CNN shutters Beme after Casey Neistat leaves the company

CNN took a chance with popular YouTuber Casey Neistat and bought his video-sharing app Beme, which he co-created with Matt Hackett. The app was released back in May 2016 but didn’t get a lot of users. Despite this, CNN bought the app for US$25 million back in November 2016 and they wanted Beme’s team new kinds of video for the news organization that would perhaps attract a younger audience to them. But this experiment didn’t seem to gain any traction and in a conversation with Buzzfeed, Neistat admitted he couldn’t turn Beme into the kind of video-centric organization he wanted it to be. He got more engrossed with making videos for his own channel. Now, the Beme team is breaking up and Neistat and Hackett are leaving the company and most of the 22-person team will be rehired in other roles within CNN.

Neistat posted a video that supposedly talked about his departure from CNN but this was quickly taken down. Hackett made a post on Medium talking about the products they developed while they were working for the network. One is Panels, an Android and iOS app that lets users upload video opinions on news items, and another is the unreleased Wire, which is said to be a “machine-learning-powered platform for journalists to cover live news in a world where your smartphone is always closer than your TV remote.” Features from these apps will be integrated into the main CNN app. Beme has its own YouTube channel, which only has 40 videos over its six-month life span. Hackett says this channel will continue to exist under CNN’s digital studios.

Source: Android Authority

Apple's Logic Pro X update brings tempo detection and new effect plug-ins

Apple's powerful music production and editing tool Logic Pro X is receiving a notable update that brings a Smart Tempo detection feature as well as a variety of creative new effect plug-ins. Logic Pro X 10.4 is a Mac excluive app, it costs $279.99. Hit jump for all the new features available through the update.

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YouTube pours in US$5 million into its ‘Creators for Change’

YouTube has been facing tons of backlash lately and hoping to counter that by investing a large sum of money into its Creators for Change program, which the company launched back in 2016. The streaming service partnered with 39 “inspiring creators” from around the world to help “amplify their voice to counter hate and promote tolerance.” The service announced it was putting in US$5 million investment during its annual Creators for Change Summit.

According to YouTube, the program has helped them educate over 15,000 young people in over 200 locations through things like workshops and school programs. With the new investment, YouTube wants to provide production and marketing support for these creators. They want to provide new tools and educate its younger audience on how to create change and “use their voices to encourage positive social messages.” YouTube plans to announce in the coming months the global recipients of the production grants.

Source: YouTube

Instagram will now let you add GIF stickers to your Stories

It seems like a long time coming, especially with the popularity of GIFs on the internet, but the wait is finally over. Instagram is rolling out to both Android and iOS users a new GIF button with the GIFs you can add provided by GIPHY. Just like how it’s done on other platforms, you can browse through trending GIF stickers or look for specific ones to add to your photo or video story.

Aside from that, Instagram users can expect in the near future the ability to upload photos and videos “of any size” into a story, similar to what you can do with Stories on Facebook. So instead of cutting off a part of an image or video, Stories will show the entire photo or clip in its original state. Any extra room will be filled by a color gradient to match the colors of the image or video.

Source: MacRumors