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Discovery could launch its own streaming service. CEO David Zaslav (above) said that he's considering bundling the 17 channels his company picked up in last year's Scrips Networks Interactive acquisition into a service that'd cost between $5 and $8 per month. Speaking at the Television Critics Association event in LA this week, Zaslav said there wasn't a timeline in place yet for the launch but seems confident that whenever it happens, it'll be a hit. AdWeek writes Zaslav boasted about his company's popularity among female viewers, for instance. Food Network, HGTV, ID and TLC are four of the top five cable networks amongst women, and as such Discovery Inc. has 22 - 25 percent of the female audience any night of the week -- pretty hard to ignore if you're an advertiser. This is something Discovery has been working on for a long time. Ne...

Science The cast of 'Teen Titans Go! To the Movies' find out what their powers could do in real life. In this sneak peek of their new series, the PopSci Kids interview their pals the Teen Titans and learn about lasers! via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2OpHmjk"

Space Mars is at its closest and clearest right now. You know you want to look at it. Though news has been trending about the blood moon for weeks now in the U.S., it will only be visible to people in the Eastern hemisphere . And though a “blood moon” is… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2v8GWVX"

Charter cable company acquired Time Warner Cable in a 2016 merger, becoming one of the largest TV providers in the country. Re-branded as Spectrum, the company introduced a streaming option last year. New York, however, hasn't been impressed with the company's performance, and has now kicked Spectrum out of the state and rescinded its approval for the merger. The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) says that Spectrum repeatedly failed to meet deadlines, skirted its obligation to serve rural communities, had unsafe practices in the field, failed to fully commit to it obligations under the merger agreement and has purposefully hidden performance metrics from. "These recurring failures led the Commission to the broader conclusion that the company was not interested in being a good corporate citizen and that the Commission could no longer in g...

Verizon introduced its own mobile VPN today called Safe Wi-Fi, which will hide your IP address when you use public networks. Safe Wi-Fi only works for Verizon customers on iOS and Android and it costs $3.99 monthly per account to cover up to 10 devices. Currently, Verizon is offering the first 30 days as a free trial. To get the VPN, just log into your My Verizon app and head to "Products and Devices." Then scroll down to Safe Wi-Fi. As of this writing, the feature has not appeared yet on my iOS app that's been updated to the latest version, so it's not clear if it's just hard to find or if the feature is still rolling out. Interestingly, the VPN also blocks targeted ads, so it's worth asking whether the company's many websites like... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2LSFVZ7 ...

When you read the news that they put a baby on the blockchain , your reaction makes you one of two types of people. Either you think, Mon dieu, is there anything the magical fairy dust known as blockchain can't solve ? Or you think: Surely this is child abuse . For the past few years, techies have frothed and proselytized over the potential salvation of blockchain , the tech behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. So it's hard to even know what babies and blockchain could even have to do with each other. Typically, outside of grifter circles, blockchain is associated with vaporware , shady fraudulent ICO's , or solving things that aren't suited at all for blockchain's "distributed ledger" system. Oh, and largely solving things that aren't even problems . Rather than try and part the foolish with their actual money, for once the crypto...

Russian hackers targeted the campaign of Sen. Claire McCaskill in the Kremlin's first identified attempt at interference this midterm election season, The Daily Beast reports . "While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that [Russia thinks it] can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I've said it be fore and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully," Missouri Democrat McCaskill said in a statement . It appears that Russia's GRU intelligence agency was behind the attempted infiltration, which was carried out last August. The scheme was similar to one allegedly perpetrated by the GRU's Fancy Bear hacker group against Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta in 2016. GRU allegedly sent emails to targets, claiming that they had to change their Microsoft Exchange password. Each email had a different li...

Discovery is considering launching its own direct-to-consumer streaming service, according to statements made by the company's CEO, David Zaslav, at an industry event yesterday. The bundle, which would charge customers between $5 to $8 dollars per month, would encompass all of Discovery's networks — including the Food Network, HGTV, TLC, and more. It's an idea that's still in the earliest of stages, according to a report in Adweek . Whether the service will be based solely in the US, or would expand elsewhere still hasn't been announced — and Zaslav didn't hint at when the launch would happen. However, he did say that he was "encouraged" by other newcomers to the world of streaming, like AT&T's WatchTV service . Today, WatchTV holds 30... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2AfXQrD ...

When Google introduced routines to Assistant, it promised that you'd eventually have the option to schedule those routines instead of having to invoke them yourself each and every time. That feature is finally here -- Google has confirmed a Droid Life report revealing that scheduled routines are now reaching users. If you have an Assistant-equipped smart speaker , you can use the Home app to make multi-step actions repeat on specific days. You could adjust your lights and play music when you get up for work on weekdays, for instance. The company told Engadget that the feature is currently available only to smart speaker users in the US, all of whom should have access within a week. This won't be of much help if you're only using Assistant on your phone. All the same, this is an important response to Amazon, whose Alexa helper has supported sched...

New York is officially kicking internet and cable provider Spectrum, aka Charter, out of the state after the company failed to deliver on its fast internet promises. The state required Spectrum to roll out high-speed internet across underserved rural areas when it merged with Time Warner Cable in 2016. The company failed to do so after two years, and now the state is not only forcing the company to cease operations by revoking its approval of the 2016 merger (the approval was contingent on Charter expanding the Spectrum network), but is also seeking $3 million in penalties. Spectrum has to keep operating, uninterrupted, for 60 days while the state finds a new internet provider to service customers. It's unclear what Spectrum is planning... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2NKVH8U ...

Netflix has renewed Altered Carbon for an eight-episode second season, Deadline reports, and Anthony Mackie ( Captain America: Civil War , The Hurt Locker ) will take over the lead role of Takeshi Kovacs. Joel Kinnaman ( House of Cards , The Killing ) played the lead in season one, but because the series is set in a future where consciousness and the mind can be transferred between physical bodies , characters were always expected to be played by multiple actors. Takeshi Kovacs is a former rebel who's reawakened centuries after his last body, or "sleeve," died. #AlteredCarbon has been renewed for Season 2! pic.twitter.com/MF9bRyoeu4 — See What's Next (@seewhatsnext) July 27, 2018 Also joining the team is Alison Schapker ( Scandal , Fringe ) as executive producer and co-showrunner. The series was recently nominated for two Emmys for it...