Month: February 2019

We had our doubts when FX first announced it was adapting the New Zealand cult hit "mockumentary" What We Do in the Shadows for TV. But the positive buzz has been building since a surprise screening at NYCC last October, and now we have the first full trailer (and a release date). Verdict: the FX version looks to be just as clever and witty as the film. Count us among those keen to see the full series.

Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement wrote, directed, and starred in the original 2014 horror-comedy, playing vampire roommates Vladislav (Clement) and Viago (Waititi) in Wellington, New Zealand. Given their nocturnal nature, they and their vampire friends haven't adapted to modern life particularly well, and their mishaps as they struggle to navigate mundane trivialities in the 21st century are the source of much of the film's deadpan humor. What We Do in the Shadows garnered a solid cult following after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, ultimately earning $6.9 million—a decent showing given its modest $1.6 million budget.

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  "He awakens!" Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) is the human "familiar" to Nandor (Kayvan Novak). [credit: YouTube/FX ]

The FX adaptation is set in New York City, because where better for vampires to thrive than the city that never sleeps? The vampire roommates this time around are Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), his lover Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and their human "familiar" Guillermo (Harvey Guillen). Plot-wise, the roommates must prepare for the arrival of an ancient vampire called The Baron while dealing with an "energy vampire" (Mark Proksch), who finds a natural target in office environments: "We either bore you with a long conversation or we enrage you."

Enlarge (credit: US Marine Corps)

Nicholas Weaver made no bones about it: he really, really dislikes cryptocurrencies.

Speaking at the Enigma security conference in Burlingame, California, last week, the researcher at UC Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute characterized bitcoin and its many follow-on digital currencies as energy-sucking leeches with no redeeming qualities. Their chief, if not only, function, he said, is to fund ransomware campaigns, online drug bazaars, and other criminal enterprises.

Meanwhile, Weaver said, there's no basis for the promises that cryptocurrencies' decentralized structure and blockchain basis will fundamentally transform commerce or economics. That means the sky-high valuations spawned by those false promises are completely unjustified. He also said investors' irrational exuberance just adds to the unviability of cryptocurrency.

Enlarge (credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

According to the family of an Arizona woman who was killed by a self-driving Uber car last year, the City of Tempe is liable for her death and owes $5 million each to her husband and her daughter.

News of the lawsuit was first reported by the Arizona Republic, which noted that Elaine Herzberg's survivors have previously settled a similar lawsuit with Uber itself.

This case, however, makes the claim that the city was negligent when it set up a median on Mill Avenue—where the accident occurred—that contained an X-shaped "brick pathway cutting through the desert landscaping that is clearly designed to accommodate people to cross at the site of the accident."

Enlarge / A user tries out features in ARKit. (credit: Apple)

The beta for iOS 12.2 contains a change to mobile Safari that could have implications for the advertising and marketing worlds, as well as for Web-based augmented or virtual reality more generally.

In the beta, a toggle labeled "Motion & Orientation Access" exists in the Safari privacy settings panel. This toggle determines whether sites visited in the mobile Safari browser will be able to access the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad’s gyroscope or accelerometer. This setting currently defaults to "off," which means users would have to have the foresight to navigate to the Settings app and enable it before being able to use AR experiences from the Web.

Two Apple employees on Twitter elaborated on the change. Apple software engineer Ricky Mondello wrote in a tweet thread recounting the various notes in the Safari 12.1 release for iOS: