Spotify this morning announced a new way for you to share music with friends (or fans, if you’re an artist) — by way of a new Facebook Stories integration that includes 15-second song previews. Viewers can also optionally tap on the “Play on Spotify” button in the Story to be redirected to the Spotify app to hear more.

The feature is designed largely with artists and their teams in mind, as it gives them another way to promote their new music across Facebook’s social network. Musicians and their managers often today use the Spotify app’s sharing feature to post their content across social media, including to Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and elsewhere.

Last year, Spotify introduced a way to share music to Instagram Stories, including their albums, tracks, and playlists, as part of Facebook’s announcement that it was opening up sharing to Facebook and Instagram Stories from other, third-party apps.

At the time, the company said an integration with Facebook Stories was coming soon.

Since its launch on Instagram, the sharing feature has been mutually beneficial for both Spotify and Instagram alike, as it made users’ Stories more engaging while also sending traffic back to the Spotify app for further music discovery.

There’s likely not as much demand for sharing to Facebook Stories, however.

In order to share the 15-second clips to Facebook Stories, you’ll tap the “Share” button from the Spotify app and choose Facebook as the destination.

Side note: We’re not seeing the option to share to News Feed as the picture Spotify published shows (see above. Instead, tapping “Facebook” launches you right into the Story interface, as shown in the tweet above. 

You can then customize your Story as you would normally using the Story editing tools and post it to your profile. Viewers will get to hear the 15-second song clip, and can then tap to go to Spotify to hear more.

Spotify had offered Facebook Story sharing in the past, but the access was later pulled.

These song previews only work when you’re sharing a single track to Stories. If you choose to share other content, like albums, playlists, or an artist profile page, viewers can click into that content, but won’t hear any preview, Spotify says.

Apple isn’t the only smartphone manufacturer planning a big September launch. Huawei’s got a big event on the books as well, set for September 18 in Munich, just over a week after the new iPhones are unveiled. For Huawei, however, the Mate 30 announcement is about more than just smartphones.

The event is effectively the first big handset launch since the embattled Chinese manufacturer was added to the U.S. trade blacklist. The move had seemingly been a longtime coming, after years of allegations ranging from spying to sanctions violations, but with the ban in place, the move will mark a key moment of truth for a company that has so far been dependent on offerings from U.S. companies like Google.

The Mate 30, which also marks a push into 5G, could potentially launch without Google apps. The recent U.S. government reprieve only applied to already announced products, according to a statement Google gave to Reuters. Trump has suggested the ban on Huawei products could be lifted with a new U.S.-China trade deal, further clouding the suggestion that the move was made purely out of concerns for security.

The smartphone maker gave its own comment to Reuters, noting, “Huawei will continue to use the Android OS and ecosystem if the U.S. government allows us to do so. Otherwise, we will continue to develop our own operating system and ecosystem.”

That last bit is a clear allusion to HarmonyOS. The recently unveiled operating system is largely limited to low-end handsets and IoT devices, but Huawei is also certainly readying itself for a long-term life after Google.

Meanwhile, CNBC is citing a source that suggests the phone will launch with or without Google apps, depending on how things shake out over the next few weeks. That would likely amount to a minor nuisance, requiring users to download them after purchase, while a full-out Android brand would prove far more harmful to its bottom line.

It seems quite unlikely at the moment, however, that the company would attempt to launch such a high-end device with its own partially baked operation system.

A tipster who claims to work at a major carrier has since provided MacRumors with internal communication that suggests the rumored iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models will be available to pre-order Friday, September 13 ahead of deliveries to customers and in-store availability starting Friday, September 20.

MacRumors has received similar tips echoing these dates in recent weeks, so there is a good chance they are accurate.

iPhone pre-orders have begun two to three days after Apple’s event for years now, followed by availability a week later, so these dates are hardly a surprise but good to know nevertheless. Unlike the iPhone X in November 2017 and the iPhone XR in October 2018, however, all three 2019 iPhones are expected to launch simultaneously.

The tipster requested anonymity and asked us not to share the screenshots of the internal communication.

Nearly two weeks since setting sail from Gibraltar, uncertainty remains over the destination of a huge Iranian tanker that has been at the centre of mounting tensions between the United States and Iran.

The Adrian Darya 1 vessel, formerly known as the Grace 1, was seized by the British territory on July 4 and held for six weeks on suspicion of shipping oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions. Tehran denied the charges and on August 15 a court in Gibraltar ordered the tanker’s release despite a last-minute legal attempt by Washington to have it detained.

Since its departure three days later, the Adrian Darya 1 has been bouncing around the Mediterranean Sea, with every change of course sparking speculation about where its cargo of 2.1 million barrels worth about $140m will ultimately go.

Maritime traffic monitors had shown that the Adrian Darya 1’s latest listed destinations, which are not necessarily the next approved port of call, were in Turkey. After tracking sites showed Mersin as its destination, it then switched on Friday to Iskenderun, a small Turkish port on the Mediterranean Sea – prompting a reaction from Turkey’s foreign minister.

“This tanker is not heading actually to Iskenderun [in Turkey], this tanker is heading to Lebanon,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a visit to Norway’s capital, Oslo. 

He later clarified the vessel was headed towards Lebanon‘s territorial waters, not a Lebanese port.

Beirut had earlier dismissed the scenario, stressing that it never buys crude oil because it simply does not have refineries.

“The energy ministry does not buy crude oil from any country and Lebanon does not own a crude oil refinery,” Lebanese Energy Minister Nada Boustani said in a statement.

She added that Lebanon had not received any docking request from the tanker.

“There is also no request for the Adrian Darya 1 oil tanker to enter Lebanon,” Boustani said.

According to maritime traffic monitoring websites, the tanker is currently just west of Cyprus.

Iran said on Monday it had “sold the oil” on board the tanker and that the owner would decide the destination.

It did not identify the buyer nor say whether the oil had been sold before or after the tanker’s detention in the Strait of Gibraltar, on Spain’s southern tip. Tehran said it could not name the actual destination due to the US’s “economic terrorism” and its sanctions on Iran’s oil sales.

Tensions between arch-enemies Iran and the US have soared ever since Washington stepped up its campaign of “maximum pressure” against Tehran and reimposed sanctions after leaving last year a multinational nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers in 2015.

Syria, which has ports on the Mediterranean, is also under various US and EU sanctions over its eight-year-old ongoing conflict.

In July, Iran impounded a British-flagged tanker in the Gulf, which Britain called a tit-for-tat move but Tehran denied any connection.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies