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Consumer-grade spyware apps that covertly and continually monitor your private messages, photos, phone calls, and real-time location are an ongoing problem for Android users. This guide can help you identify and remove common surveillance apps from your Android phone, including TheTruthSpy, Cocospy and Spyic, among others. Consumer-grade spyware apps are frequently sold under the guise

Google has gained permission to sell its e-books and audiobooks directly to customers through its iOS app, Google Play Books. While iOS apps today can offer access to content previously purchased elsewhere, like e-books bought via a website, developers have to request a specific exception to link their iOS app’s users to the company’s own

The New York Times is now allowing its product and editorial teams to use AI tools, which might one day write social copy, SEO headlines, and code, reports Semafor.  The news came to staff via an email, in which the publication announced the debut of its new internal AI summary tool called Echo. The New

The recent Brian Epstein biopic “Midas Man,” a film about the manager of The Beatles, debuted not on a platform like Netflix or Amazon, but on a startup that bills itself as “Shopify for filmmakers.” So what, you might ask? The answer is that the new platform, Olyn, claims to offer a new model for

After warnings that Paramount content was about to disappear from Google’s pay TV service YouTube TV, the companies announced late Saturday that they’d reached a deal that averts any disruption to channel availability. Those announcements didn’t include many specifics about the agreement, but a statement from a Paramount spokesperson said it includes “an expanded streaming

Hotstar and JioCinema, two widely used video streaming apps in India, have merged into JioHotstar. JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance-owned Viacom18 and Star India, said Friday it had integrated JioCinema’s vast library of content into a revamped version of Disney’s Hotstar platform. The merged app, live as of early Friday local India time, will

You can now dine out on dishes inspired by Netflix movies and shows at Las Vegas’s newest restaurant. Netflix Bites is open as of this week in the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, where it will operate for a year. The restaurant offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner options like a “Bridgerton”-inspired tea service, Stranger Wings,

Apple on Wednesday announced that its Apple TV app, including its Apple TV+ streaming service and MLS Season Pass, is arriving on Android devices. While the company previously offered a version of its app for Google TV, the newly released app will support a broader range of Android-based devices, including phones, tablets, and even foldables.

In his annual letter, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan dubbed AI one of the company’s four “big bets” for 2025. The executive pointed to the company’s investments in AI tools for creators, including ones for video ideas, thumbnails, and language translation. The latter feature will roll out to all creators in YouTube’s Partner Program this month,

BuzzFeed, the media site known for its celebrity news and quizzes, announced on Tuesday that it’s developing its own social media platform in a move to counter the current negativity on the internet. Semafor first reported BuzzFeed’s plan for the platform this past week. Details on the new platform are not yet public. However, the

It’s no news that India is a huge market for entertainment businesses, but what often doesn’t get mentioned is that its people love to see content in their own languages. According to a recent survey by non-profit Internet and Mobile Association of India, more than 870 million Indians sought out videos, music and other content

We’ve officially experienced an AI Super Bowl, people. As everyone tuned in to watch the annual championship game, the biggest buzz wasn’t just about the Eagles’ blowout win and Kendrick Lamar performing his Grammy-winning diss track at the halftime show. It was also about AI being a consistent theme in several of the multi-million-dollar ad spots.

If you want to relive Kendrick Lamar’s headline-making Super Bowl halftime show, Apple Music just dropped a replay of the performance in its surround sound-like Spatial Audio. Since Apple currently sponsors the Super Bowl halftime show, the company has permission to republish these musical spectacles — but this is better than just a YouTube video

Fine art auction house, Christie’s, has sold AI-generated art before. But soon, it plans to hold its first show dedicated solely to works created with AI, an announcement that has been met with mixed reviews. The auction, which Christie’s is calling ‘Augmented Intelligence,’ will feature artwork from artists including Mat Dryhurst, the founder of AI

While the U.S. and Canada duke it out over tariffs between the two countries, a tech company based out of Toronto is announcing a major round of funding led by a homegrown VC. StackAdapt, a programmatic advertising startup, says that it has raised $235 million in equity funding, with Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) — the

On Tuesday morning, Spotify announced its fourth-quarter earnings, marking its first full year of profitability since its inception 17 years ago. The operating income for the quarter reached a record €477 million ($509.48 million) and amounted to €1.4 billion ($1.495 billion) for the 2024 fiscal year. Spotify also reported an addition of 35 million monthly

Attorneys for Elon Musk intend to move to dismiss a case that accuses the Tesla CEO, who is also the head of President Donald Trump’s DOGE organization, of using AI-generated, copyright-violating “Blade Runner”-inspired images at a Tesla press event. In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court Central District of California, Western Division late

Researchers from TikTok owner ByteDance have demoed a new AI system, OmniHuman-1, that can generate perhaps the most realistic deepfake videos to date. Deepfaking AI is a commodity. There’s no shortage of apps that can insert someone into a photo, or make a person appear to say something they didn’t actually say. But most deepfakes

DSTLRY, a venture-backed digital comic books marketplace, on Tuesday added a pair of features designed to bring customization to the platform. The first feature, dubbed Commissioned Digital Remarques, allows creators to add personalized sketches and signatures to digital comics. The second, Unlimited Digital Covers, expands platform-wide access to alternative comic book covers. Commissioned Digital Remarques

Chris Anderson, who has run TED for 25 years, is looking to bestow the operation on anyone who has a good plan for its future, he announced in a blog post. TED is best known for its TED Talks, where ideas from tech to humor have been explored. It has featured famed tech moguls (Bill

It’s never been easier to create and publish art than it is now, and if you believe the companies building tech around AI, the production process is going to get even more efficient. That’s especially the case with video production, with companies of all sizes using large language models to build tools that let you

The Beatles’ AI-assisted track “Now and Then” won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance on Sunday night, marking the first time that a song of its kind has taken home the award. No, Paul McCartney did not use AI to create some creepy LennonGPT bot. Instead, he used noise reduction systems to clean up a

Adobe’s chief strategy officer Scott Belsky announced this week that he will be joining A24, the independent movie studio behind “Civil War,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and many more titles. Belsky first joined Adobe in 2012 through the acquisition of Behance, leaving briefly in 2016 to become a VC at Benchmark but eventually returning

The lights dimmed as five actors took their places around a table on a makeshift stage in a New York City art gallery turned theater for the night. Wine and water flowed through the intimate space as the house — packed with media — sat to witness the premiere of “Doomers,” Matthew Gasda’s latest play

Amazon is the latest company to announce a price hike for its music streaming subscriptions. The company revealed this week that the price of an Amazon Music Unlimited Individual plan for Prime members is going from $9.99 per month to $10.99. As for subscribers without a Prime membership, the price of their subscription is going

After MoviePass’s historic implosion, subscribers to the “Netflix for movie theaters” were already cautious around the company’s 2023 relaunch. These moviegoers may grow even more skeptical after MoviePass sent out an email blast on Wednesday, which surveyed customers about their interest in web3. “Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technologies are transforming the business landscape at an unprecedented

Netflix announced on Wednesday that it’s giving iOS users a new feature that allows them to download an entire season of their favorite TV show with one tap. The feature first became available to Android users.  The Season Download button is available in the Netflix app, located next to the Share button on a show’s

While the adoption of IP (intellectual property) blockchain and tokenization of assets is still in its early stages, more creatives in the entertainment industry are embracing what is called “tokenized storytelling.” This approach enables fans to participate in story development, contributing elements — such as characters and plot — that can be tokenized and owned

Indie bookstore backer Bookshop.org launched an e-book platform on Tuesday, making it easier for readers to buy e-books without padding Jeff Bezos’s pockets. For years, Amazon’s chokehold and sway in the publishing industry have been so strong that authors and booksellers have accused the company of operating a monopoly. Amazon is dominant in the sale

Audio streaming company Spotify said Tuesday that it paid $10 billion to the music industry last year. The company added that it has given nearly $60 billion in industry payouts since its inception. This is another effort from Spotify to dispel reports that the company doesn’t reward artists properly for their work. The key point