Passes one million digital subscribers
The Times passes one million digital subscribers mark less than four-and-a-half years after launching its metered paywall. The one million figure is on top of the 1.1 million print subscribers who can also access all of the NYT’s content online. Chief executive and president Thomson:
This is a major milestone for our digital consumer business, which we launched in 2011 and has continued a strong and steady growth trajectory. It puts us in a unique position among global news providers. We believe that no other news organization has achieved digital subscriber numbers like ours or comparable digital subscription revenue.
The company also releases second-quarter results showing an 80% year-on-year increase in profits to $16m (£10m), despite a 1.5% fall in revenue to $383m.
Joins tumblr
NASA starts multiple blogs on tumblr. It will share photos, text and videos in its main blog. The second blog is by astronaut Peggy Whitson who chronicles her training. The third microblog posts photos of Jupiter taken by NASA’s Juno mission and other astronomers. The last blog is by Curiosity Rover from Mars.
The agency continues to add new platforms like Tumblr to offer the public a comprehensive view of NASA’s missions, facilities and people.
Minaj game announced
Glu Mobile will create a Minaj-themed game that will debut in summer 2016. The game will feature Minaj’s likeness, voice and “creative direction.” Glu CEO De Masi:
I am thrilled to welcome the undisputed queen of hip-hop, Nicki Minaj, to Glu’s growing list of celebrity partners.
New flights to Japan
Qantas announces two new flights to Japan. Flights will depart from Sydney to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport followed by the departure of a flight from Brisbane to Tokyo’s other airport, Narita, over the weekend. Launch celebrations will happen over the weekend with Japanese-themed activity throughout the terminal and a water cannon salute to mark the departure of QF61 from Brisbane. Traditional Japanese ceremonies will also take place at both Narita and Haneda Airports.
This significant capacity expansion has been extremely well-received by Qantas customers and especially by corporate travellers heading directly to downtown Tokyo, who can now save up to one-and-a-half hours on their airport commute by flying into or out of Haneda
Expands Internet.org
Facebook expands the free basic mobile internet service, saying it will help billions of people without internet, mostly from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It now allows any mobile operator to develop under the platform. The service has brought over 9 million people online over the past year with more than half of the users end up paying to access the wider web within 30 days. Source:
This is really a customer acquisition tool for mobile operators where the benefit to them of offering a very light amount of free data is to bring on more paying subscribers to their networks.
World’s largest telescope under construction
China is hoping to finish construction of the world’s largest radio telescope by 2016. The telescope is built upon a naturally-formed bowl-like valley in the southern part of Guizhou. The huge dish is actually hung over the ground supported by thousands of steel pillars and cables and has perimeter of about 1.6 km. The telescope’s reflector is 500 metres in diameter and made up of 4,450 panels. Each panel is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 11 metres. Scientist:
Having a more sensitive telescope, we can receive weaker and more distant radio messages. It will help us to search for intelligent life outside of the galaxy and explore the origins of the universe.
Offers free Beats headphones to students
Apple offers a free Beats Solo 2 headphone to students who buy a iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Pro with the Educational Pricing. The headphones cost 199$ if bought alone. The offer is only for students in the USA and Puerto Rico. School faculty, staff, and parents can also take advantage of this offer.
Title Update 27
Title Update 27 for the Xbox 360, Content Update 15 for the Xbox One, and the patch 1.18 for the PS Vita, PS3 and PS4 are available for download. Most of this patch involves bug fixes, but it also includes arcadia and dark oak furniture. This patch also includes the Greek Mythology Mash-up DLC which includes features like different player interface, special soundtrack, a custom set for texture, and 39 additional skins. The Greek Mash-up pack costs £3.29/$3.99 and is already available on the Xbox marketplace and PSN.
Jurassic World sequel announced
Universal Pictures announces the sequel to Jurassic World, to be released June 22, 2018. Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, the co-writers of Jurassic World, will write the sequel, although Trevorrow will not direct. No director has been announced. Spielberg returns as executive director and Marshall will resume his role as producer. Pratt and Howard are confirmed to star.
Birthday photo
Kensington palace releases an official photo for George’s second birthday. The picture was taken by Testino after Princess Charlotte’s christening on July 5, in the gardens at Sandringham House, on the Queen’s Norfolk estate. Spokesperson:
This photograph captures a very happy moment on what was a most special day for the Duke and Duchess and their family.
E-Sports to drug test
After Friesen’s admittance that he had taken Adderall, the Electronic Sports League (ESL) will now begin drug-testing its competitors. However, other big E-Sports companies will not necessarily be affected. Friesen and his team will also not be punished because there is no way for officials to be sure that they had indeed been taking Adderall. ESL:
We can’t punish someone if we are not 100 percent sure he is guilty. And as we have no way to test it anymore (we’re four months after the event), we won’t take action in this specific case.
To offer breakfast all day nationwide
After testing all-day breakfast in select cities, McDonald’s operators have been told to prepare for a nationwide extension of all-day breakfast in October, according to a company memo.
Launches extra Gold Coast flights
Qantas announces extra flights to the Gold Coast from late October. The fares are discounted fares and can be purchased online from today. Melbourne to Gold Coast tickets start at $99 one way. Domestic CEO, David:
We will introduce a daily Boeing 737 service between Melbourne and the Gold Coast starting on October 25
Launches The Sentry
Clooney and Prendergast launche The Sentry, an initiative to find and bring justice to those that profit from conflicts in Africa by exposing how conflict is financed and profits laundered, with a website encouraging people to anonymously submit leaks and tips.
Real leverage for peace and human rights will come when the people who benefit from war will pay a price for the damage they cause
YC Fellowship launch
Altman announces the launch of YC Fellowship, a program aimed at prep-seed ventures that have not received any prior funding. The eight-week program will give out advice to participating startups and $12,000 in grants — although regular venture investments could become the standard in the future. Companies will not have to move to the Bay Area. Applications open July 27. Altman writes in a blog post:
Ten years ago, Paul Graham said there could be ten times as many startups if more people realized they could try. Thanks to the work he, Jessica, Trevor and Robert helped do, that’s become true. We think there is still room for another ten-fold increase in the number of (good) startups. But even now, a lot of good founders never get started because they can’t scrape together a relatively small sum of money at the idea stage. So we’re going to try a new experiment, which we’re calling the YC Fellowship. This is targeted at teams that are very, very early…Although this is an experiment, if it seems promising we’ll iterate quickly just like any good startup. Our goal at YC is to enable as much innovation as we can. Someday if it works, we’d love to fund 1,000 companies per year like this.
Tests online stores
Facebook is testing a feature that allows some small and medium businesses to sell products through their pages. Users can browse products on the company Facebook profile pages and either buy directly from their facebook page or be redirected to the company’s website. The feature is being tried in both mobile and desktop sites.
Ludicrous Speed upgrade
Musk announces “Ludicrous Speed,” a $10,000 upgrade for the P85D Model S. The upgrade improves 0-60 time by 10 percent, to 2.8 seconds, with a quarter-mile sprint dropping to 10.9 seconds. The top speed increases to 155 miles per hour, 20 percent faster than on a standard P85D. The Model X will also have Ludicrous Speed as an option, but because that vehicle is 10 percent heavier than the S it will be slower.
Rattle The Lock announcement
Gilmour announces Rattle The Lock, his fourth solo album, to be released on September 18. The album’s title track and first single, will be unveiled July 17th, the same day the album will be available for preorder at Gilmour’s official site. The 10-track LP features lyrics by Samson, and contributions and co-production by Manzanera. Samson’s lyrics are inspired by Book II of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Gilmour:
Rattle That Lock was inspired musically by the sound that’s played on French railway stations before they make an announcement. It’s a four-note jingle. Every time I heard it it made me want to start dancing. I held my iPhone up near the speaker and waited for the next announcement. Took a sample for that and that’s what I’ve used on this track.
Announces four Desire smartphones
HTC announces it will release four new HTC Desire smartphones in the U.S. The Desire 626 utilizes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210, a Cortex-A7 quad-core SoC running at 1.1 GHz with Adreno 304 GPU. The phone also utilizes a 720p display, 16 GB internal storage, 1.5 GB RAM, and a 2,000 mAh battery. The price has not been released yet, but it is not excpected it to be more than $250. To keep this low price, HTC cut camera quality, with the rear one offering only 8MP.
Valued at $250 billion
Facebook is valued at over $250 billion just three years after its IPO, the fastest company to reach that benchmark in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. It is now the ninth largest company in the S&P 500.