Apps and Software

Without any fanfare, YouTube has introduced a built-in GIF creation tool for selected videos and channels.

Andy Baio, a former CTO of Kickstarter, first spotted the update on Thursday.

The rollout is limited for the time being. The option appears on videos in the PBS Digital Studios' Ideas channel, as pointed out in the tweet above, under each video's "Share" option. The option is not available on Mashable's channel or several others that we checked.

If you have ever created short, looping animations, you will appreciate the simplicity of YouTube's tool. At the top is a film scrubber, which displays a series of frames from the video above. The frame tool moves along the strip as the video plays above and can be grabbed and dragged to any point in the video. It defaults to a three-second grab, but can be stretched out to six seconds or condensed to 0.3 seconds. ...

It's now possible to pay for Microsoft products with Bitcoin — just in time for the holidays.

Microsoft customers in the United States can use the digital currency to add money to their online accounts and purchase software, apps and games, including those for Xbox consoles — like Xbox Music — and Windows phones or computers.

No official announcement had been made at the time of writing about the move to support Bitcoin, but Microsoft did quietly post a how-to guide on its website

Bitcoin payments for Microsoft products are currently only supported in the U.S.; users must first add bitcoins to their accounts before redeeming them for regulated U.S. dollars prior to making a purchase ...