Every year, many companies introduce special products based on the signs of the zodiac to celebrate the New Year in Japan. As 2025 will be the Year of the Snake, Apple has now announced a limited edition AirTag with a unique snake engraving.
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After rolling out a round of design updates and new features to the mobile app, YouTube is testing a “Play something” FAB.
more…The microblogging platform Bluesky announced this week an important new feature for its users – Trending Topics. With the update, people can see what everyone is talking about on Bluesky. However, the feature still has a number of limitations.
more…When you really probe venture capitalists about investing in AI startups, they’ll tell you that businesses are experimenting wildly but are very slow to add AI solutions into their ongoing business processes. But there are some exceptions. And one of them appears to be an area known as AI sales development representatives, or AI SDRs. […]
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Netflix says it had a big audience for its live NFL games on Christmas Day, with Nielsen ratings designating them “the most-streamed NFL games in US history.” The Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers notched a 24.1M AMA (average minute audience), while the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens hit 24.3M AMA, totaling nearly 65 million total viewers.
Though Netflix buckled under the weight of the more than 60 million households that tuned into the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul last month, its systems mostly held up during the two NFL games and star-studded performances from Mariah Carey and Beyoncé.
Netflix has also confirmed it will add a standalone replay of the “Beyoncé Bowl” halftime performance to the service later this week after it registered 27 million live viewers — the game’s peak viewership. Now, the league’s broadcast deal will keep Christmas Day games on Netflix for at least the next two years.
The NBA, which has traditionally aired basketball without competition from the NFL on the holiday, said that despite the competing Netflix broadcasts, its slate of games delivered the “most-watched Christmas Day in five years, averaging 5.25 million viewers per game in the U.S.” All five games up year-over-year, with viewership overall up 84 percent from 2023.
On Wednesday, the NFL offered a preliminary glimpse at viewership, saying the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers had already become the second most popular live title on Netflix and that one-third of Netflix’s viewers at the time were watching that game.
Hertz has contacted multiple electric vehicle renters recently with interesting low-cost offers for cars like Teslas, offering them the option to buy their rental EVs instead of returning them. One 2023 Model 3 renter shared on Reddit that they were offered a price of $17,913, which is similar to deals currently showing on the Hertz Car Sales site. However, the rental they were in had about 30,000 miles on it — fewer than other current listings.
Another renter was offered a 2023 Chevy Bolt for $18,442, while a Polestar 2 renter says they saw a $28,500 purchase price. The used cars come with a limited 12-month, 12,000-mile powertrain warranty and a buy-back offer within 7 days.
Asked by The Verge if this was a special offer for EVs or a typical offer for Hertz’s used cars, communications director Jamie Line confirmed the strategy isn’t new, saying, “By connecting our rental customers who opt into our emails to our sales channels, we’re not only building awareness of the fact that we sell cars but also offering a unique opportunity to someone who may be in the market for the same car they have on rent.”
Last year, Hertz decided to scale back its big ambitions to electrify its rental fleet due to low customer demand and repair difficulties on some models, including the Tesla Model 3. Then, in February, Hertz said it would no longer buy Polestar 2 vehicles either before marking 30,000 Teslas to sell off from its rental fleet.
2025 is almost here, and Apple seems to have something special to announce for Apple TV+ on the first weekend of the year. The company has been teasing a mysterious special announcement on social media, inviting people to “save the date.”
more…Scientists at the Suzumori Endo Robotics lab in Tokyo have developed the Superman Suit: a suit powered by hydraulic artificial muscles that allow it to perform superhuman tasks. In this video, the suit demonstrates the ability to complete 15 rotations around a bar, making anyone into a great gymnast.
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If you like to travel as much as we do here at 9to5Mac, Nomad is the perfect service for you. Nomad makes traveling a breeze by removing the headache of keeping your iPhone connected while on the go.
Nomad is also running a rare promotion for 9to5Mac readers. Use promo code CHRISTMAS24 at checkout to score a 20% discount on TWO orders. Valid until 12/29 23:59pm PST.
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ChatGPT's new search feature can be told to generate entirely positive product summaries thanks to hidden code, new research finds.
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