Thursday 6 December 2018

The Morning After: Waymo's self-driving car service hits the streets

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Thursday, December 06, 2018.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

This morning, MoviePass is ready to try again, and Alphabet’s self-driving car service is open for business. Also, Google said it’s killing Allo, and newly revealed Facebook documents show just how far the company is going to stay on top. Or maybe you just want to play a round of Fortnite?

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Expect 5G.

OnePlus's 2019 flagship will be one of the first phones with a Snapdragon 855

In remarks delivered during Qualcomm's Tech Summit in Hawaii, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said an upcoming 2019 flagship will be one of the first smartphones to use the new Snapdragon 855 chipset. Then later, in an interview with Engadget, Lau said he would do his best to make sure the company's first 5G phone was available to customers for under $1,000.

It’s done losing money on subscriptions.

MoviePass has a new plan for 2019: try to break even

Next year, MoviePass will offer its cinema-plan subscribers three packages that vary in price depending on where they live. Like its current offering, the basic plan serves up three movie viewings per month, from a limited selection of dates and titles. That one costs between $10 and $15, while upgrading to the All-Access pass hikes the price by $5 but allows subscribers to use their subscription on any movie at any time, as long as it’s not in 3D. For an extra $5 over that, the top-of-the-line Red Carpet plan adds the option to make one of the movies an IMAX, 3D or other large-format session.

The prices are higher and the limitations are greater because MoviePass can’t afford to keep losing money like it did over the last year. The only question is whether or not anyone will be interested now that it’s not as great of a deal.

Oh you meant all-in-one, all-in-one.

This ridiculous $4,500 PC is built into a standing desk

This Cemtrex SmartDesk redefines the all-in-one PC as a piece of futuristic furniture.

This 4K action cam is a great GoPro alternative for just $60

Play as a swole Father Christmas.

'Fortnite' season seven adds planes, custom weapons and lots of ice

Season seven of Fortnite just launched, and while its Creative Mode with private islands is locked behind a Battle Pass paywall for a week, there’s a lot more for everyone to check out. There’s weapon customization, a brand new icy biome, a bunch of new skins and even a new vehicle: planes. The only thing you shouldn’t expect is a new Unreal Tournament game -- Epic is kinda busy right now.

Welcome to the future?

Waymo launches its first commercial self-driving car service

People in part of metro Phoenix can use an app to ask for an autonomous vehicle 24/7, much like they would ridesharing cars, complete with price estimates and trip reviews. Up to three adults and a child can travel at once. To no-one's surprise, though, Waymo is starting cautiously -- it's hoping to avoid further collisions and ease the community into a driverless world.

But wait, there's more...

1. Capybara's 'Below' has a release date on Xbox One and PC: December 14th

2. Google's chat plans: Kill Allo, upgrade Duo and invest in Messages

3. Facebook's internal documents show its ruthlessness

4. The Big Picture: Syfy's 'Nightflyers' TV show has some killer user interfaces

5. Rudy Giuliani blames Twitter for his spectacular typo fail

6. Xiaomi's next phone could be the first with a 48-megapixel camera

7. The best gifts for console gamers

8. FCC chairman admits Russia meddled in net neutrality debate

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't subscribe.

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Wednesday 5 December 2018

Editor's Pick: Did Marketers Underestimate Their Competition in 2018?

Did Marketers Underestimate Their Competition in 2018?

Norty Cohen
Dec 5, 2018 10:40 AM PT

There's one competitor we underestimated this year. It's slowly draining the attention of every human on the planet. It plays into almost all human needs -- as they are defined by the Maslow Hierarchy. It's the rectangular status-seeking device in your hands. That's right. It's your smartphone. Maslow's needs start with the basics. Starting at the bottom of the pyramid, we all need food and water. [More...]

More Picks:

One-of-a-Kind CRM
The hoopla over vertical market or industry CRM might be eclipsing a similar move that does the same kind of thing but with less fanfare. In the end, we might be discussing two iterations and just a difference of degree. The proliferation of CRM development platforms by companies like Microsoft, Oracle, and especially Salesforce, is changing how we regard core functionality. [More...]

Deepin Builds a Better Linux Desktop
Deepin 15.8, released last month, is loaded with more efficient layout tweaks that give the distribution greater functionality and maturity. Deepin, based in China, shed its Ubuntu base when with the 2015 release of version 15, which favored Debian Linux. That brought numerous subtle changes in the code base and software roots. Ubuntu Linux itself is based on Debian. [More...]

Quora Looks for Answers in Wake of Massive Data Breach
The personal data of some 100 million people who have used Quora, a popular question and answer website, has been compromised, the company disclosed. "We recently discovered that some user data was compromised as a result of unauthorized access to one of our systems by a malicious third party," wrote Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo in an online post. "We are working rapidly to investigate the situation." [More...]

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This Week's Top News Headlines From the E-Commerce Times

Did Marketers Underestimate Their Competition in 2018?
(Posted 05-Dec-18)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85722.html

How to Use a VPN for Safer Online Shopping
(Posted 04-Dec-18)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85718.html

Virtual Reality: Slow Growth but Expanding Use Cases
(Posted 03-Dec-18)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85712.html

AWS Thinks Inside the Box With Outposts Data Center Revival
(Posted 30-Nov-18)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85711.html

Amazon's Shift
(Posted 29-Nov-18)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85710.html

DoJ Takes Down Online Ad Fraud Ring, Indicts 8
(Posted 29-Nov-18)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85707.html

This Week's Top News Headlines From TechNewsWorld

Quora Looks for Answers in Wake of Massive Data Breach
(Posted 05-Dec-18)
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85720.html

AI Meets VR in New Nvidia Tech
(Posted 04-Dec-18)
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85716.html

Quirky but Useful Gifts: Rob Enderle's 2018 Personal Tech Product Guide
(Posted 03-Dec-18)
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85715.html

Facebook Staffers Once Brainstormed Ways to Sell User Data: Report
(Posted 30-Nov-18)
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85713.html

Amazon Comprehend Medical Makes Sense of Scattered Healthcare Data
(Posted 29-Nov-18)
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85709.html

This Week's Top News Headlines From CRM Buyer

One-of-a-Kind CRM
(Posted 05-Dec-18)
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/85723.html

Salesforce's Earnings Mystery
(Posted 29-Nov-18)
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/85708.html

This Week's Top News Headlines From LinuxInsider

Void Linux: Built From Scratch for Full Independence
(Posted 29-Nov-18)
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/85703.html

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The Morning After: Samsung's 5G corner notch

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Wednesday, December 05, 2018.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

This morning, we have a very important message for you from Tom Cruise and news about the hardware that will be inside many of 2019’s most popular phones. It’s not a 5G world yet, but we’re getting ready, and that might mean adjusting to some very strange notch placements.

(View in browser.)

And a new fingerprint sensor that works from within the display.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 chipset will power your next flagship phone

It's been clear for a while now that 2019 will be the year of 5G, and it's little surprise that the Snapdragon 855 will support "multi-gigabit" data speeds on 5G networks as they light up around the country. SVP Alex Katouzian also pointed out that the 855 was designed to trounce last-generation chipsets when it comes to AI performance -- we can expect up to three-fold performance gains when it comes to these complex computations. He even detailed a new way to sense fingerprints from inside an all-screen phone: with Qualcomm’s new ultrasonic sensor.

The lenses weren’t as cheap.

Sony shot an entire Hollywood movie using a full-frame mirrorless camera

Sony said that The Possession of Hannah Grace was primarily shot on its own A7S II, a consumer camera that costs a mere $2,000. "The smaller camera's ability to see beautiful under low light conditions, the LED lighting technology, and the [eco-friendly] methods we used in set construction made this whole production a case study in how to be efficient and still tell a great story with a fantastic look," said producer Glenn S. Gainor.

It’s probably ruining your movies.

Tom Cruise takes up the fight against TVs with motion smoothing left on

Proving that his heroism is not merely limited to on-screen antics, Tom Cruise has starred in a video spreading awareness of a scourge impacting all-too-many televisions: motion smoothing. It's the setting in almost all new HDTVs and 4K TVs that's usually turned on by default and can turn everything into a slightly-too-smooth soap-opera-looking mess. We've written up some instructions for the settings you should adjust on any new TV, and they will help you deal with this, as well as other on-by-default switches. Please share this information with your loved ones so we can bring the 240Hz epidemic to an end.

Up your team's productivity with a free trial to monday.com

How the most and least convenient ways to listen to music work together.

Music streaming is fueling vinyl's resurgence

Streaming has been blamed for killing off the CD, but industry experts agree it's helping bolster the growth and quality of another physical music format: vinyl.

Coming soon to PC and Mac.

Epic Games will take on Steam with its own digital store

Buoyed by Fortnite's phenomenal success over the last year or so, Epic Games is launching its own digital store to take on the likes of Steam, EA's Origin and Blizzard's Battle.net. However, Epic is giving developers a higher revenue share than most of its competitors -- 88 percent. Steam’s cut typically varies between 20 and 30 percent.