A quest for pros: Meta’s premium Quest Pro headset is now available, and while early reviews laud the improved design, comfort, and controllers, reviewers also dinged the poor battery life and confusing mixed reality focus.
Meta faces rocky road to reverse underperformance: Q3 shows revenue outlook weakening as metaverse projects swell expenses.
For many, Facebook’s new name introduced “the metaverse” as a concept. But a year out, most people have not entered the metaverse. Right now, Meta’s facelift doesn’t appear to have legs. (Quite literally—the little Horizon Worlds avatars still don’t have legs.)
On today's episode, we discuss Uber's foray into advertising, whether or not we are past "peak newsletter," how to convert online shoppers into buyers, how Apple's privacy changes have affected mobile marketers, how much media young people consume, an explanation of what's most disrupting advanced TV, how much it costs to raise a kid in the US, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti and analysts Ross Benes and Evelyn Mitchell.
Consumer spending grew 0.4% in Q3: But the shift to spending on services continued as goods spending fell for the third straight quarter.
McDonald’s and Chipotle keep growing: That’s despite both chains raising prices to offset their rising costs.
Alphabet earnings disappoint, except in the cloud: Google Cloud surpassed Q3 expectations as Alphabet’s topline revenue dashes investor hopes. Expect more pressure on employees, which could harm workplace culture.
Shutterstock flip-flops on text-to-image tech: The stock image company has changed its mind about AI art, integrating DALL-E 2 into its platform. The outcome is uncertain as copyright challenges loom.
Phishing attacks on the rise: Trusted brands like DHL, Microsoft, and LinkedIn are often impersonated in phishing emails, causing millions of dollars in breaches. Are brands responsible for educating their customers?
Shopify’s push to diversify its offerings is starting to work: The company’s expanding Merchant Solutions division, which includes services such as payments, lending, and shipping, helped drive 22% growth in revenues.
WhatsApp suffers a global outage: The world’s most popular messaging app went dark in various countries, underscoring the fragility of centralized communications and piling on Meta’s troubles as it prepares for its Q3 earnings call.
The API-powered BaaS platform Marketa for Banking offers seven products and is available in 40 countries.
The bank’s solution will be powered by Google’s cloud-based language processing platform.
The agency wants to foster competition and innovation while ensuring consumers are treated fairly.
Shoppers in India spent enthusiastically ahead of Diwali celebrations: But the outlook for China’s biggest shopping event is much less rosy as Chinese consumers grapple with economic uncertainty.
Incoming regulation, rising delinquencies, and a shaky economic outlook may lead to industry-wide changes
Apple is demanding 30% of promoted post transactions: The App Store now says promoted posts should be treated as in-app purchases in a not-so-subtle attack against Meta.