Legislation from the European Parliament, which recently backed sturdier "right to repair" rules, for companies that sell consumer electronics "in the European Union - and in the UK," that will require manufacturers guaranty that goods can be repaired for up to 10 years, wrote the Independent's Adam Smith. In the future environmentalists and consumer rights groups want smartphones, laptops and other small electrical devices to be included in the "right to repair" rules, noted the story. "Apple last year announced it would start providing training and spare parts to certified independent repair stores fixing Mac computers, not just iPhones," added the Independent story. Reference Link
Amazon is being sued for "alleged race and gender discrimination, as well as pay equity violations," by a black senior manager, Charlotte Newman, wrote Laura Hautala for CNET. Newman, who works at Amazon Web Services, "alleges that she was assigned work consistent with employees in roles above the one she was hired and paid for," noted the CNET story. Newman alleged a " broader pattern of harassment of Black employees at the tech giant., in addition to being groped by "one former Amazon senior employee," says CNET. Reference Link
Eros STX Global Corporation (ESGC) and Amazon Prime Video (AMZN) announced they have closed a multi-year first window output deal in the Nordics effective immediately. This deal expands on the existing multi-territory output partnership the two companies signed in the UK, France and Italy in 2020. SF Studios will continue to manage the theatrical release of the majority of STX films in the Nordics with Amazon Prime Video to distribute in the Pay 1 window across the region in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. As recently announced, SF Studios and STX extended their longstanding output deal, first signed in 2015.
In a blog post, the company said, "Today, we're introducing Live Rooms, giving you the ability to go Live on Instagram with up to three people. Previously, you could go live with only one other person in a stream, but we're now letting you "double up" on your live broadcast. We hope that doubling up on Live will open up more creative opportunities - start a talk show, host a jam session or co-create with other artists, host more engaging Q&As or tutorials with your following, or just hang out with more of your friends. Live Rooms also gives creators even more ways to build a business and earn money. We recently announced that Live viewers could purchase badges for their favorite creators to show their love. With Live Rooms, viewers can buy badges for the hosts and use other interactive features like Shopping and Live Fundraisers. We're also exploring more interactive tools such as offering moderator controls and audio features that will be available in the coming months." Reference Link
All 270 Apple stores in the United States are open for business as of Monday for the first time since the start of the pandemic, Kif Leswing of CNBC reports, citing a company spokesperson. Not all Apple stores in the U.S. are fully open for walk-in customers to go inside and browse, however, Leswing points out. Reference Link
Amazon Prime Video (AMZN) has signed a multiyear first window output deal for the Nordics with Eros STX (ESGC), Variety's Naman Ramachandran reports. Prime subscribers in the Nordics will get exclusive access to STX International's slate, including Golden Globe winners "The Mauritanian" and "I Care A Lot," according to the report. Reference Link
Verizon, the NFL and AWS debuted the first 5G and mobile edge compute-enabled mobile game for fans in-stadium at Super Bowl LV, called NFL Ultra Toss. Fans with the NFL Ticketholder app received a push notification during the second quarter and were able to compete by using their smartphone to virtually toss a football into the back of a virtual pickup truck positioned in the middle of the field. Fans connected to 5G Ultra Wideband in the stands could point their phone's camera to the middle of the field to see the virtual pickup truck materialize on the field using augmented reality. The interactive AR experience also allowed fans to simultaneously see the live virtual football tosses happening in real-time from other fans, amping up the head-to-head competition.
Friday's total option volume of 47.0 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 5.26 million calls and 4.41 million puts. Apple (AAPL), AT&T (T), Snap Inc. (SNAP) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 76k AT&T (T) Apr-21 29 puts, 40k AT&T (T) Apr-21 27 puts, 30k Zynga (ZNGA) 3/12 weekly 11.5 calls, 20k Snap Inc. (SNAP) 3/12 weekly 63 puts and 20k Snap Inc. (SNAP) 3/12 weekly 67 puts.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives says that over the last few days, his firm's Wedbush TMT Team has conducted his iPhone Asia supply chain checks post the Chinese New Year. Coming off an historic December quarter, the Street has been anticipating some modest cuts to iPhone forecasts for fiscal year 2021 and reflected in the stock's selloff over the last month, he acknowledges. To this point, his checks overall came in bullish yet again with only some tweaks to near-term builds and an initial build forecast for iPhone 13 which could be a "game changer" indicating the supercycle party is going well in fiscal year 2022. Ives maintains an Outperform rating and $175 price target on the shares, with a bull case target at $225.