Netflix takes on the danger of social media with 'Clickbait'

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Black Mirror won't be the only Netflix content that comments on the dangers of the digital age. A new thriller series called Clickbait will turn the spotlight on the growing gap between our online and real-life selves and the risks of social media. The team behind Clickbait includes veteran Australian filmmaker Tony Ayres, Christian White, and Harry Potter and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood producer David Heyman. Ayres will serve as the show's creator, showrunner, and executive producer, while White will be his co-creator, co-producer, and writer. Brad Anderson will be the lead director for the eight-part series.

Ayres calls this series a "passion project" that he expects to have a "real global reach and impact." Clickbait will be the first Netflix series that will be produced in Victoria state, and it'll be shot at Melbourne's Docklands Studios.

Source: Variety

Netflix tests new human-curated collections on iOS

There was a time when you could rate and review Netflix's content beyond using the binary thumbs up or thumbs down option. The perception is Netflix changed this to let its algorithm do all the curation for you. And for us, that sometimes feels like the company continually pushing its content, instead of offering us shows or films that are in line with what we want to see. But it looks like the company wants to give its users more input again over what we get to see. The streaming service is beta-testing human-curated collections on its iOS app.

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Apple Music introduces 'New Music Daily' playlist

Apple Music revamps its "Best of the Week" playlist and turns it into "New Music Daily." This new curated playlist promises to feature "new music you simply can't miss from across the world and across genres." The Best of the Week playlist updated once every Friday with new songs of the week, similar to Spotify's "New Music Friday" playlist. It looks like Apple wants to differentiate itself by offering a playlist that refreshes more frequently than its competition.

When Apple Music debuted the playlist, it had Taylor Swift's "The Man" as the lead single with cover art featuring the artist. The assumption is Apple will change the lead artists in the artwork regularly, too.  The playlist might not be vastly different or will feature entirely new songs each day.  But it would be less static than a playlist that's updated daily. And if you want to see what new songs are added to this playlist regularly, you need to add it to your library.

Source: 9to5Mac

Google Photos lets you search for text in images

A new Google Photos feature is going to make it easier for you to look for text in photos. It uses optical character recognition to search for the text. But Google takes it a bit further by letting you copy-paste text from pictures. Just click on the Lens button. You can even translate the words from the app itself, which makes it easier to decipher things like signs and food packages when travelling in other countries. And as Google points out, it makes it easier to copy-paste "impossible wifi passwords." It will work for ordinary pictures, too (like images of signs or pages of a book).

Source: Engadget