And believe it or not: Once again, it's not all about Facebook this week. Apple Could Be Launching a Subscription News Service Less than a month after Google announced its "Subscribe With Google" service for news publishers, Bloomberg is reporting that Apple could be launching its own subscription news service. Instead of providing an aggregation app where users can subscribe to content from a number of outlets for a single, monthly fee, Google says it's working to make it easier for users to manage and pay for individual subscriptions through their Google accounts. Twitter's Big Push for Live Video If you've recently opened the Twitter app during a major event -- like last week's Congressional hearings with Mark Zuckerberg, for example -- you might have noticed the option to watch it live right from the app. Twitter is now highlighting live videos at the top of your Home tab in a carousel https://t.co/8HA0lhQJKu — Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 17, 2018 As Flynn noted, it's somewhat reminiscent of the earliest days of Facebook Live, when the social network wanted to make sure users were aware of the feature by visually promoting live video content within the app. Now, it appears that Facebook has rolled out such a feature -- first discovered by computer scientist Jane Manchun Wong -- for Page administrators, who can now print a QR code for followers to either Like the Page, check in to its physical location, or take action on an offer. Nametag is yet to be confirmed (though Instagram did roll out a new "Focus" setting within its Stories service last week), and its launch could be contingent on the success of Page QR Codes. And Now: Dogs in Slow Motion Okay, so this item isn't exactly hard-hitting news -- but it is adorable. Read full story >> At Wednesday's hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the questions were a bit more challenging for Zuckerberg to answer and slightly more detailed in nature. Until next week, feel free to weigh in on Twitter to ask us your tech news questions, or to let us know what kind of events and topics you'd like us to cover.
Welcome to Wednesday, and the latest edition of “Unriddled”: the HubSpot Marketing Blog’s mid-week digest of the tech news you need to know.
Sorry we missed you last week — we were in Washington, D.C. for Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional hearings. (Feel like catching up? Check out our coverage here.)
This week, we continue to wade through the very crowded pool of tech news items to help you decrypt what’s happening in this vast, often complex sector. And believe it or not: Once again, it’s not all about Facebook this week.
It’s our Wednesday tech news roundup, and we’re breaking it down.
Unriddled: The Tech News You Need
1. Apple Could Be Launching a Subscription News Service
Less than a month after Google announced its “Subscribe With Google” service for news publishers, Bloomberg is reporting that Apple could be launching its own subscription news service.
The story follows Apple’s March acquisition of Texture: a digital magazine app through which users can subscribe to a selection of more than 200 magazines for a flat fee of $9.99 a month. While this tool might sound familiar, its model is actually different from Apple’s discontinued Newsstand app, which provided a central place for iOS users to individually subscribe to and read content from a number of publications.
Now, the iPhone manufacturer offers what’s looking to be the more simplified Apple News, which aggregates news stories from publishers that a given user chooses to follow in a single place. And paired with the Texture acquisition, some are predicting that Apple could launch its own news subscription service modeled after Texture.
Rather than providing a central place where users can individually subscribe to a number of outlets, it seems, Apple could be moving in the direction of offering an original flat-rate subscription service that allows users to access unlimited content from the publications offered on this platform. Those publishers would receive a cut of the subscription revenue.
Bloomberg reports that this new model could launch within the next year.
It comes on the heels of Google’s own announcement that it will be building a news subscription model of its own, though it differs from Apple’s expected service in a few ways.
Instead of providing an aggregation app where users can subscribe to content from a number of outlets for a single, monthly fee, Google says it’s working to make it easier for users to manage and pay for individual subscriptions through their Google accounts. That way, they can read premium content across any device on which they’re signed into Google, without having to get through a paywall every time they click to read articles.
As for publishers, Google says, this new feature will help supply them with better analytics and tools to identify and convert potential subscribers.
2. Twitter’s Big Push for Live Video
If you’ve recently opened the Twitter app during a major event — like last week’s Congressional hearings with Mark Zuckerberg, for example — you might have noticed the option to watch it live right from the app.
After Digiday reporter Kerry Flynn tweeted the discovery of this feature, Matt Navarra (formerly of TheNextWeb) noted that Twitter might be experimenting with the display of a live video “carousel” front-and-center of the app.
Twitter is…
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