Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, or MKBHD, is stepping out of the reviewer position and into the mindset of a builder. This week, he launched a wallpaper app known as Panels on iOS and Android, the place he’s personally curating high-quality digital wallpapers from artists — however in fact, there’s a catch. With the intention to entry high-resolution wallpapers with out viewing adverts, customers must cough up about $50 per 12 months, or $12 per 30 days.
With nearly twenty million YouTube subscribers, Brownlee holds a number of energy in his tech opinions. He’s so influential that he’s been blamed for tanking hyped corporations like Fisker and Humane after he posted destructive movies about their merchandise. These accusations are misguided — Fisker’s vehicles had critical safety flaws, and Humane’s AI pin barely labored regardless of elevating $230 million earlier than delivery a product, which most likely contributed extra to those corporations’ failures than a YouTube video. Nonetheless, given Brownlee’s repute as a keen-eyed, discerning tech reviewer, followers had excessive expectations when he introduced that he was launching an app.
The Panels app has a robust premise. When Brownlee is reviewing a brand new telephone, laptop computer, or smartwatch, his gadgets all the time have significantly fashionable wallpapers. As he identified when asserting the app, in the event you kind “where does mkbhd…” into Google, one of many first strategies is “… get his wallpapers.”
He couldn’t have picked a greater time to launch the app, both. Final week, Apple launched the iPhone software program replace iOS 18, which emphasizes lock display screen and dwelling display screen customization. So, there must be an urge for food for modern, high-resolution wallpapers that make it easier to get essentially the most out of iOS 18. However the flaw of Panels is that the costs are too steep. You need to use the app at no cost and obtain decrease decision photos in the event you watch two thirty-second adverts per picture — however that type of money seize seems like one thing Brownlee himself would disparage.
A redeeming high quality of the app is its try to unlock a brand new earnings stream for digital artists in a time when generative AI is such a menace. Brownlee mentioned that funds are being cut up 50-50 with artists — if a person buys a wallpaper for about $8, and Apple takes 30% of the cost, then the artist can be left receiving about $2.80 per buy. Because it’s really easy to seek out cool, high-res images on-line, Brownlee is attempting to create a marketplace for one thing that individuals aren’t used to paying for. However, if anybody has the sway to make it work, it might most likely be a tech influencer with as a lot attain as Brownlee. If artists could make some further, passive earnings from the app, what’s the hurt?
Nicely, by way of knowledge privateness, there could possibly be hurt. Followers shortly identified that in line with the App Retailer, Panels may monitor customers’ location, utilization knowledge, and private identifiers throughout different apps and web sites. To Brownlee’s credit score, he posted on X quickly after the launch to handle the problem.
“First thing we’re doing is fixing the excessive data disclosures, as people rightfully brought up. For transparency, we’d never actually ask for your location, internet history, etc. The data disclosures (that everyone is screenshotting) is likely too broad, and largely driven by what the ad networks suggest. Working to fix that ASAP,” he mentioned.
He added that he may even dial again advert frequency for the free model of the app.
For what it’s price, you’ll be able to nonetheless get cool new wallpapers from the free model of Panels. However the lower-resolution photos don’t look nice until you add Apple’s filters, and it’s tough to think about paying the worth of a Spotify subscription to get round that barrier.
“Part of building in public is getting mass feedback immediately, which is pretty dope,” Brownlee wrote. “Almost exactly like publishing a YouTube video.”
