Wednesday
Sep212016

Netflix plans to fill half of its catalog with originals in the coming years

Marvel's Luke Cage is a Netflix-exclusive show

In an effort to get more people to come and stay with its service, Netflix’s CFO David Wells talks about the streaming service’s plan to have at least half of its catalog be composed of its own original shows and movies in  the next few years. Netflix is supposedly “one-third to halfway” towards reaching that target. The service is steadily being known as home to a lot of acclaimed originals that are either made by Netflix themselves, co-produced with other studios, or acquired post-production. Wells says they’ll continue with this approach to reach that target. And if they’re able to get good content, this might help them keep subscribers on its service as other companies won’t have access to their exclusives.

Source: The Verge

Wednesday
Sep212016

Big tech companies pledge to help millions of refugees

U.S. President Barack Obama announced at the Leaders Summit on Refugees at the United Nations that tech companies are among the 51 companies who are “investing, donating, or raising” over US$650 million to help educate, employ, and train around 6.3 million refugees from 20 countries. Some of the companies include Microsoft, Facebook, Google, HP, TripAdvisor, Uber, SAP, and Airbnb. Earlier in June, the White House started an initiative that aimed at getting “measurable and significant commitments” from the private sector to help out the forcibly displaced. Google, HP, IBM, and Microsoft were among the 15 companies who helped found the initiative.

An example given by CNET is that Google plans to give a $1 million grant to the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which was established by George Clooney and his wife Amal, to help educate Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. Another example is Microsoft plans to work with local providers in Malawi to provide wireless broadband access to refugees and international aid organizations.

Tuesday
Sep202016

Dark Sky brings to-the-minute weather updates to new site

If you’re into weather forecasting, you might have heard of the handy Dark Sky app. Now, the Dark Sky Company is hoping to recreate that with a new website. The site will have the key features of the app and will show things like current temperature, weekly forecast, and to-the-minute rain forecast. According to Wired, the weather map shown is “situationally aware” and will change depending on what type of info is most relevant at the time. For example, it’ll show you the precipitation radar if it’s raining.

With the launch of darksky.net, the site Forecast.io will be shut down. The Forecast.io extension that developers can use will also be renamed to Dark Sky. The site is completely free and it looks like it’ll stay that way. It’s just meant to introduce users to what the app can do, which is available on Android and iOS.

Tuesday
Sep202016

Quick look at the CrystalTech Nano liquid screen protector demo 

In the past, if you wanted to add some protection to your precious smartphone or tablet, you had to consider a glass or plastic screen protector. These were very difficult to install, often introduced grit and bubbles and were inconvenient. CrystalTech's Nano liquid screen protector is liquid applied to smartphones.

CrystalTech Nano offers invisible protection, reinforcing your smartphones or tablet’s screen to 9H (sapphire equivalent) hardness for ultimate scratch resistance and is easy to apply while leaving no annoying bubbles. But it gets better.

Click to read more ...