Renowned tech reviewer and YouTuber MKBHD, also known as Marques Brownlee, recently dropped a review of the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, but surprisingly, the social media buzz and comments hardly mentioned the new iPhones. This was mainly due to the introduction of the Panels app at the beginning of the review video.
Panels is an app available for download on both iOS and Android platforms, featuring beautiful wallpapers that MKBHD mentioned were frequently asked about by viewers. The app offers both a premium yearly subscription for $50 (approximately 1,600 baht) or a free version with lower image quality and ads, following the monetization trend that has stirred dissatisfaction among followers and social media users.
The criticism stems from the background and stance of Marques Brownlee himself, whether it’s from reviewing electric cars like the Fisker, Rabbit R1, or the Humane AI Pin, all of which have faced similar accusations of being unprepared and inadequate but monetizing them with consumers. It seems that the businesses of all three entities are on the verge of being reprimanded. Yet, MKBHD’s approach with the Panels app doesn’t seem to deviate much from this pattern – lacking in substance but aiming to extract money from consumers.
A comment on YouTube citing, “Rule #1: Never charge for something that was previously free,” further fueled the criticism. Additionally, developers have created scripts using Node.js and Python to fetch wallpapers from Panels and share them freely on GitHub, claiming they haven’t violated any laws but simply pulled the images from the app’s API.
TLDR: MKBHD’s review of the iPhone 16 series was overshadowed by the introduction of the Panels app, sparking criticism for monetizing products that may lack adequacy and value, leading to dissatisfaction among followers and social media users.
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