Social platforms, brands and streamers are all using the same vertical format, but they are not chasing the same business.The vertical drama format raises questions that miss the bigger business story. The category has already split into at least four models: vertical as a paid product, social programming, marketing and discovery. The screen orientation is the common feature. The economics are not.The audience question is largely settled. People will watch scripted stories vertically, in short bursts, on phones. The open question is who captures the value.Recent competitive moves are not versions of the same strategy. In April, Issa Rae’s Hoorae…
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is facing protests against its expected initial public offering from some of the same advocacy groups that helped erase $600 billion from Tesla’s market cap early last year.SpaceX’s IPO is poised to be the largest ever, raising tens of billions of dollars for the Musk-founded company and…
In the wake of last night’s display, the northern lights may be visible this Friday night in northern U.S. states and Canada after forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a G1 geomagnetic storm may strike overnight. With a new moon on Saturday, May 16, the sky will…
If you use Google’s Chrome browser for desktop, there’s probably a Gemini Nano AI model running on your computer right now and taking up about 4 GB of space. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you didn’t know about it and don’t want it, there’s a way to…
The ultimate open-world driving title is headed for its sixth release. Forza Horizon 6 is set in Japan and from the looks of the upcoming title, it is set to be the most beautiful version of the title ever released.Here is everything you need to know about the release date,…
Are you even online in 2026 if you haven’t experienced the verbal tics of ChatGPT? It loves goblins, em dashes, and “it’s not A; it’s B” sentence constructions. But what you might not know is that the chatbot also has plenty of strange phrases it loves to say in Chinese,…
Updated on May 13 as Google launches Googlebook to take on Windows.Microsoft is changing Windows on most PCs. Critical Secure Boot certificates will expire for the first time ever in June. First launched in 2011, this Windows change means new certificates must be installed on all devices before the deadline.Microsoft…
A few months before Elon Musk left OpenAI’s board of directors in February 2018, he tried to recruit Sam Altman to join a “world-class AI lab” within Tesla. Musk went as far as offering the OpenAI CEO a Tesla board seat, according to emails and testimony presented in federal court…
Google and Apple have just released matching announcements. iPhone’s new iOS 26.5 is now live, unleashing a long-awaited change to text messaging. But while Apple’s update drives headlines worldwide, Google’s change is more critical.“End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging begins rolling out today for Android and iPhone users,” Google confirmed on May…
Using AI chatbots for even just 10 minutes may have a shockingly negative impact on people’s ability to think and problem-solve, according to a new study from researchers at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Oxford, and UCLA.Researchers tasked people with solving various problems, including simple fractions and reading comprehension, through an online…
Passkeys are supposed to replace passwords and stop phishing attacks. But Google and Microsoft warn that passkeys alone are not enough if weaker recovery methods remain attached to accounts. “Each account is only as secure as its weakest credential,” Microsoft says, warning that passwords and SMS recovery options can become…
Sean Strickland became a two-time UFC middleweight champion with an interesting and highly tactical split-decision win over the previously undefeated Khamzat Chimaev. Strickland was taken down nine times, but he succeeded where previous opponents like Dricus du Plessis failed.Strickland was able to get to his feet and fend off submission…
The United Arab Emirates has announced it will leave OPEC and OPEC+ effective May 1, ending a membership that began in 1967—four years before the UAE was founded as a country. This signals a turning point in the UAE’s role in global energy.The government statement, published on state news agency…
Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix reports junior welterweight champion and pound-for-pound contender Shakur Stevenson is “finalizing” a deal with Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing. If this is true, White will have secured one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in the world to his growing stable of fighters, and he’ll also have an…
The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an enlisted member of the US Army’s special forces, for allegedly using “classified, nonpublic” information about the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to notch more than $400,000 in profits on Polymarket trades. A grand jury indicted…
Spotlight
In a fight that was as wild and non-technical as one might…
I recently witnessed how scary-good artificial intelligence is getting at the human…
The final weekend of April is here, my dearest Wordlers. Soon, the…
Sportswriting legend Red Smith once said that writing a column is easy:…
