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Yesterday’s Facebook outage – which took down Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp as well as the main service – resulted from a mistake by the company’s own network engineers. The mistake led to all of Facebook’s services being inaccessible, with one analogy likening it to a failure in the “air traffic control” services for network traffic … We reported yesterday on the massive failure. It gradually appeared that the problem might relate to DNS – the domain name servers that tell devices which IP addresses to use to access services – but it was unclear what exactly had happened, and whether this was an external hack, malicious action by an insider, or a catastrophic mistake....

Facebook is updating its Messenger Kids app this week with three new features including dark mode and voice effects. Each update is available first on iOS and coming later to Android. Facebook is also introducing a new way to interact with PAC-MAN on its gaming platform. Messenger Kids is Facebook’s messaging app for users under 13 years old. The app includes a dashboard for parents to manage contacts, view blocked accounts, and monitor messages....

As if Fallout 76 wasn’t dealing with enough problems, it has been recently discovered by data miners that the always-online survival game may be adding pay-to-win elements soon. These pay-to-win products will take the form of lootboxes, and it appears that Fallout 76 developer Bethesda Game Studios will refer to these lootboxes as “Lunchboxes.” Fallout 76 was panned upon launch like no other Bethesda release before it, and the game remained in the spotlight when Bethesda shipped the $200 Power Armor Edition with cheap nylon knockoffs of the edition’s advertised canvas bags....

When it comes to being one of the best reenactments of a bad drug trip and adaptations around, few come close to the heights that Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas achieved. Though a box office failure, Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo’s (Benicio del Toro) savage odyssey to Las Vegas was vindicated by time and became a certified cult classic. But as faithful as Gilliam’s movie is, there were some things that were lost in the novel’s translation to celluloid....

The latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead finally introduced the show’s second crossover character from The Walking Dead, Dwight (Austin Amelio). Amelio exited The Walking Dead after the season 8 finale and the conclusion of the war with Negan. Dwight was exiled by Daryl over his past crimes, even though he helped Alexandria and the other communities defeat Negan and the Saviors. So after leaving Alexandria, Dwight set out to reunite with his wife, who disappeared after escaping Negan’s grasp....

The survivors of the zombie apocalypse were present and accounted for at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, as AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead shared a brand new trailer for the second half of season 5. The Walking Dead spinoff has undergone plenty of changes since it first premiered back in 2015. Most of those changes have had to do with the show’s original cast, which has almost completely been replaced by, a mix of newcomers and transplants from the original series, like Lennie James’s Morgan and most recently, Austin Amelio’s Dwight, who joined the show in season 5....

Friday the 13th was last rebooted in 2009 by a team of producers that included Michael Bay, and the movie took in $65 million domestically on a reported budget of $19 million. Given that movie’s performance it seemed likely more Friday the 13th films would be in the offing - nobody appreciates a good sequel as much as Michael Bay - but actually the franchise has been absent from the screen ever since....

When the first Spider-Man movie hit the scenes in 2002, fans were cautiously optimistic. Previous attempts at Marvel movies had been downright terrible (remember the Captain America films of the ’90s?), but the positive reception of the recently-released X-Men film coupled with the direction of Evil Dead and Hercules/Xena producer Sam Raimi gave us all hope. Thankfully, Raimi’s film delivered- Spider-Man was a smash hit, paving the way for two multi-million dollar sequels, one of which is considered by many to be the greatest superhero film ever made....

Gerald’s Game director Mike Flanagan says he wants to adapt Stephen King’s The Shining sequel novel, which is titled Doctor Sleep. Flanagan’s Netflix psychological horror film is an adaptation of King’s novel of the same name, starring Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood as married couple Gerald and Jessie Burlingame. Doctor Sleep was released in 2009 as a sequel to King’s most famous work, The Shining, which was released in 1977. The novel follows a grown-up Danny Torrance, who has taken up his father Jack’s legacy of anger and alcoholism....

Although the God of War series is back this year, the PS4 title has left some feeling skeptical, prompting a response from the game’s creative director. The original God of War titles were some of the biggest in the PlayStation lineup, delivering furious hack and slash gameplay steeped in mythology and gore. As such, fans were on the edge of their seats awaiting a new title in the franchise. However, some former players have been surprised at what has been revealed about the title so far, and it’s not only due to the game’s jump into Norse mythology....

[This is a review of Gotham season 2, episode 21. There will be SPOILERS.] - Gotham fans are anxiously awaiting to see how season 2 will wrap up, and while the Azrael storyline may have ended a bit prematurely last week, there are still plenty of dangling threads for the show to tie up in its last pair of episodes. In particular, all narrative roads are leading back to Hugo Strange (B....

Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne may be the star of the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie, but the Harry Potter spinoff was not his first chance to be a part of the iconic franchise. He recently revealed that he auditioned for the role of Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I, which ultimately went to Domnhall Gleeson; an actor that Redmayne claims has beaten him out for other roles in the recent past....

The end is nigh for HBO’s Game of Thrones, but the stars themselves are hyping it up for an amazing swansong for the show. Although the cast has expanded and dwindled in equal number over the past seven seasons, those who have made it this far are sure to be key players in the race for the Iron Throne. Among the biggest names to grace the popular fantasy show is Iain Glenn in his role as Ser Jorah Mormont....

New teaser images for M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming film Glass recently dropped, the most compelling of which has left fans wondering: what is Bruce Willis’ David Dunn doing locked up in an insane asylum with James McAvoy’s Kevin Wendell Crumb and Samuel L. Jackson’s Mr. Glass? Glass is both a sequel to Shaymalan’s 2017 hit film Split and the conclusion to his superhero trilogy that began with Unbreakable in 2000. In Unbreakable, David Dunn, a Philadelphia-based security guard and family man, survives a tragic train accident without a scratch....

Glass star Sarah Paulson is hoping to get a role in a Marvel movie soon. Marvel Studios is rapidly approaching the first of three releases in 2019 with Captain Marvel, but they are also focused on developing the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s already several known Phase 4 movies in development and each will bring more star power to the franchise. Marvel Studios has shown a great ability in the past to land high-profile talent for their productions and is something that will likely continue as the superhero movie genre remains as popular as it is in Hollywood....

WarnerMedia continues to add more original content to their upcoming streaming service, granting a direct-to-series order to Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, an animated prequel to the 1984 classic horror-comedy film. The show is a joint production of Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation. The original Gremlins film was a massive box office success, bringing in over $150 million on an $11 million budget. It spawned one sequel, 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which earned only $41 million against a budget of $50 million....

It seems like just yesterday that a gray-haired, wild-eyed man popped into Matt Smith’s clothes in a town called Christmas, unsure of how to fly the TARDIS. And yet this week we learned that Peter Capaldi, the Twelfth Doctor, will be leaving Doctor Who at Christmas this year. It’s a tough revelation to swallow, especially after season 9, in which Capaldi really came into his own in the role. Capaldi’s casting was a deliberate break in style from the other actors who have headlined the show since Doctor Who was revived in 2005....

Apple released a new Black Unity Braided Solo Loop and slick Unity Lights face for Apple Watch today. Along with that, it has also launched the Unity Lights wallpaper for iPhone, iPad, and Mac in celebration of Black History Month. Download them for free below. Apple says the new Unity Lights Apple Watch face – and accompanying iOS and Mac wallpapers – are “inspired by Afrofuturism”: The Unity Lights Apple Watch face is available now for Apple Watch Series 4 and later....

As hard as it may be to believe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now officially over ten years old. Nineteen movies and ten shows have been produced so far within the decade, with no real end in sight for the creative monolith known as the MCU. It’s starting to be hard to conceptualize a time in which superhero stories weren’t told as part of this seemingly never-ending universe. Within this ever expanding world of heroes and villains, there have also been countless attempts at creating the next great cinematic and television love stories....

Update: This post has been removed due to 9to5mac’s sourcing policies.