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Steam parent company Valve announced a new revenue split for its online video game marketplace late Friday evening, with the change in its distribution agreement giving developers more money as the number of unit sales increases. Normally, Valve takes around 30 percent of all game sales on Steam, with some exceptions for games for smaller developers in its Steam Direct program. That will remain the case for the first $10 million in sales a game maker or publisher earns. For all sales between $10 million and $50 million, the split goes to 25 percent. And for every sale after the initial $50 million, Steam will take just a 20 percent cut. “The value of a large network like Steam has many benefits that are contributed to and shared by all... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2RsTdOU

The days of Google Hangouts for consumers may be coming to an end in 2020, according to a report from 9to5Google today. Hangouts has been suffering from an identity crisis since Google launched it as a replacement for Gchat in 2013 , and it’s actually been losing features in recent years as the company stopped updating the app and took away SMS messaging . That change was part of Google’s new focus for Hangouts, which will stay safe for now as a workplace communication tool in the form of G Suite’s Hangouts Chat, as well as video conferencing platform Hangouts Meet. Google hinted at “giving up on having its own consumer messaging app” back in April, when it announced a new RCS Chat feature within Android Messages . Chat hasn’t officially... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PdZlZk

Music videos haven’t felt like a communal event since the heydays of MTV and TRL Live , but with the advent of live-streaming, the shared experience may be making a comeback. Today, Ariana Grande debuted the video for her relationship-themed single, “ thank u, next, ” and a lot of people got together on YouTube to watch it at the same time. With services like Twitch, this phenomenon has become fairly standard when it comes to video games, commentary, and certain types of announcements, but Grande’s video may be the first time the live streaming format has been used for a high-profile music video. The hype was helped by Grande’s teases on social media, which hinted that the video would be a homage to Mean Girls , a movie that has become a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PczHEj

By now, anybody who lives a social media life has probably heard that Laura Loomer — the 25-year-old far-right provocateur and self-styled Patreon-supported “investigative journalist” — handcuffed herself to Twitter’s headquarters in New York City on Thursday evening, and, in her words, “threw away the key.” She was protesting Twitter, she said, because she believed the permanent ban she earned from the service for hate speech was unfair. She wanted her account reinstated. She was also there to take action over what she sees as the company’s discrimination against conservatives. (“The account holder was suspended for violating our policies. We apply the Twitter Rules impartially and not based on ideology,” a Twitter spokesperson told The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2G2X7gn

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Tech Summit in Maui starts Tuesday, and here’s what’s going on Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2G0jTFg

Those of us who grew up online each have our internet albatross. For some, it’s goatse . For others, it’s those viral pre-YouTube jumpscare videos with a screaming face that flashes across the screen for a split second. Mine, regretfully, was Salad Fingers, the animated web series created by David Firth in 2004, about a disgusting, childlike, inexplicably vibrating zombie creature with piquerism and a penchant for rusty spoons. Thus with even more regret I must relay the news that the heinous abomination of my nightmares is getting a new episode sometime in December. Per The Daily Dot , Firth apparently confirmed back in 2017 that he would be resurrecting his green hellspawn. “Without giving too much away, I will say that Salad Fingers is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2DXF1K3

Fallout is a franchise defined by its lawlessness: in the wasteland, nothing can stop denizens from succumbing to their worst tendencies. Fallout 76 leans into the chaos by allowing fans to interact with one another, but recently, one group of fans took things too far. Fallout 76 supports up to 24 players per server, and these participants can talk, trade, and group-up with one another. While the game does allow player-versus-player combat, the feature is opt-in. However, there’s nothing stopping players from following you around and bothering you even if you don’t actually want to engage with them, especially given that Fallout 76 tells you where everyone is at any given time. You can, however, turn off voice-chat for your team. As... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PdFNUW

After seven years of sharing essays, art, advice, and writing for (and often by) teenagers, the online magazine Rookie Mag is shutting down. Launched by fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson in 2011 — when she was only 15 years old — Rookie attracted a million views in six days and went on to become an intimate, authentic, and feminist lens for its primarily young female audience to look at and speak to the world. In a six-page editor’s letter that will be the last post on the site, Gevinson explains that “ Rookie in its current form is no longer financially sustainable.” Although she considered alternatives — including selling the site to a larger media company, bringing on investors, or charging readers for subscriptions — she ultimately... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2KKGDYK

Over two dozen current and former black Tesla employees are describing racial discrimination in a New York Times investigation today that looks into the company’s Fremont factory. The complaints range from being barred from promotions, forced to scrub the factory floors, and allege that supervisors have directed racial slurs at employees. The allegations come from a variety of interviews, internal communications, and legal statements acquired by The New York Times . Tesla disagrees that the factory is a harbor for racial discrimination, and says that there isn’t “a pattern of discrimination and harassment,” at the Fremont factory. “Tesla opposes all forms of discrimination, harassment, and unfair treatment, and we strive to provide a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zwwB9q

Congress just reached an agreement on proposed legislation that could make hemp legal to grow in the United States for the first time in nearly a century. Hemp may be derived from the same plant as marijuana, but it doesn’t make anyone high and is commonly used in food, fuel, and bracelets . The new legislation officially acknowledges the difference between the two. Technically speaking, hemp is a variety of the cannabis plant that contains less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Though its derivatives have been used for everything from textiles to medicine , hemp is currently everywhere in the form of a trendy ingredient called cannabidiol (CBD). Manufacturers promise that CBD will... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SmonYi

There are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge ’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend. What to watch “Sandkings,” the two-part premiere episode of Showtime’s mid-1990s The Outer Limits revival. The second iteration of the 1960s science fiction / fantasy / horror anthology was generally more adult than the original (sort of a hard PG-13), but it told the same kinds of creepy cautionary tales, often adapted from the work of some of the era’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zAUT1O

Welcome to Fav’d For Later, a Friday roundup of our favorite memes, trends, and all-around good internet content. This week we’re back, baby. Welcome back from the holiday! Sometimes it’s great to take a break from the internet. I didn’t do that, but people always tell me how satisfying it feels to look into the eyes of their loved ones. Anyway! This has been the week of the big cow (it’s actually a steer) and Mark Ruffalo begging the internet to help him find his lost bag (he did), but the joke that truly proves we’ve all lost our damn minds is surgery on a grape . The 2017 line has, like so many online jokes, returned to be fruitful (lol) and multiply across the internet. they did surgery on a grape #Splatoon2 #NintendoSwitch p... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2rdIDQh

Nilay, Dieter, and Paul are back from Thanksgiving and ready to spill the beans on the tech news you may or may not have been paying attention to this week. Dieter’s got a review of the Pixel Slate, Nilay guest hosted the Interface newsletter, and Paul found a new gadget on the website to talk about. And, of course, we’ve got my favorite segment “ This week in Elon Musk ” with Liz Lopatto. There’s a whole lot more in between that, so listen here. 03:02 - Google Pixel Slate review 25:05 - “ This week in Elon Musk” with Liz Lopatto 29:34 - Project Fi is now Google Fi, and it will work with iPhones and most Android devices 36:54 - Republicans keep misunderstanding the law that protects internet platforms 55:04 - Paul’s weekly segment “ S... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zyiqQU

Over the past few days, sex-work Twitter has been abuzz about a somewhat unexpected topic: taxes. A tweet from amateur clip producer and webcam model Mocha Puff that declared, 11 times and in all caps, that, contrary to some people’s assertions, “sex workers do pay taxes,” was retweeted over 1300 times; in follow-up tweets, Puff shared links to some sex-work-friendly tax professionals, as did other members of the sex-work community. Why the sudden obsession with sex workers’ financial responsibility to the government? It all started with #ThotAudit, a harassment campaign that encouraged people to report sex workers — and, more specifically, sex workers who sell access to private Snapchat accounts — to the IRS for failure to pay their... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PdroIm

The fight over who gets to have the most-subscribed channel on YouTube spilled into the real world months ago when Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg fans started campaigning to raise awareness of the Swedish star. The grassroots effort has, for the most part, been in good fun — but recently, people on social media have reported being hacked by someone who is urging them to subscribe to PewDiePie. Kjellberg has maintained his status as the top channel on YouTube for years now, but recently, his claim to the throne has been increasingly threatened by T-Series , a channel owned by an Indian music production company. T-Series’ growth rate in 2018 has been explosive: it currently has over 72 million subscribers, placing it behind Kjellberg by around... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2rfX2vo

Creative toys and a dash of silly fun Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zzOoMW

There are few bad options in 2018, but these are the standouts Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2RpVL0i

It looks like one of the most anticipated Pokémon Go features is finally on its way. In a series of tweets , developer Niantic teased what sure looks like player-versus-player battles. It’s a feature the developer has promised for some time, and it’s an integral part of the traditional Pokémon experience. In fact, battles were part of the initial pitch when Pokémon Go was first announced back in 2015 . But, much like trading , battles took longer than anticipated to actually implement in the game. Unfortunately, right now, we don’t know anything about how the feature will work or when it will be available. But given the tease, it likely won’t be long before battles are officially unveiled. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2QtH4fp

Facebook at one time considered charging companies for access to its user data, according to a report based on three pages of unredacted material from a document showing portions of some internal Facebook emails, mainly from 2012 to 2014. The documents are linked to a lawsuit, Six4Three LLC v. Facebook Inc. , filed in California Superior Court. Six4Three, the developer of Pikini, a now-defunct app for locating photos of users' friends in swimsuits, filed a complaint in 2015 alleging that Facebook's data policies were anticompetitive. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2TYbdlM

Inside the massive factory where Tesla will soon make 60 percent of the world’s lithium-ion batteries Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2E7sHHU

Exceptional sound wrapped in a series of small annoyances Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Skssfo

Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is branching out into other business ventures, partnering with some of the world’s biggest EDM artists for a standalone album called Ninjawerks , which is based on Epic’s popular game. Although the album was first announced a month ago at TwitchCon , Blevins premiered the first three tracks last night during a stream. Alesso, a popular European DJ, is contributing a song called “Tilted Towers,” which is based on the popular zone within the Battle Royale map. American DJ 3LAU collaborated with Blevins for his track “Game Time,” while Tycho, an artist known for his synth and downtempo work, contributed his own track, “Jetty.” All three tracks are available at the bottom of the page. Blevins’... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2AA3rWn

On gaming Tumblr, Overwatch rules. Blizzard has built a deep and compelling backstory for its team-based multiplayer shooter through animated shorts, comics, and character bios; even if you’ve never played a single match, you can still immerse yourself in a world teeming with fan art and fan fiction. Every year, Tumblr analyzes tens of thousands of lines of data — posts, tags, searches, reblogs — to rank and reveal its top trends of the year. In 2018’s gaming category, that ranking looks slightly different than usual: in addition to the larger list for video games, this year’s roundup also includes one for mobile, to better account for fandoms around titles like Overwatch , Undertale , or Life Is Strange , vs. mobile hits like Harry Potter:... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Q0JMJM

This week, Google’s messy fight over Chinese censorship spilled out into the open. More than 600 Googlers have now publicly signed an open letter opposing Google’s Dragonfly project , a search engine that would make controversial concessions to China’s internet censorship regime. Other Googlers have signed a counter-letter defending the project , although that letter has not been made public. Nearly 1,000 employees have signed one of the two letters, including their name and job title with no gesture toward anonymity. Labor laws offer some level of protection for this kind of public stand, but there’s still a real risk of retaliation, which is one of the reasons why it’s so rare for employees to air their concerns publicly. But for those... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2FPIsVA

TikTok is inescapable right now, and it’s not just teens paying attention — it’s rocked the business world as well. Bytedance, the owner of the wildly popular short-form video app , is now valued at more than $75 billion following a new round of investment. This means Uber has unexpectedly lost its long-held title of the world’s most valuable tech startup to a low-profile challenger from China. You could be forgiven for not having heard the name Bytedance before the recent news. The founder, 35-year-old Zhang Yiming, rarely gives interviews, and the company’s Western-facing media presence is close to nonexistent. But the company’s global ambitions are real and so are its chances. Bytedance is the first Chinese internet company with a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2BIU4FG

Amazon’s Echo smart speakers already support a variety of music services, including Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. And from December 17th , Apple Music will join this little cohort. Apple Music users will be able to ask Alexa to play favorite songs, artists, and albums, as well as any of the streaming service’s curated playlists and radio stations. Echo owners will simply need to enable the Apple Music skill in the Alexa app, link their account, and they’ll be good to go. Making Apple Music available on Echo devices might seem to run counter to Apple’s usual strategy of using services as a lure for hardware (and vice versa). But the company can apparently see the sense of making its streaming service available on the most... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Q46roD

Arlo, the security camera company launched by Netgear, has announced its debut 4K security camera — the Arlo Ultra. As well as upping the resolution alongside offering HDR recording, the wireless camera also builds in the spotlight that you previously had to buy separately , allowing it to record in color at night with an improved 180-degree field of view over last year’s Arlo 2 Pro . 4K security cameras are still something of a rarity in 2018. The Nest Cam IQ , which is also available as an outdoor variant like the Arlo Ultra, features a 4K sensor, but its streams top out at 1080p. The higher resolution of the Arlo Ultra should make it easier to see finer details like the car number plates of unwanted visitors, although Arlo’s announcement... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2FN3B2M

If you’re looking to add a dash more color to your iPhone or Apple Watch then you now have a few more options to choose from. Apple is now selling three additional colors of silicone cases and watch straps on the Apple Store in yellow, green and pink (via MacRumors ). In addition to these new colors, the teal, olive and mauve Watch straps that were previously exclusively available through Nike’s iPhone app are now also available for purchase directly from Apple. Unfortunately, there’s still no sign of any official first-party cases for the iPhone XR. Previously we’ve speculated that the reason for the lack of cases has to do with the handset’s bright color schemes, which you wouldn’t want to cover up with an opaque shield. Mysteriously a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Rmac5m

Marriott is revealing a massive database breach today, affecting up to 500 million guests of its Starwood hotels the company first acquired in 2016 . A security investigation has concluded that there was “unauthorized access” to a database holding hotel guest records. “Marriott learned during the investigation that there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood network since 2014,” says a statement from the company. The breach includes 327 million records of “some combination” of name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences. Marriott isn’t providing an... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SkGTQN

E Ink, the company that produces the Kindle’s low-power display, has announced the JustWrite — a new display that can be written on with almost no latency. It achieves this by having the new display be driven by its stylus itself rather than the TFT backplates that have been used for previous displays. The change potentially means that only the stylus itself needs to be powered, although the screen itself may still require a small amount of power to refresh itself to erase any writing or drawings. Although small E Ink notepads like the reMarkable tablet are the first things that come to mind when thinking about the potential uses for the JustWrite screen, screens that are up to 3-feet wide are also possible, theoretically allowing the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2DVNCfU

Officially, Google’s preferred description for Project Dragonfly is “exploratory.” “This is an exploratory project and no decision has been made about whether we could or would launch,” the company said today , in the wake of a significant new report on its plans for a censored search engine in China. ”Exploratory” is a word that conjures the earliest stages of development — of the conquistador, standing at the shore of a new land, surveying rough its shape and character. But according to Thursday’s report by The Intercept ’s ace Dragonfly chronicler Ryan Gallagher, Google’s explorations had already reached the final stages of development by the time word of the project leaked. And as Gallagher describes it, that was the result of a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2DS6EE1

In June 2017, Instagram announced that it had started testing a feature it then called “favorites,” which was an attempt to reinvent the friends list and encourage people to share more by letting them post to a more limited group of their followers. In response to the rise of “ Finstagrams ” — private accounts followed only by a person’s closest friends — the company sought to give users more tools for private sharing, with a suite of features that touched nearly every part of the app. Nearly 18 months later, Instagram’s twist on private sharing has arrived, and it looks much different than it did in 2017. Now called “close friends,” the feature will be limited to Stories. And while it has been scaled back from its earlier incarnation,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2RpkUYK

Struggling California EV startup Faraday Future was dealt a potentially crippling blow on Thursday, according to a press release from its main investor and confirmed by a person familiar with the matter. The arbitrator in Hong Kong that’s sorting out the company’s fight with its main investor ruled against a motion from Faraday Future to loosen the grip that the backer, Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande, has on the startup’s intellectual property and assets . Faraday Future was seeking this specific relief from the arbitrator because the company believed it would enhance the chances of receiving a lifeline from a new investor, according to the person familiar with the matter. But without any assets left to offer up as... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TWYfF3

AT&T’s upcoming streaming service will offer three different subscription tiers when it launches in late 2019. The first tier will offer films from WarnerMedia’s catalogue , while the second tier will offer WarnerMedia TV series and “blockbuster movies,” according to The Hollywood Reporter . The third tier, and seemingly the most expensive, will combine films from that library catalogue with original series. This will assumedly include shows from HBO, which AT&T is touting as a big gain for subscribers. The third bundle will also include “more content licensed from third parties” eventually. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson did not suggest what each tier would cost. WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey told reporters the end goal is to have... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ra0RCg

Netflix and Marvel TV’s Daredevil will officially end after the third season, according to a statement from the streaming service, which was first reported by Deadline . “We are tremendously proud of the show’s last and final season and although it’s painful for the fans, we feel it best to close this chapter on a high note,” the company said in a statement. “We’re thankful to showrunner Erik Oleson, the show’s writers, stellar crew and incredible cast including Charlie Cox as Daredevil himself, and we’re grateful to the fans who have supported the show over the years. Netflix’s statement also noted that although there won’t be any new Daredevil episodes, all three seasons will continue to live on the platform. Netflix also noted, “the D... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2FY2Gg2

Long-awaited rain is pummeling California, threatening dangerous mudslides in areas reeling from recent fires. Officials are currently warning people to evacuate parts of southern California where the Holy Fire burned more than 23,000 acres this summer. Further north, in burn scars where the deadly Camp Fire recently raged , the National Weather Service has issued flash flood warnings , too. Paradise, a town that was devastated by the Camp Fire, remains under mandatory evacuation orders as the rains pour down. It’s a familiar sequence of disasters for Californians: after the record-setting fire season of 2017, waist-high mud flowed through Santa Barbara County at more than 35 miles per hour — killing at least 17 people in January. And... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2DPYbkW

Elon Musk won’t be smoking a joint on the video podcast of a famous comedian any time soon, according to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Speaking with reporters at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC on Thursday, Bridenstine said “you won’t be seeing” Musk publicly smoke marijuana or drink alcohol, as he was seen doing on The Joe Rogan Experience back in September . Bridenstine’s comments were reported earlier this afternoon by The Atlantic . “I will tell you that was not helpful, and that did not inspire confidence, and the leaders of these organizations need to take that as an example of what to do when you lead an organization that’s going to launch American astronauts,” Bridenstine said in The Atlantic’ s report. “I will tell you,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2BHdjQc

A prominent Google employee said today she had raised $100,000 in pledges for a strike fund, following more news about the company’s controversial plans for China. Earlier today, The Intercept published a new report about Google’s plans to build a censored search engine in China. The report detailed executives’ response to internal dissent about the project, and included concerns from engineers who said they felt the security and privacy process had been sidelined. In response, Liz Fong-Jones, a Google worker and employee advocate, said on Twitter that Google employees should consider how workers would respond if executives overrode recommendations from the safety and privacy team. “Google’s S&P teams must have our backs,” she wrote. ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2P9Oe3R

DJ Khaled and pro boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. are facing charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission today after they failed to disclose that they were being paid promotional fees to tout fraudulent initial coin offerings. According to the SEC, this is the first time that individuals have faced charges involving ICOs. The Commission is accusing Mayweather of failing to disclose a $100,000 promotional payment and DJ Khaled with a $50,000 one. Both celebrities received these promotional fees from Centra Tech, Inc. earlier this year. Neither Mayweather nor Khaled have admitted to or denied the Commission’s findings, but both have agreed to pay back what they had received to promote the ICO and are facing hundreds of thousands of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2BFAx90

Pixar Animation Studios may be the most influential animation outfit in the world, but recently, it’s developed a serious reputation problem. Earlier this year, a detailed insider report from a former employee explored the studio’s rigid culture of sexism , which systematically kept women away from advancement or leadership positions while protecting men who harassed or abused them. Meanwhile, chief creative officer John Lasseter was ousted from Disney after it surfaced that he’d been known for “grabbing, kissing and making comments about physical attributes of women,” as The Hollywood Reporter wrote this year . The move to replace Lasseter with new leadership has come alongside a number of other moves toward more storytelling diversity at... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Q64acH

Earlier this afternoon, alt-right Jewish commentator Laura Loomer handcuffed herself to the front doors of Twitter’s New York headquarters, while wearing a Jewish star and carrying a bullhorn and a number of printed-out tweets. She says she’s demonstrating in protest of the alleged shadowbanning of conservatives on the social-media platform, and the “double standard” of allowing figures like anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to remain on the site. “Twitter is upholding sharia when they ban me for tweeting facts about sharia law,” Loomer shouted early on in a Periscope livestream that kicked off around 3:45 p.m. Thursday. “I’m here today to stand in solidarity with the millions of conservatives around the world who have... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2AycWFM

Void Linux offers an unusual alternative to many of the traditional Linux distros affiliated with a larger Linux family such as Debian or Ubuntu or Arch. Void Linux is an independently developed, rolling-release, general-purpose operating system. That means that its software is either homegrown or plain-vanilla compiled. Some of Void Linux's under-the-hood specifics include its own package management system, dubbed "XBPS," for X-binary Package System, an initialization system called "runit," and integration of LibreSSL instead of OpenSSL. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2rdLl8w

Spoilers for the general plot of Nightflyers ahead. In the first episode of Syfy’s new series Nightflyers , Karl D’Branin (Eoin Macken), head of a scientific expedition meant to intercept an alien spaceship and establish first contact, talks with xenobiologist Rowan (Angus Sampson) about the mission. Karl views the incredible energy given off by the ship as mankind’s salvation, but Rowan expects the aliens haven’t responded to repeated messages from Earth because they don’t want to talk. “Any beings that intelligent would see the human race for what we are,” he says. “We’re a virus that has killed its host and is looking for a new host to infect… They’re probably going to exterminate us.” Science fiction typically portrays aliens either... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Ro5rIG

Back in August, it was revealed that Ikea was planning to release a $10 power outlet in October as part of the Trådfri smart home product line. It looks like the launch ran into some obstacles, as the plugs are now available to purchase in the US and UK a month late and without the Apple HomeKit support they were supposed to launch with, as reported by 9to5Mac . $10 is pretty affordable for a smart plug that can let you turn on and off household appliances like lamps and coffee makers from your phone or via a magnetic remote control that’s included in the $15 control outlet kit . If you’re not already set up in the Trådfri ecosystem, you’ll have to purchase the $30 Gateway , which lets you control the smart plug via the Trådfri app. The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2AD5LfA

Dell has released a customer update on its website acknowledging that it warded off a possible hack that happened earlier this month on November 9th. In the update, Dell says it noticed and took action to intervene in “unauthorized activity” on its network. The hackers tried to extract customer names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, although it’s not clear how successful the effort was. (Credit card information was not impacted.) The customer update says it found no proof that any information was compromised, but a separate press release by Dell on its website about the incident words it a little differently, saying, “Though it is possible some of this information was removed from Dell’s network, our investigations found no... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Q29AFj

Android 9 Pie is arriving to the HTC U11 Life, according to Ubergizmo . It will be the first HTC device to get the latest big operating system update since Pie launched in August . The HTC U11 was released in the summer of 2017 running Android Nougat out of the box, later receiving the Oreo update soon after it launched. The HTC U11 Life is beating out the company’s 2018 flagship device, the HTC U12+, in getting Pie. It makes sense that the international U11 Life would be the first of HTC’s models to receive the update, however, as it’s an Android One device. Android One devices are required to receive timely software updates. The US model sold by T-Mobile runs regular HTC Sense and likely isn’t receiving this update just yet. Now that... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2DQJeyU

Today, NASA announced that it is partnering with nine US aerospace companies to send small robotic landers to the Moon — the first phase in a multi-year plan to put humans on the lunar surface again. The companies are now part of a pool that can compete for NASA money. Whenever NASA wants to put small payloads of scientific instruments on the lunar surface, the agency will choose from these companies to do so. The winning companies include Lockheed Martin, Astrobotic, Moon Express, Masten Space Systems, Deep Space Systems, Draper, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and Orbit Beyond. Many of these companies are small fledgling aerospace companies that have yet to put anything in space. And there are a few notable companies absent from... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Rm8Ojh

A more humane digital marketplace Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2AApFrl

Amazon has announced Amazon Comprehend Medical, a language processing service that lets users gather information -- such as a patient's medical condition and medication dosage, strength and frequency -- from sources including doctors' notes, clinical trial reports, hospital admission notes and patient health records. Most health and patient data -- such as medical notes, prescriptions, audio interview transcripts, and pathology and radiology reports -- currently is stored as unstructured medical text. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2zy4h6u

It’s been a week of leaks for the upcoming Moto G7 line, and new details of an unannounced G7 Power variant emerged today through an FCC filing , as first spotted by XDA Developers . The Moto G7 Power joins the Moto G7, G7 Plus, and the recently leaked Moto G7 Play as part of the four Moto G devices that will likely launch next year. It seems like the Power will be assuming the role that the Moto Play usually holds as the big battery model, with a reported 5,000mAh battery. For comparison, our review of the Moto G6 Play found that its 4,000mAh battery was able to last around three days with moderate use. The Moto G7 Power may not actually be that powerful, though. There are rumors from XDA Developers that the phone will have lower specs... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2BF9Ktu

Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, and Alcon Entertainment are partnering to produce a new anime series based on Blade Runner 2049 called Blade Runner — Black Lotus . The 13-episode series is being directed by Shinji Aramaki, who directed the Appleseed films, and Kenji Kamiyama, who directed the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series. Additionally, Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe is acting as Black Lotus ’ creative producer. The creative companies aren’t yet releasing information on what the series will be about, but a press release says it will include some existing Blade Runner characters, and that it takes place in 2032. This sets it 17 years before Blade Runner 2049 , and 10 years after Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 , the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2RsGZWJ

YouTube is gearing up to offer its prestige lineup of original series and films for free to all users, turning to its traditional ad-supported system in an attempt to bring in more viewers. The company is looking to pull back on its ad-supported programs by 2020, limiting the number of original series and films it orders, according to The Hollywood Reporter . Series that are ordered, which include a few with Hollywood star talent attached, will be available to all YouTube users for free, regardless of whether they’ve signed up for YouTube Premium. In the past, pilot episodes were free to watch, but users had to pay a monthly $12 fee to watch the entire series. Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, told The Hollywood Reporter... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zw9DPM