[ad_1] Alongside its Q4 2019 and full-year earnings report this morning, the company announced that it is acquiring The Ringer, a popular sports and culture media company. The Ringer is still relatively new, having only started in 2016. However, its creator, former ESPN writer and commentator Bill Simmons, is well-known to sports fans. Simmons started […]
Category: business
Autonomous flying taxi Cora set for passenger trials in New Zealand
[ad_1] If the names Cora or Kitty Hawk sound familiar to you, it’s because they’ve been kicking about in this sector for a while, albeit in varying forms. Kitty Hawk was formed in 2016; a secretive flying-car company that enjoyed the lucrative backing of Google co-founder Larry Page. Under the management of Sebastian Thrun — […]
Sony closes UK PSVR studio before it even released a game
[ad_1] It’s not clear whether the mysterious project has been canned completely, or if it will be picked up elsewhere. The company is certainly running out of UK options, in any case. PlayStation’s Evolution Studios shut down in 2016, and the Cambridge-based Guerrilla followed suit in 2017. The decision may well have been made in […]
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser is leaving the company
[ad_1] It’s no secret that Houser helped preside over one of the most successful developers in gaming history. Between the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead games, Rockstar has pulled in massive sales — in some cases thriving with titles that are several years old. Unlike some co-creators of very large studios, though, he still […]
‘The Wonderful 101’ remaster smashes Kickstarter goal in hours
[ad_1] PlatinumGames‘ colourful action adventure was originally released in 2013 for the Wii U. Now it’s getting the modern console treatment and will be coming to PS4, Switch and PC thanks to a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign that looks set to hit a whopping $1.5 million. Given the tight delivery timeframes — PlatinumGames says it’ll […]
T-Mobile and Sprint can now verify calls across their networks
[ad_1] “We’re in an arms race with these scammers, and we’ve got to join forces as an industry to keep all wireless customers protected,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a press release. T-Mobile is also expanding its Caller Verified feature to 23 smartphones. Soon, customers with more devices will see “Caller Verified” on their […]
Sony’s PlayStation business is slowing faster than expected
[ad_1] The figures, which account for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2019 — October 1st to December 31st — indicate that sales were “significantly” down (by 20 percent) year-on-year due to a decrease in PS4 hardware and third-party software sales. Operating income was also down, with a 19.6 billion yen (around $180 million) […]
YouTube ad revenue has almost doubled in the last two years
[ad_1] In 2019, YouTube ad revenues were $15.15 billion, which represents 86 percent growth since 2017. By contrast, the main Google search business grew by 40 percent to $98.1 billion over the last two years. Of course, Google’s search business is even more mature than YouTube, and 40 percent growth is still quite impressive. But […]
Toyota and Panasonic will start producing EV batteries in April
[ad_1] As expected, Toyota is the majority owner of the company with a 51 percent stake. The two also confirmed that Prime Planet Energy would make batteries for both Toyota as well as a variety of other automakers. Moving forward, they plan to develop new types of power cells as well. “Batteries — as solutions […]
Online sneaker drop cancelled thanks to bots
[ad_1] Bots became a popular method of buying sneakers around 2016, when Kanye West released the first models in Adidas’ Yeezy line. The shoes were so popular that they routinely sold out in seconds, leading tech-savvy sneakerheads to develop tools that would autonomously purchase the right pair and size of sneakers. Most bots require the […]