Month: December 2020

Sabrina Spellman and the good people of Greendale face their most terrifying adversary yet as otherworldly beings seek to bring about the end of all things in the official trailer for the fourth and final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The Netflix series is based on the comic book series of the same name, a part of the Archie Horror imprint.

(Some spoilers for prior seasons below, most notably the S3 finale.)

As we've reported previously, the show was originally intended as a companion series to the CW's Riverdale—a gleefully Gothic take on the original Archie comic books—but Sabrina ended up on Netflix instead. The show retains some of the primetime soap opera elements of Riverdale but it incorporates more full-blown horror without bowing to the niceties imposed by network television. As I wrote earlier this year, "Ultimately, the best thing about The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is how gleefully and unapologetically the show leans into its melting pot of the macabre. It's quite the high-wire act, exploring serious themes while never, ever taking itself too seriously—and never descending into outright camp."

Enlarge / Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (credit: Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

The United States Department of Justice sued Facebook on Thursday arguing that the social media giant discriminated against US workers by giving preference to Facebook workers on H-1B visas who wanted to transition to permanent jobs at the company.

The H-1B visa program lets foreign workers work at a US company for three years. It can be renewed once. After that, an employer can ask for permission to offer the immigrant a permanent job under the Department of Labor's PERM certification program. But the employer is supposed to first advertise the job to see if any Americans are available. Only if no qualified Americans apply can the job go to the immigrant.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department argues that Facebook's hiring practices made a mockery of these requirements. Most Facebook jobs are advertised online, and job seekers can apply online. In contrast, Facebook overwhelmingly placed its legally mandated ads for PERM jobs in print publications. Candidates were required to submit their applications by mail.

Enlarge (credit: BioWare)

Casey Hudson, BioWare's general manager, and Mark Darrah, the executive producer of the Dragon Age franchise, are both leaving the company before the end of the year, BioWare announced today.

EA executive Laura Miele announced the departures in a corporate blog post. "I want to personally thank Casey and Mark for everything they have done for the BioWare community, and particularly for our players," Miele wrote. "They will always be an essential part of the studio's history, we appreciate their many contributions, and we look forward to seeing what they’ll each do next."

Leaving is "not an easy decision to make," Hudson said. Hudson served as project director on the Mass Effect trilogy before departing BioWare in 2014. He returned in 2017 to take on the role of general manager.

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  Open Google Maps and you'll soon see this card, which you can swipe up for the feed. (Also, Google, a Pixel 1 skin from 2016? Really?) [credit: Google ]

Google Maps is getting a bunch of new features this week, so it's time for a roundup! The first feature is definitely one nobody asked for: the new "Community Feed," which is clearly trying to turn Google Maps into a social network. Google's blog post says that "Every day, people submit more than 20 million contributions—including recommendations for their favorite spots, updates to business services, fresh reviews and ratings, photos, answers to other people's questions, updated addresses and more." So now Google Maps is getting a News Feed full of all these reviews and updates.

Google's sales pitch reads "The feed shows you the latest reviews, photos and posts added to Google Maps by local experts and people you follow as well as food and drink merchants, and articles from publishers like The Infatuation." All of these updates are in the style of a social network, with the author at the top, a "follow" link for the author, and the ability to "like" posts. The only thing they're missing are the comments!

To show how serious Google is about this Google Maps Social Network thing, it is putting the community feed front-and-center in the interface. When you open Google Maps, the community feed card peeks up from the top of the screen, right on the main page of Maps. You just swipe up on it to read the latest updates. If you're not on the main page of Maps, the community feed lives under the "explore" tab, the first tab on the Google Maps tab bar. This also looks like a great spot for ads.

Enlarge / WarnerMedia dealt another blow to struggling movie theater owners by announcing it will release its entire 2021 slate of films simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. (credit: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images)

Just a few weeks ago, we learned that Wonder Woman 1984—whose release has been delayed multiple times in the face of continued theater closures due to the pandemic—will keep to its new December 25 theater release date. The catch: it will also debut on HBO Max that same day. Now WarnerMedia has announced that it will follow a similar concurrent digital/theater launch plan for all the movies slated for release in 2021, Variety reports. It's yet another staggering blow to movie theaters still struggling amidst a raging pandemic that shows no sign of slowing down, particularly in the United States.

"After considering all available options and the projected state of moviegoing throughout 2021, we came to the conclusion that this was the best way for WarnerMedia's motion picture business to navigate the next 12 months," said CEO Jason Kilar in a statement. "Our content is extremely valuable, unless it's sitting on a shelf not being seen by anyone. We believe this approach serves our fans, supports exhibitors and filmmakers, and enhances the HBO Max experience, creating value for all."

Warner Bros.' 2021 slate of films will be available to HBO Max subscribers for 31 days, after which they will only be playing in theaters. Once the traditional time has elapsed between theater and home release, the films will be available to rent via the usual online platforms (Amazon, iTunes, or Fandango). The current slate includes The Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah, Tom & Jerry, Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, In the Heights, Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad, Reminiscence, Malignant, Dune, The Many Saints of Newark, King Richard, Cry Macho, and Matrix 4.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | skaman306)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general is investigating the government's use of cell phone location data obtained without search warrants.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a division of DHS, "has paid a government contractor named Venntel nearly half a million dollars for access to a commercial database containing location data mined from applications on millions of Americans' mobile phones," five Democratic US senators said in October.

"CBP is not above the law and it should not be able to buy its way around the Fourth Amendment," the senators told Inspector General Joseph Cuffari while requesting an investigation into "CBP's warrantless use of commercial databases containing Americans' information, including but not limited to Venntel's location database."