Tag: Possibly

Silo continues on Apple TV+, possibly past season 2, star says

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 16, 2024
No Comments on Silo continues on Apple TV+, possibly past season 2, star says

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Rebecca Ferguson, star of hit sci-fi series Silo on Apple TV+, just laid out the show’s possible future in an interview. So Silo continues on Apple TV+, and perhaps not just the second season we already knew about. That’s good news for the show’s many fans wondering what’s next, after that acclaimed first season.

Not only is season 2 filming finally complete after delays. There are reasons to hope third and fourth seasons are coming, too.

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Silo continues on Apple TV+: Star Rebecca Ferguson provides update on upcoming season(s)

Ferguson said Silo‘s second season is in the can, according to her interview with Collider. Production on the season, along with work on other shows, got delayed by 2023’s strikes in Hollywood.

But perhaps the bigger news comes in her comments speculating on seasons 3 and 4. Though not yet green-lighted by Apple for production to proceed, the seasons might film at the same time to efficiently bring the show to a logical end from a production standpoint, Ferguson implied.

But not just from a production standpoint. Four seasons would match the source material, with an apparent plan to spread the three books over four seasons.

Silo is based on Hugh Howrey’s dystopian book series of the same name. It tells the story of a community living for many generations in a giant silo that is said to protect them from the outside world’s toxic environment. But nobody knows who built it. And of course, a silo like that can also be an incubator for conspiracy theories.

‘The show has an ending’

“I believe that the show has an ending, and I know when that is. So that’s the answer. You will find out when the show is done. To be honest, I don’t think it’s a secret,” Ferguson said.

“The books are the books. It’s three books, and the three books are divided into four seasons. So I believe, unless any Apple person is gonna jump on, I think we’re absolutely fine with saying season one, we’ve done,” she added. “Season two is shot and coming out, and we’re now looking at green-lighting seasons three and four. And I think we would film them maybe together, and that would be the end.”

In addition to Ferguson, Silo cast members include Common (The Chi), Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation), Tim Robbins (Mystic River), David Oyelowo (Selma), Harriet Walter (Succession), Chinaza Uche (Dickinson) and Avi Nash (The Walking Dead).

Silo continues on Apple TV+ for a reason

Season one episodes started airing in May 2023. They drew critical acclaim. And then, two weeks before the first season’s finale, Apple approved the second season, which it doesn’t always do so promptly.

At the time, screenwriter and showrunner Graham Yost said, “Apple has believed in our vision from day one and it’s an honor to have the opportunity to dig deeper into this story and peel back the layers to our characters in the Silo.”

Looks like that peeling back may continue until the story reaches “the end.”

Watch Silo and other sci-fi on Apple TV+

You can stream all of Silo‘s first season on Apple TV+. And it also has other sci-fi mainstays like Foundation, For All Mankind, Constellation and others.

The service is available by subscription for $9.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.

After launching in November 2019, “Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 471 wins and 2,090 award nominations and counting,” the service said.

In addition to award-winning movies and TV shows (including breakout soccer comedy Ted Lasso), Apple TV+ offers a variety of documentaries, dramas, comedies, kids shows and more.

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Tags Apple, continues, Possibly, Season, Silo, Star

Featured

Polestar 4 manages to split the Internet with one innovative and possibly very iffy idea

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date March 27, 2024
No Comments on Polestar 4 manages to split the Internet with one innovative and possibly very iffy idea

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The attractive, white, all-electric 4-door coupe sat hidden under shimmering gold fabric for most of Wednesday morning at the New York International Auto Show before Polestar revealed its new 4-door EV, the Polestar 4, and presented an innovation conundrum: does a car need a rear window?

This was Polestar’s big innovation for its new EV: removing the rear window and instead placing an HD screen camera on the spoiler and projecting that image on the interior rear-view “mirror”. Of course, that mirror is now a display.

“It’s not just for the cool looks and the design of it,” said Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath in his presentation, “it actually has an incredible functional benefit.”

Ingenlath explained that, unlike roomier SUVs, a coupe like the Polestar 4 would naturally have a lower roof and move the center construction beam over the heads of the rear passengers. The space back there can only be narrowed so much because you need a clear line of sight from the rearview mirror to the rear window. However, when you remove the rear window, it lets you move the beam back while giving your passengers more headroom.

Converting the rear-view mirror into a display offers another benefit. Instead of looking at a mirror and seeing your car interior with a relatively small portal to the outside world in the middle of it, the entire display shows only what’s going on behind your car.

It’s not a crazy idea and not even that new. Years ago, I sat in a concept car with a rearview mirror that could switch between a traditional mirror and a video feed from one of the car’s many cameras.

A better view and more interior room sounds like a win-win.

However, comments online ranged from incredulous to disappointment. Most insisted that the $54,900 EV, which is expected to ship later this year, would be inherently less safe than a car with a rear window.

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Some wondered if the Polestar 4 would even be street-legal. There are laws on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration books that, as of 2014, expanded the required field of view for all passenger cars. This was mostly done to reduce accidents where drivers had backed over children because they couldn’t see them playing behind their cars.

The rules, however, don’t address rear windows, just visibility. By that measure, the Polestar 4 might exceed safety requirements.

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Others worried that the camera might get covered by snow, damaged, or even made less visible due to rain. I’d counter that the rear window on my sedan, which does not have a windshield wiper, is also pretty powerless against the rain.

Seems unsafe. Wonder if the United States has any laws about this? I know, for example, it’s required for vehicles to have side mirrors even though cameras can provide the same info to a screen much like the the rear view mirror in the Polestar 4.March 27, 2024

I’m not saying I love this idea. I can’t imagine teaching a new driver on the Polestar 4. Part of what you teach them is not to trust your mirrors. Yes, use them as a backup to make sure you’re aware of your physical surroundings and not about to change lanes into another car or that there’s no one standing behind you, but nothing beats seeing things directly. Turning your head to look out the rear window while you back up is good training for green drivers. It’s also the only way they learn about their car’s blind spots.

I understand that modern cars, especially EVs, have lots of cameras. I sat in a Lucid Air Grand Touring and saw cameras that could show me each wheel. Cameras like these, including all those on the Polestar 4, deliver valuable information that you can’t get by simply looking out a window and they can help with assistive driving features. However, as soon as we remove windows, we’re forced to rely on those cameras for crucial safety information. Perhaps they do offer a better and clearer view of the world outside our cars but I’m not sure they should ever offer the only view.

Finally, when Ingenlath first started describing the lack of a rear window and a “virtual view,” I assumed that the rear window glass might’ve been replaced with a giant screen that made it look as if you were looking out the back of the car. I know, the rear-view mirror display makes more sense, but I think I still like the idea of a giant display in the back, one that you sometimes have to look back over your shoulder to check.

@techradar
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Tags idea, iffy, innovative, Internet, manages, Polestar, Possibly, split

News

Apple Working on Solution for EU Core Technology Fee Possibly Bankrupting Apps That Go Unexpectedly Viral

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date March 18, 2024
No Comments on Apple Working on Solution for EU Core Technology Fee Possibly Bankrupting Apps That Go Unexpectedly Viral

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Since Apple announced plans for the 0.50 euro Core Technology Fee that apps distributed using the new EU App Store business terms must pay, there have been ongoing concerns about what that fee might mean for a developer that suddenly has a free app go viral.

App Store vs EU Feature 2
Apple’s VP of regulatory law Kyle Andeers today met with developers during a workshop on Apple’s Digital Markets Act compliance. iOS developer Riley Testut, best known for Game Boy Advance emulator GBA4iOS, asked what Apple would do if a young developer unwittingly racked up millions in fees.

Testut explained that when he was younger, that exact situation happened to him. Back in 2014 as an 18-year-old high school student, he released GBA4iOS outside of the ‌App Store‌ using an enterprise certificate. The app was unexpectedly downloaded more than 10 million times, and under Apple’s new rules with Core Technology Fee, Testut said that would have cost $5 million euros, bankrupting his family. He asked whether Apple would actually collect that fee in a similar situation, charging the high price even though it could financially ruin a family.

In response, Andeers said that Apple is working on figuring out a solution, but has not done so yet. He said Apple does not want to stifle innovation and wants to figure out how to keep young app makers and their parents from feeling scared to release an app. Andeers told Testut to “stay tuned” for an answer.

What we are trying to do is tear apart a model that has been integrated for 15 years. And so for 15 years, the way we’ve monetized everything was through the commission. It covered everything from technology to distribution to payment processing, and the beauty of that model is that it allowed developers to take risks. Apple only got paid if the developer got paid, and that was an incredible engine for innovation over the last 15 years. We’ve seen it go from 500 apps to more than 1.5 million.

To your point, we’ve seen kids everywhere from 8-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 10-year-olds, to teenagers come up with some amazing applications and it’s been one of the great success stories of the App Store. In terms of the Core Technology Fee and our business model, we had to change. The mandates of the DMA forced us to tear apart what we had built and price each component individually. And so we now have a fee associated with technology, tools, and services, we now have a fee associated with distribution and the services we provide through the App Store, and then we have a separate fee for payment processing if a developer wants to use it.

To your point – what is the impact on the dreamer, the kid who is just getting started. It could be a kid, it could be an adult, it could be a grandparent. We want to continue to encourage those sorts of developers. We build a store based on individual entrepreneurs, not so much catering to large corporate interests. And so we really wanted to figure out how do we solve for that.

We haven’t figured out that solution here. I fully appreciate that. We looked at the data. We didn’t see many examples of where you had that viral app or an app just took off that incurred huge costs. That said, I don’t care what the data said. We don’t care what the data said. We want people to continue to feel… and not be scared… some parents… hey, I’ve got four kids who play around with this stuff. I don’t have five million euros to pay. This is something we need to figure out, and it is something we’re working on. So I would say on that one, stay tuned.

It is not clear when Apple might come up with a solution or what that solution might be, but it sounds like the company might soon have some kind of option for these rare fringe cases when an app goes unexpectedly viral.

The 0.50 euro Core Technology Fee (CTF) that Apple is charging applies to all apps created under Apple’s new business terms, both those distributed in the ‌App Store‌ and those distributed outside of the ‌App Store‌ in the European Union. The CTF must be paid for every “first” app install over one million installs.

A free app that is distributed outside of the ‌App Store‌ and downloaded over a million times will owe 0.50 euros for every subsequent “first” install, aka the first time a customer downloads an app on a device each year. The fee is incurred whether or not an app charges, creating a situation where an app developer could owe Apple money without ever making a dime.

As it stands, the CTF is a major unknown for any kind of freemium or free app built under the new business terms that might go viral, effectively making it very risky to develop a free or freemium app outside of the ‌App Store‌. A free or freemium app that gets two million annual “first installs” would need to pay an estimated $45,290 in fees per month, or more than half a million dollars per year, even with no money earned. That’s not a sustainable model for free apps, and freemium apps would need to earn at least 0.50 euros per user to break even.

App developers are able to continue to use Apple’s current ‌App Store‌ business terms instead of adopting the new terms, paying just 15 to 30 percent commission to Apple with no change. That prevents distribution outside of the ‌App Store‌, and it prevents developers from using third-party alternative payment solutions in the ‌App Store‌. Adopting any of the new features that Apple has implemented because of the Digital Markets Act requires opting in to the updated business terms.

Apple has been tweaking the app ecosystem rules that it introduced in the European Union based on developer feedback. Developers can now opt back in to the current App Store rules after trying out the new rules, though this is only available one time. Apple also recently did away with an app marketplace restriction that required alternative marketplaces to offer apps from any third-party developer that wanted to participate.

Third-party app stores are now able to offer apps only from their own catalog, and developers will soon be able to distribute apps directly from their websites as long as they meet Apple’s requirements. Note that all of these changes are limited to the European Union, and the ‌App Store‌ is operating as before in the United States and other countries.

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Tags Apple, Apps, Bankrupting, Core, fee, Possibly, Solution, Technology, Unexpectedly, viral, Working