YouTube announced this week the rollout of “Thumbnail Test & Compare,” a new tool for creators to see which thumbnail performs the best.
When creators publish a new video (or update an existing video), they can test up to three thumbnails, which will be shown “evenly” across viewers, the company explained in a post.
YouTube encourages testing thumbnails with distinct differences, such as variations in layout compositions, backgrounds, and text overlays, to ensure a comprehensive test.
Creators can test thumbnails on a variety of content, including regular videos, podcast episodes, archived livestreams, and public long-form content.
Over the coming weeks, Thumbnail Test & Compare will become available in YouTube Studio on desktop to all creators with access to advanced features.
The latest version is MacOS Sequoia.
Notifications on Mac bring up iPhone mirror mode, and iPhone audio comes through the Mac as well — but the paired iPhone stays locked.
Elsewhere, MacOS Sequoia introduces automatic window tiling, and a presenter preview mode for video conferencing with a built-in background replacement.
On the gaming front, Apple announced Game Porting Toolkit 2, the newest version of its game porting toolkit.
The MacOS Sequoia beta will be available this month, with final releases to come this fall.
Developers who want to show off apps, or anyone whose iPhone is currently out of reach, will appreciate a new Continuity feature arriving on the new version of macOS Sequoia.
The new OS, announced at WWDC 2024, will allow users to mirror their iPhone screen directly on their Mac and even control it, like swiping through pages on the Home Screen and launching apps via the Mac’s trackpad.
In addition, as Apple showed, it would make it easier to use Mac apps and iPhone apps alongside each other.
When using the feature, users will be able to use the Mac keyboard to enter text and other input into iPhone apps.
Plus, iPhone notifications will appear alongside Mac notifications when it’s mirrored, and users will also be able to interact with them and take action.
Amazon is acquiring some assets of MX Player, but not the entire firm, which also counts Tencent among its backers.
TechCrunch reported in February last year that Amazon and MX Player were engaging for a deal.
MX Player is especially popular among such demographic groups, and Amazon’s e-commerce service has long only been popular among the urban city consumers.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed it has agreed to purchase some assets of MX Player after publication of this story.
Following the acquisition, Times Internet made strategic moves to transform MX Player from a local video playback app into a comprehensive video streaming platform.
Ms. Rachel isn’t a household name, but if you spend a lot of time with toddlers, she might as well be a rockstar.
Ms. Rachel – a music teacher named Rachel Accurso – decided to use her platform for good.
And for a full-time content creator and graduate student in early childhood education, that’s not much time to record 500 personalized videos.
However, Cameo was aware of Ms. Rachel’s highly popular fundraiser, since Cameo posted about it on X.
Given that Ms Rachel intended to fulfill her Cameo requests, it’s unclear why Cameo didn’t grant her additional time to do so in the first place, rather than refunding buyers.
Newsletter platform Substack is introducing the ability for writers to send videos to their subscribers via Chat, its direct messaging feature, the company announced on Wednesday.
The rollout of video in Chat comes two months after the newsletter platform brought videos to Notes, its X/Twitter copycat that lets users share short-form content.
To share a video in Substack Chat, writers can open a new chat and click on the plus icon in the bottom left corner.
Substack also provides the option to add a caption, put the video behind a paywall, as well as email subscribers about the video.
Additionally, writers who allow subscribers to start their own chat threads will now also be able to share their own videos.
Don’t blame MKBHD for the fate of Humane AI and Fisker Famed YouTuber Marques Brownlee makes a splash not for what he said — but for howHumane AI raised more than $230 million before it even shipped a product.
“It was really hard to come up with a title for this video,” Brownlee says in the video itself, which currently has over 5 million views.
The actual review was fair and balanced.”An underdog worth $800 millionCritics of MKBHD’s video are operating as though Humane AI is an underdog in the space.
In the month preceding the MKBHD review, federal safety regulators began investigating the Fisker Ocean for complaints about the brakes not working well.
The Humane AI pin was widely panned across the tech review board, but the only person receiving outsized and long-lasting criticism for his review is MKBHD, a Black man.
Now that humanoids are all the rage in the robotics industry, Boston Dynamics on Tuesday officially retired theirs.
Boston Dynamics has been focused on commercializing technologies for a number of years now.
Boston Dynamics was, of course, well ahead of the current humanoid robotics curve.
Another wrinkle in today’s news is that, as of February, Boston Dynamics was still showcasing Atlas’ capabilities.
Meantime, in lieu of a gold watch, Boston Dynamics is offering up a video featuring some of Atlas’ greatest hits and most spectacular falls.
Amazon is trying to keep live shopping relevant with the launch of an “Amazon Live” FAST (free ad-supported TV) channel on Prime Video and Freevee.
Previously only available as a feature on desktop, mobile, and Fire TV, the new live channel will give customers in the U.S. more ways to engage with interactive, shoppable content.
Viewers can browse and buy the items influencers show off by using the Amazon Shopping app on their mobile device.
Amazon Live launched in 2019 as a QVC-like shopping experience to help brands get their products discovered and for talent to interact with fans.
According to the company, more than 1 billion customers in the U.S. and India streamed Amazon Live’s shoppable videos in 2023 alone.
A new social media app called Indaband lets musicians and vocalists collaborate with others and make music with people all over the world.
You can record and mix unlimited video tracks in different sessions using the app’s multi-track video studio and share them with your community.
The app is the brainchild of CEO Daniel Murta, CTO Andrews Medina, Head of Engineering Helielson Santos and Design Leader Emerson Farias.
They all used to get together to play music during happy hours after work, and once the pandemic hit, they came up with the idea for Indaband so they could still play music together while in quarantine.
Circles will allow users to build their own communities on the app and possibly even hold live events.
