Today is a HUGE day for Apple. The tech company managed to pack in so many updates across its ever-expanding product lineup. The Apple Watch, the iPad and iPhone families, and even the Apple TV all received notable boosts in functionality. There’s so much to discuss, so without further ado, let’s dive right into it. Jump after the fold for a comprehensive breakdown of the day’s events. Continue reading Jam-packed Apple event introduces iPad Pro, iPhone 6s & all-new Apple TV (and so much more)
As summer draws to a close, we’ve made it to my favorite time of the year: new fall programming is upon us. But before we dive into the Big Network’s schedules (that’s coming later this week), let’s take a quick look at some of cable’s anticipated offerings premiering this September. Jump after the break for the rundown. Continue reading TV reminder: 5 series to look out for in September
And just like that, Hulu’s jumping on the ad-free bandwagon. To compete with the ad-free competition (namely Netflix and Amazon), Hulu is now offering a No Commercials plan at $11.99/month. That’s four dollars more than the Limited Commercials plan (formally known as Hulu Plus) that has been around for awhile now. Nearly all of Hulu’s library of TV shows and movies will steam without ads; there are only a handful of series that will roll ads before and after (but not during) a viewing session and they are: Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon A Time, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Scandal, Grimm, New Girl, and How To Get Away With Murder. The reason? It’s simply a matter of licensing deals. Other than that, you can say goodbye to commercials on Hulu as long as you sign up for or upgrade to the new plan.
“At Hulu, we pride ourselves on listening to our customers and giving them the best possible experience,” said Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins in a blog post. “Many of our customers have asked us for a commercial free option, and so today we are excited to introduce just that. Providing more choice for consumers is fundamental to the Hulu experience, in addition to an array of choices in content and devices, our customers can now choose to watch with or without commercials.”
The ad-free plan comes at a time when Hulu really has to start showing its muscle if it wants to continue to compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Both of those streaming services have consumers flocking to their content libraries thanks to high quality original productions (see: House of Cards, Transparent, etc.) and exclusive partnerships with major film houses. In addition to introducing this new plan, Hulu is doing its part by churning out original content (The Mindy Project is coming soon, as is an anticipated new series from J.J. Abrams and Stephen King, 11/22/63) and making deals with companies like EPIX. In fact, Hulu recently snagged EPIX away from Netflix, and this will result in an influx of hit films from Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount. Game on.
Less than a month after restructuring its company, Google Alphabet (I’m still getting used to it) has gone ahead and “evolved” its most recognizable logo. G is for Google and now that “G” and the name itself “Google” sport brand new, modernized looks as the company embarks on a new chapter of innovations.
Of course, the Google logo has gone through many facelifts over the years, but this has to be the boldest one yet. The classic blue/red/yellow/green color scheme remains, but the typeface has changed quite dramatically featuring an even flatter, more playful aesthetic.
Why now, you ask? Google started as a search engine that could only be accessed on a desktop browser. Today, it has spread to mobile and across a variety of apps including Maps and Chrome and even a full-fledged operating system in Android. The company aims to streamline its branding across its many services, and the new logo allows it to do just that.
The logo is a transformative entity this time around. In addition to the traditional logo featured on the search engine’s homepage, there are the four colored dots, “a dynamic distillation of the logotype for interactive, assistive, and transitional moments.” Hop onto your mobile device and make a voice search; you’ll notice the microphone icon is multicolored now, and when Google’s thinking you’ll see the colored dots bounce around. Last, there’s the new and improved letter G, “a compact version of the Google logo that works in small contexts.” It too is multicolored to match the logo, and you’ll see it presented in app-appropriate shades within Google Maps, Google Translate, and all the rest. The lowercase little blue “g” icon is no more.
Alphabet describes its new Google logo as “simple, uncluttered, colorful, friendly.” Though it’ll take time to get used to its new look, it’s hard to deny that those descriptors make it work. I’m all for modernization, streamlining, and simplicity, so from where I’m sitting, it’s a welcome rebranding indeed.
Interested in learning more about the design techniques that went into producing the new Google logo? Head over to Google’s Design blog for additional details. Oh and jump after the break for an historical look at the famous logo.
[Via Google] Continue reading Google gets a makeover in an effort to streamline its brand and services
That took awhile. Nintendo has finally decided to bring the New Nintendo 3DS stateside. In October 2014, the Mario makers introduced the New Nintendo 3DS XL in its home country of Japan (there they call it the 3DS LL). Three months later, it came to the U.S. with all its input enhancements including the C-stick nub and the ZL and ZR triggers, as well as NFC inside and improved facial tracking technology. However, if you’ve been in the U.S. market holding out for an updated version of the regular-sized 3DS, you’ve been SOL, until now, that is.
On Monday, Nintendo announced that the New 3DS is coming to the States on September 25. There’s a slight catch, however. Instead of coming in the standard red and black paint jobs, the New 3DS is bundled with Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, and the hardware itself is plastered with an Animal Crossing cover plate (see above). Of course, there’s no telling if/when Ninty will release a standard version of the New 3DS to consumers, so for now you’ll have to live with this (the interior of the hardware, mind you, is white). The bundle comes with two themed cover plates, the game, an amiibo card, and a 4GB memory card. The MSRP is $219.99; bookmark it to preorder soon.
On the subject of 3DS, also outed is a Legend of Zelda themed 3DS XL Hyrule Edition, priced at $199.99. The gold-colored, Hylian Crest emblazoned handheld releases October 23; Gamestop’s got it up on its site.
Elsewhere, Nintendo has entered into a partnership with Amazon allowing the online retailer to sell digital downloads of Wii U, Wii, and 3DS titles. Simply purchase a game, redeem a code, and the game will automatically download onto your console of choice. Browse the storefront here.
[Via BusinessWire; Engadget]
Thanks to a new spread presented by Entertainment Weekly, we now have a clearer gaze into what the next iteration of American Horror Story with Lady Gaga is going to look like. The facts are these.
The titular hotel is named Cortez, and it was built in 1930 “by the rich and charming but deeply psychotic James March” played by AHS vet Evan Peters. EW goes on to describe the Cortez as “beautiful art-deco” and “a labyrinthine structure built to hide March’s murderous activities.”
Presently, the hotel is run by Lady Gaga’s character, The Countess, “a glamorous socialite who attends art openings and fashion shows.” She drinks blood for nourishment, but creator Ryan Murphy doesn’t want fans thinking he’s diving into the beaten-to-death world of vampirism. “I prefer the term ‘ancient blood virus,’” Murphy tells EW. “It’s not vampires. It’s really a form of hemophilia in a way. There’s no capes and fangs.” The Countess has an appetite for love and sex, and we see this manifest in a love triangle between Donovan (Matt Bomer) and Tristan (Finn Wittock). Those infected with the virus, including The Countess and her lover Donovan, crave human blood. Murphy promises answers around the halfway mark. “Around the middle of the season, we sort of explore the origins of all that and [The Countess] and where [the virus] comes from.” What we do know early on, though, is how they kill. Without fangs, the infected slice up their victims with chainmail gloves; Gaga’s sport razor-sharp nails as seen in the initial teaser.
We also have some insight about the other characters inhabiting the hotel:
Ramona Royale (Angela Bassett), an actress/former lover of The Countess’ seeking revenge; Iris (Kathy Bates), Donovan’s mother and the front desk clerk; Liz Taylor (Denis O’Hare), a cross-dresser nicknamed by The Countess; Hypodermic Sally (Sarah Paulson), a junkie and friend of The Countess; Detective John Lowe (Wes Bentley), a cop investigating a murderer named the Ten Commandments Killer; and The Addiction Demon, a creature in the vein of Rubberman or Bloodyface, who has no eyes or mouth but does wield a nasty, conical drillbit dildo.
Throughout the anthological series, Murphy has planted clues that help connect the disparate seasons together. With Hotel, he aims to make the most overt connection yet. “We do go to the Murder House for one episode,” he teases. Murder House, of course, was where spooky acts of terror took place in show’s debut season. In addition to that, a character from season 1 is making her way to Hotel. Marcy the realtor (Christine Estabrook), who sold the Murder House to the Harmons, returns as a real estate agent to show off the Cortez to Cheyenne Jackson’s character Will Drake.
And now, pictures! Lady Gaga’s Countess is on the cover of EW‘s latest issue, and inside you’ll find never-before-seen stills of other characters from AHS: Hotel including March, Donovan, and Tristan. Click here to view them all, and hop over here to browse more pictures from Gaga’s in-character photoshoot.
American Horror Story: Hotel premieres October 7 on FX.
Update (8/29): Murphy’s gone ahead and shared two more stills from the set: a turbaned Countess and a mystery man behind a mask.
Update 2 (8/30): Jump after the break to watch all five AHS: Hotel teasers, three of which are brand spankin’ new.
Update 3 (9/10): I’ve posted three more teasers after the break, “Spikes,” “Locked Up,” and “Hallways.” The latter is the first to include first looks at the ensemble cast!
Update 4 (9/14): Lady Gaga is the star of the latest 30-second spot for AHS: Hotel. Watch “Above & Below” directly after the break.
Update 5: (9/16): And the clips keep on comin’. This time around, however, it’s a 2-minute first look inside the new season, featuring soundbites from the cast. You know where to find it.
[Via EW 1, 2, 3] Continue reading Ryan Murphy dishes ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ details: Lady Gaga is The Countess, and she’s out for blood [Update: New spooky teasers inside]
Since 2007, the iTunes Music Festival has attracted many talented and hugely popular musicians to its London venue including Adele, Beck, Coldplay, Elton John, Foo Fighters, Justin Timberlake, Kings of Leon, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Muse, and Paul McCartney. For its ninth outing, Apple is rebranding it to give more exposure to its recently launched streaming music service. In September, the newly christened Apple Music Festival will headline 10 artists; so far, Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Florence + The Machine, and Disclosure are confirmed to perform live.
“We wanted to do something really special for music fans this year,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services in a press release. “The Apple Music Festival is a greatest hits set of ten unbelievable nights featuring some of the best performers on the planet appearing live and interacting directly with their fans on Connect and Beats 1.”
The festival will take place over ten nights from September 19-28 at London’s Roundhouse venue; each night is dedicated to a headliner and a special opening guest. As of today, only One Direction have selected its opening act–English girl group Little Mix. Tickets will be offered for free exclusively to London residents. If you’re Stateside or anywhere else around the world for that matter, you can still watch the concerts live via Apple Music (on an iOS device), iTunes (on PC and Mac) and Apple TV. In addition, Zane Lowe and his team of DJs on Beats 1 will air coverage from the festival, and participating performers will be posting backstage content on their Apple Music Connect pages.
Apple claims that iTunes Music Festival musicians have played in front of more than half a million fans and tens of millions more online and on-demand. With the proliferation of Apple Music subscribers (who’ll continue to use the streaming service for free until Sept. 30), I’ll bet that those numbers increase exponentially this fall when the Apple Music Festival jams out across iPhones, iPads, iPods, computers, and Apple TV.
Update (9/2): Apple’s announced more headliners and openers for this month’s Apple Music Festival. English pop group Take That, “I Can’t Feel My Face” singer The Weeknd, and British electronic dance music band The Chemical Brothers are the latest headliners to join the lineup. As far as new openers are concerned, Pharrell has picked Leon Bridges to warm up his crowd, and Florence + The Machine will introduce James Bay before taking over the stage. Will update this post as more performers are added.
In TV Land, the people of Los Angeles have no idea what’s about to hit them. After years of tantalizing coverage, the time has finally come to sit back, relax tense up, and enjoy AMC’s Walking Dead companion series, Fear the Walking Dead.
Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead graphic novels and the incredibly popular AMC flagship series of the same name, is behind Fear and he’s joined by many familiar producers including Gale Anne Hurd, Dave Alpert, and Greg Nicotero. Fear stars Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Elizabeth Rodriquez, Lorenzo James Henrie, Ruben Blades, and Mercedes Mason.
This summer at San Diego Comic Con, I learned first-hand just how different the new series feels, tonally, in comparison to the flagship series. When the city gets ripped apart by freshly infected walkers, viewers will be privy to immediate government action and more significantly, we’ll witness a family unequipped for surviving the apocalypse approach the walkers head on. Fear‘s first season, after all, serves as a prequel for fans of the franchise in that events unfold before we meet Rick Grimes and his band of survivors. Remember how Rick was in a coma and missed out on the early days of the walker invasion? This is the period we will live in over the course of Fear‘s first six episodes.
As exhilarating and intriguing as it sounds to be privy to the virus spreading, EP David Erickson reminds viewers that the show will drill its focus on the family at the center of it all. “It starts as a family drama, and we filter the apocalypse through that,” he said to the crowd at Comic Con. It’s about “a highly dysfunctional blended family trying to hold it together.”
Never tuned into The Walking Dead, which enters its sixth season this fall? Fear not (heh!). Kirkman and his team have been adamant in saying that Fear stands on its own and does not require you having seen a single episode of their other series.
Fear the Walking Dead premieres Sunday, August 23 at 9pm on AMC. Click here to preview the first three minutes of the highly anticipated pilot episode. And here to watch the official trailer.
Jump after the break to learn more about Patrick Stewart’s return to TV in Blunt Talk. Continue reading What to watch this weekend: AMC’s ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ and Patrick Stewart in Starz’s ‘Blunt Talk’
Everybody’s favorite parody folk duo, The Flight of the Conchords, is making a comeback. One half of said duo, namely Jemaine Clement, confirmed to Indiewire just last week that a movie is in the works.
“We have actually started writing one,” Clement shared. “But who knows if it will ever be made, we’ve written some notes for some different film ideas. We’re not down to the stage where we’re going, “The film is going to be like this,” it could be this, this, this, this, this.”
A movie, of course, would continue the musical adventures of Clement and Bret McKenize since they bowed out of the TV space in 2009 after two memorable seasons of Flight of the Conchords on HBO. Clement’s comments make it sound like the project is very much incubating in its early stages. It’s not clear if this will be a theatrical release or a TV special. But hey–any news from the FOTC guys is good news, am I right?!
And if that wasn’t enough to satiate your Conchords appetite, there’s this: the New Zealanders are prepping to tour again! In a separate interview with Consequence of Sound, Clement had this to say on the matter.
“We were planning on [touring] this summer, but then I ended up doing [Steven Spielberg’s next film] The BFG instead. So it’s my fault we didn’t do it this time. But we are hoping to announce a tour. We’ll announce it before the end of the year, hopefully, and then some time next year get on the road … after we get some new guitar strings and that sort of thing.”
Clement referenced going on tour earlier this year with Billboard. He told the site that he and McKenzie “are planning on touring later on in the year in the States. It isn’t very solid yet, but we’ve been talking about it.” He went on to admit, “I really don’t like the studio part of music. I more enjoy playing live and letting others take care of the recording.”
A movie and tour. It’s an exciting time to be a Conchords fan. When details drop, you’ll be the first to know. For now, let’s boogie.
Here’s something you may not have seen coming: Sesame Street, the long-running education children’s series, is moving from the independently operated non-profit organization PBS to premium cable network HBO. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? HBO is home to some truly groundbreaking series, nearly all of which are adult-themed and not suitable for children (read: Game of Thrones, The Sopranos). So why bring Bird Bird and friends into the fold? For Sesame Workshop, it’s simple: the company’s been running out of funds to continue producing episodes of the show and a partnership such as this was the only way to keep things going. It’s mutually beneficial when you really think about it. HBO is now in direct competition with Netflix and Amazon, and the streaming services have been offering content for kids for years now. By becoming the new, exclusive home for the still hugely popular Sesame Street, HBO firmly plants a stake in reaching a young demographic.
The partnership doesn’t end there. HBO is a premium service after all and requires a monthly subscription. Those families who don’t pay up shouldn’t fret; your children won’t be deprived of learning everything that Sesame Street teaches. The new episodes that air on HBO will eventually come to PBS after a nine-month exclusivity window. The deal allows Sesame Workshop to “produce almost twice as much new content as previous seasons” and later “make the show available free of charge to PBS and its member stations,” according to a press release. This pact will run through the next five seasons of the series.
“Our new partnership with HBO represents a true winning public-private partnership model,” said Jeffrey D. Dunn, Sesame Workshop’s CEO in the release. “It provides Sesame Workshop with the critical funding it needs to be able to continue production of Sesame Street and secure its nonprofit mission of helping kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder; it gives HBO exclusive pay cable and SVOD access to the nation’s most important and historic educational programming; and it allows Sesame Street to continue to air on PBS and reach all children, as it has for the past 45 years.”
“We are absolutely thrilled to help secure the future of Sesame Street and Sesame Workshop’s mission for the nation’s kids and families,” said HBO execs Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo. “Home Box Office is committed to bringing the most groundbreaking and creative shows to its audience. Sesame Street is the most important preschool education program in the history of television. We are delighted to be a home for this extraordinary show, helping Sesame Street expand and build its franchise.”
Sesame Street will air new episodes on HBO as early as late fall 2015. HBO has licensed over 150 library episodes of the series in addition to about 50 past episodes of Sesame Workshop’s other children’s series Pinky Dinky Doo and The Electric Company. Additionally, the Workshop is also working with HBO on producing two new series, one of which is a Sesame Street Muppet spinoff.
This news makes this Sesame Street/Game of Thrones mashup all the more sweeter.
[Via Sesame Workshop]
Google is now just a letter of the Alphabet. Let me explain…
In a letter to investors and the public at large, Google co-founder Larry Page made a major announcement about his company. Which is no longer called Google, it’s called Alphabet. But don’t worry! Google is still a thing–one of the world’s biggest, most recognizable brands, of course–and you won’t have tell your brain to “Alphabet” keywords. What’s happening is that Google is becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet. In other words, Alphabet is a big umbrella that houses Google and many other current and future innovations from Page and other Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
“Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google,” says Page in his letter. “This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead.”
Page doesn’t break down all of Alphabet’s subsidiaries in the note, but he gives honorable mentions to “Life Sciences (that works on the glucose-sensing contact lens), and Calico (focused on longevity).” Alphabet also includes “X lab, which incubates new efforts like Wing, our drone delivery effort. We are also stoked about growing our investment arms, Ventures and Capital, as part of this new structure.”
All in all, Page thinks that such segregation will offer his team “more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related.”
He goes on to lay the groundwork for how Alphabet will be structured. Page is CEO, Brin is President, and CEOs will be picked to run each business, with the Google co-founders “in service to them as needed.” So far, they’ve appointed Google’s SVP of Products Sundar Pichai to be the CEO of Google. They also note that unlike Google, they “are not intending for [Alphabet] to be a big consumer brand with related products–the whole point is that Alphabet companies should have independence and develop their own brands.” Like Google!
Page and Brin will implement segment reporting when fourth quarter financial reports come out; this means that Google financials will be reported separately from other Alphabet businesses. As far as the stock market is concerned, Google will continue to trade on Nasdaq as GOOGL and GOOG. In related news, the market responded positively to this announcement; Google shares were up around five percent after-hours on the day Page posted the letter, and the next day shares increased by another four-and-a-half percent.
Why Alphabet? I’ll let Page explain: “We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search! We also like that it means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for!”
In the beginning (circa 1997), Google was simply a search engine. Today, it has sprouted myriad limbs: Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome, Android, and so on. From the desktop to mobile, Google’s services have matured and spread to help people quickly look up information, watch and share video, navigate the world, and communicate with one another. These are all things that Page says “seemed crazy at the time” of their inception. “We are still trying to do things other people think are crazy but we are super excited about,” he continues and this is where Alphabet comes in. It didn’t take long for Google the company to outgrow its roots in search. Alphabet allows Google to continue to grow and breath, while other teams continue developing other innovations such as self-driving cars and the aforementioned delivery drones. The shift to Alphabet and Alphabet-owned subsidiaries won’t affect consumers (at least initially); what it will do, however, is make Google a stronger brand to live amongst a flock of more to come.
Whether or not this turns out to be a good idea in the long-run, Page is confident that the unconventional decision will drive his company to do better today. “We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing, just making incremental changes. But in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.”
[Via Google]
Calling all sensates! Netflix has renewed its sci-fi-tastic series Sense8. The highly innovative and admittedly addicting and adrenaline-pumping show about eight people inextricably linked by a special mental bond is coming back for a second season.
With Sense8, The Wachowskis brought to TV the awesome sci-fi and physical combat elements they are best known for (see: The Matrix Trilogy, Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending). As fun as those genre elements can be, the filmmakers go above and beyond the expected in Sense8, which really plays out like 12 mini-movies. Each installment–and the series in general–manages to transcend its sci-fi mythology and focus on the even more intriguing and captivating thing going on all along; using a sci-fi lens, Sense8 prioritizes human connection and celebrates the human condition. The first season spans the globe, connecting and exploring the lives of complex characters you quickly come to care about. The season closes like the chapter of a book ends: wholly satisfying with sequel potential bursting at the seams. The initial run of episodes spends lots of time world-building and shaping the sensates. A second season is bound to dive deeper into the mostly unexplored mythos (Hello, Mr. Whispers) and bring together our favorite sensate cluster with a renewed sense of vigor and understanding.
A lacking pilot and pacing issues aside, I highly recommend you binge Sense8 if you haven’t already. It starts slow, but when it gets going (around episodes 3 and 4) there’s no stopping this freight train of pure, unadulterated fun.
To officially commemorate the renewal, Netflix posted this minute-long clip featuring the main cast spreading the good news.