Monthly Archives: February 2020
Tencent to grow gaming empire with $148M acquisition of Conan publisher Funcom in Norway
Tencent, one of the world’s biggest video and online gaming companies by revenue, today made another move to help cement that position. The Chinese firm has made an offer to fully acquire Funcom, the games developer behind Conan Exiles (and others in the Conan franchise), Dune and some 28 other titles. The deal, when approved, […]
Amazon’s booming ad business grew by 40% in 2019
With plenty of runway ahead, Amazon quarterly ad revenues surpassed $4 billion for the first time in the fourth quarter. Amazon had anticipated a good holiday season, and it got it. The company reported $87.4 billion in net sales for the fourth quarter of 2019, up 21% from the same period the prior year. On […]
Everything You Need To Know About What Amazon Is Doing In Financial Services
From payments to lending to insurance to checking accounts, Amazon is attacking financial services from every angle without applying to be a conventional bank. In this report, we break down everything we know about Amazon’s foray into financial services, and where it’s rumored to be looking next. In 2017, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Alex Rampell […]
Chrome’s coming changes to video ad blocking could impact YouTube
Mid-roll ads of any length are deemed “intrusive” in updated Better Ads Standards. Google Chrome’s ad blocking efforts will soon extend to “intrusive” video ads in short-form videos. The browser will adopt the latest standards for video ads from the Coalition for Better Ads, announced Wednesday. The changes will apply to certain pre-roll, mid-roll and […]
Microsoft’s Xbox boss says Amazon and Google are ‘the main competitors going forward’
Sony and Nintendo aren’t the main competition in the cloud world. Microsoft’s head of gaming and Xbox, Phil Spencer, has revealed that the company sees Amazon and Google as its main competition for the future. Speaking in an interview with newly launched technology publication Protocol, Spencer dismisses Sony and Nintendo’s ability to create a cloud […]
Everything you thought you knew about inbox zero is wrong
Forget everything you think you know about inbox zero: it’s completely and utterly wrong. Merlin Mann, the lifestyle “guru” that invented the concept of inbox zero in the early noughties, claims people took his idea far too literally. They advocated treating work emails like a never-ending task to be completed: once an email has been […]
How To Spot A Deepfake
Just when you thought modern life couldn’t get any crazier, a video emerged during the run-up to the recent UK election, in which the Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared to endorse his political opponent Jeremy Corbyn. “Appeared” is the important word here, because this was actually just one of the latest in a steady stream […]
Diageo eyes ‘real growth opportunity’ in no-ABV sector
After taking a majority stake in non-alcoholic ‘spirit’ brand Seedlip, Diageo said it sees a “real growth opportunity” for the group and will continue investing in the alcohol-free category. UK drinks giant Diageo increased its shareholding in booze-free Seedlip to a majority stake in August 2019. At the time, the group said it “will be […]
Google’s New Meena Chatbot Imitates Human Conversation and Bad Jokes
Google announced the creation of Meena in a new research paper, claiming that it is the most advanced, chatbot ever built. According to Google, Meena can carry on a conversation at a level that feels far more like talking to another person than any existing chatbot. To prove it, Google’s researchers also created an entirely […]
Maybe Information Actually Doesn’t Want to Be Free
Jessica Lessin’s online tech publication costs $399 a year and has no ads. Silicon Valley’s elite is eating it up. Jessica Lessin thinks the biggest story of the moment — how tech is swallowing the universe — is hopelessly under-covered by the news media. The issue is “massive,” she said not long ago in her […]