Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

The creator economy is evolving fast, and ad revenue alone isn’t cutting it anymore. YouTubers are launching product lines, acquiring startups, and building actual business empires. In fact, MrBeast’s company bought fintech startup Step, and his chocolate business is out-earning his media arm. This isn’t just one creator’s strategy. For many, it’s the new playbook.  On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan unpack how creators are diversifying beyond ads, what happens when influence becomes infrastructure, and whether this model can scale beyond the top 1%.  Listen to the full episode to hear…

A frozen food manufacturer is recalling roughly 3.4 million pounds of chicken fried rice products shipped to Trader Joe’s locations around the U.S. and to retailers in Canada because they might contain glass.The recall, reported by the Department of Agriculture on Thursday, involves frozen “not ready-to-eat” chicken fried rice produced by a Portland, Oregon-based Ajinomoto Foods North America between Sept. 8, 2025, and Nov. 17, 2025. The items sold at Trader Joe’s grocery stores come in 20-ounce packages and contain stir-fried rice, vegetables, chicken and eggs.Ajinomoto is also recalling cardboard packages exported to Canada that contain six bags of frozen…

The Apple Watch SE 3 is one of the top budget smartwatches available. The pricier Series 11 offers a few extra features, but it starts at $150 more than the SE 3. This lower-cost Apple Watch is an especially good option for kids, and adults who don’t need all the Series 11’s bells and whistles shouldn’t overlook it either.After covering smartwatches for over a decade, I tend to gravitate toward flagship models in my personal use. But after spending an extended period with the Apple Watch SE 3, I’ve come away with a new respect for this entry-level model. It…

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is retiring, according to an email to employees. Microsoft executive Asha Sharma will become the new executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft Gaming, reporting directly to Nadella.”Over 38 years at Microsoft, including 12 years leading Gaming, Phil helped transform what we do and how we do it,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in the email.”He expanded our reach across PC, mobile, and cloud; nearly tripled the size of the business; helped shape our strategy through the acquisitions of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Minecraft; and strengthened our culture across our studios and platforms,” Nadella wrote.Spencer’s…

Millions of Trader Joe’s frozen fried rice products are being voluntarily recalled due to potential contamination with foreign material, specifically glass.Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Thursday that approximately 3,370,530 pounds of frozen not ready-to-eat chicken fried rice products sold under the Trader Joe’s brand name and under the Ajinomoto brand were recalled following customer complaints about glass being found in the product.Popular super greens supplement voluntarily recalled as FDA investigates salmonella outbreakThe recalled rice products, which were distributed to Trader Joe’s stores across the U.S., bear the Trader Joe’s…

Late last year, New York Assembly member Alex Bores became the target of a campaign by a pro-AI super PAC to thwart his congressional bid. The group, Leading the Future, is armed with more than $100 million from backers including Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, AI search startup Perplexity, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Bores’ response was simple: bring it on. Now, he’s got the muscle to back that challenge up. Public First Action, a PAC backed by a $20 million donation from Anthropic, is spending $450,000 to boost Bores in the race for New York’s 12th congressional district, reports…

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way Tuesday for a Louisiana law requiring poster-sized displays of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms to take effect.The full court voted 12-6 to lift a block placed on the law that a lower court first issued in 2024. In the opinion released Friday, the court said it was too early to make a judgment call on the constitutionality of the law.That’s partly because it’s not yet clear how prominently schools may display the religious text, if teachers will refer to the Ten Commandments during classes, or if other things like the…

Even without a background in accounting, anyone who has ever glanced at a 10-K or 10-Q can tell that preparing financial statements is a complex, tedious process. While legacy platforms like Workiva and Donnelley Financial Solutions aim to streamline financial reporting, longtime accountants Mary Antony (pictured right) and Kelsey Gootnick (pictured center) found themselves exhausted by various manual hurdles within these tools (co-founder and CTO Jared Tibshraeny is pictured left). The duo met seven years ago at Flexport, where Gootnick served as the company’s controller and Antony served as assistant controller. They stayed in touch even after Antony moved to…

Scientists who study chronic pain have long puzzled over a particular type of scenario: A man and woman get into a car accident and sustain the same injuries. But the woman experiences long-lasting pain, while the man recovers more quickly.Historically, some doctors have dismissed these differences as women exaggerating their pain or being unable to tolerate the same discomfort as men. But studies have repeatedly found that women are more likely to experience chronic pain in general and that their pain lasts longer, on average.A study published Friday in the journal Science Immunology offers a clue as to why: Men’s…

Different AI labs have different priorities. OpenAI has traditionally focused on consumer users, for instance, while its rival Anthropic tends to target enterprises. Elon Musk’s xAI, we discovered recently, has been placing particular emphasis on video-game walkthroughs. On Friday, Business Insider’s Grace Kay published a detailed and far-reaching report about xAI, the AI startup recently acquired by SpaceX, with particular emphasis on how Musk is making life difficult for employees. But this particular anecdote stood out: In one instance last year, a model release was delayed for several days because Musk was dissatisfied with how the chatbot answered detailed questions…