YouTube

Google's latest update for YouTube on iOS promises 'general fixes and stability improvements', but also includes a welcome hidden extra -- a Dark Mode that looks especially amazing on iPhone X, and might even save you some battery life. However, there is a catch.

To activate this new mode, you need to be running YouTube for iOS version 13.01.4 (or later), and even then it might not be available to you. It seems Google is rolling the feature out slowly to select users. To see if you’re one of the lucky ones, here’s what you need to do.

Google has announced plans to block its YouTube apps from Amazon's Echo Show and Fire TV as the situation between the two companies stepped up a notch. This is, of course, not the first time this has happened.

The bad feeling stems from Amazon's unwillingness to stock Google products such as Chromecast, Nest and Google Home, and refusing to make its Prime Video service available to uses of Google Cast. Amazon's use of a "hacked" version of the YouTube app on its hardware has also been a bone of contention.

Apple's presence on YouTube is not exactly new, but the iPhone maker has not been the most prolific of posters. All this looks set to change as Apple is now pushing its dedicated channel.

Video tutorials seems to be an obvious thing for Apple to offer on the massively popular video-sharing site, and it's something it has done to a small extent already. But now, with under 50,000 subscribers at the moment, Apple is ready to make fuller use of Google's platform to reach out to its userbase.

YouTube is an amazing place to consume media. There is great family-friendly content from people like iJustine and Rosanna Pansino, for instance. Unfortunately, there is another side of Google's video site, where people such as Pewdiepie and Leafy post racist and sexist content. For parents, it can be quite difficult to know which videos are appropriate for children. Sometimes adult content can even show up in the YouTube Kids app.

To make matters worse, some content creators have been disguising adult-themed videos as being family-friendly -- a wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will. For instance, what may appear to be a video about Spider-Man and Elsa from Disney's Frozen, can quickly morph into a video about feces and hypodermic needles. I kid you not -- there are some truly bizarre videos designed to exploit children on YouTube nowadays. It is being referred to by some as "Elsagate," and this excellent video does a great job of explaining the growing phenomenon. Sadly, these weird videos generate a lot of revenue too, leading to copycats. Thankfully, Google has apparently had enough, as it now vows to crack down on adult content that masquerades as being family friendly.

YouTube is -- of course -- about video, but it is becoming more than that. Google has just announced that it is teaming up with Ticketmaster, giving people the opportunity to learn about concert dates and buy concert tickets while watching artists' videos.

For now, the feature is limited to the US, but there are plans to roll it out on a wider scale. With YouTube increasingly used as a marketing tool by musicians, the progression to using it as a ticket outlet is hardly surprising -- but it's not clear what sort of cut Google is planning to take, and whether this could ultimately push up tickets prices.

There are lots of sites and tools out there that can be used to rip content from YouTube, saving them either as videos or MP3s. Predictably, this is something that the content owners -- record labels in particular -- take issue with.

YouTube-MP3 recently shut up shop following pressure from the music industry, and a number of MP3 ripping sites were lined up as the next targets. Apparently pre-empting any legal action that might be taken against them, MP3Juices.cc and YtMp3.cc have started to block traffic from the UK.

Videos that play automatically have proved highly divisive, but it hasn’t stopped Google, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter experimenting with them. Now YouTube is testing autoplaying videos in its app.

Recognizing that not everyone is happy with the idea of videos noisily playing as soon as they appear on-screen, Google has taken a leaf out of Instagram's book and made the video play silently to start with. In addition to this, it's possible to disable autoplay altogether if you want.

If you want to become the next YouTube star or record a thrilling podcast, content is king; you need to have interesting things to talk about so that you can develop an audience. Great content isn't enough these days, however. With so much competition, you need to have good production values too. No, you don't need fancy special effects, but exceptional audio quality is key -- no matter how good you are, people won't want to struggle to hear you.

If media creation is your goal, one of the best purchases you can make is a quality microphone. Believe it or not, you don't need to break the bank to get a respectable model. Today, Samson unveils a new professional-grade microphone, and it is rather affordable for all you get. Not only does it seem to be a good choice for vlogging or recording a podcast, but also for music creation. Heck, gamers and Twitch streamers should check it out too.

YouTube has introduced a ban on videos that provide instructions on how to modify guns to make them fire more quickly. The move comes in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting -- the deadliest in US history -- in which Stephen Paddock used guns fitted with bump stocks to increase the firing rate of his weapons.

The Google-owned video site has been used to share instructional video showing how to adapt guns in the same way. Following the mass shooting, which left dozens dead and hundreds injured, a clamp-down has been introduced.

If you have heard Alexa utter the message "Currently, Google is not supporting YouTube on Echo Show," you'll be aware of the issue: Google has pulled YouTube from the Amazon Echo Show.

Google says that Amazon's Echo-with-a-screen creates a "broken user experience", and it seems the company would rather there was no customer experience than a broken one. A war of words has erupted between the two companies, and neither is particularly forthcoming with detail.

One of the perks -- arguably the main perk -- of paying for YouTube Red is that your subscription fee gives you an ad-free experience. At least that's the idea...

Google has now admitted that it was in fact running ads on its premium video service despite promising not to. This was not a change of heart or policy, however; the search giant is putting it down to an "underlying issue" which it is working to fix. In addressing the issue with users, though, it seems Google also failed to understand its own policies.

The N word is undeniably inflammatory -- particularly when used by the wrong person in the wrong situation. An example of the word being used by the wrong person in the wrong situation? PewDiePie (yep, him) casually spitting out the epithet as an insult during a gaming session.

During a live stream of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, PewDiePie -- real name Felix Kjellberg -- ejaculated "what a f***ing n***er!" when one of his teammates was killed in the game. The incident has been somewhat polarizing on social media, and it's not the first time the most popular YouTuber in the world has caused controversy with a racially charged statement.

YouTube-mp3.org -- "the easiest online service for converting videos to mp3" -- is closing down. The ripping site faced action from numerous record labels, but it has now come to an arrangement with the RIAA.

The site is one of many that make it possible to convert YouTube videos into MP3 format, but it has piqued the interest of copyright lawyers. Millions of users meant the site was able to rake in ad revenue -- something the RIAA and record labels were less than happy about. An arrangement with the RIAA means YouTube-MP3 will close, leaving users looking for another site to cater for their YouTube ripping needs.

Redesigns are tricky beasts, almost inevitably dividing opinion and leading to questions about why things couldn't have just been left alone. Running the risk of a double whammy of complaints, YouTube has rolled out not only a redesign of its sites, but also a brand new logo.

Both the desktop and mobile versions of YouTube have been treated to a new look. It's the redesign that has been beta tested on users for a few months, and with a few extra tweaks, the company is ready to give everyone access to it. While a fresh lick of paint for the site and apps was expected, the new logo is rather more of a surprise.

To make it easier for people to access up to date information about what is going on the world, YouTube is adding a "Breaking News" section to its website and mobile apps.

The new section takes the form of an additional video carousel, and it provides access to new stories from a number of sources. At the moment, not all users are seeing the Breaking News carousel, and Google has not made an official announcement about it, but it does seem to be spreading out at the moment.