The heir and de facto leader of the Samsung group received a presidential pardon Friday, continuing South Korea’s long tradition of freeing business leaders convicted of corruption on economic grounds.
Billionaire Lee Jae-yong, convicted of bribery and embezzlement in January last year, will be “reinstated” to give him a chance to “contribute to overcoming the economic crisis” of the country, justice minister Han Dong-hoon said.
Friday’s pardon will allow him to fully return to work by lifting a post-prison employment restriction that had been set for five years.
The pardon was given so that Lee — as well as other high-level executives receiving pardons Friday — could “lead the country’s continuous growth engine through active investment in technology and job creation,” it added.
A total of 1,693 people — including prisoners with terminal illnesses and those near the end of their terms — were on the pardon list, the ministry said, ahead of the annual Liberation Day anniversary Monday.
Lee, 54, issued a statement after the pardon was announced saying he aimed to “contribute to the economy through continuous investment and job creation for young people.”
Lee is the vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest smartphone maker. The conglomerate’s overall turnover is equivalent to about one-fifth of South Korea’s gross domestic product.
There is a long history of South Korean tycoons being charged with bribery, embezzlement, tax evasion or other offenses.
The giant Samsung group is by far the largest of the family-controlled empires known as chaebol that dominate business in South Korea.
But analysts said they simply allowed major businessmen to feel they were not “constrained by any legal norms”, Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP.
Justice minister Han said all politicians were excluded this time as the economy is the most “urgent and important” issue.
– More legal woes –
In May, he was excused from a hearing in that trial to host US President Joe Biden when he kicked off a tour of South Korea by visiting Samsung’s chip plant, alongside President Yoon.
But Lee’s imprisonment has been no barrier to the firm’s performance — it announced a surge of more than 70 percent in second-quarter profits in July last year, with a coronavirus-driven shift to remote work boosting demand for devices using its memory chips.
“The pardon weakens the rule of law, which potentially is, in fact, more detrimental than advantageous.”
Michael Calor: No, because I don’t have a folding phone. I only have a regular, old, nonfolding Pixel.
Lauren Goode: And you call yourself a tech editor.
Michael Calor: Yes, several people call me a tech editor.
Lauren Goode: I guess my question is, is anyone actually using folding phones?
Michael Calor: Sometimes, I see one in the wild and then it turns out that the person who’s holding it just works at Samsung.
Lauren Goode: Same. I think I’ve seen one three times in the wild and every time, they’re an employee at Samsung.
Michael Calor: Well, we should talk about the new Samsung devices.
Lauren Goode: Yeah. Speaking of Samsung, let’s get to it.
[Gadget Lab intro theme music plays]
Lauren Goode: Hi everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I’m Lauren Goode. I’m a senior writer at WIRED.
Michael Calor: I’m Michael Calore. I’m a senior editor at WIRED.
Lauren Goode: We’re joined this week by WIRED reviews editor, Julian Chokkattu, who’s joining us from New York City. Hey Julian.
Julian Chokkattu: Hey, how are you?
Lauren Goode: Is Tobu the dog around as well?
Julian Chokkattu: No, I had to kick him out of the room because you never know when he’s going to start barking.
Lauren Goode: Well, he’s welcome anytime. Let’s just talk about cats and dogs this episode. What do we say?
Michael Calor: Sure.
Lauren Goode: Esta bien. Well, it’s been a while since we’ve talked about Samsung and Android, but this week, Samsung hosted its annual Unpacked event, which is a smartphone launch event. These are usually loud, hyped-up events that are supposed to get everyone excited about the latest new thing. Since Samsung is one of the world’s biggest smartphone makers, we tend to pay close attention to this because its design decisions are often a leading indicator of what we might see in upcoming phones.
But in recent years, Samsung has really been hyping up foldable phones, which is something that really hasn’t been embraced by the mass market yet. And then, some of the other stuff that Samsung showed off this week, like your smart watches and earbuds, don’t exactly feel new. So, we asked Julian to join us and break down what is actually new, and then in the second half of the show, we’re going to talk about Android. But first, Julian, bend our ears, please. See what I did there?
Michael Calor: And it is.
Lauren Goode: Bending. Folding.
Michael Calor: Yes, I got that.
Lauren Goode: Great. Start with the foldables. What do we need to know?
Julian Chokkattu: They’re not that different from last year’s phones. The biggest changes here are actually that Samsung has made the hinge smaller and they’ve overall reduced the footprint. Just generally, they are bit more compact devices, which is important, and these are the iterations that we’ve been seeing year over year since 2019, since they started coming out with these foldables. There’s the Flip 4, which is a traditional smartphone that you can fold in half like a compact mirror almost. Really nice if you hate large phones. And then there’s the Fold 4, which is like a normal smartphone that you can then open up into a larger book, so you get a larger screen on the inside and gives you a bit more of a tablet experience.
Cricket great Ross Taylor says he edited sections of racially insensitive comments out of his new autobiography to protect the identity of some current Black Caps players.
Taylor has revealed, in Ross Taylor Black & White, that he was a victim of casual racism and inappropriate comments around race during his iconic cricket career.
He grew up learning about his Samoan and European heritage but Taylor always saw himself simply as a Kiwi.
Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
Black Caps great Ross Taylor believes New Zealand Cricket should help the country’s Polynesian community into the game.
But he admits he was looked upon differently, at times.
READMORE: * ‘Undermined’: Ross Taylor lifts the lid on the ‘ambush’ that cost him the Black Caps captaincy * Black Caps suffer series clean sweep defeat after third test loss to England * Black Caps, international cricket stars pay tribute to departing Ross Taylor
During the editing process for Ross Taylor Black & White, co-written by Paul Thomas, Taylor removed some stories involving racist comments for two reasons.
“I didn’t want it to detract from a lot of the other good stories that are out there,” Taylor told Sky Sport, in an interview with Laura McGoldrick on Thursday.
“But at the same time, a few of the stories involved a few of the players who are still in the team, so I didn’t want it to compromise them or put them in a compromising position because they’ve still got to have their careers.”
Taylor said of racially insensitive comments: “You are subject to it at different stages. The changing room banter, as I talk about, is almost the barometer.”
In the book, Taylor wrote: “A teammate used to tell me, ‘You’re half a good guy, Ross, but which half is good? You don’t know what I’m referring to. I was pretty sure I did.
“Other players also had to put up with comments that dwelt on their ethnicity. In all probability, a Pakeha listening to those sorts of comments would think, ‘Oh, that’s okay, it’s just a bit of a banter’.
“But he’s hearing it as a white person, and it’s not directed at people like him. So, there’s no pushback; no one corrects them.
“Then the onus falls on the targets. You wonder if you should pull them up but worry that you’ll create a bigger problem or be accused of playing the race card by inflating harmless banter into racism. It’s easier to develop a thick skin and let it slide, but is that the right thing to do?
“Maybe not but that’s the way I dealt with it at the time.”
Stu Forster/Getty Images
Ross Taylor celebrates another century for New Zealand.
Taylor noted the New Zealand team management had also unwittingly touched a nerve.
“Not long after Mike ‘Roman’ Sandle became Black Caps manager, he said to Victoria (Taylor’s wife) that, when he was manager of the Blues rugby team, he’d observed that the Māori and Island boys struggled with managing money,’ so if Ross wants to talk about it…’
“Victoria laughed it off, and it probably didn’t take Mike long to realize that, however well-meaning, he’d been a bit hasty in his assumptions.
“When I came back into the team after the captaincy drama, I found myself sitting next to (coach) Mike Hesson in the Koru Lounge at Dunedin Airport. He’d come straight from his house from him. ‘My cleaner’s Samoan,’ he said. ‘Ella She’s a lovely lady, hard-working, very trustworthy’. All I could say was, ‘Oh cool’.
“I have no doubt that Roman and Hess and the guys who engaged in the ‘banter’ would be dismayed to learn that their remarks landed with a thud.
“Let me be clear: I don’t think for one minute that they were coming from a racist perspective. I think they were insensitive and lacked the imagination and empathy to put themselves in the other person’s shoes.
“What to them is a bit of harmless banter is actually confronting for the targets because it tells them they’re seen as being different. Instead of the message being, ‘You’re one of us, mate,’ it is, in effect, ‘You’re one of them’.”
Players, including teammates, would ask questions about Taylor’s ethnicity, especially given the fact he had a European-sounding name.
He told Sky Sport: “Knowing my name was Luteru, was something … when you start flying internationally and you get to your room as it’s Luteru Taylor and your teammates are going ‘who is this guy’?”
Taylor said talking about racism, when he first burst onto the Black Caps scene 16 years ago, might not have been frowned upon but would not be as well received as what it is today.
“We’ve moved on a lot that I can even talk about, I think,” Taylor said in the interview.
Sandra Mu/Getty Images
Black Caps captain Ross Taylor in 2011.
Growing up in Masterton, Taylor said there weren’t many Māori children playing cricket, and even fewer of Samoan heritage.
One of the country’s greatest ever batters, Taylor has now called on New Zealand Cricket to “put more resources into the Polynesian community”.
Cricket in New Zealand is a pretty white sport. For much of my career I’ve been an anomaly, a brown face in a vanilla line-up. That has its challenges, many of which aren’t readily apparent to your teammates or the cricketing public,” Taylor said, revealing people assumed he was Māori or Indian.
Taylor noted that former All Black and league star Sonny Bill Williams felt young Māori and Pasifika who were held back by a lack of confidence and their personal circumstances, and therefore didn’t fulfill their potential.
“I know from personal experience how true that is,” Taylor wrote.
“I’d hope that one of the takeaways from my career is that good cricketers can emerge from a Polynesian background.”
He admitted cricket gear could be expensive compared to other sports “which probably puts some Polynesian parents off the game”.
“But maybe New Zealand Cricket should be putting more resources into the Polynesian community because there must be more where I came from.”
New Zealand Cricket said initiatives were under way in this area and Taylor, with his experience, was involved in these.
“Ross has been a fantastic player for the Black Caps; his contribution to cricket in New Zealand has been immense, ”a NZC spokesperson said.
“He currently sits on an NZC working group aimed at improving the game’s engagement with Pasifika communities, and we greatly value his input.”
Police say a man found dead inside a shipping container in Townsville had been “screaming for help” before a fire engulfed his home inside an industrial estate.
The 46-year-old’s body was found when police and fire fighters were called to reports of a caravan and shipping container on fire at Mount Louisa on Thursday night.
“Witnesses initially had heard a male person screaming for help,” Detective Inspector Jason Shepherd said.
The man reportedly screamed for help from his shipping container home. (Hayden Mensso)
“One of the witnesses did try to enter the property to provide assistance but there were a number of guard dogs on the property who stopped the witness from getting in.
“When the fire was extinguished [emergency services] found a deceased person inside a shipping container on the property.”
Police have not established if the fire was intentionally lit.
“We have to keep an open mind, it could be accidental, it could be intentional, it’s too early to tell at this stage,” Shepherd said.
Police said the man had been residing on the property as a care taker and had been living in the shipping container and caravan.
The shipping container was the most impacted by the large blaze.
“He was found at the rear of the container, so whether he was in that position, or whether the fire created a situation where he couldn’t get out of the shipping container we’re unable to say,” Inspector Shepherd said.
“It’s difficult to say if he could get out but he was at the opposite end to the opening.
“Because the caravan was so close its also been impacted by the fire.”
Witnesses reported hearing a bang or explosion when the fire broke out.
Inspector Shepherd said the scene was confronting for witnesses and crews involved.
“Unfortunately we do have a number of incidents and the crew that attend do get emotionally involved as well because they are confronted with quite horrific scenes, as are the witnesses as well.”
Investigations are continuing to identify how the fire was started.
A grandmother in Melbourne’s west who woke up $20m richer after winning Powerball has revealed the secrets behind her newfound wealth.
The Truganina woman held the only national division one winning entry in Powerball draw 1369 on Thursday, turning her into a multi-millionaire overnight.
The lucky winner made the sage decision to switch up her usual numbers, which delivered her the $20m.
“I decided to mix things up, and instead of putting my usual three to four games on, I decided to get a Powerhit consisting of special numbers that mean the most to me,” she told the Lott.
The woman’s winning numbers were different from the ones she usually goes with. Credit: Supplied
“I’ve never expected to win anything big. I usually land three numbers, but never anything more.
The winning numbers in the draw were 30, 23, 9, 22, 5, 28 and 18, while the Powerball number was 3.
The woman also defied her husband’s doubts, who thought she had no chance of winning.
“When I purchased the ticket, my husband and daughter were with me, and I told them that I’d put a ticket on for Powerball, and my husband said to me, ‘don’t bother, we’re never going to win ‘” she grandmother said.
“I guess I’ve proved him wrong.”
The grandmother got the thrill of her life when she realized she had the winning numbers.
“I was sitting in the lounge room, and I checked the winning numbers before going to bed, and I didn’t believe it,” she said
“I couldn’t get out of the chair. I couldn’t go to the toilet. I couldn’t move. It was so surreal.
“I only got about 40 minutes sleep last night. I’m so tired, but it’s worth it.”
The grandmother could not believe her luck when she won. Credit: Supplied, The Lott
The woman wants to use her millions to treat her family, with plans already under way for an Australian holiday.
“We would love to travel around Australia via train. All the sightseeing we would do is getting me excited!” she said.
“We would also love to help our children and grandchildren. We might help them all buy a house!”
The woman bought her winning entry from Wyndham Village Lotto & News, with the store’s owner Mahesh Thakur saying they were thrilled to have sold her the lucky numbers.
“It’s truly a special day for us, and we’re absolutely over the moon,” he said.
“When we found out the news last night, we couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t sleep either.”
The Lott’s division one winning tally has now reached 272 for 2022.
This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
Chipmaker Intel Corporation might be looking to shut down its graphics processing unit (GPU) department due to heavy losses that have accumulated over the years according to a fresh market research report from John Peddie Research. The group is a relatively new one at Intel, which is one of the oldest chip companies in the world. It focuses its attention on developing and manufacturing GPU products, as opposed to the traditional computing CPUs that have come to be associated with Intel.
JPR estimates that shutting down the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG) group will result in a $3.5 billion write off by the company, as the division is yet to make a profit and Intel has invested $3.5 billion in it since it was set up, with the company starting to include the segment on its balance sheet from the first quarter of last year.
Intel Ready To Call It Quits With GPU Development After Investing $3.5 Billion
Today’s report, if it bears fruit, will result in another market being out of reach for Intel, which is one of the world’s largest and oldest chipmakers. The company is known for having refused to manufacture processors for smartphones in the early days of the industry and then lamenting later for having missed the train. Intel also sold its fifth generation (5G) mobile modem portfolio to Apple, and now, the company might do away with its GPU division as well.
JPR’s report does not cite any official sources, and it only uses rumors to guess if Intel’s chief Mr. Patrick Gelsinger will continue on his streak of shutting down unprofitable businesses by taking aim at its GPU division next.
In a blog post, JPR’s founder John Peddie outlines that:
So, the rumor mill has been hinting that the party is over and that AXG would be the next group to be jettisoned.
A Lenovo PC with an Intel GPU.
He goes on to argue that shutting down the GPU department will make sense for Intel as the segment is yet to make any profits. Peddie estimates that since its inception, the AXG group has cost Intel $3.5 billion in investments, and it has little to show for this in earrings. He also calls Intel results with its GPUs “an embarrassment, with little adoption in the market and average performance in benchmarks.
The analyst believes that competition from NVIDIA, AMD and startups implies that Intel should ax the AXG group next. He states that:
Should Intel dump its AXG group? Probably. The company started the project six years ago. Since then, AMD and Nvidia have brought out three generations of new and stunningly powerful dGPUs, and more are in the pipeline. Four new companies have started up in China, and two new ones announced in the US. Intel is now facing a much stronger AMD and Nvidia, plus six start-ups—the rules of engagement have changed dramatically while Intel sunk money into projects it can’t seem to get off the ground.
. . .The best thing Intel could do at this juncture is to find a partner and sell off the group. It could even be dressed up as a strategic move, just as they did going to TSMC to build the dGPU in the first place. The company can’t continue to carry an enormous payroll, pay a competitive fab for wafers, and then ask governments to subsidize its investments in new fabs that can’t even build the parts they are presumably designing. Not only is that a bewildering investment strategy, but it’s also an embarrassment.
However, he remains divided on whether Intel will actually shut down the department, believing that if it doesn’t do so, then it will continue to operate in a highly hostile market
St Kilda need a victory over Brisbane on Friday night to keep their final hopes alive, but they’ll be without inspirational mid Dan Hannebery.
The Saints (11-9, 101.1%) have taken a cautious approach with the veteran after he tweaked his ankle in last week’s loss to Geelong.
Brisbane (14-6, 124.2%) have their own injury woes with defender Marcus Adams ruled out with concussion.
The Lions have beaten St Kilda just once at Marvel Stadium in 22 years, dating back to 2000 when it was known as Colonial Stadium.
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The medi subs are Zak Jones (St Kilda) and Ryan Lester (Brisbane).
This match gets underground at 7.50pm AEST from Marvel Stadium.
Watch it live on Fox Footy (channel 504) from 7pm AEST.
Follow St Kilda v Brisbane in our live blog below!
QUARTER BY QUARTER MATCH REPORT
The Saints showed their cards early when tagger Marcus Windhager went straight to Lachie Neale for the first bounce.
And despite the Lions doing all the attacking in the opening minutes, it was Jack Higgins who got St Kilda on the board first.
Higgins pounced when Oscar McInerney missed with his hands in the middle of the ground.
The Saint set sail for home from the center square and it bounced through.
“One tiny little handling error and it’s out the back door,” commentator Brian Taylor said.
Neale headed deep forward in a bid to try and overcome the Windhager tag, but had just one touch to his name after more than 10 minutes of play.
“He and the Lions asking the question.. ‘alright you can run around the midfield as a tagger but how do you go as a pure defender if I go forward?’ Good move,” commentator Daisy Pearce praised.
After early misses by Dan McStay and Hugh McCluggage, plus Cam Rayner’s out on the full, it took a brilliant Charlie Cameron contested grab to get the Lions on the board.
McCluggage then added his side’s second a minute later from the center clearance.
The ball just wouldn’t sit for Neale as he streamed inside 50 and the Saints dodged a third bullet as Jack Sinclair was there to bring the ball out of defense.
But the first term was played mostly in the Lions’ front half as St Kilda were unable to clear.
When Jarrod Lienert won a big ruck battle against McInerney, the Saints got forward and Tim Membrey didn’t disappoint with the snap – and he went to Dayne Zorko to let him know about it.
Tempers threatened to spill over a few times in the first term as the Saints sat just one-point behind.
“St Kilda are on track to record 100 tackles here,” commentator James Brayshaw said.
“They have come to play.”
Mason Wood then gave the Saints the lead after Mitch Owens broke free from the stoppage and got the handball out.
But St Kilda let the lead slip after the quarter time siren when Hipwood slotted his set shot from 40m out.
The second term belonged entirely to the Lions as they found another gear and kicked away.
A big Brad Crouch bump rocked Lion Darcy Gardiner early in the second term as the Saint crashed heavily into his opponent.
Pearce immediately thought Crouch’s actions would draw at least a week’s ban, but luckily for Gardner he was able to stay out on the field.
Joe Daniher went aerial before kicking his first goal of the night before Linc McCarthy extended Brisbane’s lead to 14 points minutes later.
Like the first quarter, the ball remained locked in Brisbane’s attack as St Kilda’s defense was put under enormous pressure.
Hipwood got out the back and goaled from the square before another big contested grab by McStay pushed the lead out to a game-high 26 points.
Wood gave the Saints some hope minutes out from half time with a big goal from just outside 50.
But by the main break, Brisbane held a 22-point lead.
More than two dozen people in WA own more than 100 licensed firearms, each of which would have been individually approved by police, figures tabled in state parliament have revealed.
Key points:
Figures tabled in state parliament show that some West Australians are licensed to have more than 100 firearms.
Shadow Police Minister Peter Collier says the numbers probably relate to collectors and enthusiasts.
Police Minister Paul Papalia says these numbers are part of the reasons WA gun laws are being rewritten entirely.
The numbers, which provide an insight into gun ownership in WA, were disclosed on Wednesday in response to questions from the Shadow Minister for Police, Peter Collier.
The figures show there are 178 people in WA with more than 25 firearms, including 34 people who have more than 50 of them, and 26 who have more than 100.
“I was, I’ve got to say, a little confronted by the figures,” Mr Collier told ABC Radio Perth host Nadia Mitsopoulos on Friday.
“But having said that, we need to have perspective on this issue.
“And that is that almost all of these multiple gun owners, I would assume, would be collectors or gun enthusiasts, or there’d be a valid reason.”
Shooting club president says numbers lack context
The numbers do not specify the classifications of the firearms, meaning they could include rifles, shotguns, handguns or paintball guns.
The numbers also do not include gun dealers.
Shadow Police Minister Peter Collier requested the data from the state government.(ABC News: Cason Ho)
Paul Fitzgerald, WA president of the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia, said the numbers were high but lacking in context.
“We can talk about an individual that may run a paintball business, for example, in Western Australia,” he said.
“And there’s a number of those, and they may well have 300 or 200 paintball markers on their individual license in order to run that business.”
He said people that shoot competitively may also have 10 or 20 different firearms to compete in different divisions.
Firearms need individual approval
Under WA law, each of the 178 people in WA who have more than 25 firearms would need to obtain a license from police for each weapon.
In order to get approval for each firearm, an applicant must show police varying degrees of “genuine” explanations for requiring them, depending on the capacity of the firearm.
Applicants who want to license a low-powered gun need to have a “genuine reason”, while those who want approval for a high-powered gun must show both a genuine “reason” and “need.”
The release of the numbers followed an announcement in March that the WA government was undertaking what it called “the biggest overhaul of firearm laws in Western Australian history.”
According to the government, there has been a 60 per cent jump in the number of licensed guns in WA over the past 13 years, to 349,000 guns in 2022.
However, the number of gun owners over the same period has gone down, suggesting a smaller number of people own a larger number of firearms.
WA Police Minister Paul Papalia told reporters the numbers were part of the reason for firearm law reforms.(ABC News: James Carmody)
WA Police referred questions to Police Minister Paul Papalia, who was asked about the figures at a press conference on Friday.
“I’m surprised that there are, under the current law, opportunities for people to accumulate very large numbers of firearms,” he said.
“That’s part of why we’re re-writing the entire Act.”
The state government previously stated the reasons behind the proposed new gun laws were related to community safety.
No further details about the nature of the changes have been released. Mr Papalia said consultation on the new laws was under way but they were not expected to be introduced to Parliament until the end of 2023.
Disney has overtaken Netflix in the global race for streaming customers. But there’s a catch. Actually, there are many catches.
The headline numbers are that Disney as an entertainment megalith now has 221.1 million subscriptions to Netflix’s 220.6 million accounts.
While that looks like Disney has surpassed Netflix in the streaming wars, that 221.1 million number is a combined figure of Disney+ customers as well as US services Hulu and ESPN. Netflix only has the one brand so it’s not a like-for-like comparison.
Of that total figure, Disney+, which launched in late-2019, has amassed 152.1 million subscribers worldwide. It increased its membership by 14.4 million subscribers, more than the 10 million that was forecast.
That’s catch number one in the Disney versus Netflix narrative.
The more revealing asterisk comes when you drill down into the numbers around average revenue per user (ARPU), as industry publication Variety you have donated
ARPU is an important measure for finance types because it reflects how much each customer is worth to a business. The higher the ARPU, the more money each customer is spending with the business.
According to Variety, Disney’s ARPU in the US and Canada was $US6.27 per customer per month compared to Netflix’s $US15.95 for the same region. Disney’s subscription price in the US and Canada is significantly lower than Netflix’s.
The difference in ARPU is even more glaring in India and Southeast Asia where Disney is only making $US1.20 per month to Netflix’s $US8.83 in APAC.
While it may seem like ARPU is something that investors and money people care about, ultimately it will affect audiences.
In a bid to increase that ARPU, there’s currently a lot of movement around pricing.
Disney has announced US prices for Disney+ will increase by 38 per cent in December, from $US7.99 to $US10.99 per month, at the same time as the introduction of an ad-supported membership tier which will be priced at $US7 .99.
Disney+ will roll out the ad-supported option globally in 2023.
In Australia, Disney+ is priced at $11.99 a month. It launched at $8.99 a month but increased the cost in February 2021 when it added the Star sub-brand to its platform.
Locally, Star houses Disney’s more adult-oriented programming and includes many of the exclusive movies and shows that are made for Hulu in the US. This has included series such as dopesick, WeCrashed and the upcoming critical sensation Bear.
Netflix will also introduce an ad-supported membership tier from 2023.
Netflix had previously eschewed introducing advertising on its platform with co-chief executive and co-founder Reed Hastings rejecting the idea.
The company did an about-face in April when it revealed it had for the first time in a decade gone backwards in its subscription numbers.
An ad-supported tier is one of two main tactics Netflix is deploying to arrest its declining membership. A cheaper subscription option could be attractive to existing and potential customers feeling the pinch of global economic and inflationary pressures.
And advertising revenue from brands may increase Netflix and Disney’s ARPU.
Netflix’s other plank in boosting its subscriber numbers is to crackdown on password, a common practice which is a violation of its terms and conditions but is done by 100 million of its customers.
Netflix is trialling two forms of a crackdown in smaller territories in Latin America, both of which means charging customers an extra fee for sharing their login details beyond their residence.
The American streaming market is going through a tumultuous period due to increased competition and economic conditions.
Earlier this month, Warner Bros Discovery announced it will combine its two streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery+ following its merger. The Warner Bros Discovery move could signal the long-awaited consolidation many in the industry have flagged for some time.
In Australia, there are more than a dozen paid streaming platforms, ranging from broad appeal brands such as Binge*, Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video to niche products such as Shudder, Hayu and Shelter.
According to Roy Morgan data published in February, 74.5 per cent of Australians accessed a subscription video-on-demand platform across an average of four weeks in the three months to December 2021, an increase of 2.5 per cent.
The most popular service remains Netflix, followed by Foxtel Group*, which owns Foxtel, Binge, Kayo and Flash.
Roy Morgan estimated Australians use on average 2.7 subscription video-on-demand services, up from 1.8 a year earlier.
*Foxtel Group is majority owned by News Corp, publisher of this website
Apple’s release of iOS 16 this fall won’t only introduce new features, but also bring back an old one. You’ll once again be able to check out your iPhone’s battery percentage in the status bar — from anywhere on your device.
After the release of the iPhone X, which introduced the notch — the black bar at the top of your device that houses a speaker and camera — there wasn’t enough screen real estate left to keep the battery percentage up there, so Apple nixed the feature from iOS.
Read more: The Fastest Way to Charge Your iPhone if You’re Low on Time
You can view the battery percentage in the Control Center.
Screenshot by Lisa Eadicicco/CNET
Sure, you can swipe down from the top right of your iPhone to view the exact percentage in the Control Center, but it just isn’t the same. You can’t glance at the battery percentage from within any apps or the home screen. And it’s nearly impossible to gauge the exact percentage from just the battery icon, which is not good if your iPhone is close to dying.
Thankfully, the latest developer beta (5th) and public beta (3rd) releases of iOS 16 reintroduces the battery percentage number back in the status bar, inside of the existing battery icon. Here’s what you need to know about the new feature.
And if you want to get your hands on iOS 16 right now, here’s how to download the third public beta, which features the new battery percentage feature. the fifth developer beta also has the feature, but we don’t quite recommend downloading itunless you’re an Apple developer.
How to get the battery percentage back in the status bar on iOS 16
To view your battery percentage in the status bar on iOS 16, all you need to do is be on the latest iOS 16 public beta (3rd) or developer beta (5th).
Once you update, you should see the percentage in the battery icon in the top-right corner of your screen — from anywhere on your iPhone. That way you can keep a close eye on when your iPhone is topped off or close to running out of battery, and when you should starting charging it.
Although the setting is turned on by default, you can go to Settings > Battery and toggle on the Battery Percentage option to make sure it works. When your device is charging, the battery icon will turn completely green, showing you the percentage, while being in Low Power Mode will turn the battery icon completely yellow, but again with the percentage inside.
If you toggle the Battery Percentage feature off, you’ll remove the numbers from the status bar and revert back to the old battery icon design.
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Unfortunately, the battery percentage option is not available on all iPhone models — for now, it’s not on the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Mini.
