Netflix has opened up a fan-focused hub for updates and information about its shows and movies. The minisite is called Tudum, the same name as a three-hour fan event that took place in September. It's also the onomatopoeic name for the signature sound that plays when you fire up Netflix or start watching an Original.

The company notes that it's early days for Tudum, though the site will feature things like interviews, behind-the-scenes videos and bonus features. Right now, Tudum is showcasing a piece called "The Year in Pop Culture Obsessions" and an explainer that delves into how long witchers live, ahead of the second season of The Witcher arriving next week.

You'll also get to check out the latest Netflix news and trailers, and learn about upcoming releases. There's a section for trending content, as well as recommendations based on things you've watched. However, for me, that section is full of content about Lost in Space, a show I haven't watched in three years.

Tudum is obviously another way for Netflix to promote its shows and movies. Still, it could come in handy for fans looking for more details about the likes of Money Heist, Emily in Paris and the company's other hits.

YouTube might have ditched the annual Rewind series, but it's still planning to send off the year in style. An interactive 24-hour livestream event called Escape2021 will take place on December 16th.

Using the live chat, users will participate in challenges based on trends from this year, get involved in "real-time experience" and answer trivia questions, as Adweek notes. When viewers complete all of the challenges, they'll be able to watch a musical performance from a mystery guest.

There will be three "chapters" within the stream to give viewers around the world a chance to take part. They start at midnight, noon and 7PM ET. As well as in English, Escape2021 will stream in German, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese.

YouTube has roped in some superstar artists such as BTS and Doja Cat. Expect many popular YouTubers to appear as well, including Mark Rober, AyChristeneGames, Muselk and Jelle’s Marble Runs. LoFi Girl (of "beats to relax/study to" fame) is the protagonist of Escape2021 and she'll be featured at the start of the stream and in between the three chapters.

Paramount+ is offering folks another way to watch ViacomCBS' vast library of shows. The streaming services now includes live channels (just like TV!). 

The initial batch of 18 channels includes one focused entirely on Star Trek, which will stream episodes from new shows like Discovery and Picard and classics such as Enterprise and The Next Generation. There are franchise-specific channels for Survivor, The Challenge, PAW Patrol and SpongeBob Squarepants too.

The other channels focus on themes and/or genres, including drama, comedy, adult animation, Black voices, crime and justice and reality shows. "Nostalgic Hits" showcases hit series from the '80s and '90s, including Cheers, Frasier and Wings. "TV Classics" goes a bit further back with episodes from the likes of I Love Lucy, The Love Boat and The Twilight Zone. 

There are several kid-friendly channels too, such as "Animation Favorites," "Kids & Family Fun" and "Preschool Corner." Later this month, Paramount+ will add two more live channels: Movies and one focused on RuPaul's Drag Race. In addition to these channels, the platform offers live sports, breaking news from CBSN and, for Premium subscribers, a live stream of their local CBS station.

ViacomCBS says the live channels, which are available to all paid Paramount+ subscribers, were "inspired and informed" by Pluto TV, its free streaming platform. Pluto TV founder Tom Ryan became president and CEO of ViacomCBS Streaming last year. 

In partnership with Spotify, Tinder has introduced Music Mode as part of its new Explore section, letting you hear the "Anthem" songs of members when you swipe to their profiles — a sort of mixtape for dates, if you will. The idea is to help you find others that share your musical taste, according to Tinder.

The new feature requires that you link your account to Spotify and choose an Anthem song "that defines [you] inside and out," according to Tinder. If you've done all that, you'll be able to head over to the Explore section and find the Music Mode card. Once you enable that, it'll automatically play any member's chosen anthem when you swipe their profile.

Tinder and Spotify added the Anthem feature back in 2016, so Music Mode is a new way discovering users favorite songs. Tinder notes that "around 40 percent of all Gen Z members globally have already added Anthems to their profiles and when they do, they see a 10 percent increase in matches." Tinder said the Explore tab introduced this summer is the "biggest update to Tinder since the invention of the original Swipe feature," thanks to the interactive features.

At the very least, Music Mode could help reduce the awkwardness of realizing you and your date have nothing in common when it comes to music. "Songs are deeply personal, and Music Mode is a place to spark something new through music," Tinder VP Kyle Miller said in the press release. The new feature should launch "soon," according to Tinder.

Before Amazon's Alexa became known as the e-commerce giant's voice assistant, it was the name of the company's web ranking site. It was established in 1996 and became famous sometime ago for analyzing web traffic and listing the most popular websites around the world. The service also offers paid subscriptions for those who want detailed SEO analytics and insights. Now, Amazon has announced that it's retiring Alexa.com on May 1st, 2022, just a month after it celebrates its 26th anniversary. 

In its announcement, the company said:

"Twenty-five years ago, we founded Alexa Internet. After two decades of helping you find, reach, and convert your digital audience, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Alexa.com on May 1, 2022. Thank you for making us your go-to resource for content research, competitive analysis, keyword research, and so much more."

While Amazon didn't explicitly say why it's shutting down the service, Alexa Internet's traffic has been on the decline over the past decade based on data from Semrush, as Bleeping Computer notes. It's also been a while since anybody's been concerned about their Alexa ranking, so Amazon may have decided it was time to bid it farewell.

The e-commerce giant has already stopped accepting new subscriptions for Alexa's paid tier, but current subscribers will be able to access their account until May 1st, 2022. They'll lose access after that date, but they'll be able to export their data from the service's various tools if they wish. 

After more than 15 years off the air, Reading Rainbow will return to TV in early 2022. Per CBS News, this latest version of the classic children’s show will be known as Reading Rainbow Live. It will feature an interactive component that kids will be able to access through Looped. The platform will allow viewers to ask questions of the cast, and participate in games. Naturally, Reading Rainbow Live will also be available to stream online.

The original debuted in 1983 and was famously hosted by LeVar Burton. The Star Trek: The Next Generation actor won’t be involved in the new project, at least not as a host. Instead, a cast of “Rainbows” will share that duty. What won’t change is the format of the show. As before, each episode will be about 25 minutes and will try to teach audiences through music, field trips, cultural experiences and the book of the day of course.

Creative Director Amy Guglielmo told CBS News the new show is partly a response to the pandemic. “We know it was a tough pandemic for parents, for caregivers, for teachers,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that we have kids engaging with books and we’re going to use movement and music to engage kids in learning.”

As the meme goes, the goal of every Twitter user is to avoid being the main character of the day. But if you end up being that unlucky soul, it turns out Twitter is prepared to help you survive the potential trolling onslaught. As Bloomberg reports, the company has developed Project Guardian, an internal list of thousands of accounts who could potentially be attacked by other users. Being on that list fast-tracks any complaints related to those users on Twitter's moderation systems.

While it may sound a bit suspect, the big takeaway from Bloomberg's reporting is that Project Guardian is just a predictive aspect of Twitter's security measures. And unlike Facebook's treatment of VIP's, which has been criticized for allowing celebrities and politicians to break that platform's rules, Twitter's system doesn't necessarily grant more privileges to users. 

Project Guardian also includes some well-known athletes, media personalities and politicians, but Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of site integrity, tells Bloomberg that the list doesn't include famous users. As, as we mentioned, it also helps to protect normal people who end up going viral.

“The reason this concept existed is because of the ‘person of the day’ phenomenon,” Roth said. “And on that basis, there are some people who are the ‘person of the day’ most days, and so Project Guardian would be one way to protect them.”

In an ideal world, Twitter would be able to give every user the same amount of security support. But, as Bloomberg notes, the company currently receives too many moderation requests to manage that. Perhaps that's an argument that user safety should be scaled in proportion with user growth. And while Project Guardian helps to protect some users, it's also a smart way for Twitter to squash harassment that could also hurt its own image. You could argue that's true for practically every security measure a social media company takes, though.

Rockstar Games will soon release another big update for GTA Online, which includes a story mission featuring one of Grand Theft Auto V's main characters. "The Contract" centers around Franklin Clinton and his friends, who aspire to be problem solvers for celebrities and "rich folk who got rich folk problems."

One of those potential clients is Dr. Dre, who appears as himself in the story. A phone containing unreleased music from the rapper and producer has gone missing. As a potential partner for Franklin's new enterprise, it's your job to get it back.

You'll be able to hear those Dre tracks and other fresh music when the update arrives on December 15th. Rockstar is promising "an eclectic new radio station from some very special guest hosts" and big changes to current radio stations. Expect additional side missions, weapons (including an EMP launcher), vehicles, locations and more. Rockstar will reveal more details about "The Contract" in the coming days.

A few other well-known figures have appeared as themselves in the Grand Theft Auto series. Phil Collins was involved in several missions in GTA: Vice City Stories, while Katt Williams and Ricky Gervais performed stand-up sets in GTA IV.

Still, it's notable that Dr. Dre is taking a bigger role in GTA Online — he popped up briefly during 2020's Cayo Perico heist. Other major ongoing games like Fortnite include versions of real people and fictional characters from other properties. Perhaps GTA Online is becoming a metaverse too.

Amazon's Halo View fitness band is now available from its online storefront, and Amazon 4-star and Amazon Books locations. The company opened pre-orders for Halo View last month and said the fitness band would ship sometime in December. During the pre-order period, Amazon offered customers to snap one up for a $30 discount, but the device is back to the regular price of $80.

The fitness band is a new version of the original Halo, which emerged in 2020. It's the first Halo with a screen. The AMOLED color display shows activity history, sleep scores, blood oxygen levels, live workout tracking and more. The tracker weighs less than 22 grams and it's swimproof up to 50 meters.

The Halo View comes with a 12-month Halo membership. That provides access to personalized AI-powered features, recipes, sleep resources, body fat percentage analysis and workouts led by Halo coaches. The plan typically costs $4 a month.

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Facebook has launched a new professional mode for profiles that will let eligible creators earn money without the need to create a separate Page. The feature is part of Facebook parent Meta's $1 billion investment in creators that includes bonuses for Instagram influencers and an expansion to the Stars program announced yesterday by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 

The biggest feature of professional mode profiles is the addition of the Reels Play bonus program that allows creators to earn up to $35,000 a month based on views of qualifying reels (videos). Previously, that program was only open to users with Pages. It'll be invitation-only for professional profiles to start with, with more information about how to create reels here. 

As part of Reels, Facebook is planning to add the ability to create longer, 60 second reels, save drafts mid-creation and create compositions from multiple clips. Those features are coming "soon" and it's planning to expand Reels to more countries next year, too. Professional Mode also lets profiles see the same kind of post and audience analytics data that Page users get, including shares, reactions and comments. You can also see your follower growth over time. 

There's a caveat that, not surprisingly, involves privacy. Once you turn on professional mode, "anyone can follow you and see your public content in their feed," Facebook said. However, you'll still be able to limit specific posts or updates to friends only.

Facebook is playing catchup to rival platforms with the creator community, particularly TikTok, which recently passed 3 billion downloads and is ahead of Facebook in user engagement. On top of the new profiles, it recently introduced the Stars store website that lets creators earn cash from followers without paying app store commissions. Professional mode is testing with a limited number of profiles today in the US, but will be expanded to more people in the US "soon" and more countries in the coming months.