"Blue Planet II" Uses Digital Technology to Make Major Oceanic Discoveries
"Blue Planet" is the Emmy-Award winning series that looks at life under the deep blue sea. It's back for a new season 17 years after the original aired in 2001. The producers sit down with Alyssa Julya Smith in Los Angeles to talk about the four-year production of the latest installment.
Executive Producer James Honeyborne, Series Producer Mark Brownlow, and Producer Orla Doherty discuss the new digital technology that went into filming the new series and accessing some of the amazing findings. The new series, presented by Sir David Attenborough and scored by Academy Award-winner Hans Zimmer, has already become a major television event around the world.
"Blue Planet II" took four years to film with 6,000 hours spent in the ocean to highlight some of the biggest scientific discoveries. The next installment of the Emmy-winning Planet Earth franchise will simulcast its premiere across BBC AMERICA, AMC, IFC, WE tv, and SundanceTV on Saturday, January 20th.
Amid a backdrop of ongoing tariff uncertainty, more and more gamers are facing price hikes. Microsoft raised recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers around the world this week. Its Xbox Series S, for example, now starts at $379.99 in the U.S. — up $80 from the $299.99 price tag that debuted in 2020. And its more powerful Xbox Series X will be $599.99 going forward, a $100 jump from its previous $499.99 listing. The tech giant didn’t mention tariffs specifically, but cited wider “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” Beyond the U.S., Microsoft also laid out Xbox price adjustments for Europe, the U.K. and Australia. The company said all other countries would also receive updates locally.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the current fiscal quarter will be sourced from India, while iPads and other devices will come from Vietnam as the company works to avoid the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on its business. Apple’s earnings for the first three months of the year topped Wall Street’s expectations thanks to high demand for its iPhones, and the company said tariffs had a limited effect on the fiscal second quarter’s results. Cook added that for the current quarter, assuming things don’t change, Apple expects to see $900 million added to its costs as a result of the tariffs.
Visa is hoping to hand your credit card to an artificial intelligence “agent” that can find and buy clothes, groceries, airplane tickets and other items on your behalf.
Shares of Deliveroo, the food delivery service based in London, are hitting three-year highs on Monday after it received a $3.6 billion proposed takeover offer from DoorDash.
X, the social media platform owned by Trump adviser Elon Musk, is challenging the constitutionality of a Minnesota ban on using deepfakes to influence elections and harm candidates.
