Apple going all-in on original programming, to the tune of $1 billion a year

Apple Music on iOS 10, with Senior VP Eddy Cue. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) As the battle to create original content for online video services continues, we get a glimpse into Apple’s plans for the coming year. According to a  report  from The Wall Street Journal , Apple has a budget of $1 billion to spend in 2018 to “procure and produce” original content. The iPhone maker could acquire and produce up to 10 shows next year with this money, which will be largely left in the hands of  new Apple hires  Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg. Erlicht and Van Amburg are former presidents from Sony Pictures Television that moved to Apple in June to oversee video content strategy and production. The $1 billion budget signals how serious Apple is about boosting its original programming, the newest of which lives on its Apple Music subscription service. This is Apple’s first major push into original content, but $1 billion less than the money spend on content by rival companies. HBO spent about double last year on content (it reportedly costs $10 million to produce one episode of Game of Thrones ), and Netflix may spend upwards of $6 billion this year. Apple’s starting budget is similar to Amazon’s when it first got into original programming in 2013 with Prime Video; Amazon could spend $4.5 billion on original content in 2017. Original programming is the way to go, as it has proven to be a big driver in the growth of streaming services. Netflix’s business benefited immensely from original hits like House of Cards , Orange is the New Black , and Stranger Things . Those kinds of shows—scripted comedies and dramas—are expensive to produce, and we’ve seen Netflix’s annual budget for original programming increase over the past few years to accommodate that. Apple’s first original series, Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke , both just became available to Apple Music subscribers, and critics’ reviews have been mixed. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple going all-in on original programming, to the tune of $1 billion a year

Every judicial decision has been liberated from the US court system’s paywall

US court records are not copyrighted, but the US court system operates a paywall called “PACER” that is supposed to recoup the costs of serving text files on the internet; charging $0.10/page for access to the public domain, and illegally profiting to the tune of $80,000,000/year . (more…)

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Every judicial decision has been liberated from the US court system’s paywall

Watch: Stunning rare white moose caught on video

A white moose is rare, with only about 100 of them in Sweden. But Hans Nilsson, who has been tracking them for three years, according to Inhabitat , caught this moose on video on August 11 in Varmland, Sweden. The moose is not an albino, but its white fur is a genetic mutation. Or magical, to be more exact.

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Watch: Stunning rare white moose caught on video

Powerful backdoor found in software used by >100 banks and energy cos.

(credit: Jeremy Brooks ) For 17 days starting last month, an advanced backdoor that gave attackers complete control over networks lurked in digitally signed software used by hundreds of banks, energy companies, and pharmaceutical manufacturers, researchers warned Tuesday. The backdoor, dubbed ShadowPad, was added to five server- or network-management products sold by NetSarang , a software developer with offices in South Korea and the US. The malicious products were available from July 17 to August 4, when the backdoor was discovered and privately reported by researchers from antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab. Anyone who uses the five NetSarang titles Xmanager Enterprise 5.0, Xmanager 5.0, Xshell 5.0, Xftp 5.0, or Xlpd 5.0, should immediately review posts here and here from NetSarang and Kaspersky Lab respectively. Covert data collection The attack is the latest to manipulate the supply chain of a legitimate product in hopes of infecting the people who rely on it. The NotPetya worm that shut down computers around the world in June used the same tactic after attackers hijacked the update mechanism for tax software that was widely used in Ukraine . Supply-chain attacks that targeted online gamers included one used to spread the PlugX trojan in 2015 and the malware dubbed WinNTi in 2013 . Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Powerful backdoor found in software used by >100 banks and energy cos.

$550 dock turns a smartphone into a medical lab

Smartphones can now be used as laboratory-grade medical testing devices thanks to new kit designed by the University of Illinois. The transmission-reflectance-intensity (TRI) analyzer attaches to a smartphone to examine blood, urine or saliva samples as reliably as large, expensive equipment, but costs just $550. The technology uses a high-performance spectrometer. First, a fluid sample is illuminated by the phone’s internal white LED flash, then the light is collected in an optical fiber . The light is then guided through a diffraction grating into the phone’s rear-facing camera, and a reading is provided on-screen. Retrofitting medical technology onto smartphones isn’t anything new. We’ve already seen innovation in HIV testing and fertility tracking , for example. But researchers say the TRI analyzer boasts a wider spectrum of applications, and the relatively cheap, portable nature of the kit means it could have uses in other sectors such as animal health, food safety and environmental monitoring , as well as health diagnostics. “Our TRI Analyzer is like the Swiss Army knife of biosensing, ” said Professor Brian Cunningham. “It’s capable of performing the three most common types of tests in medical diagnostics, so in practice, thousands of already-developed tests could be adapted to it.” Via: NBC Source: University of Illinois

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$550 dock turns a smartphone into a medical lab

Netflix Co-Founder’s Crazy Plan: Pay $10 a Month, Go to the Movies All You Want

Mitch Lowe, a founder of Netflix, has a crazy idea. Through his new startup MoviePass, he wants to subsidize our film habit, letting us go to the theater once a day for about the price of a single ticket. From a report: Lowe, an early Netflix executive who now runs a startup called MoviePass, plans to drop the price of the company’s movie ticket subscriptions on Tuesday to $9.95. The fee will let customers get in to one showing every day at any theater in the U.S. that accepts debit cards. MoviePass will pay theaters the full price of each ticket used by subscribers, excluding 3D or Imax screens. MoviePass could lose a lot of money subsidizing people’s movie habits. So the company also raised cash on Tuesday by selling a majority stake to Helios and Matheson Analytics, a small, publicly traded data firm in New York. Theater operators should certainly welcome any effort to increase sales. The top four cinema operators, led by AMC Entertainment, lost $1.3 billion in market value early this month after a disappointing summer. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Netflix Co-Founder’s Crazy Plan: Pay $10 a Month, Go to the Movies All You Want

After "Game of Thrones" Capes Revaled to Be Ikea Rugs, Ikea Releases How-To Instructions

Here’s a 10-second clip of “Game of Thrones” costume designer Michele Clapton revealing where the capes of the Night’s Watch come from: Apparently folks were titillated that Ikea rugs were the source material. So too was someone at Ikea, who then had whomever’s in charge of producing Ikea’s assembly directions create one for the cape: Yanks are out of luck; the Skold sheepskin rug pictured above isn’t available in the ‘States. (The image is from Ikea’s Australian website.)

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After "Game of Thrones" Capes Revaled to Be Ikea Rugs, Ikea Releases How-To Instructions

Google Pays Apple $3 Billion Per Year To Remain On the iPhone, Analyst Says

In a note to investors on Monday, Bernstein analyst A.M. Sacconaghi Jr. said Google is paying Apple billions of dollars per year to remain the default search engine on iPhones and iPads. “The firm believes that Google will pay Apple about $3 billion this year, up from $1 billion just three years ago, and that Google’s licensing fees make up a large bulk of Apple’s services business, ” reports CNBC. From the report: “Court documents indicate that Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014, and we estimate that total Google payments to Apple in FY 17 may approach $3 billion, ” Bernstein analyst A.M. Sacconaghi Jr. said. “Given that Google payments are nearly all profit for Apple, Google alone may account for 5% of Apple’s total operating profits this year, and may account for 25% of total company OP growth over the last two years.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google Pays Apple $3 Billion Per Year To Remain On the iPhone, Analyst Says

Biggest amateur-built sub sinks—owner is suspected of killing passenger [Updated]

Enlarge / The UV3 Nautilus in early sea trials in 2008. (credit: Frumperino ) Believe it or not, there’s a crowdsourced, open source non-profit attempting to build a sea-launched suborbital rocket. Called Copenhagen Suborbitals, it even had access to a submarine. A club associated with the venture completed the sub in 2008, designed by Peter Madsen, a Danish inventor who is co-founder of the group. That submarine is now at the bottom of the sea, and Madsen is being held by Danish authorities on suspicion of “unlawful killing”—a precursor charge to manslaughter or murder. The UC3 Nautilus was the third and largest submarine effort by the club, costing $200,000 to construct. It served as a workhorse for Copenhagen Suborbitals, helping push the group’s Sputnik rocket launch platform into position on a number of occasions. Nautilus is—or was—powered by two diesel engines above the surface and by batteries underwater. While it could hold a crew of four underwater, all of its controls could be managed by a single person from its control room. By 2011, the sub needed an overhaul. But the repairs required more than Copenhagen Suborbitals could afford to sink into the Nautilus. So in 2013, the group launched an Indiegogo campaign to get it back in the water. In a video, Madsen described the sub and the inspiration behind it. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Biggest amateur-built sub sinks—owner is suspected of killing passenger [Updated]

Researchers report >4,000 apps that secretly record audio and steal logs

(credit: Ron Amadeo) A single threat actor has aggressively bombarded Android users with more than 4,000 spyware apps since February, and in at least three cases the actor snuck the apps into Google’s official Play Market, security researchers said Thursday. Soniac was one of the three apps that made its way into Google Play , according to a blog post published Thursday by a researcher from mobile security firm Lookout. The app, which had from 1,000 to 5,000 downloads before Google removed it, provided messaging functions through a customized version of the Telegram communications program. Behind the scenes, Soniac had the ability to surreptitiously record audio, take phones, make calls, send text messages, and retrieve logs, contacts, and information about Wi-Fi access points. Google ejected the app after Lookout reported it as malicious. Two other apps—one called Hulk Messenger and the other Troy Chat—were also available in Play but were later removed. It’s not clear if the developer withdrew the apps or if Google expelled them after discovering their spying capabilities. The remaining apps—which since February number slightly more than 4,000—are being distributed through other channels that weren’t immediately clear. Lookout researcher Michael Flossman said those channels may include alternative markets or targeted text messages that include a download link. The apps are all part of a malware family Lookout calls SonicSpy. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Researchers report >4,000 apps that secretly record audio and steal logs