This year, something unusually dark is happening in an industry that is, by design, quite used to handling bad news. In a strong economy, with unemployment near a 50-year low, virtually every single part of the news business—digital media, local news, TV, print, podcasts, and documentaries—is laying off people at the same time. Audiences for news are shrinking. Thousands of journalists are losing jobs.
In conversations I’ve had recently, with both execs and work
From healthcare to Hollywood, the emergence of artificial intelligence has dominated the conversation in almost every industry in the past year. Another area where AI is becoming more prominent? The death industry.
The idea is that after a loved one dies, you can use AI to “speak” with them—and if it feels like something right out of Black Mirror, that’s because it kind of is. In a 2013 episode of the sci-fi series, a widow copes with the sudden death of
Snapchat owner Snap has initiated a battery recall for its Pixy Flying Camera. The company began selling the selfie-taking mini drone in April 2022 to much fanfare but withdrew the device from sale just months later during a broader ad slump at Snap. Now it seems the product is truly done since the batteries of all the existing units are being recalled and not replaced. Here’s what you need to know.
- What’s the recall about? According to the recall
Last June, when Apple streamed the unveiling of its Apple Vision Pro “spatial computing headset” during its WWDC conference, a special guest was part of the festivities: Disney CEO Bob Iger. His appearance wasn’t exactly a shocker. After all, the two companies have had a famously friendly relationship for many years. Moreover, Disney prides itself on being an early adopter of new technologies—a trait dating to its earliest days, when Walt Disney himself was quick t
In January, Samsung unveiled its upcoming generation of Galaxy smartphones and devices, which will incorporate new AI-powered features. But it could come with a cost, as a note on the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s product page indicates that “Galaxy AI features by Samsung will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices.”
That brings up a big question: Should Galaxy owners anticipate that they’ll need to pay extra or recurring fees
Meta announced on January 9 that it will protect teen users by blocking them from viewing content on Instagram and Facebook that the company deems to be harmful, including content related to suicide and eating disorders. The move comes as federal and state governments have increased pressure on social media companies to provide safety measures for teens.
At the same time, teens turn to their peers on social media for support that they can’t get elsewhere. Efforts to protect t
With everything we learn about the nature of dark matter—that mysterious, unseeable substance that helps galaxies to form—there are a hundred new questions to answer. A new theory about how dark matter interacts with gasses just hit the wire, and it’s leading scientists down a new path of cosmological discovery.
In a study published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of UCLA researchers created a simulation of how dark matter may ha
Meta, for the first time in its history, is giving money back to its investors.
The company, on Thursday, said it would give a 50-cent-per-share dividend to shareholders and also announced plans for a $50 billion share buyback. That came on the heels of a solid earnings beat across the board.
The company’s stock was up more than 14% in after-hours trading.
Meta reported earnings per share of $5.33 in the fourth quarter of 2023, well above the $4.96 that an
Apple on Thursday reported sales and profit that beat Wall Street estimates, powered by growth in its iPhone business. But China sales missed analysts’ targets.
Apple shares were down 1.7% in after-hours trading.
The 2% rise in overall fiscal first-quarter sales for the company ended four straight quarters of sales declines on the strength of its iPhone 15 lineup, which includes devices capable of capturing three-dimensional video for the Vision Pro headset being re
Overnight, TikTok video feeds started going silent—not as some sort of weird Charlie Chaplin homage, but because Universal Music Group did, as previously threatened, pull its expansive song catalog, igniting a “Mute-pocalypse” where videos featuring music by many of the industry’s biggest names (Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey, Bad Bunny, Britney Spears, Drake, Post Malone, Fleetwood Mac) were suddenly flagged for copyright infringement.
The reason