Новости за 26.11.2019

Phil Spencer, Xbox head honcho, said in a recent interview that Microsoft has no plans to push Xbox Scarlett into the virtual reality space — because apparently no one is waiting for them to do so. Spencer, speaking with Stevivor, was in part responding to a derisive remark he’d made in 2016, in which he dismissed VR available at the time as “demos and experiments.” While he said he doesn’t mean to diminish the work of VR developers, he said he still has reservations about what VR means for gamers... Читать дальше...

Huawei often offers some of its best deals through its Honor sub-brand, and this year seems no different. The company today announced the View30 and View30 Pro –  packing flagship specs and design at a palatable price. Well, at least in China. With Huawei phones still not allowed to use Google services, it’s not clear when V30 family will make its way west (the ‘View’ series is normally sold as the ‘V’ series in China). If and when the devices leave China, they’ll be competitive with other high-end devices. Читать дальше...

The head of a $230 billion investment fund is the latest high-profile individual targeted by Facebook’s Bitcoin fraudsters. Ho Ching, chief executive of Singapore‘s Temasek, has been featured in ads for a bogus cryptocurrency trading program, The Straits Times reports. The ads include logos of reputable local media outlets to boost their credibility, and promise incredibly lucrative returns on any investments made. One ad reportedly features a fake article that details a call between the head of a major bank and Ms. Читать дальше...

Welcome to CHEAP, our series about things that are good, but most of all, cheap. CHEAP! The holidays are coming up. So there’s no better time to plant your bottom on a sofa and playing games for endless hours? A sweet deal that will let you that. The PlayStation Pro 4 1TB bundled with Fortnite Neo Versa is available for just $299, down from $440. With this bundle, you also get 2,000 V-Bucks – an in-game currency for Fortnite which lets you buy outfits, gliders, pickaxes, emotes, and wrap. The console... Читать дальше...

From co-workers to neighbors to all those other casual acquaintances you see every day, there are probably plenty of people in your life who you’d like to gift with a little something this holiday season. Of course, once you’re buying presents for workmates, your kid’s teacher and the mailman, all that holiday good cheer really starts to add up.

When one talks about young Africans using smartphones, the dominant narrative is that these gadgets serve mostly as platforms for connection so that users can communicate and share greetings and information via text and images. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Signal take pride of place in that description, despite their murkier side. What has perhaps been overlooked is how smartphones are also affecting other facets of young people’s lives. One area is the ever-growing community of sports betting in Africa. Читать дальше...

The Stantinko botnet, which is thought to have infected at least 500,000 devices worldwide, has now added cryptomining to its toolset — and it’s been using YouTube to evade detection. According to researchers at cybersecurity solutions provider ESET, the botnet’s operators are now distributing a module which mines privacy-focused coin Monero. The botnet, which is known to have been active since at least 2012 and typically targets users in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, had previously resorted to other methods... Читать дальше...

A cryptocurrency startup that settled with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its illegal token sale has shut down. Washington-based Gladius Network said last week that it had “ceased operations effective immediately and has filed for dissolution.” “Despite our best efforts, the company no longer has funds to continue operations. Our code will remain available on GitHub for the next three months. We still believe in the power of our technology, and if anyone in the community is... Читать дальше...

Can anyone recall the ads they saw when they last opened their browser? Almost no one does. With increasingly more ads on all platforms, people have become blind to advertising, or worse — almost half of the population is now using ad blockers. The ad industry is in crisis, struggling to reach their audience, let alone engage them. Brands need to figure out a way to appeal to a new generation of customers who are more receptive to experience than intrusive advertising. Luckily, immersive technologies like VR/AR might just be the answer. Читать дальше...

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day. Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Baudriallard used to say: The long and winding road awaits! Bitcoin Price We closed the day, November 25 2019, at a price of $7,146. That’s a minor 1.50 percent increase in 24 hours, or $106. It was the highest closing price in one day. We’re still 64 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017). Читать дальше...

Last week, the brother of the estranged OneCoin figurehead Dr Ruja Ignatova pleaded guilty to money laundering and fraud charges. He also accused the founder of a racehorse investment firm of stealing $110 million (€100 million) from the scheme. Amer Abudlaziz’s investment firm Phoenix Thoroughbreds issued a statement yesterday “categorically” denying that it was funded by money stolen from the OneCoin scam, The Irish Field reports. However, the US government says that in early 2017, $110 million... Читать дальше...

Last week, over 200 Google employees and supporters protested outside the tech giant’s HQ offices in San Francisco over the suspension of two activist employees.  Rebecca Rivers and Laurence Berland were put on leave for allegedly violating the company’s policy by accessing and sharing confidential documents — fellow Google employees contested the company’s reasoning, saying Berland and Rivers had done so only because they were involved in various activism efforts within the company. I was just informed by @Google that I am being terminated. Читать дальше...

The idea of growing babies outside the body has inspired novels and movies for decades. Now, research groups around the world are exploring the possibility of artificial gestation. For instance, one group successfully grew a lamb in an artificial womb for four weeks. Australian researchers have also experimented with artificial gestation for lambs and sharks. And in recent weeks, researchers in The Netherlands have received €2.9m ($4.66m) to develop a prototype for gestating premature babies. So... Читать дальше...

One of the more impressive demos from Tesla‘s Cybertruck unveil was a tug-of-war contest where it pulled a Ford F150 uphill. Effective of a clip as it was, many have doubted the contest, indicating the Cybertruck was helped by its higher weight, increased friction, or some other variable. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson even chimed in: Electric vehicles are famously heavy – over both axles. It’s all about the weight borne by spinning tires. That’s the source of traction, not the engine power. ... Читать дальше...

One of the biggest selling points for Tesla’s new Cybertruck is that its glass is supposed to be near indestructible. So it didn’t go so well when during its live presentation, throwing a steel bass at the truck‘s window caused it to, umm, get destructed. Twice. To be fair, the steel ball Tesla was throwing at the window didn’t actually go through the window as it presumably would have on a normal car door. Tesla also demonstrated a naked sheet of the material emerging unscathed during the presentation... Читать дальше...

Netflix today announced it was reopening Manhattan‘s Paris Theatre indefinitely, and is making it into “a home for special Netflix events, screenings, and theatrical releases.” The theater currently hosts a limited run of Netflix Original Marriage Story. So yeah, the company that’s disrupting the tradition of theatrical film releases is now in the theater business. Netflix revealed it’d signed a lease agreement to “save the beloved institution” which it praised as “a symbol of prestige cinema.” Ted Sarandos... Читать дальше...