After Math: The price of doing business

Elon Musk just can't seem to stay out of the news. After last week's tirade against the Thai cave rescue diver, his girlfriend took to Twitter to defend his large donations to the GOP as "the price of doing business in america [sic]." But that price differs depending on who you ask. For right-wing troll Alex Jones, that price is a 30-day timeout from Facebook and Yahoo, but for MoviePass that price could well be the company's entire operation.

83 million active paying users: Family plans have long been a staple of mobile carriers as a means of locking in customers (and their families) to long-term contracts and now the practice is bleeding over into streaming services as well. It seems to be working for Spotify, which announced it's added 8 million new paid subscribers in the last fiscal quarter.

$5 million in loans: MoviePass might not be around for much longer. The company suffered a service outage this week because it didn't have the funds to buy a sufficient number of tickets, forcing MoviePass' parent company to borrow $5 million. This is the second such outage this month alone.

$0: If you live in Japan and your iPad was damaged in the recent, deadly flooding, there is a silver lining. Apple announced this week that it will repair or replace any of its products damaged by the rising floodwaters free of charge.

$71.3 billion: Disney and Fox's proposed merger took another step towards completion this week when the companies' respective shareholders voted to approve the multi-billion dollar deal. There's still work to be done before the merger is scheduled for completion early next year. The companies must shed 22 regional sports networks to comply with DOJ anti-trust demands, for example.

30 days: Alex Jones will have to go back to shouting his conspiracy theories on street corners for the next month after both YouTube and Facebook have issued temporary bans on his use of their platforms (as well as removed a number of community standard-violating videos). This, of course, is barely a slap on the wrist and will likely do nothing to dissuade him from arguing that fluoride in the water supply turns frogs gay or whatever he's making up this week to sell his snake oil brain supplements.

Forza Horizon 4 Senna Autumn

0 loot crates: As the makers of Star Wars Battlefront II can attest, the inclusion of loot crates in modern games is quickly becoming a toxic asset for developers. That's why Turn 10, makers of the Forza racing series, announced that they'll be phasing out the crates in Motorsport 7 and won't include them at all in Horizon 4.



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2vcKneh
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more