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☆ Trump launches sneaker line
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Alexandra Marquez | Jason Abbruzzese | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

If anyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop in the upcoming presidential race, former President Donald Trump just did, launching his own line of tennis shoes on Saturday. "I've wanted to do this for a long time," Trump said when he announced the launch of a sneaker line at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia. In his brief remarks at the sneaker launch, Trump indicated the line could be an effort to reach out to younger supporters, saying, "We're going to turn this country around fast. The line, called Trump Sneakers, is available for preorder online. Sneaker Con, the venue where Trump debuted the sneaker collection, is an event that started in 2009 and has become one of the premiere events within the broader sneaker culture that has exploded in recent decades.

Persons: Donald Trump, I've, Trump, Sneaker, Joe Biden's, Michael Tyler, Con, Jared Moskowitz, Barack Obama, Armour, Steph Curry Organizations: North, North Charleston Convention Center, Sneaker Con, Trump, Trump Organization, CIC Ventures, Air Force Locations: North Charleston, North Charleston , South Carolina, Philadelphia, cologne

☆ Apple may soon show off its biggest and riskiest new hardware product in years
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Next week, Apple may unveil its most ambitious new hardware product in years, but it’s in a product category that is anything but a proven winner. The highly-anticipated release of an AR/VR headset would be Apple’s biggest hardware product launch since the debut of the Apple Watch in 2015. “So it is great timing for that market.”An uncertain marketFor now, the overall headset market remains small. There were 8.8 million AR/VR headsets shipped globally last year, according to data from market research firm IDC. Unlike almost any other company, however, Apple can create demand for an experimental new product or category.

Persons: ”, Ramon, –, Tim Cook, Cook, “, Siri, Eric Abbruzzese, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Abbruzzese, don’t, ” Abbruzzese Organizations: CNN, Apple, Apple Watch, VR, IDC, Washington Post, GQ, Ikea, Bloomberg, ABI Research, Facebook, Street, Meta, Google

☆ Apple's own execs are split on whether the company should make smart goggles. Experts say if Apple can't make smart glasses happen, no one can.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Apple is reportedly introducing its Reality Pro smart goggles in June. Experts say the goggles may not be a smash success, but if anyone can make it work, it's Apple. Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that a rare wave of dissent made its way into the team behind Apple's mixed-reality smart goggles, called Apple Reality Pro. Apple Reality Pro will have a wow-factor to it because it's had time to improve upon the foundations laid by its competitors. The virtual reality headset market was worth $7.7 billion in 2022, according to a report by Grandview Research.

☆ Ukraine, Iran's quests for freedom to dominate Berlin Film Festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A pin, Berlinale bear in Ukrainian flag's colors, is seen on the sweater of a staff member during a news conference ahead of the 73rd Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, January 23, 2023. REUTERS/Fabrizio BenschBERLIN, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Sean Penn's documentary portrait of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, filmed as Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, will be among headliners at next month's Berlin Film Festival, where a life achievement award will go to Steven Spielberg. "And maybe Berlin is more relevant than other places, because we are close to Ukraine, because Ukrainian people live in Berlin." The competition will also make space for animation with "Suzume" by Japan's Makoto Shinkai, described by Chatrian as the "poet of youth". Described as a journey through the Japanese archipelago, the film stands out for its bold colouring.

Sam Bankman-Fried published an extensive blog post Thursday morning attempting to explain the collapse of FTX, the crypto platform he co-founded, and denying allegations that he stole any funds. “I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away,” Bankman-Fried wrote in the blog post. NBC News has not verified any of the various balance sheets Bankman-Fried published in the blog post. Bankman-Fried wrote: “FTX International has many billions of dollars of assets, and I am dedicating nearly all of my personal assets to customers. In the blog post, Bankman-Fried called the move by Zhao “a targeted attack” on Alameda.

The collapse of crypto exchange FTX is becoming clearer. Complaints from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission released Wednesday night provide the most comprehensive look yet at how Sam Bankman-Fried’s operation came crashing down. The new documents, totalling 81 pages, allege how FTX sent customer funds to Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, directed high-level executives to create special software code to make such transfers easier, hid losses, and even continued to secretly siphon funds to Alameda as the company was headed toward insolvency. Two top business associates of Bankman-Fried, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, are defendants in the civil cases brought by the SEC and CFTC and have pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges, a federal prosecutor in New York said Wednesday. Here are the 14 most notable passages in the complaints, with the full documents embedded below:

The co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the former CEO of Sam Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research, have pleaded guilty to fraud, a federal prosecutor in New York said Wednesday. The SEC complaint alleges that Wang "created FTX’s software code that allowed Alameda to divert FTX customer funds," and that Ellison used those funds for Alameda's trading. The SEC complaint alleges a complex scheme to trick both investors and customers into believing that FTX had strict and advance risk mitigation. "From the inception of FTX, Defendants and Bankman-Fried diverted FTX customer funds to Alameda, and continued to do so until FTX’s collapse in November 2022," the SEC complaint reads. “If you participated in misconduct at FTX or Alameda, now is the time to get ahead of it,” he said.

Twitter will no longer allow users to promote their accounts on at least seven other major social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, the platform announced Sunday. "We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter," Twitter Support tweeted Sunday. Twitter’s rule change left out some major social media platforms, most notably TikTok. Other social media companies have few, if any, rules about users’ posting links to their accounts on other platforms.

Twitter suspended several high-profile journalists Thursday evening who have been covering the company and Elon Musk. The suspensions come a day after Twitter changed its policies around accounts that track private jets, including one owned by Elon Musk. The Twitter account for Mastodon, a platform billed as an alternative, was also suspended early Thursday evening. As of Thursday evening, Twitter accounts operated by NBC News journalists were unable to tweet a link to the Mastodon account of @ElonJet. The suspensions add to what has been a tumultuous couple of days for Twitter after the company first suspended the account that tracked Musk’s jet.

Twitter on Monday disbanded its Trust and Safety Council, a group of volunteers who offered the company outside expert advice about online safety, according to an email seen by NBC News. "As part of this process, we have decided that the Trust and Safety Council is not the best structure to do this." Holmes added, "Over past week several members of council have had their personal safety and well-being impacted by the actions of Twitter staff." Some members of the council recently sparked an argument over the company's handling of child sexual exploitation material. Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, responded: "this is false."

☆ Microsoft says it has reached a 10-year deal to bring ‘Call of Duty’ to Nintendo
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft said late Tuesday it has reached a 10-year deal to bring the 19-year-old game franchise to Nintendo after its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which makes the game, is completed. The Nintendo deal is the latest attempt by Microsoft to ease concerns that its blockbuster acquisition of the gaming giant could harm competition in the industry. Microsoft head of gaming Phil Spencer announced the commitment with Nintendo in a tweet and said it will continue to offer “Call of Duty” on gaming platform Steam if the deal is completed. The company’s decision to bring “Call of Duty” to Nintendo comes as Microsoft’s Activision deal faces regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic. “Nintendo is not a high priority for ‘Call of Duty,’ all things considered – it has done perfectly fine without being on Nintendo recently,” Abbruzzese added.

Other researchers have also tracked the spam campaign. Videos of the protests quickly spread on Chinese social media, with online censors struggling to keep up. Many of them also made their way onto Twitter and other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, all of which are blocked in China but some Chinese users access via virtual private networks. There are no firm numbers on the scope of the spam campaign, but Wright said she has observed thousands of Twitter posts an hour in some cases. “So essentially, it can be very effective as a method for driving out the truth, the real videos, and the real content about the protests.”

☆ New wave of resignations hits Twitter after Musk ultimatum
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Lora Kolodny | Jason Abbruzzese | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A new wave of Twitter employees resigned on Thursday after Elon Musk issued an ultimatum telling them they would need to be willing to commit to a "hardcore" work environment. Three Twitter employees who spoke with CNBC asked to remain nameless, citing fear of professional retaliation. It was not clear exactly how many Twitter employees resigned. Musk has asked some top engineers who opted to resign to consider staying on, according to one Twitter engineer familiar with the situation. The recent wave of resignations adds to what is now a combined mass layoff and voluntary exodus from Twitter, leaving the company significantly smaller than when Musk first took over in late October.

Elon Musk fired one of Twitter’s software engineers on Monday after the pair argued publicly over what Musk said was the company’s subpar experience for Android users. Some of the software engineer’s colleagues appeared initially uncertain as to whether Musk's tweet firing Frohnhoefer was sincere. Musk began exchanging tweets with Frohnhoefer on Sunday after the software engineer disputed a tweet from Musk about why the app had been "super slow in many countries" for those who use the Android operating system. "I have spent ~6yrs working on Twitter for Android and can say this is wrong," Frohnhoefer tweeted. Amid the back-and-forth, a Twitter user on Monday suggested Musk may not want Frohnhoefer "on your team."

Twitter appears to have suspended sign-ups for its Blue subscription service after the initial rollout was marred by users who received a verification badge and then impersonated celebrities, politicians and brands. Twitter users first began noticing the change late Thursday night when the Blue subscription option was no longer in the sidebar menu of the app. The sign-up page for Twitter Blue appears to still direct to a page with information about the service but without an option to sign up. Twitter also re-introduced a newer "Official" badge to some accounts. The company confirmed that news on one of its Twitter accounts.

Twitter on Wednesday updated the rules around its new paid verification feature, a move that comes as users began impersonating celebrities, athletes and politicians alongside their new check marks. "Twitter accounts created on or after November 9, 2022 will be unable to subscribe to Twitter Blue at this time," the note states. Users impersonating former President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair have also been suspended. Some users recently began impersonating Musk seemingly in an effort to show him how easily the platform can be abused. "Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months," he tweeted.

Twitter’s new “Chief Twit” spent the weekend tweeting — and it’s still not much clearer what Elon Musk will do with his new company. He denied a report from The New York Times that he planned to make major layoffs Monday ahead of a date when many Twitter employees receive stock grants. Musk has surrounded himself with Silicon Valley veterans, some of whom have criticized Twitter’s moderation work. Later, he appeared to poke fun at his deleted tweet while also taking a swipe at The New York Times. “This is fake — I did *not* tweet out a link to The New York Times!” Musk wrote alongside a screenshot of the Times’ coverage of his deleted tweet.

Elon Musk set the tone for his first full day as head of Twitter with a response to @catturd2. “I will be digging in more today,” Musk tweeted in response Friday morning. As of Friday morning, Trump’s account was still suspended, and trending topics included everything from the news of the day (Paul Pelosi) to culture (#FridayFeeling, Rihanna). “Elon” was one of the top trending topics of the morning, and many conservative influencers who had been critical of Twitter’s moderation were already celebrating what they saw as a tectonic shift. Those downloads, however, are still less than 5,000 per day, while Twitter often still sees hundreds of thousands of downloads per day, according to Adam Blacker, vice president of insights at Apptopia.

☆ With product innovation lagging, Silicon Valley bets on a fresh coat of paint
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN Business —When Google unveiled its new Pixel 7 smartphone lineup earlier this month, the devices looked largely the same as the year prior. Google has also swapped the stormy black (a stormy black) option on the Pixel 6 for obsidian (still black) on the Pixel 7. The emphasis on a new color palette for devices isn’t unique to Google. Apple’s new iPhone 14 lineup comes in Starlight (a champagne color) and midnight (black), and the company has previously unveiled two shades of green (“green” and “alpine green”) and purple (“purple” and “deep purple”). “Color names that are descriptive but odd can spark positive reactions because the consumer likes being able to ‘solve the puzzle,’” she said.

☆ NBCNews.com Digital Contacts
▼ + stars: | 2019-12-14 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. U.S. news NBCNews.com Digital Contacts NBC News Digital Editors Senior V.P., Global Digital News Catherine Kim / catherine.kim@nbcuni.com Executive Editor Tom Namako / Tom.Namako@nbcuni.com Managing Editor for News Tim Perone / Tim.Perone@nbcuni.com Managing Editor for Politics Liz Johnstone / Elizabeth.Johnstone@nbcuni.com Assistant Managing Editor for News Pam Engel / Pamela.Engel@nbcuni.com Assistant Managing Editor for Platforms and Social Matthew Grimson / Matthew.Grimson@nbcuni.com Assistant Managing Editor for Enterprise Julie Shapiro / Julie.Shapiro@nbcuni.com Television contacts: NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt: nightly@nbcuni.com Meet the Press: contact.mtp@nbcuni.com Today: TodayStories@nbcuni.com Dateline NBC: dateline.contactus@nbcuni.com MSNBC: MSNBCTVinfo@nbcuni.com The Rachel Maddow Show: rachel@nbcuni.com NBC News Media Relations: nbcnewsmediarelations@nbcuni.com Digital Editors: Senior Tech Editor, Jason Abbruzzese / Jason.Abbruzzese@nbcuni.com Senior News Editor and Bureau Manager, London, Brinley Bruton / Brinley.Bruton@nbcuni.com Senior Enterprise Editor, Susan Carroll / Susan.Carroll@nbcuni.com Senior Editor, Data Viz, Nigel Chiwaya / Nigel.Chiwaya@nbcuni.com Copy Editor, Dipti Coorg / Dipti.Coorg@nbcuni.com News Editor, Los Angeles, Amanda Covarrubias / Amanda.Covarrubias@nbcuni.com Deputy Director of Owned Platforms, Los Angeles, Richie Duchon / Richie.Duchon@nbcuni.com Senior Editor, Breaking News, Rodney Thrash / Rodney.Thrash@nbcuni.com Editorial Director, NBCBLK, Michelle Garcia / Michelle.Garcia@nbcuni.com Deputy Washington Editor, Ginger Gibson / ginger.gibson@nbcuni.com Deputy Tech Editor, Ben Goggin / Benjamin.Goggin@nbcuni.com Copy Editor, Carmen Llona / Carmen.Llona@nbcuni.com Culture and Trends Editor, Saba Hamedy / saba.hamedy@nbcuni.com Senior Art and Photography Director, Kara Haupt / Kara.Haupt@nbcuni.com Weekend News Editor, Eric Hinton / eric.hinton@nbcuni.com Politics Editor, Tim Homan / tim.homan@nbcuni.com Copy Editor, Alex Johnson / Alex.Johnson@nbcuni.com Senior Copy Editor, Ned Kilkelly / Ned.Kilkelly@nbcuni.com Copy Editor, Alison Killian / Alison.Killian@nbcuni.com Lead Breaking News Editor, Nights, Jamie Knodel / Jamie.Knodel@nbcuni.com Politics Editor, Matthew Korade / Matthew Korade@nbcuni.com Lead THINK Editor, Hilary Krieger / think@nbcuni.com Breaking News Editor, Gavon Laessig / Gavon.Laessig@nbcuni.com Managing Editor, NBC Latino, Sandra Lilley / Sandra.Lilley@nbcuni.com Business News Editor, Bryan Logan / Bryan.Logan@nbcuni.com Data Editor, Joe Murphy / Joe.Murphy@nbcuni.com Editorial Director, NBC Asian America, Jessica Prois / Jessica.Prois@nbcuni.com Deputy Politics Editor, Alana Satlin / Alana.Satlin@nbcuni.com Deputy News Editor, Jessica Simeone / Jessica.Simeone@nbcuni.com Senior Washington Editor, Rebecca Sinderbrand / Rebecca.Sinderbrand@nbcuni.com Editorial Director, NBC OUT, Brooke Sopelsa / Brooke.Sopelsa@nbcuni.com Art Director, Chelsea Stahl / Chelsea.Stahl@nbcuni.com Health News Editor, Dana Varinsky / Dana.Varinsky@nbcuni.com Senior Editorial Director for Planning and Diversity Journalism, Joy Wang / Joy.Wang@nbcuni.com Deputy News Editor, Jaquetta White / Jaquetta.White@nbcuni.com Weekend Politics Editor, Christina Zhao / Christina.Zhao@nbcuni.com MSNBC.com Editors: Managing Editor, Meredith Bennett-Smith / Meredith.Bennett-Smith@nbcuni.com Senior Editor, Clarissa Pharr / clarissa.pharr@nbcuni.com

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