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Byte, the spiritual successor to Vine, has a new owner
Byte, the 'spiritual successor' to Vine created by one of its original founders, has been bought by another would-be Vine successor.
Byte's first batch of creator partners will split $250,000
Byte, the short-form video platform created by Vine cofounder Dom Hofmann, will soon start giving early creators a cut of its ad revenue. The company first revealed its plans for a Partner Program last month, publishing initial details of how it'll pay its stars, likely in an effort to lure users committed to making content. In a new post on its forum, Byte said it will start reaching out to creators "who are committed to furthering their craft" on the platform next week.
Ads invade Byte with a campaign from Nike
Like it or not, the Vine revival app Byte is bringing in a staple of modern social networks: prominent ads. The looping video app has launched its first ad campaign with Nike, which is running a rathe conspicuous "Self Hail Mary" sponsored section alongside the usual categories. It's easy to avoid watching the videos if you don't particularly care for them, but there'll be no doubt that Nike paid for obvious placement.
Vine successor Byte will share all its ad revenue to lure early creators
Now that Byte has had a chance to reel in some users, the team is outlining another part of its Vine revival: how it'll pay its stars. The team has published initial details of a Partner Program that will pay creators who pull in large audiences for their looping videos. Byte will create a "Partner Pool" every 120 days, and will pay those partners in four 30-day instalments based on the viewership for those periods. The more views a partner gets, the higher they'll climb a "Viewership Bracket" ladder that pays them more money. Everyone in a bracket will be paid the same amount, so Byte won't necessarily play favorites.
Can Byte recreate the magic of Vine?
When Twitter shuttered Vine in 2018, it was the end of not just another video service but also the death of a wonderfully quirky part of the internet. Vine's six-second videos somehow gave birth to a treasure trove of time-lapsed punchlines, zingy one-liners and bizarre but surprisingly entertaining fare. Unfortunately, most of the creators behind these short films took their talents to more profitable platforms like YouTube. Last Friday, however, Vine successor Byte finally arrived, signaling a grand and much-awaited comeback. Sort of.
Vine successor Byte vows to fix its spam problem
Vine replacement Byte already seems to be a success, gathering not only former Vine users but the TikTok crowd, too. With that popularity has come a new problem, however: comment spam. In particular, the crowds of new users are treating Byte like a gold rush, trying to profit on the new platform's upcoming monetization by fishing for followers in the comments section. Byte is on top of the issue, however, and has promised to do something about it.
Vine co-founder launches a new 6-second video app: Byte
In 2017 Twitter pulled the plug on Vine, and left a community of extremely-short-form-video creators without a platform. Since then TikTok has flourished, but it's still not the same thing. Vine cofounder Dom Hofmann has been teasing a sequel since late in 2017, and after months of being in closed beta, Byte is now available to everyone on Android and iOS. A partner program to pay creators for their work is supposed to arrive "soon," and you sign up using either your Google account or Apple ID. If you're curious, the community guidelines are here, and the privacy notice is here. The app is video first, with a focus on getting stuff in front of you quickly just like Vine always did and TikTok does now. Will it be as addictive as either of those? Judging by the track record, probably, but it all depends on what people make of the app.
Vine successor Byte is now in closed beta
These days, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok dominate the short social video space, but that wasn't always the case. Vine, the popular six-second looping video app, helped give rise to many of today's YouTube stars over the course of three years, before Twitter unceremoniously shut it down at the start of 2017. Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann teased its return in the form of Byte, promising to bring back everything that made the app unique by spring of 2019. It appears he was true to his word, because TechCrunch reports that the service has sent out the first 100 invites to its closed beta.
Vine will be revived as Byte next spring
Last year, Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann teased a revival of the popular app, tweeting a logo that simply said "V2." However, excitement and hopes of a return were dashed in May when Hofmann said the project was postponed indefinitely, citing high costs as an issue. But Hofmann has now revealed that Vine's successor will now be called Byte and it should be launching sometime in spring 2019.
BYTE retracts anti-Apple rant by blogger
Back in the early days of the personal computer revolution, there was no better magazine to read than BYTE. It was often a thick tome full of reviews, programming tips, and insightful columns by industry legends. The magazine disappeared in 1998, but was recently resurrected as an online magazine by the publishers of Information Week. It's obvious the BYTE name retains much of its journalistic credibility, as the magazine recently retracted an anti-Apple rant by one of its bloggers. The post, titled "The Crucible: A Sobering Look at Apple," was written by BYTE blogger Demetrius Mandzych and published originally on July 11, 2011. Whenever a post starts out by stating that In all honesty, I don't know why people buy products from Apple. Apple assures everyone its products 'just work,' that specs don't matter and that its products are like finely-tuned German roadsters ... The reverse is actually the case. you have to wonder what's going on in the author's mind. By July 15, there were a number of negative reader responses, and BYTE pulled the post. The rant is back now, but completely covered with a strikethrough from beginning to end, and with an apology at the beginning: The opinion column that follows doesn't live up to the proud tradition and our best intentions for BYTE. It not only lacks the deep and authoritative technical content that we want BYTE to be known for, but it also doesn't reflect the community's views on Apple. Although there are plenty of people who don't like Apple products, and some who have had bad experiences with Apple, those are the exception, not the rule. As you see from our heavy coverage of Apple – in particular our aggressive coverage of OS X Lion -- we consider Apple and its products to be important topics for news, reviews, how tos, tips, and debate. BYTE strives for authority above all, in keeping with the highest journalistic standards. That standard was not met here. Well done, BYTE. And welcome back. (I'm personally happy to see sci-fi legend Jerry Pournelle back in the saddle at Chaos Manor.) [via Daring Fireball]
Screenshot roundup: The Settlers
With my undying love for Age of Empires: Age of Kings and good impressions of the small build I saw for Panzer Tactics at E3, I'm full of anticipation for Blue Byte's The Settlers. I feel it my duty to report to you fine readers that a new batch of screenshots for the game have been posted up at Gamespot. The images show several different locales and some of the stat-tracking of the game through its graphs.So while The Settlers is a real-time strategy game where Age of Empires and Panzer Tactics are both turn-based, some fans firmly aligned with one side might not be so willing to see what the other has to offer. Regardless, the DS, with its touchscreen capabilities and wonderfully-portable nature, is perfect for these types of games and we would love to see them keep on coming.
