Amrita Khalid

The big-spending golden age of streaming is over, and as 2024 begins, services like Netflix, Disney, and Prime Video are cutting back production, raising prices, and piling on ads. Still, even if there aren’t quite as many new shows and movies to add to your binge-watching menu as the past few years, there will still be some worth waiting for. And even after a merger or two (with rumors of more to come), the list of streaming platforms is still long, including Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Pr…

It was Valentine’s Day when Meta’s ad platform started going off the rails. RC Williams, the co-founder of the Philadelphia-based marketing agency 1-800-D2C, had set one of Meta’s automated ad tools to run campaigns for two separate clients. But when he checked the platform that day, he found that Meta had blown through roughly 75 percent of the daily ad budgets for both clients in under a couple of hours. Williams told The Verge that the ads’ CPMs, or cost per impressions, were roughly 10 time…

Spotify has launched a colorful personality quiz designed to help K-pop fans determine their persona. For those unfamiliar with the K-pop term or its Jungian roots, a “persona” refers to the distinct, public-facing role of each member of a band. The feature leans into K-pop’s status as a major area of growth in the global music industry, which Spotify has been eager to tap into. The five-question quiz, which fans can take inside the Spotify app, will identify whether you’re a Main Visual, a Mai…

For when you’re sick of seeing the “Take the L” dance.

Europe is warming up at twice the global average, leading to deadly heatwaves and severe flooding, according to the European State of the Climate (ESOTC) report for the year 2023, released Monday. According to the report, temperatures in Europe are rising 2.3 degrees Celsius (or 4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, according to a five-year average, compared to 1.3 degrees Celsius (roughly 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) globally. The report, jointly issued by the Copernicus Climate Cha…

Razer’s latest mobile gaming controller just released today, the Kishi Ultra, is an all-rounder that can switch between multiple devices. The controller has a built-in USB-C port that can work with the iPhone 15 series as well as most Android smartphones (Razer says it’s compatible with the Galaxy 23 series, Pixel 6 and up, the Razer Edge, and “many other Android devices.”) It also seems to work perfectly fine with Galaxy Z Fold 5 and other foldables. The controller can expand to fit your iPad M…

A Tesla delivery center in Virginia reportedly has a way to deal with the now-recalled accelerator pedal on Cybertrucks. In a Facebook post, Jim McGlone wrote that they installed a temporary rivet to secure the pad that might slip off and get stuck. With that in place, he picked up his new Cybertruck yesterday after it had been in a “containment hold.” [Attachment: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wUftyhEhoR5KCF2QMUq3Hoj0I0w=/0x0:1178x678/1178x678/filters:focal(589x339:590x340)/cdn.vox-cdn.com…

In 2020, Apple sued a recycling partner after more than 11,000 pounds of gadgets disappeared. But a Bloomberg report reveals that workers pilfering iPhones isn’t the only problem with Apple’s recycling program. The company regularly ordered the recycling partner to destroy “tens of thousands” of refurbishable devices, legal filings show. Such waste occurs regularly throughout the globe. [Attachment: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-04-18/apple-iphone-recycling-program-has-secrets…

Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, but previously served as the CEO of 99Fang, a Chinese home finder startup with “very powerful” tech for search, image processing, and recommendations. Now, The New York Times reports that former contractors suing Susquehanna, an investor in both companies, claim technology they developed for 99Fang was used to create TikTok without compensating them. [Attachment: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/business/tiktok-bytedance-jeff-yas…

Topics include disordered eating and extreme fitness.