As Netflix sees its subscriber growth slowing after the pandemic boom and new streaming services; from the likes of Disney, HBO, Apple and others provide increased competition, the company is looking to expand into video games. The report states that the company has spoken to numerous executives from the gaming industry; and is looking for someone to lead a new gaming division inside the streaming giant. The report does not mention whether Netflix is looking to create its own in-house studio or publish video games made by third parties. In addition, we don’t yet know whether the company is planning…
Author: Abiodun A.
No fewer than two police officers have been killed following an attack on the Apumiri Ubakala Police Station in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State. It was gathered that the gunmen stormed the police facility in the early hours of Monday, razed down the station and burnt some vehicles. Efforts to reach the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Geoffrey Ogbonna, proved abortive as his phone number was not reachable. The Commissioner of Police, Janet Agbede is yet to address journalists on the incident. Infostride News learned that the slain officers were two males and their bodies have been…
Police officials line up at the launch of a new, special operation for the South-East in Enugu on May 18, 2021. The police on Tuesday launched a new, special operation designed to restore peace to the South-East. The region has recently witnessed several attacks on police formations and other government facilities. The police said the insecurity situation has been “heightened by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN).” Attending a launch ceremony of the operation, codenamed ‘Operation RP, at the Michael Okpara Square in Enugu, the acting Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba,…
Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday it is extending until further notice a moratorium it imposed last year on police use of its facial recognition software. The company had halted the practice for one year starting in June 2020. Its announcement came at the height of protests across the United States against police brutality toward people of color; sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minnesota. Civil liberties advocates have long warned that inaccurate face matches by law enforcement could lead to unjust arrests; as well as to a loss of privacy and chilled…
A suspected armed robber named Emmanuel who has been terrorising the residents of Ayede-Ogbese in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State has been mobbed to death. It was gathered that the suspect who had been convicted earlier had been on the watch list of residents of the town after he was released, returned and continued his nefarious activities. However, the suspect met his waterloo on Sunday when he was trying to escape with four motorcycles he had snatched from their owners but the truck being used to convey them broke down. He was caught and the residents mobbed…
Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies slumped after the People’s Bank of China reiterated that the digital tokens cannot be used as a form of payment. The largest cryptocurrency fell as much as 5.1% to $42,547 in New York; continuing a week-long slide sparked by Elon Musk’s back-and-forth comments on Tesla Inc.’s holdings of the coin. Bitcoin is now at its lowest level since early February. Ether lost more than 7% at one point; while last week’s sensation, Internet Computer, continued its plunge. Dogecoin also slid. “This is the latest chapter of China tightening the noose around crypto,” said Antoni Trenchev,…
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has directed WhatsApp to withdraw its new privacy policy, according to sources. The IT Ministry believes that the changes to WhatsApp privacy policy and the manner of introducing; the said changes undermines the sacrosanct values of informational privacy; data security; and also user choice and harms the rights and interests of Indian citizens, government sources said. The government has given seven days to WhatsApp to respond to the notice and if no satisfactory response is received; necessary steps in consonance with law will be taken, sources informed. In a communication to WhatsApp on…
Deezer has announced that it will be bringing offline playback to its native app on Apple Watch; making it first music service to offer this feature for the device outside of Apple Music. Available exclusively via a Deezer paid subscription, users will be able to download their favourite songs and playlists to the Apple Watch; giving them the opportunity to leave their phone at home and still enjoy listening to music on the go. Until now, it was only possible to listen to music offline on the Apple Watch via Apple Music; but in bringing the feature to its own…
YouTube is going to update its Terms of Service soon and has sent a mail out to all its users to clarify these terms and also provide transparency. The video-streaming platform mentions that these terms were similarly updated in the United States in November last year and are now being rolled out in India. YouTube’s new terms of service will come into effect from June 1 and while these will not “significantly alter your access or use” of YouTube, it’s important to note. There are three major changes coming in by June 1. First, facial recognition restrictions. YouTube states that…
There was hope the IFA consumer and home electronics event would take place in-person for 2021, but uncertainty relating to the pandemic has meant the physical event has been cancelled. Messe Berlin and gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH have jointly announced the scheduled IFA 2021 electronics event will not be taking place in a physical capacity; leaving room open that it will – like it did in 2020 – take place as a largely digital event. In the press release sent out, the organisers stated that “the rapid emergence of new COVID-19 variants, for example in South Asia, to…
Google has announced LaMDA, a new natural language technology, which will enable Google Assistant users to have conversations with objects, planets and…paper airplanes. In a somewhat bizarre demonstration during the opening session of Google I/O; the company previewed a voice chat with the planet Pluto, which will enable Assistant users to learn more about the planet. LaMDA users will be able to ask questions about the objects and, instead of a Wikipedia-style readout; the answer will come in conversational form with the subject of the conversation; replying as if it had a personality of its own. In one example, “Pluto”…
The Edo State Police Command has killed three suspected kidnappers and rescued seven abducted victims in the state. According to a statement issued on Monday by the police spokesman in the state, SP Kontongs Bello, the victims were rescued after security operatives combed the Ahor forest along Benin-Auchi Expressway, Benin City. It was gathered that the rescued victims were travelling from different parts of the country to Benin City, Edo, Delta and the Anambra States. The victims were identified as Daniel Musa, Anslem Obaladike, John Rufus, Best Osarenrere, Okideli Uwachukwu, Unoma John and Festus Francis. The police spokesman said the…
At least four suspects have been arrested in connection with banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping and armed robbery by the police in Katsina State. The suspects, according to police authorities in the state, belonged to a notorious syndicate terrorising Kankara Local Government Area of the state and its environs. In a press briefing held on Tuesday, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Gambo Isah said the suspects were arrested based on credible intelligence on May 10th. Isah said in the process of smashing the suspects, the police recovered of 170 cows and 38 sheep in their possession.…
A former Vice Chairman of Lagos Island East Local Council Development Area, Asekun Kehinde Sakiru, has been arrested with cocaine. He was nabbed by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi, confirmed on Wednesday via a statement. The anti-narcotics agency said the suspect had been on its wanted list following the recent arrest of some traffickers and drug seizures linked to him. “The long arm of the law however caught up with the wanted baron at about 9.40 pm on Friday…
Two policemen have been injured in another attack on a Police Divisional Headquarters in Abia State, south-east Nigeria. While many police stations have come under attack in the region in recent time, the latest incident makes it the second attack on police facilities in Abia since the beginning. It was gathered that the attack occurred few days ago in Bende Local Government Area of the state. A group of hoodlums, in a large number, were said to have attacked the police station in the night and set it on fire. While the two policemen injured during the attack have been…
A newly published patent suggests that Canon might be trying to bring a catadioptric optical system back to its camera lens lineup. If the “mirror lens” designs do materialize, we would likely see super telephoto lenses that are much smaller and cheaper than equivalent Canon lenses currently on the market. Northlight Images spotted a Canon patent (US Patent 20210141240) titled “Optical System and Optical Apparatus” that was filed in October 2020 and published on May 13th, 2021. “An optical system includes a first optical element having a first reflective surface concave toward an object side, a second optical element having…
Motorola is the latest mobile maker to signal its intentions to bring remote wireless charging to future smartphone releases. The company has announced a partnership with a company called GuRu Wireless in a bid bring over-the-air wireless charging to its handsets, minus the need to place its best phones on a charging mat. In a press release, GuRu explains its proprietary technology can power ‘watts-over-meters’ energy transfers between a central wireless unit and a compatible device. This will bring about a “new generation of wirelessly powered devices,” Moto says. “GuRu RF Lensing powers devices at watts-over-meters, bringing a new wave…
It’s not too often an Android app drops hints about Apple products; but the latest Apple Music beta may have spilled the beans about the HiFi audio tier rumoured to be coming to the app. Within an APK teardown of the Apple Music app for Android, 9to5Google appears to have confirmed lossless audio feature is on the way to both iPhone and Android in the near future. When looking within Apple Music 3.6.0 Beta currently available on the Play Store; there are several strings that reveal support for lossless audio (at up to 24-bit/192 kHz) is on the way.…
Google Stadia isn’t about to go quietly into the night despite a host of recent changes that drew suggestions the platform may be falling out of favour with the folks at Mountain View. Nate Ahern, a key figure with developer marketing at Stadia says the platform; which aims to make expensive hardware requirements a thing of the past, is “alive and well.” Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Ahern reaffirmed the company’s commitment to the platform; promising to prove wrong the non-believers predicting the imminent demise for Xbox cloud gaming rival. “We’re well on our way to over 100 new games launching on…
Apple’s App Tracking Transparency has rolled out to all iPhones with iOS 14.5. This feature forces developers to ask users for permission before they can track them. Earlier, apps could do this for free. And as expected, most users are opting out of letting apps track them. But this opting out of app tracking is bad news for apps that use the data to serve users ads; which is pretty much all of them, and they are now adding prompts in-app to ask users to enable tracking. Twitter is the latest to join the list and has added a prompt…