Monthly Archives: August 2016

Uber Introducing Its First Self-Driving Cars in Pittsburgh

Later this month, Uber will make self-driving cars available to summon via their transportation service in Pittsburgh only. The new initiative makes Uber the first company to put driverless cars on the road for the public to use.

According to Bloomberg, the driverless vehicles offered by Uber are modified Volvo XC90 sport-utility cars. They will be accompanied by human supervisors for now. By the end of the year, Uber plans to have 100 of these specially modified Volvos on the road as part of its transportation service, and Uber is looking to partner with other automakers as well. Uber reportedly has no intention of producing its own vehicles as part of the initative, according to Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick.

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Suicide Squad Passes $500 Million at Worldwide Box Office

After just thirteen days at the worldwide box office, Suicide Squad has earned over half a billion dollars, Warner Bros. Pictures has announced.

David Ayer's new comic book film, which beat Guardian of the Galaxy's August debut record, currently stands at a global total of $509 million. Domestic earnings are just over $238 million, while the international number currently stands at $271 million. It's important to note that Suicide Squad has yet to open in a couple of other territories, with the film debuting in Germany this weekend and in Japan next month.

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Blade Runner Sequel Adds Jared Leto to Cast

Oscar winner Jared Leto has joined the cast of Alcon Entertainment's upcoming sequel to Blade Runner.

The actor, who just recently starred as the Joker in Suicide Squad, will appear alongside Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis and Dave Bautista in a role that has yet to be detailed.

leto-joker Jared Leto as the Joker in Suicide Squad

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Netflix Joins Dirk Gently as Co-Producer

Netflix has joined BBC America, AMC Studios, IDW Entertainment, and Ideate Media as co-producers of the new series, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

As part of the deal, Netflix will stream the eight-part series in all of its territories outside the US beginning in December, according to Deadline. The show will first debut October 22 on BBC America.

Based on the novels from Douglas Adams (creator of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), Dirk Gently stars Samuel Barnett as the titular detective and Elijah Wood as his assistant, Todd. The mystery series is executive produced and written by Chronicle scribe Max Landis.

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July’s Top Sales Belonged to Nintendo’s 3DS

The top-selling video game hardware for the month of July was Nintendo's 3DS family of handhelds. Nintendo issued a statement crediting its success to the release of Monster Hunter Generations and the price drop of the 2DS console.

The success of Pokemon Go no doubt helped Nintendo take the month. Nintendo reported in its release both Pokemon Alpha Ruby and Omega Sapphire made reappearances on the top 10 list for software sales, at numbers 8 and 10, respectively. Pokemon X and Y also saw a 200 percent increase in sales from the same period the year previous.

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Why Mr. Robot’s Latest Big Twist (Mostly) Worked

Warning: Spoilers for the latest episode of Mr. Robot, "eps2.5_h4ndshake.sme."

"This will be the last time I keep things from you, I promise."

If Season 1 of USA's trippy, compelling Mr. Robot taught us anything, it's not to trust our own eyes. But after the big reveal that Mr. Robot himself (Christian Slater) was actually only a figment of Elliot's (Rami Malek) imagination -- a more confident and aggressive side of her personality who appeared in the form of his dead father -- would the show be so bold as to dip into the "things aren't what they seem" well again during its sophomore run?

Well, yes. It did. And in a big way. Of course with viewers having learned a huge lesson about the show's unreliable narrator last summer, trust issues were going to be abundant heading into Season 2, and so many folks were able to guess the true nature of Elliot's "regimen" ahead of time. As far back as the season premiere, in fact. Still, just like in Season 1, knowing the outcome or predicting the "gotcha" twist doesn't necessarily diminish things on a show like Mr. Robot. By the time we found last year out that Mr. Robot wasn't an actual person, most viewers already had the puzzle sorted. Now the Darlene twist was another story, but for the most part, the show's audience was hip to the Tyler Durden-ness of it all from early on.

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New No Man’s Sky PC, PS4 Patch Now Available

Hello Games has released a new patch for the PlayStation 4 and PC versions of No Man's Sky today, both of which are currently available to download.

Sean Murray, Hello Games co-founder, announced the PC's patch release earlier today, promising the PS4 patch was also on the way. IGN has confirmed the console patch is downloadable. Full patch notes have not been made available for either version, yet, but are "incoming," according to Murray.

Murray did tweet out, however, that the PC version "adds support for more hardware

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Former LucasArts, EA Exec Joins CastAR

Former LucasArts president and Electronic Arts executive Darrell Rodriguez has been appointed CEO of mixed reality platform developer CastAR. Steve Parkis, formerly of The Walt Disney Company and Zynga, has signed on as president and COO.

Rodriguez stepped down from LucasArts in 2010, and most recently served as CEO at Trendy Entertainment. Prior to his time at LucasArt, Rodriguez served as COO of Electronic Arts Los Angeles. "CastAR is primed to make mixed reality the place where the next breakthrough in entertainment will happen," Rodriguez said.

CastAR is described as a "versatile 3D platform that uses mixed reality to create endless new types of socially playful experiences." With the addition of Rodriguez and Parkis, CastAR is looking to deliver a "groundbreaking player experience" as the company moves toward the platform's consumer launch.

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Arrow: Season 5 Adds DC’s Human Target

Arrow is introducing Christopher Chance, AKA Human Target, in Season 5 and he'll be played by someone familiar with comic book adaptations - Jessica Jones actor Wil Traval.

According to TVLine, Traval will make his debut as the DC Comics hero in Season 5's fifth episode, when Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) becomes his new client. For those unfamiliar with the character, Human Target is a bodyguard who can disguise himself, using this ability to take on the identities of people who are being targeted by assassins.

traval-jones Wil Traval as Will Simpson in Marvel's Jessica Jones

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