AfterDawn: Tech news

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AfterDawn: News

Netflix to increase original programming to almost two fold

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Oct 2016 5:28

Netflix to increase original programming to almost two fold Netflix has been steadily increasing their investment in original content, often dubbed Netflix Originals, and other exclusive programming. This year the company expects over 600 hours of original programming but even that is nothing compared to what's planned for 2017.

The streaming giant's execs have previously said that they aim to have original programming count for half of the new content. Next year they are going to get close to the goal by featuring more than a thousand hours of exclusive content.

In just two years Netflix would have increased the amount of said content from 450 hours to over 1000 hours. That is over 40 straight days worth of shows, documentaries, animations, and movies. Pretty much anyone that has seen the likes of Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, as well as the newest critically-acclaimed show Stranger Things would agree that new original content is a good thing – maybe even if the price increases a dollar or two.




AfterDawn: News

Samsung setting up booths at airports to stop Note7s taking off

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Oct 2016 5:16

Samsung setting up booths at airports to stop Note7s taking off Samsung's fiasco with the Note7 reached new heights when couple days ago US Department of Transportation banned all Note7s from all flights. Now it is illegal to carry a Samsung Galaxy Note7 to an airplane whether it is on or off.

The smartphone has a battery problem which can result in a fire which is obviously a huge hazard in a plane. Washington Post reports that Samsung is now setting up booths at airports to get more defect phones off the market and make sure people won't be fined for taking a prohibited item on board.

Samsung will be helping customers that still haven't returned their Galaxy Note7 even after two recalls and tons of media coverage. Samsung had to cancel the smartphone model's production and sales altogether after failing to relaunch late last month.

The booth are located before the TSA security screening and offer to copy your data to a new phone. Unfortunately Samsung probably won't be offer replacements from other manufacturers so you might have to choose a Galaxy S7 to enter your flight. Then again there are far worse options than the S7.




AfterDawn: News

KGI: Apple will gain up to 7 million switchers due to Galaxy Note7 debacle

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Oct 2016 10:07

KGI: Apple will gain up to 7 million switchers due to Galaxy Note7 debacle According to longtime Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, the Cupertino giant will be a huge beneficiary of the Galaxy Note7 explosion-gate, gaining as many as 7 million switchers.

For those who haven't been following, Samsung's new Galaxy Note7 had faulty wiring and batteries that caused the phone to literally explode, and the company has issued a recall for over 12 million devices and frozen production for the time being. All carriers have also offered full refunds and free exchanges for any consumer with the device.

Kuo estimates that up to 7 million Note7 buyers will eventually convert to iPhone 7 sales, with the majority moving to the iPHone 7 Plus due to its size and dual cameras.

Of course, it is impossible to predict the future and Google's new Pixel devices could take some of switchers, but we won't know for sure until each of the companies report earnings next quarter.

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AfterDawn: News

Razer buys THX to boost audio and video quality

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Oct 2016 9:34

Razer buys THX to boost audio and video quality THX, the AV quality assurance company founded as part of Lucasfilm, has been acquired by gaming hardware company Razer.

According to Razer, the brand THX will be "spun out as a startup" (despite being 33-years-old) and run independently under its current management team but with capitalization from Razer.

THX was founded in 1983 and has been sold multiple times including a purchase in 2002 by Creative Technology at a valuation of $13 million directly from Lucasfilm. The company currently has 50 employees including a few top audio and graphics engineers and scientists in their fields.

"We've been fans of THX for a long time, from the time of the Star Wars legacy and how George Lucas created it,"
added Razer. "THX has one of the biggest brands when it comes to movies or music. Audio files, films, we think of the THX brand in audio as akin to what Razer is in gaming." Additionally, the company has a large library of patents and IP in the AV space, which Razer hopes to implement. "There is a lot of potential to extend it into newer areas that interest us, like virtual reality and live streaming," they concluded.

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AfterDawn: News

Netflix shatters earnings expectations, hits on all cylinders

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Oct 2016 9:11

Netflix shatters earnings expectations, hits on all cylinders After nearly a year of mediocre earnings, Netflix is back to massive growth and it's stock price is flying.

The company's shares jumped 20 percent today following earnings in which the company revealed strong subscriber growth.

Netflix added 3.2 million international subscribers, and 370,000 domestic subscribers with a total base now up to 86.7 million. The expectation had been for 2 million international additions and 304,000 domestic.

"Our over-performance against forecast was driven primarily by stronger than expected acquisition due to excitement around Netflix original content," the company added.

Netflix has been spending billions to bring original content to the service, and it appears to be paying off.




AfterDawn: News

Google Flights to take on Hopper with predictive pricing

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Oct 2016 8:52

Google Flights to take on Hopper with predictive pricing Google's flight search service Google Flights just got a little better, adding predictive pricing allowing you to see if you should wait to buy those tickets.

The service now tells you when prices are expected to increase (based on historical patterns), tracks price changes to flights you are tracking and lets you search for cheap destinations based on your criteria.

Hopper, a small but popular startup available on Android and iOS, has been offering similar predictive pricing since launch last year. Google Flights may prove to be more popular given that it works on mobile and desktop.

In addition, Google says it is updating its Hotels service, as well.

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AfterDawn: News

Evleaks: Google to release two smartwatches early next year

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Oct 2016 8:24

Evleaks: Google to release two smartwatches early next year Following in the footsteps of their new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, reports claim that Google is set to release two homemade smartwatches in the Q1 of next year.

Codenamed "Swordfish" and "Angelfish," the devices will be special due to being Google Assistant-enabled.

Evan Blass aka Evleaks has a couple of renders of the devices, which look pretty plain, but the features are expected to be robust (at least for the Angelfish). Rumored specs include LTE connectivity, GPS, heart rate sensor, Google Assistant and Android Wear 2.0 which is expected to support standalone apps.

Check out the renders:

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AfterDawn: News

Oculus purchases LED maker InfiniLED

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Oct 2016 8:09

Oculus purchases LED maker InfiniLED Facebook's Oculus VR has acquired low-powered LED maker InfiniLED with the ultimate goal of using the tech in their virtual reality headsets.

The Irish company was founded in 2010 and is known for their ILED Display technology that "outperforms widely available standard display technologies, resulting in significant reductions in power use."

According to the company, InfiniLED displays use 20x less power than a standard OLED and 40x less than the average LCD, with the ability to produce more light with better contrast and better colors.

"It is exciting to see that Oculus, a vibrant and leading-edge company, appreciates both the technology and the strength of the ecosystem that the InfiniLED team sits in," said Tyndall National Institute chief executive Dr. Kieran Drain. "A key impact of this acquisition will be to increase global awareness that Ireland has technology and research of this calibre, and we anticipate further interactions with companies looking to merge hardware and software in efficient solutions, particularly for new devices that advance consumer electronics and the industrial internet."

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AfterDawn: News

Nobody is buying Twitter

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 8:42

Nobody is buying Twitter In a span of just two weeks, Twitter went from the hottest commodity in the tech space to a company that nobody wants to buy.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was the most recent executive to drop his company out of the Twitter acquisition pool, leaving nobody left. Other suitors, including Google, Apple and Disney all declined to move past the due diligence stage in the last week.

"In this case we've walked away. It wasn't the right fit for us," said Benioff.

Twitter's board and advisors are still looking for potential bidders, but investors don't appear to see anything on the horizon; Twitter's stock has fallen 34 percent in the last week.

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AfterDawn: News

The Coen bros are writing a new 'Silk Road' movie

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 8:22

The Coen bros are writing a new 'Silk Road' movie The Oscar-winning Coen brothers have been tasked with writing a new movie called "Dark Web" based on Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Ulbricht, operating under the handle "Dread Pirate Roberts," created the Silk Road darknet marketplace in 2010 and it became the premier destination for drug dealers (or worse) looking to break the law online anonymously. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent in the marketplace and Ulbricht became a millionaire, as well.

After his arrest, millions in Bitcoins were seized and eventually Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison for drug trafficking, money laundering and even for paying assassins (although nobody got killed).

No doubt, with the Coens writing a screenplay based on a story that has so much intrigue, we could have a great movie coming next year.

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AfterDawn: News

Samsung will lose up to $3 billion on Note7 recall

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 7:48

Samsung will lose up to $3 billion on Note7 recall Samsung has announced this week that they expect a $3 billion loss due to the Galaxy Note7 recall, a huge monetary damage in addition to the company's ongoing reputational damage.

In the past month, the company has been mired in the scandal of the exploding Note7's, and the devices have even been banned on planes by the US Department of Transportation.

Here is the Samsung statement:

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AfterDawn: News

Steam to soon allow use of DualShock 4

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 7:31

Steam to soon allow use of DualShock 4 Valve has confirmed that you will soon be able to use DualShock 4 controllers to play games on Steam.

An upcoming Steam update will "add full configurability to controllers other than the Steam controller," starting with the popular PlayStation controller.

Using the controller is "exactly the same as a Steam Controller. You make the exact same API calls, you only get actions, not inputs, and the Steam API takes care of everything."

"It's also got a gyro and a touchpad, so it's got a lot of overlapping functionality with the Steam Controller," adds Jeff Bellinghausen of Valve "Also, existing native support for the PS4 controller on the PC is a bit weak; in this case Steam itself is communicating directly with the device so everything [is] nice and reliable."

Support for other controllers is on the way, as well, adds the company.

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AfterDawn: News

BitTorrent denies shutting down streaming service

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 4:33

BitTorrent denies shutting down streaming service Following a high-profile report published last week detailing a struggling BitTorrent, the company has come out swinging to deny some of the tales.

In their report, Variety claimed that the company's BitTorrent Now streaming project was dead in the water and the company's co-CEOs had been fired.

BitTorrent has corrected much of the report this weekend, saying that just CEO Robert Delamar has left the company, leaving Jeremy Johnson alone as CEO for the time being. The company also denied that BitTorrent Now was shutting down, saying instead that they "remain focused on the media space."

"There have been no changes to our platforms" at this time, added the company. The company also confirmed that their music initiatives have been bleeding money for some time.

The picture certainly isn't rosy over at BitTorrent, but it does not appear to be as bad as last week's report suggests.

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AfterDawn: News

Yahoo's acquisition by Verizon is in trouble

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 4:18

Yahoo's acquisition by Verizon is in trouble Almost a month after Yahoo disclosed a massive breach of their email data, it appears that the company's would-be buyer Verizon is now on the fence about the acquisition.

The company agreed to buy Yahoo's core assets for $4.8 billion earlier this year, a hefty price for the declining business. Yahoo disclosed the data breach, which took place in 2014, last month and announced that over 500 million accounts were affected.

"I think we have a reasonable basis to believe right now that the impact is material," said Verizon General Counsel Craig Silliman of the breach. "Material impact" suggests that Verizon believes the breach has affected Yahoo's financial value.

This is the first time Verizon has publicly shown doubt about the acquisition and those that have seen the agreement believe the scandal could trigger an escape clause and allow Verizon to walk away. If the telecom giant is allowed to walk away, there is literally zero chance Yahoo gets anywhere near $4.8 billion from another buyer.

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AfterDawn: News

Next major Windows 10 update coming in March?

Written by Matti Robinson @ 15 Oct 2016 3:59

Next major Windows 10 update coming in March? Windows 10 has definitely been one of the more successful OS launches for Microsoft and even the growth after the initial launch has been decent thanks to free upgrade for a full year. Development however continues, and some clues have been found that we might see a major update in early 2017.

A twitter user has found clues of upcoming major update in a test version of Windows 10. The update is called Windows 10 Version 1703 which would suggest March 2017 launch as Microsoft names the version after year and month of targeted launch (Anniversary Update this July was 1607).

What can we expect to see in March? Well, at this point it is unknown what kind of features Microsoft is bringing to Windows in the so called Redstone 2 (RS2) update but according to The Verge we might see HomeHub software which enables remote control over smart home technology. We will keep you posted of any reliable sounding rumors which we'll most probably get during the upcoming months.

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