Creators

While campaigning for the US Senate in 2021, Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance filmed a Facebook Live using his smartphone’s selfie camera, which mirrored the image, and therefore his campaign signs.

That can be fixed, but Vance’s idea — rotating the phone — is not it. (I recommend waiting a moment to turn on the volume, unless you’re a fan of TikTok’s text-to-speech voices.)

The company says that Canva Teams users will still be able to add up to four users to the account for free, after previously planning to move existing subscribers to a pricing model that charges an additional fee per user.

It’s also introducing a “Pricing Promise” to help win back some of the faith it lost when some users were faced with massive price increases.

We might not hear from them for a while if Milton knocks out power and communicates like Hurricane Helene did. “Life-threatening” hurricane-force winds and flash floods are on the way, the National Hurricane Center warns.

Wanting to put its internals on display, YouTube’s Phone Repair Guru stripped an iPhone 16 Pro’s back panel down to the glass using a surprisingly complicated process. Gallium was even used to remove a thin layer of aluminum as the two metals react to create a soft alloy. The results look great, but maybe don’t try this mod at home.

If you thought standard-issue ad tech was a little weird and creepy, get ready for the future: platforms letting marketers use all their data to make an infinite number of AI-generated ads specifically targeted to individual viewers. Digiday reports on TikTok’s Smart+, which competes with similar offerings from Meta and Google:

Marketers can let TikTok’s AI handle the heavy lifting — building and delivering ads to drive conversions, leads, or app downloads. […] The pitch is all about simplicity and speed — no more weeks of guesswork and endless A/B testing, according to Adolfo Fernandez, TikTok’s director, global head of product strategy and operations, commerce.

Super normal, everyone! No potential issues here!

If you’re a Framework laptop user with access to a 3D printer you’ve now got an important question to ask yourself. Do you prioritize being able to accessorize your machine with Lego using this 3D-printed adapter with studs and tubes that fits into the Framework’s expansion card port? Or is adding another USB-C or HDMI port a higher priority? Decisions, decisions...

Substack has long positioned itself as a safe haven for independent writers — including, at times, publications that contain Nazi and other extremist content.

The newsletter platform is now looking to be somewhere fans can go to financially support their favorite content creators, not just writers, because income from other social platforms can be unreliable. Where have I heard that before?

Colin of the This Does Not Compute YouTube channel says what started as a Macintosh SE/30 motherboard repair turned into spending “over a year and about a thousand bucks” building this franken-Mac, instead.

He used some original parts; but it’s otherwise assembled from new old-stock chips, a custom motherboard, and solid polymer caps that will “never leak like electrolytic ones tend to.” The end result? A functional, RGB-laden, translucent SE/30.

After a bug “incorrectly flagged” some channels for spam and removed them, YouTube started working on getting the channels back. That’s done, the Team YouTube X account posted — now it’s just working to get the last few videos reinstated.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that TikTok has violated the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act by not giving parents control of their kids’ privacy and account settings, writes Reuters. TikTok denied the allegations in a statement to The Texas Tribune.

TikTok A federal judge blocked part of the act requiring large social networks to stop harmful content from reaching minors just prior to the law taking effect on September 1st.

Focus grouping upcoming films is a pretty standard practice. But according to Variety, the rise of toxic online fandoms who treat review bombing and leading harassment campaigns like it’s their job has prompted many of Hollywood’s studios to start soliciting feedback from “superfans” about how to avoid potential backlash from trolls who “are just out for blood, regardless.”

YouTube says some channels are being “incorrectly flagged for Spam and removed.” The company is reinstating affected channels — I hope it didn’t happen to you!

You can now buy a DIY OLED screen upgrade kit for the Nintendo Switch Lite for less than $50, but how easy it to install? Taki Udon demonstrates the process and while there’s no soldering needed, the installation does require the Lite to be nearly completely disassembled, and its original screen to be removed with the help of a hair dryer.

As previously announced, Masahiro Sakurai’s excellent YouTube channel — which has covered everything from organizing classic games to the nitty gritty of game development — is coming to an end. The silver lining is that the Smash Bros. boss is teasing that a “special finale” is in the works.

As Google reengineers its cost base, The Information reports that the gold “Play Button” plaque handed out for reaching one million subscribers is now around 30 percent smaller, weighing just one pound compared to the previous four pounds. YouTube says the lighter and smaller awards resulted in a “more sustainable design.”

James Bruton, an engineer and former toy maker, has spent the past few months designing and building a Star Wars AT-AT replica strong enough to carry a single rider.

It’s built from a mix of 3D-printed parts and aluminum extrusion and has a top speed of about one meter per minute, giving the Rebels plenty of time to get out of its way.