Month: December 2017

Enlarge / "Spock, the funny thing about the Beta Quadrant is the little differences. They've got the same shit over there they got here, but it's just a little different." (credit: CBS via Getty Images)

This evening, both Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter dropped reports that would cut through any diehard sports- or politics fan's timeline. High aesthetic, foul-mouth dialogue auteur Quentin Tarantino reportedly has an idea for a new Star Trek movie, and he's already approached Trek cinema careholder JJ Abrams. Both entertainment outlets confirm the two now plan on bringing a writers room together for Paramount to flush things out.

Tarantino's resume speaks for itself, from Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction through Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. He's one of the most distinct modern filmmakers with an easy to recognize (and parody) style. The director has worked with other creators' IPs before (Jackie Brown comes from the great Elmore Leonard, for instance), but a Trek film would represent the first time he dabbled in an established major movie franchise. (Deadline notes he has dabbled in TV franchises like CSI and ER.)

Of course, an idea and a writers room promise does not guarantee a movie. Tarantino already has a Charles Manson-ish movie in progress for 2019, while Abrams recently agreed to come back to the Star Wars franchise with Episode IX. And Paramount already expressed a desire for a fourth Chris Pine-led Trek installment to follow up the ehhh that was last year's Star Trek Beyond. The studio did not respond to requests for comment from either Hollywood publication, so there's no clarity on whether Tarantino's interest would impact those plans.

Enlarge / Apple CEO Tim Cook looks on as the new iPhone X goes on sale at an Apple Store on November 3, 2017 in Palo Alto, California. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

According to a top Irish official, Apple has agreed to to pay Ireland around $15.4 billion in back taxes.

“We have now reached agreement with Apple in relation to the principles and operation of the escrow fund,” Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told reporters before a meeting with European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, per Reuters.

"We expect the money will begin to be transmitted into the account from Apple across the first quarter of next year."

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

A new software update for the Apple TV, tvOS 11.2, arrived today. It adds the previously delayed sports section to the TV app and allows users to change the rules about how the Apple TV 4K deals with standard dynamic range (SDR) content on high dynamic range (HDR) TVs. The update also offers users a solution to frame-pacing problems that occurred as a result of the gadget's default behavior of forcing all content to play at 60Hz.

Arguably the most notable addition is a new setting that allows you to force the Apple TV to match its video output settings to the content you're watching on a case-by-case basis.

When we reviewed the Apple TV 4K, we were not thrilled that, in order to keep the output HDR at all times on TVs that supported it, the device used Apple's own processing to convert SDR to HDR. This resulted in subpar SDR image quality with some content. Similarly, the Apple TV 4K automatically output content at 60Hz to 60Hz TVs, even if the source content was, say, 24Hz, or 50Hz.

Enlarge / A diagram on the PlexCoin website illustrates the cryptocurrency's revolutionary architecture. (credit: PlexCoin)

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday announced that it was taking action against an initial coin offering (ICO) that the SEC alleges is fraudulent. The announcement represents the first enforcement action by the SEC's recently created cyber fraud unit.

In recent months, the SEC has been wrestling with what to do about ICOs. US securities laws impose a number of requirements on anyone who offers new investments to the public. ICOs—in which a company offers the public cryptocurrencies that could appreciate in value the way Bitcoin has—look a lot like securities offerings. But most ICOs have ignored the SEC's requirements.

At the same time, the SEC is aware that new cryptocurrencies could become an important source of innovation. And some experts argue that many new cryptocurrencies—those that serve a useful function beyond their potential to grow in value over time—are not securities, legally speaking.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Nicholas Rigg)

With a vote to eliminate net neutrality rules scheduled for December 14, the Federal Communications Commission apparently still hasn't released thousands of documents containing the responses ISPs made to net neutrality complaints.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request in May of this year for tens of thousands of net neutrality complaints that Internet users filed against their ISPs and for the ISPs' responses to those complaints. The FCC initially stalled in releasing all of the complaints, saying it would be too "burdensome" for FCC staff. The commission eventually complied with some portions of the request and released more than 60,000 pages worth of consumer complaints.

But the ISPs' responses to consumer complaints are mostly still hidden from public view. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat who wants to keep net neutrality rules, asked why the FCC's Republican majority hasn't released all the documents:

After years in the gaming wilderness, Capcom announced that the venerable Mega Man franchise will be coming back with Mega Man 11 for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch in late 2018.

A short gameplay trailer showed that this would be the first core, numbered Mega Man game to feature 3D characters and environments, rather than hand-drawn 2D sprites. Character designer Yuji Ishihara said in a 30th anniversary announcement stream that the company initially considered a more pixelated style for the new game, but that it "felt a little bit off from what gamers were probably looking for." He added that he wanted to "create the illusion of 3D space without a 3D environment" so that players would feel the same familiarity with the classic Mega Man gameplay.

Jonathan Gitlin

The new Infiniti QX50 might not seem the most natural fodder for these pages, but its engine surely is. Just introduced to the world at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the crossover is powered by the world's first production variable-compression ratio engine. It's a 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder called the VC-Turbo, and it represents a huge leap forward for internal combustion engine technology.

By altering the distance that the piston head travels within its cylinder, the VC-Turbo can operate with a compression ratio as low as 8:1 (for maximum performance) or as high as 14:1 (for maximum efficiency). The engine is as powerful as the older naturally aspirated 3.5L VQ V6 in the previous QX50 and makes more torque, but it's also smaller, lighter, and a lot more fuel-efficient. It can even switch between the Atkinson and regular combustion cycles.

Over the summer, Netflix likely ruined the day for some sci-fi fans when the company announced its biggest original genre series, Sense8, wouldn't be returning for a third season. Though fan outcry pushed the streaming service to commit to a one-off, two-hour finale for the Wachowskis' series, the cancellation still left a sci-fi sized hole in the company's programming going forward.

That changes on February 2, 2018. Today, Netflix released the first trailer for Altered Carbon, a 10-episode series based on the Philip K. Dick award-winning 2002 novel from Richard Morgan.

Here's how the company describes the premise: