Geek News

Roku is planning its own Amazon Channels-style à la carte marketplace for video subscription services, sources told Variety . Anyone using the company's devices could sign up for and watch them without needing to download apps for each. The marketplace may reach consumers in the coming months. Variety further explained that at some point, the service will collect some paid subscription services within a dedicated channel to make all their content accessible without needing to fire up different apps. Roku has had HBO Now and CBS All Access on its devices for years, though they've needed their own dedicated apps. Its marketplace won't just collect content from multiple providers -- it will let users browse and sign up for them from within the platform, too. As described, it seems similar to Amazon's Channels, though that service is only available to Pri...

Tesla may have more trouble on its hands than layoffs and production challenges . Reuters said it had obtained a company-wide email from Elon Musk stating tha t an unnamed employee had conducted "extensive and damaging sabotage." The staffer reportedly altered code in a company operating system and, more worryingly, had shared "large amounts" of sensitive info to unknown outsiders. There was no word on whether or not this alleged saboteur was working with another outfit or was going rogue. Musk didn't narrow down any specific culprits, but noted that his firm had a lot of enemies that "want Tesla to die," ranging from rival automakers to Wall Street short-sellers to fossil fuel companies. Tesla said it had no comment on the apparent plot. If there's evidence to support it, though, it could prove to be a massive headache for...

Airbnb co-founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk have issued a joint statement this afternoon condemning President Donald Trump's policy of separating immigrant parents from their children at the US-Mexico border. The statement, issued publicly on Twitter , is both a plain and harsh rebuke of the Trump administration's policy, which has caused nationwide outcry as stories about and photos of distraught children and parents being forcibly taken away from one another have dominated the news. "Ripping children from the arms of their parents is heartless, cruel, immoral and counter to American values of belonging," the statement reads. "The US government needs to stop this injustice and reunite these families. We are a... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2t5LTPe ...

Add Microsoft to the list of companies whose government deals are provoking outrage both inside and outside their offices. The Redmond firm sparked a wave of criticism on social networks after users discovered a January blog post noting that the company's Azure cloud service team was "proud to support" US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has come under fire for policies that include separating children from parents. Microsoft briefly took down the post on June 18th in response, but the company has since described it as "a mistake" and replaced the content. In a follow-up post, Microsoft stressed that it was "dismayed" by ICE's "forcible separation" of children, and said it didn't believe technology that could directly aid in this process (such as face recognition and natural language processing) was in ...

There will soon be quite a few ways for you to experience the world of Stranger Things , as books, a video game and now a line of comics are all in the works. Entertainment Weekly announced today that Netflix has teamed up with Dark Horse for the new comics, the first series of which is scheduled to launch in September. "Dark Horse is known for championing stories and storytellers," Dark Horse President Mike Richardson said in a statement. "We are so excited to work with Netflix to bring the world of Stranger Things to comics." While we saw what happened in Hawkins after Will Byers disappeared to the Upside Down in season one, we never found out what happened to Will himself. But that's going to change with the release of these comics -- a four-issue miniseries will give us a look into Will's experience and what went on while he was trapped...

After an announcement posted on June 8th , China's anti-pornography office has cracked down on ASMR videos on video streaming platforms, telling services to "thoroughly clean up vulgar and pornographic ASMR content." Since then, ASMR videos have disappeared from all major Chinese streaming platforms. ASMR, which stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, refers to the sounds of people whispering, tapping or stroking a microphone, or eating foods to create a sense of relaxation for their audiences. While some ASMR videos involve sexual content and dress by hosts, the community at large has often pushed back against that association . In a 2015 paper that studied ASMR media consumers in the United States and Western Europe, researchers... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2t6rXeY ...

If you've ever received a ZIP or RAR file in Gmail, you'll have noticed that you can peek to see what's inside without having to download the file. If you've been hoping for a similar feature elsewhere, you're in luck: Dropbox has updated how it handles previews for a bunch of file types. You can explore a ZIP or RAR file's structure, and preview thing s like images without having to waste time and bandwidth on downloads if the contents aren't useful. PDF and PowerPoint previews are getting a boost, too. A refreshed sidebar lets you hop to a certain page or slide when previewing those files, which is super useful if you're looking for something specific and know the page it's on. You also preview DWG files and give some feedback even without having AutoCAD installed. That could save designers and their clients a lot of time and h...

More than 22,600 open container orchestration and API management systems discovered on the Internet. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2ysJPWi If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

If you've read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — which I generally assume is most of the global population — you're probably familiar with the Elder Wand, a powerful wand wielded by both Dumbledore and the dark wizard Voldemort over the course of the series. The CELLder Wand is not the Elder Wand. Where one is a fictional, legendary magical artifact of ultimate power, the CELLder wand is a Kickstarter campaign for a possibly fictional hunk of plastic that surrounds a fairly ordinary 3,200 mAh USB battery pack. I'm going to be honest here: I am an extremely dedicated Harry Potter fan, and I can't fathom ever wanting this. As a replica wand, it's awful — made of plastic and not wood, overly large and chunky, and with tiered... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2t7X360 ...

Amazon may not have much choice but to address mounting criticism over its sales of facial recognition tech to governments . The American Civil Liberties Union has delivered both a petition and a letter from 17 investors demanding that Amazon drop its Rekognition system and exit the surveillance business. While the two sides have somewhat different motivations, they share one thing in common: a con cern for privacy. Both groups are worried that Amazon is handing governments surveillance power they could easily use to violate civil rights, particularly for minorities and immigrants. They could use it to track and intimidate protesters , for instance. And for the shareholders, there's an added financial incentive to leave the business behind. They're concerned the technology could "raise substantial risks" for Amazon, hurting its stock price by castin...

Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, hosts of the weeknight talk show Desus & Mero , are leaving Viceland and heading to Showtime. The two will host the network's first weekly late-night talk show on which they'll chat with guests about pop culture, sports, music, politics and other topics. "We're honored and excited to be joining the Showtime family," Desus Nice said in a statement . "The brand is stronger than ever and we look forward to continuing to make amazing authentic television that will make your wiggington explode." The duo launched a podcast called Desus vs. Mero in 2013, which later turned into a web series, and their popular Bodega Boys podcast followed in 2015. In October 2016, their Viceland show Desus & Mero debuted, a series that's currently wrapping up its second season. The show is largely unscripted, instead r...