Tech
Netflix Is Testing Its “Free Service” In Kenya, Only Available On Android Smartphones
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: SOPA Images / Getty Netflix has launched its most ambitious plan yet in hopes of luring more customers. As seen on Variety, movie streaming giant Netflix has begun offering a free tier of its service. The catch is it is only available to users in Kenya who own Android smartphones. The 100% free service will offer about one-fourth of the content available to those who subscribe to the service. Netflix hopes by giving users a taste of its service, it can convince those users of the free tier to sign up for a paid subscription. “If you’ve never watched Netflix before — and many people in Kenya haven’t — this is a great way to experience our service,” Cathy Conk, director of product innovation at Netflix, announced in a blog post. “And if you like what you se...
HHW Tech Review: Samsung Further Tightens Its Grip On The Foldable Market With The Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83 Samsung is one of the few companies to have fully invested in the foldable phone market. We previously wrote that the company is ahead of the curve, and with its latest foldable smartphones, that continues to be the case. Samsung shook the smartphone world in 2019 with the introduction of the Galaxy Z Fold. It was a captivating device, but people were still on the fence about it. In 2020, we got the Galaxy Z Fold2 and the Galaxy Z Flip. Both devices sported some decent improvements but left room for plenty to be improved upon, and that’s where the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 come in. Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83 We got our hands on the Galaxy Z Flip3 5G: Thom Browne edition, and it left us very impresse...
China’s Version of TikTok Limits Kids’ Screen Time to 40 Minutes Per Day
TikTok owner Bytedance is set to bring in screen time caps for Douyin, the Chinese version of the phenomenally successful app, for users under 14 years old as Beijing continues to crack down on the influence of tech companies in the country. According to a report in Bloomberg, Douyin made significant changes to its ‘youth’ mode last week, limiting daily usage time to a maximum of 40 minutes for those aged under 14 and also banning them from accessing the app from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The company has now also rolled out a new youth-orientated version on Douyin, dubbed Xiao Qu Xing or ‘Little Fun Star,’ that, via its algorithm, promotes and prioritizes more educational videos and allows users to like but not upload their own clips. You Deserve to Make...
Twitch & Music Publishers Nearing Licensing Deal
Amazon-owned Twitch has operated under the DMCA for years without backlash, but ever since the pandemic turned the music industry’s attention to Twitch for livestreaming concerts, spurring huge growth for the platform, music trade organizations like the NMPA and RIAA have accused Twitch of taking advantage of the DMCA to avoid paying for music — similar to the way the organizations have pressured TikTok, Facebook and YouTube to sign licensing deals in the past. So the two organizations have flooded Twitch with tens of thousands of takedown requests over the past year, forcing Twitch to the negotiation table by frustrating its users. In response, Twitch vp/head of music Tracy Chan has reiterated that Twitch does not tolerate copyright infringement, arguing that Twitch’s monetiza...
This Aint Tidal: Nas, Pusha T & Other Big Names Invest In Audius, Spotify’s Rival
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty A bunch of music artists coming together to promote a music streaming platform the benefits them? Now, where have we heard this before? Hip-Hop stars Nas and Pusha T are among the many names who have now become investors in the Audius, a music streaming startup that Rolling Stone describes as a rival to Spotify. If the idea sounds somewhat familiar to you, that’s because it is. The last time we saw music artists and other big names in the music industry come together like this was for Tidal, which JAY-Z owned before selling it to Jack Dorsey’s Square. The spectacle saw other artists like Beyoncé, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, and other investors join the ambitious venture. But, there is a significant difference when it comes to this ...
LeBron James & Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Company Teams Up With Clubhouse To Create Audio Programming
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: SOPA Images / Getty Can LeBron James and Maverick Carter help revitalize the buzz Clubhouse once had? That’s what the once super popular drop-in audio app is hoping with this new partnership it announced on Thursday (Sep.16) that will see James and Carter’s SpringHill Company bring exclusive audio content to the medium “that best elevates authentic conversation surrounding big moments in sports and culture.” SpringHill hopes to continue its streak of bringing engaging content like DJ Khaled’s podcast The First One, 17 Weeks, and More Than A Vote: Vaccine Special, to Clubhouse with content that will further “its mission to empower greatness in every individual from creators to fans,” with series of Clubhouse rooms that will live in its...
HHW Gaming: ‘Call of Duty: Vanguard’ BETA Weekend 2 Is Live & Free-To-Play On All Platforms
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Activision / Call of Duty: Vanguard PlayStation owners were first to hit the battlefield in Call of Duty: Vanguard’s BETA, now it’s time for the rest of the combatants to get in on the action. Starting Thursday (Sept.16), Activision’s Call of Duty: Vanguard BETA will be live and free99 for COD fans across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, or S, Xbox One, and PC via Battle.net. Usually, to have access to Call of Duty betas, gamers would have to preorder the game or have an Xbox Live Gold membership, but that won’t be the case this time around. Activision encourages those participating in the BETA to put in that work while playing Vanguard’s fast-paced multiplayer mode that takes the intense action back to World War II, allowing them to try out n...
HHW Gaming: ‘Battlefield 2042’s Deployment Delayed At Least A Month
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: EA / DICE EA/DICE’s answer to Call of Duty, Battlefield 2042, has officially gotten its wig pushed back. DICE’s parent company Electronic Arts announced the unfortunate news on Wednesday (Sep.15) that Battlefield 2042, the next installment in the EA’s Battlefield first-person shooter franchise, will have its release date pushed back nearly a month. The game was originally set to hit consoles and PC on October 22nd and now will arrive on November 19th, two weeks after Call of Duty: Vanguard. In a statement shared by Electronic Arts, Oskar Gabrielson, studio GM at DICE, said on behalf of the Battlefield 2042 team: “Building the next generation of Battlefield during a global pandemic has created unforeseen challenges for our development teams. “Given the sca...
HHW Gaming: Razer Launches Its Most Advanced Controller Ever, The WOLVERINE V2 CHROMA Pro
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Razer / WOLVERINE V2 CHROMA Pro Controller For Xbox & PC Turtle Beach impressed us with The Recon, the company’s first stab at a game controller. Now, Razer has just launched a brand new pro controller for the Xbox and PC. Thursday (Sep.16), Razer announced the launch of its most advanced controller ever, the Wolverine V2 Chroma. The controller works on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles and PC and is a culmination of “competitive excellence and R&D” from the company’s PC peripheral lines packed into the Wolverine V2 Chroma. Source: Razer / WOLVERINE V2 CHROMA Pro Controller For Xbox & PC The controller features Razer’s Mecha-Tactile Action Buttons and D-Pad that supply the user with “super-fast actuation and response times.” There are also...
Can Social Tokens Pave a New Future for Music? BitClout’s Still Banking On It
“It was almost too good to be true,” says Udell, who has worked with artists like Krewella and ZHU. “All these people involved? Really? But then I read the white paper, and I was super inspired.” That white paper described a platform resembling Twitter, where users have profiles and can post, like, comment and share content. Anyone who joins the platform gets a creator coin in their name, the value of which theoretically fluctuates depending on that person’s social standing and how many coins are in circulation. Users can then can buy and sell each other’s coins using the platform’s native cryptocurrency, BitClout. (“If Elon Musk succeeds in landing the first person on Mars, his coin price should theoretically go up” because more users would buy his coin...
DatPiff Owner MediaLab Buys Genius for $80M
The company has had a series of high-profile partnerships with major music streams — from a lyric deal with Spotify to display context behind songs, to a built-in Apple Music player on the Genius website — and even launched its own livestreaming platform last year called Genius Live. But none of its initiatives were enough to move its valuation up in the past few years. The result is a sale that will come with job cuts. “We are restructuring the way in which original content is produced at Genius and as part of that some very talented individuals on the content and production teams were let go,” MediaLab said in a statement to Bloomberg. MediaLab says it will invest in the “community platform” as it focuses on emerging artists for the platform. MediaLab owns a small group of co...
HHW Gaming: Anthony Mackie Tapped To Star In ‘Twisted Metal’ TV Series As A “Smart-A** Milk Man”
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Michael Loccisano / Getty Finally, some news about Twisted Metal, but not the news we expected… at all. Twisted Metal, the iconic video game that made its debut on PlayStation in 1995, is being turned into a tv series developed by PlayStation Productions and Sony TV and will star the new Captain America in the MCU Anthony Mackie. Deadline broke the news Wednesday (Sep.15), revealing some interesting plot details about the show based on the popular video game franchise that fans have been hoping for years would return to PlayStation consoles. In the show, Mackie will star in the lead role of John Doe, described as “a smart-ass milkman who talks as fast as he drives. With no memory of his past, he gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make his wish of fi...
