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If Quentin Tarantino Makes a ‘Star Trek’ Movie, It’s Gonna Need a Few Things

Look, the news is hardly ever “normal” anymore. If we all got a CNN alert in the middle of the night that militarized guppies had taken over the southern tip of Florida, it probably wouldn’t even warrant sitting up in bed. That said, hearing that Quentin Tarantino has reportedly successfully pitched a new Star Trek movie that J.J. Abrams might produce is still a record-skip, halt-the-dancefloor moment. And yet, here we are, with Deadline reporting that the two are assembling a writers’ room to work out a script for Tarantino’s brainchild, proving once again that like a teen goth, 2017 will never stop looking for new ways to shock.

But give it a little bit of thought, and the collaboration might turn out to be a stellar idea. Tarantino knows from nerd, and he likes to make things from the 1960s cool all over again. Win-win. Details of his pitch or what his Trek story might be are still under wraps, but if Paramount is really going to go all-in on a QT ST there read more

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The Snapdragon 845 is Qualcomm’s next flagship processor

It was a busy day in Maui as Qualcomm kicked off this year’s Snapdragon Tech Summit. The San Diego chipmaker announced a two-in-one PC form factor powered by the Snapdragon 835 that has some big name hardware partners like Asus and HP behind it. The company also used the opportunity to tease its latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 845.

Details are still pretty scarce, but the company confirmed rumors that the chip is due out in 2018. The 845 is almost certain to become ubiquitous on high-end flagships next year, taking the place of the 835, which was introduced this time last year and  powered nearly every high-end handset for the next 12 months.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun took to the stage today to announce that his company’s next premium handset would run on the chip. You can expect plenty of other big name Android hardware companies to follow suit soon after. Samsung, Google and LG all built 2017 flagships around the chip — though those companies may well just wait read more

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Netflix plans to make choose-your-own-adventure TV shows for grown ups

Choose-your-own-adventure tales are usually associated with kids, and Netflix has seem some success recently in bringing the concept to TV with shows like Puss in Boots: Trapped in an Epic Tale or Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile. 

Now, though, the popular streaming service wants to see how well the “branched narrative” format works for adults, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Details are scant, but the basic idea is that viewers will be able to choose what happens at a certain point in the series by selecting options on a menu, which would then unlock different scenes that lead to different endings. 

It wouldn’t even be the first time that someone has tried out the concept for adults in recent months, as Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic project for HBO essentially amounts to the same thing.

Game theory

For that matter, the concept has been familiar and popular in adult-oriented video games for a while now, with projects from Telltale Games probably coming closest to read more

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Nissan will test its self-driving taxi service in Japan next year

With the Tokyo Olympics looming in 2020, Nissan likely wants to have the kinks worked out by then. The autonomous Leaf EVs have been tested in Britain already, but Japan’s roads might prove a bit more difficult than the various roundabouts we encountered during a drive in March. Sign-ups for the test are live now through January 15th.



social experiment by Livio Acerbo #greengroundit #engadget from https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/05/nissan-easy-ride-leaf-taxi-autonomous/

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Foursquare VP of business development Mike Harkey has left for Google

Foursquare’s VP of business development Mike Harkey, who has been with the company for more than 5 years, has left to join Google as its director of global product partnerships.

His LinkedIn page shows that he joined Google this month after serving a lengthy tenure at Foursquare, which has seen a significant shift from an early darling as a check-in product to one with a robust enterprise business and location data set. Foursquare now has products like City Guide, which provide a wide array of tips, locations and other information for venues in different cities.

“[Harkey] moved on to a role at Google after 5 terrific years with Foursquare,” the company said. “We’re wishing him all the best. Jeff Reine, who has been with Foursquare for two years, was named the new VP of Business Development and Enterprise.”

The company raised $45 read more

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Qualcomm Is Building Awesome Windows PCs Out of Smartphone Parts

There was a time when every gadget did something completely different. Your phone was fast and lasted three days in your pocket, but it could only do a few things. Your computer was massively capable, but so big you couldn’t lug it anywhere. Everything had a purpose, and they rarely overlapped. But now? Now it’s different. You can watch movies, play games, and do Very Serious Work on any number of devices—phone, laptop, tablet—and in lots of different places. Every device is an everything device.

The tech industry seems to understand the way the world is going, and is changing accordingly. Samsung’s DeX system attempts to turn your phone into something like a desktop PC; Apple’s iPad tries to perfectly split the middle between computer and phone. Google’s Pixelbook runs all your phone apps, has a keyboard and trackpad, and can be held in two hands just like an iPad. It’s a “laptop” in name only.

Asus

Now Qualcomm, the silicon giant that read more

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Next year’s best Android phones will record your world in HDR

At Qualcomm’s summit in Hawaii, it announced the new Snapdragon 845 mobile platform.

We can expect to see it first in smartphones coming later this year, with its focus being on AI, improving imaging and bringing more power than ever to your smart devices.

For now, we know little else as Qualcomm only briefly revealed the chipset’s name on stage during its opening keynote presentation.

We’re reporting live from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, and we’ll be bringing you everything you need to know on the firm’s next generation flagship chipset throughout the week.

Developing…

social experiment by Livio Acerbo #greengroundit from http://www.techradar.com/news/next-years-best-android-phones-will-record-your-world-in-hdr