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Tech analysts GBH insights say that it expects Apple’s delayed HomePod smart speaker to be launched ‘in the next 4-6 weeks’ – but that it will face an ‘uphill climb’ as it seeks to compete with entrenched competitors. It thinks that two factors will make the launch significantly tougher than it would have been had it been released on time … Second, it says that Google is investing a lot of CES marketing effort in its rival Google Home speakers....

Organizers of the 2020 Game Developers Conference have announced the nominees for the 20th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, and Death Stranding is leading the pack. The event is already scheduled to take place between March 16th and 20th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. The Game Developers Choice Awards have been held as an integral part of GDC for the past 20 years in a row. GDC is different from most other industry events in the sense that it’s not a trade show or a fan convention - it is a peer-based summit where developers gather to discuss and celebrate each other’s work....

Friends is one of those shows that gets put on in the background because you’ve already watched each episode a billion times. In all those viewings it’s easy to miss the subtle comedic touches that are layered throughout the show. A great example is a lot of things in Chandler and Joey’s apartment that even the most voracious viewers of Friends may not have noticed. Everyone remembers the entertainment center that Joey built, the foosball table instead of a kitchen table, the giant white dog, and the film noir poster....

Funko announces they will be releasing Pikachu as their first-ever Pokémon Pop! figure. The company has become increasingly more popular over the years thanks to their steady stream of pop culture collectibles and figures that surround virtually every major franchise, from classic films like Back to the Future to the latest hit TV shows, like Arrow. The brand was founded in 1998 but only really started to gain recognition in 2005....

Game of Thrones may have ended its run on HBO, but there are still more books to come (if George R.R. Martin keeps his promise) and at least one prequel show. But just because Game of Thrones has been perhaps the most successful fantasy show in the history of television, that doesn’t mean it didn’t arrive without a long history of fantasy stories and elements behind it. While Westeros sprang fully formed from Martin’s head other aspects of his world came from some well known and long-standing creatures and inspirations in mythology....

Game of Thrones has a number of celebrated and iconic episodes, but one of its most important is also oft-forgotten about: season 3’s “Kissed By Fire”. The installment is the fifth of Game of Thrones’ third season, a run that includes the beloved “The Rains of Castamere”. Its mid-season placement means it’s usually overlooked when considering Game of Thrones’ best episodes, but “Kissed By Fire” actually puts in place a huge amount of story and character points, including the Red Wedding....

With fans chomping at the bit for the final season premiere, it looks like a key piece of Game of Thrones season 8 information has been revealed: the runtimes for the season’s six episodes. We’ve suspected for some time (and especially given the lengthy runtimes of some of season 7’s later episodes) that season 8 episodes would be almost feature length, but now we know the exact, official runtimes. There’s been little to no information about GoT’s final season despite being only three months out (at time of reporting) from the season 8 premiere date....

As National Geographic’s first scripted series, Genius marks a major step forward for the edutainment channel. While the network has dipped its toe in the lake of scripted television before – mostly with the likes of Killing Lincoln and Killing Jesus – Nat Geo has never attempted an ongoing series (anthology or otherwise), let alone one that was about a historical figure’s life and times, and not just the circumstances surrounding his end....

There have been hundreds of different online renditions of the game, each offering a unique spin on the game and, of course, have varying levels of quality. But today, we take a look at a very interesting version, where to play, you need to throw physics out the window. Instead of being the tightly controlled side scrolling game you’re used to, this version upends the traditional gameplay by messing with the physics of the original....

What is symmetric encryption? Symmetric encryption is the one in which the sender and the recipient of the data use the same key to encrypt and decrypt the data. The sender and receiver must exchange the key with each other over a secure channel to maintain confidentiality and using this key the sender and receiver encrypt and decrypt the data exchanged between them. Symmetric encryption types Symmetric encryption algorithms can be categorized into two types....

We already took a look at Hitachi’s G-Technology’s Thunderbolt solutions at CES in January but today they are finally available to the public. The Thunderbolt version features two Thunderbolt ports, rather than the eSATA, FireWire, and USB ports found on the regular version of the G-RAID. As for the hard drives inside, there are two SATA 3Gb/s Hitachi Deskstar hard drives, which can be configured in a 4TB, 6TB, or 8TB setup, each running at 7200RPM....

Game of Thrones is a very popular show, with a large group of characters. In fact, it’s hard to tell who the main characters are as the show focuses on most of the characters pretty equally. Yet behind the scenes there are some characters and actors who get paid more than others. So clearly the show does acknowledge certain characters and actors as more important than others. At least when it comes to a paycheck....

Game of Thrones highjacked a Bud Light Super Bowl commercial. And, in Game of Thrones fashion, the the ad managed to subvert expectations, while also ending with a lot of unexpected deaths. With the final season of Game of Thrones approaching, the hype is growing. As fan theories pour out and HBO remains consistently tight-lipped on the details surrounding the eighth and final season, marketing for the series finale is finally beginning to increase....

With less than a month to go until the season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones, HBO has been preparing fans for new episodes with plenty of enticing bits and pieces, like an amazing new trailer set to a mournful cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game,‘plenty of behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a slew of female-focused magazine covers. Now, a collection of new photos that are a mix of on-set and in-episode images reveal more about where various characters are in this season and more importantly, with whom are they spending their time – what little of it some of them may have left, anyway....

[WARNING: SPOILERS for Game of Thrones season 7 below.] - Game of Thrones season 7 is well into production as stories and rumors about the plot continue to trickle out, even as season 8 talk begins and the idea of spinoffs keeps coming up. Set photos have revealed the presence of certain characters that were already expected and there are only (technically) a few official images from the new season thus far, so there’s been little in the way of surprises from the production of season 7....

The icons of horror are having a pretty good year. The recent announcement that Michael Myers will be returning to the big screen for a new outing sent excited shockwaves around the horror community, with fans anticipating big things for the killer’s return. Of course, he’s just one of the big three who, along with the likes of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, forms the triumvirate of iconic slashers who maimed and ripped their way across the 1980s to create a long lasting legacy of terror that exists to this day....

Netflix’s coming-of-middle-age series Friends From College season 2 is out now, and it somehow manages to top the first season when it comes to relationship drama, as well as its ending. But considering the major draw of Friends From College season 1 was the car accident appeal of toxic friendships exploding, it’s no surprise that Friends From College season 2 kept playing that same game. That said, Nicholas Stoller and Francescal Delbanco play a little differently this time around....

Tim Miller’s Terminator: Dark Fate wielded a double-edged sword: it opted to ditch several of the franchise’s later offerings and inserted itself into the storyline instead as a direct sequel to James Cameron’s 1991 classic, T2: Judgement Day. Featuring the long-awaited return of franchise legend Linda Hamilton, Dark Fate also introduced audiences to the Rev-9, the latest in assassin artificial intelligence. Morphing the brutal strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 and the fluid, metallic viscosity of Robert Patrick’s T-1000, the Rev-9 was arguably twice as effective, able to detach its mimetic polyalloy exterior from its endoskeleton and operate each as its own unit....

Game of Thrones episode 7, “Beyond the Wall,” was heartbreaking for the Mother of Dragons after losing Viserion to the Night King, but it did end with some hope - that Daenerys might have found love again. Having come to the rescue of Jon Snow and the remainder of his Suicide Squad, Dany and the King in the North share a moment. Small as their hand-holding on his sickbed was, it did suggest that their relationship may become more romantic by the season’s end, and director Alan Taylor even confirmed it, but is he her true love?...