Your hot phone can become SUPER COOL with the Black Shark Fun Cooler 3 Pro

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Alongside the launch of the Black Shark 5 and 5 Pro, Black Shark has introduced a series of accessories to complement the phone’s ultimate gaming experience, one of them is the Black Shark Fun Cooler 3 Pro, which features improved cooling performance over the previous model with several innovative features, and here’s why every hard-core gamer should consider getting one.

Redesigned cooling system for up to 30
°C
 temperature drop

To deliver the most consistent lag-free gaming experience, the Black Shark Fun Cooler 3 Pro has been redesigned with 17 pieces of heatsink and a 227% larger cooling area for faster heat dissipation, a 7 blade high speed fan has also been employed for increased air circulation, which enables the cooler to reduce the phone’s body temperature by up to a staggering 30
°C
, which no other external coolers in the market can do.

20W Ultimate Power Charging to achieve fast cooling

With its powerful 20W ultimate power charging, the Black Shark Fun Cooler 3 Pro’s cooling surface can reach freezing cold temperatures
 in just 45 seconds, which enables it to quickly cool down the Black Shark 5 series and reach optimal temperatures for a smooth gameplay experience.

Ergonomic design for extended gaming comfort

The Black Shark Fun Cooler 3 Pro has been ergonomically designed for extended periods of gaming, which is why it uses a vertical air duct design so that heat doesn’t get dissipated through the sides to cause discomfort while gaming.

RGB Lighting Customization in Shark Space

For the first time ever, the Black Shark Fun Cooler 3 Pro is deeply integrated with Shark Space on the Black Shark 5 series, which allow you to customize the RGB lighting effects on the cooler according to your mood, there’s even a special lighting effect that works on supported games when you manage to score a victory or kill an enemy, this is definitely one cool way to show off your gaming phone to your audience.

Black Shark Fun Cooler 3 Pro Price and Availability
 in Malaysia

The Black Shark Fun Cooler 3 Pro is the perfect cooling companion for your Black Shark 5 series gaming phone, it retails for RM249 in Malaysia and can be purchased at the
Black Shark Malaysia Official Shopee Store
, Black Shark Malaysia is also giving a free Black Shark Monster Gaming Triggers when you purchaes the cooler, and don’t remember to take part in the ‘Review and Win’ campaign, so go grab one here!

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Your imagination – design your life

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The common use of the term is for the process of forming new images in the mind that have not been previously experienced with the help of what has been seen, heard, or felt before, or at least only partially or in different combinations. Some typical examples follow:
Fairy tale
Fiction
A form of verisimilitude often invoked in fantasy and science fiction invites readers to pretend such stories are true by referring to objects of the mind such as fictional books or years that do not exist apart from an imaginary world.
Imagination, not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical necessity is largely free from objective restraints. The ability to imagine one’s self in another person’s place is very important to social relations and understanding. Albert Einstein said, “Imagination … is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

But in reality, without knowledge, imagination can not be developed.

In various spheres, however, even imagination is in practice limited: thus a person whose imaginations do violence to the elementary laws of thought, or to the necessary principles of practical possibility, or to the reasonable probabilities of a given
case
 is usually regarded by mental health professionals as insane.

The same limitations beset imagination in the field of scientific hypothesis. Progress in scientific research is due largely to provisional explanations which are developed by imagination, but such hypotheses must be framed in relation to previously ascertained facts and in accordance with the principles of the particular science.
Imagination is an experimental partition of the mind used to develop theories and ideas based on functions. Taking objects from real perceptions, the imagination uses complex IF-functions[citation needed] to develop new or revised ideas. This part of the mind is vital to developing better and easier ways to accomplish old and new tasks. These experimental ideas can be safely conducted inside a virtual world and then, if the idea is probable and the function is true, the idea can be actualized in reality. Imagination is the key to new development of the mind and can be shared with others, progressing collectively.

Regarding the volunteer effort, imagination can be classified as:
– voluntary (the dream from the sleep, the daydream)
– involuntary (the reproductive imagination, the creative imagination, the dream of perspective)


Your opinion matters

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Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts.

Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.

It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.

Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar.


Your Xiaomi Mi Band 3 and Mi Band 4 can now be used to unlock your laptop

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The Xiaomi Mi Band series of fitness trackers are quite popular among Malaysians thanks to its affordability. But fitness tracking is really all it does besides other features like message notifications and phone-
dependent
 music playback.

But fret not, Xiaomi is adding a new feature to the Mi Band 3 and the Mi Band 4 which will be quite useful. With the latest update, you’ll be able to unlock your Windows 10 laptop!

Reports haven’t said much about how it works – but if it works anything like you would get with
third
 party apps, you should be able to hover your Mi Band over your laptop, and that should unlock it immediately. This feature was first made available only for Indian users, but now it’s going global.

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YouTube 60FPS video is now available on mobile

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Remember the first announcement from YouTube that you are able to watch 60 FPS on the desktop, but you wouldn’t have this feature on mobile because of any limitation on the application. We often cannot enjoy the video that we watch on mobile because we are stuck at 30 FPS and especially the gameplay for games. Thanks to Google, now you are able to stream video at 1080p or 720p with 60 FPS without any update on your apps, all you need to do is just select the quality on option.

You will be also able to take this advantage in the near future when the YouTube Gaming is officially launched and you can watch those streams with 60 FPS without any lagging. These features are only available on iOS and Android, sorry for another platform user because it’s not been announced by Google itself. So Windows phone user you had to stick with 30 FPS only.

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YouTube adds custom blurring tool

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Back in 2012, YouTube launched a feature which allows creators to blur faces in their videos. But it seems like users want more than just blurring faces, hence YouTube has launched another feature, giving creators the liberty to blur out anything they want in their videos.

The video streaming site has rolled out a Custom Blurring Tool, currently available on desktop versions of YouTube. This brand new feature allows you to blur objects on your video, even if it’s a moving object. You can now bid a tiny goodbye to painstaking camera and motion tracking on your video editing software.

Choose the video that you want to edit and select Custom Blurring within the Blurring Effects tab of our Enhancements tool. Simply draw a box around whatever it is you want to blur.

The cool part is this feature analyzes your video motion on the fly, allowing the custom blurring tool to automatically blur a moving object. You can also set the duration of the blur and the size of the blur. Now, go on and experiment with it! Do you like this new YouTube feature? Let us know your thoughts!

Source:
YouTube Creator

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YouTube adds “voice search” and introduces new “Who’s Watching” feature

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YouTube is ending 2019 by several new features and updates, including one that lets you use voice control on your smartphones.

Available to both iOS and Android devices, users can now use “voice search” to find for YouTube videos, even when they’re casting the app to their smart TVs. Users can also control the playback by saying commands like “play”, “pause”, and so on.

In addition to that, YouTube also introduced a “Who’s Watching” feature, allowing users to switch between profiles — this slightly resembles how Netflix works. This is especially useful for those who enjoy YouTube on smart TVs because it’s easier for family members to switch to their own profiles when they’re using the TV.

YouTube also updated its navigation menu for easier access, and added more YouTube on TV support to more devices. PS4 and PS4 Pro now supports YouTube videos in HDR so users PlayStation 4 users can fully enjoy YouTube content.

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YouTube ban lifted in Pakistan

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Pakistan has finally made YouTube available to its citizens, lifting a ban on Google’s video streaming website which lasted three years.

Three years ago in 2013, YouTube was blocked due to a controversial video, titled “Innocence of Muslims”, which has garnered worldwide veiwership and was condemned by the Muslims for the video’s portrayal of Prophet Muhammad. Google has refused multiple requests and orders to take down the video, contributing to a full-fledged block of the site by Pakistan.

The Pakistani government had discussions with Google on YouTube having a content filtering model which allows authorities to block certain content on their own. However, such a move would contradict to some ways YouTube manages its service. A YouTube representative has stated that no special arrangement was made with Pakistan.

Nevertheless, the good news is a local version of YouTube has been launched in Pakistan, just like in other countries globally. This means that Pakistani YouTube surfers will have a dedicated homepage with country-specific tailored content.

How essential, or how vital is YouTube in your internet life? Let us know your thoughts below!

Source:
TechCrunch

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YouTube brings in messaging to make you stay on the app

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Talk about integration and seamless user experience, YouTube is currently rolling out a messaging feature on both iOS and Android platforms, meaning that you might not have to leave the app to share a video to your mates.

The added feature works pretty much like any other messaging app, allowing you to share videos to selected friends within your circle, either individually or as a group conversation. YouTube also knows that emojis play a vital part in our lives now, hence emojis can also be used within the messaging tab. All conversations ahd your shared videos are under a new Shared tab in the YouTube app.

YouTube also allows you to reply to internal messages by sharing a video instead of the usual text reply. A lame example would be sharing a “Justin Bieber – Sorry” music video instead of apologizing to someone you’re texting in the app. The new integrated messenger in YouTube brings it head-to-head with Facebook videos. What do you think?

Source:
Wired

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YouTube has enabled pinch-to-zoom feature for phones with 18:9 aspect ratio

343

Bezeless displays are starting to become a norm and sooner or later everyone is going to have a full body screen phone. This might cause some complications as it changes the way we produce content for these phones. YouTube has taken a step forward and is allowing users to pinch to zoom videos so they look nice on a screen bigger than 16:9 aspect ratio.

YouTube videos will now fill up the screen to eliminate the black borders seen on widescreen videos, making it look much better on 18:9 screens. This method might crop some videos that are not shot properly,  but most of you that are using these phones will appreciate that you can use the entirety of the screen to watch your favourite videos.

The latest update, version 12.44 has already enabled this feature and is confirmed to work with phones like the Galaxy S8 and the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, but this feature should work with phones having aspect ratios higher than 16:9. You can check the version of your YouTube app in the Play Store and if you don’t have the update, it should roll out in the next few days.

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Youtube faces backlash on Twitter after uploading uncredited holiday video

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Youtube was caught under the fire when fellow Youtuber named “Lily Havesh” found out that Youtube has taken her video and tweeted it as their own on their Twitter page during Christmas without crediting her or mentioning her Youtube channel on their tweet.

 It was reported that Youtube had even edited the video, cutting out the intro, which was originally in the video where Lily Havesh would usually introduce and welcome viewers when they watch her video. Lily’s original video which was uploaded on 23 December 2018 has over 60,000 views but Youtube’s lifted version boasts more than 250,000 views.

That moment when everything falls into place. Merry Christmas!
pic.twitter.com/g43Ph7RMUd

— YouTube (@YouTube)
December 25, 2018

Lily Harvesh is a professional domino artist that uses Youtube as a specialized form of advertising her work. By stealing Lily’s content and posting it on twitter as their own, Youtube’s tweet reaches out to 71 million subscribers, prevents Lily from getting recognition and potential customers or jobs. YouTube creators like Lily rely solely on views and subscribers to obtain advertising deals and secure sponsorship deals, so when YouTube didn’t direct viewers to Lily Havesh on YouTube, the company cost her money directly. Which could be the reason why Lily’s disappointment has caught the attention of both creators and community at large.

On a tweet posted by Lily on Christmas, she said “Very glad to see that my Christmas domino e-card is getting good use, however, I’m a bit disappointed that YouTube would take my video and re-upload it with absolutely no credit.”

Ironically reuploading video while stripping credit is a practice that Youtube explicitly condemns. According to Youtube’s community guidelines and policy page specifically states that creators should only “upload videos that you made or that you’re authorized to use”. But at the same time, Youtube does own a limited license to people’s videos, so which means legally, the company has the right to take Lily’s content and upload it to its Twitter account.

Our mistake–we forgot to credit
@Hevesh5
 for this video! Check out more of
@Hevesh5
‘s epic domino art here:
https://t.co/O7it1xtd5l

https://t.co/lzZwu3a692

— YouTube (@YouTube)
December 26, 2018

“I just don’t get it, YouTube created Content ID to protect creators from thieves freebooting their videos, yet here they are re-uploading people’s work for promotional purposes without any credit,” Lily added.

After all that fuss, Youtube finally took to Twitter and acknowledge its mistake in a follow up tweet on 26 December 2018, and has done what was right which was plugging Lily’s Youtube channel to give her the recognition that she deserve.

Lily Havesh
youtube


YouTube updates its practice on children’s content after being fined for $170 million

374

YouTube is recently sued by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), causing them to update their practices regarding children’s content on YouTube.

The US FTC sued Google for $170 million in total where $34 million has to be paid to the state of New York while the remaining has to be paired to FTC for violation of the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

The act strictly prohibits the collection of data on children under the age of 13 without their parents’ consent, which is exactly what YouTube is being sued for.

Aside from the penalty fee of $170 million, YouTube also needs to come up with a new system that accurately labels the contents that are made for children. With the new system, data collection on children will be limited and there will no longer be any personalised ads on children’s content.

“We are changing how we treat data for children’s content on YouTube. Starting in about four months, we will treat data from anyone watching children’s content on YouTube as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user.” Says Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s CEO.

She also requested for creators to label their videos if they’re under children’s content and will use machine learning to identify videos that are for young audiences such as those with “an emphasis on kids characters, themes, toys, or games.”

To make things easier, parents who often let their kids browse YouTube independently can also use YouTube Kids as it’s easier to control what their children have access to. Google recently updated YouTube Kids to provide better content and introduced the website version of the app so that kids can use it even on their desktops.

google
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YouTube Kids


YouTube Gaming goes live tomorrow!

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Just one year and one day ago, Amazon bought Twitch.tv, which brought game streaming to a new level. Now, YouTube’s new portal – YouTube Gaming, looks promising as another video streaming platform that focuses on games, that not only allows you to livestream, it also automatically collects all gaming-related videos on individual pages for more than 25,000 different games.

YouTube Gaming is set to be Twitch.tv competitor, and will also be available on Android and iOS apps starting with the roll out to the U.K. and U.S. while other countries got to wait before it is available.

For now, you can head to the YouTube Gaming website and poke about, especially with the interesting and nostalgic “triangles” that move and play popular game music when clicked. Go try it out!
https://gaming.youtube.com/coming_soon

gaming
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YouTube Gaming to arrive as a direct competition to Twitch

401

YouTube is getting serious about live streaming your games on its video streaming platform and we don’t blame the company trying to offer a similar service to its strongest competition – Twitch, in which the company failed to acquired last year, Mountain View will first launch YouTube Gaming in the United States and United Kingdom later this summer, which will be available as an app for mobile devices and a dedicated site for desktop users.

The service will aim to combine e-sports, social media and live streaming about games, and will serve home to almost 25000 games at launch, in which game developers and YouTube personalities are able to have their own page. In technical aspects, the service will offer 60 fps streams to users at Full HD resolution and you shouldn’t be expecting 4k60 since there are hardly any PCs out there could stream at that resolution.

YouTube has been pretty famous for copyright infringements on gaming content in the pass, as some games do feature licensed music and hence causing the particular video stream to be blocked off some countries. At this time of writing, Twitch has pretty much tweeted a cheeky reply to @YouTubeGaming

esports
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YouTube Go records over 10 million downloads in two weeks

318

Google may have been testing YouTube Go in various regions for some time now, but it silently rolled the app out on the Play Store. It is still listed as unreleased on the Play Store, but YouTube Go has since hit over 10 million downloads just two weeks after its official debut.

YouTube Go was made by Google for developing countries. Earlier this year, the app launched in India in beta mode. YouTube Go is designed to be offline first, and intends to give a smoother watching experience on slower networks. Videos can be downloaded according to the user’s preference of quality and the app provides you transparency when it comes to the amount of data consumed. This comes in very handy especially if you are on a limited data plan.

The app is also made to work on entry level devices, meaning smartphones that come with lesser RAM and storage space to begin with. “No more worrying about phone hanging” is one of the advertising points on its Play Store page, with another indication that it will work with older devices up to Android Jelly Bean.

YouTube Go is said to be currently available in South East Asian countries like ours. If you’re a YouTube junkie but stingy on data, this app might just be the solution to your problem!

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YouTube has ad-supported movies that users can watch for free

377

YouTube started to offer ad-supported movies to its users for free, and this includes movies like “The Terminator” and “Rocky” films.

Currently, there are around 100 movies available to be watched for free, though it is expected that YouTube will increase the number of movies in time. The movies are not recently released or relatively new movies as most of them are classics or Hollywood blockbusters. Previously, YouTube has allowed its users to buy TV shows and films, but with YouTube introducing free movie-watching with the inclusion of ads, it’ll serve as a great opportunity for advertisers to showcase their ads in return.

Image credit: Fossbytes

Other services such as Tubi and Vudu has already offered a similar feature some time ago but seeing as YouTube is a very prominent website with huge traffic, the new feature will be benefit its users greatly and also bring in more advertising deals.

Getting free movies with ads on YouTube is quite similar to watching movies on TVs where there are commercial breaks, but this YouTube feature that was quietly released is only available in US for now, so users from other countries will not get to enjoy the free movies that YouTube has to offer.

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YouTube in the works of live 360-degree video

359

360-degree videos have been a thing since late last year and rumor has it that YouTube has begun developing live 360-degree videos on its platform.

Many sources have confirmed that the platform’s developers have been meeting up with manufacturers of 360-degree cameras to add support and make way to make live streamed videos more immersive. However, no launch date has been revealed so far.

360-degree video capabilities have been launched by YouTube in March 2015, adding Google Cardboard three months later, making the combination of a Google Cardboard and a smartphone as a simple VR headset. Recently in November, 3D capabilities were debuted, giving an extra depth to videos and ultimately, a more immersive experience than ever before.

360-degree videos are multiple videos which are stitched together to form a spherical like image. Most of the 360-degree cameras out there have at least two wide angle lenses. Images from the lenses are merged in post-production. To live stream 360-degree videos would mean that the images from the lenses of the cameras will need to be “stitched” together in real time.

One possible outcome when it comes to the manufacturing of future 360-shooters are the fact that they have to fit certain requirements and specifications to be able to live stream to YouTube, or risk being left out of the competition. Let’s hope that YouTube launches this feature real soon.

Source:
BuzzFeed News

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YouTube introduces new tools that allows creators to better control the comments section

311

YouTube’s comment section can be…rather unpleasant at times, which is why YouTube has decided to roll out four new moderation tools that would allow them to better control their channel’s own comment section.

Starting from today, YouTube creators will be able to pin specific comments to the top of the comments section, allowing them to highlight great engagement or share information with your audience. Additionally, creators will also be able to give a heart to their favourite comments as a way of acknowledging comments from their viewers. To let the viewers identify the creator better, YouTube will also be making it easier to identify a creator’s comment. These comments will appear under the ext with a pop of colour around it. For verified creators, a verification checkmark will appear beside the name.

In addition to these new tools, YouTube will also be beta testing a new feautre that would allow the creator to hold potentially inappropriate comments for review. If you decide to opt-in to this beta, comments identified by YouTube’s algorithm will be held and the creators will be able to approve, hide, or report these comments. As is the case for features in beta, YouTube has warned that this feature may occasionally give out false positives, so it’ll take some time before the bugs are ironed out of this feature.

Source:
YouTube Creators Blog

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YouTube is bring swiping gestures to their app to view the next video

395

YouTube is testing out a new method for its users to consume the millions of videos that are on their platform. It has to do with how we view the next or going back to the previous window, previous users will have to either tap on the next video or press the arrow icon after the video ends. With this new feature, users will simply need to swipe on the screen.

It is definitely a faster way to navigate the YouTube UI on a smartphone as the feature allows you to swipe anywhere on the screen to get to the next video. Swiping from right to left, will load up the video in the Up Next section and left to right will go back to the previous video you were watching, making it much easier and faster rather than waiting for the next button to appear. The feature is probably something they have taken from Android P’s new recent apps feature where you can move back and forth between apps using the same swiping method.

However, just like all new features, this feature is available to selected users and you can expect a full rollout in the coming weeks. You can try it out on your phone’s YouTube app and see if you are one of the lucky ones that have this feature enabled.

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YouTube is lowering streaming quality across the globe for one month to ease internet congestion

392

Where would we be without YouTube – on Facebook probably, watching content stolen from Reddit; so I for one am thankful for its existence.

And because you and everyone’s aunt can’t get enough of YouTube either, the company has decided to lower the default streaming quality of videos across the globe, for one month. This only happens when you load up a video, and you can change the quality manually in the settings.

This action is taken in accordance to the requests of regulators who want to lower the internet congestion during this period of restrictive movement.

Netflix have also done the same by throttling streaming quality, but in Europe only, for now. YouTube obviously generates more traffic on the daily, so this is done to ease up the load on their servers as well.

So
 if you’ve been loading up videos in 720p or less, know that it’s not your ISP that’s gone wonky, it’s just YouTube trying not to fry their servers.

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YouTube is making live streaming as easy as Facebook Live

366

YouTube’s live streaming feature has been available for a while now, unfortunately it isn’t the most easiest feature to use when compared to Facebook Live when it comes to mobile, therefore the video streaming service is implementing a live stream feature directly into the YouTube app, what the user will need to do is to simply press on the “big red capture button”, enter the description of the live stream and select a thumbnail, your video will then be streamed to the whole world pretty and it looks pretty much like how you see on Facebook Live and Periscope, where you will be able to see your viewers comments and video views.

For creators, YouTube will continue to offer content protection for your live streams which viewers cannot simply download and reupload your videos, the company has also claims that the live stream feature will be more reliable compared to other services as it uses the peerless infrastructure. The live streaming feature is available starting today to selected partners and as usual, it will eventually be available to many other users soon in the coming months, therefore do keep your YouTube app updated all the time if you are expecting to use the feature.

SOURCE:
YouTube

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Youtube is removing spam accounts which may cause noticeable decrease in subscribers

974

Youtube will be starting their sweep to remove spam accounts from their platform today and fellow creators may see a decrease on their subscribers count as the cleanup is being conducted.

“these sweeps are part of routine maintenance the company performs. Removing spam accounts helps to keep YouTube “a fair playing field” for creators, since they can artificially increase a channel’s subscriber count. It’s unclear how many channels will be affected, but YouTube does want people to prepare for a decline,” via official post on Youtube’s product forum.

“We regularly verify the legitimacy of accounts and actions on your YouTube channel, as part of these regular checks, we identified and will remove a number of subscribers that were in fact spam from our systems,” the blog post reads.

 Spam accounts are usually created to make creators look as if they have a big number of subscribers or to make a channel look more popular than it actually is. Major channels such as PewDiePie and T-Series may also notice a decrease on their subscribers count, which will affect their on going competition to be the number one most subscribed channel on Youtube, but it is the smaller creators who would face a bigger risk since they could lose their ability to monetize their videos.

“Channels that had a high percentage of spam and fall below 1,000 subscribers will no longer meet the minimum requirement for YPP (YouTube Partner Program) and will be removed from the program,” the blog post reads. “They are encouraged to reapply once they’ve rebuilt their subscribers organically.”

Owners of affected channels will see a banner in YouTube Studio or Classic Creator Studio. Overall, this could be a good and bad situation for all of the creators on Youtube, but nevertheless, it is always better to play fair and not cheat, so everyone could enjoy creating contents on Youtube.

youtube


YouTube is rolling out Dark Theme to Android users

343

If you are someone that likes to watch YouTube videos just before bedtime, you will happy to know that YouTube is rolling out an update for their app that will enable Dark Mode. The mode was announced back in March and it was made available to iOS only, but it looks like its here now for both iOS and Android.

If you received the update, you should get the Try the new Dark Theme prompt the next time you launch the app. You don’t have to update the app to receive this as its a server-side update. Some users have said that when they cleared the data and cache for the app, the prompt appeared for them. Dark Theme does not have many changes to the original theme as they are just inverting the colours of black and white to make it easier for us to use the app in the dark.

It might take a while before the feature comes to Malaysia just like with all updates, as we do not have the option enabled in our devices. It should be a matter of days before we start seeing this feature.

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YouTube is testing out an in-app messaging feature on iOS and Android in Canada

387

Conversations can soon be had via the YouTube app on both Android and iOS devices as YouTube has begun testing a new in-app messaging platform.

Currently available only in Canada, YouTube’s in-app messaging platform is very much identical to almost every other messaging platform available. The platform allows you to chat with your friends, create group conversations, and other standard chat app features. The only thing that can be considered unique to YouTube’s own messaging platform is that it would be easier to share YouTube videos with others.

As for the reasoning behind the Canada-only rollout of YouTube’s messaging platform, Google product manager Shimrit Ben Yair states that Canada’s userbase is ideal for the testing. “We wanted to start with Canada because Canadians are sharing 15 percent more videos than the average user, so it’s interesting to see this is actually a behaviour that happens more in Canada,” says Yair.

Neither Google nor YouTube have mentioned anything about a global rollout at this point, so it looks like we’re going to have to wait.

Source:
TechCrunch
,
Financial Post

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YouTube Kids is launching its own website later this week with better upgrades

337

YouTube has been trying to control the content kids can access so that they can prevent explicit content from reaching them. This is probably YouTube has announced that they will be launching a website version of YouTube Kids later this week.

Instead of posting it officially on their YouTube blog, YouTube has made this announcement quietly on its support forum. The updated YouTube Kids will have three age categories so parents can pick appropriate ones based on their children’s age.

The three categories are Preschool, Younger and Older. Preschool is for those age 4 and below where videos “promote creativity, playfulness, learning and exploration” while Younger is for kids age 5 to 7 and consists of videos that let them explore their interest and search for topics like songs, cartoons and more. As for the last category, it’s recommended for kids age 8 to 12 and has videos such as gaming, family vlogs, music videos and so on.

However, the Google employee who wrote the post also mentioned that “not all videos have been manually reviewed” hence it’s still possible for some unwanted content to slip past the system and appear in YouTube Kids. Parents can choose to block or flag those videos so that the authorities can quickly review it and remove it if needed.

By the end of this week, kids should be able to enjoy both YouTube Kids on its app and website.

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YouTube Kids


YouTube launches Premiere feature for creators to engage with fans before a video goes live

354

YouTube has launched Premiere, a feature that allows the creator set its upload like a premiere and watch together with their viewers when the video goes live, and like a live stream on YouTube, both the creator and viewers will be able to engage in a discussion at the comments section.

Premiere is pretty useful for creators who isn’t used to doing live streams on YouTube, and for viewers that has followed a YouTuber’s upload schedule, they will be able to watch and engage on the uploaded video with the creator. Therefore, the feature is pretty much like what the name suggests.

YouTube’s Premiere is available to creators and all users starting today, while in some other countries, creators can also enable Super Chat to get donations from subscribers for a video well done. Once the premiere is over, the video will stay in the channel as a normal upload and viewers can still later view the chat stream in the video.

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YouTube launches YouTube TV service in the United States

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Considering how successful YouTube is in the whole digital media streaming service gig, it was only a matter of time until YouTube spins off a TV service of its on. Lo and behold, such a thing happened today as YouTube announced a new service called YouTube TV.

Available only in the U.S. when it launches, YouTube TV is a USD35 per month subscription service that gives subscibers access to around 46 channels at launch, ranging from the standard American television channels such as FOX, NBC and the likes, to sports-specific channels such as ESPN. Subscribing to YouTube TV will also give you access to YouTube Red and all of the YouTube Red Original shows.

Subscribers will also be given a “Cloud DVR” that lets them record live TV which can then be viewed at any time. The best part of this “Cloud DVR” is that it is capable of recording multiple shows simultaneously without consuming data or space on your phone, and it also comes with unlimited storage, allowing the subscriber to record as many shows as they want.

Assuming that you’re currently living in the states and you would like to try out YouTube TV, the USD35 per month subscription will net you six accounts that comes with their own “Cloud DVR”. When you break it down, this means that a subscription to YouTube TV costs USD5.83 per account per month. One limitation that the service does have is the fact that only three concurrent streams can be had at any time. As for supported platforms, YouTube TV will be available on the computer as well as Android and iOS devices. YouTube TV content can also be streamed to your television via Chromecast.

YouTube TV is slated to be launched in the U.S. within the coming weeks. As for international availability, YouTube hasn’t mentioned anything about it yet, so you shouldn’t get your hopes up over this particular service.

Source:
YouTube
,
Google

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YouTube logo gets a refreshed look

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Believe it or not, YouTube has been around for 12 years now. The world’s most popular streaming app has come a long way along with the advancement of technology, from 240p videos to support for 8K videos on the platform, though still extremely difficult to stream on most devices to date. YouTube has announced a new look for its logo and some welcome changes to its mobile app which will come in handy.

The redesigned logo of YouTube is said to be more visible and flexible to be viewed on various platforms and devices, “a cleaned up version of the YouTube wordmark and and icon”. The fresh logo design is currently on the roll out to mobile and desktop platforms today.

The company has also gotten some revamping done to its mobile app. First off, the navigation tabs have been moved to the bottom of the app for easier access, along with the addition of the Library and Account tabs. The app will soon enable users to switch between videos just by swiping to the left or right when watching a video. You can also change the speed of the videos you watch, a feature which was previously exclusive on the desktop. Catch the low down of the new features at the source link below.

YouTube has evolved greatly over the past decade or so. With this new look and a redesigned app interface, we can only hope that our favorite video streaming platform will venture to greater heights.

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YouTube may soon block you from watching videos with an adblocker

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YouTube is currently testing a feature that limits a user in watching videos when they use an ad blocker to skip ads, and this is a great news for content creators as ad blockers can seriously affect their earnings.

The feature is spotted on the YouTube subreddit, where a Redittor screenshot a pop up that says that he will be limited to watch just three videos if he doesn’t disable his ad blocker, thereafter he will be blocked from watching YouTube videos unless he disables it.

While YouTube ads can be annoying at times, one legit way to eliminate this is to sign up for YouTube Premium, which costs RM17.90/month for a single user, a Family Plan is also available at RM33.90/month and can be shared with 5 additional members, which makes it really affordable if you share the cost.

This isn’t the first time YouTube is tackling such an issue, as it has previously sent a legal threat to popular app
YouTube Vanced
 that results in the app development being shut down, though several alternatives are still available at this time of writing, it probably won’t be long before YouTube makes an update that could entirely disable these apps from visiting the video streaming platform.

Regardless, it is very unethical for one to use ad blockers on YouTube to watch their favorite creators, as every ad view matters to creators and is their source of income when creating content on YouTube, creators will still be paid accordingly when you sign up to YouTube Premium, and there’s no better time than now todo so to enjoy an ad-free YouTube experience.

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YouTube might be appearing in the Nintendo Switch

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Rumour has it that the YouTube app will be coming to Nintendo Switch, and it’s coming this week itself.

Users will saw that YouTube was included in the “You might also like…” section and it has made many users to have high hopes that YouTube’s appearance in the Switch might be real. While this is not the first time YouTube has joined Nintendo’s systems such as as the 3DS and the Wii U, it will be a great plus should Youtube come to the Nintendo Switch, whereby the only streaming app currently is Hulu.

Unlike Hulu, YouTube is free of charge and also one of the most popular streaming app which will also align with Google’s goal to make it omnipresent. As to whether this information is true, we can only wait till 8 November to see if it’ll be released in the Switch. If it’s true, we can hope that Netflix will be the next to appear in this Nintendo device.

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YouTube Music finally has lyrics support on both its iOS and Android app

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While we’re all stuck at home with nothing much to do during the Movement Control Order, YouTube Music finally added lyrics to its iOS and Android apps.

I’d say YouTube got its timing right this time; since many of us are (hopefully) being obedient and staying at home, having a little solo karaoke session sounds about right.

There’s no need to purposely lookup for lyrics on Google, so you can sing your hearts out with your updated app.

Sadly, if you’re using YouTube Music on the web, you won’t get the lyrics feature, so make sure to download the app on your phone. To see the lyrics, just click on a song and hit the ‘I’ button. The lyrics will automatically show up under the artist’s name.

However, there are some songs that don’t have lyrics yet. For example, popular songs like Physical by Dua Lipa, Yummy by Justin Bieber and I.F.L.Y by Bazzi all don’t have lyrics available yet — so take your chances.

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YouTube Music is finally getting support for Android Auto

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While it is not available in Malaysia, many other countries have YouTube Music which allows music playback via audio/video and it’s about to get better because YouTube Music is finally supporting Android Auto.

Basically, if your vehicle supports Android Auto, then you’ll have the privilege of using YouTube Music without needing to control it on your smartphone. Just open your Music tab and select YouTube Music as your source and you’re good to go.

Image credit: Android Police

YouTube Music’s navigation menu comes with five options which are Your Mixtape, Recommended, Last played, Library and also Downloads. However, there are still complains from users regarding its lack of content compared to Google Play Music and also its inability to sort albums or artists.

Besides that, YouTube Music also comes with Music Premium, a subscription that costs $9.99/month. You can listen to songs ad-free, offline and even when your screen is locked, which is kind of similar to Spotify. If you’re interested to test out Android Auto with YouTube Music, you can try updating the app on Google Play Store or just download the latest APK if you’re not willing to wait for the update.

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YouTube Music adds built-in lyrics in its “Now Playing” screen for Android users

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Just like Apple Music that has started to include lyrics in its app, YouTube Music is doing the same for its Android users.

You no longer have to mumble your words and guess what’s the rest of the lyrics when listening to your favorite songs on YouTube Music because the lyrics can now be accessed via the “Now Playing” screen. Other pieces of information that are displayed include the artist, song title, number of views and like counts.

Image credit: 9to5Google

Google also made sure to include where the lyrics were sourced from — avoiding cases where the company is
accused of lyrics theft
. Though the lyrics feature is only available for Android users now, it is expected of Google to make it available for iOS and web users in the near future.

Meanwhile, you’ll need to update your YouTube music to the latest version (3.51) to enjoy the new feature.

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YouTube’s new homepage lets you mute channels and has bigger thumbnails

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YouTube has recently redesigned its homepage for desktops and tablets — enabling users to queue videos and mute channels.

With the updated look, the page will offer clearer information to its users in a glance by having longer video titles and larger thumbnails. The new design is also more organised and will include creator’s icon below the video thumbnail.

In addition, YouTube users can now add videos to queue while they’re watching a YouTube videos without being interrupted. If you find channels you’re not interested in on your homepage, you can

select “Don’t recommend channel”.

In the future, YouTube will also be adding a feature that is already on the YouTube Android app — selecting topics and customising your feed with related videos. While we’re waiting for the new features to roll out, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music is now available in Malaysia.

youtube


YouTube now supports 60 fps videos

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Sick of uploading your great video production at only 30 fps (frames per second) when you’ve filmed it over that standard frame rate? Fret not, because YouTube has just announced that it will finally support playing videos at 60 fps, which we ourselves will be able to do so in our next video since we usually shoot our RAW videos in 50 fps with our Handycam.

Having a faster frame rate on videos not only mean you can upload that beautiful video footage you’ve shot with your camera, as gameplay streaming gets popular in these days, having supported a higher frame rate on YouTube makes a lot of sense since the video streaming platform is still the most used and popular video streaming service in the world. What’s even better, this also means that we’ll be able to stream movies in 60 fps if they are available on YouTube one day. But seriously, YouTube has really taken long time to get there.

We are also happy to report that 60 fps works even up to 4K videos, which you can find in the embedded video up above, it’s really beautiful to finally see that high frame rate work especially when it is a streaming video. So folks, stay tuned for more smooth frame rate videos from us on YouTube, and remember to try out this feature if you have any 60 fps videos around your hard drive.


YouTube now supports High Dynamic Range content

389

YouTube content creators rejoice as Google has announced that the video streaming service now supports High Dynamic Range (HDR) videos as well.

Starting today, anyone who has a HDR supported device such as HDR-ready TVs or the Chromecast Ultra will be able to watch YouTube videos in HDR. Additionally, Google will be working with a number of YouTubers like MysteryGuitarMan, Jacob and Katie Schwarz and Abandon Visuals to have premium HDR content ready for launch. For content creators, you can now upload your HDR videos onto the service.

HDR videos have been a long time coming for YouTube. The video streaming service has implemented 4K support for quite a while now, with HDR having a later rollout date. Today, with HDR finally going live, viewers can now watch videos that are far more detailed than what can be perceived from a standard HD or UHD video.

Source:
YouTube Blog

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YouTube adds personalized topics to iOS app and desktop site

809

YouTube for iOS and desktop finally supports a feature that was introduced to Android devices back in June 2019 — personalized topics on Home & Up Next.

When the feature was introduced, Android users had the privilege of seeing different topics on their YouTube app. These topics are curated based on their personalized suggestions on Home which depends on what they usually watch on YouTube.

iOS and desktop users will also get to choose topics on their list of Up Next videos that’ll either be from their previous watch history or related to the video they were watching. Naturally, you’ll have to sign in to your YouTube account to enjoy this feature.

Google also announced its future plans of adding more topics that include types of YouTube Mixes, Creators, Music, Gaming and Learning topics. In the meantime, this feature will also support other languages apart from English such as French, Portuguese and Spanish.

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YouTube pranksters sentenced to jail for faking robberies and kidnappings

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A group of YouTube pranksters are learning the hard way that actions have consequences as the London Magistrate’s Court has sentenced them to jail for their shenanigans.

The individuals involved are part of the controversial Trollstation YouTube channel, a channel that has built a reputation for filming staged pranks around the city. As of the time of writing, the channel has almost 720k subscribers.

Back in July of 2015, members of Trollstation were involved in a fake robbery at London’s National Portrait Gallery as well as a fake kidnapping at Tate Britain. Four people who were involved in both the fake robbery and kidnapping were arresting shortly after. A fifth member was arrested back in March following a bomb hoax.

Daniel Jarvis, Helder Gomes, Endrit Ferizolli and Ebenezer Mensah have all pleaded guilty to two counts of using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of, or provoke unlawful violence for their involvement in the two hoaxes. Jarvis was sentenced to a total of 20 weeks, Mensah and Gomes were sentence to 18 weeks each, and Ferizolli was sentence to 16 works for their involvement in the National Portrait Gallery prank. All four individuals were also sentenced to eight weeks for the Tate Britain kidnapping prank, which will run concurrently to the initial prank.

As for the fifth individual, Danh Van Le was sentenced to 12 weeks in March for his involvement in the fake robbery in addition to another 24 weeks for a seperate bomb hoax.

Source:
BBC

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YouTube Premium and Music Premium are finally available in Malaysia; starts from RM14.90/month

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YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium are finally here in Malaysia, allowing Malaysians to consume videos and music without going through the endless amount of advertisements.

There will be a two-month free trial for YouTube Premium and a one-month free trial for YouTube Music alone. The perks of being a Premium member also include background play whereby you can play your YouTube videos and music even with your screen locked, even if you are launching another app.

Sadly, there is a price difference for iOS and Android users. YouTube Premium is RM17.90/month for individual membership and RM26.90/ for family membership that can be shared up to five family members. However, iOS users have to pay a slightly higher price; RM23.90/month for individual membership and RM35.90/month for the family membership.

If you’re only interested in YouTube Music Premium, you can subscribe for RM14.90/month for individual membership and RM22.90/month for family membership — similar to Apple Music and Spotify. iOS users will have to pay a higher price of RM19.90/month and RM29.90/month for the respective memberships.

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YouTube Red Subscription deal: Are they being a bully?

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So, YouTube has finally revealed their fangs by offering video creators a “deal” that they have no choice but to swallow. We’ve been hearing rumors about YouTube forcing creators to offer paid content, but just yesterday it was made official. YouTube has just forced some of its video creators to sign a revenue share deal for its new YouTube Red $9.99 ad-free subscription, where creators need to offer paid content, making its fans pay for videos they want to watch; and on top of that, having to share that paid amount with Google (although Google doesn’t want to reveal the actual percentage). Why do we say forced? Well, Google just told some of its creators (for now), that if they do not sign this deal and offer paid content to their fans, YouTube will make all their videos to private. That seems like a bully now, don’t you think?

According to Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl at YouTube Red launch event, 99% of content consumed on YouTube will be still available, noting that the vast majority of creators signed the deal. Well now, I don’t think the creators had a choice, did they? Since by not signing, they will not benefit from ads revenue, nor from the new subscription revenue, and on top of that they won’t get to post anything on their channel anymore to connect with fans since all video contents will be taken off public view.

Sure, home videos uploaded on YouTube won’t have to deal with this problem, but other than that, all YouTube partners will be experiencing this removal and deal situation. Google says the reason it is doing all this is to offer “consistency” so that subscribers will always have their favorite content on the ad-free service of YouTube Red. But instead of doing something simpler like flagging videos as being unavailable on YouTube Red, Google has heavy-handedly gave this ultimatum of sign-or-vanish strategy. Already Google has been criticized for making all its Google+ and Google Places a priority in its searches making them “unfairly” using its reach, but to force subscribers to now pay for something that has always been free, and then forcing the creators into a deal they never wanted in the first place; what is going to stop Google from forcing even more deals on creators in the future?

So you get access to Google Play Music if you subscribe to YouTube Red. For that same $9.99, you either subscribe to Google Play Music and get free access to YouTube Red, or vice versa. You also get to watch these paid content offline if you wish to watch the rantings of a creator again and again on loop. So basically, you pay $9.99 for music, offline and ad-free videos. Sounds like a great deal for subscribers maybe, but it seems like a crappy deal for creators. Since Google can’t coerce, so I suppose offering ultimatums is the next workable course of action, eh?

When will YouTube Red be launched? It will start in the US on October 28, 2015 and will expand over to other countries over the course of next year. If you subscribe on YouTube app itself, it will cost $9.99 a month for all of YouTube products including YouTube Red, YouTube Gaming, YouTube Kids and YouTube Music; but should you subscribe over iOS in-app purchases, it will cost you $12.99 a month since Apple takes a 30% cut on all subscriptions revenue on its platform.

So, how do you see YouTube Red? Yay or nay? Will you pay for ad-free content? Tell us!

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YouTube Red will debut original content next Wednesday

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When Google first launched the YouTube Red program, the company promised that there will be
original programming
 for the subscription-based service. It seems that these original content will be coming very soon as YouTube has put up a few trailers for one upcoming series and three films.

On the 10th of February, YouTube will be debuting a new series called Scare PewDiePie. As the name implies, the show revolves around YouTube Let’s Play superstar being spooked by various scenarios.

Alongside Scare PewDiePie, three other movies will be available to subscribers next Wednesday. The films in question are A Trip To Unicorn by Astronauts Wanted and Llly Singh, Lazer Team by Rooster Teeth, and Dance Camp by AwesomenessTV.

These four pieces of content are part of the initial 10 projects that YouTube announced back when they launched YouTube Red. This means that there are still seven pieces of original content that will be coming soon to YouTube Red, including a project from CollegeHumor. Apart from the new content, YouTube Red will also be hosting features such as behind-the-scenes content for subscribers.

Source :
Engadget

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YouTube is removing suggested video links in December

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It is going to get harder for us to find content on YouTube as the streaming company has decided to remove suggested video links when you watch a particular video on December 14. This decision came about because only one out of twenty people actually clicks the links at a time, people that did click the links are taking to dead live stream making people think that it is a spam.

Because of this conclusion, YouTube had no issues removing the links, limiting us to clicking on cards and links at the end of videos to promote other content and any related links that the content creator would want to put at the end of their video. For those of you that don’t click on the suggested links will see a cleaner design on the website, but you will be lead to finding new videos and content on your own.

I believe this is a hit and miss for some of us as I myself have found great content in the suggested links and frankly, I actually like to see what YouTube can recommend to me. What do you guys think about losing the suggested links, let us know.

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YouTube Rewind 2018 gets millions of dislikes

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YouTube Rewind has always been a fun video to watch, you get to see your favorite content creator on the screen doing some crazy stuffs and throwbacks on the most memorable content of the year.

However, this year’s YouTube Rewind has received massive backlash from the community and at this time of writing, the video itself has reached 11 million thumbs down, five times more of its thumbs up rating. In other ways, it has surpassed Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ music video which at this point of time has 8.1M thumbs down.

The idea of YouTube Rewind started back in 2011, which the very first one was hosted by Rebecca Black on talking about the biggest moments on YouTube for that year, it then eventually evolved into a bigger content by gathering all of the famous creators and squeezing everything into a long throwback video.

YouTube Rewind 2018 is so hated by the community due to the exclusion of some of the biggest creators, one of it being Pewdiepie, which is kind of weird as he is literally the most subscribed creator on the platform, and Will Smith being invited to the series seems kind of inappropriate as he isn’t exactly a YouTuber by all means.

While comments are suggesting that the absence of Pewdiepie would have caused that amount of thumbs down, MKBHD has pointed out in a video saying that YouTube is presumably trying to make this year’s Rewind appealing to its advertisers, or you could put it that YouTube is only putting the nice, ad-friendly rewind content on this year’s video.

2018 has been a year with full of controversial content on YouTube, videos such as Logan Paul’s video mocking a dead person at a Japan forest has led the platform to cancel the creator’s YouTube Red exclusive show, as YouTube depend on advertisers to make money, it is obvious that the company would want to ensure all of the content it serves reflect well on their clients when they advertise.

Unfortunately, the community doesn’t see the same way as YouTube does.

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YouTube Rewind is officially cancelled

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YouTube recently announced that its annual recap video, YouTube Rewind will be gone for good — there won’t even be one this year.

YouTube Rewind started 10 years back and each year, the video will recap the trending events, memes and big moments that happened on YouTube.

YouTube Rewind was a huge disappointment in 2018

YouTube Rewind 2018
 was the most disliked video on YouTube of all time — it missed out on several important creators and viral trends and instead focused on mainstream celebrities.

In 2020, YouTube did not release a Rewind video as it didn’t see appropriate due to the sudden COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, YouTube confirms the end of Rewind as they believe a single video is no longer enough to “reflect the full breadth” of YouTube creator community.

https://twitter.com/YouTubeCreators/status/1446103025500577796

“We’re excited to pass the baton to creators to give each creator community the space to celebrate the YouTube that’s most important to them,” said YouTube.

It’s not as if creators weren’t already doing that; thanks to the unimpressive
2018 YouTube Rewind
, creators like MrBeast, PewDiePie and NigaHiga started their own versions of Rewind.

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YouTube starts testing 4K 60 FPS videos, can your PC handle it?

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YouTube has improved a lot in a short while, first we get support for 4K resolution and 1080p60 support, then 360 virtual reality and now, the streaming service is ready to roll out 4K 60 FPS videos, imagine that, you’ll be able to watch your favorite K-Pop music videos and CS:GO gameplay in a super high resolution with smooth motion close to real life, but the question here is, can your PC or laptop handle it?

4K or UHD (Ultra High Definition) consist 4 times the pixels of a standard Full HD display, while most modern PC’s with discrete graphics card will be able to play 4K 24-30fps videos without much issues, 60 FPS is going to be a challenge for those who both have integrated and discrete graphics card, even my personal rig that comes with a Core i5 processor and GeForce GTX960 have difficulties in processing the video as you can see in the screenshot above.

If you think your rig is powerful enough to process the ultra high def and smoohth videos or your 4K Smart TV should also be able to play them, try these videos down below.


YouTube might be getting its own version of TikTok and it’s called Shorts

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TikTok is now overwhelmingly popular that even YouTube wants to join in the fun. To compete with TikTok, reports revealed that the video streaming app might be launching something similar called “Shorts”.

Shorts will also be a mobile app that allows you to make short videos using licensed music from YouTube Music’s catalog. However, that won’t be the only thing YouTube needs to compete with TikTok. Other factors like video filters and effects should also be considered if YouTube is trying to get Shorts to be an equal competitor to TikTok.

There’s no denying that TikTok has grown rapidly in a short amount of time. According to
The Information
, TikTok had a 15% increase in terms of first-time downloads from Play Store and App Store. It has become so viral that many are also sharing their TikTok videos to other social media like Facebook and Instagram.

YouTube is not the only one; Facebook also created Lasso — its own version of TikTok — while Instagram was reported to have launched a feature called “Reels” that resembles TikTok.

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YouTube to expand upon its mobile live streaming service

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Last year
, YouTube introduced implemented a feature to their app that lets users livestream themselves directly from the user’s mobile device in a limited fashion. Today, YouTube is expanding on this mobile live streaming service as the feature will now be available to popular YouTube creators.

For those interested in using the YouTube app’s mobile live streaming feature, you’re going to have to be an active YouTube creator that has over 10,000 subscribers. Assuming you fulfill the criteria, the livestreaming tools will be made avaialble for you shortly. As for everyone else, YouTube promises that the feature will be made available to the general public “soon”.

No drastic changes were made to the functionality of the mobile livestream feature as user will still be able to set custom titles, enable or disable live chat and send notifications to their subscribers. With YouTube finally making its mobile livestream features available to more people, services like Facebook Live will finally have some serious competition on their hands.

Source:
Engadget

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YouTube TV will be coming to Apple TV and selected smart TVs

386

Google has announced that YouTube TV will be getting a dedicated experience for your TV. It will release as an Apple TV app but it will also come to smart TVs for LG, Samsung and Sony. Previously, the only way to get this premium movie and series streaming platform is by using a Chromecast but now it has become more open to other users.

A new Live guide in the app will show users what is airing soon and you will be able to navigate the interface using a Siri Remote, traditional TV remote or a game controller. YouTube TV will be first launching on Android TVs and sets that have Android TV built-in, the Xbox One devices will also be the first devices to get this service. After the release on the mentioned platforms, the app will reach Apple TV as well as smart TVs from LG, Samsung and Sony.

Unlike the YouTube we all love, this new service will have a free trial period which after users will have to pay $35 a month to continue using the system. The service is only still available in the US, but seeing as how Netflix and Iflix are the biggest players in the video streaming industry here, YouTube might make its move to come to our shores to try their hand at our market.

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YouTube’s updated harassment policy is now stricter and stronger

402

YouTube has been hard at work when it comes to managing the content on its site and filtering out those that go against their Community Guidelines, but the company is still continuously trying to better the policies. Its newest update to the harassment policy further prevents creators from being attacked with a few different approaches.

In the latest update, YouTube will remove and prohibit not only explicit threats but also implied or veiled threats that may suggest violence towards an individual. Insulting words or phrases will also be banned to prevent others from making mean comments based on an individual’s “race, gender expression or sexual orientation”.

Moving forward, YouTube is also enhancing its policies for the YouTube Partner Program so that creators who commit harassment without necessarily crossing the policy line will be suspended from the program — losing their rights to make money on YouTube. If the YouTube creator continues to harass others, the company will also take action by removing their video content from their channels, issuing strikes or even terminating their channels.

Last but not least, YouTube will also be keeping an eye on the comment section where most harassment encounters occur. The company has already taken several measures by removing inappropriate comments and adding tools for creators to review comments that might be potentially inappropriate. Just last week, YouTube has begun to turn on the comment review feature for some of the largest YouTube channels and said that most channels will have access to this feature by the end of the year. However, creators can still opt-out of the comment review feature.


YouTube makes use of AR so you can try on makeup while watching beauty videos

741

AR technology is proving to be very useful for the beauty community as YouTube is currently developing a feature that allows the beauty community to test out makeup products virtually.

YouTube is introducing something called AR Beauty Try-On which will utilise AR technology to let its viewers test makeup products on their face (virtually) while they watch makeup videos from beauty/makeup gurus on YouTube. Google also stated that the technology paired with machine learning will offer “realistic, virtual product samples that work on full range of skin tones.”

The first cosmetic brand to work with FameBit by Youtube, Google’s in-house branded content platform is none other than M.A.C Cosmetics. This virtual experience has actually been tested out at the beginning of this years where there was about 30% of viewers who activated their AR experience to test out the makeup products.

According to Google, the products can be tested on as the YouTube creators test/review similar products and if viewers are interested, they can proceed to the brand’s website to purchase the product.

This will definitely prove useful to the beauty community, especially when it comes to testing makeup products that can’t be accessed in their own countries or are online exclusives.

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YouTube Vanced shuts down due to legal threats from Google

5K

The team at YouTube Vanced has announced that the app will no longer be able for download due to legal threats from Google, the app basically removes the need for a YouTube Premium subscription and allows any Android phones to stream YouTube videos without ads, and it’d be about time that the project got warned by none other than Google themselves.

Vanced owners were sent a cease and desist letter by Google, which they were asked to stop the distribution of the app, remove all related references to YouTube and change the logo.

However, the team will continue to maintain its Discord server, Telegram and subreddit, which could imply hope that the team is working around to make the app available again, probably with a different name and logo, and unlike apps like Popcorn Time, the app technically doesn’t infringe on creator copyright, though it does affect ad revenue earnings with its ad blocking feature.

While the app will no longer be distributed in the next few days, there is no mention of whether the Vanced app will cease to work as usual, but it is probably time that you susbcribe to YouTube Premium if you want an ad-free YouTube experience.

Source:
Twitter (Vanced)

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YouTube virtual graduation ceremony to feature Barack Obama, BTS, Lady Gaga and more

433

The great thing about the internet is that everyone can come together and enjoy something, even if that something wasn’t exactly wade for everyone – case in point, YouTube’s upcoming virtual graduation event that’s being set up for the
senior
graduating class of 2020 – possibly for both high school and college students.

Graduations in the US-of-A are usually grand affairs – more
grandiose
than what we do here definitely; sometimes, these schools get celebrity alumni to give commencement speeches – but YouTube will be taking things up several notches.

View this post on Instagram

#dearclassof2020 we know how hard you’ve worked to make it to graduation and we want to give you a celebration you deserve. Join us and a few friends in a Graduate #WithMe livestream event. From commencement speeches to musical performances, this one’s for you! June 6th🎓

A post shared by
 YouTube
 (@youtube) on
May 5, 2020 at 8:33am PDT

Their Graduate
With
 Me
livestream
 will have as commencement speakers, notable names such as former US president Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, world-renowned
activist
 Malala Yousafzai, Lady-friggin-Gaga, and your favourite K-Pop group, BTS.

There will also be special appearances, possibly performances and talks, by Alicia Keys, The Try Guys, Dude Perfect, Zendaya and more. The livestream will commence this June 6, 12pm PST (June 7, 3am in Malaysia).
So
 if you’re due to graduate sometime this month or the next, this virtual ceremony is for you too.

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bts
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youtube


YouTube wants to help telcos improve video streaming quality with the Video Checkup tool

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If you have been facing bad video streaming quality with your mobile data, YouTube is going to help improve the situation by launching the Video Checkup tool, it isn’t exactly useful for streaming users, but it does provide a map that shows data of video playback quality around the nation, which will help telcos in identifying the areas that they will need to improve their network. YouTube is currently working with the four major telcos in Malaysia, namely Celcom, Digi, Maxis and U Mobile, in gathering such data.

How does it work? YouTube says that the data is collected through the YouTube app from the user’s smartphone or tablet, the tool will then reflect data collected from the last 35 days, the user and telco will be able to understand the how well the network performs in a particular area when streaming HD or SD quality videos.

Malaysia is the first country to ever utilise the Video Checkup tool, and YouTube’s reason for doing that is due to the fact that two thirds of Malaysia’s YouTube watch time comes from smartphones. Additionally, our country is also known to have one of the highest mobile penetration in the region, while the efforts led by local telcos to improve mobile internet infrastructure has also led YouTube to launch the tool first in Malaysia.

The Video Checkup tool is only available in web, which anyone can access by entering
youtube.com/videocheckup
 in their browser and see the following tabs:

COMPARE: A lit of operators in your area and their scores out of 5 star

EXPLORE: A heat map of YouTube’s playback experience on operator networks in your area

LEARN: Explains the star ratings and terminology in more detail

Video Checkup is already available for access, and will be launched in other countries in the near future.

google
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YouTube wants you to live stream 1080p 60FPS videos on their service

298

YouTube may be the most popular and frequently used video platform for enjoying videos or sharing your creation (We use it actively, too!), however when it comes to more advanced features the video streaming platform is hardly there when compared to other competing platforms, and it is now trying to play catch up by making available its very own Full HD 60 FPS live stream feature.

This new feature will be launched as an early preview on HTML 5 browsers and support has been made available for live streaming software such as XSplit Broadcaster, XSplit Gamecaster and Elgato Game Capture which is now available for download, if your device can’t stream that frame rate, fret not, as YouTube has also included support for transcoding to 30 FPS. Users will also be able to play the streams in 1.5X and 2X speeds should they want to catch something they’ve missed earlier.

While this feature serves as a direct competition to Twitch, YouTube has a long way to go in playing catch up, especially on its copyright infringement feature that has once caused many gamers to abandon its platform and the restriction of having branded sponsor content on videos is one thing that the company needs to consider on making Twitch users switch to its platform.


YouTube will now tell you how long you have spend watching videos

380

Google is always on the lookout for ways to improve our wellbeing when using our tech devices and applications. They released a YouTube usage tracker which allows users to view the time spent on YouTube as well as your average time spent watching videos.

The stats will be located in your account menu which has started its rollout yesterday and it will tell you how long you have been watching videos today, yesterday and over the past 7 days.

There is even the option to set a limit on how long you should be on YouTube before it gives you a cute reminder. This could also be good for parents that want to control their kid’s “YouTube Time”.

 Next is the option to bundle all your YouTube notifications into a single notification each day and you can even set the time to receive the notification.

Lastly, is the option to set a duration of time where notifications will not pop-up as Google has said that users are always turning their phones on during bed-time when a notification comes in.

stats
watch
youtube


YouTube will remove 30-second unskippable ads in 2018

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Nothing is quite as annoying on YouTube as 30-second long ads that are unskippable. Thankfully for YouTube users, those ads will no longer be a problem in the future as YouTube has announced that it will be removing these unskippable full-length commercials from its service in 2018.

In order to offset the removal of unskippable full-length ads from YouTube, the company is looking to implement ad formats that “work well for both users and advertisers.” While the wording for that remains vague, UK publication Campaign believes that YouTube is looking to expand upon shorter ad formats such as the six-second unskippable ad format that YouTube has been using for a while now.

While sitting through an ad is never a pleasant experience, YouTube’s removal of 30-second unskippable ads is a welcomed change for many. That said, those changes will only come into effect next year, so in the meantime, you’ll still have to sit through these long advertisments. For those of us who rely on adblock systems though, this change would probably not affect us in any way, shape or form.

Source:
Campaign
,
Engadget

advertisements
removal
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youtube


YouTube will replace annotations with Cards and End Screens

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YouTube Annotations, those boxes that appear on the video with links to other content or websites, will be shelved soon. In its place, YouTube will be introducing two new systems into the mix: Cards and End Screens.

Beginning on the 2nd of May, YouTube will remove the Annotations Editor from the service, meaning you’ll no longer be able to add annotations to any of your videos from that point forward. While you can no longer add new annotations to videos, existing annotations will still be visible to those that view YouTube content on the desktop (annotations do not appear on the mobile YouTube app anyway).

For those who rely on annotations to link multiple pieces of content together, the direct replacement for the feature would be Cards. Cards are tiles that appear on the right hand side of the screen when the video is playing. Upon clicking a tile, the viewer would then be brought to the content that is linked to the tile. As for End Screens, this feature would let you add thumbnail overlays of your work in the last 5-20 seconds of your video.

Both Cards and End Screens are options you can use and they can be found in YouTube’s Video Manager. Additionally, both features will also appear on the mobile version of YouTube.

Source:
YouTube Blog

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cards
endscreen
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YouTube’s new ad experience features two back-to-back ads

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YouTube is bringing some changes to the way ads are displayed and some might like it, some might not.

It has come to YouTube’s realisation that users are more frustrated when there are frequent ad breaks when they’re watching YouTube videos, and YouTube decides to provide an alternative to the issue. YouTube will introduce two back-to-back ads that are skippable by users. This is due to the research that shows that fewer interruptions during a video playback will result in better user metrics and also higher rates of ad viewing, so it’s a win-win situation for users and also advertisers.

YouTube also said that the feature will allow users to experience up to 40% less interruptions by ads, but YouTube will also make it optional so users can actually choose to either watch two back-to-back ads before their videos or just get more ad breaks in between their videos. This is YouTube’s attempt to accommodate with their users’ preferences and also ensure that their advertisers can still reach out to the potential users.

According to YouTube, the new ad experience will first be on desktop version this year before it launches to mobile and TV screens. On the other hand, previously YouTube also launched TrueView video discovery ads, Masthead and Universal App campaign ads for users to self-discover advertisers’ brands and something called TV screen device type that’s for advertisers to customise their ads for connected TVs.

back-to-back ads
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YouTube's VR app now available on Google Daydream devices

298

Back during the Google Pixel launch, Google mentioned that YouTube will be getting a VR app that would take advantage of the device’s Daydream VR platform. Well, if you’ve somehow managed to acquire a Pixel smartphone and a Daydream View VR headset, you would be pleased to know that said YouTube VR app is now available for download.

YouTube’s VR app will work on all YouTube videos of course. For videos with 360-degree footage, you’ll get the whole “inside the world” feeling that is the main promise of VR since the days of the Virtual Boy. For standard YouTube videos, the app would place you in a “theater mode” of sorts, allowing you to view the video from various perspectives. Your Youtube account can be accessed in the VR app of course, so you can begin browsing through your subscribed channels immediately after you login.

As we mentioned earlier, the YouTube VR app is currently only available on smartphones which are Daydream-ready. Seeing as Daydream-ready phones is currently limited to Pixel at the moment, it is highly unlikely that many people would be able to experience this app in Malaysia. Nevertheless, with other Daydream-ready phones scheduled to be released within the coming months, you can be sure that VR content will be available right as you pick up one of those smartphones.

Source:
YouTube

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The Yu Yunique unfortunately isn’t a unique smartphone

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When it seemed like all has ended for Yureka, the daughter company of Micromax, the smartphone maker has decided to launch a new smartphone once again. Earlier last month, there were rumors surrounding Yureka being shutdown by Micromax, but it turns out that the company isn’t going anywhere for now.

Yureka has launched an entry level smartphone this time round, called the Yu Yunique. The Yu Yunique marks nearly a year since Yureka last unveiled a smartphone. For starters, the Yu Yunique sports a 5-inch display in HD resolution, which is decent given its smaller screen size. Underneath the hood is a MediaTek MT6737 processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The Yu Yunique features a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP selfie shooter, both of which should get the job done for users with decent expectations. The 2,500mAh battery packed by the phone sound just about right on paper as well. However, the handset still uses the old micro USB port for charging instead of USB Type-C. On the other hand, the Android Nougat software that will run out of the box is definitely a welcome feature.

The Yu Yunique will only be available in India through its online FlipKart store. The phone carries a really affordable price tag of Rs. 5,999 (RM398.47), which explains the entry level specs.

entry level
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Yu Yuphoria offers a metal frame, mid range specs and an affordable price

299

If Xiaomi is the biggest smartphone brand in China, then Micromax is also a similar one over at India, the latter’s subsidiary Yu has just announced a pretty decent handset that costs similar to the Redmi 2 over in India. The Yu Yuphoria has a premium metal frame across its trim and will cost Indian customers a mere Rs.6999 (MYR392).

Not only the phone’s aesthetics are beautiful for its given price, it comes with a Snapdragon 410 64-bit processor with 2GB RAM, a 720p 5-inch display with Gorilla Glass 3, an 8-megapixel f/2.0 main camera and 5-megapixel f/2.2 front camera, 16GB of internal flash expandable via MicroSD, Dual SIM 4G LTE standby and a 2,230mAh battery.

On the software side, Micromax has loaded up the phone with Cyanogenmod 12 based on Android Lollipop 5.0 and that alone, gives itself a pretty huge advantage over its competitors in the market given the success of the custom Android software on devices such as OnePlus One, if Micromax or Yu happens to reach out globally just like Xiaomi, we believe the Yuphoria could be a big hit among budget conscious consumers.

The phone will be available on May 28 and you can head on to Amazon India’s website to pre-register your interest for the phones, while we aren’t sure if Malaysians are able to order a unit here and even if you can, you’ll need to shell out a heft sum for shipping charges. Once this phone becomes available, competitors like Xiaomi and ASUS had better take note of this device.


Z170A SLI Plus Motherboard Launched by MSI

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MSI, leader motherboard design manufacturer, has completed the PRO Series motherboard by launching the all sleek black Z170A SLI PLUS motherboard. With features ported from the X99A SLI PLUS motherboard, the Z170A SLI PLUS offers amazing performance, packed with features and the sleek black design that enthusiasts would look forward to.

The Z170A SLI PLUS Motherboard has been configured to meet enthusiasts demands offering enhanced experience and productivity. Double the speed of USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Type-C featured on the motherboard is ever ready to connect the latest devices easily. Not forgetting the Audio Boost powered by the quality Realtek ALC1150 codec along with other high-quality audio enhancing components. Improved Steel Armor PCI-E slots supporting Nvidia SLI and AMD CrossFire will definitely meet 3D graphic and programming demands for work. Enhancing performance and productivity even further, the Z170A SLI PLUS motherboard houses Military Class 4 components paired with unique designs such as DDR4 BOOST, Turbo M.2 and Click BIOS 5.

Z170A SLI PLUS motherboard ships with a high quality Gigabit network solution from Intel. Optimized for professional and multimedia use to deliver a stable and fast network connection.

Unique DDR4 Boost technology is designed with optimized traces and fully isolated memory circuitry. This design ensures the memory signals stay pure for optimal performance and stability. Ensure fast storage with Turbo M.2, SATA Express and Turbo U.2, delivering next generation NVMe SSD performance with transfer speeds up to 32 Gb/s. The award-winning CLICK BIOS 5 to tune your system to maximum performance enthusiasts can’t afford to resist. MSI CLICK BIOS 5 is the next generation UEFI BIOS with operating system optimizations for Windows 10. This motherboard even comes equipped with reinforced PCI-E slots up to 4x stronger, using Steel Armor to easily support even the heaviest graphics cards in multi GPU setups.

Military Class 4 components are supported by Guard-Pro. This ensures the highest standard in stability and reliability helping your PC run stable under various conditions. The Hi-c Caps, Super Ferrite Chokes and Solid CAPs make sure that your PC runs more stable under extreme conditions. Clever solutions such as EZ Debug LED and Overvoltage Protection make the Z170A SLI PLUS motherboard easy to work with and easy to troubleshoot when needed. Pricing and availability details to be released soon.

SOURCE:
TechPowerUp

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ZADAK’s low profile DDR4 memory screams performance at 4133MHz

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If you are someone that prefers performance over form on your PC build, then you will appreciate ZADAK’s TWIST RAM modules as it features a low profile design with no RGB lighting and frequency speed options from 2666MHz up to 4133MHz at a latency of 19-21-21-42 1.4V.

ZADAK TWIST is compatible with Intel XMP 2.0 profiles and meets an extensive Qualified Vendor List (QVL), it is sold in single kit capacities from 8GB to 32GB, and up to 256GB RAM with an 8-kit 32GB RAM packaging. Each TWIST memory IC is meticulously selected to ensure they meet ZADAK’s high-performance requirements, and this allows the company to offer a limited lifetime warranty.

The ZADAK TWIST is available in colors of black and silver with an anodized aluminum heat spreader. For more information and availability of the ZADAK TWIST, you may check with local distributor
Sun Cycle Sdn Bhd
.

apacer
zadak
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Zauba list leaks Moto G4 specs

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Rumors of the Moto G4 and the G4 Plus have been making their rounds in the world wide web, with renders and images appearing in the wild. The spec sheet of both devices however, are pretty much still a blur, without any solid grip. The good news is, we might have a more convincing source for the internals of both handsets, from Zauba, a tracking site for Indian shipments.

“Athene” is the codename for the Moto G4, with some of its components listed on the Zauba site. The Moto G4 is said to be featuring a 13MP rear facing camera with laser auto focus. The Moto G4 Plus on the other hand, will be sporting a 16MP primary camera, a slight upgrade from the G4, equipped with laser auto focus as well. Both handsets are to pack NFC chips in them. Memory-wise, the Moto G4 and the G4 Plus will come with 2GB and 3GB of RAM alongside 16GB and 32GB of internal storage respectively.

As rumored earlier, both handsets are said to sport 5.5-inch 1080p displays. A fingerprint sensor is said to be part of the package as well, but apparently limited to the G4 Plus. Both devices are tipped to be unveiled some time next week. Till then, stay tuned!

Source:
Zauba

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The ZenBook Pro is equipped with a GTX 1050Ti and 4K display

270

While ZenBooks have technically been lightweight with less powerful hardware, ASUS has unveiled its most powerful ZenBook ever today at its Computex press conference, the ZenBook Pro is a 15-inch notebook with a 1.8kg weight and 18.9mm slim body profile, it comes equipped with the Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, a 1TB PCI-E SSD and 16GB of DDR4 RAM, the notebook’s display comes with a gorgeous 4K resolution and features the company’s NanoEdge display, which makes it as compact as a 14-inch notebook despite of the huge screen size, you can also do some decent gaming on this as it has a GeForce GTX 1050Ti onboard.

The ZenBook Pro will rival against machines like the Dell XPS 15 and 15-inch MacBook Pro, and ASUS has packed pretty impressive features apart from a powerful specs sheet, such as having up to 14-hours of battery life with fast charge support, which gives users 60% of battery with a mere 49-minute charge time. The ZenBook Pro also has the
ZenBook 3 Deluxe’s
 quad-speaker configuration tuned by Harman/Kardon, it supports Windows Hello with a fingerprint sensor located at the Windows Precision trackpad, there’s also Thunderbolt 3 support on its USB-C port which will support external GPU enclosures.

Like other ZenBook siblings, the ZenBook Pro will be available soon later this year and will retail from US$1,299 (RM5,544).

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The Zenfone Max Plus M1 launches, 18:9 display and 4130mAh battery for RM899

399

As spotted previously on ASUS’ Russian website, the ZenFone Max Plus M1 is now official in Malaysia today, it is the first ASUS smartphone to sport a 18:9 display and since it belongs to the Max family, the phone comes with a huge 4130mAh battery under the hood that offers close to a month of standby time. ASUS says that the ZenFone Max Plus M1 won’t be part of the ZenFone 4 line up, but rather it is a series of its own known as the ZenFone Max series.

The ZenFone Max Plus M1 has a 5.7-inch HD+ display fitted on to a typical 5.2-inch phone form factor, which offers an impressive 80% screen to body ratio though it still has visible top and bottom bezels. The phone is powered by a Mediatek MT6750T Octa Core processor, and unlike the one we reported earlier, the Malaysian model has 4GB RAM and 32GB internal storage configuration, there’s a dual camera system that takes standard and 120 degree wide angle photos at 16-megapixel, the front facing camera will also take high resolution selfies at 16-megapixel. Furthermore, the phone also offers facial unlock as an additional security feature over its fast 0.3 seconds rear fingerprint scanner, ASUS also provides a 10W charger out of the box that will provide the phone 3 hours of talk time with 15 minutes of charge time.

With all of these features, the ZenFone Max Plus M1 has a surprisingly competitive price of RM899, which is at least RM400 cheaper than competing devices that offers the same specs sheet, making this the most affordable smartphone with dual camera and long battery life. To make things even more attractive, ASUS is partnering with Lazada in offering a RM200 cash voucher off the phone’s original price between December 14-19, you can also opt to trade in your old phone at any authorized dealers nationwide to enjoy a rebate as well.

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ZenFone max plus m1
ZenFone max Plus m1 Malaysia


Zensation with fashion and technology: The ASUS ZenPad

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Many peoples must have already expected the new ZenPad be arriving into the market. ASUS is now launching a new family of stylish Android tablets – ZenPads which will replace the MeMo Pad series. The ZenPad comes in 3 different sizes: 7-inch, 8-inch and 10.1-inch with cellular variants. However, the highlight goes to ZenPad S 8.0 due to the sleek design that measures at 6.6mm thick, 298g-heavy metallic slate comes with a sharp 2,048 x 1,536 (324 ppi) IPS display, and this mean that it go head to head with the
iPad
 mini here.

This sleek looking tablet is powered by an Intel 64-bit Atom Z3580 processor and 4GB RAM, its performance will be guaranteed up to be at par with
tablet
 available on the market. The best part is you are able to get front-facing stereo speakers that are enhanced by DTS for better virtual surround and if you are a comic artist, you can purchase an optional Z stylus which supports up to 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity.

There is a regular ZenPad 8.0 which will be powered by Intel’s Atom X3 and will have lower performance compare to ZenPad S 8.0 but there will have a range of interesting and good-looking accessories – the Zen Clutch and Zen
Case
 for protection. Besides that, there will a bizarre Audio Cover for adding 5.1 surround sound, and the Power Case that extends the battery life up to 15 hours.

The price will be announced later, stay tuned for more information for the
tablet
 and more Computex 2015 coverage over here!


ZERO X NEO: Infinix launches midrange phone with 6.78-inch screen and 48MP triple rear camera

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The ZERO X NEO is Infinix’s latest smartphone to debut in Malaysia, featuring a 48MP Super Night rear camera capable of 960fps slow-motion videos and 4K time-lapse.

Apart from sporting a large 6.78-inch LCD panel, the ZERO X NEO pushes FHD+ resolution and supports up to 90Hz refresh rate.

Its punch-hole cutout houses a 16MP selfie camera while its power button on the side doubles as a fingerprint sensor.

Under the hood, the ZERO X NEO is powered by a MediaTek Helio G95 processor and ships with Android 11. There’s only one configuration available locally: 8GB of RAM + 128GB of storage.

ZERO X NEO has an impressive triple rear camera setup

Perhaps what’s more interesting about this midrange device is its camera system — the 48MP lens is accompanied by an 8MP periscope telephoto lens that can shoot up to 5x optical zoom with OIS and up to 60x hybrid zoom.

On top of that, the ZERO X NEO also has a large 5,000mAh battery that supports 18W fast charging and charges via USB-C.

The Infinix ZERO X NEO is available in Nebula Black, Starry Silver and Bahamas Blue. You can get it for RM899 on
Infinix AIoT Official Store
 on Shopee starting October 14, 2021.

You can also read our review on the Infinix Note 8
here
.

infinix
ZERO X NEO


Zhiyun Crane 3S handheld gimbal launched with modular setup handles and improved capacity

577

Zhiyun is known for their reliable smartphone and DSLR gimbal products and have a
repretoire
 of items from small to large – this time, they’re adding to their inventory, the new Zhiyun Crane 3S. This is a follow-up to last year’s Crane 3 LAB with several improvements across the board.

The Crane 3 is a heavy-duty handheld gimbal and Zhiyun builds upon that on the Crane 3S by allowing you to pack more equipment onto it – you can equip a variety of setups from large cameras to small DSLRs and fit up to 6.5KG in gear.

Speaking of gear, the
Cranse
 3S supports a variety of cameras including the Sony FX9, Canon 1DX, RED cameras, Canon C300 and more.

To balance the weight – you can now detach its modular arms and extensions to get a form that’s suitable to you. Dubbed the
EasySling
 Handle and
SmartSling
 Handle, you can either get upright grips, or have an
undersling
 operation. On top of that, you get a familiar OLED panel for control and parameter adjustments.

With modular arms, and more
capacity
, Zhiyun improves the handheld’s security with integrated double locks for each joint.

As a heavy-duty handheld, it’s batteries can last up to 12 hours, while a DC-IN port supports up to 25.2V charging which would take up to 4 hours to completely charge the device. It will also come with a
TransMount
 PowerPlus Battery Pack that houses six 18,650 cell batteries which provides a total of 18 hours of runtime on a single charge.

For action shots, Zhiyun claims that the new Crane 3S is packed with a new
algorithm
 that enables the handheld to react nimbly to movement while moving at high speeds. It also withstands high winds and have a 55-degree tilted roll axis for an optimal viewing angle.

The Zhiyun Crane 3S is available in three equipment options – With the
SmartSling
 Handle, it’s priced at $739 (RM3,258); with just the
EasySling
 Handle, it’s priced at $649 (RM2,861); and if you opt for the complete package with the battery pack, transmitters and controllers, it will set you back $1,149 (RM5,065). We will keep you updated on the official pricing and availability of the Zhiyun Crane 3S when we get more information.

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