This week, Canadian Facebook and Instagram users can now add music stickers to their profiles and stories, Netflix gives you control over autoplay previews, and the specs for the new Xbox have been detailed. But first, Ring updates security protocols.
Plagued with security problems, Ring rolls out updates for customers, including mandatory 2FA
After reports of hackers seizing control of its security cameras, Ring has decided that two-factor authentication (2FA) is now mandatory for all users.
While 2FA has always been available as an option for those with Ring accounts and devices, now you don’t have a choice. The security protocol, which has you receiving a code emailed or messaged to you when you try to sign in to your account, is the best way to keep your various accounts from being hacked.
Ring has gone even further to remedy things with customers by giving them a choice as to whether they want to opt-out of sharing information with third party service providers.
Music stickers gives Canadians new ways to share tunes on Facebook and Instagram
For a couple of years, users of Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) in the U.S. have been able to share their favourite songs. Now, Canadian users can do the same.
You can now add snippets of songs to your Facebook and Instagram stories from a library of music curated by Facebook Canada, and featuring Canadian artists including Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Alessia Cara, Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Adams, the Weakerthans, and even Nickelback.
If the song you’re using has lyrics, the lyrics will show up with the music. And if you record video to go with the music clip, you can choose to use effects that respond to the sound, as I’ve done here.
Back in 2018, Facebook started paying licensing fees to rights holders for music that appears in posts.
Netflix gives you control over autoplay
Many Netflix users will say this is long overdue. You can now adjust your profile settings to turn off the autoplay feature that the streaming service has always insisted people want.
There are two autoplay settings you can turn on and off: previews and next episodes.
So if you’re just browsing the titles, you don’t suddenly have sound and vision blasting at you. And if you want to watch the complete credits at the end of Stranger Things, you can without the next episode cutting in.
You adjust these settings from within your profile at the Netflix site in a browser.
Hardware specs for Xbox Series X detailed
On Monday, Xbox head Phil Spencer detailed the hardware specs of the new Xbox Series X, coming this holiday season.
The number that everybody’s been talking about since is 12. As in 12 teraflops of “graphical processing unit performance”.
What does that number mean? I honestly can’t tell you, but one of the memes making the rounds of Twitter claims that the IBM ASCI super computer from 20 years ago had a the same processing power, but weighed 106 tons and cost $110 million to build.
What I’m more impressed with is that the Series X will come with a solid-state drive and a variable refresh rate.
Then there’s the promise that with the Series X you’ll be able to play all Xbox One games as well as all Xbox and Xbox 360 games that have been enabled for backwards compatibiity on the Xbox One.
And if you’ve purchased a game on your Xbox One, the version you’ll get on your Series X will be the Series X version of the game.
Microsoft has a plan for rolling out the Xbox Series X. So far, it’s looking amazing.
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