Новости за 01.05.2018

Millions of beauty enthusiasts have learned how to copy the makeup of their favorite stars, give themselves complex nail art, and yes, master the elusive and sultry smoky eye look through the vanguard of YouTube: makeup tutorials. Yet, a quick glance at social media over the past few days would suggest that political commentators have watched few, if any, of them.

Westworld’s second season only kicked off two weeks ago, but HBO appears to be happy with what it’s seen from the show so far. The network has just announced it’s picked up the series for a third season.

The team behind secure messaging app Signal says Amazon has threatened to kick the app off its CloudFront web service unless Signal drops the anti-censorship practice known as domain-fronting. Google recently banned the practice, which lets developers disguise web traffic to look like it’s coming from a different source, allowing apps like Signal to evade country-level bans. As a result, Signal moved from Google to the Amazon-owned Souq content delivery network. But Amazon implemented its own ban on Friday. Читать дальше...

Facebook may be planning to launch its rumored smart speakers internationally before bringing them to the US due to the increased concerns over user privacy following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to a report from CNBC.

Six major companies including Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have received letters from the US Federal Trade Commission warning that some of their product warranties may be in violation of federal law. HTC, Asus, and Hyundai also received warnings. You can read all six over at Motherboard.

WhatsApp is getting several new changes including stickers and business-focused app features, its parent company Facebook announced today during the annual F8 developer conference. The messaging platform will also be adding group video calls in the coming months, WhatsApp director Mubarik Imam announced.

Republican FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly broke a federal law preventing officials from advocating for political candidates when he told a crowd that one way to avoid policy changes was to “make sure that President Trump gets reelected,” according to a newly released letter from government officials. O’Rielly was warned by the officials about making similar comments in the future.

Facebook just wrapped day one of its F8 developer conference keynote, which comes at an unfortunate time this year after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal seems to have put Facebook at odds with how it is handling user data within its developer community. Nevertheless, the show had to go on, and Mark Zuckerberg tried his best to keep developers excited about continuing to build on his platform.

Gig economy workers, including drivers for popular ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, could find their employment status shift under a major new decision from the top court in California. The ruling will make it more difficult for companies to classify their drivers as independent contractors and avoid paying them wages and benefits as required by state law — a potentially huge setback for Uber and Lyft, which have built their multibillion-dollar businesses on the backs of a flexible, non-employed workforce. Читать дальше...

Oculus wants people to watch TV in their VR headsets, and later this month, it’s launching a dedicated “Oculus TV” app with partners like Showtime, Netflix, and ESPN. The app is a virtual home theater and a hub for non-VR video apps. That includes existing services like Netflix and Hulu, which have been on the Gear VR since 2016, but also services we haven’t seen on a headset before. The new ESPN+ subscription service, which launched in April, will be launching through Oculus TV, and so will Showtime’s streaming service, Showtime Anytime. Читать дальше...

Back in 2014, Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz announced that he had decided to recut the show’s fourth season Netflix revival, abandoning its original structure — with each episode focused on a single character — and replacing it with a version that intercuts all the characters’ stories chronologically. It wasn’t clear at the time whether that edit would ever be made available to the public, but today, Hurwitz finally announced the new version’s Netflix release date: May 4th. As in, this Friday. Читать дальше...

AR camera effects are coming to Instagram in a closed beta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at Facebook’s F8 conference today. Instagram will debut new filters through partnerships with Kylie Jenner, BuzzFeed, Ariana Grande, the NBA, Vogue, and others so you can try on Kylie Cosmetics lipsticks through a face filter or add floating effects to your background through a world lens.

Como Audio appeared two years ago and immediately began building out a line of retro-looking speakers with modern tech inside them. They included screens, Bluetooth, and even streaming services like Spotify. But they haven’t included any smart assistants — at least until now.

Instagram is upgrading its offensive comment filter today, expanding it to automatically filter out bullying comments “containing attacks on a person’s appearance or character, as well as threats to a person’s well-being or health.”

Facebook is giving Messenger a major design overhaul, promising a much simpler and cleaner user experience after years of jamming the chat app full of superfluous features like games.

Instagram is rolling out several new features starting today, including new Stories integration with apps like Spotify and GoPro and a new camera effects platform that will allow celebrities and others to create face filters, text styles, and stickers.

The Oculus Go, a self-contained headset that offers mobile virtual reality without a smartphone, is going on sale today in 23 countries. The headset’s $199 base version has 32GB of storage, and a 64GB version will sell for $249. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called it “the easiest way to get into VR,” and in our review, we’ve found that it’s certainly easy to use — but it still has major limitations. Oculus is selling the headset through its own website, as well as Amazon, NewEgg, and Best Buy;... Читать дальше...

Facebook is adding a dating layer to its main mobile app, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today during the company’s F8 developers conference keynote in San Jose, California. The features are a long time coming for the 14-year-old social network, which has allowed users to broadcast whether they’re single or in a relationship since it first went live in February 2004.

Google is now letting people make sites ending in .app, releasing its monopoly on the top-level domain after three years. Google acquired the top-level domain .app in 2015, after shelling out just $25 million for the honor. Top-level domains are the last part of a domain name, like .com or .org.

Before taking the stage at Facebook’s F8 conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg made one announcement ahead of time: the social network is adding a new feature called Clear History. It will be introduced alongside Facebook’s existing options for privacy control. “In your web browser, you have a simple way to clear your cookies and history. The idea is a lot of sites need cookies to work, but you should still be able to flush your history whenever you want,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We’re building a version of this for Facebook too. Читать дальше...

“It’s 6 o’clock! Lower that screen!”

A thunderclap of shouts rolls in approval. The crowd at New York’s AMC Empire 25 is getting restless, but it would be unfair to call them impatient. After 11 consecutive Marvel movies, they’re ready to cap off a 31-hour marathon with a conclusion they’ve all been waiting for: Avengers: Infinity War. Just off of Times Square, dozens of fans prepared with blankets, pillows, snacks, and caffeine, have committed to celebrating the long-anticipated release... Читать дальше...

Lumos is adding a smart new feature to its blinking bike helmet today: the ability to be controlled by an Apple Watch. Lumos’ helmet has turn signals on the back that are usually activated by a wireless remote clipped onto a bike’s handlebar. Now, Lumos Helmet owners will be able to automatically trigger those signals by using hand gestures instead, as long as they’re wearing an Apple Watch, too.

Aaron Lammer, co-host of the Longform journalism podcast and cryptocurrency show Coin Talk, didn’t even notice at first when his website was hacked. Instead, a follower tipped him off that aaronlammer.com had been replaced by a notice that read “Ooops, your website has been encrypted!” and a countdown clock, indicating that the site would be deleted unless a ransom of 0.025 Bitcoin, or about $230 at the time of writing, was paid to the hacker.

Last week, Amazon announced that a slew of new functions were coming to Alexa that would make it smarter and more natural to interact with. Starting today, US users can use one of those features, called “Remember This.”

Earlier this month, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the country’s government entities would no longer be using messaging app Telegram, and now, Iran’s judiciary has banned its use altogether, as reported by Reuters.