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Google Wants to Show You More YouTube Ads When You Pause Videos

Posted on April 27, 2024 by faz_business

If you already hate ads on YouTube, then you’re going to have a bad time with Pause Ads. During its earnings calls on Thursday, Google crowed about the success of the tests it’s run on the ads, which could indicate the “feature” will roll out to even more watchers.

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As the name implies, Pause Ads are unskippable advertisements that play when you hit pause on a video. Google is trialing Pause Ads on TVs playing YouTube videos, and according to yesterday’s call, the company is happy with the results.

“In Q1, we saw strong traction from the introduction of a Pause Ads pilot on connected TVs, a new non-interruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content,” Philipp Schindler, senior vice president and chief business officer at Google, said in Thursday’s earnings call. “Initial results show that Pause ads are driving strong Brand Lift results and are commanding premium pricing from advertisers.”

Schindler didn’t say if Pause Ads will roll out to more YouTube users or if these unwanted advertisements will find their way to smaller screens like phones and desktops. YouTube first highlighted the feature last year in its Upfronts post saying how these ads were a great opportunity for brands to “drive awareness or action by owning that unique interactive moment when people pause a video.”

It’s no surprise that YouTube wants people to watch more of their ads because that’s where it gets a lot of its money. That and people who pay for YouTube Premium because they’re sick of the ads.

The video platform has been cracking down on ad blockers for the past year. This move appears to be helping Google’s bottom line as the company said in its earnings call that YouTube Ads revenue was up 21% over the same time last year.

Transformers One Will Have Younger, Messier Robots in Disguise

Posted on April 21, 2024 by faz_business

Megatron (D-16) and Optimus Prime in Transformers One. — Image: Paramount

Earlier in the week, we got our first look at Transformers One, and it probably didn’t look like what you were imagining. The animated movie, which is meant to serve as an origin story for Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry)—here respectively known as Orion Pax and D-16—is sillier than expected, and predates the Autobot/Decepticon war that serves as the franchise’s foundation. If you’re on the fence after that trailer, director Josh Cooley’s here to assuage your concerns, and also give some more insight into how the movie will serve its characters.

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Talking to IGN, Cooley explained that the trailer’s comedy focus was in part to help audiences “fall in love with [Orion and D-16] as brothers and friends” before things hit the fan. “They’re from the same generation and have a very tight relationship,” he continued, “[and] something happens on their planet that they both have two different reactions to. By the end of this film, there’s some serious stakes.”

In D-16’s case, those stakes involve treating him like he’s not automatically booked to be a villain. Cooley described the future Megatron as someone who should be “very real and fully rounded. D-16 takes [things] to a place, just a lot of anger, but you understand why.” With Henry’s insight, the team ensured that audiences would relate to D-16 and get where he was coming from before an undescribed event changes his outlook on Cybertron in ways that lead to a “natural split” with Orion. Cooley hopes that before the credits roll, fans and newcomers will view D-16 and Orion’s conflict as a very real and tragic split between old friends.

As for Orion, he’s described by Cooley as someone who’s driven, but doesn’t always put the drive to its best use. He’ll have to discover how to earn the name Optimus Prime, and what being Optimus Prime really even means. “Like anybody else, there is a level of maturity that we don’t have unless we’ve gone through something. […] We’re really taking these characters to heart and treating them with the respect that they deserve and knowing where they’re going to end up. It’s just seeing how they get there.”

Transformers One comes to theaters on September 20.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Trump Media Stock Price in Free Fall as It Files to Issue More Shares

Posted on April 15, 2024 by faz_business

The company behind Donald Trump’s Truth Social has been public for just a few weeks, but the stock price has plunged 50% from its first full day on the market. Trump Media filed with the SEC on Monday to issue 21 million more shares of DJT stock, and made the first steps towards allowing Trump to resell some of his own shares, according to Bloomberg. DJT’s stock price dipped by almost 15% to $27.52 on Monday morning.

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The SEC filing shows that Trump Media plans to increase the number of available shares by 15%, CNN reports. This could devalue the shares of existing DJT shareholders, including Trump Media’s largest shareholder, Donald Trump himself. The filing also included a provision that could allow Trump and other insiders to one day sell their stock, after an initial lockup period expires in Sept.

Also on Monday, Trump stepped into a New York Courthouse for the first day of his criminal trial. The former President has been charged with 34 felony counts by a Manhattan district attorney for his alleged role in an alleged hush money scheme.

Last week, two of Trump’s co-founders made a bid for the right to sell their Trump Media stock in the next six months, according to Barron’s. Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky, former contestants on The Apprentice, filed an amendment to their ongoing lawsuit against Trump asking to be exempt from a lockup provision. This amendment is part of Moss and Litinsky’s lawsuit against Trump filed in Feb., claiming the former President deprived the co-founders of a proper stake in Trump Media, according to The Washington Post.

Trump responded to Moss and Litinsky’s February lawsuit by suing them back a month later claiming they failed to properly set up Trump Media. At the moment, Trump Media is caught in a complicated web of legal battles between co-founders, major investors, and the SPAC that Trump Media was borne out of, The Washington Post reports.

The former President’s stake in Truth Social’s parent company has lost roughly $2 billion since March 28, when DJT’s price closed at $58. Though Trump is bound by the lockup agreement, he could be especially reliant on DJT’s stock price. Trump faces millions of dollars in legal fees, and his social media company once seemed like his saving grace.

Despite Trump Media’s disappointing stock performance, many investors see the stock as a direct way to support Donald Trump. A report from The Washington Post featured several Trump supporters saying they would keep their dollars invested in Trump Media, even as the price falls.

Truth Social’s stock price has been a roller coaster in the last few weeks. DJT’s stock price climbed to a high of $77 on its second day as a public company but has since plummeted. Short sellers have flooded the stock, as over 5 million shares of Trump Media have been shorted, according to CNBC. DJT became the most expensive stock to short against a few weeks ago, according to Reuters, though some still seem willing to do it. DJT is now a mainstay conversation topic on r/wallstreetbets, adding credit to the claim that Trump Media is a meme stock.

Truth Social offered Donald Trump a platform for years when few others would give him one. Now the social media company’s stock is buoying the former President’s net worth, allowing Trump supporters to invest in him. The DJT stock is emblematic of Trump himself, proving to be a massively divisive issue that investors can’t seem to agree on.

Part Two Comes Home Next Week

Posted on April 9, 2024 by faz_business

It’s not quite the same as seeing Dune: Part Two in glorious IMAX, but there’s something to be said for getting to watch the nearly three-hour sci-fi epic from your own couch. You can rewind the sandworm scenes, pause to refill your popcorn bucket… and enjoy the many extras that come with this home release.

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And it’s an option coming very soon! Dune: Part Two hits digital (anywhere you purchase or rent movies, including Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, and Fandango at Home) April 16; physical media collectors can mark May 14 on their calendars for the 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD release.

While the feature itself runs two hours and 46 minutes, you’d better prepare for the long haul to take in all the special features. Here’s the rundown from the press release:

Dune: Part Two Premium Digital Ownership contains the following special features:

Filmbooks: House Corrino
Filmbooks: The Reverand Mother
Filmbooks: Water
Filmbooks: Lisan-al-Gaib
An Ensemble for the Ages
Chakobsa Training
Creating the Fremen World
Finding the Worlds of Dune
Buzz Around the New “Thopter”
Worm-Riding
Becoming Feyd
A New Set of Threads
Deeper into the Desert: The Sounds of the Dune
Inside Dune: The Spice Harvester Attack
Inside Dune: Gurney Halleck’s Revenge
Inside Dune: The Fight for the Imperial Throne

Dune: Part Two 4K UHD and Blu-ray contain the following special features:

Chakobsa Training
Creating the Fremen World
Finding the Worlds of Dune
Buzz Around the New “Thopter”
Worm-Riding
Becoming Feyd
A New Set of Threads
Deeper into the Desert: The Sounds of the Dune

You might need five or six batches of popcorn to cover all of that. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, who co-wrote the script with Jon Spaihts—adapted, of course, from Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel—Dune: Part Two stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Souheila Yacoub, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem.

Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Suffer Service Disruptions Reported Worldwide

Posted on April 3, 2024 by faz_business

File photo of a woman checking her phone during an Instagram outage in 2021.

Meta platforms Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are experiencing a global outage with thousands of reports of the app not working properly since roughly 2 p.m. ET Wednesday.WhatsApp appears to have gone down first, with Instagram and Facebook following suit about 30 minutes later.

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Image and media uploads appear to be struggling the most on the platforms, according to internet monitoring service Netblocks, which also notes there are no indications of “country-level internet disruptions or filtering.”

Social media apps have experienced a number of notable outages in recent months, with LinkedIn struggling last month just days after Facebook and Instagram went down for hours.

It appears that some users on WhatsApp are still able to send messages right now, but those messages aren’t being delivered, according to the Verge.

Some X users celebrated as news of Meta’s platforms struggling spread on Wednesday afternoon.

Meta didn’t immediately respond to questions emailed on Wednesday, but the official X account for WhatsApp tweeted, “We know some people are experiencing issues right now, we’re working on getting things back to 100% for everyone as quickly as possible.” Gizmodo will update this post if we hear back.