Weekly Tech News: Xbox Project Scorpio and DJI's Drones on YouTube

Hello everyone, it's Friday, April 7th, at full load the sun has flowed over the earth. While Earth becoming a sauna is always an enjoyable topic to debate on, we'll follow our Tech Newsweek tradition instead. This week's news covers YouTube's new policy on advertising on the channel, Microsoft releases specs for the Xbox Project Scorpio, Apple reveals about the successor to the Mac Pro and upcoming iMac and new leaks surface about DJI's new drone details. This list is very exciting so without keeping you waiting, let's go inside.

YouTube announces policy change for for-profit YouTube Partner Program

YouTube has always had a sort of love-hate relationship with creators, and the same goes for creators on the platform. They are quite vocal about their dissatisfaction, but they stick to the platform because of the audience. In the past, YouTube has managed to become a butt of creators who made the Latest Mailing Database platform prosper. An example of a notification mechanism is when they decide to adjust from a channel a user has subscribed to a video. Another is when they start removing ads from videos that use foul language.

If you're familiar with PewDiePie, this is little news for you. Keeping up with the old tradition of making this an uninformed decision that directly affects the creators of the platform, YouTube just announced that they will no longer run ads on the channel with less than 10,000 views. The YouTube Partner Program started 5 years ago and is a big reason for YouTube's success. It essentially allows anyone to share content on the YouTube site and earn money from it instantly. But soon it became a problem for YouTube as people started uploading content that other channels had just for monetization. This new 10K views threshold is here to make it easier for YouTube to filter out those crooks. The 10,000 opinion limit is also decent enough, as it keeps newcomers with a fairly low barrier to entry, rather than discouraging them from applying to the YouTube Partner Program. Only time will tell if this trick is reasonable or not.

Microsoft reveals Xbox Project Scorpio specs and what it'll be the most powerful console ever

Microsoft got into the console business in 2001, and it bumped the socks off with the first-generation Xbox. This is revolutionary time. Sixteen years later, we had the Xbox One, which bundled it up as a central entertainment system, one of the most innovative consoles. In a corporate merger with the PC gaming market and its consoles, Microsoft is clearly one of the big players in the gaming industry. One of the companies that came close to giving Microsoft the giant battle was Sony with their PlayStation. The Xbox One has done quite well in terms of sales. But last year, Microsoft showed off the console's future for gaming fans with the announcement of Project Scorpio, and while most of the details were shrouded in mystery, it sure as hell looks like a big boost.

Well if you're one of those folks who've been eager to scoop up more details on this console, Rejoice, Microsoft just released the specs for this console, boy is it a beast. The console will be powered by eight custom x86 cores clocked at up to 2.3 GHz compared to the 1.7 GHz Jaguar cores on the Xbox One. The GPUs inside Project Scorpio will be completed at 1172MHz custom 40 units. Memories are capped at 12 GB GDDR5 and in terms of storage, it comes with a 1TB hard drive. The console will be 4K ready and will include optical 4K UHD Blu-ray. These specs will no doubt impress anyone who is obsessed with CPU speed and graphics fidelity in games. While Microsoft needs work to be a real competition for Scorpio, since most Japanese homebrew games are still only available on Sony's PlayStation, Microsoft needs to make sure it has an impressive lineup of games on the PlayStation 4.

Apple reveals details about successor to Mac Pro and iMac teaser

When it comes to pushing the limits of productivity, most people prefer the Mac as their workhorse. It's a well-designed unified experience that's accounted for by the seamless integration of software and hardware. Creators and professionals considering buying a Mac computer are the go-to device of choice for getting the device in the way it doesn't work. Everything is a foregone conclusion. The Mac product line is quite extensive. With a laptop as casual as the new Macbook a machine is the absolute beast of the new MacBook Pro. With a wide range of options, users can get a device that suits their needs. Now, need to say, they can be everything from browsing the web and typing files as small as editing high-resolution 4K videos and Mac lineup. Equipped with the Mac Pro, it is currently the top-of-the-line device produced by Apple Professionals and boy is the old. It was launched at WWDC 2013, and it's continuing on the market way more than it should have. Apple made some really bad choices while building the Mac Pro, and that was the reason for poor sales and adoption.

In a private interview with select reporters this week, Apple made some bold statements about the future of the Mac Pro and its lineup of desktops and workstations. Apple admits that the Mac Pro, which is a well-designed trash can, is indeed a mistake because it doesn't age as well. The Mac Pro was designed to accommodate 2 smaller graphics cards, but unfortunately the industry never moved in that direction. Being able to put larger GPUs requires a different system architecture and more thermal capacity than Apple occupies. Their main focus was to keep the design compact and the machine as quiet as possible. Here's an explanation why the Mac Pro hasn't had a spec bump for 3 years. Thermal issues for the Mac Pro limit Apple's ability to upgrade it. Apple understands that they've made a mistake by ignoring professional users of their products, and promises they'll soon come up with something to replace the current Mac Pro (most likely the new Mac Pro), but at the same time they're upgrading the existing one specification model. They also talked about the iMac and confirmed the upgrade is due this year, next to a professional display which will be designed and made by Apple. If speculation is any proof, we won't see a new Mac Pro until 2019, but for those who want to get away with that $90,000+, I guess it would make more sense to wait for the release.

DJI's latest drone leaks online

When it comes to drones and aerial photography that comes the first name on anyone's head is DJI. The inspiration behind them is Phantom and the newly announced, uber-compact MAVIC Professional Company. If you binge on YouTube you've probably heard of Casey Niestat who does some awesome photography on his daily podcast using these drones. To date, the DJI Mavic Pro has been the most travel-friendly drone made by any company. It has a solid base, and quite literally, it fits in a pocket. Well drone lovers, we have some exciting news for you that may surprise you. DJI is working on a new drone that is arguably smaller than the Mavic Pro.

The MAVIC is already a benchmark in the drone market for performance and portability, making something even smaller than this would be a real feat for DJI. Leaked images of the new drone named Spark have popped up on the Chinese DJI forums, and it's expected to launch soon. DJI hasn't confirmed Spark's existence - despite the trademarked name it has done recently. The images and videos, now floating on the web - which show a tiny, almost handheld drone with a vertically tilted camera - make it clear the drone could be a low-cost "selfie" of sorts designed to quickly Add photos and videos. All we can do so far is sit tight until DJI makes an official announcement. History has it every time DJI announces a drone, it's a global success and sets a benchmark. Let's hope Spark brings home the same glory that DJI has had with all the drones of the past.