Month: December 2016

A report suggests Apple is working with Hollywood studios to bring movies to iTunes as soon as two weeks after their theatrical release. If the report proves true, cinema chains will be up in arms over the most serious threat yet to their exclusivity window.

Traditional release windows give cinema chains up to 17 weeks of exclusive showing rights to the latest movies. The length of this window has shortened over the last couple of years, as Hollywood has identified that exclusivity windows often encourage users to seek illegal ways to watch the movie at home.

Apple has also been looking for a way to get movies sooner to iTunes, as the company seeks to increase its already impressive revenue figures for its content distribution business.

A report by Bloomberg this week suggests that the Cupertino based tech company may have already opened talks with Hollywood studios to bring forward the release window, to as soon as two weeks after the movie's initial theatrical opening.

Bloomberg has confirmed that talks have already been held with 21st Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Universal on this matter.

Among the areas of concern for Hollywood would be the security of such a service, to prevent the unauthorised recording and sharing of early release titles. The other major stumbling block could be the cost to end users, as studios are weary of cannibalizing existing theatrical showing profits. According to Bloomberg, those with knowledge of the matter suggests that time limited rentals of new releases could cost up to an eye watering $50.

Cinema chains are expected to be resistant to any moves to cut short their exclusivity window, with some threatening to boycott the theatrical showing of any movie that has a shortened theatrical window. But the U.S's third largest chain, Cinemark Holdings, has recently expressed interest in coming up with a compromise solution.

[via Bloomberg]

Enlarge (credit: KOMUnews)

Leading hospital groups teamed up to warn President-elect Trump this week that repealing the Affordable Care Act could spark an “unprecedented public health crisis,” and cost the hospital industry billions of dollars.

The two hospital trade groups—the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH)—even commissioned a study by an outside economics consulting firm to put real numbers to the losses. Their study, conducted by the Dobson | DaVanzo firm, modeled what would happen if the government enacted the ACA-demolishing legislation introduced by Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price (R-Ga.); the legislation was vetoed by President Obama in January.

The study’s verdict: 22 million people would lose insurance by 2026, which would cost hospitals $165.8 billion. And, because the legislation wouldn’t undo certain payment cuts created by the ACA, hospitals would lose an additional $102.9 billion.

NASA

John Glenn, the first American to fly into orbit around the planet Earth and later a US senator for 24 years, died Thursday at a cancer hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95 and the last of the living Mercury Seven astronauts.

Although he made history as an astronaut, that did not define Glenn as an American. Before joining NASA, he was a marine fighter pilot and decorated hero during World War II and the Korean War. After NASA he served four terms as a US senator, often focusing on issues not related to spaceflight, such as the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. "Overall, I think his legacy is one of public service," said John Logsdon, a space historian.

Enlarge / Being forced to miss those lower coins on the left to get the higher ones makes me twitch a little inside.

As a serious, fan-site-creating Mario fan for the vast majority of my life now, I've played a lot of weird Mario games. Even without including the "Mario plays yet another sport" style of spin-offs, there's everything from the well-known weirdness of Super Mario Bros. 2 to the tiny, early monochrome weirdness of Super Mario Land to the melon-infused, cloying cuteness of Yoshi's Story to the coin-drenched oddity of New Super Mario Bros. 2,

I've dived deep into plenty of games that twist Mario's basic run-and-jump-and-explore formula to the point of near-unrecognizability. After playing a four-level demo of the mobile Super Mario Run at an Apple Store this morning, though, I think I've experienced the weirdest official take on Mario yet.

On the surface, Super Mario Run has all the trappings of a standard 2D Mario game—coins, goombas, koopa troopas, a jumpy mustachioed guy with a red hat and blue overalls. The graphics and sound assets seem to be taken directly from the New Super Mario Bros. series, and it all looks much better on the iPhone's retina screen than it ever did on the limited portable screens of the DS and 3DS.

Enlarge / Did they compete with the bots to get their tickets? (credit: Mat Hayward/Getty Images)

Using software bots to buy concert tickets will soon be illegal, thanks to a bill passed by Congress yesterday.

The Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act makes it illegal to bypass any computer security system designed to limit ticket sales to concerts, Broadway musicals, and other public events with a capacity of more than 200 persons. Violations will be treated as "unfair or deceptive acts" and can be prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission or the states.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), who sponsored the bill, told The Associated Press that he intends to "level the playing field" for people buying tickets.

Enlarge (credit: Klaus with K)

A former IT specialist at Expedia has admitted he used his privileged position to access executives' e-mails in an insider stock-trading scheme that netted almost $330,000 in illegal profits, prosecutors said.

During the two-year span that Jonathan Ly, 28, of San Francisco, worked at the online travel service, he accessed e-mail accounts belonging to the company's chief financial officer, head of investor relations, and other high-ranking employees, prosecutors with the US attorney's office in Seattle alleged in a criminal complaint filed late last week. The correspondence included upcoming earnings reports, a draft of an upcoming press release announcing Justice Department approval of Expedia's acquisition of competitor Orbitz, and other stock-moving developments that weren't yet public. Ly used the information to buy Expedia stock at a low price and then sell it after the disclosures went public at a much higher price.

"Beginning in 2013, and continuing through October 2015, Ly secretly and fraudulently accessed the contents of Expedia executives' computer files and corporate e-mail accounts in order to obtain material, non-public, and proprietary information belonging to Expedia without the knowledge and permission of the executives or Expedia," the complaint alleged. "Ly fraudulently obtained the information in order to execute a series of well-timed and lucrative securities trades in Expedia options. As a result of his scheme, Ly obtained through his securities trades net profits in excess of $331,000."

Enlarge / Volunteers walk among headstones before placing wreaths at the 2015 National Wreaths Across America event at Arlington National Cemetery December 12, 2015 in Arlington, VA. More than 50,000 volunteers helped to place remembrance wreaths on 230,000 gravestones at Arlington on Saturday. AFP PHOTO/MOLLY RILEY / AFP / MOLLY RILEY (Photo credit should read MOLLY RILEY/AFP/Getty Images) (credit: Getty | MOLLY RILEY)

For the first time since 1993, the life expectancy of Americans declined in 2015, dropping from 78.9 years in 2014 to 78.8 years, according to newly released government data. The death rate rose by 1.2 percent.

The single-year decline in life expectancy does not a trend make—it could just be a blip—but the breakdown of the data indicates trouble for middle-aged white people and black men, possibly linked to nationwide trends in obesity and opioid abuse, plus socioeconomic conditions.

That speculation is backed up by research from last year, which found rises in the death rate of middle-aged whites due in part to spikes in suicides, drug overdoses, and alcohol poisoning. At the time, researchers speculated that a blend of health problems, poor healthcare, and despair over unemployment and the financial crisis could be driving up deaths.