It’s goodbye to the humble DVD player
TAlso, as 4K televisions are now more affordable it could be expected people may update their old DVD players to a 4K model. But the tech world is quickly moving away from physical media such as DVDs, especially in countries with fast internet connections such as New Zealand. While not all Kiwis have access to quick download speeds, most people will do in the next few years, so more people may look to sell their DVD players.
Getting access to DVDs is also getting harder.
It’s estimated there are fewer than 30 DVD stores in New Zealand, and soon there will be only one Blockbuster store left in the world.
Australia has one that is closing at the end of this month leaving one store in Oregon. Fifteen years ago there were 9000 Blockbusters worldwide.
It’s still easy to buy DVDs but there seems like there’s little demand for 4K discs – The Warehouse only has one title available on its website. That’s compared to the few hundred 4K titles available on Netflix.
Samsung is making the right move getting out the DVD player business. It’s been in decline for several years and will soon be a niche market that’s unlikely to be profitable.
However, while 4K DVDs will unlikely take off, it should still be easy to buy standard DVDs as they’re still popular to buy in many countries with poor internet speeds.
The future of watching movies at home is streaming so if you were planning on upgrading or replacing your DVD player, you’re better off spending your money on improving your internet connection. Two top Facebook executives are leaving the company, including product chief Chris Cox, who was long one of chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s top deputies.
Chris Daniels, who leads encrypted messaging app WhatsApp, will also depart Facebook, Zuckerberg wrote in a post announcing the news on Thursday.
It isn’t clear what future plans the executives have. Zuckerberg wrote that Cox considered leaving years ago to pursue new projects, but he decided to stay in 2016, around the time Facebook began taking heat for acting as a conduit for misinformation and Russian election interference.
Zuckerberg phrased that more delicately, noting that, ‘‘We both realised we had too much important work to do to improve our products for society’’.
Cox joined 13 years ago and helped create Facebook’s News Feed feature.
Less than a year ago, he was put in charge of all of Facebook’s apps, including its flagship social media site, as well as Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Reversing course, Facebook will not appoint a direct replacement for Cox. Instead, the leaders of each app will report to Zuckerberg.
The news of Cox’s departure comes a week after Zuckerberg announced a new ‘‘privacyfocused’’ mission for Facebook that will emphasise private messaging over public sharing.
Many of the changes Zuckerberg outlined involve duplicating some of WhatsApp’s features in Facebook’s other messaging apps.
Daniels has been at Facebook nearly nine years, and previously led the company’s Internet.org effort, a project aimed at bringing internet access to developing countries. He was named the head of WhatsApp less than a year ago.
Longtime Facebook executive Will Cathcart will now lead WhatsApp.
These two departures come on the heels of founding-executive departures at Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp last year. – AP