Internet & Websites - Page 9

Facebook is still trying to do it's best to compete with video game streaming giant Twitch, and its new weapon against the Amazon-owned streaming platform is a dedicated app.

Facebook has recently spoken to the New York Times, and has announced that it will be released a new app dedicated to gaming, and more specifically - live streaming. This app will be releasing on April 20th, and it will include some casual games users can play, but it will mostly be funneling users to live streamers who are streaming on Facebook. It will also be encouraging people to take up live streaming on mobile.

This new app from Facebook will also not include in ads, which is a massive bonus for viewers. Instead, the app will rely on viewer "stars", which is basically Facebook's version of Twitch bits. At the moment, the app will be rolled out to Android devices on April 20th, and the iOS version is currently undergoing approval from Apple, so once that is given the thumbs up, it will be released on the App Store for download.

A new announcement has come out from Disney today regarding its streaming service, reaching a brand new milestone.

According to the announcement, Disney+ has reached a brand milestone in regards to how many paying subscribers the service has attracted. Disney+ is only five months old, and now the streaming service has gathered more than 50 million paying subscribers. This is no surprise considering the immense amount of popular that Disney+ offers. Some examples of popular content include; Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pixar, and National Geographic.

Kevin Mayer, Chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, said in a press release, "We're truly humbled that Disney+ is resonating with millions around the globe, and believe this bodes well for our continued expansion throughout Western Europe and into Japan and all of Latin America later this year. Great storytelling inspires and uplifts, and we are in the fortunate position of being able to deliver a vast array of great entertainment rooted in joy and optimism on Disney+."

COVID-19 coronavirus has billions of people sitting inside of the 4 walls of their house, so you would have to be out of your house and living under a rock to not think that social networking use, video streaming and especially livestreaming use would increase.

Facebook has just provided some great upgrades to its Live service, where soon even people without Facebook accounts will be able to watch Facebook Live streams from smartphones. You could do this on desktop, but not on mobile -- until now, with Android users the first out of the gate with the new Live upgrades, while iOS is support "in the coming weeks".

The social networking giant is also adding in new options for livestreamers to get access to people without a smartphone, or access to stable mobile connectivity. The new option is called Public Switch Telephone Network", something that sees Facebook let people listen to a livestream through a toll free number -- think conference call.

Since everyone is staying home due to the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, many forms of entertainment are seeing surges in popularity, and to no one's surprise, Facebook is one of those forms of entertainment.

Since millions of people around the world are being forced to stay home, Facebook is seeing millions of more people being active on its platform. In Italy, Facebook has said they have seen a 70% increase in traffic and a 50% increase in messaging. This increase in traffic is happening globally, and Facebook has now said that this new level of traffic is straining the companies resources.

VP of Analytics, Alex Schultz, and VP of Infrastructure, Jay Pareikh, wrote a joint statement, saying, "The usage growth from COVID-19 is unprecedented across the industry, and we are experiencing new records in usage almost every day. Maintaining stability throughout these spikes in usage is more challenging than usual now that most of our employees are working from home."

Pornhub has announced that they are encouraging social distancing between people, and through that social distancing, many people are deciding its better to just stay home. But what are they going to do while they are home?

Pornhub has an idea to encourage people to stay home, the adult content website has announced a special "stay home" landing page that allows all users to enjoy premium porn videos completely free for the next month. Corey Price, Vice President of Pornhub, said the following in a press release, "With nearly one billion people in lockdown across the world because of the coronavirus pandemic, it's important that we lend a hand and provide them with an enjoyable way to pass the time." The free service starts on March 24th.

He continued and said, "We hope by expanding our offer of free Pornhub Premium worldwide, people have an extra incentive to stay home and flatten the curve." Not only is Porhub giving out free premium porn to those who are staying at home, but they are also giving 100 percent of the video sales after the processing fee of 15 percent back to the performers. Pornhub is also donating large quantities of surgical masks to many different health officials.

Facebook is finally rolling out the highly desired dark mode for its platform. Unfortunately, this update is only coming to desktop users for the time being.

Accompanied with the dark mode is Facebook's new overhaul of its desktop redesign, adding a much cleaner and more modern look for the entire platform. Facebook recently spoke to TechCrunch and said that "starting today, the majority of people on Facebook will have access to the new desktop design." We knew that Facebook was planning on a redesign as it was announced back at last year's F8 conference.

So, how do you check out Facebook's new redesign? Easy. At the top right-hand corner of the Facebook tab, you will see a little drop-down arrow; it's located next to the '?' symbol, near the notifications bell. Click on the drop-down arrow, and you should see the option "Switch to New Facebook". If you don't see this option, that means Facebook hasn't rolled out the new update in your region, and you will, unfortunately, have to wait until they do so you can switch to dark mode.

Researchers and scientists have just make a major breakthrough when it comes to amputee patients and prosthetics.

Scientists at the University of Michigan have just had a breakthrough in mind-controlled prosthetics being used by patients. The new discovery has closed the gap between amputee patients thinking about moving a prosthetic limb, and the limb actually moving. According to Paul Cedena, a professor of biomedical engineering and Robert Oneal Collegiate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the U-M Medical School, "This is the biggest advance in motor control for people with amputations in many years."

Cedena continued, "We have developed a technique to provide individual finger control of prosthetic devices using the nerves in a patient's residual limb. With it, we have been able to provide some of the most advanced prosthetic control that the world has seen."

Twitter has announced that all employees must work from home until further notice in an effort to help slow down the spread of the now rampant coronavirus.

Twitter had already strongly encouraged workers that can work from home to stay home and do so, but now the company has announced that it's a requirement. This goes for all Twitter workers across the world and has thrown a wrench in some people's lives who are unable to do so. Luckily, Twitter has said that they will continue to pay employees, contractors, and hourly workers their expected wages if they are unable to work at home.

Twitter will also be supplying workers with reimbursements for workers who purchase home office setups to continue working. On top of that, Twitter will also be reimbursing employees who have to pay for additional daycare services to continue working. Twitter is now on the growing list of other tech companies that have ordered their employees to work from home. Amazon, Google, Apple and now Twitter are on that list.

Google's Chromecast Ultra is already a fantastic device to have from the living room TV, but what would be the next-generation of Chromecast, and why would you buy it?

According to a reliable source close to 9to5google, Google's next-generation of Chromecast Ultra will be coming with an additional physical remote. This remote will be extremely similar to Apple TV's remote and will feature a microphone and a dedicated Google Assistant button for curating content via the users' voice. 9to5google also reports that the source said to them that the remote would be programmable to users' TV as well.

The new Chromecast Ultra is expected to come with 4K HDR support, as well as give users access to in-built apps such as YouTube TV, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and more. Visually, Google's new device will look a lot like the third-generation Chromecast but with some minor tweaks such as softer and rounder finish. At the moment, there is no pricing or release date mentioned, but it can be assumed that Google was planning on revealing the device at their I/O event that was recently cancelled over the coronavirus.

SpaceX's venture to connect everyone around the world to the internet is slowly being achieved, but once the project is complete, what kind of specifications will adopters be using?

During a conference a few days ago, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk sat down to reveal some details about the ambitious 'Starlink' project. According to the CEO, Starlink should provide users with a latency of about 20ms, which is enough for "fast-response" gaming at a competitive level. Obviously, some competitive gamers could argue that 20ms is still too high for competitive gaming, but Starlink isn't aimed at already established competitive gamers, its aimed at people who are yet to connect to the internet.

Musk didn't touch on what kind of bandwidth Starlink would provide, but he did say that Starlink adopters would be able to watch "high-def movies", play games and do "all the things" you would want to do without noticing a delay. This would mean that Starlink would be more than suitable for the average internet user, and definitely more than suitable for someone who has yet to experience a ridiculously fast connection.

In an effort to increase the amount of traffic to Twitter, the company has announced a new style of Tweeting called "Fleets".

So what is a "Fleet" according to what Twitter states in a blog post, "Fleets are for you to share your ideas and momentary opinions. These posts disappear after 24 hours and have no Retweets, likes or public comments. In an initial survey, people told us that, once the Fleets are gone, they are more comfortable sharing everyday and everyday thoughts. We hope that those people who are not usually comfortable with Tweeting use Fleets to talk about the reflections that come to their head."

It seems that Twitter are attempting to follow in the footsteps of Snapchat inspired content. Fleets won't just be text either, as Twitter states that they will also feature videos, GIFs, and photos. Twitter users will also be able to respond to Fleets with a direct message to the recipient user. I'm not sure if Fleets are going to spark more toxic behavior on Twitter, as people will now be able to temporarily flame other users and hide behind the fact that their comments will be removed relatively soon.

If you want to make big money these days, being an influencer can mean you can make many decades of regular income in a single video -- if you're popular enough. TikTok influencers, at least some of them, could be making upwards of $1 million per post.

Morning Consult's new research suggests that some TikTok influencers have the power to charge $1 milion per post, with many popular "TikTokers" charging $200,000 per post if htey're able to promote and colleborate with the right brands. UK games company Online Casinos reports that TikTok influencers could be (and I'm sure will be, and even some right now are) making $1 million per post by next year.

Right now, the "most marketable TikToker" is 17-year-old singer Loren Gray, who is reportedly making upwards of $200,000 per post. She has over 38 million followers on TikTok, making her one of the most-followed accounts on the Chinese video sharing app. She posts daily videos on TikTok, has over 2 billion likes across her posts, and has secured deals with the likes of Virgin Records and Capital Records.

It has been a staggering eight years since .com domain prices have moved either up or down, but that could all soon change as a new agreement is about to fall into place.

Since 2012, .com domain prices have been sitting at $7.85, but ICANN who is responsible for overseeing top-level internet domains is right in the middle of a new agreement with Verisign who has a contract to oversee .com domains. In this new agreement, Verisign will be allowed to increase the price of .com domains by up to 7% every year for the next 10 years. Excluding the years 2024 and 2025.

ICANN isn't the ones forcing the hand of Verisign, they come from a present agreement between Verisign and the Commerce Department which also has a finger in overseeing .com domains and their prices. According to a blog post by ICANN CEO, Goran Marby, ICCAN is "not a price regulator and defers to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Justice for the regulation of pricing for .COM registry services."

Amazon has a new point man to run their online video streaming department, and he was once the CEO of Disney's Hulu.

According to an article posted by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon has signed a new contact employing Mike Hopkins, former CEO of the Disney-owned streaming service Hulu. Hopkins will now be leading Amazon's Prime Video section and has quite a lot of experience behind him to back up his decisions. Before joining Hulu and running it as CEO for four years, Hopkins worked as the chairman for Sony Pictures Television and also was the head of 21st Century Fox's distribution strategy.

Hopkins has been hired by Amazon to run its Prime Video department in the absence of Jeff Blackburn. Hopkins will also report directly to the big man himself -- Jeff Bezos. Blackburn sent a note out to staffers saying the following, "Mike comes to us with over 20 years of industry experience at Fox, Hulu, and Sony. He has an extensive track record as a global business leader in media, film, and TV -- negotiating landmark content and distribution agreements, running marketing operations, leading product/tech teams, and overseeing production of breakthrough television content."

Elon Musk has come out slamming Facebook (again) in a new tweet, with the SpaceX and Tesla founder replying to actor Sacha Baron Cohen and his tweet condemning the largest social network in the world.

Cohen tweeted: "We don't let 1 person control the water for 2.5 billion people. We don't let 1 person control electricity for 2.5 billion people. Why do we let 1 man control the information seen by 2.5 billion people? Facebook needs to be regulated by governments, not ruled by an emperor!"

Musk replied simply: "#DeleteFacebook It's lame", which has of course made headlines around the world. But, this isn't the first time Musk has said something negative about Facebook. Rewinding the clock back to 2018, where Musk tweeted that he deleted his companies' Facebook pages and that he does not like Facebook, saying that it gave him "the willies".

Facebook really wants to turn around the privacy controversy that has surrounded its platform for quite some time now. So, in the "next few weeks," Facebook will be asking its user base to review their privacy settings.

According to a blog post by Facebook Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, on Facebook's new website, Facebook wants to start the new decade off on the right foot by giving its users more control over their privacy. The post continues and says that "over the next few weeks," a privacy setting prompt will appear in users' news feeds that will encourage everyone to check out their privacy settings and make sure everything is secure.

The blog post says that "One of our main goals for the next decade is to build much stronger privacy protections for everyone on Facebook". To work towards that goal, Facebook has updated the Privacy Checkup tool to make it even easier for people to adjust who can see their posts, profile information, login locations, login alerts and generally any information a user would deem "sensitive". If you are interested in deep diving into the blog post, you can check it out here.

Google has announced that it will no longer be working for free for the government. Yep, that's right; Google will be charging law enforcement for any assistance they provide in recovering data.

In a new report from The New York Times, Google has released a "Notice of Reimbursement" which states that beginning on January 13th, 2020 or soon thereafter, "Google will require pursuant to statutory authority that government agencies serving legal process on Google reimburse Google for costs reasonably necessary and directly incurred in complying with the legal process according to the following reimbursement schedule:"

To make that sound less confusing, basically what Google is saying is that it will no longer be helping law enforcement pull up data on people as it costs them money to do so. If law enforcement wishes to use Google's data, they will have to pay, and the cost depends on what the type of legal process is. Google has provided a "reimbursement schedule" that lays out what law enforcement will be required to reimburse Google if they decide to use its services.

I'm sure most people would understand the pleasure of laying down with a tub of Ben & Jerry's and watching Netflix. So, how about an ice cream specifically for that?

Netflix has teamed up with Ben & Jerry's to bring out the first Netflix original ice cream - Netflix & Chill'd. The new brand of ice cream is a combination of Peanut Butter, sweet and salty pretzel swirls and fudge brownies. The mixture sounds like basically everything you need for a big Netflix binge.

On the official website, the company says, "We've teamed up with Netflix to churn up something extra special. And just like Netflix, there's something in this pint for everyone." At the moment it neither Netflix or Ben & Jerry's have announced how much the new ice cream will cost, but we do know it will be available in select grocery stores and also in a dairy-free variant.

CES 2020 - IOGEAR has announced a big new line of live streaming video production tools aimed at content creators.

IOGEAR is introducing content creators to a new line of content creation tools called 'UpStream'. The new line of products is aimed at both content creators that require high-end video production, and ones that can do with simple on-the-go video capture. IOGEAR's new line of products comes under the guise of 'UpStream'.

Right off the bat, we have the UpStream Video Capture Adapter, this device can capture high-quality audio/video up to 1080p at 60FPS. It connects to an HDMI-enabled camera and uses its USB-C cable to save the file to a device such as a laptop or PC. For the gamers out there that want a bit more bang for their buck, IOGEAR has the UpStream Game Capture Adapter which outputs video at 1080p at 60FPS but can pass-through a 4K 60FPS signal to a monitor.

CES 2020 - Corsairs streaming arm Elgato has been hot off the track this CES with a bunch of new announcements. This time we are taking a look at the new Elgato Keylight Air.

The Key Light Air is pretty much exactly the same as Elgato's original Key Light, but instead, the Air version is more compact and portable. It also comes with a bunch of attention to detail features that the already released Key Light lacks. For example, there is a groove on the back of the pole that is for the light's power cord; this gets rid of any messy cords and just makes the setup look better overall.

The Key Light Air also features little measurements on the side, so the user knows exactly what height their light is sitting at. This is especially helpful for a streamer that has purchased two of the lights as they can make sure both are sitting at the same height. I'd love to get my hands-on one of these Key Light Air's for testing, as it looks like a streamers best-friend when it comes to lighting.