Netflix and Apple have found a way to play nice with one another.
That would seem to be the case, at least, now that the two have made it easier for viewers to watch Netflix titles directly from Apple’s TV app. Or rather, Netflix has finally gotten on board. For those of us who need a quick refresher, Apple unveiled its new TV app back in October, which was meant to serve as a portal for all digital video streaming services — no more going from app to app in order to watch your favorite television shows or movies (seriously, why can’t you switch directly from Transparent to Game of Thrones anyway?). But once provider was conspicuously missing: Netflix.
At the time, it seemed that Netflix declined to be part of Apple’s new service in order to keep a tighter hold on its streaming data. After all, this is the information the company uses to not only make recommendations on what you might enjoy, but also to create wildly popular original series of its own, like House of Cards or Orange is the New Black.
Historically, Netflix has been extremely possessive of this data, but for the first time, it looks like it might be willing to share. As a result of its integration with Apple and the TV app, the streaming service would have to give the iEmpire access to some of its data (though just how much is unclear). But at the very least, Apple would know what a user searched for and streamed.
But there’s one huge catch: If you’re looking for original content, it’s nowhere to be found on TV. So if you still need to finish A Series of Unfortunate Events, you better be prepared to go to the Netflix app. While it’s a small step in the name of cooperation, it’s a step all the same, and may make it that much easier for you to get your binge on, no matter what you’re hoping to watch.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?