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MoviePass' new funding means it isn't going anywhere just yet
The general opinion of MoviePass has gradually changed over the past year from seeing it as the salvation for movie-goers to waiting for it to shut down. The financially-troubled service has been through a lot of turbulence lately; once it offered a cinema ticket per day for a monthly fee but then had to retroactively switch to just three movies a month. It turns out, however, that the service will stay around a bit longer—that is, as long as the freshly raised $65 million in funding can sustain it.
Pentagon pledges $2 billion for AI research
The US Department of Defense will put up to $2 billion towards artificial intelligence research over the next five years, the Washington Post reports. Steven Walker, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), announced the plan today at a symposium outside of Washington, DC. He said the agency wants to look into "how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities" and will fund dozens of new research projects going forward.
Media giants invest $1 billion in former Dreamworks exec’s ‘NewTV’
Former Dreamworks executive Jeffrey Katzenberg first touted his video startup idea, NewTV, a year ago, citing ambitious plans to secure as much as $2 billion in funding to get the idea off the ground. Just over 12 months later and he's halfway there, with the company confirming it's closed on a billion in a new funding round, thanks to heavyweight investors such as Disney, 21st Century Fox and Warner Bros.
Huawei says concerns over US research funding are ignorant
Last week, over two dozen Republican and Democratic members of Congress, led by Representative Jim Banks (R-IN) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), sent Education Secretary Betsy DeVos a letter, urging her to investigate a university funding program put forward by Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. In the letter, the lawmakers requested that she collect information from US universities involved in any research partnerships with the company and put together a working group "to understand how the People's Republic of China attempts to gather US technology on US university and college campuses and to develop recommendations (especially for those institutions that receive any kind of federal funding) for protecting the US technology advantage." Now, Reuters reports, Huawei Chairman Eric Xu has called Rubio and Banks "closed-minded and ill-informed."
Bloodhound's rocket-powered test run delayed to 2019
Hopes that the Bloodhound supersonic car project was making progress in its land speed record bid have been dampened yet again. Due to a lack of funding, trials that may have paved the way for the 1,000mph record have been pushed back to May next year, although the date of the overall record attempt taking place in South Africa -- late 2019 -- still stands.
Apparently high-definition vinyl is coming next year
The process of making records hasn't changed much over the last hundred or so years, but that itself could change soon. Austria-based Rebeat Innovation has begun the work to bring vinyl into the 21st century. Of course, that involves lasers. Specifically, converting analog audio information into a digital, 3D topographic map of the music, and then etching that into a platter with light. According to Pitchfork, this process will result in around 40 percent longer playing times per side, 30 percent more amplitude and will offer better sound quality overall. It'd also sidestep the chemicals typically used in the record-making process.
Patreon is shifting processing fees from creators to supporters
On December 18th, Patreon will be changing how it handles service fees. Currently, Patreon takes five percent of whatever creators make on the site but because of various processing fees that also apply, creators actually lose seven to 15 percent of their earnings. So now, Patreon says it wants to streamline those fees and on the 18th it will charge patrons a new service fee of 2.9 percent plus 35 cents per pledge. That means creators will now only see a flat five percent taken from their pledges. However, while the funding platform is presenting this change as a benefit for creators, many are concerned that these new charges will cause a good portion of their patrons to stop pledging.
PlayStation is still getting away with 'minimum funding' charges
When game consoles stumbled into the modern era, their digital-content stores were a mess. Nintendo's Wii locked its customers into an annoying point system. The Xbox 360 obfuscated the value of Microsoft Points by using an odd 0.8 conversion rate. Sony's PlayStation Store listed its items in real, local currency but still forced users to load up digital wallets with a minimum amount before purchasing anything on the marketplace. Over the years, Nintendo and Microsoft fixed their digital-currency problems, aping Sony's up-front pricing and even improving upon it by allowing users to buy content without requiring them to add funds to a wallet system. Sony, on the other hand, hasn't changed. If you don't promise to spend at least $5 in the PlayStation store, you're not allowed to buy anything at all.
AngelList buys tech discovery site Product Hunt
Product Hunt's discovery site for genuinely useful technology has been bought by AngelList. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, however Recode is putting the number at around $20 million. The acquisition involves a mixture of cash and stock, and will see ProductHunt "remain an independent platform," according to its CEO Ryan Hoover. "We'll continue to use excessive emojis, drink Philz, and build in public with our community," he wrote on Medium. ProductHunt launched in 2013 with a simple premise: surface the hottest startups and services. It's since become a Silicon Valley darling, expanding into games, books and other categories.
NASA seeks public input on how to cut SLS and Orion costs
NASA has admitted in its latest Request for Information (RFI) that it's spending a bit too much money on the Space Launch System's and the Orion capsule's development. The agency is asking for public input on how to minimize the "production, operations and maintenance costs" of the rocket-and-spacecraft system -- an issue it needs to address soon since it will be under a new administration within a couple of months.
White House plan will train coal workers for 21st century jobs
Stepping away from fossil fuels is incredibly important, but our move toward a sustainable future will invariably leave countless workers unemployed by no fault of their own. The White House knows this and this week, the Obama administration announced $28 million in funding for 42 "economic and workforce" development programs across a baker's dozen of (mostly southern) states.
Uber snags a massive $3.5 billion investment from Saudi Arabia
As a part of its latest round of funding, Uber has received what the Financial Times says is the "largest single investment ever made in a public company." That investment is a $3.5 billion chunk laid down by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, at Uber's current valuation of $62.5 billion. Uber has operated in the country since 2014, and in a statement the managing director of the Public Investment Fund, Yasir Al Rumayyan, noted how this is a part of the country's Vision 2030 plan to reduce dependence on oil-related industries. Rumayyan will be taking a seat on Uber's board as a part of the deal, but Uber doesn't have any specific expansion plan there right now. Also notable is the fact that women are prohibited from driving in Saudi Arabia, and Uber says they make up 80 percent of its riders there -- interesting light of of CEO Travis Kalanick's statement that "Our experience in Saudi Arabia is a great example of how Uber can benefit riders, drivers and cities and we look forward to partnering to support their economic and social reforms."
Government documents reveal Dyson is making an electric car
There might come a time when the image of a vacuum isn't the first thing that pops into your head whenever someone says "Dyson." It seems the company has received funding from the UK government yet again, this time to help finance the development of something much bigger than the 360 Eye: an electric vehicle. The Guardian has spotted a section in the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan published on gov.uk that talks about the project and the government's "£174 million ($245 million) investment."
Congress will give NASA nearly $20 billion next year
In a surprise move, the Republican-controlled Congress has promised to give NASA roughly $19.3 billion dollars next year as part of its 2016 omnibus spending bill. That's nearly a billion dollars beyond the $18.5 billion that the Obama administration had requested and $1.23 billion more than the agency received last year.
Slack's App Directory proves it's more than just a chatroom
All those apps in collaboration suite Slack are about to get a little easier to find and integrate within your team -- and over 160 of them live within the company's new Slack App Directory. Just type "/apps" and then the keyword of your choice to bring up a list of compatible applications. For example, "/apps productivity" in the Engadget Slack channel brings up Google Calendar, Wunderlist and WorkingOn, while "/apps video" comes back with storage and video chat applications like Dropbox and Google+ Hangouts. The idea is that when one of these integrated apps is connected, like Weiko's visitor check-in system for example, the relevant party will automagically get a ping saying their guest has arrived.
BBC vows to make more cuts in response to government review
The BBC's Royal Charter isn't due for renewal until the end 2016, but it's already come under fire from the UK government over how it's funded and its perceived public value. Ministers have suggested extending the standard licence fee to include subscriptions and asked whether TV, radio and online services are damaging commercial competitors. This led to Director-General Tony Hall outlining plans for a more "open" BBC last month, but he's back today with a fresh round of commitments (and suggestions) aimed at convincing the public it can do what is asked of it.
Intel pulls out of sponsoring America's Science Talent Search
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, has announced that it'll end its long association with the Science Talent Search. STS is a program that unearths promising STEM talent from America's high schools, rewarding entrance with cash prizes and meetings with experts. The New York Times is reporting that the company will no longer sponsor the contest after 2017, although an international prize will run until 2019. Tellingly, Intel was unable to explain why it was withdrawing, despite the cost being just $6 million a year — pocket change for a company that makes quarterly net profits of around $3 billion. If we were to wildly speculate, perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that the firm is going to team up with TBS to create a reality show around the maker movement. We've reached out to ask the company for comment, but it had yet to respond to us by the time of publication. [Image Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images]
Startups can ask investors for cash through Twitter
Your favorite internet startup might not just be using Twitter for business news and sales pitches in the near future -- the US Securities and Exchange Commission has greenlit using the social network to drum up interest in future stocks and debt offerings. This only works for small outfits raising less than $50 million per year, but it should do a lot to help these young companies get funding when many venture capitalists thrive online. While this probably won't be a make-or-break matter for many companies, it shows that the SEC is aware that stuffy official filings will only get you so far in the internet era. Besides, it's fun to think that a 140-character Twitter spiel may be enough to jumpstart the next big tech firm.
Relax: De La Soul's album's already smashed its Kickstarter goal
De La Soul love sampling, so much so that they feel as if a whole branch of copyright law was invented just for them. The sample-heavy trio (for three is the magic number) didn't want to have to compromise their artistic vision for their ninth album, so took to Kickstarter to ask for your cash. It didn't take long before the group smashed its $110,000 crowdfunding goal, and so the new De La Soul album will find its way into mailboxes this September.
Recommended Reading: The secrets behind 'Madden's' player ratings
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. How Madden Ratings are Made by Neil Paine FiveThirtyEight If you've ever played a Madden title, at some point, you've questioned how player ratings are compiled. Heck, players are even critical of their own scores. Well, the stats experts over at FiveThirtyEight dive deep on the matter, offering a load of background information and a method for compiling and grading your own abilities... or lack thereof.
