Новости за 29.09.2017

In case you missed the announcement during Amazon’s very busy hardware event earlier this week, the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show have all gained the ability to place voice calls to numbers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico for free. If you want to receive calls from regular numbers, you’ll need the new $35 Connect box that Amazon unveiled on Wednesday, which also allows you to use your home telephone number for Echo calls and dial emergency services like 911 or premium rate / international numbers. Читать дальше...

Elon Musk is obsessed with traveling between any two points on Earth in less than 30 minutes. Whether by hyperloop (above and below ground) or interplanetary rocket, the billionaire technologist is convinced that no trip between any two cities on the planet should last longer than an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Nintendo will shut down the Wii Shop channel on January 30th, 2019, marking the end of an era for the service that first came online for Wii consoles in December 2006. The shutdown will happen gradually: users will still be able to add Wii Points until March 26th, 2018, and still be able to use those points to purchase content until the shop fully goes offline in January 2019.

Robert Bartkowski arrived outside Nintendo New York in Rockefeller Plaza two days ago around 5PM. His camping supplies are modest: a chair, some blankets, and a lot of patience. His food, as well as his bathroom breaks, are dependent on a smattering of stores across from him.

GoPro announced the Hero 6 Black yesterday, and a headlining feature of the new camera is its ability to shoot 4K footage at 60 frames per second. This is something that’s been long awaited by many power and pro users who want just a little bit (about two to three times) of slow motion capability at what is typically the highest resolution most people are shooting or watching. It may not be an ability you’ll ever use on a GoPro, but even if that’s the case these videos will help you get an idea... Читать дальше...

Hurricane Harvey’s unprecedented rains and flooding last month caused a leak from a heavily polluted site along the San Jacinto River east of Houston, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

South Korea said today that it plans to ban raising money through initial coin offerings (ICOs) for all cryptocurrencies, according to Reuters. The country’s Financial Services Commission said that all ICOs need to be banned because the trading of Bitcoin and other cryptocoins needs to be tightly controlled. Violators of the new ban will receive “stern penalties,” but no details of what those penalties will be have been provided.

Of all the tech I get to use on a regular basis, my monitor might be my favorite. That may sound silly if you’ve been using a laptop or a standard desktop monitor for years, but I use an ultrawide display (one that has an aspect ratio of 21:9 or wider) and it’s a massive canvas for me to digitally spread out on. Instead of needing two monitors to display my workspace, I can have all of my windows on the same panel at the same time without having to switch between multiple virtual desktops or split my view between two displays. Читать дальше...

Amazon announced a few more Echo devices this week, and The Vergecast is here to recap it all. Nilay, Dan, Dieter, and Paul discuss Amazon’s strategy with these new products, as well rumors of stuff that will be announced at Google’s event next week.

At 2:59PM on September 28th, less than 24 hours before the launch of the SNES Classic, I felt a deep, familiar pang of regret about not purchasing one in advance. I’m generally against the idea of preordering anything, but the order window for the Classic had long passed. If I wanted to buy one on launch day, my options were as follows: get in line hours early and hope for the best, or follow someone who did get one, and mug them.

The morning after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, Sofia Maldonado tried to call her parents, who were still on the island. “You call them, call them, and no answer,” she says. She switched to texts. Still nothing. “Not having communications with your parents or your friends or anyone, it’s very hard because you don’t know how they’re doing.”

Film and television have long had an equal representation problem, and a new website is here to address the issue. The site, called Mediaversity, reviews films and TV shows and measures the quality of the writing as well as how well people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and women are represented.

Earlier this year, HMD Global revived Nokia’s classic 3310 candy bar phone with only the slightest updates. And next month, the phone is in for another tweak: a new version is getting support for 3G, which will open it up for use in a lot more countries — including the US. The phone should work on AT&T and T-Mobile, but not Verizon and Sprint.

Uber launched a new tool yesterday to teach users how to sign simple phrases in American Sign Language for better communication with drivers who are deaf or hard of hearing. The website, ubersignlanguage.com, is an extension of an outreach effort launched by the company in 2015 to recruit more drivers from the deaf community.

As with its predecessor, the biggest issues with the miniature SNES Classic Edition are its wired controllers and lack of a dedicated home button. Thankfully, 8bitdo is fixing both of those problems with its new wireless controller.

Every week, a slew of new music videos hits the web. Watching them at your desk is not time theft because you deserve it; think of it as a nice reward for surviving another work week. But what if you don’t have time to watch every video — maybe you have a deadline, a hungry pet, or other grown-up concerns. In consideration of your schedule, Lizzie and Kaitlyn bring you a series called One Video. Each week we’ll tell you “one video” you need to watch, why, and for how long.

So far, Blizzard has revealed that 12 teams across 11 cities and four countries will be participating in its upcoming, ambitious Overwatch e-sports league. But we haven’t heard anything about what those teams will look like or what they’ll be called — until now, that is. Today, the Overwatch League’s sole Chinese franchise became the first to reveal its official name, logo, and colors. The Shanghai Dragons will sport a sleek shield icon, and utilize a red, white, yellow, and black color scheme.

Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

Earlier this month, Variety reported that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a mandate to the company’s studio: produce more “high-end drama series with a global appeal.” This morning, Variety reported that the company is following that order by moving forward with three major science fiction shows: adaptations of Larry Niven’s Ringworld, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, and Greg Rucka’s Lazarus.

The original Star Fox was a technological triumph. A sci-fi shooter starring a cast of anthropomorphic animals, the game managed to squeeze actual 3D graphics — chunky polygons and all — onto the Super Nintendo’s comparatively underpowered 16-bit hardware. Its sequel was equally ambitious. Star Fox 2 combined cutting-edge graphics with a unique, real-time structure that had you fighting off alien forces while simultaneously defending your home planet. It was tense, daring, and unlike any other game. Читать дальше...

Last year, Google released the Pixel, the first smartphone designed and sold by the company, and billed it as the best smartphone for Android around. One year later, the company is gearing up to release the next generation of its smartphone, the Pixel 2. Google is setting high expectations. Its teaser video makes claims that its phones can solve problems like bad photos, storage, battery life, software updates, and more.

It’s been 35 years since Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner hit theaters, and when it takes this long for a sequel to roll around, a few questions need to be answered. No question is more important than “why?” Yes, we’re in a cultural moment where nearly everything is a sequel, prequel, reboot, or spinoff, but Scott’s dystopian film never organically called for a follow-up the way some films do. It’s a neo-noir thriller with an open ending, but from a character and thematic perspective, Scott neatly sewed up the story. Читать дальше...

German lifestyle brand Porsche Design and British audio company KEF have released a new set of wireless noise-canceling headphones that feature a solid 30-hour battery, called Space One Wireless. They cost £350 (about $470) and feature active noise-canceling technology, Bluetooth aptX, 40mm drivers, and a cable with mic for optional listening without battery drain.

The third season of Mr. Robot is coming to USA on October 11th, and the Mr. Robot Digital After Show is coming back, too! This year, it will be hosted by Nilay Patel, Megan Farokhmanesh, and me, Russell Brandom.

I love a tiny object, but I wasn't fully prepared for how small and cute the new Sphero Mini would be. The company introduced and released the ping pong ball-sized device today along with a new Sphero Mini app. I actually squealed when I took it out of its shipping box at The Verge's office this week.