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☆ Microsoft keyboard users are ‘so devastated’ after discontinuation of accessories
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

He switched newspapers in 1998 and bought the newer model, the Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite. A study had shown that 22 out of 23 people preferred the geometry of the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 over the older Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro. In 2022, he bought a Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard for his house in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and another one for when he was working at a client's office. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards From top to bottom, Matt Steinhoff's home collection includes the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard he uses every day, a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 keyboard someone gave him and his old Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, which he keeps around as a backup. The model costs $129.99 on Amazon, twice the price of the discontinued Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard.

☆ Wes Anderson, Ken Loach among contenders for Cannes Film Festival's top prize
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Press conference for the film "Asteroid City" in competition - Cannes, France, May 24, 2023. Director Wes Anderson speaks. REUTERS/Yara NardiCANNES, May 27 (Reuters) - Veteran directors Wes Anderson, Ken Loach and Wim Wenders are among those in the running for the Cannes Film Festival's coveted Palme d'Or at Saturday's closing ceremony, with 21 films in competition for the top prize. This year has a record seven female directors in the running for the top prize, which only two women have previously won - Jane Campion in 1993 and Ducournau in 2021. More than 14,000 participants from over 120 countries crowded the film market this year, surpassing 2019's previous peak of 12,500.

☆ Disney still has plans to spend billions in Florida despite its battle with DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Ron DeSantis, Disney remains committed to the state of Florida. Those figures have been repeated by CEO Bob Iger and parks chief Josh D'Amaro over the past few months, as tensions between Disney and Florida lawmakers have continued to ratchet up. Disney recently scrapped plans to open up a new employee campus in Lake Nona, Florida, citing "changing business conditions." "And this includes things like the transformation of Epcot," he explained. "It includes things like there's a new Star Tours attraction coming, we have a new Tiana attraction that's coming.

☆ It’s Netflix’s world, rivals just stream in it
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Cheaper streaming options with unique programming were luring viewers, leaving Netflix in a tough spot as it raised prices. Paramount+, started in 2021, is joining forces with sister Showtime to widen its offerings. Disney, Paramount and WBD also operate cable and broadcast networks, and don’t specify what portion of the expense is allocated to streaming. Its subscribers, worth $136 a year in revenue apiece, are also more valuable than those of its rivals. Warner Bros Discovery on May 23 rebranded its streaming service as Max, which will include HBO programming along with Discovery’s reality TV shows.

☆ Quito: Ecuador’s underrated capital city was the first to become a UNESCO site
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Sandra Macgregor | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —It’s hard not to feel a little sorry for the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. Singular churchesInside the Spanish colonial church of San Francisco in the city center of Quito. The museum even puts on a variety of shows, including a karaoke night of traditional Ecuadorian song. It’s especially busy at lunchtime when it fills to capacity with locals looking to indulge in affordable traditional Ecuadorian cuisine. Guided toursMetropolitan Touring’s “Live Quito Like a Local” walking tour is great for visitors with only a day or two to explore Quito.

☆ Nikola Jokic Has Mastered the Art of Slowness
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Kurt Streeter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is the speed with which he plays, or, rather, the lack of it, that sets him apart in the fast-twitch N.B.A. Jokic, the two-time league most valuable player, could write an instructional book about the game he has come to master: Basketball and the Fine Art of Slowness. He moves where he wants, when he wants, while every other player is slicing around the court in a frenzy. It brought to mind something Jeff Van Gundy, the former N.B.A. Jokic is the epitome of the John Wooden quote, ‘Be quick, don’t hurry.’”“He’s an absolute marvel,” Van Gundy added.

☆ Opinion | Can the Writers’ Strike Fix Hollywood?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A somewhat more pessimistic analysis, offered by writers like Sonny Bunch and Jessa Crispin, emphasizes that the superhero-sweatshop corporate strategy evolved because it’s giving audiences what they want. And so even if the strike is an opportunity for reconsiderations, it’s probably not a lever that can change the system as a whole. Personally I would like to see the strike lever a different Hollywood system into being. (HBO’s “Westworld,” for instance, or lately Showtime’s “Yellowjackets.”) Sometimes they play like thin imitations of the previous decade’s antihero dramas. Or they take on the character of the theatrical experience but somewhat worse — with too-big-to-fail franchises that nobody really enjoys.

One of their most interesting products is the ROG Flow Z13. But last month, Asus sent Insider a limited edition version of the Flow Z13, called the Asus ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM RMT02. ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM RMT02 is a mouthful of a name, which is just one reason why I've taken to just calling it the "Asus Alien." To put it simply: The Z13-ACRNM looks like it came from an alien civilization. Check out below what this one-off laptop looks like.

☆ Sony eyes finance unit listing, doubles down on entertainment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Sam Nussey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Sony said it is considering a time frame of two to three years to spin off Sony Financial Group - whose operations include life insurance and banking - with an eye to listing the business and retaining a stake of slightly under 20%. The conglomerate is pursuing synergies between its business lines, which include video games, music and movies. A partial spin-off of Sony Financial, which the group said was made possible by changes in tax rules, would allow the newly listed business to retain Sony branding. The finance business reported a 5% fall in revenue to 1.45 trillion yen ($10.74 billion) in the year ended March. Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said he recently watched the movie in Tokyo and used to play "Super Mario" too.

☆ Opinion: What happened to Elon Musk?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Appalled, Enes Kanter Freedom, the Turkish-born former NBA player, a fierce critic of Erdogan, told CNN, “I don’t want to hear about Elon Musk talking about free speech ever again. It turns out Musk’s free speech absolutism is less than absolute. Absurdly, he now says, “By ‘free speech,’ I simply mean that which matches the law.” So, if a tyrant makes a law banning criticism, will Musk believe that muzzling its critics conforms with free speech? Beyond his free speech hypocrisy, there’s the vanishing aura of Musk as the thoughtful futurist concerned about humanity’s fate. Soros, Musk wrote – to almost 140 million Twitter followers – “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization.

☆ I talked to 1,000 CEOs of highly successful companies—here's the 'first' question you should ask at a job interview
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Robert Reiss | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

As the host of the radio program the "The CEO Show" for the last 15 years, I've interviewed more than 1,000 of the world's top CEOs. 1 question a candidate should ask at a job interview: "What traits will help me succeed long-term at the company?" Employers are moved and impressed by people who are proactive and who get straight to the point, so this is a great first question to ask. I also love how surprisingly simple it is. Based on my conversations, here are five traits that employers value the most:

☆ Elon Musk says he's a 'pro-Semite, if anything' when questioned about his public attacks on George Soros
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

His comments came after he compared George Soros to the "X-Men" villain Magneto on Monday. Elon Musk tried to defend his statements on the Jewish billionaire George Soros a day after likening Soros to a comic-book villain. On Monday, Musk tweeted that Soros reminds him of the "X-Men" villain, Magneto, while claiming that Soros "hates humanity." Musk then doubled down on his criticism of Soros, saying he thinks it's true that Soros does hate mankind, but offered no further substantiation for the claim. —nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) May 16, 2023Musk's tweet on Monday saying "Soros reminds me of Magneto," has been viewed 39 million times as of press time.

☆ Cannes jury president to striking Hollywood writers: 'Yeah, go!'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Press conference of the jury - Cannes, France, May 16, 2023. Jury President Ruben Ostlund and jury member Brie Larson attend a press conference. REUTERS/Yara NardiCANNES, May 16 (Reuters) - Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, who heads the jury awarding the Cannes Film Festival's top award this year, expressed solidarity with striking Hollywood film and TV writers on Tuesday, saying industrial action was the only way to change work conditions. "It's great that people have a strong collegial feeling so you can go out and have a strike. Top executives close to the discussions have told Reuters that the strike could continue into the summer and possibly beyond.

☆ People are loving BuzzFeed's AI-generated quizzes more than their human-generated ones: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

People spent 40% more time with BuzzFeed's AI quizzes than human-generated ones, per Bloomberg. AI is the new Golden Child, and BuzzFeed's quizzes help prove the point. People spent 40% more time with BuzzFeed's AI quizzes than its traditional, human-generated ones, the company said in an online investor forum, per a May 12 Bloomberg report. Under the "quizzes" tab of its homepage, BuzzFeed now has entire section devoted to AI quizzes. As Futurism reported, BuzzFeed has not made a detailed breakdown of engagement numbers on its quizzes available.

☆ Elon Musk said George Soros reminds him of 'X-Men' mutant Magneto in a bizarre tweet about the oft-maligned billionaire
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk tweeted that George Soros reminds him of the "X-Men" mutant Magneto. Musk also claimed without substantiation that Soros "hates humanity." His tweet on Monday, which offered no context for his comparison, simply stated: "Soros reminds me of Magneto." Soros hates humanity." Representatives of Musk and Soros did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

☆ Cannes Film Festival 2023 kicks off with 'all killer, no filler' line-up
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"We have 'Indiana Jones,' we've got Martin Scorsese's new film with Leonardo DiCaprio. Festival director Thierry Fremaux pushed back against criticism that Depp was a controversial choice for an opening-night film, telling Variety magazine the actor had not been banned from working. Other jury members include Brie Larson of "Captain Marvel" and Julia Ducournau, one of two women to win the Palme d'Or. Out of competition, Harrison Ford will return as adventurous archaeologist Indiana Jones, 15 years since the last film in the franchise, in the world premiere of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" on Thursday. Festival organizers are concerned the unrest seen during the pension reform protests could also make its way to the festival, said Roxborough.

Fox Corp. , Disney , Warner Bros. Media executives' messaging to advertisers could center around value this year, particularly as companies continue to offer more content on their streaming services. Cost cuttingWhile media executives will try to convince advertisers to maximize their spending, they'll be pushing that narrative while making fewer shows. The logo of the streaming service Paramount+ on a logo wall at the Paramount+ launch event. Jörg Carstensen | Picture Alliance | Getty ImagesParamount, in particular, has seen a big reliance on franchises, especially for its Paramount+ streaming service.

☆ 'Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3' had best second weekend box office hold for MCU in 5 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In its second week in theaters, the director's "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. Most blockbuster films' ticket sales drop between 50% and 70% from the opening weekend to the second week. It is the third-best second week fall of any MCU film since 2008, just behind "Thor," which slipped 47.2% during its second week in 2011. For comparison, the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film tallied $773.3 million globally during its run in 2014 and "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. The strong box office for "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol.

☆ Marvel Studios president says being rejected 'might just be the greatest thing that can happen to you'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Before he became the president of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige was rejected over and over. In fact, it "might just be the greatest thing that can happen to you," he said in a speech. He got his required courses out of the way while continually re-applying to his preferred program, finally getting accepted. Bad luck 'can be a positive'Robert Downey Jr. was not Marvel's first choice for the role of Iron Man. That right choice turned out to be Downey, who played the role of Iron Man in 10 movies spanning more than a decade, including some of the highest-grossing films in history.

☆ James Gunn Always Knew How ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Would End
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Kyle Buchanan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

2” [2017], and then we talked about it happening in “Infinity War” and that worked better for the story. I knew that the whole trilogy is about Rocket, who we think of as a supporting character, becoming the captain of the Guardians. Drax realizes that he’s a father and that’s what he’s really good at — he’s not a destroyer. Well, Gamora’s death is the big one, but even her first kiss with Quill comes in “Infinity War” after the first two “Guardians” movies appear to be building to it. It wasn’t really about the kiss, it was about showing that they were now a couple.

☆ More than 25% of biodiversity is under our feet — but we're destroying it. A biotech startup that's raised $56 million has a plan to help save our soil.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Amanda Paule | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The women-led biotech startup Trace Genomics is working to reverse human-caused soil erosion. Soil-data companies such as the Iowa startup Trace Genomics are trying to help farmers reverse that trend. Prasanna Kankanala, Trace Genomics' director of research and development, visits a client's farm. The opportunity to help fight crop diseases led Parameswaran and Diane Wu, her cofounder, to start Trace Genomics in 2015. Where a chemical test might run him $20, Trace's test could run him $200.

The Asus ROG Ally is a brand-new handheld gaming system that's set to hit Best Buy on June 13. On top of all that, the ROG Ally boasts more powerful hardware than even the Steam Deck. Asus plans on releasing two different versions: One with an AMD Z1 Extreme CPU that costs $700, and another with a weaker AMD Z1 chip for $600. Asus ROG Ally Gaming Handheld (Z1 Extreme) The Asus ROG Ally is a handheld gaming PC, running Windows 11. The ROG Ally is a mediocre way to use Windows 11Asus has built the ROG Ally to run Windows 11.

☆ 8 men and women once sealed themselves inside this enormous fake Mars colony for 2 years. Here's what it's like today.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Dave Mosher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Biosphere 2 was a highly ambitious experiment to simulate a self-sustaining Mars colony in the Arizona desert. Eight men and women locked themselves inside for 2 years and experienced one incredible challenge after another. They say it generated science that has only grown in value as NASA and Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, push to populate Mars. Four men and four women sealed themselves inside the airtight space in September 1991 and emerged two years later. Business Insider visited the facility in April 2018 to investigate the many challenges that early Martian colonists could face.

☆ Disney is set to report earnings after the bell — here's what to expect
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Writers walk the picket line on the second day of the television and movie writers' strike outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California on May 3, 2023. A writers strike, a feud in Florida and ongoing company-wide layoffs — there is a lot more than quarterly earnings for CEO Bob Iger and the Walt Disney Company to address on Wednesday. As the pandemic era fades, Disney has staged a rapid financial recovery within most of its divisions, from theme parks to theatrical entertainment. Additionally, the company is already seeing rippling effects from the ongoing writers strike, including the production shutdowns of Marvel Studios' "Blade," which was set to begin filming in Atlanta next month, as well as the Disney+ Star Wars series "Andor." There is also the third wave of expected layoffs within the company, that industry experts expect to see announced soon.

☆ Disney’s Losses From Streaming Narrowed in the Last Quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Brooks Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To understand the forces that have been roiling the biggest media companies, look no further than Disney’s earnings. Disney said on Wednesday that losses in its streaming business for the most recent quarter totaled $659 million, an improvement from a year earlier (and a vast improvement from the October-to-December period, when losses totaled $1.1 billion). Streaming revenue climbed 12 percent, reflecting a sharp increase in revenue per paid Disney+ subscriber, a metric investors watch closely. Disney’s linear networks (ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC, National Geographic, FX) reported $1.8 billion in operating income, down 35 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit in the company’s Parks, Experiences and Products division climbed 22 percent, to $2.2 billion, as Disney resorts in Shanghai and Hong Kong finally began to recover from the pandemic.

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