YouTube Goes After TikTok With Longer Shorts; Google Lens Now Lets You Search With Video; Tesla Dropped its Cheapest Model; Amazon to Hire Quarter Million for Holidays

Posted: October 3, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

YouTube has expanded the length of YouTube Shorts. So maybe now they are YouTube Bermuda Shorts? Ok, enough with the snark. Shorts will now be able to be up to 3 minutes long. Techcrunch.com reports that YouTube is hoping to be more competitive with TikTok now. TikTok, though, already allows videos of up to 10 minutes when recording, and uploads of up to an hour. It also makes participating in trends easier for users. YouTube says the new Shorts player is designed to streamline the look of these short videos, making the creator’s content stand out by placing it front and center in the user interface. The addition of templates by YouTube will allow creators to more quickly jump on trends. You will be able to tap a ‘Remix’ option in a Short, then choose ‘Use this template’ to make your own video. The race continues to be trendy. Hey, these tech reports are on YouTube and they are generally short…but trendy….nope…I’m afraid I missed the boat on that! I’ll just try to keep YOU up on tech trends!

Google Lens is now letting you search with video. Previously, you could search with just a picture. In addition, you can use your voice to ask about what you are seeing. According to theverge.com, the new feature will bring up an AI Overview and search results based on the video’s contents and your question. It is rolling out in Search Labs on both Android and iOS today. This is a feature Google promised and previewed at I/O in May. Google Lens is also updating its photo search feature with the ability to ask a question using your voice. To try it, aim your camera at your subject, hold down the shutter button, and then ask your question. Note that the voice part is only available in English for the time being.

With Elon Musk’s lates hype fest coming right up…with more on the robotaxis that have been promised for several years…Tesla has dropped its entry level car. The EV maker has stopped selling the Model 3 Standard Range Rear-Wheel Drive. Engadget.com notes that it had had a price of $39,000. Now, the cheapest Tesla will be the Model 3 Long-Range Rear-Wheel Drive version at $42,500. Tesla gave out their third quarter numbers yesterday, delivering 462,890 units between July and the end of September. This was short of analyst expectations of 469,000 vehicles. 

As brick and mortar stores do for the holidays, and as online retailers also have done for a number of years now, Amazon is gearing up for the holidays….and planning to hire a whopping 250,000 workers. Geekwire.com says this will at least match their hiring effort for the holidays last year, so they expect a robust holiday selling season. The online giant has also announce a buck and a half boost in pay to $22 per hour for US hourly workers, and for seasonal workers, the rate will be $18 an hour or more.  Full time seasonal workers will have health care benefits from day one on the job. Amazon claims that seasonal work is often a path to long-term employment…although long term is relative. Amazon is known for a strong ‘churn’ of employees leaving due to the conditions in the warehouses.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

TikTok Tests 30 Min. Videos; Facebook Loses Data Scraper Suit; Microsoft Hits $3 Trillion Value Briefly; Tesla Has Underwhelming Financial Results

Posted: January 25, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

TikTok is testing letting people upload videos up to 30 minutes long…in an obvious move to go after YouTube. Bgr.com notes that this is triple the present 10 minute length. When a user gets ready to upload a video, a pop up announces “Introducing 30 minutes video — You can now upload videos up to 30 minutes long!” Of course, YouTube still allows much longer videos…actually up to 12 hours. The 30 minute time will be interesting, but I have several friends who do programs of 1 to 2 hours in length, so the 30 minute limit won’t be suitable for that sort of longer form programming. Most videos on YouTube aren’t over 30 minutes, though…so this is a big move for TikTok.

Facebook sued a data scraping company last year, and now a federal judge has tossed Meta’s breach-of-contract claim. According to arstechnica.com, this is because the defendant Bright Data obtained only public data from Facebook and Instagram.  Bright Data is an Israeli company that collects data from various websites and offers related products to businesses. Meta alleged that Bright Data violated Facebook and Instagram policies by developing and using “unauthorized automation software to scrape data from Facebook and Instagram, including users’ profile information, followers, and posts that users have shared with others.” The judge did let stand one claim…for tortious interference with contract. Us District Judge Edward Chen has scheduled a status conference May 5th to discuss litigation of that remaining claim by Facebook. 

Microsoft hit an historic milestone Wednesday as they briefly surpassed $3 trillion in market value. Bloomberg reports that a lot of the gain was due to optimism over AI. The Redmond firm wasn’t able to hold above that mark for long, but did close right under $3 trillion, with a valuation of $2.99 trillion. Microsoft joins a very exclusive corporate club now…Apple had previously became the first company to ever hit the milestone last summer. 

In some not so hot financial news, Tesla revealed its final quarter of 2023 results yesterday. On the plus side, arstechnica.com reports that they did hit the goal of delivering 1.8 million EVs to customers…but gross profits were down 23% year over year…even with a net income increase of 115% (although in large part, this was due to Tesla recording a “one-time non-cash tax benefit of $5.9 [billion] in Q4 for the release of valuation allowance on certain deferred tax assets.” Tesla also warned that vehicle growth rate may be ‘notably lower’ in 2024. 2025 could pick back up for them, though, with a leak to Automotive News that a compact crossover could be out in that model year. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.