iTunes is officially dead with the release of macOS Catalina today. Apple decided to break apart the app into separate Apple Music, Podcasts and TV apps. "Each is better at its individuals task than it was as a section within iTunes, which was teetering on collapse like the Jenga tower of various functions it supports," writes Dieter Bohn via The Verge.

"In the early days, iTunes was simply a way to get music onto Apple's marquee product, the iPod music player," reports Snopes. "Users connected the iPod to a computer, and songs automatically synced -- simplicity unheard of at the time." It was the first service to make songs available for 99 cents apiece, and $9.99 for most albums -- convincing many people to buy music legally than seek out sketchy sites for pirated downloads. "But over time, iTunes software expanded to include podcasts, e-books, audiobooks, movies and TV shows," recalls Snopes. "In the iPhone era, iTunes also made backups and synced voice memos. As the software got bloated to support additional functions, iTunes lost the ease and simplicity that gave it its charm. And with online cloud storage and wireless syncing, it no longer became necessary to connect iPhones to a computer -- and iTunes -- with a cable."

What did you like or dislike about iTunes? When you look back at the media player, what are you reminded of?

Hulu is finally allowing users to download TV shows and movies to their mobile devices to watch without an internet connection. Variety reports: The download feature, which has been several years in the works, gives Hulu subscribers on the $11.99 no-commercials plan the ability to download tens of thousands of TV episodes and movies. It's not available to customers who have the entry-level $5.99-per-month package with ads. For now, it's available only on Hulu's iOS app for Apple devices. The company says the feature will be coming to the Android app "soon."

The majority of Hulu's catalog, which includes some 85,000 total TV episodes, is available for offline viewing. That includes most Hulu originals, including full seasons of "The Handmaid's Tale," "Veronica Mars," "Shrill" and "The Act" as well as licensed content including "Family Guy," "Desperate Housewives," "This Is Us," "How I Met Your Mother" and "ER." A Hulu rep would not specify how much content is available to download for offline viewing, or spell out which TV shows or movies aren't included. The reason some content is excluded is that some of Hulu's past deals did not contemplate download rights. According to Hulu, customers can download a maximum of 25 titles across five different devices. Downloads are available for up to 30 days; they will expire two days after a user starts playback. After downloaded content expires, viewers can renew an expired download when they're connected online (assuming the content is still available on Hulu). The move comes nearly three years after Netflix added the feature , and four years after Amazon Prime Video added that ability for both iOS and Android apps. Disney Plus, which is launching on November 12, will also include content downloads.

An anonymous reader quotes Cinema Blend: At the beginning of 2019, approximately a half year after James Gunn was unceremoniously fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it was officially confirmed that he'd be jumping to the DC universe to write and direct The Suicide Squad. Then, just two months later, Disney and Marvel reversed course and rehired Gunn to helm Guardians 3, though because he boarded The Suicide Squad in that interim period, he's tackling that DC tale first and then will jump back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Even though he's now working with the MCU's chief rival on the superhero movie front, James Gunn has revealed that the folks over at Marvel Studios are incredibly supportive of him working on The Suicide Squad for DC, and Gunn is advocating that DC and Marvel fans follow suit and stop feuding with one another about these companies...

"As I've said so many times, at the end of the day, Marvel & DC fans have a lot more in common than they do not. I am now & have been for almost all my life, both. Maybe you like one more than the other - that's cool - but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy them all or that you have to tear the other down. I know I & my partners at both Marvel & DC believe what's good for one studio is generally good for all: spurring each other on daily with heartfelt, spectacular & innovative entertainment that keeps audiences around the world loving movies based on or inspired by sequential art..."
Meanwhile Joker, the newest film in the DC Extended Universe, set a new box-office record for a film opening in October, beating the record previously set by Marvel's Spider-Man spinoff Venom.

Rotten Tomatoes currently shows Joker with an average critic's rating of 69%, placing it behind Dreamworks' Abominable, as well as Ad Astra, Hustlers, the Downton Abbey movie, and Judy -- but with a much higher audience score of 91%.

An anonymous reader writes: Billy Mitchell is the intense videogamer made famous in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong. Last month he threatened to sue both the Guinness Book of World Records and the videogame record-keepers at Twin Galaxies for defamation after they revoked an entire lifetime's worth of videogame high scores. An online discussion had argued that videotapes of three of Mitchell's performances suggested they'd been achieved using a MAME emulator -- but the organization revoked all of Mitchell's high scores (including his uncontested perfect game of Pac-Man in 1999).

Last week Twin Galaxies finally posted their response to Mitchell's lawsuit. "It is not necessary to hire lawyers and threaten Twin Galaxies out of the blue to get it to review and consider relevant new evidence -- all anyone has to do is simply reach out and directly request an opportunity to present the information...

"There will be no retraction or reinstatement. It should be noted that Twin Galaxies is under no obligation to maintain Mr. Mitchell's scores in its database. He has no divine right to be part of the Twin Galaxies community either. Twin Galaxies has unlimited authority to maintain the integrity of its score database." They also write that any lawsuit will be considered a strategic lawsuit against public participation and countered accordingly, followed by a second suit over malicious prosecution. "Please advise Mr. Mitchell to tread lightly, and choose wisely."

Last week a massive new 16,000-word profile of Mitchell pointed out that after his records were revoked, Mitchell had actually webcast himself playing Donkey Kong on Twitch, "obtaining scores equal to those that had been disputed, broadcast live from public venues.... Mitchell had proven he could earn those scores now. But he hadn't outlined a clear defense to prove he'd achieved them at the time of the original submissions."

Disney is banning advertising from Netflix across its entertainment TV networks, according the The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. It's "a sign that the marketing wars over streaming-video are escalating as media giants battle each other for subscribers," the report says. From the report: Disney, Comcast and AT&T are set to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising over the next year to attract consumers to their new streaming-video services as they look to compete with industry juggernaut Netflix. Netflix spent $1.8 billion on advertising last year and will be playing defense against Hollywood's new entrants. Disney, whose properties include ABC and Freeform, earlier this year put out an edict to staffers that it wouldn't accept ads from any rival streaming services, but later reversed course and found a compromise with nearly every company, the people familiar with the situation said. The exception was Netflix.

In making its decision, Disney evaluated whether it had a mutual business or advertising relationship with the companies, one of the people said. Netflix doesn't show ads in its programs. In a statement, Disney said the subscription streaming-video business has evolved, "with many more entrants looking to advertise in traditional television, and across our portfolio of networks." The company said it re-evaluated its initial blanket ban on streaming ads "to reflect the comprehensive business relationships we have with many of these companies."

H_Fisher writes: Movie-watchers (in the U.S. at least) already have to sit through 20+ minutes of commercials and other advertainment before showtime. Now, two major theater chains are mixing commercials in with movie trailers in a bid to generate more cash. According to the report, "regular commercials will run for five minutes after the lights go off and before the trailers at two of the country's largest circuits, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark Theatres. And one 60-second 'platinum' spot from a top-tier brand will roll before the second-to-last or last trailer." National CineMedia says that other worldwide markets have been watching ads alongside trailers for years, "with no significant consumer backlash." Right now, after the lights go down, Cinemark shows 15 minutes worth of trailers before the actual movie begins while Regal's trailer block runs 15 to 20 minutes, according to the news report.

"In April 2013, I received via U.S. mail more than a gram of pure heroin as part of a scheme to get me arrested for drug possession," writes security reserch Brian Krebs. "But the plan failed and the Ukrainian mastermind behind it soon after was imprisoned for unrelated cybercrime offenses.

"That individual recently gave his first interview since finishing his jail time here in the states, and he's shared some select (if often abrasive and coarse) details on how he got into cybercrime and why... Vovnenko claims he never sent anything and that it was all done by members of his forum... "They sent all sorts of crazy shit. Forty or so guys would send. When I was already doing time, one of the dudes sent it...." In an interview published on the Russian-language security blog Krober.biz, Vovnenko said he began stealing early in life, and by 13 was already getting picked up for petty robberies and thefts... "After watching movies and reading books about hackers, I really wanted to become a sort of virtual bandit who robs banks without leaving home," Vovnenko recalled...

Around the same time Fly was taking bitcoin donations for a fund to purchase heroin on my behalf, he was also engaged to be married to a nice young woman. But Fly apparently did not fully trust his bride-to-be, so he had malware installed on her system that forwarded him copies of all email that she sent and received. But Fly would make at least two big operational security mistakes in this spying effort: First, he had his fiancée's messages forwarded to an email account he'd used for plenty of cybercriminal stuff related to his various "Fly" identities. Mistake number two was the password for his email account was the same as one of his cybercrime forum admin accounts. And unbeknownst to him at the time, that forum was hacked, with all email addresses and hashed passwords exposed.

Soon enough, investigators were reading Fly's email, including the messages forwarded from his wife's account that had details about their upcoming nuptials, such as shipping addresses for their wedding-related items and the full name of Fly's fiancée. It didn't take long to zero in on Fly's location in Naples. While it may sound unlikely that a guy so immeshed in the cybercrime space could make such rookie security mistakes, I have found that a great many cybercriminals actually have worse operational security than the average Internet user. I suspect this may be because the nature of their activities requires them to create vast numbers of single- or brief-use accounts, and in general they tend to re-use credentials across multiple sites, or else pick very poor passwords -- even for critical resources...

Towards the end, Fly says he's considering going back to school, and that he may even take up information security as a study. I wish him luck in that whatever that endeavor is as long as he can also avoid stealing from people.

Apple is reportedly talking to movie theater chains to try and get its Apple TV Plus movies shown in theaters a few weeks before they hit the streaming service. CNET reports: Apple's apparently hoping to attract established directors and producers to the $5-a-month service, and avoid creating industry tension like Netflix -- Martin Scorcese's The Irishman won't be playing in several theater chains because Netflix wouldn't agree to the usual three-month delay between the movie's theatrical debut and its arrival on streaming. The strategy Apple reportedly is taking mirrors that of Amazon, which gave the Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea a three-month theatrical run in 2016, the Wall Street Journal noted.

Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks, which stars Rashida Jones and Bill Murray, is one of Apple's first major theatrical releases. It could premiere at the Cannes Film Festival prior to its mid-2020 release, according to the Journal. The Cupertino, California, company also reportedly talked about giving The Elephant Queen, a Chiwetel Ejiofor-narrated documentary about an elephant mother leading her herd across Africa, a theatrical release so it's eligible for awards consideration. It's due to be available on Apple TV Plus at launch on Nov. 1.

After briefly breaking up, Sony Pictures and Marvel have found a way to get back in the Spider-Man business together. From a report: Their new film even has a release date: July 16, 2021. "I am thrilled that Spidey's journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it," said Marvel topper Kevin Feige. "Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold."

Also, as part of the arrangement, Spider-Man will appear in a future Marvel movie. In 2015, Marvel and Sony unveiled an unprecedented intra-studio partnership that produced not only two well-regarded and massive hits with Spider-Man: Homecoming and this summer's Spider-Man: Far From Home, but it also took the character, whose movie rights are owned by Sony, and put him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe where the character became one of its key players. But the co-parenting deal fell apart not too long after the release of Far From Home, spilling into the open in August.

Freshly Exhumed writes: Adam Frank, professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester and consultant on numerous movie scripts, was excited to watch "Ad Astra," the new Brad Pitt space thriller. The film was promoted with the promise of scientific realism in depicting a solar system well on its way to being settled by humanity. Unfortunately, Professor Frank finds that despite very good intentions, "Ad Astra" strikes the wrong balance between story and fact, art and artifice. While the plot ventures out to the farthest planet Neptune, the demands of the film's theme cramp its science fiction imagination. Instead of letting us explore a vision of our common future in space, "Ad Astra" delivers a solar system stripped down to fit a very particular story.

A possible computer virus attack has knocked out Mac Pro workstations for many film and TV editors across Los Angeles. According to Variety, the issue -- which is causing the workstations to refuse to reboot -- is widespread among users of Mac Pro computers running older versions of Apple's operating system as well as Avid's Media Composer software. From the report: Avid said in a statement that it was aware of the issue: "Avid is aware of the reboot issue affecting Apple Mac Pro devices running some Avid products, which arose late yesterday. This issue is top priority for our engineering and support teams, who have been working diligently to determine and resolve the root cause. As we learn more, we will immediately publish information -- directly to our customers and via our community forums and social media platforms -- in order to resolve this issue for all affected customers and prevent any further issues."

"A lot of L.A. post shops and people out on shows having their Macs slowly crash," reported video post-production consultant Matt Penn on Twitter. Freelance film editor Marcus Pun reposted a message from a popular Avid Facebook user group, advising users not to turn off their workstations. Other users reported that multiple computers at their company were affected by the issue, with social media chatter indicating that a number of different companies, and even major shows like "Modern Family," were affected by the issue. UPDATE: The issue appears to be caused by a Google Chrome update gone haywire.

An anonymous reader shares a report: First, we learned "Friends" would leave Netflix for the upcoming streaming service, HBO Max. Now, "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" are on their way out, as NBCUniversal prepares to launch its new streamer, Peacock. With legacy media brands like Disney, WarnerMedia, and NBCUniversal launching streaming services of their own, Netflix and Hulu subscribers face losing access to the shows they've grown accustomed to binge-watching to their heart's content. But there's an industry that is embracing that uncertainty: stores that sell DVDs and Blu-rays.

Blake Lindberg, a manager at Academy Records -- one of the few shops in New York City that still buys and sells second-hand DVDs -- told Business Insider that even though streaming services continue to bring in significantly more money than DVD sales, some of his patrons are frustrated with the increasingly fleeting nature of content on streaming services. "What we notice from talking to clientele is that these items might be on Netflix or Hulu this month, but they might not be next month," said Lindberg, who's worked at Academy Records for over 20 years. Academy Records mostly carries uncommon films and niche finds for dedicated collectors, Lindberg said, but the store keeps box sets of classic TV shows and new releases that might not be streaming yet available as well.

HBO managed to thwart competition from big streaming companies again Sunday night, taking home far more Emmy wins than any other network or streaming company. From a report: Other legacy cable and broadcast networks otherwise had a rough night. All other broadcast and cable networks combined nabbed 24 awards -- 10 fewer than HBO. HBO has been known for decades as the home to some of television's most prestigious content. But the premium cable network has faced stiffer competition in recent years from tech giants like Netflix and Amazon, which have poured billions of dollars into original content production for TV and film. Netflix made history last year by tying HBO in Emmy wins, putting an end to HBO's 17 year-long winning streak. HBO took home 37 wins, with 12 going to its blockbuster hit "Game of Thrones." The hit series, which ended this year, picked up a whopping 32 nominations.

HBO's "Chernobyl" was a surprise winner of the evening, nabbing 12 awards. The final season of HBO's hit comedy series "Veep," however, was largely ignored by the major awards categories. Amazon's hit comedy series "Fleabag" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" took home 14 awards collectively. Final count: HBO: 34; Netflix: 27; Amazon: 15; National Geographic: 8; NBC: 7; CNN: 5; FX Networks: 5; CBS: 4; FOX: 4; and Hulu: 4.

As noted by Zatz Not Funny, TiVo is testing pre-roll video ads that start playing when customers view one of their recordings. The Verge reports: The ad spots are noticeably low-res and worse quality than the DVR'd content that starts playing afterward, according to one TiVo owner who has been served spots for Amazon, Keurig, and Toyota. It sounds like the users can fast-forward through the ads, but doing so is "not that seamless."

There are several potential reasons for TiVo ramping up advertising. Maybe the company plans to offer an ad-supported subscription with lower (or no) monthly fees compared to what regular customers are paying (similar to Amazon's Kindle devices with ads). No one who has paid for a lifetime subscription or even a monthly plan will be pleased to see pre-roll ads. TiVo also handles DVR functionality for many midsized and international cable providers. Squeezing in ads wherever possible could be something that those companies are pushing for as more of their customers spend increased time streaming shows and movies elsewhere.

New submitter mikaere writes: The New Zealand Herald reports that Amazon will base their upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series in West Auckland (home to fantasy series such as Hercules, Xena: Warrior Princess,Legend of the Seeker and The Chronicles of Shannara. The article mentions that Sir Peter Jackson may have some involvement, and it is likely that iconic locales, such as Queenstown, could be used for location shoots as they were in the original screen trilogy. As for how much the Amazon LOTR production would cost, a local industry insider suggested it could have a $3 billion price tag. Actual filming for the TV show is not expected to begin until 2020.

NBCUniversal's upcoming streaming service finally has a name -- Peacock -- and a whole bunch of newly announced programming. From a report: The long-in-the-works service will launch next April, anchored by more than 15,000 hours of content from the entertainment conglomerate's TV and movie vaults. In addition to a previously announced deal to take back The Office from Netflix in 2021, NBCU Tuesday said that starting next fall, Peacock will also be the exclusive streaming home for the Universal TV -- produced Parks and Recreation, which currently streams on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. The new service has also locked down deals for a slew of originals with ties to existing NBCU brands, including a reboot of Battlestar Galactica overseen by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot), revivals of Saved by the Bell and Punky Brewster, a comedy/talk show hosted by Late Night's Amber Ruffin, a new spinoff from The Real Housewives universe, and a new comedy from The Good Place creator Mike Schur starring The Office's Ed Helms.

CIStud writes Barry Sonnenfeld, director of the "Men in Black" series, "Get Shorty" and most recently Netflix's "Series of Unfortunate Events", says 8K is "only good for sports" and High Dynamic Range (HDR) is "stupid" and "a waste."

Sonnenfeld, speaking with actor Patrick Warburton at the CEDIA Expo last week in Denver, called for a "filmmaker mode" on all TVs that can turn off unwanted HDR. He says Netflix's insistence everything be shot in HDR altered the cinematography on "Series of Unfortunate Events" to his disliking.
Sonnenfeld said Netflix and other streaming services feel HDR makes them appear "next level" from a technology perspective, according to the article, then conceded that "HDR is the future... but it shouldn't be. It's great for watching sports, like hockey, but nothing else... "

He also said today's cinematographers are actually using older lenses and filters on digital cameras to make them look like they weren't shot with a 4K or 8K camera. "The problem with 8K and even 4K is that all it is doing is bringing us closer to a video game aesthetic. It just looks more and more 'not real.' I can't watch any Marvel movies because none of the visual effects look real."

And both Sonnenfeld and Patrick Warburton believe that subscribers to streaming services should be able to watch first-run movies at home the same day the films are released in theaters.

Top spots in App Store search results are some of the most fought over real estate in the online economy. The store generated more than $50 billion in sales last year, and the company said two-thirds of app downloads started with a search. But as Apple has become one of the largest competitors on a platform that it controls, suspicions that the company has been tipping the scales in its own favor are at the heart of antitrust complaints in the United States, Europe and Russia. From a report: Apple's apps have ranked first recently for at least 700 search terms in the store, according to a New York Times analysis of six years of search results compiled by Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. Some searches produced as many as 14 Apple apps before showing results from rivals, the analysis showed. (Though competitors could pay Apple to place ads above the Apple results.) Presented with the results of the analysis, two senior Apple executives acknowledged in a recent interview that, for more than a year, the top results of many common searches in the iPhone App Store were packed with the company's own apps. That was the case even when the Apple apps were less relevant and less popular than ones from its competitors. The executives said the company had since adjusted the algorithm so that fewer of its own apps appeared at the top of search results.

The Times's analysis of App Store data -- which included rankings of more than 1,800 specific apps across 13 keywords since 2013 -- illustrated the influence as well as the opacity of the algorithms that underpin tech companies' platforms. Those algorithms can help decide which apps are installed, which articles are read and which products are bought. But Apple and other tech giants like Facebook and Google will not explain in detail how such algorithms work -- even when they blame the algorithm for problems. [...] On Aug. 21, Apple apps ranked first in 735 of roughly 60,000 search terms tracked by Sensor Tower. Most of the tracked searches were obscure, but Apple's apps ranked first for many of the popular queries. For instance, for most of June and July, Apple apps were the top result for these search terms: books, music, news, magazines, podcasts, video, TV, movies, sports, card, gift, money, credit, debit, fitness, people, friends, time, notes, docs, files, cloud, storage, message, home, store, mail, maps, traffic, stocks and weather. In July this year, the company pushed some changes to its app store algorithm to handicap its apps to help other developers, it told The New York Times.

Google is adding personalized TV and movie recommendations to search, in hopes of solving the age old question: what do you actually want to watch? From a report: Now, when you search Google for things like "good shows to watch" or "what to watch," there'll be a new carousel-style menu with TV shows and movies that you can swipe left and right on, similar to a dating app. Google says that it'll be able to curate those suggestions based on what you search: ask for "horror movies from the '80s," for example, and you'll get recommendations specifically for that.

A Chinese app that lets users convincingly swap their faces with film or TV characters has rapidly become one of the country's most downloaded apps, triggering a privacy row. From a report: Released on Friday, the Zao app went viral as Chinese users seized on the chance to see themselves act out scenes from well-known movies using deepfake technology, which has already prompted concerns elsewhere over potential misuse. Users provide a series of selfies in which they blink, move their mouths and make facial expressions, which the app uses to realistically morph the person's animated likeness on to movies, TV shows or other content.

The company was forced to issue a statement on Sunday pledging changes after critics attacked the app's privacy policy, which it had "free, irrevocable, permanent, transferable, and relicenseable" rights to all user-generated content. There has been growing concern over deepfakes, which use artificial intelligence to appear genuine. Critics say the technology can be used to create bogus videos to manipulate elections, defame someone, or potentially cause unrest by spreading misinformation on a massive scale. "We understand the concerns about privacy. We've received the feedback, and will fix the issues that we didn't take into consideration, which will take some time," a statement released by Zao said. Zao is owned by Momo Inc, a Tinder-like dating service that is listed on the US Nasdaq.