SoftBank reportedly wants to break into movies by acquiring DreamWorks

SoftBank may have already bought both a major mobile game studio and one of the US’ largest carriers, but it apparently isn’t done expanding its turf just yet. Both Hollywood Reporter and the Wall Street Journal claim that the Japanese carrier is now in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation, the movie studio you likely know for How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek. Reportedly, SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son wants to wield exclusive content as a weapon against rival mobile networks. While the sources aren’t diving into specifics about the potential partnership, it wouldn’t be surprising if you could eventually buy Sprint phones that come bundled with DreamWorks’ latest flicks.

Neither side has commented on the rumor, and there’s no certainty that the talks will lead anywhere. SoftBank’s long-rumored bid for T-Mobile didn’t pan out, after all. However, the conditions at least seem ripe for a deal. SoftBank is flush with cash thanks to its stake in Alibaba, which made billions for investors by going public; DreamWorks, meanwhile, wants to both expand its presence in Asia and reassure shareholders worried about its mediocre box office revenue as of late. It’s still odd to imagine a Japanese telecom becoming a big Hollywood player, but many wouldn’t have expected it to release a home robot, either — comparatively speaking, a DreamWorks acquisition could be the safer bet.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Wireless, HD, Mobile

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Via: The Verge

Source: Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal

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Inhabitat’s Week in Green: jewel-like greenhouses, solar planes and a space elevator

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

Could Apple’s new spaceship campus be the greenest building on the planet? It will be, according to CEO Tim Cook, who made the bold statement at a Climate Week NYC event last week. “It’ll be the center of innovation and it’s something that our employees want and that we want,” said Cook. In other tech news, a trio of 16-year-old Irish girls took the top prize at the Google Science Fair 2014 for developing a project that will combat the global food crisis. The project aims to provide a solution to low crop yields by pairing a nitrogen-fixing bacteria that naturally occurs in the soil with cereal crops it does not normally associate with, such as barley and oats. Speaking of Google, the search giant just ended its relationship with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a shadowy organization that writes industry-friendly bills for conservative legislators. The reason? Google Chairman Eric Schmidt says that the group is “literally lying” about climate change.

New York City’s favorite elevated park is finally complete — the third and final section of the High Line just opened to the public, and Inhabitat was first on the scene with a big gallery of photos and even a Hyperlapse of the newest section. In other architecture news, Thomas Heatherwick just unveiled a set of jewel-like glass greenhouses that harvest heat for Bombay Sapphire’s distillery in Hampshire, England. Bamboo is strong, lightweight and rapidly renewable, so it makes a great building material — and Bali-based Ibuku uses it to create spectacular green buildings. This week we chatted with Ibuku founder Elora Hardy about the benefits of building with bamboo. And speaking of low-impact design, the Buckminster Fuller Challenge just announced seven pioneering finalists for socially responsible design’s highest award — including a floating health clinic, a peace forest for bonobo monkeys, and the world’s first fully integrated farming system.

For two decades, Toyota has been hard at work developing a fuel cell vehicle that you’ll actually be able to buy. Inhabitat recently got an up-close look at the 2015 Toyota FCV, which looks like something straight out of Blade Runner. The car is virtually silent; it emits nothing but water; and it will likely cost more than a Prius, but less than a Tesla. Meanwhile, Facebook just unveiled plans for a fleet of solar-powered airplanes that will bring the internet to far-off locations. And if you’ve ever wished you could charge your smartphone by simply skateboarding, you’re in luck. Bjorn van den Hout has designed a longboard that generates its own electricity through two hidden dynamos, enabling it to charge your phone as you ride.

Think taking an elevator to the top of a 100-story skyscraper gives you a head rush? Try riding an elevator all the way to outer space. The Japanese construction company Obayashi recently announced ambitious (some might say unrealistic) plans to build a 60,000-mile elevator that would connect Earth with a space station. The company hopes that new developments in nanotechnology will enable it to build the massive elevator by the year 2050. Transportation isn’t the only challenge that astronauts are confronted with — when things break up there, it can be very difficult to find replacement parts (there aren’t many hardware stores in space). That’s where 3D printing comes in. Made in Space just created the first zero-gravity 3D printer, which uses a liquid’s surface tension to hold the filament together as it prints. The printer could help astronauts create the things they need without having to wait for a rocket from Earth to deliver it. It’s a popular misconception that NASA developed popular products like Tang and Teflon (General Foods actually created Tang, and DuPont created Teflon). But the American space agency has developed thousands of useful products over the past half century — including cellphone cameras, smoke detectors, life rafts and firefighter gear. Check out this nifty infographic to see some popular NASA spin-offs.

Sure, 3D printing is, for the most part, limited to makers and tech enthusiasts, but that could soon change. Nearly 100 UPS stores across the states now have 3D printers, making the chain the first nationwide retailer to offer the service. And best of all, the UPS store printers are professional quality, meaning that they’ll be able to produce higher-quality objects than most consumer 3D printers. On the fine art front, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei just unveiled a series of seven installations on Alcatraz that engage with the island’s history, while exploring the issues of human rights and freedom of expression. In one installation, the artist used 1.2 million Lego bricks to create portraits of 176 prisoners of conscience and exiles.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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New exhibit showcases art in the digital surveillance era

It’s safe to say that surveillance technology had a profound effect on American culture, even before Edward Snowden’s leaks arrived — there’s a sense that you can never really escape the government’s eye. If you’ve ever shared that feeling, you’ll be glad to hear that there’s finally an art exhibition devoted to exploring high-tech monitoring. The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s newly opened Covert Operations is full of projects that not only protest data collection, but sometimes use it to drive their points home. Jenny Holzer’s Ribs (above) streams real US government documents on its LED displays. Hasan Elahi’s Tracking Transience, meanwhile, uses selections from an online collection of 70,000-plus photos and location info as a sort of challenge; he wants you to mimic an FBI agent trying to piece together his life. If you’re interested in seeing any of these projects first-hand, you’ll want to swing by the Arizona-based museum no later than January 11th.

[Image credit: Richard-Max Tremblay / Jenny Holzer]

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Alt

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Via: The Daily Beast

Source: Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

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