Новости за 06.12.2017

Oculus’ Rift Core 2.0 update is now available in beta. The update includes three major parts, which were announced at this fall’s Oculus Connect convention: a revamped interface known as Dash; a customizable space called Home; and a feature called Oculus Desktop, which lets users access their Windows apps and desktop inside VR.

The granddaddy of surreal, science fiction television anthologies is returning. CBS announced today that it has issued a series order for a revival of The Twilight Zone from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films for its All Access streaming service.

But when will Wendy’s acknowledge what film and TV critics have to say about hamburgers?

There’s been a growing movement within the science fiction community to imagine the future as something other than a dreary dystopia. That’s what Arizona State University is doing with a new digital anthology called Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities: A Collection of Space Futures.

Lytro’s once futuristic “living pictures,” which photographers and viewers alike were able to refocus to their heart’s content after they were taken, are now almost totally dead. The company recently pulled hosting support for pictures.lytro.com, which is where all photos with Lytro cameras had to be shared in order to allow users to play with the refocusing and 3D depth features. This move has subsequently killed all the Lytro photos embedded across the internet (including in our 2014 review of the Illum... Читать дальше...

Michael Shannon isn’t just a screen villain. He’s frequently played soulful, sympathetic heroes, particularly in the films of writer-director Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Midnight Special). His stage career, as an actor, director, and co-founder of Chicago’s Red Orchid Theatre, has let him take on a wide variety of characters, like the embattled, disintegrating romantic lead in the stage and film version of Tracy Letts’ grueling Bug. And he’s been nominated twice for Best Supporting Actor Oscars... Читать дальше...

Allegations that Google has paid its female employees less than men and given them fewer promotion opportunities have been dismissed for now by a California state judge today, as reported by Reuters.

Wildfires are spreading unchecked across Southern California, adding more infernos to the state’s worst fire season on record. A warm, dry fall in Southern California and strong offshore winds combined to create dangerous fire conditions that will probably get worse. As the winds continue to blow, a dome of warm, high-pressure air is forming over the West Coast that could keep California dry and flammable for weeks to come.

Tidal is now compatible with CarPlay, the streaming service announced today. Users will be able to stream music directly through their infotainment systems on the over 200 car models that support Apple CarPlay.

In honor of next week’s finale, we are thrilled to announce a fan art contest!

Astronomers have spotted the most distant supermassive black hole ever seen in our Universe — a behemoth that’s nearly a billion times more massive than our Sun. This is no ordinary black hole either, but an active one known as a quasar that’s surrounded by a super bright, highly energetic disk of swirling gas and dust. And its discovery could help scientists learn more about what conditions were like when the Universe was still quite young.

Ahead of next week’s FCC vote on a rollback of net neutrality protections, activist groups have planned protests at Verizon stores tomorrow. The groups are relying on locals to organize those protests, which means there are plans to hold them at retail stores around the country.

Last week, George R.R. Martin revealed that the Syfy channel picked up an adaptation of his 1980 novella Nightflyers for a 10-episode first season, and said that if all goes well, the show should premiere in summer 2018. In a new post on his LiveJournal, he commends the production for correcting a longstanding complaint he had with the art for his novella, and the story’s 1987 film adaptation — whitewashing.

Update 12/6/17: This article has been updated with the full episode above.

The Huawei Nova 2S will be launched on December 7th in Beijing, China (or later tonight for those in the US), according to numerous reports, and many leaks already give us a good idea of what the latest Nova phone will be like.

A surprisingly high number of elite basketball players have heart abnormalities, according to researchers who analyzed data from hundreds of National Basketball Association players. They found that at least 15 percent of players may have heart problems.

Last week, we found a way to water our plants by singing to them. This week, we’re focusing inward, and taking care of ourselves with a simple paper-enclosed bot.

The boutique fitness class subscription service ClassPass will soon offer a more budget-friendly option after routine price hikes. The company announced today that it'll launch a new service called ClassPass Live in 2018. Instead of attending classes in-person, subscribers will be able to live stream workouts that are produced in-house at the company's Brooklyn-based studios. They can watch live or stream later from their TV, browser, smartphone, or tablet. The service will only be available in the US at first. Читать дальше...

Oracle has lobbied aggressively — and seeded negative stories about its search foe — as the two battle in court.

Freefly is a company that’s best known for making camera stabilization rigs typically used by professionals, or ambitious semi-pros. But the company is trying to change that with a new $299 handheld stabilization called the Movi that is supposed to help you step up your iPhone video game. Preorders start today, and the first units ship in March 2018.

Netflix announced today that season 4 of Black Mirror will premiere on the service on December 29th, 2017, and it’s been slowly drip-feeding fans teasers for season 4 in anticipation. Charlie Brooker’s Twilight Zone-esque anthology series, which originated on Britain’s Channel 4, offers different tales of modern horror, told through the lens of technologies or societies gone wrong.

It’s been more than six years since the sequel to mind-bending puzzle adventure Portal launched, but the series is finally back… sort of. Today, indie studio Headup Games announced a surprise standalone spinoff of its Bridge Constructor series, which will take place in the Portal universe. The original Bridge Constructor first launched back in 2013, and it tasks players with, well, designing bridges. The new spinoff will take that core concept in a slightly different direction.

Joanne the Scammer — an Instagram, then Vine, then YouTube star who’s been cranking out work from inside the Super Deluxe incubator for the last two years — is finally making the transition to television.

Last month, the first rumors about what to expect from Samsung’s upcoming flagship Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus smartphones began to swirl, and with it came a tantalizing detail: the devices could show up as early as CES for a sneak preview.

This week, a subsidiary of Volkswagen called Moia unveiled a new concept vehicle in Berlin: a six-seater all-electric van. Blandly brown in color and retaining none of the flash typical of other concept vehicles, the Moia EV probably flew under the radar for most people. But what’s interesting about it is that the vehicle is designed for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, and more specially for carpooling. And Moia isn’t the only company that sees the advantage of a large wheelbase vehicle... Читать дальше...