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Green Day's Dookie is an all-timer of an album and, if you were fortunate enough to catch the band on the road this summer, you'll know the trio sounds as good as ever. Audio quality, however, was not at the forefront of the band's latest release: demasters of every Dookie song on ridiculous and outdated formats to mark the record's 30th anniversary. While other classic albums often get remasters for big anniversaries, Green Day (with the help of of an art studio called Brain) went in a lo-fi direction by re-releasing the music on defunct and/or inconvenient formats in very limited editions. As a result, you can hear what "Basket Case" sounds like through a Big Mouth "Billie" Bass, listen to "Welcome to Paradise" via a Game Boy cartridge and enjoy (or not) "When I Come Around" emanating from a wax cylinder. Other formats the demasters appear on include an answering machine, toothbrush, animatronic stuffed animal, floppy disc, doorbell, Fisher Price record, HitClip (remember those?) and, be still my beating heart, MiniDisc. Meanwhile, "All By Myself," an ode to self-love sung by drummer Tré Cool, actually sounds kind of sweet through a music box. You can hear what each of the demasters sounds like on the Dookie Demastered website. But if you want to own one of them, you'll need to be lucky. Only between one and 50 of each demastered format is available and they're priced between $19 and $99, but thankfully it's not a first-come-first-served scenario. There's a random drawing and you'll get the chance to buy one of the items if your name's pulled from the hat. Demastering is becoming more of a trend, especially in video games, but this is simply a bizarre way to listen to an album as important for punk rock as Dookie was. It would be very cool to have an X-ray record of Coming Clean in my collection, though. (For the tape, Green Day did release a deluxe anniversary edition of the album.)This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/green-days-dookie-has-been-demastered-into-game-boy-carts-a-toothbrush-and-other-weird-formats-175246772.html?src=rss
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Streaming company Plex just announced that its introducing a new reviews feature for TV shows and movies, as reported by TechCrunch. This is great for people who want to quickly find something good to watch, as the reviews are culled from other Plex users, professional critics and friends. This move places Plex in direct competition with apps like Letterboxd. Theres also going to be a social media component to this toolset. Reviews can be shared with your friends and even friends of friends. The company says that, eventually, there will be an update that will allow users to share their ratings and reviews with anyone using Plex. The feature is in beta release right now and you can sign up with a verified email address on the web interface or the mobile app. Plex Of course, reviews must abide by Plexs community guidelines, so keep it family-friendly. Once activated, you can access a new Ratings and Reviews option in settings that allows for criteria adjustments. These settings can be adjusted to only display reviews from Plex users, critics, or a combination of both. This update follows the apps Discover Together feature, which allows people to create profiles on the app and follow friends for personalized recommendations. Plex has been absolutely hoovering up investment capital lately. It scored $40 million earlier this year and $50 million back in 2021. For the uninitiated, Plex is an extremely popular free, ad-supported television (FAST) streaming app. It easily made our list of the best live TV streaming services. However, it also acts as a portal to other streaming platforms, making for a centralized entertainment hub.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/plex-is-adding-reviews-for-tv-shows-and-movies-173622067.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Zooms Zoomtopia 2024 feature drop is, perhaps unsurprisingly, focused on actively integrating AI even more into its platform, especially for Zoom Workplace and Zoom Business Services. Theres plenty to talk about, but well focus on Zoom AI Companion 2.0 for Zoom Workplace since this appears to be the biggest news the company is announcing today. AI Companion 2.0 promises to be a persistent presence in a Zoom Workplace window, and it will even remember previous conversations and come up with citations for statements users made. Since its connected to the web, it can work with external apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Microsoft Office. Other functions include summarizing documents, email chains and generating content drafts. AI Companion is an assistant designed to help workers find important points in messages, take notes, create post-call summaries and help compose emails. It can also generate content like speaker biographies, event descriptions and messages. If you havent encountered it before, Zoom Workplace is a paid plan designed for companies that have many remote workers. The plan has functions designed to improve collaboration and communication. Besides organizing meetings, Zoom Workplace lets teams schedule events, write on virtual whiteboards and even send clips of meetings to keep members up to speed. It also has features that compete directly with Google like mail, calendars and docs. In short, its Zoom for remote and hybrid teams. AI Companion 2.0 isnt ready for release yet, but it should be downloadable next month for free if youre paying for a Zoom Workplace account. It wont be available for all regions or industries, but Zoom wasnt more specific about where exactly you can use it. If the standard AI Companion feature set isnt enough, theres Zoom AI Studio, which lets users tailor the companion to their liking. For example, you can teach the AI your companys unique vocabulary and jargon. It can also reference company HR resources or documentation to provide answers. The custom AI Companion add-on costs $12 per user each month, and it will be available in the first half of 2025. Some features will be available for preview in the next few months. While the AI Companion works for online meetings, it can also listen in on in-person meetings. Based on available office data, it can provide meeting summaries and even recommend specific days for employees to go into the office. Besides the many new AI features, Zoom is branching out but offering industry-specific AI functions. So far, theres Zoom Workplace for Frontline, Healthcare, Clinicians and Education. Zoom Workplace for Education uses AI for lecture summaries, live-generated notes, personalized feedback and more. Frontline users have access to shift summaries, insights, communications and more. Zoom Workplace for Clinicians and Healthcare will each have specialized features that benefit workers in those sectors. Those interested in these Zoom updates can tune in to Zoomtopia 2024 today if in the US. Another session on the 10th will also be tailored for Asian-Pacific, Middle Eastern and Japanese time zones.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/zooms-latest-feature-update-focuses-heavily-on-its-ai-assistant-170013512.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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