Sony is flaunting its entertainment arsenal in the battle for metaverse supremacy. The company has been diversifying a product portfolio that could lay strong foundations for virtual worlds. The Japanese conglomerate now boasts a revived music business, a movie studio that produces Marvel blockbusters, an immense film library, and the PlayStation gaming platform. The group’s music, movie, and gaming operations drove a fiscal fourth-quarter surge of 67% over the previous year. Sony also plowed $
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin were meant to be used as digital cash. Instead, they’ve become popular as speculative investments. As well as being resource-intensive and inherently wasteful, cryptocurrencies are also incredibly volatile. Prices for the largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ethereum, have both dropped by over 55% in six months, leading some to suggest that regulation is needed to contain the turmoil. Some are blaming sliding prices on one specific contagion, a collapsing “stableco
The Elon Musk–Twitter saga has reached an extremely weird and uncomfortable point. Literally every few hours, the deal to acquire the social platform switches between full steam ahead to a hold state. If you’re an investor, user, or Twitter employee, it could be a really confusing time to understand where the company’s headed. I want to help you make sense of what’s happening with the deal, and try and understand if it’s going to go through. Here’s my best shot. Elon, Twitter, and robots Last we
Have you heard maximalism is in and minimalism is out? Rooms bursting at the seams with clashing florals, colorful furniture, and innumerable knick-knacks, this is what defines the new interiors trend ‘cluttercore’ (or bricabracomania). Some say it’s a war between generation Z (born 1997-2012) and minimal millennials (born 1981-1996), symptomatic of bigger differences. Others say it’s a pandemic response, where our domestic prisons became cuddly cocoons, stimulating our senses, connecting us wit
Big Tech can be small-minded about the Global South. Products conceived in Silicon Valley don’t always fit the needs and skills of Southern nations. Their launch can also stymie homegrown competitors and fuel accusations of digital colonialism. The need for expertise is particularly vital in data science and AI. “If you’re looking at analytics, for example, getting a data scientist from the UK to come and integrate data in Senegal might give you insights that don’t take account of the local con
Calling a product ‘the best’ of anything isn’t something I take lightly. Everybody has different preferences and needs, so I always try to tailor recommendations to a person’s tastes. But when someone asks “what noise-canceling headphones should I get?” my answer is almost always “the Sonys.” Okay, sometimes one of Bose’s latest models gets the nod too, and I actually tend to find Bose’s sound more neutral out of the box. And there are other excellent options for those on a budget. But Sony has
It’s time to stop training radiologists. AI can predict where and when crimes will occur. This neural network can tell if you’re gay. There will be a million Tesla robotaxis on the road by the end of 2020. We’ve all seen the hyperbole. Big tech’s boldest claims make for the media’s most successful headlines, and the general public can’t get enough. Ask 100 people on the street what they believe AI is capable of, and you’re guaranteed to get a cornucopia of nonsensical ideas. To be perfectly clea
The crypto crash has spooked many investors, but blockchain bros have high hopes for one nascent application: GameFi. A portmanteau of “game” and “decentralized finance,” the model offers a chance at earning cash by gaming. Players who complete in-game tasks are rewarded with crypto and NFTs, which can then be traded for real money. It’s a tempting pitch on paper. But play-to-earn shows signs of plateauing before it enters the mainstream. In April, active users shrunk by 24.9% to 9.22 million, w
Ah, Uber. I’m just not sure what the company wants to be with its ever-expanding brand and platform. One day it’s a platform for flying cars. The next day it’s all about bikes, then it decides to let taxis share its platform. And yesterday, it set its sights (or site, to be specific) much higher than ride-hailing and food delivery to something akin to life concierge, launching a new range of service offerings under the brand. Let’s take a look at their offerings and share some thoughts on the m
John Deere is announcing the acquisition of a state-of-the-art algorithm package from artificial intelligence startup Light. For those of you wondering when driverless vehicles will truly begin to make their mark on society, the answer is: today. Up front: No, you won’t be seeing green tractors rolling themselves down city streets anytime soon. But the timeline for fully autonomous farming is being massively accelerated. Today’s purchase is all about John Deere’s need for speed — and accuracy, b