gaming – Page 12 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

The Netflix effect: SNL to air fewer commercial breaks

Honchos at NBC have told Ad Age that Saturday Night Live is going to show fewer commercials from next season. The 42nd year of the long-running sketch show will lose two whole ad breaks compared to the current season. That time will be handed back to producer Lorne Michaels to fill with the stated intention of making it “easier to watch the show live.” In exchange, the channel will let six companies pay to create “branded original content, ” that harnesses SNL’s cadre of writers and performers. We’re not sure how much paid-for programming will change the show’s slightly subversive tone , but as long as Kate McKinnon’s free to be Kate McKinnon, we’re not sure we care. It’s not explicitly addressed by either NBC Universal’s Linda Yaccarino or Lorne Michaels, but we’re fairly sure what’s causing the about-face. After all, cord-cutters and ad-averse millennials may prefer to watch the individual SNL sketches the morning after on YouTube. That way, they’re free from the burden of having to sit through an endless parade of commercials that break the mood of the comedy. The sort of young viewers that SNL is often designed for are increasingly used to watching shows without commercial breaks at all, thanks to Netflix and Amazon Prime. Hulu, even, offers smaller ad breaks than broadcast TV (and none when you upgrade to the premium tier). Ad Age says that around six-and-a-half-million people watch SNL during its traditional broadcast slot, er, live on Saturday nights. A further 2.2 million people subscribe to the show’s YouTube page, and even a lukewarm sketch like the Julia Louis-Dreyfuss cold open earned 1.4 million views. Clips that go viral , meanwhile, can get views an order of magnitude higher than that. Obviously, NBC and its advertising partners would like to get those eyeballs in front of their TV for the actual broadcast, and so it’s going to have to adapt to the modern era. Of course, some might say that nothing’s going to increase SNL’s audience unless it either: airs earlier or its creators work out a better ways to end a ske Source: Ad Age

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The Netflix effect: SNL to air fewer commercial breaks

Log in with your skull via bone conduction biometrics

Researchers looking for a better way to secure their face computers have come up with a novel solution for hands-free, head-mounted password entry. A device could potentially identify its wearer by emitting an ultrasonic hum through their skull and listening for the unique frequency that bounces back. The ” SkullConduct ” setup was devised by university researchers in Germany and works on a modified pair of Google Glass. Using the integrated bone conduction speaker and microphone, the device played an imperceptible sound that was then picked up by the microphone. A test device was able to correctly identify the user 97 percent of the time in a lab. While the researchers originally envisioned the system as a way to keep unwanted users from accessing devices like Glass, Gizmodo thinks it could potentially be another TouchID for your skull. Imagine, if you will, a scenario where you can unlock your phone by placing it against your ear. But, then again, who actually takes phone calls anymore?

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Log in with your skull via bone conduction biometrics

Acer unveils a liquid-cooled laptop, simplified UI tablet for “super-seniors”

(credit: Valentina Palladino) NEW YORK—Acer has been busy, and the company showed off some of its latest work at an event in New York City today. Acer announced a slew of new laptops and PCs, many of which build upon some of its other recently released products. The Switch Alpha 12 laptop is the juiced-up version of its Aspire Switch 12 S that was announced back at CES. Instead of the Switch 12 S’s Core M processor, the Alpha 12 supports sixth-generation Core i3U, i5, and i7 processors. But Acer is pushing this device as an efficient and cool laptop above anything else. Engineers built the Switch Alpha 12 with a liquid cooling system and a fanless design. The heat created from the device powers the cooling system, keeping temperatures down. And since it lacks a fan all together, operating sounds are kept quiet. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Australian researchers developed a blood test for Parkinson’s

By the time Parkinson’s disease makes itself known in humans, it’s already too late for treatment. But La Trobe University in Australia has developed a test that detects a biomarker present in blood cells in folks with the disease. The school describes the test as a means of detecting problems within cell mitochondria that cause an energy-and-stress-sensing protein, dubbed AMPK, to permanently activate and start damaging cells. The research is being bankrolled in part by Parkinson’s perhaps highest-profile patient, Michael J. Fox. Well, his foundation dedicated to further research on the debilitating malady , that is. The downside is that even with Fox’s Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Shake It Up Australia Foundation’s $640, 000 grant to La Trobe, more money is still needed for the test to be ready for the public. And beyond that, it’d still take five years to hit the market with additional funding. For now, the school is increasing the amount of testing it’s doing, going from a group of 38 people to 70. According to The Guardian , the ultimate goal is to do a longitudinal study with “thousands” of people in their 40s prior to them being at risk for the disease and before they start showing physical symptoms. From there, the researchers could test beyond Parkinson’s and see if the same method could be used to diagnose other neurological disorders, like Alzheimer’s, as well. Via: Popular Science Source: La Trobe University

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Australian researchers developed a blood test for Parkinson’s

‘Hearthstone’ update brings drastic changes to the card game

Hearthstone is undergoing some changes in the interest of keeping the digital-trading-card game fresh. But in introducing the “Whispers of the Old Gods” — expansion out on the 26th — developer Blizzard is tweaking a bunch of cards and, based on the 5, 000-plus comment Reddit thread , this isn’t exactly for the better. Fan favorite cards like Molten Giant have gotten a casting cost increase up to 25 from 20, while the Knife Juggler card has had its attack decreased by a point. Polygon breaks the changes down on a card-by-card basis incredibly well. Blizzard says that “careful consideration” went into these choices, and that it was based on both the company’s own ideas and checking out community feedback. So, chances are that the developer is listening to what you have to say regarding the new expansion. Just remember to keep polite when airing your thoughts, okay? You can grab the expansion from the in-game store across all platforms next Tuesday. Via: Polygon Source: Blizzard (1) , (2)

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‘Hearthstone’ update brings drastic changes to the card game

Netflix details its HDR streaming lineup for this year

Netflix recently revealed it had rolled out support for high dynamic range video , starting with the first season of Marco Polo . This was the initial step in the company’s plan to go all in on that technology , which it believes is the perfect complement to 4K — something it’s been pushing since 2014 . By the end of 2016, the streaming service will have more than 150 hours of original programming in HDR, Netflix confirmed to Engadget. Of those, over 100 hours are expected to hit the platform in August, a figure that won’t be easy for competitors such as Amazon to match. While Marco Polo is the only show taking advantage of HDR (Dolby Vision, HDR10) right now, more content is going to follow suit in the next few months. That includes existing series like Bloodline , Daredevil , Jessica Jones and Chef’s Table , as well as The Ridiculous Six movie. Netflix will also feature HDR in the upcoming Luke Cage and The Defenders shows, plus The Do-Over film starring Adam Sandler and more. Here’s the full list, according to Netflix: A Series of Unfortunate Events Bloodline Chef’s Table Hibana Knights of Sidonia Marvel’s Daredevil Marvel’s Iron Fist Marvel’s Jessica Jones Marvel’s Luke Cage Marvel’s The Defenders The Do-Over The Ridiculous Six Unfortunately, there are no firm details on when these are scheduled to arrive. “Timing varies depending on the title, as we are in the process of remastering any existing TV shows and movies, ” a Netflix spokesperson said to Engadget. “It is also dependent on the title’s launch date. We don’t have any dates to confirm at this point in time.” But hey, at least you can be excited about all the HDR stuff that’s coming in the near future.

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Netflix details its HDR streaming lineup for this year

Intel’s Apollo Lake chips promise slimmer, beefier budget PCs

Intel’s Atom-based processors have gotten much better at delivering a lot of bang for the buck , but there’s still little doubt that you’re using a low-cost system. PCs like HP’s Stream series still tend to be thick, carry a meager amount of RAM and rule out intensive tasks like 4K video. You might not have to make quite so many sacrifices going forward, though: Intel has offered a peek at Apollo Lake, a next-generation system-on-a-chip that promises to inject some life into the budget category. It’s not only more compact, but efficient enough that PC makers can afford to slim things down without as many compromises — they can use smaller batteries without hurting battery life, for instance. The more inclusive design (should also save several dollars (around $5-7) in parts that can be rolled into more RAM, better displays and similar upgrades. There’s more than size and cost savings, of course. Apollo Lake borrows the graphics technology from Intel’s Skylake architecture, which brings full hardware-based 4K video playback and an overall boost to visual performance. It’ll also help drag lower-cost computers into the modern era with richer support for technologies like USB-C . Intel isn’t yet revealing clock speeds, pricing and a few other key details for its new platform, but it’s promising Celeron- and Pentium-branded processors in the second half of 2016. They won’t make you forget about higher-end Core CPUs when they ship, but they might just raise the bar for computing — that starter laptop or tablet won’t be as likely to choke on basic duties. Via: AnandTech Source: Intel

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Intel’s Apollo Lake chips promise slimmer, beefier budget PCs

Homeland Security urges you to uninstall QuickTime on Windows

The Department of Homeland Security is echoing Trend Micro’s advice to uninstall QuickTime if you have it on your Windows computer. While the multimedia program’s working just fine, the security firm has discovered two new critical vulnerabilities lurking within it that could allow remote attackers to take over your system. Unfortunately, they might never be patched up: Trend Micro says Apple will no longer release security updates for the Windows version of the software, hence the call to jettison it completely. The good news is that Trend Micro hasn’t spotted any active attacks targeting those specific vulnerabilities yet. But both the firm and Homeland Security stress that because Apple has abandoned the program, the only way to protect yourself from potential threats is to dump it — Windows has a lot of safer alternatives you can use anyway. These flaws don’t affect QuickTime for Mac in any way, though, so OS X users can carry on. Source: Reuters , Department of Homeland Security , Trend Micro

AMC Theaters is considering letting people text during movies

Just as AMC Theaters was starting to win customers back by replacing every old seat in its auditoriums with recliners , the company wants to destroy that good will among moviegoers. That’s because CEO Adam Aron thinks letting people use their phones during a movie would be a good idea. “When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off their phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear ‘please cut off your left arm above the elbow, ‘” Aron tells Variety . “You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life.” Yes, he actually said that. This could be seen as an extension of recreating a home-like experience at a theater, vis a vis said recliner seats. But the difference here is that if you’re using your phone while watching a flick at home, you’re only affecting yourself and maybe your significant other — not the 100 or more people who paid to get into the theater. Movie theaters and places of worship are a few of the remaining places where using a cellphone is verboten, and by pandering to this demographic’s horrible habit AMC is stripping away common courtesy and setting a gross precedent in the name of profits. Aron says that certain sections where texting would be allowed is one possibility for this, while the more likely situation would be having specific auditoriums set up to be “more texting friendly.” If the chain is willing to kick out someone wearing Google Glass for fear of piracy, though, how is it going to differentiate someone texting from a person recording what’s on the screen with their phone? Contrast this with The Alamo Drafthouse which will happily eject you from a showing if you’re talking or texting, or won’t even let you into the auditorium if you’re late. As you can imagine, Twitter is lighting up with people decrying this , and for good reason: It’s an absolutely stupid move that could drive away already loyal customers in an effort to chase those it isn’t reaching anyway. “22-year-olds like to shoplift! What can we do??” — if the AMC CEO ran Macy’s — Scott Weinberg (@scottEweinberg) April 13, 2016 And that’s one way to keep me out of AMC theaters. Really hope they reconsider. https://t.co/DNthAggJIs — Chris Pugh (@ChrisLikesDinos) April 13, 2016 No @CEOAdam , I don’t want to go to a theater where people can text. We already have that, it’s a living room. #amctheaters — Rachel Stuhler (@RachelStuhler) April 13, 2016 Source: Variety

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AMC Theaters is considering letting people text during movies

World’s largest coal mining firm declares bankruptcy

It won’t shock you to hear that the coal industry is facing tough times lately. Job cuts, mine closures and other signs of financial trouble are par for the course. However, that downturn just reached an important milestone: Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private coal mining company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy across most of its US divisions. The firm says it didn’t have much choice between steep drops in the price of coal, a weak Chinese market, overproduction of shale gas and “regulatory challenges” (read: better environmental policies ). In plainer terms, people just aren’t as interested in coal energy as they were in years past. This isn’t the end for Peabody, let alone the industry. It’ll be business as usual while the company reorganizes, and this doesn’t include Peabody’s Australian (steelmaking-focused) business. As Bloomberg notes , developing regions like India and Southeast Asia still lean heavily on coal. Even in the US, where many are shifting toward renewable energy, about 28 percent of power comes from coal. Nonetheless, the bankruptcy shows just how far the coal business has fallen. While the industry has tried to remain relevant with “sustainable” practices (such as restoring land), it’s just not as desirable as it once was — especially not in a world where carbon emissions are becoming enemy number one . And when clean energy sources like solar and wind power are almost as cheap as the dirty kind, it’s doubtful that coal will ever return to its heyday. Via: Bloomberg Source: Peabody Energy (PDF)

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World’s largest coal mining firm declares bankruptcy