Tech

Kristin Cavallari is launching a new podcast with Dear Media. “Let’s Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari” is set to premiere on Sept. 12. “The timing couldn’t be more perfect,” Cavallari, who wrapped her “Back to the Beach” podcast with Stephen Colletti in June, tells Variety. “I was looking for a new challenge, and coming off

The biggest YouTube star in the world — Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast — is being sued by Virtual Dining Concepts, the ghost kitchen company that operates his virtual restaurant chain, MrBeast Burger. Virtual Dining Concepts and Celebrity Virtual Dining (VDC) are suing the YouTuber and his Beast Investments for failing to honor his contractual obligations,

The possibility of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk squaring off in an MMA cage match is just a joke. Right? Over the weekend, the braggadocio between two of the world’s richest men about a physical fight continued apace — probably in jest, but possibly not. Musk, the owner of X (née Twitter) and CEO of

Kai Cenat, the Twitch and YouTube streamer, issued a statement Saturday through his group AMP (Any Means Possible) apologizing after a violent mob took over New York’s Union Square Park a day earlier when he urged fans to come to the park, where he said he was planning to give away free PlayStation 5s and

A crowd of several thousand people — lured by the promise of free PlayStation 5s by a popular Twitch streamer — descended on Union Square in New York City on Friday afternoon, and became violent and uncontrollable, according to police. The Twitch influencer, Kai Cenat, along with a streamer known as Fanum had encouraged their

Comedian Zarna Garg has launched a podcast on the heels of her Amazon Prime Video special “One in a Billion.” Garg was recently highlighted as one of Variety‘s 10 Comics to Watch for 2023. “The Zarna Garg Show,” which bowed Aug. 1 across major podcast platforms and YouTube, features conversations with her multi-generational Indian American

A3 Artists Agency signed Smosh, the long-running YouTube comedy brand, for representation across the board. Smosh was founded in 2005 by childhood friends Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. After drifting apart in recent years, in June 2023 the duo bought back majority ownership of Smosh and debuted their first original comedy video together since reuniting

Controversial influencer and former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate has been released from house arrest in Romania, pending trial. Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in March and charged in June on rape and human trafficking offences, which they deny. On Friday, their house arrest was lifted and they are now allowed to move around the

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy enthused about the potential of generative AI technology to cut costs and create brand-new user experiences — saying every team in the company is working on multiple projects in the area, including in its entertainment business. On the tech giant’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday, Jassy said, “Inside Amazon, every one of

Apple delivered solid financial results for the June 2023 quarter that beat Wall Street estimates, even as top-line revenue dipped 1.4% on lower-than-expected iPhone sales. CEO Tim Cook boasted of a new milestone for the world’s biggest tech company: It now has more than 1 billion paid subscriptions across all apps and services, up 150

Amazon sales hit $134.4 billion, up 11%, for the second quarter of 2023, as the ecommerce giant topped Wall Street estimates in a big earnings beat. The company reported income of $6.7 billion for Q2, or 65 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $2.0 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts on average

Jeff Daniels’ musical, audio-only memoir “Alive and Well Enough” — blending spoken word, storytelling, original music and performance — is coming exclusively to Audible. All episodes of the 12-episode first season will drop Sept. 7, 2023, exclusively on Audible at this link. A second season of the podcast will follow. “Audible is the only place

Reddit was encountering technical problems that made the popular discussion site inaccessible for many users Wednesday. A message on Reddit’s status page posted at 1:58 p.m. PT said, “We are currently investigating elevated error rates across Reddit.” The page noted a “major outage” for Reddit’s desktop web, mobile web and native apps. In some cases,

Meta has released AudioCraft, a new set of AI tools to generate what the tech giant claims is “high-quality, realistic audio and music from text” — for example, producing a music sequence based on the text string “electronic Jamaican reggae DJ set.” “Imagine a professional musician being able to explore new compositions without having to

China is proposing to restrict internet access to minors and children. The move is intended to curb internet addiction. Tech sector regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China said on Wednesday that people under 18 will not be allowed to access the internet via a mobile device between 10pm and 6am each day. The regulator will

Have you paid Elon Musk for an $8-per-month subscription to Twitter Blue (now called X Blue, under Musk’s rebranding effort) but are embarrassed to advertise the fact? X now lets subscribers to the premium X Blue service hide the blue check mark on their account. Musk has promoted the perk as democratizing Twitter’s most recognizable

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as YouTube superstar MrBeast, sued the “ghost kitchen” company that operated his MrBeast Burger virtual fast-food chain, seeking to end the deal — alleging, among other things, that the burgers it served were called “disgusting,” “revolting” and “inedible” and damaged his reputation. On Monday, July 31, Donaldson’s Beast Investments filed the

Meta said Tuesday that it has “begun the process of ending news availability in Canada” across Facebook and Instagram in response to a new Canadian law. “These changes start today, and will be implemented for all people accessing Facebook and Instagram in Canada over the course of the next few weeks,” the social media giant

Vice Media Group, the day after closing its sale following its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, has made changes to its top editorial ranks. The personnel changes were announced by Cory Haik, chief operating officer of Vice Media’s news and entertainment group, in a memo to staff Tuesday, who said they were part of “usher[ing] in

CAA has signed Meredith Duxbury, a leading beauty and fashion content creator who’s been dubbed “the complexion queen of TikTok,” for representation. Duxbury has a global audience of more than 20 million followers across social media, including 18.5 million on the TikTok short-form video platform. Her videos feature makeup tutorials, product reviews, and “get ready

Speidi is still a thing, according to Spotify. Spotify’s Ringer Podcast Network announced “Speidi’s 16th Minute,” a video podcast hosted by Heidi and Spencer Pratt, the reality TV couple from MTV’s “The Hills,” which originally aired from 2006-2010. The podcast will premiere Wednesday, Aug. 2, with new episodes dropping weekly. Under Spotify’s new nonexclusive approach to distributing

Elon Musk has taken legal aim at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an independent research nonprofit group, over the organization’s findings that since the multibillionaire acquired Twitter (now called X) hate, racism and disinformation on the social platform has substantially increased. “Musk and his legal team, led by attorney Alex Spiro at Quinn Emanuel,

Vice Media Group announced the completion of its post-bankruptcy sale to a consortium of former lenders, in a deal valuing the once-high-flying media company at $350 million. As previously announced, the new owners of Vice Media are funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital. The recently installed co-CEOs

Kanye West’s account on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, has been restored — after the controversial rapper/entrepreneur apparently promised the Elon Musk-owned company he would refrain from posting antisemitic and other hateful content. West, who now goes by Ye, was kicked off Twitter in December 2022 after he share an image of

SPOILER ALERT: This interview discusses the events of “Command Z,” now available to purchase on its official website. AI anxieties are only getting higher. Global temperatures are skyrocketing. Billionaires are challenging each other to mixed martial arts duels. Like everybody else, Steven Soderbergh and Kurt Andersen are wondering how to hit “undo” on the trajectory

Dave Coulier on Friday launched a new rewatch podcast for “Full House,” the beloved sitcom he appeared on opposite the late Bob Saget. In the premiere episode of “Full House Rewind,” Coulier speaks with series creator Jeff Franklin as they reminisce about working with Saget (who died last year) and talk about the pilot episode

Roku’s second-quarter 2023 earnings soundly beat Wall Street expectations, while it still sounded a note of caution about “muted” TV ad spending in the U.S. The company reported Q2 revenue of $847.2 million, up 11%, and a net loss of $107.6 million (-$0.76 per share). Analysts expected an adjusted loss of $1.28 per share on

Lauren Tempest, an eight-year Hulu veteran, has been appointed general manager of the Disney-controlled streamer, assuming business responsibility for the streaming service, effective immediately. Tempest takes over the leadership spot at Hulu after Joe Earley, formerly Hulu’s president, was promoted to president of direct-to-consumer, Disney Entertainment this spring. Tempest, who served as Hulu’s senior VP

The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to examine whether Microsoft may have breached EU competition rules by tying or bundling its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365. The investigation stems from a 2020 complaint submitted by Slack Technologies, which operates instant messaging program

Meta turned in a healthy 11% uptick in revenue for the second quarter of 2023, topping Wall Street expectations and signaling the social giant’s ad business is recovering after last year’s doldrums. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram posted revenue of $32.0 billion and net profit of $7.79 billion ($2.98 per share), up 16%.