Samsung and Huawei are duking it out to be the king of the folding smartphone with their Galaxy Fold and Mate X. As we reported last week, Samsung is expecting a lot of their customers treating the Galaxy Fold more as a paid beta program, but Huawei is coming to market with a fully functioning model that could win the war. The only problem is the intense battle the company is having with the U.S. which you can read about further down.
While the idea of an expensive smartphone that folds might sound unnecessary, once you get your hands on one, you’ll change your mind rather quickly. This is easily the tablet killer as it’s a real phablet or phone-tablet hybrid. The folding or bendable phone now adds a whole new look and feel for the market. Don’t be shocked to see one that can wrap around your wrist like a watch without being an Apple Watch, although the price will probably be similar.
China’s Huawei unveiled a new folding-screen phone on Sunday, joining the latest trend for bendable devices as it challenges the global smartphone market’s dominant players, Apple and Samsung.
Huawei revealed its Mate X
phone on the eve of MWC Barcelona, a four-day showcase of mobile devices, as
the company battles U.S. allegations it is a cybersecurity risk.
The device can be used on
superfast next-generation mobile networks that are due to come online in the
coming years.
Device makers are looking
to folding screens as the industry’s next big thing to help them break out of
an innovation malaise, although most analysts think the market is limited, at
least in the early days.
The Mate X is the answer
to a question Huawei faced as it sought to satisfy smartphone users’ demands
for bigger screens and longer battery life, said Richard Yu, CEO of its
consumer business group.
“How can we bring the more
big innovation to this smartphone industry?” Yu said at a glitzy media launch.
The Mate X will sell for
2,299 euros ($2,600) when it goes on sale by midyear. That’s even more than
Samsung’s recently revealed Galaxy Fold, priced at nearly $2,000.
The Mate X’s screen wraps
around the outside so users can still view it when it’s closed, unlike the
Galaxy Fold, which has a screen that folds shut. Unfolded, the Mate X’s screen
is 8 inches diagonally, making it the size of a small tablet.
Yu said Huawei engineers
spent three years working on the device’s hinge, which doesn’t leave a gap when
shut.
“No matter how innovative
and technology-advanced the new device is, it will take a lot more time for a
critical mass of consumers to experience the benefits of foldable phones and 5G
technology,” Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said. Huawei still “has to find
its own brand voice to differentiate from Samsung and Apple and stop acting as
a technology challenger.”
Huawei Technologies is
trying to raise its profile in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.
Almost everyone with a smartphone has heard of Apple and Samsung, the top
device makers, and Google, the power behind Android’s pervasive software.
Huawei, a Chinese company
with a name many people in the West don’t know how to pronounce (it’s
“HWA-way”), wants to join the market’s upper echelon.
It’s getting close.
Samsung was the No. 1 smartphone seller for all of last year, followed by
Apple, according to research firm International Data Corp. Huawei came third,
though in some quarters it took second place, IDC data showed.
The company stealthily
became an industry star by plowing into new markets, honing its technology, and
developing a line-up of phones that offer affordable options for low-income
households and luxury models that are siphoning upper-crust sales from Apple
and Samsung in China and Europe.
But Huawei’s products are
few and far between in the U.S. The scarcity stems from long-running security
concerns that the company could facilitate digital espionage on behalf of
China’s government. Washington has been lobbying European allies to keep its
equipment out of new 5G networks.
The cloud over Huawei also
includes U.S. criminal charges filed last month against the company and its
chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who U.S. prosecutors want to extradite
from Canada. They accuse her of fraud and say the company stole trade secrets,
including technology that mobile carrier T-Mobile used to test smartphones.
Huawei is making its push
at a time that both Samsung and Apple are struggling with declining smartphone
sales amid a lull in industry innovation that is causing more consumers to hold
on to the devices until they wear out instead of upgrading to the latest model
as quickly as they once did.
The company sells
high-priced smartphones as well as an extensive range of cheaper models priced
from $200 to $600 that offer a good camera and other features most consumers
want, analysts said.
But Huawei wouldn’t be
where it is today if it had been content focusing merely on China and other
Asian markets.
The company took a huge
step forward several years ago when it began pouring millions into promoting
its brand and building partnerships in major European markets such as Germany,
France, Britain, Spain and Italy. Research firm Gartner estimates it now sells
about 13 percent of its phones in Europe.
As for the U.S., Huawei
can only make so much headway as long as the government is casting the company
as a cyber-villain, said Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen.
“Brand building is a
long-term exercise, but it’s going to be especially difficult in the U.S.
because of the way they have branded all of China,” he said. “The barriers in
the U.S. are just getting more difficult.”
China and U.S. Fight Heats Up Over Huawei
A global
battle between the U.S. government and Chinese tech company Huawei over
allegations that it is a cybersecurity risk overshadowed the opening Monday of
the world’s biggest mobile industry trade fair.
Huawei has an outsize presence
at MWC Barcelona, from its displays in three separate show halls down to its
red sponsorship logo adorning visitor pass lanyards. The focus at this year’s
meeting is new 5G networks due to roll out in the coming years. But the dispute
over Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of networking gear, is casting a pall.
The United States
government dispatched a big delegation to press its case with telecom
executives and government officials that they should not use Huawei as a
supplier over national security concerns. U.S. President Donald Trump’s
administration says the Chinese government could use Huawei equipment to snoop
on the world’s internet traffic — accusations Huawei has rejected, saying there
has been no proof of a cybersecurity breach.
In a fresh salvo, 11 U.S.
senators on Monday called for the federal government to ban solar power
inverters — advanced control systems — made by Huawei, saying they pose a
national security threat to U.S. energy infrastructure.
Huawei’s counteroffensive
includes making its case directly to government officials, companies and
journalists. It has unveiled a new folding 5G phone and its executives are
speaking on keynote panels at the show. Formerly known as Mobile World
Congress, the show is a key forum for lobbying and deal-making that’s expected
to draw 100,000 visitors.
“The geopolitical tensions
between the U.S.A. and China will undoubtedly be a hot topic,” said Shaun
Collins, CEO of research firm CCS Insight. “There is little doubt that
operators around the world are concerned that draconian sanctions on their
ability to use Huawei’s 5G infrastructure could have detrimental effects on
their 5G roll-out plans.”
Behind closed doors, U.S.
officials have been suggesting that Ericsson of Sweden and Finland’s Nokia
should be preferred suppliers, but telecom providers like Huawei for its cheap
but good quality equipment. That helps lower the cost to customers of using new
5G networks, which promise lightning fast download speeds and less signal lag —
advancements that will help develop self-driving cars, factory robots and
remote surgery.
At Huawei’s sprawling main
pavilion, lit in shimmering LED lights, the company showed off virtual reality
racing games that use 5G to provide crisper graphics and quicker response times
than 4G.
“Definitely compared to
other big global vendors, they’re cost efficient,” said Sharif Shah Jamal Raz,
a vice president at Bangladesh mobile operator Robi Axiata, as he and his
colleagues inspected Huawei’s display of network base stations and modular antennas.
Trump tweeted last week
that he wanted the U.S. to catch up in the 5G race through competition, “not by
blocking out currently more advanced technologies.” Though he didn’t mention
China or Huawei, the comments could be seen as a more toned-down approach to
the company, which has long been blocked in the U.S.
Guo Ping, one of three
Huawei executives who take turns as chairman, told reporters Sunday that he
read Trump’s tweet as an admission that the U.S. needs faster internet networks
and is lagging in this respect.
Guo stressed that his
company “will never allow for backdoors in our equipment,” and it would never
violate laws and regulations in countries where it operates.
U.S. allies in Europe are
still making their minds up on allowing Huawei gear in 5G networks and it’s not
clear if Washington’s lobbying campaign is having an effect, with some viewing
it as a calculation of technical risks rather than as part of a broader battle
for tech supremacy between China and the U.S.
The CEO of Ericsson, Borje
Ekholm, said countries face “critical decisions” as they roll out 5G networks.
“As we talk to our
customers, they are feeling the uncertainty and they are concerned,” Ekholm
said at the MWC show.
A ban on Huawei could
delay the rollout of 5G in Europe by two years, said Nick Read, CEO of
Vodafone, one of the world’s biggest mobile operators.
The “implication is
suddenly you’ve got to do a massive swap of equipment. Hugely disruptive to
national infrastructure, consumers (and) very, very expensive,” he said.
The head of Britain’s
government surveillance agency, Jeremy Fleming, said Monday that China’s tech
dominance posed a complex strategic challenge.
“We have to understand the
opportunities and threats from China’s technological offer,” Fleming said in a
speech in Singapore, according to a transcript. “We have to take a clear view
on the implications of China’s technological acquisition strategy in the West.”
The British government is
carrying out a review of the risks involved with telecom infrastructure that
will help it decide on Huawei’s role in 5G networks. U.K. cybersecurity
officials have said previously they think the risks involved with Huawei can be
managed.
GSMA, an association that
represents 750 mobile operators worldwide, is recommending a testing and
certification regime for Europe to ensure confidence in network security.
Guo called for the industry and governments to develop “clear and unified” cybersecurity standards and regulations, and said decisions should be made by technical experts rather than politicians.
Last summer, MoviePass shook the theater industry up when they offered a deal that was truly too good to be true. In fact, it was actually too good for its own self and nearly ruined the company. A movie a day in theaters for $10 a month was a killer deal that couldn’t last. It didn’t.
MoviePass, which tried to bring
Netflix-like subscriptions to the movie theater, pulled back on its deal last summer.
MoviePass was a consumer
success, but a financial disaster. MoviePass had to pay theaters the full
price of most tickets, which quickly exceeded $10 each month.
Today, MoviePass chugs
along with an offer for three movies a month starting at the same $10 fee. But
it faces competition from theater chains and a Turkish startup that brought
back a movie a day, at least temporarily — this time for $20 a month.
Here’s a look at the major
subscription offerings for theaters in the U.S.:
MOVIEPASS
You get a debit card that
MoviePass loads with money when you show up at a theater and check in on the
MoviePass app. The card works at most theaters, but not necessarily with all
movies. You can only get tickets for showings that day.
The $10 monthly rate
limits you to a rotating list of about six movies each
day, only one or two of which is a major studio release. It’s good if you like
independent movies, but awful if you live where independent movies aren’t
shown. If movie tickets tend to cost more where you live, the subscription
price goes up to $13 or $15.
For $5 more each month,
MoviePass will let you see the movie of your choice. Yet another $5 — a total
of up to $25 — gives you one Imax or 3D screening per month.
Movie credits disappear if
you don’t use them before the billing month is up. If you watch all three
movies, MoviePass is cheaper than regular tickets. But you can often come close
by choosing matinee and other discount showtimes or by buying discount vouchers
through theater chains or retailers such as Costco.
There’s no long-term
commitment, though if you cancel, you’re not allowed back for nine months.
SINEMIA
Sinemia, a Turkish company
now based in Los Angeles, has a service that works much like MoviePass, except
you pay a one-time fee of $25 to get a debit card for same-day tickets at
theaters. There are no restrictions on which movies you can watch.
Without a card, or for
future dates, you can get tickets online. Sinemia passes along the ticketing
fees that Fandango and other online services charge. It also adds a “processing
fee” of $1.80 per movie. Those fees are waived, at least for now, when getting
tickets in person at theaters, so paying for the debit card is cheaper in the
long run.
Prices and plans change frequently, so if
you see one you like, grab it right away. Over the past few weeks, Sinemia had
a movie-a-day plan for $20 a month, excluding 3D and other premium movies. But
by Friday morning, Sinemia was offering eight movies a month at that price.
Other non-premium plans range from $4 for one movie to $8 for three. You can
pay more for premium plans.
Though Sinemia
occasionally offers pay-per-month options, all plans currently require a
year-long commitment, paid up front. One unused ticket can be carried over to
the next month.
AMC A-LIST
The nation’s largest
theater chain offers three movies a week, including an unlimited number in
premium formats, starting at $20 a month. The subscription fee is higher — $22
or $24 — in states where ticket prices are higher.
You get same-day and
advance tickets through an app, with no fees, and can cancel up until showtime.
Getting tickets is easier, compared with Sinemia and MoviePass. But the plan is
good only if you live near an AMC theater and like the major studio releases
typically shown there. Independent movies are limited.
There’s a three-month
commitment, though you’re still billed monthly. If you cancel, you can’t come
back for six months. AMC does offer $5 tickets on Tuesdays, so that might be
cheaper if you aren’t going to watch at least four movies a month.
OTHER THEATER CHAINS
With Cinemark Movie Club,
$9 gets you one non-premium ticket per month,
which isn’t necessarily cheaper, considering that the average U.S. ticket price
is $9. Unused tickets can be rolled over into future months. You also get 20
percent off concessions.
Alamo Drafthouse is testing its own subscription offering,
initially in Yonkers, New York, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Prices and terms
vary during the testing period.
Sinemia, meanwhile, is
helping other theater chains create their own subscriptions distinct from the
main Sinemia service. Studio Movie Grill and Showcase Cinemas offer plans this way.
After a rough couple weekends beginning with the Super Bowl, “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” has given Hollywood some hope. The third film in the franchise is a real hit scoring a franchise-best debut with $55.5 million during the Oscar weekend.
Writer-director Dean DeBlois’ third and supposedly final installment in the “How to Train Your Dragon” series notched the best opening of the year in U.S. and Canadian theaters. It also had the lowest budget of all three films which is unusual for any franchise film. Each budget has gone down from the original $165 (2010), $145 for the second (2014) and $129 for this one. Can you imagine if the “Avengers” films could do that?
Also notable: The two best opening weekends this year have both been for
the final installments of trilogies. Until this weekend, M. Night Shyamalan’s
“Glass” held the top spot. That superhero thriller opened last month to about $41 million in its first weekend.
Going into the weekend,
overall ticket sales for 2019 were down 18 percent, according to Comscore,
throwing cold water on the record box office of 2018.
But as Hollywood was set
to gather for the Academy Awards on Sunday, “The Hidden World” lent the
industry some good news — albeit not a hint at all of the magnitude of what
that was in
theaters last Oscar weekend when “Black Panther” was the top film.
Made for $129 million, “The Hidden World” rode good reviews (91 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and warm audience reaction (an A CinemaScore) to exceed the $43.7 million opening of the 2010 original (which ultimately made $494.9 million worldwide) and the $49 million opening of the 2014 sequel (which amassed $621.5 million). Having no competition also helped considerably being the only newcomer in the top five this week.
The latest installment,
which similarly features the voices of Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera and Cate
Blanchett, is the first DreamWorks Animation release under the Comcast-owned
Universal, which bought Jeffrey Katzenberg’s company in 2016.
Universal trotted out “The
Hidden World” abroad first. It’s been in release internationally since January,
earning $216.9 million through Sunday.
Last week’s top film, “Alita: Battle Angel,” dropped steeply in its second weekend with $12 million. That’s a slide of 58 percent, and further trouble for the 20th Century Fox release from producer James Cameron and director Robert Rodriguez. The sci-fi film cost a hefty $170 million to make so as we reported last week, it won’t likely be making back it’s full budget any time soon, if at all.
But “Alita” is doing
better overseas. It grossed $92.4 million internationally over the weekend,
boosted by Fox’s biggest opening ever in China. It was the no. 1 film there
with $62.3 million in ticket sales.
MGM’s “Fighting With My
Family,” about professional wrestling star Saraya “Paige” Bevis, was the only
other new film in wide release. It expanded to 2,711 theaters after a limited
release last weekend, grossing a modest $8 million.
Directed by Stephen Merchant, “Fighting With My Family” stars Florence Pugh as Bevis and features a cameo supporting performance from Dwayne Johnson, an executive producer on the film. With an $11 million budget, it’s a far smaller film than Johnson is typically a part of. It’s a rather respectable start for a film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month, but having Johnson’s name attached certainly didn’t hurt.
There was little of an
Oscar bump for the Academy Awards nominees heading into Sunday’s show. Alfonso
Cuaron’s “Roma” is tied for the most nominations with 10 but, as a Netflix
release, it has been mostly streamed. Netflix has declined to give box-office
figures for its theatrical release. The major theater operators have refused to
screen Netflix films since they don’t adhere to the traditional 90-day
theatrical exclusivity window.
Of the nominees still in
theaters, Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” fared the best, grossing $2.1 million
on its 15th weekend. The best picture-nominated interracial road trip drama has
grossed $69.6 million through Sunday, including $27.1 million since Oscar
nominations were announced. That dwarfs the post-nominations hauls of all other
contenders.
Ahead of the Oscars, “Vice” added $731,391 ($47.2 million total), “A Star Is Born” earned $700,000 ($210.9 million total), “Bohemian Rhapsody” added $645,000 ($213.1 million total) and “The Favourite” pulled in $540,000 ($32.1 million total).
North American Box Office
Estimated ticket sales for
Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore.
Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are
also included.
1. “How to Train Your
Dragon: The Hidden World,” $55.5 million ($34.7 million international).
2. “Alita: Battle Angel,”
$12 million.
3. “Lego Movie 2: The
Second Part,” $10 million ($10.3 million international).
Is Samsung’s Galaxy Fold phone-tablet (remember the phablet?) going to turn into Google Glass? Remember Google’s big experiment where people jumped in to plunk down $1500 on something that’s long been forgotten.
Google’s failed Glass experiment that cost early buyers $1500.
Usually, I’m excited for the next iteration of Samsung smartphones, but I’m feeling some serious deja vu with this announcement. Remember those Android Wear smartwatches you just had to have but now sit next to that must-have tablet? How about when 3D cameras on phones first hit (HTC EVO 3D) or modular phones (Project Ara).
In today’s world where news comes at us fast and furious, it’s easy to forget being duped into jumping onboard quickly only to have the company discontinue the product line leaving you with a pretty but useless piece of tech gadgetry. Hype still works, and it feels like Samsung is starting this product a little too early. The company is relying on diehard Samsung fans and those that love to spend a ton of money on a tech gadget just for the status.
Are you willing to plunk down $2K to be a beta tester?
These people are going to become what Samsung needs in two words: beta testers. It saves the company money being paid by people to test the product rather than spending it on R&D.
Samsung is hailing the Galaxy Fold as the future of smartphones with this foldable one, but it appears this release is just a way to test and refine the model. You can’t claim to be releasing something that is the finest in its class but expect consumers to be your tester. Apple customers would have balked if the iMac Pro or those amazing 5K displays weren’t ready for prime time. Imagine if Microsoft had done this with those stellar Surface Studio PCs?
With a starting price of $1,980, Samsung knows the masses won’t be rushing out to purchase this. It will be the usual tech consumer aka early adopters to take the bait since they’re much more forgiving with problems than the average consumer.
My big concern that this wasn’t a product ready for market was during Samsung’s live presentation of the Galaxy Fold where the inner display doesn’t seem able to be perfectly flat when folded out. As you can see in the images above, light is reflecting off the surface exposing a small ridge in the middle. At this price point, consumers will expect a perfect fold and not ‘close to a perfect’ one.
While Galaxy is presenting the Fold as a consumer device which is troubling as this feels similar to the companies Galaxy Gear. Remember that? That’s what I’m warning you about. There’s a lot of promise and flash, but the substance leaves me feeling very wary on this product. It truly is buyer beware aka caveat emptor.
Samsung unveiled a highly anticipated smartphone with a foldable screen in an attempt to break the innovation funk that has beset the smartphone market.
But it’s far from clear
that consumers will embrace a device that retails for almost $2,000, or that it
will provide the creative catalyst the smartphone market needs.
The Galaxy Fold, announced
Wednesday in San Francisco, will sell for $1,980 when it is released April 26.
Consumers willing to pay
that hefty price will get a device that can unfold like a wallet. It can work
like a traditional smartphone with a 4.6 inch screen or morph into something
more like a mini-tablet with a 7.3 inch screen.
When fully unfolded, the
device will be able to simultaneously run three different apps on the screen.
The Galaxy Fold will also boast six cameras: three in the back, two on the
inside and one on the front.
After spending nearly five
years developing the technology underlying its foldable-screen phone, Samsung
is clearly hoping for a big payoff.
“Get ready for the dawn of
a new era,” declared DJ Koh, who oversees Samsung’s smartphone division. The
new phone, he said, “answers skeptics who said everything has already been
done.”
Oh, the color choices you’ll have.
If Samsung is right, the
Galaxy Fold will spur more people to upgrade their phones. Overall smartphones
sales peaked in 2017; Samsung saw its smartphone sales fall 8 percent last year, based on
estimates from the research firm International Data Corp. Worldwide, smartphone
sales dropped 4 percent in 2018, according to IDC.
But most analysts see a
limited market for foldable-screen phones, at least in the early going. Phones
like the Galaxy Fold “are likely to sell to a very limited market of technology
aficionados who like big screens and have big wallets,” said IDC analyst Ramon
Llamas.
Although he also believes
the Galaxy Fold is more a “status symbol” than mainstream product, Moor
Insights & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead said the device is
symbolically important for Samsung, the top seller of smartphones in the world.
“The Fold was icing on the cake showing that Samsung is the company driving new
innovations and excitement to the market,” Moorhead said.
There’s no doubt that the
Galaxy Fold is “luxury technology,” conceded Justin Denison, a Samsung senior
vice president during an interview. But he also predicted that the advent of
foldable screens will unleash new uses for mobile devices. “It’s a
technological marvel,” Denison said. “The first time you see a flexible screen,
it sort of bends your mind.”
Samsung also released new
Galaxy S10 phones that echo the features in other recent models. Each device in
the S10 lineup boast fancy cameras, sleek screens covering the entire front of
the devices and at least 128 gigabytes of storage — important features to consumers
shopping for phones.
The new phones are able
take wider-angle shots than previous models and can charge other devices,
including wireless headphones and smartwatches. A fourth S10 model, due out
this spring, will have faster wireless speeds through the emerging 5G cellular
network.
But those improvements
aren’t a big leap from the smartphones released during the past few years by
Samsung, Apple and other top manufacturers.
“These phones are all
variations on a theme we have already seen,” Llamas said. “It’s the same song
with a slightly different verse.”
With the pace of
smartphone innovation seemingly locked in baby steps, consumers
are holding on to their existing devices for longer periods than they have in the past.
Compounding that reluctance to upgrade is smartphone sticker shock, which the
Galaxy Fold seems unlikely to alleviate. Prices for some existing phones models
have soared above $1,000.
Samsung is offering a
slightly smaller S10 model for $750 in an attempt to make smartphones more
affordable, but the higher-end models sell for $900 and $1,000. It’s the second
time in the past five months that a leading smartphone maker has positioned a
$750 phone as a frugal option. Apple also priced its cheapest new phone, the
iPhone XR, released last fall at $750. Other smartphone makers gaining market
share, including China’s Huawei and Xiaomi, make smartphones that sell for $500
or less, as well as high-end models.
Two of Samsung’s new
models, the S10 and the S10 Plus, are largely incremental upgrades of last
year’s S9 and S9 Plus, although they are designed differently. They are about
the same size as last year’s models, but will have more display space, as
Samsung found additional ways to eliminate waste around the edges. As a
byproduct, the top right of the display has a circle or oval cut out for the
front-facing cameras.
The lowest-priced
“essentials” model, the S10e, has most of the same features, but is 5 percent
smaller than the S10 in volume. The S10e also lacks curved edges, a signature
feature for many Samsung phones.
All three S10 models will
come out March 8, with pre-orders starting Thursday.
Samsung trumpeted its 10th
anniversary lineup ahead of a major mobile device conference in Barcelona next
week. Huawei, which is threatening to overtake Apple as the world’s second
biggest seller of smartphones, has promised to use the Spain showcase to
preview its own device with a foldable screen and the ability to connect to 5G
networks as they become operational during the next few years.
Recording
your computer screen has been around forever, but finding the best software or
app to do it, can be a tricky matter. Yes, there’s plenty of them out there,
but they can either be difficult to figure out or not work as well as they claim.
That’s where Movavi Screen Recorder Studio comes to the rescue. It’s easily one of the best screen recorder Windows has to offer, and it’s perfect for you gamers that love to record your gameplay and upload it to YouTube to taunt your friends and foes with. It’s ability to capture everything on your computer screen while outputting it at the same quality and resolution is second to none. This software is easy to figure out no matter what level of tech geek you are at. It has advanced features, but anyone can understand how everything works right off the bat. It’s an extremely easy software to use with some great features.
For those
using earlier versions of Windows, you don’t have to worry as this software
works on Windows 10 and all the way back to even Windows 95. Yup we have a
laptop with that arcane OS, but we were shocked to see that Screen Recorder
Studio worked as perfectly on that as our Windows 10 64-bit.
Movavi Screen Recording Studio
Screen Recorder Studio Features
One of the
best ways to judge a software is by the quality of its features, and that’s
where Movavi Screen Recorder Studio truly stands out.
Scheduler Mode
This allows
you to record and capture your screen while you’re away. That is a huge plus as
we sometimes want to check out a webinar, so this comes in handy to see it
later.
Improved Recording
With and
improved recording frame, you can change your capture area with just a simple
marker move. You can also see your recording frame in a full-screen mode so you
know exactly how it will turn out. We’ve all sometimes set a recording thinking
we had captured everything, only to find out later things got cut off. One last
nice thing is they have made it so you can turn that annoying blinking
recording frame off. Sometimes that has wound up being in the output and this
prevents that from happening.
You are able
to capture either the full screen or just a selected area without losing any
audio quality. With many software products, if you only want to capture a portion
of the screen, the audio becomes muted.
Editing Video
Movavi
allows you to save the video on a flash memory card so you can take it with you
to edit somewhere else. No more being tied down to one spot. There’s also a new
multi-track timeline to add news tracks and move them around as you wish. I’ve
always hated the software that only allows one or two tracks and won’t let you
move them around. This software has some
great templates for really fun animated intros and outros that are ready to go,
but it’s flexible enough to let you make your own templates to.
One of my
favorite feature updates is being able to edit oversized Full HD videos without
any worrying about freezing. That would always drive me crazy as you normally
had to start the editing process all over again from scratch when that
happened. Kiss those days goodbye with Screen Recording Studio. Movavi has recently
updated their Montage Wizard so you can do even more things than you though
possible with a new set of themes, effects and titles. It also comes with a
great new guide lines feature to position your titles and effects with perfect
accuracy.
You can save
if many formats including MP4, MOV and AVI along with being able to prep your
recording to play on mobile devices or just sharing online. It can be set at
full HD 60 frames per second to look pretty amazing.
2 – 1 Function
What has
been frustrating with most screen recording software’s is that once you record
what you need, you have to switch out to another software to edit it. Thankfully,
this one immediately asks you if you’re ready to start editing once the
recording ends. You don’t have to exit, you just plunge right in and make your
screen magic happen.
Everything you
need is right there like video stabilization which can salvage many videos that
have gone awry like when using a drone to shoot. We actually tested some of our
shakiest videos and were pleasantly surprised to see how steady the stabilization
function made it. There’s also a chroma key that lets you block a color you
like and replicate it anywhere else you want in the video.
Best of all,
unlike many editing software packages, Screen Recorder Studio doesn’t eat up
all you CPU and RAM. We didn’t even notice any change in performance while
running it at full blast. This was even while recording Far Cry 5 and Assassin’s
Creed: Origins. Yeah, we were impressed too!
What To Love About Screen Recorder Studio
This is such
an easy software to learn use and understand no matter what level of video
editing expertise you’re currently at. The user interface is very intuitive and
very easy to understand without a bunch of confusing buttons.
The output
is pretty amazing and can be changed to whatever your preference is, plus, you
can do screen captures from a mobile device to since you’ll be using it a lot
on them.
Being able
to schedule your screen capture is my absolute favorite part of this software.
No more sitting being chained to your desktop, plus having the built-in editor
makes things so convenient. You might wind up dropping one of your editing
softwares after playing with this one for a few days.
Not So Hot Stuff
My only
complaint, and it’s a very minor one. I wish this had a higher refresh rate
recording feature.
Capture & Edit in 3 Steps
Step 1: Capture your videoStep 2: Edit your videoStep 3: Save your video output. It’s that easy!
Overall Feelings
When I only have one complaint about a product, there is a reason to rejoice. Being able to use this on mobile devices opens up so many more possibilities of how to use Movavi Screen Recorder Studio. It’s perfect to show customer service techs if you’re game or whatever is glitchy, or if you like making how-to videos, this is your answer with screen recorder Windows.
It’s been confirmed that Jussie Smollett’s scenes have been slashed from production this week on “Empire” as the tide has quickly turned against him as his story has lost credibility.
Chicago
police are investigating a tip that on the night “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett
reported being attacked by two masked men he was in an elevator of his
apartment building with two brothers later arrested and released from custody
in the probe, a department spokesman told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Police spokesman Anthony
Guglielmi said the person who lives in the building or was visiting someone
there reported seeing the three together the night in question last
month. Smollett
said two masked men hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him, beat him and
looped a rope around his neck.
Guglielmi says police
haven’t confirmed the person’s account. Detectives plan to interview the person
on Tuesday.
Last week, police
announced that the “investigation had shifted” following interviews with the
brothers and their release from custody without charges. Police have requested another
interview with Smollett. They have declined to comment on
reports that the attack was a hoax.
Smollett’s lawyers have
said the actor was angered and “victimized” by reports he may have
played a role in staging the attack.
“Nothing is further from
the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying,” the statement from attorneys
Todd Pugh and Victor P. Henderson said in a statement late Saturday.
Anne Kavanagh, a
spokeswoman for Smollett’s lawyers, said they would “keep an active dialogue
with Chicago police on his behalf.” Kavanagh didn’t immediately respond to a
request for comment Tuesday.
Smollett, who is
African-American and openly gay, reported he was physically
attacked while he
was getting a sandwich around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29 near his home in downtown
Chicago. He said the men shouted the slurs and yelled “This is MAGA country,”
an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make
America Great Again.” Smollett also said the attackers poured some kind of
chemical on him.
Police looked through
hours of video surveillance from the area but found no footage of an attack.
They did find and release images of two people they said they wanted to
question.
On Wednesday police picked
up two brothers at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport as they returned from Nigeria and
questioned them about the attack. They also searched the apartment where the
men live.
The men, who had been held
for nearly 48 hours on suspicion of assaulting Smollett, were released Friday.
Guglielmi said the next day that information police received from the men “has
in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation.”
Outrage Over Jussie Smollett Attacked Has Switched Sides
The national
outrage that simmered after actor Jussie Smollett said he was attacked by
people shouting racial and anti-gay slurs was fueled in part by celebrities who
spoke out loud and strong on social media.
But the outrage has now
been replaced by surprise, doubt and bafflement as the singers, actors and
politicians who came out in support of the “Empire” star struggle to digest the
strange twists the case has taken. Some conservative pundits, meanwhile, have
gleefully seized on the moment.
The narrative that just a week ago seemed
cut-and-dry has become messy and divisive — and it’s all playing out again on
social media.
Smollett, who is black and
gay, said he was physically attacked last month by two masked men shouting
racial and anti-gay slurs and “This is MAGA country!”— a reference to the Make
America Great Again slogan used in President Donald Trump’s election campaign.
Smollett said the attackers looped a rope around his neck before running away
as he was out getting food at a Subway restaurant.
Celebrities including
Ariana Grande, Zendaya, Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes and Andy Cohen rallied
behind Smollett immediately. They focused on the alleged hate crime as a
microcosm for the ills of America in 2019 and how intolerance can lead to
violent acts. Smollett’s own celebrity and activism for the rights of the LGBTQ
community helped raise the profile of the case even more.
But then published reports
emerged that police believe Smollett may have staged the attack — something the
actor has vehemently denied through his lawyers — or that a grand jury may
hear evidence in the case. The reports cited unidentified police sources.
On Saturday, police
spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the trajectory of the case had “shifted” — that two brothers who had
been questioned had been released without charges and investigators wanted to speak to Smollett again. Guglielmi did not elaborate. On
Sunday, he issued a statement saying that police “are not in a position to
confirm, deny or comment on the validity of what’s been unofficially released.”
Smollett’s attorneys said
Saturday that he would continue to cooperate with police but that he felt
victimized by the suggestion he played a role in his attack.
Skeptics, including
conservative pundits Dinesh D’Souza and Tomi Lahren, seized on the doubts that
have arisen.
“And Libs wonder why we
don’t believe their BS stories,” Lahren tweeted Saturday. On Sunday, she
criticized those who used social media after the attack to push “the narrative
(that) Trump supporters are racist homophobes.”
The response from
Smollett’s celebrity supporters has ranged from silence to confusion and
disbelief.
Author Roxane Gay tweeted
Saturday that she doesn’t know what to say, but that the situation is a “mess”
and a “travesty.”
“I genuinely thought no
one, and especially no one that famous, could make something like that up,” Gay
wrote. “The lie is so damaging. The time the CPD has spent/wasted on this. The
people who supported him.”
GLAAD, a nongovernmental
media-monitoring organization founded by LGBT members of the media, on Thursday
reiterated its support for Smollett. The group said in a statement that the
actor had been doubly victimized: first by the attack and then by the doubts
cast around it.
When Smollett first
reported that he was assaulted, Democratic New Jersey senator and presidential
candidate Cory Booker called it a “modern-day lynching.” On Sunday, he said he
would reserve judgment “until all the information actually comes out from
on-the-record sources.”
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay
said she is waiting for more information too. She tweeted on Sunday that she
“can’t blindly believe” the Chicago Police Department.
But if there is a
consensus among those who very vocally supported Smollett from the outset, it’s
that no matter what happens in this case, they will still believe victims.
DuVernay said: “Whatever
the outcome, this won’t stop me from believing others. It can’t.”
Gay echoed her sentiments,
tweeting that she does not regret believing Smollett.
“I’m not going to stop
believing people who say they have suffered,” Gay wrote. “Because more often
than not they are telling the truth.”
Jussie Smollett’s story has continued to confuse and frustrate many of us in the media, and as someone who has spent decades fighting hate crimes in all forms, I am truly hoping this wasn’t just one big hoax. I think I can speak for many in that I will be genuinely pissed off royally if Smollet did this for attention or to keep his job on “Empire.”
I’ve remained silent on this, but as it continues playing out like a bad film, I’ve started checking on some things that have been whispered about. It was only days after the attack that things were beginning to feel like the tide was slowly turning against the actor. Whispers began that he was being written off “Empire,” and this type of event would raise his profile so the producers would want to keep him for a ratings bump.
FOX Entertainment and 20th
Century FOX Television, which produces the Chicago-based family drama, pushed
back against the notion that Smollett was being written off the show.
“The idea that Jussie Smollett has been, or would be, written off of ‘Empire’ is patently ridiculous. He remains a core player on this very successful series and we continue to stand behind him,” the statement said.
Two law
enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation tell media outlets that
Chicago Police believe actor Jussie Smollett paid two men to orchestrate an
assault on him that he reported late last month.
Chicago police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi has changed his comments today when asked by MTTG if investigators still believe that Smollett was the victim of an attack. He stopped just shy of categorizing how investigators were currently viewing the actor.
“We have some new
information that we would like to corroborate,” he said.
Smollett
denies playing a role in his attack, according to a statement from his
attorneys.
The men, who
are brothers, were arrested Wednesday but released without charges Friday after
Chicago police cited the discovery of “new evidence.”
The sources
told media outlets the two men are now cooperating fully with law enforcement.
Smollett
told authorities he was attacked early January 29 by two men who were
“yelling out racial and homophobic slurs.” He said one attacker put a
rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical substance on him.
The sources
told media outlets there are records that show the two brothers purchased the
rope found around Smollett’s neck at a hardware store in Chicago.
Smollett’s
attorneys, Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson, issued a statement to media
outlets Saturday night saying Smollett was angry about these latest
developments.
“As a
victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie
Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are
individuals he is familiar with,” the statement read. “He has now
been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that
Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and
anyone claiming otherwise is lying.”
Smollett’s
attorneys said they expect further updates from Chicago police on the investigation
and will continue cooperating with authorities.
“At the
present time, Jussie and his attorneys have no inclination to respond to
‘unnamed’ sources inside of the investigation, but will continue discussions
through official channels,” the statement read.
Smollett
identifies as gay and since 2015 has played the gay character of Jamal on the
Fox TV drama “Empire.”
How This All Began
According to
Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, the actor told detectives he was
attacked by two men near the lower entrance of a Loews hotel in Chicago. Police
were told the two men yelled “‘Empire’ fa***t” and “‘Empire’
n***er'” while striking him.
In a
supplemental interview with authorities, Smollett confirmed media reports that
one of the attackers also shouted, “This is MAGA country,” a
reference to President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again”
campaign slogan.
The day
after the incident, police released surveillance images that showed two
silhouetted individuals walking down a sidewalk, and police said they were
wanted for questioning.
The two men
were arrested Wednesday. Police on Friday said the men were being viewed as
“potential suspects” and that detectives had “probable cause
that they may have been involved in an alleged crime.”
But by Friday night they had been released, Guglielmi
said, “due to new evidence as a result of today’s investigations.”
“And
detectives have additional investigative work to complete,” he added.
One of the
men has appeared on “Empire,” Guglielmi said. A police source also
told MEDIA OUTLETS on Friday night that the men had a previous affiliation with
Smollett, but did not provide additional details.
Jussie Smollet Has Held Claim This Wasn’t A Hoax
Following
the alleged attack, Smollett’s colleagues and fans rallied around him,
expressing shock and sadness.
“We
have to love each other regardless of what sexual orientation we are because it
shows that we are united on a united front,” Lee Daniels, the creator of
“Empire,” said in a video posted to his Instagram page on
January 29. “And no racist f*** can come in and do the things that they
did to you. Hold your head up, Jussie. I’m with you.”
Smollett
gave his first detailed account of what he says was a hate crime against him,
and the aftermath, in an interview with ABC’s “Good
Morning America” that aired Thursday.
During the
interview he expressed frustration at not being believed.
“It
feels like if I had said it was a Muslim or a Mexican or someone black I feel
like the doubters would have supported me a lot much more,” Smollett said.
“And that says a lot about the place where we are as a country right
now.”
Smollett
stated that one of the attackers shouted “this is MAGA country”
before punching him in the face. But he refuted reports that said he told
police the attackers wore “Make America Great Again” hats.
“I never said that,” he told ABC’s Robin Roberts. “I didn’t need to add anything like that. They called me a f****t, they called me a n****r. There’s no which way you cut it. I don’t need some MAGA hat as the cherry on some racist sundae.”
It appears that Jussie Smollett tried to manufacture a hate crime to make Trump supporters look bad and most of the media not only uncritically accepted his lies as facts for weeks, but attacked those who questioned the validity of his false story.
Naturally, Donald Trump’s family has used this opportunity to sound off and Jr. has shot off a few tweets about Smollett.
If this is a hoax, I honestly hope that Jussie pays for it as these types of things affect people who are truly victims of hate crimes. We’ll see how things play out, but Smollett will have set things back for real victims of racism, homophobia and hate crimes if this was all a stunt to feed his need for attention.
Ever since Super Bowl weekend, the box office has been chillier than usual, and the long-awaited “Alita: Battle Angel” didn’t come close to making back it’s budget. The James Cameron produced and Robert Rodriguez directed film couldn’t drum up much enthusiasm from either critics or fans. It might have exceeded analysts expectations, but that’s saying a lot about 2019 box office numbers. That amount was extremely modest when you look at how much it cost ($170 plus marketing expenses) to make the film.
Cameron’s name was pushed hard to market the film, but much like how Peter Jackson’s name was also marketed for the expensive sci-fi movie “Mortal Engines” it obviously has failed. “Mortal Engines” opened to just $7.5 million domestically with a budget exceeding $100 million making it easily one of the biggest flops of 2018. The studio helped Cameron to avoid that kind of disaster by pushing “Alita” from a December crowded release to February.
So, while the sci-fi fantasy “Alita: Battle Angel” topped the charts and beat out a number of newcomers including the meta-romantic comedy “Isn’t It Romantic” and the horror sequel “Happy Death Day 2U” in its first weekend in theaters, but it is a victory with a few caveats. It’s leading the slowest Presidents Day weekend at the box office in almost 20 years and has a ways to go to make up its costly budget.
20th Century
Fox said Sunday that the James Cameron-produced film earned an estimated $27.8
million over the weekend against a reported $170 million budget, which includes
cost-saving tax incentives and rebates. It’s made $36.5 million total since its
debut Thursday.
Robert
Rodriguez directed the future-set film starring Rosa Salazar as a cyborg with
no memory of her past. Critics were mixed on the results, and it’s become just
the latest
pricey and ambitious non-Star Wars, non-Marvel or DC sci-fi film to do
less-than-stellar business at the box office, the last being the Peter
Jackson-produced “Mortal Engines.”
It is quite
a tumble (56.4 percent) from last year’s record Presidents Day box office when
“Black Panther” grossed $202 million over the three-day weekend and propelled
the industry total to $286.6 million. The weekend has in recent years been host
to the openings of high earners from “Deadpool” to “Fifty Shades of Grey.” This
year, total weekend earnings amount to only $125 million.
The rest of
the charts remained fairly lackluster as well. Last week’s champ, “The LEGO
Movie 2: The Second Part,” fell 38 percent in its second weekend earning $21.2
million, bringing its total to $62.7 million — which is less than the first
film earned in its opening weekend.
Warner Bros.
also had the No. 3 movie this weekend with its meta-romantic-comedy “Isn’t It
Romantic,” starring Rebel Wilson as a woman who bonks her head and wakes up in
a rom-com. It debuted to $14.2 million and has earned $20.5 million since its
opening earlier in the week. It had respectable critics reviews,
even better than
the long-awaited “Alita.”
The other
romantic comedy offering in theaters, “What Men Want,” with Taraji P. Henson,
landed in fourth place in its second weekend with $10.9 million. And “Happy
Death Day 2 U,” the horror sequel from Blumhouse and Universal, rounded out the
top five with $9.8 million. The first film opened over twice as high, with over
$26 million, but with a production budget under $10 million, it’s still bound
for success.
The Dwayne
Johnson wrestling film “Fighting With My Family” also opened in four theaters
on Wednesday, earning $131,625 over the weekend.
Seven weeks
into the new year and the box office is still struggling, down nearly 20
percent from where industry totals were last year.
“We’ve been
down every week this year,” said comScore senior media analyst Paul
Dergarabedian. “This weekend is emblematic of what is going on at the box
office.”
Dergarabedian
said that slow weekends beget more slow weekends — with less foot traffic at
the theaters, fewer people are seeing previews for what’s to come and the cycle
just continues. But “Captain Marvel” may be coming to save the day on March 8.
Estimated
ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according
to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday
through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released
Tuesday.
Alita: Battle Angel, Isn’t It Romantic, Happy Death Day 2U
North America Box Office
“Alita: Battle Angel,” $27.8 million ($56.2 million international).
2. “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part,” $21.2 million ($12.1 million international).
3. “Isn’t It Romantic,” $14.2 million.
4. “What Men Want,” $10.9 million ($2.2 million international).
5. “Happy Death Day 2U,” $9.8 million ($11.8 million international).
6. “Cold Pursuit,” $6 million ($1.5 million international).
7. “The Upside,” $5.6 million ($466,000 international).
8. “Glass,” $3.9 million ($3.6 million international).
9. “The Prodigy,” $3.2 million.
10. “Green Book,” $2.8 million ($9 million international).
Worldwide Box Office
Estimated
ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the
U.S. and Canada), according to Comscore:
1. “The
Wandering Earth,” $96.9 million.
2. “Alita:
Battle Angel,” $56.2 million.
3. “Crazy
Alien,” $28.2 million.
4. “Pegasus,”
$25.8 million.
5. “The LEGO
Movie 2: The Second Part,” $12.1 million.
6. “Happy
Death Day 2U,” $11.8 million.
7. “Boonie
Bears: Blast Into the Past,” $10.4 million.
It didn’t come as a huge surprise when Jeff Bezo’s announced that Amazon would be scrapping its HQ2 plans in New York City. Politicians had already lined up to fight against the move, not to mention being horrified at what Amazon wanted in return for moving to Long Island City.
Amazon’s breakup with New York was still fresh when other cities started sending their own valentines to the online giant.
Officials in
Newark, New Jersey, one of the 18 finalists that Amazon rejected in November
when it announced plans to put its new headquarters in New York and northern
Virginia, sent a giant heart that read, “NJ & Newark Still Love U, Amazon!”
Representatives
of other jilted suitors, such as Chicago and suburban Maryland, tried to get
Amazon’s attention and say they’re still interested in a relationship, too.
The love
notes came even though Amazon said it doesn’t plan to pick a new city to
replace New York, where the HQ2 project was supposed to produce 25,000 jobs.
Instead, the company said it will spread some of those jobs around at other
Amazon sites in the U.S. and Canada and expand its existing New York offices.
But why woo
a company that says it’s not interested?
For one, the
allure of potential jobs is just too much to pass up for many politicians, said
Nathan Jensen, a University of Texas government professor who has criticized
how economic development incentives are used.
“The
‘losing’ cities can continue to publicly talk about everything they are doing
for HQ2 even if they know they don’t have a shot. If they know HQ2 isn’t
coming, there is no real cost to doing this,” Jensen said.
More than
230 municipalities in North America competed for HQ2, taking part in a
months-long bidding war that Amazon eagerly fomented. Cities offered billions
in inducements. In New Jersey, state and local governments put $7 billion in
incentives on the table as part of the Newark bid.
New York
ultimately won the competition by promising nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and
grants in addition to access to the nation’s media and financial capital and
its educated workforce. But on Valentine’s Day, Amazon abruptly canceled the
project after running into fierce opposition to those incentives from lawmakers
and political activists on the left.
That shows
that the company cared little about getting community input, said Richard
Florida, an economic development expert.
“After
searching across 200 plus communities and identifying NY (and greater DC) as
the places it needed to be, it pulls out as soon as local residents and
politicians question the billions in incentives it does not need and asks it do
more for the community,” Florida said in an email.
Florida and
Jensen predicted some cities will now begin to push back when companies seek
tax subsidies. But Greg LeRoy, executive director of the nonpartisan think tank
Good Jobs First, said there is little likelihood that will happen any time
soon.
“Look, this
is deeply learned behavior,” LeRoy said. “There’s an 80-plus-year history to
this tax-break-industrial complex.”
In the
meantime, the mayor of Warren, Michigan, posted online about his town being
available. Upstate New York cities, like Rochester, made it clear they, too,
are open for business.
“Nassau
County welcomes your investment and would like to discuss siting your project
here,” state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Long Island Democrat, told the company.
Amazon’s Stormy Week Ends With A New York Diss
It’s been a
complicated few weeks for Amazon, what with its abrupt pullout from a massive New York City
development, extortion claims related to intimate
photos taken by its founder Jeff Bezos and increasing
antitrust scrutiny in Europe.
For now,
these events seem unlikely to pose much threat to Amazon’s brand or business.
But they’re indicative of the mounting challenges the e-commerce giant faces as
it grows ever larger and more dominant.
Amazon’s
turn in the spotlight is a natural consequence of its prominence in retail,
entertainment and internet infrastructure, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives
said. “As you get bigger and more successful, you have more of a target on your
back,” he said.
Few analysts
believe Thursday’s reversal in New York or the previous week’s dust-up with the
publisher of the National Enquirer will have much impact on consumer enthusiasm
for Amazon’s broad product selection and services or its fast shipping. Bezos
has accused the Enquirer of ”extortion and
blackmail” for threatening to disclose revealing personal photos
unless he ended his private investigation into how the tabloid obtained his
private exchanges with his mistress.
Investors
don’t appear particularly concerned that these issues will distract the
hard-driving Bezos, who is also in the midst of a divorce — generally
considered one of life’s most stressful events. Even if Bezos were to find his
attention otherwise occupied, Evercore ISI analyst Anthony DiClemente notes
that the Amazon chief has a trusted senior leadership team in place. “That
gives investors comfort,” he said.
Amazon
shares have more than made up a brief drop after Bezos made his public case against
the Enquirer last week.
Public anger
at tech companies has been growing for some time, but much of it has been
focused on Facebook and other tech companies that collect vast amounts of
personal user information for targeting online ads and other purposes.
Facebook’s
privacy issues have been particularly acute since they involve the company’s
core business, said Paul Argenti, a Dartmouth College professor of corporate
communication. Amazon isn’t immune to the tech backlash. But Argenti said the
company’s popularity with consumers won’t likely be affected by recent
headlines.
“I’m not
going to stop ordering my movies and packages from them, and I think that’s the
way most people will look at it,” he said.
Longer-term
issues, however, could present a more serious
threat. Amazon’s New York investment would have put 25,000 jobs in the Long
Island City neighborhood of Queens, at a cost of nearly $3 billion in tax
breaks. Local activists called that a corporate giveaway, one made even less
palatable by Amazon’s anti-union stance.
That
grass-roots rebellion suggests that people are growing more skeptical of big
tech companies, especially when government is cutting them special deals, said
Blair Levin, a policy adviser to New Street Research and a former chief of
staff to a Federal Communications Commission chairman.
“Time and
time again, the public has seen promises made and reality is different,” he
said. “So they’re going to be skeptical of Amazon. And it’s across the board,
not just Amazon.”
Several
European nations are also investigating Amazon’s alleged anti-competitive
activity. On Thursday, Austria’s antitrust agency said it is reviewing
complaints that the company is favoring its own products and discriminating
against other sellers on its e-commerce site. German antitrust authorities and
the European Commission are investigating Amazon for similar claims.
In the U.S.,
politicians are also speaking out against Amazon’s practices, said Barry Lynn,
executive director of Open Markets, an institution that studies corporate
monopolies in the U.S.
Lynn argues
that Amazon is a monopoly that should be more heavily regulated by the
government. He pointed to comments Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts
Democrat who is running for president, made last year about Amazon’s
“anti-competitive” practices.
“The word is out, the discussion is ongoing,” Lynn said. “It’s not going to go away, it’s only going to get louder.”
Amazon
responded Friday with a statement emphasizing the breadth of its business and
its small market share of global retail sales.
For
shoppers, everything is business as usual, and the bad news will quickly blow
over, Dartmouth’s Argenti said.
“We won’t be
talking about this a year from now, maybe not even a month from now,” he said.
Will Amazon’s Pullout Affect New York City’s Tech Future?
Amazon
jilted New York City on Valentine’s Day, scrapping plans to build a massive
headquarters campus in Queens amid fierce opposition from politicians angry
about nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and the company’s anti-union stance.
With
millions of jobs and a bustling economy, New York can withstand the blow, but
experts say the decision by the e-commerce giant to walk away and take with it
25,000 promised jobs could scare
off other companies considering moving to or expanding in the city, which
wants to be seen as the Silicon Valley of the East Coast.
“One of the
real risks here is the message we send to companies that want to come to New
York and expand to New York,” said Julie Samuels, the executive director of
industry group Tech: NYC. “We’re really playing with fire right now.”
In November,
Amazon selected New York City and Crystal City, Virginia, as the winners of a
secretive, yearlong process in which more than 230 North American cities bid to
become the home of the Seattle-based company’s second headquarters.
New York
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo heralded the city’s selection at the
time as the biggest boon yet to its burgeoning tech economy and underscored
that the deal would generate billions of dollars for improving transit, schools
and housing.
“There’s
a real risk that Amazon’s decision does make it more difficult for big
companies who want to take those really big bets on New York to take them,”
said Julie
Samuels, the executive director of Tech:NYC, which represents more
than 650 tech companies in the area.
In its pitch to Amazon to come to New York,
Mayor Bill de Blasio cited the city’s diversity of talent and connections with
established industries beyond tech including finance, fashion, media, art and
real estate. Those attributes have been luring Amazon’s fellow titans for
years, and have helped create a sector that now counts more than 326,000 jobs,
according to Tech:NYC.
“When
you attract and grow a strong engineering and entrepreneurial base, those folks
would have worked at Amazon and eventually they would have left Amazon and
started new companies,” Samuels said. “People move around from job to
job so I actually think this is really unfortunate for tech companies that are
already here.”
Google,
which opened its first office outside of California in New York in 2000, last
year pledged to invest more than $1 billion for a new Manhattan campus. The
expansion will allow the Alphabet Inc. unit to double its workforce in the city to
14,000 over the next decade.
Twitter Inc., Facebook
Inc. and Uber
Technologies Inc. also all have big offices in New York, and Apple Inc. has
plans to expand in the city too. Amazon, which already has 5,000 employees in
town, said Thursday it will continue to build its presence in the city over
time.
Opposition
came swiftly though, as details started to emerge.
Critics
complained about public subsidies that were offered to Amazon and chafed at
some of the conditions of the deal, such as the company’s demand for access to
a helipad. Some pleaded for the deal to be renegotiated or scrapped altogether.
“We knew this was going south from the moment it was announced,” said Thomas Stringer, a site selection adviser for big companies. “If this was done right, all the elected officials would have been out there touting how great it was. When you didn’t see that happen, you knew something was wrong.”
Stringer, a
managing director of the consulting firm BDO USA LLP, said city and state
officials need to rethink the secrecy with which they approached the
negotiations. Community leaders and potential critics were kept in the dark,
only to be blindsided when details became public.
“It’s time to hit the reset button and say, ‘What did we do wrong?’” Stringer said. “This is fumbling at the 1-yard line.”
Amazon said
in a statement Thursday that its commitment to New York City required
“positive, collaborative relationships” with state and local officials and that
a number of them had “made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not
work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go
forward.”
Not that
Amazon is blameless, experts say.
Joe Parilla,
a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, said the
company’s high-profile bidding process may have stoked the backlash. Companies
usually search for new locations quietly, in part to avoid the kind of
opposition Amazon received.
“They had this huge competition, and the media covered it really aggressively, and a bunch of cities responded,” Parilla said. “What did you expect? It gave the opposition a much bigger platform.”
Richard
Florida, an urban studies professor and critic of Amazon’s initial search
process, said the company should have expected to feel the heat when it
selected New York, a city known for its neighborhood activism.
“At the end
of the day, this is going to hurt Amazon,” said Florida, head of the University
of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute. “This is going to embolden people who
don’t like corporate welfare across the country.”
Other tech
companies have been keeping New York City’s tech economy churning without
making much of a fuss.
Google is
spending $2.4 billion to build up its Manhattan campus. Cloud-computing company
Salesforce has plastered its name on Verizon’s former headquarters in midtown,
and music streaming service Spotify is gobbling up space at the World Trade
Center complex.
Despite
higher costs, New York City remains attractive to tech companies because of its
vast, diverse talent pool, world-class educational and cultural institutions
and access to other industries, such as Wall Street capital and Madison Avenue
ad dollars.
No other
metropolitan area in the U.S. has as many computer-related jobs as New York
City, which has 225,600, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But San
Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington, Boston, Atlanta and Dallas each have
a greater concentration of their workers in tech.
In the New
York area, the average computer-related job pays roughly $104,000 a year, about
$15,000 above the national average. Still, that’s about $20,000 less than in
San Francisco.
Even after
cancelling its headquarters project, Amazon still has 5,000 employees in New
York City, not counting Whole Foods.
“New York
has actually done a really great job of growing and supporting its tech
ecosystem, and I’m confident that will continue,” Samuels said. “Today we took
a step back, but I would not put the nail in the coffin of tech in New York City.”
The Amazon Firestick is a device that connects to a person’s television and allows it to connect to a Wi-Fi network. The television does not need to be a smart TV to make this possible. Installation and configuration is straightforward, and it uses the HDMI interface on the television. This device is similar to Google Chromecast and the Roku, in that its primary purpose is to make it possible to stream Internet-based programming on the television. Here are five ways that people can use Amazon Firestick in their homes.
Streaming TV Shows and Movies
Many people use the Amazon Firestick for streaming videos, TV shows, and movies. The Firestick has built-in support for many streaming services. Amazon Prime is an obvious inclusion, and the software makes it easy to navigate this service. Netflix, Hulu, CBS All Access, Sling, Facebook Video, and HBO Now are among the many supported streaming video platforms. Amazon frequently adds support for third-party services, so even if a person’s favorite streaming service isn’t currently available, it may make its way onto the Firestick in the future. One thing to note is that supporting a third-party streaming service is not the same as having its subscription covered. Users need to pay the monthly fee for each service before they can access the content available.
Radio and Audio Device
The Amazon Firestick is also useful for acting as a person’s connected sound system. Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio TV, Vevo, Pandora Music for TV, and SiriusXM for TV are all available for the Firestick user’s musical needs. Much like the streaming TV services, if a subscription fee is associated with the radio app, then the person needs to pay that before being able to listen to it.
Amazon offers many niche radio stations outside of the popular streaming radio services. For example, RelaxMyCat is an app that provides soothing music and television programming for cats. People who need to leave their feline friends at home while they’re working can rest assured that their cats are going to be entertained throughout the day. Another specialized channel is Karaoke Party by Redkaraoke. It’s an instant karaoke party with the help of this app.
The Amazon Firestick also supports audio books through Audible. It’s easy to turn the living room into a shared reading nook with the help of these audio books. Since Audible is an Amazon company, it has a huge selection of books available. Books do need to be purchased on an individual basis, but readers can access them through a variety of devices after they buy them.
Several podcast related apps are also available, which makes it easy for users to listen to their favorite shows through the Firestick.
As new audio streaming services come onto the market, the apps frequently appear on Amazon Firestick’s marketplace. Users can keep an eye out on the latest by going to the app page on Amazon and seeing the new and popular services that are highlighted.
Apps and Games
Amazon Firestick does more than video and audio streaming. It also has a robust selection of apps and games that expand the entertainment and utility options of this device. Here are a few of the many apps that are available: Firefox for Fire TV: People can get internet browsing capabilities on their television. This version of Firefox is optimized for streaming video content from websites, with a particular focus on YouTube. It also uses the Pocket service to curate content and provide a variety of viewing options for users. They can easily save sites to this browser for easy access and use the Firestick’scontrols for video viewing;
Facebook: This optimized social media experience is designed for the television and the Firestick controls. Users get the same type of functionality that they do through the Facebook website, including notifications, the ability to post updates, access to messenger and even Facebook games;
Candy Crush Saga: This popular mobile game is also fun to play on the television. When players prefer a big-screen experience, they can use their Firestick VPN and get the Firestick game controller accessory to play Candy Crush Saga comfortably in their living room. This version has 100 levels and syncs with the Facebook version;
Crossy Road: This simple and fun video game brings to mind the Atari classic Frogger. The player’s goal is the same — get across a road in one piece. With over 150 characters to unlock and collect, it has a lot of replayability. The concept is simple so people of all ages and gaming experience can enjoy it.
Voice Control and Smart Home
Control
The latest versions of the Amazon Firestick have built-in Alexa support. This feature is useful for using voice commands to control the television experience. The Fire TV remote listens for any voice commands and quickly responds for a seamless, hands-free experience. Plus if someone loses the remote, then it’s still possible to use the Firestick with this option.
Another benefit of having an Alexa-enabled Firestick is integration with other smart home devices. It can act as a smart home hub and provide control over smart thermostats, locks, security systems, lights, and other devices. This type of control creates a welcoming home environment and no one has to get up from their favorite shows to turn on the AC or turn off the light.
Display Mirroring
Older versions of the Amazon Firestick support a feature called Display Mirroring. When it’s activated, everything that’s on the user’s mobile device shows up on the television. This functionality is handy for sharing mobile content with an entire room of people, or streaming videos from services or websites that aren’t supported by the Firestick.
The Amazon Firestick does far more than simply stream video from Amazon Prime. It is a powerful device to have at the center of a home entertainment system, with games, radio, social media and more. It’s also a low-cost way to get Alexa capabilities in the user’s home, which opens up a lot of convenient commands.
While the gaming industry may be a huge moneymaker, Activision Blizzard is feeling the effects of one game cornering the market as is the case with Fortnite. Even though Donald Trump continues telling his devout following how great the economy is doing, the nearly 800 workers being laid off would beg to differ with the president.
Video game maker Activision Blizzard is laying off nearly 800 workers as the company braces for a steep downturn in revenue following the best year in its history.
The cutbacks
announced Tuesday illustrate the boom-and-bust cycles in an industry whose fortunes
are tied to video games that can have a relatively short lives before players
move on to the next craze.
Is Fortnite the cause?
Right now,
Epic Games’ “Fortnite” is a hot fad that has been siphoning attention — and
potential sales — from the titles made by other companies.
Although Activision also still owns popular games
such as “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” it expects its revenue this year to
fall by about 20 percent to $6.03 billion.
Activision
will cope trimming 8 percent from its workforce of nearly 10,000 people and
assigning more of its remaining employees to work on “Call of Duty,” ″Candy
Crush,” and several other of its most popular titles.
The Santa
Monica, California, company had already reshuffled its leadership, even though
it profits rose last year by more than five-fold to $1.8 billion. Revenue
climbed 7 percent to $7.5 billion, the highest since Activision’s inception 40
years ago.
But CEO
Bobby Kotick said the performance fell shy of the company’s expectations,
prompting a re-evaluation of its priorities and a pruning of its workforce.
This year
“will require significant change to enable us to achieve our long-term goals
and objectives,” Kotick told analysts during a Tuesday conference call. “We’re
making changes to enable our development teams to create better content for our
biggest franchises more quickly.”
Severance
pay and other costs incurred in the layoffs will result in accounting charges
of about $150 million.
Even as
jettisons workers as some of its revenue evaporates, Activision said it will
also boost its stockholder dividend by 9 percent from last year to 37 cents per
share.
Activision’s
stock rose $1.33, or 3 percent, to $43 in extended trading after the layoffs
were announced.
Pentagon Steps Up A.I. Use
The U.S.
military wants to expand its use of artificial intelligence in warfare but says
it will take care to deploy the technology in accordance with the nation’s
values.
The Pentagon
outlined its first AI strategy in a report released Tuesday.
The plan
calls for accelerating the use of AI systems throughout the military, from
intelligence-gathering operations to predicting maintenance problems in planes
or ships. It urges the U.S. to advance such technology swiftly before other
countries chip away at its technological advantage.
“Other
nations, particularly China and Russia, are making significant investments in
AI for military purposes, including in applications that raise questions
regarding international norms and human rights,” the report says.
The report
makes little mention of autonomous weapons but cites an existing 2012 military
directive that requires humans to be in control.
The U.S. and
Russia are among a handful of nations that have blocked efforts at the United Nations for an
international ban on “killer robots” — fully autonomous weapons systems that
could one day conduct war without human intervention. The U.S. has argued that
it’s premature to try to regulate them.
The strategy
unveiled by the Department of Defense this week is focused on more immediate
applications, but even some of those have sparked ethical debates.
The Pentagon
hit a roadblock in its AI efforts last year after internal protests at Google
led the tech company to drop out of Project Maven, which uses algorithms to
interpret aerial video images from conflict zones. Other companies have sought
to fill the vacuum, and the Pentagon is working with AI experts from industry
and academia to establish ethical guidelines for its AI applications.
“Everything
we’ve seen is with a human decision-maker in the loop,” said Todd Probert, a
vice president at Raytheon’s intelligence division, which is working with the
Pentagon on Maven and other projects. “It’s using technology to help speed up
the process but not supplant the command structure that’s in place.”
The
Pentagon’s report follows President Donald Trump’s Monday executive order prioritizing AI
research across the government.
I watched the milestone 300th episode of my favorite show of all time, Supernatural, with a horrendous case of the flu and no voice at all. I couldn’t live tweet and I didn’t have the stamina to read what anyone else thought of the episode, on Twitter or anywhere else, so I missed a bit of the ‘we’re all in this together’ feeling that I relish when the Show has a special episode like this.
I watched it on DVR later that night, curled up under a blanket with lots of tissues (for multiple purposes) and a cup of hot tea with honey instead of the wine and cherry pie I’d been planning. It’s taken me almost a week to finally find the strength to sit down at a keyboard and write out my thoughts. But you know what? I was as emotional as I’ve ever been about an episode of this Show that consistently makes me VERY emotional. And that’s really saying something.
Now that I
can think a little more clearly, I’ve come up with five reasons why this
episode worked so well for me (and I think for most people), but to do the
episode justice, let’s start at the beginning. I also have a few things that
shouldn’t have worked so well, but those mostly got lost in the shuffle of OMG
FEEEEEELINGS that characterized my viewing experience.
Reason Number 1:
The
emotional hooks start immediately – we’re vaulted right back to the start, the
boys (babies!) uttering the iconic lines “Dad’s on a hunting trip” and “We got
work to do.” For someone like me who has
been watching from the start, it meant everything that the ‘Then’ went all the
way back to the beginning and reminded me of just how long this Show has been a
big part of my life.
Then we’re
rolling, and instead of guest stars of the week, we get to follow the
Winchesters right away, so color me happy. Sam and Dean in a pawn shop
searching for something specific, buying their way into the secret back room
where the occult items are shelved. Sam surprised me by being the one to mess
with an ominous looking teddy bear (it’s usually Dean who can’t keep his hands
off things like that and Sam doing the eyeroll, though Dean does get his chance
later with the dragon’s breath thingy).
And then
with a twist, it turns out the boys are tracking down the shop owner who killed
a hunter and stole all this dangerous stuff. He makes the mistake of attacking
Sam with a giant scimitar and threatening him with a speech that ends with
“You’re a big boy…” so of course Dean kills him. That’s my Show.
Dean: They always talk too much…
I laughed
out loud – or I would have if I was capable of making any actual sound. So this
is going to follow the Show’s tradition of being a little self referential and
a wee bit meta, and that makes me very happy indeed. The 200th
episode, Fan Fiction, one of my favorites of the series, was more than a wee
bit meta and I loved every minute of it. It seems fitting that the Show should
give both its fans and its cast some wink wink nudge nudges in a milestone
episode, and that’s Reason No. 1
that this episode worked for me. There were numerous call backs to previous
iconic scenes, plus a whole bunch of Easter eggs scattered throughout, from
items in past episodes to Family Business Beer signs. I loved every one of
them!
Reason Number 2:
The boys
head home in Baby, driving past the “Lebanon, Kansas” sign.
When the
showrunners and EPs teased this episode at Comic Con, they mostly told us that
the 300th would be an episode about the Winchesters and their home
town. I was excited about this, as I told Bob Singer and Andrew Dabb at the
time. It almost sounded like one of my favorite types of fanfic – the
intriguing “outsider pov” fic, which paints a rich picture of my favorite
characters through the eyes of someone else who doesn’t have the same
perspective as we all do. I love the characteristics that are foregrounded by
that change in perspective and the opportunity to see my favorite characters
differently, perhaps even changing my own understanding of them. So I was
looking forward to that aspect of “Lebanon” and the title certainly matched my
expectation. I’ll make that Reason No. 2
that the episode worked for me, though it didn’t pan out to be quite what I was
anticipating in this regard.
We meet a
trio of local high school kids who have apparently been studying the
Winchesters for some time, and are a bit fascinated by the “mystery men” who
live nearby.
Eliot (in the hushed tones that say
he’s trying to impress his friends but is also a bit impressed himself): People say they’re brothers…
This leads
into the local bar owner greeting them.
Bar owner: The Campbell brothers! The usual?
This tells
us a few things. First, that Sam and Dean are regular enough customers to have
a “usual”. Second, that they go by “Campbell”. That, of course, is their
mother’s maiden name, so that makes sense.
This is an
episode that was seen by some fans as following the tradition of subtle ship
shout outs, much like the 200th, so there was some surmising that
it’s also a call back to the episode that mentions the Campbell brothers, who
were apparently not brothers but instead “very close” and living an
“alternative lifestyle”. One could argue that the Winchesters’ life of hunting
is every bit as alternative, or one could argue that it’s a wink wink nudge
nudge about something else. Who knows, but I like it when the Show is subtle
enough to let fans take it any way they want. If you hate the ship, there’s
another explanation; if you love the ship, here’s a subtle shout out. Same with
the Destiel maybes later in the episode. Whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, Eliot
(Cory Gruter-Andrew) has catalogued all four of the bunker’s residents, rather
hilariously, as the Campbell maybe-brothers and “their weird sidekick with the trench coat.
And what about that kid with the dumb Bambi look on his face all the time?”
Meanwhile,
new-in-town Max (Skylar Radzion) and Stacy (Zenia Marshall) are starting an adorable
flirtation, so when Stacy admires the Impala, Max decides to “borrow” it to
impress her. That means we get to see Dean’s face as his Baby drives by the
window – because you can’t have a 300th episode without paying some
homage to Dean’s love of his Baby!
They
approach Eliot across the street, who responds with alarm and a “Please, I
don’t wanna die!”
Jared
Padalecki’s gift for comedy was much in evidence as Sam reacts with a stuttered
“Die? Why would…”
I again
laughed out loud (silently…)
Sam attempts
to get the surly post office lady to tell him Max’s address, but she just looks
at him like he’s a creep trying to get an underage girl’s address (puppy eyes
definitely not working this time, Sam). Dean to the rescue, turning on that
patented Dean Winchester charm and supplementing it with a gentle hand on top
of hers, which immediately flusters her into telling him her mother’s address.
(Not sure that’s very different, but I appreciate the attempt at hanging onto
your ethics, post office lady). What makes
this scene so priceless is Sam’s disapproving scowl at what Dean’s doing, which
again had me trying to laugh and more or less just making incoherent
almost-sounds.
We couldn’t
have a milestone episode without a reference to Dean’s flirting skills either
(though Sam’s puppy eyes would be quite effective with me, gotta say)
The
Winchesters arrive just in time to save the day (and the local kids) from all
the cursed stuff that was in Baby’s back seat, with Dean crooning an iconic “Oh
Baby, Baby, please tell me you’re not hurt…”
But not in
time to avoid confronting the clownish ghost of John Wayne Gacy.
Dean to Sam: This is like the best worst thing
that could happen to you, Sam, serial killer…but clown…
Score
another reference to iconic Supernatural
– Meredith Glynn and Andrew Dabb really packed them in there!
Eliot, Max
and Stacy run back in to help, so they get an eye full of exploding clown
ghost. Interestingly, instead of making up a story, Sam and Dean tell them the
truth about who they are and what they do, and then ask them to keep it a
secret so everyone else won’t freak out.
This was a
head scratching moment for me in spite of my love for this episode. I guess
maybe we’re setting these kids up to be recurring locals or something, since
Show seems hell bent on bringing in teenage regulars because god forbid a show
on the CW be about people who aren’t sixteen…. The wisdom of that aside, two
grown men telling a bunch of high school kids to keep a secret seems like a
shady decision at best.
Thus ends
the “Outsider pov” part of this episode. We didn’t get much of what I was
hoping for in that aspect, and I almost wonder if originally this episode was
supposed to be only about Lebanon and the locals’ perspective, but when Jeffrey
Dean Morgan became available, we ended up with part of the original story and
part the family reunion that became the heart and soul of the episode. It
almost seemed like that’s what happened, but I suppose we’ll never know unless
Glynn or Dabb want to share. Meredith? Andrew?
Back to the
bunker, where Sam gets to be smart (throughout this entire episode, Sam gets to
be the version of Sam I love most, Smart!Sam, as he figures things out time and
time again). He realizes that one of the artifacts they have is the magic pearl
that grants your heart’s desire – as in, getting Michael out of Dean’s head
once and for all. Dean impulsively wants to do that immediately, and so he
holds the pearl. Immediately the bunker goes dark, and we get some great music
cues, and then there’s a shadowy figure there with them and a fight ensues.
We hear the
familiar sound of a shotgun cocking, and Sam and Dean freeze and look up at who
has them at gunpoint, their expressions astounded.
Dean: Dad?
This was a
beautifully done scene, but I have to digress to think about what it would have
been like if the network hadn’t decided to spoil literally everyone for the
return of John Winchester and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I understand that from a
marketing perspective it probably made sense, but I can’t help but ponder the
incredible unprecedented emotional impact that scene would have had if nobody
had known. Can you even imagine? I was already feeling pretty sick, I probably
would have passed out. Maybe it’s a good thing I was spoiled along with
everyone else! But seriously, imagine how that scene would have played if we
didn’t know. I can’t help but be sad about that missed opportunity.
John
Winchester looks as shocked as his boys, asking brokenly what happened to them
(15 years…) and why Sam isn’t in Palo Alto, and then Dean realizes and asks
John what year it is.
John: 2003.
Me: Whoa.
Let’s think
about that for a minute. It’s 2003. Sam and John have had their
knock-down-drag-out fight that culminated with Sam leaving for Stanford and
John telling him if he leaves to stay gone, thereby breaking everyone’s heart
and kickstarting 6 million heart wrenching Stanford era fics on Archive of our
Own. Dean and John have started hunting
together while Sam’s away. None of the things that have happened on the Show
itself (other than flashbacks) have happened between John and his sons.
That’s….pretty mindblowing.
Very minor
head scratch for the decision to let Jeffrey Dean Morgan look like 2019 Jeffrey
Dean Morgan instead of what John Winchester looked like in 2005 when the show
began airing, including keeping the gray in his hair and beard. He doesn’t in
fact look like he did 14 years ago, but I don’t really mind hand waving that
because clearly nobody was going to play John Winchester in this episode but
JDM and so I’m cool with however that had to happen.
Sam and Dean
catch their Dad up, mostly.
John: And now you live here, with an angel
and Lucifer’s kid.
There’s
mention of Henry Winchester (shout out to Gil McKinney!) and how happy he would
be to know that John was there.
John is
clearly moved by who his sons have become and how they have (literally) saved
the world. Repeatedly.
John: (wistfully) I just wish I’d been
there to see…
The
Winchester family theme (by composer Jay Gruska) starts to play, because of
course it does, it’s not like I wasn’t already off the charts emotional or
anything, and then John mentions Mary.
Sam and Dean: About Mom…
And then we
hear (and John hears) Mary’s voice in the background.
Mary: Sam? Dean?
OMG the look
on John Winchester’s face when he hears her. Look, I’ve raved a lot about the
acting chops of the actors on this Show, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan knocked it so
far out of the box in this episode, I can’t even put words to it. John
absolutely breaks in that moment, his face crumpling, and we see the exact second
he realizes.
John: (brokenly) M—Mary?
All the
kudos to Samantha Smith for this episode too, because she brought it every bit
as much as the other three Winchesters did. Mary rounds the corner and sees her
long-dead husband sitting there staring at her, the smile on his face so full
of elation and love that it seems to knock her off her feet almost. They’re
swept into each others arms and kiss, and Sam and Dean are transformed into two
little boys, awkwardly reminding each other that they should leave and give
their parents some privacy.
Sam, again
the smart one, tries to warn Dean that messing with time never goes well, but
Dean is so heartbreakingly thrilled to have his entire family together that he
can’t hear his brother. He begs Sam to stop and just let him have this, just
one family dinner together.
Dean: It’s all I ever wanted, since I was
four years old. Can you just give me that?
OMG my
heart. Seriously, just shatter it into a million pieces, Show.
Ackles looks
about four years old, in fact, so joyful is he at having his family back
together again. A little boy’s dream, suddenly come true.
This is a
good time for me to say that Reason No.
3 that this episode worked for me is the incredible acting. These actors
are always good, but all four of them elevated their game for this episode. And
that, I think, isn’t a coincidence. After all these years, it would be
understandable if any of them wanted to phone it in, especially Jared and
Jensen. Instead, they have all grown to care about this Show and its fandom and
each other so much that they’re doing the opposite – they all brought their A
game and more to ensure that this episode was the celebration of the Show that
it deserved.
Show was not
done with breaking my heart yet, not by a long shot. Sam finds John in the
library, and we get the scene that Jared Padalecki has said he’s been waiting
for and hoping for, for over a decade. Sam and his Dad finally have a Talk. The
last few episodes have really given Padalecki some incredible material to sink
his teeth into, and he has stepped up to the plate like WHOA. In fact, he was
in the Top Ten in Nielsen TV Talent Social Media ratings for this week, and the
only actor who made the list! And he was
also Spoiler TV’s Performer of the Month! Give these guys incredible material,
and they will SHINE.
As John and
Sam talk, Sam brings up a memory from the past that Dean talked about in just
the last episode — that time he and Dean tried to make “Winchester surprise”
and it didn’t go so well. It was a reminder of the times that John Winchester
wasn’t a good parent, when he left his sons to fend for themselves too often
and lost his temper too often and probably scared the hell out of Sam and Dean
sometimes. It’s something that’s hard for John to hear, because this John is
still in the midst of all that and has never seen it from his sons’ perspective
before.
Sam: Dean and I tried to make that once…
John: I remember. I screwed up a lot,
didn’t I?
This episode
took a real chance and walked a fine line, trying to acknowledge the things
that John Winchester did wrong and the very real trauma that caused his sons,
while also trying to allow a one-time guest spot for Jeffrey Dean Morgan to be
time enough to make some amends for all that. There was no way they could
entirely do that justice, but the compromise this episode made did work for me.
Sam: That’s okay.
John: No, it’s not.
Sam
eventually admits that yes, John did mess some stuff up, but says that when he
thinks about his Dad now (and he thinks about him a lot – oh, my heart!), he
doesn’t think about the fights.
Sam: I think about you dead, and that I
never got to say goodbye…
At this
point, Jared is crying for real and so is Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And so am I.
Real tears, rolling down my cheeks.
Because their tears? Just as real. Sam is so overwhelmed with emotion,
he has to keep looking away from his father, a touch of realism that got to me
every time it happened.
John: Sam. Son. I am so sorry.
Here’s Reason No. 4 why this episode
worked.
It’s great
acting, no doubt about it. But it’s so much more. It’s a very real and much needed
catharsis for these characters, and for these actors too. It’s a meshing of
fictional story and real life that can only happen when a show has been on the
air for fourteen years and its cast has become a true family.
I know some
people questioned Sam’s ready forgiveness of his father, but everything about
that was realistic to me. Sam knows that they probably don’t have all the time
in the world, even before they get the proof of a temporal paradox. To him, his
fights with his father are ancient history, and something he’s come to terms
with over the twelve years that have passed since his father’s death. This is a
Sam who has also come to terms with who he is and the role that his past has
played in shaping him into that person. This is a Sam who wishes he got to say
goodbye to his father.
What a gift,
to have that person in front of you
again, and to be able to SAY those words to him. What a gift to hear his
apology and see that he means it; to see his love and see that he means that
too. Just to hear John call Sam “son” made me break into ugly crying, because
Sam needed to hear that so badly. Does it make it all okay that John said he
was sorry? No, of course not. But where Sam is right now, that was what he
needed.
All three
actors have talked about their wish for some sort of conversation to clear the
air between father and sons before the Show ends. Ackles perceptively said at
one of the Rome conventions a few years
ago that he understood that at a young age Dean thought hunting with his dad
was more interesting than a normal life, but later he realized that his
childhood had essentially been stolen from him, and hoped Dean would one day
have that conversation with his father. We know Dean still thinks about those
days, from his conversation with Sam in the car in the last episode. But when
it comes to actually having his father right there with him, it’s not anger
that Dean and Sam feel for John – and I think that’s probably realistic. It
doesn’t excuse all the things John did to his sons, it’s just that in this
moment, they are sons whose lives have been defined by loss, clinging to the
only conversations they will ever get with their father.
It struck me
too, in a real life sense, that Jared and Jeff (and Jensen) are in such
different places than they were back when Jeff was last on the Show. They are fathers
themselves now, and that changes your perspective on what it means to be a dad
and what it means to be a son. I can’t help but wonder if some of that
incredible, overflowing emotion that both Jeffrey and Jared brought to this
scene was enriched by their personal understanding of what it means to be a
parent. How hard it is, how imperfectly most of us do it, and how easily we can
hurt the children who depend on us.
I think
Jeffrey Dean Morgan needed John Winchester to say he was sorry, and for Sam and
Dean to hear it and believe it. He’s talked about how much a part of his life
this Show has remained, and how difficult it has been to have the story of John
Winchester go on without him, sometimes in directions he didn’t agree with.
Getting to show the softer side of John and letting viewers really see his love
for his sons and for his wife set something right for Jeff, and I think some of
his emotionality was about that catharsis.
Sam stops
Dean as he’s heading out to buy groceries for Winchester Surprise.
Sam: Dean, hold on. You were right. You
want some company?
The smile on
Dean’s face could have warmed the entire planet.
Of course,
as Smart!Sam predicted, their messing with time has already changed things.
Dean’s back on the FBI Most Wanted list (call back to the iconic early seasons
FBI poster) and Sam is a law firm genius giving TED talks on the benefits of
eating kale (wink wink to Misha Collins’ love of that particular vegetable) and
decrying the value of hobbies — or having a family.
Wait, what?
That right
there was enough to convince Dean that they have to change things back. Much
like in “What Is And What Should Never Be”, Sam not valuing their family bond
is the game changer for Dean. Life is literally not worth living if they’re not
brothers. This is the message of so many episodes, from “The French Mistake” to
“WIAWSNB” to this one.
Shallow
shout out to Jared in black turtleneck and glasses though.
As soon as
Smart!Sam puts out his temporal paradox theory, we see just how messed up the
timeline has become. Zachariah (the wonderful Kurt Fuller) appears in Lebanon
to investigate a shift in the space time continuum, along with a super serious
version of Castiel, who is essentially there to murder everyone if they don’t
provide information.
Zachariah: Come on, Constantine.
Castiel: I don’t understand that reference.
Me: Nice call back, Show!
Other than
the incredible catharsis this episode provided on multiple levels, the
take-away from “Lebanon” is a celebration and a reminder of the evolution of
its beloved characters. The next scene shows us, more subtly than the
Winchesters’ story line here but no less vividly, the evolution of Castiel. I
often miss the badass scary version of the angel who was introduced a decade
ago, but here we get a reminder of just how scary that version could be (and
how impressive). In a call back to his powerful introduction scene, Cas fixes
the frightened Lebanon residents with a grim stare and announces:
Castiel: My name is Castiel. I am an angel of
the Lord.
Boom boom
boom! The lights explode, just as they did in that iconic scene, and we see the
shadow of Castiel’s wings unfold behind him. I love when the Show references
its iconic scenes, so including this one was wonderful to see. I’ve missed you,
Badass Cas!
Unfortunately,
that also means that he blindly follows Zachariah’s orders and attacks the
innocent townsfolk. When Sam and Dean burst in, they call out to Cas, but he
coldly says he doesn’t know them.
Ouch.
Dean killed
Zachariah in the 100th episode, so it’s fitting that Sam gets to
kill him in the 300th. Meanwhile, Cas and Dean have a bit of a
reprise of their other iconic scenes where Cas beats the crap out of Dean and
Dean tries to get through to him to convince him to stop – and succeeds by
reminding Castiel that they’re family. It doesn’t work this time, but one could
see it as a subtle ship shout out if one wanted to. And again, if not, it’s
easily seen as not that at all.
A bloodied
Sam zaps Cas away before he can choke the life out of Dean, and the Winchesters
race back to the bunker. They now realize that they need to change the timeline
back before they too become their alternate selves, and in order that their
version of Castiel returns and Mary doesn’t fade away. It’s absolutely soul crushing that they can’t
have even one family dinner that’s just a celebration, but tragedy is as much
what this show is about as family, so Sam and Dean break the news to John and
Mary.
John
understands immediately.
John: Me or your mom, that’s not even a
choice.
The
heartbreaking thing about that is that for Sam and Dean, it IS a choice. They
have missed their father more painfully than their mother, perhaps, after
having much more time with him. That’s not John’s perspective, and Dean doesn’t
disagree with him, but we the viewers know what this is costing Dean to let his
Dad go.
Samantha
Smith is masterful as Sam tells Mary and she struggles to take it in. John and
Mary had that kind of meant-to-be (literally) soul mate thing that makes them
more to each other than most couples, and Mary’s agony at having to say goodbye
to the husband she just got back is difficult to watch. Samantha Smith lets the
tears overcome her, her voice breaking as she tries to do the right thing.
Jared looks equally agonized, having to tell his mother that John needs to go
back.
Dean and his
father also get a heart-to-heart, and it’s every bit as emotional as John’s
moments with Sam.
John tells
Dean that he never meant for this, that his fight was supposed to end with John
and Yellow Eyes. Then he says something that Dean Winchester has waited his
entire life to hear. Something that seemed so out of character for John
Winchester to say to his son that it was how Dean knew he was possessed and not
himself back in Season 1, as heartbreaking as that is.
John: I am so incredibly proud of you.
Dean’s face
in that moment, as he hears those words. It heals something in Dean’s soul,
something deep and profound and terribly broken. And Jensen Ackles lets us
experience every second of that. It sinks into our psyches as it sinks into
Dean’s, healing something there as well.
That’s Reason No. 5.
Not only was
this episode cathartic for our beloved fictional characters and for the actors
who play them, it was cathartic for us too. When something is healed in Dean
and Sam, something is healed in me – that’s how important and how real these
fictional characters are to me. I didn’t even know I needed that sort of
healing until Show gave it to me on a silver platter.
John and
Dean are letting each other see all their emotion on their faces onscreen,
tears in their eyes.
John: I hoped you’d get yourself a normal
life, a peaceful life. A family.
Dean: I have a family.
That was it,
I lost it. I had mostly lost it already, but I really lost it there. That
little piece of dialogue was so important, so critical. The reason this episode
was so cathartic is because it showed us how far our favorite characters have
come, and how okay they are with where they’ve ended up. You talk about
character development and evolution? That’s it, right fucking there.
The
Winchesters sit down to dinner, all four of them. Such a simple thing, but
something that hasn’t happened since Dean was a hopeful four year old and Sammy
was a six month old baby. Such a simple thing, but the embodiment of Dean
Winchester’s fondest wish and heart’s desire.
It’s John, who plays head of household and sets the tone, giving all of them the permission to just enjoy the moment and not think of what’s coming next – to be grateful. There’s cheers, and food, and music and a montage of the Winchesters like we’ve never seen them. Happy.
“I’ve been
too long on these islands, I’ve been far too long alone, I’ve been too long
without summer in this winter home. Still if we can make the effort, If we take
the time, maybe we can leave this much behind…Till it shines…” the lyrics say,
as Mary and John share laughter and Sam and Dean are quintessential siblings
telling stories about each other, complete with pointing at each other to
punctuate them. It’s so beautiful that it’s painful, because we – and they –
know it’s temporary and fleeting.
After
dinner, in a scene of heartbreaking normalcy, Sam and Dean wash dishes. And
Show manages to break me yet again. Sam laments that it’s not fair to get to
have all this, just to have to throw it away, and Dean stops washing, asks Sam
if he wishes things would be different?
Sam: Don’t you? Can you imagine — Dad in the past, knowing then
what he knows now? I think it would be nice.
Dean:
Yeah. I used to think that, too.
But, I mean, look, we’ve been through some tough times, there’s no denying
that. And for the longest time, I blamed Dad. I mean, hell, I blamed Mom, too,
you know? I was angry. But say we could send Dad back knowing everything. Why stop
there? Why not send him even further back and let some other poor sons of
bitches save the world? But here’s the problem. Who does that make us?
The family
theme begins to play again, and Dean turns to Sam.
Dean: Would we be better off? Well, maybe. But I gotta be honest
— I don’t know who that Dean Winchester is. And I’m good with who I am. I’m
good with who you are. ‘Cause our lives — they’re ours. And maybe I’m just too
damn old to want to change that.
Sam’s face relaxes
as he takes that in, agreeing with his brother.
I had no
idea how much I needed to hear that until I did. Evolution. Not the kind of
evolution that makes a character someone I don’t recognize or someone who is
not the character I fell in love with, but the kind of evolution that makes
sense. Sam and Dean are who they are, flaws and traumas and codependence and
all, and I love them because of that. But over these fourteen years, they have
moved from struggling against who they are and trying to be something else, to
being genuinely and truly okay with who they are. From railing against their
pasts and their parents to an understanding of what shaped them, and while much
of that will never be “okay”, they can still value where they ended up – and
who they ended up. That Dean openly shared with Sam that he’s okay with who he
is was a gift to both of them; that Dean shared with Sam that he’s okay with
who Sam is was beyond a gift to Sam,
who will never have to wonder if he’s lived up to his big brother’s expectations
ever again. They are good with who they are.
And so am I.
That was the
catharsis for me, and I’m so grateful.
While it was
shown differently, I think the call back to Castiel’s origin story on the Show,
and the stark contrast to who he is now, was meant to be a similar testament to
the character’s evolution. He has changed immensely, and sometimes I miss the
original version, but this reminder also showed us the best part of those
changes by comparison. Cas is no longer cold and unfeeling. He may not be as
badass, but he’s also not the good soldier who just follows orders and thus
does hurtful things. It’s a trade off, like all evolution, but it’s a good one.
Castiel has learned to care, and has become his own “person” in the process.
Like Sam and Dean, he’s come to terms with his own history and discovered who
he is, even if that makes him a fish out of water no matter what universe he’s
in. That’s part of his beauty, after all.
As Sam and
Dean come to the understanding that they’re good with themselves and with each
other, we cut to two clasped hands and for a split second I thought it was Sam
and Dean holding hands and said “awwww” sort of out loud. Turns out it was John
and Mary, but the edit definitely made a lot of people do a double take. Deliberate
or not, brothers in arms or something else, take your pick, whatever floats
your boat.
The
Winchester family theme plays as John and Mary say their goodbyes. His voice
breaks again as he looks at her, smiling through his tears.
John: My girl. I love you so damn much.
They kiss
goodbye, and John turns to his sons.
John: You two, you take care of each
other.
Sam: We always do.
I was a
puddle on the floor at that, at the deliberate call back to John’s
life-defining order to Dean to “take care of Sammy”, his recognition that his
sons are grown and that they now take care of each other. Another incredibly
healing moment for Sam and Dean – for Dean to be relieved of any thoughts of
that being a one way street, and for Sam to have their father’s recognition
that he and Dean are equally responsible for each other. And an incredibly
healing moment for me as a viewer, a testament to the fourteen years of
evolution that I’ve been privileged to witness.
John: I am so proud of you boys. I love
you both so much.
He embraces
his sons, all of them openly sobbing. Jensen has tears flowing down his face as
he holds it together just enough to say “Love you too” against his father’s
shoulder. Jared is struggling not to lose it completely, pausing to wipe at his
eyes and unable to utter a word, just nodding.
John goes
back to stand with Mary, and nods at Sam, still smiling.
John: Sammy.
It’s
permission, acquiescence, and a testament of faith in his youngest son.
Sam smashes
the pearl, and Dean flinches like it’s a gun shot. It’s those small moments
that make all this so heartbreakingly real, a call back to Sam flinching as the
door slams and Mary leaves them, a call back to Dean flinching as Sam has to
shoot Madison. Just like those times, it breaks me.
gif justjensenanddean
The timeline
readjusts, and Max and Stacy hold hands as they walk down the street. Castiel
returns to the bunker, alarmed at Sam and Dean’s bloodied and tear-streaked
faces.
Cas: What happened?
Dean: Well, there’s a story…
It’s a small
moment, but a reminder that this is a Cas who does care, and that feels good.
Cut back to
2003, as John Winchester wakes up to his flip phone ringing in the Impala, her
license plate KAZ2Y5 clearly visible. It’s Dean. Sam is at Stanford.
John: I just had one hell of a dream. No, it was a good one…
Caps kayb625
And we wonder if anything from that dream will stick with John, just a subtle suggestion that his boys are destined to be great men. I don’t know, but in that moment, we can hope.
I want to
add my thanks to writers Meredith Glynn and Andrew Dabb, director Bob Singer,
and the incredible cast of this Show for never letting me down. I may not love
every single episode that comes along, but when it counts, this Show always
delivers.
