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Congrats on surviving week three of the coronavirus quarantine… or, first if you happen to live in the American south. With so many people spending their days indoors, it should come as little surprise that headlines over the past few weeks have co…
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ABC News Live starts streaming on Android TV and Fire TV
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Accordingly, you can expect the redesign to reach the Apple TV and Roku apps in mid-April. And if you prefer local news, eight ABC-owned TV stations in major markets will have native apps for Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku devices. Los Angeles’ KABC-TV will be the first to launch its app, debuting in early April, while stations in Chicago, Fresno, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco should have their own apps in place later in the month.
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AMC’s free streaming TV includes ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘MST3K’
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AMC is joining the ranks of high-profile TV networks in streaming shows for free during the COVID-19 pandemic. To start, it’s making the first half of The Walking Dead‘s tenth season free to watch from the AMC website and apps until May 1st. IFC, meanwhile, is offering free full seasons of comedy shows throughout April, including Mystery Science Theatre 3000. BBC America is offering free nature documentaries like Attenborough and the Giant Elephant, while SundanceTV’s first season of Liar and other shows will be available until April 14th.
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UK phone masts attacked over bogus 5G coronavirus conspiracies
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While it’s not clear who exactly is behind the attacks, the culprits don’t appear to be checking for the presence of actual 5G — one attack in Birmingham wrecked a tower that provided LTE access at most. The threats against engineers have sometimes been levelled at employees for wired broadband companies, not cell service.
The attacks have become significant enough that officials and company executives are speaking out. NHS England’s Stephen Powis was “absolutely disgusted” at the attacks, noting that the phone networks were crucial to emergency and health care workers. Vodafone UK chief Nick Jeffery, meanwhile, saw this as a question of national security.
It’s not clear if the government will crack down on these attempts. However, it’s safe to say the anti-5G theories don’t have a scientific basis. High-frequency 5G shouldn’t be harmful enough to cause health issues by itself, and it certainly doesn’t foster the growth of viruses. Moreover, COVID-19 infection rates aren’t at all linked to the presence of 5G cell sites. Iran has no 5G service to speak of, for instance, but has still grappled with a high infection rate. Simply speaking, anti-5G attacks like those in the UK stem from irrational fear.
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Apple may bring ‘real’ home screen widgets to iOS 14
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The news may be supported by Twitter user Dongle’s recent post hinting at a new approach to wallpaper in iOS 14. Supposedly leaked screenshots of the wallpaper settings include a “home screen appearance” category that would allow for smart dynamic wallpapers that can be blurred, dark or flat-colored on demand. In theory, that could help widgets stand out if your usual background is too busy.
We wouldn’t count on absolute flexibility like on Android, where you have resizable widgets and the option to place app shortcuts virtually anywhere on the home screen. If this new widget approach reaches iOS 14, though, it could go some way toward courting users who feel that iOS’ home screen interface has remained largely unchanged for years.
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E3 will return June 15th, 2021
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You won’t be completely out of luck if you’re eager for gaming news in late spring. On top of Microsoft’s online Xbox event, IGN is orchestrating an event this June with numerous major developers and platform creators, including Amazon, Google, 2K Games, Sega and Square Enix. While we wouldn’t count on an abundance of news, it may be as close as you get to the E3 experience until next year.
E3 2020 was expected to be one of the largest events in recent years with the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X vying for attention on top of the usual game announcements, even with Sony skipping the convention. Next year’s event won’t have quite the same impact. While it should be the first E3 with PS5 and Xbox Series X games, the hardware will have been established by that point — any excitement is more likely to revolve around the potential for the second wave of games for these new consoles.
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Apple appears to to be acquiring virtual event company NextVR
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We’ve asked Apple and NextVR for comment.
It’s not certain just what Apple would do with NextVR, which is best known for its virtual reality versions of concerts and sporting events. However, VR might not play much of a role in the claimed deal. NextVR has run into financial difficulties in the past year, missing out on a round of funding in 2019 in part because its VR focus was less alluring in a market shifting to AR. Apple may be more interested in translating NextVR’s know-how to AR, whether it’s on the rumored headset or mobile devices.
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Amazon reportedly in talks to test warehouse workers for COVID-19
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Whether or not Amazon gets its way is another story. While Abbott and Thermo Fisher are willing to work with Amazon, according to the notes, demand from the US government is apparently taking up all their available capacity. Amazon was nonetheless hopeful that other companies would follow in its path if testing went ahead.
Amazon has declined to comment, while Abbott and Thermo Fisher haven’t addressed the report so far.
If accurate, the scoop suggests that Amazon is aware of how important it is to keep infected workers out of its warehouses, whether or not recent protests influenced its thinking. Amazon has increasingly become important during the pandemic as a way to shop for food, health supplies and other necessities without leaving home. Even one infection at a warehouse (19 warehouses have had incidents so far) could leave people without vital goods for a while if it prompts a temporary closure.
At the same time, this also hints that Amazon still has a long way to go before it has a complete defense against COVID-19. The outbreak has already been present in the US for weeks, and Amazon is only just implementing face masks and temperature checks. Even if test supplies weren’t a factor, the pandemic could be at or past its peak before warehouse staff have assurances that their coworkers are healthy.
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Google Search will highlight government’s COVID-19 announcements
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A COVID-19 announcement will show up as a short summary that users can expand to show more details. Here’s what it currently looks like, but take note that the format can change in the future:
The tech giant says it can’t show special announcements for non-health and non-government websites yet. However, the feature is actively in development and could be expanded to include more sites. Google launched quite a few features after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. It previously introduced a coronavirus search hub that pulls information about the disease from legitimate sources and also made it easier to find travel advisories when searching for specific destinations.
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ESPN2 will air 12 hours of esports coverage on April 5th
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You can also expect to see the next phase of the NBA 2K Players Tournament at 6PM, when players like Devin Booker and Andre Drummond hitting the virtual basketball court. After that, much of the programming involves recaps. The first three hours of the marathon are recaps of Madden NFL 20 competitions like the Classic, Club Championship and Challenge, while Apex Legends fans can revisit the EXP Pro-Am at 10PM.
Whether or not you see more like this may depend on viewership, but it’s easy to see ESPN doing this again. Without conventional sports to show during the pandemic, much of the network’s very reason for being has gone away. Events like Esports Day give ESPN something to offer until it’s safe enough to resume in-person competition.
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