A look at the challenges facing Crunchyroll, as current and ex-staffers say its management is out of touch, amid Disney and Netflix's expansion into anime (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
A look at the challenges facing Crunchyroll, as current and ex-staffers say its management is out of touch, amid Disney and Netflix's expansion into anime  —  Disney and Netflix are expanding in the popular Japanese cartoon genre  —  At first glance, Sony Group Corp.'s $1.2 billion acquisition …

A look at Amazon's revamped drone delivery program near Phoenix, Arizona, where the company's new MK-30 drones deliver dozens of packages a day to customers (Kevin Roose/New York Times)

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A look at Amazon's revamped drone delivery program near Phoenix, Arizona, where the company's new MK-30 drones deliver dozens of packages a day to customers  —  A recent visit to the company's overhauled drone delivery program in Arizona left me impressed by the drones, but skeptical that the public will welcome them.

Sources: Apple is working on a smart doorbell system with advanced facial recognition that can wirelessly connect and unlock third-party smart locks (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a smart doorbell system with advanced facial recognition that can wirelessly connect and unlock third-party smart locks  —  Also: Company ramps up work on turning AirPods into a health device.

Preqin data: Southeast Asia's AI startups raised just $1.7B across 122 deals so far in 2024, out of ~$20B across 1,845 deals for the whole Asia-Pacific region (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Preqin data: Southeast Asia's AI startups raised just $1.7B across 122 deals so far in 2024, out of ~$20B across 1,845 deals for the whole Asia-Pacific region  —  - While global tech expands in the region, its startups languish  — Its homegrown tech industry risks falling behind in AI

Albania bans TikTok for a year from January 2025, part of a broader plan to make schools safer following the killing of a 14-year-old near a school in November (Reuters)

Reuters:
Albania bans TikTok for a year from January 2025, part of a broader plan to make schools safer following the killing of a 14-year-old near a school in November  —  Albania on Saturday announced a one-year ban on TikTok, the popular short video app, following the killing of a teenager last month …

As part of its remedies proposal, Google says it won't require device makers and other partners to distribute Gemini to US users for three years (Paresh Dave/Wired)

Paresh Dave / Wired:
As part of its remedies proposal, Google says it won't require device makers and other partners to distribute Gemini to US users for three years  —  Google dominated the last era of search.  Now the company and the US Justice Department are battling over how to set a fair playing field for generative AI.