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Snapchat Snapchat has partnered with six Australian publishers to produce new shows for its Discover platform. The social media company is working with Pedestrian.TV, LADbible Australia, Tastemade, Little Dot Studios, Banijay, and Totem Network to bring shows, as well as existing TV series, to mobile. Endemol Shine Australia, part of Banijay, will feature key moments from MasterChef Australia to Discover, helping expand the show’s reach to younger viewers. LADbible is working on three original series for Snapchat Discover, including Aussie ASMR and In My Own Words. Also featuring on Discover is Totem Network’s Bondi Rescue, Black As, and Bondi Nation, as well as Little Dot Studios’ Shark Tank Australia, and Tastemade’s Brunch O’Clock and Daily Dose. “It’s great to be partnering with so many fantastic brands to expand Snapchat Discover here in Australia,” says Snap APAC GM Kathryn Carter. “We pioneered vertical video, and so already our audience are used to and expect high quality, engaging, made-for-mobile content about the topics they care about the most. We’re confident these new shows will resonate with our audience both in Australia and with Aussies all over the world. “We’re excited to continue expanding the variety of locally relevant content from iconic brands…

A man from Norwood has been convicted after he filmed himself waving a knife around in a nightclub. Abel Buafo, 23, of Berry Lane, pleaded guilty to possession of a knife, possession of Class A drugs, possession of a Class B drug, possession of criminal property and being concerned in the supply of a Class A drug. It comes after detectives were alerted to Snapchat videos of Buafo at a nightclub on Silver Street in Enfield, where he recorded himself in ‘selfie style’ with a black folding knife on December 22, 2019. Officers reviewed CCTV from the nightclub for the same evening which corroborated the Snapchat footage. Buafo with knife on Snapchat ( Credit: Met Police) The footage showed Buafo dancing and singing while waving the knife around, pointing it at his phone’s camera as well as towards people. The footage also showed Buafo ‘fist bumping’ people while holding the knife. He is seen several times to get the knife out of his pocket and flick it open – at one point he is seen to drop it on the floor before picking it up. In the Snapchat footage, he says he has his ‘blicky at the rave,’ while holding the…

26 minutes ago Mehdi Nitmazi interaction The new feature called “Portrait” in FaceTime on iOS 15 is not exclusive to FaceTime, but can also be used to blur the background in video calls made through other apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, Zoom and other Snapchat. Apple Impact at Your Fingertips for (Almost) Everyone with updates iOS 15 and iPadOS 15Apple brought Portrait-style video to FaceTime on iPhone and iPad, creating attractive background blurring in real-time video chats, as well as several new features like link sharing or simultaneous transmission via SharePlay. When Apple released iOS 15, it didn’t say whether background blur on video calls and microphone recording effects were limited to FaceTime. FaceTime has its own built-in controls for Portrait video. But it turns out that any app that accesses the microphone or the camera can use the audio and video effects of iOS 15. In fact, the controls for the video and audio effects are displayed automatically in the Control Center as soon as the video starts. In Zoom, Snapchat, Instagram and similar apps. While most apps take advantage of these features directly and for free, some will need to be updated to implement the latest SDK from Apple.…

News 12 StaffAug 06, 2021, 9:36pmUpdated on: Aug 06, 2021, 9:36pmA Bridgeport mom says she ended up getting hurt while trying to pull a bunch of kids off her 13-year-old daughter as they were attacking her.The incident happened last week near Tisdale School, where she says dozens of kids had waited around after dismissal from the Lighthouse Summer Program to attack her daughter.The single, working mom says she tried to pull the kids off her daughter but ended up getting punched in the face, leaving her nose fractured in two places.The incident was recorded and posted on Snapchat.She tells News 12 that she called police herself when she found out about the incident. She alleges that the program was aware of a plan by the kids to attack her daughter, and says it could have been prevented.Program officials releasing a statement saying, "These encounters took place after program hours and off program property. After trying unsuccessfully to reach the student's mother, we took the student and her siblings home out of an abundance of caution and concern for her safety. Any incident that may have happened after that point is not related to this program."The Lighthouse Summer Program is not…

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In what seems to be a bit to rebuild the userbase, WhatsApp continues to add features and improve its platform. This time taking aim at bringing some Snapchat users over to the collective. The new feature, rolling out now, simply known as view once photos is pretty self-explanatory. The concept behind implementing it though is well thought out, with a very common use explanation: you might send a View Once photo of some new clothes you’re trying on at a store, a quick reaction to a moment in time, or something sensitive like a Wi-Fi password. While some of these may be items that you’d want to keep longer, but it’s certainly common to send and receive sensitive data on messaging platforms. The feature seems to already be widely available by pressing the button next to send prior to delivering your pictures. Once your message has been viewed, the image will disappear and show simply that it has been opened. It’s a great step forward but is it enough to entice new users over?

In an odd tale, a 17-year-old was reportedly tied up and imprisoned by a 20-year-old man from Cornwall for allegedly stealing drugs. The whole incident was captured on video with the accused allegedly resorting to the measure to teach the victim a lesson.The 17-year-old was reportedly from Ebbw Vale and the incident happened on Feb. 3. The accused was identified as John Lee who was behind the whole thing stemming from a drug dispute.He was wearing a camouflage face mask at the time and even had a 12-inch knife that he held towards the victim’s neck as he tied the teenager’s limbs with duct tape.It appears that Lee carried out the whole thing to teach not only the teenager but others that they should not rob drug dealers. The victim thought he would be killed, asking Lee if he would kill him. There was reportedly another man present during the imprisonment.The whole thing was given proper attention when the 17-year-old went home and appeared highly distressed."It shows the defendant in a distressed state, he's crying and asks repeatedly if is going to kill him. The defendant tells him he won't be killed but his hands will be bound and…

TikTok, the popular short-form video app that’s been widely copied by competing social platforms, may be about to return the favor by itself copying the “stories” vanishing-posts format.The app, owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has kicked off a small pilot test of TikTok Stories in various countries outside the U.S., a company rep said. Like “stories” on other services, TikTok Stories posts expire after a 24-hour period. It may not turn into a permanent feature on TikTok, the rep added.“We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience,” TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Currently we’re experimenting with ways to give creators additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community.”The ephemeral “stories” concept originated on Snapchat, and it was later copied by bigger rivals like Instagram and Facebook. (Twitter also latched onto the idea with Fleets, but it shut the feature down this week after low usage.)At the same time, TikTok has faced a raft copycats to its own short-form social video. Those include Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight and YouTube Shorts. This week, YouTube kicked off a monetization program for Shorts, under which it…

TikTok is testing a new video Stories feature, a format that borrows from Snapchat’s disappearing videos concept and comes just as Twitter shut down its own version called Fleets. On Wednesday, TikTok confirmed that it was running an experiment that gives a subset of its users access to TikTok Stories. A TikTok spokesperson said by email that it was a small test and not widely available. TikTok, the Chinese-owned app, has become a household name in the U.S., where most users share short videos. Most of the videos are served to users through a “For You” page, chosen by an algorithm that is finely tuned to people’s unique tastes. TikTok has said it has around 100 million users in the U.S. Stories were first popularized by Snapchat as a way to share personal video diaries that did not linger on the internet forever, offering a degree of privacy, and they are automatically erased after a day. Stories have become a standard format everywhere from Facebook and Instagram to LinkedIn and Pinterest. Brands and publishers have become familiar with Stories as a way to share their own content. Stories on Snapchat and Instagram often come with ad breaks, too. This year,…

This woman can now add “detective” to her resume.  TikToker @kayla_paeth discovered a man she was dating was hanging out with another girl when she saw the girl’s reflection in a Snapchat photo the man sent her. We can’t all be as savvy, but Paeth showed us her inspection process in a TikTok posted yesterday that now has 896,500 views and 84,700 likes.  The video shows a screenshot of the Snapchat which is a photo of food (spaghetti and ground beef) cooking on a stovetop. The man wrote in the overlay: “haha you ain’t lying. I couldn’t eat out another night in a row 😂. Also don’t even worry about it b.” The TikTok then zooms in on a reflection that can be seen in a shiny part of the metal stove near the digital clock. Here, Paeth pauses, circles a section of the image that appears to show a female holding a phone wearing acrylic nails, and writes: “white acrylics, bracelets, rose gold Apple Watch, ring,” to list the signs that it is indeed another woman.  The TikTok is set to audio of Wendy Williams saying, “Wait, what was that?” Many are praising the woman’s investigative skills.  “HE …