Where there’s innovation, there’s masturbation — at least in one dark corner of the internet, where nearly 80,000 people have gathered to share fabricated videos of celebrity women having sex and Nicolas Cage uncovering the Ark of the Covenant. 

These are “deepfakes,” a new kind of video featuring realistic face-swaps. In short, a computer program finds common ground between two faces and stitches one over the other. If the source footage is good enough, the transformation is nearly seamless. 

The technology is relatively easy to use, which has created an enthusiast community on Reddit, where users compare notes and swap their latest work: “Emma Watson sex tape demo ;-),” “Lela Star x Kim Kardashian,” and “Giving Putin the Trump face” among them. Read more…

More about Pornography, Deep Learning, Deepfakes, Tech, and Web Culture
Source: Mashable | A guide to 'deepfakes,' the internet's latest moral crisis

There’s a common misunderstanding that if a company doesn’t sell more of something, it means the product is a failure.

Case in point: iPhone sales fell year-over-year, and because of it, people trotted back out the same old tired narrative that Apple is doomed…again. But for real this time! They claim the iPhone X is a failure because $1,000 is simply too expensive for a phone!

But this narrative couldn’t be further from the truth. Apple doesn’t need to sell a higher number of iPhones at lower prices in order to continue smashing revenue records and stomp out all the competition.

Fixating on a tiny drop in iPhone sales misses the bigger picture: Apple wants to sell additional hardware and services — Apple Watch, AirPods, iCloud, HomePod, Apple Music, etc. — so that people are locked into the ecosystem that only works with the iPhone. Apple’s long-term strategy isn’t eternally selling more iPhones, but rather locking users into its growing ecosystem. Read more…

More about Mobile, Apple, Iphone, Smartphones, and Iphone X

Source: Mashable | Why Apple doesn't need to sell more iPhones anymore

If there is one person who has shaped the landscape of young adult pop culture, it’s Neal Shusterman.

The prolific author, perhaps best known for the Unwind Dystology and The Accelerati Triligoy, has been writing for a variety of mediums — books, film, TV, and games — since the ’80s, including writing for the Goosebumps and Animorphs TV series and the Disney channel original movie Pixel Perfect.

Now Shusterman is back, and this time he’s turning dystopian literature on its head with his new Arc of the Scythe series.

The Arc of the Scythe series dives into a utopian world where death has been defeated. In this perfect world, a governing body called the Scythes decides who dies “but everyone accepts it because everybody knows that this order is made up of the most compassionate humans in the world.”  Read more…

More about Mashreads, Mashreads Podcast, Neal Shusterman, Arc Of The Scythe, and Thunderhead
Source: Mashable | Neal Shusterman redefines dystopian fiction with his 'Arc of the Scythe' series

The Spice Girls making a comeback is what 2018 needs right now, among other things. 

The English girl group reunited on Friday for the first time since the London Olympics in 2012. The group all met up at Geri Halliwell’s (Ginger Spice) home to speak with their former manager about upcoming projects.

It feels like 1994 all over again, so bring out the butterfly clips and chokers. 

The girls posted pictures of the meet up on social media and brought fans into a pure nostalgia. It even had celebrities like Millie Bobby Brown (who was born in 2004) celebrating the get together in hopes of a future reunion on stage.  Read more…

More about Music, Spice Girls, Web Culture, Culture, and Celebrities

Source: Mashable | The Spice Girls just reunited for the first time in years