YouTuber MKBHD (Marques Brownlee), sparked controversy and backlash after launching ‘Panels,’ a subscription-based, HD wallpaper app for phones.

Bro really tried to sell his subscribers a “50$ a year” subscription to a “wallpaper” app.

Interesting points about the “app”:

  • the app has premium and free wallpapers
  • the free wallpapers are only available in sd quality and if you want hd youd have to subscribe
  • in order to unlock the sd quality you have to watch two 30 second ads.
  • theres a wallpaper called “orange” thats just the color orange
  • tyler@programming.devEnglish
    78·
    2 months ago

    Way more than that.

    • requires crazy permissions like user location
    • wallpapers are in a publicly accessible s3 bucket
    • profit split for wallpaper creators is 50/50 which is worse than most app store splits
    • most of the creators actually seem to be current MKBHD employees
    • app is either built from a template or an old app that they bought

    Source: https://youtu.be/prZ7ZfdFrNs

    • burgersc12@mander.xyzEnglish
      36·
      2 months ago

      And there’s people in the comments being like “its only $5 for my favorite wallpaper app” which I just shake my head and laugh at. What kind of idiot eats this shit up? There’s nothing better you can spend $5 than a shitty jpeg?

      • usualsuspect191@lemmy.caEnglish
        12·
        2 months ago

        Granted, it’s probably my favourite wallpaper app too and I only learned about it yesterday. It’s also my least favourite for the same reason. I’ve never used it, or any wallpaper app, or even knew they are a thing so it wins by default.

        • David Gerard@awful.systemsMEnglish
          10·
          2 months ago

          my phone tries extra fucking hard to sell me on its built in wallpaper app which has data-scraping permissions out to here also

          • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
            9·
            2 months ago

            every fucking time I swipe wrong on the cheapdroid used for work things, the $vendor crapware “GLOBAL SEARCH” shitware app permission prompt comes up

            and it’s always a bloody effortful nuisance to click no on it. I legit can’t tell if it’s rejecting the clicks, or just trying so damn hard to spin up that it’s eating all cycles. malware fucking everywhere.

    • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
      15·
      2 months ago

      honestly, samesies

      I’m kinda taken aback at how many people are popping in saying they have such things. at almost all usage times I can barely see my bloody wallpaper, too much else going on/present

      • bitofhope@awful.systemsEnglish
        10·
        2 months ago

        I always have my windows tiled or maximized so I just keep an epty black desktop background.

        My wallpaper is white and subtly stripe patterned and it was in a surprisingly good condition when I moved in.

        • self@awful.systemsEnglish
          8·
          2 months ago

          mine’s xsetroot -solid black so I don’t get a flash of the 80s in the moments before emacs loads and tiles its windows across my displays

          it used to be a color I stole from the Amiga’s boot ROM for diagnostic purposes (I was going to do something like the Amiga’s diagnostics for my setup, where you could tell roughly what was broken by the color of the screen) and really I should revisit that one day

      • swlabr@awful.systemsEnglish
        7·
        2 months ago

        My wallpaper is the january page of a frieren themed calendar. From 2021. I only remembered what it was today after learning about all this

  • Steve@awful.systemsEnglish
    36·
    2 months ago

    Maybe I’m scarred but I have a reflexive distrust for any usage of “pumped” or “super excited” in a commercial context. No matter the subject.

    marques brownlee tweets: “And now - I'm so pumped to be launching this app! People have asked where I get wallpapers FOREVER, so this is the answer, now and forever: PANELS!”

  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
    34·
    2 months ago

    remember kids, if you take on responsibilities like renting out a studio space, and hiring employees, those costs are only going to go up, regardless of whether or not you continue to make the sort of revenue you’ve historically made from video views, which leads to having to rely more on merch sales, and patreon, and “other” revenue streams just to keep everyone paid. i mean, who knew, right?

    • circuscritic@lemmy.caEnglish
      15·
      2 months ago

      I rarely watch his videos, but that’s because when I have, he clearly has direct financial entanglements and conflicts with the same major brands he’s discussing or “reviewing”.

      For a channel his size and reach, I can’t imagine those aren’t enough to cover his overhead, unless he’s made some really terrible business decisions.

      This is, of course, entirely speculation and based off of calculations pulled from my brown star, so maybe I’m wrong about that.

  • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
    33·
    2 months ago

    I use subscription services to get the best letters of the alphabet.

    For example, I use WinnrWinnrChicknDinnr to get access to the letter W (upper AND lower case!) for only $69 a month!

    No idea why they needed my SSN, but look I’m not some pleb that uses free letters.

  • buddascrayon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    2 months ago

    For $12 per month, Panels provides a range of high-definition wallpapers for phones, a hefty price tag for something that has always been freely available online.

    Meanwhile, the bottled water industry… (⁠・⁠_⁠・)

    ತ⁠_⁠ತ

  • FilthyShrooms@lemmy.worldEnglish
    104·
    2 months ago

    Bro if your gonna buy a wallpaper app just get Wallpaper Engine on Steam, it’s like less than $5

  • Sheridan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    67·
    2 months ago

    I’ve been using Clarity on iOS and macOS for wallpapers. Costs $5 a year. Wallpapers are high quality. My only complaint is the macOS version has less selection and features compared to the iOS version.

    • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      2 months ago

      Respectfully, I’m honestly confused by this why are you paying any amount of money for wallpapers? I’ve never had an issue finding high quality images for my devices, phone or desktop. What exactly is the service doing that makes paying $5 the easier option?

      • Sheridan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        2 months ago

        It’s so cheap that I haven’t given it much critical thought. For me I suppose it’s mainly convenience. The iOS version has some shortcuts and widgets I find convenient for discovering new wallpapers. The Mac version is a little menubar app. I change my wallpapers frequently and I don’t necessarily want to open a website everytime to do that.

        • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          Well, paying $5 so you don’t have to open a website sounds like a waste to me, even if $5 is a small amount to you. But it’s your money, so you do you I guess. Thanks for the clarification.

        • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systemsEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          I really want to go through your finances and see how many subscriptions you don’t need I can reroute to my bank account.