Tech

British pop singer and former Take That member Robbie Williams is set to make his metaverse debut. Williams’ first foray into the Web3 space is a partnership with AI-powered lifestyle metaverse platform, LightCycle, a virtual city with elements of art, film, gaming, music, fashion, sport, property and retail. A personal performance of Williams’ 25-year anniversary live

Howard Stern is “woke” and proud. The radio host confronted his critics this week on his SiriusXM radio show (via Mediaite) when he caught wind of claims that he’s “not good anymore” because he’s “woke.” “By the way, I kind of take that as a compliment, that I’m woke,” Stern fired back. “I’ll tell you

Another day, more X drama, as Donald Trump Jr.’s account was hacked Wednesday morning and posted a series of wild messages, including one claiming his father, former president Donald Trump, died. The series of posts included “I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024,”

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in the podcast “Hooked on Freddie,” currently available on Wondery, as well as the real tale it’s based on. Has there ever been a better elevator pitch than “dolphin sex scandal”? On the face of it, Wondery’s new podcast “Hooked on Freddie” is about precisely that. But

iHeartPodcasts and The Meteor are launching “In Retrospect,” a pop culture podcast by Emmy-winning journalist Susie Banikarim and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett. Each week on “In Retrospect,” Banikarim and Bennett revisit a pop culture moment from the 80s and 90s that shaped them, to try to understand what it taught them about the

Running Sept. 18 – 21, this year’s fully in-person Cartoon Forum co-production pitch session will build on pre-pandemic attendance numbers, welcoming 290 buyers, among them nearly two dozen first-time participants, while introducing new players into the mix. Alongside the commissioners, producers, and broadcasters that have made up Cartoon Forum’s traditional base, this year’s bustling edition

Google-owned YouTube has suspended advertisements on videos by comedian and actor Russell Brand after allegations of rape and sexual assault. YouTube said it had suspended the monetization of Brand’s channel for “violating our Creator Responsibility policy,” adding that the action was in order to “protect” its users. “If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users,

Elon Musk may flip the switch to make X — the social network formerly known as Twitter — an entirely subscription-based platform. Musk brought up the idea of charging all users of X/Twitter during a wide-ranging conversation focused on AI that featured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. “[We’re] moving to a small monthly

Panos Panay, who is exiting as Microsoft’s as chief product officer, has been hired to run Amazon’s devices group, which houses the Fire TV streaming devices, Kindle e-readers, Alexa voice assistant and Echo smart speakers, according to a Bloomberg report. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a post on X

Apple CEO Tim Cook, in the parlance of Silicon Valley slang, is apparently eating his company’s own dog food. According to Cook, in an interview aired on this week’s “CBS Sunday Morning,” he uses the forthcoming Apple Vision Pro augmented-reality headset “on a regular basis” — and said he watched “the entire third season of

Lifestyle content creator Kristy Scott has signed to Range Media Partners for representation, following this year’s release of her clothing line Vayra. Scott’s lifestyle content on TikTok and Instagram showcases her life as a business owner and mother of two boys, while her family’s YouTube channel It’s The Scotts chronicles Scott’s family life in Houston,

Are your Spidey senses tingling? Peter Parker and Miles Morales are back for a new web-slinging adventure in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 from Insomniac Games, out exclusively on PlayStation 5 on Oct. 20. Ahead of the release, Variety played roughly three hours of content during a special preview event in L.A., taking on several story missions

Ari Emanuel reportedly made an offer that Elon Musk could refuse. Last year, Emanuel, chief executive officer of media and talent-representation conglomerate Endeavor, texted his friend Musk with an offer to take on the job of managing Twitter, according to “Elon Musk,” Walter Isaacson’s sprawling new biography of the techno-titan. Emanuel, in a three-paragraph text

TikTok has been fined €345 million — about $367 million — by an Irish regulatory agency, which ruled the app violated the EU’s data-privacy laws with respect to processing information on children users. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), in addition to the fine, ordered TikTok “to bring its processing into compliance” with Europe’s General Data

Jason Kilar, who exited as CEO of WarnerMedia after Discovery closed the acquisition of the media company last year, has joined the board of directors of online game platform Roblox. Kilar’s appointment to Roblox’s board was effective Sept. 13. Kilar is entrepreneur and executive who has led media and entertainment companies for more than 15

Disney’s Hulu has jumped on the trend of releasing the most-popular trending titles on its service — but it’s going five more than the usual top 10. Hulu on Thursday launched “Top 15 Today,” a collection of trending movies and TV series that will be updated daily. Topping the first list are Hulu original series

Linda Yaccarino, on her 101st day as CEO of Elon Musk’s X (aka Twitter), announced several new hires and organizational changes at the social network. New hires include Brett Weitz, who was general manager of Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT, TBS and truTV, who joins X as the new head of content, talent and brand sales.

Get ready with Alix Earle to start a podcast. The 22-year-old TikTok star will host a podcast called “Hot Mess With Alix Earle,” produced by Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network. In the weekly episodes, Earle will invite her fans to listen in on a detailed recap of her life. According to the official description, Earle “will be

The SEC charged a company called Stoner Cats 2 LLC — which produced an animated web series “Stoner Cats” funded by sales of NFTs that were priced at $800 each — with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities. The NFT sale of the Stoner Cats in July 2021 raised approximately $8 million to

Jennette McCurdy will dig into emotions she’s been struggling with in a new weekly podcast, “Hard Feelings,” launching this fall. The author and former actor will employ “her characteristic candor and dark humor” in the podcast, according to Lemonada Media, the independent podcast network that is producing “Hard Feelings.” McCurdy, author of bestselling memoir “I’m

After 11 years, Apple is bidding adieu to the Lightning connector on its flagship iPhones. The company announced the iPhone 15 at its annual fall product launch event, held Tuesday at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. The new models will feature USB-C charging ports, scrapping the company’s proprietary Lightning connector, which was first introduced in 2012.

Neo Studios’ six-part docu-series “Next Man Up: Inside the NFL Alumni Academy” has debuted exclusively on Prime Video in the U.S. Set within the NFL Hall of Fame Village, the series is narrated and executive produced by by actor and former NFL player Thomas Q. Jones. It follows the journeys of recently released NFL players

NBA 2K24, the latest entry in the long-running basketball video game franchise, is getting a little more Hollywood with the addition of virtual celebrities watching players dunk, dribble and dish out dimes in the game. Not only does 2K24 have every player in the NBA, WNBA and a slew of all-time players like Kobe Bryant,

The true story of a dolphin sex scandal in the North of England in the early 1990s is the subject of a new Wondery podcast. “Hooked on Freddie,” from transatlantic production company Blanchard House, is set to launch on the platform on Sept. 19, with the first three episodes available on that day. It tells

YouTube TV’s debut of the NFL Sunday Ticket games package was expected to include a time-lag compared with live TV broadcasts of up to one minute, according to some reports. However, according to initial user reports on social media and a comparison of CBS’s broadcast versus YouTube TV’s livestream of the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Cleveland

Disney is dangling a new deal to get customers to sign up for Hulu + Live TV — before a price hike goes into effect next month. The temporary price drop for Hulu + Live TV also comes amid Disney’s ongoing contract dispute with Charter Communications, as the Mouse House has encouraged Charter’s Spectrum customers

UPDATED: Roku has removed at least 35 original shows from the Roku Channel, as part of its announced effort to cut costs. Those include episodes of the “Reno 911!” revival of the Comedy Central series; oddball sex-doll comedy “Dummy” starring Anna Kendrick; plane-crash drama “Survive” starring Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins; and dystopian thriller “Most

Roku, looking to rein in spending, is making its third round of layoffs within a year — pink-slipping more than 300 staffers — and will pull “select” content from its TV streaming platform. According to Roku’s 8-K filing, it will take a charge estimated to be $55 million-$65 million related to “removing select existing licensed

Russian tennis pro Daniil Medvedev is as frustrated as Charter Communications’ millions of cable TV customers that he can’t watch ESPN’s U.S. Open coverage because of the operator’s carriage fight with Disney. Medvedev, one of the sport’s top-ranked players, revealed that he had resorted to piracy to watch the U.S. Open — and keep tabs

Roku will cut more than 300 staffers — laying off 10% of its workforce — as the streaming-platform company continues its battle to control costs. In addition, Roku will remove certain licensed and owned content from its platform as part of a “strategic review of its content portfolio,” resulting in an impairment charge of up