What’s on TV: ‘Game of Thrones’
It’s been more than a year since the last time Game of Thrones aired a new episode, but finally, it’s back. HBO’s flagship series kicks off its seven-episode penultimate season Sunday night with Dragonstone, so hopefully you’re ready. Other shows making their return this week include The Strain and Suits, while Viceland tries out a run of its Funny How comedy documentary series. Fate of the Furious, The Fifth Element and Leon: The Professional are all available in 4K this week, while Netflix is releasing its new series Friends from College. For gamers, we have the first episode of a new season from Telltale’s Minecraft game, and Fantastic Contraption for PSVR. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Blu-ray & Games & Streaming
- The Fate of the Furious (4K)
- The Lost City of Z
- The Fifth Element 4K (20th Anniversary Edition)
- King Kong (4K)
- Smokey and the Bandit (40th Anniversary Edition)
- Smurfs: The Lost Village (4K)
- Roberto Rosellini’s War Trilogy (Criterion)
- Leon The Professional (4K)
- Fantastic Contraption (PSVR)
- Hunting Simulator (PS4, Xbox One)
- Leap of Fate (PS4)
- MotoGP 17 (PS4, PC)
- Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
- Death Squared (Switch)
- Day D Tower Rush (PS4)
- Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two Episode 1 (PS4, PC, Xbox One)
- Black The Fall (Xbox One, PS4)
- Deadcore (Xbox One, PC, PS4)
- The Bellows (PSVR)
- Derelict Fleet (PS4, Xbox One)
Monday
- American Ninja Warrior, NBC, 8PM
- So You Think You Can Dance, Fox, 8PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
- Preacher, AMC, 9PM
- The Defiant Ones, HBO, 9PM
- Will (series premiere), TNT, 9PM
- Stitchers, Freeform, 9PM
- Superhuman, Fox, 9PM
- American Greed, CNBC, 10PM
- Teen Mum (series premiere), MTV, 10PM
- Spartan, NBC, 10PM
- The Therapist: Prodigy (season finale), Viceland, 10:30PM
- Funny How? (series premiere), Viceland, 11:30PM
Tuesday
- Casual, Hulu, 3AM
- 88th Annual MLB All-Star Game, Fox, 7:30PM
- WWE Smackdown, USA, 8PM
- America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8PM
- The Fosters, Freeform, 8PM
- Animal Kingdom, TNT, 9PM
- On Tour with: Meek Mill, BET, 9PM
- The Challenge: Dirty 30 Launch Special, MTV, 9PM
- The Defiant Ones, HBO, 9PM
- The Bold Type (series premiere), Freeform, 9PM
- Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
- Fantomworks, Velocity, 9PM
- American Ripper (series premiere), History, 10PM
- Fear Factor, MTV, 10PM
- Adam Ruins Everything (season premiere), TruTV, 10PM
- The Profit, CNBC, 10PM
- Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
- World of Dance, NBC, 10PM
- Wrecked, TBS, 10:30PM
- Funny How?, Viceland, 11PM
Wednesday
- The 2017 Espys, ABC, 8PM
- Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
- Little Big Shots, NBC, 8PM
- Kingdom, DirecTV Audience, 8PM
- Lucha Underground, El Rey, 8PM
- Suits (season premiere), USA, 9PM
- Salvation (series premiere), CBS, 9PM
- Hood Adjacent with James Davis, Comedy Central, 9PM
- The Defiant Ones (finale), HBO, 9PM
- The Carmichael Show, NBC, 9PM
- I’m Sorry (series premiere), TruTV, 10PM
- Snowfall, FX, 10PM
- The Auto Firm with Alex Vega, Velocity, 10PM
- Blood Drive, Syfy, 10PM
- To Tell the Truth, ABC, 10PM
- Lip Sync Battle, Spike TV, 9:30 & 10PM
- The Ultimate Fighter, FS1, 10PM
- Catfish, MTV, 10PM
- Younger, TV Land, 10PM
- Cleverman, Sundance, 10PM
- Broadchurch, BBC America, 10PM
- Funny How?, Viceland, 11PM
Thursday
- 30 for 30: Mike and the Mad Dog, ESPN, 8PM
- Penn & Teller: Fool Us (season premiere), CW, 8PM
- Boy Band, ABC, 8PM
- America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8PM
- Battle of the Network Stars, ABC, 9PM
- Hooten & the Lady, CW, 9PM
- Big Brother, CBS, 9PM
- The Wall, NBC, 9PM
- The Tunnel, PBS, 9PM
- Akil the Fugitive Hunter (series premiere), A&E, 10PM
- Zoo, CBS, 10PM
- The Mist, Spike TV, 10PM
- The Night Shift, NBC, 10PM
- The Gong Show, ABC, 10PM
- Queen of the South, USA, 10PM
- Party Legends, Viceland, 10:30PM
- Comedy Knockout, TruTV, 11PM
- Safeword (series premiere), MTV, 11:30PM
Friday
- Friends from College (S1), Netflix, 3AM
- Chasing Coral, Netflix, 3AM
- To the Bone, Netflix, 3AM
- Buddy Thunderstruck, Netflix, 3AM
- Killjoys, Syfy, 8PM
- Masters of Illusion, CW, 8PM
- Dark Matter, Syfy, 9PM
- Wynonna Earp, Syfy, 10PM
- Funny How? (season finale), Viceland, 11PM
- Playing House (season finale), USA, 11 & 11:30PM
Saturday
- Doubt, CBS, 8PM
- Premier Boxing Champions, Fox, 8PM
- In an Instant (season finale), ABC, 8PM
- Turn, AMC, 9PM
- Orphan Black, BBC America, 10PM
- Still Star-Crossed, ABC, 10PM
Sunday
- Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
- Celebrity Family Feud, ABC, 8PM
- Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN, 8PM
- Game of Thrones (season premiere), HBO, 9PM
- Candy Crush, CBS, 9PM
- Power, Starz, 9PM
- Claws, TNT, 9PM
- Grantchester, PBS, 9PM
- American Grit, Fox, 9PM
- The Nineties, CNN, 9PM
- Steve Harvey’s Funderdome, ABC, 9PM
- $100,000 Pyramid, ABC, 10PM
- The Strain (season premiere), FX, 10PM
- I’m Dying Up Here, Showtime, 10PM
- Unsung, TV One, 10PM
- Talking with Chris Hardwick (summer premiere), AMC, 11PM
- Kevin Hart Presents, Comedy Central, 11PM
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM
- Legends of Chamberlain Heights, Comedy Central, 11:30PM
(All times listed are ET)
Amazon’s Annual Prime Day Kicks Off With Deals on Apple Products and Accessories
Amazon’s third annual “Prime Day” has just kicked off, with Amazon offering 30 hours of “epic ‘day of’ deals on everything you’re into.” Deals will change continually over the course of the next day, and Amazon is expected to offer discounts on a range of products, including Apple devices and accessories.
The products that are discounted will be a surprise until each “Lightning” sale kicks off, so it’s best to keep a close eye on Amazon’s site if you’re interested in a specific product. Some of the best deals can also sell out fast, so we won’t be able to share all of the available deals, but we’ll try to tweet some of the best discounts.
Amazon plans to organize deals around more than 20 themes, like pet lovers, gardeners, techies, artists, and more, which should make it easy to track down the products you’re looking for.
Prime Day will last from July 10 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time to July 11 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Prime Day deals will be available in 13 countries, including the United States, UK, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Japan, India, France, Germany, China, Canada, Belgium, and Austria. A Prime membership is required to take advantage of the deals.
Along with Amazon, many major retailers will be offering discounts on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other Apple accessories this week, including Best Buy, Adorama, and B&H Photo. For the best prices on Apple products, make sure to check out our Deals Roundup, which has comprehensive price charts available.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner of Amazon and the other above-listed sites. When you make a purchase using one of our links, we receive a small commission, which helps keep the site running.
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The University of Arizona is using AI and drones to help guard the U.S. border
Why it matters to you
Smart technologies will likely be used for keeping the U.S. border more secure.
Whether or not President Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico ever gets built, a new project coming out of the University of Arizona offers a new solution for surveilling national borders without necessarily having to invest in quite so many bricks: Use smart technologies instead.
What University of Arizona researchers have been working on is an autonomous artificial intelligence framework that uses real-time data to work out how best to deploy various high-tech resource — ranging from ground vehicles and drones to smart sensors, and other technologies — to surveil the 1,900-mile-long border with Mexico. From a computer science perspective, such an undertaking is enormously complex: Working out when to send a person out on foot, a truck, or an unmanned aerial vehicle depends on factors ranging from weather and terrain to the likelihood that a target might be armed.
To build the system, the university received a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The project began in March and will run through 2020.
“The goal of our project is to firstly evaluate various combinations of existing border surveillance technologies, as well as newly available technologies, and secondly devise an optimal solution to coordinate them considering tradeoffs of multi-objectives that often conflict among one another,” Young Jun Son, professor and head of the UA Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering and principal investigator of the project, told Digital Trends. “Those technologies that are considered in our work include UAVs with various sensors and intelligent onboard algorithms, other airborne vehicles and intelligent onboard algorithms, stationary ground sensors, ground patrol agents, and newly developed technologies which may not exist as of today.”
At present, the work is still being carried out through computer modeling and simulation to help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection unit gain a deeper understanding of how it will lead to swifter, better-coordinated border strategies. Having started with a relatively simple model, the researchers are now scaling up their simulations models to involve hundreds of drones and thousands of people.
“In the future, we will test them in a real-world environment,” Son said.
Spotify apparently testing a driving mode with voice control, larger buttons
Why it matters to you
You shouldn’t text while driving, nor should you fiddle with Spotify. Luckily, the music streaming service is looking to make it easier to interact with the app on the road.
Queuing up your tunes for a long drive on the wide open highway may be of paramount importance, but so too is your safety. Luckily for all of us, Spotify understands this and is reportedly testing a driving mode for some of its users. A few days ago, Reddit user Chris54721 noted, “It looks like Spotify is testing a new “driving mode” for the Android app. Still a bit buggy, but it’s pretty neat.”
Apparently, only a few users have access to the new feature (and really, it seems that it is actually only meant for Spotify employees, as the feedback form can only be accessed by folks with a Spotify email address), but those who do can enjoy a suite of driver-friendly tools. Driving mode involves an enlarged interface, in which buttons are bigger and therefore easier to touch; the added benefit of Spotify announcing songs; and voice control (though it seems that particular feature has yet to be activated).
You can check out the new look thanks to Chris54721’s screen capture posted to Reddit.
There is a car emblem on the bottom left-hand side of the “now playing” interface, and if you tap on it, you will go into Driving Mode, which makes both the forward and backward buttons bigger, and also comes with a microphone icon in the center which would, ostensibly, eventually allow you to use voice commands.
While this certainly seems like a feature users would welcome, it is still unclear as to whether or not Spotify will really move forward with rolling this out across the entirety of its platform. According to Reddit users, the test has actually been ongoing for quite some time. As one user posted, “I ran into this about 4 months ago on iOS. Not a big fan. It’s actually since updated with an even newer, album artwork driven interface that’s better but still not great. The controls disappear and display only the album art forcing you to tap the screen to bring up the controls before you can use them.”
A Spotify spokesperson noted of the rumored feature, “We test new products all the time and have no news to share.”
Twitter adds to list of mute options to help counter abusive behavior
Why it matters to you
To keep Twitter a safe space, the company is giving users more options for muting specific accounts to filter out abusive behavior.
In an effort to give users more control over their notifications, Twitter announced new advanced filter settings from specific types of accounts you want to avoid altogether. The platform — which released the new features on Monday — now allows you to mute anyone with a new account and people who do not follow you.
The option to mute on Twitter has been ongoing since 2015, which initially gave users the option to no longer receive push notifications from a particular user without them knowing. It was basically the perfect solution to subtly removing someone from your timeline without taking greater measures like blocking or unfollowing them.
Muted users can still retweet, reply to your tweets, or favorite them but you do not receive a notification about the activity. In 2016, Twitter added the option to mute keywords, phrases, and conversations to help counter abuse that occurs over social media.
But it was in March that the company took muting to an entirely new level based heavily on safety, by using algorithms to identify abusive behavior. The options were the first batch of advanced filters that allow you to mute notifications from accounts that do not have a profile picture, ones that have not verified their email address or phone number, and people you don’t follow.
To alter all six of these settings on your Twitter app for both iOS and Android, simply go to the notifications tab, tap on the settings icon in the upper righthand corner, and select advanced filters. You will see the entire list of specific types of accounts along with a toggle control to turn the mute feature on or off. For a web browser, click on the notifications timeline, settings, and then click to turn on the preferred filters.
The company revealed it was using machine learning after the backlash Twitter received through placing temporary timeouts on particular accounts — which limited people outside of the offender’s followers from seeing their tweets. Some users complained the automated keyword filter the company used was not completely accurate and might have been prone to mishaps. Ultimately, flagging accounts that should not have been placed on hold in the first place.
However, the company made it clear that it is learning from its mistakes. In an effort to make Twitter a safe space where people can express themselves freely, the platform encourages user feedback to take into account for future updates.
W3C OKs extensions enabling web-based digital rights management for video
Why it matters to you
Although this standard enables web browsers to support viewing copyrighted video, there’s concern providers will have too much control over playback.
Last week, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) decided to officially recommend the use of Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) for protecting copyrighted video on the internet. This will enable web surfers to watch media in a browser that requires Digital Rights Management copy protection without the need for browser-based plugins.
“It moves the responsibility for interaction from plugins to the browser,” the consortium states. “As such, EME offers a better user experience, bringing greater interoperability, privacy, security, and accessibility to viewing encrypted video on the web.”
The W3C is an international organization that enforces standards for the internet. It develops protocols and guidelines to bring balance to the World Wide Web, and to reach the full potential of the latest technologies. Its stated mission is to push for a safe, open platform that can be used on all hardware scattered across the globe.
The W3C first introduced EME in 2013 as a specification for linking a web browser to a web-based software module that handles Digital Rights Management. It doesn’t include a specific type of content control, but instead provides means for web developers to insert scripts into web pages that can select the appropriate content management mechanism. Scripts can also control license and key exchanges between the browser and the protected content’s host server.
“It supports a wide range of use cases without requiring client-side modifications in each user agent for each use case,” the W3C states. “This enables content providers to develop a single application solution for all devices.”
Digital Rights Management is a necessary component for all consumable media. For instance, it thwarts the process of recording copyrighted video and selling the content for profit. Software developers use DRM to authorize the installation of their products on PCs, such as Microsoft’s Genuine Windows initiative. But Digital Rights Management can be problematic, eating up unnecessary resources and causing software-related issues.
Adding to that, browser-based plugins have proven to be insecure. That’s the big push behind HTML5: to move content management, playback control, games, video conferencing, and more into the internet itself so that hackers don’t have a specific software-based target. It eliminates the need for Microsoft’s Silverlight and Adobe Flash, the latter of which has proven to be a highly attractive attack vector for hackers.
However, the W3C’s recommendation of the EME standard doesn’t come without criticism. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said last week that the standard has “no safeguards whatsoever for accessibility, security research or competition.” Even more, the standard enables content providers to control how web surfers will watch video in their browsers by enforcing specific “rules.”
Of course, the Electronic Frontier Foundation specifically states that it doesn’t support Digital Rights Management because it gives content owners the right to treat PC owners “as an adversary to be controlled.”
But even within the W3C itself, turmoil surrounds the EME, including the argument that it provides inadequate protection for end users. Regardless, the EME standard is now an official recommendation based on a decision made by the Director of the W3C, Tim Berners-Lee.
3D-printed bioreactor offers a new high-tech way to brew the perfect pint
Why it matters to you
A 3D-printed bioreactor offers a new, easier method for fermenting beer. And maybe one day pharmaceuticals, too.
Researchers at Seattle’s University of Washington have invented a new, cheaper, and more efficient way to ferment yeast that involves using a 3D printer. The 3D-printed bioreactor can be created in just five minutes, although it has the ability to continue fermenting for months at a time. It opens up new possibilities for brewing beer and, further down the line, potentially developing new drugs as well.
“We have developed the materials and a process to 3D print hydrogels embedded with yeast cells,” Dr. Alshakim Nelson, lead researcher on the project, told Digital Trends. “Hydrogels are materials that are comprised of a significant volume of water, [like] Jell-O. Our hydrogels are about 70 percent water by weight, and the yeast cells appear to exist quite comfortably inside the hydrogel. Not only are the yeast cells viable within the hydrogel, but they are also metabolically active for extended periods of time. We are excited by the fact that we can use the yeast residing within the 3D-printed structures to actively convert glucose into ethanol for months and months at a time.”
Nelson Research Lab
The cube is printed in thin latticed layers, before the hydrogel is cured with ultraviolet light so that it retains its shape. Each cube is around 1 cubic centimeter in each dimension. Once printed, they’re placed in a glucose solution to ferment and transform the solution into alcohol. At present, the 3D-printed cubes have been continuing to ferment for upwards of four months — with no sign of that abating in the immediate future.
“Fermentation of pharmaceuticals, vitamins, and alcohol is a standard practice in industry,” Nelson continued. “We believe that our 3D-printed structures can help improve the efficiency of fermentation processes — for example, keeping the yeast cells trapped inside the hydrogel may simplify their removal at the end of the fermentation process.”
Should this process ever be upscaled to an industrial level, it could be used to replace the batch processing used in today’s fermentation process. “We believe this can become a real technology,” Nelson said. “We are speaking with potential partners to help take this to the next level.”
Have we mentioned that we love it when cutting-edge tech crosses over with beer?
Windows Insiders can now grab Ubuntu Linux via the Windows 10 Store
Why it matters to you
It’s now a lot easier and faster to install Ubuntu Linux for the Windows Subsystem for Linux — as long as you’re a Windows Insider.
The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) was introduced as a beta feature in Windows 10 Anniversary Edition and then officially rolled out in the Creators Update earlier this year. The WSL lets Windows 10 users easily run Linux apps from within Windows 10 64-bit, a unique capability that otherwise requires a dual-boot configuration. So far, Windows 10 supports Ubuntu Linux via the WSL, and Microsoft announced at its Build 2017 conference in March 2017 that other Linux distributions would make their way to the WSL with the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
Most important, they will be even easier to install via the Windows Store, and Ubuntu is now available in the Windows Store app for Windows Insiders.
If you’re running Windows Insider preview build 16215 or later, including the just-released build 16237, you can now head over to the Windows Store and download Ubuntu for the WSL. This will allow you to access the Ubuntu Terminal and to kick off Ubuntu command line utilities such as bash, ssh, git, apt, and more — information that’s provided in the Windows Store listing.
You’ll need to first open up the Control Panel, then click on “Turn Windows features on or off” to access the Windows Features dialog box. Once there, select “Windows Subsystem for Linux,” then click “OK” and reboot your system when prompted. Once you’ve rebooted, then you can go to the Windows Store and install Ubuntu and start working.
Microsoft is implementing the Windows Store installation method for the Linux distributions for a few reasons. First, it provides for faster and more reliable downloads. Second, it allows users to install more than one distro side-by-side. And third, it allows multiple distros to be run simultaneously.
SUSE and Fedora will also be making their way to the Windows Store over the next couple of weeks. As a reminder, if you want to install Ubuntu from the Windows Store, then you’ll need to be running as a Windows Insider in the Fast Ring and be updated to at least build 16215. Once Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is released later in the year, then anyone will be able to gain faster and easier access to different distros via the WSL.
Samsung Bixby’s Open Q&A serves up answers to simple questions
Why it matters to you
Want to know LeBron James’ exact height or the capital of North Korea? Bixby’s Q&A feature has you covered.
Bixby, Samsung’s artificially intelligent digital assistant, may not be quite as capable as the competition but it is getting better every day. Case in point? Bixby’s newest feature, Open Q&A.
Open Q&A, a component of Bixby Voice, is sort of like the Google Assistant on Android, or Siri on the iPhone: It offers quick, single-sentence answers to specific questions about people, places, and things. It launches with the trigger phrase, “Open Q&A session,” and draws from a growing database of crowd-sourced factoids about celebrities, food, politics, and more. In the U.S., it’s only available to members of the Bixby Voice early-access program, but Samsung says Open Q&A will roll out more widely in the coming months.
If you own a Galaxy S8 and enrolled in the preview program, head into Bixby — you should receive the update there.
Unfortunately for Galaxy S8 owners who have not signed up to preview Bixby Voice, it might be a while before Open Q&A feature makes its way to more devices. Bixby Voice, which launched in South Korea but missed its U.S. target launch date of “spring,” is reportedly struggling to understand the English language because it lacks the data needed to develop Bixby’s deep learning technology.
“Developing Bixby in other languages is taking more time than we expected mainly because of the lack of the accumulation of big data,” a Samsung spokesperson told The Verge in June.
It’s unclear what effect the Bixby Voice preview program, which launched a few weeks ago, has had on Samsung’s efforts to jumpstart Bixby’s machine learning algorithms, and how long it will take before Samsung engineers feel comfortable releasing it publicly.
That is not the only impediment to Bixby Voice’s software development, apparently. Language and geographical barriers between Samsung’s U.S. and Korea offices have contributed to delays, according to the Korea Herald, and it has split attention between English and Bixby’s other supported languages.
Despite the challenges Samsung faces with Bixby, the company’s fully committed to its future. In June, Samsung announced that it would begin preloading Bixby in its Family Hub 2.0 refrigerator and that it would roll out an over-the-air update for units that have already shipped. Rumor has it that Samsung’s working on a smart speaker code-named Vega, powered by Bixby.
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