Month: November 2017

A leading academic has accused his publisher of effectively ditching a book about Chinese government influence inside Australia because of fears of a backlash from Beijing.

Clive Hamilton, a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, said his book — “Silent Invasion: How China is turning Australia into a puppet state” — was due to be published early next year. But he told CNN that publisher Allen & Unwin suddenly informed him last week that it would be delaying the book for an unspecified period after being warned it could face legal action by China.

It’s the latest example of how the growing global influence of China, which strictly censors content at home, is also creating difficulties for writers and publishers beyond its borders. The case also feeds into fears in Australia about Chinese government interference in the country.

Hamilton showed CNN an email message he said he received last week from Allen & Unwin CEO Robert Gorman in which the executive expressed concern that “Silent Invasion” could result in “possible action by Beijing,” in particular “a vexatious defamation action” against the company.

Related: World’s biggest academic book publisher bows to China’s censors

Hamilton said another Allen & Unwin employee told him verbally that Gorman had decided to abandon publishing the book entirely. Even delaying it risked making large parts of the book out of date, reducing the likelihood it would ever come out, he said.

“What is striking about what has happened is that no actual arm twisting of the publisher was undertaken as far as I know,” Hamilton told CNN. “And yet the mere possibility of it … was enough to cause them to pull the plug.”

A spokeswoman for Allen & Unwin said the company decided, after receiving legal advice, to delay publication of Hamilton’s book “until certain matters currently before the courts have been decided.” She didn’t specify what those matters are.

“Clive was unwilling to delay publication and requested the return of his rights, as he is entitled to do,” she said. “We continue to wish him the best of luck with the book.”

The spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the content of the email exchange between Hamiton and Gorman.

Related: China versus the U.S.: Australia’s increasingly hard choice

Hamilton, who has been awarded the Order of Australia medal for his contribution to public debate, said “Silent Invasion” studied the extent of the Chinese government’s influence in Australian politics, education and business.

“it really is far more extensive than most Australians understand,” he said. “I think it exposes a very worrying level of influence by the Chinese Community Party across Australia.”

Australian news organizations have reported widely on Beijing’s influence in the country, including large donations to political parties and close observation of Chinese students’ behavior on Australian campuses.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry in June described a series of reports on the theme by top Australian media outlets as “totally unfounded and irresponsible, and not worth refuting.”

Related: Cambridge University Press reverses ‘shameful’ China censorship

It isn’t the first time a major publisher has come under fire over its handling of content about China.

In August, Cambridge University Press was roundly criticized for removing hundreds of articles from its online site that referenced topics deemed sensitive by Beijing, including Tibet, Taiwan and the Cultural Revolution.

The publisher initially defended the move as necessary to ensure that China didn’t block all of its journals. But following the fierce backlash, it reinstated the blocked content.

More recently, one of the world’s biggest academic publishers, Springer Books, was also revealed to have censored content to avoid clashing with the Chinese government.

A spokeswoman for Springer Nature said that while the decision was “deeply regrettable,” it only affected about 1% of the company’s academic content.

CNNMoney (Hong Kong) First published November 13, 2017: 3:38 AM ET

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More than 6,000 games have been released on Steam so far this year–and there is still more than a month left before 2017 is out. This number comes from industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, who works for Niko Partners.

As Ahmad points out, 6,000 is nearly equal to the total number of games released on Steam in the decade between 2005 and 2015. It’s up from more than 4,200 games released on Steam in 2016 (via GI.biz). Here is the dramatic-looking chart that Ahmad put together to highlight the dramatic rise in Steam releases.

No doubt a big portion of the new releases this year have come through Steam Direct, which replaced Steam Greenlight earlier this year. Since its launch earlier this year, more than 1,000 games have been released, according to Kotaku.

The flood of new releases is lucrative for Valve, as the company gets a cut of every game sale, while also taking the $100 fee for every Steam Direct application.

In 2014, Valve released the "Steam Discovery" update to help users find what they’re looking for amid the onslaught of new releases. The update added new personalised recommendations based on your gameplay, as well as new search and discovery tools.

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When Apple introduced Face ID security alongside the iPhone X, it boasted that even Hollywood-quality masks couldn’t fool the system. It might not be a question of movie-like authenticity, however — security researchers at Bkav claim to have thwarted Face ID by using a specially-built mask. Rather than strive for absolute realism, the team built its mask with the aim of tricking the depth-mapping technology. The creation uses hand-crafted "skin" made specifically to exploit Face ID, while 3D printing produced the face model. Other parts, such as the eyes, are 2D images. The proof of concept appears to work, as you can see in the clip below. The question is: do iPhone X owners actually have to worry about it?

The researchers maintain that they didn’t have to ‘cheat’ to make this work. The iPhone X was trained from a real person’s face, and it only required roughly $150 in supplies (not including the off-the-shelf 3D printer). The demo shows Face ID working in one try, too, although it’s not clear how many false starts Bkav had before producing a mask that worked smoothly. The company says it started working on the mask on November 5th, so the completed project took about 5 days.

When asked for comment, Apple pointed us to its security white paper outlining how Face ID detects faces and authenticates users.

Is this a practical security concern for most people? Not necessarily. Bkav is quick to acknowledge that the effort involved makes it difficult to compromise "normal users." As with fake fingers, this approach is more of a concern for politicians, celebrities and law enforcement agents whose value is so high that they’re worth days of effort. If someone is so determined to get into your phone that they build a custom mask and have the opportunity to use it, you have much larger security concerns than whether or not Face ID is working.

More than anything, the seeming achievement emphasizes that biometric sign-ins are usually about convenience, not completely foolproof security. They make reasonable security painless enough that you’re more likely to use it instead of leaving your device unprotected. If someone is really, truly determined to get into your phone, there’s a real chance they will — this is more to deter thieves and nosy acquaintances who are likely to give up if they don’t get in after a few attempts.

Source: Bkav

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As much as I love overpriced gizmos in my living room, I still tend to be reluctant about new standards. TVs are a great example. I’ve appreciated the bonuses offered by 3D, 4K, and HDR, but I concede they all lack content and are less amazing than salespeople would lead you to believe. They’re also generally not worth replacing TVs that are only a few years old.

The same goes for audio, which fortunately hasn’t strayed far from a “5.1” surround-sound profile since the dawn of DVD adoption. Really, I’ve been fine with two good speakers and a subwoofer for my entire adult life. I laugh at overblown, pre-film Dolby intros in a theater. I shrug at the surround effects in hectic action movies. I have failed A/B tests in picking out major differences between 5.1 and 7.1 systems.

Surround audio can be cool, sure. But if I were to ever change up my entire living room, I’d need something to blow my aural expectations away. This week, that might have finally happened.

I am not lying when I say that a “spatial audio” experience this week left me gasping, laughing, and crying in sonic bewilderment. The impact came in a way that I never expected: not from a monstrous demo of sci-fi blasts in a film or video game, but from the acoustic majesty of an R.E.M. album brought to life anew. What’s more, the engineers behind this “first-ever” Atmos release were happy to share how they pulled it off—and how the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper set everything into motion.

Sweetness follows

Roughly a month ago, the PR team working for the Athens, Georgia, pop/rock band R.E.M. sent me an out-of-nowhere invite to listen to the band’s latest 25th-anniversary re-release: the 1992 album Automatic For The People. R.E.M. began packaging and selling special editions of albums well before the band split in 2011. As a lifelong fan, I’ve picked up each one, full of unearthed B-sides and demos. I didn’t have much access to counterculture art as a kid, but I savored whatever mainstream gateway stuff I could get my hands on. R.E.M. showed up in my pre-teen life as a soft-and-weird complement to the loud-and-weird stuff I loved in metal and grunge. Automatic For The People was equal parts acoustic and electric, not to mention both wholesome and subversive, and that changed me as an 11-year-old.

As much as I love Automatic, I had no Ars-specific reason to request a promotional copy. But my tech-critic attention was captured by one sentence: this would be the “first major commercial music release in Dolby Atmos.” From the announcement:

This technology delivers a leap forward from surround sound with expansive, flowing audio that immerses the listener far beyond what stereo can offer. It transports the listener inside the recording studio with multi-dimensional audio—evoking a time when listening to music was an active, transformative experience and reigniting the emotion you felt when you first heard the album in 1992. R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People is the first album to be commercially released in this expressive, breathtaking format.

I’d normally dismiss such a buzzword-filled promise. Worse, its attachment to the Dolby Atmos standard left me a little cold. Atmos is one of the latest entries in the burgeoning “spatial audio” landscape, right next to DTS-X and Windows Sonic. The sales pitch: if you plug headphones into the right hardware and listen to compatible content, sounds will be processed in such a way that their frequencies trick your brain. Sound effects and music will light up “around” you in a virtual-surround way. Unlike older virtual-surround trickery, this stuff should sound like a full, three-dimensional dome of sound, so that you can perceive the angle and height of sound. (Normal surround-sound systems operate with a flatter circle of sound.)

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Netflix recently announced its first-ever acquisition: Millarworld. The company was built by successful comics creator Mark Millar, known for works that easily translate to cinema. The movies Wanted, Kick-Ass and Kingsman are all based on his graphic novels. Netflix said in its press release that it acquired Millar’s company to secure his current and future content to adapt into movies and shows for the streaming service. But it looks like Millar and his idea-generating company won’t just be pitching concepts from behind closed doors. Instead, he’ll be trying them out where he gained fame: In comics.

While video might be the goal, earlier this week, Netflix announced that it would publish its first-ever comic book, written by Millar himself. Given how difficult it is to make money in comics, it’s unlikely the streaming titan is looking to become a high-volume publisher to rival Marvel and DC. Rather, Netflix is likely doing this to harness Millar’s fanbase, who have bought his works throughout his career, following him from Marvel and DC to smaller publishing houses. The company is letting Millar do what he’s done best: create ideas, show them off to his loyal fans in new comic books and generate interest in screen adaptations. Except in this case, all the movies and TV series go straight to Netflix.

Millar’s ambitions under the deal are obvious. "I want to be Marvel rather than just work with Marvel," he told The Guardian after his company was acquired. While he confirmed in a forum post that some franchises, like Kick-Ass and Kingsman, have existing Hollywood deals that prevent them from coming to Netflix, Millarworld has plenty of properties to spare, which Millar has shrewdly retained rights to.

Marvel and DC titles rule films and TV, and those giants have, in turn, charged streaming services to host their superhero content. But Netflix gets to keep whatever income Millarworld IPs make, in whichever medium. Perhaps the company could convince other creators to publish comics under Netflix’s brand, which would be even more attractive, given the wide-open pipeline to TV and film adaptations made by the streaming service. Millar himself could be a lightning rod to attract creators, given his savvy business reputation in the industry.

Netflix could be the way into the comic adaptation boom for independent creators, who are surely aware of how much more money films make than the comic books they are based on. Granted, tracking comics revenue to compare is notoriously difficult. The top three or four best-selling comics every month typically ship somewhere over 100,000 issues, and even if all of those are sold (the actual sales numbers aren’t shared), by napkin math they’d each be taking in about $300,000 to $500,000 a month. Compare that with Thor: Ragnarok, which made $430 million worldwide in less than a week. It’s unlikely Netflix wants to beat comic publishers at their own game. Instead, it’s an opportunity to showcase Millar’s talent and maybe attract other creators to the fold.

Netflix’s first comic, Millar’s The Magic Order, follows families of world-protecting magicians who are being hunted down one by one. Crucially, it’s referred to as Millar’s "first franchise" for the streaming network, and he called The Magic Order his "first book" for Netflix. In short, we can expect more comics published under the Netflix aegis. The question is whether Millar’s current and future work will generate enough successful material to adapt, but Netflix has gambled on a creator with an impressive volume of work that’s made it to the big screen.

Of all the IP houses Netflix could have acquired with its deep pockets, it chose the one run by a creator whose storylines show up in a lot of recent films. Before Millar made his own characters, he worked at Marvel, writing the modernized Avengers take The Ultimates (which inspired some of the first Avengers film), the multi-superhero crossover series Civil War (source material for the third Captain America film) and Old Man Logan (which inspired the film Logan).

Millar established Millarworld in 2004 to make his own comics with all-new characters. He intentionally designed them to be cinematic, and his company fast-tracked his creations into screen deals. War Heroes, for example, had just published its first issue in August 2008 when Sony optioned it (the six-issue miniseries is unfinished to this day). Millar’s original work continues to attract Hollywood attention, with three Millarworld properties picked up last year.

Netflix is trying to become less dependent on other companies’ content. Especially once companies start withdrawing their libraries, which Disney pledged to do by 2019. Some speculated the streaming company might attempt to establish its own content universe under Millar. For now, at least, it’s testing the stories in their original medium. Netflix is putting faith in Millar’s process, which has worked for him thus far. He successfully transitioned from creator to known brand, and Netflix is banking on his unique combination of business and creative expertise.

"[Millar] has learned how to play the game," Dave Gibbons, celebrated creator who co-wrote the Kingsman comic with Millar, told The Guardian. "Us of older generations got kind of screwed over, to one degree or another, with the kind of deals we got doing comics, but Mark in particular has very much learned from what happened before and done his business deals in a very canny Scots way."

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