Former US President Barack Obama is in talks with Netflix to produce content for the service

Joe Pugliese / Netflix

Netflix has had success with getting tons of big names to work for its streaming service. In recent memory we have the likes of Shonda Rhimes, David Letterman, Ryan Murphy, and Mark Millar, to name a few. This time, it looks like they want to add an even bigger personality. According to The New York Times, former US President Barack Obama is in “advanced negotiations” with the streaming service for a “series of high-profile shows.” The details are supposedly being worked out but some of the proposed shows include one where Obama will highlight inspirational people and stories and another has him moderating conversations on various important issues such as health care, immigration, foreign policy, etc. Aside from Obama, the deal supposedly also includes the former first lady Michelle Obama producing content for the service as well. It’s been reported that Apple and Amazon have approached the Obamas about creating content for their services as well.

Netflix to experiment with vertical video teasers for mobile

Netflix is hoping to hook more mobile users to consume media on its platform. The streaming service announced it will be trying to use short Snapchat-like vertical videos on mobile to show users teasers of the shows and movies on its platform. The hope is this will make it easier for users to decide which programs to watch. While within the 30-second video, you can swipe right or left to see other trailers, press play to watch the show or movie, or add the title to your Netflix list. Of course, the show or movie itself will play in standard horizontal format as that is better for extended viewing. Like everything else on the service, the recommendations will be personalized to you. Video previews on Netflix are available on TVs and PCs but now Netflix wants to turn the attention to its mobile and tablet users. The feature is coming first to iOS and will be landing on Android “in the coming months.”

Source: Quartz

Google Lens to come to more devices soon

Google’s machine learning-powered image analyzer Lens is a useful feature that helps bring more information to you about the images you scan. Its limitation was it was first only available through Pixel devices. Now, Google just announced it’ll be bring the feature to all English-language users on both Android and iOS. And it should be coming out in the next few days as long as you have the latest version of Google Photos. At the same time, Lens in Assistant will be coming to “compatible flagship devices” in the coming weeks. On top of this, Lens will soon be able to recognize common animals and plants, including specific dog breeds and flowers.

Source: Android Police

Amazon claims its working on the laughing Echo devices

It’s like one of our worst nightmares coming true. Some Amazon Echo users are reporting that Alexa has started laughing at random without any prompting. One user on Twitter claims it started to laugh as he was about to fall asleep, another one on Reddit describes the laugh as sounding almost like a real person (after Alexa refused to turn off his lights after three tries). Amazon says they are aware of the issue and are working on the matter.

Here’s Amazon’s official statement about the issue: “In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase ‘Alexa, laugh.’ We are changing that phrase to be ‘Alexa, can you laugh?’ which is less likely to have false positives, and we are disabling the short utterance ‘Alexa, laugh.’ We are also changing Alexa’s response from simply laughter to ‘Sure, I can laugh’ followed by laughter.” 

Source: Gizmodo