Hands-on with Netflix's Basic with Ads: while most shows have pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads are more unpredictable; many popular shows are locked to higher tiers — Clicking into something on Netflix's new ads tier is a roll of the dice: you never know how many ads you might have to sit through.
Lenovo reports Q2 revenue down 4% YoY to $17.09B, above estimates, the first decline in 10 quarters as pandemic-fueled global PC demand weakens — China's Lenovo Group (0992.HK) reported its first revenue decline in 10 quarters as a pandemic-fuelled computer sales boom comes to an end …
Barcelona-based Lodgify, which offers SaaS tools for managing rental properties on Airbnb and other platforms, raised a $30M Series B led by Octopus Ventures — The Spanish firm's one stop digital shop for hosts and property managers hopes to capture 80% of the short-term rental market by concentrating on SMEs
Patreon launches a native ad-free video hosting tool for creators, expanding on support for third-party players, available to a select group in beta — The update marks a major shift in how creators on Patreon can share video content with fans. Previously, creators had to upload videos …
Preqin: Chinese VC deals fell 44% YoY in October to $62.1B, of which $7.9B went to semiconductor companies, up from $6.3B in 2021 — Venture capital investments in China are falling sharply this year, making it one of the worst-performing countries globally after the Communist Party's crackdown …
Twitter cancels its Chirp developer conference, set for November 16, and says it is building “some things that we're excited to share with you soon” — Twitter is canceling its developer-focused Chirp conference amid management transition, the company said late Thursday.
China's Zhengzhou industrial park, where Foxconn makes iPhones, begins a weeklong lockdown to counteract the “severe and complicated” spread of COVID-19 — HONG KONG—The industrial park where Foxconn Technology Group's iPhone assembly plant is struggling to maintain production amid …
Google plans to roll out parental controls for Assistant, including disabling features, restricting services, and setting downtimes hours, in the “coming weeks” — Kids love to use smart speakers, but it's all too easy for things to go horribly wrong — including content that's decidedly not family-friendly.
Toronto-based TouchBistro, which offers payments tools for restaurants globally, raised CA$150M led by Francisco Partners, bringing its funding to ~CA$433M — TouchBistro, a restaurant point-of-sale system, announced on Tuesday it nabbed $110 million (CAD $150 million) …
Netflix begins rolling out its Basic with Ads tier; sources say licensing negotiations with Disney, Comcast, Sony, Warner Bros., and Lions Gate are ongoing — Disney, NBCU and Sony are among the companies still negotiating licensing with the streaming service
China releases its first VR plan, aiming for its domestic industry to ship over 25M devices by 2026; IDC says China shipped just over 500K VR devices in H1 2022 — China released its first action plan dedicated to virtual reality on Tuesday, with an aim its industry ship more than 25 million devices …
New York Times : Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry ...
