Новости за 08.05.2017

The new Amazon Echo, now with a 7-inch touchscreen, could be officially announced as early as tomorrow morning according to The Wall Street Journal. The device will support video calling as its new marquee feature in addition to Alexa’s current plethora of “skills” and compatibility with smart home gadgets and popular services. It will also be able to place phone calls in a manner similar to Microsoft’s Skype.

In the aftermath of the 2016 election, several alums of the Bernie Sanders campaign came together with media entrepreneurs from The Young Turks to chart their path forward. Disappointed with the performance of a Democratic Party they felt had chosen a too-centrist position, they decided to seek out and promote candidates from the left using some of the distributed organizing tools that had helped the Sanders campaign punch above its weight.

Last night at MTV’s Movie and TV Awards ceremony, Emma Watson accepted MTV’s first gender-neutral acting award. This morning, Watson’s speech, which The New York Times called “a potent call for breaking down gender categories,” went viral on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

Chinese phone manufacturer Oukitel is planning to release a new phone in June that’ll only be recognized for its insanely large battery. The K10000 Pro follows its predecessor, the K10000, which was released in 2015 and featured the same crazy 10,000mAh battery. The battery supposedly only takes about three and a half hours to fully charge, according to Oukitel, because of flash charge technology that’s kept in its 12V/2A charger.

Tesla is asking vehicle owners for permission to collect more video data in an effort to “make self-driving a reality,” according to Electrek. The company is also updating its Autopilot software to lift many of the restrictions on how fast you can drive while using its semi-autonomous, hands-free feature.

Owners of Huawei’s original watch can now update their device to run Android Wear 2.0. The update is being rolled out to both the developer preview and the stable channel of the two-year-old smartwatch, according to Reddit reports and AndroidCentral. The update should be available through the watch’s settings, but if it’s not, the watch can be manually flashed.

We’ve known for a while now that Google is working on a mysterious new operating system known as “Fuchsia.” Unlike Android or Chrome OS that are based on Linux, Fuchsia is built on a new, Google-built kernel called “Magenta” instead.

For the last couple of years, NASA’s next big space observatory — the James Webb Space Telescope — has been carefully pieced together at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. But now the telescope has left its primary home in the Northeast and has been delicately shipped to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the spacecraft will undergo extreme temperature testing to make sure it’s ready to be launched into deep space. It’s the first of a couple pit stops the telescope... Читать дальше...

Blade Runner 2049 is the upcoming sequel to one the the most venerated sci-fi films ever made, and now Sony has released a new trailer with more footage from director Denis Villeneuve's followup to Ridley Scott’s iconic movie.

Few startup founders over the past decade have inspired as much mythology as Ross Ulbricht. In October 2013, the FBI arrested Ulbricht as he sat working inside a San Francisco branch library. When they grabbed his open laptop, they found what they had been seeking for more than two years: evidence that Ulbricht, a 29-year-old Texas-born Eagle Scout, was the mastermind behind a fast-growing dark web black market called the Silk Road.

Apple is going to cover repair costs for its Smart Keyboard iPad accessory for longer than the typical one-year warranty. Now, they’ll be free for up to three years. The company has discovered that some of the keyboards “may experience functional issues during use.” Both MacRumors and 9to5Mac reported on the extended service program.

Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hail behemoth that is a key ally of Apple and most recently took over Uber’s business in China, is going global. Today, the company announced its plan to offer its service in English for the first time. And with a new round of funding, many experts believe the Chinese company will look to expand its service into new markets.

Beyerdynamic has a new version of its top-of-the-line Xelento in-ear headphones: the Xelento Wireless, which true to its same, takes the same design and audio hardware of the original Xelento, and cuts the cord in favor of a Bluetooth connection. That means that the Xelento Wireless still offers the same Tesla transducer technology (and presumably, same audiophile-level sound quality) seen in Beyerdynamic’s wired model, but in an even more portable form.

Comcast is expanding its hardware lineup with mesh Wi-Fi pods and a new router. The company announced the new products today, along with the official launch of its xFi platform — a digital dashboard for managing home Wi-Fi.

Rappers love and will probably always love referencing video games in their work. Biggie referenced the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Drake sampled Donkey Kong Country 2 for his track “6 God.” Now, Big Sean is leaning right into the 16-bit era in his new video for “Jump Out the Window.”

The second trailer for Andrés Muschietti’s upcoming It adaptation debuted last night during the MTV Movie Awards.

Microsoft’s devices chief, Panos Panay, has strongly hinted that the company isn’t ready to launch a Surface Pro 5. In an interview with CNET, Panay says Microsoft will launch the Surface Pro 5 when it has achieved enough "meaningful change" to make it a new product. "Meaningful change isn't necessarily a hardware change, which is what a lot of people look for,” explains Panay. “They're like, 'Where's the latest processor?' That's not what I mean. I'm looking for an experiential change that makes... Читать дальше...

Pepe the Frog’s battles are finally over. Cartoonist Matt Furie has officially killed off his most famous creation, which rose from internet meme to white supremacist mascot during the 2016 US election. As reported by Comic Book Resources, Furie published a one-page installment of his “Boy’s Club” series (where Pepe was first introduced in 2005) in celebration of Free Comic Book Day. The strip shows Pepe laid to rest in an open casket while his friends gather round to mourn. One pours out some whisky for the departed frog... Читать дальше...

Travis Kalanick sure had a busy weekend. After hanging out with Tom Brady at the Kentucky Derby, the embattled Uber CEO made a pit stop in Pittsburgh, where he snapped this photo of a very large truck with the words “Uber Freight” stenciled on the side.

Facebook is moving its campaign against fake news off the web and into print. This week, the social media network has taken out full-page ads in a number of British newspapers (including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Times), warning readers to think twice about stories they see in their News Feed.

Harman Kardon first revealed it was working on a Cortana-powered speaker in December, and now the company is teasing its audio hardware even further. A new product page for the Invoke speaker, spotted by Thurrott.com, provides a first look at the cylindrical design with a Cortana light ring at the top. Harman Kardon’s Invoke speaker will include 360-degree sound, Skype calling, and the ability to ask Cortana questions.

Apple has changed its mind on commission rates for iTunes affiliates. It was previously reported that all rates (for Mac and iOS app purchases, and for in-app purchases on both operating systems) would be cut from 7 percent to 2.5 percent. But the iPhone-maker now says only in-app iOS purchases will have their commission rate reduced to 2.5 percent. All other rates will stay the same.

After a stream of Wonder Woman TV spots, teasers, and clips, the movie’s newest trailer promises to be the last before it hits theaters on June 2nd. The final trailer, shown during tonight’s MTV Movie Awards, follows Gal Gadot’s Diana as she crosses over from the land of Themyscira to our world, retrieving her iconic whip and shield along the way.

Cable giants Comcast and Charter Communications have reportedly agreed not to make any mergers or acquisitions of wireless companies without the other’s permission. The agreement — as outlined by The Wall Street Journal — is set to be formally announced on Monday, and will run for one year, during which time the companies will still theoretically be able to make joint bids for other companies.