Today is a good day for sci-fi and space fantasy lovers. Paramount+ has shared a teaser trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, its offshoot of Discovery. The video provides a brief but telling glimpse of Captain Christopher Pike’s tenure aboard the USS Enterprise, including his return to service and (what else?) the worlds his crew will see. There’s a clear attempt to recreate the wonder you might have felt watching early Star Trek as you encountered new aliens and planets for the first time.
There isn’t much to see of the cast beyond Pike (Anson Mount), but you’ll see Ethan Peck return as Spock while Rebecca Romijn once again serves as Number One. Celia Rose Gooding plays Uhura, Jess Bush will assume the role of Nurse Chapel and Babs Olusanmokun is Doctor M’Benga.
Strange New Worlds premieres in May. As indicated, the show’s appeal may come as much from its format as its focus on the Enterprise. Unlike Discovery and Picard, SNW is expected to rely more on the single-episode storylines that defined the original series and much of the pre-streaming Star Trek franchise. Whether or not it reproduces those glory days is another matter, but Paramount+ at least appears to know its target audience.
Twitter has begun testing two new features the company promises will improve the alt text experience on its platform. The company said it would spend about a month trialing the features, which add easy-to-access descriptions to images, before rolling them out globally at the start of April. As Twitter notes, adding a description or “alt text” to an image allows people with low vision or a cognitive disability to “fully contribute” to the platform. They’re also useful if you don’t have the fastest internet connection.
We’ve gotten a lot of feedback about how to improve the image description (or alt text) experience on Twitter. Today, we’re launching 2 features to 3% of Twitter across Android, iOS, and Web: the public ALT badge and exposed image descriptions. 🧵 (1 of 6) pic.twitter.com/HCYzIYEdal
— Twitter Accessibility (@TwitterA11y) March 9, 2022
If you have access to the test, you can add alt text to an image by tapping the “Add description” button that appears after you upload a picture. As a rule of thumb, you want to be concise but descriptive when writing alt tags. You’ll then see an “alt” badge appear at the bottom left corner of the image you can tap to read the description. Twitted noted it’s also working on a feature that will remind people to add descriptions to images, and said it would have more to share about that functionality “soon.”
Comprehensive support for alt tags shows just how much Twitter has come along on the accessibility front. In 2020, the company famously introduced a voice note feature that didn’t come with accessibility tools like closed captioning. The company eventually apologized for its actions and went on to establish two dedicated accessibility teams. “We know these features have been a long time coming,” the company said Wednesday, alluding to that history. “We’re grateful for your patience.”
Disney+ has finally offered a good peek at its Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The streaming service has released a teaser trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi that documents the Jedi’s life on Tatooine as he avoids the Empire and protects a young Luke Skywalker. As the clip makes clear, it won’t be easy — Imperial forces are turning to Sith who’ll look for “weaknesses” like compassion to track down the remnants of the Jedi order.
The limited-run series debuts May 25th, or 45 years to the day after the premiere of the original Star Wars movie. Ewan McGregor reprises his role as the titular Obi-Wan Kenobi, while Hayden Christensen returns as a younger Darth Vader. The Mandalorian alumnus Deborah Chow is directing the show.
Obi-Wan will arrive several months after The Book of Boba Fett, and represents a growing wave of Star Wars originals for Disney+ that will include Ahsoka, Andor and The Acolyte. Shows like this aren’t rare, one-off projects — they represent a cornerstone of the Disney+ strategy.
Facebook is once again trying to stem the flow of misinformation within Groups. The social network is giving group admins new tools to help prevent misleading information from spreading.With the update, group admins will be able to “automatically decli…
HBO is facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it gave subscribers’ viewing history to Facebook without proper permission, Variety has reported. The suit accuses HBO of providing Facebook with customer lists, allowing the social network to match viewing habits with their profiles.
It further alleges that HBO knows Facebook can combine the data because HBO is a major Facebook advertiser — and Facebook can then use that information to retarget ads to its subscribers. Since HBO never received proper customer consent to do this, it allegedly violated the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), according to the lawsuit.
HBO, like other sites, discloses to users that it (and partners) use cookies to deliver personalized ads. However, the VPPA requires separate consent from users to share their video viewing history. “A standard privacy policy will not suffice,” according to the suit.
Other streaming providers have been hit with similar claims, and TikTok recently agreed to pay a $92 million settlement for (in part) violating the VPPA. In another case, however, a judge ruled in 2015 that Hulu didn’t knowingly share data with Facebook that could establish an individual’s viewing history. The law firm involved in the HBO suit previously won a $50 million settlement with Hearst after alleging that it violated Michigan privacy laws by selling subscriber data.
Facebook has updated its Community Help section in Ukraine to add resources from local UN and Red Cross agencies. The information Facebook has added will make it easier for users to find medical help and other kinds of assistance not just in Ukraine, but also in neighboring countries. In addition, Community Help now contains the WhatsApp helpline for Ukraine’s State Emergency Services to connect people with critical updates and vital services.
To make sure that people who need it can quickly access the section, Facebook is putting a link to Community Help at the top of its feeds for Ukrainain users, even if they’ve already left the country. The link will also appear at the top of the results for relevant searches on Facebook, as well as at the top of users’ Instagram feeds.
Facebook has updated its Emotional Health Center, as well, adding mental health tips (such as how to support children during a crisis) from the WHO and other organizations in Ukrainian, Russian and English. Users in Ukraine might also start seeing more ads connecting them to organizations providing aid, because Facebook is giving those groups access to free ad campaigns to get critical messaging out to those who need it. The World Health Organization, for instance, has put out ads promoting information on breastfeeding for displaced mothers.
Finally, those who need to get in touch with the WHO’s Health Alert helpline for mental health in Ukraine and neighboring countries can add the number +41 79 893 18 92 to their WhatsApp contacts. They simply have to message “hi” to that number to get the process started.
Facebook made several other moves over the past couple of weeks in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The social network previously demoted Russian state media across its entire platform and took down fake accounts boosting Russian information in Ukraine shortly after the attacks started. It also enabled a “lock profile” tool for people in Ukraine, giving them a one-click solution to ensure that nobody outside their friends list can see their posts, photos and information.
In the Internet age, nothing is gone forever, and everything can be resurrected time and again as an easy way to sell products. Sadly, whatever residual affection our parents’ generation had for brands like Polaroid and Atari has been strip-mined to se…
Instagram is joining Facebook in its attempt to bury Russian state media in its app. The app will now down-rank posts from state media outlets in its feed and in Stories, and will add prominent labels to discourage other users from sharing their posts….
After several months of testing, Amazon is opening up access to Amp, its social audio app. Amp shares some DNA with the likes of Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and Spotify Greenroom, but there’s one thing that sets it apart: the option for hosts to become DJs with tens of millions of licensed songs at their fingertips.
“This limited-access beta will allow us to partner with passionate early adopters in a diverse community of creators, so we can improve the experience and better serve everyone when the app officially launches,” Amp vice-president John Ciancutti said.
Amp is only available in the US on iOS for the time being, but an Android app is in the works. Users can download Amp from the App Store and sign up for a waitlist. Access codes will also be shared on Amp’s social accounts.
You’ll need an Amazon account but Amp is free to use. Hosts can bring in callers and will have control over who can speak and when. They’ll be able to schedule shows too.
Amazon has deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and independent labels and publishers to use their music. Hosts can play songs at any time during broadcasts, but there are some limits.
Amazon
They can play up two songs from the same album or three songs from the same artist in any three-hour window. You can’t repeat songs in that timeframe either. You’ll also need at least one listener before you can start playing songs, so don’t expect to use it as a free ad-hoc music streaming app. Shows can’t primarily be focused on taking song requests and you can’t play any songs from outside the Amp library unless you have the right to do so.
Listeners will be able to follow creators and get notifications when they go live. More features are on the way, including Alexa integration and more search and discovery tools. You’ll be able to listen to shows from high-profile hosts including Nicki Minaj, Pusha T, Travis Barker and Big Boi.
Shows aren’t archived, so you’ll only be able to listen live for now. Hosts won’t be able to generate any revenue from the platform directly as things stand, but Amazon plans to add monetization options later.
Amp’s community guidelines prohibit users from promoting self-harm, calling for violence, supporting terrorism and engaging in hate speech. They are prohibited from, among other things, denying mass tragedies (including the Holocaust and 9/11), having slurs in their usernames and profiles, victim blaming and glorifying hate crimes.
Amazon
Harmful misleading information and disinformation are banned too. “We believe that science and facts matter. That truth is a matter of safety,” Amp’s website reads. Mature content is allowed to an extent, but it needs to be labeled. Amazon has a moderation team that will look into reports, and, if necessary, suspend or ban users.
Creating a successful social app from scratch is no easy feat, even for companies of this size (remember Google+?). Amazon has another pretty successful platform where creators can engage with their communities in Twitch. However, it didn’t create Twitch — it bought the company in 2014. (As an aside, it’d be nice to see Twitch creators getting access to the same library of licensed music for their streams.)
It remains to be seen whether Amp will take off, particularly given that people aren’t staying at home as much as they were when pandemic stay-at-home measures were broadly in place. However, Amp’s mashup of Clubhouse and Turntable.FM with licensed music could be enough to convince people to try it.
