David Lidsky's Blog, page 2853
November 5, 2015
Today in Tabs: Point / Counterpoint
Shana, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into.
Today, in the spirit of healthy debate,
Why Chinese Drone Giant DJI Is Opening A Silicon Valley R&D Lab
DJI wants to find the best robotics engineers in the Valley, and keep an eye out for potential partners and investments while they're at it.
China's DJI, the world's largest maker of consumer drones, is opening a Silicon Valley research and development center in hopes of harnessing the wealth of robotics talent in the area...and identifying potential new partners and investment targets in the process.
YouTube Adds VR To Its Android App
YouTube also announced that its entire video library can now be watched using the Google Cardboard VR viewer.
YouTube today said it is adding virtual reality functionality to its Android app.
Facebook Launches "Music Stories" With Apple And Spotify
Facebook is now letting users add 30-second song snippets to their news feeds.
Facebook is rolling out a new feature lets users share and play individual Spotify and Apple Music songs in their news feeds. Called Music Stories, the new functionality lets users repackage 30-second song clips in their Facebook news feed through Facebook's proprietary music player.
Expedia To Buy Airbnb Rival HomeAway For $3.9 Billion
HomeAway is the third travel brand Expedia has acquired in 2015.
Expedia is set to buy HomeAway, a competitor to Airbnb, for $3.9 billion following a two-year partnership. Unlike Airbnb, which allows people to rent out their homes on a short-term basis, HomeAway focuses on vacation rentals, charging property owners to list their rentals.
Virtual Reality Journalism Is Coming To The Associated Press
The news organization's first VR film is an immersive look at Northern France's largest migrant camp.
The Associated Press has become the latest news organization to turn to virtual reality as a journalism tool.
This House Can Be Built In A Day, At An Affordable Price
A recipe for very quick, modular construction could help solve housing needs in the developing world.
Need to build a house quickly? Or build a lot of houses quickly to shelter a growing population? This plastic mold framework is filled with cement and sand, with plumbing, electricity, window, and door frames placed "between the formwork." The shell of the house is ready overnight.
Nissan's Self-Driving Car Of The Future Is More Transformer Than Automobile
Futuristic luxury, with dubious safety features.
Like a sequence from a sci-fi movie, the Nissan IDS Concept's dashboard folds away at the tap of an oversized button, revealing a sleek entertainment system in its place. It's like something Roger-Moore-Era James Bond might have enjoyed as he engaged in some "romantic" misogyny in the movie's final scene.
November 4, 2015
MPAA Shuts Down Torrent Site Popcorn Time
Court rulings in Canada and New Zealand bring down Popcorn Time and fellow pirate site YTS.
Several major torrent sites, including Popcorn Time, were closed down today thanks to court orders in Canada and New Zealand. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a lobbying organization and trade group representing the film industry, filed to shut down PopcornTime.io, which provides content for the popular Popcorn Time app, and another site called YTS (which launched in 2010 and became inaccessible in mid-October).
Facebook Unveils Advertising For "Political Influencers"
Facebook is unveiling advertising products aimed at people who post about politics a lot.
Facebook, which has specialized in highly targeted advertising for years, is trying something new: letting candidates deliberately target people who post a lot about politics. This week, the social media company is rolling out a new feature that lets campaigns directly target ads at people deemed "political influencers" on both sides of the ideological spectrum.
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