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Oprah debuts free Apple TV+ series discussing COVID-19
If you want to explore the societal impact of the coronavirus pandemic, you might just have to fire up a stream in your living room. Oprah Winfrey has launched a free Apple TV+ series, Oprah Talks COVID-19, that has her talking to "experts and everyday people" about how people can deal with the virus while maintaining their humanity. There are two episodes at present, including a chat with Idris Elba (who tested positive for COVID-19) and his wife Sabrina Dhowre as well as a spirituality-focused discussion with Pastor Wintley Phipps.
After Math: How COVID-19 is already clobbering 2020
Welp, we had a good run, America. While every other developed nation on the planet scrambles to defend itself against the deadly spread of COVID-19, the US had to be dragged into fielding a response. This year everything is cancelled. Schools have been shuttered, universities have migrated to online classes, and group gatherings larger than a couple hundred people are being postponed. Major league sports might be back sometime next year, workers are being asked to work from home and engage in social distancing to help slow the coronavirus' spread. Oh, you think it's a hoax? Then how do you explain all of this week's headlines about the coronavirus?
After Math: Steven Seagal-like longevity
Say what you will about Steven Seagal but the '80s action star is still somehow able to draw headlines in 2020, even when he's not premiering his latest passion project. Granted, yes, those headlines most recently have involved the SEC and a $314,000 settlement for him not disclosing that his endorsements for a digital currency were compensated for by the company selling them. Regardless, let's take a look at some more headlines of surprisingly persistent products from this past week.
Classic 'Oprah Winfrey Show' episodes return in podcast form
Podcasts have become so huge in recent years that more than half of Americans have listened to at least one, according to a report published in 2019. That's probably why Oprah is making her iconic talk show more available to audiences today by releasing it in podcast format. According to People, the host's network plans to turn all 4,500 The Oprah Winfrey Show episodes into podcasts -- that's 25 years' worth of episodes, which originally aired from 1986 to 2011 on TV.
Oprah’s Book Club is coming to Apple TV+
Oprah Winfrey is one of the A-list celebrities Apple has enlisted for Apple TV+. Winfrey has already signed on for a series with Prince Harry on mental health, and she's expected to release another documentary, Toxic Labor, about workplace harassment. Today, we learned that Oprah's Book Club will get a place on the streaming platform, too.
Apple signs Prince Harry and Oprah for new mental health docu-series
Celebrity royalty is commonplace on streaming services, but Apple+ has just gone and snagged an actual royal. It's teaming Prince Harry (aka the Duke of Sussex) with Oprah Winfrey on a new mental health docu-series. The Prince, who's also exec-producing alongside Winfrey, announced the news on Instagram. It arrives on Apple+ in 2020, before which we should get more information, including a title.
Oprah will be Alexa’s first celebrity-voiced shopping assistant
Alexa is getting its first celebrity voice. To go along with the Oprah's Favorite Things storefront on Amazon, users of Alexa-enabled devices can have Oprah herself guide them through this year's 102 favorite things. To do so, you'll just have to say, "Alexa, let's shop Oprah's Favorite Things." Oprah will then describe one of the products on her list and tell you why she recommends it. If you want to buy it, say "yes," if you don't, say "no," and Oprah will move on to another item.
Henrietta Lacks will be immortalized in an HBO special
Her name may not be widely known outside of medical research circles, but Henrietta Lacks -- and the tumorous cell samples she left behind when she died of cervical cancer in 1951 -- have been crucial to numerous experiments and medical breakthroughs. Although we have Henrietta's HeLa line cells to thank for everything from Jonas Salk's polio vaccine to hypoallergenic cosmetics, she's about to be immortalized again in an HBO original biopic.
Microsoft gifts full-time employees with Surface tablets, Windows 8 phones and PCs
Reprising a Windows Phone 7 giveaway from back in 2010, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer announced at the company's annual event that all 90,000 or so full-time employees are getting a taste of its latest hardware. That's one Surface for Windows RT tablet and Windows Phone 8 phone (we're told that last time around these came with two year contracts) in late December, along with a new touch compatible office computer running Windows 8, presumably arriving sooner. Forbes indicates those PCs can be a desktop, laptop, ultrabook or tablet, and we have a pic of one employee's new Lenovo-built slate running Windows 8 on a Core i7 CPU with 8GB of RAM after the break. Pulling an Oprah, again, isn't just one way to improve employee morale, it also ensures everyone's familiar with the new products as they roll out and are ready to tell people about them. Will that provide the necessary bump to catch up with the competition from Apple and Google? Only time will tell, but if you're wondering what to say when someone asks if every single person wants a Surface then our advice follows after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Oprah launching 'Book Club 2.0,' your mom now knows what 'webisode' means
Everyone! Check under your chairs! It's a...new book club from Oprah! Yep, the former queen of daytime TV is revamping her famed literary organization for the 21st century. Winfrey says she was so taken by Cheryl Strayed's Wild, that she absolutely had to get back on the book peddling bandwagon. The talk show icon will be launching digital editions of the book for the Kindle, Nook and iPad on Monday, featuring exclusive content like a reader's guide. Webisodes featuring Winfrey will go up each week and readers can submit questions via Twitter and Facebook. The whole thing leads up to a live streaming interview with the author on July 22nd. More info -- and a video of a woman who desperately needs someone to give her that talk show back -- after the break.
SnapStream TV monitoring now lets OS X users keep tabs on amusing video-blunders
The Daily Show and Colbert Report famously rely upon SnapStream's high-power Windows DVR software to monitor the insanity at the fringes of America's cable spectrum. The media-monitoring software is also used by news services, educators and shadowy government agencies to keep tabs on the subjects discussed on TV. The latest edition (version five) opens the platform up to OS X users, enabling them to run it in Firefox without messy virtualization. The OS X web player comes with a plugin to watch MPEG-2 streams that'll happily sit on top of Snow Leopard or Lion and will even let you set up customized alerts for whenever inappropriate euphemisms emerge from Oprah's mouth.
Hearst and Apple come to terms on subscriptions
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Hearst and Apple have come to an agreement over iPad magazine subscriptions. According to the WSJ, Hearst will begin selling a range of its magazines through iTunes for US$1.99 an issue or $19.99 for an annual subscription. Three magazines will kick off the new subscription deal this July; Esquire, Popular Mechanics and O, The Oprah Magazine. Hearst also stated that it will begin selling newspaper subscriptions through the iPad later this year. I've written about magazines on the iPad several times in the past, and I, like many of our readers, have been baffled at the high prices magazine publishers have (until now) chosen to charge. With the Hearst announcement representing some of the best magazine deals on the iPad yet, hopefully other publishers will soon fall in line. But while I do think the Hearst subscription deal is a good thing for both publishers and consumers, I'm still holding on to the belief that there needs to be a unified iNewstand store before newspaper and magazine sales really take off on the iPad. Price-wise, however, today's news is a good start.
MMObility: Survival on a desert island
We've all played that age-old game of pondering what we might take with us on an endless trip to a desert island. What music would you bring? Whom would you bring with you? What food would you bring, if you could choose only one food? I've recently been thinking about this old game again, mainly because of my obsession with portability and all-in-one devices. Which device would I bring with me to that island, if I had to choose? (Let's forget the fact that I could just make a call or otherwise contact the authorities to rescue me off the island!) The ultimate question is this: Which MMO would I bring installed on that device? Or, going a bit further, which apps or other downloads would I include? Once I started asking, my fantasy turned into somewhat of a challenge to myself: Could I survive a week without any access to a desktop at all? Could I write, play, and otherwise continue to do my job with only a pocket-sized device? Join me past the cut and let's see what I might include on this trip.
Dish Network will be the first to broadcast OWN HD nationally tomorrow
While we originally heard Oprah Winfrey's OWN network would get an HD simulcast, most haven't been able to watch it that way since it launched but that will change tomorrow when Dish Network adds OWN HD to its channel lineup. Check for it on channel 189 -- assuming you're on the America's Top 200 channel pack or higher.
Oprah studio guests scream for free iPads, her "favorite thing ever"
Do I now have to buy an iPad to give to all my Oprah Winfrey-watching relatives for Christmas? Oprah just helped Apple boost their 2010 iPad sales figures even higher by featuring it on her "Favorite Things" episode on Monday. Oprah has aired this segment each year since 2002 and in the past has given her readers cars, trips, electronics, jewelry and clothing. While Oprah has picked the iPod 5G for inclusion on her favorite things list in the past, this year the iPad was chosen as her most favorite thing, and all 275 studio guests received one. Calling the iPad her "number one favorite thing ever," Oprah said that from "our very first moment together I knew it had stolen my heart." The audience was pretty excited about the freebie but seemed to be a little more excited (and rightly so) about the 2012 VW Beetle they also received. I wonder if they know they have to pay the taxes on that "free" car? Update: Seems VW is paying the taxes on the cars. (Thanks @Doug) Studio guests this year also received a five-year subscription to Netflix, a 52-inch Sony Bravia 3D television, and a Nikon D3100 digital camera. Click Read More to watch video of the audience screaming when they find out about the iPads. [via CNNMoney]
Watch Oprah give Kinect to her entire audience ... and the hysteria that ensues
You're getting a Kinect! And you're getting a Kinect! And you, and you and you're getting a Kinect! Oprah did today what only Bejeweled and FarmVille have been able to do so far: Get a bunch of middle-aged women ecstatically excited about video games. The television guru indeed gave an Xbox 360 system and a Kinect sensor away to every member of her studio audience this afternoon, and while you might expect a group of gamers to be a little thrilled about that, this crowd went freakin' nuts. The show was about "The Next Big Thing," and featured an appearance by reality show crooner Susan Boyle, as well as a segment on The Daily Show's upcoming "Rally to Restore Sanity" anti-movement. But whatever the reason Oprah decided to go all Microsoft motion controller on her audience, it appears to have worked -- they loved it. Maybe this means they don't have to buy Christmas presents for the kids this year? Watch the whole surreal video after the break.
Motorola Defy hitting T-Mobile this holiday season, details to come... on Oprah
Remember that Defy that Motorola outed at the front end of this month? Turns out the Europeans won't be the only ones seeing it this Christmas, as Moto has just revealed that it'll be hitting US airwaves exclusively on T-Mobile "in time for the holidays." You already know the details -- a 3.7-inch WVGA scratch-resistant touchpanel, plenty of rigidity, Android 2.1, the ability to withstand dust and water, a five megapixel camera (with flash and auto focus), DLNA support and the outfit's own Blur interface (despite Jha's claims that it would fade from view) -- but it looks as if you'll have to wait a tick to find out anything about pricing. How long? Tune into today's farewell season premiere of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to find out. Yeah... strange. But true! %Gallery-102035%
Celebrity Nerds: Oprah has an EVO 4G and you don't
Celebrity Nerds confirms what you always knew, deep in your heart of hearts: that stars are nerds like us. Send in your own confirmations of this fact right here. We wish we could tell you that Oprah caused a small riot in Chicago by handing out HTC EVO 4Gs to everyone in her audience but, alas, she seems to have just kept this one for herself. More specifically, she used the "fancy new" phone to show "those of you who actually know how to text" how easy it is to sign her "No Phone Zone" pledge. No discounts, no Bono, just a fleeting glimpse of one of the most anticipated phones of the year. Head on past the break for the video evidence of this momentous event. [Thanks, Luis]
Roger Ebert dramatically regains his voice with help from CereProc (video)
Roger Ebert, perhaps best known as the Hardy to Siskel's Laurel during his days spent thumbing up and down criticisms at films, has achieved a technological miracle of sorts. After a series of cancer treatments and operations left the man mute and without a lower jaw, Ebert regained his voice in dramatic fashion on Oprah, of all places. A company called CereProc has recreated his voice through its text-to-speech technologies assisted by decades of recordings captured from his television appearances and DVD movie commentary tracks -- not exactly applicable to everyone with speaking disorders. Nevertheless, check the clip after the break to witness the impact his semi-recovered voice has on his wife, Chaz. While it definitely needs tweaking, the results are pretty remarkable.
Save $100 on a T-Mobile myTouch 3G, thanks to Oprah
What could possibly cause T-Mobile to knock a full $100 off a successful smartphone less than two months after it started shipping? A lapse in judgment? A freewheelin' new CEO? A brand new Android phone set for release? No, it's something far more momentous: a new season of Oprah. While it's not quite a new car, folks tuning into the show today will apparently be treated to one of the biggest celebrity android sightings to date, and be given the opportunity to snag a myTouch 3G of their own for just $99 (on a two-year contract with data, of course). Can't wait another minute? Then it looks like you're in luck, as the discount code is already up on T-Mobile's website, and is valid until September 24th.[Thanks, Jeff]
