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Top news and updates this week
- Among the announcements at the Apple WWDC were updated AirPods that support studio-quality audio recording and camera controls, calligraphy on the iPad, and a variety of AI tools (of course).
- YouTube highlights Posts in the Shorts feed.
- YouTube makes it easier to Promote your videos in the Android app.
- Sync your video and photo clips to music in the YouTube Shorts editor.
- Generate short video clips with audio with Veo 3 in Google Vids.
- Use AI filters to Restyle videos in the Edits by Instagram video editing app.
- If you don’t use Edits, you can AI-style your videos at meta.AI
- Edits now has a built-in teleprompter and other new features.
- Twitch made it easier to manage Clips on your phone.
- A new Google Labs test lets you get Audio Overviews in Search.
- In the “great decoupling”, it seems people aren’t clicking the links in Google AI Overviews.
- The redesigned Google Photos image editor will soon be available.
- Redesigned Snapseed 3.0 for iOS is now available. Google’s pro photo editing app hasn’t had a significant update in years.
- Meta is fighting “nudify” apps that generate non-consensual nudes.
- Instagram now lets all creators post trial Reels that only go out to non-followers.
- Instagram will now recap your stats with highlights and celebrate special follower milestones.
- Reddit now lets you share a comment as a new post.
- Gemini in Google Workspace can now create and summarize Forms, create charts in Google Sheets, and summarize PDFs in Drive.
- Google Meet now lets you control who can ask to join your meeting and join in companion mode from your tablet.
- Plus iNaturalist apologizes to its users, early Apple “pioneer” Bill Atkinson died, how a small change to the US tax code caused big layoffs in tech and more.
🗓 Ten Years Ago This Week: Friendster Shut Down, but is Born Again
To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing highlights from 2015.Ten years ago Friendster, the pioneering social-network-turned-gaming-site, permanently paused. Over the years it lost out to MySpace, then Facebook, then the “gaming industry”.
But last year it was reborn as a social network that “prioritizes users over growth”, that doesn’t promote negativity or drama. Is now its time?
Read all about it.
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New Tips and Tutorials
Use Gemini to understand your videos in Google Drive.To Do & Try
Create an old-school animated ecard with GIFGram at the Internet Archive’s GifCities. They have updated their Animated GIF Search Engine with semantic search and search by size to make it easier to find the perfect GIFs.Apple WWDC: What’s new for creatives?
This week was Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, with looks at Apple’s latest hardware, software and AI features.A few highlights of interest to creators:
- Studio-quality audio recording with AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 for “interviewers, podcasters, singers, and other creators”. It includes Voice Isolation technology for noisy environments. Public beta (beta.apple.com) will be available next month.
- Camera remote with AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2. This lets you take photos and start and stop video recording on your iPhone or iPad by pressing and holding the AirPods stem. Apple notes this makes it easier to video record yourself singing or dancing in sync with a backing track. Public beta (beta.apple.com) will be available next month.
- The Preview app is coming to the iPad, “a dedicated app for creating a quick sketch, as well as viewing, editing, and marking up PDFs and images with Apple Pencil or by touch.”
- More control over audio input on the iPad, including choosing different microphones for each app.
- The reed pen tool on the iPad “uses stroke-angle presets to enable a traditional calligraphy experience with Apple Pencil or touch in apps like Notes, Preview, Freeform, and Journal.”
- A variety of AI tools for writing and summarizing across Apple devices.
Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates
YouTube is going to start highlighting Posts in the Shorts feed. If you create both Shorts and Posts, someone viewing your Short may see a button to view “New Posts”. That lets them view and interact with your Posts while still watching the original Short, without leaving the Shorts feed. (Love this!) Learn more from Creator Insider.The YouTube Android app now has a Promote button on your videos that lets you pay to advertise your videos without having to go to Google Ads. You can either target Audience Growth or Video Views. I think this isn’t a great update, because it’s not clear that promoting your content with ads actually helps you develop an audience (buyer beware!). In any case, you can learn more from Creator Insider.
In the YouTube Shorts editor you can automatically sync your video and photo clips to music. Watch how.
YouTube published their 2024 Impact Report, claiming their “creative ecosystem” added $55B to the US GDP and supported more than 490,000 full time-equivalent jobs in the US. My favorite stat: “92% of viewers report using YouTube to gather information and knowledge.”
You can now generate short video clips with audio in Google Vids with Veo 3. The videos can be up to 8 seconds long, in landscape format, 720p and 24fps. You can generate up to 20 videos per day, and up to 10 videos with Veo 3 (videos can also be generated with the earlier silent model Veo 2). This requires a Google Workspace account or personal Google Account with a Google One AI Pro or Ultra subscription.
The Edits app from Instagram now lets you Restyle videos with AI. There are pre-set AI filters you can select to change your outfit, location and style (US only, excluding Illinois and Texas). Later this year you will be able to use your own prompts.
AI video editing is also available in the Meta AI app and the Meta.AI website where you can transform up to 10 seconds of video for free for a “limited time.”
Other new features in the Edits app include a built-in teleprompter, the ability to edit opacity and color of overlay video, and performance insights on your 10 most recent Reels.
Twitch has made it easier to manage Clips on your phone with a new search bar & filters.
Twitch has added Enforcement Notes - examples and clarifications - to its Community Guidelines on dangerous driving, unauthorized sharing of private information and gambling.
TikTok was originally supposed to either be transferred to US
ownership or be banned on January 19th. They received a 75 day extension, and
then another 75 day extension. That second extension expires June 19th. It’s
being reported that President Trump will almost certainly give it yet another 75 day extension, since there hasn’t been a deal. Apparently not urgent.
This is depressing. Barry Schwartz at SEO Roundtable rounds up posts showing the “great decoupling” of website impressions in the Google Search results and clicks on the links. The assumption is that with AI Overviews people just aren’t clicking any more.
Glenn Gabe has been following the ranking of Reddit’s automatically translated content in the Google Search results. He got a comment from Google that explained that automatic translations are allowed as long as it is high-quality and helpful content. Google also (not surprisingly) has removed information about blocking auto-translated content in their recommendations for multilingual sites.
Snapseed 3 for iOS has a major update with a completely redesigned interface. Google has not made a significant update to the professional photo editing app since 2021 (and Snapseed 2 was released in 2015). Most of the tools are essentially the same, but there is a new “Film” style filter. Get the app. Snapseed for Android does not (yet?) have this new interface.
The C2PA system is designed to add content credentials to all photos, but that isn’t how it is being implemented. Jaron Schneider at PetaPixel writes: Thanks to a Disjointed Rollout, C2PA Content Credentials Look Stuck
Instagram is making trial Reels available to all creators. This lets you share a Reel with non-followers only, then share with your followers later if it’s a hit. Also on Insta: you will soon be able to re-order the posts on your profile grid and there may eventually be a way to post to your profile "quietly”.
Instagram is now showing recaps highlighting stats like views and follows. This is available on the Professional Dashboard. They are also adding Celebrations to celebrate milestones, like 10,000 followers.
Reddit now lets you share comments as new posts in other subreddits. If a comment is deleted it’s removed from the shared post, and edits are reflected in the shared post. Other new comment features include comment drafts, and comment insights (realtime views, upvotes, replies, shares, awards).
Use Gemini in Google Forms to create new forms (optionally referencing Docs, Sheets, Slides or PDFs) or summarize collected text responses.
You can now create editable charts in Google Sheets with Gemini. Example prompts: “create a chart with date on the x-axis and total on the y-axis” or "create a pie chart showing the inventory amount breakdown from the past year.”
In Google Drive you can use Gemini to generate summary cards of PDF files.
A non-AI Google Meet update: Join meetings on iPads and Android tablets in Companion Mode, giving you access to chat, captions, emoji reactions and hand raising when you are in a meeting room.
If you are hosting a Google Meet meeting, you can now prevent uninvited people from asking to join meetings in Trusted or Restricted mode, even if they have the meeting link. Learn more.
People are wary of new AI-powered features, especially when it looks like their contributed content will be used for training. iNaturalist - an app for people to submit nature observations - announced that they are receiving a grant from Google.Org to develop generative AI-powered tools, with no explanation about the details. Current users were skeptical and not happy.
iNaturalist had to post an apology for not providing more information up front and explained they are not replacing human curation, they are not giving Google access to people's data, and they only at the beginning stage of their project which isn't even at the point where they know if it's feasible or what the environmental impacts will be. It shows how important it is for platforms that rely on user generated content to communicate the details up front, because people assume the worst.
From FlowingData: Flower blooms to visualize climate change
From Columbia Journalism Review: When Local Newspapers Die, Corruption Festers
From Quartz: The hidden time bomb in the US tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs. “In public, companies blamed bloat and AI. But inside boardrooms, spreadsheets were telling a quieter story. … R&D had become more expensive to carry. Headcount, the leading R&D expense across the tech industry, was the easiest thing to cut.”
Thanks for reading! 🌼
✉ Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get the June 7 edition.
Web Publishers and Search
Google Labs has a new experiment: AI Audio Overviews of Search results on mobile. It includes relevant links inside the audio player. You can opt-in here (may not be available in all countries).This is depressing. Barry Schwartz at SEO Roundtable rounds up posts showing the “great decoupling” of website impressions in the Google Search results and clicks on the links. The assumption is that with AI Overviews people just aren’t clicking any more.
Glenn Gabe has been following the ranking of Reddit’s automatically translated content in the Google Search results. He got a comment from Google that explained that automatic translations are allowed as long as it is high-quality and helpful content. Google also (not surprisingly) has removed information about blocking auto-translated content in their recommendations for multilingual sites.
Photo Editing
If you have a Pixel or other Android Phone, Google Photos will soon have a redesigned image editor with AI-powered suggestions.Snapseed 3 for iOS has a major update with a completely redesigned interface. Google has not made a significant update to the professional photo editing app since 2021 (and Snapseed 2 was released in 2015). Most of the tools are essentially the same, but there is a new “Film” style filter. Get the app. Snapseed for Android does not (yet?) have this new interface.
The C2PA system is designed to add content credentials to all photos, but that isn’t how it is being implemented. Jaron Schneider at PetaPixel writes: Thanks to a Disjointed Rollout, C2PA Content Credentials Look Stuck
Social Media
Meta is fighting "nudify" apps. These are apps that use AI to create non-consensual nudes of real people. Meta is suing the company behind CrushAI, one of these nudify apps, for trying to circumvent their ad review process. They are also working on technology to better identify ads for these apps, and sharing that with the Tech Coalition’s cross-platform child safety Lantern Program (members include Discord, Google, Meta, Roblox, Snap, Twitch and others.).Instagram is making trial Reels available to all creators. This lets you share a Reel with non-followers only, then share with your followers later if it’s a hit. Also on Insta: you will soon be able to re-order the posts on your profile grid and there may eventually be a way to post to your profile "quietly”.
Instagram is now showing recaps highlighting stats like views and follows. This is available on the Professional Dashboard. They are also adding Celebrations to celebrate milestones, like 10,000 followers.
Reddit now lets you share comments as new posts in other subreddits. If a comment is deleted it’s removed from the shared post, and edits are reflected in the shared post. Other new comment features include comment drafts, and comment insights (realtime views, upvotes, replies, shares, awards).
Communication and Collaboration
Gemini features require either a Google Workspace account or a personal account with a Google One AI Pro or Ultra subscription.Use Gemini in Google Forms to create new forms (optionally referencing Docs, Sheets, Slides or PDFs) or summarize collected text responses.
You can now create editable charts in Google Sheets with Gemini. Example prompts: “create a chart with date on the x-axis and total on the y-axis” or "create a pie chart showing the inventory amount breakdown from the past year.”
In Google Drive you can use Gemini to generate summary cards of PDF files.
A non-AI Google Meet update: Join meetings on iPads and Android tablets in Companion Mode, giving you access to chat, captions, emoji reactions and hand raising when you are in a meeting room.
If you are hosting a Google Meet meeting, you can now prevent uninvited people from asking to join meetings in Trusted or Restricted mode, even if they have the meeting link. Learn more.
More AI Updates
TechCrunch reports: OpenAI releases o3-pro, a souped-up version of its o3 AI reasoning modelPeople are wary of new AI-powered features, especially when it looks like their contributed content will be used for training. iNaturalist - an app for people to submit nature observations - announced that they are receiving a grant from Google.Org to develop generative AI-powered tools, with no explanation about the details. Current users were skeptical and not happy.
iNaturalist had to post an apology for not providing more information up front and explained they are not replacing human curation, they are not giving Google access to people's data, and they only at the beginning stage of their project which isn't even at the point where they know if it's feasible or what the environmental impacts will be. It shows how important it is for platforms that rely on user generated content to communicate the details up front, because people assume the worst.
More Reading
Bill Atkinson, influential early Apple programmer, passed away. He designed and wrote HyperCard and MacPaint, invented much of the modern user interface (overlapping windows, title bars, menu bars), and worked on the Lisa and Macintosh computers.From FlowingData: Flower blooms to visualize climate change
From Columbia Journalism Review: When Local Newspapers Die, Corruption Festers
From Quartz: The hidden time bomb in the US tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs. “In public, companies blamed bloat and AI. But inside boardrooms, spreadsheets were telling a quieter story. … R&D had become more expensive to carry. Headcount, the leading R&D expense across the tech industry, was the easiest thing to cut.”
Thanks for reading! 🌼
✉ Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get the June 7 edition.
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Spam and personal attacks are not allowed. Any comment may be removed at my own discretion ~ Peggy