Most people show appreciation for Wikipedia by donating a bit of money to keep it running, but the folks in one Polish town have come up with something bigger: they’ve built a monument in its honor. It all began when Colegium Polonicum professor Krzysztof Wojciechowski decided he wanted a place where he can literally drop to his knees before Wikipedia. See, he was in awe with what the crowdsourced online encyclopedia has accomplished for people worldwide — Polish speakers, in particular, have more than a million Wiki pages they can read. The town authorities of Slubice where his college is located then agreed to take up his suggestion, making his idea a reality.
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Not all online search removal requests come from Europe these days. A Tokyo court has ordered Google to delete 122 search results that linked an innocent man’s name to crime, reportedly violating his rights and tarnishing his reputation. The judge in the case, Nobuyuki Seki, rejected Google’s arguments that search engines are merely providers and aren’t obliged to delete offending results; there was “tangible damage” here, he said. Google is waiting on confirmation of the verdict before it considers an appeal, but it won’t be surprising if the company fights back. The internet firm has a long history of resisting censorship, no matter how well-intentioned it may be.
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A couple of weeks ago, Apple gave clearance to HealthKit applications with an update to iOS 8 — one that, as you’re likely aware of, ended up causing major problems for iPhone 6 users. But, since this issue has been resolved, more outfits have (finally) had the chance to make their software and hardware friendly with the platform’s Health app. As of today, we can add Withings to the list, having just announced that some of its products, including the Health Mate app, can start integrating with Apple’s HealthKit. This includes Whitings’ Smart Body Analyzer, Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor, the Aura sleep tracker and the fitness-tailored Pulse O2, which is great news if you own one of these as well as an iOS 8 device. We’ll likely see more developers do the same soon, so don’t worry if your preferred brand isn’t on board yet.
Ever regret buying a ticket to a comedy show that just wasn’t funny? Some day, you might not: the Teatreneu, a theater in Barcelona, Spain, has changed from charging for admission to charging by laugh. The theater has outfitted each of its seats with a front-facing iPad and PayPerLaugh, an app that uses facial recognition to detect smiles. Ever joke you smile at costs 0.30 euros (about $0.38), with a maximum charge of 24 euros per show (about $30). The theater says that ticket prices have actually gone up as a result — monetary proof that its productions are legitimately funny. Teatreneu says its system is being copied in other venues throughout Spain, too. Would you prefer to pay by laugh? Skip through the break to the comments and let us know what you think.
#Weirded‘s back this week with another carousel of visual delights. In this second installment, see Engadget’s own Social Media guru take the literal piss out of widespread Ebola panic, peek inside Toys for Bob, the studio behind mega-franchise Skylanders, to look at how 3D printing brings new characters to life and jet off to Japan for a confounding glimpse of the uncanny advances in robotic absurdity.
The whole shebang’s just after the break. Enjoy the feast!
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Fist the bad news: No, Firefly isn’t coming back. But, if you’ve ever felt like the ratings system didn’t accurately represent the popularity of your favorite show, this might be something to take note of. Today The Nielsen Company issued a statement admitting it found a “technical error that impacts national network television ratings over several months.” The problem apparently didn’t apply to cable networks or local TV, but given their impact on billions of dollars in advertising, even a small problem can be significant. According to reports ABC benefited from the glitch, which became more noticeable as the fall premieres rolled out. For several days in a row, the network’s TV shows always gained ratings between early morning quick estimates, and later more complete reports. The error started on March 2nd, but Nielsen says it will reprocess data going back to August 18th, when the first network fall premiere aired — maybe next time they’ll stick to just counting Tweets.
Similar to the upcharge to get Blu-rays in the mail over DVDs, Netflix is implementing a higher price for 4K streaming too. New subscribers and folks who already weren’t using their UHD screen to watch House of Cards in 4K will have to jump into the $11.99 per-month family plan, according to HD Guru. Following its tradition of rewarding loyal customers though, if you were using 4K streaming prior to early October, you’re grandfathered in at $7.99 a month. As Variety tells it, that lower subscription rate will continue indefinitely, and that the price change actually took effect on August 12th. So what will the very specific crowd that this affects get to watch? Well, aside from mainstays like the full run of Breaking Bad, there are a few new additions too including Ghostbusters and its sequel, the nature doc Moving Art, NBC’s Blacklist and, uhh, The Smurfs 2 – you know, for the kids.
[Image credit: Photo by AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez]
Wish you could take Tesla’s new EV for a spin? Why not live vicariously through us — our own Nicole Lee rode shotgun, and yeah, she enjoyed it. That’s not all we have on deck for this weekend, though. Read on for our news highlights from the past 24 hours.
Get ready to call your credit card provider again – another major US retailer has reported that its payment system has been compromised. Kmart’s IT team quietly announced that malware has been found in its stores’ register systems, noting that both debit and credit card numbers have been stolen. The breach seems to have occurred in early September, meaning any purchase made at the chain in the last month and a half is potentially at risk. Security experts say attackers have enough information to possibly duplicate payment cards, but not necessarily steal your identity: personal information, pin numbers, addresses and social security data have not been compromised. Still, it’s a big enough breach that Kmart shoppers will want to call their financial providers. Ugh. Happy Friday news dump, everyone.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
We told you it was coming, and now it’s here! Canonical announced today that its popular Linux distro Ubuntu now supports Netflix playback through Chrome. If you’re running a fully updated install of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS or later you can simply go install Chrome 37 right now and immediately start enjoying Netflix. (Provided you’re a paying subscriber, of course.) There’s no word on if or when support might be coming to other browsers, so sorry Firefox fans. That being said, Mozilla is one of the main contributors to Network Security Services, which is key to Netflix support on Linux, so it probably won’t be too far behind.
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