Tag: stranger-things

Netflix’s ‘Cloverfield’ sequel starts streaming tonight

Last year Netflix’s Super Bowl ad focused on a season of Stranger Things we still had months to wait for, but this year things are different. The streaming company dropped a surprise 30-second teaser for The Cloverfield Paradox , a sequel to the 2008 monster movie that will be available for viewing worldwide tonight, after the game. As Deadline notes, the Paramount/J.J. Abrams flick had been planned for a theatrical release this weekend, but reports that dealing with Netflix made the movie “immediately profitable.” Also, on Twitter Netflix revealed a promotional deal that will send snacks directly to viewers in New York, San Francisco, LA and Chicago, in time for the movie’s debut after the game. Netflix: In the near future, a group of international astronauts on a space station are working to solve a massive energy crisis on Earth. The experimental technology aboard the station has an unexpected result, leaving the team isolated and fighting for their survival. Developing… NY, SF, LA, Chicago: since we’re doing surprises tonight, tweet back with #CloverfieldParadox

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Netflix’s ‘Cloverfield’ sequel starts streaming tonight

Ableton Live will remember your riffs if you forget to press record

Ableton Live is popular with computer musicians thanks to its flexibility. As the name suggests, it enables live performance of electronic music, but it’s also a robust music making tool in its own right. Fans of Live are long overdue an update, as the last full release (Live 9) was four years ago. Today Ableton revealed Live 10, which promises to make it even easier to translate ideas into anthems. Aside from Live’s double duty as performance and creation software, one of the biggest lures for budding producers is its workflow. Ableton designed Live to work on one screen, with clever shortcuts to jump between common tasks. Live 10 builds on that with new tools to do more with less. For starters, you can now edit multiple MIDI clips side by side, and zoom in for precision work with one key. Most musicians have struggled with getting a part of their track just right. Currently, if you start playing a project back, you won’t hear MIDI instruments until the next note in the clip. This means if you start playback mid-note, you won’t hear it — annoying for long strings sounds, for example. A new “Note chasing” feature solves that, meaning all notes will play even if halfway through. It’s a low key change, but one that will please anyone who’s heard the same part over and over again just to get to where you want to edit. For those (like me) who seem to give their best performance while not recording, there’s “Capture.” It sounds similar to a feature in Apple’s Logic Pro that remembers all MIDI input in the background, even if you’re not recording. So, if you happen to play a killer riff along to a beat, but weren’t recording, Live will have snagged it anyway so you can retrieve it. For advanced users, Ableton’s “Max for Live” kit has long allowed you to create tools like Capture , or software instruments from scratch. Max is now built right in to Live 10 (previously it was a $200 add-on), but it’s good to see some of the more popular ideas made in Max find their way into the standard version of the software. Other updates include a new built-in synthesizer call “Wavetable” for squelchy sounds a-la Stranger Things and three new audio effects (Pedal, Drum Buss and Echo). Owners of Push — Ableton’s companion hardware controller — can look forward to improved graphics and visualizations so you can keep your eyes away from the computer (and look less like you’re checking your email on stage). Despite the announcement today, eager users will still need to wait a little longer. Ableton Live 10 won’t be available until early 2018. The good news is, that you can snag a copy of Live 9 right now if you don’t already have it at 20 percent discount, which will automatically be upgraded to the new version once it lands. Once released, Live 10 will cost $449 for the standard version and $499 for the suite with all the software instruments (this is the one you probably want). Source: Ableton

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Ableton Live will remember your riffs if you forget to press record

Netflix could spend $8 billion on content next year

Once again, Netflix’s quarterly earnings report ( PDF ) shows it’s added even more customers (5 million in the US alone), and now boasts more than 115 million subscribers worldwide. The company is now five years into its “original content strategy” that first drew attention with House of Cards , which turned into a string of series including hits like Stranger Things and Orange is the New Black . Of course, with more competition turning up (Amazon, Hulu, CBS All Access and, eventually, Disney), things are getting more expensive, as the company says it will spend “$7-8 billion on content” next year — even if it’s off the hook for 30 Rock . That’s potentially a billion dollars more than what Ted Sarandos predicted in August, and up to two billion more than it spent this year. Those differences also explain why prices are going up on some of its plans , as it continues a push to become more profitable. The company is predicting it will add slightly fewer new customers next quarter than it did last year, although it’s unclear if that’s due to the price changes or simply running out of people who want Netflix but don’t have it yet. The company will broadcast the video from its quarterly earnings call on YouTube at 6 PM ET, if there are any interesting anecdotes, we’ll update this post. Source: Netflix Q3 2017 earnings report (PDF)

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Netflix could spend $8 billion on content next year

In-flight Netflix will be available on more airlines in 2018

Netflix’s in-flight streaming is available through a few carriers around the world, but it’s far from a staple of air travel. More often than not, technological limitations will force you to download that new show before you leave home. It could be far more common going forward, though. Netflix is launching an initiative that will use its mobile device encoding technology to make Netflix accessible on aircraft that don’t always have the luxury of fast satellite internet access . As you might have already surmised, mobile encoding uses far less bandwidth than what you get on the desktop. A “DVD quality” stream uses just 250Kbps, for instance. You won’t confuse that with a 4K HDR stream at home, but it’s good enough for a seat-back display or a tablet. And importantly, it won’t clog an aircraft’s WiFi network. You’d still need a reasonably fast connection to serve a large volume of passengers, but it beats having to limit access to just a few people or none at all. Partnerships with airlines should kick off sometime in early 2018. Netflix isn’t naming specific allies, but it’s safe to say that this opens the door to carriers that couldn’t even consider the idea before. The big question is whether or not it’ll work as well in practice as it does in theory. This could be great for avoiding the mediocre movie and TV selections you frequently find on airlines, but it won’t help much if it renders airborne WiFi unusable the moment there’s a new Stranger Things season .

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In-flight Netflix will be available on more airlines in 2018

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

Netflix blows past 100 million subscriber mark

A year after subscriber growth slowed due to price hikes, Netflix says ( PDF ) it added more US customers in the last quarter than it has since 2011. The company is now up to 103.95 million subscribers worldwide, up 5.2 million from last count . The company also unveiled a new strategy ( PDF ) for explaining its spending on content, that’s presumably more appropriate for its abundance of award-nominated shows . In the letter to investors, execs also discussed recent series cancellations , saying “As much as we dislike ending a series early, it consoles us that it frees up investment for another new show, or two.” The company has also topped 50 million paying customers in the US alone, and anticipates “the first ever annual contribution profit from our international segment” in Q3. Overall it’s rosy news for the streaming service, which plans to debut 40 movies this year. We’ll find out more during its tape-delayed investors call at 6PM ET, if there are any substantial updates (what’s bigger than the Stranger Things season two release date? ) we will add them to this post. Source: Netflix Q2 2017 Investor Letter (PDF)

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Netflix blows past 100 million subscriber mark

Netflix project lets you mind-control its interface

Netflix’s developers are at it again , using the company’s annual Hack Day to come up with clever, if sometimes wild, ideas on how to improve the streaming service. This year’s crop of hacks mostly focus on intriguing Stranger Things integrations, but the most interesting result is one named MindFlix, that lets you navigate and control Netflix with your mind. In a video demonstrating MindFlix , the team showed how you can, with a Muse EEG-detecting headband strapped on, move your head up and down or side to side to scroll vertically and horizontally through Netflix’s interface. Then, when you’ve landed on a title you like, just think of the word or action “Play.” This worked in the clip, with the test subject happily proclaiming that he never had to move again. Of course, whether it works as well in real life can’t be determined, but if it does, it could make Netflix binging far more enjoyable. Other Hack Day Winter 2017 projects run the gamut from noble to somewhat sinister. Netflix For Good lets viewers donate to related or well-known charity organizations after watching a socially conscious video, while Picture-in-Picture lets you monitor what other profiles in your account are watching at the same time. There doesn’t appear to be plans to make these implementations widely available. In fact, Netflix states in a blog post that “they may never become part of the Netflix product, internal infrastructure, or otherwise be used beyond Hack Day.” Still, though, we can always hope that Netflix puts out the instructions on how to make these real, as it did for the sleep-detecting socks that pause your videos for you. Via: Variety Source: Netflix

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Netflix project lets you mind-control its interface

Terrific history of Benguiat, the ‘Stranger Things’ font

Typeroom looks back at ITC Benguiat , the font that so embodied its time that it’s now canonical for late 1970s to early 1980s. Turns out its designer and namesake Ed Benguiat was motivated by a potential big payoff: Inspired by Times New Roman and Bodoni, “he wanted to create a design that was pretty and readable in order to garner as much commission and licensing fees as possible. Back then, it was much harder to access different fonts so there was a larger incentive to have a typeface take off”. • How Ed Benguiat’s vintage font became the most hyped of the year (h/t Calpernia Addams )

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Terrific history of Benguiat, the ‘Stranger Things’ font