Новости за 11.01.2018

Google will reportedly start more strictly vetting YouTube channels that are part of its Google Preferred premium advertising program, reports Bloomberg Technology. Anonymous sources tell Bloomberg that the company will use both human moderators and machine learning to identify videos that shouldn’t be part of Preferred bundles. The move is supposedly a response to advertisers’ concerns over inappropriate videos featuring children, as well as offensive behavior from YouTube stars like Logan Paul... Читать дальше...

GoPro’s announcement this week that it would exit the drone business was greeted by many observers as a foregone conclusion. Karma, the company’s first foray into drones, had sold poorly after an embarrassing recall in 2016. Under pressure to cut costs amid slowing sales in its core action-camera business, GoPro’s hand was forced. Viewed in that light, Karma was just one more tech company side hustle that didn’t pay off.

HBO announced this afternoon that it has signed a three-year deal with investigative reporter Ronan Farrow. His back-to-back, in-depth reports at The New Yorker were a major part of the Harvey Weinstein unmasking and the subsequent avalanche of sexual abuse revelations in Hollywood. His work built off of an initial bombshell report by The New York Times’ Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, published in early October 2017.

We’re almost nearing the end of CES, which can’t come soon enough. Just kidding! We love CES, despite the flooding and power outages. We’re in it for the gadgets, baby. Yesterday’s episode of Circuit Breaker Live had a very HighQuality guest, none other than HQ’s Scott Rogowsky! Plus, Ashley brought us more crowdfunded gadgets she found from the show floor, like the Moodo “scent DJ” and the latest craze after raw water, water pods! So hip. Then Lauren came on to show off an extremely dubious sleep mask... Читать дальше...

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has penned an open letter to the rest of the technology industry, addressing concerns over the two major CPU security flaws. Intel has been issuing cleverly-worded statements, and altering its guidance on performance issues related to security fixes, but the company now says it’s ready to be transparent. “As we roll out software and firmware patches, we are learning a great deal,” admits Krzanich. “We know that impact on performance varies widely, based on the specific workload... Читать дальше...

If you’re worried about leaving your house or apartment unattended for long stretches of time, you might set your lights on a timer or leave your TV on. But now there’s a new smart speaker that wants to do all of that for you — by flashing lights and playing TV sounds and other noises to make it seem like someone’s home.

After failing to launch last month, US spaceflight startup Rocket Lab will try again at the end of January to get its experimental rocket to orbit. The company plans to launch the vehicle, called the Electron, from its New Zealand facility sometime during a nine-day window that begins on January 20th. If all goes well, it could be the last test flight before Rocket Lab begins commercial flights in the coming year.

Directly adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center is a Renaissance hotel with a pair of special staff members: robots. Savioke’s Relay robots have been on the job for three months, helping out the concierge by delivering items to guests during peak hours. The two robots, named “Elvis” and “Priscilla” by the hotel, pick up orders from the front desk, call and ride the elevators without help, and call the guest’s room phone when they’ve arrived. They navigate autonomously, based on a pre-generated map... Читать дальше...

The #MeToo movement that started with accusations against Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood has finally spread to China, although it’s facing different obstacles there, thanks to China’s sociopolitical landscape of patriarchal Confucian values and repressive politics.

Facebook Messenger Kids is coming to Amazon Fire tablets and the Amazon Appstore in the US, as spotted by TechCrunch. The messaging app for kids under the age of 13 was originally only available on iPads, iPhones, and iPod touch in early December.

Good news! The first F-52 fighter aircrafts have made it safely to Norway, President Trump announced today. Bad news! F-52s aren’t... real. They’re advanced fighter aircrafts that exist only in the game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

Startup Dreamlight debuted a new sleep mask at CES that makes a number of promises, including the ability to lessen the effects of jet lag, recommend adjustments to your sleep habits based on your 23andMe profile, and, um, project infrared light to supposedly help with under eye circles.

Netflix has released a new, full-length trailer for its upcoming show Altered Carbon, a tech noir mystery about solving a murder in a world where death has lost all meaning.

Uber employees based in San Francisco could remotely lock down equipment in the company’s foreign offices to stymie local authorities from obtaining any incriminating data, according to a report in Bloomberg.

I’ve been coming to CES since before The Verge even existed, and in all that time one problem has vexed consumer electronics companies trying to build the smart home. That problem is interoperability. My smart TV, your smart lightbulbs, Samsung’s smart fridge, August’s smart lock, they all work in slightly different ways, use slightly different software, and don’t have a common language to unite them. And at this particular CES, I’m coming to wonder: why not just use human language? Let the gadgets speak to each other. Читать дальше...

After a contentious debate, the House of Representatives has voted to extend a controversial government surveillance program that powers American spying operations, as it voted down a proposal to include new privacy measures.

I thought hanging out with a Scrabble-playing robot would be a nice, chill time. I even imagined they would be useful at nursing homes, as therapy companions to elderly residents. I was extremely wrong.

Microsoft is testing a new feature for Skype: end-to-end encrypted chat conversations, secured using the industry standard Signal Protocol by Open Whisper Systems.

This afternoon, the United Launch Alliance is set to launch a classified spy satellite on one of its Delta IV rockets from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This will be ULA’s first launch of 2018, and the 27th launch for the US National Reconnaissance Office, which operates a host of satellites used for intelligence gathering and surveillance.

A glimpse of 2030

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When Apple promised to replace old iPhone batteries for $29 after its slowdown debacle there was always going to be a queue for new parts. Well, for owners of the iPhone 6 Plus the queue will likely be a bit longer than expected. According to internal documents seen by MacRumors, Apple won’t have batteries in stock for the 2014 device until late March to early April.

A remastered version of From Software’s Dark Souls is heading to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on May 25th. In addition to general performance tweaks, the game will include the Artorias of the Abyss DLC.

South Korean officials announced today that they’re preparing a bill that will completely ban domestic cryptocurrency trading. In response to the news, the price of bitcoin in South Korea dropped by $2,000 this morning.

Google has quietly bought a UK startup named Redux that uses vibrations to turn phone and tablet displays into speakers, reports Bloomberg. It’s not clear when the purchase was made, or for how much the company was bought, but the acquisition happened in August last year according to Crunchbase.

It’s easy to feel jaded at an event like CES where there are countless of tech companies claiming to have the smartest and most innovative products that are, in reality, just expensive and useless eye candy. So it was heartwarming when we came across a robotic toy duck designed to help children diagnosed with cancer cope through their treatments.