This Week in Web: Aug 24-30, 2015

This week in web news, YouTube is looking to tap a new revenue stream with two new subscription features.  Instagram is letting you live outside their little square box.  Google is making routers, and their OnHub is both handsome and powerful.  Facebook hit an incredible milestone.  More news from YouTube, who launched a hub for gaming lovers, where they can watch live streaming video games and pre-recorded gaming goodies.  Moreover, thank you to Chrome for giving us peace from auto-playing Flash videos.  Last, Google self-driving cars do not crash into bicyclists, hooray! 

Will you pay for YouTube?

YouTube announced that they will be launching two new subscription services this year, which may significantly change how we use YouTube.  With over 1 billion users viewing over 6 billion hours of videos every month, monetizing through video advertisements brought in $4 billion of revenue last year.  However, YouTube still has not been profitable, and hopes that subscription fees will change that.

• Music Key, available on iOS, Android, and at YouTube.com, has been available in beta since November 2014.  For $9.99 per month, you can stream ad-free music videos.  Like other streaming services, Music Key offers curated playlists, music recommendations, and trending titles.  It provides access to full albums with official videos and high-quality audio, and the ability to continue listening when you open another app or lock your phone’s screen.  It also includes the ability to listen to music offline.  Google Play Music subscribers will have access to Music Key, and vice versa.
• Not much is known about the other new, unnamed subscription service.  Rumors are that it will create some pay-wall to access premium content from YouTube’s top creators, who will get a cut of the pooled subscription fees based on the viewership of their videos and channels.  A list of content creators who will be part of the service has not been released.  This service is also expected to offer ad-free and off-line viewing for around $10 per month. 

Don’t be a square.

Instagram is well-known for all posted photos fitting neatly into their square box.  When you take that perfect landscape-oriented photo, you have to decide what to crop out.  In my small group photos, the people on the ends usually lose an ear and part of a cheek.  Third-party apps will add a letterbox type border on your photo so that it will be a rectangle inside of a square, which can then be posted to Instagram, but that is a pain in the neck.  No more!  Instagram is loosening the reigns and allowing you to post full-size landscape and portrait oriented photos.  When selecting photos from your gallery, look for the orientation button in the lower left corner of your viewing window.  When posted, the rectangular photos and videos will appear in the feed right along with the square ones, and Instagram filters can still be applied.

Google-powered super router

Google surprised the tech world with a not-ugly router, packed with power.  On August 31, the OnHub router will be available for purchase for $200.  It is a tall cylinder with a color-coded light ring on top, similar in appearance to Amazon’s Echo.  Besides not being an eyesore with mysteriously blinking lights, what makes the OnHub any different from other routers?

•    13 high-powered antennae (where typically there are 3 or 4) for wider coverage

•    Simple setup, monitoring, troubleshooting, and controls through a smartphone app

•    Automatic software updates

•    Bluetooth  and ZigBee radios that will support Google Weave

•    4GB of internal storage

The Bluetooth and ZigBee radios are not enabled yet but are indicators of Google’s ambitions for OnHub.  The router and companion app have the ability to become the control center for Smart Wi-Fi home connected devices, such as lights, thermostats, and security systems.

1 billion people served… in 1 day

Facebook reported that on August 24, 1 billion users logged onto Facebook in a single day for the first time.  That is roughly 1/7 of the world’s population connected through a social network that just 11 years ago was limited to students of Harvard University.  Also, Facebook does not show signs of slowing down.  They are rolling out projects like Facebook Lite, an app less demanding of data and power for emerging smartphone markets.  They are also invested in projects that use solar-powered drones to provide connectivity to remote areas.

Gaming, the new spectators’ sport

If you like to watch other people play video games, and apparently millions of people do, then check out the new YouTube Gaming service.  It is set to compete with Twitch, which Google (who owns YouTube) failed to acquire before Amazon bought it for $970 million last year.  YouTube Gaming includes live-streaming video of game play with live chat, as well as gaming-related pre-recorded videos.  Some videos, for example, those starring real-life Mario and Luigi, may even amuse someone fairly out of touch with the gaming world.  Fans are praising the new service for being well-organized with easily discoverable content, and for having high-quality video.  Expect to see growth in professional gaming tournaments, talk shows, and commentated walk-throughs.  There are also YouTube Gaming apps for both iOS and Android devices.

You are not welcome here, Flash.

Google understands that those auto-play Flash videos are loud, annoying, uninvited guests.  They suck the life out of laptop batteries, slow down web browsing, and have been known to spread malware.  Chrome is bouncing those killjoys from the party.  The latest update of Chrome browser, coming September 1, will automatically stop flash videos that are not central to the user-intended web content in the main tab.  Also, Flash videos in background tabs will not play.  Embedded videos will still work, and if there is an auto-paused Flash video that you want to see, clicking on it will un-pause it.  Farewell, obnoxious advertisers!

Self-driving car versus bicyclist

Google’s self-driving cars are maintaining their spotless driving records.  Now testing on public roadways in Austin, a self-driving car encountered a bicyclist at a 4-way stop.  When the bicycle repeatedly rolled forward a couple of inches in preparation for the rider’s turn to proceed, Google’s car repeatedly came to a halt to be sure to avoid him, creating a stalemate.  The bicyclist reported that the operators in the car were typing away at laptops, apparently trying to adjust the car’s behavior, but that he felt safer sharing the roadway with the over-cautious self-driving car than with often discourteous human drivers.

Any other interesting tech news we might have missed and should know about? Tell us in the comments below!