Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Flip employees were riding high in mid-January.The TikTok challenger had just cracked the Apple App Store’s top-five ranking. Downloads soared 855% month over month, Sensor Tower data showed, fueled by TikTok’s imminent ban in the US.It was a dream scenario for an app that — with over $230 million in funding and a roughly $1.1 billion valuation — promised to reinvent social shopping through a mix of product reviews and entertaining videos.Raging wildfires had forced Flip’s CEO, Noor Agha, to evacuate his Los Angeles home before he had time to retrieve his car or pack an extra pair of underwear.…
Last week, Tesla unveiled a ten-year compensation plan for Elon Musk that could turn him into a trillionaire. Perhaps by accident, it may have also invented an alter ego for one of Musk’s other major holdings, xAI.Across 16 pages of its September 5 proxy statement, the automaker detailed a plan centered on targets for earnings and growth in key product lines that could result in Musk owning more than a quarter of what would be an $8.5 trillion company.In explaining its position, Tesla noted that Musk has built several very valuable companies: “Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Neuralink Corp. and eXploratory…
I was at a party in San Francisco recently where a classic Silicon Valley discussion began.The topic was which AI models and chatbots are best to use. For some partygoers, an important filter was how “ethical” the providers were.One person said they planned to use Anthropic’s Claude service because they said the startup was ethical. This company has done impressive work in the area of AI safety. I mentioned that Anthropic has bot crawlers that seem to regularly scrape data from websites while sending very little traffic back. This partygoer was shocked.Since then, I’ve been looking for reliable data that…
A long-running rally in Japan’s stock markets has broken into a full sprint, powered by new political fuel and a fresh burst of AI euphoria that is sending stocks to records.Over the weekend, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation, setting off a leadership race inside the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Investors immediately took it as a bullish sign, sending the already red-hot Nikkei 225 higher.On Friday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index notched a fresh record high for the third time this week. The benchmark index is about 12% higher this year to date.The surge was in part powered by SoftBank’s…
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Two-time Olympic finalist Erriyon Knighton was banned for four years on Friday in a doping case of an anabolic steroid that rules the 21-year-old United States sprinter out of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its judges upheld separate appeals by the World Anti-Doping Agency and track and field investigators filed after Knighton was cleared by a tribunal in the U.S. that accepted he was contaminated by eating meat.WADA and the Athletics Integrity Unit argued the evidence that had been presented was statistically impossible and asked for a maximum four-year ban,…
Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson didn’t play a snap in the preseason.They didn’t need it.Allen and Jackson were spectacular in their first game action of the season. Jackson led the Baltimore Ravens to a 15-point, fourth-quarter lead only to watch Allen rally the Buffalo Bills to a 41-40 victory.So much for rust.Allen was 33 of 46 for 394 yards with two touchdown passes and two more rushing. Jackson was 14 of 19 for 209 yards and two TDs plus 70 yards rushing and another score.“It’s trusting, trusting our process, trusting our other 10 guys on the football field, trusting what…
The WNBA playoffs are set to begin Sunday with New York looking to become the fourth team to repeat as champions and Minnesota trying to avenge last season’s heartbreaking loss in the Finals.Indiana is back in the playoffs, but missing star guard Caitlin Clark, who has been sidelined for the last two months with a groin injury and will miss the postseason.The Liberty will have a difficult road as they are the No. 5 seed and open up at Phoenix on Sunday. After starting out 9-0, injuries decimated New York and left the Liberty in the difficult position of having…
LONDON (AP) — Swys de Bruin preaches miracles.The coach has been comforting South Africa for its first ever quarterfinal in the Women’s Rugby World Cup against six-time champion New Zealand on Saturday in Exeter.De Bruin sacrificed a 57-10 loss to France last weekend to rest 10 front-line players for the Black Ferns, stack his bench with a 7-1 bomb squad, and urge his Springbok Women to enjoy the biggest game of their lives.“It’s a matter of belief,” de Bruin says. “We believe in miracles.”There needs to be three other miracles this weekend if the established order is to be upset.Canada…
A Spanish startup that has developed teams of AI agents that autonomously operate software has just raised $2.5 million.Barcelona-based Altan allows users to create software through text or voice prompts. “Companies used to hire a team of developers who would create some solution for you or for your clients,” Altan’s cofounder and CEO, Albert Salgueda, told Business Insider. “The process of that is now being automated. That’s the first step.”A team of AI agents, each with different roles, such as UX designers and full-stack engineers, then handles everything from creating internal databases to managing backend automations.The startup, founded in 2023,…
(Reuters) -Apple will roll out a hypertension detection feature on its smartwatch next week after receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported.Apple and the FDA did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.The company unveiled a blood pressure monitor in its latest Apple Watch at the September 9 event, where it also introduced a refreshed iPhone lineup, including a slimmer iPhone Air.The feature, pending regulatory approval, will not detect every case of high blood pressure, but could alert about a million people, Apple said.Available in 150 countries, the tool will use data from…