YouTube Shorts is getting a new text-to-speech narration, something of an artificial voiceover like TikTok has. Theverge.com reports that after you write some text, you can tap the ‘add voice’ icon’ in the upper left corner and pick out a voice you want. For starters, YouTube has 4 voices…TikTok has numerous ones. YouTube is also rolling out auto-generated captions so you don’t have to leave the platform or use an app to add them. There is a selection of fonts and colors, just like the manual text overlay feature. Another new feature is a new set of Minecraft effects, and a mini game called Minecraft Rush. The mimicking of TikTok appears to be giving YouTube Shorts a real boost. 

Samsung announced Live Translate yesterday at Unpacked, and mentioned that it would be available on third party apps. Now, according to Mashable.com, one of the apps supported will be the widely used WhatsApp. Initially, 16 languages will be supported, with that growing to 20 by the end of the year. Samsung underscores that the translation takes place entirely on device, so your data is more secure. It is available on Galaxy S24 devices, and now S23 and S22 as well…and also the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 and newer. 

Approximately two weeks from now, European Union iPhone users will be able to use any mobile wallet they wish as a ‘Tap and Go’ payment method, with the ease of using the native Apple Pay. Arstechnica.com says this is part of a settlement with the European Commission over Apple’s shutting out rivals from their NFC tech. NFC is not an Apple tech in the first place, and it has been free to developers. Now, Apple has agreed not to charge developers fees to provide NFC on Apple devices. 

Tesla won’t be doing a big reveal of its robotaxi in August. The event has been kicked down the road to October now. Bloomberg reports that after the announcement that the August 8th date had been cancelled, Tesla shares dropped over 6%. Back in April, Elon Musk said Tesla was dropping their next-gen car platform for a $25,000 cheaper Tesla in favor of accelerating the robotaxi project. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.