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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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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Amazon Alexa+ can help you find a scene on Prime Video

Source: Amazon

An Amazon Alexa+ feature on the Fire TV will make it easier to get to your favourite movie scene on Prime Video. Using natural language voice command, Amazon said you can describe a scene, quote, or character action to start playing that portion of the movie. An example the company gave was saying something like "Jump to the card scene in Love Actually."

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Netflix no longer allows mobile device casting on newer TVs

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Netflix is dropping support for casting to TVs using mobile devices. The only way to access the feature is if you're using older Chromecast devices or on a TV that supports Google Cast. You also need to have an ad-free plan on the streaming service. If you have a Google TV Streamer, Chromecast with Google TV, or an Android TV-powered television, the option may no longer be available on the Netflix app.

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