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YouTube is Embracing Philosophy, Science, History

Charlotte Henry ·

YouTube creators are known for makeup tips and stunts. But the i looked into how the platform is aiming to offer content looking at philosophy, science, and history, in partnerships involving its creators and influencers.

YouTube executive Luke Hyams describes the platform as “the biggest video library and resource in the history of civilisation”. It is also a media giant competing in an increasingly crowded video entertainment market. Whereas rival streaming services throw their budgets at star directors, scriptwriters and acting talent, YouTube’s content focus is on its own “YouTubers’”, the creators and influencers who have used the platform to build channels that attract millions of visitors each day. Hyams, who is head of YouTube Originals for Europe, Middle East and Africa, will look to harness this homegrown talent in making a series of ambitious UK-commissioned shows which he hopes will become global hits.

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Plex Desktop Lets You Control Your Media From Your Mac

Andrew Orr ·

There’s a new Plex desktop app with the features of Plex Media Player and some offline capabilities. It will be available on macOS and Windows.

The desktop “side” of the (admittedly Janus-esque) Plex Media Player will live on in the form of the new desktop app. For the TV layout lovers out there, we want to be clear about this: the long-term plan is for the new desktop app to replace Plex Media Player as our only desktop solution. The new desktop app is notably lacking TV mode, which means that we’re going to stop supporting the traditional HTPC setup (using a desktop computer connected to your TV or home theater) with this app.

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We Need a New Internet That Can Withstand Climate Change

Andrew Orr ·

The internet infrastructure is vulnerable to climate change. The fiber optic cables that ferry data can handle some water damage, but they weren’t meant to be permanently underwater.

…within the next 15 years, in a scenario that projects about a foot of sea level rise by then, 4,067 miles of fiber conduit cables are likely to be permanently underwater. In New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, the rising seas could drown roughly 20 percent of all metro fiber conduit. These are the lines that physically ferry our Internet traffic from place to place.

Another 1,101 “nodes”—the buildings or places where cables rise out of the ground, which often house computer servers, routers, and network switches to move our data around—are also expected to be swamped.

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New Shazam Discovery Playlist for Apple Music

Andrew Orr ·

Today Apple Music launches the Shazam Discovery Top 50 playlist, which is a weekly global ranking of 50 trending artists.

The chart will be updated every Tuesday and is exclusively available to stream on Apple Music. Artists at the top of the first list include Ohana Bam, A$ton Wyld, Tones and I and Regard…The chart ranks songs that are trending in the U.S. and “over 10 countries”; artists from more countries will be featured soon.

Sounds cool but I hope it’s not filled with hip-hop, because that seems to be Apple Music’s focus.

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Huawei CEO Expects no Sanctions Relief

Charlotte Henry ·

In an interesting in-depth interview with the Associated Press, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei said he expected U.S. sanction against the company to go ahead. He said the firm is planning assuming they will happen. His daughter, the company’s CFO, is fighting extradition from Canada to the U.S. where she faces a number charges.

In an interview with The Associated Press at Huawei’s sprawling, leafy headquarters campus in the southern city of Shenzhen, the 74-year-old Ren said Huawei expects U.S. curbs on most technology sales to go ahead despite Monday’s announcement of a second 90-day delay. He said no one in Washington would risk standing up for the company. The biggest impact will be on American vendors that sell chips and other components to Huawei, the biggest maker of network gear for phone companies, he said. Washington has placed Huawei on an “entity list” of foreign companies that require official permission to buy American technology.