Новости за 20.05.2017

Uber has been charging some passengers differently based on the routes that they’re taking, according to a pair of reports in Bloomberg and Business Insider. The goal of the pricing scheme is to help entice drivers in those areas to help reduce wait times for passengers.

Amazon could be looking to expand its cashier-free grocery stores to the UK and Europe in the future. The company recently filed several trademark applications related to its Go stores with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office and its European Union equivalent.

Maybe I’m a little late to the hashtag-mindfulness movement, but I just recently started trying out a meditation app. There are plenty of articles touting the supposed benefits of meditation practices — ranging from from “charting new pathways in the brain” to remaining in a zen-like state when having a conversation about politics; and in recent years the market for mental wellness and meditation services has grown to more than $1 billion. But for me the impetus was convenience: my gym app started offering meditation practices for free... Читать дальше...

Sony has released a new video for Star Wars Battlefront II, in which the game’s creators talk about how the story came together, and how it’ll provide new insight into the Star Wars universe.

Earlier this week, the National Press Club alleged that security guards ‘manhandled’ a journalist after attempting to ask FCC commissioners a question following a press conference. Now, two senators have written a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, asking for a formal explanation.

The Hollywood Reporter published an oral history of Saturday Night Live’s “yuuuge year” this week, filling in the backstory of its most popular sketches, monologues, casting choices, and brushes with controversy. The piece is a celebration, accompanied by an elaborate photo spread: glamour shots of each major player in costume, and a group shot with Alec Baldwin seated at the center, chowing down on that “beautiful” chocolate cake Trump recalls so vividly from the moment he was bombing Syria.

Alien: Covenant is now in theaters, and it helps steer the franchise right back into the space-horror territory that captivated audiences when the first Alien film hit back in 1979. While 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars showed filmgoers that science fiction could go beyond cheap B-movies, Ridley Scott’s film was a separate revelation, proof that screen science fiction could also produce quality horror-dramas. His creepy, Freudian Alien captivated audiences, and became an instant horror classic. Читать дальше...

In a report published by The New York Times today, Twitter co-founder Ev Williams says that “the internet is broken,” and that if Twitter is responsible for President Trump’s election in November, he’s “sorry.”

This week was all about Google I/O including the announcement of Google Assistant for iOS, standalone VR headsets, and more — but when it comes to deals, the biggest highlights of the week are great discounts on laptops.

When Bungie revealed the first gameplay trailer for Destiny 2 on Thursday, fans made a lot of noise about the new superpowers available and the CGI trailers setting up the new “Red War Campaign” story mode. There was even a comically loud cheering section when Bungie execs announced that, at long last, players wouldn’t be kicked to the game’s waiting zone every time they wanted to do a new activity. But a lot of the nuts-and-bolts changes to Destiny 2 went unmentioned onstage.

It was early Thursday morning when astronomer Matt Muterspaugh noticed something strange with the star he had been observing for the last year and a half. Telescope data taken from the night before showed that the brightness of the star had dipped significantly. He contacted other astronomers who had also been observing the same star, to let them know what he had seen and to keep an eye on it for any more changes. Then by the following morning, the star had dimmed even more.

Chinese app makers are reportedly upset with Apple after it issued a new policy that recognizes tips as in-app purchases, according to The Wall Street Journal. This means small donations made from inside popular social networks in China will soon be made eligible for Apple’s 30 percent revenue cut.

French retailer Carrefour has teamed up with Bookeen, an e-reader company, to release and develop a new e-reader. Surprise. The two companies put out their first Nolim e-reader in 2013 and are now refreshing it. The revamped version features a 6-inch E Ink touchscreen display (1024 x 758 resoultion), 8GB of storage, and Wi-Fi connectivity. It’ll cost €129. Given that Amazon put out its square-shaped Paperwhite last year, Carrefour and Bookeen had to find a way to make theirs sound more interesting. Читать дальше...

Netflix’s original series Orange is the New Black returns June 9th, and the company’s latest teaser is banking on viewers being diehard fans of its other shows. Of course, that can backfire — if you’ve never seen Black Mirror’s “San Junipero” episode, this touching moment between Taystee (Danielle Brooks) and Poussey (Samira Wiley) is likely to cruise right over your head.

The current generation of VR is great, but it's far from perfect. One way VR falls short of the real world is the fixed focus distance. Despite the illusion of depth from the stereo images you're looking at, each image is essentially flat, at a fixed perceived distance from your face, and with a focus selected by the game engine instead of your eyeballs. This can lead to fatigue or worse kinds of discomfort, and also puts limits on developers who need to strive to keep content in a visual sweet... Читать дальше...