Новости за 20.10.2017

Kyoto Animation’s work isn’t quite like anyone else’s. The style of its animation and storytelling separate the studio from the majority of other Japanese companies. It’s known for high production values compared to its contemporaries; Kyoto’s smooth, intricate animation is used for both subtle and spectacular sequences while having very stylized, but realistically detailed backgrounds.

Razer launched two new products today for streamers: the Razer Seiren X portable microphone and the Razer Kiyo webcam with a selfie light. These two products are Razer's latest attempt to become the popular choice for microphones and webcams, which people normally don't go to it for.

Do you enjoy the sensation of petting a cat or dog, but hate the unconditional love and the fact that they have heads and limbs? Japanese company Yukai Engineering has unveiled the solution to this classic conundrum with Qoobo: a soft, round cushion with a robotic tail that reacts to strokes, just as a loving pet would.

YouTube Red just greenlit a scripted comedy series about Tinder, Deadline reports. Swipe Right, written by and starring Carly Craig (Role Models), is about a mother and her two daughters navigating app-based dating in different ways.

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.

This week, a bipartisan group of US senators took the first steps toward regulating online political advertising in a manner similar to the way the government already regulates these ads in traditional media. Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Mark Warner (VA), joined by Republican Sen. John McCain (AZ), say their Honest Ads Act will protect against foreign interference in elections by requiring platforms like Facebook to make details about ads’ buyers, pricing, and targeting publicly available. Читать дальше...

For elderly gamers, this could be the biggest hit since Wii Sports: a new video game helped older people with hearing loss get better at tracking speech in noisy environments, new research says.

The reviews are in and everybody just loves the quality OLED component Google picked for the Pixel 2 XL. They really just can't stop talking about it. And talking? That's what The Vergecast is for. On this week’s episode, Nilay, Dieter, and Paul discuss the reviews of Google's new phones. Then The Verge's security expert Russell Brandom drops by to explain Krack and four-way handshakes. It's all the grit and off-axis color shifting of a Pentile display, in podcast form.

Along with the ability to transfer save files and capture video, the Nintendo Switch’s 4.0 firmware update seems to have come with a hidden bonus: support for USB-based wireless headphones, via Engadget.

Spotify just announced a new program called RISE, intended to “identify and break the next wave of music superstars.”

At first glance, the classic Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” and the new series Star Trek: Discovery don’t have a lot in common. One is a lighthearted romp with some critters that are basically designed to be as adorable as possible, and the other is a fairly dark, serious take on Trek in a wartime setting.

Billboard just announced that it will change the way it counts streams on its charts beginning in 2018. Next year, streams from paid subscription services like Apple Music and “hybrid paid/ad-supported platforms” like Spotify will be given more weight on the charts than streams from purely ad-based platforms like YouTube. Currently, Billboard weighs all of these streams equally, under the umbrella of “on-demand” streams.

It has been two weeks since The New York Times published a report detailing three decades of sexual misconduct and abuse by one of Hollywood’s most powerful players, producer Harvey Weinstein. That piece centered on eight women who spoke up about his behavior, and later settled with Weinstein out of court. Five days later, a second report followed in The New Yorker, presenting revelations from 13 more women who shared stories of harassment, assault, and rape.

Sharp's newest Aquos-branded phone, the Aquos R Compact, looks a lot like the Essential Phone, except with worse design. It features the same top notch as Essential, but has larger bottom bezels and a real home button. I'm usually super into Sharp's Aquos phones, but that's not the case with this one. I just want a glorious bezel-free display.

A smart speaker for Microsoft’s world

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Gaming headphones and headsets can be a real crapshoot, with some of them being downright excellent and others, the majority, tending toward poorly engineered disappointment. I can’t yet speak for where on that spectrum Razer’s Electra V2 cans will land, but the good thing is that you won’t be making much of a financial gamble to find out.

The squeeze functionality on HTC’s U11 and Google’s new Pixel phones is undeniably odd, but HTC’s implementation has the advantage for one reason: the U11 lets you map the squeeze to different functions, while the Pixel 2 only silences calls or summons Google Assistant. Well, not any more, as an app named Button Mapper now lets you remap the squeeze feature in the new Pixel handsets.

Remember the Essential Phone; the all-screen smartphone with 128GB of storage and magnetic accessories that Andy Rubin announced in May? That was a long time ago in phone years, and well before a spate of other bezel-less devices including the iPhone X, Galaxy Note 8, LG V30, Mi Mix 2, and others made their debuts (not to mention the Google Pixels). Well, the unlocked Essential PH-1 is now on sale at Best Buy for $599.99; $100 less than the price asked by both Sprint and essential.com.

Twitter this afternoon publicly posted its schedule for instituting fixes and changes to longstanding abuse and harassment issues that have plagued the social network for years. The calendar, first disclosed earlier this week in an internal Twitter email obtained by Wired, details nearly two dozen changes stretching from October 27th to January 10th. They focus on a broad range of topics, from non-consensual nudity to hateful imagery and violent rhetoric to more transparency around account suspensions. Читать дальше...

For the first time, Blue Origin successfully fired up its BE-4 rocket engine, a crucial piece of hardware the company has been working on for the last six years. Blue Origin tweeted out a video today of the test, known as a “hot fire,” which was conducted at the company’s test facility in Texas. It’s a major stepping stone in the development of the engine, which is slated to play a key role in Blue Origin’s economic future.

Arianna Huffington has partnered with Samsung to create an app that helps you disconnect from the internet while also humblebragging to your friends that you can’t be reached. The app, called Thrive, will be available in December exclusively for Samsung devices only through the Samsung Galaxy Store.