Comedy legend Janeane Garofalo went rogue when taking the Bob Ross Challenge, finger-painting her way to a more abstract Bob Ross painting. Read more…
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Below the stage at New York’s Playwrights Horizons theater is home to the all the inner-workings of the famous playhouse. Read more…
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Amazon has a “bullying” problem.
So insisted PopSockets CEO and inventor David Barnett today while describing his company’s relationship with the e-commerce and logistics giant. Barnett was addressing members of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law and, over the course of the hearing, laid out how the Jeff Bezos-helmed corporate behemoth had pressured his smartphone accessory company in a manner best described as incredibly shady.
Barnett was joined by executives from Sonos, Basecamp, and Tile, who all took turns airing a list of grievances against major tech players such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. They all recounted, in manners specific to their respective companies, how the major tech players have used their market dominance to squeeze smaller competitors in allegedly anticompetitive ways. Read more…
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Mark Zuckerberg has already made it clear he has no love for TikToK, but we now have an even clearer look at just why he’s so concerned about the Chinese rival. In short: the app is growing like crazy, even by Facebook standards.
TikTok was downloaded more than 738 million times in 2019, according to analytics company Sensor Tower, beating out both Instagram and Facebook. In fact, there was only one app that was downloaded more, according to the firm: the Facebook-owned WhatsApp.
But while a Facebook property may hold the top spot, the report underscores just how big of a threat TikTok is to Facebook’s dominance. Read more…
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Facebook still owes the U.S. government $5 billion.
The social media giant has yet to make good on its debt to the American people following a record fine levied by the Federal Trade Commission in July. While the specifics of the settlement are still being challenged, it’s worth asking what happens next with all that money — assuming this all eventually gets worked out.
I mean, it’s not like Mark Zuckerberg can just walk one of those giant novelty-sized checks over to the the While House. However, don’t think for a second that the exact manner and timing of the payment hasn’t been precisely dialed in. Read more…
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Late night hosts and social media have one big thing in common: neither will let you forget your most embarrassing moments.
In the style of Facebook’s sentimental “Friends Day” commemorative videos, the Daily Show released a video Thursday to remind President Trump who his friends are.
Recently, Trump has been disavowing a connection to Lev Parnas, a key witness in the congressional impeachment trial. His insistence that he doesn’t know him is an attempt to distance the President from plans to get Ukrainian officials to investigate the Biden family for Trump’s political gain.
Another odd figure in the mix is Robert Hyde, a Trump donor and aspiring politician, who attempted to help Parnas and Rudy Giuliani in the Ukraine scheme by informing on the whereabouts of the Ukrainian ambassador. Recently, it was revealed that Hyde has a history of stalking and mental illness. Read more…
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Twitch has booted Onision off its platform as the campaign to deplatform the controversial YouTuber, who’s been accused of grooming teen fans and emotional abuse, continues.
The platform banned Onision on Wednesday, according to streamer tracking site StreamerBans. Neither Twitch nor Onision have stated what policies he violated or whether the ban is permanent. Twitch has not responded to Mashable’s request for comment.
Reddit users theorize Onision was caught streaming on Twitch while simultaneously streaming on another platform. Twitch partners sign exclusivity agreements to monetize their channels and dual streaming is punishable by an indefinite ban and termination of the user’s Twitch partnership. Read more…
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On Thursday, NBCUniversal reps standing at the feet of a gigantic avian topiary in Rockefeller Center unveiled the much-hyped Peacock streaming service.
Set to launch nationally on July 15, Peacock will feature a free, ad-supported version and two premium options, priced at $4.99 and $9.99 per month. Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex Customers will have Peacock Premium bundled at no additional cost starting April 15.
“This is a very exciting time for our company, as we chart the future of entertainment,” said Chairman of NBCUniversal Steve Burke, emphasizing the stand-out decision to stream free content. Read more…
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NBC officially launches its streaming service Peacock in April, and until then we get to be treated to a growing slate of new and old TV shows that will soon call Peacock home, many of which were announced Thursday.
We don’t want to judge a TV show by its logline, but with little known about these programs, plus the immediate connection of NBC, its peacock logo, and comedy darling 30 Rock, we can’t help wonder if these silly-sounding ideas came straight out of a pitch meeting with Jack Donaghy. How soon will Peacock green light Bitch Hunter, or Kenneth Parcell’s short-lived brainchild Gold Case? Read more…
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It would be an understatement to say that executive producers Angus Wall and Geno McDermott had a lot ground to cover when focusing on Aaron Hernandez as the subject of Netflix’s latest deep dive docuseries, Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez.
Hernandez was not only a football prodigy drafted at age 20 into the New England Patriots, where he played until 2012, he was also a convicted murderer by the time of his own death by suicide in 2017.
In particular, the docuseries details Hernandez’s convictions, childhood, NFL career, various stints in prison, his psyche, sexuality, and the effects football had on his body. However, despite the complicated, intense, and fatal outcomes of Hernandez’s story, Killer Inside moves carefully and comprehensively when exploring the motives behind his actions. More than that, Netflix uses Hernandez’s life story as a cautionary tale and seemingly as a call for change. Read more…
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