MoviePass brings back its movie-per-day plan
Last month, MoviePass began offering a $30, three-month plan that came with an iHeartRadio premium subscription trial but limited users to just four movies per month. And when asked if the popular movie-per-day plan would be returning, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe told The Hollywood Reporter last week that he didn’t know. But the movie-per-day plan is back and Lowe says he just didn’t want people to ignore the iHeartRadio promotion. “It’s marketing 101,” he told Variety. “We wanted to focus everybody on this partnership promotion. If people knew the [movie-a-day] plan was coming back, they might not be interested in the iHeartRadio deal.” He added that the company never planned to abandon “the flagship product that everybody loves.”
In April, an external auditor expressed concern over MoviePass’ business model, saying he had “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue.” MoviePass reported a $150.8 million loss, which isn’t terribly surprising since it pays full price for the movie tickets its subscribers are getting for, in most cases, $10 per month or less. But Lowe doesn’t seem concerned. “We have a constantly evolving business model. We’re getting more and more occasional moviegoers and cutting back on fraud and abuse,” he said. “I feel very confident about our trend lines and I know we’re going to continue as a going concern and continue to be popular.”
MoviePass stopped allowing its customers to see the same movie more than once last week — an earlier policy that was reinstated, upsetting some existing subscribers. Lowe said it was about cutting down on fraud. “When we took that policy down, we saw some people turning MoviePass into a cottage industry, standing in front of a theater selling their tickets to Star Wars, or whatever,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. He also said that more plans are on the way including couples packages and options that include 3D and IMAX films.
Via: Variety
Google is investing in startups to make Assistant better
As popular as Google is right now, the company wouldn’t be where it is today without the embrace of the developer community. A good example of that is Google Assistant, which would be pretty lackluster if it only worked with Google services. That’s why the company opened up Assistant to developers way back in 2016, resulting in a wide range of Actions that do everything from controlling your smart home to helping you exercise. Today, Google plans to take it this a step further. The company is now going to start investing in early-stage startups specifically to see how far they can push and integrate Assistant into their business.
Beyond just money, Google is also going to provide these lucky startups valuable advice from Google engineers and staff, give them early access to new features and tools, give them the keys to the Google Cloud Platform, and of course the power of Google’s marketing muscle. To kick the program off, Google started investing in four companies: GoMoment, which created a 24/7 Google-Assistant-powered concierge for hotels; Edwin, a personal English tutor; BotSociety, a developer tool that’ll help devs build better voice interfaces; and Pulse Labs, another developer tool designed to get user feedback.
This marks the first time Google is investing serious capital into startups that use Assistant, which Google says not only results in deeper partnerships, but also a better ecosystem. As for what criteria Google uses for deciding which startups to invest in, well, it depends.
“We take into account a bunch of things,” said Nick Fox, Google’s VP leading Search and Assistant. “First, we have to believe in the team, that they’re able to make big things happen. We need to be in strategic alignment with where we see Assistant going.” And then there are categories the businesses are in — Fox says that fields like education and hospitality are intriguing to them. “We want to be excited about what they’re doing.”
But last not least, the startups need to be at a stage where Google’s money can make a difference. Which means if your business is already making millions and millions of dollars, Google probably won’t put you in this investment program. “We want it to be a situation where, by our involvement, we can help.”
One of the reasons Google is announcing this is because it wants startups to come to them and to apply to be part of the program. It’s a global initiative, so developers from all around the world are eligible. The timing of this announcement is significant too, because it’s only a week or so away from I/O, Google’s annual developer conference. And, according to Fox, there’ll likely be a lot more developer — and consumer — news to come.
If you’re a developer who wants to apply, you can do so via this form.
Source: Google
Watch Facebook’s F8 day-two keynote at 1PM ET
The first day of Facebook’s F8 developers conference was quite eventful, what with a slew of news ranging from app updates to a new dating feature the company has in the works. As expected, we also heard about security and data privacy, two issues that Facebook is taking seriously but isn’t letting them to stop it from moving forward to focus on new technologies. Speaking of which, today’s keynote could be more focused on the future of mediums such as augmented and virtual reality, as well as tech like artificial intelligence and machine learning. You can tune into the action right here, where you’ll be able to watch a stream of the event starting at 10AM PT/1PM PT.
Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2018!
The smartphone notch is a status symbol
Whether you like it or not, the smartphone notch is here to stay. After the Essential Phone and iPhone X brought the notch to the masses, other major brands such as Huawei, ASUS, Oppo and Vivo followed suit soon after, and the latest to join the party is none other than LG with its G7 ThinQ. Admittedly, this is a little painful to watch considering that LG (and even HTC) once stood by its Second Screen idea well before the notch ever happened. LG had a fair reason to join this trend: People like it, and it has the numbers to prove it.
During the early stages of the G7’s development, LG surveyed over 1,000 people across the US, UK, Italy and Korea. These focus groups were shown early mockups with slightly screen designs, and when it came to the notch option, only about 30 percent said no to it, with the rest of the participants indicating that they either liked, or didn’t mind, the notch.
Shintae Hong, LG’s Head of Product Planning, joked: “Some people hated that design, [saying] it’s like a man’s bald head like mine.” He added: “Some people said [it is] cool… It totally depends on their personal choices, preferences.”
Hong went on to acknowledge the risks associated with the notch design. Remember the early backlash that the iPhone X received in the early days? Most of us appear to have moved on.
During Apple’s recent earnings call, Tim Cook pointed out that “customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter, just as they did following its launch in the December quarter.” Clearly, the notch isn’t getting in the way of selling phones. The divisive screen design is also visible proof that your phone is the very latest model, too.
LG’s Hong credited the survey results as the main deciding factor for the notch design. In a way, it’s a shame because it would have been nice to see something a little different — although it hasn’t worked out for LG in the past. That said, the company still hopes to deliver a phone with a truly edge-to-edge display, similar to Vivo’s concept device minus the gimmicks, in the future. As far as Hong is concerned, the notch is one more step towards that.
Pentagon bans Huawei, ZTE phones from military base retailers
The Pentagon has banned retailers on US military bases from selling Huawei and ZTE phones, the Wall Street Journal reported. Officials are concerned that the Chinese government could order the firms to track soldiers’ movements or snoop on their communications, though Huawei and ZTE have both denied that could be the case.
While the Pentagon can’t block military members from using Huawei or ZTE phones for personal use, cutting off a core supply line is likely to temper the prevalence of the handsets. Additionally, the military may still issue an advisory on purchasing the devices. Both ZTE and Huawei are among the subjects of a bill introduced in January that seeks to ban them from US government contracts, though the bill hasn’t advanced as yet.
The manufacturers’ phones are less popular inside the US than in other markets, including Germany, where the US has a large military infrastructure. TKS, a provider for English speakers in the country, recently pulled Huawei phones from its military base stores to comply with Army & Air Force Exchange Services guidance. The phones were available at the stores last week.
The ban reflects long-standing government concerns over Chinese phones. In 2012, the Congress Intelligence Committee claimed in a report that Huawei and ZTE presented national security risks. The report accused the companies of failing to cooperate in the committee’s investigation and declining to clarify their relationships with the Chinese government. It also highlighted alleged corruption, bribery, and discriminatory practices at Huawei.
The government has tightened the squeeze more recently. In February, intelligence agencies warned Americans against buying Huawei phones, highlighting security concerns. Last month, the US Commerce Department revived an export ban on ZTE parts after the company violated an agreement. The ban, put in place after ZTE illegally shipped equipment to Iran and North Korea and lied about it, had been lifted after the firm agreed to abide by the rules.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Watch Facebook’s F8 opening keynote in under 15 minutes
Facebook’s F8 developer conference can be a bit of a snooze on the news front given the focus of the event. However, this year that was definitely not the case. Opening yesterday’s nearly 2-hour keynote, CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed user data privacy, elections, fake news and a whole lot more. The spectacle that followed covered AR, VR, Instagram, Messenger and a lot more (dating!). You probably don’t have time to sit through that whole thing to catch up, so we’ve got you covered. We’ve condensed the festivities down to under 15 minutes, so you can catch up on your coffee (or tea, we don’t judge) break.
Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2018!
Facebook is open-sourcing its most powerful AI tools yet
Facebook is continuing its push to more openly share its AI research and code with the release of PyTorch 1.0 — a deep-learning system that Facebook says represents a “fundamental shift” in open source AI frameworks. Traditionally, taking AI development from research to production has been a complex and time-intensive task involving multiple steps and various tools. PyTorch 1.0 has been designed to optimize the process.
The new framework draws on the modular, production-orientated features of Caffe2 and ONNX. Caffe2 was launched two years ago to standardize Facebook’s production AI tooling, but getting projects to this stage was a manual and often error-prone process. ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange) was created to make the export process smoother, but complicated, time-consuming steps remained. PyTorch 1.0 fuses together features from both, giving developers a hybrid frontend to share code between prototyping and execution mode for production.
It’ll be available in beta within the next few months, and will include a family of tools, libraries, pre-trained models, and datasets for each stage of development, allowing developers to quickly create and deploy new AI innovations at scale. Its underlying technology already supports AI in most of Facebook’s products, including performing six billion translations a day. Obviously it’s dev-focused, but smarter AI means better everyone can expect better AI features as a result.
Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2018!
Facebook will conduct civil rights audit following bias allegations
Facebook has come under fire lately for accusations of racial and political bias, and it’s determined to address both of those claims head-on. The social media giant has committed to independent investigations that will scrutinize both its civil rights record and its alleged anti-conservative political bias. Civil liberties leader Laura Murphy will lead a civil rights audit with input from groups like the Leadership Conference. Meanwhile, former Republican Senator Jon Kyl will run a conservative bias advisory partnership that will also see Facebook executives meeting with the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation.
It’s no secret why Facebook has agreed to the investigations: it’s facing mounting pressure in both cases. The company is facing a lawsuit over discriminatory housing ads, and Republicans have routinely accused Facebook of intentionally downplaying conservative content. Whether or not Facebook actually needs to change its practices, the scrutiny might head off further legal and political action in addition to quieting some of its critics.
There are still some unanswered questions: how extensive will these inspections be? And if there is evidence of bias, how will Facebook address it beyond existing measures like publishing its community standards? There’s a good chance this won’t satisfy everyone, for that matter. All the same, this shows that Facebook is at least taking allegations seriously.
Source: Axios, Leadership Conference
Nintendo’s Next President Sets Mobile Gaming Priority, Plans ‘Game-Changing Hit’ to Surge Business
Nintendo’s next president, Shuntaro Furukawa, will make smartphone gaming a priority when he takes the helm of the company this June. In a new interview with Nikkei, Furukawa said that he envisions a future where Nintendo’s smartphone gaming arm can become a 100 billion yen ($910 million) business. In fiscal 2017, the segment including mobile games grossed 39.3 billion yen.
To do this, Furukawa plans to increase the output of smartphone gaming apps for iOS and Android devices, as well as launch a singular app that surges in popularity. Outgoing Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima referenced Pokémon Go as an inspiration for this plan. Pokémon Go was a collaboration between developer Niantic and The Pokémon Company, which Nintendo has a joint investment in.
“From what I can see, smartphone games are the ones I want to expand the most,” said Shuntaro Furukawa.
“The idea that something will emerge that transforms into something big, in the same manner as game consoles, is the defining motive of the Nintendo business,” he said.
When asked if any of the upcoming apps would adopt Pokémon Go’s augmented reality gameplay, Furukawa said that he “can’t say that there are any that are like that.” It’s also unclear if the plans for the singular, so-called “game-changing hit” would include existing Nintendo characters or be entirely original.
Nintendo has already begun adding on new developer partners besides DeNA to work on games with new characters, while DeNA continues outputting those with Nintendo IPs like the upcoming Mario Kart Tour. According to Furukawa, Nintendo is also gearing up to “expand cooperative ties” with its developer business partners down the road, further hinting at an increased output for gaming apps.
Smartphone games that have been confirmed by Nintendo include Mario Kart Tour and Dragalia Lost, both with vague late 2018 launch dates. These will follow Nintendo’s previous titles Miitomo, Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. In terms of unconfirmed mobile spin-offs, The Legend of Zelda could be the next big Nintendo IP to launch on iOS.
Tag: Nintendo
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Apple Says AirPods Are ‘Incredibly Popular’ as Availability Remains Limited
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday said AirPods continue to be “incredibly popular” and a “runaway hit” for the company.
“AirPods are incredibly popular and we’re seeing them in more and more places—in the gym, in coffee shops, wherever people are enjoying music on their Apple devices,” said Cook, following Apple’s earnings report. “This product is a runaway hit, and we’re working hard to meet the incredible demand.”
Apple does not disclose AirPod sales, and instead groups the wireless earphones into its broad “Other Products” category in earnings results, but there’s at least a few reasons to believe they’re very popular indeed.
For starters, Apple reported $3.9 billion revenue from its “Other Products” category in the March quarter, an impressive 38 percent increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple said its wearable and home products like the AirPods, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod accounted for over 90 percent of that growth.
Second, Apple said unit sales of both AirPods and the Apple Watch reached a new all-time high for the March quarter, without revealing specifics.
Third, since launching in December 2016, AirPods have rarely been in stock on Apple’s online store. Orders placed today still face a one-week delivery estimate, suggesting Apple can’t keep up with strong demand, may be experiencing mass production challenges, or some combination of those two factors.
Barclays analysts recently forecasted that AirPods shipments may approach 30 million units in 2018, while former KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimated 26-28 million shipments on the year.
Looking ahead, Apple plans to release a wireless charging case for AirPods to be used with its AirPower charging mat, slated for release in 2018. Beyond that, Mark Gurman reported that Apple may release new AirPods with “Hey Siri” functionality as early as this year, and a water-resistant pair as early as next year.
AirPods are available for $159 on Apple’s online store. Limited supplies are also available at select Apple retail stores.
Related Roundup: AirPodsBuyer’s Guide: AirPods (Caution)
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