Geek News

There's a good chance you've seen a classic GIF and wondered just where it came from. But where do you start looking if the answer isn't obvious, and you don't want to comb through a dedicated website? If you use Twitter, you just have to ask. Filmmaker Matthew Cherry has launched an informal #GifHistory project where he'll track down the source video for a GIF, whether it's by himself or with the help of others. The source of that blinking reaction GIF (spoiler: it's former Giant Bomb staffer Drew Scanlon) may be a quick tweet away. We wouldn't treat #GifHistory like an AI assistant -- there's only so much a few humans can do. Even so, an effort like this might be more important than it seems at first glance. GIF creators seldom provide context in the first place, and when they do it's frequently buried deep in a web forum (assuming there's even an archive at all). Projects like this not only satisfy curiosity, they help explain and p...

A number of organizations and websites are planning an online day of action meant to garner more support for a Senate vote that would reverse the FCC's removal of net neutrality protections . The Senate is currently one vote away from overturning the FCC's decision and the day of action aims to convince one more Senator to vote in favor of protecting net neutrality. Taking place on February 27th, Operation: #OneMoreVote is already backed by companies like Tumblr, Etsy, Vimeo, Medium, Imgur, Sonos, Namecheap and DuckDuckGo. Groups behind BattleForTheNet.com, which include Fight for the Future, Demand Progress and the Free Press Action Fund, are calling for the demonstration. They've backed similar events before such as last year's net neutrality Day of Action and 2012's online protest against SOPA. Groups participating in Operation: #OneMoreVote will display alerts on their websites encouraging visitors to call, email and tweet their Senators and Representativ...

YouTube this afternoon detailed new policy changes going into effect after the latest controversy featuring YouTube creator Logan Paul, who had advertising temporarily suspended on his account today over videos featuring the abuse of a dead animal. YouTube has been reportedly working on these policy guidelines since the start of the year, as CEO Susan Wojcicki said earlier this month that one of her company’s goals in 2018 was to create clear policies to punish creators who do “something egregious that causes significant harm” to the community at large. The changes are straightforward: YouTube says it reserves the right to strip a channel of its ability to serve ads and its access to premium monetization programs like Google Preferred... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2EUFaMC"

Space This probably isn't covered under Elon Musk's warranty... SpaceX successfully launched a Tesla Roadster into space—but what will happen to it up there? via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2C9HMmG"

Google has reached a deal to end Getty Images' European complaint over photo copyrights, and it's quite likely that you'll notice the effects. A new agreement between the two will see Google obtain a "multi-year" license for Getty's photos in its products in exchange for reforming its approach to copyright in image search. Google will do more to highlight copyright attribution for the photos you find, so you'll know whether or not you'd need to pay for a picture. It will also pull "view image" links for pictures to reduce the number of direct downloads. In the European Commission complaint, Getty had accused Google of effectively being a one-stop piracy shop: you could easily download and view copyrighted photos without visiting the host site or understanding the legality of a download. Google has long had an option to filter photos by licensing rights , but that only helps if you already intend to honor image permissions. The changes li...

If you're any kind of media nerd you know about VLC, the software video player that can handle just about any format or codec you throw at it. It's also on a ton of platforms, like macOS, Windows , Linux and even Xbox One . Now the ubiquitous app has a brand new version that supports hardware decoding for 4K and 8K playback, more 360-degree video and 3D audio, HDR and HDR tone-mapping, streaming to Chromecast and more. Code-named after Terry Pratchett's fictional Lord Vetinari , VLC 3.0 will offer the new features across all major platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Apple TV and Chrome OS (along with Windows, Mac and Linux systems). Venturebeat reports that the new version fixes more than 1,500 bugs, shares the same code across platforms, and has been in the works for three years. The release also supports 10bit video, audio passthrough for HD audio codecs and will let you browse local network and network-attached storage (NAS) drives for media. Other h...

Waymo and Uber has reached a settlement in their self-driving car case. The announcement came as a big shock, even though I wrote yesterday that Waymo’s case was looking oddly weak . Parties are free to settle in the middle of trial (heck, they can settle while the jury is considering a verdict, and they can settle even after the verdict is out) but it’s pretty rare. For one thing, it’s hard to think about negotiating when you’re busy prepping for trial the next day. For another thing, if you were going to settle, you probably should have done it before. It’s pretty messy to call off the boxing match in the middle of the third round. Taking any case to trial — let alone such a high-profile case — is messy and exorbitantly expensive, and... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2nVwj5b"

LG's V30 smartphone arrived last fall as a strong flagship with notable flaws, but we loved how much it suited the vlog life. Rumor has it that LG will announce a new model at the upcoming Mobile World Congress: The V30s, a largely similar phone equipped with a new AI-powered camera. Per the rumor mill ( ETNews via Phone Radar ), the V30s' AI camera would work with an "LG Lens" functionality similar to Google Lens on the Pixel 2 or Bixby Vision on Samsung's Galaxy S8. In other words, point the phone at an object and the camera will recognize it and provide on-screen context. It's unclear if that extends beyond AI recognition to the heights of assistanceship that Samsung's and Google's AI-plus-camera platforms aspire to be. Scuttlebutt also noted that the LG V30s should offer 256GB of internal storage, the same as the hideously expensive 2 million won ($1,800) V30 Signature Edition and double the 128GB cap of the stock LG V30. The new model w...

Earlier this week, a portion of iOS source code was posted online to GitHub , and in an interesting twist, a new report from Motherboard reveals that the code was originally leaked by a former Apple intern. According to Motherboard , the intern who stole the code took it and distributed it to a small group of five friends in the iOS jailbreaking community in order to help them with their ongoing efforts to circumvent Apple’s locked down mobile operating system. The former employee apparently took “all sorts of Apple internal tools and whatnot,” according to one of the individuals who had originally received the code, including additional source code that was apparently not included in the initial leak. The plan was originally to make... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2skO0ke"

It’s the latest battle for equal rights in China, but it won’t be the last Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2sjObvT"

Amazon Studios has a head executive once again. Back in October, the film and TV production division's previous chief Roy Price had resigned days after he was publicly accused of sexual harassment. Today, NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke was named as his replacement, and is expected to remain at the network until she transitions into her new position heading Amazon Studios. Amazon chose Salke from a pool of female executives; The company had deliberately focused on considering accomplished women for the top position in the wake of Price's departure. The decision will close a difficult chapter for the studio: News surfaced last August that Amazon was investigating Price after TV producer Isa Hackett reported that he'd made explicit and inappropriate remarks while both were promoting Amazon's show The Man In The High Castle at San Diego Comic-Con 2015. But it wasn't until Hackett gave details of the encounter in an interview last October that Amazo...

It was less than a week after Logan Paul’s post-scandal return to regular vlogging that YouTube ”temporarily” suspended ads on his channel. The company’s decision reflects its promise to investigate further consequences for Paul specifically, as well as policies that would punish creators who do harm to the YouTube community. In a statement to The Verge , a spokesperson said the decision was not made lightly: “We believe he has exhibited a pattern of behavior in his videos that makes his channel not only unsuitable for advertisers but also potentially damaging to the broader creator community.” It’s no surprise that YouTube would give Paul’s channel extra scrutiny following the blowup, and yet his inability to amend his behavior to... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2EerHSG"

VLC is one of those open-source gifts to humankind that we certainly don’t deserve. A lightweight, bloat-resistant, stable, and endlessly compatible piece of software that we mostly use to play back pirated movies. The brand-new 3.0 “Vetinari” update to VLC adds an incredible number of features . It has HD10 support. It does HD audio passthrough. It’s hardware accelerated on all platforms, which gives it enough horsepower to do 4K and 8K playback on regular phones and computers. It can Chromecast videos that aren’t natively supported by Chromecast. It works with Blu-ray Java menus! It’s even optimized for the iPhone X’s notch. But, most importantly: VLC 3.0 adds support for HD DVD .evo files. So long, PowerDVD! Now I can watch my mint... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2FXV5cj"

Facebook will soon be home to a half-hour dramedy series starring Elizabeth Olsen, Deadline reports. The show is currently untitled, but was formerly known as Widow , and is thought to be about a young widow who's reconnecting with people from her past while she deals with the loss of her husband. It was created by Kit Steinkellner ( Z: The Beginning of Everything ) and Switched at Birth creator Lizzy Weiss will serve as showrunner. Facebook Watch has quite a bit of sports content , both games and reality shows with pro athletes , but Facebook said last year that it was willing to spend $1 billion on original programming in 2018. So far, the company has announced a Kerry Washington-produced drama called Five Points and a show called Sacred Lies produced by two of the people behind True Blood . Olsen is another substantial get for Facebook, which is looking to compete with other platforms like Netflix and Hulu. "I couldn't be prouder of the group we have brought t...

We've got great news this week for nation-state employees tasked with using social media to spark a class war in previously stable democracies! Facebook is patenting technology to decide if its users are upper, middle or working class -- without even using the usual marker for social class: an individual's income (the patent considers this a benefit). Facebook's patent plan for " Socioeconomic Group Classification Based on User Features " uses different data sources and qualifiers to determine whether a user is "working class," "middle class," or "upper class." It uses things like a user's home ownership status, education, number of gadgets owned, and how much they use the internet, among other factors. If you have one gadget and don't use the internet much, in Facebook's eyes you're probably a poor person. Facebook's application says the algorithm is intended for use by "third parties to increase awaren...

Gadgets These $30 headphones can go a long way—just don't tell your audiophile friends. A cheap pair of headphones can be a great investment, even if you're a music snob. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2nQybgf"

Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, proposed a settlement of $500 million to Uber earlier this week, but the ride-hailing company’s board of directors rejected the deal, according to a report from Reuters , which was confirmed by sources familiar with the case. On Friday, the two companies settled their acrimonious lawsuit over stolen self-driving car secrets. The price tag: a much more reasonable $245 million in Uber stock, and a promise not to use Waymo’s trade secrets in any of Uber’s autonomous technology. This wasn’t the first time Uber turned up its nose at a proposed settlement from Waymo. The Google spinoff had originally sought at least a $1 billion and a public apology from Uber last year before the trial... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2EUeU50"

Logan Paul, the YouTube star who came under fire recently after posting a video of a corpse , is at the center of yet another controversy. This time around, Paul is facing backlash for uploading a video in which he's seen shooting two lifeless rats with a Taser gun. As if that wasn't enough, in a now-deleted tweet he joined the Tide Pods internet challenge, suggesting he'd eat one for every retweet he got. Perhaps that's just his sense of humor, but Paul should have known that everything he does from now on will be heavily scrutinized. Yet, somehow he thought it would be a good idea to show his viewers a display of animal cruelty and to promote edible chemicals. This comes only about a week after Paul's first public interview since the issue with his "Suicide Forest" video in January , which he subsequently took down and apologized for in a second video. Paul went on ABC's Good Morning America and told host Michael Strahan he was just "a good ...

Today, Getty Images and Google announced the forming of a multiyear global licensing partnership , nearly two years after Getty filed a competition law complaint against Google with the European Commission. As part of the partnership, Google will be modifying its image search to improve attribution of contributors’ work. The changes will also include making copyright disclaimers more prominent and removing view image links to the image URL. The April 2016 complaint, which Getty has since formally withdrawn, accused Google of creating galleries of “high-resolution, copyrighted content,” and of “promoting piracy resulting in widespread copyright infringement.” Getty also accused Google of distorting search results in favor of its own... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2ERuu15"

It’s no secret that Apple is cooking up some type of augmented reality hardware at its Cupertino headquarters. CEO Tim Cook has broadly hinted at the company’s ambitions to deliver a head-mounted display or smart glasses device at some point in the future. More recently, Cook said that the “the technology itself doesn’t exist” to make augmented reality goggles at the level of quality Apple desires, suggesting the company may at hard at work rethinking conventional approaches to try and come up with a unique way to tackle the hurdles involved. A new patent application , published today with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and detailed by Slashgear , sheds new light on Apple’s intended milestones for such a device — even if... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2nUnbh2"

Last March, Razer put forth a way to earn points that could be redeemed for the company's peripherals like keyboards and mice. All you needed to do was to launch games via Razer's Cortex desktop software and play up to five hours of eligible games each day. Unfortunately, this "Paid to Play" initiative is now at an end, at least temporarily. Razer will suspend the program beginning on March 1, based on what the company calls negative feedback from the community. It's unclear what specific complaints Razer is responding to, though one forum member hints that people were re-selling gear earned with the virtual zSilver currency on Ebay. The virtual currency itself isn't going away, though. You can still earn zSilver if you grab Razer gear using zGold (another virtual currency that you buy with real money), actively contribute on Razer Insider, log in daily on Razer Cortex, sync your Steam account with Cortex: Deals and subscribe to the deals newsletters. ...

Facebook is expanding its roster of original video content. The social media site has ordered a dramedy series starring Avengers: Infinity War star Elizabeth Olsen, according to Deadline . The 10-episode series is the latest in a string of acquisitions for the social media site, which has been working to develop its own content for its Watch platform . The half-hour show is reportedly about a young widow (Olsen) who is dealing with the loss of her spouse, while at the same time reconnecting with people from her past. The series was created and written by Z: The Beginning of Everything writer Kit Steinkellner, while Switched at Birth’s Lizzy Weiss will serve as showrunner. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook was... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2Ee7lcq"

Last month, many major airlines enacted a ban on “smart luggage” with non-removable lithium-ion batteries. However, according to Steph Korey, the CEO of luggage company Away, airlines have been prohibiting smart luggage even if it has a removable battery and should be allowed under the new policy. In an internal email sent the Away team, Korey says there has been confusion with airlines as to which bags are and are not allowed. “Some airline employees have prohibited passengers from carrying on their carry-ons with the battery inside,” she writes. “Unfortunately, this isn’t just a few isolated incidents — over the past several weeks, we have heard from hundreds of customers regarding incidents where airline employees have made it clear... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2EPnBgN"

At its Communities Summit in Europe today, Facebook launched its Communities Leadership Program , an initiative meant to "invest in people building communities." The social network has pledged "tens of millions of dollars," including up to $10 million in grants that will fund initiatives proposed by individual awardees. Up to five people will be selected for residencies, while up to 100 will be chosen for a fellowship program. Residents will get up to $1 million for their proposals, while fellows will receive up to $50,000 for specific community initiatives. The company will also expand its Community Leadership Circles program, which is like a Meetup for local members of the neighborhood, as well as add more people to its Groups for Power Admins. It's not clear whether you have to have started a group on Facebook to be eligible for the grants, but the company's statement does say it wants to "empower leaders from around the world who are building co...