Tag Archive for: instead

With Theaters Closed, The Trailer For Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Debuts In Fortnite Instead

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With the explosion of the video game industry and the technology that has come along with it, it’s starting to get really fun to see what creative minds can do inside of the gaming realm. It’s turning games into something much more than they would have been 20 years ago. Back then, games were singular in purpose: play the video game. Today they can be so much more when done right. They can be a social ecosystem. They can be economies onto themselves.

Or they can be a place to premier top tier movie trailers, in the case of Fortnite.

Tonight, a new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Tenet aired in Fortnite. The trailer was introduced by Geoff Keighley, because he’s the only consistency we have left in this topsy-turvy world.

Keighley introduced the trailer, shown at Fortnite’s new Party Royale hub’s movie theater. He spoke with Tenet star John David Washington about his gaming history and his role in the film. The trailer itself featured some clips we’ve seen before, but it didn’t reveal all that much more about the movie, which seems to involve time travel and Robert Pattinson.

While the trailer is now widely available, its first showing was in Fortnite. And that strikes me as both rather strange and very, very cool. There is something about layering entertainment inside other entertainment that just clicks with me. Those Minecraft builds where folks build a working computer inside the game? That’s amazing to me. Those people who band together in the latest version of Skyrim just to produce a reproduction of previous Elder Scrolls games in the new engine? I love that stuff. And forward thinking media executives who want to have a little fun during a pandemic and show off a new movie trailer in a movie screen inside a popular video game? I mean, that’s just cool.

And it would appear that either Nolan himself or someone on his team is interested in keeping these experiments running, given the closure of most movie theaters in the country.

The Tenet trailer ended with the words “Coming to theaters,” which seems like an awfully ambitious declaration due to, you know, the world. But just as each day brings new horrors, it also brings new possibilities to imagine, as well as Geoff Keighley telling us new things about games.

Keighley ended by announcing that there will be a screening of “an iconic Christopher Nolan film” in Fortnite this summer. (I haven’t seen a Nolan film since Memento, but it’s probably not that.)

Whatever it is, screening an entire movie inside a video game? Sounds cool to me!

Techdirt.

Android app promised to serve news updates, served ESET with a DDoS attack instead – ZDNet

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Android app promised to serve news updates, served ESET with a DDoS attack instead  ZDNet
“android security news” – read more

Instead of COVID-19 Hazard Pay, Spectrum Is Giving Its Repair Techs $25 Gift Cards To Closed Restaurants

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Despite its obvious reputational problems, Comcast has actually been stepping up for its workers during the COVID-19 crisis, paying its employees hazard pay, allowing unnecessary personnel to work at home, and closing at least some of its retail locations.

Charter Spectrum, the nation’s second biggest cable provider, is another story entirely.

The company spent much of last week dealing with a backlash among employees who say the company is putting both its employees and local customers at risk. Charter initially refused to let employees who didn’t need to be in the company’s offices to work from home, despite having the capability. Even in instances where there were positive COVID-19 tests at Charter offices, the company still initially refused to let employees work from home. Only when the press got involved did Charter begin to bend, and even then it’s still not letting all non-essential workers work remotely.

Charter employees say they’re not getting hazard pay or adequate protective gear to do installs in customer homes. Instead, the company apparently thought it would be a good idea to give them a gift card. Not just any gift card, mind you, but a $ 25 gift card to a restaurant they probably can’t visit anyway:

“Spectrum technicians connecting cable and internet for customers during the coronavirus outbreak will receive a $ 25 gift card for a local restaurant as a “token of our appreciation” from management, after staff called for hazard pay and protective equipment.

“These gift cards never expire, so if you choose a restaurant that is currently not open, the card will remain valid for future use,” read the Monday night internal staff email from Tom Adams, the executive vice president of field operations. “Please take some time out of your busy day to enjoy a meal and recharge.”

How generous. Needless to say, employees aren’t particularly impressed:

“Would you do it for $ 25?” asked a field technician from Irwindale, California, who asked to remain anonymous, along with the other technicians quoted in this story, to protect his employment. He called Spectrum management “vultures.”

While most experts believe the internet should largely hold up under the strain of widespread COVID-19 quarantines, it’s going to be hard to keep many residential broadband connections operational with management displaying such an incredible knack for incompetence and penny pinching.

Techdirt.