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Spotify is expanding its streaming service to now include educational courses in addition to music, podcasts, and audiobooks. The company on Tuesday referenced one of its newer features called courses, which allow users to learn about topics in areas like business, tech, lifestyle, music, and more. The feature is initially being piloted in the U.K.,

IMDb, the Amazon-owned online database that provides information on movies, TV shows, and celebrities, announced on Tuesday that its founder, Col Needham, is stepping down as CEO. Nikki Santoro, who has served as the Chief Operating Officer since 2021, has been appointed as his successor. Santoro’s appointment is significant, as she is the first woman

Meta says it plans to keep its fact-checking program in place outside the U.S. for the time being, though it could eventually expand it elsewhere. “We’ll see how that goes as we move it out over the years,” Meta’s head of global business Nicola Mendelsohn told Bloomberg in a report from Davos on Monday. “So

An arena. A hype tunnel, the kind through which NBA players typically streak. A competitor dressed in a jersey patterned with a six-pack abs. In a new piece, The New York Times takes readers to an event that organizers call the Microsoft Excel World Championship, a 40-minute, Las Vegas-based competition featuring 12 contestants — all

Barely more than 12 hours after TikTok went dark in the United States, the video-sharing app is coming back online. “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” the company said in a statement. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers

Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office on Friday in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., once again. The event takes place at noon ET and is expected to attract considerable attention from both supporters and opponents. How to stream Trump’s inauguration You can watch the inauguration live with cable or

OpenAI is getting into the local news game. Newsletter-based media organization Axios announced a partnership with OpenAI on Wednesday. As part of this three-year deal, the AI giant will fund Axios’ expansion of its local newsletters into four new cities: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Kansas City, Missouri; Boulder, Colorado; and Huntsville, Alabama. While OpenAI has inked content-sharing

Numerous tech companies have pledged millions in donations to help LA recover from wildfires that caused widespread devastation and forced thousands to evacuate the region. Those offering aid include YouTube/Google, Meta, Snap, Amazon, Netflix, and Sony.  Here’s an overview of what each company is doing to aid relief efforts in the region: YouTube and Google:

On the heels of TikTok’s looming shutdown on January 19 over its ownership in the U.S. (unless the Supreme Court intervenes), it looks like another Chinese app is catching some attention. American users are flocking to Chinese short-form video app Xiaohongshu (known as RedNote in English). The app today surged to the No. 1 spot

On the heels of TikTok’s looming shut down on January 19 over its ownership in the U.S. (unless the Supreme Court intervenes), it looks like another Chinese app is catching some attention. American users are flocking Chinese short-form video app Xiaohongshu (known as RedNote in English). The app today surged to the number-one spot for

Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg has deactivated the accounts of several WordPress.org community members, some of whom have been spearheading a push to create a new fork of the open source WordPress project. While community criticism of WordPress’s governance isn’t new, the latest brouhaha kicked off back in September when Mullenweg publicly chastised WP

Why does it cost some companies hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a popular video game? A couple weeks ago, The New York Times blamed the never-ending quest to deliver more photo-realistic graphics— and it suggested the industry is beginning to see diminishing returns, leading to layoffs and studio closures. However, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier

VLC media player, the popular open-source software developed by nonprofit VideoLAN, has topped 6 billion downloads worldwide and teased an AI-powered subtitle system. The new feature automatically generates real-time subtitles — which can then also be translated in many languages — for any video using open-source AI models that run locally on users’ devices, eliminating

Google searches for how to cancel and delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts have seen explosive rises in the U.S. since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company will end its third-party fact-checking system, loosen content moderation policies, and roll back previous limits to the amount of political content in user feeds.  Experts see

TV providers and streamers’ real competition isn’t each other, it’s social video. Or at least that’s what the president of Comcast Advertising, James Rooke, said during an interview on Wednesday at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The ad exec was speaking about the company’s Monday launch of “universal ads,” a solution that lets marketers buy

The former chief executive of the parent company of MoviePass, Theodore Farnsworth, pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy after being accused of misleading investors over the service’s “unlimited plan.” Farnsworth also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud as the chief executive of Vinco Ventures, a publicly traded company. Helios &

Ahead of the holidays, Microsoft said it was upgrading the AI model behind Bing Image Creator, the AI-powered image editing tool built into the company’s Bing search engine. Microsoft promised that the new model — the latest version of OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 model, code-named PR16 — would allow users to create images “twice as fast

Triller, a would-be competitor to TikTok, is hoping to capitalize on the potential for a TikTok ban in the U.S. by pitching to creators to move their content from the popular short-form video app to its own. The company has now launched a website, SaveMyTikToks.com, which promises to back up all your TikTok videos by

Getty Images on Tuesday said it has agreed to merge with its rival Shutterstock in a cash-and-stock deal. The combined entity is expected to be valued at $3.7 billion based on yesterday’s closing share prices. This announcement confirms earlier reporting from Bloomberg. Both companies offer stock photos and video footage that can be licensed and

X, formerly Twitter, wants to make its platform a home to the future and news and journalism. On that front, the company has now hired John Stoll, a former editor and Detroit bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal to lead its news group and partnership team at X. The hiring news was announced on

As Peacock continues to trail behind major players in the entertainment industry like Netflix, TikTok, and YouTube, the streaming service is adopting strategies similar to its rivals with two new initiatives: mini-games and a short-form vertical video feed. The company announced these experiments at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday. Starting this

Google is forming a new team to work on AI models that can simulate the physical world. Tim Brooks — one of the co-leads on OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, who left for Google’s AI research lab, Google DeepMind, in October — will lead the new team, he announced in a post on X. It’ll be a

Long gone are the days of simply watching the news. Google unveiled the latest version of its TV operating system at CES 2025 on Monday. It uses the company’s Gemini AI assistant to summarize the biggest news of the day for you. By asking Gemini to play your “News Brief,” the AI assistant will scrape

In a surprising deal announced on Monday, Disney is set to combine its Hulu Live TV business with Fubo, the live TV streaming service known for its extensive sports coverage. Under the terms of the deal, Disney will own about 70% of Fubo, which will continue to be available to viewers as a separate offering.   

Have you ever watched a food scene on TV and thought, wow, I wish I could cook that at home? Maybe it was the il timpano in “Big Night,” or the beef bourguignon in “Julie & Julia.” Whatever your show-inspired craving, you’re in luck — if you buy a 2025 Samsung TV, that is. During

Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV+ streaming service for free from Friday through Sunday. The company announced the weekend of free streaming earlier this week alongside a short video featuring its most popular TV shows, including “Severance,” “Slow Horses,” “Shrinking,” and more. It’s worth noting that this is the first time that

Spotify announced Thursday the launch of its new “Partner Program” that lets popular podcast hosts monetize their video content. Spotify’s new program gives qualifying creators on its platform opportunities for extra income beyond just advertising revenue, such as video payouts. The program was initially announced back in November and is officially available in the U.S.,

Back in May, OpenAI said it was developing a tool to let creators specify how they want their works to be included in — or excluded from — its AI training data. But 7 months later, this feature has yet to see the light of day. Called Media Manager, the tool would “identify copyrighted text,

Ah, 2024: the year we debated how to pronounce “hawk tuah,” pondered the health benefits of eating rocks, and held space for a Broadway showstopper. It was a year when the discourse could feel shockingly pure and joyful — at least for a few minutes, before we all came tumbling back down to reality. Online

Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV+ streaming service for free this weekend, from January 3 to 5. The company made the announcement on Monday alongside a short video featuring its most popular TV shows, including “Severance,” “Slow Horses,” “Shrinking,” and more. It’s worth noting that this is the first time that Apple