Carbon Chemist

Tag: streaming

  • This Digital Archivist Believes Hollywood’s ‘Competition Era’ Is Over

    This Digital Archivist Believes Hollywood’s ‘Competition Era’ Is Over

    [ad_1]

    On the subject of money and ownership. Earlier this year, following the cancellation of several Black TV shows, you wrote, “studios and streamers no longer care about loyalty or enduring legacy.” Why does Hollywood, in 2024, still have such a difficult time aligning its legacy with its business?

    Well, here’s the thing, the legacy business, they feel as if that work is behind them.

    But isn’t that what Hollywood is built on?

    Yes, but to create new legacy and new inroads, to them, that is less important than extracting every possible dollar from existing IP. It’s more expensive, quote-unquote, to create something than it is to rest on existing laurels. The beginning of the end of this, to me, was when Warner Brothers and UPN merged into The CW. Now, 20 years later, the CW is a shell of itself. In mergers, you’re no longer competing with someone to make the best content. With the merger of Warner Brothers and Discovery, they own, what, one fourth of TV? That competition era of television—it’s over.

    Which has a direct impact on the creative side.

    The legacy-driven model only happens now in vanity. So a lot of stars are using their own distribution or first-look deals to produce things. And these are the majority of people who are allowed to create. So what does Hollywood mean when the only people who are given freedom are people who have already done the taxing work—if they have at all—to become stars? Hollywood is not in the business of guarantee. Everything must be proven before it’s even created.

    And if that’s the case, so many people get left out.

    The fight for nostalgia as currency comes in a moment where some of the highest rated things are non-white. That’s not an accident. It’s as if television, media, and filmmaking are becoming manifest destiny in the wrong ways. And there’s nothing sadder.

    Perhaps we need better frameworks.

    People have upended industries to chase Netflix. And no one has caught up. Everything has fallen in this chase. What’s happening now is, people are only duplicating the best and the most watched. There is no diversity in how things are being delivered.

    You once described “post-2020 Black media as akin to a modern day blaxploitation boom.” It got me thinking about platforms like Tubi and AllBlk, which are sometimes mocked as being a kind of streaming ghetto, but those same streamers have also given opportunities to young creators.

    Blaxploitation, as I was saying, makes way for Spike Lee, it makes way for the ‘80s independent Black movement that, of course, shapes everything we know about modern Black film and modern Black media. At every valley, there is a peak. It’s the nature of life. So what do I think is a head? We should be thinking about independent models that have existed before our current era. There are many ways to make media. With pilot season essentially dying, as the studios have announced, what are some ways that Black creators can forge together to make what they desire?

    I mean, I don’t know if I have the answers, but I do have the curiosity. And oftentimes curiosity and care—and leading with them—can transform how we understand history and the future.



    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • How the Cyber-Thriller ‘Red Rooms’ Became a Cult Classic Before It Was Ever Released

    How the Cyber-Thriller ‘Red Rooms’ Became a Cult Classic Before It Was Ever Released

    [ad_1]

    Digital piracy often gets a bad rap. Maybe it’s memories of those old “You wouldn’t steal a car” pre-roll ads that were a fixture in theaters. Maybe it’s the word “piracy.” But recent research suggests that uploading, downloading, and swapping movies illegally isn’t necessarily an impediment to a given title’s bottom line. One study found that word of mouth generated by illegal sharing of movies can actually increase box-office revenues. And for cinephiles who may be cut off (either financially or geographically) for the indie or art-house cinemas, piracy can prove essential—or at least a necessary evil. As Andy Chatterley, CEO of research firm Muso, told WIRED earlier this year, “The thing about piracy is, it’s really just people wanting to consume content. They’re not doing it for the act of piracy; they’re being driven by marketing on other things that drive legal consumption.”

    Smaller films like Red Rooms often find audiences in such less-than-legal circles. Lucas Tavares, 23, lives in a small town in Brazil. He obsessively follows film coverage on social media platforms like X and Letterboxd. Red Rooms first came to his attention over a year ago, when it premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. A few weeks later, he was able to scrounge a copy online. “Where I live,” he says, “it’s very hard to see smaller movies, and independent movies, especially if they are not American blockbusters. So I rely on torrents a lot.”

    For Henry Meeks, a 29-year old school teacher in Philadelphia, torrents and online piracy channels became essential during the Covid-19 lockdowns. With cinemas shuttered and film production all but halted, many cinephiles took the opportunity to dig deeper into older, harder-to-find films. “What I love about piracy,” Meeks says, “is that there’s tons of movies that have fallen out of distribution. There’s no Blu-ray. So it’s a really good archival practice. Stuff that I really can’t find anywhere, even if I wanted to buy it, is kept alive on those websites.”

    When Meeks heard some buzz about Red Rooms, he downloaded it and immediately shared it with friends on Plex: the freeware streaming-media service that allows users to amass and share collections of private media. This curation distinguishes private servers like Plex from the bigger, aboveground streaming services with their algorithmic recommendation systems. “Netflix and Amazon Prime have more movies than you could ever see,” Meeks says. “But it’s not really curated by a human.”

    Plante seems a little ambivalent about his movie’s success online. While he is embracing his movie leaking, he notes that building this sort of word of mouth was very much “not a strategy.” He says the film’s French-Canadian distributor insisted on dropping Red Rooms’ on Canadian video-on-demand services shortly after its theatrical premiere. “I told him that the day after it’s on iTunes in Canada, it’s going to be on freaking PirateBay,” he says, referring to the popular BitTorrent client.

    Of course, not everyone has the ability, or inclination, to download MP4 or AVI files of relatively obscure French-Canadian cyber-thrillers. Plante is confident the film’s upcoming wide release in US cinemas, on September 6, will help expand his movie’s niche, cultish appeal. Smaller movies like this tend to have a long life, moving through the international film festival circuit to bigger bookings in cinemas and to home video. Gray-web peer-to-peer file-sharing websites are just one place people can find the film.

    Still, Plante finds it totally appropriate that his movie about the internet’s underbelly has found an audience among people who wade in those same waters.“It’s a very online, very geeky film,” he says. “Of course people are going to torrent it.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Devs Told Streamers to Avoid Politics in Their Playthroughs. It Backfired

    ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Devs Told Streamers to Avoid Politics in Their Playthroughs. It Backfired

    [ad_1]

    Amid a long list of Twitch streams for Black Myth: Wukong, a new action role-playing game released this week, one stood out: “Covid-19 Isolation Taiwan (Is a Real Country) Feminism Propaganda.” The stream, run by a creator called Moonmoon, did not include anything out of the ordinary for a video game playthrough—just that one cheeky nod to a few topics the Chinese studio Game Science, which developed the game, would rather ignore.

    On platforms like Twitch and YouTube, streamers are flipping a metaphorical middle finger to a handful of restrictions given to some creators that were invited to review the game, which takes place in Ming-era China and is based on Chinese mythology. Just days after its launch, it’s already a massively successful game that’s drawn in more than 2.2 million concurrent players. According to market research firm Niko Partners, Black Myth: Wukong’s success “signals that Chinese studios are ready to compete directly with established Western and Japanese developers in the premium AAA space.”

    Shortly before Black Myth: Wukong’s launch, some streamers were given early codes to create content with the game—along with a few caveats. According to screenshots posted online, streamers who received these instructions were told not to “include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse” in their content, nor “use trigger words such as ‘quarantine’ or ‘isolation’ or ‘Covid-19′.” Furthermore, streamers were asked not to discuss anything about China’s game industry policies, opinions, or news.

    These guidelines were not cited as a condition to everyone who was invited to play the game early; Outlets like Polygon and Kotaku were given standard review embargoes without strict rules on what content they could not talk about, aside from spoilers. According to a report from Aftermath, while some streamers do often receive requests to avoid topics like politics, those asks are typically tied to sponsorships or paid contracts. Yet those restrictions—which appear to have come from the game’s publisher, Hero Games—are now backfiring, as even players who were not given any notes thumb their noses at guidelines they find ridiculous.

    Rui Zhong, a writer and researcher, streamed herself playing the game while discussing Journey to the West, the novel Black Myth is adapted from, as well as feminism in China and the country’s one-child policy. (Zhong has previously written about Chinese censorship for WIRED.)

    “What bothered me was that a lot of the streams pushing back against the game’s guidelines were very low-effort and played into stereotypical, surface-level impressions of Chinese politics and society,” Zhong tells WIRED. Misogyny in development, game spaces, and elsewhere are “not a uniquely Chinese problem. It’s not the only place where feminists are framed as man haters, as the devs have said.”

    An IGN report published last year uncovered a history of sexist and inappropriate comments made by Game Science’s employees and stakeholders. Cofounder Yang Qi has spoken about “how games made for women and men are completely different, due to their biological differences,” IGN reported; other examples include a technical artist discussing the possibility of masturbating to the game’s female snake spirit. Zhong, who was quoted in the IGN piece, told the publication that feminist organization in China was “very uphill,” with “crackdowns after labor organizing efforts, there’s been crackdowns over discussing marital problems, there’s been definitely crackdowns after people have accused prominent Chinese men of harassment, assault, or sexual misconduct, and the deck has been generally very stacked against them.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • How to Watch Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg at the Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony

    How to Watch Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg at the Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony

    [ad_1]

    The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will be remembered for a lot of things: drag performances, shameful allegations against some female athletes, swimming in the Seine, and, of course, incredible sporting achievements. On Sunday, the Games will add another memory to that list when Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform at the event’s Closing Ceremony in Los Angeles, officially handing off the Olympics from Paris to the 2028 host city.

    The 2024 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony is scheduled to begin Sunday, August 11, at 3 pm EDT. It will begin at Stade de France, north of Paris, run for just over two hours, and feature live and pretaped performances. For fans in the US, the events will be viewable on NBC (the Games’ sole distributor in the States) and Peacock, which have really been nailing this whole Olympics-watching thing this year. You can also stream the event on NBCOlympics.com.

    The Closing Ceremony festivities will take place despite a state of alert around live music events following a foiled terrorist attack targeting the Vienna leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour this week. According to a report in Variety, crowd control and security were a concern for local officials even before news of the planned attack in Austria broke. Variety withheld the location of the performances because of those fears.

    In addition to Southern California heroes Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Snoop (also an internet hero during the Paris Games), there are rumors that Tom Cruise will perform a stunt to transition the Olympics from their 2024 home to LA.

    The 2028 Summer Olympics will take place from July 14 to July 30 in Los Angeles.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Cambridge Audio Evo One Review: A Gorgeous High-End Speaker

    Cambridge Audio Evo One Review: A Gorgeous High-End Speaker

    [ad_1]

    Cambridge Audio’s 2021 Evo range of just-add-speaker streaming solutions—complete with color displays and sculptural detailing—was something of an aesthetic right turn for the London brand. After all, it’s spent years creating inoffensive hi-fi separates that sound bigger than the asking price would suggest. The original Evo systems were an attempt to lure in those customers who crave good sound, streaming convenience, and aesthetics, but who don’t want a vanilla-flavored Sonos or the bitter taste of seriously premium hi-fi.

    Cambridge Audio is late to the one-box streaming party. Brands like Naim, Sonus Faber, Bang & Olufsen all offer stand-alone systems with plenty of pizzazz and a premium price tag. But after three weeks living with the Evo One, I think the new Evo One deserves a seat at the top table. The 14-speaker system consists of 4 x 1-inch silk dome tweeters, 4 x 2.25-inch aluminium cone midrange, and 6 x 2.75-inch long-throw woofers. The combined total of 700 watts of Class D amplification means there’s enough power for a moderately raucous house party, but the volume is controlled and the detail precise. As such, the playback never feels forced or distorted, even if you’re pumping out neighbor-bothering beats.

    Great Setup

    In my house, where it competes against a Sonos system, Marantz HD-AMP1 amp, and Audio Technica AT-LP120XBT-USB turntable, and a procession of review speakers, streaming gadgets, turntables, and DACS, I was surprised by two things. Firstly, once set up via the StreamMagic app (Beta version), it never failed to connect, regardless of the streaming platform I chose. This is the sort of basic skill I can only dream of with Sonos. It should be simple. It should be as reliable as the on/off switch, but so often with streaming kit, it’s just not.

    And secondly, because it played what was requested without delay, it rapidly became the go-to choice for my family. Yes, some may have been guilty of streaming in less than perfect resolution, but even so, it gets two thumbs up for usability. The only issue I found while using it was with volume control in Spotify, where one press would increase/decrease by three or four big steps. It’s a niggle that can probably be easily sorted, but a niggle all the same.

    The Evo One also fitted my house like a glove, slotting into the corner (yes, yes, sound quality compromises in real life) beautifully. At 26.6 x 5.1 x 11.4 inches (675 x 129 x 29 centimeters) it does require you to find a generous amount of sideboard. My advice here is simple, however: Sell the tropical fish tank/Lego Millennium Falcon/Sonos and make some room.

    Back to the design for a moment. The Evo One is made, sorry, “crafted” from materials including aluminium, FSC-certified walnut, and 50 percent recycled plastic. The casing surrounding the speakers is certainly rigid—as is evident by the distortion-free performance—but special mention has to go to the flawless wood veneer. My sample was especially gorgeous, but being a real sliver of wood, each will be unique. It is a boxy unit though and lacks any curves or softness. Personally I like it, but I can appreciate why someone might find it a little clinical. The 6.8-inch display is also not a touchscreen, which might irk a few, but it’s bright, the buttons work just fine, and the option to enjoy photorealistic old-school VU meters is a treat. Watching them blip along to the music is a fun retro touch. You can also display the usual album artwork and track details, if your heart is cold.

    Rectangular audio device with small speakers and a screen sitting on a bright yellow shelf tucked away in a nook

    Photograph: Chris Haslam

    Fully Featured

    Streaming chops and general connectivity are, as you would hope for $1,500, suitably comprehensive. There’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, internet radio, TV eARC, Roon and UPnP support, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Deezer, Qobuz, AirPlay 2, and Chromecast all built in (with support up to 32-bit/192-kHz hi-res audio) and controlled using Cambridge Audio’s StreamMagic app and module. Now on its fourth generation, it’s a solid platform with good pedigree, sitting at the heart of the MXN10 and CXN100 network players and both the Evo 75 and 150 systems.

    There’s also external digital and analog inputs, including a solid built-in phono stage. This is a welcome extra, enabling you to easily plug-and-play your turntable without fuss. To finish, you also get a Stereo RCA, digital optical, USB-A, and Ethernet for bulletproof online connection.

    What you don’t get, however, is any out-of-the-box voice control via Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant. This feels like something of a misstep in 2024, but in reality, it can easily be added to the Apple Home or Google Home app and controlled with voice. Assuming you’ve got a Nest Mini or equivalent it’s possible to integrate it into a multiroom setup. And if you want Alexa control, an Echo Dot could be connected to either the BT or AUX input.

    Superb Sound

    This is the part of the hi-fi review where I would typically list all the peer-approved, chin-strokingly good music I listened to through using premium-tier high-resolution streaming platforms and the Evo One. Traditionally I’d mention some rock and acoustic stuff and key classical recordings, and something super basic to prove I’m not a total snob. Naturally I’ll then contradict myself by referencing the midrange subtleties of an obscure Will Oldham demo track.

    Rectangular audio device with small speakers and a screen

    Photograph: Cambridge Audio

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Twitch’s New DJ Program Has Flaws, But It’s the Best There Is

    Twitch’s New DJ Program Has Flaws, But It’s the Best There Is

    [ad_1]

    Other restrictions such as the lack of VODs (videos-on-demand/replays) or other promotional tools like clips are factors DJs need to consider. Many performers already don’t use the VOD service, to avoid potential strikes, but for some it’s another way to engage fans who can’t watch live. Twitch has confirmed that VODs are not covered by the existing licensing agreement, but the company claims it’s exploring other promotional tools. DJs who also host nonmusic streams are simply being told to run dual accounts with only one enrolled in the program.

    Despite these drawbacks, every DJ whom WIRED spoke with agreed that operating in a copyright gray area wasn’t good for anyone. Most also understood that Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, has obligations to rights holders. Clancy suggested as much in a blog post announcing the program. “It’s crucial that DJs understand the status quo on Twitch was not sustainable,” he wrote, “and any viable future for the community required we find a solution.”

    Solutions are what Twitch seems to be needing most these days. The company, you may have heard, is not making money. User growth seems to have stagnated, while revenue growth has slowed, according to documents recently reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. In January, it announced it was laying off 500 employees (approximately a third of total staff), a move that followed a purge of more than 400 people in March last year.

    According to Twitch, there are currently “tens of thousands” of DJs on the platform. This means, at best, DJs currently account for approximately 1 percent of active streamers—so attracting more to the platform is unlikely to be a panacea. But it is a growth area, fueled in large part by a wave of performers who joined during the pandemic, that the company clearly deems worth investing in.

    In terms of competition, Twitch doesn’t face much. Harris says he tried Mixcloud, but felt there was a lot of “bot” activity in the streams and the revenue split wasn’t favorable. TikTok and most other mainstream social media platforms suffer at least some combination of takedowns and demonetization for playing unlicensed songs. Kick, a direct Twitch rival, offers a far more favorable earnings split—95 percent going to the performer—but if Twitch can’t make money with its bigger cut, it raises questions over whether that ratio is sustainable.

    DJs, for their part, appear to welcome Twitch’s commitment to them, with most concerns directly proportional to their investment in the platform so far.

    “I haven’t got a lot to lose, to be honest, so I’m just seeing where it takes me,” Harris says.

    “Twitch is my main source of income,” says Colaway, a DJ who streams about 35 hours per week. “The supply of DJs on Twitch has grown extremely, so the likelihood of new DJs streaming full-time is very unlikely.” She added that she believed the program was still a step in the right direction and that she would be signing up.

    As for East, he says: “I plan on hopping onboard as soon as it goes live, just so that I’m in the game, and getting the feel of what’s happening.”

    “If I’m the guinea pig at that point, I’m the guinea pig,” East adds. “And I’ll take my lumps and bumps and hopefully keep on moving. The journey for me on Twitch has been amazing. It’s really the community that cements that.”

    Ultimately, Twitch has the best shot at making this work, if DJs can tolerate the inconveniences that going legitimate requires. As the embattled music industry pats down the pockets of the people who promote its artists, Twitch seems as well positioned as any platform to offer a resolution.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A Disney+ Password-Sharing Crackdown Is Coming in September

    A Disney+ Password-Sharing Crackdown Is Coming in September

    [ad_1]

    The House of Mouse is getting a renovation. In an earnings call on Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors that the company will begin a new password-sharing crackdown “in earnest” starting in September. Iger didn’t divulge how the company plans to limit password-sharing, but presumably this will mean the company will be on the lookout for logins outside of the subscriber’s home and prompt those suspected of sharing their accounts to pay a fee to do so. The announcement comes months before the company intends to increase monthly prices on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+—and their respective bundles—in October.

    What this means for most folks is higher bills and tougher decisions. As more and more streaming services enter the fray—and as many of those services also raise prices and/or introduce ad-supported tiers—people who love to watch things are increasingly left to figure out which two or three services they’re willing to pay 10 to 20 bucks a month for. Considering Disney has a pretty strong back catalog (Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars), as well as Hulu shows like The Bear and tons of sports on ESPN+, it’s likely many subscribers will shell out to keep the service—and cough up more to share their passwords.

    “The password-sharing crackdown has worked favorably for other streamers,” says Sarah Henschel, a principal analyst at Omdia who watches the streaming market closely. “It is a strategy that works well to grow revenue. However, it drives a lot of consumer frustration with streaming.” Put another way, subscribers are likely to stick around and perhaps even pay the extra fees to share their accounts, but it may mean they ultimately don’t keep every service.

    And hell, it worked for Netflix. Late last year, after a few shaky quarters and amid the streaming giant’s rollout of both ad-supported tiers and a paid sharing program, Netflix added 9 million new subscribers worldwide. It hasn’t really seen any major dents in subscriber numbers since. So far, it’s the only test case—Max seems poised to roll out its crackdown later this year or early next, and others have yet to test the waters—but it does indicate that paying to share a streaming account doesn’t always send people running for the hills. Or, at least, it hasn’t yet.

    “The password crackdown for Netflix—combined with its ad tier—has been a massive boon to subscriber growth,” says Wade Payson-Denney, an analyst at streaming industry tracker Parrot Analytics. In the year before the streamer started cracking down, Netflix’s global subscriber base grew by 11.8 million; in the four quarters after, that base grew by 39.3 million, according to Parrot. It could lead to similar growth for Disney.

    All Things Must Pass

    This isn’t the first time Disney has warned of such a crackdown. Last year, Iger hinted that the company was looking into limiting the practice; in February, the company said it planned to begin a paid sharing program, but then launched it in only a few markets, in June.

    Disney has been hustling to build up its subscriber base and turn a profit from streaming since it launched Disney+ in 2019. During the past three months, Disney+ netted only about 200,000 new subscribers, for a total of 153.8 million—small potatoes compared to the more than 270 million subscribers Netflix claims, but not bad, and a marked increase over last year. Meanwhile, Max is still looking to break 100 million.

    As part of Wednesday’s earnings announcements, Disney revealed its combined streaming offerings made money for the first time ever during the last quarter, bringing in an operating profit of $47 million. This is a sharp upturn; Disney’s streaming business lost $512 million in the third quarter last year. The recent profits largely came thanks to ESPN+.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • NBC’s Olympics Broadcast Isn’t Just Addictive. It’s a New Era of Streaming

    NBC’s Olympics Broadcast Isn’t Just Addictive. It’s a New Era of Streaming

    [ad_1]

    Peacock’s editorial team has adjusted and reorganized video content on the fly. Viewers and reviewers have been buzzing about Snoop Dogg’s segments, so the team set up a scrollable playlist of Snoop clips. Users have been looking for videos of the medal ceremonies, so now there’s a collection of those, too.

    Some of the new formats are fundamentally different ways to “watch TV.” With Multiview, for instance, the Olympics wash over you—less like a show, more like a state of being. Campbell says about half of Multiview users click into a specific sport, so they’re using the split-screen as a “discovery tool,” while the other half stay in the control room-style experience.

    Control is the operative word; we’re all growing increasingly comfortable with multiple screens and data sources in our faces at all times. YouTube TV, which has been offering a make-your-own multiview function since last year, has been promoting preset Olympics versions this summer. DirecTV has its own version, too. People are growing more accustomed to “using more than one screen at one time,” Campbell says.

    NBC has around 20 actual control rooms operating at any given time between Paris, New York and NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. For Gold Zone, a feast for the eyes, producers in Stamford pick 16 live feeds to monitor at a time, then the directors whip around from event to event, hoping to catch every medal contest.

    Gold Zone usage more than doubled in the first few days of the games, Campbell says. Multiview has also been used by millions of subscribers. Of course, fans always want more: On Sunday a woman tweeted to @Peacock, asking about the LA Olympics in 2028: “can we make a custom multi view where you can choose the four things you watch?” (NBC won’t commit to that, but I bet it is in the works already.)

    As I spoke with Solomon, I realized that I had not watched a single minute of NBC’s traditional prime time TV coverage. And she’s okay with that! When I asked her to define success in 2024 from NBC’s perspective, she said “success is the audience engaging with the Olympics on social; on television platforms; streaming on Peacock. And that’s why we’ve given them all different flavors of the Olympics. Find what satisfies you, and as long as you’re with us in some form on some platform, it’s a success.”

    Because NBC has your attention and thus so do the company’s advertisers. The medium previously known as television is becoming more and more like a never-ending Instagram scroll. But some moments (like Team USA’s dominance in Paris) are still big enough to capture almost everyone’s fragmented attention. “In the end,” Solomon says, “we’re all watching the same team.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Google 4th-Gen Nest Learning Thermostat and Google TV Streamer: Specs, Features, Price, Release Date

    Google 4th-Gen Nest Learning Thermostat and Google TV Streamer: Specs, Features, Price, Release Date

    [ad_1]

    Screenshots from a smart home app that controls temperature and monitors the system

    (left) Smart Schedule on Pixel-8 (center) Smart Ventilation on Pixel 8 Pro (right) System Health Monitor Pixel 8

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    Finally, the Nest Learning Thermostat has a new System Health Monitor to flag potential maintenance needs by tracking your HVAC system’s behavior, such as when your air conditioner suddenly isn’t cooling rooms as efficiently as it used to. In addition, a new Smart Ventilation feature checks outdoor air quality before pulling air into your home, especially helpful if the air quality in your area is poor.

    The new Nest Learning Thermostat (plus the included sensor) is available for preorder and costs $280. It goes on sale August 20.

    The Future of Google Assistant

    Google has been integrating its Gemini chatbot and large language models into its products and services over the past year, but what does that mean for Google Assistant? The Alexa and Siri competitor has been a mainstay for years but wasn’t mentioned once during Google’s developer conference in May. You’d think this spelled the end of Google Assistant, and that it’d eventually end up in the Google Graveyard, right? Think again.

    Kattukaran says Gemini’s large language models will power Google Assistant, allowing it to “redefine the next era of the smart home.” The most immediate change? Google Assistant’s voice will sound much more natural and human-like, with improved pacing and rhythm. It’ll offer a more conversational experience and can maintain the context of your conversation as you string together multiple commands and queries.

    This Gemini-powered experience will also improve existing features. For example, motion alerts from your security cameras will be much more detailed, allowing you to know exactly what’s transpiring without opening the camera feed. You can even ask the Assistant for information from your camera feeds, like if a FedEx delivery person showed up. Google wants people to ask Assistant to set up home automation too without getting bogged down in menus in the app.

    None of this helps Gemini’s branding problem—there are so many variations with different capabilities, like Gemini Nano, Gemini Ultra, Gemini Flash, and more recently, Gemini Live. Google Assistant, on the other hand, was one neat AI umbrella that handled everything. But now with Assistant getting an assist from Gemini, the company is not yet ready to replace it anytime soon, meaning we have to live with two assistants even longer.

    The new Google Assistant experience is available for select Nest Aware subscribers as a part of a public preview and is expected to roll out in 2025.



    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • People Are Big Mad About the ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale

    People Are Big Mad About the ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale

    [ad_1]

    YouTuber Preston Jacobs wasted no time when he started his House of the Dragon after-party livestream: “I’m going to say right up [top], I think at this point this is my jump-the-shark moment. I don’t think that this show is salvageable anymore.” Sunday’s season finale, he says, “really ruins everything.” Plotlines contradicted each other, some story arcs went nowhere, he said. It was a mess. And while Preston has had divisive Game of Thrones opinions in the past, on this point, lots of fans agreed with him—both in his livestream’s comments and across the internet.

    This is not the place for House of the Dragon Season 2 finale spoilers—you’ll have to watch for yourself for that—but the long and short of it is that the episode abruptly ended just when it was starting to get good. After weeks of promoting a major battle between the Greens and the Blacks of the Targaryen family tree, no such battle materialized. As The Hollywood Reporter put it, “HBO cutting to black hasn’t annoyed this many TV fans since The Sopranos ended.”

    The Sopranos comparison is both hyperbolic and little apropos. House of the Dragon is far from the beloved critical darling that Sopranos was, but it does now get the kind of scrutiny that its prestige predecessor once did. Following Game of Thrones’ womp-womp 2019 series finale some fans have hoped House could regain some of its predecessor’s former glory, while others worried it would make the same mistakes. Sunday’s episode seemed to indicate to many it might be all dragons, no fire.

    “Y’all basically made this season a build up now we gotta wait a whole fkn 2 years” for the next season, wrote @Tata_Onika on X, referring to rumors that the next season won’t come until at least 2026. “Really pissed me off,” wrote another X user. “Did I just watch a 70-minute trailer for Season 3?” asked another—a sentiment that others echoed. Over on Reddit, fans were “mildly butthurt” and lamenting, “I didn’t see a CRUMB of consequential action.”

    Another personal fave: “We had to deal with Freud dreams for this?!!”

    Season 2’s finale may also be a sign of the times. HBO, Max, and all of its affiliated properties have been going through a lot of upheaval since parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery. While big shows like Dragon and The Last of Us haven’t been hit as hard as other properties, this season was only eight episodes, whereas last season was 10, and this one was shot during the Hollywood strikes, thanks in part to many of its cast being in a different union that wasn’t striking. Deadline also reported last year that a “major battle” was moved from Season 2 to Season 3, and in so doing the show may have been left with a humdrum finale.

    Will House of the Dragon recover? Eh, probably. Season 2 already didn’t quite hit the viewership heights the show’s first season hit. But as the streaming wars continue and people drop services or contemplate, in the case of Max, switching to ad-based tiers that are also going up in price, comparing one season’s numbers to another’s feels like a fool’s errand. HBO greenlit a third season—cocreator Ryan Condal revealed Monday it’ll end with the fourth season—which could very well open with the confrontation fans had hoped for. Until then, everyone is just going to have to wait while this drags on.

    [ad_2]

    Source link