Tag: entertainment

Netflix is the one limiting its video quality on AT&T and Verizon

Last week as T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced that his company’s Binge On program would expand to cover YouTube, he mentioned a strange point: that even the “mobile optimized” 480p Netflix streams T-Mobile offers were higher-res than what you get streaming via AT&T or Verizon. Executives from those companies said they don’t reduce the resolution of videos on their networks, although tests revealed that Legere was right — Netflix does only stream at 360p on AT&T and Verizon. Now the Wall Street Journal has reported that the culprit behind this restriction was actually Netflix itself. 7/ @TMobile has been listening to customers and thanks to a little partnership, @YouTube is now a #BingeOn partner! https://t.co/VQVZoM86Jh — John Legere (@JohnLegere) March 17, 2016 In an odd wrinkle on net neutrality discussions over whether or not broadband providers might restrict video quality of streaming companies they compete with, Netflix chose to limit its own quality on those two networks. Through a blog post and statements to WSJ , Netflix explains that it set a cap at 600kbps to avoid using up too much data under the caps set by those providers for their customers. Sprint and T-Mobile were apparently exempt because of a history of “more consumer friendly policies.” It all makes sense considering how quickly users can chew through bandwidth caps with HD video on mobile, although it seems odd that it wasn’t made clear until now. According to Netflix, this hasn’t been an issue for its users, who are more concerned about saving bandwidth than quality. However, it will soon introduce a “data saver” feature on its mobile apps to let users choose what bandwidth they want to stream over cellular networks — just in case you’re willing to burn a few GB so you can actually see what’s going on in Daredevil . Source: Netflix Blog , Wall Street Journal

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Netflix is the one limiting its video quality on AT&T and Verizon

How One Dev Broke Node and Thousands of Projects In 11 Lines of JavaScript

An anonymous reader quotes an article written by Chris Williams for The Register: Programmers were left staring at broken builds and failed installations on Tuesday after someone toppled the Jenga tower of JavaScript. A couple of hours ago, Azer Koculu unpublished more than 250 of his modules from NPM, which is a popular package manager used by JavaScript projects to install dependencies. Koculu yanked his source code because, we’re told, one of the modules was called Kik and that apparently attracted the attention of lawyers representing the instant-messaging app of the same name. According to Koculu, Kik’s briefs told him to take down the module, he refused, so the lawyers went to NPM’s admins claiming brand infringement. When NPM took Kik away from the developer, he was furious and unpublished all of his NPM-managed modules. ‘This situation made me realize that NPM is someone’s private land where corporate is more powerful than the people, and I do open source because Power To The People, ‘ Koculu blogged. Unfortunately, one of those dependencies was left-pad. It pads out the lefthand-side of strings with zeroes or spaces. And thousands of projects including Node and Babel relied on it. With left-pad removed from NPM, these applications and widely used bits of open-source infrastructure were unable to obtain the dependency, and thus fell over. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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How One Dev Broke Node and Thousands of Projects In 11 Lines of JavaScript

Streaming is now the US music industry’s biggest money maker

It may have just been a matter of time , but it finally happened: streaming music is now the biggest cash cow for the American music industry. The RIAA’s latest year-end sales report reveals that streaming accounted for 34.3 percent of US music revenue in 2015, barely edging past the 34 percent of downloads. Physical sales, meanwhile, were down to 28.8 percent. And despite concerns about free listening hurting the bottom line , paid subscriptions were the star of the show. While ad-based streaming pulled in 30.6 percent more cash versus 2014, paid subscriptions jumped 52.3 percent — suddenly, forking over $10 a month for unlimited music wasn’t such a far-fetched idea. The label-backed organization partly credits the boost to the rise of new entrants like Apple Music and Tidal . Streaming was simply the hot space last year, and everyone stood to gain whether they were fresh or an incumbent like Spotify . Internet radio (think Pandora and SiriusXM) and music videos also played roles, but only tiny ones. No matter what, online tunes were enough to offset the drop in demand for hard copies, as the entire industry’s revenue grew a modest 0.9 percent. It’s hard to say that streaming will keep growing at the pace it has, since there are only so many people willing to either subscribe or put up with ads. Even so, the data might be enough to have labels changing how they distribute and push music. Rather than treat streaming as just one of multiple options, they may be more likely to steer you toward the on-demand services first and foremost. Via: Wall Street Journal Source: RIAA

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Streaming is now the US music industry’s biggest money maker

Apple announces new 4-inch “iPhone SE,” starting at $399

Behold, the iPhone SE. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) CUPERTINO, Calif.—It’s a big day for small phones. Today, Apple announced its anticipated “iPhone SE,” Apple’s first new 4-inch phone since the iPhone 5C and 5S were released in the fall of 2013.  The phone is a throwback in a lot of ways. It’s got the same 1136×640 resolution screen as the iPhone 5 family, and its general design borrows much more from those older phones than it does from the thinner, more rounded 6 and 6S. It looks like and is probably best described as “an iPhone 5S but faster.” Apple VP Greg Joswiak introduced the device, noting that there was great demand for a smaller iPhone. “We sold 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015,” he said. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple announces new 4-inch “iPhone SE,” starting at $399

Apple iOS 9.3 update available today with ‘Night Shift’

During its ” Loop You In ” event, Apple announced that iOS 9.3 would finally be available to all starting today. The new version of the operation system adds the color-temperature changing Night Shift, Notes with Touch ID and password support. The News app also got some love with trending topics. CarPlay is updated with better Maps and an easier way to select music. The operating system has been available to developers and any users that opt-in to beta test the latest version of iOS. So the none of the features are much of a surprise. But, if you’re not in the mood to mess with your iPhone experience using a system that’s not quite ready for primetime, soon you’ll be able to set Today’s event introduced the new iPhone 5SE which is available for order now . Get all the news from today’s iPhone event right here , and follow along with our liveblog !

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Apple iOS 9.3 update available today with ‘Night Shift’

Bitcoin Trading Platform Announces Huge Downtime Following Cyber-Attack

An anonymous reader writes: BitQuick, a US-based Bitcoin trader has announced that it will shut down its platform for up to 2 to 4 weeks following a cyber-attack this week. The platform took this step because it has not yet identified how the hackers infiltrated their systems. It is unusual for companies to take down their systems for weeks, but after the recent Cryptsy and LoanBase hacks, the company is not willing to lose millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin. BitQuick announced clients of the incident, and 97% already withdrew their funds from the platform. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Bitcoin Trading Platform Announces Huge Downtime Following Cyber-Attack

Cinema-Quality Unity Engine ‘Adam’ Demo Claims To Run Real-Time On GeForce GTX 980

MojoKid writes: This week at GDC 2016 the team at Unity revealed their stable release of the Unity 5.3.4 game engine along with a beta of Unity 5.4. There are a number of upgrades included with Unity 5.4 including in-editor artist workflow improvements, VR rendering pipeline optimizations, improved multithreaded rendering, customizable particles which can use Light Probe Proxy Volumes (LPPV) to add more realistic lighting models and the ability to drop in textures from tools like Quixel DDo Painter. But for a jaw-dropping look at what’s possible with the Unity 5.4 engine, check out the short film “Adam” that Unity has developed to demo it. The film showcases all of Unity Engine 5.4’s effects and gives a great look at what to expect from Unity-based games coming in 2016. Unity will showcase the full film at Unite Europe 2016 in Amsterdam. But what’s most impressive about Adam perhaps is that Unity says that this is all being run in real-time at 1440p resolution on just an upper-midrange GeForce GTX 980 card. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Cinema-Quality Unity Engine ‘Adam’ Demo Claims To Run Real-Time On GeForce GTX 980

Self-lacing Nikes are real, will go on sale later this year

While we’re still waiting for the Back to the Future-styled Nike Mag , the company has unveiled its first “self-lacing” shoe in another silhouette. The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 senses the presence of the wearer’s heel, and tightens its laces accordingly. Senior Innovator Tiffany Beers led the project, and says once the shoe is on, the wearer can adjust the fit with two buttons on the side to get things perfect. Of course, Nike isn’t stopping there, as famed shoe designer Tinker Hatfield is already looking forward to versions that adjust fit on the fly, as the athlete needs more or less tension. The HyperAdapt 1.0 is set to arrive this holiday season in three colors (including that Nike Mag-like lighting), and will go on sale only to Nike+ members for an unspecified price. Speaking of Nike+ . that app is getting a redesign in June that the company says will make it almost as personal as the fit on those adaptive-laced shoes. One login will tie users to the SNKRS , Run Club and Training Club apps, and provide product recommendations that are individually tailored. Nike is going all out to push purchases with a personal touch, including a “Services” tab that will provide concierge-like access to “Nike+ Experts” to answer all your burning sportswear queries. or book a reservation at a Nike store. This is all a part of Nike Innovation 2016, and sneakerheads can check out the site for other new products on the way. That includes the Air Vapor Max that ditches its foam midsole entirely, relying only on the company’s vaunted airbag technology for cushioning, the new “engineered down to the pixel” KD9 and other products that are part of what Nike is calling an “era of innovation.” The only problem? None of those innovations can make me shoot like Steph Curry (yet), and he’s signed to Under Armour . Source: Nike

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Self-lacing Nikes are real, will go on sale later this year

MSI ships its Mac Pro-like Vortex gaming PC

Do you like the Mac Pro’s concept of stuffing a lot of computing power into a small cylinder, but wish there was a gaming PC inside instead of workstation hardware? You just got your wish. MSI has started shipping the Vortex , a riff on Apple’s formula that crams a full-on game rig into a tube that’s just 10.6 inches tall. It uses similar vertical cooling and includes Thunderbolt ports ( Thunderbolt 3 in this case), but it’s clearly aimed at a crowd that’s more interested in Far Cry Primal than Final Cut Pro. The mini desktop is billed as relatively upgradeable, and there’s even customizable lighting if you think the system isn’t attention-grabbing enough . Just be prepared to pay through the nose for the privilege. In the US, the Vortex starts at $2, 199 with a 4GHz Core i7, dual GeForce GTX 960 graphics, 16GB of RAM, twin 128GB SSDs, a 1TB hard drive and Killer-made networking. It’ll cost you $3, 999 to get a no-compromise model with dual GeForce GTX 980 video chipsets and 32GB of RAM. This PC is strictly for well-heeled enthusiasts, then, but it’s likely your best bet if you want a compact game machine that doubles as a conversation piece. Source: MSI

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MSI ships its Mac Pro-like Vortex gaming PC

307-million-year-old “monster” fossil identified at last

Sean McMahon Reconstruction of the Tully Monster as it would have looked 300 million years ago, swimming in the Carboniferous seas. Notice the jointed proboscis, the multiple rows of teeth, and the dorsal eye bar. 4 more images in gallery The “Tully monster,” a mysterious animal that swam in the inland oceans of Illinois more than 300 million years ago, left behind a tantalizingly detailed map of its body in a well-preserved package of fossils. Unfortunately, nobody could figure out what the creature was for half a century—until now. Francis Tully found the remains of the tiny beast (it’s only about 10 centimeters long) in Illinois in 1958 and gave it the whimsical scientific name Tullimonstrum  (nickname: Tully monster). A long stalk extends from the front of its body, which ends in a toothy orifice called a buccal apparatus. Its body is covered in gills and narrows down into a powerful tail that it probably used for propulsion. Its eyes peer out from either end of a long, rigid bar attached to the animal’s back. The Tully monster lived during the Carboniferous period, when the North American Great Basin was an enormous inland sea. Trees were colonizing the land for the first time, transforming the soil and filling the atmosphere with higher levels of oxygen than Earth had known before or since. Giant arthropods, like the 8-foot-long millipede known as  Arthropleura , crawled through the new forests. It was a good time to be a weird animal, and the Tully monster probably fit right in. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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307-million-year-old “monster” fossil identified at last