Sweet Christmas! Meet Luke Cage, Netflix's latest Marvel hero

By: Matt Kamen

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Ending with a bang, not a whimper

As we have predicted for some time, central bankers are doubling down on the madness that has failed to achieve economic lift-off. It is no surprise to us that easy money has not stimulated growth. There was never any reason why it should. It reminds us of trying to force hay into the wrong end of an elephant.

On The Move: Changes at IPG Mediabrands and Ari Agency

A weekly update of who's headed where in Canadian marketing and communications

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: October 2016

A new month means new wallpapers! This journey has been going on for eight years now, and each time anew artists and designers from across the globe challenge their artistic skills to cater for some fresh inspiration on your desktop. And, well, it wasn't any different this time around.

This post features their designs for October 2016. The collection is a mix of ideas and styles, of wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. All wallpapers come in versions with and without a calendar and can be downloaded for free - just choose your favorite. A big thank-you to everyone who shared their ideas with us! Happy October!

The post Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: October 2016 appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Installing the Windows 10 Anniversary Update may reset your ad preferences, other settings

Be sure to check your personal advertising preferences after updating to Windows 10 -- in at least some cases, the Anniversary Update is also resetting how and when it shows you ads.

Automating Art Direction With The Responsive Image Breakpoints Generator

Four years ago, Jason Grigsby asked a surprisingly difficult question: How do you pick responsive image breakpoints? A year later, he had an answer: Ideally, we'd set responsive image performance budgets to achieve "sensible jumps in file size."

Cloudinary built a tool that implements this idea, and the response from the community was universal: "Great! Now, what else can it do?" Today, we have an answer: art direction!

The post Automating Art Direction With The Responsive Image Breakpoints Generator appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Rogers forms Elevate to offer creative agency services

Company plans a data-centric approach to differentiate from competitors

Our accents are under threat: dialects may die as computers strip the beauty from language

By: Matt Burgess

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FCC aims to improve phone emergency alerts after recent bombings

The current Wireless Emergency Alerts are even less powerful than SMS, but the FCC is looking to change that.

Shomi subscribers to get free Netflix for six months: Report

Offer may be targeted at Ignite customers, MobileSyrup says

Building Hybrid Apps With ChakraCore

There are many reasons why one may want to embed JavaScript capabilities into an app. One example may be to take a dependency on a JavaScript library that has not yet been ported to the language you're developing in. Another may be that you want to allow users to “eval” small routines or functions in JavaScript, e.g., in data processing applications.

The key reason for our investigation of ChakraCore was to support the React Native framework on the Universal Windows Platform, which is a framework for declaring applications using JavaScript and the React programming model.

The post Building Hybrid Apps With ChakraCore appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon partner to solve AI's ethical problem

By: Matt Burgess

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Satellite Images Reveal Impact of Almond Boom

Kelly Watson lives in Kentucky. She studies honeybees and pollination. She has no interest in wading into California's water wars, in which farmers and thirsty almond crops are pitted against drought-conscious water conservation zealots.

What separates growing vs. shrinking websites (Study)

Adobe research includes data on 45 billion visits to Canadian sites

Building Social: A Case Study On Progressive Enhancement

We talk a lot about progressive enhancement and how it improves backwards compatibility. But how straightforward is it to apply progressive enhancement concepts to a real-life project? When designing a rich interactive experience, it can be difficult to determine what can be implemented purely using HTML and CSS and what absolutely requires JavaScript.

Through this case study on redesigning the Building Social website, we'll share some simple yet often overlooked front-end techniques that defer the use of JavaScript as much as possible, while providing some neat JavaScript enhancements, too.

The post Building Social: A Case Study On Progressive Enhancement appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Rumors hint Nvidia, Apple may get back together

For the last few years, Apple has been an AMD-only shop. That could change if rumors are true; Apple may be preparing to pivot back to Team Green.

Judy John and Andrew Bruce on their new North American focus

Latest changes are part of Publicis Groupe's continuing global restructuring

These poker-playing robots can bluff better than humans

By: Adam Kucharski

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Tesla to Build Battery Storage Facility for Southern California Edison

Rick Laezman

• Systems

Among tech companies, Tesla has always done things in a big way. Recently, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based manufacturer of luxury electrical vehicles added to its list of outsized endeavors when it announced a major battery storage project for electric utility Southern California Edison (SCE).

Rogers and Shaw close the curtain on Shomi

Two-year-old streaming video service is shutting down Nov. 30

The best shows and original series to watch on Netflix right now

By: Ruby Lott-Lavigna

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Developing For Virtual Reality: What We Learned

With the tools getting more user-friendly and affordable, virtual reality (VR) development is easier to get involved in than ever before. Our team at Clearbridge Mobile recently jumped on the opportunity to develop immersive VR content for the Samsung Gear VR, using Samsung's 360 camera.

The result is ClearVR, a mobile application demo that enables users to explore the features, pricing, interiors and exteriors of listed vehicles. Developing this demo project gave us a better understanding of VR development for our future projects, including scaling, stereoscopic display and motion-tracking practices. This article is an introductory guide to developing for VR, with the lessons we learned along the way.

The post Developing For Virtual Reality: What We Learned appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

NASA's big announcement was worth the wait: confirmed cryovolcanoes on Europa

These Enceladus-like plumes of water ice offer an enticing target for future searches for life, a whole planet closer to Earth.

Surround sound: the Philharmonia Orchestra takes on VR to attract younger audiences

By: Ruby Lott-Lavigna

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Take a mind-bending virtual tour of Bengal's Kalimpong, the 'home of the Yeti'

By: Amelia Heathman

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Inside America's Most Luxurious Fall Foliage Getaway

Why Lake Placid is the best place to see autumn leaves right now

Stretching The Limits Of What's Possible

Designing with “big data” is a challenging task. Matan Stauber, however, took it to the next level. With an impressive outcome. Having studied Visual Communication at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Israel's national school of art, Matan realized a very ambitious final project: an interactive timeline of our galaxy's history - 14 billion years, from the Big Bang to today.

We talked to Matan about Histography, about the idea behind it, and how he managed to bring it to life. An interview about stretching the limits of what's possible.

The post Stretching The Limits Of What's Possible appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Air Canada surprises Americans with 48 hours in Toronto

The brand's latest campaign aims to make Toronto a desirable layover stop

Women and queer-inclusive game jam aims to boost diversity

By: Matt Kamen

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No one's playing No Man's Sky, as developer remains silent and players flee the franchise

No Man's Sky has turned into a graveyard six weeks after launch, with a tiny fraction of its original player base. Hello Games remains devoted to the title, but many fans are frustrated with limited communication.

Fire at Power Plant Causes Island-Wide Blackout in Puerto Rico

Hannah Fullmer

• Your Business

Most of the 3.5 million residents of Puerto Rico have spent two days without power as the result of a fire at Aguirre power plant in the southern town of Salinas, according to the Associated Press.
Executive director Javier Quintana said initial investigations suggest that lightning caused one transmission line to fail which in turn caused a switch to explode and catch fire. The Electric Power Authority said the fire knocked out two 230,000-volt transmission lines connected to the larger power grid, which tripped circuit breakers, automatically cutting off electricity.

Here's what you should know, and do, about the Yahoo breach

Yahoo's announcement that state-sponsored hackers have stolen the details of at least 500 million accounts shocks both through scale-it's the largest data breach ever-and the potential security implications for users.

That's because Yahoo, unlike MySpace, LinkedIn and other online services that suffered large breaches in recent years, is an email provider; and email accounts are central to users' online lives. Not only are email addresses used for private communications, but they serve as recovery points and log-in credentials for accounts on many other websites.

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Choosing The Right Prototyping Tool

When it comes to creating prototypes, so many tools and methods are out there that choosing one is no easy task. Which one is the best? Spoiler alert: There is no "best" because it all depends on what you need at the moment! Here I'll share some insight into what to consider when you need to pick up a prototyping solution.

I've always wanted to stay up to date on the latest design and prototyping tools, testing them shortly after they launch, just to see if any of them might improve my workflow and enable me to achieve better results. In the beginning, a few years ago, I think it was easier than it is now to decide whether a new tool was useful. Nowadays, apps are being released every day, and it's kind of difficult to give them all a proper try.

The post Choosing The Right Prototyping Tool appeared first on Smashing Magazine.