YouTube is Now Offering Content Creators Business Loans

YouTube is a phenomenon which has revolutionized people’s viewing habits and provided a legitimate rival to broadcast Television. The service has progressed at a rapid rate and helped forge the careers of internet celebrities like PewDiePie. Initially, the website was created as a networking tool to bring communities together and share hobbies. Although, my viewpoint is a little idealistic. Google’s acquisition of YouTube contained a long-term plan to make the service profitable. Currently, this isn’t the case but it’s certainly turned into a professional organization where serious money can be made from content creators.

Youtube has decided to enter a business relationship with Lending Club to provide the funds to make a professional YouTube channel or take it to the next level. The announcement reads:

“We’ve partnered with Lending Club to provide YouTube Creators a limited finance offer you can put toward building your channel:

• Personal & business loans
• Competitive interest rates
• Funds in your bank account quickly

YouTube exclusive perks:

• Rebate for any origination fees: YouTube will pay back the origination fee, which will be rebated to you by Lending Club.

• Qualify for a 5% loan rebate: If you increase either your channel’s average upload frequency or watch time, in the 12 months after you take out your loan, you’ll get a 5% rebate on the original total loan amount. Find out more.“

This is a terrible move on Google’s part and I’m not convinced a cash injection will help YouTube channels to become successful. Additionally, the revenue streams from smaller channels are tiny, so the length of repayment could be extremely long. I feel a lot of people will just ignore this measure, and proceed without relying on loans. However, it’s concerning because people in desperate situations could take out a loan they cannot pay back. As a result, certain vulnerable individuals might end up in hardship, or being sued by the loan company.

If you want to read more information about this loan scheme, please visit here.

Do you think Google are wrong to partner with a loan company?

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How to Fix Damaged SD Card and Recover Data

Use chkdsk to fix a corrupted SD card without data loss

"chkdsk" command is your first choice for damaged SD card recovery. Requiring no format, it allows you to fix a corrupted SD card without data loss. Now let’s look how it works. (I'm using Windows 7 for this demonstration)

1. Plug in your SD card to your computer with a card reader.

2. Go to the start menu, type in "cmd" in a search bar, hit enter and then you can see something named "cmd. exe" under a list of programs.

3. Right click "cmd. exe" and then you will get the following command windows that allow you to fix your corrupted SD card without format.  

4. Type in "chkdsk /X /f sd card letter:" or "chkdsk sd card letter: /f ", for example,"chkdsk /X /f G:" or "chkdsk h: /f".

Finishing all the steps, Windows will check and fix the file system of the SD card. It usually takes several minutes. After that, if you see "Windows has made corrections to the file system" in the command window, then congratulations! The damaged SD card is successfully fixed and you can access your data with ease. If not, you should try a third-party data recovery software to fix the damaged SD card and get back your data with an efficient damaged SD card recovery.

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Google is improving Play Store with AI powered recommendations and more payment models

Alphabet Inc’s Google is redoubling efforts to help developers of Android mobile apps build their businesses as concerns mount that the app economy has reached saturation. Under the leadership of Sameer Samat, who rejoined Google earlier this year after a spell as president of wearable tech firm Jawbone, the company is sharpening Google Play store recommendations with artificial intelligence and expanding support for various payment platforms, among other initiatives.

Google’s efforts in some way mirror those of arch-rival Apple Inc, which revamped its App Store this year with quicker review times for new apps and an increase in the cut of revenue that goes to developers. Both companies face a chorus of complaints from developers who say they are struggling to stand out in a jam-packed field. Many smartphone users, meanwhile, appear to have tired of downloading apps altogether, especially as messaging services like Snapchat perform more of the functions that once required a separate app.

Games remain a focus of the Google Play store, and Nintendo Co Ltd is building a version of its popular Super Mario Run game for Android, said Samat, who leads product management for the Google Play store. The store is also expanding to new platforms, including wearable devices, virtual reality headsets and Google’s Chromebook laptops. “What we are excited about is giving developers that single entry point for more and more of the computing ecosystem,” said Samat.

Android Wild West

Google has eased the once-complicated process of developing apps for the Play store, said James Knight, a former Google employee who launched Pembroke, a consultancy that helps developers convert Apple-compatible iOS apps to the Android operating system. “The App Store has historically been a little more straightforward, and Android has been a bit more like the Wild West,” he said.

Mirroring the larger smartphone market, the Google Play store sees far more activity by virtue of its placement on the wide range of devices running the Android operating system – but Apple claims more of the profits. The Google Play store accounted for 70 percent of app downloads in the third quarter of this year, but Apple’s App Store logged 65 percent of the revenue, according to App Annie, a mobile analytics firm.

A big part of Google’s new effort involves emerging markets, where Android is stronger relative to the iPhone. The company has steadily expanded its support of direct carrier billing, a popular payment method in emerging markets where consumers often do not have credit cards. Google now offers the payment method in 47 markets. To improve app recommendations for users, the Play store has also made extensive use of machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence that gleans insights from vast troves of data. Google’s Play store and machine learning teams began collaborating three years ago, and a partnership was struck last year with Google Brain, a cutting-edge research project.

The jolt of artificial intelligence is welcome as developers hunt for an audience for their apps, said Greg Cohn, chief executive of Burner, which makes an app that provides temporary phone numbers. “The harsh reality is that there are a few apps that get the vast majority of people’s time and attention,” he said.

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How to deactivate your Facebook account

How to deactivate your account

Deactivating your account temporarily means you have the option to return to Facebook whenever you want.

1. Click the downward arrow at the top right of any Facebook page
2. Select "Settings"
3. Click "Security" in the left column
4. Choose "Deactivate your account", then follow the steps to confirm

If  you deactivate your account your profile won’t be visible to other people on Facebook and people won’t be able to search for you, but some information, such as messages you sent to friends, may still be visible to others.

If decide you'd like to go back to Facebook, you can reactivate your account at any time by logging in with your email and password. Your profile will be restored in its entirety.

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How to permanently delete your Facebook account

How to permanently delete your account

If you don't think you'll use Facebook again, you can request to have your account permanently deleted. However, after an account has been deleted it won't be possible to reactivate your account or retrieve anything you've shared on your profile.

Before you do this, you may want to download a copy of your information from Facebook:

1. Click the downward arrow at the top right of any Facebook page
2. Select "Settings"
3. Click on the link at the bottom of the main menu that says “Download a copy of your Facebook data”.

Then you need to go to https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account, click on "Delete my account", then follow the steps to confirm.

It may take up to 90 days for Facebook to delete all of the things you've posted, like your photos, status updates or other data stored in backup systems. While Facebook is deleting this information, it is inaccessible to other people using the social network.

Some of the things you do on Facebook aren’t stored in your account. For example, a friend may still have messages from you in their inbox. That information will remain even after you delete your account, so you will need to contact the recipients of you want it removed.

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