#and adobe isn’t getting a monthly subscription from me sorry

[ophernelia]

anyone have a link to acquire photoshop? i wanna try it out.

[chipotle]

The revolution will have a monthly subscription

Introducing the first iteration of the Apple TV with an app store, Tim Cook (in)famously declared, “We believe the future of TV is apps.” The Apple TV stands out from its competitors for only two things: the App Store, and a much more powerful CPU than its competitors. So it’s safe to say that Apple genuinely does believe this is the future of TV.

It’s also safe to say, though, that it doesn’t appear to be panning out. Pretty much nobody buys Apple TVs for much other than what other streaming boxes do.1 We’re watching Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Amazon Prime. (Well, we will be watching Prime. Later. Theoretically.)

What we want from TV is—sorry for the buzzword—content. In practice, it doesn’t matter how we get Game of Thrones or Star Trek: Discovery as long as we can get it easily on demand. Apps are arguably less help than hindrance. Imagine having a storefront that had all the shows, and we just paid per episode or per season for permanent access to our favorite shows–we could stream them or download them. Wouldn’t that be much better?

Ha ha! I’m pulling a fast one on you. Sorry. We had that from Apple and Amazon by the mid-2000s. Have you ever bought a TV show on iTunes? No? Yes, but only because it wasn’t available on Netflix? Once we got “all you can eat” streaming for $10–12 a month, we all said fuck this à la carte thing. We’ll just wait for all the networks and all the studios to put all the things on Netflix. Everybody wins!

But studios don’t make as much selling to Netflix as they used to in old syndication deals. They make a lot less. So what are they going to do? Start their own streaming service. Yay! You know Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, and HBO Go/Now. Maybe you know Walmart’s me-too Vudu service. And you’ve recently heard Trek nerds bitch about CBS All Access. But there’s also Crunchyroll, Feeln, Acorn TV, Filmstruck, BritBox, Shudder, Screambox, Youtube Red, and others that I’m certainly forgetting–and that’s without counting the “cable replacement” services like Sling Orange, PlayStation Vue and Hulu Live. Disney is gearing up for their service, with plans to pull their stuff off other streaming services. And there’s whatever the hell Apple is doing.2

“But nobody’s going to subscribe to all those streaming services!” Not if you’re already paying $100+ a month for cable before you add any streaming services, no. But imagine a world (it’s easy if you try) in which you’re only paying, say, $50 a month for network access with no bundled television. All your shows now come from streaming services. So the chances are you’re going to end up subscribing to more than just Netflix and one other.

If you look at cord cutting as a money-saving move, this sounds depressing: it’s painting a picture of a future where the money you save by going data-only gets eaten up by streaming services. Well, true. But now you’re paying for everything on demand, in most cases commercial-free. Honestly, that’s still a win.

“Okay, but even if you get me to pay for five or six services, you listed eighteen services and claimed you were probably forgetting some. That is not gonna happen.” No, it isn’t. Most of those services aren’t going to survive long-term. They’re going to merge with other services or just quietly vanish. (SeeSo, we hardly knew yeeso.) But streaming video will likely never consolidate to a point where you can get every show you want by ponying up for one or two big names.

Is this just about money? Is it just greed that stops networks and studios from making it easier on all us consumers by just putting everything on Netflix or Hulu? Sort of. But it’s also about control.

Giant aggregators kind of reverse the way we think of monopolies working: instead of giant companies gaining control over a market and gouging consumers at retail, they lower retail prices and deliver the real pain to the suppliers. Walmart is the original giant aggregator, and it’s not hard to find stories of companies driven to bankruptcy by “success” selling through them. Twenty-First Century Walmart, Amazon, is remarkably cavalier about counterfeiters selling physical goods on their site. And you don’t have to be on the take from Penguin Random House to wonder whether it’s particularly healthy for self-publishers to rely on Amazon for three-quarters or more of their sales. If they decide they’d rather only give “indies” a 50% cut of the cover price instead of 70%, well, what are you gonna do about it? Pray they don’t alter the deal any further.3

The music industry still blames Apple’s iTunes ecosystem for destroying the once-lucrative CD market. So it’s not surprising that studios have decided that if on-demand streaming was truly going to be the future of television, they did not, in fact, want to chill with Netflix. Think about streaming music: artists say that unless they’re Taylor Swift, they’re making bupkis from Spotify, yet Spotify pays out so much for music that they’re still not profitable. These sound mutually exclusive, but they’re not: Spotify and friends should have charged $15 or $20 a month for unlimited music streaming, not $10.

Does that mean that Netflix should be charging us more than $9.99 $10.99? If they wanted to be the video version of Spotify, yes. But they don’t: they want to be a network. Amazon wants to be a network. Hulu wants to be a network. Apple (probably) wants to be a network. CBS wants to remain a network.

And at the end of the day, that’s what this boils down to: video streaming services aren’t the new airwaves, they’re the new networks. And since we’ve pretty much all collectively decided we can’t stand commercial breaks–how we “paid” for most network programming for sixty-odd years–we’re going to end up paying those networks directly.

So the future of TV is not apps–the future of TV is, just like the past of TV, networks. The key shift is a move from an advertising-supported model to consumers paying the networks directly.4

But will this future last as long as what it’s replacing? The network-and-affiliate broadcast model has been with us for nearly a century, predating television itself. That’s a lot harder to say. The model definitely needs tweaks–streaming services need to stop treating their metadata as proprietary secret sauce and let companies building streaming appliances build comprehensive cross-service program guides, for a start. But it seems to me like this future, even if it’s not precisely the one we wanted, has legs.

It’s much less clear to me whether this model will work well for software, as more and more programs take cues from Adobe and Microsoft and move toward subscription models. That, however, is another post.

The Apple TV is arguably most of the way to being a solid “casual” game console, but it’s become clear that Apple has no idea how to make it attractive to either developers or consumers in that space. ↩

I suspect Jason Snell is correct: Apple will take an “HBO approach…offering a dozen original series and a curated collection of films and classic TV shows.” ↩

This is what much of Amazon’s stock price was historically based on: investors bet they would do exactly what Walmart did. That this hasn’t come to pass may well be due to Amazon Web Services becoming the company’s biggest revenue driver. ↩

Advertising-supported services that are free to watch will stick around, but there’s a strong antipathy toward services with monthly bills and ads. I doubt that “blended” model will be with us long-term. ↩

[xxx-startupcreditcard-com]

Brex Visa: The Best Business Credit Card?

hey credit Warriors a credit surfer here and today we are looking at this new business charge card in fact it's not new but they have brought in a new rewards program on it and it is called Breck's and to me that sounds kind of like it should be a breakfast cereal or maybe an even more abbreviated way of talking about Britain leaving the EU I don't know but anyway it's called Breck's it's aimed at startups probably aimed at Millennials you know Casey Neistat type people look is that a boosted board anyway so it's called Breck's it's a corporate charge card it's a visa and it actually earns 7x points per dollar back on ride share and taxi services which is really cool and there isn't any other card in business or in personal that earns that kind of rate on ride share or taxis so that's that's pretty cool and then 3x back per dollar on travel 3x back at restaurants and 2x on recurring software payments so things like QuickBooks software or myself our company is signed up to Adobe Creative Cloud where we have to pay monthly for Adobe Premiere and Photoshop and all the other software as well which is what we use to edit these videos so that would definitely be useful for some businesses now we will talk a little bit more about the points and what they're worth a little bit later on in the video and but well first of all just go into a little bit more detail about the card itself so the brics card uses an EIN for the application that's your employer identification number that if you set up a company you will have so you do need that for the IP air for the application this isn't like you can use your personal SSN for it in fact they don't even ask your SSN because this card does not have a personal guarantee if you don't know what that is some business cards require a personal guarantee in addition to your company you know kind of guaranteeing that they will pay so if your company goes bankrupt or doesn't pay they can come after you personally and you're personally liable for that debt this doesn't have that it's just your company that is liable and so there's no credit check for the application but what they do instead it's a little bit like the petal card which is a personal card they get you to sign into your bank account through their website and they basically get read-only access to your business bank account and they analyze your transactions look at how much cash you have in reserve and from that they decide on you know the success of your application and what your credit limit will be etc so there's actually no credit check for this card but it will help you build credit they report through the Experian Bureau experience business credit bureau and so you your company's on time payments so you will actually build your credit through having this car there's no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees and actually basically no fees at all no late fees or anything because you do have to pay your balance every month that is a charge card remember not a credit card and you actually have to enroll in automatic bill pay so that that money comes out of your account automatically the first five cars are free so the primary card and the employee cards and you can actually set spending limits on employee cards which is pretty useful just in case you have an employee that goes AWOL with your card or something right and then after five cards there's a $5 a month fee per card for any extra employee cards you want to have after that so I think this is going to be more suitable for smaller businesses and as they start to expand you might want to look at other options because then you're gonna have to start paying for these cards but actually five dollars per month is still not that higher fee you're talking about $60.00 per year per employee card there are a few prohibited industries for example marijuana even in states where it's legal prostitution and escort services I mean that probably goes without saying gambling companies involved with gambling can't have a breast card and then also get-rich-quick schemes sorry Tai Lopez multi-level marketing that kind of thing they don't want companies doing that to have Breck's cards either now we're gonna get into talking about the signup bonus and this is quite cool so the Breck's card doesn't offer a signup bonus in the same way that other business cards do where they would give you say like a $500 statement credit or a certain number of points like 50,000 points in you know whatever they actually give you a load of deals when you sign up so for example you get a $5,000 credit for Amazon Web Services you get 15% off of we work us office location for the first six months there's also 25% off of sales for software subscriptions etcetera and actually bricks say that these credits value up to twenty five thousand dollars and that's if you take advantage of all of them okay so the average business probably won't take advantage of all of that but even if you take twenty percent say you would be saving five thousand dollars so this actually really could be a very useful thing for businesses that are just setting up renting their first office you get 15% off for six months so it could really lower your startup costs for new businesses and so that's pretty cool now let's get into talking about the points currency that the Breck's card earns and this is very new the points were just introduced like today or yesterday so they're just worth one cent per piece um so it's not really as competitive as say chase Ultimate Rewards points or Amex points or whatever and they can just be redeemed for statement credits on your car okay so you can't transfer them to Airlines or whatever so those earning categories start to not look quite as impressive except for the rise share plus taxis category 7x per dollar even if you account for the value of points there aren't really other cards that can match it but when you use the Breck's card you will want to consider the value of points versus other business cards and if you have other business cards so if you think about the chase ink preferred it owns 3x on travel well the Breck's card also earns 3x on travel but the chase ink preferred it's worth one point two five cents through the portal or if you transfer to sapphire reserve it's one point five cents through the portal or if you transfer to Airlines potentially it's two cents or more and that you could get back in value so you want to consider which points are earned more and in this case 3x 3x they both found 3x on travel but the ink preferred would be the better card to go through however for ride share and taxis I think the Breck's is taking the crown here so it would be really good for a company that has a lot of you know rideshare spending you know going to see clients and all that kind of stuff so that would be beneficial now there's just one more thing I want to talk about before we get into the conclusion and that is the fact that you can scan receipts and import them into the account and then they will automatically match with transactions on your account so you don't have to manually match receipts now Brett's say that this is something that's kind of unique to them whether that's truly the case or not I'm not quite sure but anyway they say that it's their technology that scans the receipt really well and can seamlessly match it to transactions and then it connects with QuickBooks it can connect with other business software so get rid of the hassle so a lot of the angle on this is sort of like getting rid of hassle making it convenient for you making it convenient to get the card for businesses that have an established credit but do have positive cash flow all that kind of thing and this is linking into my conclusions so like we saw with the petal card it's a credit card for people with no credit it uses a soft sorry read-only access of your bank account to you no confirm the application this is the same sort of thing so it's a very sort of thin techy kind of thing you know FinTech financial technology this Breck's obviously it's kind of a technology company in addition to being a credit card company because they're coming up with technological solutions for financial problems okay like using the read-only access of your bank account instead of a hard credit inquiry for the application for example and all their technology associated with scanning receipts importing that and all that kind of stuff so to me I think it's quite a fresh look at a business credit card the fact that there's no personal guarantee I think is a big plus because once you you know you start growing your business you do at a time want to start separating your personal and business finances and many small business cards that don't allow you to do that so that's definitely a big plus and I also think it would be a great card for companies that are kind of like just starting out and they want to rent their first office so you get 15% off of we work offices for the first six months that's great and all those other things Amazon Web Services etc if you use that QuickBooks and stuff into it software like it could really lower your startup costs for many small businesses so it gets a thumbs up from me guys leave your comments below what do you think about this card do you think it's a winner or do you think it's all hype I know probably on the earning points section it's not that great except for the 7 percent cash back on right yep all right guys leave your comments below we'll also put some of our favorite business credit cards in the links below if you are considering a business credit card do have a browse of what's on offer and if you do use our links it helps out our show so we thank you very much if you do please subscribe more content like this almost every day we'll see you next time

https://youtu.be/fkN2NuOrQCM

[zarahoffman]

We Try the 4 Instagram Filter Apps That Fashion Bloggers Love

If a picture says a thousand words, then we reckon the average Instagram feed would spill the beans on all manner of clever photo editing software: From multilayered filters and airbrushing to clever cropping, #nofilter just isn't going to cut it any more. As the selfie generation comes of age, we're often moving past the simplicity of standard Insta filters (sorry, Juno, and farewell, Ludwig) and entering the age of high-tech apps where any teen with an iPhone can edit their pics to a professional standard. Filters are big business—just look at the high-profile bloggers selling their own bespoke filters to adoring fans. Clearly, people are willing to fork out to achieve that picture-perfect selfie. In light of this, we decided to conduct an Instagram survey to find out what your favourite photo-editing apps are and test them out for ourselves—as well as pinpoint the one worth using directly through Insta. Scroll down to discover which ones came out on top.

"I love VSCO because I don't want to spend hours editing. It's such an easy way to get your images and feed looking polished and uniform in a few easy steps," explains Georgie Hyatt. "I usually use C8 toned down to around halfway, as it gives my images a warmth and takes my pink skin undertone away! I want my pics to be bright, warm and happy."

Verdict: VSCO was by far one of the most popular apps, so I was intrigued to try it. I found it very user-friendly (even for a photo app–novice like me) with the editing options laid out clearly. The only downside was the sheer volume of filters, which felt a little overwhelming. I did, however, like its C9 filter the most out of all the apps I tried.

"Afterlight is super versatile and user-friendly," says Abi Hoffman. "Personally, I use it mainly for the 'dust' filters and the individual colour saturation tool that I use to avoid colours that may not fit my feed."

Verdict: You have to pay for Afterlight, which inevitably sets the bar higher in terms of expectation. However, I was suitably impressed by the concise selection of filters, alongside the more unusual effects such as 'dust,' 'light' and 'colour shift,' which yielded satisfyingly strong results. Perfect for if you want that slightly filmic quality.

"Lightroom is my all-time favourite. I love how it allows you to play with light, colours and their different shades," says Milla Kuoksa. "The app version is super handy for editing quickly on the go."

Verdict: Adobe Lightroom runs on a monthly subscription service, however, it's possible to download for a week's free trial. The app definitely felt more specialist than the others, as it offers both filters and more in-depth manual editing options, using a mixture of the manual sharpening and saturation tools. I enjoyed playing around with the contrast, lighting and exposure etc., but overall it felt a little overcomplicated for my liking.

"I use Snapseed on all my Instagram photos," says Santina Harrison. "I use it to create a warm orange tone using the exposure brush as well as creating sharp clean lines using the sharpen tool."

Verdict: Snapseed was another great app for usability. Its standard "looks" filters were a little underwhelming, however, I was impressed by the "tools" tab, which included fun options such as "vintage" (tinted, colour-fade effect), "drama" (more dramatic finishes) and "portrait" (all you need for a picture-perfect selfie).

Verdict: Just for the sake of fairness, I thought I would pitch one of Instagram's standard filters against the newer photo editing apps. I used Aden on this picture and, in all honesty, I was just as pleased with the results. However, it depends what you're editing, as different images need different options—for example, a landscape will need a different set of tools than a selfie. It's best to try each one and match the app to your needs.

Up Next: We have spotted more than 30 influencers wearing this one bag today.

source https://www.whowhatwear.co.uk/celebrities-instagram-filters-most-flattering-2015