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MrBeasts fast-cutting, non-stop dramatics are already quick enough. Now, some users can watch his videos (and more) at 4x speed. YouTube is continuing their push for pace. In a new experiment, Premium users will be able to quadruple the speed of their videos. Thats up from YouTubes previous ceiling of double speed. Meanwhile, TikTok users can up the tempo with a simple push-and-hold. And on Spotify, which is pushing to become video platform with their drive towards filmed podcasts, the speed cap is 3.5x. Ever since TikTok gained dominance, social media companies have worked quickly to shorten their video offerings. Meta and X pumped out TikTok clones for their seconds-long clips. YouTubes iteration even has length in the title: Shorts. But YouTubes 4x speed play could signal a new frontier for social video. Our feeds are getting snappier, both in length and pace. Social videos push for speed By signing up for YouTubes new features, these paid users can now boost their videos to 4x speed, up from a previous cap of 2x. The average MrBeast video is around 30 minutes. Now, imagine being able to watch that content in a mere 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Of course, the audio would be almost incomprehensible. But YouTube still wants to let you try it. Its not YouTubes first foray into speed changes. In 2023, they started letting users press-and-hold on the right side of their screen to immediately hit double speed. The feature was then just for Premium users; now, its available for the masses. Playback speeds were once relegated to increments of 25% (1.25, 1.5, 1.75, and on), but the company introduced a dial for greater granularity in October. Now users can control the pace down to 5% changes, just in case they were craving Dude Perfect specifically at 1.65x speed. YouTubes press-and-hold model mimics that of TikTok, another company thats been toying with playback speeds. One press against the top right side of the screenaround where many mobile users fingers land naturallywill send the TikTok into double time. They also have more granular speed options available in the video settings. For far longer, the audio industry has had speed changes available for its listeners. Audiobook enthusiasts can hear their novels at almost any speed, across their many platforms. Spotify offers the same feature for their podcasts, with a current cap of 3.5x speed. But now Spotify wants to compete with YouTube. Theyre pushing podcasters to film their episodes, turning these pre-existing speed tools into video accelerators. Is quick-paced media good for us? While cranking a videos speed to 4x may make it end quicker, theres still debate about whether it’s an effective way to consume content. The pace demands that viewers skim-watch their videos, not collecting the same level of detail. But does that matter for, say, a YouTube beauty tutorial? Most research shows that theres a cap on understanding sped-up video. In 2021, UCLA psychology researcher Dillon H. Murphy led a study on students watching lectures at a quickened pace. The students maintained almost the same level of learning up to 2x speedbut performance declined beyond that. Murphy then repeated the study in 2024, finding that the drop-off point had ascended to 2.5x speed. So no, youre not processing all the information in that YouTube video essay set to 4x speed. But, at the still-quick 2.5x speed, you might be able to. If youre a Premium user, thats now an option.
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In early 2024, Ryan Broderick, a surgeon at UC San Diego Health, was commiserating with some colleagues about the profusion of screens in todays operating rooms. Though the displays provided essential guidance for minimally invasive operations in progress, they also added complexity. We were looking around the operating room, he remembers. We have a lot of monitors, a lot of clutter. We were like, There’s got to be a better way to do this. It wasnt just about tidiness. For [a] monitor to be in the ideal position for surgery, it really should just be directly in front of your head without having to turn your neck or adjust your body, explains Dr. Broderick. But often in laparoscopy, you have to adjust your body, turn your neck, and be in uncomfortable positions. And with repeated use like that, it can lead to tight muscles, neck injury, back injury. The doctors frustration with this situation happened to come to a boil at an opportune time. On February 2, Apple released the Apple Vision Pro, its first headset. A major element of the devices spatial computing experience was the ability to float multiple virtual screens of any size in real-world surroundings, unconstructed by the bulky inconvenience of physical displays. Dr. Brodericks team got its hands on a loaner Vision Pro and worked with UCSD Health chief clinical and innovation officer Christopher Broadhurst to assemble a system capable of streaming video feeds and overlaying them on the live view of a surgery in progress, greatly reducing the need to crane necks. In short order, the idea became a trial that involved real patients and is currently undergoing peer review. We’ve done over 50 cases and have had great success thus far, says Dr. Broderick. [Photo: Apple] Almost a year after reaching the market, the Vision Pro has a relatively low profile for an Apple product. Much of the discussion around the headset relates to the possibility of the company releasing a version for less than the current models imposing $3,499 price tag, a necessity for anything resembling widespread adoption. Right now, its an early-adopter product, CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journals Ben Cohen last October. People who want to have tomorrows technology todaythats who its for. But UCSD Health isnt the only medical institution that saw potential for the Vision Pro to be useful right away. Its launch prompted Sharp HealthCare, a major San Diego-based healthcare provider, to buy 30 Vision Pros and start a Spatial Computing Center of Excellence. Today, Sharp is hosting a summit on the Vision Pros applications in surgery, doctors offices, medical education, and beyond. There are 300 people comingfrom 10 countrieswho are beyond excited, says Tommy Korn, an ophthalmologist with Sharp. For Apple, the summit validates the Vision Pros power as a platform for new experiences, whose positive impact could be enormous. It’s a really exciting and timely moment to bring key industry leaders in healthcare together to not just sit there and listen to a bunch of keynotes, but to connect and talk and share how they’ve used Vision Pro to take best practices and inspiration from peers, says Susan Prescott, the companys VP of worldwide developer relations and enterprise and education markets, and a 22-year veteran of encouraging the use of Apple products in business contexts. “This one is even surprising us” The healthcare industry doesnt exactly have a reputation for being at the forefront of technological change. But when Apple unveiled its headset, Many key leaders became very excited, and have not just been excited, but have put their money where their mouth is, says Prescott. Sometimes enterprises take a little time to adopt technology. This one is even surprising us in the alacrity with which the product is being used and the apps are being built. A few things did work in the Vision Pros favor. For example, from day one, it was designed for general-purpose computing. Thats a striking departure from the iPhonewhich famously didnt permit third-party apps until its second yearand even the iPad, which started out emphasizing lean-back content consumption over all else. Even the term spatial computing made the Vision Pro sound more like the Mac of the future than a mere VR gaming console you could strap to your face. Unlike some other products in the Vision Pros conceptual zip code that have also courted healthcare userssuch as Magic Leapit also benefited from being part of the greater Apple ecosystem spanning the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. That lowered the bar of entry for developers who already had experience writing apps for Apple devices. It also piqued the interest of medical professionals who were comfortable with Apple products: Dr. Korn says that 90% of Sharp HealthCare doctors use iPhones and more than half use a Mac at home. Then theres the Vision Pros pricea lot of money for a consumer gadget but downright affordable by the standards of medical equipment. (That’s a $20,000 monitor, that’s a $20,000 monitor, Dr. Korn told me during our video call as he pointed at displays in a Sharp operating room used for testing purposes.) The fact that Apple didnt skimp on the headsets technology to hit a low price helped make it more suitable for healthcare: We have the R1 chip that’s taking the feedback from the sensors and processing eight times faster than the human eye can blink, says Prescott. That’s great for anti-nausea, to help make sure people don’t feel unwell. But it’s also great as feeds are coming in with live, literally lifesaving, information. Thats not to say that the Vision Pro might not find even wider acceptance in healthcare if it were cheaper. Obviously, it’s a V1 product, and the price, for now, is what the price is, acknowledges Prescott. But along with letting doctors replace technology thats more expensive and cumbersome, she adds, Vision Pro sometimes lets doctors do something that wasn’t possible before tat just improves patient outcomes, which at the end of the day is an important part of the success of a healthcare organization. Sharp partnered with Zeissthe optical giant whose products include the prescription inserts available for the Vision Proto help develop an app that let ophthalmologists view cataract surgery videos using the headset. They created the concept and brought it to us to test it and see how it worked in real life, says Dr. Korn. Stryker, a maker of robotics for hip and knee surgery, released an app for reviewing surgical plans in 3D; medical publisher Elsevier published one with detailed models of the human heart and cardiovascular system. In the months following the Vision Pros release, Apple nudged enterprise adoption along with VisionOS updates that buttressed the devices use in professional-grade environments. For example, it brought over the iPhones Mobile Device Management features for configuring, securing, and otherwise wrangling the devices en massecapabilities widely regarded as absolute necessities for enterprise use. It also added support for wide and ultrawide virtual Mac screens, improving the headsets ability to squeeze down a whole lot of display real estate into a form that requires no desk space. Ophthalmologist Tommy Korn demos the Apple Vision Pro. [Photo: courtesy of Sharp HealthCare] Despite the Vision Pros recognizably Apple-esque qualities, donning a headset remains a new kind of experience even if youre just watching a movie or making a Zoom call, let alone performing surgery. However, UCSD Healths Dr. Broderick says its not uncomfortable or distracting in the moment: Its pretty much not noticeable when you’re in the middle of the operationthe learning curve is near zero. Operations typically last 45 to 90 minutes, time spans the Vision Pro can handle on one battery charge. Dr. Broderick emphasizes that he believes spatial computing will be an entire field over timerather than the Vjsion Pro remaining a category-of-one productand that hes already thinking about whats next. Say I have a resident who’s trying to do a case and they’re in the wrong spot, he says. Rather than taking over from them, if I could draw on their video feed in space where they should go, that might be helpful. And telementoring can be helpful for advancing training as well as providing care for patients who might be in a rural community. I think its going to be a pretty big deal when you can have imaging overlaid on your target anatomy. Sharp HealthCares Dr. Korn is thinking even more broadly. We know [the Vision Pro] is probably going to be great for surgery, precision, and analysis, he says. But gosh, I’ve already seen people using this for mental illness and meditation. People using the Kung Fu Panda app to help do Tai Chi. But also, doctors think, ‘hey, maybe we could use that for anesthesia, for patients, for children before they go into surgery. You’re seeing all these verticals coming in. For all the healthcare apps that emerged during the Vision Pros first year, the what-ifs aboundand the summit at Sharps spatial computing center is about turning them into progress.
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The White House stenographers have a problem. Donald Trump is talking so much, the people responsible for transcribing his public remarks are struggling to keep up with all the words. There were more than 22,000 on Inauguration Day, then another 17,000 when Trump visited disaster sites in North Carolina and California. Its enough to strain the ears and fingers of even the most dedicated stenographer, especially after four years of Joe Biden’s relative quiet. Now there are discussions about hiring additional staff to keep up with the workload, according to people with knowledge of the conversations who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters. The flood of words is one of the most visible or audible shifts from Biden to Trump, who craves the spotlight and understands better than most politicians that attention is a form of power. He’s been speaking nearly nonstop since starting his second term, drowning out dissenting voices and leaving his opponents struggling to be heard. Take Wednesday, for example. During a signing ceremony for legislation to accelerate deportations, Trump, a Republican, talked up his accomplishments, claimed Hamas was using U.S.-funded condoms to make bombs in Gaza, defended his administration’s efforts to freeze federal spending and reduce the government workforce, veered through descriptions of migrant violence and made the surprise announcement that Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would be used as a detention center for people who are in the U.S. illegally. Trump’s commentary remains laden with falsehoods, including baseless allegations about voter fraud and assertions that California water policies worsened the recent wildfires. Sometimes he speaks off the cuff about consequential geopolitical matters, such as a recent suggestion that Palestinians should be displaced from Gaza while the enclave is rebuilt. It can be hard to know when to take him seriously, like when he muses about serving a third term, which the U.S. Constitution does not allow. But now that Trump is back in the presidency, it’s hard to ignore him. Hes dictating the news on his terms,” said Michael LaRosa, who worked as a television producer before serving as a spokesperson for former first lady Jill Biden. Hes become Americas assignment editor. Most presidents try to start their terms with a bang, seizing the moment when their influence could be at its peak. However, Trump is in a different league. Biden, a Democrat, spent 2 hours and 36 minutes talking on camera and used 24,259 words in his first week in office four years ago, according to numbers generated by Factba.se. Trump’s comparable stats: nearly 7 hours and 44 minutes and 81,235 words last week. That’s longer than watching the original Star Wars trilogy back-to-back-to-back, and more words than Macbeth, Hamlet and Richard III combined. It’s also much more than when Trump took office for his first term eight years ago. Back then, he was only on camera talking for 3 hours and 41 minutes and spoke 33,571 words. Trump has spent decades practicing the best ways to get people to pay attention to him. As a New York businessman, he fed stories to gossip columnists, added gold plating to buildings and slapped his name on every product that he sold. His efforts reached an apex with The Apprentice, the reality television show that beamed him into American living rooms. One of the things that has given him the advantage is that he thinks like an executive producer,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican communications strategist. “Hes constantly programming the next hour and trying to keep his audience engaged. A sign of what was to come arrived shortly after Trump was sworn in. He delivered an inaugural address and then promptly gave more remarks to supporters that were even longer than his speech. And then he spoke at a downtown arena, where people had gathered for a rally, and later he parried questions from reporters for nearly an hour in the Oval Office while signing executive orders. At one point, he turned to Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy. Does Biden ever do news conferences like this?” Trump said. “How many news conferences, Peter, has he done like this? Like this? Doocy responded. None, Trump said, answering his own question. On Friday, Trump presented a tour de force of talking, demonstrating that he’s far more willing to put himself in unscripted situations than Biden was. He spoke with reporters while leaving the White House in the morning. He talked to them again after landing in North Carolina, then again at a briefing on the recovery from Hurricane Helene, and then again while meeting with victims of the storm. Trump flew that afternoon to Los Angeles, where he conversed with local officials about the recent wildfires. Before boarding Air Force One to leave the city in the evening, he answered more questions from reporters on the tarmac. As his travels continued over the weekend, Trump spoke to reporters twice at the back of Air Force One as often as Biden did for his entire term. “Transparency is back! wrote longtime aide Margo Martin on social media. That’s not the word that Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, would use. Being accessible and being transparent are two different things, she said. Sometimes more talking doesn’t produce more clarity. One afternoon, Trump told reporters that there were no surprises when Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski decided to oppose Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon. The next morning, Trump said he was very surprised by their votes. Jamieson worries that the frenzied pace will exhaust people. More people will simply check out,” she said. “And thats a problem. An informed citizenry is an engaged citizenry. Kate Berner, who worked on Bidens communications staff, said Trump’s constant talking helps keep his adversaries off balance. By doing so much and saying so much, it is hard for people who oppose him to organize,” she said. “And it is hard for any one thing to take hold. But there’s also a risk for Trump, Berner said. If he’s not careful, she said, he could once again start wearig out his welcome with the American people. Chris Megerian, Associated Press Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.
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