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Following a Wall Street Journal report that Instagram will support longer videos of up to an hour in length, TechCrunch has heard it's planning a new hub for pro content. Similar to Facebook's Watch or Snapchat's Discover page the dedicated space would host shows and music videos in up to 4K resolution, and apparently just like Verizon's Go90 effort -- primarily formatted for vertical viewing. There's no word on how revenue for content creators might work, but the videos can support links to other sites where people can sell their merchandise. It's also unclear whether this will become a part of the existing Explore page, or something entirely new by itself. Sure, Snapchat already had Discover, but this time the source of Facebook's "inspiration" looks like an ongoing desire to compete with the likes of YouTube, and it can promise vid...

The Clash of NGC 3256 Marked by an unusually bright central region, swirling dust lanes, and far flung tidal tails, peculiar NGC 3256 is the aftermath of a truly cosmic collision . The 500 million year old clash of two separate galaxies spans some 100 thousand light-years in this sharp Hubble view . Of course when two galaxies collide, individual stars rarely do. Giant galactic clouds of molecular gas and dust do interact though, and produce spectacular bursts of star formation . In this galaxy clash , the two original spiral galaxies had similar masses. Their disks are no longer distinct and the two galactic nuclei are hidden by obscuring dust. On the timescale of a few hundred million years the nuclei will likely also merge as NGC 3256 becomes a single large elliptical galaxy. NGC 3256 itself is nearly 100 million light-years distant toward the southern sailing constellation Vela. The...

FIFA 18 players have been enjoying their own World Cup mode for a few weeks, but now FIFA Mobile has its own version of the event. From now until August 1st, folks can choose from 32 qualifying nations and play a unique campaign for the global competition. Fret not, countries that didn't make it to the world's stage (*cough* USA *cough*): Like the console version, players can take one of 16 non-qualified nations through their own separate story mode. The special event will also have a VS Attack mode for player-versus-payer competition between actual and fantasy matches along with bonus challenges for in-game rewards. Matchups keyed to the World Cup are also coming to FIFA Mobile , which reward folks for accurately predicting real-world match results. via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2Jl2zZ2 ...

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The effects of the ransomware attack against Atlanta's government were much worse than it seemed at first glance. To start, city Information Management head Daphney Rackley rev ealed at a meeting that more than a third of Atlanta's 424 necessary programs were knocked offline or partly disabled, and close to 30 percent of those affected apps were "mission critical" -- that is, vital elements like the court system and police. The government initially reckoned that essential programs were safe. Department leaders had elaborated on the damage earlier in the week. The City Attorney's office lost all but six of its 77 computers and 10 years' worth of documents, while the police lost their dash cam recordings. Crucially, the cost of cleaning up the attack is likely to balloon as well. Rackley estimated that Atlanta would need another $9.5 mil...

Drone-based surveillance still makes many people uncomfortable , but that isn't stopping research into more effective airborne watchdogs. Scientists have developed an experimental drone system that uses AI to detect violent actions in crowds. The team trained their machine learning algorithm to recognize a handful of typical violent motions (punching, kicking, shooting and stabbing) and flag them when they appear in a drone's camera view. The technology could theoretically detect a brawl that on-the-ground officers might miss, or pinpoint the source of a gunshot. As The Verge warned , the technology definitely isn't ready for real-world use. The researchers used volunteers in relatively ideal conditions (open ground, generous spacing and dramatic movements). The AI is 94 percent effective at its best, but that drops down to an unacceptable 79 perce...

Playing games in virtual reality can feel kinda anti-social, even when your buddies are in the same room. You're probably locked into a world only you can see properly, and you'll likely be wearing headphones for true immersion. But, if you want to jump into a virtual experience with your buddies in the same place, you'll get to do so at Dave & Buster's arcades very soon. The chain has teamed up with HTC Vive to bring VR multiplayer gaming to all of Dave & Buster's 114 locations across the US and Canada starting June 14th. HTC says the setups will deliver "new and exclusive experiences." It seems as though Jurassic World VR Expedition is first up, after The Virtual Reality Company announced the launch of the game at Dave and Buster's on the same date. You and three friends can strap into a motion simulator and rescue some ...

Marcus Hutchins, the cybersecurity researcher credited with helping stop last year's WannaCry virus , is facing four new charges related to malware he allegedly created to steal financial information. Now, the FBI says Hutchins lied about creating the malware called Kronos, and that he conspired with others to promote it online, including via YouTube. The researcher, also known as MalwareTech, is now facing ten charges following a revised grand jury indictment in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. After it was filed, Hutchins asked his Twitter followers to consider donating to help with legal fees and called the charges "bullshit." One of his attorneys said the new charges were "meritless," and insisted they "highlight the serious flaws in this prosecution." Hutchins has pleaded not guilty, though prosecutors say he admitted creati...

The next time an NBA referee makes a call you hate, you can do more about it than screaming at your TV. Some of the basketball league's refs are live-tweeting Game 3 of the finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors once it starts at 9PM Eastern. They're promising to both react to calls during the game and answer viewers' questions. You're not about to influence the outcome, of course, but this could help explain the rationale behind a reversed charge call instead of leaving the decision a mystery. Refs have been been responding to decisions throughout the playoffs, but this is the first time they've set out to follow a game from start to finish. It's easy to see why they'd try this kind of interaction, mind you. The National Basketball Referees Association has been making a point of connecting to fans throughout...

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A recently discovered strain of router malware appears to be much worse than thought. Cisco Talos has learned that VPNFilter can not only render devices unusable, but can bypass the SSL encryption you often see on the web. A module in the malware intercepts outgoing web requests to turn them into non-secure (that is, basic HTTP) requests, helping it steal sign-ins and other se nsitive data when possible. It can also use man-in-the-middle attacks to insert hostile JavaScript into outside websites, and target devices beyond the router itself, such as PCs on the local network. The rogue software targets many more devices than first thought, too. While a late May report focused on a handful of routers and network storage devices from Linksys, MikroTik , Netgear, QNAP and TP-Link, the vulnerability is now known to affect both more models from those brands as well as ...