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A couple of years ago, Snap (the company behind Snapchat) decided that the selfie production pipeline needed to be improved upon. Bathroom mirrors and selfie sticks were not cutting it. No, no, Snap decided that the next evolution in the art of taking pictures of yourself would involve a flying robot.

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• The Dominican Republic is implementing a six-month trial of shorter workweeks at major companies.
• Employees with shorter workweeks often report feeling happier, and employers have seen up to 15% revenue growth

YouTube has hit a new milestone with its Music and Premium offerings. The paid services have more than 100 million users between them as of January, including those who were on a free trial. That's an increase of 20 million members in just over a year, and the figure has doubled since September 2021. YouTube has successfully grown the figures despite a $2 per month increase for Premium that came

YouTube reached an important milestone on Thursday for its paid music and video tiers, crossing the 100 million subscriber benchmark globally. That figure includes trial subscriptions, so the real number of paid subscribers is fewer. YouTube’s subscription tiers have been a primary revenue generator for Google’s subscriptions services

The Walt Disney Company faced a legal defeat today after its lawsuit alleging retaliation was dismissed in a Florida court. The claim focused on the state’s violation of the company’s First Amendment rights for standing against Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill, a homophobic law that endangers the human…

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• Land sales and home prices showed some improvement in China's property market, Reuters reported.
• Government land sales rose for the first time in two years, while prices saw their fastest rise since mid-2021.
• But Evergrande's liquidation could dampen confidence for a while, Fitch Ratings wrote.

R

Amazon launched a new generative AI shopping assistant, Rufus, on Thursday. The chatbot is trained on Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As and “information from across the web.” It’s only available to a limited set of Amazon customers for now but will expand in the coming weeks.

The company views the assistant as customers’ one-stop shop for all their shopping needs. Rufus

The start of the year is always a huge time for Lego, so it’s not surprising that February is looking a little slim on releases compared to last month. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some very cool sets dropping—including the long-awaited release of the Dune set, and its glorious, glorious Long Baron.

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• Most of the nearly $100 million Donald Trump owes E. Jean Carroll stems from verbal attacks on her. 
• Last year, a jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll and she was awarded $2 million for it. 
• After two defamation trials, the former president is on the hook for almost $100 million more.

A Manhattan federal

• DoorDash started charging New York City customers a new fee on Thursday, the company said.
• The $1.99 fee is a response to NYC's new minimum wage law.
• Other delivery companies have recently added similar fees in NYC and Seattle.

DoorDash followed through with its claim that delivery orders in New York City would be

Tech companies want AI to grow. To do that, they need more and more powerful chips.

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