|
 Google is living up to its word and posting warning labels for battery-killing apps. 9to5Google spotted Google's rollout announcement, which the company previously said would arrive on March 1.
The label says, "This app may use more battery than expected due to high background activity." If you don't yet see the warnings, they may not have reached you yet. Google says the banners will "roll out gradually to impacted apps" in the coming weeks.
Play Store battery warningGoogleWarning labels aren't the only stick in Google's fight against infringing apps. They may also be excluded from discovery services like Play Store recommendations.
Google's definition of battery-draining apps centers around Android's "partial wake lock" mechanism. This service allows an app to keep the phone's processor running even while the screen is off. There are logical exceptions where apps do need this: audio playback, location access, etc. But the company apparently sees too many abusing that API for other reasons. And Google wouldn't want people to assume the problem is with the hardware and switch to an iPhone — because then we're talking about money.
If you're a developer, Google's
|
|
Who needs Half-Life 3 or Beyond Good & Evil 2? Roku, in an attempt to gamify content discovery on its platform, has cooked up a gaming announcement for the ages. Behold: Roklue. Yes, that's a real name that someone with a job title and (likely high) salary came up with.
Roklue (shudder) will quiz players on "the movies and TV shows that everyone is talking about," along with classic "beloved favorites." When it references a movie or show, it will provide a link for you to tune in on your device. The initial version is an Oscar season tie-in ("Roklue: Awards Season") that debuts on Saturday. This inaugural version is produced by B17 Entertainment, a Sony-owned company.
Roku says it will rotate thematic content throughout the year. Variety reports that those will center around music festivals, the Emmys and holidays.
Apart from that name, which should come with a gag-reflex warning, Roklue sounds harmless enough. You play a trivia game to find new stuff to stream; Roku grows its engagement. Win-win. But with corporate schemes like this, it's always worth wondering where further monetization might eventually come into play. Think something like linking to series on platforms you don't yet subscribe to. (Hello, kickback.)
On March 7, you'll fi
|
|
 Anthropic is aiming to lure customers from ChatGPT and Gemini with a new memory import tool that's available to free users as of today. Conversations and memories from other AI providers can be imported into Claude, so new users will not need to start from scratch.
|
|
