September 26, 2018 12:40AM PT Netflix will give a worldwide release to Indian drama “Rajma Chawal. The film is set to have a theatrical premiere at October’s London Film Festival, before releasing online on Nov. 30. Set in the chaotic, vibrant Chandni Chowk area of Delhi, Rajma Chawal captures the relationship between a father attempting to reconnect
Tech
Media center app maker Plex is saying good-bye to the cloud: After announcing the closure of its Plex Cloud service earlier this month, the company is now also getting rid of a feature that allowed consumers to sync their media collections to the cloud. Plex announced the change in a blog post Tuesday that also
Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s much-scrutinized streaming-video project is months away from launch, but the executives already know how much the new content would cost subscribers. NewTV, incubated by Katzenberg and held by his WndrCo, will seek to charge subscribers $5 per month for content with ads and $8 per month for an ad-free experience
September 25, 2018 2:00PM PT Will Smith is celebrating his 50th birthday by bungee-jumping out of a helicopter into the Grand Canyon. After being challenged by the YouTube group Yes Theory in March, Smith agreed to the jump in an effort to raise awareness and encourage donations for education campaigns run by the international advocacy
SiriusXM’s $3.5 acquisition of Pandora, announced Monday and still awaiting stockholder approval, creates an audio monolith with more than 100 million monthly listeners, but even more importantly establishes a beachhead for the combined company against the likes of Apple, Spotify and Amazon for connected car dashboard supremacy. With in-car listening the dominant factor in audio broadcast
Facebook will likely appoint Adam Mosseri, currently Instagram’s head of product, as the new chief executive of Instagram with the departure of the photo- and video-sharing service’s co-founders, according to a report. Tech-new site The Information reported that Facebook will likely announce Mosseri as the new head of Instagram “in the coming days,” citing anonymous
This coming Wednesday and Thursday, virtual reality (VR) developers and enthusiasts from around the world will once again gather in San Diego, Calif., for Facebook’s Oculus Connect developer conference. One of the big reveals of the conference is expected to be the latest version of Oculus Santa Cruz, a standalone VR headset that Facebook has
Sports journalists Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer will make history when they become the first two women to call NFL games on Amazon’s Prime Video. The duo have inked a deal to provide commentary and analysis for 11 “Thursday Night Football” games live-streamed to Prime customers worldwide this season. Storm (pictured above right) and Kremer
September 25, 2018 9:23AM PT Twitter is revamping its policies to include a ban of dehumanizing language. The company previewed the changes Wednesday morning, and asked its users for input to refine the policy. “Language that makes someone less than human can have repercussions off the service, including normalizing serious violence,” the company said in
The nominations are out for the 8th Annual Streamy Awards — recognizing the best creators, content and marketing in online video, and YouTube has inked a deal to be the official presenting sponsor and global distribution partner for the 2018 edition. This year’s list of Streamys contenders include Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, a top “Fortnite” player
Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are stepping down from their respective roles as CEO and CTO at the image- and video-sharing giant, which is owned by Facebook. Systrom confirmed the move in a blog post Monday evening, following an earlier report by the New York Times about the duo’s departure. In the post, Systrom said he
September 24, 2018 9:48AM PT Snap is adding visual product search to Snapchat to let its users identify products just by capturing them with their phone camera, the company announced Monday morning. Snapchat’s visual search is being powered by Amazon, and consumers will be able to easily order recognized products through the e-commerce giant. “We’ll
Hulu announced the hiring of two senior tech execs — Joe Bentley as SVP of engineering and Jim Denney as VP of product management. In addition, the streamer said Billie Sue Chafins has been promoted to VP software development and head of Hulu’s Seattle office. Bentley, previously with GoPro, and Denney, formerly with TiVo, will
September 24, 2018 8:30AM PT Apple now officially owns Shazam: The Cupertino computer maker announced Monday that its acquisition of Shazam has closed, and that it plans to make the music recognition service available ad-free to consumers soon. “Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we
September 24, 2018 8:03AM PT Facebook has hired Ajit Mohan as managing director and vice president for India, the company announced Monday. Mohan will join in early 2019. Mohan was formerly chief executive officer at 21st Century Fox’s Hotstar, India’s market leader among streaming services. Under Mohan’s leadership, Hotstar achieved between 75 million and 100 million
RockYou Media has acquired millennial parenting website Mom.me from Whalerock Industries, as it continues to roll up digital-media properties. The latest purchase by RockYou follows its acquisitions this year of feel-good-focused LittleThings and CafeMedia’s CafeMom, MamasLatinas, Revelist and BabyNameWizard. With the addition of Mom.me, the company will likely rank fifth in comScore’s Family and Parenting
Oprah Winfrey. John Legend. Constance Wu. Diego Luna. Baobab Studios’ latest animated VR film “Crow: The Legend” has an almost outrageous lineup of A-list talent attached to it. Even Eric Darnell, Baobab’s chief creative officer and writer-director of the film, still has to pinch himself sometimes. “For a tiny little startup, how the heck did this
September 21, 2018 9:04AM PT Facebook is getting ready to unveil its long-rumored video chat device, according to a new Cheddar report. The public announcement of the device, which is internally known as Portal, could reportedly come as early as next week. Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The device has been