Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol, he shared in a TikTok video posted on Wednesday. In anticipation of the coming U.S. TikTok ban, which will go through on Sunday unless paused by the Supreme Court, users have been fleeing to other video platforms, including […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Today’s collection of Android games and apps are now ready to go. Alongside the Google Play discounts, we also spotted the first notable price drop on the new Sharge 30W Pouch Mini 10,000mAh power bank as well as this Hisense 50-inch 4K Google TV at just $218 shipped, the best price yet on Chipolo’s 4-pack of Google Find My Device trackers, and a massive $570 price drop on the 512GB Galaxy S24 Ultra. But for now it’s all about the apps, including titles like Cytus II, Aporkalypse – Pigs of Doom, RPG Silver Nornir, Cartogram, and more. Head below for a closer look.
more…
I’ve used the iPad Pro as my primary computer for almost a decade. Here are four reasons you might enjoy making the your laptop replacement too.
more…
If you're a cinephile who misses the old Apple TV app for movie trailers, MoviePass CEO Stacy Spikes knows your pain. So he decided to build a trailer app of his own, one that could easily help viewers keep track of upcoming films. But the MoviePass Screening Room isn't heading to Apple TV devices and set-top boxes — instead, Spikes quietly launched it in VR for the Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro.
"I'm in VR all the time," Spikes told Engadget in an interview. "And when I saw how beautiful the imagery was in the Vision Pro, and I know Meta is going to catch up pretty quick on optics, I just said 'This is a great way to watch movie trailers.'"
When he tried to actually watch trailers in VR, though, it involved searching through YouTube and hoping he actually landed on a high quality version of what he was looking for. So why not launch a trailer app of his own? One that could help everyone keep tabs on upcoming films, as well as eventually make it easier for MoviePass subscribers to book tickets. "We wanted to be top of mind," Spikes said, as people determined which films to watch.
In its current form on the Vision Pro, the MoviePass Screening Room is fairly straightforward. Once you launch the app, you're presented with a list of trailers for recent and upcoming films like Sonic 3 and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. Select a trailer, and it begins playing almost instantly. Spikes says he acquires trailers from the marketing agency PaperAirplane, Nielsen and directly from studios. The goal is to get the highest quality possible — in many cases that's just 1080p, but some studios offer 4K options.
After perusing several trailers, I noticed that the bitrate and encoding quality looked better than most YouTube offerings (it's particularly easy to see when you're blowing screens up to the size of cinemas in VR). Mostly, though, I just appreciated having a single place to go to find high quality trailers. Exploring YouTube on the Vision Pro is still a clunky browser-based affair, and it's also filled with tons of low-quality videos and fan edits.
When I asked if there's some sort of data collection play with this app, especially since Nielsen is a source, Spikes replied, "We do not intend to go down that path. We see it much more as expanding our own ecosystem. And, you know, when you get into the data world, you're really getting into the advertising world. And that's not the space that we're headed into."
Watching trailers has always been a way for me to wind down after a long day. The best of them are more than just ads, they give us a brief glimpse of cinematic magic coming on the horizon. Spikes himself admits that he used to check the Apple TV trailer app "religiously," so it's not a huge surprise he essentially wants to replicate that experience. While the MoviePass Screening Room is only available on the Vision Pro and Meta Quest at the moment, Spikes says he intends to retool it for the Apple TV, Roku and other platforms eventually, as well as add trailers directly into the MoviePass app.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/moviepass-made-a-film-trailer-app-for-the-oculus-quest-and-apple-vision-pro-190822710.html?src=rss©
© MoviePass
Are superheroes and supervillains the product of their childhood experiences? Not if they belong to the MCEU or DCU, according to a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE. Canadian researchers watched many hours of those movies and looked at which characters suffered considerable childhood trauma. They concluded that those traumatic experiences were not significant factors in whether those characters turned out to be heroes or villains.
Prior studies have looked at the portrayal of trauma in superheroes, most notably the murder of Batman's parents and Spider-Man's uncle, as well as the destruction of Superman's home planet, Krypton. There has also been research on children sustaining injuries while pretending to be superheroes, as well as on the potential for superhero themes to help children overcome trauma and build self-esteem.
According to co-author Jennifer Jackson of the University of Calgary in Canada, two nursing students (since graduated) came up with the idea during a lab meeting of looking at adverse childhood experiences and superheroes. It might seem a bit frivolous as a topic, but Jackson pointed out that Marvel and DC films reach audiences of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. "We also know that things we see in films and other media affects life in the real world," she said. "This influence could be used as a positive factor when supporting children's mental health and wellbeing. There may be shame or fear associated with some of the ACEs, and superheroes may be an effective ice breaker when broaching some difficult topics."
© Warner Bros,
Just a few days after more than 700 million new users flooded RedNote—which Time noted is "the most apolitical social platform in China"—rumors began swirling that RedNote may soon start segregating American users and other foreign IPs from the app's Chinese users.
In the "TikTokCringe" subreddit, a video from a RedNote user with red eyes, presumably swollen from tears, suggested that Americans had possibly ruined the app for Chinese Americans who rely on RedNote to stay current on Chinese news and culture.
"RedNote or Xiaohongshu released an update in the greater China region with the function to separate out foreign IPs, and there are now talks of moving all foreign IPs to a separate server and having a different IP for those who are in the greater China area," the Reddit poster said. "I know through VPNs and other ways, people are still able to access the app, but essentially this is gonna kill the app for Chinese Americans who actually use the app to connect with Chinese content, Chinese language, Chinese culture."
© Difydave | iStock / Getty Images Plus
Two major tech trade groups are challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) effort to treat payment apps and digital wallets like banks. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, DC, NetChoice and TechNet claim that the CFPB’s digital payment regulation, announced on November 21st, 2024, is arbitrary and capricious.
“The CFPB’s unlawful power grab undermines the rule of law, further bloats the administrative state and puts American consumers and innovation at risk,” Chris Marchese, NetChoice’s director of litigation, said in a statement. “The CFPB’s actions create unnecessary roadblocks for businesses striving to meet consumer needs and set the stage for increased prices and reduced options.”
This is the second lawsuit related to the regulation. Google filed a lawsuit in December after the CFPB placed Google Payment Corp. under federal supervision. In a statement to The Verge, Google spokesperson José Castañeda called the rule “a clear case of government overreach.”
The rule, which went into effect in late December, lets the CFPB oversee digital payment processors’ compliance with federal privacy and fraud laws through “proactive examinations.” The bureau estimated that the apps included under the rule — including Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp — collectively process more than 13 billion transactions a year.
But NetChoice and TechNet claim that the CFPB didn’t sufficiently identify consumer risks or gaps in oversight that would justify the rule. “The bureau failed to show that consumer risks the rule was even meant to alleviate in its haste to dream up a problem in search of a solution,” the suit claims.
David Lynch, the director behind Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and other unsettling works, has died, his family confirmed in a post on his official Facebook page. He was 78 years old.
The post announcing his passing didn’t list a cause of death. But last August, Lynch revealed that he had been diagnosed with emphysema “from my many years of smoking.” At the time, he told Sight and Sound that he could no longer “go out” over concerns that he could catch covid, and that he likely would not be able to direct again in person. In a post about his diagnosis, he said that “recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema. I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire.”
The post, of course, had a very Lynchian addition: “I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco — the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them — but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema.”
Here is the full statement from Lynch’s family announcing his death:
It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, “Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.”
It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.
Lynch’s work is horrific, gorgeous, nonsensical, funny, and emotional — often all at once. His hit TV show, Twin Peaks, kept a cult following over the course of decades, from its debut in 1990 all the way to Twin Peaks: The Return, which returned in 2017.
Despite the darkness that lurked beneath many of Lynch’s works, his offbeat humor and personality endeared many to him — especially during the covid lockdown, when he uploaded daily “weather reports” to YouTube. For many people, it was a bright spot during a tough time: an icon of film sitting at his desk in an office that kind of looks like a concrete bunker, peering up at the sky to let you know what it’s like outside. Thank you for the update, David Lynch.
Variety has an extensive obituary about Lynch’s life and work.
The Galaxy S25 is going to come in a few colors for each device. The less expensive Galaxy S24 and S24+ will mirror each other in choices, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra is going to come in several exclusive options. In the latest leak, we get a good look at every color (almost) in the flesh.
more…
The US Treasury Department announced in a letter back in December that it had been the victim of a security breach, attributing it to a “China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor.” Now we know more about the extent of the hack, thanks to reporting by Bloomberg.
The hacking group got into more than 400 laptop and desktop computers, many of which were linked to senior leaders focused on “sanctions, international affairs and intelligence.” They also accessed employee usernames and passwords, in addition to more than 3,000 files on unclassified personal computers. These documents included travel data, organizational charts, sanction materials and foreign investment metrics.
An agency report indicates that the perpetrators likely stole a whole lot of this data, but were unable to get into the Treasury’s classified or email systems. The hackers did access materials regarding investigations run by the Committee on Foreign Investment. This committee reviews security implications surrounding real estate purchases and foreign investments in the US.
The agency report also notes that there wasn’t any evidence to suggest that the hackers tried to hide in the Treasury’s systems for the purpose of long-term intelligence gathering, and they didn’t leave behind any malware.
China reacts on ‘Treasury-Hack’ pic.twitter.com/7j7OaQ6eKD
— Willem Middelkoop (@wmiddelkoop) January 2, 2025
Investigators have attributed the intrusion to a notorious Chinese state-sponsored hacking group called Silk Typhoon, Halfnium or UNC5221. It has been suggested that they performed the hack outside of normal working hours to avoid detection. Last month, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry called the accusation that the attack was state-sponsored “unwarranted and groundless.”
Counterintelligence officials are still in the midst of a “comprehensive damage assessment” but Treasury employees are set to brief the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on the matter this week.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/china-linked-hackers-accessed-over-400-us-treasury-computers-182420268.html?src=rss©
© Wikimedia Commons
Tesla is declaring the Cybertruck to be “America’s bestselling electric pickup truck in 2024.” And yet for the first time, the company offering discounts of up to $2,600 on the low-poly truck, a sign that demand may not be as strong as Tesla would like you to think.
The discounts, which appear on the company’s inventory webpage, are as high as $1,600 for brand new Cybertrucks, and up to $2,600 for slightly used demo versions of the truck. The price reduction you see will depend on how you configure your Cybertruck.
The discounts come as the electric vehicle market is suddenly brimming with a multitude of offerings, from established players like Chevy and Hyundai, to upstarts like Rivian and Lucid. People shopping for an electric truck in particular have a lot of options, including the Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevy Silverado EV, GMC Hummer and Sierra EVs, and Rivian R1T.
The truck that
— Cybertruck (@cybertruck) January 15, 2025
“they won’t make” & that “nobody will buy”
… has become America’s bestselling electric pickup truck in 2024
Thank you Cybertruck owners! pic.twitter.com/8YBFNeCXjh
But the Cybertruck is outselling all of those options, according to Tesla. How do we know? You’re just going to have to take their word on it, because Tesla doesn’t break out sales numbers for the Cybertruck — instead just lumping it in with its “other models,” like the Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi. As noticed by Electrek, that stands in contrast to how Ford reports its sales numbers.
For example, Ford said it sold 33,510 F-150 Lightnings in 2024. And Tesla sold an estimated 40,000 Cybertrucks, which would back up its claim of best-selling electric truck in the US. But again, those are just estimates.
The discounts certainly add a wrinkle to Tesla’s claim. Prices tend to be reduced when a manufacturer has too many cars to sell. And since Tesla bypasses the traditional dealership model to sell vehicles directly to customers, the discounts come directly from the company.
After appearing on the company’s inventory page late last year, Foundation series Cybertrucks were recently removed. And earlier this month, Tesla asked factory employees working on the Cybertruck line to stay home for three days, according to Business Insider. It would seem as if demand is starting to weaken — a phenomenon being experienced by almost every automaker with EVs to sell. After selling cars to all the early adopters, companies are struggling to push their products on more price conscious, mass market shoppers.
All of this evidence points to weakening demand for the Cybertruck. The EV certainly has its fans, but the polarizing design, as well as Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s hard right politics, has also been a factor in the truck’s diminishing appeal.
And with EV incentives likely to disappear under Donald Trump, and tariffs expected to roil the auto industry, the Cybertruck looks like it’s in for an even harsher 2025.
