Halloween was that moment out of time that allowed me to be anyone but me.
Email is the scourge of the modern workplace. Here are four rules that can help keep it in check.
Using a computer and modern software can be a chore to begin with for the visually impaired, but fundamentally visual tasks like 3D design are even harder. This Stanford team is working on a way to display 3D information, like in a CAD or modeling program, using a “2.5D” display made up of pins that be raised or lowered as sort of tactile pixels. Taxels!
The research project, a collaboration between graduate student Alexa Siu, Joshua Miele, and lab head Sean Follmer, is intended to explore avenues by which blind and visually impaired people can accomplish visual tasks without the aid of a sighted helper. It was presented this week at SIGACCESS.
The device is essentially a 12×24 array of thin columns with rounded tops that can be individually told to rise anywhere from a fraction of an inch to several inches above the plane, taking the shape of 3D objects quick enough to amount to real time.
“It opens up the possibility of blind people being, not just consumers of the benefits of fabrication technology, but agents in it, creating our own tools from 3D modeling environments that we would want or need – and having some hope of doing it in a timely manner,” explained Miele, who is himself blind, in a Stanford news release.
Siu calls the device “2.5D,” since of course it can’t show the entire object floating in midair. But it’s an easy way for someone who can’t see the screen to understand the shape it’s displaying. The resolution is limited, sure, but that’s a shortcoming shared by all tactile displays — which it should be noted are extremely rare to begin with and often very expensive.
The field is moving forward, but too slowly for some, like this crew and the parents behind the BecDot, an inexpensive Braille display for kids. And other tactile displays are being pursued as possibilities for interactions in virtual environments.
Getting an intuitive understanding of a 3D object, whether one is designing or just viewing it, usually means rotating and shifting it — something that’s difficult to express in non-visual ways. But a real-time tactile display like this one can change the shape it’s showing quickly and smoothly, allowing more complex shapes like moving cross-sections to be expressed as well.
Joshua Miele demonstrates the device.
The device is far from becoming a commercial project, though as you can see in the images (and the video below), it’s very much a working prototype and a fairly polished one at that. The team plans on reducing the size of the pins, which would of course increase the resolution of the display. Interestingly another grad student in the same lab is working on that very thing, albeit at rather an earlier stage.
The Shape Lab at Stanford is working on a number of projects along these lines — you can keep up with their work at the lab’s website.
Katie Porter angered uppity Americans by wearing a costume to Congress ... on Halloween.
The Democratic representative from Southern California walked into the Capitol on Thursday morning in full Batgirl regalia, complete with a mask, a cape, and crime-fighting knee-high boots. Mediaite reports that she eventually dressed in more business formal clothing when she attended a vote in the Financial Services Committee, but kept the mask on.
In photos available for download on the National Republican Congressional Committee website, Porter completed the look with a purse full of paperwork and an iced coffee. We love a vigilante on the go! Read more...
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The world of phone-based AR has involved a lot of promises, but the future that’s developed has so far been more iterative and less platform shift-y. For startups exclusively focused on mobile AR, there’s been some soul-searching to find ways to bring more lightweight experiences to life that don’t require as much friction or commitment from users.
8th Wall is a team focused on building developer tools for mobile AR experiences. The startup has raised over $10 million to usher developers into the augmented world.
The company announced this week that they’ve built a one-stop shop authoring platform that will help its customers create and ship AR experiences that will be hosted by 8th Wall. It’s a step forward in what they’ve been trying to build and a further sign that marketing activations are probably the most buoyant money-makers in the rather flat phone-based AR space at the moment.
The editor supports popular immersive web frameworks like A-Frame, three.js and Babylon.js. It’s a development platform, but while game engine tools like Unity have features focused on heavy rendering, 8th Wall is more interested in “very fast, lightweight projects that can be built up to any scale,” the startup’s CEO Erik Murphy tells TechCrunch.
8th Wall’s initial sell was an augmented reality platform akin to ARKit and ARCore that allowed to developers to build content that supported a wider breadth of smartphones. Today, 8th Wall’s team of 14 is focused on a technology called WebAR that allows mobile phones to call-up web experiences inside the browser.
The main sell of WebAR is the same appeal of web apps; users don’t need to download anything and they can access the experience with just a link. This is great for branded marketing interactions where expecting users to download an app is pretty laughable, moving this process to the web with a link or a QR code makes life much easier.
The startup’s cloud-based authoring and hosting platform is available now for its agency and
business users.
I'll admit it: I've had a pedestrian enter the crosswalk without me immediately noticing because they were blocked by the right side of my car. But what if your car frame didn't block your line of sight while driving?
That's what 14-year-old Alaina Gassler looked into for her invention at the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) competition for middle schoolers from the Society for Science and the Public this week. She came up with a project called, "Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blind Spots."
She built a prototype system with a webcam, projector, and 3D-printed materials to fill in the space the car frame blocks from drivers. No more missing information. Simple, yet elegant. Read more...
More about Stem, Teens, Safety, Engineering, and Tech
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitter is finally doing something popular: banning political ads. Yesterday, CEO Jack Dorsey announced that his company will no longer allow sponsored tweets promoting political campaigns. It will also prohibit the much broader category of “issues” ads, with a few exceptions. “This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach,” said Dorsey. “Paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle.”
The decision was widely supported, according to a survey from consumer polling group CivicScience. But it also sparked immediate debate, confusion, and uncertainty — because Twitter is trying to draw hard policy lines around the nebulous...
In a move that is surprisingly rare, Amazon Prime has decided to release the new season for one of its flagship shows a few hours early. Season two of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is available now, so fans don't have to wait until 3AM to binge. If you're a...
Xiaomi smartwatch | Xiaomi, via Weibo
In the past, Xiaomi’s products have looked a lot like Apple versions, and Xiaomi’s first smartwatch, which will launch on November 5th, appears to be no exception. From the images and video teasers Xiaomi released through Weibo earlier this week, it bears a striking resemblance to the Apple Watch (via XDA Developers).
The watch has an almost-identical rectangular touchscreen face with rounded corners and a lookalike rotating ridged crown button for scrolling, which is also located above a similar-looking pill-shaped button on the right side of the watch. Those are all right where you’d find them on an Apple Watch. Although the Xiaomi watch’s face is a little thicker and less...
It's a tale as old as time. A desiccated muppet valiantly struggles through tech fail after tech fail to eventually be anointed as Donald Trump's cyber czar and, maybe, finally have a chance at becoming a real boy.
However, in the Grimm's Fairy Tale that is Rudy Giuliani's life, we are sadly deprived of that happy ending. You see, when it comes to all things technology related, Giuliani was cursed to live out his days as a moron.
We are reminded of this fact today by the somehow unsurprising news that back in 2017, shortly after Trump named him his cybersecurity advisor, Giuliani waddled into an Apple Store to have his iPhone restored to factory settings. Why? Because he entered the incorrect password too many times in a row. Read more...
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On Nov. 1, Russia is poised to disconnect from the internet—in theory.
That is when a long-planned internet bill will go into effect and lay the foundation for a national network whereby internet service providers are controlled by Roskomnadzor, Russia's telecom agency. The goal is to give Russia the power to disconnect from the global internet in the event of a cyberwar and, in the interim, serve up a walled-off version of the web sanctioned by the Russians. It also gives President Vladimir Putin greater control over Russian citizens.
Details of the bill are sketchy. Russian news agency RIA-Novosti says the aim is to provide a "sustainable, secure, and fully functioning" internet. And it will reportedly do so by developing its own version of the internet's address system so Russian web users attempting to reach international sites will instead be directed to Russian versions. Citizens hoping to visit Facebook, for example, might be redirected to Russian social network VK. Read more...
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My truth: I don’t like Halloween. I think it’s fun, sure, and I do love any excuse to party or eat candy, but there’s something about the ritual of it that gets to me — something about pretending to be someone or something else, when it’s so hard even to just be yourself. Or maybe it’s that Halloween changes: eventually you stop eating your neighbors’ candy and start giving it out yourself. Or the fact that, in New York City at least, it’s one of the messier weekends of the year. I think I might just be a curmudgeon. But I enjoy things! I promise. Actually, now that I think of it, here’s one.
For the better part of a decade, one of my favorite internet Halloween traditions has been waiting for trap producer Henry Steinway — better known...
I regret to inform you that Mark Zuckerberg and Aaron Sorkin are publicly feuding over free speech And yes, the whole thing is about as dumb as you'd expect.
It all started when the Social Network writer published an open letter to Zuckerberg in the The New York Times, saying that Facebook is "assaulting the truth."
Hours after Sorkin's scathing letter (if factually flawed; the Times later published a lengthy correction addressing several inaccuracies), Zuckerberg (sort of) fired back with a Facebook post of his own.
His response? A quote defending free speech from the 1995 Sorkin-penned film American President. Read more...
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This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read Wirecutter's continuously updated list of deals here.
Malware tied to Chinese hackers has been found infecting telecommunication networks to steal SMS messages from thousands of phone numbers.
The spying effort comes from a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group called APT 41, according to the cybersecurity firm FireEye. On Thursday, the company published a report on a malware strain from the group that's designed to infect Linux-based servers used by telecommunication carriers to route SMS messages.
Some time this year, FireEye uncovered the malicious computer code on a cluster of servers belonging to an unnamed telecommunication network provider. "During this intrusion, thousands of phone numbers were targeted, to include several high-ranking foreign individuals likely of interest to China," the company told PCMag. Read more...
More about China, Hacking, Sms Messages, Tech, and Politics
For the better part of the past four years, Facebook just hasn't been able to keep its name out of the bad news cycle. The latest backlash the company is facing has to do with its political ad policies, which essentially allow politicians to spread m...
Image: Apple
In Apple’s Q4 earnings call, CEO Tim Cook announced that later this year, you’ll be able to buy an iPhone on an Apple Card, pay for it over 24 months with zero interest, get your 3 percent cash back on the purchase, and manage payments in the Wallet app with one fell swoop.
Apple already offers a number of ways to finance the cost of the iPhone, such as the iPhone Upgrade Program, and it seems like only the “manage payments in the Wallet app” portion is truly new. Apple already offers Apple Card holders 3 percent cash back when they make purchases at its stores, and lets you pay for phones in 24 installments while getting the cash back if you make those payments — on time — with an Apple Card.
With a timeline of “later this year” for...
Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced abruptly — though the timing was certainly not accidental — that the platform would soon disallow any and all political advertising. This is the right thing to do, but it’s also going to be hard as hell for a lot of reasons. As usual in tech and politics, no good deed goes unpunished.
Malicious actors state-sponsored and otherwise have and will continue to attempt to influence the outcome of U.S. elections via online means including political ads and astroturfing. Banning such ads outright is an obvious, if rather heavy-handed solution — but given that online platforms seem to have made little progress on more targeted measures, it’s the only one realistically available to deploy now.
“Not allowing for paid disinformation is one of the most basic, ethical decisions a company can make,” wrote Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in a tweet following the news. “If a company cannot or does not wish to run basic fact-checking on paid political advertising, then they should not run paid political ads at all.”
One of the reasons Facebook has avoided restricting political ads and content is that by doing so it establishes itself as the de facto arbiter between “appropriate” and “inappropriate,” and the fractal-complex landscape that creates across thousands of cultures, languages, and events. Don’t cry for Mark Zuckerberg, though — this is a monster of his own creation. He should have retired when I suggested it.
But Twitter’s decision to use a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel doesn’t remove the inherent difficulties in the process. Twitter is just submitting itself for a different kind of punishment. Because instead of being the arbiter of what is appropriate, it will be the arbiter of what is political.
This is slightly less fraught than Facebook’s task, but Twitter will not be able to avoid accusations — perhaps even true ones — of partisanship and bias.
For instance, the fundamental decision to disallow political advertising seems pretty straightforward and nonpartisan. Incumbents rely on traditional media more and progressives tend to be younger and more social media–savvy. So is this taking away a tool suited to left-leaning challengers? But incumbents tend to have bigger budgets and their spend on social media has been increasing, so could this be considered a way to curb that trend? Who this affects and how is not a clear-cut fact but something campaigns and pundits will squabble about endlessly.
(Update: The Trump re-election campaign has already called it “yet another attempt to silence conservatives.”)
Or consider the announcement Dorsey made right off the bat that “ads in support of voter registration will still be allowed.” Voter registration is a good nonpartisan goal, right? In fact it’s something many conservative lawmakers have consistently opposed, because unregistered voters, for a multitude of reasons, skew toward the liberal side. So this too will be considered a partisan act.
Having unofficially provided some guidance, Twitter will put out official guidelines in a few weeks, but it’s hard to see how they can be satisfactory. Will industry groups be able to promote tweets about how their new factory is thriving because of a government grant? Will an advocacy organization be able to promote a tweet about a serious situation on the border? Will news outlets be able to promote a story about the election? What about a profile of a single candidate? What about an op-ed on an issue?
The difference between patrolling the interior of the politics world, and patrolling its borders, so to speak, may appear significant — but it’s really just a different kind of trouble. Twitter is entering a world of pain.
But at least it’s moving forward. It’s the right decision, even if it’s a hard one and could hit the bottom line pretty hard (not that Twitter has ever cared about that). The decision to do this while Facebook is dismantling its credibility with a series of craven, self-interested actions is a canny one. Even if Twitter fails to get this right, it can at least say it’s trying.
And lastly it should be said that it also happens to be a good choice for users and voters, a rare exception to the parade of user-hostile decisions coming out of the big tech and media companies. Going into an election year, we can use all the good news we can get.
Facebook, a social network originally founded as an Ivy League version of Hot or Not, has billions of users and the power to sway elections. In the U.S., where nearly 70 percent of adults are Facebook users, its recent choices make it clear where the company stands: with the party of Donald Trump.
On the day that the company rolled out one of its biggest new products, the Facebook News tab, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg decided the place he wanted to be on launch day was a media event co-hosted by News Corp.
There, Zuckerberg and News Corp. chief executive Robert Thomson spent an hour yucking it up and reminiscing about old times spent with Thomson’s boss, Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News. Read more...
More about Facebook, Donald Trump, Social Media, Republican, and Conservative
Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are applauding Twitter’s decision to ban political ads from its platform starting in November, seeing it as a welcome contrast to Facebook’s hands-off approach to misleading ads.
In a statement, Bill Russo, deputy communications director for the Biden campaign, thanked Twitter, saying “We appreciate that Twitter recognizes that they should not permit disproven smears, like those from the Trump campaign, to appear in advertisements on their platform.”
Russo continued, “It would be unfortunate to suggest that the only option available to social media companies to do so is the full withdrawal of political advertising, but when faced with a choice between ad dollars and the integrity of our democracy, it is...
Facebook has done it again.
As the company fights growing backlash against its political advertising policies and new pressure from lawmakers, Facebook is proving once again that seemingly no scandal is big enough to affect its bottom line — at least for now.
The company delivered its results for the third-quarter of 2019, revealing that it had taken in $17.7 billion while growing its daily active users to 1.62 billion — both comfortably ahead of analysts' expectations for the beleaguered social media giant.
Facebook's latest financial results came just after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter would no longer accept political ad dollars from candidates or outside organizations. Though Dorsey didn't call out Facebook or Zuckerberg by name, he made clear that he believes Facebook's own explanation for its political ad policies is "not credible." Read more...
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This week, the developer of the popular note-taking software Notepad++ released a new version update. Nothing seemed particularly strange about it, except maybe the name: Notepad++ v7.8.1 is the “Free Uyghur” edition.
In a blog post announcing the updated version, developer Don Ho writes about the plight of the Uyghur people, an ethnic minority in China that’s faced persecution from the country’s authoritarian government. China operates internment camps that are used to detain Uyghur people throughout the country’s Xinjiang region.
“The fact you have just learned such information is already an action in and of itself,” Ho writes in the announcement. “But you can involve more people to...
As Jack Dorsey announced his company Twitter would drop all political ads, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg doubled-down on his policy of refusing to fact check politicians’ ads. “At times of social tension there has often been an urge to pull back on free expression . . . We will be best served over the long term by resisting this urge and defending free expression.”
Still, Zuckerberg failed to delineate between freedom of expression, and freedom of paid amplification of that expression which inherently favors the rich.
During today’s Q3 2019 earnings call where Facebook beat expectations and grew monthly users 2% to 2.45 billion, Zuckerberg spent his time defending the social network’s lenient political ad policy. You can read his full prepared statement here.
One clear objective was to dispel the idea that Facebook was motivated by greed to keep these ads. Zuckerberg explained “We estimate these ads from politicians will be less than 0.5% of our revenue next year.” For reference, Facebook earned $66 billion in the 12 months ending Q3 2019, so Facebook might earn around $330 million to $400 million in political ads next year. Unfortunately, it’s unclear if Zuckerberg meant 0.5% of ads were political or just from politicians without counting issue ads and PACs.
Zuckerberg also said that given Facebook removed 50 million hours per day of viral video watching from its platform to support well-being which hurt ad viewership and the company’s share price, Facebook clearly doesn’t act solely in pursuit of profit.
Facebook’s CEO also tried to bat down the theory that Facebook is allowing misinformation in political ads to cater to conservatives or avoid calls of bias from them. “Some people say that this is just all a cynical political calculation and that we’re acting in a way that we don’t really believe because we’re just trying to appease conservatives” he said, responding that “frankly, if our goal was that we’re trying to make either side happy then we’re not doing a very good job because I’m pretty sure everyone is frustrated.”
Instead of banning political ads, Zuckerberg voiced support for increasing transparency about how ads look, how much is spent on them, and where they’re run. “I believe that the better approach is to work to increase transparency. Ads on Facebook are already more transparent than anywhere else. We have a political ads archive so anyone can scrutinize every ad that’s run.”
He mentioned that political ads are run by “Google, YouTube, and most internet platforms”, seeming to stumble for a second as he was likely prepared to cite Twitter too until it announced it would drop all political ads an hour earlier.
It doesn’t help that hundreds of Facebook’s own employees have called on their CEO to change the policy. He concluded that no one could accuse Facebook of not deeply thinking through the question and its downstream ramifications. Zuckerberg did leave himself an out if he chooses to change the policy, though. “I’ve considered whether we should not [sell political ads] in the past, and I’ll continue to do so.”
Dorsey had tweeted that “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.” Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed support for Twitter’s move while Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale called it “a very dumb decision”
Twitter’s CEO took some clear swipes at Zuckerberg, countering his common arguments for allowing misinformation in politician’s ads. “Some might argue our actions today could favor incumbents. But we have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow.” Given President Trump had outspent all Democratic candidates on Facebook ads as of March of this year, it’s clear that deep-pocketed incumbents could benefit from Facebook’s policy.
Trump continues to massively outspend Democratic rivals on Facebook ads. Via NYT
Miming Facebook’s position, Dorsey tweeted “It‘s not credible for us to say: ‘We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want!”
Twitter doesn’t earn much from political ads, citing only $3 million in revenue from the 2018 mid-term elections, or roughly 0.1% of its $3 billion in total 2018 revenue. That means there will be no major windfall for Facebook from Twitter dropping political ads. But now all eyes will be on Facebook and Google/YouTube. If Sundar Pichai and Susan Wojcicki move in line with Dorsey, it could make Zuckerberg even more vulnerable to criticism.
$330 million might not be a big incentive for Facebook or Zuckerberg, but it still sounds like a lot of money to earn from ads that potentially lie to voters. I respect Facebook’s lenient policy when it comes to speech organically posted to users, organizations, or politicians’ own accounts. But relying on the candidates, press, and public to police speech is dangerously idealistic. We’ve seen how candidates will do anything to win, partisan press will ignore the truth to support their team, and the public aren’t educated or engaged enough to consistently understand what’s false.
Zuckerberg greatest mistakes have come from overestimating humanity. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to bring the world closer together. Without safeguards, Facebook’s tools can help tear it apart. It’s time for Facebook and Zuckerberg to recognize the difference between free expression and paid expression.
Apple’s iPhone sales still make up over half of its quarterly revenues, but they are slowly shrinking in importance as other divisions in the company pick up speed.
Apple’s stock remained largely unchanged after-hours following the release of its Q4 earnings. The company delivered earnings per share of $3.03 versus the street’s estimate of $2.84 on revenue of $64 billion compared with expectation at $62.99 billion.
The big story continues to be major growth in Services, iPad and Wearables while iPhone and Mac sales continue to shrink year-over-year.
As you’ll remember, Apple no longer reports unit sales of its iPhone, Mac and iPad lines, something that is largely the result of declining unit sales and higher average selling prices. Services, Wearables and Other, and iPad saw year-over-year gains, while the iPhone and Mac lines are still seeing revenue slumps.
The company is continuing to add to some of its highest-growth businesses. The company announced the release of a new high-end set of AirPods yesterday, which will likely increase average selling prices among its wearables division. The company also has a number of paid services, including Apple TV+, that will be launching soon.
Twitter will cease running paid political ads.
The announcement, made Wednesday afternoon by Jack Dorsey, is in stark contrast to Facebook's controversial decision to allow politicians to pay to spread lies. It's a smart move, and, despite Mark Zuckerberg's protestations, Dorsey makes clear that it has nothing to do with free speech.
As the Twitter CEO rightly points out, the policy will not prevent politicians from tweeting, but rather will prevent them and their teams from using his company's advanced micro-targeting service to gain paid exposure.
"This isn’t about free expression," tweeted Dorsey. "This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle." Read more...
More about Facebook, Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Tech
Apple just reported results for its fiscal Q4 for 2019, and as usual the data reveals some noteworthy aspects about where the consumer electronics giant is at right now. In case you didn't already know, wearables and services are a big deal for Apple...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Apple today reported its fiscal fourth quarter 2019 earnings, which saw the company earn a record $64 billion in revenue. The news reflects the general trend with Apple over the past year: iPhone sales are down, but service revenue hit an all-time high. In other words, Apple’s strategy to de-emphasize hardware sales and bet more on subscription services seems to be working.
That $64 billion in revenue is up 2 percent year over year compared to Q4 2018, with quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.03, up 4 percent from Q4 2018.
But iPhone sales — still Apple’s biggest moneymaker — continued to decline compared to last year, bringing in $33.36...
The idea of first aid training and emergency response makes some people squeamish, and that’s understandable. Maybe you can’t stand the sight of blood, or think you’re not good in a crisis. But in case you haven’t noticed, the world is a dangerous place and there’s never a bad time to train up.
Not everyone is cut out to be a paramedic or an ER nurse. We can all play a role though, and first aid training is the best way to make sure that you’re not standing around helplessly waiting for the pros to arrive.
It’s no secret that hospitals and emergency staff are overloaded, and there is no denying that paramedics are struggling with the increased workload. The potential for low-frequency, high-risk emergencies is greater than before, and now is the right time for all of us to play a role in ensuring the health and safety of those around us Read more...
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Posting to his blog on Wednesday, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has declared he won't write for newly announced Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon until he finishes Winds of Winter — even though he really wants to. It's a bit like when you promise yourself delicious chocolate cake if you finish your 5K run.
"I expect to be involved in [the production of House of the Dragon] to some extent… and, who knows, if things work out, I may even be able to script a few episodes, as I did for the first four seasons of Game Of Thrones," wrote Martin in his post.
"But… let me make this perfectly clear… I am not taking on any scripts until I have finished and delivered Winds Of Winter. Winter is still coming, and Winds remains my priority, as much as I’d love to write an episodes of House" (emphasis Martin's). Read more...
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HBO announced on Tuesday that their streaming service HBO Max will launch in May 2020 for $14.99 a month (existing HBO customers and HBO Now direct subscribers will get it bundled for free), as well as a feature it calls "human-powered discovery."
"Talent & influencers will be the humans behind our Recommended by Humans feature, sharing the content they love and why it's worth watching," it announced in a tweet.
The service will also offer "co-viewing", a joint profile that gives recommendations based upon joint views without interfering with personal profiles.
In addition, the company announced a Game of Thrones prequel as the crown jewel in their upcoming slate for HBO. Co-created by George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal, the Targaryen prequel House of the Dragon will also be written by Condal, and both he and Miguel Sapochnik will act as showrunners. Read more...
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In Los Angeles, a battle's been slowly brewing between scooter-shares and the transportation department. Now, privacy organizations are taking sides.
Scooter companies like the Uber-owned Jump are not having it with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) data-gathering policies required for operating a scooter company in the city. Back in March, LADOT gave year-long permits to Bird, Lyft, Lime, Bolt, Sherpa, Spin, and Wheels to offer app-based rides on two-wheeled electric vehicles. Uber's Jump was given a temporary permit.
Uber (and to its credit, Lyft) balked at parts of the permit about data policies. LADOT wanted real-time data as part of its Mobility Data Specification (MDS) system to collect data from the companies, as it was mandated that they "provide real-time information about how many of their vehicles are in use at any given time." Uber was down to give data about its scooters like it does in other cities like Oakland and Seattle, just not the way LADOT was demanding it. Read more...
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