Netflix’s ‘Lost in Space’ reboot premieres April 13th

Netflix’s Lost in Space remake has been a long, long time in coming (word broke of it back in 2015), but it’s finally here… almost. The streaming service has revealed that the sci-fi show will debut on April 13th, 2018, and has offered a teaser trailer to whet your appetite. Not surprisingly, this promises to be a thoroughly modern retelling of the Robinsons’ wayward mission. It appears to take a more serious tone, and reflects much of what we’ve learned about space in the roughly 50 years since the original TV series. The family is out to colonize Alpha Centauri, for starters.

There are still plenty of secrets, such as what happens in the wake of the inevitable disaster. And yes, you hear an iconic line from the series — though not the machine speaking it. The only certainty is that they’ll have to face unknown threats (both from the planet and fellow humans), and that it’s not going to be a cakewalk.

It’s too soon to say whether or not the show will live up to expectations. It does have some pedigree behind it, though. Parker Posey plays a crucial role as the troublesome Dr. Smith, while actors like Max Jenkins (Will Robinson) and Molly Parker (Maureen Robinson) have years of experience from shows like Sense8, Deadwood and House of Cards. It’s just a question of whether or not that talent coalesces into a solid whole.

Source: Netflix (YouTube)

Shadow virtualizes a high-end gaming PC on your desktop clunker

In the early days of computing, local storage and processing weren’t actually a thing. Instead, your individual computer acted as a terminal, pulling data from a central processing server. Well, the French startup Blade likes it that way and has released a similar system but with a 21st-century twist. Its cloud-computing system, dubbed Shadow, can impart the performance of a $2,000 high-end gaming rig onto any internet-connected device with a screen. And now the company is bringing Shadow to California.

The Shadow system has already found widespread adoption throughout France and most recently made its US debut at CES last month. The idea is relatively simple: instead of having to buy, maintain and upgrade your own hardware, you pay Blade a monthly subscription to use theirs. It’s a concept similar to what NVIDIA did with its GeForce NOW cloud service, Parsec or HP’s Omen PCs, save for the fact that those three are dedicated to gaming while Shadow enables users to run everything from Steam to Photoshop to a host of other business-related applications.

The company has partnered with Microsoft, NVIDIA, AMD and Equinix to create a remote Windows 10 PC that you can access over the internet. At the remote server farm, each of these systems boasts a dedicated NVIDIA graphics card capable of handling 1080p at 144Hz or 4K at 60Hz. For processing, the system relies on eight dedicated threads on an Intel Xeon processor (the equivalent of an Intel Core i7) as well as offering 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter what hardware you’re using to access the service. Shadow can run on Macs, Chromebooks, Windows PCs, Android, iOS, and a variety of smart TV platforms. However, this does lead to a paradox. Sure, Shadow can deliver 4K quality video streams over the internet, but if you’re trying to watch it on an old 720p monitor, you’re going to be watching that stream in 720p.

Luckily, that doesn’t seem to apply to the rest of the capabilities. Since the Shadow system is, in essence, a remote desktop, it doesn’t matter how old, underpowered or decrepit the device is you’re running it on, just how good the screen is. In fact, at CES, Blade managed to run the Shadow service on Razer’s new phone, running full PC games (e.g., Battlefront II) on the device at 2K resolution and 120 Hz.

What’s also cool is that you’re able to switch back and forth between operating systems on the fly. Say you’re virtualizing the Shadow’s Windows 10 desktop on your Mac. Since the Windows 10 OS is running remotely (only using the Mac’s video driver to decode signal), it doesn’t take up any of the Mac’s other local resources. There is no slowdown in the macOS due to the Windows 10 desktop (and vice versa) and you can toggle between them instantly.

And if you don’t want to deal with your own hardware at all but still have a solid monitor, the company also offers a standalone Shadow device (think: a Roku-like box that streams computing capability instead of video), which can be hooked up to said monitor. Then all you need is a keyboard, a mouse, and a Steam account.

And a baller internet connection. That’s the other drawback of this system. In order to work, the Shadow needs a steady 15Mbps connection, preferably via ethernet. So if you’re like me and are hamstrung by slow internet speeds in your apartment complex, you simply can’t use this service. The company is working on expanding its capability to serve slower internet connections, but at this time does insist that you be running at 15 Mbps or higher. Unfortunately, the Shadow system does not yet support multi-monitor displays either, nor can it currently handle VR applications.

Then there’s the price. Shadow will cost you $35 a month with a year-long contract, $40 a month with a three-month commitment, or $50 to use it for a month with no strings attached. That’s a pretty hefty fee for the ability to remotely rent someone else’s computer.

Still, if the idea of ditching your PC for the cloud sounds like a win to you, it’s a service worth checking out. I was afforded early access to the service as part of my demo and used it to play a few rounds of Dragon Ball FighterZ on my MacBook Pro using a Bluetooth Xbox controller. I was blown away by both the visual quality (see gallery above) and the control’s responsiveness. It’s like I was playing it on my PS4 — crisp clean graphics, with zero lag, jittering or stuttering.

But big whoop, right? The 2018 MBP is a pretty beefy laptop anyway, what with its Retina display. So, I loaded the Shadow service on my older Nexus 6P and launched the game again. The results were the same (see below): crisp graphics, smooth animations, and zero lag. It honestly looked better than the last few episodes of Dragon Ball Super I’ve streamed from Crunchyroll.

Shadow launches on February 21st in California and will expand throughout the continental US by summer of 2018 as the company completes construction on seven server farms localized throughout the nation.

Twitter says most recent follower purge is about bots, not politics

A number of Twitter users are claiming the platform is purging itself of conservative viewpoints as some lost thousands of followers last night. Richard Spencer, writer Mark Pantano and Candace Owens of Turning Point USA were among those spreading the #TwitterLockOut hashtag campaign and claiming that only conservative accounts were being targeted.

Did anyone get a “heads up” up from @Twitter @TwitterSupport prior to them purging followers?

I’d give them benefit of doubt but they’ve been caught too many times censoring conservative accounts#TwitterLockOut https://t.co/Wi1q9KdAb7

— 🇺🇸MFLYNNJR🇺🇸 (@mflynnJR) February 21, 2018

I’ve lost close to 1,000 followers offer the past few hours.

Major purge underway.

— Richard 🐉 Spencer (@RichardBSpencer) February 21, 2018

Twitter is currently purging the followers on conservative accounts only. I just lost 3000 followers in one minute. Check out the trending hashtag to confirm that it is ONLY conservative accounts that are being affected.
Holding for an explanation…#twitterlockout

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) February 21, 2018

The war on Conservatives is real.#TwitterLockOut

— Mark Pantano (@TheMarkPantano) February 21, 2018

However, others, including National March for Truth organizer Holly Figueroa O’Reilly and Republican political strategist Rick Wilson have said that the accounts being deleted were Russian bots and that conservative accounts weren’t the only ones losing followers over the purge.

#TwitterLockout demonstrates that @Jack has done more to push back against Russian digital interference than the US government run by Donald Trump

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) February 21, 2018

#MAGA, come on.
*People* aren’t being purged.
BOTS are being purged.
If your friend’s account says “temporarily restricted”, that just means they have to log in to prove they are a real person.
And it isn’t just happening to conservatives. 🙄🙄🙄#TwitterLockOut#WednesdayWisdom pic.twitter.com/ZTy1ysEvkN

— Holly Figueroa O’Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) February 21, 2018

A Twitter spokesperson has now weighed in saying, “Twitter’s tools are apolitical, and we enforce our rules without political bias. As part of our ongoing work in safety, we identify suspicious account behaviors that indicate automated activity or violations of our policies around having multiple accounts, or abuse. We also take action on any accounts we find that violate our terms of service, including asking account owners to confirm a phone number so we can confirm a human is behind it. That’s why some people may be experiencing suspensions or locks. This is part of our ongoing, comprehensive efforts to make Twitter safer and healthier for everyone.” The company also pointed to this page which details its enforcement actions.

Twitter removes swaths of fake accounts from time to time and last night’s deletions are nothing new. They’re also very unlikely to be a targeting of Twitter’s conservative base. Last month, Twitter appeared to delete thousands of accounts that followed celebrities and popular Twitter users following a New York Times report on Devumi and its selling of fake followers and artificial engagement. Some have speculated that yesterday’s account removals were related to Robert Mueller’s investigation of election meddling by Russian agents and the indictment of several Russian nationals allegedly involved in mass social media campaigns aimed at causing political strife in the US.

#TwitterLockOut was still a top trending topic on Twitter this morning and while some legitimate accounts appear to have been temporarily locked last night, verifying a phone number — a tactic used by many social networks to authenticate accounts — was all that was needed to unlock them.

Have recovered almost all the followers I lost during the #TwitterLockOut.

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) February 21, 2018

Update 2/21/18 1:02PM ET: This post has been updated with an expanded comment from Twitter.

Sling TV touts 2.2 million subscribers as cord cutting continues

With how popular cord-cutting is, you’d think more services would be keen to share their subscriber stats. Dish pulled back the curtain today and revealed that its Sling TV service has some 2.2 million folks paying for the service. That’s compared to just over 11 million Dish satellite customers. Those numbers don’t mean a ton on their own, but when you compare them to AT&T’s DirecTV Now numbers you can get a sense of where each are at. Last October, the telco reported that its streaming service had 787,000 subscribers. Of course, Sling TV has been around around a year longer, so that’s to be expected.

As far as the rest of Dish’s business goes, the company picked up an estimated 39,000 new subscribers in the fourth quarter — an increase of around 11,000 versus last year. Those gains couldn’t offset a slight decrease in annual revenue from subscribers ($14.26 billion versus $15.03 billion), or total revenue ($3.48 billion versus $3.75 billion).

All told, while Dish might be doing better with Sling TV than AT&T is with DirecTV Now, AT&T still leads the pack in terms of overall subscribers (25.1 million). But with a $1.2 billion profit thanks to tax benefits, Dish probably can breathe easy while it figures out how to boost those subscription numbers.

Source: Dish Network

Nest adds Google Assistant to the indoor Cam IQ

The Nest Cam IQ is the smartest camera in the company’s security-oriented lineup, and now it’s even smarter. Today, Nest announced that the Cam IQ natively supports Google Assistant, thanks to an over-the-air update. It’s important to note, though, that this is only for the indoor version of the Cam IQ.

Once devices have received the update, they can perform the same tasks as any other tech with Google Assistant on board. It can perform basic Google searches, tell you about the temperature and weather, add appointments to your calendar and more. Users can also control other Nest devices in their home through the Nest Cam IQ.

Nest is also tweaking its subscription service tiers. Now, subscribers to Nest Aware will have the option of a $5/month plan for five days of cloud storage. Current plans include $10 for 10 days and $30 for 30 days of 24/7 cloud video recording. Nest also claims to have made its Nest Aware alerts more intelligent; the camera can now differentiate between a person and a thing in motion zones and has improved facial recognition. We weren’t super impressed with the Nest Cam IQ’s facial recognition when we tested it back in July, so it will be interesting to see if the improvements make any difference.

Source: Nest

Twitch is cashing in on your love for Overwatch League

The Overwatch League is blowing up and Twitch wants to make some extra money off its exclusive streaming partnership. To encourage viewership, you’ll be able to earn Overwatch League Tokens (what you use to buy League skins). You’ll pick up one token per live map finish, and a “percentage” of viewers of the “conclusion of the final map” during a live ‘cast will randomly win 100 tokens.

If you’re keeping track at home, that’s enough tokens to buy a single skin (around $5). So, you’ll earn roughly 3 – 4 tokens per every hour you watch. If one team is getting its ass handed to it, the time investment will be much lower, of course. You’ll have to link your Battle.net account with the Twitch, MLG or OverwatchLeague websites first, but regardless of where you play, console or PC, you’ll be able to earn Tokens.

Naturally, Twitch has special for-pay emotes (Cheers and Bits) on tap that will unlock time-exclusive skins and team-branded items as well. In 2016, Bits generated some $6 million for Partnered streamers on the site. Additionally, Twitch is teasing a special VIP ticket of sorts that’ll include more in-game rewards, behind-the-scenes video and more.

If you were wondering how long it’d take for Twitch to start cashing in on OWL’s popularity, well, here you go. Maybe don’t be too surprised when others follow suit.

The next Duplass Brothers movies will be on Netflix

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to the next four films from the Duplass Brothers, Jay and Mark. The indie filmmaker duo’s credits include Creep and Jeff Who Lives at Home. The deal covers the brothers’ upcoming untitled film starring Ray Romano, which will be released later this year, reports Variety.

The Duplass Brothers’ relationship with the streaming service goes back to their first film in 2005, The Puffy Chair. It was the first feature film acquired by Netflix, and Red Envelope Entertainment co-distributed the movie. “Turns out when you make films for Netflix, millions of people all over the world watch them. This is not a terrible thing for an independent filmmaker,” the Duplass Brothers told Variety. “As Netflix continues to grow and develop new ways to reach viewers, we couldn’t be more thrilled to grow our partnership.”

Source: Variety

Tim Cook Says Apple is Always Focused on ‘Products and People’ Over Wall Street Expectations

Fast Company today published an interview with Tim Cook after naming Apple the world’s most innovative company yesterday.

Image Credit: Fast Company/Ioulex Photography
Apple’s CEO primarily reflected on the iPhone maker’s culture and approach that has led to products such as the iPhone X, Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod, and as to be expected, he talked up the company he runs.

Cook said Apple’s focus is always on “products and people,” for example, rather than the company’s earnings results or stock price.

Fast Company: What makes a good year for Apple? Is it the new hit products? The stock price?

Tim Cook: Stock price is a result, not an achievement by itself. For me, it’s about products and people. Did we make the best product, and did we enrich people’s lives? If you’re doing both of those things–and obviously those things are incredibly connected because one leads to the other—then you have a good year.

Apple is “not in it for the money” with Apple Music, for instance, according to Cook, who says the streaming music service is more about ensuring that artists are funded in order to have a “great creative community.”

Fast Company: Music has always been part of the Apple brand. Apple Music has had a lot of user growth, but streaming is not a major money­maker. Do you think about streaming as a potential stand-alone profit area, or is it important for other reasons?

Tim Cook: […] Music is a service that we think our users want us to provide. It’s a service that we worry about the humanity being drained out of. We worry about it becoming a bits-and-bytes kind of world, instead of the art and craft.

You’re right, we’re not in it for the money. I think it’s important for artists. If we’re going to continue to have a great creative community, [artists] have to be funded.

He added that Apple is an “outlier” in the sense that Wall Street has “little to no effect” on the company—which is the world’s most valuable.

Fast Company: Do the investment markets make innovation harder? Or does Wall Street motivate change?

Tim Cook: The truth is, it has little to no effect on us. But we are an outlier. More generally, if you look at America, the 90-day clock [measuring results by each fiscal quarter] is a negative. Why would you ever measure a business on 90 days when its investments are long term?

Cook said what drives Apple is creating products that “change the world for the better” with innovative new features.

Tim Cook: Take iPhone X, the portrait-lighting feature. This is something that you had to be a professional photographer with a certain setup to do in the past. Now, iPhone X is not a cheap product, but a lighting rig–these things were tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He added that one of Apple’s unique qualities is patience in perfecting its products, rather than rushing to be first to the market.

Fast Company: Sometimes Apple takes the lead, introducing unique features–Face ID, for instance. Other times you’re okay to follow, as long as you deliver what you feel is better, like HomePod, which is not the first home speaker. How do you decide when it’s okay to follow?

Tim Cook: I wouldn’t say “follow.” I wouldn’t use that word because that implies we waited for somebody to see what they were doing. That’s actually not what’s happening. What’s happening if you look under the sheets, which we probably don’t let people do, is that we start projects years before they come out. You could take every one of our products–iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch–they weren’t the first, but they were the first modern one, right?

In each case, if you look at when we started, I would guess that we started much before other people did, but we took our time to get it right. Because we don’t believe in using our customers as a laboratory. What we have that I think is unique is patience. We have patience to wait until something is great before we ship it.

Cook’s comments are similar to ones he has shared in the past, and the interview portrays Apple in the best possible way, but the full article is still a worthwhile read for those who want more perspective about the company’s beliefs.

Tags: Tim Cook, fastcompany.com
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Dish Reports Sling TV Has Grown to 2.2M Subscribers as of the End of 2017

Dish Network today reported official numbers for its streaming television service Sling TV, which marks the first time that the company disclosed the service’s subscriber numbers separately from its traditional pay TV numbers. According to Dish, Sling TV had 2.212 million subscribers as of the end of 2017, aligning with previous estimates that the service had well over 2 million subscribers (via TechCrunch).

Sling TV was one of the first streaming TV bundles to launch, so its continued high ranking in regards to subscriber numbers makes sense. Following Sling TV remain services like DirecTV Now (1 million subscribers as of December 2017), PlayStation Vue (455,000 as of December 2017), Hulu with Live TV (450,000 as of January 2018), and YouTube TV (300,000 as of January 2018). Sling TV and PlayStation Vue launched in 2015, DirecTV Now launched in 2016, and Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV each debuted in 2017.

Dish further detailed Sling TV’s subscriber growth in its 10-K filing this week, stating the service had 623,000 subscribers in its first year on the market, then grew to 1.5 million by 2016, and 2.21 million by the end of 2017. More users switching from traditional TV bundles to streaming services are believed to be impacting Dish’s revenue, however, with its total 2017 revenue at $14.39 billion, down year-over-year from $15.21 billion. In total, 1.1 million users were reported as having dropped Dish’s pay TV bundles in 2017.

Like other streaming TV services, Sling TV allows users to choose between various tiers, with prices that start at $20/month for a small amount of channels and then increase in price as more channels are added. Sling TV is one of the cheapest services to enter with this price, while rivals like YouTube TV cost $35/month, and Hulu with Live TV and PlayStation Vue start at $39.99/month. DirecTV Now also starts at $35/month, and has an ongoing deal where new subscribers can pay for three months of service at $105 and get a 32GB Apple TV 4K for free.

Although Sling TV has been out for longer and subsequently has more robust features, some of the newer services are still in beta and testing updates that have yet to launch to a wide audience. These include DirecTV Now’s beta test of a Cloud DVR, which is now said to be coming this spring, as well as Hulu’s decision to add a more traditional channel guide for its users. Earlier in February, YouTube TV launched an app for Apple TV after delaying the initial launch from 2017.

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Apple Seeds Third Beta of watchOS 4.3 to Developers

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 4.3 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the second beta and two days after releasing watchOS 4.2.3, a minor update focusing on bug fixes.

Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General –> Software update.

To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it has to be placed on the charger, and it needs to be in range of the iPhone it’s paired to.

watchOS 4.3 introduces support for Nightstand mode in portrait orientation, a feature that was previously only available when the watch was placed in landscape orientation. There’s also a new charging animation when the Apple Watch is placed on the charger, and your Activity data is now displayed on the Siri watch face.

In watchOS 4.3 beta 3, the Apple Watch’s battery complication more accurately reports battery life. In the release notes, Apple says the battery complication “no longer reports remaining battery percentage in increments of 5.”

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The watchOS 4.3 update brings the return of a much-desired feature that allows music playing on the iPhone to be controlled using the Music app on the Apple Watch. In prior versions of watchOS, starting with watchOS 4, the Music app could only be used to control music playing on the watch itself. With tvOS 11.3 installed, there’s also an option to control music playing on the Apple TV with the watch.

Apple plans to release watchOS 4.3 to the public in the spring, and until then, it will be limited to developers. Apple offers public betas of tvOS, iOS, and macOS, but watchOS betas are not available for public beta testers.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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