Daniel Whitehill

After launching its ridiculous Predator Thronos “gaming chair” last year, a common refrain Acer heard from hopeful buyers was they regretted they couldn’t plop down the $30,000 for the damn thing as it wouldn’t fit in their homes. This year, Acer says its successor, the Predator Thronos Air, is way more “accessible”…

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After searches for “suicide” on Amazon brought up a number of items to aid in causing a customer’s own death, the tech giant pledged to add helpline information to the pages of certain products.

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Last year, Ryan Murphy signed a $300 deal with Netflix to make TV shows, and anyone who knows Ryan Murphy probably predicted that at least one of those shows would combine elements of drama, high school, murder, bitchery, an evil demon, Jessica Lange, intense Darren Criss energy, and wigs. By the looks of the first trailer for The Politician, Ryan has reserved the evil demon theme for his Ratched show, but everything else got thrown into Ryan’s Instant Success Pot.

The Politician, which is out on September 27th, is set to be an anthology series, with each season focusing on a different political race involving Payton Hobart. Ben Platt – who is 25 – Payton Hobart from Santa Barbara, who is running for student body president of his fancy high school. I don’t know how old Ben’s character is supposed to be, but I hope at least one person addresses how old he is by asking, “You’re running for what, head of the English department?”

Gwyneth Paltrow plays his mom, Zoey Deutch plays Infinity Jackson, the cancer-stricken student he shamelessly chooses as his running mate. They run against the equally-ambitious Astrid (Lucy Boynton – who probably just got a bitchy email from Emma Roberts), who plots to murder Payton, who is also possibly plotting to take out Astrid.

So we can check off the boxes for high school, Darren Criss energy, murder, drama, and bitchery, but most importantly, the ones for both Jessica Lange and wigs happen in the same scenes.

Jessica plays Rose. Rose?! That is so not a Rose. That’s a Dusty or a Taffy or a Candy Saint Jackson. It’s not known for sure Rose’s relationship to Infinity, but there’s a very strong Dee Dee/Gypsy Rose vibe going on here. Honestly, that’s the show I want to watch. Payton Hobart says he wants to be President one day – big deal! Lots of people want to be president. The real drama is located in Rose’s story, which I assume involves a collection of Pomeranians, an addiction to hot rollers, and a major home shopping addiction.

Pics: YouTube

Cats ask very little of us. They need to be fed, brushed, given water and toys to play with, and have their litter changed. In return, they provide love and companionship, tempered only with the annoyances of some occasional early morning meowing and ill-timed explosions of barf.

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Disney will be making things a little simpler for streaming customers after Disney+ debuts this November. During a quarterly earnings call (via Deadline), CEO Bob Iger confirmed rumors that Disney will offer a discounted subscription plan that combines the company's three core streaming services into one bundle.

The bundle includes Disney+, ESPN+ and the basic, on-demand version of Hulu. The bundle will be priced at $12.99 per month, a $5 discount versus subscribing to all three plans individually. Not coincidentally, $12.99 is the same price as Netflix's standard monthly subscription plan.

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Two Republicans and one independent were the only holdouts Wednesday as the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act by a nearly unanimous vote.

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When Kentucky electrician Chris Prater felt something in his eye after he cut down a tree from a power line, he thought maybe sawdust was causing the irritation.

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Mission planners for the lunar Gateway project have decided how the lunar outpost should orbit the Moon—and it’s actually quite brilliant.

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It's been a while since we heard about this 10-episode sci-fi series from Netflix that features Battlestar Galactica and Longmire star Katee Sackhoff, but now there's a new teaser trailer for Another Life. According to the synopsis, her character Nik...

Bars, clubs, pools, kitchens, backyards...all fine places to drink. But if we’re being honest, they all pale in comparison to drinking in the shower.

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Nearly a hundred Colorado drivers this week followed a digital Pied Piper into an empty field where they all got stuck.

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It's official: The Office is leaving Netflix, but it's not happening very soon. NBC announced today that it picked up the "exclusive" streaming rights to The Office for the United States, and that all nine seasons of the show will be available on NBC's own streaming service beginning in 2021. The show will remain on Netflix until January 2021.

NBC's streaming service will have ads, which is a fact that Netflix pointed out in a tweet responding to the news.

According to NBC, The Office is the most popular show in all of streaming on-demand video. The show tallied an astounding 52 billion minutes of viewing time in 2018, according to NBC. And in April this year, it was watched for nearly double the amount of time as the most-viewed show on streaming video on-demand, though it's unclear how NBC calculated that given it presumably doesn't have access to streaming data for competing shows.

Whatever the case, The Office is wildly popular on Netflix in America. According to Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin Malone, it is Netflix's most popular show "by far."

NBC's untitled streaming service is scheduled to launch in 2020 featuring a library that contains "some of the world's most popular television and film franchises," as well as brand-new shows and programs from other networks.

Before this announcement, one other possibility was for Netflix to pay NBC Universal to retain The Office. This likely would have cost Netflix a small fortune, as the streaming network reportedly paid $100 million to keep Friends on Netflix through 2019. Friends is believed to be Netflix's No. 2 most popular show, so The Office presumably would have cost more to keep.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC is paying $100 million per year for five years to producers Universal Television to have The Office on the NBC streaming service. Universal Television and NBC are owned by the same company.

Also of note here is that NBC's deal is for The Office's domestic streaming rights, so it remains to be seen how this contract will affect streaming availability in other parts of the world. For example, The Office is available on the streaming platform Stan in Australia, not Netflix. The show is relatively new to Australia as well, having only just arrived on Stan in 2018.

In other news, a new version of The Office is reportedly in development, though whether or not it's being made for TV or streaming remains to be seen.

House Republicans and Democrats came together on Thursday to put forth comprehensive legislation designed not only to help end the scourge of robocalls but prevent U.S. consumers from being forced to foot the bill.

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Xbox boss Phil Spencer has suggested that the form factor of the new Xbox Project Scarlett might not be traditional. Speaking to Xbox On, Spencer said the design of the next-generation console isn't locked down yet, though he personally knows what it will look like.

"At some point we'll show what it looks like," he said. "The physical ID is not done. I know what it's gonna look like. It's gonna be--I think it's a cool-looking, new thing, which will be interesting. But we don't have a final ID done."

Spencer said Microsoft did not show the design of Scarlett at E3 because it wasn't ready yet. Also, form factor isn't the most important part of what makes the system compelling, he said.

"It's not like we're going to put a half-done ID out there and say, 'This is kind of what it will look like,'" he said. "That's not really the thing that's going to drive purchase decision."

Other unknowns for Scarlett are its name and price point. On the name, Spencer confirmed that Scarlett is only a working title, and as with the form factor, he says, "I hope somebody is not making their buying decision on this product based on what it's named."

Regarding the price of Scarlett, Spencer said he understands that pricing "will be important." Microsoft has a price point in mind--that he didn't share--but he acknowledged that it could change based on a number of factors, one of which is how Trump's tariffs with China shake out.

"The price will be important. Clearly, price is one of those things that people want to know," he said. "As we're watching how the cost of the components are coming in, and things like tariffs and other things, trying to figure out what that price is going to be next year. We have a price point in mind; I think we're going to hit that. But we want to make sure everything comes in right. We'll get price out as soon as we can."

Trump's proposed tariffs with China would put a huge 25 percent tax on electronics--including video games--that are shipped into the United States. Microsoft, and others, manufacture consoles in the country and would in theory pass along the cost to consumers leading to a more expensive product. The tariffs aren't in place yet, and they might not go through. Despite that, Nintendo has already decided to shift production of its Switch models--including its new, more powerful system--out of a China as a result of the threat.

Scarlett launches in Holiday 2020 with Halo Infinite releasing day-and-date as a launch title. Scarlett was at one point thought to be the name of Microsoft's two-SKU next-generation console strategy spanning a high-power model, codenamed Anaconda, and a lower-spec system known as Lockhart. However, multiple recent reports state that Microsoft is no longer moving forward with the Lockhart system. At the same time, in the Xbox On video Spencer on multiple occasions references new consoles with plural terminology. It's not clear what's going on, and Microsoft has not commented officially on if it will release one or two next-generation consoles.

It was announced last month that a Taco Bell-themed resort was going to be a real thing. Well, Taco Bell is actually going through with it. And if you want to contribute to the shut down of the Palm Springs sewer system this summer, I’ll tell you how you can make that happen.

BuzzFeed says that starting next Thursday, June 27 at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (gotta be specific, I know you’re all hyped), you’ll be able to go to the resort’s website to book one of the “exclusive, taco-themed rooms” with prices starting at $169 per night.

And here’s a shot at the pool, which should stay empty if every guest is going to abide by the “don’t go in if you’ve recently had diarrhea” rule:

It's almost time to book your reservation…

Reservations for #TheBell open June 27 at 10 AM PT and you're not gonna want to miss this.

— Taco Bell (@tacobell) June 20, 2019

The Taco Bell resort is considered a pop-up (more like poop-up) and will take over the current V Resort in Palm Springs from August 8th to August 12th.

Entertainment includes but is not limited to: a “Freeze Lounge,” dive-in movie, live performances, a salon offering “taco-inspired nail art”, and surely much, much more. And, duh you can get all the Taco Bell foods. So you can enjoy a movie, lounging on a hot-sauce pack-shaped floatie until one of the children in the pool shits themselves from the Cheesy Gordita Crunch they shovelled excitedly down their throat forty minutes earlier and the pool has to be cleared out for cleaning.

It will remain to be seen how many Americans go to the Taco Bell resort. Or even more insane, how many people from other countries go. Who would fly into the States to go to the Taco Bell Resort? Mess. Meanwhile, be on the lookout for the follow up to this BuzzFeed article: “How To Treat A Blown Out Rectum After Intense Diarrhea At A Taco Bell Resort.”

Pic: Taco Bell

Uber has chosen the third test city to join Dallas and Los Angeles for its flying taxi trials: Melbourne, Australia. The third location was supposed to be Dubai, but negotiations fell through and prompted the company to look for another site for tria...

Borderlands 3 will squeeze every last drop of endorphin from your pituitary gland. And that's before you reach the boss fight. I went hands-on with the latest iteration of Gearbox Software's frenetic first-person shooter RPG at E3 on Wednesday and wa...

Look out, because Uber has an airborne bridge it wants to sell you.

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Plans are underway for what would be the world's first rooftop 360-degree infinity pool to be built in London. Compass Pools, a UK-based pool manufacturer, unveiled its design for Infinity London, a 600,000-litre pool that would top a 55-story hotel....

There isn’t a video game from the heyday of arcades you can’t play on a home console (or even your phone) now. But spending hours hunched over gaming cabinets in a seedy storefront was a wonderful childhood experience for many of us, and one that can now be easily recreated at home—minus the seedy. If you can…

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The Tamagotchi has come a long way in the past twenty years. There’s a lot you can now do with the virtual pets (get married!) but they’re still mostly targeted at kids. So the designers at MTN GODS designed and built a Tamagotchi that’s all grown up and ready to go shot for shot with you during a night out partying.…

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Fake videos are getting really damn good, and now they’re getting even easier to make. For innocuous purposes like, say, a moving avatar, it’s a pretty cool development. But for more insidious use cases, like exploiting the technology to harass someone online, it’s unsettling.

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Sony's next-generation console isn't due to launch anytime this year, but the tech giant has been surprisingly generous with details. During a corporate strategy presentation, the company has listed all the information it has revealed so far, confirm...

Lilium, the Munich-based startup developing an on-demand “air taxi” service, has unveiled a new five-seater prototype and is announcing to the world that a maiden flight for the new device was successfully completed earlier this month.

It’s not the first time a Lilium Jet — the company’s all-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) device — has taken to the sky but it is the first time the new five seater has taken off and landed, following extensive ground testing. Lilium published a video of a two-seater version’s inaugural flight just over two year’s ago.

The new five-seater is a full-scale, full-weight prototype that is powered by 36 all-electric jet engines to allow it to take-off and land vertically, while achieving “remarkably efficient horizontal or cruise flight,” says Lilium

In a call, Lilium co-founder and CEO Daniel Wiegand described the test flight, which was a little behind schedule, as a huge step towards making urban air mobility a reality. The new jet performed in the sky as the company’s models and ground testing had predicted, providing much needed validation for the Lilium team.

The significance of getting to five seats shouldn’t be underestimated, either, as Lilium isn’t in the aircraft design and manufacturing business, but sees itself as a fully vertical mobility-as-a-service company, akin to an Uber of the skies, if you will. The technology, as groundbreaking as it needs to be, is an engineering means to an end: intercity travel that is less expensive, quicker and kinder on the environment. That’s the hugely ambitious aim, anyway.

With a top speed of 300 km/h and a range of 300km, Lilium claims its jet is capable of completing much longer journeys than the majority of its competitors. This is, in part, thanks to the fixed wing design of the aircraft. This will see it rely on the lift generated by the fixed wing to remain in the air, meaning it will require less than ten per cent of its maximum 2000 horsepower during cruise flight.

“This efficiency, which is comparable to the energy usage of an electric car over the same distance, means the aircraft would not just be capable of connecting suburbs to city centres and airports to main train stations, but would also deliver affordable high-speed connections across entire regions,” says Lilium.

For the record, the latest Lilium Jet first took to the air at 08.03 local time in Munich, Germany on 4th May 2019. The prototype aircraft was controlled remotely from the ground and Wiegand says it will now undergo a more rigorous flight test campaign to lay the foundations for certification of the aircraft against commercial aircraft safety standards. The next big milestone will be achieving transition flight where the aircraft moves from vertical takeoff to horizontal flight.

Wiegand also told me Lilium still expects to be fully-operational in various cities around the world by 2025. However, trial services will start earlier in several yet-to-be-revealed locations.

The company is backed by Tencent; LGT, the international private banking and asset management group; Atomico, Lilium’s Series A backer founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström; and Obvious Ventures, the early-stage VC fund co-founded by Twitter’s Ev Williams.

Clive Barker’s 1987 horror movie “Hellriaser” is getting the revival treatment at Gary Barber’s Spyglass Media Group. “The Dark Knight” writer David S. Goyer is on board to produce and pen the script. Spyglass will finance, develop, and fast track the film for worldwide theatrical distribution. This marks the first project since the company announced […]

It probably won’t look like this for long.

The media landscape used to be straightforward: Content companies — studios — made stuff — TV shows and movies — and sold it to pay TV distributors, who sold it to consumers.

Now things are up for grabs: Netflix buys stuff from the studios, but it’s making its own stuff, too, and it’s selling it directly to consumers. That’s one of the reasons older media companies are trying to compete by consolidating. Disney, for example, recently completed its purchase of 21st Century Fox. Distributors like AT&T, which bought Time Warner last year, are becoming media companies, too.

Meanwhile, giant tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple that used to be on the sidelines are getting closer and closer to the action. Apple’s newest TV strategy positions the company as a TV guide, a TV storefront selling services like HBO, and a TV creator that employs the likes of Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Anniston to make exclusive shows for Apple users.

To help sort this all out, we’ve created a diagram that organizes distributors, content companies and internet video companies by market cap — the value investors assign to the companies — and their main lines of business.

Here’s what the Big Media universe currently looks like. We will update it periodically:

The Philippines was rocked with a 6.3 earthquake this morning that sent buildings swaying and people running for safety. But one of the most bizarre videos of the earthquake so far has to be this footage of water pouring out of a residential skyscraper in Manila’s Binondo district. According to local reports, that…

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The years-in-the-making Halo TV series finally appears to be taking shape. Showtime has chosen American Gods' Pablo Schrieber to play the series' version of Master Chief. It's not certain if he'll ever remove the iconic helmet, but Showtime has pro...

That sound, that sound, as they come marching.

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Orion Pictures has revealed the first full image of Chucky, the murderous doll and antagonist of the upcoming Child’s Play remake.

Chucky, who will be voiced by Mark Hamill, is a creepy Buddi doll who terrorises the Barclay family. In this version of the story, Chucky is a robotic doll, rather than the possessed toy as seen in the 1988 original.

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