 |
|
|
|||||
Plex is kicking off the year with some updates that could make the streaming platform a more social place. Viewers will be able to leave public reviews on titles and to comment on other users' assessments. "To us, discovery isnt just about finding what to watch, but also about finding more friends and fans like you in the process," the company said in a blog post announcing the new features. Public reviews expand on the social features Plex introduced in October. The expanded reviews are paired with some new privacy options. Plex users can make their profiles visible to others in search, allowing anybody to see their reviews and ratings, as well as their watchlist and viewing history. Users will be findable in search by default unless they have previously changed that setting. Plex is also letting users set how broadly visible their ratings and reviews will be; this setting ranges from totally public to all logged in Plex users to friends of friends to friends only to private. Plex has been working on a redesign of its app for a long time, and today the company will begin previewing the new look on Apple TV. More platforms will be added to the preview "soon." The blog post cautioned that the Apple TV preview is still preliminary and encouraged users to provide feedback. The new look emphasizes more artwork and visuals, as well as offering more intuitive navigation through the library. Finally, Plex is ready to make its HEVC encoding available to members of its Plex Pass membership. This option offers improved visual quality at a lower bitrate, and it preserves HDR metadata.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/plex-update-adds-public-reviews-and-profiles-140050631.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
We finally know when Sonic will grace movie theaters again: Paramount has announced Sonic The Hedgehog 4 will arrive on March 19, 2027, Variety reports. The company confirmed the next installment back in December, but we only knew that Spring 2027 was its premiere goal. The first Sonic The Hedgehog movie premiered in early 2020, just before the world shut down. The third movie came out just before Christmas last year though Paramount had already announced its follow up was in the works. Similarly, it was first announced about two years before its final release date. If the pattern continues then we should get a trailer in late 2026. Each of the movies has done well at the box office, with Sonic The Hedgehog 3 currently grossing $218 million domestically and $422 million globally. Paramount also claims that the movies have driven another $180 million-plus from digital purchases and at-home rentals. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sonic-the-hedgehog-4-will-arrive-on-march-19-2027-133002387.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
It's a challenging time to be a developer these days, according to GDC's 2025 State of the Game Industry report that surveyed over 3,000 game devs and industry professionals. In one of the worst years ever for game industry job losses, 11 percent of developers said they were let go from their positions in 2024 and 29 percent observed direct colleagues being laid off. All of that is part of an unfortunate trend caused in part by consolidation that could see around 14,000 layoffs in 2024 when final tallies are done. Meanwhile, live service games appear to be here to stay, despite the spectacular flameout of Concord and the axing of several Sony projects. One-third of AAA developers said they're currently working on live service games (GaaS), with 16 percent across the entire developer base working on such titles. That doesn't mean they all like it though, as 41 percent expressed that they weren't interested at all on working on GaaS style games. That lines up with a general malaise among gamers with regard to live service titles. One encouraging upward trend is in PC games, where 80 percent of developers reported that they were working up massively from 66 percent last year. That could be due in part to Valve's Steam deck, as 44 precent of devs said they were interested in working specifically on that platform. Browser games are also on the upswing, with 16 percent of respondents working on releases. Finally, while gaming execs seem to love the potential for AI in gaming, developers hate it, with 30 percent saying it's having a negative impact on the industry up 12 percent from last year. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/eleven-percent-of-game-developers-were-laid-off-in-2024-according-to-gdc-survey-130003228.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
OpenAI will build and open AI infrastructure worth $500 billion in the United States over the next four years in partnership with SoftBank. The two entities have teamed up to establish a new company called the Stargate Project to build AI data centers for the ChatGPT maker, and according to their announcement, it will "secure American leadership in AI" as well as "create hundreds of thousands of American jobs." SoftBank will finance the project, while OpenAI will be in charge of its operations. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, will serve as its chairman. While OpenAI and SoftBank will serve as the Stargate Project's lead partners, there are several other companies involved in the initiative. In addition to OpenAI, Arm, NVIDIA, Oracle and, of course, Microsoft will be its key initial technology partners. The company's official announcement says OpenAI, NVIDIA and Oracle will work together to "build and operate this computing system," though it didn't expound on what that means. As for Microsoft, the company has posted an announcement about its involvement in the project and said that it will continue its "strategic partnership" with OpenAI. Microsoft will still have the right to use OpenAI IP on its products, and the OpenAI API will still exclusively run on Azure. However, it will no longer be OpenAI's exclusive provider for computing capacity. Whenever OpenAI needs additional capacity as its needs grow, Microsoft will have the "right of first refusal," which means the ChatGPT-maker has to check with it first before working with other parties. The Stargate Project is releasing $100 billion immediately for its first data center buildouts, starting with one in Texas. As TechCrunch notes, it was previously reported that OpenAI was in talks with Oracle to lease a data center in Abilene, Texas that can reach almost a gigawatt of electricity by 2026. It didn't mention any other sites, but it did say that it's "evaluating potential" locations across the country.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/openai-and-softbank-team-up-for-a-500-billion-ai-data-center-venture-120018021.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Transit app Moovit has partnered with the travel marketplace Distribusion Technologies to let users plan and book long-distance trips throughout Europe. The app now includes a ticketing system that works in 40 European countries. The company says travelers can book trains, buses and ferries straight from the app, as well as learning directions to a station, checking out schedules and keeping an up-to-the-minute eye on trip timing. This should help alleviate much of the stress of long-distance travel, as various aspects of the journey will all be viewable and adjustable via a single app. Moovit says this is a first for urban mobility platforms. Its also the first time that Moovit has enabled mobile ticketing for inter-city journeys throughout Europe, including cross-border trips. The company has partnered with carriers like Deutsche Bahn, Trenitalia and National Express to make this happen. These tools are available right now on Android, iOS and the web client. The big caveat? It's only in Europe, for now. The app is available in 3,500 cities across 112 countries. Well let you know when other regions get access to this tech.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/transit-app-moovit-adds-ticket-purchasing-functionality-throughout-europe-110043997.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Sites : [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] next »