Another bank holiday weekend means another new edition of Trusted Reviews Winners and Losers.
This week saw the launch of the Motorola Edge 40, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor land on consoles and PC, and plenty of Pixel 7a and Pixel Fold rumours ahead of next week’s annual I/O event.
Keep reading to discover our winner and loser from this past week.
Winner: Google
Our winner this week is Google after the company finally rolled out support for podcasts on YouTube Music in the US.
The YouTube Music app now has a dedicated tab that subscribers can tap into to find podcasts – that is at least for those who have already received the update. Podcasts are rolling out slowly so you might have to check back later if you haven’t received it just yet.
Like Spotify, YouTube Music will allow users to move between the audio and video versions of a podcast directly within the audio streaming app. This feels like something that has long been missing from YouTube Music, especially considering how popular its video-focused counterpart has been for watching video podcasts.
Podcasts have been a huge area of investment for Spotify in recent years with 5 million podcasts currently available across the app. Apple Podcasts is also an incredibly popular destination for the format, with more than 2 million titles hosted on its own app.
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The Pixel 7 is one of the best phones we’ve reviewed this year, especially for the price. Now you can get it for an incredible price that includes 100GB of data on the Three network for just £30 per month, making it even more affordable. If you’re a keen mobile photographer, it’s an ideal handset for you.
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Unfortunately, there’s currently no word on when YouTube Music’s podcast tab will be available in the UK (or anywhere else in the world). Google first announced that podcast support would be coming to the US in February, so, hopefully, it won’t be long before the rest of the world is invited to get on board.
Loser: Twitter
This week’s loser is Twitter after the social platform made yet another questionable decision regarding its verification process.
Twitter has officially removed any reference to Twitter Blue next to its verification tick. That means there’s no longer any easy way to distinguish which users paid for the little blue icon.
Up until recently, clicking on the blue check brought up a message that read “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number”.
Now, the message simply states “This account is verified”, leaving it up to users to distinguish celebrities and public figures from us regular people.
This update comes weeks after Twitter ended its Legacy Blue check system, taking the tick away from any users still holding onto it from last year or earlier.
You might think that getting rid of the Legacy Blue check would help drive subscriptions. However, according to a report by Mashable, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all with the net growth of Twitter Blue subscribers continuing to fall in line with that of previous weeks.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
