ByteDance’s video editing app CapCut will stop offering free cloud storage to host creative assets starting August 5.
In the past few days, users have received notifications about CapCut changing its terms for the free tier. Until now, the company used to have 1 GB of free cloud storage — this is going away. You will now have to pay for cloud storage on CapCut.
I’ll possibly be using capcut for the final time before this change begins.
I haven’t got money to be paying for a subscription because I have important things to pay for.
Gotta try to find another video editing app that isn’t going to charge for storage.
Such an L @capcutapp pic.twitter.com/lJeRpKPgAl
— Jay. (@TheeQueenJay1) July 8, 2024
CapCut offers a $2.49 per month plan for 100GB storage and a $7.49 per month plan for 1000GB storage. This means creators will need to buy extra space or share their files through another cloud service provider.
The app also offered up to five collaborators on one account with the free tier — it is now reducing that limit to two people.
“From August 5th, users will be able to add one collaborator to their CapCut account for free. If users want to collaborate with more people, CapCut offers the Team Tier package, which allows CapCut users to collaborate with more user accounts to use the same cloud space,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.
Earlier this year, YouTube made its CapCut rival Create app available in 13 more markets including Brazil, Spain, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.
ByteDance’s video editing app CapCut will stop offering free cloud storage to host creative assets starting August 5.
In the past few days, users have received notifications about CapCut changing its terms for the free tier. Until now, the company used to have 1 GB of free cloud storage — this is going away. You will now have to pay for cloud storage on CapCut.
I’ll possibly be using capcut for the final time before this change begins.
I haven’t got money to be paying for a subscription because I have important things to pay for.
Gotta try to find another video editing app that isn’t going to charge for storage.
Such an L @capcutapp pic.twitter.com/lJeRpKPgAl
— Jay. (@TheeQueenJay1) July 8, 2024
CapCut offers a $2.49 per month plan for 100GB storage and a $7.49 per month plan for 1000GB storage. This means creators will need to buy extra space or share their files through another cloud service provider.
The app also offered up to five collaborators on one account with the free tier — it is now reducing that limit to two people.
“From August 5th, users will be able to add one collaborator to their CapCut account for free. If users want to collaborate with more people, CapCut offers the Team Tier package, which allows CapCut users to collaborate with more user accounts to use the same cloud space,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.
Earlier this year, YouTube made its CapCut rival Create app available in 13 more markets including Brazil, Spain, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.
Federal safety regulators have opened an investigation into Ford’s hands-free driver-assistance system, BlueCruise, after it was found to be active during two recent crashes that killed multiple people.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said on Monday that it has confirmed BlueCruise was active in both crashes. One of the crashes happened in February in Texas, and the other occurred in early April in Pennsylvania. They are the first known fatalities resulting from crashes involving the use of BlueCruise.
The investigation into the two crashes ratchets up the scrutiny on BlueCruise, which is currently available on the Mustang Mach-E, and certain Ford F-150s (including the Lightning), Explorers and Expeditions. The National Transportation Safety Board has already opened an investigation into the Texas crash. Ford said in a statement that it is “working with NHTSA to support its investigation.”
The new probe comes just days after ODI closed its most high-profile driver-assistance investigation to date. The safety agency initially opened an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot in 2021 after multiple reports of Teslas crashing into stationary emergency vehicles while the drivers were using Autopilot. In closing the investigation, the ODI said last week that it determined a “critical safety gap between drivers’ expectations of [Autopilot’s] operating capabilities and the system’s true capabilities” created “foreseeable misuse and avoidable crashes.”
Ford announced BlueCruise in 2021. It is only available on pre-mapped highways, and Ford pairs it with a camera-based driver monitoring system that checks whether drivers’ eyes are still on the road when the system is active. Those represent much tighter constraints on the system than Tesla puts on the use of Autopilot.
Still, while BlueCruise is highly rated by some, including Consumer Reports, the recent crashes and resulting investigations suggest there may be a more fundamental problem with advanced driver-assistance systems than some of these companies are willing to admit.
Note: This story has been updated to include a response from Ford.
Broadcasting company Sinclair recently sold off its free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service STIRR to Thinking Media, a startup that provides cloud-based streaming solutions for FAST and over-the-top (OTT) services. The new owners have ambitious plans for the streamer, including an international expansion, tripling its on-demand content library and becoming an AI-native streamer with advanced search capabilities.
Cord Cutters News broke the news of the deal, which officially closed two weeks ago. The acquisition comes amid a rise in FAST (free ad-supported streaming) viewership among users looking to save money as more premium streamers raise their subscription prices. According to Samba TV, one in three U.S. users subscribed to FAST services in 2023.
When Sinclair launched STIRR in 2019, the service had over 100 free, ad-supported live TV channels and more than 5,000 hours of TV shows and movies. As of this writing, the live channels have been removed from the streaming platform, but there’s still on-demand content.
STIRR is getting triple the amount of on-demand content in the next few months, Thinking Media founders Todd Carter (CEO) and Scott Schlichter (president) told TechCrunch.
“The only thing that we did not bring over for a variety of reasons are the local stations that Sinclair took from their station group,” Schlichter said, who is the founder of digital talent and brand agency Dogma Studios. “But we have a big interest in local, we have a big interest in news . . . We are exploring that actively and trying to build that back up. From a linear standpoint, you’re going to see very familiar content to what was there before.”
The company is currently renegotiating many of the former content licensing deals, so by the end of March, viewers should start to see a lot of titles return to STIRR, as well as brand-new content.
Image Credits: STIRR
STIRR is adding more niche categories in order to target a broader audience. By June, STIRR will add categories such as travel and exploration, fitness and wellness, cooking, automotive, technology and innovation, fashion, home improvement and DIY, education, gaming, and news and opinion, among others. STIRR’s catalog is relatively bare at the moment, featuring only a few genres like adventure, comedy, documentaries, drama, horror, mystery, sports and kids’ content.
“If you think about the TV market today, it tends to be one size fits all, and they tend to target a small number of very large, general audiences. We’re interested in a very large number of smaller niche intent-oriented audiences,” Carter, who previously co-founded technology and media company SEEEN, said.
Thinking Media is also working on getting international rights to support its growth plans. For the first and second quarters of 2024, STIRR is set to expand to the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. It will also launch Spanish-language content and programming in LatAm territories.
STIRR is currently available on the web, Apple TV, iOS, and Android devices worldwide. It’ll soon roll out to other smart TV platforms like Tizen, Amazon Fire, and Roku once “the transfer to those app store accounts from Sinclair Broadcast Group to Thinking Media is completed,” the company said.
“[STIRR has] 8.5 to 10 million installs across all the major platforms. We want to embrace that and make sure you realize this is still home and that we’re going to bring you the content that you want and we’re going to add to that and provide new features that we think you’ll enjoy,” Schlichter added.
Image Credits: Screenshot of STIRR.com
In addition to content, Thinking Media also plans to integrate its proprietary features into the platform, starting with “Key Video Moments,” which addresses second-screen behavior by turning mobile phones into a companion device. Specifically, bringing search engine results to STIRR.
“We’re talking about syncing; having your mobile phone and your television in sync while you’re watching,” Schlichter said, using the popular competition show “Hell’s Kitchen” as an example. By bringing a web user experience to STIRR, viewers could simultaneously look up a recipe while watching their favorite chef.
“If you’re a fan of a show and you want to somehow get more involved with that show, there’s no way to do that on any existing platform . . . you are off to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Discord or Reddit, but not [the streaming service]. And that’s where this idea of TV web integration and user journeys comes in,” Carter said.
“Key Video Moments” is also partially a social feature, Carter added. Viewers can share their findings on social media and messaging platforms.
STIRR’s UI is simpler than its FAST competitors, so introducing innovative features will hopefully give the service a new lease on life.
“There’s this incredible opportunity to think of STIRR as a lab for TV web innovation . . . for us to build on what Sinclair Broadcast Group created and take it to the next step,” Carter added.
Thinking Media has already made other tech enhancements to STIRR’s platform, including replacing its video player with a new “interactive” one that streams HLS (HTTP live streaming) and ultra-low latency, primed for “synchronized audiences,” explained Carter. There’s also WebRTC support, which leads us to believe that STIRR will eventually have a live chat function.
Additionally, the company swapped out the entire back end, which is now based on a content data graph, similar to Google’s Knowledge Graph, as it brings together data from various sources.
TV broadcaster Sinclair launches STIRR, a free streaming service with local news and sports
GM is expanding access to Super Cruise with plans to let drivers use the hands-free advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) on about 750,000 miles of roads in the United States and Canada. The expansion, which will nearly double the automaker’s Super Cruise network by 2025, will include rural and minor highways that often connect smaller cities and townships.
The upgrade comes as automakers are increasingly pushing the boundaries of advanced driver-assistance systems in a bid to attract customers and generate revenue beyond vehicle sales.
Super Cruise uses a combination of lidar map data, high-precision GPS, cameras and radar sensors, as well as a driver-attention system, which monitors the person behind the wheel to ensure they’re watching the road. When the system is activated, it will accelerate or brake to maintain a selected following distance from a vehicle ahead, steer to keep its lane position, and make automatic change lanes to pass slower traffic. Drivers will have the ability to deploy the system while towing a trailer as well. The automatic lane change is not available while trailering, the company said.
The expanded Super Cruise network will not be accessible to owners of the Cadillac CT6, Chevrolet Bolt EUV and Cadillac XT6, according to the company.
Unlike Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assistance system, users of Super Cruise do not need to have their hands on the wheel. However, their eyes must be directed straight ahead. Ford offers a competing hands-free system called Blue Cruise that launched in 2021.
Super Cruise launched in 2017 as the industry’s first true hands-free ADAS on the market. However, GM wasn’t viewed as a dominant player — despite the capability of the system — because it severely limited access to Super Cruise. For three years, the system was only available on one model, the Cadillac CT6, and was restricted to certain divided highways.
The automaker has slowly expanded its Super Cruise highway network as well, first growing to 200,000 miles and then doubling it to 400,000 in 2022. GM has also added the system to more brands and models. Today, 15 vehicles globally have Super Cruise, including the Chevy Bolt EUV, Chevy Suburban, Chevy Tahoe and Chevy Silverado, the GM Hummer EV SUV and all Cadillac models. The Super Cruise with trailering feature will be offered in new models like the 2024 Chevrolet Traverse or 2024 GMC Acadia
As GM crept forward, Tesla gained followers largely due to accessibility. Tesla made its Autopilot system standard in all of its vehicles and drivers could access it on all highways. The automaker’s upgraded systems, namely the $12,000 Full Self-Driving software, has added capabilities and can even be used on city streets.
Image Credits: Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services
Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary AWS has revealed that it will allow customers to transfer their data out of its ecosystem with no so-called “egress fees” attached.
The news follows some two months after Google announced similar plans, though in Google’s case as the third-biggest player in the public cloud triopoly after AWS and Microsoft, it was heavily incentivized to “lead by example” — if it’s cheaper to leave AWS or Azure entirely, then a company might just be more inclined to jump ship to Google Cloud.
However, these decisions also follow provisions set out in the European Data Act which came into force in January, designed to promote competition by allowing cloud customers to switch providers more easily — either to an entirely different cloud; through adopting a multi-cloud approach; or pulling all their data back in-house to an on-premises infrastructure.
While AWS already allowed customers to transfer up to 100GB of data per month off its servers for free, this won’t be enough to cover larger companies looking to “lift and shift” their entire data stores to another provider — and that is what is effectively changing for AWS customers as of today.
It’s also worth noting that while the European Data Act is entirely concerned with promoting competition in Europe, AWS’s move applies to its operations globally (similar to Google’s announcement earlier this year).
Companies that want to move their data off of AWS are requested to contact AWS, which will then apparently issue credits for the data being migrated. Though in a blog post announcing the changes, AWS principal developer advocate Sébastien Stormacq says that he “sincerely hopes you do not.”
Microsoft will likely follow suit now that Google and AWS have announced these plans — TechCrunch has reached out for comment, and will update when (or if) we hear back.
It’s not clear what today’s news means with regards to the U.K.’s ongoing antitrust probe into cloud lock-in practices. A major facet of that probe was on egress fees, and assuming that Microsoft joins its two rivals in making this change, then that will be one less thing to worry regulators.
That said, there are other factors at play here. Another issue identified by the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was interoperability, concerning areas where cloud companies design their products to not play nicely with rival services. Removing fees doesn’t necessarily remove “technical barriers to switching,” as the CMA calls it — so there could be some regulatory headwinds still to come.
Image Credits: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP / Getty Images
DISH-owned streaming service Sling TV announced today the launch of its new gaming platform called “Arcade,” featuring classic arcade games like Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Sweet Sugar, Solitaire Clash, Poker Online and Doodle Jump, among others.
Notably, the experience is free for Sling TV and Sling Freestream customers, and they can play games on a split-screen while simultaneously watching live TV content — providing entertainment during commercial breaks. Sling TV also allows users to expand to full screen to have a more immersive playing experience. Meanwhile, Netflix’s and YouTube’s gaming offerings are only for paid subscribers.
Sling TV says that 10 games will be available at launch. New titles are to be added every few months, including Astroids and other titles, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch. Sling will also introduce new games before big events like football season.
The current game selection is thanks to Sling’s partnership with Play.Works, a connected-TV games provider that distributes games on more than 200 million televisions, and has teamed up with various major TV companies like Comcast, Cox, Samsung, Vizio and more. Sling didn’t say if it would partner with other gaming companies to expand its gaming library, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it did. There’s also a possibility that Sling acquires independent studios and developers. When Netflix launched games in 2021, the streaming giant went on a buying spree as part of its gaming push, acquiring six companies to help build out its collection of titles.
“We are exploring all possibilities to bring our customers the broadest game catalog and the best gaming experience possible,” the spokesperson told us.
Arcade is currently only on Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Sling is adding support for more devices in the next month, including most smart TVs. However, the spokesperson said the company couldn’t share a specific date for when it’ll be available for Apple TV and Roku.
In recent years, Sling has struggled to keep subscribers, but Arcade could set the streamer apart from competitors as it offers unique and interactive entertainment for users. Dish, which recently merged with EchoStar, reported a loss of 65,000 Sling TV subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2023, bringing the total to 2.06 million. It lost 77,000 subs in the same period a year prior.
“Sling is now more than just TV,” Gary Schanman, group president of DISH Video Services, said in an official statement. “We want people to enjoy their entertainment just as much as we do. The new Arcade offering combines some great classic games with our great TV programming. No other streaming platform gives you access to more entertainment options for free.”
Updated 3/7/24 at 12:10 p.m. ET with comments from the company.
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Federal safety regulators have opened an investigation into Ford’s hands-free driver-assistance system, BlueCruise, after it was found to be active during two recent crashes that killed multiple people.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said on Monday that it has confirmed BlueCruise was active in both crashes. One of the crashes happened in February in Texas, and the other occurred in early April in Pennsylvania. They are the first known fatalities resulting from crashes involving the use of BlueCruise.
The investigation into the two crashes ratchets up the scrutiny on BlueCruise, which is currently available on the Mustang Mach-E, and certain Ford F-150s (including the Lightning), Explorers and Expeditions. The National Transportation Safety Board has already opened an investigation into the Texas crash. Ford said in a statement that it is “working with NHTSA to support its investigation.”
The new probe comes just days after ODI closed its most high-profile driver-assistance investigation to date. The safety agency initially opened an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot in 2021 after multiple reports of Teslas crashing into stationary emergency vehicles while the drivers were using Autopilot. In closing the investigation, the ODI said last week that it determined a “critical safety gap between drivers’ expectations of [Autopilot’s] operating capabilities and the system’s true capabilities” created “foreseeable misuse and avoidable crashes.”
Ford announced BlueCruise in 2021. It is only available on pre-mapped highways, and Ford pairs it with a camera-based driver monitoring system that checks whether drivers’ eyes are still on the road when the system is active. Those represent much tighter constraints on the system than Tesla puts on the use of Autopilot.
Still, while BlueCruise is highly rated by some, including Consumer Reports, the recent crashes and resulting investigations suggest there may be a more fundamental problem with advanced driver-assistance systems than some of these companies are willing to admit.
Note: This story has been updated to include a response from Ford.
Two years after announcing plans, Amazon’s highly awaited e-commerce entry into sub-Saharan Africa has finally come to pass. On Tuesday, the tech giant launched its marketplace in South Africa.
South Africa is the e-commerce giant’s first marketplace in the sub-Saharan region (it already has an operation out of Egypt following the acquisition of Souq in 2017), and it will be going head-to-head in the country with local players like Takealot (majority-owned by media giant Naspers), Makro, and Bob Group’s bidorbuy to tap what is estimated to be e-commerce revenue worth $3 billion annually.
But notably, Amazon is launching in South Africa without its famous Prime membership program. That means no media services, no Prime-only service tiers like free shipping for a large trove of items, and no sticky tool to get people returning to its site again and again over other buying options (and paying Amazon for the privilege).
We have contacted Amazon to ask about when, or if, it is likely to add Prime in the region and we will update this post as we learn more. [Amazon declined to comment on whether it has plans to launch a Prime offering in the country, and it declined to comment on the roadmap for Nigeria.]
The service e-commerce giant said that initially it plans to sell international brands and local products spanning some 20 product categories. Amazon will offer same-day and next-day delivery as well as 3,000 pickup points, and without the Prime perk of free delivery on a wide range of items, to bring in customers, Amazon is offering free delivery for anyone’s first order as well as subsequent orders exceeding R500 (~$27).
It’s unclear how much the market in the country currently wants or needs another player — and one that is parachuting in from the U.S., at that. Local e-commerce entrepreneurs, however, are seeing it as a strong signal about the overall strength of the country’s e-commerce market, which wobbled globally after peak usage during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Competition is above all good news, as it validates the opportunity of African e-commerce and helps to grow the market. South Africa is however a very specific market, different from most African countries, with mature retail networks, stable supply and very competitive e-commerce space,” Francis Dufay, Jumia CEO, said to TechCrunch about Amazon’s arrival.
Nevertheless, the debut has been a long time coming: Amazon had first said it would launch on the continent two years ago, in two countries, Nigeria and South Africa. That in itself appeared to be building on Amazon putting South Africa and the wider continent of Africa into sharper focus overall: In 2020, it had announced its first AWS region for the continent, also out of South Africa.
But in the wake of that announcement, Amazon pushed back its launch dates for both. South Africa was originally supposed to debut in April 2023. That was then postponed to October 2023, but that month, it only started to onboard independent sellers in the country, and it was still making hires in merchant development, software development, and operations.
Meanwhile, its Nigerian launch, slated for February 2023, has also been put on hold, and the company has yet to give an update on when that might open for business.
Image Credits: Amazon
The opportunity, however, is clear. Africa as a continent is still very much in the early stages when it comes to digital commerce, and while that might mean significantly more challenges in ironing out supply chains and logistics, and changing consumer habits by getting more consumers converted to selecting and paying for goods online, it represents significantly more growth potential than other, more mature markets for the company.
“We are excited to launch Amazon.co.za, along with thousands of independent sellers in South Africa. We provide customers with great value, broad selection — including international and local products — and a convenient delivery experience,” said Robert Koen, managing director of sub-Saharan Africa, Amazon, in a statement. “Building a strong relationship with South African brands and businesses — small or large — is incredibly important to us. We want Amazon.co.za to be the place where they can reach millions of customers.”
Amazon’s entry into the South African market introduces competition into an industry largely dominated by Naspers-owned Takealot, which commands nearly half of all online sales in the southern African country. Walmart-owned Massmart is also gearing up for its own e-commerce push. The timing of Amazon’s launch also coincides with a surge in online shopping in South Africa following the pandemic, which has spurred increased investments from retailers in the e-commerce sector.
Updated to note that Amazon already had an e-commerce operation out of Egypt. The South African marketplace is the first in sub-Saharan Africa. Amazon declined to comment on whether it has plans to launch a Prime offering in the country, and it declined to comment on the roadmap for Nigeria.
