Saturday 29 April 2017

The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Saturday, April 29, 2017.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Life imitating art imitating...life? Netflix’s series about prison is involved in an actual crime, and Elon Musk is going back into the tunnels. We’ll explain.

Or, it’s a very meta ad campaign

Hackers release most of ‘Orange is the New Black’ season five

Someone calling themselves TheDarkOverlord tried to secure a ransom from Netflix on Friday. Having obtained a copy of the upcoming OITNB season from a third party audio production company, they first released the premiere episode and eventually, the first ten of 13 episodes. The story is not over, however, as the person or persons claim they have more Netflix, Fox, ABC, IFC and National Geographic content stored away ready to release unless they’re paid.

Even if ‘XLED’ is mostly hype

Vizio's new M-series 4K TVs are its real 2017 highlight

We took a look at Vizio’s new 2017 displays and surprise, it looks like yet another year of high picture quality combined with affordable prices. The XLED branding shouldn’t be confused with Samsung’s QLED technology or LG’s OLED, but the use of local dimming in Vizio’s sets is easy to understand. Last year’s tablet remote is gone, replaced with a new setup where the TVs act as both Chromecast source and receiver. Of course, after last year’s FTC fine we’d probably double check the privacy policy before bringing one of these home.

This is happening

Meet Larry Page’s ‘flying car’

The Kitty Hawk Flyer isn’t the flying car we asked for, but it’s the one that will go on sale by the end of this year. The propeller-driven one-seater isn’t cleared for use over populated land, but it might be just right for your second lake house. Any trips of greater significance will have to wait for a flying machine from Google’s other co-founder.

Stop us if you’ve heard this before

Xbox chief envisions a Netflix model for narrative games

In an interview with The Guardian, Xbox boss Phil Spencer made his pitch for games distributed by subscription service. Moving beyond what we’ve already heard about the upcoming Xbox Game Pass plan, he said "[Subscription services] might spur new story-based games coming to market because there's a new business model to help support their monetization." It’s an interesting idea, but so far has very little to back it up -- we may hear more at E3 in June.

It just knows.

Google's next trick for Android is 'copyless pasting'

A look at the code for Android O has revealed a new feature on the way soon. Called “Copyless Paste,” your device will be able to remember information you were just looking at in one app (like a restaurant’s address) and offer it as a suggestion in another (like Maps.)

But wait, there's more...

1. Elon Musk's 'Boring Company' revealed

2. XPrize winner says its Tricorder is better than 'Star Trek'

3. Uber's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2017

4. Nomiku wants its sous vide food program to be the 'iTunes for your mouth.'

5. IBM's Watson looked into my soul and 'drew' my portrait

6. We lived through the history of evolution in VR with 'Life of Us'

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Friday 28 April 2017

E-Commerce Minute

E-Commerce Minute: Friday -- April 28, 2017

The E-Commerce Times -- E-Business Means Business
http://www.ecommercetimes.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
Instagram Snaps Up Rivals' Users
C Spire's Place Among Cable TV Challengers
Apple Slashes App Store Affiliate Commissions
Then and Now
Salesforce, QuintilesIMS Team to Push New Therapies to Market
Uber Boss Practices Brinksmanship With Apple
Google Mulls Ways to Banish Bad Ads

Today's Story Highlights

Instagram Snaps Up Rivals' Users

Instagram has reached a milestone of 700 million members while enjoying
the fastest-ever growth rate in its history. The network has grown by
more than 100 million members in the last four months. Its burgeoning
growth can be credited to new features like Stories, live video and
disappearing messages, the company said. User engagement with Stories
has grown to more than 200 million people per day.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84492.html

C Spire's Place Among Cable TV Challengers

Cable TV has been facing mounting attacks from new technologies and new
competitors. C Spire recently joined the action, announcing plans to
enter the pay-TV space. It's not yet clear what C Spire TV will be, or
how it will impact the marketplace. What we know so far is that C Spire
is a regional player in Mississippi, so the service won't be available
throughout the U.S.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84488.html

Apple Slashes App Store Affiliate Commissions

Apple stunned the wider development community on Monday with an emailed
announcement that it has decided to slash commissions for App Store
affiliates from 7 percent to 2.5 percent, starting May 1. The cuts apply
to all apps and in-app content, Apple said. However, they do not apply
to commissions for movies, music, books and TV, which will remain at 7
percent.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84482.html

Then and Now

A few years ago, when Oracle was busy buying companies to fill out its
front-office cloud offering, RightNow developed a "day in the life"
video that has stuck with me. It was shown at RightNow's last user
meeting as an independent company. In fact, at the conference where it
debuted, Oracle announced its acquisition of RightNow. The video's
importance was as a harbinger of things to come.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84483.html

Salesforce, QuintilesIMS Team to Push New Therapies to Market

Salesforce has entered an alliance with QuintilesIMS aimed at helping
life sciences companies move treatments from clinical phases to
commercial applications more effectively. QuintilesIMS, formed last year
through the merger of healthcare data provider IMS Health and medical
research firm Quintiles Transnational, is one of the world's largest
integrated healthcare services companies.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84480.html

Uber Boss Practices Brinksmanship With Apple

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has a reputation of playing fast and loose with
rules, but it appears that a maneuver his company performed on iPhones
took his ride-hailing outfit to the brink of ruin a couple of years ago.
When Apple discovered Uber was planting code on iPhones that persisted
on the devices even after the ride-hailing app was removed, Apple CEO
Tim Cook gave Kalanick a warning.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84478.html

Google Mulls Ways to Banish Bad Ads

Google reportedly has been working on a plan to install an ad blocker
onto its Chrome browser. It also has been considering a collaboration
with Microsoft, Facebook and other firms to develop a set of standards
that would determine which types of advertising to block from websites.
That effort presumably would aim at blocking abusive ads without
jeopardizing ads from legitimate firms.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84477.html

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The Morning After: Meet Nintendo's newest portable gaming system

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Friday, April 28, 2017.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

A new Nintendo portable (don’t get too excited though), a mobile 3D printer that might be ready for your future Mars homestead, and one of Nintendo’s most influential employees is calling it a day. Plus: It’s earnings season!

Just two Ds

Nintendo’s new 2DXL is coming July 28th

We weren’t expecting more new hardware from Nintendo, but that’s what they unveiled last night. The new 2DS XL brings the power of a 3DS XL, but without the added dimension. Easy enough to understand, right? The clamshell system will go on sale in the US July 28th for $150.

Perfect for DIY home building on an alien planet

MIT's mobile 3D printer built the largest structure to date

The Digital Construction Platform consists of a large hydraulic arm mounted on caterpillar treads, and it can build a 12-foot tall, 50-foot wide igloo in 13 hours, running on solar power. Don’t believe us? Just check out the video.

Yes, they have a permit.

Apple’s self-driving test vehicle spotted on the streets of Silicon Valley

We’ve seen any number of test mules loaded up with LiDAR camera equipment, but yesterday one rolled out of an Apple building in California. The Lexus SUV sported some “off the shelf” equipment instead of custom designed hardware, but one way or another Project Titan is rolling out.

Here's how you can learn Java programming for just $49.

The Triton 700 is slightly thicker and less powerful than a Razer Blade

Acer’s new Predator gaming laptop has one weird trick

Who doesn’t want a trackpad located above the keyboard?

It's not just about making your selfies look better.

Why Amazon wants to replace your mirror with a camera

Amazon believes you'll spend $200 on a camera that's both an extension of your smart home and the ultimate fashion accessory. The Echo Look is designed to help you look your best every morning, guiding and improving your style every time it's used. But what it represents, and what Amazon gets out of it, could be a much bigger deal for the future of fashion. In short, the company hopes it’ll get some good data-based insight into how to sell you more clothes.

And the ones they do have are old and damaged.

NASA is running out of functional spacewalk suits

NASA already spent over $200 million on developing a next-gen spacesuit, but it's still years away from conjuring up a working unit. That's a bigger problem than you might think because according to NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG), the agency is quickly running out of (PDF) functional suits needed for spacewalks. The iconic white suits you see the ISS crew wearing today are the same units made for astronauts 40 years ago.

Data is now broadcasting.

Cassini probe survives first dive between Saturn and its rings

NASA's Cassini probe has emerged unscathed after its first dive between Saturn and its rings. The spacecraft's ground team had to spend 20 hours wondering whether the probe was doing well or whether it plunged to its death a few months too early. Thankfully, it got back in contact with NASA at 2:56AM EDT today, April 27th. By 3:01 AM, it started beaming back precious data about the planet's atmosphere, including the unprocessed images of Saturn's features above.

Takeda brought the world the analog stick, 'Punch-Out' and the Wii.

Nintendo's hardware visionary is calling it a day

Alongside yesterday’s impressive earnings report, Nintendo announced that long-serving employee Genyo Takeda is stepping down as company director this June. Holding the title of representative director and also sitting alongside Miyamoto as "Technology Fellow," Takeda has played a key role in defining both Nintendo's hardware and software. During his 46 year career at the Japanese games giant, Takeda's credits include producing/directing Nintendo classics like Punch-Out!! and Pilotwings 64 plus designing the N64's analog stick.

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