Amazon out to slay YouTube, anyone can upload videos
Culture
Amazon is going after Google in a new way, now it's taking on YouTube.
I'm Bridget Carey, this is your CNET update.
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Amazon is launching it's own version of YouTube letting anyone upload video clips to its video service.
It's called Amazon Video Direct.
The name is a bit of a mouthful, but it gives people the power to upload a free video with advertising or charge money for it.
That means a video creator can charge a subscription for it or charge to rent or own the video.
Video creators also have incentives to put their videos behind the Prime subscription pay wall.
If the video is popular on Amazon Prime, they could win bonus prize money.
Amazon has been making several deals to beef up it's Prime video offerings to challenge Netflix, although anyone can upload video, Amazon did say it may block videos with inappropriate content, such as Videos with hateful speech.
It does seem very business focused right now.
Amazon is courting online media outlets to be among the first publishers, some of which include Conde Naste, How Stuff Works, The Guardian, Style Hall.
And business insider.
But if you're looking for new visual entertainment, you can now play classic Nintendo games in virtual reality with Google Cardboard.
A person on Reddit posted a Virtual Boy emulator that anyone with an Android phone can play while wearing a Google Cardboard or a Samsung Gear VR headset.
The original Virtual Boy was released in 1995.
It was a failed attempt at playing games in 3D with a headset.
It caused eye strain, it was pricey, and it was pulled after a year.
Also in the world of video changes are coming to Twitter's Periscope.
Videos broadcast from the app will be alive forever by default unless you choose to delete it.
Right now, videos only are viewable for 24 hours.
By having videos stay up longer, Periscope is able to better compete with Facebook's live videos.
And you can expect more news outlets to use these types of apps to quickly broadcast footage with their phone from a live event and not worry about it disappearing.
Periscope will also soon add the ability to broadcast Live video shot with a DJ Eye drone.
That's it for this update, but these updates are getting an update of their own.
Changes are coming soon.
Find out more tomorrow.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
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