Remember Neopets? It’s Being Turned Into a TV Show

Virtual pet website Neopets is being turned into a television show aimed at 8-12 year olds.

As part of the agreement, Singapore-based Beach House will develop new stories and characters, with Blue Ant’s Canadian studio providing animation services.

The show is still in the early stages of development and its format and style aren’t finalized, but Beach House plans to target the series at eight to 12s. The pair are seeking co-production and broadcast partners for the project.

I wish I still had my login information for Neopets.

A Curved Laptop Stand is Twelve South’s Newest Product

Twelve South just announced its newest product: A metal, one-piece curved laptop stand called Curve SE. It’s a white (or black), minimalist stand that matches well with Apple’s aesthetic. It has a fixed height of 6.5-inches, which the company says is an ergonomic standard.

Desktop accessories – especially MacBook stands – are inherently home decor. They should match your room, your style, your desk and complement (not copy) your MacBook. Our latest solution, while deceptively simple, is a beautiful matte white MacBook stand we call Curve SE.

You can buy the Curve SE stand for US$59.99.

Firefox Working to Eradicate 'Weak" TLS 1.0 & 1.1 HTTPS Standards

Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox browser, announced it is moving to “eradicate” the weak TLS 1.0 and 1.1 HTTPS standard, The Register reported. Apple made a similar announcement in October 2018.

From next month, users hitting a site running TLS 1.0 or 1.1 will not connect immediately, but see a warning screen stating: “Secure connection failed.” There is an option to override this, in which case it will be overridden for all sites. Thyla van der Merwe, cryptography engineering manager at Mozilla, said: “We plan to keep the override button for now; the telemetry we’re collecting will tell us more about how often this button is used. These results will then inform our decision regarding when to remove the button entirely. It’s unlikely that the button will stick around for long. We’re committed to completely eradicating weak versions of TLS.”

T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Gets go Ahead

The proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger got the go-ahead on Tuesday, Yahoo Finance/Reuters reported. A judge approved the deal, rejecting antitrust concerns raised by some states.

During a two-week trial in December, T-Mobile and Sprint argued the merger will better equip the new company to compete with top players Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc, creating a more efficient company with low prices and faster internet speeds. The states, led by California and New York, had said the deal would reduce competition, leading to higher prices. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero clears the path for the deal, which already has federal approval and was originally valued at $26 billion.

 

Snapchat’s ‘Here For You’ Promotes Mental Health

Snapchat has a new tool called Here For You. Whenever the app detects you’ve searched for topics like “depression” it will present Here For You with mental health content written by experts.

“Sometimes people come in and search for this kind of content, be it anxiety or depression,” says Jen Stout, vice president of global policy at Snap. “Instead of being served up maybe nothing, or meme accounts, or something like that, we’re looking for a healthy alternative to provide young people with tools that would be readily available in the app.”

It’s nice to hear about a company doing something good for a change. It seems like it happens all too rarely.

The Woman Who Got Netflix to Let Users Turn Off Autoplay Videos

Last week, Netflix introduced the ability to turn off those annoying autoplay videos. Recode spoke to Sarah Hollowell, the woman who made it happen.

A week after her volley of tweets, Netflix retweeted Hollowell and announced the updated settings. This is a big deal, if you follow Netflix Twitter much. People reviled these autoplay previews so much that there’s a dedicated Twitter account collecting the complaints, including one widely circulated smirk from Knives Out director Rian Johnson. Outrage like this has spilled over to seemingly every corner of the internet. If you click through any of those links, you’ll also realize that people have been yelling at Netflix about this for years. There’s even a Change.org petition started by a Melissa Bryant, a passionate Netflix user from Maine, that racked up nearly 125,000 signatures in the past two months.