Tech

Staffers at the website the Dodo have voted unanimously in favor of ratifying their first union contract, negotiated by the Writers Guild of America East. The Dodo is the second Group Nine Media subsidiary to unionize with the WGA East following ratification by staffers at Thrillist of their first ratified guild contract in October. The

Bloomberg Media thinks its one-year-old TicToc news brand has cracked the code on delivering bite-size chunks of news and analysis to a millennial-skewing mobile crowd on Twitter. Now it is taking TicToc to other platforms and screens — including plans to launch TicToc on dedicated apps and connected TVs. There was no guarantee when TicToc

Mariah Carey’s 1994 Christmas classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the most-viewed holiday song in the United States and globally throughout December, YouTube has reported. It received increased views in the past few months, with the tune spiking Nov. 1, the day following Thanksgiving, and Dec. 1. Daily views of the song

Actress-producer Kerry Washington and leaders behind Time’s Up joined a $75 million funding round in The Wing, a startup that runs a network of work and community spaces designed for women. The Series C round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from new investors Upfront Ventures, Airbnb and existing investors NEA and WeWork, a

Amazon Echo may once have been marketed as the ideal kitchen speaker, but a new survey from Adobe Analytics shows that smart speakers are increasingly invading the living room. 63% smart speaker owners surveyed by the company said that they have a smart speaker in their living room, followed by 42% who have one in

When “Shark Tank” producers were getting ready to record the show’s current 10th season earlier this year, they were dealing with a dilemma: There simply wasn’t enough sound stage space on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, Calif, available to record all of the show’s scenes. “We’ve had some very busy times here,” said

Netflix may have had technical access to read — and even delete — personal messages of Facebook users who opted in to its now-defunct social-sharing integration with Facebook. But Netflix says it never exploited that ability. According to a New York Times report based on internal Facebook documents, the social giant granted more than 150 partners

December 18, 2018 9:02PM PT Facebook gave tech companies like Amazon, Spotify, and Microsoft more access to user data than the company had previously disclosed. According to a New York Times report, the special arrangements were discovered in internal Facebook documents that track partnerships and were acquired by the Times. The report states that Facebook

“Date Gone Wrong” is the first of a slate of original short-format video series being produced at Eros Now, the Indian streaming service operated by Eros International. The company plans some 50 Eros Now Quickie series launches in 2019, as part of its recently hinted-at strategy of launching 100 new series on the platform. Original

Oath, we hardly knew ye. Less than two years after Verizon unveiled Oath as the name for the merged AOL-Yahoo internet group, the telco announced that the name will be discontinued, with Oath to be renamed the “Verizon Media Group” as of Jan. 8, 2019. Oath has been a disappointment for Verizon: The telco spent nearly $10

Quibi, the mobile-TV startup led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, has tapped several Hulu alums among its latest hires. Tim Connolly, formerly senior VP of partnerships and distribution at Hulu, has joined Quibi as head of partnerships and advertising. Jim O’Gorman, previously Hulu’s SVP of talent and organization, is now head of talent and

Kun Gao, co-founder and former general manager of Crunchyroll, has stepped aside from day-to-day management of the anime-streaming service, which is now led by general manager Joanne Waage. According to a Crunchyroll statement, Gao remains “very much involved” with the service as an adviser and is “continuing to work on several projects.” In addition, Gao

Charter Communications agreed to a settlement valued at $174.2 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging the U.S.’s second-biggest cable operator defrauded broadband customers by failing to deliver promised internet speeds. According to the terms of the settlement with the New York Attorney General’s Office, Charter will pay $62.5 million in direct refunds to 700,000 active broadband

Liam Payne of One Direction fame will play a secret gig to a select audience of fans in London this Wednesday — and fans from around the world will be able to virtually join the gig’s audience: The concert is being broadcast live in virtual reality (VR) by MeldoryVR, free to watch for anyone who

The NAACP is calling on Facebook users to take part in a one-day boycott of the social network this Tuesday to pressure the company to do more against disinformation and racial discrimination. Separately, a coalition of about three dozen social justice groups called on Facebook to remove key executives from its board of directors. The

Is Facebook about to become cable TV provider? Don’t bet on it. The social giant has held informal discussions with cable networks including HBO and Showtime Networks about potentially offering subscriptions to their streaming services on Facebook, multiple sources tell Variety, confirming a Recode report last week that first reported the talks. However, Facebook currently

December 17, 2018 11:15AM PT Clean Bandit and Demi Lovato’s song “Solo” was the most-Shazamed song and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” was the longest running No. 1 track on the service’s global charts, the company revealed today in its year-end lists. Nicky Jam and J Balvin’s “X” was the No. 2 most-Shazamed song and Calvin Harris

December 17, 2018 10:51AM PT A filing for a new TiVo remote control suggests that the company may be getting ready to show an Android TV-based set-top box at CES in Las Vegas next month. The device likely won’t be sold to end users, but instead ship to TV operators looking to combine TiVo’s DVR

NBCUniversal’s Hispanic broadcaster Telemundo is developing its first English-language newscast in collaboration with YouTube in a bid to tap the burgeoning U.S. Hispanic youth demographic. Borne out of a YouTube grant aimed at awarding journalism projects that “elevate quality journalism, evolve business models to drive sustainable growth, and empower news organizations through technological innovation,” Telemundo News’

December 17, 2018 8:56AM PT Popular YouTube creator PewDiePie’s ongoing battle to keep his channel’s subscriber count No. 1 ahead of India’s T-Series took another bizarre twist: A branded-content section of the Wall Street Journal’s website was hacked with a fake message apologizing to PewDiePie and urging people to subscribe to his channel. A spokeswoman for

December 17, 2018 8:49AM PT Comcast television subscribers can now enjoy YouTube in ultra-high definition: The Google-owned video service is now serving up 4K videos on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 set-top boxes, the cable company announced Monday. X1 owners who also happen to have a X1 voice remote can get access to a curated selection of

Google has set plans to dramatically boost its footprint in New York City: The internet giant said it will invest more than $1 billion to establish a new 1.7-million-square-foot campus, Google Hudson Square, in Manhattan. The move is a major part of Google’s expansion plans in the city that will let it more than double

Colin Kroll, co-founder of the Vine video app and the HQ Trivia game, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment early Sunday of an apparent drug overdose, Variety has confirmed. He was 35. New York Police Department officers responded at 12:18 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 16, to a call by Kroll’s girlfriend, who was concerned about

CAA has signed two popular live-streaming battle royale gamers — Nicholas Amyoony, better known as Nick Eh 30, and David Steinberg, aka StoneMountain64 — for representation. CAA said it will work to create opportunities for Nick Eh 30 (above left) and StoneMountain64 (above right) in all areas, including TV, motion pictures, touring, digital distribution and

Amazon is bringing pro hoops action to Prime Video Channels: The ecommerce giant now offers NBA League Pass as part of its lineup of 150-plus subscription options for Prime members in the U.S. It’s the first U.S. live-sports subscription service on Prime Video Channels. Prime members can subscribe to NBA League Pass via Prime Video

A five-member international hacking crime ring stole more than 25,000 files for Hollywood movies and TV shows and illegally offered hundreds of them for sale online, according to U.S. law enforcement officials. A federal grand jury in L.A. on Wednesday (Dec. 12) indicted five men, identified as residing in the U.K., India, Dubai and Malaysia,

December 14, 2018 9:27AM PT Apple is pushing out a software update to iPhones in China to address a recent court order obtained by Qualcomm that banned the sale of certain iPhone models in the country. The update will allow the company to continue selling its phones in China, company representatives told Reuters Friday morning.

December 14, 2018 8:00AM PT Facebook has disclosed another privacy breach: The company said Friday that a technical glitch in its photo-sharing system may have exposed the private photos of as many as 6.8 million users. The company said it fixed the bug in the photo application programming interface (API) that is used to let

December 14, 2018 8:00AM PT Facebook has disclosed another privacy leak: The company said a technical glitch in its photo-sharing system that may have exposed the private photos of as many as 6.8 million users. The company said it has fixed the bug in the photo application programming interface (API) that is used to let some

Apple announced plans to boost its L.A. presence, saying it expects to have more than 1,000 employees in Culver City, Calif., over the next three years, including its growing entertainment team. The move is part of the tech giant’s broader initiative to create 20,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2023 and includes a new $1