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Everything Disney touches turns to gold (except ‘Dark Phoenix’)

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“Our third-quarter results reflect our efforts to effectively integrate the 21st Century Fox assets to enhance and advance our strategic transformation,” Robert Iger, Disney’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said in the quarterly earnings statement.

The main stand out for the past quarter has been Disney’s box office revenues. Last month, Avengers: Endgame notched $2.79 billion globally to surpass Avatar as the highest-grossing film of all time. Captain Marvel, Lion King, Toy Story 4, and Aladdin were all runaway successes in their own rights, helping propel Disney’s film earnings edge past $8 billion for the year so far. Overall studio revenue for Q3 grew a whopping 33 percent to $3.8 billion. Only Dark Phoenix proved to be an albatross though that was originally a 21st Century Fox debacle.

Disney’s theme parks have also been proven money makers in 2019 with Q3 revenue increasing 7 percent to $6.6 billion. The company announced in May that it would be raising the ticket price for its US parks yet saw a 1 percent uptick in attendance and a 4 percent bump in visitor spending in Q2.

The company’s cable networks are no slouches either. Thanks to strong advertising demand at ESPN as well as the acquisition the 21st Century Fox, especially the additions of FX and Discovery to Disney’s stable, revenue jumped nearly 25 percent in the quarter to $4.5 billion.

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The Ferrari 812 Superfast is exactly what it sounds like

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The Ferrari 812 Superfast is a production car, but really, it’s a race car. A V12-powered beast that carves up roads without breaking a sweat. It’s the pinnacle of the supercar genre. It’s fast, expensive and when you look at it, you want one in your home — even if it’s just as a poster on your wall. You can even look past the sort of ridiculous name. Yes, it’s super-fast, but did they really have to call it that?

That speed is delivered by a gigantic 6.5 liter V12 that yields an impressive 789 horsepower and 529 pounds of torque. The air intakes on this car are larger than the engine on my first car. They’re like giant arms reaching out to the world sucking up the sky and producing a dizzying amount of raw power. A V12 engine needs to breath and those intakes make that happen. The enormous powertrain pushes the 812 Superfast from zero to 62 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds. Plus, you get 80 percent of the car’s torque at 3,500 RPM. That means you get most of the power without having to rev the engine too high. That’s why there’s a jolt at every gear change. It’s intoxicating and would be frightening if there wasn’t a lot of aerodynamic wizardry keeping the car stuck to the road.

Ferrari 812 Superfast review

Every scoop, hole, vent, or curve on the Superfast serves a purpose and most of the time its to create downforce. If automakers didn’t use air to push a car down, as they sped up, they would just take off and leave the ground.

In addition to passive aerodynamics, the Superfast has two elements under the vehicle that open and close to reduce drag. The only problem is that they only come into play when the car hits 112 miles per hour. So I actually have no idea how well it works because I never got close to 112 miles per hour. I mean I’d like too, but laws and safety prevent me from testing that feature out.

Still, even without time on the track, the Ferrari does nothing to hide its abilities as a rocketship with four wheels. When behind the wheel, it’s magical. The only time I was able to get the backend to release was around a very slippery turn. At that point, Ferrari’s Electric Power Steering (EPS) system kicked in and gently helped me right the ship. It wasn’t overbearing in its adjustment. But more like a welcome nudge to get all four wheels solidly going in the correct direction.

It helps that all four of those wheels are turning. Throw in some finely tuned suspension and every movement is an invitation for the car to head in a new direction. To say it’s twitchy is an understatement. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that your movements are immediately being put into action by the car. Sure I’m not doing 112 miles per hour, but I’m now part car and the car is now part of me.

On rough roads, the car’s suspension was less jarring than anticipated. It has a bumpy road mode that smooths out neglected infrastructure. It’s nowhere near what you get in a luxury car, but it’s not going to rattle your teeth out of your head.

Ferrari 812 Superfast review

Oddly the hardest part about driving this car was driving it slow. Anything under 35 and you’re feathering the accelerator trying to get the car to behave. It took a while to get used too. But if you owned this car and just wanted to cruise around town, you’d have a mostly comfortable ride.

Inside, the Superfast is pure Ferrari — with a steering wheel that feels like it was pulled from an F1 car. It’s overwhelming at first, but after half a day I figure out what all the dials, knobs, and switches actually do. One thing I’m a fan of (but still can’t bring my brain to understand) are the turn signals on the steering wheel. Instead of a stalk, the left signal is on the left side of the wheel and the right is on the right. It makes sense and when I remembered they were there, it was great. But most of the time my lizard brain reached for the missing stalk.

In addition to forgoing indicator levers, Ferrari did away with the center dash-based infotainment system. Instead, the drive has two screens in the dash cluster on either side of the speedometer that serves that purpose. The screen on the right is for navigation, media, and phone-related items. On the left side is information about the car including the status of various elements. For example, it’ll tell you when the tires are warm enough for spirited driving.

What’s fun and weird is that the passenger gets their own small touchscreen. With it they can see how fast the car is going, check on the progress of a route and control the music. While I personally believe that the driver should listen to whatever they want, it’s an interesting feature that I found weirdly cool. But on the driver’s side, some of the infotainment is less fun.

Ferrari 812 Superfast review

Like most supercars, the part of the infotainment system that deals with navigation is lacking. Everything is controlled with a knob and inputting addresses is a frustrating affair. The voice assistant is script-based and after a while, I just gave up. Is it a deal-breaker? No not even close. Ferrari states that it supports Apple’s CarPlay. I would have tested that but unfortunately, my iPhone wasn’t working correctly.

As a person too cheap to upgrade his iPhone 6S, I should be appalled at the Superfast’s starting price of $337,000. Unsurprisingly, Ferrari sent me a test vehicle with all the bells and whistles including a lot of carbon fiber which bumps the price up to a whopping $474,500. So yeah, it’s basically a super expensive race car that you can drive around, and I’m oddly fine with that.

Even with all that money, the interior of the Superfast is minimalistic. It’s a stylish suit surrounded by power. That design ethos also extends to the transmission controls. There are only two buttons for the gearbox: reverse and auto. The eight-speed gearbox is controlled almost entirely by the paddles behind the steering wheel.

There’s also a PS (Partenza Sportiva) button that puts the vehicle in launch mode so you can feel the totality of the power under the hood. If you do buy one of these cars, only use this feature on a closed track. It’s already internal organ displacing fast, without initiating a full-blown takeoff. Safety first even in Ferraris.

Ferrari 812 Superfast review

The Ferrari 812 Superfast is a magnificent car that hits all the marks for a proper supercar. It’s beautiful, it’s fast and it’s prohibitively expensive. It’s got everything you’d want from a vehicle that costs more than most homes. Even with a funny name.

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Second season of Netflix’s ‘Mindhunter’ focuses on the Atlanta Child Murders

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The sophomore season of Mindhunter reunites us with the FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Trench (Holt McCallany), who for most of the first season traveled the country teaching reluctant local police departments about criminal psychology. Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), the esteemed academic who helps add legitimacy to the duo’s mostly flying blind approach to research, also returns for the second season.

The team’s focus this season is on the mysterious murders of more than 25 black children and young adults in Atlanta, deemed the “Atlanta Child Murders.” While local police is convinced that the culprit may be the Ku Klux Klan, Ford thinks the culprit could be someone else. This puts him at odds with local investigators and his own team as they fight to find the murderer before they strike again. Also to be featured in this new season is Charles Manson (Damon Herriman), the cult leader who has become Ford’s obsession. Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), the serial killer who becomes the duo’s first real test subject, is also back.

Producer David Fincher will return to direct a few episodes of the new season of Mindhunter. Other episodes will be directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) and Carl Franklin (House of Cards).

The new season premieres on Netflix on August 16th. You can watch the trailer below.

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Apple revives the retro Claris name as it expands beyond FileMaker

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This is also about expanding the prominence of the company itself. Where FileMaker has usually been content to sit in Apple’s shadow, Claris wants to triple the number of developers and aggressively promote its name. Freitag also raised the possibility of Claris-branded solutions for the Internet of Things and, eventually, augmented reality.

That may be more realistic than you think. FileMaker has been profitable for the past 20 years, for a start. While it has the advantage of a giant parent company, it doesn’t need to lean on that company quite so much for support. The FileMaker app also has majority share outside of the US. It might already be in a prime position to grow, even if it’s unlikely to eclipse its owner any time soon.

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Instagram’s 'huge booty' problem keeps getting worse

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There isn't a day when I don't come across comments from bots on Instagram. They're all over the place. But there's nothing they love more than to spam high-profile pages with millions of followers. Whether it's LeBron James, Kim Kardashian, ESPN or…

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Giant mechs are destroying ‘Fortnite’

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The mechs are designed for up to two players. One acts as the driver — using the vehicle’s dash, stomp and jump abilities — while the other controls the missile and shotgun output. Solo players can use them too, but need to manually switch positions. The problem is that once someone has control of a B.R.U.T.E. they can wreak havoc with little to no opposition. It’s demonstrated perfectly in the Reddit video created by user Wasabi202.

Season X is FINE ITS GREAT from r/FortNiteBR

While the examples in the video above are taken from high-profile streamers in the Fortnite community, the ability for mechs to reduce people from 200 hit points to zero in one second led to instant backlash from new and seasoned players alike. You see, not only does a B.R.U.T.E. have 1,000 health — roughly five times the maximum health and shield of regular players — it also has incredible movement abilities, which can close gaps of hundreds of in-game meters in a few seconds. If the rockets don’t get you, the mech’s stomp ability will.

Epic has come under fire for making weapons too deadly in the past. The “overpowered” Infinity Blade is one such example. Players who wielded it received a bunch of perks: a health and shield boost, HP regeneration, increased movement, huge damage output and the ability to destroy rival builds in milliseconds. The sword remained in the game for three days, before Epic admitted it had “messed up” and removed the weapon completely.

When the first Season X Content Update arrived today, it was expected that the company would address the negative feedback towards the mechs. Surprisingly, the patch notes don’t mention the B.R.U.T.E. at all.

The sense of frustration across the community is understandable. Most players don’t even want the vehicular destroyer to be vaulted (the official term for an item that has been removed from the game). When weapons have been judged to be too powerful in the past, developers have “nerfed” their output to better balance fights between players.

Given that the rockets can immediately eliminate a player with full health, even when they are completely surrounded by builds, the logical answer would be to reduce the damage they deal. Epic could also lower the mech’s overall health and reduce its ability to travel across the map so quickly. However, the company remains silent on the issue.

Another major problem is Fortnite’s current lack of mobility options. In Season Nine, players were able to quickly move about the map, using slipstreams, sky platforms, ballers, shadow bombs, glider redeploys and quad crashers. In Season X, those are all gone, except small slipstreams that circle Neo Tilted and Mega Mall.

Players know that the best way to destroy a B.R.U.T.E. is to whittle down its health from distance. But with launchpads and the occasional hoverboard or rift as the only movement items currently available in the game, moving away from a mech once it’s upon you is almost impossible. Had Epic kept some of its map rotation mechanics and allowed people to quickly back out of a giant mech fight, players may be less inclined to complain.

Epic has committed to pushing forward competitive Fortnite following the success of the World Cup, but when the winner of the competition is hilariously “outplayed” by a giant robot (shown in the video above) and the official subreddit counts current active users as “running from B.R.U.T.E.,” it might be time to listen to the people who play the game and do something about it.

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AT&T rolls out 5G in NYC, but only for business at first

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This represents the 21st city to have AT&T’s 5G network, although it’s far from complete. Right now, access is largely limited to millimeter wave 5G that’s very fast, but doesn’t reach far and rarely holds up indoors. Practical 5G will arrive in the “coming months,” when AT&T starts a wider rollout of 5G on sub-6GHz frequencies. You’ll only see nationwide coverage in the first half of 2020, and it’s not clear that service will truly reach every last nook and cranny of the network by that point.

Not that other networks are doing much better. Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) only has 5G in parts of several cities. T-Mobile already has 5G coverage in NYC, but its service only extends to a few cities beyond that. Sprint isn’t faring any better. Whichever carrier you pick, you’ll be an early adopter at best.

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Researchers create ‘2D’ gold a million times thinner than a fingernail

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The flakes are flexible, which means they could be used in bendable screens, electronic inks and transparent conducting displays, plus tests indicate that the material is 10 times more efficient as a catalytic substrate than the currently used gold nanoparticles. This means it could greatly increase the speed of medical diagnostic tests, as well as the efficiency of water purification systems. Or, manufacturers could achieve existing results but with a smaller amount of gold, which has obvious economic advantages.

However, the invention has been billed a “landmark achievement” by researchers at the University of Leeds because it also sheds more light on the creation of 2D materials altogether. According to the team, the method used to create the gold “could innovate nanomaterial manufacturing,” and the researchers are now focusing on ways to scale up the process.

Graphene, for example, was the much-lauded poster child of 2D materials when it was created in 2004, but has faced a number of hurdles in large-scale use. According to Professor Stephen Evens, who supervised the research, the fabrication of graphene was significant, but “The translation of any new material into working products can take a long time and you can’t force it to do everything you might like to.”

With 2D gold, however, its potential is much clearer. “I think with 2-D gold we have got some very definite ideas about where it could be used, particularly in catalytic reactions and enzymatic reactions,” said Evans. “We know it will be more effective than existing technologies—so we have something that we believe people will be interested in developing with us.”

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Apple may soon hand special iPhones to security researchers

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Apparently, the tech giant plans to provide researchers part of its invite-only bug bounty program with iPhones that aren’t as locked down as the consumer version. Forbes says they won’t be as open as the ones reserved for the company’s employees, but they might be open enough to give researchers a way to look at the device more closely. The phones could, for instance, give the participants a way to inspect parts of the OS or specific components, such as the memory, to look for vulnerabilities.

In addition, the company is reportedly launching its long-delayed bug bounty program for Mac. Earlier this year, a researcher discovered an exploit that would allow bad actors to grab passwords from login and system keychains without requiring administrator privileges. He refused to tell Apple the vulnerability’s details, however, to protest the fact that its bug bounty program only pays out for iOS bugs and not for macOS ones.

As Patrick Wardle, principal security researcher at Jamf that found several issues in macOS, told Forbes: “If you’re a large, well-resourced company such as Apple, who claims to place a premium on security, having a bug-bounty program is a no brainer.” Providing rewards to security researchers for uncovering flaws in hardware and software could compel them to report the vulnerabilities to the company, making Apple’s products safer and more secure.

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‘The Matrix’ returns to theaters August 30th

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Better the bezel you know.
Galaxy Watch Active 2 hands-on: Samsung’s balancing act

Barely half a year since we saw the last one, Samsung has announced another wearable: the Galaxy Watch Active 2. It sits in the middle of Samsung’s wearable lineup, between the flagship, full-featured Galaxy Watch and the basic, affordable Watch Active. It offers pretty much everything the higher-end watch does but for $50 cheaper, and even has some new tools that its more expensive sibling lacks. The screen feels roomier, too — if you can even say that about a smartwatch…


It’ll only be available at Dolby Cinemas in the US.
‘The Matrix’ returns to theaters August 30th with Dolby Vision and Atmos

It’s a little late for its big two-oh anniversary, but The Matrix is coming back to theaters, with a one-week run starting August 30th at AMC’s Dolby Cinemas across the US. Better still, it’s coming in its ultimate, modernized form, with a Dolby Vision picture and Dolby Atmos audio.


It’ll hit city streets in 2020.
Audi’s electric E-Tron Scooter is a skateboard with a handle

It’s not a scooter, but it is. Audi’s E-tron rideable necessitates a sideways-on riding style, making it closer to skateboarding than cruising along on a scooter. And when you’re only steering it with a single hand, the other is free to signal, hold onto shopping or, probably, vape.

It’s not the most powerful e-scooter, but with a 12.5MPH top speed and 12.5-mile range, it should cover most commutes. It’s also 26 pounds, but you can at least fold it up so it takes up a little less space at your destination.


The extra display looks cool, but doesn’t do much more than your phone.
HP Omen X 2S review: A dual-screen curio

Is a second screen on your laptop worth your time and money? Well, HP’s Omen X 2S is a noble attempt at it. But according to Devindra Hardawar, compared to what we’re seeing from the competition, that screen is too small to be truly useful. Still, it’s a powerful gaming laptop with a speedy 144Hz (or 240Hz) screen that’ll handle everything you throw at it.


Don’t get distracted by shiny things.
The Galaxy Note 9 a year later: Still good, but not for everyone

As we prime ourselves for the next Galaxy Note, it’s a year since the Note 9 came out. How convenient. How has the productivity-focused phone fared in the ensuing months? Some of the new features might have been merely decorative additions (software-wise, that S Pen still hasn’t really evolved much in the last five iterations or so), but they don’t detract too much from a powerful, reliable smartphone.


The system was trained on instrument tracks from 665 songs.Sony is using AI to replace drummers, one beat at a time

Sony revealed that its researchers have created a machine learning model that can create kick-drum tracking. According to Sony, the artificial intelligence is capable of building “musically plausible” drum patterns based on existing instruments used on the song.

The team compiled data from 665 songs from across genres, creating contextual signals that the AI system used to conditionally generate kick-drum patterns, all based on the characteristics of the music material.


Cloudflare, Voxility and Tucows have all pulled support.
The internet is racing to cut ties with 8chan after another deadly shooting

Before last weekend’s deadly mass-shooting in El Paso, Texas, the suspect appeared to post a collection of white nationalist and racist statements on message boards at 8chan. After a day of waffling, Cloudflare announced it would cut the security services it had provided the far-right site. That exposed 8chan to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and for a time, the site was down. But 8chan soon found a way back online. However, internet infrastructure companies are playing whack-a-mole, pulling the plug as other services step in to help 8chan get back online.

Soon after, another host and anti-DDoS protection company BitMitigate stepped in. BitMitigate’s owner, Epik, is notorious for providing services to sites like Gab and Daily Stormer, both known for their far-right supporters, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists. But Voxility, which was effectively providing service to Epik and BitMitigate, pulled its backend support for both.

But wait, there’s more…


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