Kia hat die europäische Version des elektrischen Soul vorgestellt. Der koreanische Hersteller bietet das Fahrzeug hierzulande nicht mehr mit Verbrennungsmotor, dafür aber mit zwei E-Motorisierungen und Akkuvarianten an. (Elektroauto, Technologie)
Kia hat die europäische Version des elektrischen Soul vorgestellt. Der koreanische Hersteller bietet das Fahrzeug hierzulande nicht mehr mit Verbrennungsmotor, dafür aber mit zwei E-Motorisierungen und Akkuvarianten an. (Elektroauto, Technologie)
Volkswagen beteiligt sich laut Medienbericht mit fast zwei Milliarden US-Dollar an Fords Plänen zur Entwicklung autonomer Fahrzeuge. So sollen die hohen Kosten für die Entwicklung eigenständig fahrender Autos abgefedert werden. (VW, Technologie)
Volkswagen beteiligt sich laut Medienbericht mit fast zwei Milliarden US-Dollar an Fords Plänen zur Entwicklung autonomer Fahrzeuge. So sollen die hohen Kosten für die Entwicklung eigenständig fahrender Autos abgefedert werden. (VW, Technologie)
Sony erweitert sein Objektivangebot für das Vollformat um eine Festbrennweite mit 135 mm Brennweite und einer Lichtstärke von f1,8. Das Objektiv soll schöne unscharfe Bereiche für die Porträtfotografie erzeugen. (Objektiv, Sony)
Sony erweitert sein Objektivangebot für das Vollformat um eine Festbrennweite mit 135 mm Brennweite und einer Lichtstärke von f1,8. Das Objektiv soll schöne unscharfe Bereiche für die Porträtfotografie erzeugen. (Objektiv, Sony)
Apple continues to refine subscriptions for devs in hopes they’ll adopt the model.
Apple introduces a revised Mac App Store at WWDC 2018 in San Jose, California. (credit: Valentina Palladino)
For a while now, Apple has been encouraging app developers to consider subscriptions as a key revenue source, and the company is introducing some new options for developers that it hopes will make the option more attractive. In the past few days, Apple has informed developers that they will now be able to target current and recent subscribers with promotional rates on subscriptions. That means subscribers will be able to offer discounts to try to get you back if you lapse, or they might try to entice you to stay if you're considering leaving.
Developers could previously offer limited-time subscription discounts but only to new users. The new model is available in recent beta releases known as iOS 12.2, macOS Mojave 10.14.4, and tvOS 12.2, and it is likely to emerge as the final public release for each. Apple will facilitate three different types of offer for developers who want to retain or regain subscribers.
TPhones with three rear cameras are becoming common. Even that weird Energy Power Max 18K that was unveiled today has three rear cameras. But right now there’s only one smartphone with five rear cameras: The Nokia 9 PureView. It probably won̵…
TPhones with three rear cameras are becoming common. Even that weird Energy Power Max 18K that was unveiled today has three rear cameras. But right now there’s only one smartphone with five rear cameras: The Nokia 9 PureView. It probably won’t be the last though. Nokia developed the phone using multi-camera technology from Light, and […]
People already get the names wrong, so the USB group has doubled down on bad naming.
Enlarge/ USB Type-C cable and port. (credit: USB-IF)
USB 3.2, which doubles the maximum speed of a USB connection to 20Gb/s, is likely to materialize in systems later this year. In preparation for this, the USB-IF—the industry group that together develops the various USB specifications—has announced the branding and naming that the new revision is going to use, and... it's awful.
USB 3.0 was straightforward enough. A USB 3.0 connection ran at 5Gb/s, and slower connections were USB 2 or even USB 1.1. The new 5Gb/s data rate was branded "SuperSpeed USB," following USB 2's 480Mb/s "High Speed" and USB 1.1's 12Mb/s "Full Speed."
But then USB 3.1 came along and muddied the waters. Its big new feature was doubling the data rate to 10Gb/s. The logical thing would have been to identify existing 5Gb/s devices as "USB 3.0" and new 10Gb/s devices as "USB 3.1." But that's not what the USB-IF did. For reasons that remain hard to understand, the decision was made to retroactively rebrand USB 3.0: 5Gb/s 3.0 connections became "USB 3.1 Gen 1," with the 10Gb/s connections being "USB 3.1 Gen 2." The consumer branding is "SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps."
“I do not condone child pornography, white supremacy, or racism in any shape or form.”
Enlarge/ The hero of THQ Nordic's Darksiders series, as seen here fused with the Baghdad Bob meme, seems appropriate after today's THQ-8chan blow-up. (credit: Aurich Lawson)
Game publisher THQ Nordic concluded a rollercoaster of a promotional Tuesday by apologizing for its use of the controversial imageboard site 8chan as a host for an "Ask Me Anything" Q&A session.
On Tuesday morning, THQ Nordic's Twitter account announced and linked to the AMA, saying, "We're doing an 8chan AMA and we have no idea why." The session had been announced nearly a day prior on 8chan's "/v/" sub-board by its own moderators, but it was THQ Nordic's official announcement that garnered wider attention—and drew responses about the site's reputation for either outright hosting child pornography or skating on the edge of state, federal, and international laws on the matter.
For most of the industrial era, a nation's carbon emissions moved in lock step with its economy. Growth meant higher emissions. But over the past decade or so, that has changed. Even as the global economy continued to grow, carbon emissions remained flat or dropped a bit.
It would be simple to ascribe this trend o the explosion in renewable energy, but reality is rarely so simple. Countries like China saw explosive growth in both renewables and fossil-fuel use; Germany and Japan expanded renewables even as they slashed nuclear power; and in the United States, the federal government has been MIA, leading to a chaotic mix of state and local efforts. So it's worth taking a careful look into what exactly might be causing the drop in emissions.
That's precisely what an international group of researchers has now done, analyzing what's gone on in 79 countries, including some that have dropped emissions, and others that have not. The researchers find that renewable energy use is a big factor, but so is reduced energy use overall. And for both of these factors, government policy appears to play a large role.
AMD has been shipping Ryzen Mobile processor for laptops since late 2017, and one of the key selling points of these chips is that they’re supposed to have better built-in graphics than their Intel counterparts. But it turns out that those Ryzen …
AMD has been shipping Ryzen Mobile processor for laptops since late 2017, and one of the key selling points of these chips is that they’re supposed to have better built-in graphics than their Intel counterparts. But it turns out that those Ryzen chips with Radeon Vega graphics weren’t living up to their full potential, because […]
The number of leaked screeners of Oscar-nominated movies has dropped to a new low. Just seven films made have their way to pirate sites thus far. There’s no single reason for this decline but, despite the screener dip, there is no shortage of high quality leaks from other channels.
The Oscars is the most watched awards show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world.
On Sunday, Hollywood’s finest gathered at the red carpet once again. Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Panther, Green Book, and Roma emerged as the big winners, all winning multiple awards.
Elsewhere in Hollywood, there may have been a celebration of a different kind as well. The months leading up to the Oscars is usually a time when some of the most high-profile leaks take place. However, this year there were fewer screener leaks than before.
Many of the screeners that appear on pirate sites are linked to the Oscars. The films are sent out to voting members and, despite tough security measures, some always fall into the hands of outsiders.
This also happened this year. With “Green Book” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the first pirated DVD screeners made their way onto various pirate sites in December. However, the rate at which the screeners have leaked this year is significantly lower than before.
Relying on data released by Oscar piracy watcher Andy Baio, we see that screeners for only seven of the nominated* films leaked before the awards ceremony. That’s roughly half of what we were used to seeing during previous years.
As can be seen below, the number of leaked screeners has gradually declined over the past decade-and-a-half, from a high of 29 in 2007 to seven this year.
Screener leaks of nominated films by Oscar night
We should be cautious of drawing strong conclusions, but there are some hints that could explain the drop. According to the pirate release group EVO, which leaked “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the security on the DVD they got their hands on was stronger than before.
“From what I’ve seen, doing Ralph, the DVD protection on it was increased, since it was a nightmare to crack,” a EVO team member informed us previously
Hive-CM8, the group that was responsible for most leaks in recent years, also signaled a possible reason for the slowdown. The group apparently lost access to its mail and website, which meant that many important contacts are gone as well.
“Since we lost our site/mail with no backup and with it all contacts gone, it’s quite complicated to get things going this year. We want to get things back as they were, but it will take time,” they said early on.
It’s also worth noting that there’s a limited number of groups getting involved in these screener leaks. Perhaps it’s harder to get access nowadays, or other groups simply decided to avoid these high profile releases, as they are associated with a higher risk.
Finally, the state of the movie industry may also play a significant role in the decreased number of screener leaks. This is a point that was previously raised by Andy Baio.
Screeners are generally only released if there is no higher quality leak out already. Since release windows are getting smaller and WebRips and Web-DLs are more common, screeners are less relevant. This is also what we see in the data.
The graphs below show the number of leaked screeners dropped from more than 75% to under 25% over the past several years. However, the number of high-quality leaks remained fairly constant, around or above 90%.
HQ leaks vs. Screeners
As a concrete example, Netflix’s Oscar nominee “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” was already out on pirate sites as a high-quality WebRip in November, before the screener version went out. Also, Netflix’s big Oscar winner Roma leaked in a high-quality format a few days after the first screener was sent.
When high-quality releases are already available, release groups have no incentive to put a screener version out. Hence, there are fewer screeners by definition.
While there’s no doubt that the number of leaked screeners at the Oscar night was at an all-time low this year, it’s hard to pinpoint a single reason. Perhaps all the factors mentioned contributed to the drop, one way or another.
In any case, it’s unlikely that we will ever see 29 leaked Oscar nomination screeners in one year again, as happened in 2007. However, the widespread availability of high-quality leaks shows that piracy remains a challenge for Hollywood.
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* – Foreign film and documentary categories are not included
Kia hat die europäische Version des elektrischen Soul vorgestellt. Der koreanische Hersteller bietet das Fahrzeug hierzulande nicht mehr mit Verbrennungsmotor, dafür aber mit zwei E-Motorisierungen und Akkuvarianten an. (Elektroauto, Technologie) 
Volkswagen beteiligt sich laut Medienbericht mit fast zwei Milliarden US-Dollar an Fords Plänen zur Entwicklung autonomer Fahrzeuge. So sollen die hohen Kosten für die Entwicklung eigenständig fahrender Autos abgefedert werden. (
Sony erweitert sein Objektivangebot für das Vollformat um eine Festbrennweite mit 135 mm Brennweite und einer Lichtstärke von f1,8. Das Objektiv soll schöne unscharfe Bereiche für die Porträtfotografie erzeugen. (
The Oscars is the most watched awards show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world.
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