Ny Digital: Last News

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The New York Times’ Needle lives: The newspaper’s popular election-prediction gauge made its return on Tuesday night — despite the ongoing strike called Monday by the union representing tech employees at the paper. The NY Times’ Needle, first introduced in 2016, estimates the final outcome of an election based on partial election results. As more results come in, the Needle changes to signal the likelihood of the final outcome of a given race — with “tossup” at the center position and gradations marked “lean,” “likely” and “very likely” on either side for the Democratic and Republican candidates.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners, which is agitating to get two seats on Disney’s board, on Monday released a lengthy white paper analyzing the Mouse House’s financial performance — and suggesting strategic fixes. The recommendations, according to Trian, are aimed at turning around Disney‘s stock performance, which has trailed most of its peers (except Warner Bros.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor “La Vie en robots”? More than 60 years after her death, legendary French singer Edith Piaf will come to life in a new biopic that will use AI to recreate her voice and image. Warner Music Group announced that it has partnered with Piaf’s estate for “Edith,” set to be a 90-minute film set in Paris and New York from the 1920s to the ’60s.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A federal jury convicted Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of failed cryptocurrency company FTX, on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. The charges carry a maximum prison term of 110 years, per the New York Times. The jury verdict Thursday came after a trial of a little over a month in federal court in New York City.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Alexa will no longer swear a blue streak for you in the voice of Samuel L. Jackson. Amazon has discontinued sales of the special Alexa celebrity-voice add-on packs from Jackson, Melissa McCarthy and Shaquille O’Neal, which have been able to tell jokes, report on the weather and deliver other responses to users of Alexa-enabled devices. According to notices on Amazon’s site, the trio of Alexa celebrity voice “personalities” are no longer available for purchase. The Alexa celebrity voice packs had cost $4.99 each. For customers who already bought them, the Alexa voices for McCarthy and Shaq are set to expire on Sept. 30, 2023, while the Jackson voice add-on for Alexa was deactivated as of April 30.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Twitter had said it was going to start removing the blue check-marks of legacy verified users starting April 1, so that only people who paid Elon Musk’s company $8 or $11 per month would have the badge going forward. On Sunday, Twitter did something different: It updated the language in the description of verified users so that now you can’t tell who is paying Musk for the blue check-mark — and who isn’t. The text for both Twitter Blue subscribers and legacy verified accounts now reads, “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.” Previously, the verification badge for those who paid for Twitter Blue had a description that said, “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue.” In addition, accounts verified under Twitter’s previous regime — as being considered notable and authentic — had formerly said, “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable,” which was wording Musk boasted he’d come up with himself.

By Todd Spangler

Here's why WarnerMedia wants to capture direct-billed customers for the super-size streaming service

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler

By Todd Spangler