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Google brought hundreds of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to its TV platforms this year. They’re already deeply integrated with the Google TV interface, and now Google has crammed a bunch of them into a “Free TV Channels” app that appears on the homescreen of older Android TV products like the Nvidia Shield. There’s no escaping FAST content.

In other news, the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) was briefly cracked to allow custom OS installations. It’s already been patched, and even if you haven’t updated your device, the process of taking advantage of said exploit is a real doozy.

According to HueBlog.com, Philips Hue is actively working on a hardware-free form of motion sensing that leverages its Zigbee protocol.

Its sister brand Wiz already does this using Wi-Fi-sensing — changes in the signal strength between two or more lights caused by motion can trigger a reaction.

HueBlog, which has a good track record with Hue scoops, says the company has been “working on the function for several years,” and may debut it at CES 2024.

About a month before the famed driver and DC Shoes co-founder Ken Block died in a snowmobile accident earlier this year, he filmed another installment of the popular series in Mexico City that you can watch right here.

After racking up over 650 million views on YouTube for the Gymkhana series, this final video combines his trademark precision driving with Audi’s purpose-built EV and some new modifications: simulated gears that program multiple levels of wheel speed controlled by the paddle shifter, opposite-driven wheels for a standing AWD burnout, the ability to go into reverse at any speed, and instant switching from AWD to RWD.

Bloomberg’s sources say that the conclusion to the European Commission’s probe into iMessage should spare Apple from needing to offer other companies some level of interoperability with the service.

The investigation officially ends in February, with new Digital Markets Act rules aimed at Big Tech’s ”platform gatekeepers” coming into full effect in March, with the intent of creating a level playing field for all.

The Access controller, which is designed to offer a more accommodating way for people with disabilities to play PS5 games, is now widely available to buy for $89.99 / €89.99. To mark the occasion, Sony has put out a video featuring some of the people it consulted with on the project, showing the different configurations the controller can be used in.

According to a report in The Elec, LG Innotek is working on an under-display camera (UDC) that might find its way into future iPhones.
But that could take some time. Apple reportedly wasn’t happy with recent component samples it was sent, and one analyst thinks the iPhone won’t get a UDC until 2027 (though the Face ID cutout could disappear and move under the screen earlier in 2025).

Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted in favor (78.33 percent to 21.67 percent) of the agreement negotiated last month with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that represents the studios.

The new deal runs through June 30th, 2026, following the first time in 63 years that the unions for actors and writers were on strike at the same time.

SAG-AFTRA:

The deal includes more than $1 billion in new compensation and benefit plan funding, along with outsized gains to the traditional residuals formulas. It offers a new compensation model for performers working in streaming, with a substantial bonus on top of existing residuals structures, plus compensation escalation for principal and background actors. Additionally, the deal establishes detailed informed consent and compensation guardrails for the use of AI, hair and makeup equity, meaningful protections for the casting process, sexual harassment prevention protections and more.

Apple announced collaborative playlists for Apple Music at WWDC, and while it appeared in some iOS 17.2 betas, it’s not present in Tuesday’s iOS 17.2 release candidate, 9to5Mac reports. Barring an unexpected surprise, you shouldn’t expect to see collaborative playlists in the final release.

Apple’s iOS 17 website still says the feature is coming “later this year,” but at this rate, I doubt that’s going to happen.

This happened last week, but I saw it today because of Techdirt’s great post about the dismissal. Indiana’s attorney general actually filed two lawsuits against TikTok in December 2022, but they were consolidated, the Associated Press reports.

“Ultimately, the cost to operate Twitch in Korea is prohibitively expensive,” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said in a blog post. While the company tried to find ways to lower costs, “our network fees in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries,” he said.

The service will shut down in Korea on February 27th, 2024. Twitch has a few more details in a support document.

The phrase became an internal joke after ChatGPT’s popularity exploded right out of the gate, according to the NYT’s recap of its launch a year ago and the reaction among Big Tech companies.

Google and Meta scrambled AI teams to launch competing products — even if that meant removing some guardrails — like Bard and LLaMa. And Microsoft’s rush to beat Google had Satya Nadella saying, “We have a big order coming to you, a really big order coming to you,” to Nvidia’s Jensen Huang as he ordered $2 billion in chips.

Then you should watch this excellent video from Quinn Nelson at Snazzy Labs. He breaks down exactly what it's doing behind the scenes and why it will likely be a challenge for Apple to stop it from working.

As MacRumors writes, Apple designated the original iPhone SE “vintage” today. The 2016 budget phone crammed the A9 chip — same as Apple’s priciest model at the time — into the flat sides, metal back, and chamfered edges of the 5S.

The first SE got its last major OS update with iOS 15 over two years ago, and it’s been five since Apple last sold it. Does that make our iPhone SE video review vintage, too?

Especially in a post One Piece world, there’s always some hope of Netflix’s live-action anime / manga adaptations exceeding everyone’s expectations.

But judging from the looks of the wigs and special effects featured in the new trailer for Robot Communications’ upcoming spin on Yu Yu Hakusho, we might be in for another clunker.

Netflix has released a trailer for its new crypto documentary, Bitconned, about the rise and fall of Centra Tech, a scam that was part of the wave of initial coin offerings in 2017. The blowback from the scheme caught DJ Khaled and Floyd Mayweather, who had promoted it — they were fined by the SEC. Ray Trapani, one of the co-founders, appears to be a key narrator of the Netflix documentary.

It’ll still do those newsstand “special editions” — but the monthly print mag is going subscriber-only.

NatGeo is still in the top 10 US magazines people get on purpose. Focusing on people you know care about your work makes sense! Ditching newsstand isn’t necessarily concerning on its own.

Laying off all your staff writers is, though.

The system, Bethesda Game Studios Creations, “combines Skyrim’s existing Mods, Creation Club items and all-new Creations under a single Creations menu available for players to browse today in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition,” according to Bethesda’s blog post. If you become a “verified creator,” you can earn a cut for Creations sold in the game.

I’m guessing this system (or something like it) will come to Starfield when the studio officially ads mods to the game “early next year.”

Instapaper Premium will now cost $6 per month, which Instapaper says is the first price change for the service in nine years. Instapaper says the higher price will let it hire more engineers, build new features (like the just launched “Permanent Archive”), and minimize price changes in the future.