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How do you feel about Photics.TV using AI generated voice overs or even AI generated characters? 

The Space Camp Kid has returned to Crossy Road…

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yik9h... 

Wow, such a good laugh. 😆

While working on the New Super Mario Bros. Wii “All Star Coins” video, I was starting to burn out. The video is not even halfway complete. It's a great video, but a break was needed. That's when the Super Impulse “World's Smallest Games On The Go!” box was opened.

It's another mystery box, similar to the one previously reviewed on the channel…
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYy9f... 

But here, the “Series 1” box shows four options… Connect 4, Monopoly, Scrabble and Uno. If you were opening this box, which of those four would you want the most? 

Is this the next Crossy Road or Crossy Road Castle character? 🤔

Tomorrow… on April 26, 2024 …Hipster Whale is launching Crossy Road Castle for Apple Vision Pro through Apple Arcade. There's a Press Release here…

 https://www.crossyroadcastle.com/news/crossy-road-castle-launches-in-a-new-dimension-for-apple-vision-pro 

While working on a video about 10 ways to fix Apple… which hopefully releases tomorrow. I got to the gaming section of the presentation. I think this is a mismatch. Crossy Road Castle is an awesome game, but it's not a driving force like Crossy Road on Apple TV. The game is fun, but is it truly an AR/VR game?

That's a debate for the video, but what's important here is this… there's a cute Augmented Reality Chicken at the bottom of the page. So, to promote the game, wouldn't Hipster Whale leverage the popularity of the original Crossy Road? If not, why not?! It's certainly within their modus operandi.

Anyway, stay alert. There seems to be the possibility of a new Crossy Road character tomorrow. If there is, that will likely be a new Photics.TV video. Also, if I can finish the presentation, a new Podcast video about improving Apple could be online too. 

Some of you might be wondering, “Hey Mike! Are you OK?! It's been almost two weeks since the last Photics.TV video.”

Well, I… uh… severely underestimated the difficulty in creating long videos. There are issues like hard drive space, merely scrolling in the editor, or the sheer difficulty in getting footage of all 231 Star Coins in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Yet, I'm super determined to get this video done… NO SHORTCUTS! It's gonna be long and gonna be great! 😄

I'm doing ridiculously tedious things that no normal human would do… like adding speech bubbles. Instead of going the easy route, the video has so many extra edits. It treats video games with the professionalism it deserves.

The included screenshot is a perfect example. I just had such a good laugh showing an… alternate …way to collect the third Star Coin on World 2-1. I was hesitating to include the “Toad” levels in this guide, but the results are hilarious!

But, if you look at the time in the video editor, it says over thirty minutes. That's just at World 2-1. This video could be over three hours long. That's six times the current longest video on Photics.TV.

It's really tempting to break this up into nine separate videos… or even 77 separate videos… but this an experiment. Does quality matter over quantity? A lot of extra work is going into every aspect of this video… the script, the editing, the game footage… hopefully it works out. 

There's a lot going on behind-the-scenes with Photics.TV 🙂

First, “Revisions” has been revised. The plan for this week is to proofread the ebook one more time and add the JavaScript scoring. Once the book is ready, the idea is to relaunch it on Lulu (at $5 a copy) and then create/upload the “How To Make An eBook” video to this channel. Mike in the past wrote quite a wild story. It's still a little rough, but it's a pretty good book. It should return.

Afterwards, here's the list of future video ideas…

Connect 4 — It's the #1 Board Game. At least, it was the #1 Board Game on Amazon around three months ago. It's certainly cheap. A smaller portable version was around $6 in Walmart. So, that game is waiting to be reviewed. Board game reviews might be a regular thing on this channel.

Candy Delivery Year 2 — Last year's robot was massively underpowered for the horde that appeared last Halloween. While the occasion is still more than seven months away, work has begun on an improved candy delivery system. Although, it's not clear if this new idea will work. Some upgrading may be required.

Crossy Road — What's the “Shiny” new content in version 6.2.0 of the game?! So many occasions were missed… Leap Year/Day, International Women's Day, MAR10 Day, Pi Day, and Saint Patrick's Day. If new content is found, there will likely be a new video. That might be soon, as Easter is coming up. But also, since it is known that Hipster Whale watches this channel, could they have been inspired by the solar eclipse videos?! Could the sun be the “Shiny” content? I don't know, but the game is being checked daily.

The Solar Eclipse — Depending on the weather, this will likely be a new video too.

iMovie vs Final Cut Pro — One is free, the other is $300. Is the upgrade worth the money?

New Super Mario Bros Wii — An all star coins video might be fun.

There might be some photography videos too. But in general, there could be an increased focus towards game development. That's because a recent poll showed 85% preferred “A Book About Video Games” instead of “A Book About Photography”.

That leads to the next poll. Which of the following games would you most like to play… 

One video stands in the way of completing the list of 10 Photics.TV video ideas — How To Make An eBook. This one's tough because it involves revising the first Photics first book, ironically called “Revisions“. It's seen some updating over the last two decades. Even still, that first Photics book is kinda rough. I'm not sure if it should be re-released.

I'll probably make the video though. That would complete the list. 85% of you voted that I would get the job done, so I don't want to disappoint you.

Meanwhile, what's to be the next big book? Currently there are two ideas being considered. Which of the following books are you more likely to buy? 

Just throwing a crazy idea out there, as I've been wondering what Hipster Whale changed with their version 6.2.0 update of Crossy Road. In recent history, the updates are usually a week before the event. But, what possible occasion could be celebrated in early March? 🤔

Leap Day on February 29, 2024 could have fit the description of “some shiny new content”, if a sunny character was added. Perhaps they're just really early for Saint Patrick's Day this year. Maybe it's something coin related.

But, what if it's something else. March 10 is “Mario Day”. Could Hipster Whale and Nintendo be teaming up to celebrate the occasion?

REASON IT COULD HAPPEN
• Crossy Road celebrated Star Wars Day last year
• Perhaps Hipster Whale is launching games on the Switch
• Because it would be fun!
• Hipster Whale is friendly, (Bandi Namco, Disney, & others)

REASONS IT COULDN'T HAPPEN
• Crossy Road Castle is a competitor to Mario
• Hipster Whale is busy with something else
• They just forgot it's Mar10 day.
• Apple exclusivity preventing fun things from occurring

When I look at that list, it kinda leans towards the possibility of celebrating Mario Day. Although, I don't know how that would be shiny. Yet, what else is shiny in March? International Woman's Day? Pi Day? Daylight Saving Time?

While Crossy Road Castle is an Apple Arcade exclusive, that game has been on the service for over four years. With the adventure seemingly wrapping up, and with Hipster Whale stopping content updates on Piffle, it seems like a big project is in the works. Also, with Piffle being available on the Nintendo Switch, Hipster Whale has at least some experience in that area.

So, what do you think?
Is Hipster Whale going to celebrate Mario Day? 

The following is a list of video ideas being seriously considered for future Photics.TV videos…

4000 SUBSCRIBERS — We're less than 100 subscribers away from a new milestone. There's a lot to discuss in reaching this point, but the focus of the video about “What It's Like When A Video Goes Viral.” That's because the Pac-Man board game video just had a huge surge in traffic, which was quite different from other Photics videos.

TETRIS BOARD GAME — This is to see if lightning will strike twice. Another video game based board game is planned for the “Fun Things In Tech” playlist.

BETTER CAMERA APP — With the solar eclipse less than two months away, improving iPhone photography is being researched.

KRATKY RESULTS — How did the winter lettuce turn out?

HOW TO MAKE AN eBOOK — Revisions, the first book from Photics, is being updated for relaunch on Lulu. There's a lot of useful information here, which could help other aspiring self-publishing authors.

[WEB #10] FLIPPING A CARD — The community overwhelmingly asked for a video about making video games. Well, this is a first step in that direction. Also, the project includes a new Tumult Hype Template.

LINUX EMOJI — This video should launch after Web #10. There are some issues adjusting to Linux, such as no emoji. This video would show how to solve that problem, specifically for Raspberry Pi OS.

CROSSY ROAD CHARACTER LIST — It's commonly requested that Photics cover every Crossy Road character. There are roughly 350 characters. So, even just 30 seconds per character would be a 3 hour video. Instead… something else was created. It's actually live right now, which is the topic for this video.

CROSSY ROAD (PINKY) — Unless Hipster Whale releases another new character, Pinky is probably the topic of the next Crossy Road secret character video. Since the game is about hopping, and “leap year” is this year, I think it could be fun if Hipster Whale released a new character on February 29, 2024. That seems unlikely, but the game is being checked daily just in case.

SMOKE DETECTOR STORY — Lots of Prepper videos on YouTube discuss extreme scenarios. This story recaps a more relatable scenario. It's meant for the Tech Security and Preparedness playlist.

The idea is to create a series of more smarty videos, with some fun and Crossy Road added too. So, what do you think? Will all of these videos get created by the end of March 2024? 

The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse is less than two months away, and with the topic for the next Photics video being unclear. Why not a picture instead? The most recent Photography video was about photographing a sunspot…

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaUnL... 


…and so I checked the space weather conditions on the NOAA website…

 https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/alerts-watches-and-warnings 

There were two minor warnings. An R1 on the Radio Blackout scale and an S1 on the Solar Radiation Storms scale. Would this mean there are more sunspots to spot? Well, the Celestron 114AZ-SR telescope was put into action. (There's an earlier Photics video…  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVyys...  …about that telescope.)

The image is a little soft, but there seems to be 3-4 sunspots, which is way more than the one sun spot shown in the sunspot video. (How many sunspots do you see in the image?)