Patreon’s 3 million supporters are good news for independent creators

https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/23/patreon-three-million-patrons-ceo-jack-conte-interview/



PATREON.COM/KINDAFUNNY

Patreon has had one clear goal since it launched in 2013: to help artists, influencers and internet creators make money by letting them offer membership services directly to their fans. And that effort seems to be paying off. Today, Patreon announced there are now over three million people supporting creators on its site, of which there are more than 100,000 to date. What’s also notable is that the company was able to accomplish this milestone in a rapid manner, going from two to three million supporters (aka patrons) worldwide in just one year.

In addition to that major growth in patrons, Patreon says this year it will pass $1 billion in paid contributions since 2013, and in 2019 alone it expects to send creators over half a billion dollars to fund their membership offerings. This all bodes well for artists, illustrators, musicians, DIYers and other independent creators who depend on financial contributions from their audience, with Patreon proving to be a reliable platform for them to earn revenue.

With the algorithms and advertising guidelines often changing on sites like YouTube, which make it harder for creators to earn money from their content, people are becoming more dependent on Patreon and similar membership services. Jack Conte, Patreon co-founder and CEO, told Engadget in an interview that what his company has been able to accomplish is “unimaginable.” But, at the same time, he isn’t surprised that creators and their fans are turning to Patron to create “a connection” they both benefit from. As a patron, for example, you can get exclusive content based on your donation to your favorite creators.

Patreon

What’s leading creators to Patreon, Conte said, is that they are frustrated with the discrepancy between what they feel they’re worth and what the money they’re actually making — especially when many of them spend hours uploading content to apps such as YouTube. “You’re a creator, you see millions of views and hundreds of thousands of comments and likes,” he said, “[but] there’s a huge discrepancy between that impact you see on a daily basis and then your paycheck that comes at the end of the month.”

“You see millions of views and hundreds of thousands of comments and likes, [but] there’s a huge discrepancy between that impact you see on a daily basis and then your paycheck that comes at the end of the month.”

Conte added that platforms are finally starting to recognize that gap, which is why companies like YouTube are also looking to memberships and merchandise sales to help creators earn extra cash. “I absolutely think that’s part of a larger trend of having to value creative people,” he said, noting that he isn’t “losing any sleep” over YouTube’s own membership features because Patreon doesn’t use algorithms to “separate you and your fans.”

patreon

Merch sales on YouTube.

Patreon hasn’t been without controversy, though. In 2018, it received backlash from adult content creators, after it began cracking down on users making and selling pornographic content services on its site. These people had come to rely on Patreon as a source of income, but that started to change when the company revised its content policy in 2017, which included a ban to sell adult images, video and other material.

What’s more, as we reported back in December, there are some YouTubers essentially using Patreon to crowdfund piracy. Though they haven’t been successful, these users are asking for donations on uploads of copyrighted TV shows to YouTube. At the time, Patreon told Engadget “creators uploading copyrighted content is against our terms of use” and that it takes “action against this content when rights holders send us a copyright notice.”

Patreon

Patreon’s Co-founder and CEO, Jack Conte.

Conte said issues like this merit “a lot of consideration and thoughtfulness.” He said 10 percent of Patreon’s team, which is made up of about 170 people, are part of its Trust and Safety efforts and the ones ensuring that “we’re scaling the platforms healthy.” The key, Conte said, is to educate creators on Patreon’s content policy, including through one-on-one sessions designed to talk to them about what the terms of use mean, what they don’t and whether their content is okay or not.

As for what’s next for Patreon, Conte said the main focus right now is to give creators an easy way to sell their merch, which is expected to happen later this year.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

January 23, 2019 at 08:09AM

Boeing’s self-flying taxi completes its first flight

https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/23/boeing-autonomous-flying-taxi-completes-flight/



Boeing

Multiple companies have outlined plans for flying taxis, but Boeing just took an important step toward making them a practical reality. The aircraft maker has completed the first test flight of its autonomous electric VTOL aircraft, verifying that the machine can take off, hover and land. It’s a modest start, to put it mildly — the taxi has yet to fly forward, let alone transition from vertical to forward flight modes. That still puts it ahead of competitors, though, and it’s no mean feat when the aircraft existed as little more than a concept roughly one year ago.

When finished, the vehicle will serve as an “urban air mobility” solution that shuttles passengers across town in situations where ground transportation would be slow or impractical, with a peak range of 50 miles. The electric powerplant isn’t just for the sake of environmental responsibility — it would ensure the aircraft is quiet enough to operate without irritating people below. There are plans for a cargo-oriented counterpart that could haul up to 500lbs of goods, and it’s poised to move from indoor to outdoor testing in 2019.

The greater challenge might be to find customers for these vehicles. Local governments have been receptive to tests, but they still have regulatory and practical hurdles to clear. Where do you place their landing pads? Where and when would these aircraft be allowed to fly? Companies have to develop flying taxis to answer at least some of these questions, though, and Boeing is at least inching forward on that front.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

January 23, 2019 at 10:33AM

Xiaomi’s flexible phone concept folds on both sides

https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/23/xiaomi-foldable-phone-video/


Xiaomi truly is working on a foldable phone, company president and co-founder Lin Bin has confirmed in a teaser he posted on Weibo. In the video, you’ll see the executive using a tablet-sized gadget — until he folds its sides and uses it like you would any phone. Its UI even automatically resizes itself to occupy just the middle part of the screen, so you won’t have to flip the device to look at the folded parts of the display.

To make it as authentically phone-like as possible, the company put a power button at the top-center of the device when it’s held in landscape mode. That way, the button will still be easily accessible when it’s used as a phone. Bin wrote in his post that the form factor, which “perfectly merges the experience” of a phone and a tablet, is the result of the company’s work on foldable displays, folding hinges and other technical challenges. He also said that it’s just a prototype at this point, and that the company “will consider mass producing it” if it gets positive feedback from consumers online. Xiaomi has two possible names in mind for the prototype — Mi Dual Flex and Mi MIX Flex — but it’s also looking for suggestions.

You’ll likely have to wait a bit before you can buy the device, and that is if it makes it past the prototype stage. Here’s a translation of the executive’s post on Weibo:

“Xiaomi’s dual-folding phone is coming! After tackling flexible folding display, four-way folding hinge, flexible cover tech, MIUI adaptation and other technical challenges, we have made the first foldable phone, and should also be the world’s first dual-folding phone. This symmetrically dual-outer-folding form factor perfectly merges the experience of a tablet and a phone, it’s both practical and beautiful. Even though it’s still a prototype, we’re showing it to you all. Feel free to share, comment and like. If you all like it, we will consider mass producing it.

Also, we would like to give this prototype a name. What do you think?I have two: Mi Dual Flex, Mi MIX Flex. Suggestions are welcome!”

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

January 23, 2019 at 01:21AM

In a Series of Experiments, Scientists Are Learning How to Farm on Mars

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=31162

(Inside Science) — Scientists in Norway and the Netherlands may have brought us closer to workable space farms, which experts agree are necessary if astronauts are ever going to reach Mars.
"Astronauts stay on the International Space Station for six months and they can bring everything they need in either freeze-dried or vacuum packs, but the next goal for all space agencies is to reach Mars where travel is much longer," explained Silje Wolff, a plant physiologist at the Centre for Inter

via Discover Main Feed http://bit.ly/1dqgCKa

January 22, 2019 at 06:47PM

15-inch, 4K OLED laptops are coming thanks to new displays from Samsung

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1445141


15-inch, 4K OLED laptops are coming thanks to new displays from Samsung

Larger OLED laptop screens are coming sooner than we anticipated. Samsung Displays announced that it has made a 15.6-inch 4K laptop display and will begin producing the panels next month. The company plans on providing them to other manufacturers to put into their premium notebooks.

“Samsung’s 15.6-inch OLED offers a display solution that is optimized for portable IT devices such as overwhelming HDR, excellent color reproduction and high outdoor visibility,” Samsung Display Marketing Director Yoon Jae-nam said in the announcement. “Consumers will enjoy a higher level of visual experience through OLED notebooks.”

Samsung’s 15.6-inch display has a brightness range of 0.0005 to 600 nits, and its spectrum of 34 million colors is double that of similar, 15-inch LCD panels. Samsung claims that its panel can produce blacks that are 200 times darker than those of LCD panels, and whites will be more than twice as bright. These attributes contribute to the HDR capabilities of the panel, and the company claims that the panel passes VESA’s new DisplayHDR TrueBlack standard.

The transition to OLED displays in laptops has been much slower than that on mobile phones. Most OLED laptop panels in production today are smaller than Samsung’s latest panel (typically 13 inches) and come in at lower resolutions. They’re also currently not widely used: only a few OEMs, including Lenovo and Razer, make laptops with OLED panels.

While OLED panels provide better contrast ratios, color gamut, and brightness levels than most LCD panels, they’re also more expensive to produce. Lots of manufacturers have skipped OLED panels for their premium laptops because they cost more to put into the device, thereby driving up the retail price for consumers. Also, OLED screens have burn-in problems that some consumers don’t want to deal with—neither in their smartphones nor in their laptops.

Regardless, Samsung’s announcement will be exciting for those who have been itching for larger, higher-resolution OLED panels in the newest laptops. It’s unclear which manufacturers will be the first to get Samsung’s OLED panels, but plenty of OEMs including HP, Lenovo, and Dell have laptops with OLED screens slated for launch this year.

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

January 23, 2019 at 08:30AM