Новости за 13.04.2017

There’s more evidence that plumes of water are erupting from underneath the crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa. NASA announced the findings today at a press conference, at the same time that the agency also announced new clues that Saturn’s moon Enceladus may have the right conditions for life.

NBC announced today that it had reached an agreement with its TV affiliate board to allow stations to opt-in to be included in NBC and Universal’s blanket agreements for internet streaming and other “TV Everywhere” distribution rights.

Society would classify me, Ashley Carman, as an adult. I can legally drink, am able to buy a ticket to see an R-rated movie, and really, can do whatever I want because, like I said, I’m an adult with an income. Being an adult means I’m not scared by most things. Ghosts, vampires, and aliens are all cool with me. It feels good to be mature!

One of the big panels this afternoon at Star Wars Celebration was Dave Filoni: Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates. Filoni, the supervisor on Clone Wars and Rebels, and Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo spoke about the origins of Lucasfilm’s animated shows. During the presentation, Filoni revealed an interesting tidbit: cosplayers helped the creators improve the show.

T-Mobile has made an enormous investment in wireless spectrum in a very expensive bid to put its LTE network on par with Verizon’s and AT&T’s.

If you haven’t managed to get your hands on Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition, you may be out of luck: the company has discontinued the plug-and-play console in North America, as first reported by IGN. The company released the following statement to The Verge:

Honda’s new plug-in hybrid, the Clarity, will go an estimated 42 miles on electric power, giving it the second-best range of any plug-in behind only the Chevy Volt.

Earlier today, the annual Star Wars Celebration fan gathering kicked off with a huge panel called 40 Years of Star Wars. Moderated by Star Wars film series regular Warwick Davis, the event came with plenty of surprises: George Lucas showed up to talk about the origins of the franchise and reframe his legacy with the series, while Harrison Ford dropped in to joke about sneaking in on his own plane. But the real focus of the panel was to appreciate the fans, reminisce about the films’ productions... Читать дальше...

In recent months, The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel about a patriarchal future where fertile women are a tightly controlled commodity — has become more of a symbol than a piece of fiction. From a “Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again” sign at a protest to women protesting a restrictive abortion law in costume, it offers a form of protest that cuts straight to the misogynist thread in American populism. Hulu, which will premiere an adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale on April 26th... Читать дальше...

Lucasfilm closed out the 40 Years of Star Wars panel at Star Wars Celebration with a touching tribute to Carrie Fisher, recognizing her iconic role as Princess Leia throughout the franchise.

Team collaboration app Slack is adding a subtle but important feature to its service today that borrows from age-old chat traditions: the status message. Once a staple of AOL Instant Messenger (RIP), to let your friends know what you were up to or to share very tacky late-‘90s emo lyrics, this feature should be pretty useful for organizations of diehard Slack users. Now you can let your co-workers now when you’ve gone to lunch or are out for the day or, most importantly, when you’re on vacation and would much rather not be bothered. Читать дальше...

DJI announced a new version of its Phantom 4 drone, the Phantom 4 Advanced, which offers many of the features of last year’s Phantom 4 Pro at a less expensive price point.

HP has been doing some great work in its premium HP Spectre line lately, but it hasn't forgotten the little people. The budget-friendly Pavilion line has just received an across-the-board refresh. Most notably, the x360 convertibles now have pen support and ship with a stylus in the box. HP has also added an optional IR camera that works with Windows Hello.

When Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg took the stage last year to show off a Facebook social VR platform, he expressed himself with an exaggerated set of emotions, created by different voice and body language cues. Compared to sophisticated non-VR face-capture cameras, this was primitive, but there was a good reason for that. Even though emotion is an incredibly important part of virtual presence, it’s tough to read somebody’s expressions when they’re hidden by a VR headset. But neuroscience and computing... Читать дальше...

Star Wars Celebration has begun in Orlando, Florida! The year’s biggest Star Wars convention is underway, and you can expect developments for Battlefront II, Star Wars Rebels, and of course, The Last Jedi. Stay tuned below to keep up with the biggest updates from this year's show.

Walt’s column this week proposes a plan to change how the internet is managed, regulated, and operated. He suggests that the US government should preserve the internet in a similar fashion to how natural resources are protected. This week on Ctrl-Walt-Delete, Nilay and Walt discuss what we need to change, and possible solutions for the problems politicians and major corporations are debatably only blocking.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, so its appeal to the fossil fuel-addicted auto industry is obvious. But while most car companies think they’ll be able to sell hydrogen fuel cell cars to eco-minded consumers, they are ignoring a glaring opportunity: that hydrogen-powered cars could be the perfect fuel for our self-driving, on-demand future.

This week, Star Wars fans from around the world are descending upon Orlando, Florida, for this year’s Star Wars Celebration, the official convention for the franchise. The event kicks off today and runs through Sunday, April 16th. There is quite a bit to look forward to: there will be news from The Last Jedi, season 4 of Rebels, and Battlefront II.

After receiving criticism for sidelining female characters in its The Force Awakens toy ranges, Disney is focusing on the women of the Star Wars galaxy ahead of the release of Episode VIII. The company announced Star Wars Forces of Destiny last night — an initiative that will see it releasing a series of animated shorts, books, and toys that feature characters like Rey, Leia, and Rogue One’s Jyn Erso.

Between 2014 and 2016, Uber reportedly used a secret program named “Hell” to keep tabs on its main rival Lyft. According to a report from The Information, the software let the company track how many Lyft drivers were available and where, as well as letting Uber find out which of its drivers also worked for Lyft. This would have been a key tool in the battle between the two companies, letting Uber know where and when it needed to deploy drivers to offer faster pick-up times than its rival.

Most telepresence robots are sold for the slightly disheartening purpose of letting remote workers visit the office from home. But startup OhmniLabs is targeting a more wholesome market. The company says its new telepresence bot, the eponymous Ohmni, is designed to connect families — whether that’s parents on a business trip saying goodnight to their kids, or children logging in to visit their grandparents at their retirement community.

Images posted by Evleaks show a new HTC phone called the One X10 that, according to what appears to be a marketing slogan, will focus on battery life. “Big style meets bigger battery,” to put it in HTC’s words. We can’t glean too much more about the phone from the pictures, but there’s a fingerprint sensor on the back and the overall industrial design is somewhat reminiscent of the Desire 10, a midrange HTC phone line from last year.

Apple is quietly developing sensors that can track the body’s blood sugar levels in a bid to help people with diabetes, CNBC reports. The company has apparently hired a small team of biomechanical engineers to work on the project, which would monitor glucose levels through contact with the skin, rather than through invasive blood tests or similar mechanisms.

Fitbit’s smartwatch woes go beyond GPS and waterproofing: the company is also facing challenges building out the third-party app experience on its upcoming smartwatch, two people familiar with the company’s plans have said.

During one of its Direct live-streams this evening, Nintendo revealed three new Zelda amiibo alongside an avalanche of release dates for new Switch games. These amiibo include Link toys specific to N64 classic Majora’s Mask and the Wii U entries in the franchise, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. In doing so, Nintendo brought to a close one of the more enduring mysteries surrounding The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and how a certain armor set seemed to exist in the game’s code, discoverable only through questionable means. Читать дальше...