Technology

Movies Anywhere is rolling out a new “Watch Together” viewing party feature for its movie locker apps, allowing multiple users to sync up and enjoy a film together. While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seen a rise in viewing party apps for streaming services (both third-party and official), Movies Anywhere’s version differs by letting you watch films you’ve purchased, instead of limiting you to the streaming catalogs for which you have subscriptions (something that can change day by day). Additionally, Movies Anywhere’s Watch Together feature works on both its mobile and desktop apps, something that’s rare for most viewing party services. Setting it up is simple: the host sends out a six-digit invite code, which guests can use to enter the page for the movie in question in the Movies An...

Google and Samsung are in discussions for a deal that would give the US tech giant’s services more prominence on Samsung phones at the expense of those from the Korean manufacturer, according to a report by Bloomberg. The deal would reportedly involve promoting the Google Assistant and the Play Store over Samsung’s own alternatives. Samsung is the world’s biggest smartphone company and by far the leading Android handset maker in the US. While its phones use Google’s Android operating system, Samsung has consistently tried to build out an ecosystem of its own software that runs atop Android, including the Bixby voice assistant and the Galaxy app store. Google’s own products are still available on Samsung’s phones, but Samsung has gone as far as to include dedicated buttons on its hardware i...

AMC Theaters and Universal have reached a new agreement that dramatically shortens the theatrical exclusivity window — the amount of time that films have to play in theaters before they’re allowed to be sold or rented in other places, like iTunes, Amazon, or AMC’s own On Demand service — down to just 17 days (ensuring that the films will hit at least three weekends in theaters). The new deal marks a radical shift from the standard theatrical release window, which has typically been between 70 and 90 days in recent years, and could vastly alter the landscape of both theatrical and digital film. Universal can offer “premium on-demand” $20 movies just 17 days after the film is out Universal and AMC had previously been feuding over release windows after Universal — spurred on by the direct-to-...

Two former Twitter employees who were last fall charged with spying on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia may have charges against them dropped at the recommendation of US prosecutors, according to Bloomberg. It is unclear at this time why the US is pushing to have the case against the two men, Ahmad Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah, dismissed. But lawyers in San Francisco submitted the recommendation to a judge on Tuesday. It has yet to be approved. A third man, a Saudi citizen named Ahmed Almutairi, was also implicated in the operation as the recruiter who convinced Abouammo and Alzabarah to spy on Saudi dissidents using internal Twitter tools. Prosecutors are also recommending charges against him be dropped, Bloomberg reports. Twitter declined to comment for this story. The operation is...

Kodak, once a powerful force in photography, is branching out into pharmaceuticals and the US government plans to give the company a $765 million loan to support its efforts. Kodak will create a new business arm, Kodak Pharmaceuticals, to produce ingredients needed for drug manufacturing. Kodak Pharmaceuticals will make ingredients that have “lapsed into chronic national shortage,” and once the unit is fully up and running, it will be able to make “up to 25 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals,” Kodak estimates. Kodak CEO Jim Continenza expects pharmaceuticals to eventually comprise 30 to 40 percent of Kodak’s business, reports The Wall Street Journal. The $765 million loan is being made available under the Korean War...

AMD CEO Lisa Su shared during the company’s second-quarter earnings call that its many anticipated product launches are still on schedule to release in 2020. This includes its 7nm processors based on Zen 3 architecture, and its RDNA 2 (or “Big Navi”) graphics cards. Su also shared that AMD began initial production and shipment of next-gen console chips, including for the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. Both consoles are set for release this holiday. This is all good news for people hoping to upgrade their PCs with upcoming AMD parts, or those interested in buying a new console later this year. But it’s unfortunate for Intel, which recently suffered a few big product roadmap setbacks. Intel announced that it’s pushing back its already-delayed 7nm process debut for its CPUs to 2022. What’s more, ...

BMW is developing an all-electric version of its 5 Series and 7 Series sedans as well as its entry-level X1 SUV, the company announced Monday as it detailed a renewed effort to reduce its overall emissions. That means almost all of the German luxury automaker’s most popular cars will soon have all-electric variants. A fully electric version of the 3 Series, BMW’s most popular car in the US, has already been spotted in testing camouflage, and the forthcoming BMW i4 is expected to slot into the 4 Series lineup. Earlier this month, the company revealed the production iX3, the all-electric version of its top-selling X3 SUV. BMW has also teased the iNext SUV, which appears similar to the slightly larger X5. To be sure, BMW won’t only sell these all-electric variants. The company will still make...

Facebook has prided itself on thorough moderation and removal of COVID-19 misinformation posted to its social network since March, but the company is now under fire for having failed to take action for several hours against a fast-moving viral Breitbart News video promoting dangerous coronavirus conspiracy theories and treatments over the weekend. The company now says removal of the video “took longer than expected,” in a statement given to The Verge, and the company is going to investigate why. Before Facebook took action, the video — featuring non-experts refusing to wear masks while touting unverified virus cures — had been widely shared tens of millions of times, including by President Donald Trump and his son on Twitter. After it began gaining traction, Facebook and other social netwo...

If you’ve ever wanted to invite giant beetles or hornets into your living room without fear, Google has got you covered. The search giant is adding 23 creepy crawlies to its growing roster of augmented reality search results that also include dinosaurs, cats, scorpions, bears, tigers, and more. The full list of insects includes: rhinoceros beetle, Hercules beetle, Atlas beetle, stag beetle, giant stag, Miyama stag beetle, shining ball scarab beetle, jewel beetle, ladybug, firefly, Rosalia batesi, swallowtail butterfly, morpho butterfly, atlas moth, mantis, grasshopper, dragonfly, hornet, robust cicada, brown cicada, periodical cicada, Walker’s cicada, and evening cicada. You’ll be able to see the AR insects by searching for the name of the insect and selecting the “View in 3D” option. Andr...

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says apps and websites aren’t legally liable for third-party content, has inspired a lot of overheated rhetoric in Congress. Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) have successfully framed the rule as a “gift to Big Tech” that enables social media censorship. While Democrats have very different critiques, some have embraced a similar fire-and-brimstone tone with the bipartisan EARN IT Act. But a Senate subcommittee tried to reset that narrative today with a hearing for the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency (PACT) Act, a similarly bipartisan attempt at a more nuanced Section 230 amendment. While the hearing didn’t address all of the PACT Act’s very real flaws, it presented the bill as an option for Section 230 defenders ...

I was standing inside Virgin Galactic’s tourist spaceplane with three translucent green heads floating in front of me. One of the heads was explaining how the white-and-teal passenger seats that dotted the walls of the cabin were made out of aluminum and carbon fiber materials. White disembodied hands gesticulated in the air as the head — which belonged to Jeremy Brown, Virgin Galactic’s design director — spoke. In reality, Brown’s head is neither green nor detached from his body. Brown, the other two virtual tour guides, and I were all wearing Oculus Quest headsets, which allowed us to meet virtually and peruse the cabin interior of Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane called VSS Unity. It’s the company’s primary spacecraft, designed to take paying customers to the edge of space and back for a qu...

Drugstore chain Rite Aid secretly deployed facial recognition software across a network of security cameras in hundreds of locations in the US, according to a new investigation from Reuters published on Tuesday. The company had been doing so for more than eight years, and it only recently stopped using the technology, it told Reuters, following a “larger industry conversation” around facial recognition and the grave concern over privacy risks and racial discrimination it presents. Yet, Reuters says Rite Aid initially defended its use of facial recognition as a deterrent against theft and violent crime, having nothing to do with race. The investigation found that not to be entirely true. “In areas where people of color, including Black or Latino residents, made up the largest racial or ethn...