Kanye West may be working on a streaming service called ‘Yeezy Sound’

Yeezy and Jay Z haven’t had the most comfortable of relationships lately. Kanye West terminated his exclusivity deal with Tidal a few months back, apparently because of the $3 million bucks West says the streaming service owes him for bringing in 1.5 million new subscribers for The Life of Pablo. Of course, it’s probably more about ego than cash. Either way, the plot thickens today as The Blast reports a new trademark request on behalf of West for a streaming service that may be named, we kid you not, Yeezy Sound.

The documents obtained by The Blast show that Yeezy Sound will provide for the “Streaming of music, audio, images, video and other multimedia content over the internet.” The filing also includes online chatrooms, electronic bulletin boards, texting services, “e-mail and instant messaging services” and video streaming to include independent films and movies. It could be that West is just hedging his bets here by including so many different ideas into one trademark, or it could be a legitimate move to become a direct competitor with Tidal, Apple Music, Pandora and Spotify. (But probably mostly Jay-Z’s Tidal.)

Via: Billboard

Source: The Blast

Apple lands TV drama from Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon

Apple’s commitment to big-name original shows may go well, well beyond its Steven Spielberg anthology. Both Deadline and Recode sources have heard that Apple has secured the rights to a drama series created by and starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. There aren’t too many details about the show, but it’s expected to focus on life behind the scenes at a daily morning TV show. Brian Stelter’s book Top of the Morning will reportedly provide background material, with Stelter himselve acting as a consultant.

Crucially, it appears that Apple is betting big: acording to the tipsters, Apple has ordered two seasons sight-unseen. It may not have had much choice, as rumors swirled that Netflix was one of the rivals hoping to snap up the program when it reached the market in the summer.

We’ve asked Apple if it can confirm the deal and possibly shed more light on the subject. If true, it suggests that Apple is gunning directly after Netflix, Amazon and other behemoths that have been willing to spend top dollar for A-list actors in streaming-only original productions. It wouldn’t just be content to run experimental shows on Apple Music. The challenge, of course, is that its competition isn’t exactly sitting still. While it wouldn’t be that hard for Apple to develop a video-focused service, it will have to go up against competitors that have ample experience and the deep pockets needed to lure major stars.

Source: Deadline, Recode

AT&T may have to sell major assets to appease DOJ in Time Warner deal

Last year, AT&T announced that it was going to acquire Time Warner, a deal that was initially expected to clear by the end of this year with little to no regulatory hurdles. However, last week, reports surfaced that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) was considering whether to file an antitrust lawsuit against the merger as its talks with the two companies over the deal weren’t nearing a solution. Now, sources are saying that the DOJ is withholding its approval and wants either Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting or AT&T to sell DirecTV.

During an investor conference today, AT&T CFO John Stephens said that the company was in active discussions with the DOJ, which he couldn’t comment on, though he added, “But with those discussions I can now say that the timing of the closing of the deal is now uncertain.” According to a Financial Times source with knowledge of the discussions, Time Warner is being asked to divest itself of CNN, one of two major demands, which the source told the Financial Times were “completely unreasonable” and “a complete perversion of the guidelines of the law.” Additionally, the New York Times is reporting that the sale of CNN is part of a larger request to sell Turner Broadcasting, which includes CNN among its numerous network holdings. The other option, according to the NYT, is for AT&T to dump DirecTV.

It’s very likely that neither option will be acceptable to AT&T, which plans to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion, and if the DOJ decides to turn those requests into formal requirements for approval, AT&T and Time Warner will probably challenge the agency and take the matter to court. One of the reasons why the DOJ’s demands and threats to bring an antitrust case against the deal are so surprising is because neither company has much overlap in its holdings. The proposed deal is a vertical merger, not a consolidation of previously competing companies. At the conference today, Stephens said that a “vertical merger like this hasn’t been blocked for over 40 years.”

It’s now unclear when the acquisition will be finalized or whether the DOJ discussions will be upgraded to a lawsuit, but it’s very unlikely that the deal will be wrapped up before next year.

Update: Reuters reports that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson didn’t offer to sell CNN to gain DOJ approval and doesn’t intend to do so. Of course, that doesn’t mean the Justice Department didn’t ask.

Source: New York Times, Financial Times

Visa swaps payment cards for NFC gloves at the Winter Olympics

Visa is very fond of showing off its tap-to-pay technology at the Olympics, and that’s truer than ever with the 2018 Winter Olympics around the corner. The payment giant is selling a trio of NFC-equipped gadgets to help you shop at the PyeongChang games, most notably a set of winter gloves. Yes, you can pay for that souvenir without freezing your hands as you reach for a credit card or even your phone. You won’t have to use them or the other devices at the games, but they’ll come with prepaid values of between 30,000KRW to 50,000KRW ($27 to $45) to encourage shopping in South Korea. Visa hasn’t offered pricing.

The other two items are considerably subtler. There are four commemorative lapel pins ($4.50 each) that you can load with prepaid funds, and a flexible NFC sticker that you can attach to all kinds of objects and accepts prepaid values as high as $180.

If you want any of them, you’ll probably have to wait until you’re visiting the country. Visa is currently selling all three through South Korea’s Lotte Card (both online and in customer centers), and they’ll otherwise be available through Olympic Superstores. Really, these are technology demos that just happen to be useful in other parts of the world. And that’s a bit of a shame — people in many colder climates would likely appreciate those gloves.

Source: Visa

Google shows more publisher info in search amid fake news fight

Google’s approach to combatting fake news divides pretty cleanly between overt tactics and less obvious methods. Today’s announcement falls into the latter camp. Now when you search for a publication by name, cards will populate with all kinds of information on the publication or publisher’s history. “These additions provide key pieces of information to help you understand the tone, expertise and history of the publisher,” the blog post reads.

It’s a subtle way to inform people but you have to search for the publication in the first place. Facebook began doing something similar last month, but would append a shared news article with a small, clickable “i” button for more information. The likelihood of someone doing an additional search after they read an article, about the publication that ran it, is probably pretty low, though.

Source: Google

A SpaceX rocket engine exploded during a ‘qualification test’ in Texas

SpaceX was testing a rocket engine on Sunday when it exploded, and now the aerospace company is trying to figure out what happened. The incident happened at a company site in Texas, and SpaceX reported no injuries and doesn’t expect that the accident will affect its launch schedule.

The Merlin engine in question, which was intended for a Falcon 9 launch later next year, was undergoing a ‘qualification test’ when it exploded. Obviously, any sort of unexpected combustion is worth preventing, especially for a company that has lost rockets (and the multimillion-dollar payloads they were carrying). Better on a test bed than on a loaded launch vehicle, though, especially while SpaceX is having its best year ever with 16 successful missions (double its total in 2016) — with three more Falcon 9 launches scheduled, according to The Washington Post.

It’s unclear if this issue is with a singular engine or with the Merlin propulsion system in general. The Falcon 9 uses nine of them in its first stage, while the Falcon Heavy, which is scheduled to have its first launch this month, fields 27 in its first stage. For the record, Musk and company plan to use a new engine design, the Raptor, for its BFR launch vehicle headed to Mars.

Via: The Verge

Source: The Washington Post

New gene therapy technique saves boy’s life by growing new skin

A young boy with a rare genetic skin disorder is alive and well two years after an experimental gene therapy technique was used to grow and replace nine square feet of his skin. The paper, just published in the journal Nature, describes how doctors in Europe used gene therapy in conjunction with a technique to grow skin grafts for burn victims.

The case study revolves around a boy with junctional epidermolysis bullosa, a disease that can take different forms depending on the specific genetic mutation. It affects about 25,000 people in the US and 500,000 around the world. According to the New York Times, the new treatment can only offer hope to some of these sufferers, but not all, because of the different ways the disease expresses itself. Still, it’s another step forward to help people with the disease, and the first time such a large amount of skin has been successfully replaced.

The boy treated with the technique was expected to die until he got the treatment detailed in the paper. Dr. Michele De Luca, director of Center for Regenerative Medicine Stefano Ferrari at the University of Modena in Italy, was approached by the team caring for the boy. De Luca was able to take a small sample of the boy’s skin (a little more than half a square inch) and use a virus to insert a non-mutated form of the responsible gene into his DNA. The team then grew sheets of unaffected skin and grafted it back onto the boy in Germany. It took an eight-month stay in the hospital, with four months in an induced coma to avoid pain, for the boy to recover.

“When he woke up,” Dr. De Luca told the New York Times, “he realized he had a new skin.”

Via: New York Times

Source: Nature

Ford will build EVs with Chinese automaker in $765 million deal

Over the last few months, China has been making plans and deals to wean its country’s cars off fossil fuels. In July, Daimler agreed to pair up with Chinese automaker BAIC to invest $735 million in EV infrastructure. Ford just entered its own venture, a 50-50 partnership with manufacturer Zotye Auto for a combined investment of $756 million to produce electric cars.

Once the Chinese government approves the deal, the enterprise will build a manufacturing facility in the Zhejiang province to produce EVs under its new brand, Zotye Ford. As CNET points out, both parent companies signed an agreement back in August that paved the way for this partnership.

“Zotye Ford will introduce a new brand family of small all-electric vehicles,” Ford group VP Peter Fleet said in the statement. “We will be exploring innovative vehicle connectivity and mobility service solutions for a new generation of young city-dwelling Chinese customers.”

While China hasn’t set a specific deadline to ban fossil fueled cars, as France and UK expect to phase out by 2040, the clock is ticking. Foreign automakers have two choices: Pay a hefty 25 percent import tax on vehicles or partner with a local company to produce cars in the country. This gives manufacturers like Zotye experience (though that company in particular already produces electric and battery-powered vehicles) while granting outside conglomerates access to Chinese markets.

Companies are making deals to get a slice of the country’s EV pie ahead of time because, while its ratio of car owners is low (one in five people), China’s 1.4 billion-person population means nearly 300 million vehicles currently on its roads.

Source: CNET

Apple Updates Workflow With Support for iPhone X and iOS 11

Workflow, the popular automation app Apple purchased earlier this year, was today updated to introduce support for iOS 11 and iPhone X.

The new version of the app allows users to drag and drop files onto a workflow to run the workflow using that file, and it adds HEIF and HEVC support to the Convert Image and Encode Media actions, respectively.

Support for new iOS 11 Health data types including Insulin Delivery, V02 Max, Waist Circumference, Resting Heart Rate, Walking Heart Rate Average, and Heart Rate Variability has also been added.

With the Get File and Save File actions, there’s now support for retrieving and saving multiple files at one time, and there’s also a new option to specify a default “From” address when using the Send Email action. Apple has also introduced a long list of bug fixes, listed below:

• Fixed the Tweet and Post on Facebook actions on iOS 11
• Fixed an issue where text items could unexpectedly be converted to image metadata dictionaries
• Fixed an issue where granting access to Ulysses may not work
• Fixed an issue where workflows launched from the Complication would not run on watchOS 4
• Fixed an issue where the Text action may randomly scroll to the top while typing
• Fixed an issue where the Send Message via WhatsApp action contact field did not work properly
• Fixed an issue where the Convert Image action may crash in the Today Widget or Action Extension
• Fixed an issue where the Show Directions action may not use the correct travel mode when opening Google Maps
• Fixed an issue where messaging the attendees of an event may include yourself
• Fixed an issue where VoiceOver may not focus on an action after it’s added to a workflow
• Fixed an issue where the Select Photos action did not work with VoiceOver when “Select Multiple” was turned on
• Fixed an issue where a Workflow Input variable may not be editable after being added from the variable bar
• Fixed a crash when inserting variables into the List and Dictionary actions
• Fixed an issue where some files may not be selectable in the Dropbox and Box file pickers
• Fixed an issue where a ghost workflow may appear while workflows are being reordered
• Fixed an issue where passing a comma-separated list of email addresses into the Send Email action did not work
• Fixed an issue where the Get Contents of URL action did not support passing a JSON body in DELETE requests
• Fixed an issue where saving a file to Dropbox when a file already exists with the same name did not properly append a number to the filename
• Other bug fixes and minor additions

For those unfamiliar with Workflow, it’s an automation tool that can essentially do anything. It allows users to create workflows to accomplish tasks like creating GIFs from a series of photos, pulling images from a web page, translating an article, posting photos to multiple social networks at once, calculating a tip, and more.

Since Apple acquired the app, it has been free to download. Regular improvements have been introduced, including bug fixes and new actions.

Workflow can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Workflow
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Tweetbot for iOS Gains Support for New 280-Character Tweet Limit [Update: Mac App Too]

Just a day after Twitter officially rolled out support for its new 280-character limit for tweets, popular third-party Twitter client Tweetbot has been updated with support for the new feature.

Tweetbot users who have Tweetbot for iOS installed will now be able to take full advantage of the new character limit once the app update has been installed. Tweetbot has not yet updated Tweetbot for Mac with support for the new feature, but an update should be coming soon.

Twitter started testing the new 280-character limit in late September before rolling it out globally yesterday. The updated character limit is available for all languages with the exception of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, as those are not affected by what Twitter calls “cramming.”

According to Twitter, during the testing period, most people with access to the 280 character limit continued to share tweets that featured under 140 characters, so the company does not believe the new limit will “substantially change” timelines for most users.

Right now, since the feature is new, there is an uptick in the number of people testing the 280-character limit, but Twitter believes that will die down within a couple of weeks.

Tweetbot can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]

Update: Tweetbot for Mac has also been updated with support for the new 280-character limit.

Tags: Twitter, Tweetbot
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