Новости за 05.09.2017

The TV ads are set to begin tomorrow

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Facebook is gearing up to battle YouTube to be the top destination for music videos and other content containing copyright-protected songs, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company is reportedly offering music publishers hundreds of millions of dollars to retain the rights to music featured in videos uploaded by users and page owners. It’s a way to, at least initially, stave off the concerns of the copyright holders who must tirelessly work through Facebook to get the content taken down. Читать дальше...

Facebook’s original video-viewing hub is now live for everyone in the US on mobile, desktop, and Facebook TV, but will people start using it? Facebook announced at the end of August that it was rolling out Facebook Watch, a separate tab for hundreds of original shows, with content sponsored by the company and other media partnerships.

This fall, The Verge is making a choice. The choice is fear! We’ve decided to embrace the season by taking in as many new horror movies as possible, and reporting back on which ones are worth your time. We’re calling this series Hold My Hand, as we look at films you might want to watch with a supportive viewing partner. Get comfortable, put the kettle on, check the closet for ghosts, then find a hand to squeeze until the bones pop.

A conversation with Open Markets’ Barry Lynn

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The IFA technology conference in Berlin this past week blessed us with gadgets. We witnessed the introduction of questionably large speakers, new phones, mixed reality headsets, and even new gaming mice. Much like we saw at CES, virtual assistants also continued to creep into every product.

For the past two months, Apple has been giving students who buy a new MacBook or MacBook Pro a pair of Beats headphones for free. But here’s something kind of weird about that: Beats headphones can’t be charged by a new MacBook or the MacBook’s power brick without an adapter.

Snapchat is now letting users from select European countries create their own geofilters from their phones, instead of having to design them from Snapchat’s web-based tool. The feature has been available in the US since June.

The worst thing about Donald Trump is that he’s everywhere. It’s impossible to turn on the news or access the internet without encountering headlines about him, along with the endless raging dissection of those headlines. Conversations unintentionally drift in his direction. He’s also infected pop culture, coloring the criticism of every new release. Any movie about the immigrant experience, sexuality, medical access, women, young people, politics, or the general resistance of prejudice or oppression... Читать дальше...

Microsoft will cover legal fees for employees who face deportation after the end of the Dreamers immigration program, the company says. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, made the promise in a statement condemning Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — something Smith called “a big step back for our entire country.”

For the first few weeks after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out, my kids and I settled into a familiar routine on Sunday mornings. I’d make them breakfast, get myself some coffee, then we’d laze around on the couch for a few hours exploring Hyrule. They couldn’t actually play it themselves — at two and four years old, they’re not quite ready for that — but they were entranced by the fantastical realm, helping guide me through tricky dungeons and offering up ideas for recipes to cook up. Читать дальше...

Microsoft originally unveiled its Surface Laptop in May in four different colors. While the various colors were available in the US during the June launch, Surface Laptop purchasers outside the US had to buy the regular “platinum” gray color or wait on the color options. Various colors have been appearing in stores outside the US over the past few weeks, and now Microsoft is officially confirming that cobalt blue, burgundy, and graphite gold Surface Laptops are now available in 20 countries.

Google announced an update to YouTube Live today that adds a couple of new features to the company’s live-streaming service.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been one of the biggest surprise hits of 2017, and it has passed a pretty significant sales milestone. The game has sold over 10 million copies on Steam since it went into early access in March.

The Mouse isn’t bringing cease-and-desists down on Instagram darlings like Cakeworthy or The Lost Bros.

In 2014, Lenovo began bundling a third-party adware program called “Superfish” into its consumer PCs. Now, nearly three years later, the company is facing the consequences. Today, Lenovo settled a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission over the Superfish adware, agreeing to get affirmative consent for any future adware programs, as well as audited security checks of their software for the next 20 years.

Irma is now an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 hurricane with wind speeds up to 175 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. That makes it the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean outside of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

A taste of space

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LG’s new V30 smartphone is justifiably one of the most exciting Android devices on the near horizon, checking off practically every desirable feature and spec from a modern flagship-tier phone. Among its many attributes is a new breakthrough in camera aperture (a measure of the amount of light that the lens array lets in) for smartphones with a value of f/1.6. For the vast majority of people, the difference between f/1.6 and f/1.7 is not something to be especially fussed about, but for companies like LG... Читать дальше...

Pixelmator is best known as the image editor for Mac you buy if you don’t need — or can’t afford — all the bells and whistles that come with Photoshop. Now, the company behind Pixelmator is introducing some of those extra features itself, unveiling a new version of its software today named Pixelmator Pro.

Gigabyte is on a mission to miniaturize desktop graphics cards. After shrinking last year’s GeForce GTX 1070 into a mini-ITX version, Engadget has spotted that Gigabyte is announcing an equally small GTX 1080. Gigabyte’s GeForce GTX 1080 Mini ITX 8G is just 6.7 inches long, which is nearly 5 inches shorter than a regular GTX 1080. It’s designed to fit inside a mini-ITX case, for a more portable desktop gaming rig.

German start-up Lilium has secured $90 million in funding to build a five-seat, all-electric flying taxi. The funding will be used to develop the company’s five-seat commercial Lilium Jet, as well as to grow the company’s team of more than 70 people. As envisioned, a fully charged Lilium Jet would be able to stay aloft for about an hour and travel at speeds in excess of 180 mph. It will also have an on-demand feature where users can order the air taxi to a nearby landing pad.

Xiaomi has announced the Mi A1, a new flagship phone largely focused on the Indian market with the tagline of “created by Xiaomi, powered by Google.” It has a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, a metal body, and a dual-camera system that includes a secondary telephoto lens for 2x zooming and portraits with shallow depth of field.

Apple will no longer hold an annual music festival in London. While the iPhone maker has traditionally held its Apple Music Festival at the Camden Roundhouse, Music Business Worldwide reports that Apple is axing the show this year. It’s not clear exactly why Apple is killing off the popular festival, but Music Business Worldwide speculates Apple might be focusing on single events instead. Apple Music recently partnered with Haim and Skepta for shows, and also sponsored Drake’s summer tour last year. Читать дальше...

Right after Trump took office, BuzzFeed News reporter Charlie Warzel described counter-programming on the right as “a parallel universe that operates as a mirror image of its mainstream counterpart with its own ‘alternative facts,’ audience, and interpretation of truth.” A new website called Verrit is that nightmare coming full circle. While it may not have outlandish conspiracy theories or careless whoppers (though there’s certainly plenty of that on the left, too), Verrit is counter-counter programming to the pro-Trump media... Читать дальше...