Sep
24

Jellysmack launches program to scale audiences from YouTube creators

Jellysmack originally started as a social media company with popular brands on Facebook and other social platforms, such as Beauty Studio, Oh My Goal, Gamology and Riddle Me This. The company is now branching out and expanding with a different product, the ‘Creator’s Program.’

The startup is going to partner with popular YouTube creators and grow their audience on other social media platforms, starting with Facebook and Snapchat. This way, YouTube creators get a new audience on a separate platform, which reduces dependency on YouTube’s algorithm.

Jellysmack has developed several tools for its own media brands, such as tools to detect popular content, optimize content itself and improve distribution on social platform. The company now attracts 88 million unique viewers per month in the U.S.

“We realized that we could reuse this suite of tools with many other creators and not just on our own content,” Jellysmack co-founder and CEO Michael Philippe told me.

The startup already identified a bunch of YouTube creators that could benefit from these tools. It has partnered with Reaction Time, Infinite, Karina Garcia, How Ridiculous and others.

After that, Jellysmack obtains all the back catalog of videos, recuts them and shares them on Facebook and Snapchat — 10-minute videos on YouTube will become 3-minute videos on Facebook for instance.

Jellysmack then tests multiple thumbnails and video names using A/B testing and a bit of paid promotion. When the startup has found a name and thumbnail that generates a lot of engagement, the company releases the video.

The company then invests some of its money to grow the audience of a Facebook page or Snapchat account using paid acquisition. “We have developed a proprietary acquisition tool that finds the right audiences,”

Everything is then tracked using Jellysmack’s tools. Each video is tagged and gets a score based on retention, monetization, etc. Creators could potentially leverage those insights for future videos.

Reaction Times had 80,000 Facebook fans before partnering with Jellysmack. It now has 3 million Facebook fans and generates 100 million views per month on the platform.

With today’s new program, Jellysmack says that its own brands will also stick around — this is just a new bet for the company. The company also plans to launch a new vertical in the future.

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Sep
24

Cledara picks up pre-seed funding to help companies manage their SaaS spending

Cledara, a startup that has developed a SaaS to help companies manage their SaaS spending — as if things couldn’t get any more meta — has picked up pre-seed backing from the recently announced Anthemis/BBVA strategic partnership, and others.

In total, the startup has raised $930,000. This includes completing the Techstars London accelerator, along with investment from various angels, such as Chris Adelsbach.

Founded in July 2018 by Cristina Vila, after she experienced the SaaS management nightmare first-hand while working at London fintech Dopay, Cledara has developed software to let companies track and manage their SaaS usage and spending, including analytics to help understand if it is money well spent.

Another feature is unlimited virtual debit cards to empower employees and even outside teams to purchase appropriate SaaS offerings independently. This includes the option for management to approve every purchase before it happens and access real-time updates on what everyone is buying.

“Previously, I was responsible for the operations of a fintech company, and as part of my job I had to streamline processes which meant that I had to know what software people were using to do their job,” Vila tells me.

“Turns out, that that was a real challenge. We had offices in 3 different countries, remote developers, people working from home all signing up for different SaaS products and then expensing them back to the company. So I had to manually go around and ask everyone to fill in a spreadsheet to get the data, which was impossible because people only wrote those that they were actively using and could remember”.

Vila says this also caused problems for the finance team, since they could see payments going out each month but didn’t always know what they were for. “I looked around for solutions, spoke to founders to see how they were managing it and when the best answer was ‘Google Sheets’ I realised that something like Cledara had to exist”.

Describing the macro problem that Cledara hopes to solve, Vila says that every year companies waste more than $20 billion on duplicate, unused or forgotten software subscriptions. “There are dozens of companies that help sellers of subscription software optimise their sales but there is basically none that helps companies buy and manage their software subscription in a scalable way,” she adds. “We believe that unless companies have a way to manage cloud software at scale, it will be very difficult for SaaS to reach the mass market”.

To that end, Cledara is being pitched as a purchasing and analytics platform that enables companies to manage and control recurring subscription payments. In this sense, it is a fintech as much as a traditional SaaS — hence the Anthemis/BBVA backing.

Vila cites direct competitors as companies like Soldo, Pleo or Spendesk. “We are different in that we are fully focused on helping tech companies with the purchase and the ongoing management of their subscriptions because everything is becoming a subscription and the way to manage one off payments if very different to the way in which we manage recurring payments,” she argues.

“Also, we are building a collaborative platform, hence breaking the traditional finance silo where all the data is gathered but not shared. We want to provide that data to the business as they are the ones that can take action based on the analytics and insights”.

Meanwhile, the startup generates revenue from subscription fees, and through interchange fees via the Cledara virtual Mastercard debit cards its customers use to make SaaS purchases.

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Mar
27

How to sign up for Apple TV+ and stream original content on your computer or mobile device

Facebook is acquiring CTRL-labs, a startup developing "brain computing" technology. Charles Platiau/Reuters

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday.

Facebook is spending more than $500 million to acquire a company that lets you control computers with your mind.
Facebook is acquiring the maker of an electronic wristband that it says will allow people to share photos on its social network, click a button on their computer's mouse, and perform other computing tasks simply by thinking about it.Google is bracing for a landmark ruling that could radically reshape how its search results work. On Tuesday, the European Court of Justice will decide on two cases that could impact how a concept, known as the "right to be forgotten," is applied online. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon met with WeWork's Adam Neumann to hash out how to get its botched IPO back on track. Sources familiar with the matter told Business Insider that Dimon met with Neumann in New York on Sunday to discuss the company's delayed IPO.The CFO of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, has returned to a Canadian courtroom for a document hearing. Defense lawyers for Meng presented videos and documents to back claims that Canadian authorities had collaborated with the FBI to engage in a "covert criminal investigation" to unlawfully detain, search and interrogate the Chinese executive, Bloomberg wrote.Juul is facing a federal criminal investigation, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The e-cigarette giant has come under increased scrutiny from state and federal officials after being blamed for getting teens hooked on vaping.The 'Warren Buffett of China' could lose $1.5 billion in Thomas Cook's bankruptcy. Since 2015, Shanghai-based conglomerate Fosun International and its chairman Guo Guangchang have built up a massive, 18% stake in Thomas Cook.Google launched a $5-per-month Play Pass subscription service that gives subscribers access to over 350 apps and games. Google Play Pass is available from on Monday in the US, and it'll become available to all Android users throughout the week.Amazon is reportedly planning to roll out fitness-tracking Alexa wireless earbuds. According to a CNBC report, Amazon is working on wireless earbuds that can track distance runs, calories burned, and pace of running.Google's CEO Sundar Pichai warned against 'rushing' into regulating AI, which happens to be vital to Google's future growth. CEO Sundar Pichai told the Financial Times that governments should be wary of "rushing" into broad regulation of artificial intelligence as hastily drawn-up laws could hinder "innovation and research."Disney's CEO Bob Iger criticised Twitter for its 'nastiness' and says its abuse problem is why an acquisition never happened. In an interview with The New York Times, Disney CEO Bob Iger explained that abuse on Twitter is why Disney walked away from an acquisition deal in 2016.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

You can also subscribe to this newsletter here — just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know.

Original author: Mary Hanbury

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Sep
24

Honestbee owes almost $1 million in unpaid salary to employees, according to affidavit filed by its CEO

Honestbee, the Singapore-based grocery delivery startup that has been struggling with financial issues, owes 217 employees a total of almost USD $1 million in unpaid salary. The Strait Times reported that the figure was revealed in an affidavit filed in court on Sept. 20 by Honestbee CEO Ong Lay Ann as part of the startup’s debt moratorium application.

The Ministry of Manpower told the Strait Times that 44 employees have filed claims with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management, with some of the employees settling mediation by agreeing to a payment schedule with Honestbee that will be monitored by the alliance.

In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, an Honestbee spokesperson said, “There is a communicated salary delay for Honestbee’s ex-employees and employees currently serving notice. While there are regular injections of working capital, the amount remains insufficient for all headcount. As a result, the company has made the difficult decision to prioritize existing staff in Singapore. The company has the full intention in meeting its obligations to staff and will be, if not already in active discussions with staff in relation to a feasible payment schedule.”

TechCrunch reported in April that Honestbee was running out of money and trying to find a buyer. The company, which used to operate in eight markets across Asia, has stopped operating in Hong Kong and Indonesia, temporarily halted services in Japan and the Philippines and suspended its food delivery service in Thailand.

The affidavit filed by Ong says Honestbee currently has 190 employees, down from 523 full-time employees and 77 part-time workers in January.

Ong also said that Honestbee chairman Brian Koo resigned from the board on on Sept. 12.

According to the affidavit, Koo and associates including investment vehicles he set up, are owed about $258 million, or about 90% of Honestbee’s debt. Koo, a founding managing partner of venture capital firm Formation Group, was one of Honestbee’s earliest investors and served as interim CEO from May to July after former chief executive Joel Sng stepped down.

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Sep
24

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann reportedly referred to JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon as his ‘personal banker’

In a new report from Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman on Monday, sources claimed WeWork cofounder and CEO Adam Neumann said Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was his "personal banker."

Neumann also claimed that Dimon, one of the biggest names in the financial world, would leave the institution to run Neumann family's personal investment fund, according to the report.

Representatives for Neumann denied the claims to Vanity Fair, and a source close to Dimon said the executive has no plans to leave JPMorgan Chase, the report said.

Read More: JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon met with WeWork's Adam Neumann this weekend to hash out how to get its botched IPO back on track

The report comes amid revelations that Dimon and Neumann met in New York over the weekend to attempt to get the embattled startup's IPO back on track. The coworking company delayed its public offering amid investor uncertainty around the company's finances, its unusual governance structure and potential conflicts of interest with Neumann's other business interests.

JPMorgan is leading the listing, which would occur in October at the earliest because of the delay. WeWork was initially planning to list in September.

But JP Morgan also has a long history with WeWork and with Neumann. A JP Morgan fund bought a stake in the company five years ago. The bank helped Neumann when he wanted to borrow money against some of his stock. And Neumann has also borrowed almost $40 million in mortgages from the bank, Bloomberg's Sonali Basak reported.

Meanwhile, Neumann is under siege by his board of directors and investors, according to several reports. The board convened on Monday to discuss whether or not to oust Neumann, reports said, but it wasn't clear where the group landed at the end of the day.

Original author: Megan Hernbroth

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Sep
23

Adam Neumann reportedly tried and failed to get Apple to invest in WeWork: ‘This was the Hail Mary’ (AAPL)

Adam Neumann apparently thought WeWork and Apple would make for a great team.

People at Apple, however, weren't exactly convinced.

Last fall, Neumann got the bright idea that Apple would be a good partner for WeWork and could help shore up its cash balance, Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman reported Monday. He thought it was such a good idea that he flew to the San Francisco Bay Area to pitch it to Luca Maestri, Apple's chief financial officer, at the iPhone maker's headquarters, Sherman reported. It's unclear what the deal would have entailed or how it would have worked, but as part of it, Apple would have made an investment in WeWork, according to the report.

Maestri and Apple turned him down, Sherman reported.

Representatives for WeWork and Apple did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The meeting happened about the same time that Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, the two biggest backers of SoftBank's Vision Fund, which, in turn, is the biggest bank-roller of WeWork, were souring on the real estate giant. At the time, SoftBank was considering investing an additional $16 billion in the company, but ended up putting just $1 billion directly into the company.

Read more: WeWork and Uber are giving SoftBank a black eye, but that doesn't mean Vision Fund II is in trouble, experts say

Neumann's partnership proposal with Apple was a kind of last-ditch effort to secure new funding for his company while keeping it private, an unnamed source familiar with the meeting told Sherman.

"This was the Hail Mary," the source said. "There was Adam's idea that there was some way out."

The potential deal actually was a small one, a source close to Neumann told Sherman.

The failure of the Apple meeting and the much-reduced investment from SoftBank spurred Neumann to push for an initial public offering to raise more funds, according to Sherman's report. WeWork postponed its IPO last week amid resistance from potential investors.

Got a tip about WeWork or another company? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Troy Wolverton

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Dec
19

Pinterest is talking to bankers and has hired a key exec as it readies itself for a 2019 IPO

Facebook is acquiring the maker of an electronic wristband that it says will allow people to share photos on its social network, click a button on their computer's mouse, and perform other computing tasks simply by thinking about it.

Facebook said Monday that it plans to acquire CTRL-labs, a four-year old startup considered a pioneer in the emerging field of "brain computing," for an undisclosed sum. A report in Bloomberg said Facebook paid somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion for the company, citing anonymous sources.

"The vision for this work is a wristband that lets people control their devices as a natural extension of movement," Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth wrote in a blog post announcing the deal on Monday.

The deal marks an important step forward by Facebook in its ambition to develop brain computing technology, nearly three years after teasing its efforts at its annual developer conference and then going mostly silent. While the CTRL-labs wristband is still just a prototype and at least several years away from being a reality, Facebook's acquisition suggests that Facebook has not given up on the concept even as its core social networking business faces fierce scrutiny from government regulators and some consumers.

Facebook is among several well-funded organizations seeking to create science-fiction like products using a "brain computing" interface. In July, Elon Musk said that Neuralink, a brain computing company he founded, will be ready for human trials in 2020.

Prototype of the CTRL-labs brain computing wristband. CTRL-labs

CTRL-labs, based in New York, has raised $67 million from backers including Google investing arm GV, Amazon's Alexa Fund and Lux Capital. The company describes its product as a "non-invasive neural interface platform."

CTRL-labs cofounder and CEO Thomas Reardon will be joining Facebook and will work out of New York, and the deal will include the company's intellectual property. It was not imediately clear if the rest of CTRL-labs, a company of a few dozen people, will join Facebook as part of the deal. Anyone from the team who wants to join Facebook is "absolutely being welcomed," the spokesperson told Business Insider.

CTRL-labs will become part of the Reality Labs group within Facebook that is developing projects like augmented reality glasses. Bosworth noted that the CTRL-labs technology could be especially useful in virtual reality and augmented reality applications.

The wristband will "decode" the signals sent from the neurons in a person's spinal cord that tell muscles in the body how to move. Those signals will be translated into digital signals that an electronic device can understand, Bosworth continued.

The wristband, he said, "captures your intention so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to."

The CTRL-labs wristband is still in the research phase and a few years away from being available to consumers, a Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider.

Watch a video of CTRL-labs CEO Thomas Reardon demonstrating the technology:

Original author: Nick Bastone and Alexei Oreskovic

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Sep
23

Perspective From Far Away

Amy and I have been in Homer, Alaska for the last ten days. Above is the view from the parking lot at the ocean in Anchor Point, which is literally “the end of the road on the western side of the US.”

Amy grew up here and it’s one of the places I go when I want to get some distance from everything. When we started coming here in the mid-1990s together, we’d literally have to disconnect in a lot of the places we hung out at. Today, you can only figuratively disconnect, as the internet will find you almost everywhere.

I’ve managed to turn off a lot of the distractions in the world over the past two years. Some, like Facebook, were easy. Others, like Google News, were harder. But even with the noise turned way down, it’s often hard to have perspective.

A 13 mile run to the end of the Homer Spit and back helps. Doing it two days in a row helps even more.

I took the weekend completely off from the computer. I read a lot, napped after my long runs, and talked to Amy. That was about it for the entire weekend.

As I settled into the Monday work rhythm, albeit four hours behind the east coast, I felt like my ten days in Homer has re-established some perspective.

Amy just said out loud, “We both seem cheerier than we did ten days ago.” True that.

Original author: Brad Feld

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Sep
23

Amtrak is blaming millennials as it cuts back on dining-car meals — and the internet's not buying its logic

People are not thrilled with Amtrak's decision to begin culling traditional dining-car services from some of its long-distance routes.

A change.org petition to keep the restaurant-style service on overnight trains east of the Mississippi River had earned more than 3,000 signatures by Monday afternoon, as news of the cuts took the internet by storm.

Gene Arensen, who started the petition, said the move signaled "the end of a 100 year tradition where dining cars served meals will end, the Midwest and West Coast trains are sure to follow. And so will national rail travel, unless we speak up and be heard."

To be sure, food will still be served aboard Amtrak trains, but it may look wildly different. The newly "enhanced" and "flexible" menu will instead offer ready-to-eat meals instead of freshly prepared eggs, steak, and so on. More details on the changes can be found on Amtrak's website.

And while Amtrak's head of customer experience, Andrew Wilander, was quick to place blame for the changes on younger generations of travelers, specifically millennials, not everyone is buying his logic.

At an event in New York City last week, Amtrak's CEO, Richard Anderson, seemed to hint that more dining-car cuts could be on the way.

"We want to simplify the process," he said. "On the single-overnight, long-distance trains, we have a mandate from Congress to take the loss on the food down, and we're going to keep driving that down. The simplest way to do that is to go to a single food car and then have choice for customers."

Even novelist Neil Gaiman wasn't happy with the news.

Original author: Graham Rapier

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Dec
19

New York's new $4 billion bridge is reportedly plagued by dozens of failing bolts and a simmering cover-up scandal

Earlier this month, Recode reported that Googlers were pooling personal accounts of what it was like to work at the Silicon Valley giant — specifically, times that they felt they had been retaliated against. On Monday, Motherboard's Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai released a collection of 45 stories from Google employees, apparently gathered from an internal company forum.The stories in the document include those of employees allegedly being held back from promotions for reporting workplace issues, or for their involvement in organizing efforts.They also include instances of sexual harassment and racism that employees say they have experienced at the search advertising company. Eileen Naughton, Google's VP of People Operations, told Business Insider on Monday that the company aims to "provide care and support to people who raise concerns." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Earlier this month, Recode reported that Googlers were pooling personal accounts of what it was like to work at the Silicon Valley giant — specifically, times that they felt they had been retaliated against for speaking out against corporate decisions or otherwise complained to management. 

On Monday, Motherboard's Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai released that collection of retaliation stories from Google employees, apparently gathered from an internal company forum.

The 45 stories recounted in the document include allegations from Googlers of being held back from promotions for reporting workplace issues, or for their involvement in organizing efforts. The stories also include instances of sexual harassment and racism they experienced at the search advertising company. 

"I identify as a LatinX female and I experienced blatant racist and sexist things from my coworker. I reported it up to where my manager knew, my director knew, the coworker's manager knew and our HR representative knew. Nothing happened," one story reads. "I was warned that 'things will get very serious if continued.' I definitely felt the theme of 'protect the man' as we so often hear about. No one protected me, the victim. I thought Google was different."

According to a current Google employee who spoke to Motherboard, the stories were collected on an internal site called "go/retaliation-stories." Googlers started posting their store after employee activists Meredith Whittaker and Claire Stapleton, known as co-organizers of the Google Walkout, publically declared they had been retaliated against, per the report.

Eileen Naughton, Google's VP of People Operations, told Business Insider on Monday that the company aims to "provide care and support to people who raise concerns." 

"Reporting misconduct takes courage and we want to provide care and support to people who raise concerns. All instances of inappropriate conduct reported to us are investigated rigorously, and over the past year we have simplified how employees can raise concerns and provided more transparency into the investigations process at Google. We work to be extremely transparent about how we handle complaints and the action we take," said Naughton's statement in full.

Read more: A Google engineering director who is black said he would be accosted less at work if he dressed like a janitor

On May 1st, around 1,000 Google employees staged a sit-in in offices around the country to protest what they said was a pattern of retaliation against workers who speak out for change at the company. It is unclear whether the stories shared at the sit-in coincide with those leaked on Monday, though the document released by Motherboard did say that it was last updated on May 8th, which would have been shortly after the protest. 

More recently, former Googlers have spoken out about their time working at the tech giant, describing the racism they experienced at the company, and instances of retaliation for being pregnant. 

Read the full Motherboard report here.

Original author: Nick Bastone

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Sep
23

Engage:BDR raises $26.25M to fund its NetZero publisher payments

Engage:BDR announced today that it has raised $23.25 million in new funding.

CEO Ted Dhanik told me that this includes both debt and equity funding, and will be used to grow the company’s NetZero payments program.

NetZero is designed to address the ongoing issue of long delays faced by publishers before they get paid by advertisers. Dhanik said “the terms are getting worse and worse,” with publishers being asked to wait 30, 60, 90 or even 120 days after they invoice their advertising partners before payment.

Other companies like FastPay have tried to fill in the gap, but Dhanik said these loans can have interest rates as high as 25%. So the team at Engage:BDR (which is publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange) asked itself: “Hey, what if we could just pay publishers the exact same day that they invoice us?”

Rather than making money by charging interest, Dhanik said his company is trying to drive more publishers to its programmatic advertising platform.

“We just want the business — the incremental revenue,” he said.

Engage:BDR says web, mobile and connected TV publishers in North America, Australia and Europe are eligible to participate in the NetZero program, though they’ll need to be approved by the company first.

“If you think about NetZero, you might think: Hey, if there’s fraud, it’s pretty dangerous you don’t have the ability to clawback [the payment],” Dhanik said. But apparently Engage:BDR has “a lot of technology in place to qualify them pretty quickly, within the first few days.”

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Sep
23

Batman has joined the cast of 'Fortnite' to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Dark Knight

"Fortnite" has added Batman and Catwoman from DC Comics as playable characters, the latest guest stars in a constantly growing roster of crossovers that includes "John Wick," "Stranger Things," and "Marvel's Avengers."

DC Comics celebrated Batman's 80th anniversary on September 22, and the "Fortnite" crossover event will run until October 6. Players can spend $20 or 2,000 v-bucks on the Caped Crusader Pack For to unlock two Batman outfits — one based on the comic books, and another based on "The Dark Knight" trilogy staring Christian Bale. The pack also includes a Batman-themed pick axe and glider.

The $20 Caped Crusader Pack includes all of these items. "Fortnite"/Epic Games

Read more: Teens are putting 'Fortnite' virtual money 'V-Bucks' at the top of their holiday wish lists

A separate Catwoman outfit is available for 1,500 v-bucks ($15) and her Cat's Claws can be purchased as a pick axe for 800 v-bucks. The Catwing glider and several Batman-style sprays can be unlocked for free by completing the Heroic Challenges before October 6.

Catwoman's items are not collected in a bundle. The outfit costs $15 alone. "Fortnite"/Epic Games

Batman and Catwoman aren't the first comic-book characters to join the cast of "Fortnite" — Epic games added outfits for Black Widow and Starlord from "Marvel's Avengers" earlier this year.

"Fortnite" has had more than half a dozen crossover events in 2019 and still has one of the most active player bases of any video game in the world. More than 250 million players have registered to play "Fortnite" since 2017, and the game earned $2.4 billion last year.

Original author: Kevin Webb

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Sep
23

How to connect a wireless Apple keyboard to your iPad and use it to type in any app

Typing on an iPad can be a frustrating affair. The faster your fingers fly, the more typos you make. And while all of the numbers and punctuation marks you find on a standard keyboard can be accessed when typing on an iPad, you have to cycle through several screens to locate many of them.

Pairing a wireless Apple Magic Keyboard to your iPad allows you to enjoy a standard typing experience with full-sized keys and ready access to all the numbers and symbols you use every day. And the process of connecting the Magic Keyboard takes all of 30 seconds.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPad (From $329.99 at Best Buy)

Apple Magic Keyboard (From $99.99 at Best Buy)

How to connect an Apple Magic Keyboard to your iPad

1. Turn the Magic Keyboard on via the rear switch — if the device is already on, switch it off, then on again, as this puts it into pairing mode.

Turn on your Magic Keyboard using the switch in the back. Apple

2. Open your iPad's Settings app.

3. Tap the "Bluetooth" tab.

4. Once it appears on the bottom of the next screen, tap "Keyboard" or "Magic Keyboard."

Once the "Keyboard" option appears for pairing, tap it. Steven John/Business Insider

Once your iPad says that the keyboard is "Connected," you're done.

The next time you type in an app, email, or text, enjoy typing on your full-sized keyboard rather than the screen.

Original author: Steven John

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Jul
22

The new Dead Space gets a teaser at EA Play

Adam Neumann does not seem like the kind of person you'd want running a public company — or maybe any company at all.

But anyone who thinks removing him as WeWork's CEO is going to solve the company's problem and get its initial public offering back on track is seriously deluding him or herself.

The commercial real estate giant's fundamental problem is not that it has an entitled, hard partying, apparently self-dealing egomaniac as its head. Its core trouble is that it has a business model that just doesn't work.

By itself, replacing Neumann as CEO isn't going to change the fact that WeWork loses about a $1 for every $1 that it takes in revenue. Putting someone on the order of Jack Welch or Steve Jobs or even real estate titan Sam Zell at the helm at WeWork alone isn't going to change the fact that the company is burning through cash like a wildfire going through a California forest after a seven-year drought and is on track to run out of money as soon as this spring.

And getting rid of Neumann isn't going to alter the fact that WeWork has an order of magnitude mismatch between what it owes its landlords in coming years and what its tenants are committed to paying for its services.

This is a company that — at least as it stands now — has a fatally flawed business. The only reason it's stayed operating as long as it has is because investors were foolish enough — or so entranced by Neumann's cult-leader-like personality — to keep pouring copious amounts of cash into it to the tune of nearly $13 billion.

Read more: WeWork's competitors are scrambling to distance themselves from the co-working giant, but many are following the same script

Removing Neumann might make some lenders and investors more comfortable with putting even more money into the company. But unless WeWork's new leadership overhauls the company's basic business model, the coworking giant's not going to be any more likely to survive into the future than it is now.

Scrutiny of Neumann has been increasing

It's no surprise that the board is considering removing Neumann. He has long inspired skepticism even as he built WeWork into a real estate titan with a $47 billion private valuation and an immense portfolio of leased office space. He has drawn increasing amounts of scrutiny in recent months amid a series of revelations about his personal finances and dealings with the company.

By selling stock and borrowing against his WeWork shares, Neumann has cashed in some $700 million of his holdings in the company. He made millions more by buying stakes in buildings and leasing space in them to WeWork and by registering the "We" trademark and selling it to the company.

Meanwhile, the company e mployed at least two of his relatives and gave his wife the power to help name his successor should he die or become incapacitated. And it set up a corporate structure right before it made its IPO paperwork public that insulates him from outside shareholders and can shift the tax burden on future profits from him to them.

After such deals and arrangements raised eyebrows among investors, WeWork and Neumann made a few changes. He agreed to return the money he made on the trademark and to accept some limitations on his ability to profit from the buildings leased to WeWork. His wife was removed from her role in succession planning. And Neumann agreed to reduce his voting power from 20 votes per share to 10 votes per share.

But a Wall Street Journal article last week raised fresh concerns about Neumann's fitness to lead WeWork. The article included anecdotes about Neumann's substance use and seemingly capricious and chaotic management style.

Read more: JPMorgan and UBS private wealth execs explain why they're doing more private share-backed lending to Silicon Valley. Both banks have lent to WeWork CEO Adam Neumann.

Neumann was forced to find his own way home from Israel after the flight deck of the private plane that flew him there found a stash of marijuana left there, presumably for the ride home, according to the article. Executive meetings and company parties involved prodigious amounts of tequila, the Journal reported. And the company held a booze-soaked party immediately after Neumann held a meeting to discuss his decision to lay off 7% of WeWork's staff.

In the wake of that article — and WeWork's scuttled IPO, which it postponed even before the article amid Wall Street resistance — the company's investors and board reportedly began discussing Neumann's future role at the company. The board is meeting this week to figure out what to do. Among other things, it's reportedly considering forcing Neumann to step down as WeWork's CEO, possibly to remain as its non-executive chairman.

Uber offers a cautionary tale

Forcing Neumann out could be a positive step. When Uber made a similar move two years ago, first ousting founder Travis Kalanick as its CEO and then replacing him with Dara Khosrowshahi, it led to something of a corporate makeover. Uber settled a legal dispute with Google spin-off Waymo, restructured its corporate governance, fired a slew of people for sexual harassment, and vowed to be a better corporate citizen. Crucially for investors, it eventually was able to complete its long-awaited public offering.

Dara Khosrowshahi replaced Travis Kalanick as Uber's CEO but has been unable to fix the company's business model. Carlo Allegri/Reuters But Uber's experience also serves as a cautionary tale for WeWork. Because replacing Kalanick with Khosrowshahi didn't fix Uber's underlying business problems. The app-based taxi company is still losing billions of dollars and burning through huge amounts of cash. Khosrowshahi has proven no better than Kalanick at figuring out a sustainable business model. If anything, his task has become more difficult amid sustained competition, growing regulation, and increasing unrest among Uber's drivers.

Read more: JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon met with WeWork's Adam Neumann this weekend to hash out how to get its botched IPO back on track

And Uber's job is arguably much easier than WeWork's. After all, Uber is basically a technology service. Although it duplicates a taxi business, it doesn't own cars or employ drivers, at least not yet. It just provides a kind of online marketplace that connects riders with drivers. And eBay showed nearly two decades ago that operating a marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers of goods or services can be a significantly profitable business.

But unlike Uber, WeWork has few real claims to being a technology business at heart. Its basic business is leasing space from building owners on long-term leases, subdividing those spaces, and then subleasing them to other companies on much shorter-term deals. It's had to spend billions of dollars leasing space — and has had to commit to spending billions more in the future so that it can keep growing. It's also had to spend billions of dollars building out and furnishing those spaces.

Read more: WeWork cofounders Adam and Rebekah Neumann are close friends with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and invited them to Rebekah's extravagant 40th birthday bash in Italy

It's not unusual for commercial real-estate companies to invest a lot of money upfront. But typically such companies are buying buildings or are building out spaces for long-term tenants.

Some big numbers point to WeWork's problems

That's not the case with WeWork. It owns exceedingly few of the buildings it leases out. And its tenants aren't committed for the long-term. Even after WeWork has stated to sign more large companies as tenants and pushed its members to sign longer deals, the average WeWork customer is still only committed to being in its space for 15 months.

WeWork has spent billions of dollars leasing and furnishing office spaces. WeWork The basic problem with WeWork's business can be seen in just two pairs of numbers:

$47 billion and 15 years$4 billion and 15 months

The first set of numbers represent the total amount WeWork has committed to paying its landlords on its leases on into the future and the average length of time of the leases it has signed.

The second set of numbers represents the commitments WeWork's tenants have made under deals they've signed with the company and the average length of time of its tenants' deals.

Read more: The CEO of $1 billion WeWork rival Knotel says the idea of coworking is 'over'

A new CEO is going to have a likely impossible time closing the gap on those numbers without either fundamentally changing WeWork's business model or dramatically scaling back not only its growth, but its current operations and lease commitments.

And there's another set of numbers that together represent a much more urgent problem than whoever's name is on the door of the CEO suite: $2.5 billion and $1.5 billion.

The first number is the amount of cash WeWork had on hand in June. The second is the amount of cash it burned through in the first half of this year.

At that pace, WeWork could be out of cash by early May. With the IPO on ice for now and, with it, a promised $6 billion credit line, WeWork's CEO is going to have to figure out how to find more money to keep the business afloat — or how to make some huge cuts to save what cash is left.

Read this: There are 6 billion very good reasons for WeWork to go public this year, even though Wall Street doesn't want it

WeWork needs a massive makeover

While massive change could help WeWork stay in business, it's unclear whether the company's existing investors, such as SoftBank, can stomach such a radical overhaul. The promise of WeWork — what helped it garner a $47 billion valuation in the first place — was that it was essentially a tech company with the growth to match. Eventually — once it got big enough — it would be able to show the kinds of returns that other former money losers like Amazon now deliver.

Recognizing that WeWork is really in the real estate business and needs to reshape its business to focus less on tech-like growth and more on boring things like operating expenses and lease costs is certain to further depress its already deflated valuation. After all, IWG, a coworking pioneer that's around the same size as WeWork and actually profitable, trades at less than $4 billion.

Read more: 3 VC investors in flex-space startups slam WeWork's governance and leadership as its valuation crumbles

SoftBank, which is trying to raise a second $100 billion VisionFund, is reportedly loath to write down its investment in WeWork to even $15 billion or $20 billion. Taking it down even further may be out of the question.

Maybe another CEO, one who isn't the founder and isn't so personally tied to the company as it is, might have the kind of perspective to tackle all of WeWork's problems — how to placate investors such as SoftBank, how to get costs and revenue more in line, how to build a sustainable business.

But by itself, replacing Neumann CEO doesn't solve WeWork's problems. And no one should let themselves be fooled into thinking that it does.

Got a tip about WeWork or another company? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Troy Wolverton

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May
24

UPDATE: WorkFusion adds to its $50 million with strategic investors as it bulks up for acquisitions

Although they're not for everyone, the enduring popularity of tablets stands as a testament to their appeal. Tablets inhabit a middle zone between a smartphone and a laptop, giving you more computer-like capabilities for work and entertainment without the bulk. Apple virtually pioneered the tablet market and still leads the way with its excellent iPad lineup.

Apple hardware can get pretty expensive, but the good news is that compared to other tablets, iPads actually aren't terribly pricey. There is certainly a plethora of cheap Android tablets available today, including the very budget-friendly Kindle Fire lineup, but you'll typically pay around the same price for most iPad models as you would for a good name-brand Android tablet.

Apple's tablet family runs the gamut in pricing from as low as $250 for a standard iPad to around $1,900 for the latest iPad Pro with all the bells and whistles, so whatever you're looking to spend, there's probably an iPad out there for you. Below, we've rounded up all of the current iPad models available online right now so you can find the right Apple tablet for your needs and budget.

For more shopping advice, check out our full buying guide to the best iPads.

*Prices may vary as iPads go on sale. Prices are also based on the lowest amount of storage available.

Updated on 09/23/2019 by Monica Chin: Added the new 10.2-inch iPad (2019). Updated prices and formatting.

Original author: Lucas Coll and Monica Chin

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Jul
22

VOCHI raises additional $2.4 million for its computer vision-powered video editing app

Google Hangouts is a tool that can help connect teams or companies through text chats and video meetings. And when it comes to sharing vital information, recording those meetings can be a valuable tool to add to your arsenal.

Recording a Google Hangouts meeting is great for people who can't attend the meeting when it happens. Once it's recorded, you can send out a link to those who weren't able to attend the meeting, and thus be sure everyone knows what's going on.

Before you get started, you should be aware that the ability to record a Google Hangout is only available in the G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise Education editions, which are paid subscription services.

For more information on which G Suite memberships have what features, see our article, "'What is Google Meet?': A guide to Google's professional video-conferencing service, including pricing options and how to join a meeting."

Assuming you have one of those two memberships, here's what you'll need to do to record in Google Hangout:

How to record a Google Hangouts session

The process is simple:

1. Start or join a video meeting — if you don't have a link to the meeting, go to hangouts.google.com and then start the meeting by pressing "Video Call."

If you need to start a video conference, you can do so from the Hangouts homepage. Devon Delfino/Business Insider

2. If you're creating a new meeting without a guest list, invite the participants by clicking the "People" button in the top-right corner, clicking "Add People," and then typing their email addresses into the pop-up window.

Hangouts will automatically suggest inviting people in your contacts. Devon Delfino/Business Insider

3. Once you're ready to start the meeting, click the three dots in the lower-right corner of the screen.

4. Select "Record meeting."

Once you've opened the three dot menu, you can start recording. William Antonelli/Business Insider

After that, simply wait for the recording to start. Anyone in the meeting will get a notification that the meeting is being recorded, as well as another notification when the recording stops.

To stop the recording, click the three dots again and select "Stop recording." It takes about ten minutes or so for the recording file to be generated. Once it is, the video will be saved to the meeting organizer's Google Drive, in a folder labeled "Meet Recordings."

The organizer will also get an email letting them know when the recording is ready, including a link to the recording.

How to play, save, or share a Google Hangout recording

To play or share the recording, simply double-click the file link in Google Drive. Or if you get the email, click the included link, wait for it to open, and then select whether you want to play it immediately, share it, or save it to your Drive.

For those who aren't the organizer, the event link in Google Calendar will automatically be updated so it leads to the recorded video file.

Original author: Devon Delfino

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Sep
05

Palantir's IPO could be delayed until 2023 as the embattled, Peter Thiel-founded data firm looks overseas for private funding

Stationhead, the mobile app that turns its users into streaming radio DJs, got a big upgrade today. Where Stationhead DJs were previously limited to broadcasting live, they can now record their shows, making them available on-demand for anyone to listen later.

The idea behind Stationhead is to democratize and recapture the personality of traditional radio broadcasts — the kind of conversation and personal connection that’s missing from a playlist.

The app includes features like the ability to call guests to join the show, and integration with Spotify and Apple Music. For Stationhead, that means it doesn’t have to make its own licensing deals with the music labels; for listeners, it means that when a DJ plays a song, you’re hearing it stream from the music service of your choice.

That integration will continue with these new on-demand broadcasts — so they don’t really exist as a single, continuous recording, but rather as DJ recordings interspersed with cued-up songs from Apple or Spotify. (That’s presumably why these broadcasts won’t be available for offline listening.)

CEO Ryan Star (pictured above) has said that he co-founded Stationhead as a result of his own frustrations as an independent musician, particularly the difficulty and cost of getting a single played on the radio.

More recently, he told me that Stationhead is becoming a real alternative for independent musicians trying to get attention, with more than 200,000 shows created since November of last year.

“Some shows are mostly talk, some shows are mostly music, but just having the ability to play the song completely changes the way it’s consumed,” said COO Murray Levison.

The company isn’t sharing overall listener numbers, but it pointed to success stories like Burrell Kobe, who said he drove 23,000 streams on Stationhead. (SensorTower estimates that the iOS app has been installed by 110,000 users globally.)

And Star described the Stationhead approach as combining “creative freedom and real human connection. While the most popular Stationhead broadcasts can get more than 1,000 live listeners, he suggested that the connection can happen even when the audience is much smaller: He recalled stumbling on a broadcast where he was literally the only person listening, but the host was “spilling her guts — this was her therapy.”

And by making these broadcasts available on-demand, he said Stationhead is “tapping into something proven to be the most intimate form of communication.”

He added, “For the first time, you’re actually able to create binge-able audio content around these streams.”

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Dec
20

Facebook says there's an innocent explanation for why it allowed Spotify and Netflix to access your private messages (FB, AMZN, AAPL)

Julian Shapiro Contributor
Julian Shapiro is the founder of BellCurve.com, a growth marketing agency that trains you to become a marketing professional. He also writes at Julian.com.

We’ve aggregated the world’s best growth marketers into one community. Twice a month, we ask them to share their most effective growth tactics, and we compile them into this Growth Report.

This is how you’re going stay up-to-date on growth marketing tactics — with advice you can’t get elsewhere.

Our community consists of 600 startup founders paired with VP’s of growth from later-stage companies. We have 300 YC founders plus senior marketers from companies including Medium, Docker, Invision, Intuit, Pinterest, Discord, Webflow, Lambda School, Perfect Keto, Typeform, Modern Fertility, Segment, Udemy, Puma, Cameo, and Ritual.

You can participate in our community by joining Demand Curve’s marketing webinars, Slack group, or marketing training program. See past growth reports here, here and here.

Without further ado, onto the advice.

How do you sponsor YouTube influencers cost-effectively?

Based on insights from Bjarke Felbo of Rune (LinkedIn). Lightly edited with permission.

Influencers often expect compensation proportional to subscribers, but conversions happen proportional to views. So go after the influencers with high views and low subscribers. That’s the trick.We’ve had the best success with 30-60 second promo spots at the beginning of the influencer’s video.We’ve seen success depend on the video it’s attached to and what time of day/week it’s posted, so we’re strict about setting rules around that. Or, we give them a bonus based on the video’s view count to incentivize them to put our spot on a high-quality video.Be careful with repeat promotions with the same influencer. These haven’t yielded noteworthy returns for us — even after months. It’s likely that the audience becomes saturated.

For SEO, how much does link building really matter in 2019?

From Nat Eliason of Growth Machine. Lightly edited by Demand Curve with permission.

Links are still important, but their importance is decreasing steadily. Google is getting better at evaluating content quality, and it’s focusing more on that.Consider this: Google doesn’t want to be gameable, and domain authority and link building are very gameable. But content quality is not. You can’t fake good content.Many major blogs outside of high authority spaces have grown rapidly using less link-building. Much of their energy is instead spent on choosing the right keywords (low competition, but still acceptable volume) and writing useful content that satisfies the searcher’s intent.However, link-building can still speed up the process quite a bit if you’re on a tight timeline, or if you’ve given content 3-4 months to rank and aren’t seeing the results you want.

Growth masterclasses kick off now

Today, the advanced growth masterclasses kick off. They’re all free.

Validating New Ideas w/ Hiten Shah (FYI, KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg)Growth Office Hours w/ Gustaf Alströmer (YC Partner)Landing Page Critiques w/ Bob Sparkins (Leadpages)Referral Programs w/ Thomas Maremaa (Brex) + Jeremy Gurewitz (Imperfect Produce)Advanced Content Writing w/ Nat Eliason (Growth Machine) + Bernard Huang (Clearscope)Email Marketing for Ecom w/ Mike Arsenault (Rejoiner)

These are rapid-fire, short, and advanced webinars. They’re not boring introductory lectures. This is some of the best content we produce. Don’t miss these, especially when they’re free.

Enroll here: demandcurve.com/webinars

What’s the best way to take over a Twitter account from an inactive user?

Based on insights from Andrew Ettinger of Atoms. Lightly edited with permission.

Someone has your brand name as their Twitter handle and their account is inactive. How do you get access to it?

Create an ads account with an existing handle you want to swap for the one you’re trying to claim.Go to twitter.com/en/helpClick on Account issues -> Claim an inactive username.Submit a case.

You’ll then want your Twitter ads account manager to escalate your case (give them the case #).

This is not guaranteed. Your best chance of claiming that handle will be to have an existing Twitter employee escalate your case.

Demand Curve’s Asher King Abramson will lead a growth marketing session where he’ll tear down your landing pages and Facebook/Instagram ads in front of a live audience. He’ll deconstruct how effective they are at (1) conveying what you do (2) and doing so enticingly — so that people click.

If you’re attending Disrupt and want to participate, you can submit your assets to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for him to consider.

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Sep
23

Unity bets on cloud testing with new Simulation product

For the past several years, Unity’s valuation has ballooned alongside their public ambitions to become essential to customers beyond game developers.

One of the more interesting use cases of the real-time rendering game engine had been helping companies train their systems inside a virtual environment. This has become a key part of the workflows for robotics startups and self-driving car companies that build technologies that need to be trained repeatedly on ever-changing circumstances.

Today at the company’s Unite conference, Unity announced that they’re building a dedicated product for these use cases, called Unity Simulation. The product is currently in closed beta, but it allows customers to run simulations on cloud-connected hardware thanks to a partnership between Unity and Google Cloud.

“By combining Unity’s real-time 3D development platform with the scale and flexibility of the cloud, Unity Simulation will help businesses accelerate the creation of better, safer and more reliable products,” said Unity VP of AI Danny Lange, who previously led machine learning at Uber.

For self-driving car companies, these simulations can help the cars build up virtual experience on roads in fringe situations that can test the technology at its limits. Robotics companies can similarly test products virtually on realistic models that haven’t even been built yet.

Larger customers had already been using Unity for these kinds of problems, but they had been doing so with their own hardware. Unity Simulation relies on Google Cloud for running these parallel tests and can make it a bit easier for small customers that want to leverage testing in virtual environments.

The product may appeal to customers outside the gaming world, but the use cases don’t exclude game studios. An example from Unity’s website details how the service can help studios quickly simulate thousands of outcomes of gameplay to help developers adjust the level of difficulty for users appropriately. For multi-player titles, a tool like this could explore whether new items or power-ups could be combined to make a single user too powerful. The service could also help studios identify how stable their title is.

Unity’s announcement comes at a sensitive time for the gaming company, which has been rocked by a sexual harassment allegation against its sitting CEO John Riccitiello filed by a former female executive at Unity. Riccitiello spoke onstage at Unity’s “Unite” conference in Copenhagen this morning, but did not address the recent lawsuit.

The startup recently disclosed it had closed a $525 million funding round at a $6 billion valuation and is reportedly targeting an IPO next year.

 

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Dec
19

The first official keyboard and mouse for the Xbox is $250 and only works with 16 games

Netflix lost some major Emmy awards on Sunday to HBO and Amazon Prime Video, marking another year when the streaming giant failed to land a series win.

HBO's "Game of Thrones" and "Chernobyl" won the Emmy for best drama series, beating Netflix's "Bodyguard" and "Ozark," which won the prize for best directing for a drama series. Heading into Sunday night, Netflix's "When They See Us" was a favorite to win the award for best limited series, but lost to its biggest competition, HBO's "Chernobyl."

Prime Video dominated the comedy category, including a best comedy series win for "Fleabag," beating Netflix's "Russian Doll."

READ MORE: We compared Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and HBO to find the best service for every kind of viewer

But Netflix makes up for those losses in other ways and doesn't necessarily need a series Emmy win to prove its worth.

With over 150 million subscribers worldwide, 60 million of which are in the US, Netflix is the streaming champion. And its TV library is still stronger than most of its competition.

Netflix has 1,966 total shows available to stream, second only to Prime Video in terms of streaming services, according to data from streaming search-engine Reelgood provided to Business Insider. Netflix has the most original shows of its competition by far and is expected to spend up to $15 billion this year on content.

"When They See Us" Netflix

And when it comes to high-quality TV shows, Hulu and Netflix are neck-and-neck, according to the data. Hulu has 213 high-quality shows while Netflix has 203. Reelgood defined a high-quality show as any with an 8 rating or higher on IMDb.

READ MORE: We compared Netflix's top assets to new rivals like Disney Plus and HBO Max as the streaming battle heats up

But Hulu and Amazon Prime Video have still never been the kind of Emmys powerhouse that Netflix is (despite Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" winning a series Emmy).

Netflix won 27 Emmys total this year (including the Creative Arts Emmys), second only to HBO. And while HBO reclaimed the crown this year, Netflix beat HBO in the number of Emmy nominations last year and tied for the most wins.

While Netflix is in a solid place right now, it could become more vulnerable in the near future.

As Business Insider's Ashley Rodriguez wrote, Netflix's second-place Emmys status came at at a time when the streaming battle is dramatically heating up with incoming competition from Apple (Apple TV Plus), Disney (Disney Plus), WarnerMedia (HBO Max), and NBCUniversal (Peacock).

Original author: Travis Clark

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