A peek into today’s edition: 

• Updates at OpenAI
• The NFL launches new mobile game
• Apple Vision Pro digital personas are here

OpenAI Shakeups and Updates

OpenAI’s ChatGPT will no longer require users to make an account to use its platform, though those who don’t won’t be able to save or share chats. Essentially, without an account, users will be able to access a limited version of the conversation AI chatbot.

Elsewhere, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stepped back from overseeing the OpenAI Startup Fund, the company’s venture arm that invests in early-stage AI companies. Ian Hathaway, an executive who has helped manage the fund since its inception in 2021, will succeed Altman.

More updates from OpenAI:

• Users can now edit DALL-E images directly in ChatGPT by selecting parts of images and texting out the changes they want to make.
• OpenAI teased its new AI-powered voice cloning tool, Voice Engine, to a select group of businesses.
• Microsoft and OpenAI are teaming up to build a $100 billion supercomputer coined Stargate

A16z to Invest $30M in Tech & Gaming Startups

A16z general partner Andrew Chen announced via X that he’s investing $30 million in startups building at the intersection of tech and gaming, specifically across the web3, AI, and augmented reality industries. The $30 million fund is part of the venture capital firm’s Speedrun program, which is an early-stage accelerator for startups at the intersection of tech and games. Accepted startups will receive a $750,000 investment and participate in a 12-week intensive program running between July and October in LA later this year.

The deadline to apply is May 19, and selected startups will be notified in June.

• Apple officially launched Spatial Personas from beta for the Vision Pro to help solve the device’s isolating experience. This new offering allows users to display digital versions of themselves in SharePlay-enabled apps to interact with other Apple Vision Pro users.
• Three TikTok-fueled trends are coming together as one. Alo, the omnipresent sportswear company, is teaming up with Beats by Dre for a special edition headphone drop. The campaign features singer Tyla and is soundtracked by her song Safer. The collaboration is a “celebration of the rhythm of life and the practice of being present.”
• Stevie Wonder, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, and more than 200 other artists signed an open letter penned by the Artist Rights Alliance that calls on AI developers and digital music services to stop using AI to infringe on artists’ rights.
• In an effort to bring more educational content to its platform globally, TikTok is expanding its dedicated STEM feed to Europe after first launching it in the US last year.
• It’s been a busy week over at Microsoft. As the US House of Representatives announced that it’s banning the Big Tech company’s AI chatbot, Copilot, on government devices, Microsoft also announced that it’s unbundling Teams from the rest of its Office subscription services following complaints from the European Union and rivals like Slack.
• Google has agreed to delete millions of users’ web browsing data as part of a settlement for a 2020 class action lawsuit that alleged the Big Tech giant wasn’t being honest about how Chrome tracks web activity.
• AT&T is investigating a widespread data leak that resulted in sensitive information from 73 million of its current and former customers being released on the dark web a few weeks ago.
• Popular NFT collection Doodles is expanding its range with an animated special featuring Pharrell, Lil Wayne, and Coi Leray. The campaign, titled “Project Grey,” will begin its rollout this summer. This isn’t the first time Doodles and Pharrell have linked up, having been named the company’s Chief Brand Officer in 2022.

Tesla‘s annual sales are down for the first time since 2020 due to increased competition. To entice interested buyers, I’m going to bet that Tesla will kick down prices for its EVs at least one more time this year.

The post ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• Apple‘s developers conference is back
• Tech Talk Reviews: Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
• TikTok launches Youth Council

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is Back in June

Apple‘s annual Worldwide Developers Conference will return from June 10 to 14. As always, the keynote will kick off at Apple Park and be streamed online. The conference will showcase the latest operating system advancements across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Vision Pro products. Essentially, this is the conference for devs to learn about what they can build with the most updated Apple software and systems before they are pushed publicly. Like in previous years, developers will be able to get hands-on with Apple designers and engineers during in-person experiences and demos following the keynote on opening day.

We first learned about the Apple Vision Pro at WWDC 2023, so what can we expect from this year’s conference? I heard some chirps that we might get insights into Apple’s AI plans, but if I’ve learned anything about following this tech company, I’m never right about what’s coming next.

Still, I’ll have a download on the event right here in a few months.

Amazon Completes $4B Investment in AI Startup Anthropic

In September 2023, Amazon announced that it would invest up to $4 billion in generative AI startup Anthropic, and the Big Tech giant said this week it has made good on that promise. After initially writing a check for $1.25 billion, Amazon maxed out its investment with another $2.75 billion as part of its strategic collaboration with Anthropic. As part of the deal, Amazon will maintain a minority stake in the company, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) will be the primary cloud provider for Anthropic’s work. AWS customers will continue to get access to Athropic’s AI platforms, including Claud, via Amazon Bedrock, as well as other features.

It seems like Amazon is getting cozy with Anthropic, just like Microsoft is doing with OpenAI. It’ll be interesting to see how the Big Tech companies shepherd in companies that might be their next big competition.

Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

On Thursday, disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison. SBF was facing more than a century behind bars, though the prosecution was seeking a sentence between 40 and 50 years. The defense pleaded for a six-and-a-half-year term since his crimes were nonviolent and he was a first-time offender. SBF was found guilty of multiple fraud and conspiracy charges in November 2023, nearly a year after he was arrested, for his role in the collapse of his crypto exchange.

SBF was sentenced in a Manhattan court, but it’s unclear where he will serve his prison term. If he serves the full 25-year term, he will be 57 years old when he gets out of prison.

Tech Talk Reviews: Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Ray-Ban and Meta teamed up again to release the second generation of their Smart Glasses. For the past month, I’ve been testing the new device in different environments, from subway stations to bars, the office, and more. Read up on what I learned here.

• TikTok launched a global Youth Council featuring 15 teens between the ages of 15 and 18 who will be charged with advising the short-form video app company on issues that affect young users and how to mitigate them.
• The European Union is investigating Apple, Alphabet, and Meta to see if the changes the Big Tech companies said they would make on their platforms comply with the region’s new regulations in its Digital Markets Act. Of course, the Commission will be looking into app store operations once again.
• OpenAI published a roundup of videos created using its newly developed text-to-video and image-to-video creator, Sora. This comes as Bloomberg reported that OpenAI is meeting with studios and directors based in Hollywood to promote its ner generative AI tool.
• As if TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts weren’t enough, LinkedIn is testing a short-form video feed with a select group on its platform to give users another avenue to discover relevant content.
• Hulu on Disney+ officially launched this week in the US, bringing Hulu’s library of content onto Disney‘s streaming platform. This integrated experience is available to users who are subscribed to both platforms.
• Google‘s philanthropic arm, Google.org, launched a $20 million accelerator program for nonprofits using generative AI. The inaugural class of the Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI program includes 21 nonprofits that will receive exclusive funding and training for six months.
• X users are getting some new perks. First, the platform’s AI chatbot Grok was enabled for all Premium subscribers after previously only being available to Premium+ members. Elon Musk also posted that “X accounts with over 2,500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free, and accounts with over 5,000 will get Premium+ for free.”

This week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting children under 14 from having social media accounts. The law is set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, but I’m going to bet it’ll get blocked by a higher court.

The post What Will We Learn at Apple WWDC24 this Summer? appeared first on Boardroom.

This story is part of Tech Talk Reviews, a series highlighting tech reporter and digital creator Michelai Graham’s experience testing new tech gadgets, emerging platforms, apps, games, and more. Find more reviews here.

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have been on the market for about five months, but the second-generation device is outpacing its predecessor, and for good reason: It’s a much better upgrade.

In this latest edition of Tech Talk Reviews, I tell you everything you need to know about the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and how I used them in different environments.

The Specifics

Meta announced the release of the second generation of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses during Meta Connect in September 2023. Meta Connect is the Big Tech giant’s two-day virtual summit focused on AI and virtual, mixed, and augmented realities. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new device during a keynote, which was developed in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica, a company that owns eyewear brands and retailers, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, EyeMed, LensCrafters, and Sunglass Hut.

The second generation of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, which hit shelves on Oct. 17, 2023, didn’t just get a new look and higher quality; they also got a new name and design. The first iteration of the smart glasses was known as Ray-Ban Stories, but that version was discontinued in November 2023 after about two years on the market. The device’s successor improves on all core features, which include open-ear audio and the ability to capture photos and videos with the click of a small button on the glasses.

The smart glasses feature directional audio, two custom ope-ear speakers, extended bass, and a higher maximum volume that allows users to listen to music, answer phone calls, or even listen to podcasts more comfortably in any environment. The glasses also feature five microphones, including two in the left arm, two in the right arm, and one near the nose pad.

The newest and most unique addition to the glasses is Meta AI, a feature that lets users leverage AI to find out more information about the images they take, take photos and create captions, translate words viewed in environments, and much more. Users can also tap into the conversational assistant to make calls and send messages hands-free by using the “Hey Meta” command. Ultimately, this new offering lets users control features using their voices.

Meta reduced the weight and slimmed down the profile of their new smart glasses compared to the previous version, and the device is now water-resistant. The second-generation Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses come in two designs: Headliner, which features a rounded, more retro aesthetic, and Wayfarer, which features the classic Ray-Ban look. The device comes in an array of colors with a shiny or matte finish, including black, caramel, and a bluish jean color. The lenses come in clear, green, brown, black, blue, red, and amber, and some are polarized. Meta also developed the smart glasses to be prescription-lens compatible. Users can customize their frames and lenses on the Ray-Ban Remix platform.

As for the cameras, there are two featured on each corner of the glasses, one being an ultra-wide camera. The glasses can capture endless photos and videos up to 60 seconds. Video length is set to 30 seconds by default, but this default can be shortened to 15 seconds or extended to a minute. Users can tap into the “send a photo” voice command to share images with contacts directly. Another cool feature: users can live stream from the glasses straight to Facebook or Instagram and see comments in preview or hear them out loud via using a Meta AI voice command.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 Platform, which was built exclusively for smart glasses that capture photo and video content. When it comes to battery life, Meta redesigned the charging case for the glasses, which can hold up to 36 hours of use. The charging case is USB-C compatible. Another power source for the smart glasses is the Meta View app. All content captured on the smart glasses can be downloaded and viewed in the app, which is downloadable on smartphone devices. Users need the app to set up Bluetooth capabilities with the device, and the app can be used to update settings and navigate other features of the glasses.

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses cost $299 to $379 and are available for purchase on Meta and Ray-Ban’s websites.

Michelai’s Review

I spent the past month playing around with my smart glasses and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. I have the Wayfarer design in black matte with black lenses. They are the standard frame size, but this version and all other versions also come with large frames at request.

For starters, I love how simple the branding is on the glasses. My favorite part is that they have the classic Ray-Ban logo in the corner of the right lens and on both arms. On the exterior, it doesn’t have a Meta logo anywhere, but it can be found on the interior on the right side where the frame and arm meet. On the opposite side in the same area lives the on/off switch. It’s very small and subtle, and truthfully, I often forget to power my glasses off, yet they still keep a good charge since they are in my charging case when I’m not wearing them.

The arms of the glasses are, of course, a little thicker than your typical glasses arms, but that’s because that’s where the bulk of the tech lives. I was surprised by how sleek the frames were, even with the camera positioned in the corner. The speakers are virtually undetectable, and I like that, yet the audio is very clear. Another favorite aspect of the smart glasses for me is that I can hear different commands when I snap a photo and start a video. The classic lens flutter sound is used for photo capture, and the video start and end sound is a subtle ding.

I’ve used my glasses in various environments throughout New York, including the subway, crowded bars, outside in the daylight and at night, inside coffee shops, at the office, at brunch, and many more places. The photo and video quality was top-tier when I was shooting in natural lighting or bright lighting.

If you didn’t know, the subway has the best lighting for an impromptu photo shoot. Check out these images of my beautiful friend, Yesenia Ramos, captured by the train and inside a crowded subway with my smart glasses.

Going back to the open audio, it’s truly a treat to be able to hear sound with the glasses on, though I’m sure others around me could hear my sound too, which wasn’t the most ideal. Unlike open audio earbuds, the smart glasses sort of create a mini surround sound experience for its user, which is both great yet sometimes unwanted when I want to answer private calls with other people around. Plus, no one wants to be that person awkwardly playing loud music or audio on the subway — at least, I don’t want to be that person.

An interesting observation I noticed: When I was recording video content, I could take the glasses off and the recording would continue going. I subconsciously did this in the middle of recording to pass the glasses to a friend, and we were able to capture the seamless transition, which was impressive. When it comes to audio, on the other hand, the glasses would pause whatever I was listening to or doing on my phone when I removed the glasses from my face.

Aside from that, my main critique is the fact that the quality of content goes way down in low light, as expected. The glasses aren’t equipped with any flashes, but maybe we can expect that upgrade in the next iteration. The quick solution my friends and I found was to raise a camera flashlight, which created some interesting lighting effects.

Overall, I loved testing out this product, and I’ll likely continue using the glasses to capture content. While I mainly used the glasses around New York, I’ll be taking my Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses on vacation soon, and I’m excited to capture the tropical and warm environments around me.

As always, I hope you learned something new from my experience with this new tech device. I’ll have more reviews coming soon.

More Tech:

1

0

50

post

6

OR

992,5276,5513

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Tech Talk March 31, 2024

What Will We Learn at Apple WWDC24 this Summer?

Big Tech March 26, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About AI Chipmaker Nvidia

Tech Talk March 24, 2024

Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network?

Tech Talk March 17, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About TikTok’s Potential Ban in the US

Emerging Tech March 16, 2024

US House Advances Bill on TikTok Ban

The post Tech Talk Reviews: Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses appeared first on Boardroom.

There has been a lot of buzz about Nvidia this past year as far as what the company does and why it’s having a meteoric rise to the top.

The tech company designs and manufactures graphics processing units (GPUs) that have driven advancements across AI, gaming, robotics, and other tech-focused industries. Nvidia also develops wireless communication devices, computing chips, and other tech systems, services, and software that power artificial intelligence. The company hit a $1 trillion valuation in May 2023 for the first time, marking the first of many milestones for the company in this past year.

The AI computing leader might be in the limelight right now, but Nvidia has been building its tech offerings for more than 30 years. Here is a quick rundown of Nvidia’s origin story and what the company is building.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

Nvidia’s Founding

Nvidia was founded on April 5, 1993, by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. All three founding men have extensive engineering backgrounds, with Priem formerly working at IBM as a graphics chip designer. Huang, Malachosky, and Priem decided to launch Nvidia after projecting an uptick in the need for advanced GPUs, which are specialized devices for processing graphics and images on computers at accelerated rates.

The Nvidia founders specifically saw an opportunity to infuse the gaming and multimedia industries with the tech it was building. They didn’t just want to tackle a graphics processing challenge; they wanted to bring a higher level of realism to computer screens. Huang, Malachosky, and Priem started to solve this problem by developing various graphics processing devices. They started Nvidia with $40,000 of their personal funds before raising millions of dollars in venture capital from notable investment groups, including Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, and TriplePoint Capital.

Nvidia was deep in the developmental stages in the late 1990s, and the company even went through layoffs and almost went bankrupt before it created its flagship product: the graphics processing unit. Nvidia was the first company to bring GPUs to market. Huang, Malachosky, and Priem believed a dedicated GPU was vital to advancing computer graphics because, before this, the majority of graphics were processed via the central processing unit (CPU). Nvidia invented the GPU in 1999, recalibrating the computing industry and the quality of graphics, specifically 3D graphics at the time.

Going Mainstream

Nvidia went public on Jan. 22, 1999, and by the end of that year, its flagship GPU, the GeForce 256, was released. The company’s success skyrocketed after this, and Nvidia won the contract to develop the graphics hardware for Microsoft‘s first Xbox console that later launched in November 2001. In 2004, Nvidia inked a deal with Sony to design the graphics processing unit for the PlayStation 3.

Everything seemed to be going well for Nvidia, but with great success comes great failure. In mid-2008, the company faced a class action lawsuit that included some of its shareholders accusing it of selling faulty graphics chips that were failing at abnormally high rates. Nvidia settled the suit with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010 and agreed to allot $200 million to cover customer warranty, repair, and replacements for any faulty chips.

In the midst of that, Nvidia continued its rise and fine-tuned its GPU offerings. Here are some of the company’s big wins over the years:

• February 2008: Nvidia announced its Tegra chip series, which are specialized GPUs for mobile devices and smartphones. These chips also power tablets and Nintendo‘s Switch console.
• January 2011: Inked a six-year, $1.5 billion licensing agreement with Intel that has since been expanded to other partnerships.
• May 2020: Scientists at Nvidia developed an open-source ventilator to address the shortage during the pandemic.
• July 2021: Nvidia launched the Cambridge-1 supercomputer, the company’s first supercomputer for external research access to solve medical challenges using AI.
• Sept. 26, 2023: Nvidia celebrated hitting the $1 trillion valuation mark by adding a plaque to its birthplace, a Denny’s in East San Jose. The Nvidia founders conceptualized the company at the popular diner back in the early 90s before launching it. Denny’s CEO, Kelli Valade, joined Huang at the local Denny’s to unveil the plaque.
• March 1, 2024: Nvidia becomes the third company in US history to surpass a $2 trillion market cap.

Once upon a time, Nvidia almost bought one of its competitors, Arm Holdings, from Softbank in a deal valued at an estimated $40 billion, Boardroom previously noted. The deal ultimately fell through in February 2022, and Arm went public in September 2023 as it also caught the wave of the AI revolution.

The AI Revolution

Nvidia reports that more than 40,000 companies are using its AI technologies worldwide. It’s no secret that AI has been the hottest topic since the end of 2022, when the AI chatbot boom began, thanks to OpenAI. Virtually every major tech company, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta, uses Nvidia’s computing chips to power parts or all of their businesses.

Nvidia is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and has nearly 30,000 employees today and counting since now, more than ever, everyone wants to get in on the AI movement.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Everything You Need to Know About AI Chipmaker Nvidia appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition:

• Everything you need to know about Reddit‘s IPO
• Yikes. The DOJ is suing Apple 
• LinkedIn is reportedly developing games

Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network?

Reddit officially made its debut as a publicly traded company on Thursday. The social media company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the RDDT ticker. Reddit launched in 2005 with a simple idea: anyone could submit links for others to vote on to create a “front page of the internet.” Those votes led to customized pages of recommended links and content for each user. Much of that is still in Reddit’s DNA.

This moment is almost two decades in the making, but before we jump into how well Reddit did on its public debut, let’s take a look at some major milestones from the company over the years.

Major Milestones

• June 23, 2005: Reddit is founded by University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian.
• Oct. 31, 2006: Huffman and Ohanian sold Reddit to Condé Nast Publications for a reported $10 to $20 million and moved the company to San Francisco.
• January 2008: Subreddits are born.
• January 2009: The “I Am A” subreddit was created, becoming one of the most popular subreddits to date. The forum often hosts Ask Me Anything sessions with notable people.
• October 2009: Huffman and Ohanian part ways with Reddit.
• November 2014: Ohanian joins Reddit’s board as executive chairman. (He later stepped down on June 5, 2020, and called to be replaced by a Black person in response to the murder of George Floyd. Five days later, Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel was inducted into Reddit’s board.)
• July 10, 2015: Huffman rejoins Reddit as CEO, a role he still holds today.
• May 31, 2017: Reddit sunsets default subreddits and introduces the r/popular landing page for more inclusivity.
• April 2018: Reddit unveiled a new design for its website and introduced its famous logo, Snoo.
• Dec. 13, 2020: Reddit acquires Dubsmash to integrate video creation tools.
• March 21: 2024: Reddit begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

A Historic IPO

Nearly 19 years after its inception, Reddit finally went public. The company’s mascot, Snoo, was on deck at the NYSE to ring the opening bell on Thursday. Reddit priced its IPO at $34 per share, but the stock opened at $47 and reached a high of $57.80 on Thursday. Reddit’s market cap reached $9.5 billion on opening day, exceeding its target of $6.4 billion, and shares closed at $50.44 each. Reddit and its selling shareholders raised $748 million, which is what the company was targeting.

Reddit originally filed to go public in December 2021 following the GameStop meme stock saga, but after hitting some roadblocks, the company decided to delay its public offering. It’s clear that now was the best time for the social media network to make its debut on the stock market. Reddit filed to offer 22 million shares for its IPO while reserving 8% of shares to offer to eligible users, board members, and family and friends of employees.

One unexpected person who netted millions of dollars from Reddit’s public debut is OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman, who holds 9% of the company’s shares. The shares he controls were worth $613 million at closing price on Thursday. Altman is a close friend of Huffman and has known Reddit’s CEO since the social network’s launch years ago. The pair met during their time as part of the inaugural Y-Combinator class. If you’re wondering where all of those entrepreneurs ended up, check out this read.

Reddit is the first social media company to go public in nearly five years. Before Reddit, Pinterest was the last social network to hit the stock market on April 18, 2019, at $19 per share, with a high of $24.40 on opening day. It’s obvious the market has a larger appetite for social media stocks right now, as Reddit joins the likes of Meta, Snap, and others.

Reddit boasts an estimated 850 million monthly active users and around 73 million daily users. The company has yet to turn an annual profit, but we can expect to see some positive dollar signs for Reddit soon.

I’ll continue following Reddit’s successful public debut and report on the big news here.

• The US Department of Justice filed an 88-page lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the Big Tech giant monopolizes the smartphone market by making it difficult for consumers to interact with some platforms and switch to other smartphones. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Apple is in talks with Google to license its Gemini AI tech on iPhone devices.
• Starbucks is (finally) sunsetting its Web3 rewards program, Odyssey, on March 31 after launching it in beta in late 2022. The Odyssey marketplace will be moved over to Nifty Gateway for consumers still interested in chasing Starbucks‘ coffee NFTs.
• Microsoft hired Inflection AI co-founders Karén Simonyan and Mustafa Suleyman to lead its new Microsoft AI unit, which will focus on developing Copilot AI initiatives. Suleyman, who also co-founded AI startup DeepMind, which was acquired by Google in 2014, will lead the new unit as CEO and executive VP, while Simonyan is joining the unit as chief scientist. The Information reported that Microsoft is paying $650 million to Inflection AI since it’s hiring its leaders and most of its 70-person staff.
• Elon Musk‘s Neuralink company shared a video on X allegedly showing that its first human patient using a brain implant can control a mouse to virtually play chess. The patient, who was paralyzed from the shoulders down during a diving accident, is participating in Neuralink’s first human trial that’s supposed to last for six years.
• AI music generator Suno released its flagship platform, which lets users generate “radio-quality music” made with original lyrics and beats from simple text prompts. The platform can generate two-minute-long songs in seconds.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a new class of AI chips named Blackwell during the company’s developer conference. The new computing chips will ship later this year and are expected to be Nvidia‘s most powerful yet.

Apparently, LinkedIn is working on launching a new gaming experience within its platform. While the idea sounds fun, I’m going to bet that this project won’t make it out of the beta phase since consumers go on LinkedIn to build their professional networks, not play games.

The post Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network? appeared first on Boardroom.

Adrienne Lofton, vice president of consumer marketing at Google, never intended to work in tech, even though she often found herself adjacent to the industry throughout her career.

With over 20 years of experience in the marketing industry, Lofton has held executive roles at top brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Levi Strauss & Co., and Target. In her current role at Google, Lofton works in the brand’s Platforms and Ecosystems portfolio, where she oversees a team that brings culturally relevant consumer-first integrated campaigns to market from beginning to end for products like Android, Play, and Chrome.

“Stepping into Google was not intentional, but yet, it was the perfect plan as I’ve continued to grow my career,” Lofton told Boardroom.

As part of Boardroom’s Women’s History Month coverage, Lofton opened up about her career path and shared insights on how her team approaches each campaign with the same goal in mind — keeping culture centerstage.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

From Houston to Howard

Lofton grew up in a predominately white neighborhood in Houston, so when it was time to go off to college, she chose to seek a new experience. Lofton said as soon as she stepped foot on Howard University’s campus, she knew that’s exactly where she needed to be.

“When I went to Howard, it was the first time I realized taking smart risks makes you better and stronger,” she said. “When I got into the school of business at Howard, I told the head of the school that I wanted to work for Nike.”

Lofton didn’t know she would embark on a career in marketing and brand strategy at the time, but she knew she wanted to tell stories and make people feel the way that Nike made her feel as a young athlete.

“I was an insecure kid where sports made me feel like I could do anything, and it was Nike that unlocked that in me,” Lofton said.

But it would be another 15 years and a slew of different jobs before Lofton landed her big opportunity at Nike.

Her journey begins at Gap, before taking a role at General Motors to build out the automotive company’s multicultural division on its agency side. After that, Target approached Lofton to build out a similar multicultural organization before she took her talents to Under Armour (UA). She spent 12 years at UA, a time that she says was one of the best chapters in her life. And then out of nowhere, Nike called in search for a VP and North American CMO.

Lofton said she had huge shoes to fill when she accepted the job at Nike since the person who held the role before her was known as a legend around the company. Still, she jumped right in and was extremely excited to be working with a brand she always admired.

And then, in her fourth year at Nike, Google came knocking.

All Roads Lead to Tech

Lofton didn’t realize her career path led to tech until her current boss, Nick Drake, Google’s VP of global marketing, called her for a reference for someone else years ago, and they immediately hit it off. That 30-minute informal conversation turned into a two-hour deep-dive about what it is to be a marketer today and how to think about the consumer differently.

“So if you’re in marketing and you’re running a full-stack offense, you’re definitely writing checks to Facebook and Google from an advertising perspective, so I had commercial relationships with these companies,” Lofton said. “I think in my head, and this could be imposter syndrome, but by the time I got to year like 10 or 12 [in my career], and as tech was booming, I would always think it was too late for me to jump into something that felt to me completely new.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SpringHill (@makespringhill)

Lofton had her reservations about jumping into a new industry, but Drake was adamant about bringing Lofton onto his team, so much so that the pair talked for eight months about what a role at Google would look like for her. Lofton did acknowledge that she was three years in to her dream job at Nike at this time, a role she didn’t envision leaving.

“In each conversation with Nick, I started to think maybe I can step into this sometimes very intimidating industry called tech and actually make a difference,” she said. “I stepped out almost three years ago now to join Google, and it’s one of the best decisions I have ever made.”

In hindsight, Lofton said Google is both very similar to things she’s done in the past and completely different. One of the biggest differences she noted is how quickly tech innovations happen. Lofton also said there is an interesting balance between art and science inside Google. When she got there, she said she spent a lot of time understanding data and getting deep into analytics before launching marketing campaigns, where she got to bring art into the fold.

Lofton said when she retires, she wants to be able to look back on every chapter in her career and be proud, even a newer chapter such as tech.

Google’s New Circle to Search Campaign

Lofton said this new campaign is intentionally different from what the brand has done in the past, and it comes with multiple layers. Android launched its new ‘Endless Wow Factor’ campaign, featuring an array of celebrities, including Naomi Campbell, Brent Faiyaz, Sha’carri Richardson, and Bronny James, engaging with Google’s AI-powered Circle to Search feature. The feature allows users to tap into a simple gesture to pull up a search of anything on their phone, from screenshots to photos and more. Lofton’s team worked with Crown + Conquer, a creative agency, to bring this new campaign to life.

“So when we talked about the reinvention of search, which is Circle to Search, the ability to stay within your app and just go and circle and find something new, whether it’s information or cultural, we knew that we needed to bring a different level of attention to this new product,” Lofton said. “We wanted to bring real people into the product, hand them our devices, and let them experience it themselves.”

The 60-second video shows the range of this new feature in different settings, which is only available on Android devices. The campaign wasn’t just to highlight a new feature but to see how innovation can impact a trusted and known product like Google Search.

“We are bringing the best of Google technology to the biggest cultural moments, changing the way we engage our consumers,” Lofton said. “While I am proud of so many moments, there is still work to be done to ensure all consumers feel valued, and I’m excited to keep pushing forward.”

Breaking Barriers

Whether inside or outside of the office, Lofton champions DEI. She serves as Google’s executive sponsor for AdColor and often speaks at conferences aimed at underrepresented individuals. As a Black woman, Lofton said she’s used to being the first in many categories. She was the first Black woman in all of her roles at UA, the first Black woman to lead North America at Nike, and the first Black CMO of Dockers at Levi’s.

“I am a Black woman. And I carry that with me into every room I enter, every role I hold, each and every day. It has shaped how I lead, how I engage with those around me, and the work I put into the world,” Lofton said. “It is hard to envision yourself in a position when it hasn’t been held by someone who looks like you before, and that experience can be quite isolating. But I take great pride in breaking barriers and allowing others who look like me to see themselves in places we haven’t been previously, and this motivates me to keep going and unlock more doors for myself and others.”

Specifically at Google, Lofton said the brand is hyper-focused on inclusive marketing, which Google defines as the conscious act of making informed, intentional, and brand-appropriate creative decisions that – in aggregate – positively reflect the diversity and reality of the world around us. All of the marketing campaigns the brand creates are reviewed by its Marketing Review Council, a division that ensures each piece of work sticks to this standard and that there is diverse representation in front of and behind the camera.

“DEI is so critical. From a business perspective, the consumers we serve are so diverse, and our teams and the work we put into the world need to reflect that,” Lofton said. “I always start with my team, and I’m really proud that we’ve increased underrepresented groups significantly year over year.”

Lofton’s Future

Lofton said she’s acutely focused on being present, so it’s hard to envision what her future looks like. Though she does think about it often. Aside from the important work she’s doing at Google, she’s looking forward to spending more time with family and friends, continuing her fitness journey, and cuddling with her furry friend, Kosi Langston. In the distant future, Lofton said she could see herself opening up a fitness studio or starting a dog rescue program.

“Looking ahead, in 10 years, I see myself being mentally and physically healthy. And that is a result of the work that I am currently putting in daily,” Lofton said. “We only get one life, so I will continue the quest to tap into the joy of life and living.”

As for aspiring marketers, Lofton said it’s important to take stock of what success looks like for you, build an authentic network, and challenge the status quo. She always tells her team to focus on getting wins on the board, and this means really putting their heads down and doing the work.

“I’m an athlete, and I live by the mindset of ‘being where your feet are.’ Be present and absorb all you can where you are before worrying about the next thing,” Lofton said. “Never stop being curious. I am a lifelong learner, and even after 20 years in the marketing industry, I’m always looking for new challenges that will help me stretch and grow. Marketing is a beautiful balance of art and science, and both sides are always evolving. So, as marketers, we must continue to respect the craft and hone our skills.”

READ MORE

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post How Google’s Adrienne Lofton Connects Marketing and Culture appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition:

• The download on TikTok‘s possible US ban
• Tech Talk Reviews: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
• Reddit eyes $6.4 billion valuation

Everything You Need to Know About TikTok’s Potential Ban in the US

The clock is ticking on TikTok’s fate in the United States after the House of Representatives voted in favor of a bipartisan bill that could ban the platform if it doesn’t get new ownership.

But there is a lot of information to understand and dissect around this ordeal, so I’m here to break it down for you.

How the TikTok Ban Bill Ended Up in Congress

TikTok, which China-based ByteDance owns, launched in the US in September 2016. The company splits its headquarters between LA and Singapore. TikTok’s app didn’t gain noticeable traction until October 2018, when it became the most downloaded app in the US. The US government has always been critical of the video-sharing app since its parent company is based in China, where the government has a stronger influence over local businesses, even if they have an international reach.

Congress is most concerned about national security risks and data privacy since the Chinese government can decide at any moment to instill laws that would require ByteDance to share sensitive information about its users. Still, ByteDance’s leadership said it would never do that, and the tech company has even made strides to build trust in the US. Back in 2022, TikTok agreed to move all US user data to American soil through a partnership with Texas-based tech giant Oracle. This relocation was to make sure only the US-based security team could access the data. Additionally, the US government will have the ability to monitor the operation regularly.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew spoke about this relocation, dubbed Project Texas, in detail during his first testimony before the House in March 2023. The testimony lasted more than six hours, and I watched the entire thing. Here are some key takeaways from the hearing. Chew’s testimony came at a time when sweeping TikTok bans hit the nation. In February 2023, the Biden administration banned TikTok from federal devices, even though the president’s re-election campaign made an account last month. In May 2023, Montana became the first state to ban TikTok after signing a bill that would have gone into effect in January 2024 before a federal judge blocked the decision in November. A slew of states across the US have instilled similar TikTok bans on federal devices, and some universities have restricted the app on school devices and campus Wi-Fi.

The Vote in the House

The noise around a nationwide TikTok ban was quiet for some time, but that was the plan all along. Bipartisan lawmakers kept the bill under wraps until last week when a House committee unanimously voted to put the legislation to a larger vote. Chew quickly traveled to the US to speak with lawmakers ahead of the vote on Wednesday. TikTok also pushed messages to its US users urging them to contact their Congressional representatives to kill the bill. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, as the bill was passed, with 155 Democrats and 197 Republicans voting in favor of it.

Chew responded to the vote on the bill in a TikTok video, emphasizing how much a TikTok ban in the US would negatively impact small businesses and content creators.

What’s Next?

If the bill goes to a vote in the Senate and it is passed, President Joe Biden already agreed to sign it into law. The bill would require ByteDance to sell its ownership in TikTok within 165 days, or the app will be blocked from US app stores indefinitely.

TikTok has grown to attract an estimated 170 million users in the US, which is nearly half of our population, so it’s understandable why there are bigger concerns at play here. It’s unclear if the Senate will bring a bill to a vote.

Personally, I don’t think TikTok is leaving the US anytime soon. Refer to my Bet of the Week for more.

Still, TikTok is in a tough spot since the Chinese government has also told ByteDance it will oppose a sale of the app in the US.

For more on my thoughts on a potential TikTok ban, check out this video.

Tech Talk Reviews: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Electronics leader Samsung debuted its newest line of smartphones in January with new AI tools. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is the first Samsung device to feature a titanium frame, reducing the smartphone’s weight. I’ve been playing around with the Galaxy S24 Ultra for the past six weeks. Take a look at what I learned.

• Reddit announced that it plans to raise $748 million at a $6.4 billion valuation from the 22 million shares it filed to offer for its IPO. The social media platform is launching a subreddit (/RDDT) for users to ask questions about its public offering. Stay tuned; I’ll have more on Reddit IPO next week.
• Bitcoin hit a new all-time high again on Wednesday when it briefly surpassed the $73,800 threshold. For context, Bitcoin was trading at around $26,500 this time last year.
• A new bill in Illinois called the Journalism Preservation Act will soon be put to a vote. If passed, it would require tech companies to pay local news outlets for work viewed by residents on their platforms. Meta says it will pull news from its platform in the state if the bill passes.
• A group of authors is suing Nvidia for alleged copyright infringement. The authors are claiming that Nvidia trained its AI platform NeMo using their books without their consent.
• Spotify is beta testing a new feature with Premium subscribers that allows them to access music videos for select songs via the Now Playing screen. The feature is available across 11 markets.
• OpenAI announced a new board of directors that includes eight members, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, and Nicole Seligman, former Sony Entertainment President.
• Elon Musk agreed to release the code and open up access to Grok, an AI chatbot that was previously only accessible to X Premium+ subscribers, following his lawsuit against OpenAI that alleges the AI company is keeping its tech too private. Fun fact: In one of my Bet of the Week editions last year, I predicted this would happen in Q1 of 2024. Check it out here.
• Speaking of Musk, Don Lemon said the troubled tech tycoon canceled his content deal on X’s platform hours after they filmed the debut episode of his new show. Lemon said the episode will still air on YouTube, which will be the primary home for The Don Lemon Show moving forward.

If Congress fully passes the TikTok bill in the US, I’m going to bet that ByteDance will let TikTok spin out as its own company and maintain its HQ offices in Singapore and LA.

The post Everything You Need to Know About TikTok’s Potential Ban in the US appeared first on Boardroom.

The 170 million TikTok users in the US are in jeopardy of losing their accounts after the House of Representatives passed a bill that could ban the app if China-based ByteDance doesn’t sell it.

The federal government has long been concerned about the national security risk TikTok could pose if sensitive data about US users is shared with the Chinese government.

So, how did we get here, and what exactly did the House vote on?

Let me break it down clearly.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boardroom (@boardroom)

The bill passed by a vote of 352-65. It’s unclear if the Senate will raise a vote on the bill, but the chamber did agree to review the legislation. President Joe Biden already agreed to sign the bill into law if Congress passes it, forcing ByteDance to sell the app in 165 days or see it banned from US app stores.

TikTok’s fate hangs in the balance, but we’ll continue to track the legislation’s movements and report them in Boardroom’s Tech Talk newsletter. Stay tuned.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post US House Advances Bill on TikTok Ban appeared first on Boardroom.

This story is part of Tech Talk Reviews, a series highlighting tech reporter and digital creator Michelai Graham’s experience testing new tech gadgets, emerging platforms, apps, games, and more. Find more reviews here.

It’s no secret that I’m an iPhone Stan, but for the past six weeks, I’ve been testing the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (S24U).

It might sound weird to hear this, but the first thing I say about the new smartphone when people ask me about it is that it feels good in my hands. The sleek titanium frame reeled me in quickly, and it was kind of nostalgic to dive back into using an Android device day to day.

In this latest edition of Tech Talk Reviews, I break down everything you need to know about the S24U and how it differs from other smartphones on the market.

The Specifics

I did a download on the new class of Galaxy S24 devices back in January when Samsung first announced them, but I didn’t go deep on how advanced the S24U is. The S24U is the first mobile device from Samsung to feature a titanium frame, which reduces the smartphone’s weight. It comes in titanium black, titanium gray, titanium violet, and titanium yellow, with storage space ranging from 256 GB to 1 TB.

The S24U’s design differs from the other smartphones in its class, which is expected as it is the upper-level Galaxy S24 model. It has square edges, as opposed to round ones, and each titanium color comes with a matt finish. The device’s 6.8-inch display almost takes up the entire front cover of the smartphone, which comes from Samsung reducing the border around it by 42% compared to previous models.

The S24U features five cameras, including ultra-wide, wide, and telephoto cameras. The other S24 models only feature three cameras. The S24U also comes with a stylus, dubbed the S-Pen, that tucks into the bottom of the device. It can be used in various ways, from navigation to note-taking.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

The S24U’s best new feature is Galaxy AI, the bespoke new AI platform that operates on S24 devices and is accessible via the cloud. Galaxy AI features enable live text and call translations, enhanced search, photography and editing, and more. One feature, Live Translate, enables real-time voice and text translations of phone calls within a native app. The Chat Assist feature is built into the Samsung Keyboard and develops different messages and responses with conversational tones. Within the Notes app, Galaxy AI can be used to summarize, format, spellcheck, and translate text files.

The S24U also features a transcription option in the Voice Recorder app, though you have to fully record some audio before tapping the AI icon to generate a transcript. Users can tap Galaxy AI to suggest image edits, and it also offers Generative AI edits where users can decide what they want to edit on their content.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra costs $1,299.99 for 256 GB, $1,419.99 for 512 GB, and $1,659.99 for 1 TB.

Michelai’s Review

When I first set up my S24U, I was more than lost trying to navigate the Android interface. It came back to me quickly, but it didn’t dawn on me until picking up this phone that my brain was warped by Apple‘s pull.

Still, I jumped right in, and there were a few things that automatically stuck out to me. The S24U’s volume control button sits right above the power/lock button, which is half the size of the volume button. This was one of my least favorite things since my instincts kept telling me to press the larger button to lock the device, and it didn’t work, of course. I will be honest and say I never got used to that design because why not just split the buttons up and put one on the opposite side or on top of the smartphone?

Besides that, I really loved the design of the S24U. It’s a bit bigger than my iPhone 14 Pro, but it was so easy to hold in my hand. I feel like the titanium matte finish helped give it an easy grip in my hand. Transparently, I downsized from the Max device when I upgraded to the iPhone 14 Pro because I didn’t like how the Max would fit into my hand. I was always straining my pinky, and I really needed that finger to stay in good shape.

On to Galaxy AI. Samsung’s new AI features are powered by Google’s Gemini suite of AI offerings and operate throughout the device. Since I also use a lot of these AI features on my Google Pixel 8 Pro, catching on to them came to me pretty easily.

I mean, honestly, who doesn’t want five cameras? I played around with them a lot simply because I had access to them, and it was nice to have multiple options. One of my favorite things about the S24U is the display. It was so bright and crisp, and I found myself getting lost in the animated wallpaper I chose because the display was that appealing to me.

As for my favorite feature, that would definitely have to be the Circle to Search feature, which lets me search on my screen without opening up different apps. For instance, I could take a photo of sneakers or a jacket I saw someone wearing, circle or draw on that item, and the device would pull up options across Google Search to purchase it. I am sure we all do this, but I’m constantly screenshotting things on social media that I want, and this feature comes in handy for that and cuts out a lot of the manual research I have to do.

The S-Pen came in a close second once I realized that I could use the stylus while my phone was locked to take notes on the black lock screen. The lightbulb in my head went off, and I began using the feature to jot down notes at any given time. I’m one of those people with 100 notes on my iPhone, and sometimes, I find it really inconvenient that I have to unlock my phone and tap an app before I get to jot something down, so this feature on the S24U gets a 10/10 from me.

Another roadblock I ran into caused a bit of chaos in my little studio. I have a Google Nest Hub display, and with my Pixel 8 Pro also in the mix, it was nearly impossible to use the “Hey Google” command at home since all three devices would respond. I’m sure there is a workaround for this, but I haven’t figured one out yet. 

While I enjoyed getting familiar with the S24U and getting reacquainted with an Android device, I don’t know if there was anything about the new smartphone that would sway me away from Team iPhone.

Maybe I can be convinced one day, but for now, stay tuned for more product reviews. And let me know what you think of the S24U if you’ve had a chance to try it out.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Tech Talk Reviews: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra appeared first on Boardroom.

Coinbase is a sponsored partner of Boardroom.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boardroom (@boardroom)

Much has changed with Coinbase‘s crypto wallet since the leading crypto exchange launched its flagship product in 2018.

Boardroom previously explained what digital wallets are and how to store cryptocurrencies on them. As a refresher, we’re back with a video breakdown of how to set up a Coinbase Wallet if you want to get in on the current rally around crypto.

VIDEO GOES HERE

This walkthrough couldn’t have come at a better time, as Bitcoin went over the $70,000 threshold for the first time last week and had been trading above $72,000 at the time of this writing. The crypto bull market is upon us as other popular cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Solana, are also seeing positive upticks in recent months.

Important note for Coinbase Wallet users: This type of crypto wallet is a self-custody wallet managed by its owner and kept secure by Coinbase. It allows users to interact with crypto and decentralized finance protocols, but users will have to skip over to the Coinbase crypto exchange via the app or at Coinbase.com to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies.

Happy crypto trading, folks.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

87459

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post How to Set Up Your Coinbase Wallet as Crypto Market Booms appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• Social media platforms went down this week, but why?
• EU fines Apple $2B as the tech giant and Epic Games go at it (again)
• OpenAI responds to Elon Musk’s lawsuit

Social Media Platforms Went Offline This Week. But Why?

Hmmm, seemingly every social media platform went down this week but X, and that just really doesn’t sit right with me.

It all started on Tuesday morning when Meta‘s family of apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, experienced a widespread outage that lasted roughly two hours. The platforms glitched for some users and wouldn’t refresh or load, while others were completely logged out of their accounts. Meta acknowledged the issue on its status page, but when the services returned online, the company didn’t say why they were ever down other than that there was a “technical issue,” which we all could have guessed.

YouTube also briefly went down on Tuesday after experiencing a surge in traffic due to outages across Meta’s platforms. The same happened to Discord. Again, the platforms were brought back online without much explanation. LinkedIn also briefly went offline Wednesday evening after nearly 45,000 users reported encountering an error page when accessing the networking site.

We’ll probably never know why all of these social media platforms went down, but on the bright side, Instagram users can now edit DMs up to 15 minutes after sending them and pin chats. Woohoo!

EU Fines Apple $2B as the Tech Giant & Epic Games Go At It Again

The European Union announced on Monday that it’s hitting Apple with a $2 billion fine for breaking antitrust laws in the region following a complaint filed by Spotify in 2019. This is the first time Apple has received a fine from the EU, which pertains to the Big Tech giant’s App Store practices for music streaming platforms. The EU told Apple it can’t stop music services from advertising cheaper subscription deals outside of the App Store. Apple responded to the ruling, saying the EU didn’t “uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm,” so it will appeal the decision. Apple also accused Spotify of trying to rewrite its App Store rules to gain competitive advantages and reap all the benefits.

Amid this, Apple terminated Epic Games‘ developer account this week before reinstating it a few days later. Epic Games intends to use the account to launch its own app store for iPhones in Europe to distribute Fortnite and other games. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said the gaming company’s account was iced as retaliation following Epic’s lawsuit against Apple, other litigation, and some of his social media posts. Apple responded, saying it had the right to terminate Epic’s account for breaching its contractual obligations.

The developer account termination was another red flag for the EU, which announced it will investigate.

Crypto Chronicles: Bitcoin, Ethereum Reach New Milestones

Bitcoin and Ethereum are having a historic week after reaching new heights since Q4 of 2021. First, Bitcoin set a new all-time high of $69,210 on Tuesday before doing it again on Friday by eclipsing $70,000 for the first time ever. The token outpaced its previous highest value of $68,982 on Nov. 10, 2021, and has been trading above $66,000 consistently throughout the week. Soon after, ETH surpassed the $3,800 mark on Wednesday morning for the first time since December 2021, partly due to its upcoming network upgrade. ETH hit its all-time high on Nov. 9, 2021, when it was trading for $4,815, so the crypto has a way to beat that record.

ETH’s value has historically trended along with Bitcoin, so it doesn’t surprise me that the crypto and many others are seeing some success this week. There was even a big NFT sale. CryptoPunk #3100 sold for 4,500 ETH, or $16.03 million, on March 4. This is the second-highest CryptoPunk sale ever, and some NFT enthusiasts are saying this sale is a sign that the bull market is back.

• The OpenAI leadership team finally responded to Elon Musk’s lawsuit last week in a blog post revealing that the tech tycoon promised to invest as much as $1 billion but only cut a check for $45 million. The AI startup said Musk didn’t significantly impact its development and success, even after he offered to bring OpenAI under Tesla‘s wing in 2018.
• Anthropic debuted Claude 3 on Monday, a new AI chatbot and suite of AI models that it’s dubbing its most powerful offerings yet. The company said its latest chatbot can summarize up to 150,000 words. For reference, that’s about how long Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is.
• ByteDance‘s revenue in the third quarter of 2023 rose by an estimated 43% to $30.9 billion, showing that it’s growing at twice the rate of Meta, The Information reported. The news broke as TikTok‘s parent company internally shared plans to buy back stock, indicating that it wants to stay a private company for the foreseeable future.
• Coachella announced a partnership with NFT marketplace OpenSea to give NFTs a second try for fans seeking access to more VIP areas and exclusive merch at its annual music festival. This new offering comes after Coachella’s failed 2022 partnership with FTX following the crypto exchange’s collapse.
• Former Google software engineer Linwei Ding was arrested in California and charged with four counts of federal trade secret theft for allegedly stealing and sharing AI trade secrets with two companies based in China.
• More than 200 AI researchers signed an open letter published by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University urging generative AI companies, including OpenAI, Google, and Meta, to allow investigators to access their systems for examination and safety testing.

I’m going to go long here and bet that Bitcoin will cross the $80,000 threshold before the summer hits since its value has consistently been trending upward in recent weeks.

The post Social Media Platforms Went Offline This Week. But Why? appeared first on Boardroom.

Bitcoin briefly reached new heights on Tuesday morning when it hit $69,210 for the first time ever, outpacing its previous highest value of $68,982 on Nov. 10, 2021.

The cryptocurrency has steadily risen since early December, climbing in value weekly. The rally around the most valuable digital asset on the market comes as the Bitcoin network prepares for its next halving event, and investors are getting more acquainted with spot Bitcoin ETFs. Bitcoin has grown by nearly 70% this year, and its new record comes two months after the token celebrated 15 years on the market.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

A year ago, on this day, Bitcoin’s closing price was $22,440, over $40,000 less than what it’s trading for today. It seems like a steep fall, but this was actually when the token was rebounding from its lowest-recorded price of 2022 on Nov. 21, 2022, which was in the $15,780 range.

If you’ve been following the crypto world closely, then you know that the FTX collapse in November 2022 sent the industry into a downward spiral from which it’s still recovering. The entire crypto market was impacted by FTX‘s fall, which sent many crypto lenders into bankruptcy.

Bitcoin has shown the most resilience of all the cryptocurrencies out there and still holds the most value. On the same day that the token reached its new all-time high of $69,210, Bitcoin also fell by nearly 10% at the time of this writing. This is likely due to a spike in liquidations as investors look to earn a quick dollar from Bitcoin’s latest success.

What’s Fueling the Bitcoin Bounce-back?

Boardroom breaks down what a spot Spot Bitcoin ETF is and why it’s the reason Bitcoin is back on the rise.

Check it out!

It’s unclear if retail or legacy crypto investors are pulling their assets out, but on Jan. 10, the day the first group of spot Bitcoin ETFs was approved, Bitcoin was trading for around $47,600 at its height, and it’s only been going up since. There has been a wave of retail investors getting in on crypto, thanks to spot Bitcoin ETFs, so maybe they’ll hold their investments through another surge in the token’s value.

I want to say it’s only up from here for Bitcoin, but the crypto market is too volatile to predict. Still, I could see the token surpassing the $70,000 threshold in the next month or so as the network prepares for the next halving event. This moment will tighten Bitcoin’s supply, making the token more scarce as time passes.

Stay tuned to Boardroom and subscribe to Tech Talk for a follow-up soon with more on Bitcoin halving and what it means for the crypto market.

Want More Bitcoin?

1

0

8

post

6

OR

179

86175

Emerging Tech March 12, 2024

How to Set Up Your Coinbase Wallet as Crypto Market Booms

Tech Talk March 3, 2024

Bitcoin Briefly Hits $64K for the First Time in 2 Years

Emerging Tech February 7, 2024

Bitcoin is Back on the Rise, Averaging $42K in January 2024

Tech Talk January 14, 2024

SEC Approves 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs in Landmark Victory for the Crypto Industry

Emerging Tech January 11, 2024

What the SEC’s Approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs Really Means

Tech Talk January 7, 2024

Bitcoin Celebrates 15 Years on the Blockchain by Briefly Surpassing $45K

The post Bitcoin Hits New All-time High Above $69K appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• Bitcoin briefly hits $64K
• No EV car from Apple is coming
• Alphabet faces $2B lawsuit from media publishers

Bitcoin Briefly Hits $64K for the First Time in 2 Years

Suddenly, it feels like November 2021 again since Bitcoin briefly broke the $64,000 threshold earlier this week and is holding steady above $61,000 as of Friday morning. The token just closed out its best month since 2020, and its value is up 40% this year already. In this past week alone, Bitcoin was up nearly 20%. This is a big deal for the world’s most valuable digital asset, which hasn’t traded in the $60,000 range since it hit its all-time high of $68,789 in November 2021.

So, what’s driving Bitcoin’s rally right now? Demand, increased interest, spot Bitcoin ETFs, and the impending Bitcoin halving event could all be playing a role in the token’s success right now. Personally, I don’t think there is enough of the crypto to account for all this new demand, though some investors are liquidating their assets as the token climbs. It’s important to note that around the year 2140, Bitcoin will cap at 21 million total coins in circulation, meaning no more tokens will be mined after that, ever. The Bitcoin network is currently producing roughly 900 tokens per day. Originally, the halving event was supposed to happen in May, but it got pushed up due to increased demand.

I’m going to hold on to my biggest Bitcoin hot take for now, but expect to see one as my Bet of the Week very soon.

Apple Pulls the Plug on its Decade-long Electric Car Project

After 10 years of development, Apple has decided to nix its electric vehicle plans coined Project Titan, the company told employees on Tuesday. Apple CEO Tim Cook first announced the tech company’s plans to foray into the auto industry in 2017, even though reports surfaced in 2014 that Apple was building a driverless car. Apple had nearly 2,000 employees working on Project Titan, and some of them will be relocated to other AI teams while others will be laid off. Apple’s EV ambitions have been plagued with reorganizations and new leadership shuffles over the years.

Apple spent billions on its EV project, but its investors seem to be pleased it stopped development since the Big Tech company’s stock rose by 1% following the internal announcement that was prematurely leaked to the press.

TikTok Removes More of Universal Music Group’s Catalog from Platform

This week, TikTok began removing more music from Universal Music Group‘s catalog as their battle over royalties continues. UMG’s contract with TikTok ended on Jan. 31, and the pair decided not to renew it after they failed to reach a new agreement on royalties for artists and songwriters. Initially, TikTok only removed music owned and distributed by UMG, but it extended its removal to include songs published by the music company as well. That even includes some songs with non-UMG artists who feature songwriters and artists under UMG’s umbrella.

It seems like TikTok and UMG are inching further away from reaching a new agreement, but I still have faith the companies will come to some sort of resolution sooner rather than later.

Tech Talk Reviews: Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

Audio giant Bose recently launched the Ultra Open Earbuds, a new product I’ve been testing for the last month. The earbuds feature a fashion-forward, cuff-like design, and they were built for users to hear their favorite audio and physical surroundings at the same time. I shared my thoughts on Bose’s newest device in the latest edition of Tech Talk Reviews, a series highlighting my experience testing new tech gadgets, emerging platforms, apps, games, and more.

• Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman and OpenAI, alleging the company has abandoned its founding mission to develop artificial intelligence “for the benefit of humanity broadly.” The lawsuit says that OpenAI‘s focus on maximizing profits for Microsoft negates that.
• While Google announced the expansion of its Gemini AI tech in its messaging system, wearables, and Android Auto, 32 media groups banded together to hit its parent company, Alphabet, with a $2.3 billion lawsuit filed in a Dutch court. The media companies, including Axel Springer, allege that they suffered losses due to Alphabet‘s digital advertising practices.
• Automattic, the parent company of WordPress and Tumblr, is nearing a deal to sell user data to OpenAI and Midjourney, 404 Media reports. This could include private and deleted posts, so millennials, it’s time to get back into those Tumblr accounts and see what you posted back in the day.
• Meta is putting together a team focused on tackling voter disinformation and generative AI abuse in the European Parliament elections in June. The Big Tech giant will launch an Election Operations Center to mitigate threats in real-time.
• New money: Photo-sharing app Lapse closed a $30 million Series A that will go toward product and team expansion, while Humanoid robot startup Figure AI raised $675 million from notable investors, including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
• Spotify announced that it paid out nearly $4.5 billion to independent labels and publishers last year, marking a new record for the streaming platform.
• Sony Interactive Entertainment is shuttering its London PlayStation studio and is laying off 900 employees, or an estimated 8% of its global workforce, from its PlayStation division. The staffing cuts come after Sony also cut its sales forecast for the PS5 after lower demand.

Nokia phone maker HMD announced a collaboration with Mattel to develop the real-life version of the Barbie Flip Phone, which is slated to be released this summer. Nostalgia and the Barbie movie will drive potential interest in the device, so I’m going to bet that sales will at least top 100,000 at launch.

The post Bitcoin Briefly Hits $64K for the First Time in 2 Years appeared first on Boardroom.

If you ask Kelley Walton about her career trajectory, she’ll tell you she’s someone who has operated behind the scenes across the marketing industry for the past 20 years at some of the most notable global brands.

Today, Walton is the head of global brand, product, and integrated marketing at Amazon Music. She’s grown into an integrated marketing strategies maven as a byproduct of her work at top brands such as the NBA, Under Armour, LVMH, and others. Like most, Walton’s career path was not linear, but she’s strived not only to climb the corporate ranks but to make sure she’s laying the foundation for more diverse professionals to follow in her footsteps.

“What I have come to really sharpen and hone in on is what I do well and what I can deliver. I’m really good at helping deliver business results at this intersection of culture, community, and commerce. I pay really close attention to trends and patterns,” Walton told Boardroom in an exclusive interview. “Long before the industry and everyone had their wake-up call with the unfortunate incidents around George Floyd’s death, I realized and was able to show that authentically connecting with young and diverse consumers was good for business. And so that’s what I’ve been able to do.”

As part of Boardroom’s Black History Month coverage, take a look at Walton’s career and her work in DEI to find out why she’s become a playmaker to watch and learn from in the marketing industry.

Sign up for our newsletter

Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• HeadlineToGo
• Tech Talk
• Inside the Boardroom
• Sneaker Game

Subscribe

Setting the Goal

Believe it or not, Walton grew up wanting to be an obstetrician-gynecologist, which is why she studied biology at Morris Brown College. She got about halfway through her studies before realizing she couldn’t stand the sight of blood. Since Walton was studying at the HBCU on an academic scholarship, she decided to finish her degree program. After college, she landed a temp job at a fintech company, but this business environment still didn’t interest her enough.

Walton played basketball growing up in Akron, Ohio, so sports have always been a part of her life. She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and it wasn’t until one of her sorority sisters was going away to study sports marketing in graduate school at St. Thomas University that she realized what she wanted to do. Walton went to visit her in Miami before embarking on her own graduate school journey, where she earned an MBA in sports marketing and management at St. Thomas.

“I was like, if there’s a way that I can combine my love of sports with this business environment, I think that will be amazing for me,” Walton said.

Walton dived into her new career with ease. Early on, one of her most memorable learning experiences was her time interning with one of the only Black nightlife club owners in South Beach, Onyx. There, she observed first-hand how intertwined the sports and nightlife worlds really were. Walton also spent some time interning in the athletic department at the University of Miami and worked with a Super Bowl host committee. Collectively, these experiences shaped her love and passion for marketing and ultimately helped her decide that it was a career for her.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Culture Creators ® (@theculturecreators)

Paving the Way

Walton’s first full-time gig out of grad school was at an agency where Coca-Cola was her client. About two years into her role, Coca-Cola recruited her to join its team internally as an associate marketing manager. Philip Polk, a DEI executive and former chief DEI officer and VP of multicultural strategy at Hallmark Cards, was one of Walton’s mentors at the time who helped guide her through this transition. His insight and advice became integral to her growth.

“There have been people along my journey that have been great sounding boards for me and great mentors that helped me focus my thinking in a way that would be most helpful,” she said. “I try to offer the same for others now as well.”

Walton is a vocal advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Early on in her career, she was hyper-focused on networking and building relationships with like-minded individuals. One organization that had an impact on her early on was Women in Sports and Events (WISE), a leading resource for women working in the sports industry who want to connect and support one another. Walton joined WISE when she landed her first tole in the sports industry at ESPN as a manager of integrated marketing and sponsorships.

“It was great to connect with other women in the sports industry and get tips and tricks on navigating the industry and how to network,” Walton said. “What I love about my experience with WISE is that it did come back around later in my career when I was at Under Armour. I re-engaged with WISE after going out of the sports industry for a while.”

After ESPN, Walton spent four years as at Heineken. There, she parlayed her accomplishments and her connections to her next role at LVMH as the director of brand and integrated marketing for Hennessy. By the time Walton reached Under Armour, where she served as a VP and head of global brand experience, she began serving as a mentor for younger WISE members, and she even brought the organization into some of the work she was doing at the sportswear company. Walton was integral in helping set up a women’s employee resource group at Under Armour, and she brought WISE in to help consult on that with the company’s leadership team.

To this day, Walton keeps her executive coach by her side for guidance because she never wants to stop learning and elevating her expertise. The impact is undeniable. Walton has become an executive whose work speaks for her, even when she isn’t around. Through the years, she’s been offered positions by several notable brands. I jokingly told her she has mastered the art of avoiding the traditional interview process because her strong resume speaks for itself.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

Making Her Mark

Walton’s secret sauce is getting global brands to open up to the idea of authentically bringing diverse voices into their most visible campaigns. She said that she’s shown that having a wide range of perspectives in the room, including the teams doing the work, helps deliver a better product and a greater impact. As she looks back on her career thus far, she cites Hennessy’s rebrand and the NBA’s 75th Anniversary campaign as the two most memorable projects that have integrated that core philosophy.

“I’m not about being extractive or transactional when engaging with diverse audiences. I really believe there has to be a partnership and ability to co-create together,” she said. “I’d like to say I focus on culture because it always has been and continues to be a key element of delivering this impact for the brands I represent.”

Rebranding Hennessy

Walton brought this focus into the work she did on the Hennessy campaign launch in 2012, an expansive advertising and marketing campaign. Walton was charged with relaunching the renowned spirit’s brand to help regain its luxury and lifestyle credentials. To do this, she targeted young multicultural men, a group of consumers she felt would drive Hennessy’s campaigns at the time. And she was right since this rebrand led to key partnerships with the ESPYs, Coachella, the Grammys, and more. Walton also spearheaded Hennessy’s presence on Martha’s Vineyard, a perennial hot spot for the Black community.

“Music, sports, film, and art were key passion points for this audience,” she said. “Going all the way back to Hennessy Artistry and things like that, that was part of spinning up strategies to bring these passion points to life for our target customer and really bring them closer to the brand.”

Walton is also responsible for securing Hennessy’s partnership with Nas, and she led the charge on the brand’s support in the making of his 2014 documentary, Time Is Illmatic.

“I led the partnership of the launch of that with the Tribeca Film Fest, where Time Is Illmatic was the first music documentary to open that film festival, which was historic at the time, and then the national rollout of the film,” Walton said.

The NBA’s 75th Anniversary

Walton served as the NBA’s VP of global brand marketing and creative between 2020 and 2022, where she led the development and worked on the league’s 75th Anniversary campaign. Growing up in Akron meant even more to Walton to work on this project since All-Star Weekend was in Cleveland that year. Walton was at the center of everything, from coming up with the big strategic ideas to collaborating with all the players to developing NBA Lane.

During this time, Walton worked closely with Devin Booker, LeBron James, and Michael B Jordan. She recalls being on set to shoot one day for the opening sequence of the campaign video and wanting Russell Westbrook to tell his story about fashion. Her team was struggling to connect with him, but while on set, James took it upon himself to call Westbrook up to entice him to participate. Before the end of the day, Russell showed up, and Walton and her team quickly created a vignette that was authentic to him and his interests.

“I think what I’m most proud of is that when I first started at the NBA, we had to beg, borrow, and steal to get the players actually to be a part of marketing campaigns, and by the time I left, they were advocating for one another to participate,” Walton said.

Climbing and Thriving

Walton’s work as the head of global brand, product, and integrated marketing at Amazon Music is her first foray into working with a Big Tech brand. Consumer tech has always been an area she wanted to work in, but she wanted to make the pivot authentically. She joined when the company was looking to rebrand and relaunch Amazon Music. Walton felt like good synergy with the opportunity and said she would not have left the NBA without a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity such as this.

In this new chapter, Walton pulls from what she knows. As with her past stops, she is consistently asking herself how Amazon Music can strategically attract young and diverse audiences and, specifically, how they can do so as authentically as she did working in other industries.

“[At] Amazon, broadly, we are customer-obsessed. At Amazon Music, we’re fan-obsessed. We know that our fans crave a variety of tastes in music and experiences. People might say it’s pushing a lot of water uphill, but I’d say it’s actually not,” Walton said. “I usually get these calls when companies have real business opportunities by reaching young and diverse audiences and showing up authentically with them; it’s going to help move the needle on business results. I don’t find that I have to do a lot of convincing at Amazon Music around what we need to do in the space, whether it’s our year-long support of the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop, or it is the work that we do with the Latin audience, the K-pop space, you name it.”

Walton said there’s always a willingness to bring different perspectives to the table at Amazon Music, and she said that’s mainly because there are other Black women sitting next to her making it happen.

“In many cases in my career, I’ve been the one and only in the room. And it is nice not to be the one and only and to have people,” she said.

Walton’s Future

In the next decade or so, Walton sees herself retired on a beach, doing a different type of work that fulfills her. She said she’ll continue mentoring, angel investing, and volunteering with the philanthropy-focused organization she’s passionate about.

Young Black professionals looking to climb the ranks at notable brands like Walton, she has one Golden Rule to share with you: treat others how you want to be treated. She said you never know who may open doors for you, and her career trajectory is a true testament to that.

Also, it is important to give yourself room to learn and grow at all points in your career, even if it feels uncomfortable.

“Always strive for excellence, but I think we need to kick this notion of not giving yourself permission to experiment because Black people don’t have the luxury to fail,” Walton said. “We have to be willing to experiment, and we have to find places and spaces that are safe for us to do that for our own growth. And as leaders, it’s important that we create that for the ones coming behind us as well.”

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Kelley Walton: Amazon Music’s Marketing Maven appeared first on Boardroom.

This story is part of Tech Talk Reviews, a series highlighting tech reporter and digital creator Michelai Graham’s experience testing new tech gadgets, emerging platforms, apps, games, and more. Find more reviews here.

Could you imagine listening to your favorite true crime podcast while also hearing the busy NYC streets?

Bose created a new product for that.

The renowned audio brand launched the Ultra Open Earbuds on Feb. 15, debuting a new product line focused on immersive audio and awareness. I’ve been testing Bose’s new earbuds for about a month now, and much like the brand’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, I’m a huge fan.

In this latest edition of Tech Talk Reviews, get an insider perspective on Bose’s newest audio-wearable and hear from Raza Haider, Bose’s Chief Product and Supply Chain Officer.

The Specifics

The new Bose Ultra Open Earbuds feature a cuff-like design that was created with fashion and comfort in mind. The earbuds let users hear their audio and physical surroundings all at the same time because they actually don’t go inside of your ears. Unlike your typical headphones or earbuds, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds were made to be worn throughout the day, even if no audio is coming through them. Bose was able to accomplish this design by creating a device that attaches to the side of users’ ears.

The earbuds’ flexible, silicone-wrapped arm coating connects the speaker to the battery barrel. The flexibility creates a one-size-fits-all device since the earbuds will adjust to whatever ear they latch onto. The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds also feature small magnets that help secure them inside their charging case. Like the audio brand’s other products that feature Bose Immersive Audio, the earbuds can also tap into still or motion mode. There is one button on top of the battery barrel that can be set to play, pause, skip, adjust volume, and more.

Users can set their preferred audio preferences on their earbuds in the Bose Music app.

Haider exclusively told Boardroom at a pre-launch press demo that the brand’s newest product has been in the making for roughly two and a half to three years. The audio company previously launched products that inched towards open earbuds, but Haider said those devices were more episodic and particular to certain use cases.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

“We’ve been working on open-ear audio type of experiences probably for eight or 10 years,” Haider told Boardroom. “Three years ago, we went on the hunt to search for a form factor that could take that technological innovation and bring it not just to episodic use cases, but to everybody.”

Bose does a lot of customer research and rapid prototyping during its products’ research and development phases. Haider said the design was a perfect fit when the team landed on it, so they started teasing it to people early on, and it was clear the cuff-shaped design was a winner.

Ahead of launching the Ultra Open Earbuds widely, Bose partnered with Kith for a limited-edition version of the earbuds that quickly sold out. The Kith for Bose Ultra Open Earbuds feature the words “Kith” in the design of the Bose logo. This partnership was a perfect match since Bose is also targeting fashion-forward customers with its latest product design.

“If you’re going to wear something, you want it to fit your personal style,” Haider said. “The newness is really fun. You don’t get to work on completely new form factors or things that revolutionize the way a product category looks and feels like. It’s a real step change in a no-compromise experience that I don’t think the world has seen. The audio quality is great; the comfort is fantastic. It fits everybody. I’m excited to see what people have to say.”

The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds come in Black and White Smoke and are available for $299 at Bose.com.

Michelai’s Review

I’ve been testing the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds for the past month or so, and my favorite thing about them is that I don’t have to compromise on any of my ear candy, which is very important to my everyday look. I have a lot going on around my ear area between endless studs and my glasses stems. If anything, the earbuds have added to my style.

I found that I wear my earbuds a tad higher than most users, and I can guarantee they are just as secure as wearing them lower near my first ear piercing.

I didn’t intentionally mean to wear my earbuds in the shower one day, but I did, and they emerged in tip-top shape. The audio wearables also have water and sweat-resistance protection built into them.

I don’t have many cons to share about this product. My only note is that the magnets under the earbuds sometimes latch onto my earrings, but l easily move the earbuds around to find a suitable area on my ear.

And let’s get into the battery life on these! My earbuds never died, even when I wore them for an extended period of about six hours. That’s because they feature up to seven and a half hours of battery life on a single charge without Bose Immersive Audio activated and up to four and a half hours when it is turned on.

Aside from that, a full charge also provides 48 hours of standby time, meaning if I leave my earbuds on for two days straight and stay connected to my phone without using them, they will stay fully charged. The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds only take an hour to fully charge.

Also, if you’re into a truly noise-canceling audio experience, this might not be the product for you. The immersive audio is top-tier, but the open earbuds don’t get as loud as your typical earbuds or headphones. I found myself trying to turn my earbuds up more and more in louder environments, but they aren’t meant to drown out your surroundings.

Overall, I’m a huge fan of these earbuds, which are now integral to my commute around New York City. I have a no-headphones rule when riding the train so I can be aware of what’s happening around me, but all of that has changed with these earbuds. I can be aware and still listen to my favorite music and podcasts.

Tell me, after reading this, would you invest in the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds? Stay locked on Boardroom and subscribe to Tech Talk for more reviews just like this.

Get More Tech Talk:

1

0

8

post

6

OR

5276

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Tech Talk March 31, 2024

What Will We Learn at Apple WWDC24 this Summer?

Tech Talk March 24, 2024

Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network?

Tech Talk March 17, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About TikTok’s Potential Ban in the US

Emerging Tech March 16, 2024

US House Advances Bill on TikTok Ban

Tech Talk March 10, 2024

Social Media Platforms Went Offline This Week. But Why?

The post Tech Talk Reviews: Bose Ultra Open Earbuds appeared first on Boardroom.

This past year was only the beginning. Let’s see what I can do with the next 365 days.

Alright, let’s get into it.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• Nvidia revenue is up 265% year-over-year
• Google pauses its Gemini AI image generator
• AT&T hit with nationwide service outage

Nvidia Revenue Surges to $22B as AI Chip Biz Booms

AI chipmaker Nvidia generated $22.1 billion in revenue in its most recent quarter, up a whopping 265% year-over-year due to the increased demand for its tech across the AI sector. The company beat analysts’ expectations across the board, driving its shares up as much as 10% in after-hours trading. Most notably, Nvidia’s data center division saw a big boost, with sales up 409% year-over-year to $18.4 billion. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang doubled down on the company’s growth trajectory to investors who have fears about demand decreasing over the years.

Huang said demand for the company’s AI chips will remain high due to the generative AI buzz. On top of all its success, Nvidia is reportedly developing a new AI chip to deploy in China that will comply with US export rules.

Nvidia expects to generate $24 billion in sales at the end of the next quarter, while analysts predict it’ll bring in around $22.17 billion. Nvidia has come a long way since it hit a $1 trillion market cap for the first time in May 2023. Last week, Nvidia surpassed Amazon and Alphabet in market capitalization, making it the third most valuable tech company behind Microsoft and Apple. On Feb. 22, Nvidia added $277 billion to its market cap in one day, overtaking Meta to claim the top spot for the biggest single-day market cap surge in stock market history.

Google Pauses Gemini AI Image Feature, Announces New AI Model Gemma

Google announced on Thursday that it’s pausing AI image generation of people on Gemini after the platform developed inaccurate historical pictures of people and their races and genders. Gemini is allegedly doing this in an effort to erase discrimination across history, but the facts are the facts, and it’s obvious Google trained Gemini to curve some of the truth.

“We’re already working to address recent issues with Gemini’s image generation feature,” Google detailed in its statement on X. “While we do this, we’re going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon.”

Elsewhere in Google news, the Big Tech firm announced a family of new AI models called Gemma that were built for responsible AI development. Google wants AI developers and researchers to tap into the new AI platforms via laptops and desktops for “responsible commercial usage and distribution for all organizations, regardless of size.”

OpenAI and Match Group Announce Partnership as ChatGPT Glitches Again

Match Group and OpenAI announced a new partnership that grants 1,000 enterprise licenses to the dating app maker’s employees. This means that Match Group employees will be able to leverage ChatGPT for an array of business tasks like communications, building templates, coding, and much more. Match Group’s team will be able to access ChatGPT-4, and only trained and licensed employees will gain access to the AI tool.

While OpenAI was locking in a new partnership, ChatGPT seemingly malfunctioned earlier this week after it began responding to queries with incomprehensible responses Tuesday night. OpenAI didn’t catch wind of it right away but reported that it’s currently investigating the glitch. For now, ChatGPT seems to be operating in its right mind.

• AT&T customers were hit with nationwide outages on Thursday, and some Verizon and T-Mobile customers were mildly affected. Cellular service and internet access were unavailable across the board, while AT&T spent the majority of Thursday getting back online. It’s unclear what caused the outages.
• Reddit inked a $60 million deal with an unnamed AI company to give it access to its content for training purposes, Bloomberg reports. The partnership came just before the popular website filed to go public on Thursday, and Reddit plans to reserve some shares for 75,000 of its most loyal users.
• Livestream shopping platform NTWRK acquired Complex from BuzzFeed for $108.6 million, the companies announced on Wednesday. BuzzFeed also announced that it will continue cutting expenses by laying off 16% of its workforce.
• Arc Boat Company, an electric boat maker that includes backing from Kevin Durant, Rich Kleiman, and Klay Thompson, announced the launch of its second fully electric model, dubbed the Arc Sport. The new e-boat designed for wake sports is 23 feet long and can carry 15 passengers, and Arc expects to start delivering its newest model to customers later this year.
• The European Commission is applying pressure on social media giants once again. This time, the foreign agency is looking into TikTok for potentially breaching its Digital Service Act for its alleged addictive algorithms. Apple may be facing a $539 million fine in the EU, and a ban on some of its App Store restrictions focused on music streaming platforms following a 2019 complaint filed by Spotify.
• Walmart has entered an agreement to acquire smart TV maker Vizio for $2.3 billion to advance its advertising revenue through the ability to display more ads on streaming devices.

This week, Apple announced a new free app for sports fans called Apple Sports, which will deliver real-time scores, stats, and more across NBA, MLS, NCAA basketball, and many other leagues currently in season. I’m going to bet that Apple’s new app will become the ESPN app’s biggest competitor, driving it to either rebrand or partner with another company to stay afloat.

The post Nvidia Revenue Surges to $22B as AI Chip Biz Booms appeared first on Boardroom.

Boardroom and Coinbase synced up once again to curate a room full of the most notable athletes, executives, and entertainers during NBA All-Star Weekend 2024.

By now, All-Star Weekend attendees know that Boardroom and Coinbase‘s brunch is one of the top events you don’t want to miss throughout the weekend. This year’s event was co-hosted by Minnesota Timberwolves‘ Anthony Edwards and Boardroom co-founders and co-CEOs Rich Kleiman and Kevin Durant.

“We’re proud to keep hosting an incredible event year after year at All-Star,” Kleiman said. “There was so much joy, connection, and education in the room this weekend, and we look forward to continuing to do so for years to come.”

An estimated 450 guests made an appearance at the brunch, which was hosted at the Hulman in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday, Feb. 17. Boardroom turned the venue into the premier brunch space that donned a coffee station, specialty cocktails, a Cierto Tequila display, a photo moment, and more.

Chase B, the star of Boardroom’s new series AUX MONEY, brought the sounds and good vibes on the mic as expected. The specialty cocktails were the highlight of the show, and the All-Star, which included Cierto Tequila, passionfruit, Amaro, and Anise, was a crowd favorite.

“Crypto moves the financial system forward — making it cheaper, faster, and more accessible. Basketball fans are younger, more likely to own crypto and see it as the future of finance,” Kate Rouch, Coinbase’s Chief Marketing Officer, said. “We were thrilled to co-host some of the biggest names in finance, technology, and sports. We’re united by our belief that it’s time for an update.”

The Foot Locker sneaker wall became a hot commodity for guest photos, decorated with Durant and Edwards’ All-Star sneaker colorways. The activation came as part of Foot Locker’s broader strategy around the weekend, where it unveiled its new year-round platform, The Heart of Sneakers. The new platform highlights Foot Locker’s extensive and renowned brand.

“Storytelling is more important than ever, and Boardroom has been one of the leading voices in sports and entertainment. We were thrilled to partner with their team to bring the Boardroom Brunch to life at NBA All-Star in Indianapolis,” Frank Bracken, Chief Commercial Officer and EVP at Foot Locker, said in a statement. “The event brought some of the most influential people in the industry all under one roof, including Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, and Devin Booker.”

Boardroom and Coinbase have shown time and time again that they know how to get important people under one roof to rub elbows and break bread. Their third annual brunch at NBA All-Star Weekend 2024 was no different.

The curated guest list included influential names across sports, business, media, and music, including Devin Booker, GloRilla, Anré Williams, Yung Miami, Neal Mohan, Taylor Rooks, Chet Holmgren, Cathy Englebert, Fabolous, Gayle King, Speedy Morman, Sabrina Ionescu, and many more.

And we can’t forget about the coffee station, which became a section of the brunch everyone knew they needed. There were also cold brew cans decorated with a message about crypto.

Stay tuned for more from Boardroom and Coinbase.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Views From Boardroom & Coinbase’s Third Annual NBA All-Star Brunch appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition:

• Big Tech’s strong presence at NBA All-Star 2024
• Bitcoin surpasses $51K
• OpenAI announces a new text-to-video platform

Big Tech is Strong in Indy for NBA All-Star Weekend 2024

Big Tech and the NBA go hand-in-hand as the league continues to implement creative ways to bring tech into the popular sport.

The NBA hosted its 24th annual NBA All-Star Technology Summit on Friday, where it brought together leaders across tech, sports business, and media to have off-the-record dialogues about trends and innovations across their industries. The NBA is undoubtedly the most tech-focused league out there, in my opinion, and that’s because it consistently goes above and beyond to implement and showcase its new tech innovations. IIt did so again at the Tech Summit on Friday as Spurs rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama joined Adam Silver to unveil NB-AI, an NBA-trained voice assistant that leverages AI tech to personalize the live game viewing experience for fans. The league didn’t announce when the new offering will launch or if it will cost at this time.

Outside of the summit, Big Tech giants like Meta and Google had a strong presence throughout the weekend, with tech-focused activations and exclusive programming. One of my favorite events of the weekend was the Google Pixel Combine, which featured interactive stations to showcase its latest device in action. Foot Locker also got in on some tech action with an interactive LED half-court.

Check out my story, All Things Tech at NBA All-Star Weekend 2024, for a full download on what some of the top tech brands have planned for the big game.

Bitcoin Surpasses $51K as Next Halving Event Nears

Bitcoin surpassed the $51,000 threshold earlier this week for the first time since December 2021, marking a new two-year high for the world’s most valuable digital asset. This pushed the token’s market cap back over $1 trillion, which is also the first time this has happened since late 2021. So far, my crypto predictions for the year are coming true since the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, and Bitcoin breezed past $40,000. ETFs are driving the current rally behind Bitcoin as the token’s price continues to drive up. Remember, Bitcoin’s highest value per token was $69,000 in November 2021. It’s too soon to tell if it will reach that threshold again, but you can expect I’ll make a bet on it soon.

It’s also important to remember that Bitcoin’s next halving can occur as soon as April 17, which is roughly two months away. Check out my explainer on what a Bitcoin Halving is to learn more.

Elsewhere in the crypto world, the sentencing for Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has been rescheduled for April 30. CZ’s sentencing was initially scheduled for Feb. 23, and he is facing up to 10 years in prison for pleading guilty to anti-money laundering charges.

Nvidia’s Market Cap Outpaces Alphabet & Amazon as AI Chip Market Booms

Nvidia won this week after it surpassed Amazon in market capitalization on Tuesday for the first time since 2002, but the AI chipmaker didn’t stop there. The company went on to overtake Alphabet on Wednesday as well, becoming one of the top three most valuable tech companies on the market behind Microsoft and Apple. Nvidia’s stock has risen more than 200% in the last 12 months as demand for its AI chips continues to rise. The company’s chips power popular AI models from OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and others.

Nvidia will share its next earnings report on Wednesday, Feb. 21. Stay tuned for an explainer of the AI chipmaker and why it’s having a meteoric rise right now.

• OpenAI announced a new text-to-video AI platform called Sora, which lets users create realistic or animated videos up to 60 seconds from simple text prompts. The generative AI company showcased its new tech offerings through a thread of posts on X featuring different prompts and the videos they created.
• Elon Musk is moving all of his businesses out of Delaware after a judge in the state rejected his Tesla pay package reportedly worth more than $55 billion. Musk filed to move SpaceX and Tesla to Texas and Neuralink to Nevada.
• Google Pixel inked a deal to become the official mobile phone of the NWSL to further media coverage of women’s sports through exclusive behind-the-scenes access to game highlights, teams, and players. Elsewhere, Verizon and the NHL renewed their multi-year partnership to bring more 5G connectivity to arenas.
• New York City and a few agencies are suing TikTok, Meta, Snap, and YouTube, alleging that the tech companies intentionally implement tactics to get young users hooked on their platforms. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said the state is seeking a jury trial, policy changes, and financial damages.
• President Joe Biden‘s re-election campaign launched a TikTok account to attract younger voters on the platform, and the account has already attracted more than 145,000 followers (as of Friday afternoon).
• The European Union ruled that Apple won’t be forced to make iMessage interoperable with other messaging platforms, and Microsoft won’t have to tighten restrictions on its Bing search engine. The EU concluded that the services don’t meet designation under its Digital Markets Act, which is a win for the Big Tech giants.

The US Patent and Trademark Office shared new guidance that says AI systems cannot be named inventors in applications, but humans can leverage AI tools to create patented works as long as they disclose that they do. I’m going to bet that as AI systems get smarter, these rules will change to allow AI platforms to be named inventors.

The post Big Tech is Strong in Indy for 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend appeared first on Boardroom.

NBA All-Star Weekend 2024 is upon us in Indianapolis, and once again, the technology presence is stronger than ever, with artificial intelligence securing the spotlight as expected.

To kick off the busy weekend, the NBA hosted its 24th annual NBA All-Star Technology Summit, bringing together leaders across tech, sports business, and media to have off-the-record dialogues about trends and innovations across their industries. On the record, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama unveiled NB-AI, an NBA-trained voice assistant that leverages AI tech to personalize the live game viewing experience for fans. The new platform uses generative AI to recreate live games as fans see fit, even if that means watching games in the form of dramatic films.

Take a look at NB-AI in action.

There are a lot of tech-focused happenings slated over All-Star Weekend, but here are a few that stand out from big-name brands, such as the NBA itself, Meta, Foot Locker, and more.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

NBA All-Star LED Court

The NBA unveiled a video-enabled LED court that will be used for the main NBA All-Star events hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium over the weekend. The tech-focused court features interactive displays, full-color changes, live replays and game stats, and interactive games to engage fans in-arena.

Google Pixel Combine

Google is stepping out of the box once again with its Google Pixel Combine activation, where it transformed a space into the ultimate hoops heaven.

The activation has many fan engagement stations, from a rookie photo moment to skills training sessions, an open court, and a vintage locker room setup packed with NBA All-Star memorabilia. Throughout the venue, fans can find Google Pixel 8 Pro devices to capture fun moments throughout the experience. Throughout the weekend, Google is also hosting daytime programming and musical performances during the evening.

Ticketmaster’s Game and Go Arcade

Ticketmaster created an NBA arcade experience at NBA Crossover that will draw fans to play NBA Jam, compete in hoops trivia, and test their skills on pop-a-shot. Each fan who stops by will be awarded a scratch-off ticket revealing Ticketmaster prizes. Taylor Rooks, Dominique Wilkins, Joakim Noah, and Jamie Jacquez Jr. are expected to make appearances in the space throughout the weekend.

The Puma x Cheetos Interactive Experience

Puma is syncing up with Cheetos to immerse fans in a 3D larger-than-life Cheetos bag featuring a live mazze, basketball court, and more. Puma and Cheetos linked up for this activation to highlight the cross-section of hoops and snacks, and of course, fans who visit the experience will get a chance to win some giveaways and prizes. Puma and Cheetos’ activation also comes as they drop their sneaker collaboration on Feb. 16.

Coinbase Moonshot

Coinbase constructed a 29-foot-tall geodesic dome at NBA Crossover with one goal: to challenge fans to score a basket at the speed of crypto. To accomplish this, the crypto leader is using a panoramic screen to take guests into space as a basket loaded with high-tech sensors determines the speed and precision of their shot. Participants will have a chance to win limited-edition gear, NFTs, and a meet-and-greet with Indiana Pacers‘ Tyrese Haliburton.

Foot Locker’s Home Court

Foot Locker is taking over downtown Indianapolis with its custom 50,000-square-foot Home Court activation. The unique space features engaging experiences, events, and an interactive LED half-court. The sneaker company will host daily basketball clinics, sneaker trialing, customization stations, exclusive product releases, athlete appearances, and more in the space.

SIGN UP FOR INSIDE THE BOARDROOM

A weekly newsletter that goes long on the biggest stories in sports business, from Boardroom’s Shlomo Sprung.

Sent weekly on Fridays

Email *

Checkboxes *

• Inside the Boardroom

Subscribe

The Meta Quest Suite

The Meta Quest 3 is the official virtual reality headset of the NBA, so it’s only right the brand is showing up in various places throughout NBA All-Star Weekend 2024. Meta is hosting invite-only experiences during the main events of All-Star Weekend to welcome select guests to get hands-on with Quest 3 devices and see how VR is bringing more fans closer to the game in a unique way. Invited guests can experience a variety of basketball and entertainment apps, including watching courtside NBA games in VR via Xtadium and getting shots up in Gym Class VR Basketball during the Panini Rising Stars and the All-Star game events.

AT&T at NBA Crossover

AT&T is hosting a few activations at NBA Crossover with different tech twists. Here is a rundown of each:

• AT&T Dribble Town: this immersive gameplay experience features NBa avatars who will act as guides for participants through a dribbling game. Guests get to select who they want their NBA motivator to be to offer real-time feedback and commentary.
• AT&T Splashville: this activation features a virtual court where fans can compete as their favorite Western Conference player and ace against the clock to make it into the NBA All-Star game.
• All-Star Mural: AT&T sponsored an interactive mural that lets fans get creative and make their own digital painting that can transform with augmented reality.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post All Things Tech at NBA All-Star Weekend 2024 appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• Big Tech is doing it big at Super Bowl LVIII
• Bluesky opens to the public
• Disney invests $1.5 billion in Epic Games

How Big Tech is Taking Over Super Bowl LVIII

Technology is showing up in big ways at Super Bowl LVIII, with brands such as Microsoft, Verizon, Apple, and Google snagging multi-million-dollar advertising spots during the year’s biggest sporting event. But commercials aren’t all you’ll see from the tech world, with brands like Snapchat integrating with the NFL to bring its augmented reality tech to Allegiant Stadium, Verizon working overtime to hook up 5G connectivity for the thousands of fans who will be at the game, and the NFL is even partnering with creators to attract new viewers.

Moments like this remind me that tech touches everything. That’s kind of the slogan I say when people ask me what type of work I do and why. This is it, connecting the dots to how all of these tech brands ended up in the same room.

Check out my story, All Things Tech at Super Bowl LVIII, for a full download on what each tech brand has planned for the big game.

Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky Enters the Market Full-time

Bluesky, a decentralized social media network launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is now open for anyone to join. Dorsey officially incorporated Bluesky in 2021 after spinning the project out from Twitter. Since opening the platform’s waitlist in October 2022, the only way to get on Bluesky was through an invite code from a user already on the platform. Bluesky had roughly 3 million sign-ups before it opened to the public earlier this week, and within a few days, it amassed more than 850,000 new users.

The surge in interest for Bluesky might mean it’ll genuinely become a competitor for X and Instagram‘s Threads. Bluesky’s public launch also comes a month and a half after it launched a new logo with a butterfly to symbolize change and transformation. The logo models the sky blue and white colors the Twitter logo used to have.

Google Says Goodbye to Bard & Hello to Gemini

Last weekend, leaked documents detailed Google’s plans to rebrand its generative AI tech, Bard, and launch an app dedicated to it. It turns out the rumors were true since Google confirmed on Thursday that Bard will now be known as Gemini, the Big Tech company’s most powerful and flexible AI model that can run on everything from mobile devices to data centers. Gemini is the name of Google’s flagship AI model and the name of its conversational AI chatbot, which it also confirmed can be accessed via the Gemini App on Pixel and Android devices and through the Google App on iOS devices. Users can communicate with Gemini in over 40 languages.

With this rebrand and app launch, Google also announced Gemini Advanced, the AI model’s premium tier that costs $19.99 a month via a Google One subscription. The new offering comes with 2TB of storage, and interested users can try it out with a two-month free trial.

• Disney announced that it’s investing $1.5 billion in Epic Games, which comes with an equity stake and an expansive collaboration with the game developer’s Fortnite universe. Disney CEO Bob Iger shared the news during the company’s earnings call earlier this week, marking it as the brand’s biggest entry into the gaming industry.
• Gaming investments aren’t all that Disney is getting into right now. The entertainment leader is partnering with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery to launch a new streaming app focused on sports programming, a venture that will pull content from ESPN, TNT, and Fox Sports.
• Apple is reportedly developing two foldable iPhone prototypes, according to The Information, though they aren’t slated to be released anytime soon. The Big Tech giant hasn’t confirmed the new products, but after announcing the Vision Pro from stealth last year, it’s safe to say Apple is always up to something.
• YouTube TV has hit 8 million subscribers, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan detailed in his annual letter to the community, where he also shared that YouTube has paid over $70 billion in the last three years to creators and media partners. Mohan also said YouTube is making big bets on AI innovations this year and investing more in creators on the platform.
• Meta is adding AI-generated labels to images created with third-party tools from OpenAI, Microsoft, Adobe, Midjourney, and more. OpenAI will also be adding visible symbols and invisible watermarks to image metadata for content created on its image generator, DALL-E 3, and via ChatGPT.
• Snapchat is laying off 10% of its global workforce, which is about 550 employees. Snapchat’s parent company is cutting its headcount in an effort “to reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration,” which also means letting go of some senior-level staff members.

Reddit generated $800 million in revenue last year, a 20% increase year-over-year. This comes as the social news aggregator and forum prepares for an IPO, but I’m going to bet that Reddit won’t go public at the reported valuation of $5 billion; it’ll be under that, especially since it’s not profitable yet.

The post How Big Tech is Taking Over Super Bowl LVIII appeared first on Boardroom.

Tech touches everything, especially at big sporting events like the Super Bowl.

Tech powerhouses such as Microsoft, Verizon, Apple, and Google spent millions to secure advertising spots at Super Bowl LVIII, but brands are going above and beyond to promote their best work at this year’s annual football showdown.

Let’s take a look at how tech brands are showing up at Super Bowl LVIII, but be warned, it doesn’t look like Meta, Amazon, Tesla, or Nvidia grabbed ad spots this year.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

Verizon

Verizon teased that Beyoncé may be starring in one of its ads during the game, which would be an epic return after not showing up in ads last year. Unlike most ads for this year’s Super Bowl, Verizon hasn’t shared creative details or teasers for what it has planned, but we can guess that it’s big since Verizon is an official NFL sponsor.

And that’s not all the wireless network service provider worked on for Super Bowl LVIII. I had the pleasure of touring Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, back in December to see how much work Verizon put into installing 5G tech throughout the venue to accommodate communication during games, tailgating, admissions, and more. Verizon deployed approximately 250 5G radios covering the stadium’s seating areas, back of the house, suites, lounges, press box, concourse areas, and entryways. With this 5G capacity, fans inside the stadium can watch game highlights, keep tabs on their fantasy leagues and players’ stats, and use their phones for concession payments with ease. All they have to do is turn their WiFi off, and their devices will automatically connect to the 5G in the area.

Over the last three years, Verizon has also deployed 5G connectivity throughout the busiest areas in Las Vegas, including on the Strip, Fremont Street, the airport, Caesars Palace, the Raiders’ practice facilities, and more.

Apple

Apple is gearing up for its second Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in partnership with Roc Nation, this time featuring Usher. To promote the much-anticipated performance, Apple CEO Tim Cook stars in an ad where he FaceTimes Ludacris, Taraji P. Henson, and Lil Jon in search of Usher. The teaser video will be followed up by another ad that will run before the Super Bowl telecast begins.

Apple brand will add to its presence in Vegas thanks to Usher dropping his ninth studio album, “Coming Home,” on Friday ahead of the big performance day.

Samsung

Samsung has worked hand-in-hand with Allegiant Stadium since the venue’s early building stages in 2017 in hopes of one day being the premier brand behind the screens during a Super Bowl.

Fast forward to today, and Samsung has installed 2,550 displays throughout the stadium, including its outdoor LED mesh display that spans 27,600 square feet. This isn’t Samsung’s first rodeo, though, since the company is also responsible for the screen inside of SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams. SoFi Stadium hosted the Super Bowl two years ago. Samsung has worked with other teams to outfit their stadiums with the best screens, including the Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins.

The tech company put together a team of five technicians to test out its screens this week ahead of the game, Sports Business Journal reports, which is a job it typically outsources, but the Super Bowl is much too important for that.

YouTube

YouTube’s Super Bowl ad will run right before kick-off and is focused on NFL teams that sport birds as their mascots.

Dubbed “Migration,” the commercial features players from the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens, and Seattle Seahawks being watched by a tracker as they fly in flocks in the sky. The ad slot promotes Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV and also features popular YouTube creators, including Hot Ones host Sean Evans, Deestroying, and Pierson Wodzynski.

The league partnered with these YouTube creators to attract new viewers and a younger demographic to the NFL. The creators have been continuing their work on the ground in Las Vegas through various content, and they’ll be featured on the big screen during the game.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

Snapchat

Snap is showing up at the Super Bowl this year in a few different ways.

Firstly, the Snapchat parent company announced earlier this week that it’s integrating with the NFL to bring its augmented reality tech to Allegiant Stadium. Stadium screens and scoreboards will show various custom Snap lenses that will be visible throughout the entire game, Boardroom’s Shlomo Sprung exclusively reports.

Aside from that, Snapchat will be running its first Super Bowl ad during the fourth quarter featuring its new “Less Social Media. More Snapchat” initiative. Snap secured a 30-second slot to showcase the new brand campaign.

“Social media is destroying the fabric of what it means to be human. People are tired of the popularity contest, the endless rabbit hole feed of horrific content, and the energy wasted trying to keep up with the Joneses,” a Snap spokesperson said in a statement. “Our latest campaign shows how Snapchat is different: a place where people can talk to their real friends with more compassion, more authenticity, and more love. We couldn’t think of a better place than the Super Bowl to start a conversation around how Snapchat is an alternative to social media.”

The Sphere

Various companies are advertising their brands on Las Vegas’ hottest digital billboard, The Sphere, and ads have been running on the venue’s screens all week in the lead-up to the game. Adidas produced a tribute to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, and as part of its exclusive partnership, the NFL is running various ads, including a countdown to show time.

Content will continue to be featured on The Sphere throughout the game on Sunday, and some content will even coincide with real-time happenings on the field.

Microsoft

Microsoft is back with a Super Bowl ad for the first time since 2020 to promote Microsoft Copilot, its flagship platform that it describes as “your everyday AI companion.” Microsoft nabbed a 60-second spot to showcase how people of different ages with various career paths can use Copilot for everyday tasks, learning new skills, and creating new content.

It’s no surprise that Microsoft is promoting its new AI platform, and this year marks 10 years since the Big Tech company aired its first Super Bowl ad in 2014, which featured former NFL player Steve Gleason, who is battling ALS, using eye-tracking features on a Surface Pro tablet to speak.

TikTok

NFL and TikTok are back for their fourth annual tailgate and pregame livestream ahead of the big game.

TikTok users from all around the world can tune into the celebration at 5:30 p.m. ET on the NFL TikTok account or CBS to see a special performance from Gwen Stefani, who will headline the event alongside other programming.

Google

Google secured a 60-second Super Bowl ad during the second quarter, which focuses on its AI tech called Guided Frame. The feature that’s part of the Pixel 8 phone’s AI camera tools assists visually impaired people in snapping photos. Google tapped blind filmmaker Adam Morse to bring the feature to life in the commercial it dubs “Javier in Frame.”

Read More

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post How Big Tech Brands Like Microsoft, Verizon, Google, & More Are Showing Up at Super Bowl LVIII appeared first on Boardroom.

Coinbase is a sponsored partner of Boardroom.

Bitcoin is back up, trading above the $43,000 threshold after briefly dipping below $39,000 a week and a half ago.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boardroom (@boardroom)

I already told you crypto is making a comeback in 2024, and in this video, I break down some of the numbers to show you how much Bitcoin has grown in the past year. I promise I will never give financial advice, but Bitcoin’s meteoric rise since its inception 15 years ago is not a part of history you want to miss out on.

Here’s a quick breakdown of Bitcoin’s average closing price in January for the past five years, per data from StatMuse:

• January 2020: $9,357.21
• January 2021: $33,053.68
• January 2022: $41,155.72
• January 2023: $20,250.72
• January 2024: $42,919.61

Crypto is a volatile market, but it’s obvious there was an unexplainable dip in interest in digital assets in 2023. And look at that more than $20,000 jump between 2020 and 2021 and the growth carried through 2022. There are a multitude of reasons why the crypto landscape changed last year, and while the experts are still trying to figure that out, the market is showing its resilience right now.

Check out my video for more on Bitcoin’s recent movements and how Ethereum is holding up.

Want More Tech?

1

0

29

post

6

OR

5276,5283

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Tech Talk March 31, 2024

What Will We Learn at Apple WWDC24 this Summer?

Big Tech March 28, 2024

Tech Talk Reviews: Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Big Tech March 26, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About AI Chipmaker Nvidia

Tech Talk March 24, 2024

Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network?

Big Tech March 22, 2024

How Google’s Adrienne Lofton Connects Marketing and Culture

The post Bitcoin is Back on the Rise, Averaging $42K in January 2024 appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition:

• My Apple Vision Pro Review (finally!)
• Big Tech CEOs on Capitol Hill
• UMG vs TikTok rages on

Believe the Hype: The Apple Vision Pro is Here & It’s a Game Changer

“MVP! MVP! MVP!”

That’s what the staffers at Apple Fifth Avenue were chanting for Apple CEO Tim Cook as he walked up to open the doors of the store to customers eager to get their hands on the Apple Vision Pro on Friday morning. Cook shook hands with early adopters of his company’s newest device, spending about an hour in the store interacting with customers and the media. Every way I turned in the store, there were excited customers unboxing their Vision Pros, doing demos, and spectating the electric scenery.

Entertainment and the freedom to work on multiple screens were the top two things people told me they were most excited about experiencing with the Vision Pro. It was very obvious to me that the majority of the early Vision Pro adopters were tech enthusiasts, coders, legacy Apple supporters, and entertainment fanatics. I was excited to be in the room and on the ground, covering a historic moment. After testing out the Vision Pro myself this week, I have one piece of advice for the skeptical people out there: Believe the hype.

My Review of the Apple Vision Pro

I’ve been covering the Apple Vision Pro‘s rollout since the day the new device was announced last June at WWDC 2023. Ahead of the Vision Pro launch, Boardroom received an exclusive demo of the device on Thursday. I got a one-hour experience and even had to share my eye prescription ahead of it so the headset would be personally calibrated for me. Right off the bat, it was simple and easy to get used to the iris control and finger taps to click and move items around. The Vision Pro is truly a spatial computer, and I was able to control how immersed I wanted to be in the virtual space compared to being able to see the physical space around me.

I mostly interacted with apps native to Vision Pro, which truly leaned into making a spatial computing experience. I was able to select immersive backgrounds, and I was impressed by the device’s ability to handle multiple screens at once. I had screens positioned all around me, though typing is definitely a task I’ll have to get used to.

Watching movies in the Vision Pro exceeded my expectations. I felt like I was at the movie theater with the best seats in the house, and don’t get me started on the video quality. The imagery was top-tier. Aside from getting up close with a dinosaur that made me forget it wasn’t really in front of me and a butterfly landing on the tip of my finger, the NBA League Pass experience was, by far, my favorite thing I got to try.

Honestly, the only thing I was missing out on was interacting with my friends and other users, which I’m sure there will be updates and apps that allow for that down the line.

While I thoroughly enjoyed my experience, I left that demo thinking: Who is this device actually for, and how will Apple market it to the masses? I can’t imagine kids or someone my mom’s age investing in a device like this at this stage.

I got a couple of insights into these questions when I joined Cook and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver at the NBA HQ on Friday afternoon for an exclusive experience with the development team that built the Vision Pro version of NBA League Pass. Chad Evans, NBA SVP Head of Product, along with Senior Software Engineers Lauren Marshall and Matthew Parrott, presented their work on building out NBA League Pass from the Vision Pro. Evans told me that a core team of six engineers, designers, and product managers worked on the NBA League Pass app for the Vision Pro.

“We really wanted to be there for the launch because we think it’s really important for fans to get their hands on the experience,” Evans told Boardroom. “I love statistics and the way stats can help you build a deeper understanding of the game. We actually rebuilt our core stats engine so that we can have real-time stats in sync with all of the videos you’re watching. That experience just makes the app feel alive.”

Following the demo, I asked Cook and Silver one question from all of the learnings I gathered about the Vision Pro: What do you think the future of sports and entertainment is in this new spatial computing universe, and how will you get fans to invest in it?

“I think it’s more immersive than ever before; I think the fan wants to be a part of the game and a part of the action, and there’s nothing like being in Vision Pro and feeling like you’re on the court,” Cook exclusively told me. “It’s not that you have a courtside seat; it’s so much better than that. I’m so excited. I think it really changes everything.”

Silver doubled down on that.

“You often hear, even from casual NBA fans, that the best seat in all of sports is a courtside seat, which virtually no one gets to experience. As Tim said, this is in many ways better than sitting courtside; it can take you anywhere on the floor, it can give you the perspective of a player, and it can give you places you can otherwise never go and absorb it,” Silver told me. “It can give you the perspective of a player; it can give you places you can otherwise never go and absorb it. “These are, of course, early days, but it is transformative. This will, to me, be how people over time experience sports through media.”

I have more insights to share from my experience with the Apple team this week, but one thing is clear to me after my experience this week: Apple is all in on entertainment for the Vision Pro.

Expect more from me on the new device very soon.

• Big Tech CEOs from Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord, and X were in the hot seat on Wednesday during a Senate hearing focused on the harm young users face online and policies meant to protect them. Meta‘s Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew got most of the heat from Senators looking to pass a bill that would put more liability on social platforms when young users experience harm online.
• Amazon mutually agreed with iRobot to call off its planned acquisition of the Roomba maker. As a result, iRobot founder and CEO Colin Angle announced he is stepping down, and the company has cut 31% of its workforce, which is 350 people.
• In other Amazon news, the Bellevue, WA, house where Jeff Bezos founded the Big Tech company has hit the real estate market for $2.3 million.
• Elon Musk reported on X that the first human has received a Neuralink brain-computer interface, a device that’s implanted into the brain and allows users to control external computers, robotic products, and mobile devices. The patient is a part of Neuralink’s first human trial for its flagship device.
• Also, a Delaware judge sided with Tesla shareholders who filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk to block his 2018 pay package, which included a whopping $56 billion salary that was previously approved by the company’s board.
• TikTok has a master plan to boost shopping and in-app sales by opening live studios across major cities like LA that allow creators to come in and livestream products they are pushing to sell. The company is also working on a new feature that would allow users to feature links to products in their videos.
• OpenAI’s ChatGPT announced a partnership with children’s safety org Common Sense Media to develop AI guidelines, educational materials, and a kid-friendly section in the GPT Store.

• Amazon & Meta Making Big Market Moves, Apple Exceeds Earnings Expectations
• Universal Music Group Artists Set to Disappear from TikTok After Negotiations Break Down
• Microsoft, Alphabet Post Big Revenue Numbers but Mixed Market Results

Universal Music Group decided to pull its music library from TikTok this week after the parties failed to reach a new agreement on royalties for artists and songwriters. I’m going to bet that UMG will return to the short-form video platform by the end of Q1 since it’s been able to reach deals with every other social network on the market.

The post Believe the Hype: The Apple Vision Pro is Here & It’s a Game Changer appeared first on Boardroom.

Big Tech earnings season continued on Thursday with updated financials from Amazon, Meta, and Apple.

Amazon came out on top with positive numbers across the board. Apple’s iPad and iPhone sales saw some declines, while the company beat overall earnings expectations. Meta’s shares were also up after the Big Tech giant reported better-than-expected financial results.

Let’s dive into some key takeaways from Amazon, Apple, and Meta’s recent earnings reports.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

Amazon

Amazon wrapped up the fourth quarter of 2023 stronger than expected, driving its stock up more than 8% in extended trading. The e-commerce giant beat analysts’ expectations and announced some new AI tech. Amazon generated $170 billion in revenue in Q4 of 2023, up 14% year-over-year, while net income came in at $10.6 billion. This positive earnings outlook is a big win for Amazon following the company’s mass layoff of 27,000 employees in the last year and a half. This quarter also encompasses the company’s success across Prime Video, including NFL Thursday Night Football games.

Ahead of its earnings call on Thursday, Amazon announced a new conversational AI shopping assistant called Rufus. The new tech offering harnesses generative AI to help users find and sift through products online. Shoppers can type or speak questions into the search bar of Amazon’s mobile app to activate Rufus. Amazon is beta testing the feature with select users with plans to roll Rufus out to all US customers in the coming weeks.

More insights from Amazon’s recent earnings report:

• Amazon Web Services sales increased by 13% year-over-year to $24.2 billion.
• Amazon’s advertising efforts generated $14.65 billion in revenue, up 27% year-over-year.
• Customers purchased more than 1 billion products across Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
• Amazon expects its first-quarter 2024 sales to land between $138 billion and $143.5 billion. This would be an 8% to 13% growth year-over-year.

Apple

Apple’s shares fell more than 4% in extended trading on Thursday after it reported that its iPhone sales dipped in China despite recently offering an iPhone 15 discount to compete with local smartphone makers. Still, the iPhone maker surpassed revenue and earnings estimates, generating $119.58 billion in revenue for the fiscal first quarter of 2024. Greater China was the only market in which Apple didn’t show sales growth for the quarter.

Apple finally broke its streak of annual revenue declines after seeing its numbers fall for four straight quarters. The company reported 2% growth across sales, with hopes that the uptick will stick through the next quarter. Unfortunately, iPad sales fell 25% during the quarter to $7.02 billion. This dip is likely due to the fact that Apple didn’t release a new iPad model in 2023 for the first time since the product launched in April 2010.

More insights from Apple’s recent earnings report:

• Apple’s iPhone sector generated $69.70 billion in revenue, though iPhone sales in China declined by 13%.
• Apple’s profitable services business, which includes Apple Music, Apple Pay, advertisements, warranties, licensing revenue, and other subscriptions, generated $23.11 billion in revenue for the quarter. This is up 11% year-over-year.
• Apple reported that it has 2.2 billion active devices in use globally.
• Mac revenue landed at $7.78 billion for the quarter, a less than 1% increase year-over-year.
• Apple’s wearables unit, which includes the AirPods and the Apple Watch, generated $11.95 billion in sales, down 11% year-over-year.

Meta

Meta’s stock was up more than 14% in after-hours trading on Thursday after it shared a better-than-expected earnings report for Q4 of 2023. The Big Tech company surpassed analysts’ expectations across its earnings and revenue for the quarter. Revenue rose by 25% year-over-year to $40.1 billion, which is more than the $39.18 billion analysts projected. Meta drew in 3.98 billion monthly active users across its family of apps, up 6% year-over-year.

Meta generated $134.90 billion in revenue in 2023, up 16% compared to 2022. Meta founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg told investors that the company has made a lot of progress on its “vision for advancing AI and the metaverse,” while consumers remain eager to see that progress manifest in new offerings.

One of the biggest wins in Meta’s report is that its newest app, Instagram Threads, has attracted more than 130 million monthly active users. Zuckerberg even went as far as to say that Threads has the potential to reach 1 billion users in a few years if it keeps this growth rate up.

More insights from Meta’s recent earnings report:

• Meta’s company expenses decreased by 8% year-over-year to $23.73 billion, while net income more than tripled to $14 billion.
• The company’s virtual reality unit reported $4.65 billion in losses, but on the plus side, sales across its Reality Labs unit surpassed $1 billion in Q4.
• Meta attributes a big portion of its recent success to China-based advertisers, who accounted for 10% of sales for the entire year.
• Meta reported that its workforce was sitting at 67,317 at the end of Q4, down 22% year-over-year following multiple waves of mass layoffs.
• Meta expects its sales for Q1 of 2024 to land in the range of $34.5 billion to $37 billion.

Want More Tech?

1

0

39

post

6

OR

5396,5397,5374

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Tech Talk March 31, 2024

What Will We Learn at Apple WWDC24 this Summer?

Big Tech March 28, 2024

Tech Talk Reviews: Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Big Tech March 26, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About AI Chipmaker Nvidia

Tech Talk March 24, 2024

Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network?

Big Tech March 22, 2024

How Google’s Adrienne Lofton Connects Marketing and Culture

The post Amazon & Meta Making Big Market Moves, Apple Exceeds Earnings Expectations appeared first on Boardroom.

Universal Music Group announced in an open letter early Wednesday that it’s pulling its extensive music library from TikTok after the parties failed to reach a new agreement on royalties for artists and songwriters.

UMG came to the decision citing the proposed deal’s unfair compensation for its artists. TikTok and UMG’s current contract is set to expire on Jan. 31, which means that music from popular artists like Drake, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, and SZA will disappear from the platform by the end of the day.

“TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay,” UMG said in its statement.

Sign up for our newsletter

Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• HeadlineToGo
• Tech Talk
• Inside the Boardroom
• Sneaker Game

Subscribe

Before UMG posted its open letter early this morning, TikTok released a statement saying, “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.” The short-form video app stated that it has been able to reach agreements with every other label and publisher that prioritizes the artists and songwriters on its platform.

“The fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent,” TikTok said in its statement.

Refuting this claim, UMG noted that it’s been able to reach similar deals with every other social media platform. The music publisher also accused TikTok of attempting to bully it into signing a contract that would dish out fewer royalties to artists and songwriters than the previous one did. UMG reported that TikTok accounts for only 1% of its total revenue.

The pressure point in the negotiations came from TikTok and UMG’s inability to reason on payments for AI-generated content that features UMG music. The music publisher also alleged that TikTok hasn’t been taking the appropriate and swift steps to remove content that violates its copyrighted works.

TikTok hasn’t directly responded to UMG’s open letter, and it’s unclear if the companies will return to negotiations to solidify a deal any time soon.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Universal Music Group Artists Set to Disappear from TikTok After Negotiations Break Down appeared first on Boardroom.

Alphabet and Microsoft kicked off Big Tech earnings season after the stock market closed on Tuesday with some wins, and some losses.

Microsoft’s recent earnings report comes after it made history last week by reaching a $3 trillion market cap, the second company to do so behind Apple. Unfortunately, the accolade was tainted by another round of layoffs that included nearly 2,000 cuts across the company’s gaming division. For Alphabet, all eyes are on the tech company’s advertising revenue, YouTube Shorts, and YouTube TV.

Let’s dive into key takeaways from Alphabet and Microsoft‘s recent earnings reports.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

Alphabet

Alphabet’s shares slipped more than 6% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the company missed advertising revenue projections. Still, Alphabet beat expectations on overall revenue and profit for the fourth quarter of 2023. Alphabet generated $86.31 billion in revenue in its most recent quarter, an increase of 13% year-over-year. As for ad revenue, the company generated $65.52 billion versus the $65 billion analysts projected.

Overall, Alphabet brought in $307.39 billion in revenue for 2023, and despite the disappointing ad revenue numbers, the company is looking to attract a bigger audience at YouTube TV with potential expansion plans beyond the US. This year, the company brought in NFL Sunday Ticket, which DirectTV hosted for 29 years prior to the move. While Alphabet execs did not speak precisely to what this could mean for the future of live sports for the streaming television service, one has to wonder if it will position itself as a contender in the NBA rights conversation.

More insights from Alphabet’s recent earnings report:

• YouTube ads generated $9.2 billion in revenue, a 15% increase year-over-year.
• After cutting 6% of its workforce last year, Alphabet spent $2.1 billion on severances and related expenses. Alphabet’s CFO Ruth Porat said the company will spend about $700 million in similar expenses in Q1 of 2024.
• Google Cloud brought in $9.19 billion, a 26% increase in revenue year-over-year.
• Alphabet spent $1.8 billion in 2023 to exit some of its Google offices across the globe.
• Google Search attracted $48.02 billion in Q4, the third highest revenue driver at the company behind Google Services and advertising.

Microsoft

Microsoft reported better-than-expected financials on Tuesday in its earnings report for fiscal second-quarter 2024, yet the company’s stock fell by 2% in extended trading. Overall, Microsoft generated $62.0 billion in revenue for the quarter, an increase of 18% year-over-year. The company reported that revenue from its Azure and other cloud services grew by 30% overall, the biggest driver for its revenue success in its most recent quarter.

Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Madella said the company is focused on applying AI at scale by infusing the emerging tech into every layer of its offerings. The Big Tech giant will also be investing more in its gaming sector following the biggest acquisition deal it’s ever made.

More insights from Microsoft’s recent earnings report:

• This was a big quarter for Microsoft since it also encompasses the enterprise software maker’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
• Net income for the quarter came in at $21.9 billion, an increase of 26% year-over-year.
• Microsoft Cloud generated $33.7 billion in revenue, up 24% year-over-year.
• This quarter, Microsoft returned $8.4 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends.
• Microsoft expects that its fiscal third-quarter revenue will land between $60 billion and $61 billion.

Want More Tech?

1

0

40

post

6

OR

5395,5397,5396

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Big Tech March 28, 2024

Tech Talk Reviews: Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Big Tech March 26, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About AI Chipmaker Nvidia

Big Tech March 22, 2024

How Google’s Adrienne Lofton Connects Marketing and Culture

Emerging Tech March 16, 2024

US House Advances Bill on TikTok Ban

Emerging Tech March 15, 2024

Tech Talk Reviews: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

The post Microsoft, Alphabet Post Big Revenue Numbers but Mixed Market Results appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• Microsoft hits new high with $3T valuation
• Bitcoin dips under $39K following ETF implementations
• Amazon Web Services announces $10B investment in Mississippi

Microsoft Hits $3T Valuation and Lays off Nearly 2K Workers

Microsoft made history this week when it became only the second company after Apple to reach a $3 trillion market cap. This is the first time the enterprise software giant has reached the milestone, with new AI services driving revenue and momentum. The Information reports that Microsoft is building a new team focused on developing smaller generative AI platforms, though it’s unclear what this means for the company’s long-term investment in OpenAI.

Sadly, Microsoft’s big win comes with another big loss for its gaming workforce. The company announced this week that it’s laying off 1,900 employees across its Activision Blizzard and Xbox divisions, which amounts to 8% of its gaming sector. The cuts come three months after Activision officially came under Microsoft’s umbrella after much legal resistance. The layoffs impacted the Activision team the most deeply, and Blizzard president Mike Ybarra also announced his departure. Ybarra worked for Microsoft for two decades before taking on the role of Blizzard president to see the acquisition through. Blizzard co-founder and chief design officer Allen Adham is also departing Microsoft.

Bitcoin Briefly Tumbles Below $39K as ETFs Find Their Footing

Bitcoin briefly dipped below $39,000 earlier this week for the first time since early December 2023, prompting investors to liquidate over $100 million in an hour. The token has since rebounded and is trading above $40,000 again, though Bitcoin’s tumbling price is defying expectations that spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were going to boost the digital asset. The Financial Times reports that Bitcoin has lost 15% of its value since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched on Jan. 11. Investors liquidating their funds during the ETF launch period to profit off of the price of the cryptocurrency going up are primarily responsible. Now, mass liquidation is causing Bitcoin’s value to tank.

The first group of Bitcoin ETFs has been coined the “Newborn Nine” and despite the volatile market, these ETFs have purchased 95,000 Bitcoins. That’s almost $4 billion worth of collective assets under management.

Apple Vision Pro Sales Reportedly Top 180K During Pre-Order Weekend

The Apple Vision Pro will hit the mass market in less than a week, and MacRumors reported that somewhere between 160,000 and 180,000 headsets were sold over the pre-order weekend. Now, early users won’t find Netflix, Spotify, or YouTube apps on the device at launch, and there are only a couple hundred exclusive Vision Pro apps currently listed in the new headset’s app store. For comparison, Apple touts that it has 1.8 million apps available worldwide across its other devices.

Still, thousands have already flocked to purchase Apple Vision Pro devices (or should I say spatial computers?), despite delays in shipping dates that span as far as April. And let’s hope everyone buying a headset is ready to dish out $24.99 a month, or $499 for two years, for AppleCare Plus coverage since a cracked cover glass repair will cost $799 without it. Even with coverage, all accidental damages will cost $299.

More news updates from Apple:

• Apple announced major changes to its App Store in Europe. Starting in March, European iOS users will be able to download apps and make purchases outside of the App Store, but developers will get a new fee.
• The Vision Pro isn’t the only new tech Apple is working on. The Information’s Wayne Ma reported that the Big Tech giant is testing a new camera button for horizontal photos and videos on the iPhone 16, which is slated to drop this fall.
• Apple is dishing out extra royalties to artists who upload a spatial audio version of their content on Apple Music.
• Once again, Apple delayed the launch of its self-driving vehicle to 2028 and dropped some planned tech features.

• Amazon Web Services announced a $10 billion investment in Mississippi to build two new data center complexes. This partnership marks the largest capital investment Mississipi has ever received, Amazon reports.
• Web Summit CEO Katherine Maher announced that she’s stepping down from her role to take over the CEO spot at NPR. Maher joined the annual tech conference only three months ago after founder Web Summit removed Paddy Cosgrave after sharing criticisms about the conflict in the Middle East.
• IBM synced up with the Recording Academy to launch “AI Stories with IBM watsonx,” a generative AI solution that can create GRAMMYs-focused editorial content. The platform will be available before and during the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
• Hogwarts Legacy topped the sales charts in 2023 with an estimated 22 million copies sold, beating out the Call of Duty franchise, which has held the top spot in sales since 2009, media research firm Circana reported.
• Voice cloning startup ElevenLabs achieved unicorn status this week after closing an $80 million Series B funding round at a $1 billion valuation. The company is building AI tools that allow users to create and edit synthetic voices.
• A batch of Google researchers responsible for building DeepMind’s initial AI models has departed the tech company to launch their own AI startup called Uncharted Labs. The new venture has already raised $8.5 million in funding and will focus on AI research and innovations.

• Tesla Narrowly Misses Revenue Projections for Q4 2023, Predicts Lower Output in 2024
• Netflix Adds 13M Subscribers in Q4 2023
• Apple Vision Pro Presales Kick Off in the US

I’m going to pull the bet I made here about Apple selling out of the first batch of Apple Vision Pro headsets and double down on it. Despite the price point, the people love Apple.

The post Microsoft Hits $3T Valuation, Lays off Nearly 2K Workers appeared first on Boardroom.

Tesla‘s stock is down nearly 1% in after-hours trading after it narrowly missed revenue projections for the fourth quarter of 2023 in its most recent earnings report.

The electric vehicle maker generated $25.17 billion in revenue versus the $25.6 billion analysts expected. Still, Tesla’s Q4 revenue increased 3% year-over-year. The company didn’t see much growth across auto revenue, the primary area of its business. Elsewhere, Tesla’s net income more than doubled to $7.9 billion for the quarter compared to the $3.7 billion the company brought in a year ago.

Tesla’s shares have been on the decline since the start of 2024, with the company’s stock falling an estimated 16% this month.

Sign up for our newsletter

Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• HeadlineToGo
• Tech Talk
• Inside the Boardroom
• Sneaker Game

Subscribe

Overall, Tesla’s automotive revenue for 2023 came in at $82.42 billion, a 15% increase year-over-year. Tesla told investors that it expects to ramp up production on Cybertrucks this year, so we may see a flood of the new vehicles on the roads soon. The EV company reported that it has the capacity to make more than 125,000 Cybertrucks in 2024.

On a good note, Tesla’s energy division saw a 54% bump in revenue to $6.04 billion. In Q4 specifically, Tesla generated $21.56 billion in automotive revenue. However, execs suggested that there will be a significant decrease in the increase of the number of Teslas on the road in 2024. This is due to reallocated efforts to design new models of the coveted EVs.

Tesla attributed its overall declining profits to the reduced average sales price of its vehicles and higher operating expenses. Despite that, Tesla says it has “sufficient liquidity” to fund its product roadmap, expansion plans, and other expenses. The company also recently implemented some pay increases for its hourly factory employees in the U.S. to combat rising labor costs and compete with big automakers like General Motors and Ford.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Tesla Narrowly Misses Revenue Projections for Q4 2023, Predicts Lower Output in 2024 appeared first on Boardroom.

Netflix shares rose as much as 7% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the streaming giant reported its 2023 fourth-quarter earnings.

Netflix added 13.1 million subscribers in Q4, reaching a new high of 260.8 million total paid subscribers. The streamer far outpaced expectations that forecasted it would attract between 8 and 9 million new members. Netflix’s latest earnings report comes on the same day it announced that it will become the new home of WWE RAW beginning in January 2025, a streaming deal that’s estimated to be valued at more than $5 billion.

Netflix and WWE’s parent company, TKO Group, inked a long-term partnership that exclusively brings RAW to a streaming service for the first time. The weekly wrestling program has been aired via linear TV outlets since its inception 31 years ago. When the deal kicks off next year, RAW will exclusively air on Netflix in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Latin America, with more countries and regions expected to roll out.

Sign up for our newsletter

Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• HeadlineToGo
• Tech Talk
• Inside the Boardroom
• Sneaker Game

Subscribe

Despite the big move, Netflix told investors on its Q4 earnings call that it has no bigger plans to acquire linear assets, so don’t expect Netflix to buy TV networks any time soon.

“As our competitors adjust to these changes, it’s logical to expect further consolidation, particularly among companies with large and declining linear networks,” the company said in its earnings report. “We’re not interested in acquiring linear assets. Nor do we believe that further M&A among traditional entertainment companies will materially change the competitive environment given all the consolidation that has already happened over the last decade.”

Further solidifying this point, Netflix has invested heavily in recent years in original production. This risk has paid off, as Netflix led all streaming platforms with 18 Oscar nominations during Tuesday’s announcements. Apple, Searchlight, and Universal each followed with 13.

There was a lot of more good news coming out of Netflix’s earnings report. The streaming giant generated $8.83 billion in revenue, which slightly beat projections of $8.71 billion and showed 12% growth year-over-year. Netflix forecasts that it’ll generate $9.2 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2024. However, it didn’t quantify how many subscribers it expects to add. Overall, Netflix said in the report that it expects double-digit revenue growth across this full year, primarily driven by membership increases.

Netflix’s positive financial outlook comes nearly seven months after it put its password crackdown plan into effect. So far, it looks like that major shift has been paying off.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Netflix Adds 13M Subscribers in Q4 2023 appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 get banned again
• Samsung announces mobile AI system
• Google employees brace for more layoffs

The Apple Watch Ban Battle Continues

Are Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 devices banned or not? There has been a lot of back and forth, but once again, a federal judge ruled against Apple this week. The Big Tech giant wasn’t able to overturn a US International Trade Commission ban on sales of the two watches with blood oxygen sensors. The commission found in October that Apple’s blood oxygen sensors infringed intellectual property owned by medical device company Masimo. The ban went into effect on Thursday, and I bet Apple has a lengthy legal battle ahead to get the newest version of its watches back on shelves.

More updates from Apple:

• Apple Vision Pro presales officially kicked off on Friday, and if you plan on getting in line for a demo on Feb. 2, prepare to get your face scanned and sit for a rundown of the interface before actually diving into the 25-minute demo.
• While Apple is depending on robust entertainment options to sell the Apple Vision Pro, the device won’t launch with a Netflix, Spotify, or YouTube app. But, it will launch with 3D movies from Disney Plus.
• The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Epic Games‘ lawsuit against Apple. Still, Apple decided to expand to let developers link out from its App Store to allow outside payments, though it requires companies to pay a 27% fee.
• The Big Tech giant is shutting down a 121-person AI operations team based in San Diego and relocating some staffers working on Siri data operations to Austin.
• iPhone 15 models were on sale in China for $70 this week as Apple attempts to attract more business in the region with steep competitors.

Samsung Unveils Galaxy AI at Latest Galaxy Unpacked Showcase

Samsung showcased the next class of its smartphone series, a new AI platform, and a fitness ring at its latest Galaxy Unpacked event. The electronics leader unveiled that its new Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Galaxy S24 Ultra will be equipped with Galaxy AI, the bespoke AI model that operates on S24 devices and is accessible via the cloud. Galaxy AI boasts many features, including live translation, photo editing suggestions, note summaries, and chat assistance. The new tech is powered by Qualcomm’s mobile chipset.

Toward the end of Unpacked, Samsung teased a new device dubbed the Galaxy Ring in a short video. The health-focused hardware features various sensors on its inner ring, but the electronics company hasn’t elaborated on further specs or launch plans at this time.

Samsung’s new AI tech and devices come as Apple beat it for most smartphone shipments last year for the first time in over a decade. Samsung has previously held the top spot down every year since 2011. Maybe some native mobile AI tech will give Samsung the boost it needs to rise back to the top.

OpenAI Launches Master Plan to Combat 2024 Election Misinformation

OpenAI announced that it’s introducing some new policies and tools for its suite of offerings, including ChatGPT and DALL·E, in preparation for the 2024 elections later this year. The generative AI company is making some changes to prevent its flagship platforms from being used to spread election misinformation. OpenAI vowed to ban people from using its tech to impersonate candidates and government officials, and it will also begin rolling out digital watermarks for images generated with DALL·E. The company is also teaming up with the National Association of Secretaries of State to provide ChatGPT users with accurate voting information when they prompt related questions.

Also this week, OpenAI announced its first official partnership with a university. Arizona State University will get full access to ChatGPT Enterprise beginning next month to use for coursework, research, tutoring, and more. To gain access, faculty and staff must submit plans for using ChatGPT in three areas: “enhancing student success, forging new avenues for innovative research, and streamlining organizational processes,” according to a press release.

• Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees in an internal memo this week to brace themselves for more layoffs in 2024. The Big Tech giant has laid off over 12,000 employees since January last year, including 100 staffers at YouTube on Thursday.
• Amid layoffs, Google’s AI research and development lab, DeepMind, announced a new system called AlphaGeometry that it claims can solve the most complex geometry problems. DeepMind built the system to unlock new innovations across mathematics, science, and AI.
• Elon Musk is demanding 25% voting control of Tesla before agreeing to expand the electric vehicle maker’s AI and robotics plans. If he doesn’t get a quarter of the company’s voting control, Musk said he’d start building products outside of Tesla.
• TikTok is experimenting with an AI music generator called AI Song that allows users to turn basic text prompts into new tunes. The new feature comes as TikTok gears up to host its annual Super Bowl Tailgate in-app event featuring a performance from Gwen Stefani.
• Microsoft announced a pro plan for Copilot targeted at consumers to broaden the network of paying customers of its flagship AI platform. Copilot Pro is priced at $20 per user per month and expands to Microsoft‘s suite of apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• GameStop is shuttering its NFT marketplace a year and a half after launching it, citing regulatory uncertainty as the cause. The service will officially wind down on Feb. 2.

Amazon is developing a higher tier of its Alexa voice tech offering called Remarkable Alexa, which users will have to pay for, according to Business Insider. The new tech is expected to debut at the end of June, despite some bad early testing results. I’m going to bet that Amazon will revamp the project and push the release date due to unforeseen difficulties and testing result leaks.

The post The Apple Watch Ban Battle Continues Due to Intellectual Property Disputes appeared first on Boardroom.

@boardroom Apple's Vision Pro spatial computer is going to change everything. #applevisionpro #virtualreality #mixedreality #augmentedreality ♬ original sound – Boardroom

Apple briefly took its online store offline this morning in preparation for Apple Vision Pro presales.

The Big Tech giant started taking pre-orders for its flagship device, dubbed a “spatial computer,” on Jan. 19. Sales commenced at 8 a.m. EST across the US. Apple is expected to produce between 60,000 and 80,000 headsets for its first drop, with shipments slated to start going out on Feb. 2.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

I have some hot takes on what I think will go down with Apple’s initial sale of the Vision Pro. Check out my TikTok video below for more thoughts.

VIDEO HERE

In the meantime, for those planning to dish out $3,599 for a Vision Pro, Apple is offering a few different payment options. Interested buyers can pay in full or monthly installments if they qualify for an Apple Card. Here’s a breakdown of current prices based on storage capacities:

• 256 GB: $3,499 or $291.58 a month for 12 months
• 512 GB: $3,699 or $308.25 a month for 12 months
• 1 TB: $3,899 or $324.91 a month for 12 months

Supply will be limited in stores when the Vision Pro arrives on Feb. 2, and MacRumors is reporting that Vision Pro delivery dates are already slipping to mid-March for pre-orders.

Boardroom will continue tracking how Vision Pro sales shake out this year.

Want More Tech?

1

0

8

post

6

OR

5276

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Tech Talk March 31, 2024

What Will We Learn at Apple WWDC24 this Summer?

Tech Talk March 24, 2024

Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network?

Tech Talk March 17, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About TikTok’s Potential Ban in the US

Emerging Tech March 16, 2024

US House Advances Bill on TikTok Ban

Tech Talk March 10, 2024

Social Media Platforms Went Offline This Week. But Why?

The post Apple Vision Pro Presales Kick Off in the US appeared first on Boardroom.

Samsung debuted three new smartphones and introduced its new artificial intelligence tech at its latest Galaxy Unpacked event.

The electronics leader’s new Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Galaxy S24 Ultra come in various sizes and storage capacities spanning 128 GB to 1 TB, and each is equipped with the usual upgrades like enhanced camera capabilities and slimmer displays.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is the first mobile device from Samsung to feature a titanium frame, which reduces the smartphone’s weight. The Ultra also has five cameras, as the S23 version did, including a main camera, ultrawide camera, and telephoto camera. The Galaxy S24 Ultra will be available in titanium black, titanium gray, titanium violet, and titanium yellow. The Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus both come in onyx black, marble gray, cobalt violet, and amber yellow.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

Samsung’s new lineup of mobile devices is impressive, but of course, one new feature stole the show. The biggest announcement coming out of the event was the unveiling of Galaxy AI, the bespoke new AI platform that operates on S24 devices and is accessible via the cloud. Galaxy AI enables live text and call translations, enhanced search, and more.

“The Galaxy S24 series transforms our connection with the world and ignites the next decade of mobile innovation,” TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics, said in an official news release. “Galaxy AI is built on our innovation heritage and deep understanding of how people use their phones. We’re excited to see how our users around the world empower their everyday lives with Galaxy AI to open up new possibilities.”

Here is a breakdown of some of what Galaxy AI can do, per Samsung’s press release:

• Live Translate: enables real-time voice and text translations of phone calls within a native app.
• Interpreter: live conversation translation on a split-screen view with both transcripts.
• Chat Assist: AI built into Samsung Keyboard allows users to get help with their conversational tones and develop different messages like social media captions.
• Note Assist: this feature syncs with Samsung Notes and creates AI-generated summaries of content.
• Android Auto: while in a car, this feature will automatically summarize incoming messages and suggest replies and actions.
• Edit Suggestions and Generative Edit: Galaxy AI can suggest photo tweaks while Generative Edit can fill in image backgrounds.

These are just a few examples of how Samsung is integrating Galaxy AI, and it’s clear that the new tech will touch every aspect of the company’s mobile devices for the foreseeable future. Samsung’s new line of mobile devices comes as Apple beat it for most smartphone shipments last year.

Boardroom will continue to watch if this new AI tech will bump Samsung back up to the top.

Want More Tech?

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Samsung Unveils Mobile AI Tech With New Galaxy S24 Series appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• SEC approves first batch of spot Bitcoin ETFs
• The Apple Vision Pro gets a February launch date
• Amazon announces more mass layoffs

SEC Approves 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs in Landmark Victory for the Crypto Industry

After months of speculation, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally authorized spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Bitcoin‘s price has been steadily climbing with optimism surrounding this moment, and while the token’s price has fluctuated in the aftermath, it was trading for above $46,560 at the time of this writing. Additionally, the Bitcoin ETF saw $4.6 billion in trade volume by Thursday’s end.

The commission approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs from a group of asset managers, including BlackRock, Grayscale, Bitwise, Fidelity, and Invesco. The news comes after an unknown hacker posted on the SEC’s X account on Jan. 9 that spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved, a day before the commission made the official announcement.

Anyways. I think it’s safe to say crypto is back.

I’ll end this bit with a fun fact: The Winklevoss twins were the first to submit a spot Bitcoin ETF application to the SEC in 2013, which was eventually rejected. That makes this moment 10 years in the making. Check out my piece for more on what the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs really means.

The $3,499 Apple Vision Pro Arrives on Feb. 2

Apple‘s highly-anticipated first headset will arrive on shelves in the US on Feb. 2 for a whopping $3,499. Pre-orders begin on Jan. 19 at 8 a.m. EST, and the Big Tech company will be running free demos of the Apple Vision Pro at its retail stores on launch day. The headset will be equipped with 256GB of storage and will be available for purchase at all retail stores and online. Check out my full download of what to expect from the Apple Vision Pro.

I want to point out that Apple has been steering clear from using terms like virtual reality and augmented reality to describe apps for the Apple Vision Pro. The company told developers creating visionOS-compatible apps to call them “spatial computing apps,” and Apple is even referring to its new device as a spatial computer. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet because I’m still too focused on the price tag, and I’m so curious to see how quickly the headsets will sell out.

Also, this week, Jan. 9, marked 16 years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, a device he described as a touchscreen mobile phone with an iPod, camera, and web browsing. Apple has released over 30 smartphone iterations since its inception, and it hasn’t stopped yet.

The Biggest Tech Announcements at CES 2024

The annual Consumer Electronics Show took over Las Vegas this week, and to no surprise, artificial intelligence was the talk of the town. I’ve been following the news coming out of this year’s electronics trade fair, but there is so much to keep up with.

Here are some of the big announcements that were made at CES 2024:

• X is expanding its original content offerings with new shows from former CNN anchor Don Lemon, former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and more that will air exclusively on its platform.
• Volkswagen announced that it’s integrating ChatGPT into all Volkswagen models equipped with its IDA voice assistant and will be offering ChatGPT as a standard feature in its vehicles moving forward.
• Samsung debuted a transparent MicroLED glass display with a frameless design and high pixel density and brightness. The consumer electronics company hasn’t announced when the new screens will go to market, but it’ll be a while.
• Sony teased a new unnamed spatial mixed-reality headset that’s expected to arrive later this year. The new headset is targeting creators and artists who work in virtual spaces.
• Nvidia announced a suite of new AI features, including a new partnership with Getty Images to launch Generative AI by iStock, a text-to-image platform designed to make stock photos.

• Amazon announced another round of mass layoffs, cutting hundreds of jobs across its Prime Video and MGM Studios divisions, including 500 employees, or 35% of staff, at Twitch. This latest round of layoffs comes after Amazon cut more than 27,000 jobs since November 2022.
• Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal raised roughly $30 million for his new AI startup that’s building software for developers working on large language AI models, The Information’s Kate Clark first reported. Agrawal has not disclosed the name of his company or more information on what he’s building just yet.
• Meta will spend the next few weeks updating Facebook and Instagram accounts for teenage users to its most restrictive content control settings after facing lawsuits from a bipartisan group of 42 attorney generals last year. The group alleged that Meta developed addictive features on purpose for young adults across its platforms.
• As promised, OpenAI launched a GPT Store for developers to list personalized chatbots they built for others to download. The AI company also released a smaller version of its ChatGPT enterprise offering for businesses called ChatGPT Team. The new offerings come days after OpenAI published a response to The New York Times’ lawsuit against it, saying it’s without merit.
• Byte Dance is in talks with gaming giants, including Tencent, to sell its gaming assets as it pulls away from its ambitious push into the industry, Reuters reported. There are no deals officially on the table yet.
• Speaking of gaming, Warner Bros. Games reported that over 22 million copies of Hogwarts Legacy were sold in 2023, 2 million of which were sold during the holiday season alone. Since launching last February, the Harry Potter-inspired adventure became the best-selling game of 2023 worldwide.

Lawmakers introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to prohibit the creation and distribution of unauthorized digital replicas following a slew of AI voice clones across the music industry and celebrity deepfakes in the past year. I’m going to bet that this bill will pass in the first half of this year and that we’ll also see an influx of digital replica licensing agreements across entertainment industries.

The post SEC Approves 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs in Landmark Victory for the Crypto Industry appeared first on Boardroom.

After months of speculation, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally authorized spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF), paving the way for everyday investors to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Applications from 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs from asset managers were approved, with trading expected to start as soon as this week. Those asset managers are Bitwise, Grayscale, Hashdex, BlackRock, Valkyrie, BZX, Invesco, VanEck, WisdomTree, Fidelity, and Franklin.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

Fun fact: The Winklevoss twins were the first to submit a spot Bitcoin ETF application to the SEC in 2013, which was eventually rejected. That makes this moment 10 years in the making. As of roughly 11:30 a.m. EST on Jan. 11, Bitcoin is trading for over $46,000

Still, it wouldn’t be right if a big win for crypto wasn’t plagued by some confusion. On Tuesday, the SEC’s X account was compromised by an unknown entity that posted that the regulator approved a spot Bitcoin ETF. Bitcoin’s price shot up to nearly $48,000 before nosediving after the SEC and chair, Gary Gensler, deleted the post and released a statement saying spot Bitcoin ETFs hadn’t been approved yet.

It was bizarre, but even more bizarre was that a statement on spot Bitcoin ETF approvals still hasn’t been posted to the SEC or Gensler’s accounts on X at the time of this writing. SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda did release an official statement from the agency, alongside words from Gensler, who unsurprisingly sprinkled in some spite about the news.

“While we approved the listing and trading of certain spot bitcoin ETP shares today, we did not approve or endorse bitcoin,” Gensler said in the post. “Investors should remain cautious about the myriad risks associated with Bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto.”

The Spot Bitcoin ETF, Explained

Still confused as to what exactly a spot Bitcoin ETF is? Boardroom breaks it down and why it’s the reason the cryptocurrency is back on the rise.

Show me the money!

Gensler called spot Bitcoin ETF approvals the most sustainable path forward, but he also said the decision came after a court allegedly forced his hand to do so.

“It should in no way signal the commission’s willingness to approve listing standards for crypto asset securities,” Gensler said in his statement. “Nor does the approval signal anything about the commission’s views as to the status of other crypto assets under the federal securities laws or about the current state of non-compliance of certain crypto asset market participants with the federal securities laws.”

This decision comes after Bitcoin turned 15 years old and broke the $47,000 threshold earlier this month. Boardroom will continue to report on Bitcoin’s movements as it inches closer to surpassing $50,000 and beyond.

More Crypto:

1

0

27

post

6

OR

376,5256

85501

Emerging Tech March 12, 2024

How to Set Up Your Coinbase Wallet as Crypto Market Booms

Deals & Investments March 5, 2024

Bitcoin Hits New All-time High Above $69K

Tech Talk March 3, 2024

Bitcoin Briefly Hits $64K for the First Time in 2 Years

Emerging Tech February 16, 2024

All Things Tech at NBA All-Star Weekend 2024

Emerging Tech February 7, 2024

Bitcoin is Back on the Rise, Averaging $42K in January 2024

Tech Talk January 14, 2024

SEC Approves 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs in Landmark Victory for the Crypto Industry

The post What the SEC’s Approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs Really Means appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition:

• Bitcoin turns 15 and briefly surpasses $45K
• OpenAI revenue, new lawsuit, and more
• Indiana Pacers get QR code jersey patch

Bitcoin Celebrates 15 Years on the Blockchain by Briefly Surpassing $45K

Bitcoin celebrated 15 years in circulation this week. On Jan. 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first blockchain network ever after mining the genesis block of Bitcoin. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies out there today, and recently, the digital assets market has been booming due to a steady uptick in Bitcoin value. This can be attributed to impending spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund approvals, and a decision from the SEC is rumored to come in the next week or so.

As Bitcoin blows out the candles on 15 years in the game, the token also reached another milestone this past week. Bitcoin briefly surpassed the $45,000 threshold on Tuesday for the first time since April 2022, and it’s been steadily holding above $40,000 for the past month.

I’ll continue explaining what this all means as new movements happen. For now, keep an eye out on asset managers like Grayscale, BlackRock, and VanEck, who are all vying to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs to expose retail investors to crypto without buying any on a crypto exchange.

OpenAI’s Revenue Up 20% to $1.6B Thanks to ChatGPT

OpenAI surpassed $1.6 billion in annualized revenue, up from $1.3 billion in October 2023, according to The Information. That’s a 20% uptick in growth over two months, which can be attributed to more ChatGPT revenue flow. The generative AI leader expects its revenue to hit $5 billion by the end of 2024. OpenAI’s revenue news comes as it enters discussion to raise more funding at a valuation at or above $100 billion, Bloomberg News reports.

Aside from positive cash flow, OpenAI has been hit with another copyright infringement lawsuit, this time by the New York Times. The NYT is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the companies are responsible for billions of dollars in damages for using its copyrighted works. It’ll be interesting to see how courts deal with these various copyright infringement lawsuits against OpenAI as the company continues to grow rapidly.

Disgraced FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Won’t Get Second Trial

Prosecutors announced this week that they won’t pursue a second trial against convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. In November, SBF was found guilty on all seven counts of fraud and conspiracy and is facing a maximum sentence of 115 years behind bars. The prosecution decided against a second trial because the majority of the evidence set to be presented was already unveiled in the widely covered first criminal trial. If there were going to be a second trial, it would have started in March.

SBF’s sentencing date is locked in for March 28 at 9:30 a.m. ET.

• The Indiana Pacers announced tech startup Spokenote as its official jersey patch partner, making it the first professional sports franchise in the US to add a QR code on regular season and postseason jerseys. The QR code gives fans access to exclusive Pacers content.
• AI and metaverse infrastructure tech company Futureverse launched a new venture called Readyverse Studios in partnership with “Ready Player One” author Ernest Cline and Warner Bros. Discovery. Futureverse will bring the “Ready Player One” franchise to the Web3 universe as part of the new deal.
• SpaceX officially launched the first set of Starlink satellites into space on a rocket earlier this week. T-Mobile confirmed the news, directly bringing cell services from space to its customers’ smartphones.
• Microsoft is doubling down on its generative AI efforts by adding a new button to keyboards of Windows PCs dedicated to its Copilot AI assistant, marking the first update to Windows keyboards in three decades. Microsoft will share more about its new tech and hardware devices at CES next week.
• Peloton‘s shares surged as much as 15% on Thursday after the company announced a partnership with TikTok to attract a broader array of customers. Peloton will build a virtual fitness hub within the short-form video app’s platform dubbed “#TikTokFitness Powered by Peloton.”
• Meta cut the price of its Quest 2 headset once again, knocking the 128GB price down from $299 to $249, and the 256GB dropped from $349 to $299. The Big Tech company has lowered the Quest 2 VR headset prices by nearly $250 in the last year.

MicroStrategy founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor is selling $216 million worth of shares in his company to buy more Bitcoin for his personal reserve. Saylor’s business intelligence company has been aggressively investing in Bitcoin with 189,150 tokens under its umbrella, so I’m going to bet that we’ll see another big Bitcoin purchase from MicroStrategy by the end of Q1.

The post Bitcoin Celebrates 15 Years on the Blockchain by Briefly Surpassing $45K appeared first on Boardroom.

Meet Shawne Benson, a legacy gamer responsible for driving PlayStation‘s content strategy while connecting gamers to the best games on the market.

Benson is the global head of third-party portfolio and acquisitions at PlayStation, a team responsible for content intelligence and knowing about all of the games coming from PS’s third-party partners. She leads a group of game analysts who evaluate potential partnerships spanning all PS products.

Her team doesn’t just lead the charge on partnership deals; it also offers support outside of that. Benson joined Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), PlayStation’s parent company, in 2017 after a decade at Apple. She worked in different roles at the Big Tech company, most recently serving as a games editor, working closely with the App Store Team before she joined SIE.

When Benson started working with PlayStation’s portfolio team, she mainly focused on working with indie creators, publishers, and developers before her role evolved.

“I started to grow my reach and influence into pretty much everything that’s coming from our third-party partners, both big and small,” Benson told Boardroom in an exclusive interview.

In this Boardroom Q&A, Benson talks about her career trajectory, her team’s pivotal work, and what she’s most passionate about when it comes to gaming.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

MICHELAI GRAHAM: How did you get your start in the gaming industry?

SHAWNE BENSON: It’s kind of a twisty path, so just for some context, my background in education was in theater. I was a designer. I liked composing music and sound for plays as well as lighting. Basically, things you couldn’t really touch but gave you feeling on stage, and I felt like there was a lot of overlap with video games and theater.

Over time, I was trying to break in, kind of like an actor going to Hollywood with their headshot. I had my mix tapes or CDs at the game developers’ conferences. I made a lot of friends and networked around there, and then, you know my partner, he also is an artist in video games. Through that, of course, I met a lot of the indie game community and, as a result, wound up getting really inspired by the journey that a lot of the indies were going through at the time and really wanted to figure out a way to move from being a creator where I was designing stuff for games and more into a patron, for lack of a better word or an advocate for other creators.

MG: How big is your team at PlayStation?

SB: My team is a total of 11 people. However, we work very closely with the third-party relations team, and there is a huge group of account management team members that do the day-to-day relationship management with all the creators. Our partner marketing team members do all the support for advocating.

MG: What does a typical workday look like for you?

SB: A typical day-to-day is looking at content, communicating, and advocating internally. So a lot of meetings. Over the last few years, there has been a lot of travel, basically going around the world and meeting with partners in their studios, getting my hands on their games, and going to trade shows.

In those meetings with partners, it’s not just talking about whether a game is good but does it really resonate with our PlayStation brand? Would this be a good fit for PlayStation? Oftentimes, we’ll see a pitch deck; they’ll show us the overview of the game.

We’ll sometimes see, for publishers, a slate review, which is a high-level look at the games that they have in their portfolio, and if there’s something we have of interest, then we’ll try to kick the tires, so to speak, and play a segment of the game like an early prototype or something a little bit further along. Then we put together our analysis and run our due diligence process, which is similar to what investment firms would do for a company, but we’re doing it for a game.

So I mean, we’re not doing the Q&A: the quality assurance process necessarily, but we absolutely are getting looks at the game throughout the development journey.

MG: Can you talk about a time your team changed the scope of a game in development?

SB: We’re pretty good at putting our dev goggles on at that early stage. One of my favorite examples was with the game Stray. Our team worked really closely with Annapurna Interactive and the development team behind it, BlueTwelve Studio, and gave them a lot of guidance on how to take advantage of our controllers. There are haptic adaptive triggers, so there’s the tension that you can feel when you pull the triggers. Imagine being a cat, and you’re on a carpet, and you have the feature where you can scratch the carpet. Why not get the controller to give you a little bit of resistance? Feels like you’re literally embodying the cat vibes with that moment.

Those are the kinds of moments where we can give them advice that is very console-specific. What we don’t do is tell them how to make their game because they’re the experts at making a great game. We just give them tips and tricks on how to be best on PlayStation.

MG: What happens when your team gives the green light on a deal? Does it change your relationship with developers at all?

SB: It varies. A lot of times, we tell our partners it doesn’t always end with a traditional deal. A lot of people feel discouraged that if we don’t have a traditional partnership, it means their game isn’t good or it doesn’t make sense as a fit for PlayStation.

We only have so many games we can really put our chips against in that regard. There have been so many great games that don’t become part of a deal that we still do a lot of cool stuff with. In fact, our State of Play has a lot of titles in there that we don’t necessarily have traditional partnerships on.

MG: Let’s pivot a bit. Can you talk to me about your personal gaming experience?

SB: I’ve been a gamer since basically the earliest I could possibly play. I’m older than I look; I was I was definitely a child of the 80s, and my first console was an Intellivision. My dad had one. One of the early, more memorable ones for me, though, was the Sega Master System because it had the light gun and the 3D goggles or glasses that you could wear.

I’ve been a religious gamer between me and my brothers. I used to love either playing or watching my brothers play together. Final Fantasy VII, when the first PlayStation was around, just blew our minds. It was one of the most memorable games.

I’ve been a gamer the whole time, and my livelihood depends on it.

The PlayStation 5 a Must-have?

The holidays have come and gone, but with the handheld on the way, here’s why PlayStation’s latest console remains a top gift at any time.

Check it out!

MG: Dare I ask, do you have a favorite game that you are playing right now or of all time?

SB: My favorite game of all time is Elden Ring, and that was recently dethroned by my all-time favorite majority of my life, which was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. This was a Super Nintendo game that really just changed me. I really loved that game as a kid, and I still, to this day, will go back to it and replay it over and over again.

But Elden Ring was everything I ever wanted and more in a game. And also, it was from a creator that I always was. It was too punishing for me, so I never really got into it because it was, you know, the type of game that they created was very linear in the previous versions, and this one was so much more open, and it channeled a lot of the things that made me love Zelda, honestly. But it kind of felt like a much more adult, fleshed-out version of that, just a great sense of wonder, but had a little bit of grit and darkness, too.

My personal game of the year is Alan Wake 2. The runner-up is Baldur’s Gate 3.

MG: What are some of your favorite games you’ve worked with since working at PlayStation?

SB: The top games that I worked on in my career here that I’m most proud of are as follows:

• Stray
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Deathloop (It’s one of my proudest experiences/deals, something we signed before Microsoft bought Bethesda. The game director even made a special shout-out to my team when he won Game of the Year.)
• Baldur’s Gate 3 (although I will note that most of the heavy lifting for this one, in particular, came from my team and account management)
• Genshin Impact
• Final Fantasy XVI
• RE Village
• Tetris Effect
• SIFU

MG: Do you have a mental checklist for what you consider a good game?

SB: There are two tracks to answer this because there is a good game for Shawne and a good game for PlayStation.

Personally, the story really has to grab me. It really has to be something that pulls either my intrigue or sense of wanting to peel the layers back and learn more. But that being said, it doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be a 3D photorealistic, you know, high-tech version. Some of my favorite games are very pixelated and 8-bit.

For Playstation, I think about the audience and where we are in the life cycle of the platform. we’re looking at how those games will resonate and be the best place to play, not only for our existing users but also for players that we want to reach.

MG: Where do you see yourself in the gaming industry in the next five to 10 years?

SB: I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately, you know, cause I really love my position, and I love what I do at PlayStation, and I love connecting with creators. I think no matter what I do, I’ll always want to work with creative people, understand their vision, and try to celebrate or advocate for their vision. Sometimes I wonder if I might one day get back into the creative seat myself.

But for now, I will continue to grow as a curator and a champion of other creators.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post How Shawne Benson is Driving PlayStation’s Content Strategy appeared first on Boardroom.

Fifteen years ago today, Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first blockchain network after mining the genesis block of Bitcoin. This moment in history birthed the cryptocurrency market, which boasts thousands of cryptocurrencies today.

Since its inception, Bitcoin has claimed its place as one of the world’s top 10 most valuable assets, and undoubtedly, it’s the most valuable cryptocurrency on the market.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boardroom (@boardroom)

Bitcoin was down tremendously around the token’s 14th birthday, trading for roughly $16,680. That’s not the case a year later, with Bitcoin briefly breaking the $45,000 threshold a day before its birthday for the first time since April 2022. As of Jan. 3, Bitcoin is trading for around $42,700, steadily holding above the $40,000 threshold.

The token has seen a positive uptick in recent months, attributed to the impending spot Bitcoin ETF approval. A decision from the SEC is rumored to come in the next week, changing the landscape of the crypto market once again. But Bitcoin isn’t your typical cryptocurrency, and as far as the SEC is concerned, it’s actually a commodity under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

If any asset is going to shake up the entire market, it will surely be Bitcoin. It always was going to be.

But let’s not forget — Bitcoin might not be in circulation forever since it has a cap of 21 million coins. The final token is expected to be mined by 2140. The crypto is also prepping for its fourth halving event in the first quarter of this year, decreasing its mining reward once again.

Subscribe to Tech Talk below for more real-time updates on Bitcoin and all of the token’s movements throughout the year.

More Tech Talk:

1

0

8

post

6

OR

5276

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Tech Talk March 31, 2024

What Will We Learn at Apple WWDC24 this Summer?

Tech Talk March 24, 2024

Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network?

Tech Talk March 17, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About TikTok’s Potential Ban in the US

Emerging Tech March 16, 2024

US House Advances Bill on TikTok Ban

Tech Talk March 10, 2024

Social Media Platforms Went Offline This Week. But Why?

The post Happy Birthday Bitcoin: 15 Years as the Most Valuable Crypto appeared first on Boardroom.

I’m back in your inbox after a short Christmas hiatus to highlight five tech trends and some of my favorite headlines from 2023. I’m not sure about you, but it seems so surreal to be wrapping up another year. I’ve been looking back at all of my reporting and Tech Talk editions from this year, and I’m in awe at all that has happened in the industry. Recently, I recapped 10 of the biggest tech moments in 2023, and I noticed that many of the big headlines touch on the same themes.

Many new tech trends arose this year, but these stood out to me the most. Here are five tech trends that took over headlines in 2023.

AI Overtook Blockchain as Biggest Emerging Tech

Artificial intelligence quickly became the top emerging tech this year, and experts expect it to have the most impact on the industry in the coming years. In 2021, we’d easily say the blockchain would be the tech to change the world, and that still may be true, but AI is running the game right now.

There was always skepticism about the blockchain, and the tech’s primary use cases in the last two years were NFTs and cryptocurrencies. The unpredictableness of the digital assets market stirred people away from it. I still truly believe the possibilities are limitless on the blockchain, a technology simply built on creating decentralized digital ledgers for any and every transaction that happens on enabled networks. I think the difference with AI is that it’s not a new type of technology; it’s just being leveraged and implemented in new and different ways.

AI’s impact has already spanned various industries this year alone, and I have no doubt it will continue to expand and impact everything we do in the years to come.

The Race for Best AI Chatbot Took Shape

We’ve all likely interacted with AI chatbots before when using online customer service systems, but those are nothing like the AI chatbots we can access today. To think, around this time last year, all people could talk about was a new AI chatbot called ChatGPT that could only be used on a desktop. So much has changed since then.

Here’s a snippet of some of the AI chatbots on the market racing to be the best and favorite among everyday people:

• ChatGPT: OpenAI‘s flagship AI-powered and text-generated chatbot has attracted 100 million monthly users since it launched in late November last year. ChatGPT has expanded with free, premium, and enterprise versions.
• Microsoft Copilot: Microsoft was the first to follow in OpenAI’s footsteps in February by overhauling its search engine Bing and implementing an AI chatbot function. The chatbot was originally named Bing Chat before rebranding as Microsoft Copilot.
• Bard: Google entered the race in March when it launched Bard, a conversational generative AI chatbot equipped with Googling capabilities.
• Claude: Anthropic, an AI startup founded by ex-OpenAI employees, also launched the first version of its AI chatbot in March. Claude is available through open beta and has pro and enterprise versions as well.
• Grok: Elon Musk‘s xAI unveiled a conversational AI chatbot that responds humorously, for lack of better terms. Grok launched in November exclusively for verified X Premium Plus subscribers. `

It’s easy to say ChatGPT is the most popular or best because it was the first, but I have no doubt Big Tech companies will continue to give OpenAI a run for its money next year.

New VR and AR Headsets Emerged

The competition for the best mixed-reality headset also kicked off this year. Apple, Meta, and Sony have risen as the biggest players in this race, with all three companies either releasing or announcing new headsets this year.

Sony released the PlayStation VR2 in February for $549, but users can only use this headset if they already have a PS5. The PlayStation VR2 is not a standalone headset and requires a PS5 to set up and function. Conversely, you can play PlayStation titles in VR, which isn’t doable with any other headset on the market.

Meta is bullish on VR headsets, and it made that clear when it launched another new one this year. The Big Tech giant now has three headsets on the market. Its most popular headset, the Quest 2, launched in October 2020 and retails for $249.99. Meta has shipped an estimated 20 million Quest 2s since launch. The company launched the Quest Pro in October 2022 and initially sold the high-end headset for $1,499.99 before knocking the price down to $999.99 in March. Consumers don’t seem to be that into the Quest Pro, and rumors are circulating that Meta will discontinue it soon. But it doesn’t stop there. Meta released the Quest 3 in October for $499.99, an updated and much slimmer version of the Quest 2.

Apple has officially entered the mixed-reality headset chat with the Vision Pro. The tech company’s augmented reality and virtual reality headset won’t come with controllers and is equipped with 4K displays, a 3D interface, spatial audio, and eye-tracking tech. Apple’s first headset is slated to hit the market in early 2024, and it will (allegedly) retail for $3,499.

Bitcoin’s Resurgence Put Crypto Back on the Map

Bitcoin is back on the rise as the volatile digital assets market shakes off some of that snow from the longest crypto winter ever. One thing to know about crypto is that when one asset is doing well, the entire market reaps some of the benefits in one way or another. Bitcoin averaged around $20,000 in January and even went as low as $16,600 to kick off the year. Bitcoin’s average has more than doubled since the token is trading above $43,000 as of December and crossed the $40,000 threshold in recent weeks for the first time in over a year and a half.

Bitcoin has been up and down all year, but since Q4 hit, the cryptocurrency has been climbing at a steady pace. There can be many reasons for this, but two that have a high impact include fodder around an impending Spot Bitcoin ETF approval and the next Bitcoin halving event that is estimated to happen between April and May 2024.

Bitcoin didn’t start 2023 strong, so I’ll be paying close attention to how the token performs at the top of the year.

Tech Layoffs Plagued the Industry

Thousands of tech workers were laid off this year as companies attempted to adjust and reset after overhiring staff during the pandemic. It seemed like every other week, there was news of another tech company cutting employees. The media industry was hit pretty hard, too.

Here is a short recap of Big Tech layoffs that came this year:

• Alphabet/Google: Laid off 12,000 employees in late January in a mass restructuring of business focus.
• Amazon: Laid off 9,000 more employees in March after announcing in November 2022 that it was cutting 18,000 workers. The Big Tech company cut another 180 gaming employees in April.
• Meta: Cut 11,00 jobs in fall of 2022 before laying off another 10,000 employees in March to further cut costs and operate more efficiently. Meta’s recruiting, technology, and business divisions were most affected by the cuts.
• Microsoft: Laid off 10,000 workers between January and March to trim costs. The Big Tech company’s subsidiary, LinkedIn, laid off 716 workers in May before letting go of 668 employees in October.
• Spotify: Cut 600 employees in January, 200 more in June, and another 1,500 workers in December to round out three rounds of layoffs this year.
• ByteDance: Cut hundreds of jobs across its gaming division in November as it pulled back its aggressive push into the market.

Other Big Tech players like Apple and Tesla carried out smaller rounds of layoffs throughout the year, but not big enough to make headlines. On the other hand, Nvidia didn’t make any cuts this year and hasn’t made a formal round of layoffs in 15 years, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at a recent internal meeting.

15 of My Favorite Headlines from 2023

In no particular order, here are 15 stories I wrote this year that I’m really proud of.

1. ‘Queen Charlotte’ Gives Black Women the Limelight
2. Boardroom Q&A: Latasha Gillespie, Amazon Studios Head of Global DEI
3. This Song Is No Longer Available: Forecasting the Future of Music and AI
4. The Business Behind VeeCon
5. Omar Bailey’s FCTRY LAb is More Than a Sneaker Innovation Hub
6. Black Women in Tech Don’t Owe You Anything
7. NBA Threads: A Guide to the Thriving Hardwood Community
8. Tennis & Tech: Inside IBM’s Artificial Intelligence Evolution at the 2023 US Open
9. Cole Anthony & Crystal McCrary McGuire Want to Make Your Kid into an NBA Player
10. Key Facts You Need to Know About the Sam Bankman-Fried Trial
11. Tech Talk Reviews: WHOOP Coach, Powered by OpenAI
12. Boardroom Q&A: Pauliina Törnqvist, Senior Producer of VR Games at Meta
13. Forecasting the Future: Predictions for Crypto in 2024
14. 10 Must-have Tech Gadgets For Your 2023 Holiday Wish List
15. ChatGPT Turns 1: A Timeline of Events From a Monumental First Year

I (risk-free) gambled on movements in the tech industry over 40 times this year in this little section. I won’t be placing a new bet today. Instead, let’s take a look back at all of the bets I made this year and how some of the big ones landed.

Now, let’s raise a glass and cheers to making it through another year. I hope you enjoyed this last edition of 2023. Tech Talk will be back in 2024!

The post 5 Tech Trends That Took Over Headlines in 2023 appeared first on Boardroom.

This year, I made over 40 bets focused on things I predict will happen across the tech industry.

When Boardroom’s weekly newsletter, Tech Talk, got a makeover in February, I started making bets on happenings across the tech industry. “Michelai’s Bet of the Week Presented by FanDuel Sportsbook” holds space at the bottom of the newsletter, and it easily became my favorite place to share my real and sometimes unhinged tech hot takes.

Now, I wasn’t making any wagers or putting up money for these bets, but some came true, and some didn’t.

Here is a rundown of every bet I made this year on tech, with some small updates on the big ones that have had movements.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

February

• Feb. 12: Calling it now: Twitter’s verified badge pricing model will fall apart in the next year because people won’t care enough to pay for a blue check.
• Feb. 19: As the SEC cracks down on crypto, lawmakers will attempt to implement widespread crypto regulations within the next year.
• Feb. 26: After steady progress with AI-powered chatbots, there will be talks of at least one AI-scripted film at the Tribeca Film Festival this summer.
  • Unfortunately, this didn’t come true.

March

• March 5: Since Yuga Labs is the top household name in Web3, I predict that TwelveFold NFTs will sell out in four hours max when they drop.
  • TwelveFold NFTs sold out in minutes when the auction concluded on March 6.
• March 12: Since Meta plans to release three more headsets before 2027, I think the big tech company will knock those Quest prices down again before the year is up to make space in the market for the new products.
  • Meta knocked down the Meta Quest 2 price by $50 to $249, while the Meta Quest Pro is still $999.
• March 19: Even though lawmakers are scrutinizing President Joe Biden for not banning TikTok by now, I bet a deal will be reached very soon, and a complete barring of the social media won’t be necessary.
• March 26: If ByteDance puts a real deal on the table to sell TikTok, I’m going to bet that Oracle will arise as an early contender to buy the company.

April

• April 2: I’m going to go big here and say Twitter removing legacy blue checks will backfire tremendously, causing the platform to move back to a more traditional verification process.
  • After discontinuing the Legacy Blue Check program on April 20, X began reinstalling them on accounts for deceased individuals and many celebrities by April 24.
• April 9: I’m going to bet that NFT.NYC will look a lot different next year, or not happen at all since it’s really just a week of hundreds of community events that can run throughout the year.
• April 16: I’m going to bet that Adidas will follow in Nike and RTFKT’s steps and release some exclusive ALTS apparel tied to the blockchain.
• April 23: I’m going to bet that streaming platforms will not ban AI services from using copyrighted music in favor of imposing some restrictions instead.
• April 30: This is a big one, but I’m going to bet that Microsoft won’t be able to close its acquisition deal with Activision Blizzard this year.
  • This is probably the biggest bet I lost on this year since Microsoft closed the deal in October.

May

• May 7: Super hot take alert: I’m going to bet that more tech workers will push to unionize in the coming years as AI continues to disrupt the workforce.
• May 14: Since Twitter/X Corp is getting a new CEO, I’m going to bet that investors will begin talking about how to buy Musk out to push him out of the company.
• May 21: I am going to confidently bet that Montana’s TikTok ban will not hold up. I’m sure the ACLU is already drafting a lawsuit to detail how this ban violates freedom of speech.
  • In November, a federal judge blocked Montana’s TikTok ban from going into effect.
• May 28: Following FaZe Clan’s latest round of layoffs, I’m going to bet that the once-beloved esports brand is going to file for bankruptcy or merge with another company pretty soon.
  • Texas-based esports company GameSquare Holdings inked a deal in October to acquire Faze Clan.

June

• June 4: This seems like a no-brainer, but since AI leaders are warning that AI will overtake humans in the future, I’m going to bet that investors, consumers, and maybe even Congress will begin to question what they are actually building.
• June 11: After watching Meta knock down its Quest Pro price by $500, I’m going to bet that Apple will chip a little off the Vision Pro’s expensive price tag before the device goes to market later this year.
  • Unfortunately, this didn’t come true.
• June 18: After finally watching Ready Player One for the first time (I know, I’m sorry) following the film’s tech comparisons to Apple’s new AR headset, I’m going to bet that streams of the movie will skyrocket as Apple shares more of its plans.
• June 25: Since President Joe Biden met with AI experts this week, I’m going to bet that we’ll see some joint AI regulations in the near future before we see any real crypto regulations.

Sign up for our newsletter

Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• HeadlineToGo
• Tech Talk
• Inside the Boardroom
• Sneaker Game

Subscribe

July

• July 2: Google seems to be a bit confused about how to build around emerging technologies right now, and after its recent job cuts at Waze, I’m going to bet we will see another big staffing restructure at the company in the next year.
  • Google cut at least 40 jobs in its news division in October, but no big restructuring.
• July 9: Since there has been fodder about OpenAI getting acquired by Microsoft in its lifetime, I’m going to bet that we’ll see rumors of a deal on the table in the next year after the big tech giant sorts out its Activision Blizzard merger deal.
• July 16: While everyone is focused on generative AI, I always think about humanoids, aka robots. I’m going to bet that a new robotics and AI company building bots will arise soon.
• July 23: Since Amazon is bringing its pay-by-palm tech to all Whole Foods stores by the end of the year, I’m going to bet that another company will do the same with iris tech. (Kind of surprised Amazon didn’t try that first!)
• July 30: I’m going to bet that Xbox will end up selling its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-inspired pizza-scented controllers after Aug. 13. For now, fans can only grab one as part of a marketing campaign to promote Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem film.
  • Unfortunately, this didn’t come true.

August

• Aug. 6: An unopened, first-generation Apple iPod sold for $29,000 via Rally this week, and I’m going to bet that, unlike cassette and CD players, these devices will continue to hold high value due to extreme scarcity.
• Aug. 13: Despite the Detroit Police Department’s trouble with facial recognition tech, I’m going to bet that more law enforcement agencies will adopt the tech, leading to more false arrests.
• Aug. 20: VinFast will go the way of Rivian, facing an extreme challenge (and plummeting stock prices) as it is unable to keep up with the sky-high demand for its EV offerings.
• Aug. 27: Despite the desirable $130 price point, I’m going to strongly bet that the new Atari 2600+ dropping in November won’t sell even half the units that the Atari 2600 sold, which was about 30 million.
  • The console just released a month ago, so sales numbers haven’t been reported yet.

September

• Sept. 3: Amazon is pushing forward with its return-to-office policy, requiring employees to report to an office three days a week, just as Meta recently implemented. I’m going to bet that tech workers will begin to push back on Big Tech companies to fight the crackdown on in-office policies in favor of remote work.
• Sept. 10: Warner Music Central Europe signed a record deal with AI pop singer Noonoouri, and while this is a first for Warner Music, I’m going to bet that we won’t see a deal of this nature in the US anytime soon.
• Sept. 17: With Hulu and Disney Plus price hikes on the way next month, I’m going to bet that a tech company like Roku, for example, will offer a bundle deal of all the major streaming platforms in the next year. It’s like we’re headed back to the cable era of television all over again.
• Sept. 24: Snapchat+ hit a new milestone with 5 million paying subscribers, and while this is impressive, I’m going to bet that the subscription program will see a massive dip in interest by next summer.

October

• Oct. 1: Samsung is targeting content creators through a new sponsorship with MrBeast. I’m going to bet that this deal won’t drive significant sales for the Galaxy Z Flip 5 as the mobile brand expects it to.
• Oct. 8: Meta is testing a $14-a-month subscription service in the UK for users who want an advertisement-free Instagram or Facebook experience. TikTok is also internationally testing a similar feature for $4.99 a month. Since social networks don’t operate like streaming services, I’m going to bet that this offering won’t thrive in the US.
• Oct. 15: Joby Aviation Founder JoeBen Bevirt said his company can deliver on launching a commercial air taxi service in 2025. We didn’t get flying cars in 2000 as promised, so I’m going to bet that flying taxis won’t arrive in 2025 or this decade.
• Oct. 22: After years of delays, Tesla will reportedly start delivering its much-anticipated Cybertruck vehicle to select customers on Nov. 30. I’m going to place a hot bet that we’ll see at least one recall or some sort of design change on the luxury electric SUV before the year is up.
  • Unfortunately, this didn’t happen for the Cybertruck, but Tesla did do a big recall of 2 million of its flagship vehicles recently.
• Oct. 29: Shazam, the music identification app owned by Apple, announced a new feature called Concerts, which will recommend music events to customers based on their Shazam queries. With this expansion, I’m going to bet that Shazam will add a concert ticket-purchasing feature as well, or maybe Apple will build its own internal ticket sales tech.

Everything You Need to Know About the Tesla Cybertruck

The Tesla Cybertruck has officially entered the automotive market, so Boardroom breaks down what to expect from the new electric-powered vehicle, now and in the future.

Check it out!

November

• Nov. 5: The Information reported that TikTok users sent over $250 million to livestreamers on the platform by way of tips and digital gifts. With the potential to generate tipping revenue, I’m going to bet that TikTok Live will give other platforms like Twitch a run for their audiences pretty soon.
• Nov. 12: Despite Epic Games losing in a similar antitrust case with Apple back in 2021, I’m going to bet that the video game developer will prevail with a few wins in its antitrust trial against Google since the Big Tech giant is fighting multiple court battles right now.
  • This was my biggest win on a bet of the year since Epic Games prevailed against Google on all fronts.
• Nov. 19: Indie studio A24 was granted the rights to make a movie based on Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk. I can’t pinpoint who I think will play the controversial tech tycoon, but I am going to bet that Musk will put his bid in to play himself in the highly-anticipated film.
• Nov. 26: Elon Musk confirmed that Grok will be available to all X Premium+ subscribers as soon as next week, but I’m going to bet that he’ll expand the AI chatbot to more consumers by Q1 2024 to compete with other AI chatbots on the market.

December

• Dec. 3: Lapse, a photo-sharing app that skyrocketed from No. 118 to No. 1 in Apple’s App Store in September, saw downloads drop as much as 70% in recent months. I’m going to bet that we’ll see an uptick in activity once Lapse opens up invites to the masses instead of only allowing users to join by invite codes from friends.
• Dec. 10: I recently shared some of my crypto predictions for 2024, and while I predicted that Bitcoin would break the $40,000 threshold in the new year, it already did that. I want to up that prediction and bet that Bitcoin will break the $50,000 threshold before May.
• Dec. 17: Nearly 20% of teens said they are almost constantly visiting or using YouTube and TikTok, a new report by the Pew Research Center found. As more kids get online to learn, play, and create, I’m going to bet that that figure will double by this time next year.

Be sure to subscribe to Tech Talk to stay current on all my Bets of the Week — right and wrong — heading into 2024.

More Tech Talk:

1

0

8

post

6

OR

5276

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Tech Talk March 31, 2024

What Will We Learn at Apple WWDC24 this Summer?

Tech Talk March 24, 2024

Did Reddit Just Have the Best IPO for a Social Network?

Tech Talk March 17, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About TikTok’s Potential Ban in the US

Emerging Tech March 16, 2024

US House Advances Bill on TikTok Ban

Tech Talk March 10, 2024

Social Media Platforms Went Offline This Week. But Why?

The post Michelai’s Bet of the Week: A 2023 Rundown of Every Odd appeared first on Boardroom.

Another year is coming to a close, and now, more than ever, the tech industry is moving and shaking things up. New tech companies are rising to the top, and the Big Tech giants are expanding with new tech and products to stay in the race.

To cap off another eventful year, Boardroom details 10 of the biggest tech moments, announcements, and headlines from 2023. In no particular order, here we go.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

10 of the Biggest Tech Moments of 2023

OpenAI fired Sam Altman, then hired him back in a week.

OpenAI‘s board fired its CEO and co-founder Sam Altman in mid-November in an unexpected coup before rehiring the AI tycoon less than a week later. Altman’s return came with a new board and little to no confirmed explanation from OpenAI as to why he was ousted in the first place. The entire debacle from bizarre, and every day for a week, it seemed like more and more tea was getting spilled.

Microsoft finally got clearance to acquire Activision Blizzard.

In October, Microsoft officially got the green light to acquire video game giant Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. The Big Tech leader first bid to acquire Activision in January 2022, with its biggest hurdle being UK regulators. After negotiating some changes to the costly contract, Microsoft moved closer to pulling off its biggest deal yet. The acquisition deal closed the same day both parties signed the contract.

Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty.

Nearly a year after getting arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the US, disgraced ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy at the top of November. SBF spent five weeks in court trying to convince a jury that he didn’t steal billions of dollars and defraud FTX customers. The former crypto leader will be sentenced on March 28, 2024; he’s facing a maximum of 115 years in prison.

Guilty on All Counts

SBF was convicted of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers in one of the biggest financial frauds in US history.

Read More!

Google launched an AI chatbot called Bard.

In March, Google opened public access to Bard AI, its flagship competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google’s conversational and generative artificial intelligence-enabled chatbot hasn’t risen to popularity like ChatGPT has, but it’s still in the early days of the AI chatbot race.

Twitter officially became X while legacy users flocked to other apps.

Elon Musk officially rebranded Twitter as X in July, sunsetting the icon blue bird logo we’ve known and loved for over a decade. X has been pushing hard to become the “everything app” this year but has steep competition now. As X continues to make changes, there has been a surge in other text-based apps like Bluesky, Spill, and Meta’s newest app.

Meta launched a new text-based app called Threads.

Meta once again shocked the social media world when it launched a new text-based conversation app called Threads in July.  The primary purpose of Threads is to be an app more focused on text and dialogue, modeled after what Instagram has done for photos and videos. Since its launch, the new app has attracted approximately 100 million monthly active users. Threads came in a “year of efficiency” for Meta, which also saw its stock surge as much as 176% in 2023.

Introducing NBA Threads

Boardroom breaks down the thriving & growing community on the text-based app, where users have been organically fostering conversation around the global sport.

Check it out!

Apple hit a historic milestone with a $3 trillion market cap.

Apple made history in July when it again hit a $3 trillion market capitalization. The Big Tech giant is the first public company to reach that milestone and has done it twice. The accolade came a month after Apple announced that it would release its first virtual reality and augmented reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro. The headset is set to launch in early 2024.

Google loses to Epic Games in court.

A jury unanimously sided with Epic Games over Google in an antitrust case that started three years ago when the Fortnite creator filed a lawsuit against the Big Tech company for charging higher than normal app store fees and restricting payment systems. Epic Games hopes this court decision will force Google to allow app developers to use alternative payment systems within their apps or run their own app stores on Android. Right now, Google gets a 30% cut of in-app purchases. We’ll know more about Google’s app store changes in January.

AI-generated “Heart on My Sleeve” song goes viral.

An AI-generated song featuring vocals from Drake and The Weeknd went viral in April, sparking a larger discussion about the use of AI across the music industry. Drake and The Weeknd didn’t agree to let their voices be featured on the song “Heart on My Sleeve,” anonymously produced by TikToker Ghostwriter977. After a short viral stint, major social media and streaming platforms removed Ghostwriter’s original posts for infringing content creation with generative AI.

Tesla’s Cybertruck finally hit the road.

Tesla began delivering the first round of its much-anticipated Cybertrucks at the end of November, two years after it originally planned to roll them out. The new electric-powered vehicle with a futuristic trapezoid-like design is Tesla’s first new model in three years. The electric automotive maker plans to produce 250,000 Cybertrucks a year once it reaches full production mode.

Want More Tech?

1

0

101

post

6

OR

5283,5284,5335

Big Tech March 28, 2024

Tech Talk Reviews: Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Big Tech March 26, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About AI Chipmaker Nvidia

Big Tech March 22, 2024

How Google’s Adrienne Lofton Connects Marketing and Culture

Emerging Tech March 15, 2024

Tech Talk Reviews: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Emerging Tech March 12, 2024

How to Set Up Your Coinbase Wallet as Crypto Market Booms

Tech Talk February 18, 2024

Big Tech is Strong in Indy for 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend

The post Apple, Google, & Meta Lead the 10 Biggest Tech Moments of 2023 appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition: 

• Epic Games defeats Google in court
• OpenAI inks deal with Axel Springer
• Threads expands to the EU

Epic Games Prevails Against Google in Antitrust Case

A jury unanimously sided with Epic Games over Google in an antitrust case that started three years ago when the Fortnite creator filed a lawsuit against the Big Tech company for charging higher than normal app store fees and restricting payment systems. Epic Games claimed Google’s Play Store violated federal and California state antitrust laws by doing this, and the court agreed. The jury’s decision came after four weeks of court testimony.

This is a big deal, but we won’t know for sure what will come of it until remedies start in January. While Epic Games is taking this as a win, Wilson White, Google’s VP for government affairs and public policy, said the tech company will appeal the verdict. Epic Games hopes this court decision will force Google to allow app developers to use alternative payment systems within their apps or run their own app stores on Android. Right now, Google gets a 30% cut of in-app purchases.

My Bet of the Week a month ago was that the video game developer would prevail against Google, and it looks like I was right. Stay tuned for an official recap of all the bets I made this year on the movements in the tech industry.

OpenAI Inks Content Licensing Deal with Axel Springer

ChatGPT is getting a boost from the journalism realm since OpenAI signed a global licensing deal with Axel Springer. The new content partnership allows ChatGPT to summarize news stories and events from Politico, Business Insider, and more publications under the global news publisher’s umbrella. ChatGPT’s answers will begin to include attribution and links to full articles, even paywalled content typically limited to paid subscribers. OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said in a release that this partnership will help provide people with new ways to access quality, real-time news content powered by AI.

It looks like OpenAI is making some strong bets on journalism. This deal comes after the AI company launched a licensing partnership with the Associated Press in July to use its news archive to train its AI models. Axel Springer has also agreed to provide content as training data.

Tesla Recalls US Vehicles & Launches New Humanoid Robot

Tesla is recalling more than 2 million of its vehicles, nearly all in the US, to update software and add some new system alerts and warnings for drivers using the Autopilot function. This comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded a two-year investigation into crashes that happened while Tesla drivers had Autopilot activated. The recall will update where Tesla’s Autopilot function can operate and increase the amount of alerts drivers get while using the self-driving feature.

Tesla’s vehicle recall news came a day after the company unveiled the second generation of its Optimus humanoid robot, which can walk, squat, and hold an egg. It’s unclear what more the robot can do or will be able to do when it eventually goes to market.

More news updates from Musk’s companies:

• X is expected to bring in roughly $2.5 billion in ad revenue in 2023 after major advertisers left the platform. This is down about 50% compared to last year.
• Tax filings show that Musk plans to launch a STEM-focused K-12 school in Austin with a $100 million donation. The planned school could eventually expand to a university.
• Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones got his X account restored after Musk ran a poll on the platform to decide his fate. Jones’ controversial reinstatement came with a three-hour-long X Spaces with Musk, Andrew Tate, and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

• Meta‘s newest social app, Threads, is expanding to Europe with a few tweaks to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. Elsewhere in Meta’s family of businesses, Quest 2, 3, and Pro users can now stream and play Xbox Cloud Gaming titles with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership.
• Spotify confirmed to Tech Crunch that it’s testing a new feature that will let users create AI-powered playlists via text-based prompts. The digital music service didn’t say when the feature will expand with a full launch.
• The Entertainment Software Association announced that it won’t be hosting its annual video game tradeshow E3 any longer after over two decades. The decision came after ESA canceled this year’s tradeshow when gaming giants backed out to host their showcases.
• The New York Times hired Quartz founder Zach Seward as its new editorial director of artificial intelligence initiatives. In this newly created position, Seward will establish how the NYT will and won’t use AI in the newsroom.
• ByteDance is scrapping its next VR headset from its subsidiary company, Pico, after sales fell short for the Pico 4, which hasn’t even launched in the US yet. The Information reports that Pico is working on a more high-end headset similar to Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro.
• To celebrate the release of Pink Friday 2, Nicki Minaj teamed up with Republic Records and Karta, a metaverse studio, to launch a virtual shop in Roblox dubbed “Nicki Minaj’s Gag City.” Fans can enter the shop to tap into 3D experiences inspired by the rap star’s music and purchase digital items.

Nearly 20% of teens said they are almost constantly visiting or using YouTube and TikTok, a new report by the Pew Research Center found. As more kids get online to learn, play, and create, I’m going to bet that that figure will double by this time next year.

The post Epic Games Prevails Against Google in Antitrust Case appeared first on Boardroom.

Bitcoin is back over the $40,000 threshold for the first time in nearly two years, and there’s only one reason why: The spot Bitcoin ETF.

The cryptocurrency‘s price has surged in recent months as investors grow more optimistic about the potential approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. A spot Bitcoin ETF is an exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of Bitcoin. When investors buy shares, they are basically buying a portion of the Bitcoin held by the fund. This is the road that leads Bitcoin straight to the stock market.

The ETF would not only expand bitcoin’s market capitalization but also open Bitcoin up to a whole new pool of investors who typically invest in stocks. It could generate $600 billion in new demand and some crypto analysts even think it could lead to a $1 trillion increase in Bitcoin’s market cap.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has the power to green-light spot Bitcoin ETFs, and some crypto-focused funds are already submitting applications to launch them in the near future.

Check out my video for more on how this is driving Bitcoin’s value up.

More Crypto:

1

0

27

post

6

OR

376

Emerging Tech March 12, 2024

How to Set Up Your Coinbase Wallet as Crypto Market Booms

Deals & Investments March 5, 2024

Bitcoin Hits New All-time High Above $69K

Tech Talk March 3, 2024

Bitcoin Briefly Hits $64K for the First Time in 2 Years

Tech Talk January 14, 2024

SEC Approves 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs in Landmark Victory for the Crypto Industry

Emerging Tech January 11, 2024

What the SEC’s Approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs Really Means

Tech Talk January 7, 2024

Bitcoin Celebrates 15 Years on the Blockchain by Briefly Surpassing $45K

Sign up for our newsletter

Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• HeadlineToGo
• Tech Talk
• Inside the Boardroom
• Sneaker Game

Subscribe

The post Spot Bitcoin ETF: Fueling the Bitcoin Bounce-back appeared first on Boardroom.

By all accounts, the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament was a resounding success. The bracket-style tournament may have confused some fans initially, but still, all eyes were on Las Vegas last weekend for the first-ever final between the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers.

The games brought out legions of hoops fans to Las Vegas for the finals, who made the most of a trip to Sin City. To celebrate the first-of-its-kind weekend, Boardroom and Threads teamed up to host a brunch with fans, business executives, creators, and more.

The brunch was held at LAVO, a chic Italian restaurant at The Palazzo, on Friday, Dec. 8. The venue was transformed into the premiere destination for the NBA Threads community with strong branding and even screens featuring feeds of NBA Threads.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for Tech Talk, where Boardroom’s Michelai Graham breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Email *

Checkboxes *

• BOARDROOM TECH TALK

Subscribe

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boardroom (@boardroom)

Some of the notable guests in attendance included Mike WiLL Made-It, Sabrina Ionescu, Cam’ron, A’ja Wilson, Rich Paul, Shams Charania, Chelsea Gray, Speedy Morman, and Tyrese Maxey. The event was also joined by executives from Meta, including Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, Evan Shugerman, Nick Grudin, Emily Dalton Smith, Shannon Mattingly, and Charles Porch.

“It was great to bring the NBA Threads community together to celebrate during a first-of-its-kind in-season tournament, and fitting that it was our first time partnering with the team at Meta for an event of this caliber,” Boardroom’s co-founder and CEO, Rich Kleiman said. “Athletes, influencers, and entertainers alike have embraced the In-Season Tournament, and I’m looking forward to being a part of the weekend for years to come.”

D-Nice set the vibe with a special DJ set, and like many of Boardroom’s other events, there was a curated list of specialty cocktails, including the ‘Boardroom Way of Life’ featuring Cierto Tequila. Boardroom and Threads worked with Round Town Events on the branding for the event, and the trio really brought NBA Threads alive at LAVO with a photo booth.

“The In-Season Tournament was a special opportunity: it launched something new from the NBA community we all love,” said Nick Grudin, VP of global partnerships at Meta. “It was important for us to have Threads meet the moment with a partner who brings together the biggest athletes, creators, journalists, and NBA voices, and we felt there was no one better than Rich Kleiman and Boardroom.”

Boardroom and Threads came together to do more than host a brunch, and following a successful first event, we can be sure to see these two team up again in the near future.

Read More:

1

0

1023

post

6

OR

Tech Talk April 7, 2024

ChatGPT, Voice Engine, Sam Altman & More Updates from OpenAI

Deals & Investments April 5, 2024

From March Madness to Man United: Brands Make Fan Dreams Come True

Execs & Entrepreneurs April 5, 2024

Everything is On the Table for Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera & The Shop

Sports April 4, 2024

Boardroom Talks: Amar’e Stoudemire Always Understood the Game

Boardroom Investments April 2, 2024

CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit Returning in 2024

Sneakers April 1, 2024

LSU’s Mikaylah Williams is Jordan Brand’s Newest Face of NIL 

The post Behind the Scenes of the Boardroom x Threads In-Season Brunch appeared first on Boardroom.

A peek into today’s edition:

• Tech companies band together for new AI Alliance
• Spotify lays off 17% of its staff, CFO exits
• Meta launches AI image generator

Meta, IBM Lead More Than 50 Tech Companies Launching AI Alliance

Meta and IBM are leading the charge on a new global alliance for open-source AI development called the AI Alliance. The group includes organizations across the tech industry, academia, research, and government that have banded together to share AI tech and reduce risk across the emerging sector. The AI Alliance’s most significant focus is open-source AI development to further advancements. Some other notable members in the new AI alliance include Cornell University, Dell Technologies, Intel, Oracle, NASA, Sony, and Yale University. The AI coalition will establish a governing board and technical oversight committee in the near future.

Some notable generative AI heavy hitters, including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, aren’t a part of the alliance. These companies haven’t been as susceptible to the open-source approach with their AI models, though Google and OpenAI have made some strides in that arena. Anthropic, on the other hand, hasn’t created any open-source AI models.