Leica’s new camera was built to fight disinformation

It's Friday, October 27, 2023.

In this dizzy world of digital tricks and image manipulation where you can erase objects and alter images with a smartphone swipe, Leica wants photos taken on its new camera to leave a digital footprint, known as a Content Credential. The M11-P also has a 60-megapixel sensor, and the typical understated layout and Leica styling.

Content Credentials capture metadata about the photograph – like the camera used, location, time and more— and locks those in a manifest that is wrapped up with the image using a cryptographic key. Those credentials can be verified online and whenever someone subsequently edits that photo, the changes are recorded to an updated manifest, bundled with the image and updated in the Content Credentials database.

Users can click on an icon to pull up all of this historical manifest information, and is being described as a "nutrition label" for photographs.

– Mat Smith

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What to expect from Apple's Scary Fast event

M3-powered MacBook Pros and new iMacs.

Engadget

On All Hallows’ Eve… eve, Apple is hosting another event. This one is dubbed “Scary Fast,” which is a good indicator that Apple will have some powerful new hardware (or chips) to show off. It's been nearly 17 months since Apple's M2 system on a chip (SoC) debuted. With many chip rivals following an annual cadence for their chipsets, it may be time for the M3.

Most rumors suggest a new iMac, possibly powered by the new chip, and the 24-inch iMac is well overdue for a refresh. Or maybe the company will scare us all with even more subscription price increases.

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The Xiaomi 14 Pro packs a faster Leica camera and comes in a titanium edition

For now, it’s only headed to China.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi has only just introduced its 13T phone series outside of Asia, and the company is already revealing more flagship phones back in China. The Xiaomi 14 Pro has a 6.73-inch screen offering an industry-leading peak brightness of 3,000 nits and variable refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz. Its main camera has a variable aperture ranging from f/1.42 to f/4.0, a telephoto camera capable of 3.2x zoom, and a 50-megapixel f/2.2 camera for ultra-wide shots. Xiaomi 14 Pro starts from 4,999 yuan (around $680) but if you want the titanium edition, it'll cost you 6,499 yuan (around $890).

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Spotify looks set to overhaul its royalty model next year

It could implement minimum play thresholds.

Spotify's royalty model will get a massive revamp next year to give "working artists" a bigger cut. It’s planning three changes, starting with establishing a minimum number of annual streams a track must reach to generate royalties. While these tracks make up a tiny percentage of music on the platform, their royalties still cost Spotify tens of millions of dollars a year. The second change is detecting illegal activity, like using AI tools to repeatedly stream tracks and artificially boost play counts. The third part is aimed at "non-music noise content," such as white noise and binaural beats. Many noise tracks on Spotify are only 31 seconds long because the platform pays for every play over half a minute. The listener then naturally leads onto another track, and possibly another royalty check. But not for much longer.

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