TVs have become the primary viewing platform for YouTube in the U.S., surpassing mobile and desktop by watch time. The platform, which turns 20 this year, has gone from people “filming grainy videos of themselves on desktop computers to building studios and producing popular talk shows and feature-length films.” Content creators are “becoming the startups of Hollywood,” wrote CEO Neal Mohan in his annual letter to the YouTube user base. Mohan emphasized the company’s role in the entertainment ecosystem as 2024 marked the second consecutive year that YouTube was the most-watched streaming platform in the U.S., according to Nielsen. Continue reading TV Surpasses Mobile as YouTube’s Primary Viewing Platform

Adobe’s Firefly video is now in public beta as part of Firefly AI, now multi-modal with video, image and vector generation. Available for $10 for Firefly Standard or $30 for Firefly Pro, the Firefly app offers additional tiers for premium video and audio features, offering a degree of customization based on project needs. Adobe continues to position Firefly as “the only generative AI model that is IP-friendly and commercially safe,” offering the option of contractual IP indemnification to protect against infringement lawsuits “in the unlikely event of a claim involving a Firefly output.” Continue reading Adobe Firefly Video Now in Public Beta Starting at $10 Month

Snap has created a lightweight AI text-to-image model that will run on-device, expected to power some Snapchat mobile features in the months ahead. Using an iPhone 16 Pro Max, the model can produce high-resolution images in approximately 1.4 seconds, running on the phone, which reduces computational costs. Snap says the research model “is the continuation of our long-term investment in cutting edge AI and ML technologies that enable some of today’s most advanced interactive developer and consumer experiences.” Among the Snapchat AI features the new model will enhance are AI Snaps and AI Bitmoji Backgrounds. Continue reading Snap Develops a Lightweight Text-to-Video AI Model In-House

ByteDance has developed a generative model that can use a single photo to generate photorealistic video of humans in motion. Called OmniHuman-1, the multimodal system supports various visual and audio styles and can generate people doing things like singing, dancing, speaking and moving in a natural fashion. ByteDance says its new technology clears hurdles that hinder existing human-generators — obstacles like short play times and over-reliance on high-quality training data. The diffusion transformer-based OmniHuman addressed those challenges by mixing motion-related conditions into the training phase, a solution ByteDance researchers claim is new. Continue reading ByteDance’s AI Model Can Generate Video from Single Image

Most people know Hugging Face as a resource-sharing community, but it also builds open-source applications and tools for machine learning. Its recent release of vision-language models small enough to run on smartphones while outperforming competitors that rely on massive data centers is being hailed as “a remarkable breakthrough in AI.”  The new models — SmolVLM-256M and SmolVLM-500M — are optimized for “constrained devices” with less than around 1GB of RAM, making them ideal for mobile devices including laptops and also convenient for those interested in processing large amounts of data cheaply and with a low-energy footprint. Continue reading Hugging Face Has Developed Tiny Yet Powerful Vision Models

The U.S. Copyright Office has released Part 2 of its report on artificial intelligence, dealing with the legal and policy issues pertaining to copyright and generative AI. The two main takeaways are that legal questions concerning copyrightability and AI can be settled using existing federal law, requiring no legislative change. Also, “where AI ‘merely assists’ an author in the creative process, it does not change the copyrightability of the output.” Additionally, it reaffirms that any work created entirely by prompts (content “entirely generated by AI”) cannot be protected by copyright. Continue reading Copyright Office Says AI ‘Assisted’ Content Can Be Protected

Netflix has finally added a much-requested Season Download button for iOS that allows subscribers who use iPhones and iPads to download a complete season of episodes with one tap. Whether getting ready for a long flight or just looking to spend an evening binge-watching “Squid Games” or “Bridgerton” on a mobile device, the update provides a convenience. “On a show’s display page, look for the button right next to the Share option. Tap it, and the entire season will start downloading automatically — no more downloading episodes one at a time,” Netflix tells Apple fans. Continue reading Netflix Adds One-Click Full-Season Downloads for iOS Users

Free, ad-supported streaming video service Plex is introducing a new user interface and expanding its social media overlay, adding the ability for users to publicly share their Plex profiles and allow others to read and comment on their movie reviews. By default, all Plex users can be searched out by other Plex users within the app (unless they’ve changed that setting). Now, by opting to make profiles public on watch.plex.tv, they can be shared using the link and will also be searchable on the Web, showing what users have watched and have added to their watchlist, and more. California-based Plex offers ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) as well as linear FAST channels. Continue reading Plex Adds Public Profiles and Ways to Share Program Reviews

YouTube is rolling out new experimental features for Premium users and letting those paid plan subscribers access more than one test feature at a time. Among the exploratory features now available to YouTube Premium users is high-quality 256kbps audio on music videos and the ability to “jump ahead” on the web, something previously available only on mobile devices. For iOS users, picture-in-picture and smart downloads for YouTube Shorts are also among the new features. In addition, the company announced bundled pricing for those users who subscribe to both YouTube Premium and Google One Premium. Continue reading YouTube Premium Offers Speed Controls and Improved Audio

Netflix seems determined to test consumers’ price-value tolerance, raising by $2 the price of its premium tier, now $24.99 per month, while raising the cost of the standard ad-supported tier by $1, to $7.99 per month. Its approach is so far working. The news came with an earnings report that indicated new subscribers rose by 18.9 million in Q4, a 44 percent increase to 302 million worldwide members on close of 2024. For the year, revenue grew 16 percent and operating income expanded six points to 27 percent, exceeding $10 billion for the first time in company history. Continue reading Netflix Increases Subscription Prices as Memberships Surge

Projector company Xgimi unveiled a concept projector screen called Ascend — “the ultimate home entertainment solution” — that was one of CES’s most talked about offerings. A motorized 100-inch (diagonal) Ascend screen that rises from the floor with two built-in Harman Kardon sound bars was paired with Xgimi’s ultra short-throw Aura 2 4K projector for display during the show, which garnered positive word-of-mouth for its sleek design. It was also appreciatively noticed for what Xgimi says will be an affordable price, though the Chinese company stressed the technology is still in development. Continue reading CES: Xgimi Demonstrates 100-Inch Concept Projector Screen

Social platforms Bluesky and X are rolling out new features timed to take advantage over confusion as to the fate of TikTok. Positioning their video feeds with dedicated tabs and optimization for vertical display are among the updates. Meanwhile, Instagram has debuted an editing feature that rivals CapCut, the popular program owned by TikTok parent ByteDance. Bluesky’s newly customizable video feeds let users swipe up or down and also allow curation using hashtags like #BookSky, a challenge to BookTok. A timeline of trending videos prominently placed under its search tab is another Bluesky addition. Continue reading Amidst TikTok Uncertainty, X and Bluesky Add New Features

The Canon Americas Lab exhibit at CES this year featured a demonstration of Canon USA’s Volumetric X Motion Capture system that creates videos viewable from any camera angle. The multi-camera system leverages 2D data, 3D volumetric data, and analytical tools for sports and entertainment applications. The basis of the system is the same as the Free Viewpoint video system — Canon’s CES 2023 headliner — which was used in an NBA pilot for Cleveland Cavaliers’ alternative game stream. We checked in with the project’s researchers for updates, including ESPN highlights on Meta’s Xtadium VR app, a new U.S. volumetric studio, and how AI was used in this technology. Continue reading CES: Canon Updates Its Volumetric X Motion Capture System

Amongst the exhibits of Hong Kong technology companies at CES 2025 in Las Vegas last week, our team found a 24-inch, wrinkle-free, portable display made of optical polymer material that can be flexibly folded like a bag. Marketed as the Splay, this radical device — a CES Innovation Awardee from last year — is a collaboration of Hong Kong’s Nano and Advanced Materials Institute (NAMI) and U.S. company Arovia. The back of Splay connects with a compact DLP projector box the size of a book that shows high-contrast 2K resolution image on the screen. Continue reading CES: Splay Provides a Foldable, Wrinkle-Free, Portable Display

CES’s Eureka Park is a section of exhibits where startups and early-stage products from all over the world solicit feedback and explore opportunities. From this year’s Italian delegates at Eureka Park, our team found EYE2DRIVE, a semiconductor company that develops CMOS chips for digital imaging inspired by the human eye. Their image sensors use AI to mimic the human eye’s ability to adapt its response to changing environmental light conditions. As a result, quality and color of the captured image remains unaffected. While currently focusing on autonomous navigation applications, the tech has potential for media production as well. Continue reading CES: Image Sensors Adapt to Light Changes Like Human Eye