this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, faced backlash over his new wallpaper app, Panels, due to its high subscription cost ($49.99/year) and concerns over excessive data permissions.

Brownlee acknowledged user feedback, promising to adjust ad frequency for free users and address privacy concerns, clarifying that the app's data disclosures were broader than intended.

The app, which offers curated wallpapers and shares profits with artists, aims to improve over time, despite criticisms of its design and monetization approach.

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[–] ace_garp@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Muzei - a free wallpaper changer on f-droid

It has many sources for images, like NASA APOD, masterpieces, NatGeo, Ghibli and others.

https://search.f-droid.org/?q=Muzei&lang=en

[–] OfficerBribe@lemm.ee 0 points 1 month ago

Walpy is also pretty good. Has various categories and credits each wallpaper′s author.

[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 0 points 1 month ago

Wow I had no idea the subscription was that much. He mentioned it in a video without saying the price and I still wouldn't do it.

[–] ace_garp@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago
[–] Sensitivezombie@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Paying for wallpapers is just not justifiable to me, especially when there are so many sources that offer high quality wallpapers for free, from apps to dedicated forums to simply online search.

[–] tacosplease@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

It's cool for people with lots of extra cash I guess. I like that 50% of profits go to the artists.

That said, I am certainly not one of those people with extra money to spend on wallpapers. Seems like we're not the target demographic.

Maybe that's part of this guy's problem here. His channel has a broader appeal than the app, so the people outside the app's target demographic got irritated.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

"I hear you"

Corporate PR phrase detected. Product mentally blacklisted

[–] cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

New "LOOK I AM RICH" app.

[–] AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can people no longer upload a JPG to their phones? What am I missing here?

[–] Strykker@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It sounds like it's a way to get high quality original art / photos for use as backgrounds and support the people making them too.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

That's what patreon is for.

[–] Soup@lemmy.cafe 0 points 1 month ago

Everyone that buys this garbage deserves to lose their money.

[–] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Paying for ANY wallpaper is just silly, much less a subscription model.

The only time you should pay for one if it’s an artist you want to actively support and/or thank for that specific work.

[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

For the last 30 years, they've been trying to charge for dumb shit like wallpapers, screen savers, mouse cursors.

Who are these people who buy them? And what's wrong with you?

[–] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

When toy story came out, i saw this toy story pc game. I put all my money together just to then find out that it wasn't a game, it was a cd rom with like 12 wallpapers on it.

[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 month ago

I would cry so hard.

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (5 children)
[–] DJDarren@thelemmy.club 0 points 1 month ago

Crazy Frog itensifies

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 0 points 1 month ago

Yeah, that was a cash cow for a few years and now everybody has their phone on vibrate.

[–] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I still have PTSD from the era of the ‘polyphonic ringtone’ hype. Those were the ‘fancier’ ringtones that weren’t just your usual beep or bell.

Usually you’d buy them by sending a text message to some expensive number and it would be sent to your phone. If you were dumb, you could get basically scammed into a ‘subscription’ so you’d get sent these expensive ringtones frequently. Many a teen got yelled at for that mistake in the late 90’s.

If you were a tech savvy lad, you could hook your phone up to your Windows PC and upload shitty ringtones yourself as well as wallpapers and such.

These days, who gives a shit? My iPhone ringtone is still the default ring. I honestly don’t care what it is, as it’s usually just annoying anyway.

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[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I hear you, but I hear the money counter MORE

[–] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 0 points 1 month ago

I hear you, but it was worth a try.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I started to get worked up but then i remembered I don't particularly care. He's in it to make bank, not necessarily sell you a quality product. If he were, he wouldn't be selling a wallpaper app.

[–] djsaskdja@reddthat.com 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah it seems like a weird thing to get mad about. No one is forcing anyone to pay this guy for his wallpaper app. Keep watching his videos if you enjoy them or don’t. The wallpaper app seems as inconsequential as his DBrand shilling. I watch his reviews every year and I’ve never bought anything from DBrand lol. Mostly because the products look like shit tbh.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

That just about sums it up.

[–] Teknikal@eviltoast.org 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Wasn't he also behind the redline icon pack (which I do actually like) but yeah subscription for something you can easily find your own images or even just ask an AI to make.

Subscriptions aren't something I'll ever buy into software wise and if they are offering an actual service it better be worth the money and give me more than an image.

[–] emax_gomax@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (8 children)

It costs $49.99 per year (or $11.99 per month)

Why in the hell does the monthly price end with you paying 280% more than the yearly. That is such an absurd discount I don't even know why someone would pay at all for this app but more so I want to understand where the price justification is and who came up with this plan.

To be clear I support artists and more than welcome a platform for them to share and sell art if they wish... I don't get why it needs to be a subscription service and I don't see how such inflated charges are going to help artists as it'll just discourage large numbers of people wanting to support them.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

I want to understand where the price justification is

The justification is that people should be yearly subscribers when they can more easily forget to cancel it.

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