Susanne Daniels is exiting her post as programming chief at MTV to join YouTube in a newly created position leading the platform's budding original content efforts.
As vice president of YouTube originals, Daniels will oversee development and production of content for the world's highest-trafficked video source. The move isn't expected to be a major shift in programming strategy for Google-owned YouTube, which is already pretty far along in its plan to expand its originals.
Whether you're a power user or a reluctant techie, chargers and cables are an inevitable necessity. All are not created equal, but the good news is that we've rounded up a collection of five great deals on top-quality chargers and lightning cables to keep the power flowing.
Apparently, the secret to better, more eco-friendly rice plant is another type of grain: barley. A team of scientists has created genetically modified rice that borrows a single gene from barley and found that the altered organism can generate up to 43 percent more grains per plant. Plus, its methane emission is down to 0.3 percent, a lot lower than regular rice's 10 percent emission observed during the scientists' experiments. Methane, as you might know, is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and is the second most prevalent in the US after carbon dioxide.
"DNA origami" is nothing new -- in fact, IBM once considered it as a way to make microchips. However, Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have become ridiculously good at folding the building blocks of life, and built a bunny to prove it. The point was not to do a party trick, of course, though rabbit-shaped DNA is delightful. Rather, the team wanted to develop a fully-automated, 3D-printing-like method for folding DNA. Researchers could one day use the technique to create structures that don't break down in the human body in order to precisely deliver drugs.
Apple is believed to be ready to let third parties build magnetic charging cables for the Apple Watch in the same way as it does for the iPhone and iPad. A report by 9to5Mac claims that the company is gearing up to launch a Made for Apple Watch licensing program that'll enable other firms to build their own. Currently, watch stands have to have a groove cut out of them into which you can cram your bundled charging cable. Unfortunately, that's not a very elegant solution for your nightstand, especially if you've dropped $100 on a custom dock. If the report is to believed, then we should start seeing integrated chargers all over the place by early 2016.
More and more smartphones, TVs and wearables like Apple's Watch now use OLED displays, but only two companies mass produce them -- Samsung and LG. LG is trying to stay on top of demand by building a new 1.05 trillion won ($900 million) flexible OLED plant in Korea. Starting in 2017, the 6th-gen line will spit out four times as many screens as the current-gen plant thanks to a larger "substrate" sheet size. The plastic-based displays are aimed at smaller next-gen devices that can benefit from the bendability like automotive displays, cellphones and wearables.
Today on In Case You Missed It: Forever 21 just unveiled (or unwound) a new kind of billboard that uses mechanical spools of thread to rapidly display Instagram photos. A bionic eye was implanted in a patient for new use with an old disease: Age-related macular degeneration. And your next kiddy birthday party will be the perfect place to unveil your mastery of common household ingredients to make a rainbow flamethrower display. Don't say I didn't warn you if you blow up your house, though.
The Electronic Sports League has announced that it will soon begin testing players for performance enhancing substances at future competitive events. The organization told Motherboard that it won't share details just yet, but will institute measures to police, educate and prevent drug taking on its watch. The news comes in the wake of the revelations made by professional Counter-Strike player Cory Friesen about he and his team, Cloud 9. Friesen told an interviewer that they had all taken the psychostimulant Adderall to boost performance during a recent tournament in Poland.
There's nothing the European Commission likes more than a good ol' antitrust case, and today it's set its sights on Sky UK and six of the broadcaster's US film studio partners: Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. In a "Statement of Objections" sent to the parties, the commission has formally accused Sky and the studios of engaging in anti-competitive behavior, by drawing up contracts that prevent Europeans from accessing Sky's pay-TV services outside of the UK and Ireland. While it's implied Sky is partly to blame, the commission's main issue with the agreements is they stop Sky from coming to its own decision on whether to offer pay-TV access in other EU countries.
Lyft users might get free Starbucks coffee, but certain Uber users can get a high-end Xiaomi smartphone delivered to their door, at least for a day. If you're in Singapore and Malaysia, you can order the 5.7-inch QuadHD Xiaomi Mi Note directly from the Uber app and get it delivered like some kind of high-tech pizza. Your Uber credit card will be charged for the phone and you'll be able to follow the special orange-colored vehicle as it heads your way. The deal is only good for one day, July 27th, but that's a day ahead of the official launch, briefly giving you bragging rights.
Dear parents who can't wait for their kids to be over the Minion craze: Hollywood's already planning for the yellow critters' replacement in your children's lives. And, if you're unlucky, these new characters might even be more obnoxious than Gru's banana-loving henchmen*. Sony Pictures Animation has won an auction for a story pitch starring those yellow ideograms or smileys we all know as "emojis." Yep, there's going to be an emoji movie, according to Deadline, which also reported that two other studios competed against Sony at the auction for the right to turn the story into a full-fledged film.
An icy moon with hidden oceans would of course require an underwater probe, but what about gas giants with no solid surface to land on or water to swim in? A team of NASA JPL scientists believes the answer lies in robots that can float in the atmosphere for extended periods of time, without depending on wings, motors or hot air balloons. The scientists call them "windbots," machines that can harness the power of the wind on Jupiter and the other gas giants, since it's not ideal to send solar- or nuclear-powered robots to the outer planets.
Watson can beat human Jeopardy players, help people cook, critique their writing -- and apparently, it can even help the citizens of Surrey, British Columbia with their everyday life. Software developer Purple Forge has tapped into the supercomputer's capabilities to give the Canadian city's app the capacity to answer spoken questions asked in natural language. Fast Company has dubbed the new My Surrey feature "Siri for cities," and it can answer queries about parking, waste collection and animal control (such as "Why wasn't my trash picked up this morning?" and "How many dogs can I keep on my property?"), among other municipal services.
Starbucks isn't done lining up deals with tech-savvy companies -- not by a longshot. The coffee chain has unveiled a partnership with Lyft that will reward just about everyone. As a passenger, you'll earn points (that is, Stars) at Starbucks every time you hail a Lyft ride. Yes, you could travel to a business meeting and get a free drink when you arrive. You can even gift a cup o' joe to your driver, if you like. Those drivers will also get Starbucks' Gold perk status as a matter of course, and they'll earn Stars for every ride they offer. Baristas might see some benefits, too, as Starbucks is testing a program that would give employees Lyft rides when mass transit isn't an option. The alliance is only effective in the 65 US cities that Lyft covers, but it could prove tempting if you just can't get enough grande lattes.
Your iPhone just became a better remote control for the internet of things. Google has released Chrome 44 for iOS, which lets you see Physical Web devices (think smart parking meters and vending machines) in iOS' Today view -- you don't need to run specialized apps or open the browser just to see gadgets around you. It's still a worthwhile upgrade even if you don't live around compatible gadgets, since you can finally use Safari-style horizontal swipes to flip back and forth through web pages. Either way, you'll definitely want to swing by the App Store if Chrome is your surfing software of choice.
Twitch is ditching Flash. The first step is a redesign of its video player controls, swapping out the old Flash model for shiny, new HTML5 and Javascript controls. Twitch videos are still Flash-based for now, but this is all in preparation for a full HTML5 player. The new controls will be rolled out gradually to all users, and you'll notice them on channel pages first.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 doesn't drop until November, but you won't have to wait nearly so long to find out whether or not its online play lives up to the hype. Activision and Treyarch have revealed that the sci-fi shooter's multiplayer beta kicks off August 19th if you've pre-ordered the PlayStation 4 version, and August 26th on Xbox One. You'll only have five days to play in either case, but it should give you a feel for the player classes and new gameplay mechanics (such as momentum-based movement) before you get your full copy. It's not certain just which maps and game modes will find their way into the beta, but you'll likely find out before the test starts.
Wish your Pebble Time smartwatch was easier to read in low light, or didn't shake so violently that everyone can tell when you have new messages? Your wishes have been answered. Pebble is trotting out a firmware update for the Time (and Time Steel, when it ships) that lets you tweak the intensities of both the backlight and the vibration motor, so you won't have to squint or apologize for noises. You can also go for a larger font size, in case your vision isn't what it used to be.
Google's already rolled out 360-degree videos on YouTube, like Bjork's latest musical venture, and now the company has announced that it's doing the same with advertisements. The new feature debuted on Wednesday for both Chrome and the mobile YouTube app on Android and iOS. It works exactly the same way existing 360-degree videos do -- just scroll your mouse up, down, left or right to adjust the view. The new ad format is also compatible with Google's Cardboard VR headset.
[Image Credit: WireImage/Getty]
