By Sarah Marsh, Supantha Mukherjee and Andreas Rinke BERLIN/STOCKHOLM The European Union is set to urge Germany to

Pokimane's recent response to the community regarding her hair is not the first time she has found herself addressing this issue

Since the passage of its landmark climate regulations 17 years ago, California has been a leader in the

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 22, 2023--

Spotify is preparing to launch a new “Supremium” tier, with extra features for a higher price, according to new rumours. The membership will cost $19.99 – twice the current price – and offer a variety of new features. Chief among them is expected to be lossless audio, which is already offered for free on rival Apple Music. But the extra tier will also offer advanced playlist mixing tools that allow people to choose songs by tempo, feel, activity and more. It will have new listening stats, the inclusion of audiobook listening and AI playlist generation tools, according to technology expert Chris Messina, who found mentions of the update within Spotify. Spotify has focused heavily on artificial intelligence tools in recent months. They have included the addition of an AI DJ that not only automatically selects songs but also introduces them, and AI-powered translation that allows people to listen to podcasts in other languages but with realistic-sounding voices. Spotify’s HiFi tier has been in the works for years. The company first announced it at the beginning of 2021, but it has not arrived since, and there have been rumours about it ever since. The new leaks suggest that the upgrade will bring 24-bit lossless audio. That bitrate matches the high-quality offering on other music streaming services, such as Apple Music. A number of streaming services have launched HiFi or lossless tiers in recent months, even as most people listen with Bluetooth headphones that are unable to actually play music at high enough quality. Amazon has a lossless plan that costs $14.99 per month, for instance, and Tidal offers its HiFi plan at $19.99. It is unclear whether Spotify will offer any more revenue to artists from the extra cost of the higher-priced lossless plan. The company has received sustained criticism for the relatively small fees it pays to musicians when their music is streamed. The leaked code is the latest suggestion that Spotify will use the “Supremium” branding for its higher-priced tier. Previously, it had called it “HiFi”, and a survey sent to subscribers last year referred to it as “Platinum”. Read More Spotify clarifies position on whether it will ban AI-powered music Spotify makes voice clones of podcasters and uses them to speak other languages Slack has stopped working

Hackers were able to access UK voter registers undetected for 15 months, the Electoral Commission said, raising questions

The plot details for 'Marvel's Spider-Man 2' has arrived and it's action-filled.

Sky Mobile and O2 appear to have suffered a major outage, with users saying they are unable to connect to mobile internet. Online outage monitor Downdetector registered thousands of user reports about issues with Sky and O2 services on Tuesday afternoon. The issue appeared to begin just after 2pm, with both mobile networks going down simultaneously. Customers took to Twitter and other social media platforms to complain about the problems. The Independent has reached out to both O2 and Sky Mobile for comment. More to follow Read More ChatGPT creator to warn congress of ‘urgent’ AI risks - follow live Watch live as OpenAI CEO faces questions from Congress on potential AI regulation Major WhatsApp update enables secret chats

You've likely heard of the carrot and stick routine. When you need to coerce people

Elon Musk has cut staff from the X team that combats election disinformation claiming they were actually “undermining election integrity.” The platform, formerly known as Twitter, got rid of half of the global team, including four people at its Dublin office and its head, sources told The Information. Mr Musk later confirmed the move on X, stating: “Oh you mean the ‘Election Integrity’ Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone.” With the 2024 US presidential election just over a year away, the team may now have only six staff members, most of them in North America, reported The Messenger. The Independent has reached out to the platform for comment on the cuts and received a message back stating, “Busy now, please check back later.” The move comes less than a month after the company announced in a blog post that it was “expanding” its “safety and elections teams to focus on combating manipulation, surfacing inauthentic accounts and closely monitoring the platform for emerging threats.” CEO Linda Yaccarino recently told The Financial Times that the platform was aiming to expand its elections and trust and safety teams. Mr Musk slashed the company’s workforce when he completed his $44bn purchase of the company, which he had repeatedly tried to back out of. In February The New York Times reported that the company had gone from 7,500 employees to fewer than 2,000 following repeated rounds of job cuts. The cuts included many from its trust and safety team, as well as senior executives in that area, such as Yoel Roth and Ella Irwin. Mr Roth, the former head of trust and safety, wrote a guest essay for the newspaper in which he revealed that following online attacks from Mr Musk and Donald Trump he has been forced to live with armed security guards outside his home and had to go into hiding for months. Read More Elon Musk to live stream himself doing ‘silly stuff’ on X Woman claiming to be Elon Musk’s wife arrested for trespassing at SpaceX plant in Texas Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claps back at Elon Musk for calling her ‘not that smart’ Musk confirms he is cutting election integrity staff from X/Twitter ahead of 2024 Woman claiming to be Elon Musk’s wife arrested at SpaceX site in Texas At US Antarctic base hit by harassment claims, workers are banned from buying alcohol at bars

Retailers like Hennes & Mauritz AB and Inditex SA are buying only “peanut quantities” of an innovative fiber

RESEARCH TRIANGLE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 6, 2023--