500px today launched its Prime photo-licensing marketplace to help photographers sell their images and ultimately earn a decent wage.
The service was announced last month, but for its official release 500px has slipped in a huge change related to how much photographers are paid. Instead of 30%, the company has flipped its offer and will giving shutterbugs a 70% cut of each sale instead.
Given that each photo is sold at a flat rate of $250, that bumps up the photographer’s commission from $75 to $175 every time one of their images is licensed. ”We think this is fair,” 500px founder and chief product officer Evgeny Tchebotarev said. “We want to give all photographers, amateur and professional, an opportunity to be fairly compensated for their work.”
500px Prime is still in beta, so for now you’ll need an invite code to sign up and access the site.
Roku has announced a new wireless HDMI dongle that lets users access streaming TV services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer without the need for a separate box.
Revealed today and due to start shipping in the US and Europe from next month, the small device costs around $50/£50 and unlike previous versions integrates an HDMI connector into the unit itself, removing the need for any additional cables. Previous Roku Streaming Sticks required collaboration with device manufacturers to develop them to work with specific models of TV.
As with normal Roku boxes, the new Roku Streaming Stick comes with the familiar Roku controller to allow users to easily navigate the UI and access the Roku Channels Store. However, don’t go expecting the volume socket or motion-controls found on higher-end Roku boxes.
Also like with Roku’s streaming boxes, the iOS and Android apps can be used to navigate and control the Streaming Stick directly from a mobile or tablet. Timed to coincide with the release, there’s also an update for the app that will let users search for specific content but this will be arriving earlier in the US than it will for the UK market, as is often the case.
The company added that app users can also ‘cast’ Netflix, YouTube and personal media from their devices to their TVs too. In time, Roku said it would add additional mobile features such as the ability to cast content from a computer to the TV directly from your mobile but wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how this would work. We’re expecting updates on this issue in “summer or fall”, according to Roku’s Director of Product Marketing Lloyd Klarke.
The release of a new streaming stick might not seem particularly noteworthy, but allowing a product to be retrofitted to slightly older technology potentially opens the door to a huge number of new Roku users – particularly at the lower end of the price scale. The release also dovetails nicely with news that Roku’s first embedded TV products will ship in the US “this Fall” and will come from Hisense and TCL, again showing how the company is looking to embrace markets beyond the reach of a set-top box.
It seems that the company is making some headway too. Klarke told TNW that in 2013 nearly 2 billion hours of content was streamed by Roku users, and that the average platform user streams about 13 hours per week. With the number of ways to access Roku set to increase, we can only see that number set to increase.
Roku has announced a new wireless HDMI dongle that lets users access streaming TV services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer without the need for a separate box.
Revealed today and due to start shipping in the US and Europe from next month, the small device costs around $50/£50 and unlike previous versions integrates an HDMI connector into the unit itself, removing the need for any additional cables. Previous Roku Streaming Sticks required collaboration with device manufacturers to develop them to work with specific models of TV.
As with normal Roku boxes, the new Roku Streaming Stick comes with the familiar Roku controller to allow users to easily navigate the UI and access the Roku Channels Store. However, don’t go expecting the volume socket or motion-controls found on higher-end Roku boxes.
Also like with Roku’s streaming boxes, the iOS and Android apps can be used to navigate and control the Streaming Stick directly from a mobile or tablet. Timed to coincide with the release, there’s also an update for the app that will let users search for specific content but this will be arriving earlier in the US than it will for the UK market, as is often the case.
The company added that app users can also ‘cast’ Netflix, YouTube and personal media from their devices to their TVs too. In time, Roku said it would add additional mobile features such as the ability to cast content from a computer to the TV directly from your mobile but wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how this would work. We’re expecting updates on this issue in “summer or fall”, according to Roku’s Director of Product Marketing Lloyd Klarke.
The release of a new streaming stick might not seem particularly noteworthy, but allowing a product to be retrofitted to slightly older technology potentially opens the door to a huge number of new Roku users – particularly at the lower end of the price scale. The release also dovetails nicely with news that Roku’s first embedded TV products will ship in the US “this Fall” and will come from Hisense and TCL, again showing how the company is looking to embrace markets beyond the reach of a set-top box.
It seems that the company is making some headway too. Klarke told TNW that in 2013 nearly 2 billion hours of content was streamed by Roku users, and that the average platform user streams about 13 hours per week. With the number of ways to access Roku set to increase, we can only see that number set to increase.
The first video of Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana has leaked, courtesy of UnleashThePhones, running on what appears to be a pre-release build of Windows Phone 8.1. Microsoft describes the tool as “a personal assistant on your phone, ready to help with reminders, suggestions, tasks and lots more.” While YouTube user Yash Maheshwari doesn’t say anything, it’s fairly easy to see what he’s testing based on the responses Cortana displays:
We’ve already seen rumors of what Cortana will be able to do, based on leaked screenshots and industry sources, but this is the first time details have shown up on video. Above you can see the initial setup process for Cortana, including the requirement of a Microsoft account, as well as a “quiet hours” option that ensures whether or not Cortana can bother you (it lets you pick which types of notifications are allowed). Most interesting is probably the fact Microsoft has decided it is best to ask the user a set of questions before Cortana can be useful, unlike Apple’s Siri or even Google Now which asks questions after the fact.
Evernote is rolling out an update for its Windows app today that will give users the ability to annotate photos, images and screenshots featured within their notes.
While hovering above an image, Evernote aficionados will notice a new Annotate button in the top right-hand corner of the frame. Once selected, it’ll bring up the Annotation Tool with a range of markup options brought over from its Skitch apps.
These include arrows and other shapes, text notes, stamps and marker pens. Evernote already offers this toolset as part of the Evernote Web Clipper, but should users want to add any additional notes at a later date this should prove useful. Once the user hits Done, the annotated image will automatically replace the original one.
As an aside, Evernote is also promising faster note syncing with its updated Windows app.