Wilderness Water Cooler

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Netflix have announced the premiere dates for a large selection of their original programming for 2016.

Reasons to mark your calendar:

Love - February 19th

A Judd Apatow joint starring the the wonderful Gillian Jacobs and Paul Rust that lifts the lid on the lies about love perpetuated by romcoms… and Homeland.

Orange Is the New Black - June 17th

Are they all still in the lake? Will season 3 be water-based? f Nicky’s not back from down the hill I’ll be LIVID.

The Get Down - August 12th

Baz Luhrmann’s mythic saga of a New York City on the brink of bankruptcy and the birth of Hip Hop. Ten years in the making - this looks like the kind of thing I’ll watch right away and complain that it’s a whole year until I can see any more

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Penthouse magazine ends print edition after 50 years in publishing

It's another notch on the internet's bedpost: Penthouse magazine is ending its print edition after more than a half a century on the newsstand. The publication will continue in a digital format...

Unlike Playboy Penthouse are sticking with their ethos - dudes like nudes - and taking it into a solely digital format. Following the closure of a number of lads mags in the UK last year it seems like the last gasp for printed porn is on the horizon. Whether this is due to awareness brought about by women’s rights groups or just the easy availability of pornography on the internet is unclear.

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Who knew Channel 4 makes video games? 

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Apple says it cares about diversity... does it? 

Despite being led by the only openly gay chief executive on the Fortune 100, Apple senior ranks fall well short of being diverse. 

In fact, just this month, Apple's board voted down a shareholder proposal urging the tech giant to move faster to diversify senior management.

Read the full story from the Huffington Post here

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Why did Twitter invest in a headphones company?

Clue: It wasn’t for the hardware

Read more here

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How Yorkshire Tea became one of the top UK brands

Yorkshire Tea’s inclusion in YouGov’s list of the top 10 UK brands may have been a surprise to some but the brand itself says a focus on communicating its personality has helped attract new buyers.

…must…resist….urge to say….. blood, sweat and tea………

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FX Chief Says Industry Hasn’t Reached 'Peak TV' Yet, Blasts Netflix’s 'Wonky' Economics

Five months after he coined the term "peak TV" to describe the overwhelming amount of video content available to audiences, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf said we're not yet at the peak, but will be soon. Landgraf also renewed his calls for Netflix to release data so it can be on a level playing field with the other TV networks.

The fallout from NBC’s snooping on Netflix continues with further attacks on the streaming service from the TV establishment.

One positive of all this sabre-rattling could be that in an effort to compete with streaming the TV networks try harder to make decent TV that people want to watch. That’d be good, eh?

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WhatsApp will open up to brands this year, allowing certain businesses like airlines and banks to communicate with customers on the platform.

The messaging app is planning on dropping the 99p annual fee and allowing brands to have a presence on the platform. Importantly though - they’ve ruled out third-party ads.

[wildernessuk-blog]

By all accounts The Revenant is a difficult watch. The story of legendary 19th-century frontiersman Hugh Glass’ quest for survival begins with him being brutally attacked by a bear, dragged around on a makeshift wooden stretcher and then being left for dead after having to watch his son killed in front of him. After dusting of the dirt from his shallow grave he goes on a 200-mile trek in so way harsh conditions to get revenge - you’re not looking at a cosy cinema-going experience here.

The not-a-walk-in-the-park credentials of Alejandro Iñárritu’s latest are further cemented with reports of sub-zero temperatures and remote shooting locations making the filming of the ordeal an ordeal in itself.

It’s fitting then that 20th Century Fox’s big digital marketing push is an immersive VR experience for desktop and mobile that lets you replicate Glass’ horrendous experiences in the (dis)comfort of your own home/office/toilet. 

Check out 200miles.com now and see if you can go back and show that bear who’s boss or keep walking and give Tom Hardy a ruddy good thrashing.

[wildernessuk-blog]

Three reasons why Snapchat is moving into ad tech

Reports that Snapchat is looking to work with ad tech companies and agencies by opening an API show the social network is keen to move beyond offering just reach as it aims to become a “fully fledged social advertising platform" and give advertisers the chance to target and measure the effectiveness of their advertising.

This could be the development that propels Snapchat into the stratosphere. They already offer huge levels of reach to an engaged young mobile audience. Soon though they’ll be able to offer advanced targeting and all that juicy audience data.

Soon…

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Instagram To Start Curating Video From Live Events Starting This Weekend

First up: The Golden Globes and the College football championship game.

Instagram’s tiny team of curators (less than half a dozen apparently) will be bringing you video from the latest big events direct to your explore function. If you want.

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Netflix announces it will launch in 130 more countries

Announced at CES, the move will make the streaming service available in almost every country, with the notable exception of China – for now

More than any other time in history it sucks to be China, North Korea and Syria. They have no idea how good House of Cards is.

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The Verge Awards at CES 2016: driving toward the future

It was a quiet year for CES — the show wasn’t filled with any blockbuster product announcements, or marked by any explosive new trends. Technology has arrived at an awkward middle period: things...

Best of CES round up on The Verge featuring:

Fingerprint recognition on gun triggers (so Bond).

Virtual reality (so Lawnmower Man).

Netflix Global (so Murdoch).

Super 8 Cameras (so retro).

An electronic suit that simulates the experience of waging 40 years (so harsh!).

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The BoomStick makes any wired headphones sound better

Most of us would like our music to sound better, even if we're not willing to do much about it. The only real solution — buying better headphones — costs money, and picking the right ones takes...

Modern methods of listening to audio content are about convenience over quality. Boomstick uses algorithms to make quality convenient.

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Zuckerberg wants to develop an AI assistant for his house

Mark Zuckerberg announced his new project for 2016. He plans to build an AI-based assistant to help run his home and help with his work.

Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year resolution is to become Tony Stark. Not the metal suit and saving the world stuff just the computer butler that lets your friends in and turns your music up.

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Public Health England has created an app to help parents monitor their kid’s sugar intake.

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Q&A: Periscope CEO Dishes on What Brands Can Expect With Livestreaming in 2016

When Periscope launched to much buzz last March, the Twitter-owned app cemented 2015 as the year of livestreaming for digital marketers.

Live streaming took off in 2015. Periscope is still less than a year old but CEO Kavyon Beykpour has his sights set on even bigger growth.