Новости за 21.06.2017

Apple is asking music labels for a reduction in the revenue rate it pays out from its music streaming service, according to sources close to the situation. Apple is renegotiating its licensing deals for Apple Music and iTunes with the three major music labels, which expire at the end of the month. The negotiations were first reported by Bloomberg.

Come with me, if you will, back to 2009: the ninth year of the third millennium and the year Owl City released its hit song “Fireflies.” “Fireflies” eventually reached the No. 1 slot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, in part because it presented the world with a new scientific conundrum: can fireflies hug?

A Russian software company, ironically named Coptersafe, is selling modifications to help consumers get past government- and military-enforced no-fly zones.

Starting this fall, students at the University of Michigan will have access to an entirely new form of transportation in the form of this adorable, completely autonomous shuttle bus.

The retro gaming market is having a bit of a Renaissance lately, thanks to Nintendo’s NES Classic console and the ever-expanding industry dedicated to re-creating, refurbishing, and resurrecting nostalgia-fueled products of the past. Hardware maker Retro-Bit is a big part of this community — the company makes classic console controllers, adapters, consoles, and USB emulators. It even revealed an all-in-one Game Boy cartridge-compatible gadget called the Super Retro Boy earlier this year.

Niantic has fought back against Pokémon Go cheaters in a variety of ways. From outright banning them to using more interesting methods, like only allowing them to catch the worst pokémon. Basically, the company has zero tolerance for players who use assistant apps that help track pokémon or trick the game. Today, the developer expanded its punishments with another unorthodox measure: players who use third-party services that “circumvent normal gameplay” will be marked.

Sega exited the video game console business nearly 20 years ago, but the company still retains some of the industry’s most iconic characters and beloved classic catalogs. That explains why Sega decided to put resources toward an all-new initiative it’s calling Sega Forever. Announced earlier this morning, Sega Forever is the new banner with which the publisher will reissue games from its backlog on iOS and Android, starting with five titles to be released tomorrow in the US. A new title every two weeks after that... Читать дальше...

For the last year, the Curiosity rover has been studying the surface of Mars with more independence than ever before, saving human time and energy. The partly autonomous exploration is also helping people sidestep the constraints of working across vast distances in space.

Splatoon and Arms represent a big effort for the company

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Maybe you’ve never embarrassed yourself online, and that’s great. Congratulations! But two years ago I wrote over 2,000 words explaining why I was sure that A Song of Ice and Fire fan favorite Lady Stoneheart would be appearing in the season 5 finale of Game of Thrones. Then, a year later, I wrote 2,000 more, explaining why she was definitely going to show up in the finale of season 6. Both arguments were based on hints from HBO promotional material, pre-announced episode titles, actor sightings... Читать дальше...

Virgin Mobile USA announced today that it will offer an iPhone-exclusive cellular plan that offers unlimited data, text, and calls for $50 a month. The partnership with Apple, as Virgin CEO Sir Richard Branson said at an event in San Francisco, marks Virgin as the first and only iPhone-only carrier in the US.

Travis Kalanick’s fate was sealed the moment Susan Fowler hit “publish.”

Game of Thrones returns with season 7 on July 16th, and to build maximum hype, HBO has dropped another trailer today. A compilation of the show’s remaining characters as they prepare for the great war ahead, it features what you’d expect: violence, dragons, and A+ costume design.

On June 8th, K-pop icon G-Dragon released EP Kwon Ji Yong, his first solo work in four years. Unfortunately, there’s a snag: it’s ineligible to chart as an album in his home country of South Korea.

Google Glass just got an update — its first since 2014. The update isn’t anything big, but the usual bug fixes and performance improvements are mentioned, according to Google’s support site.

Most of us think “perfect” memory means never forgetting, but maybe forgetting actually helps us navigate a world that is random and ever-changing.

Sega is bringing some of its best retro games to your smartphone. Today the company announced a new service called Sega Forever, which is essentially a lineup of classic games from the company that will be available on both iOS and Android. Each game will be available for free — you can pay $1.99 to turn off ads — and will include modern features like cloud saves, Bluetooth controller support, and online leaderboards. (Sega notes, however, that you can still play each game offline.)

A startup backed by Andy Rubin’s Playground incubator and venture capital firm has rolled out a new hardware product, one that addresses the pain points of an unexciting but crucial area of business technology: video conferencing systems.

‘We’re losing species right in front of our eyes’

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In September 2008, to celebrate the studio’s 10th anniversary, Japanese developer Level-5 announced that it was creating a brand-new fantasy role-playing game called Ni No Kuni. What made the project special, though, was who Level-5 was partnering with: Studio Ghibli, the famed animation house behind films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. The chance partnership happened thanks to musician Naoya Fujimaki, who had previously worked with both companies, and introduced Level-5 boss Akihiro Hino to Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki. Читать дальше...

Two people in Belgium have set a new “hypermiling” record for the Tesla Model S, after driving the car for 901.2 km (about 560 miles) on a single charge. In a blog post published Monday, Steven Peeters and Joeri Cools said they drove a Model S P100D around a closed loop in Belgium, adding that it took them 23 hours and 45 minutes to complete the feat.

If you haven’t seen robot sumo wrestling before, then you’re in for a treat. Trust me. Most robot versions of human sports are underwhelming, but as this video compilation shows, the mechanical take on Japan’s national sport is very fast and very furious. And why? Because engineers aren’t trying to copy human performance. Instead, they concentrate on the qualities that robots excel at: namely lightning-fast decision-making and insane turns of speed.

Spotify has launched a new feature for Facebook Messenger that lets you create playlists of songs with your friends. Group Playlists for Messenger uses the existing Spotify Chat extension for Facebook’s app, allowing users to create group playlists, share them with friends, and then let those friends add new songs as they wish.

Travis Kalanick has stepped down as CEO of Uber. The news comes as the company has been hit with an extended barrage of scandal and controversy; Kalanick had already recently taken a leave of absence following the death of his mother.

Former Apple SVP Scott Forstall has just given a rare interview in which he discussed the birth of the iPhone. Forstall is the man credited with leading Apple’s efforts to create iOS, and was talking to journalist John Markoff tonight at an event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.