Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg’s venture fund WndrCo co-led a $15.5 million Series A round for Creatify, an AI video ad platform. Creatify’s AdMax platform uses AI to quickly generate dozens of video advertisements, which are geared toward social media marketing — AdMax analyzes high-performing social video campaigns on apps like TikTok and Instagram to shape its output. Tech industry titans have been bullish on AI advertising. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently spoke about his ambitions to automate all of advertising with an AI ad tool, which would test thousands of ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users. This degree of…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging Americans to make sure they’re protected against measles before traveling to other countries this summer.Last week, the agency updated its travel guidance for the virus as cases pop up nationwide. Nearly all exposures at airports are linked to international travel.That includes six cases linked to a Turkish Airlines flight that landed at Denver International Airport on May 13. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said that four of the patients had been on the plane.Two other people were exposed at the airport before getting sick. Measles is one of…
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials have changed their advice to international travelers about measles, saying that Americans should be vaccinated against the virus no matter where they’re going.U.S. residents are recommended to get measles-mumps-rubella shots, anyway. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously emphasized the importance of vaccination for travelers going to countries with outbreaks.Last week, the CDC updated its guidance to call for vaccinations for travelers going to all other countries.Ashley Darcy-Mahoney, a researcher at George Washington University’s nursing school, called the update significant.An Colorado outbreak last month stemmed from an international flight that landed…
Microsoft Bing announced Monday that it is introducing the Bing Video Creator to its app, which uses OpenAI’s Sora model to let users generate videos from text prompts. OpenAI, which has a long-standing partnership with Microsoft, has locked down access to Sora‘s video generation for paying customers only. Its integration in Microsoft Bing represents the first time that it will be available for free. Image Credits:Microsoft Bing At launch, Bing Video Creator is not yet available on desktop, and videos can take hours to generate, even when using the “fast” mode, which is supposed to take just a few minutes.…
The days of old “dumb” TVs are largely over. If you’re shopping for a new display in 2025, smart TVs are the norm. This kind of television connects to the internet, so it can serve as a central part of any smart home. The best smart TVs let you watch all your favorite streaming services and offer features like voice search.I’ve been reviewing tech products for over a decade, and I’ve used my expertise to compile a list of the best smart TVs available. My recommendations include models that use each of the most popular smart TV interfaces on the…
The surge in data company acquisitions continued Monday with Snowflake’s purchase of Crunchy Data. Cloud data platform Snowflake announced its intent to acquire Crunchy Data, a Postgres database partner, late this afternoon. A source familiar with the matter estimated the deal to be worth around $250 million. The terms weren’t disclosed. Snowflake declined to comment on the deal’s valuation. It’s the latest in a string of tech giants buying data startups to bolster their underlying database offerings that power AI agents. Last week, Salesforce acquired decades-old Informatica to fortify its data management tooling for AI agents. A few weeks ago,…
MILAN (AP) — Foreign tourists were among a dozen people injured when a 50-year-old tree fell next to a bus stop in the Italian lagoon city of Venice on Monday, authorities said.The oak tree fell on a group of people waiting in a shaded area at Piazzale Roma, the last stop for buses and taxis ferrying visitors to and from the lagoon city from the mainland, city officials said. It wasn’t immediately clear why the tree fell.The most seriously injured was a 30-year-old Italian woman, who was sitting on a wall near the tree with her two small children when…
The rebooted version of social site Digg aims to bring back the spirit of the old web at a time when AI-generated content is threatening to overwhelm traditional social media platforms, drowning out the voices of real people. This presents an opportunity to build a social site for the AI era, where the people who create content and manage online communities are given a bigger stake in a platform’s success, Digg’s founders think. A Web 2.0-era news aggregation giant, Digg was once valued at $175 million at its height back in 2008 and is now being given new life under…
CNN — There’s been a lot of conversation over the years about JoJo Siwa’s romantic relationships and now she’s added a new chapter. In an interview with The Guardian, Siwa, 22, confirmed that she is dating former “Love Island” cast member Chris Hughes, whom she met when they both participated in a recent season of the UK series “Celebrity Big Brother.” “It’s not platonic any more, and it’s been a beautiful development, a beautiful connection, and I’m absolutely head over heels for him and he’s the same way.” Siwa said of her relationship with the man she calls “sweet Christopher.”…
CNN — After nearly 16 years and hours of conversations, comedian Marc Maron will bring his groundbreaking podcast “WTF” to an end this fall. Maron announced the news during the Monday episode of his show, while speaking with guest John Mulaney. The host said he and his longtime producer, Brendan McDonald, made the decision together. “We both realized together that we were done,” Maron explained. “There was no convincing or pushback or arguing. We were done, and it’s OK for things to end.” “It really comes down to the fact that we have put up a new show every Monday…