TLDR 2018-10-11

Apple's free tv content 📺, space balloons 🎈, robots replace workers 🤖

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Big Tech & Startups

Snapchat becomes the mobile HBO with 12 daily scripted Original shows (3 minute read)

Snapchat is producing a dozen TV shows with top producers like the people who produce Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Friday Night Lights. The Discover tab will soon have a special section called "shows". The shows will be monetized with a few 6-second unskippable ads in each show. Snap believes that the original content could help them differentiate from Instagram and Facebook. The article contains a list of names and descriptions of the original shows.

Apple plans to give away original content for free to device owners as part of new digital TV strategy (2 minute read)

Apple is planning on spending over $1 billion on video content this year for its upcoming video streaming service. They currently have 24 shows in production and development. This content will be free for all iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV owners through a yet-to-be-named pre-installed app due out next year.

Microsoft vows to protect Linux from future patent wars by joining the Open Invention Network (1 minute read)

Microsoft has joined the Open Invention Network, a partnership between companies like IBM, Google, Oracle and hundreds of others to cross-license their patents to each other in exchange for agreeing not to assert those patents against companies working on Linux-based projects. This is part of a big move by Microsoft to embrace open source technologies as they move towards embracing the Android and Linux ecosystems.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Uniqlo replaced 90% of staff at its newly automated warehouse with robots (1 minute read)

Uniqlo cut 90% of the workforce in one of its Tokyo warehouses, and replaced them with robots. Now the warehouse operates 24 hours a day. Robots are able to unload trucks, count inventory, and put products in cardboard boxes and label them. There is very little human input needed. Uniqlo plans on spending $887 million to automate all of their warehouses in Japan and abroad.

An Arizona balloon company is working on a technology to make space satellites obsolete. Here's a rare look inside their giant factory (5 minute read)

Satellites are really expensive to launch, so now a company in Tucson, Arizona called World View Enterprises is using high-altitude balloons 20 miles above the Earth's surface in their place, carrying things like cameras, environmental sensors, location transponders, and communications equipment (the stuff satellites would normally carry). In addition, they plan on eventually taking passengers up to the stratosphere for $75,000-$100,000 per person. There are tons of pictures of the balloons, balloon factories, and more in the article.

Security Newsletter (Newsletter)

Security is one of those subjects that I never really get around to really understanding (your email is safe with me I swear!), but I generally find it pretty interesting to read about casually. Security Newsletter is an expertly curated weekly collection of links from Dieter Van der Stock, a devops/security engineer at Articulate.

Web Developer Roadmap 2018 (Github Repo)

This is a really detailed illustrated flowchart for learning to become an expert web developer in 2018, starting from "Learn HTML" and going all the way through complex topics like build toolchains, testing frameworks, static typechecking, etc. Definitely worth a look especially for beginning and intermediate programmers.

More than one third of music consumers still pirate music (1 minute read)

38% of global music listeners are still doing so through illegal means, mostly by downloading music directly off of Youtube or through file-sharing services. Most of these listeners report doing so because services like Spotify do not allow you to listen to music while offline unless you upgrade to their Premium plan. The study was done by interviewing a representative sample of 16-64 year olds in the US, UK, France, Brazil, South Kroea, and South Africa.
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