Новости за 17.04.2017

What is the role of theaters as streaming platforms become film studios? That question is floating around an anxious film industry as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and other video streaming services rapidly contract talented filmmakers and make aggressive acquisitions at big-name festivals. Amazon has cooperated with theaters, releasing awards-friendly films like Manchester by the Sea and Chi-Raq in cinemas before making them available to subscribers. But Netflix has been doggedly committed to releasing every new film directly onto Netflix... Читать дальше...

Netflix’s just-released Q1 earnings report has lots of numbers in it. Some of them are interesting and some of them boring, but just one of them reflects on you and me in a way that is deeply upsetting.

Netflix reported a healthy profit for the first three months of 2017, but missed its own projections for revenue and subscriber growth. It booked $2.64 billion in revenue and added just under 5 million new subscribers. Thanks to higher prices and a maturing business overseas, Netflix reported a net income of $178 million, more than six times the profit it had during the same period last year. It should cross the 100 million subscriber milestone easily next quarter.

Lenovo is working on a successor to last year’s Moto Z Force, which was a thicker version of the regular Moto Z with a bigger battery, higher-res camera, and shatterproof display. A few photos of the Z2 Force have already leaked, and now Android Authority has shared some more details. The most important thing is that the headphone jack is making a return.

Verizon announced today that its $350 Wear24 smartwatch will be available online and in stores on May 11th. The Android Wear 2.0-based device will have 4G LTE connectivity on Verizon’s network and will come in three colors: stainless steel, gunmetal black, and rose gold. It also includes NFC for Android Pay. Verizon is positioning the Watch24 as a competitor to LG’s big, bulky Watch Sport and the Huawei Watch 2.

The focal point of this year’s Star Wars Celebration was ostensibly the future of the franchise, but one name stood out above all the trailers, video game reveals, and theme-park news: Carrie Fisher. The event was the first Star Wars convention since she died last year at age 60, and day after day, collaborators and castmates took the opportunity to pay tribute to her. And somehow, somewhere in the process, an event dedicated to promoting one of the most valuable entertainment properties in the world became something different ... Читать дальше...

Back in December, Instagram introduced the ability to save your favorite posts by other users. Tapping the bookmark logo at the lower right of any Instagram photo or video saves it to your personal “Saved” section. Only you can see content that you’ve saved this way; it’s not a public-facing part of your profile. Personally, the only time I’ve saved Instagram posts, it’s been by accident. (Seriously, you’ve probably done the same. Go check.) But some of my fellow Verge people love the feature... Читать дальше...

Tesla is dropping the base price for most of its Model S and Model X vehicles ahead of the entry-level Model 3’s unveil later this July. The base 75 and 75D versions have seen price reductions of $5,000 and $3,000 for Model S and X respectively, while the 90D’s price drops by $2,000 for both cars. That means the least expensive Tesla now starts at $69,500, effective today.

Gorillaz’s upcoming album is called Humanz, which seemed like an interesting choice for a band that hides its human members (Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett) behind animated avatars. But the band just detailed its first tour in seven years, and it turns out there will be some humans onstage after all. Albarn and Hewlett’s animated personas Murdoc, Noodle, Russel, and 2D will share the stage with some of the musicians who appear on the album, Billboard reports.

Legendary film composer Hans Zimmer made his Coachella debut yesterday, performing the music he wrote for films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, and Inception, accompanied by a live orchestra.

The Fate of the Furious, the eighth installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise, is off to a record-breaking start. The film debuted this weekend worldwide, where it raked in $100.2 million domestically and $432.3 million internationally. Combined, that puts The Fate of the Furious at $532.5 million at the global box office, surpassing the previous record of $529 million set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It is no secret that Samsung experimented with a dual-camera setup for its Galaxy S8 smartphone generation. The company told our own Dan Seifert as much during its preview event for the S8 in South Korea last month. Company execs told Dan that they didn’t pursue the dual-camera route because "Samsung has not found real value for it yet." But to test the hypothesis, Samsung naturally put together a few prototypes, and one of them appears to have emerged online courtesy of Weibo leaker KK.

HTC, the company that once rivaled Samsung for the adulation of Android smartphone fans, has sunk to the role of a discount player. Its new flagship device, the U Ultra, launched only last month, but it’s already subject to a $150 discount this week, which takes it from its unreasonable $749 sticker price to a more palatable $599. Even at a fifth less, the U Ultra is hard to recommend, owing to its peculiar mix of bad ideas and poor execution.

Last July, the UK handed out its first ever jail sentence to an individual using a quadcopter to smuggle contraband into prison. Now, the government has announced the formation of a new specialist squad to tackle the problem nationally.

Star Wars Celebration has wrapped up in Orlando, Florida, and it’s been a fun four days immersed in everything Star Wars. We’ve learned a lot about the next couple of years of the franchise: we got our first looks at The Last Jedi and Battlefront II, learned the fate of Star Wars Rebels, and heard a bit about Disney’s ambitious plans for its Star Wars-themed parks.

A Cleveland man is at large after reportedly killing someone and uploading the footage to Facebook. The video appears to show a man identified by police as 37-year-old Steve Stephens approaching a 74-year-old man, before asking him to say a name and shooting him in the head. Some time after the murder, Stephens also began broadcasting on Facebook Live. The video and broadcast were among multiple Facebook posts made by Stephens on Sunday afternoon, in which he claimed to have killed up to 15 people... Читать дальше...

Lady Gaga headlined the Coachella Music Festival last night, and used the opportunity to debut a new song during her set, “The Cure”, which went on sale last night.