Tech

Tumblr, the social blogging service owned by Verizon’s Oath, is getting ready to ban all adult content: Nudity and other X-rated content won’t be allowed on the service starting later this month, Tumblr said in a support note Monday. “Starting Dec 17, adult content will not be allowed on Tumblr, regardless of how old you

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, doesn’t think the launch of streaming-video services in 2019 from big media companies like Disney and WarnerMedia will slow down his company’s momentum. “Other people are going to try things, do things,” said Sarandos, speaking Monday at UBS’s 2018 Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. “Some of them

PewDiePie and his supporters are fighting hard to keep him the No. 1 most-subscribed YouTuber on the platform. In recent weeks, PewDiePie’s five-year reign as the YouTube creator with the most subscribers on the platform has been threatened by T-Series, an Indian entertainment conglomerate whose YouTube channel features music videos. On Sunday, T-Series’ subscriber count

Nvidia’s latest over-the-top graphics card, the Titan RTX, goes on sale later this month for $2,499, delivering real-time 8K video editing thanks to 24GB of high-speed memory and 1770 MHz overclocked GPU, the company announced Monday. The Titan RTX is being marketed as the “world’s most powerful GPU, providing massive performance for AI research, data

December 3, 2018 8:00AM PT Snap is continuing its regular release cadence for Snapchat original shows, setting the premiere date for “Growing Up Is a Drag,” a docu-series about teen drag stars from reality TV pioneer Bunim-Murray Productions and PB&J Television. The newest short-form Snap Original premieres Monday, Dec. 17, and will run daily through Dec.

December 3, 2018 8:00AM PT Comedy Central said it would launch four one-hour stand-up comedy specials in January as well as a later slate of 12 half-hour stand-up programs, two under the banner of being presented by comedienne and actress Amy Schumer. The Viacom-owned network said the four hour-long specials, led by comedians Ron Funches, James

Samsung is looking to get a first-mover advantage in 5G smartphones, with rival Apple reportedly planning to sit out of the game until 2020. On Monday, Verizon and Samsung announced plans to launch one of the first commercial 5G smartphones in the first half of 2019, which will use chips from Qualcomm. Meanwhile, Apple will not

Rakuten Viki, a streaming provider specializing in Asian TV shows and movies, has reached deals with major Japanese broadcasters Nippon TV and Asahi TV to bring a collection of their shows to audiences outside the country. The collection of new shows coming to Rakuten Viki under the pacts include 10 series from Nippon TV and

Amazon Prime Video’s first Tamil-language series “Vella Raja” will stream worldwide from Dec. 7. The company’s India’s director and head of content, Vijay Subramaniam, is one of the speakers at the Asia TV Forum & Market that takes place in Singapore Dec. 4-7. In addition to catering to the large Tamil speaking population in India, the

December 1, 2018 9:37AM PT A new video app is being utilized by white supremacists to trick celebrities into recording anti-Semitic messages, according to a report by BuzzFeed News. Cameo, which launched in April 2018, was created to allow fans to pay for celebs to record personalized messages. Among those who have been duped are

Facebook is playing the nostalgia card in its latest bid to drive up video viewing — and video ad sales. The social-media giant is launching every episode of Joss Whedon’s supernatural drama “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and spinoff “Angel” along with sci-fi show “Firefly” on Facebook Watch for free to users the U.S. All 268

The story of one of the iconic figures of the beautiful game is coming to Netflix, which will launch “Bobby Robson: More Than a Manager” on its platform globally. The film tells the story of much-loved soccer player and manager Bobby Robson, who took charge of English club Ipswich and Spanish giants Barcelona among others

November 30, 2018 9:46AM PT Amazon has teamed up with Apple to bring Apple Music to its Echo line of smart speakers. Echo owners will be able to access Apple Music on their devices starting December 17, Amazon announced Friday. The integration will allow users to ask for songs, artists and albums with voice commands.

Disney might be set to gain even more control over Hulu: AT&T said it is considering selling WarnerMedia’s 10% stake in the streaming venture — which is worth as much as $930 million — as part of shedding nonstrategic assets to pay down its massive debt load. AT&T execs made the comments at the telco’s

Marriott International disclosed a massive security breach of the reservations system for its Starwood Hotels and Resorts brand, a hack it said Friday may have compromised private info on up to 500 million guests. According to Marriott, for around 327 million Starwood guests, the database included such personal information as name, mailing address, phone number,

November 29, 2018 7:45PM PT Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is under fire following a New York Times report alleging she asked Facebook staff to conduct opposition research into philanthropist George Soros. The Times cites three sources who say Sandberg asked Facebook’s communications staff, in an email in January, to look into Soros’ financial interests after Soros

November 29, 2018 4:30PM PT Imax continues its departure from virtual reality (VR) with the closure of its sole European VR center in Manchester, U.K. With the shut-down of the Imax VR at Odeon, as the location was officially called, the company has now closed more than half of its VR centers. The Imax VR

Bustle Digital Group has acquired Mic, the struggling digital-media company that laid off most of its employees Thursday. A rep for Bustle said in an emailed statement, “I can confirm that Bustle Digital Group has acquired Mic. We have no further comment.” A spokeswoman for Mic declined to comment. Bustle was offering less than $10

Hulu’s live TV subscribers finally have access to a dozen Discovery networks in various packages, coming after the companies inked a multiyear deal two months ago. The core Hulu With Live TV core package ($40 per month) as of Thursday, Nov. 29, now includes 56 national cable channels, with the addition of five Discovery networks: Discovery, TLC, MotorTrend, Animal

Tomi Lahren, a rising presence on Fox News Channel, has ambitious plans — but Fox News viewers might not get to see any of them. The conservative commentator will soon deliver twice-daily takes on national issues that move her. She is making visits to the U.S. border, the better to tell real-life stories on video of the

Mic, a New York-based digital news startup aiming at millennials, has cut the majority of its staff and is reportedly in talks to sell the company’s assets. A rep for Mic confirmed the layoffs but declined to specify how many employees were pink-slipped. The company is in talks to sell to what remains of Mic

Jukin Media is extending the reach of its linear OTT efforts with a new deal with Samsung that is bringing the company’s FailArmyTV and The Pet Collective TV channels to select Samsung smart TVs. “This deal puts FailArmyTV and The Pet Collective TV in millions of living rooms across the country, immediately making them more

November 29, 2018 7:00AM PT BBC News is taking a shot at bringing a substantive, issues-oriented program to the global social media platform that is under fire for its role in distributing fake news. Facebook Watch has ordered a weekly series for the U.S. from BBC News dubbed “Cut Through the Noise,” which bows today.

Media center app maker Plex has struck a partnership with Tidal to add the music service to its app. Paying Tidal subscribers can use Plex to mix the service’s 60 million tracks with their own personal music library, and access it on a growing number of devices that Plex is already available on. The partnership

Social VR platform Sansar has teamed up with comedian and YouTube star Steve Hofstetter to create a series of comedy nights in virtual reality. Dubbed “Comedy Gladiators: A Virtual Comedy Experience,” the event series marks the first time for Sansar to hold ticketed pay-per-view events. “Comedy Gladiators” will allow VR users to enter a virtual comedy

The third season of AwesomenessTV’s “t@gged” teen social-media psychological thriller series is launching on Hulu on Dec. 7. Hulu also is currently streaming the entire first two seasons of “t@gged,” which originally ran on Verizon’s Go90 mobile video service. Verizon, which was formerly one of Awesomeness’ owners, shut down Go90 this summer. That put the

November 28, 2018 2:14PM PT In the latest addition to the ever-expanding Star Wars universe, Disney and Lucasfilm are launching a new series of free animated shorts — designed to introduce youngsters on the storylines of the space-epic franchise and bring them into the Star Wars fandom. The new “Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures” series is

Netflix’s animated adaptation of “Castlevania” is pure bloody brilliance, distilled into two seasons with just twelve episodes. It’s beautifully animated, brimming with stylish homage to the video game series, and it revels in the violent showdowns depicted between humans and demons. It’s also one of the most emotional and vulnerable depictions of familiar characters like

The adventures of “Young Wallander” are coming to Netflix. The streaming giant has ordered a U.K.-Swedish series based on the early life of Henning Mankell’s popular police inspector, who has already been already depicted on the small screen in the BBC “Wallander” series with Kenneth Branagh and a Swedish version with Krister Henriksson. Netflix has

November 28, 2018 9:38AM PT Google took another step towards becoming a phone company Wednesday with a relaunch of its mobile phone service under a new Google Fi branding. Previously known as Project Fi, the service is now officially available on iPhones as well as the majority of Android phones. The service offers consumers a