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Netflix Plans to Open Brick-and-Mortar Stores in 2025

Visitors will dine at themed restaurants and participate in immersive experiences

October 17, 2023

Long after the fall of Blockbuster, Netflix is planning to open new brick-and-mortar locations in 2025. But instead of browsing video rentals, customers will shop for merchandise, eat at themed restaurants, see live entertainment and participate in immersive experiences surrounding hit Netflix shows.

The first two locations will open in the United States, reports Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw. If all goes well, the streaming platform plans to take the concept global.

“We’ve seen how much fans love to immerse themselves in the world of our movies and TV shows, and we’ve been thinking a lot about how we take that to the next level,” Josh Simon, Netflix’s vice president of consumer products, tells Bloomberg.

The stores—called “Netflix House”—won’t be the company’s first foray into the world of retail. Netflix already sells merchandise at its online store and has previously experimented with pop-up shops and experiences in select cities.

Earlier this year, foodies in Los Angeles dined at the pop-up restaurant Netflix Bites, which served dishes created by celebrity chefs that have appeared on Netflix’s shows. The city is also home to Squid Game: The Trials, an immersive experience where participants try to beat six interactive games inspired by the show.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... 180983085/

[weatheriscool]

Study unveils shape-configurable MXene-based thermoacoustic loudspeakers with tunable sound directivity
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-unveils-s ... akers.html
by JooHyeon Heo, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology

Recent research has led to the development of film-type shape-configurable speakers. These speakers, based on the unique properties of MXene, offer tunable sound directivity and hold immense promise for the rapidly growing field of wearable electronics. The study is published in Advanced Materials.

Traditional loudspeakers with bulky vibrating diaphragms face limitations in integrating with wearable devices due to their bulky vibrating diaphragms. However, the team's ultra-thin thermoacoustic (TA) loudspeakers, which are free from such limitations, demonstrate remarkable potential in this domain. The challenge lies in configuring these speakers into arbitrary shapes due to their low sound pressure level (SPL) under mechanical deformations and limited conformability.

[weatheriscool]

Logitech simplifies livestreaming with wireless 4K MFT camera
By Paul Ridden
March 20, 2024

Ease of use, lens flexibility and Micro Four Thirds image quality is what Logitech is offering digital content creators with the launch of the app-controlled Mevo Core wireless livestreaming camera.

The Core follows a 1080p Mevo livestream camera from around four years ago, which featured a fixed lens and a six-hour battery and triple-array MEMS mics for mobile content creation. The battery life and internal mics filter through to the new model, but pretty much everything else has changed.

For starters, the video resolution has been given a serious bump to 4K/30p at 40 Mbps when recording or 1080/30p at 6 Mbps when streaming. The camera also gains a 4/3 CMOS sensor for "DSLR level quality, but with a fraction of the complexity of a traditional camera."

https://newatlas.com/mobile-technology/ ... ft-camera/

[weatheriscool]

Jetdive Pro puts a dual electric power boost on divers' hips
By Ben Coxworth
May 01, 2024
https://newatlas.com/outdoors/ztdive-je ... rs-divers/

If you're looking for a hands-free wearable electric boost while snorkeling or scuba diving, the Jetdive Pro should definitely fit the bill. It's not the first product of its kind, but it is claimed to be the best in several key ways.

Manufactured by Hong Kong company ZTDive, the Jetdive Pro system is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. It's designed to be an alternative to the more traditional "underwater scooters" that users have to hold in their hands, and which partially block their forward/downward view.

The Jetdive gets around these limitations by going on the user's waist. It consists of a waist belt along with two 600-watt electric thrusters mounted on that belt, one at either hip. Users steer simply by twisting their upper body or moving their arms.