning to other AI-powered smart assistants from its competitors. Android already supports Microsoft Cortana and now it adds Amazon’s Alexa into the mix. A Reddit user found that you can access Alexa by holding down the home button. Depending on what phone you use, setting up Alexa is going to look a bit different. But you just need to update your Alexa app, afterwards head over to your phone’s settings and head over to the “Assist app” section to make the change.

There are some caveats, though. It can’t pull up maps or make native calls and you can’t activate it by voice or by squeezing the phone but you can do a quick Google search with it. Some of the phones that seem to have access to the feature include Google Pixel 2, One Plus 5, One Plus One, Xperia, Moto G5 Plus, Essential Phone 1, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, and Samsung Galaxy S9 devices.

Source: The Verge

WhatsApp adds support for in-line Instagram and Facebook videos on iOS

When you share YouTube videos on WhatsApp, your recipient will be able to watch the video right from the conversation thread. The same thing can be done now for Instagram and Facebook videos, at least for iOS users. WhatsApp brings these features to the 2.18.51 update of the app. It also brings more feature to group chats, including the ability to add or revoke administrator privileges of other users in the chat as well as the ability for active admins to edit the description, icon, and subject of an ongoing chat. The update is currently rolling out to users so you may or may not see it immediately. No word yet when these features will be coming to Android.

Source: Android Central