Новости за 16.08.2017

Spotify has removed several bands classified as “hate bands” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), according to a report from Billboard. The decision comes one day after Digital Music News published a list of 37 white supremacist musicians still available to stream on the platform. Now, a Spotify spokesperson has confirmed to Billboard that several of the artists have pulled from streaming, while others are under review.

Google is testing a light version of its Search app meant for areas with poor or slow internet connections, according to Android Police. The app is currently only available in the Play Store in Indonesia.

Schlage is adding Android compatibility to one of its Bluetooth-enabled smart locks. Google Play is getting the Schlage Sense app, which was previously limited to iOS. Schlage also just announced the Sense Wi-Fi Adapter, which will allow both iOS and Android users to access the lock remotely. The Schlage Sense lock was initially only compatible with HomeKit, which required an Apple TV for remote use.

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You can’t fix something by ignoring it

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One of the highlights of last month’s San Diego Comic-Con was HBO’s Westworld: The Experience. The half-hour attraction gave small groups of guests the opportunity to visit the offices of Delos, Inc., the fictional company behind the Westworld theme park. The experience included a one-on-one, in-person evaluation with a company psychologist, interactions with a number of actors playing “hosts” — Westworld’s sentient android entertainers — and a chance to hang out in a recreation of the show’s Mariposa Saloon. Читать дальше...

Scientists have discovered a new way for tiny pieces of plastic to move around the ocean: through the poop and snot made by a peculiar sea creature that’s half the size of your hand. The new research shows the important role that small, unassuming sea critters can have in transporting plastic waste from the ocean surface all the way to the seafloor.

Google’s smart speaker can now pull double duty as a phone for voice calls. The company just confirmed that it’s rolling out Google Home’s calling feature in the US and Canada beginning today. Users can dial anyone in their contacts and local businesses for free — so long as the call recipient is in one of those two countries. The calling feature was first announced back in May.

Two White House advisory councils that once included tech leaders like Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick have dissolved, after several members resigned over President Donald Trump’s weak condemnation of white supremacists. A member of the Strategic and Policy Forum told CNBC that it wanted to make a “more significant impact” by disbanding the entire group: “It makes a central point that it's not going to go forward. It's done.” Soon after, Trump took credit for shutting down both that group and a separate Manufacturing Council... Читать дальше...

It’s hard to pinpoint what, exactly, The Defenders stand for. Good and justice in the world, obviously, since they’re superheroes. And then… what else? If past Marvel shows like Jessica Jones are an instrument, delicately tuned for individual stories about the complications of vigilantism, the new Netflix crossover series The Defenders is a blunt object swinging into a car window.

The CW’s spring hit Riverdale, a very loose adaptation of the classic Archie comics, was popular enough to justify a season 2 premiere date this October. A neon-tinted Twin Peaks-lite, the show captured a huge young audience drawn in by the return of Disney Channel’s Cole Sprouse; a hip, eclectic soundtrack; and the endless possible romantic pairings carried over from the comics.

Motorola is thinking about a day where phones can heal their own cracks. A patent published today explains how a phone could identify cracks on its touchscreen and then apply heat to the area in an effort to slightly repair the damage. The process relies on something called "shape memory polymer," a material that can apparently become deformed and then recovered through thermal cycling. Thermal cycling involves changing the temperature of the material rapidly.

Google is rolling out a long-awaited feature for its Google Home smart speaker today: voice calling. The company just announced that Home users in the US and Canada will very soon be able to call people in their contacts and local businesses using their voice and the signature “OK Google” command. That makes it more flexible than what Amazon is doing with Alexa / Echo-to-Echo calls and messaging. But you can’t call another Google Home from yours or answer calls with it; only outgoing calls work right now. Читать дальше...

Intel may be preparing to announce its upcoming eighth-generation processors on August 21st, but the company is already looking to the future with an uncharacteristically early announcement of what seems to be its ninth-generation Ice Lake chips, as reported by AnandTech.

It may seem like Android Wear is dead. Google’s smartwatch platform has lost a lot of its supporting partners, been plagued with bugs and update issues, and isn’t nearly as popular as Apple or Samsung’s smartwatches.

The versatility of the Nintendo Switch and its Joy-Con controllers is one of the console’s greatest strengths. An engineer named Julio Vazquez has taken that idea even further to create a 3D-printed Joy-Con adapter that lets disabled gamers play with only one hand. The creation was first spotted by Eurogamer.

Finalists in the Google Lunar X Prize Competition have a slightly revised deadline for sending their spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Up until now, teams in the competition had to launch their robotic landers to the lunar surface sometime before December 31st, 2017 in order to be eligible to win the competition. Now, X Prize is doing away with the “launch” deadline and just sticking with a completion deadline, instead: teams must finish their missions to the Moon before March 31st, 2018... Читать дальше...

The first Essential phones will start shipping in a week’s time, according to emails sent by the company to early buyers. 9to5Google reports that Essential sent messages to customers who pre-registered for the phone. However, the messages say that only the black version of device (‘Black Moon’) will ship “within 7 days”, while shipment for the white version (‘Pure White’) is still “a couple of weeks away.”

The best at nothing, but great at most things

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You probably haven't heard of the phone you see above. It's called the Doogee Mix. As you’ll have noticed, it’s in line with the biggest trend in phone design for 2017 — that of slimming down the bezels around the screen as much as possible.

Apple will invest approximately $1 billion in acquiring and producing original TV shows over the next year, according to The Wall Street Journal. The investment could result in as many as 10 new shows, a source told the publication, with the iPhone-maker looking to match the high-quality output of networks like HBO.

AMC Theatres has threatened MoviePass with a lawsuit, less than a day after the subscription cinema service dropped its subscription fees to $9.95 a month, reports Variety. That means subscribers are able to watch one movie every day for a month for only $9.95. MoviePass would still have to pay AMC full ticket prices each time someone uses the subscription, though. An average ticket is priced at $9.33, so a subscriber would only need to attend two movies a month to put MoviePass at a loss.

An unaired episode of Game of Thrones has appeared on the internet this morning. Episode six, due to be aired on Sunday, appeared first on file sharing sites and a Reddit post. Reddit users spotted that the episode was accidentally aired by HBO Nordic in Spain for an hour before it was removed. The episode six appearance follows a similar leak of episode four around two weeks ago.

After much rumors and speculation, Daniel Craig has confirmed he will return to play James Bond once more.

The partnership between BMW, Intel and Mobileye for self-driving technology has lured another automaker into the fold.