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ICYMI, Paramount has officially announced the merger of its streaming platforms, Paramount Plus and Showtime.

The news came after a series of changes within the company, including anticipated layoffs and new programming initiatives earlier this year.

The CEO of Paramount first hinted at the merger back in late January, and now the plans are set to become a reality next month


Paramount Plans Price Hike


With the merger, subscribers can expect a more comprehensive content library and a unified streaming experience. However, along with the merger, Paramount has also announced a price increase for its plans, which will go into effect on June 27.

Starting from that date, PhoneArena tells us that all of Paramount Plus's plans will become more expensive.

Even the ad-supported essential plan, which currently costs $4.99 monthly, will see a price hike to $5.99 monthly


The premium plan, which grants access to additional features and content, will witness a $2 increase from $9.99 to $11.99 per month. It is worth noting that premium plan subscribers will gain access to Showtime content as part of their subscription, justifying the price increase

The change will not significantly impact existing subscribers of Paramount Plus's premium plan, currently priced at $11.99 per month and inclusive of Showtime access.

However, what has changed is the discontinuation of the $9.99 plan, which provided ad-free Paramount Plus content but lacked Showtime access


Paramount Plus has a*sured its users that the essential plan, although slightly more expensive, will still be available after the merger.


However, it will no longer include Showtime content, and users opting for this plan can expect to encounter advertisements during their streaming sessions.


More Announcements from Paramount Plus


In addition to the merger, Paramount Plus has announced that the Showtime app will be discontinued.

By the end of 2023, the Showtime channel will be rebranded as Paramount Plus with Showtime, further emphasizing the integration of the two platforms and consolidating their offerings under one unified brand.


This merger signifies a strategic move by Paramount to create a more comprehensive and competitive streaming service. By combining the strengths of Paramount Plus and Showtime, subscribers will have access to an extensive library of content across a wide range of genres.


Furthermore, the merger's price increase reflects the added value and expanded offerings that subscribers can expect from the unified service.


However, some users might not appreciate this sudden price hike

Full interview:

Typically when you think of a satellite, you think of a metal box with electronic components inside it. But that is simply because most satellites have been made that way throughout history. There is nothing against using other materials to build satellites.

Now, a team of researchers from Japan has completed testing on another type of material that could eventually be used on an actual satellite – magnolia wood.

The project, known as LignoSat, is based on the simple idea that wood can be used as a housing material. In some ways, it is superior to metal for space applications due to its flexibility, strength, and relatively lightweight.

Another problem it is trying to alleviate is one specific to metal enclosures for satellites. When a typical satellite reenters the atmosphere and begins to burn up, parts of its shell, typically aluminum, can flake off its main body and become trapped in their own orbit without fully burning up in the atmosphere.

These orbital shavings can contribute to the ever-growing problem of space debris and could be eliminated by using a different type of material for a satellite's housing – such as wood.

However, no one had tested how wood would do in such an unforgiving environment as the vacuum of space. Given that it was once part of a living creature, there's a good chance there would be some negative impacts.

So the LignoSat researchers did what good researchers do – they launched an experiment to the ISS.



An illustration of a LignoSat prototype. (Sumitomo Forestry)


For 290 days last year, various pieces of test wood sat outside the Kibo Experimental Module on the ISS. It returned to Earth on the CRS-26 resupply mission's return back in January.

After the samples returned to Earth, LignoSat researchers at the Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry, part of a large Japanese conglomerate, subjected them to a barrage of material tests.

Despite being constantly subjected to radiation for more than half a year, there seemed to be no significant deformation, peeling, or surface damage on any of the samples.

Also, there had been no substantial change in the mass of the samples, showing that they can provide longer-term protection for any satellite innards they are housing.

One particular wood sample stood out, but that was more due to its inherent properties rather than any particular outperformance on the in-space tests.



The wood samples for the LignoSat project that were sent to the International Space Station. (Kyoto University)

The wood the team selected was magnolia, which is relatively flexible yet provides sufficient support strength.

Also known as Hoonoki in Japanese, it is the type of wood that will make up the housing for LignoSat when it launches on a joint NASA / JAXA mission in 2024.

In the meantime, the researchers will continue to study the samples that have returned from the ISS, including taking a look with more powerful instruments at any degradation that might have occurred at the nano-level. That could be particularly interesting given its impact on selecting the right wood for certain applications back here on Earth.

Either way, this is only the first step in what could potentially be a game-changing materials journey for the future of small satellites.





 https://www.universetoday .. -use-magnolia/

 https://www.sciencealert. .. -new-study/amp

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A hot potato: Do you like watching YouTube on your smart TV? Unfortunately, the experience will soon become less enjoyable. The company has announced that it will add unskippable 30-second ads to its top-performing content when watched on connected televisions


During the annual YouTube Brandcast event yesterday, the Google-owned company said that instead of seeing two 15-second ads consecutively, TV viewers will see a single 30-second ad

The Verge writes that these "non-skips" will appear on YouTube Select content, its advertising platform that targets the top 5% of YouTube videos.

YouTube executives said more than 150 million unique viewers in the US watched YouTube and YouTube TV on televisions for the month of December 2022, according to Nielsen estimates

It's the most-watched service on TV screens in the US across both streaming platforms and traditional TV networks, which is why the company wants to introduce longer ads (the 15-second ads will be sticking around, too)


In addition to the 30-second unskippable ads, the company said it will start testing "Pause Experiences" (above) for YouTube on TVs. These will show ads to viewers whenever they pause a video, similar to the pause ads Hulu debuted four years ago.

There's no word on when YouTube's 30-second/pause ads will start rolling out to smart televisions. But the news is certainly going to upset the millions of people who watch the service on connected TVs.

Google pushing harder on the ad front comes as little surprise. The company brought in $29.2 billion from ad revenue in 2022, an increase from the $28.8 billion it generated the year before, making up over 11% of Google's annual revenue. However, the $7.96 billion that came from ads in the fourth quarter of 2022 was down almost 8% year-on-year as the whole online advertising industry slumped.

In related news, it was recently discovered that Google is experimenting with a feature that shows a pop-up warning to anyone using an ad-blocker.

Free Chatgpt app released Thursday

Phones, tablets, computer

Mac has always been my go to since lag is non-existent (or minimal)

But my phone and tablet ... both cost around $100 - $200 and it's definitely time to upgrade. Which devices are y'all using. Tired of using laggy sh*t now

Wow this could be crazy!

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Amazon’s New Home Internet Service Is One Step Closer to Becoming a Reality
By

Luke Bouma

on

January 13, 2023
in

All News, Amazon News, News
amazon building


Back in 2019, Amazon announced plans to launch a home internet service. This service would run off low-earth orbit satellites. This is very similar to SpaceX’s Starlink service, which is already available in many parts of the world.

In October, Amazon announced their Project Kuiper would launch more than 3,000 satellites into low-earth orbit to offer this home internet service. To do this, Amazon has announced plans to build the required satellites in Kirkland, Washington.

Amazon has also secured a deal with ULA, Arianespace, and Blue Origin to launch these satellites into space starting in early 2023. With this deal, Amazon hopes to launch multiple prototypes into space to test the system before mass production starts.

Amazon is facing a deadline as the FCC has given it until mid-2026 to have 1,600 satellites in space or face losing its FCC approval for the project.

These satellites will offer far better home internet compared to older satellite home internet service. With faster speeds and lower latency, Amazon is hoping to become a major player in the world of home internet at a time when home internet is becoming more critical than ever.

So what should you expect? SpaceX’s Starlink is likely a good example. A recent report from Ookla.com says Starlink is averaging about 90.55 Mbps down and 9.33 Mbps up with a latency of 43. This is a crazy jump in internet speed for millions of Americans living in rural areas that struggle to get home internet. So, as more satellites have been launched, the speed has increased.

The same is likely to happen with Amazon’s home internet. As more people use it Amazon will have to continue to offer more satellites to handle the demand.

This could be huge news for cord cutters if Amazon is able to follow through on their plans. Studies have shown that as more options for home internet come, online pricing has come down, and data caps have gone away. For now, though, we have to wait as we are likely still years away from these networks becoming fully built out.

 https://cordcuttersnews.c .. ing-a-reality/

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Blessings BX

@ronnie

Get computers computin
It's lowkey better than ChatGPT you can look at the multiple drafts wo generating a new response.

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YouTube is experimenting with a pop-up message that stops video playback until either your ad blocker is disabled or users sign up for a Premium subscription


YouTube decided to start detecting ad blockers and refusing to play videos until the blocker is either disabled or users sign up for a Premium subscription.

As 9To5Google reports, Reddit users Sazk100 posted an image of the pop-up that appeared when trying to watch a video on YouTube while also running an ad blocker in their browser.


The pop-up states that "ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube," before going on to explain that ads allow YouTube to stay free "for billions of users worldwide."





Users are then given two options: allow ads to play, or sign up for a YouTube Premium subscription which is ad-free, but costs $11.99 per month ($119.99 per year).

As PCMag's review concluded, while a YouTube Premium subscription does remove the ads, allows offline downloads, and includes access to YouTube Music, it's expensive


Not everyone who runs an ad blocker in their browser is going to see this message. A YouTube employee confirmed via Reddit(Opens in a new window) that the pop-up is just an experiment.

Whether it gets used more widely will likely come down to how users who are part of the experiment react to it.


If most of them either disable their ad blocker or sign-up for a Premium subscription, YouTube will no doubt show the pop-up to more users